“See that shiny little speck down there?”
I asked my sister, pointing at an arbitrary point in an endless mass of tree canopies as we looked out into Southwest Kalimantan.
“That little speck is gonna grow bigger,” I made a soft whizzing sound as my fingers portray a rapidly approaching metallic object, “Whizzzz.. Arrrgg!” I poke myself in the neck, tongue out, in great pain — imitating getting hit by an arrow.
“As I fall thud on the ground,” I continued “You’ll hear drums from afar. ‘Dum… dum.. dum.. dum..’ and the wailing of celebrative tribesmen.”
I glanced over expecting to see a very terrified sister, only to be greeted by a set of eyes rolling almost out of their sockets. “Yeah, right!”
The Southwest Kalimantan Border Lookout point was by far the best view I’ve seen all my life (photos won’t do any justice) and the best part of our 3-day Borneo Highlands trip.
When it was apparent that the rain wouldn’t stop three days into the Chinese New Year, we thought it’d be a good idea to flee to the mountains before all of Kuching gets submerged under ten feet of water. The nearest highlands we could reach were the Borneo Highlands, sitting more than 1,000 feet atop the Penrissen Range, an hour and a half’s drive away where no flood could reach us. Safe.
Okay, that was obviously a joke. We pre-booked our room but seriously it was raining so hard it made the trip up in steep, wet roads rather scary.
A lot of friends were rather skeptical of our trip up though, warnings of the lack of things to do since ‘there’s nothing up there but flowers’, and ‘you’ll only find yourself chasing butterflies’ were in abundance. The fact that so many people had so much to say of that place also meant one thing — everyone’s been up there except us.
Warning: Large post laden with tonnes of amazing imagery ahead.
We didn’t think it would rain that hard when it rained for a good two out of the three days we spent there, forcing us to stay indoors. Fortunately the Jungle Cabin where we stayed had a large shaded balcony that allowed us to still savour the surroundings despite the rain.
So we spent time watching TV, movies on the laptop (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, anyone? Bloody good movie!), take naps, and meals. Stuff we wouldn’t have done as a family back home. And when our chirpy little neighbourhood friend decides to make a visit, Dad and I would rush out, camera in hand and snap away. I’ve never had a problem with my kit lens until I realised I couldn’t zoom in enough to shoot a freaking bird!
But I’m not really into bird spotting anyway so a telephoto could wait.
The sky proved it still had mercy when it stopped raining on the evening of the second day — not until there was only a few hours of daylight left though. We headed out immediately for a walk to a plateau nearby.
The air had a fresh after-rain scent, and was cool à la Cameron Highlands or Kundasang Valley if you’ve been to either one. The clearing mist surrounding the landscape around us added to that mystique feel. There’s nothing like nature I’d say.
Two rivers run down along the two sides of the plateau, complete with waterfalls and hanging bridges, all in their after-rain full of gushing water glory. I took the chance to try out long-exposure shots of water — kind of like those smooth feathery-like photos of rivers and waterfalls you see in poster calendars.
Although those that I took were far from ending up anywhere near posters. It is one tick off my list of dSLR photography technique’s to-do list though.
Anyway, on the morning of the 3rd day, we signed up for the Kalimantan Border Viewpoint tour for which you have to pay an extra of 40 bucks per head. The weather was good — it had to be — so Dad thought why not? We were taken to the border viewpoint first, which was where the first photo above was taken.
The second stop was the Resort nursery which had this huge collection of annual plants.
After quite some time at the nursery where Dad bought a few plants, we were dropped at the final stop — a garden right above the plateau we explored to a day earlier.
I know my sis is poor in her poses, no need to tell me that. xP
I found out that there aren’t just flowers in Borneo Highlands, contrary to what everyone’s been saying. It’s so much more. I mean, there’s the breathtaking Kalimantan Border Viewpoint with a view to die for; some flowers, yes; a heavenly garden right above a well-landscaped plateau with flowers — lots of ‘em; a huge nursery of uh, flowers; swan lakes; flowers; waterfalls; flowers; a golf course and many more flowers. And did I mention there were flowers up there?
Seriously though, what else did you expect? =P
It was definitely more than a giant flower exhibition in the clouds. For those of you who haven’t made a trip up yet I’d definitely recommend you to.
As for me, I spent a really great time up there with my family. Not to mention three days in a photographer’s heaven! =D The photos shown here are really a small fraction of a those I took within 3 days — some 3.4GBs worth. Don’t worry, I’ll try to get some of them up on Flickr or Facebook.
Whew! Finally managed to get myself to complete this long-overdue mammoth of a post. More than enough to show how big of a procrastinator I am.
i love those photos. x)
especially birdie visits, long exposure of waterfall (kinda get used to it already, doesn’t look much like cotton wool anymore lol.)
and the one with your sis posing, seriously i LIKE that.
did you just mention ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’? I just watched the making of the movie. Unusual plot. I wanna watch it. x)
Glad you do! I’m surprised that you haven’t come across those kind of photos though. And yeah, I like that photo of my sis too! =D
Benjamin Button is definitely highly recommended. Very unique storyline but the least you know about the story before you watch, the better.
very very stunning scenes…ooooh i wanna be there tooo . u hv to post more pics dude. love ur camera xD
You should soo go up there Joycy! =D I’ll try to post more up on Facebook. Remember to bug me if I don’t! xP
you got it boy! BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG BUG
Joycy you bugger!
And you do not get to call me a boy. *whack* =P
I’m sitting here wondering exactly what I’m doing with the family camera, while you shoot BLOODY AWESOME THINGS!
GAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!
/grins
I was just at the right place, that’s all. I mean, Borneo Highlands is so beautiful its hard to get a bad shot, hah!
Glad you liked them though! =D
i saw a princess with hanging flowers! =) nice pose though. Borneo Highlands is a nice place! back to mother nature.
Hehe yeap, nice place! I’d save you the how-nice-it-is chanting though — shu yi would do that for me. xP
Wow, really lovely photos from your highland trip! I’ve received the same comments from friends who heard that I was heading to Cameron Highlands back then — they told me that what I will see are strawberries, tea leaves and more strawberries, more tea leaves. But what really draws me to such places is the escape from the hectic lifestyle of the city and fully leaping into the embrace of Mother Nature.
I really love all the photos you’ve posted here — from the HDR to the birdie visit, as well as the long exposure of the waterfalls. I’m wondering if you’re using any sort of neutral density filter for the waterfall photos? I’ve tried to simulate such an effect in the past and the photo turned out to be overexposed, so I got myself a ND 0.8 filter just in case I needed it in the future, heh.
Thank you! Exactly, Teddy! And not to mention a photographic opportunity to photograph nature. Cameron Highlands is really a nice place, I’ve actually been there twice. =D
Nope, I haven’t acquired any filters or any other accessories as of yet. So you can expect all the photos I’ve taken at the moment are without accessories, heh. The waterfall photos were slightly overexposed before I darkened them a bit, but no too much perhaps because it was a cloudy day and thus, you get to enjoy dimmed and diffused light. =)
Will keep in mind about a natural density filter though!
Very nice shots you took! I also have the long exposure of water on my to do list, can’t wait to try it! Sounds like you did have a good time, and I would so love to go there! If not just for the flowers to take pictures of :p
Really like your writing btw. 🙂
Thank you! Yeah, I’ve been wanting to do that forever too, hah! You bet I did have a great time. =D
You sound like you should really need a trip up to Borneo Highlands!
Well done, very nice photos.. love the green shorts and especially the one with the dark gloomy sky and the bright red flowers.. very good contrast..
Thank you Patrick! Glad you liked them.
That photo with the dark gloomy sky and bright red flowers in the foreground is actually a HDR image. A normal shot wouldn’t have captured the contrast of both the foreground and the background. =)
I thought you have a filter on for it.. but definitely the HDR is the best option for vibrant picture with the amount of light available.
I still haven’t really understood filters actually, so I’m currently not into them yet. You’re right about HDR though! =D
I know this is a REALLY late comment, but I’m not here to say anything about your post. You’re one of the best photographers I know personally, and I thought you’d be interested in this : http://experimentalheart.blogspot.com/2009/02/announcement-calling-all-asian.html
=) The author of that blog is another friend of mine, by the way.
Interesting indeed! Not sure if my photos are really good enough for an exhibition though. (See, I still got that humility page in my dictionary. XD ) I’ll see which photo I could dig up from my collection worthy of that. =)
I like that clouds. I have looking beautiful clouds in Austrian Apls, between Salzburg and Vienna. It was really nice sky show!:)
Glad you liked it. I’ve actually seen the Austrian Alps! It was a long time ago but as far as I can remember they’re so much more heavenly that the ones we have here. We’re talking about an endless horizon of snow capped mountains!
I would die to go back there again that’s for sure. =D
ehhh quite nice for taking those plant..
but the water, i mean the waterfall la
quite fake !!!
LOL
Eh copy Wying punya comment. Say the same thing LOL.
First time shooting long exposures of waterfalls lar. =D
what is the name of the white flower the one with no bee inside the flower? heheh the flower is go charming ..i dont know y…it caught my eyes
I used to know that flower’s name! But now I just can’t recall. You see, my dad used to be keen in horticulture so he told us a lot of names of flowers we’d see along the way when we were young.
Sorry i can’t help!