Hoya - ole!

Hoya - an odd name, isn't it? But for some reason I find it a particularly attractive name for a species of flower. And at the Sabah Agriculture Park in Tenom there is a hoya garden which generally has a few varieties of hoya in flower. If you look carefully, you'll find them in the native orchid garden as well.

Imagine my delight, then, to actually see the flowers! They are simply wonderful. Tiny massed spreads of star-like beauties in lots of different colours! Sometimes you are fortunate enough to see the really big (this is a relative comment!) purple one which is stunningly strong but generally the flowers are very small, often in unusual mixes of colours.

And when I found out that another name for these flowers is 'waxflower', it made complete sense, as the flowers are just as Wikipedia describes them: Each flower is about 1 cm diameter, with five thick, waxy, triangular petals; colours range from white to pink or yellow. They are sweetly scented and produce abundant nectar. I haven't noticed the sweet scent before - but will be sniffing for it next time. (Usually I'm too busy trying to get a decent picture as they are not easy to capture.)

Intriguingly, there is a whole list of odd words that goes along with this rather special plant that includes: umbellate and peduncles and glabrous! These are words that are worth eating, aren't they?

So, in Wikipedia, I learnt that the grouping of flowers is called an 'axillary umbellate cluster'. And where do they grow? Well, at the end of the peduncle, of course! And then what happens. according to Wikipedia: The flowering peduncles get 2-3 mm longer with each flowering, and can eventually reach 7 cm or more long... Gosh, I'm keeping my eyes open for a 7 cm peduncle!

It's true that the flowers are shaped like 5-pointed stars and it's interesting to know that each group of flowers is called an umbel. Well, umbel - umbellate - umbrella? And an umbel can contain from 1 to 55 or more flowers!

But it's the description of the hoya flowers in Wikipedia that is a real hoot. Here it is: Hoya flowers vary in textures as well as size, some being glabrous and shiny and some being quite hairy... I had to check a dictionary for 'glabrous' and it means bald or hairless! I guess I have mostly seen glabrous hoya then. (You'll be able to talk like this when you're next looking at a hoya!)
And you can let people know that the hoya is native to southern Asia, Australia and Polynesia!

Helen Morgan, Brenda Morgan and Jude Day took these photos.
If you have any comments or questions, please write to us. We'd love to hear from you on: ron@astsabah.com or jude@astsabah.com.

KK - coming of age

Kota Kinabalu is a great place to live. There is a lot going on here, a lot of new developments, a lot of different events happening all the time. The trick is to be able to find out about them! So you have to get onto people's mailing lists or sms lists - or join societies - or talk to people a lot about what you are interested in so that they remember to tell you when something is coming up!

And there is a new generation now making its mark in KK, so we see the cybercafes and the smart coffee shops and ice cream parlours and the trendy small restaurants with their fusion cuisine. Oh to be wanted to be seen! But I'm long past that. And I prefer the traditional small 'kopi tiams' (coffee shops), anyway.

However, I was sent an invitation to the opening of an art gallery in KK and I went there yesterday. What a great place - the Mary James Art Gallery! And just being there reminded me about how the young people of KK are having their influence on the city, shaping the look and feel of public places and happenings. The works on display also brought home to me again how profoundly artists in Sabah are influenced by the traditional cultures and handicrafts, the landscape, flora and Mt Kinabalu - hence my choice of photos for this blog! It is this link that underlies the design of AST's Flora Tour, where we explore what nature here offers and how this is so often the inspiration for artists (See our tours on www.astsabah.com)

Three Sabahan artists are being featured at the gallery at the moment. They are Awang Fadilah Bin Ali Hussein, Muhammed Amin B Muhidin and Sia Yek Chung. Their work is very different from each other's and very distinctive. Awang Fadilah works in acrylic and his black and white pictures are so full of fine detail that you are constantly seeing new things in them. Muhammed Amin, on the other hand, creates fabulous batiks on silk. They are vibrant and multi-layered, so that, again, their message is not revealed all at once - you need to keep looking at them to see what else is there.

Or you need to hear some of the stories that Ellie Hwong, the Managing Director of the gallery, can tell you about the pictures and the artists. She is committed to both the works and the artists and it is very interesting talking to her.

The third artist whose work is featured in the Mary James Art Gallery is Sia Yek Ching. He works in watercolour and the paintings on display are of pitcher plants, koi (fish) and local handicrafts. His super-enlarged pitcher plants are quite lovely.

In all three artists, the influence of Sabah is obvious, as I said above. The colours, the motifs, the themes, the richness of the cultures here and the unique offerings of nature in Sabah are all there in their work! I am not an artist myself - but I love looking at it, appreciating it and, occasionally, buying it! And all the works on display are very interesting to just look at and enjoy.

The works are all on sale and cater to the high-end and corporate slice of the market. Ellie is committed to promoting the work of Sabahan artists, though, and we look forward to some more exhibitions and perhaps 'meet the artist' evenings at this lovely new art gallery in KK.


You can visit the Mary James Art Gallery blog to see some of the works currently on display: http://mjartgallery.blogspot.com/. You can also call (088) 270223 for a viewing at the gallery.
If you have any comments or questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at: ron@astsabah.com or jude@astsabah.com. We'd love to hear from you!

Brenda's overnight trip to Tenom

I recently spent two wonderful weeks in Sabah. During the first week, I took the Food Tour offered by Adventure Study Tours and in the second week, I did several of their day trips. These included an overnight trip to Tenom, a two and a half hour drive south-east of Kota Kinabalu. This was an opportunity to see a different part of Sabah. To get to Tenom, we needed to cross the Crocker Range, the mountains that lie north-south in the country and include Mt Kinabalu. We went over an amazing road with wonderful views back towards the sea and with hair-raising road elevation inclines of up to 19 degrees. Fortunately Jude has driven this road a number of times and can do it without overheating the car!

Once we entered the valley on the other side of the mountains, we passed lots of padi fields that were at various stages of growth, some seeming to have just been planted, while others were ready to harvest. The journey took us through villages in which we could see traditional wooden houses on stilts.

In Tenom, the hotel we stayed at was perched precariously on the side of the mountains and has outstanding views back along the valley. From my hotel room window, I was able to watch a rainstorm come along the valley to Tenom. The storm clouds were beautiful!

Besides making the trip to Tenom itself, we wanted to visit the Sabah Agriculture Park with its huge array of fruit trees and many different plants, including an amazing collection of hybrid and native orchids. We spent a number of hours on two days, with a knowledgeable local guide, walking through the park, tasting fruit, learning about almost everything we looked at and taking innumerable pictures of plants and flowers. One of the highlights of the park is the restaurant. It is so beautifully situated, it's hard to describe! Just look at the picture of the scene we were looking at as we had lunch.

We went back to Kota Kinabalu on another new road for me, going through Tambunan and passing the Rafflesia Centre but there weren't any rafflesia in bloom - unfortunately. (Rafflesia is the world's largest flower.) The road went through rainforest as we crossed back over the Crocker Range and, as could perhaps be expected, it rained all the way! As far as I was concerned, this only enhanced my 'rainforest' experience.
This was the last day of the very active two weeks I had in Sabah. There is still so much to see that a return visit is definitely needed. Next time, perhaps the rafflesia will be in bloom, maybe I'll get to the islands, and to Sandakan and ...

Brenda Morgan, Calgary, Canada

If you have any questions about Brenda's trip or Sabah, please don't hesitate to write to us at: ron@astsabah.com and jude@astsabah.com. We'd love to hear from you!

Truly weird and wonderful!

September was a fantastic month for me as I accompanied two photographers around Sabah. It gave me the chance to go back to so many of the places I really love - Sabah Agriculture Park in Tenom and Mt Kinabalu National Park, for example - as well as go to new places that are also really wonderful. These were mainly on the east coast of Sabah in Sandakan, on the Kinabatangan River and in Danum Valley (near Lahad Datu).

What I discovered was that there are some really weird plants out there - things that I have never seen in any books about Sabah! Well, a couple of them are.

Have a look at this flower:

It is in the books and it's called Amorphophallus paeoniifolius. Even its name is more than a mouthful! It stands about 30-40 cm high and just grows out of the ground with nothing else around it - reminiscent of rafflesia. It has a lovely colour and the large bit that sticks up is just like a semi-deflated (or semi-inflated) balloon. (Depends whether you're a half-empty or half-full person, I guess...) What a creation it is! It is supposed to have a strong, bad smell, but there didn't seem to be one when I was there. And this is another similarity it has with rafflesia.

And here's a close-up of a rafflesia. See the two flies? They are attracted by the rotten smell - but, again, I couldn't smell anything. Rafflesia have no roots, stems or leaves and the buds take 6-9 months to mature. They're quite difficult to find, so I've been lucky over the past couple of months to come across flowers in the Poring area.

The rafflesia have been studied in depth and you can buy books about them - but not the next two flowers! I've never seen anything like them. If you know what they are, please let me know!

This first one looks to me like something out of a science fiction movie - where they removed someone's brain and then attached it to something else to keep it alive (and I don't even like science fiction!). What do you think? It grows on a vine and is quite firm and papery to touch. Interesting colour - but look at the vein-like bits! As if you're looking at someone's very pale skin. Weird!

Then there's this next one. Attractive shape - like some regal, floating bird. But what is it? Please let me know if you have any idea. The elongated spoon-bill shape is appealing to me and so is the colour - but it's really strange! Again, it grows on a vine.

If you know anything at all about these fabulous plants, please let me know. You can email me at: jude@astsabah.com. And if you have any questions about Sabah or about our tours, please get in touch - I'd love to hear from you.