Japanese etches four routes for rock climbers on Mount Kinabalu

KOTA KINABALU: International free climber, 42-year-old Yuji Hirayama, has created four routes for rock climbers on Mount Kinabalu.

The routes, two of which are located on the Donkey’s West Ear, were named Mista Misty and Sunset Cafe, while the remaining two were on the Oyayubi peak.

Hirayama called the other two routes as ‘Kouhian do Sunduvan’ (translated ‘the return of the spirit’) and ‘Poingion Tawan’ (translated ‘living in the sky’).

“Mista Misty was named such because the route we took was always shrouded with mist, while Sunset Cafe derived its name from the sunrays that followed us throughout the route. It was very romantic,” he explained at a press conference yesterday.

The two other routes got their Dusunic names with the help of local porters who accompanied Hirayama in the climbs.

“I hung out with the locals a lot during my trip here and as a result, learned about the cultures and traditions of the people. I was told that the mountain is the place where the spirits of the dead return to, thus, the name ‘Kouhian do sunduvan’. The name ‘Poingion Tawan’ also came from them. I liked the names of the routes,” he said.

He described the route or line on the Oyayubi peak as beautiful, adding that he had fallen 80 meters down while attemping the route recently.

Had it not been for the safety rope attached to his body, that fall would have been fatal.

As a free climber, Hirayama uses his hands and legs to support and hoist himself up. However, he still fixed nettle pieces that were hooked on suitable surfaces of the granite walls and attached these to his safety rope. These safety features would become crucial just in case of a fall.

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Sarawak Wants MASWings To Fly To Selected BIMB-EAGA Destinations

KUCHING -- Sarawak wants the federal government to allow MASWings to fly to selected destinations in Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei on its Sarawak routes under the BIMP-EAGA air connectivity expansion initiative, state Tourism and Heritage Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg said.

He was optimistic that the positive trend in tourist arrivals would continue this year with improved connectivity coupled with joint strategic marketing and promotional plans.

Following the promotional tourism rebranding as "Equator Asia" the BIMP-EAGA Joint Tourism Development (JTD) Cluster successfully launched an "Equator Asia" website, which hyper-links its tourism packages under its logo as part of the strategic initiatives being taken, he said in his winding-up speech at the state legislative assembly sitting here.

He said the BIMP-EAGA Tourism Centre for Development also successfully supported and strengthened sub-regional cooperation in tourism development by building knowledge and information through joint tourism research activites.

The ministry would also focus on chartered operations during peak demand in selected markets like North Asia and Western Europe besides engaging with other carriers on the possibility of opening up new routes from Europe, Australia and New Zealand, he said.

Abang Johari said the total visitor arrivals to Sarawak had shown a positive growth of 15.6 per cent recording 1,158,994 arrivals in the first four months of this year, including 62.3 per cent foreigners and 37.7 per cent domestic tourists.

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Philippines' Azkals National Football Team Could handle Brave Reds

THE Philippine Azkals national football team may have lost their last two tune-up games against two professional teams in Germany, but coach Hans Michael Weiss remained upbeat about their chances of beating the Sri Lanka Brave Reds on Wednesday.

“Our team is ready despite two losses against strong German professional teams. The team is tired, but we will have them in good shape for Wednesday,” Weiss wrote in his Twitter account a day after the Azkals arrived at the capital city of Colombo in Sri Lanka.

The Azkals’ popularity, though, appeared to have no boundaries as they were mobbed by fans while they were training in Duren, Germany and upon their arrival in Sri Lanka.

The first of two games in the World Cup qualifying matches between the Philippines and Sri Lanka starts this Wednesday at the Brave Reds’ own homeground—the Sugathadasa Stadium.

The Azkals and the Red Braves then complete their series on Sunday, 3 p.m., at the football pitch of the Rizal Memorial Track and Field Stadium in Manila.

In their last two tuneup matches, the Azkals bowed to second division squad FC Ingolstdat, 0-4, on Friday, and was also blanked by third division team SV Darmstadt, 0-5, last Saturday.

Overall, the Azkals won two of four test games. They beat by the same margin of 4-1 the Aachen-Duren selection and the SC Bonner under-19 squad.

Weiss said the team will review game tapes of the Brave Reds in their group stage game against Myanmar in the recent 2011 Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup.

The Brave Reds have actually undergone some changes when Sri Lanka announced the new lineup last week, but Weiss said the Azkals will be ready for anything that their foes will bring into their match.

Wess said the tune-up games improved the cohesion of the squad, as he observed that players stayed focused and fought hard together during their two-week stay in Germany.

In their last two matches, the Azkals played without key defensive players Ray Jonsson, Stephan Schrock and Jerry Lucena, along with ailing team skipper Aly Borromeo.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s coach Jang Jung expects the Brave Reds to play even better after he made some changes in the line-up

 

San Miguel Corporation - Engineering & Construction bid for 3 airport projects in the Philippines

Philippines—Diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. is investing about $300 million to modernize and set up new tourism amenities at the Boracay Airport; the main gateway to the world-famous Boracay Island.

The conglomerate also plans to participate in the public bidding for the public-private partnership airport contracts for Palawan, Bohol and Caraga (Agusan).

The three airport projects were cited by President Aquino on Saturday during the inauguration of the SMC-backed Caticlan airport rehabilitation.

“When we join the bidding, the price becomes reasonable, so we’ll participate in all of them,” SMC president Ramon S. Ang told reporters at the sidelines of the inauguration of the airport project. It was earlier reported that SMC was likewise interested in the NAIA 3 airport terminal privatization.

By the time the Caticlan modernization project is completed by December 2013, it will accommodate three million tourists a year from only 500,000 at present. “We invested here because we saw the potential that we can contribute to [boost] tourist arrivals,” Ang said.

Over the last seven months, SMC has spruced up the Caticlan airport but it would take at least two more years to complete the major upgrading, Ang said.

The $300-million investment will include not only the upgrading of the airport itself but the construction of new amenities like a 5,000-room budget hotel, a world-class convention center and a retail complex that will showcase local souvenirs and a row of seafood restaurants. The tourism amenities, Ang said, would be managed by local operators.

“The airport will make Boracay a more affordable holiday destination for many Filipinos,” Ang said. With the upcoming improvements, he said there would be more regional and domestic flights to Boracay, in turn pulling down airfare costs per passenger from as much as P16,000 during the peak season to as low as P1,500 to P2,000.

The Caticlan airport is envisioned to be at par with the best airports in the region, with its runway planned to be extended from 950 meters to 2,500 meters. The width of the runway will also be doubled to 60 meters, allowing Boracay to handle regional and night landing. Flight volumes are targeted to increase by at least 30 percent.

Airport systems will likewise be streamlined for bigger volume of passengers while departure lounges will be improved. Based on the blueprint, it will also have a jetty port that can handle two international cruise liners at a time, allowing a more efficient transfer to Boracay Island.

To support Boracay’s green initiatives, Ang said the conglomerate would invest in a major water-treatment plant.

Asked whether SMC would start collecting higher terminal fees to recover its investment, Ang said there was no plan to do so as investment could be recovered from other businesses like hotel and retail operations. “We’ll keep the terminal fee affordable,” he said.

He said many international carriers were very much eager to fly to Caticlan once the rehabilitation has been finished.

Millions North Korea soldiers out of post for Hunger and malnourished-report

North Korea is struggling to feed its army, according to new footage obtained from within the secretive state which shows a soldier complaining that his unit is weak from a lack of nutrition.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the video was taken by an undercover North Korean journalist over several months earlier this year and smuggled out of the communist country to China.

It shows filthy, orphaned children begging for food in the streets and a party official ordering a vendor at a private market to give her a donation of rice for the army — once quarantined from food shortages.

“My business is not good,” complained the stallholder.

“Shut up,” replied the official. “Don’t offer excuses.”

One young North Korean soldier is filmed saying to the reporter’s hidden camera that “everybody is weak”.

“Within my troop of 100 comrades, half of them are malnourished,” he said.

Earlier this month, Seoul-based humanitarian group Good Friends reported that enlisted soldiers had been abandoning their posts due to a lack of food since April, with some troops forced to skip meals.

North Korea’s 1.1-million-strong military, under the regime’s “Songun” or “army first” policy, is usually given greater access to food than ordinary citizens.

The ABC said the exclusive video also showed labourers building a private railway track near the capital Pyongyang for ailing ruler Kim Jong-Il’s son and apparent heir Kim Jong-Un.

“This rail line is a present from Kim Jong-Il to comrade Kim Jong-Un,” the undercover journalist is told when he asks the building site supervisor what they are doing.

Asked why he risked his life to shoot the video, the journalist said he was fed up with how people were suffering.

“The life of North Koreans has hit rock bottom,” he said. “I feel very angry about the succession of Kim Jong-Un.”

Japanese publisher Jiro Ishimaru, who instructed the undercover reporter on how to use the camera, told the ABC the footage was important because it showed Kim Jong-Il’s regime weakening.

“It used to put the military first, but now it can’t even supply food to its soldiers,” Ishimaru, who edits a magazine featuring insider accounts of life in North Korea, said.

“Rice is being sold in markets but they are starving. This is the most significant thing in this video,” he said.

Ishimaru works for Asia Press, a Tokyo-based network of independent journalists, which has a team of 10 North Korean volunteers who cover news deep inside the country.

Impoverished North Korea has requested overseas food and relief groups have said that the state faces imminent shortages, saying people are again eating grass and tree bark.

The United Nations has pleaded with international donors to overlook political difficulties in the face of a humanitarian crisis, saying six million people are in danger of not getting enough to eat.

Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans died in a famine in the 1990s, with North Korea depending on foreign aid to help feed its 23 million people since then.

 

Unique carnivores of Borneo

KOTA KINABALU: Twenty-four carnivore species are unique to the Borneo island, international conservation experts gathered here confirmed.

They have also got a better understanding of the carnivores found in the world's third biggest island and have taken moves to classify some of these carnivores as “critically endangered” species.

This came about at the three-day brainstorming session of the first Borneo Carnivore Symposium that ended here on Saturday.

Almost 200 delegates from 15 countries presented and discussed the diverse range of carnivore species on the island, which included cats such as the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi), civets such as the Malay civet (Viverra tangalunga), known locally as tangalunga, Sunda stink badger (Mydaus javanensis), also referred to as the Malay badger or teledu, and the playful otters.

The findings at the symposium will determine priorities for Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, the countries sharing Borneo island, to take steps to preserve the carnivores, many of which are rare and some thought to be extinct only until a few years ago.

“Coming together of scientists, conservationists and government agencies is the first step towards efforts to ensure the survival of all our carnivores,” said Sabah Wildlife Department director Dr Laurentius Ambu.

“One of our goals was to establish a knowledge base for the priority areas and threats faced by these unique carnivore species,” said Dr Laurentius, the organising chairman of the symposium.

He said like other species of wildlife, the carnivores need adequate and different types of forests to support the wildlife and plant life diversity.

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Sabah in Malaysia Becoming Favourite Diving Destination for People

As per the reports of diving experts, Sabah in Malaysia is the territory which is best known in the world for the adventure sport of scuba diving.

Most of the people like to visit Sabah during their diving Malaysia tour; however facility of diving is available in Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak also.

Palau Sipadan which is supposed to be number one diving site the world is also located in Sabah.

Perhaps Sipadan plays major role in attracting the divers towards Sabah. Sipadan is the island and its waters contain wonderful marine life.

Large number of green and hawksbill turtles are found underneath the water in Sipadan and “Turtle Tomb” is the unique thing available which is an underwater limestone cave.

This cave boasts of labyrinth of tunnels and chambers in which you find skeletal remains of turtles.

Another destination to dive in Sabah is Palau Mabul which has the distance of 20 minutes from Sipadan if you go through boat.

This is the small island which is surrounded by sandy beaches. It is an ideal destination for those divers who want to see exotic small marine life.

Mimic octopus, bobtail squids, Flamboyant cuttlefish and blue-ringed octopus are some perfect examples of marine life available here.

Moreover, some wonderful diving resorts are also available in Mabul.

Continue reading at: Sabah in Malaysia Becoming Favourite Diving Destination for People

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