Borneo Orchid Show 2007

Last Sunday we received news from a friend in Keningau that there was something interesting happening in town (gosh, Keningau people are even more updated than us). Uncle Hii came all the way to KK to watch the show. Out of curiosity, we went to check it out too. And we were glad we did!

There we orchids, orchids, orchids everywhere! Big orchids, small orchids; nice orchids, wierd orchids; colourful orchids, dull orchids; expensive orchids, cheap orchids (naa... they didn't put up the prices, I made this up). I was no orchid expert, and such a simple description definitely did no justice to the amazing array of flowers on show.

We dragged little boy along. He wasn't too happy being woken up from his Sunday sleep.

Anyway, the colourful flowers caught his interest. Besides orchids, there were also cactuses on show.

Not sure where did the flowers came from. Probably collected from orchid lovers' home all over Borneo. The Tenom Agricultural Park, famed for its Orchid Garden, participated too. There was a voting contest to select the orchid to be crowned as the official State Orchid.

Here's the winner. It's name was Paphiopedilum rothschildianum (what a mouthful). I knew it would win... I took the most number of its photos compared to the rest. According to the local press, "Among the notable features of this particular species are its petals which are spread out and resembles a Dusun doing the Sumazau traditional dance." Sure does, don't you think so?

Flower photography is no easy task. There were some guys who came with big cameras and close-up photography gears that day. Anyway, if you are interested to see photos taken with my little digicam, click HERE.

Little boy was tired at the end of the show. I wanted to show you the HUGE orchid plant with kelapa-sawit-like leaves in the background. Na, GIGANTIC would be a better word.