This is a filler post before I post my lengthy post on Hari Raya Idulfitri of which I need to retrieve some pictures from my external Hard Disk which my antiquated PC has failed to read.
This post is about a phenomenon which is hard to explain unless a physicist study it and give a scientific explanation on how it happens. It is something beyond laymen like us to explain.
Before my trip to Keningau to fetch my daughter, a neighbour of mine in Pasir Mas who was working in Sabah told me about the existence of this phenomenon along the Papar to Keningau stretch of road over the Crocker Range. He confidently told me that at a certain spot along the highway there is a point whereby the earth gravity has an opposite effect. Instead of being pulled down you will be pushed up. This is evident in the case of a car when stopping at the spot and switching the engine off, the car will go up the gradient upon the release of the handbrake while in neutral. Since he was so serious about it I felt compelled to try it out. He couldn't give me the specific spot but asked me to find out from taxi drivers or other plying the route.
On the 29th of June 2008 when I went to Keningau with my son in law to fetch my daughter Azini, we were on the lookout for the spot. There was nothing to indicate the spot so we missed it. On the return trek, we asked around at a petrol station in Keningau. They confirmed the existence of such a place but couldn't give any exact location beside telling us the approximate kilometer from Keningau Town. They asked us to lookout for a tyre being left on the roadside as a marking. We also checked with another blogger who happened to be a friend of my daughter Azini. She confirmed it too and said she and her husband Mukhsin had experienced it but can't say for sure the exact location. The return trip was a futile exercise in trying to locate the spot. Being a rainy day it was difficult to find anyone to ask for help.
It was after returning to Kelantan that Janna made a comment in my blog that she has found the exact spot and has marked it. That is a good news.
Yesterday 5th October 2008, my daughter Azini called from Keningau with her voice full of excitement. She told me she has found the spot and experienced the anti gravity when her car with Lokman at the wheel free wheeled up the slope. The location is 32 km from Keningau and or 44 km from Papar. Can you believe that?
This is the location. Look at the slope.
Azini said she could feel herself being pushed backward.
Thats Lokman trying it out.
It has been said that the phenomena happens to plastic materials too such as a plastic water bottle will also roll upward when placed on the ground.
On the day that Lokman tried it out, there was traffic at that time and being a narrow point, he could not experiment much and will be trying it out again on his return trip today. Hopefully he will have more to share with us.
This is really something which the tourism people in Sabah must exploit to bring tourists to far flung Keningau. This phenomena alone should be enough to bring tourists to look at this spot. The vista view from the top of the Crocker range is another attraction. On a good clear day, one should be able to see the South Chuna Sea and Mount Kinabalu at the other end of Sabah. The state government should find a way to widen this section of the road so that people can stop and experience this phenomenon safely. Don't you think this is good enough reason to visit Keningau?
zabs gave me this link in his comment which goes to prove that the above is not the only spot on earth with that characteristic. So you dont have to go far to experience it, just over to Sabah and go to Keningau.
Read more here or visit this address: http://www.nasca.org.uk/Strange_relics_/antigravity/antigravity
