Category Archives: Travel

Rhino beetle

Jungle Trekking in Kinabalu Park, Part 2 of 2

Leave a reply

Kinabalu Park is a heaven to nature and wildlife photographers. Every hour you would have new discovery or unexpected finding. Like a treasure hunt, it brings you excitement and satisfaction. I took hundreds of photos in 3 days, but they are not even enough to represent 0.0000001% of what we could find in Kinabalu Park. I categorise these 8 pages of photo album into 5 groups as below, and hope that you will enjoy watching them as I do. The pictures below are in low quality. You can check out the photo album for bigger and better photos.

1. Bug and Insect (Page 1, 2)

The creepy, the weird, the slimy, the unknown… bug are all in these 2 pages. Most of them is active at night.

Click Here to see more photos >>

The leech from Bukit Ular trail is only 0.5 inch (1 CM) long. After I removed it from my shoe, it just “stood” upright still on the ground, pointing to sky for minutes, like it was praying to God. Poor leech, in this cold day, I really hoped I could give him a few drops of blood and a warm jacket to put on. BTW, Kinabalu Park is also the best place to find big beetles.

2. Flower and Plant (Page 3, 4)

Various flower, fruits, and plant in Kinabalu Park. Most were taken in the jungle trails.

Click Here to see more photos >>

Those plants live well in low-light condition under canopy. Some of them may carry secret ingredient that can cure the deadly diseases. They are such a potential precious asset that our government is very strict in controlling the export. I can’t identify most of the plant. Probably those who know can tell me what they are.

3. Snakes, Mushroom and Fungus (Page 5)

Day-shift rangers will tell you that it is rare to see snake, while night-shift rangers will tell you they see snakes every day. Most snakes show up at night. I consider I am quite lucky coz I see 4 snakes in Kinabalu Park. The green viper is only 1 foot long, but it is highly venomous. I saw them twice. The first time was in the grass next to the main road, near the hostel in the evening. When I took photos, those busybodies gathered around me and scared away the snake… The 3-feet brown snake below was found in Liwagu trail. It was hidding under the grass. I tried to use my walking stick to move it gently to open space for photography, but it escaped.

Click Here to see more photos >>

One day later, seeing me busy searching around for snake at night, a ranger took out a mineral water bottle, which contains a small green viper inside, and asked me if I was interested in taking its photo (heck, wonder why he was carrying such a deadly snake around in his bag). The snake refused to go out. We used our torch light to light up the bottle, to make it moved to the opening (darker). It has a heat sensor near its nose and will not hesitate to strike if it senses any threat. Luckily, I managed to take a few photos.


Click Here to see more photos >>

The last snake I saw was near Balsam Cafe. This yellow snake saw me and crawled inside a burrow. Damn my stupid and slow camera that needs more than 3 seconds to focus in the dark, so I couldn’t get a good shot. It has a very small head and a few yellow stripes on its body.

4. Moth (Page 6)

Moths are everywhere, especially at night, and it has become an interesting “feature” of Kinabalu Park. They come with different size, shape, pattern and colours. For those scientists who look for many moth specimens and species, all they need to do is to sit under the street lamp at night and see hundreds of moth come to them.

Click Here to see more photos >>

Pop Quiz: How do you differentiate a moth and a butterfly?
They both look alike. While roosted, the moth will open its wing, but butterfly will close its wing. I can easily get photos of hundred types of moth, but I picked only 24 good-looking or odd-looking moths for sharing here.

Click Here to see more photos >>

5. River and Nature Trails (Page 7, 8)

These are the photos of jungle trails, trees, and river. Please refer to my previous blog (Kinabalu Park, Part 1 of 2) for detail description.

Click Here to see more photos of Kinabalu Park >>

Photos taken in Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Jungle Trekking in Kinabalu Park, Part 1 of 2

1 Reply

Kinabalu Park is the BEST tourism spot of Sabah, for overseas tourists and even the locals. Over 90% of people having a vacation there do mainly 2 things: (1) Relax and enjoy the cooling fresh air, and (2) Prepare to climb Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in South-East Asia. To me, it is such a waste not to explore its nature trails, where you can see unique vegetation and animals in this park, something that made Kinabalu Park qualified to be a World Heritage Site. Do a search on the Net, you will find tons of good photos and write-up, saying how great it is to climb Mount Kinabalu. But there is very little information about the jungle trekking in Kinabalu Park. In fact, in my 3 days of jungle trekking (for 20 KM) in Kinabalu Park, I only saw 4 tourists on the trails. Just to let you know how unpopluar this activity is.

Below is a map that shows you the location of the nature trails in Kinabalu Park. I got a black & white copy of this map from Kinabalu Park, then I used Photoshop to create a colourful version for better illustration here. Now you know that Kinabalu Park is really big, don’t you? FYI, Timpohon Gate is the entrance to the trail to Mount Kinabalu.


Click Here to see Bigger Map >>

The trails that I have explored were: (1) Liwagu Trail, (2) Silau-Silau Trail, (3) Bukit Tupai (Squirrel Hill) Trail, (4) Bukit Burung (Bird Hill) Trail, (5) Bukit Ular (Snake Hill) Trail, and (6) Bundu Tuhan View Trail. I haven’t walked the Kiau View Trail, Pandanus Trail, and Mempening Trail. Maybe next time then.

1. Liwagu Trail (5.5 KM)

I would say this is the BEST trail. It is nearly 6 KM long (take 3-4 hours one way) and is located next to Liwagu River. Nice river view along the way and no leech (surprise!). Hundred-feet old trees are just a common scene. I saw pitcher plant, orchid, fern, birds, bug, wild fruits… and even snake. You will see thick layer of algae and moss on the trees.

Click Here to see more photos of Kinabalu Park >>

Since Liwagu trail is just next to the river, at certain points you can even walk to river for a cool break. There are some small 1-2 inches fishes in the river. I think most of them are sucker fishes, mainly in black and brown colours. If you are lucky, you would spot bigger animals drinking water near river bank.

Click Here to see more photos of Kinabalu Park >>

But I made a big mistake. I started walking from my hostel (5,000 feet) to Timpohon Gate (6,000 feet), which is the ending point of Liwagu Trail. So what happened was – I ended up spending most of my time to walk on upward slope, to reach 1,000 feet higher point. Very tiring… I guess this trail is meant to be the route for climbers to walk back to the Park.

2. Silau-Silau (3 KM), Bukit Tupai (300 M) and Bukit Burung (1 KM) Trails

These 3 trails are interconnected, so I explore them in one go (take 2.5 hours). It is a bit dark coz most of trail is inside the forest. You will see lot of fungus and mushroom grow on the fallen trees. FYI, this area is the best bird watching spot for montane birds endemic to Borneo (e.g. Whitehead’s Trogon). They are important in ecology system because they decompose the decay wood to “recycle” the nutrients.

Click Here to see more photos of Kinabalu Park >>

Shortly it rained and the forest turned a bit misty. I smelled the presence of millipede (stink!) a few times, but too bad I couldn’t find them. At the bottom of every big tree, you would see holes between the big roots and ground. According to their staffs, this little “chamber” will become very busy at night.

Click Here to see more photos of Kinabalu Park >>

3. Bukit Ular (Snake Hill) Trail (1 KM)

This trail starts next to the Power Station. I heard this area will have a lot of snakes at night, and this month is their session to come out “socialising”. Well, too bad I didn’t see any snake. But there were leeches. If you stop for a few seconds, they will crawl on your shoe. After I exit the trail, I went back to my hostel through the main road (Power Station Road), and I saw 2 Chinese graves next to the road. They have Park Rangers patrol here at night, and they say they can easily spot 7 or 8 snakes along this main road to Timpohon Gate.


Click Here to see more photos of Kinabalu Park >>

4. Bundu Tuhan View Trail (343 M)

This is the shortest trail and takes you less than an hour to reach the shelter on top of a hill. The place is an opening view to see a village (Bundu Tuhan?) far away. Great spot for landscape photography. The bamboo orchids near the shelter attract some insects such as butterflies, beetles and dragonflies around.

Click Here to see more photos of Kinabalu Park >>

Overall, all nature trails are well-maintained and safe to walk. If you follow the open cleared path of 1 Meter wide, it is impossible to get lost. For every 100 or 500 Metres, you would see a milestone sign. It is good to have a trail map, so you know where you are heading. Certain spots are a bit steep, so a walking stick can help a lot (Get your own or rent it from reception office for a few dollars). I am sure I will come back again to try Kiau View trails, Pandanus Trail, and Mempening Trail, hopefully having a night walk as well, to see more interesting and rare animals such as horned frog and ghost spider.


Click Here to see more photos of Kinabalu Park >>

Photos taken in Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Lok Kawi Zoo

37 Replies

In the past, I always wonder why Borneo never has a zoo of its own, since we have been telling the world that we have rich variety of wild plant and animals. We also enjoy making the mouth of our tourists open wide, with the number of blah blah species we have in Borneo. Whatever, all this impressive facts sound more like a number. Nobody really knows what are the “content”. Many locals don’t even know what are pygmy elephants and proboscis monkeys. At last, we have a “Lokkawi Zoo” (The correct name is “Lok Kawi Wildlife Park”). It is a good start, though it is not only showing animals that are native to Sabah.


Click Here to see more photos of Lok Kawi Zoo >>

If you said Lok Kawi, I would think you mean the road between KK International Airport and Kinarut. Later I figured out the Lok Kawi Zoo is actually next to the Old Penampang road. If you follow the road from KK to Dongongon town, just go straight after you passby Dongongon town, after nearly 10 minutes, you will see its signboard at your left side. About 18 km from KK, but very near to people live in Penampang. The zoo is open daily from 9.30am to 5.30pm.


Click Here to see more photos of Lok Kawi Zoo >>

Probably it is newly open, the response is quite good. I went there on Monday and there were 30 to 50 cars parked there at any time. To see what are in their zoo, you may Check out the Trail Map I got with the ticket. The entrance fee is RM10 for Malaysia Adult, RM5 for children, RM20 (nearly USD6) for foreigner adult tourist, RM10 for foreigner children. The admission is free for Malaysia Senior Citizens (above 60).


Click Here to see more photos of Lok Kawi Zoo >>

What they have? They have birds, deers, orang utan, proboscis monkeys, civets, elephants, ostrich, hornbills, tigers, otter, rhino, etc. They also have a Botanical garden, but I haven’t explored it. For serious visitors who want to learn something, it can be a full day trip. However, they don’t have restaurant or cafe shop in the park to provide lunch. Overall, the facilities and trail are well planned. For bigger animals such as tiger, they have an allocated open space, and the visitors can see them from a viewing shelter, which is equipped with fans and description board.


Click Here to see more photos of Lok Kawi Zoo >>

They also have elephant ride (for children below 12 only) at 10.30am – 11.30am and 3.30pm – 4.30pm. Hope they will have tiger ride soon, hahaha… I personally think that morning is the best time to visit. Coz in the hot afternoon, most animals would become tired and sleepy, hiding in shaded area, no mood to move already. BTW, I recorded a video of orangutan playing and relaxing, Click Here to watch it.


Click Here to see more photos of Lok Kawi Zoo >>

Sadly, the Reptile House (for snakes and lizards) is still under construction. Hope they will be completed soon. Overall, the park is well done, but I have a few suggestions:

1) Provide more shaded area for the animals
Goodness… I advise the people there take a walk in the forest and feel how cooling it is. Most area only provide a small tree or net covering roof. The excessive light still makes their surrounding very hot.

2) Animal Employee’s Right
Welfare for the animals again. The park should be closed for 1 day per week, so the animals can rest and release stress.

3) Offer Lunch and Food
With that number of traffic flow, it is probably not wise not to have a restaurant that provides food, something like stomach filler, not just light snap.

4) Provide better direction
Build more signboards next to the road. Good for promotion too.

Photos taken in Lok Kawi, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Kawang Forest

Leave a reply

I like to explore places that few people know. One of them is Kawang Forest Reserve, which is about 23 KM away from Kota Kinabalu city, somewhere between Papar and KK. It is quite easy to get there. See the picture and description below:


1. If you drive from Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) to Lok Kawi, you will reach a traffic light, one is turn right to go to Kinarut town, another is going straight to Papar (old road to Papar). Go Straight.
2. Within a minute, you will see a junction, one to Penampang (left), one to Papar (right). Turn right to go to Papar.
3. After 5 minutes of driving, you will passby a bridge above “Sungai Kawang” (river name). A few hundreds metres later, you will see the Kawang forest signboard at your left side. Turn in and follow a cement road for another 3 minutes.


Click Here to see more photos of Kawang Forest >>

Once you arrive, you will see a building, which is a Information Centre, with bit of exhibition and information about this forest reserve. Behind is a garden that has huts, man-made ponds, stream, toilets and chalets. It was so quiet coz I was the only visitor. I doubt if they have more than 100 visitor a year (judge from the surprise expression “how you find this place?” of their workers there). Based on the description of the workers there, they have camping area and 2 chalets (room with 4 beds) for you to overnight, cost about RM70 per small group per day. The entrance is free.


Before I went into the Kawang Forest, I walked around in their garden. I saw about 10 dragonflies, on the rocks at the stream. Their wings have reflective and metallic pattern, so beautiful! You can click the picture above to see it closer.


Click Here to see more photos of Kawang Forest >>

The Tanaki Waterfall and Bat Cave are the highlight of their park. Unfortunately, the trail to the cave was covered with grass and not clearly marked, so they didn’t want me to explore. The trail to Tanaki Waterfall is less than 1 KM and easy to spot coz you will see a few big and long water pipes along the trail. Along the trail in this lowland forest, I also saw some bugs, lizards, birds and other animals. Now is dry season, so no irritating leeches lurking around. If I stay long enough, I am sure I will get a lot of photos.


Click Here to see more photos of Kawang Forest >>

It took me about 30 minutes to reach Tanaki Waterfall. My spirit turned high and took some pictures of this 2-storey high waterfall. Too bad we are not allowed to swim there, coz they use the pipes to send the upstream water, with gravity energy, down to Tanaki and Kawang Villages for daily use. In short, it must be kept clean. You can Click Here to watch the video clip of the Tanaki Waterfall.

I also got two more video clips. The first one (left below) was – I heard a very NOISY bird, so I went and checked it out. Guest what I found? The second video (right below) was a “Energizer” bug that is commonly found on the stream in Kawang Forest. They swim so FAST! When I caught them and put them on the floor, they did one thing that impressed me further.

Photos taken in Kawang Forest, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Balik Kampung (Back to Village), Tuaran

Leave a reply

I like to drive aimlessly to explore interesting spot. Tuaran is one of my favourite places, which has large piece of wetlands. Don’t you agree, many great photos are related to water, e.g. sea, beaches, rivers, lakes?

Below is a photo taken near a shallow river, which flows slowly, with many nipah and acrostichum plant grow on it. They grow so dense that I always wonder what are hiding inside, since I was a kid. But catching the fishes and crabs in the water are already enough to thrill me.

Then I found a small lake that looks like an abandoned aquaculture site. There were some local and migratory birds feeding on it.

Below is a photo of a “fisherman” who was catching fishes. Usually they are ordinary village people, who tried to get alternative protein source. Sometimes I find them extremely annoying. When I was fishing with friends, they always ignored our joyful activity and just threw the fxxking fishing net next to us.

I discovered someone dumped cotton everywhere on the ground. When I looked up, it was a tree full of “cotton” fruits.

Just wonder whether this is where our cotton coming from…

If you got time, feel free to visit, experience and “smell” kampung (village) life in Tuaran. But beware of the “land mines” (bull shit, cow shit, buffalo shit, etc.).

Photos taken in Tuaran, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Mimpian Jadi Resort, Tuaran

10 Replies

At first I wanted to go to Pantai Dalit (Dalit Beach). Somehow I lost and found this Mimpian Jadi Resort on the highway from Tuaran to Sulaiman. To reach there, you need to drive through a narrow gravel road for more than 5 minutes. You will see lot of mangrove forest, swampy land, rivers next to the road. To me, it is kind of fun.

It was Monday and so quiet that I saw no guest. The resort is built near to a sandy white beach. I also would like to try out the Polarising filter for my camera. This filter acts like a sunglass that can block excessive sunlight comes into our camera, so the picture is more color-rich and not being washed out by the hash light. The outcome is quite good. That’s why the picture below is color-saturated.

I also snapped a photo of their guest houses. The shadows of the coconut trees paint a very interesting pattern on the greenish grass. The “tropical” feel is so lovely.

Then I go to their beach to take more photo. I used Photoshop to make the grass greener. I like its simplicity and sense of harmony.

The photo below is a “unique” collection to me. Actually it is a drain next to the resort, with thick layer of algae floats on the water. The sunlight shined through the tree leaves and lotus, forming a interesting mix of shadows on the green surface. Cool huh?

I walked nearly 1 km away from the resort to see this small “lake”. During low tide, the water was trapped here, together with some organic stuffs such as soil and leaves, so it got darker color. Note the beautiful long strentch of sandy white sand which separates it from the blue sea.

They have a few interesting statues in the garden. This is the first time I came to Mimpian Jadi Resort. If you expect a lot of privacy with your loved one, here is quite a cool place. I think they also have a golf field so you can play both types of golf. I remember one of my friends said the mating, no sorry… I mean match-making companies run their programme here.

Nobody was on the beach. I could even swim nakedly. But I found the sea waves were quite strong and scary. From a far distance, it looks like thousands of white snakes crawling. I took a video clip. You can check it out.

Photos taken in Tuaran, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Sunset Cruise

4 Replies

When I was a kid, I thought only rich people could afford to have a party on a big boat. So cruising with a big boat is one of my small dreams. As sunset cruise becomes increasingly popular, nowadays it is not that hard to make my dream comes true. Last year I organised a sunset cruise party for a group. Since we had nearly 70 pax, we got a deep discount. Usually the market rate is about RM120 (USD30+) per person.


Click Here to see more photos of Sunset Cruise >>

Let me briefly introduce SeaStar (note: I don’t work for them), the boat for our sunset cruise. SeaStar can accommodate up to 100 people and it has 4 levels, let’s call them, from top to bottom, (1) top deck, (2) upper deck, (3) lower deck and (4) basement. Below is an overview of different sections of the boat. Don’t worry if the photos below are too small, you can check out the photo gallery for bigger pictures and more description.


Click Here to see more photos of Sunset Cruise >>
1. Top deck. Highest spot but small space, mainly for sunbathe.
2. Upper deck, area near to captain’s chamber.
3. Front of lower deck. Open space. The Best view is here.
4. You can play Titanic here, but don’t jump into the sea.
5. Basement is a mini-hall. Kids love to look outside through the small round windows.
6. Air-cond dining room of lower deck.
7. Rear of lower deck is buffet area, where food is served.
8. Shelter area of upper deck. Get karaoke and TV set.

My advice to ladies is – don’t wear skirt and high heel shoes. These will make climbing steep ladder difficult. And if your skirt is too short, the guy below you will get free eye candy. Due to monsoon season, the weather was quite bad that day and it rained until 3pm. Luckily the sun came out after 4:30pm, 1 hour before we started the cruise. Even though the sky was cloudy, I was still happy that trip was not totally screwed up. The Mount Kinabalu also showed her face after the rain.

The sunset cruise ran from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. The 4 main highlight are:
1) Cruise around the islands. Feel the refreshing sea breeze.
2) Stop on Manukan Island. Take a walk and enjoy the sunset at the beach for 40 minutes.
3) Dinner Buffet. We had fried rice, chicken wing, seafood, fruits, etc. Free flow of juice.
4) KK City Night View. Seeing the night view from island and also up-close.

I personally love activity no.4, the city night view is magnificent. Coz of high tide, our boat could sail very close to the shore. We cruised along the shore of KK city, up to WaterFront. Our boat was so near to WaterFront that we could see the Murut traditional dance performance inside (see picture below).


Click Here to see more photos of Sunset Cruise >>

Overall, it is an unforgettable experience. Some companies even have their annual dinner onboard. To me, it is far more interesting than having the dinner in a hotel. On the boat, you don’t sit around a fixed table. You can move around and talk to everyone. If you have spouse, you can have a romantic time watching sunset and city night. If you have children, they will really love it. If you don’t want to socialise, you can sit at a corner and enjoy the sea view alone.

FYI, after heavy renovation and construction, the new KK Ferry Terminal is now called Jesselton Point. I admire the design based on historic theme of British colony time, it looks more beautiful, meaningful and classy. I would say it is a welcomed change. They also expand the jetty to turn it into a recreational area, where you can take a leisure walk and watch sunset. You can see more photos of Jesselton Point in my photo gallery. Happy? Forgot to tell you what is the MOST impressive change. The price of jetty fee has increased from RM1 to RM6, an increase of 500%!


Click Here to see more photos of Jesselton Point >>

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Pesta Gambus, Papar

1 Reply

Gambus is one of the oldest traditional musical instruments played by the Brunei-Malay community. You can play it with other musical instruments such as violin, rebana, flute… There was a Gambus Festival in Papar on last Saturday and Sunday.


Click Here to see more photos of Pesta Gambus >>

On the first day, they have Gulingtangan and Gambus Solo competition. As you know, “my girl” won the first place in Gambus Solo. I got a few more photos of her in the photo album. 🙂

Click Here to see more photos of Pesta Gambus >>

The second day is a lot more interesting. They musicians played the Gambus in group, with all the dancers dressed colourfully, performing on the stage. I was wondering if playing Gambus can make us happy, coz everyone looked so enjoyable and danced happily together (the tourists were also invited to join). Quite pleased with my photos as all the dancers and players got smile on their faces.


Click Here to see more photos of Pesta Gambus >>