Category Archives: Travel

I Have Been Looking for You

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KK City Bird Sanctuary has been one of my favourite photography spots coz it got a boardwalk that allows me to explore mangrove forest safely. The first time I went there was back in Jun 2005. Since then, I have been looking for snake and mud lobster in this park. After got disappointed again and again for one year, finally I saw both of them in two days. So excited!

They are not rare species. The reason they are so difficult to spot is that they are only active at night (but the park closes at 6 PM). Below are the pictures of a 8-inch mud lobster. Usually it hides inside a deep burrow during daytime. I was so lucky to see it busy searching for food in the shallow water in the morning.

Its color is like a cooked sea lobster. Look delicious but not sure if it is edible. Its Chinese name is “Thunder Crab” (scientific name: Thalassina anomala). It can grow up to 1 feet (30 cm).

The next exciting discovery is the Dog Faced Water Snake (scientific name: Cerberus rynchops). I found two of them. The first one is 2-feet long, second one is 1 feet long.

Dog Faced Water Snake is also active at night. I saw them waiting for their prey (e.g. fish, frog, lizard) on the root of the mangrove tree. This snake lives in water. If you look at the photos below, you will notice that they keep most of their body in the water. The first snake was about 7 feet away from me.

Below are the photos of the second snake. It was only 1.5 feet away from my camera. Later I walked into the water to take closer picture of it. It was alert and dived into the water 2 feet away from me. The water was so muddy and unclear, so I was not sure where it went (it could be next to my foot). Had to walk away carefully.

But no worry. This snake is poisonous but its venom is not strong enough to kill a human, and it is not aggressive. Do you think its face looks like dog? Wonder if it can bark. Its brown body makes it looks like tree branch, so you have to look really hard to spot them.

Another weird thing that I saw was the bug below. I think I may have seen it before. The way it swims is very funny. You can check out the video clip.

Proboscis monkey

Proboscis Monkeys, Klias Wetlands

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The long-nosed Proboscis Monkey (nickname: Dutch Man) is one of the superstars of Sabah wildlife. This funny-looking creature only can be found in the mangrove and lowland forest of Borneo. The two most famous sites to spot them are at Klias and Sukau.

Since I live in west coast, Klias, located 110 KM south of Kota Kinabalu city, is more accessible for me. To get there by car, it will take about 2 hours and the road condition is good. I overnight in Borneo Proboscis River Lodge, located next to the Klias River and 17 KM before Kuala Penyu town.


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All the houses in Borneo Proboscis River Lodge is made of wood and bamboo, like a native village. Basic facilities such as toilet, bathroom, cafeteria, water supply and electricity are available. I stayed there twice and each time got power blackout which lasted from 0.5 to 3 hours, so you better bring a torch light. Insect repellant is a must, as hundreds of hungry mosquitoes will attack you 24×7. One night when I was laying on the bed, a 6-inch centipede crawled on my arm, quite freak out.


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If you take their day trip package, you can join their sunset river cruise (about 5 PM) and watch fire flies at night (about 7:30 PM). It was a bad luck to have noisy kids on the same boat. Proboscis Monkey is very sensitive and shy. If the overexcited children see them, they will SHOUT, “WAAAAAH!!!! MOM! LOOK!!! MONKEY!!! MONKEY THERE!!!!!!” By the time I take out my camera, all the monkeys ran away already. I love kids. But when came to that moment I always felt the urge to kick them all into the river.


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That is a 100% chance that you will see more than one Proboscis Monkey on the trees along the river, during sunset river cruise. But in most cases, they would be 100 feet away from you or hiding behind the leaves. The human and engine noise will scare them, so they will leave shortly. A binocular is highly recommended, so you can see their long noses clearer. Usually they move in group, with one male leader sit on the tallest spot, while his wives and children busy nearby. If you want to use a 3x optical zoom camera to take their photos, you will be greatly disappointed, coz they are too far away. The best time to spot them is around 6 PM (their bedtime) and 7AM. Long-tailed Macaque Monkey is more common, and they are not quite afraid of us.


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Besides Proboscis Monkey, depending on your luck, you would see monitor lizard, kingfisher, eagle, snake, hornbill, etc. You would see crocodile by slim chance. If you look at the trees grow next the river, many of them got high prop breathing root so they can survive the flood. Unlike normal river, Klias River is a peat swamp river. There are tons of death leaves and organic substances under the river, so the water is dark coffee color and a bit smelly. Some even describe Peat Swamp as a carbon sink. And it flows slowly. I saw some catfish in the river. You can have fun fishing at the jetty if you want to.

The most unforgettable experience is to watch the “fire flies Christmas Tree” at night. FYI, the best time to see this is after the rain, and the night without moonlight. They will show you one or two trees where hundreds of fire flies gather, light up the tree like Christmas Tree. Coz it was too dark, my camera couldn’t take the picture. Anyway, I create the picture at the left for you to get an idea how it looks like.

Sawangan Beach, Kuala Penyu

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Sawangan Beach (Pantai Sawangan) of Kuala Penyu let me see something that is not found in popular beaches. This is because the habitant of those wildlife was not disturbed by the human.


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For example, I remember in the past, sea life such as sea stars and big seashells were easily found everywhere on the beach of Manukan Island, anyone can tell me if it is still possible today? Nowadays I only see sand on the beach. That is. Less wildlife but more garbage. Frankly, the islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park are less fun to travel now, compared to many years ago, (well… if you still can recall how their old faces).


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I am glad that Sawangan Beach still remains a clean place. The unique feature about this beach is – there are a few long stretches of “rock + stone carpet”, extending 1 KM from the shore to the sea. During low tide, the area between the shore and the rock traps a large volume of sea water. The mix of sandy, rocky, seaweed, flooded and dry area… allows ANY kind of sea creature to find a suitable spot here as its home. You would see otter, crabs and sea birds busy searching for food there.


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The water is shallow so I could walk on it. Sea cucumber, anemone, seaweed, fishes, coral, shells… are everywhere. If you give me a big basket, I can collect a full basket of sea cucumbers within hour.

Catching Something

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Remember last year I asked you to guess what were those people caught at Tanjung Aru Beach? This time I want you to guess another one. This happened at Sawangan Beach of Kuala Penyu.

One day I was wandering at Sawangan Beach and found two village women busy looking for something. I followed them and saw what they did. They used a long stick to poke the hole in the sand. I asked them what they caught. They showed me the THING and said the catch that time was not good due to the hot day, that THING didn’t want to eat.

They used a stick, with sago as a bait at the end. When they saw a “suspicious” hole, they would insert the stick into the hole. Then slowly they pulled the stick out. If the THING attracted by the bait, it would follow the bait and got out of the hole. The woman was also holding another iron Y-stick waited outside the hole. When half of its body came out, the woman would use the Y-stick to press the THING to the sand, so it could not escape and retreat to the hole. Then she used her hand to pull the THING out of the hole.

Before you click the picture below for answer, make a guess first.

So… did you get it right? You should check out the video clip below to see how they catch the THING:

Kinabalu Natural History Gallery

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Coz of Nunuk Ragang event at Ranau, I passby Kinabalu National Park. My initial plan was to take some photos of flowers but it was raining. So I paid a visit to their Kinabalu Natural History Gallery.

The entrance ticket costs a few RM. Actually I am not even sure whether I had been here before, everything looked quite familiar. It is a small gallery. They displayed the handicraft, animal / insect / plant specimen, geology info, history, rocks & minerals, photos and any item that related to Kinabalu National Park. For those who are interested in learning, the tour can take half a day. For normal and time-constraint tourists who just want to walk walk look look, it will take less than an hour.

They will show you a 20-minute video about the Mount Kinabalu and National Park too. It gives you a brief introduction about the flora and fauna you will see on the way of climbing to the top of Mount Kinabalu. That can make your experience more enjoyable coz you know what to expect. Many don’t want what they see.

There were too many things to read, and my time was limited. What I usually did was – use the digital camera to take a picture of those writing and document for later reading. If you are a nature lover, you will be pleased to see the specimen of hornbill, lizard, pitcher plant, butterfly, etc. I wish to take more photos but most items are displayed behind the glass, adding unwanted flash reflection to the picture.

More Photos (Click to view larger photo)…

Tuaran Crocodile Farm

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I believe Discovery Channel can be a better channel if they talk less about crocodiles. Anyway, I still think crocodile is one of the most fascinating animals on earth. The structure of its body makes it the most effective (and beautiful) hunting machine. The crocodile skin product is also one of the most expensive on earth (see below).


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Since childhood, I was told a lot of stories about crocodile. My mom was also very scared when she washed cloth at the riverside in the old day, coz crocodile is very good in sneak attack. I even heard people hired bomoh to recite certain chant to make the crocodile showed up and didn’t resist being seized. The most famous tale is the 200-year old and bullet-proof white crocodile in Sarawak. Well, nobody actually sees it I guess. I think most of you had seen the crocodile displayed inside the Sabah Museum. If I am not mistaken, this crocodile was first discovered in the mangrove forest behind my primary school many years ago. My classmates saw it and told the teacher, who later called the hunter to shoot the crocodile. The body was donated to the museum.


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However, those folklores only make crocodiles sound more mysterous and scary. But this made my trip to Tuaran Crocodile Farm more anticipating. Contrary to our impression, the crocodiles there look pretty cute and can even do show. You can see and even touch them. FYI, most of the crocodiles in this farm are Crocodylus Porosus (Buaya Tembaga), a salt water crocodile which can live in both fresh and salt water. Too bad I didn’t manage to try the crocodile meat there. The restaurant there was run by Muslim, so they don’t serve it.


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Besides crocodiles, they got a mini-zoo that has small wild animals such as leopard cat, badger, eagle, pheasant, peacock and deers. Cultural dance (e.g. bamboo dance) is performed 2 or 3 times per day in the long house.

Dance With Crocodile:
You also can see the crocodiles perform. You must look at the video clip that I created. I added a few effects to make it looks funny. Watch lah…
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Unduk Ngadau, Penampang

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I had to make a choice. On May 20, there were 5 places (namely, Penampang, Beaufort, Tambunan, Sandakan, Papar) got Unduk Ngadau Competition. This time the choice was easy. Penampang to Sabah is like Ipoh to Malaysia, a place “produces” the most KadazanDusun beauties. FYI, the Unduk Ngadau 2005 (Sabah State Level oh, not district level like this one) is from Penampang.


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My photo-shooting session was difficult. Due to a stupid videoman shooting in front, no photographer could get nearer than 30 feet to the stage. I was chased away (though I didn’t block the view) by the security guards like a dog. Nevermind lah, already get used to it liao. Luckily, some photos turn up quite ok. There were 31 contestants so the competition was stiff. Don’t play play.


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Same as other Kaamatan shows, it started with a group of KadazanDusun seniors doing the Magavau ceremony to summon, appease and recover Bambarayon, the Spirit of Rice, followed by some singing and dance performances. FYI, there are over 40+ districts (e.g. Kudat, Ranau, Lahad Datu, Keningau, Semporna…) in Sabah organise local Unduk Ngadau Competition, to select the Unduk Ngadau that represents their district. By the end of May, these 40+ district-level “small” Unduk Ngadau will compete for the “BIG” Sabah State-Level Unduk Ngadau.


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Esplanad Sidek, Kudat

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Kudat is probably the cleanest town in Sabah. I think it won the Cleanest Sabah Area two years in a roll. It is a peaceful town and the famous Esplanad Sidek is just nearby. If I was in Kudat, I would take a leisure walk there everytime. But I have no idea why it is featured as one of the tourist spots of Kudat.