Category Archives: Wildlife

See cool and weird animals of Sabah Borneo

Tawau Hills Park (Taman Bukit Tawau)

Last time I blogged that Tawau is an ecology desert and its ecotourism is over. Actually Tawau still has the last remaining natural heritage, Tawau Hills Park (Taman Bukit Tawau). After a few days of exploring this park, it turns out to be one of my favourite sites, and I will go there every week if I live in Tawau, which is so near to the park. Gazetted as a State Park in 1979 and 24KM away from Tawau town, Tawau Hills Park is an important water catchment area consists of five major rivers, i.e. Tawau River, Merotai River, Kinabutan River, Mantri River and Balung River. The park covers an area of 27,972 ha (about 280 sq. KM).

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Last month I took an express long-distance bus from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau, which was an 8-hour journey (one way ticket costs RM45, about USD12). Taking a flight will only take 45 minutes. But sum up all the fees such as flight ticket, baggage charge, airport tax and transport from airport to Tawau town, it will cost over RM100 one way, too much for a poor traveller like me. From Tawau town, you need to get a taxi to the park, which costs RM30 one way, and there is no bus going there. The taxi driver may offer RM50 to pick you up for returning to Tawau. FYI, you can book such transport for RM30 at the counter of the park. Don’t waste your money.

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By the time I reached Tawau Hills Park, it was about 5PM. I saw many long-tailed macaque monkeys were moving from the nearby oil palm plantation to the park. The park became their playground and they were free to loiter around. They screamed, they f**ked, they fought, they chased one another, and they swam in the river. For unknown reason, I hate long-tailed macaque, probably it bite me before.

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The photo above looks like a happy monkey enjoying soaking in the cool water. In fact, it was screaming and beg for forgiveness from alpha male, after he lost the fight and escaped into the water.

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My late grandfather was used to keep a pig-tailed macaque as pet in his house in countryside. Though also wild, pig-tailed macaque is friendlier than long-tailed macaque. Villagers seldom keep long-tailed monkey as pet as they are more aggressive and tend to bite people. If you are lucky, you will see red-leaf monkey (maroon langurs) in the park. Further inside the jungle, you would see other primates such as Borneon gibbon, grey-leaf monkey and slow loris. Rangers say they spot orangutan very deep inside the hill forest. The rare white leaf-fronted monkey is only found here (too bad I didn’t see any, though a sighting was reported during my stay).

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Ok, enough with the monkey, just to let you know you can see them in morning and evening. I was staying in a 4-bed room in a chalet in the park. It was only RM20 a bed/night for a room with 4 beds, 2 small tables and a fan. The toilet and bathroom are at the end of the walkway outside. That time was not peak season, so I could have the whole room, and even the whole chalet! At night you could see many small animals such as frogs and lizards around the area, which is what I like.

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During my 4-day stay in Tawau Hills Park, I tried the trails to Sulphur Springs (3.2 KM) and Bukit Gelas Waterfall (2.5 KM). Each trail took only 1 hour+ of walking. Since I walked slowly and looked for photography subjects, I took more than 6 hours to go back and forth (it would take longer if it didn’t rain in the afternoon). Due to prolong drought caused by El Nino, the trails were dry and leech-free. As this park is a water catchment area, the trails could be flooded by rivers during heavy rain. The Park HQ even has siren to warn swimmers, if the upstream station detects any flash flood.

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Tawau Hills Park is a mix of primary lowland and hill dipterocarp rainforests, 60% of them is virgin forest and the remaining is secondary forest. Along the trails, you will see many giant commercial timbers such as seraya, selangan, keruing and belian. Some trees have huge buttress roots. I was told that if you were lost in a jungle, just hit the buttress with a wood, and the rescuer can hear you 1KM away. This is more effective than shouting for help. The trails are along the rivers, so it is quite refreshing.

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Wildlife you would see here are leopard cats, wild boar, giant tree squirrel, clouded leopard, forest tortoise, giant river toad, etc. Sighting is not guaranteed. Sadly, I didn’t see any of the above. The first bird you will notice is the noisy hornbill. Out of 8 species of hornbills in Sabah, you can find six of them here (black, bushy-crested, helmeted, rhinocerous, white-crowned and wreathed hornbills). Three rare species of pheasants (crested-fireback, great argus, Malayan peacock pheasants) also live in this park. I saw the very beautiful Asian Paradise Flycatcher that has an extremely long tail like paradise bird. At first I thought it was a “flying towel”. When my camera struggled to auto-focus it via the leaves and tree branches, it flied away, sigh…

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In the park, there are three main peaks in the form of extinct volcanoes, namely, Mt. Magdalena (1,310M), Mt. Lucia (1,189M) and Mt. Maria (1,067M). It takes 2 days to conquer the highest peak, Mt. Magdalena. The trail is 17 KM long and you will spend a night in Mt. Lucia Hostel (at 10.55 KM). After 1,000 M above sea level, you will enter mossy forest, a totally different vegetation from lowland forest. It is far more challenging than climbing Mt. Kinabalu. If this is too adventurous for you, you may try the 1.9 KM trail to Bombalai Hill (530M), which is a a remain of an ancient crater. The rugged volcanic landscape of the park is abundant with volcano rocks ranging in age from Middle Miocene to Quaternary. I save Mt. Magdalena for the future.

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Most part of the trail is next to a river. It is an ideal spot for nude swimming, coz I didn’t see anyone tried jungle trekking. The water is unpolluted and is piped to the households in Tawau and Semporna. Ever wonder why the rivers here still flow in dry season? The rainforest serves as a water retention system for the rain water. The forest ground can hold the water and slowly releasing it to the stream, even after month of drought. If the trees in this park are sold by greedy politicians to lumbering companies, the rivers here will be polluted by eroded soil and run dry. Most Sabahans underestimate the importance of rainforest. That’s why whenever there is any serious flood and landslide, the politicians can get away easily by saying these are the Act of God and has nothing to do with the forest clearance that is approved by them. Crocker Range Park and Maliau Basin are under threat now. So, just protect our forest and stop blaming God / Allah.

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Pay attention to the small stream and you would find something interesting, like the green sucker fish below. Before that, I thought all sucker fishes were dark in color.

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The water volume of Gelas Waterfall was so small during dry season. I lost my mood to photograph it when I also saw two big logs lean on the waterfall, spoiling the whole view. Anyway, my photo album has a few nice close-up of the waterfall. It is very tempting to jump into the clean and cold water under this waterfall. But be warned that there were many cases of drowning here, especially students. Their bodies couldn’t be found until they floated on top. No survivor can live to tell how they were dragged into the water. Don’t swim there alone. As a matter of fact, all waterfall is a beautiful dead trap.

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You would find the butterfly below sipping water in the river bank of Gelas Waterfall. They moved so fast and I only managed to get one shot. It looks like a Green Dragontail butterfly (lamproptera meges virescens).

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Frankly speaking, I felt very strong presence of spirits in the remaining 400 M to Gelas Waterfall. One of my photo even shows something like a ghost orb. Well, it could be reflection of dust or moist. After I heard the tragedy stories from my aunty later, then I confirmed there were probably unseen entity lingering nearby the waterfall area. I always had such goose-bump experience in certain jungle trails, but I don’t quite bother as I can’t see “them”.

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The thing bothers me the most is a flying blood sucker called Deer Fly. Its bite is worse than leech as the wound can stay itchy for week. The itch is under the skin, scratching also can’t help much. I encounter deer fly in almost every jungle trekking. They can follow you a long way, land on your exposed skin to look for opportunity to suck blood. I kept sweeping them away with hand but they never wanted to give up. If I sweated heavily, the smell would overexcite them and even attracted more deer flies, and I ended up having 3 or more of them following me. The only way to stop them is to kill them. I just waited for them to land on my face or hand, then hit them by palm. I don’t want to kill anything in the wild but I have no choice..

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Besides tall trees, you will be amazed by the rich variety of fungi, lichens, shrubs and undergrowth vegetation. Despite my visit in dry month, I saw many types of fungus and mushroom in different sizes, shapes and colours. I think this park really can open a Fungus + Mushroom Garden, no kidding. Previous scientific field trips found that Tawau Hills Park has over 150 species of orchid, include the rare elephant-ear orchid. Most of the forest is yet to be explored, and the researchers believe many new plant species are waited to be discovered and given a name.

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There are some big fungus that I’ve ever seen. Fungus decompose dead trees and recycle the carbonic substances, so they are very important for the forest. The humid and dim rainforest is suitable for their growth.

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One fungi also looks like hair.

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Everytime I went to Tawau Hills Park, I saw different lizard. This time I spotted a comb-crested agamid. Later I spotted a gliding lizard. It thought it did a very good job to blend into the tree, so I could go very near for more close-up photos.

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Just slow down and observe the surrounding, you will see some interesting bugs in the park. Even cricket can be so pretty. Is it a “tiger cricket” below?

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When threaten, pill millipede can roll its body into ball. This time I waited and saw how long it would stay rolled. It opened up bit by bit, kept watchful eyes outside, and started moving after 20 minutes.

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The photo below is a feather bug. I passed by a tree and saw a few “bird feathers” on the trunk. A closely look revealed that it’s a bug. A few of them even mimic the movement of feather in the wind. Amazing bug…

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The funniest bug of all is the ant-snatching assassin bug (Acanthaspis sp). It collects dust, sand and soil particles, plant parts and even empty ant corpses, and stick those stuffs on their abdomen. Such heavy “backpack” is a camouflage to confuse their predators. Can you see it in the photo below? I spotted 3 of them in the park.

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Most animals come out at night, so I joined the night walk (costs RM30) guided by a ranger. We toured around between the forest and a nearby oil palm plantation, also the Bombalai trail for two hours. I hoped to see the king cobra and big ular sawa snake that the ranger told me. Too bad I did not see any, but I spotted Malayan civets, fat porcupine and firefly.

The time between 6:30pm to 11pm is the best time to look for anurans (frogs & toads), especially after rain. There are 64 species of anurans in Tawau Hills Park, 31 species are endemic to Borneo and 3 are endemic to Sabah (research by Mr. Kueh Boon Hee, University Malaysia Sabah). That means for every frog/toad that you see here, more than 50% chance it is found in Borneo only!

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Basically that’s all about my trip. Luckily the weather was good. Now I can’t wait to have another trip to climb Mt. Magdalena. Do expect me to blog about Tawau Hills Park in the future. This park has sulphur springs, lowland rainforest, montane forest, mountains, waterfalls, volcano remain, etc. The tour operators should create a package and promote it.

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Most Sabah travel agents are still lacking some creativities as they only know to demand more quota to climb Mt. Kinabalu and dive in Sipadan, as if there is nowhere else is worth to visit in Sabah. They only wait for others to develop and promote a new tourism product, when it becomes famous, only then they try to offer the same package, trying to get an easy share of the profit. They should learn more about Blue Ocean Strategy, so we can have both monkey and gold.

Photos taken in Tawau, Sabah Malaysia

Sulphurous springs (Tawau Hills Park)

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Every Sabahans know Poring Hot Springs, but few know that Tawau also has hot springs, in fact, more. The least famous and most beautiful springs hide deep inside Tawau Hills Park (Local Name: Taman Bukit Tawau). In 2006, I tried to go there but the heavy rain overflew the river and cut off the trail.

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However, the idea of exploring Tawau sulphurous springs was always on my mind. Finally I made up my mind and went to Tawau Hills Park early this month. In the park, you only need to walk about 3.2 KM by following the “Kolam Air Panas” trail, which will be a jungle trekking for about an hour. Since I walked very slow to enjoy and photograph around, it took me 3 hours to get there. Later I will blog about the interesting creatures and plant I saw on the way. When you see the suspension bridge at 1.5 KM, you are halfway done then. Just follow the signage to proceed.

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When I saw the “KAP 0 MTR” (Kolam Air Panas 0 Metre), I thought I had reached the hot spring and I smelled something like rotten egg (sulphur) in the air.

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But I only saw a river looked like photo above. It was a bit different from the beautiful hot spring photo I saw on the leaflet, though this site had a big rock too.

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Probably I needed to go further. But very soon there was no trail and signage for me to proceed, seemed like I had reached the end.

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Not sure if this was the site, I walked around and saw something like a sulphur pond. Well, quite a big disappointment, I guessed perhaps it was not the right season. I snapped a few photos and didn’t stay long. When I returned to the park and showed the photos to the park guide. He said there was not a hot spring! I was really pissed off and almost shouted why there was no trail and signage. He kept on denying that’s their fault and insisted the trail and signage were there, making me more angry. May be it has been a long time the park didn’t check the condition.

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Anyway, I had to go back again in second day, as it was late. On the second day, I came back to look for the trail and it was really not there. Luckily I knew the hot spring was along the river, so I tried to walk further up along the river. Finally I found the hot spring was only about 200 Metres away, but that took me more than half an hour to walk through the dense wood and hilly landscape. You know it is the right place if you see it, as it looks so beautiful and different. I never saw anything like this.

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First thing you will see is the “snowy white” stream from the sulphurous spring. The white color is the result of sulphur sticking and deposited in the stones and river for long period of time. It is so unreal and pretty. Compared to crowded and commercialised Poring hot springs, this spring is unspoiled and so pristine.

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“Wow!” was my only response. I was excited and explored around. In the flowing water, I saw hair-like sulphur threads. They moved with the current, like water weed.

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The water in sulphurous spring is crystal clear with cyan color due to the minerals, a calm and shallow pool under a mass body of silicified rock.

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The sulphur deposit blankets in the calm water is in cotton-like shape.

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Most photos you see here would be the only collection on the Internet. Before I came, I searched the Net and didn’t find many photos, so I was surprised by what I saw.

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I grabbed a small pieces of the sulphur deposit to take a closer look. It is very soft like semi-liquid jelly, like a small amount of sulphur particles being held loosely by water.

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Another angle of the spring. The water is calm and shallow. I would like to take a dip but I didn’t want to stir up the bottom and destroy the look. I photographed around happily. The locals believe the spring water can cure skin diseases.

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There were some yellowish sulphur foam floated on the water. It is something creamy and sticky when touched.

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Above the spring is a mass body of silicified rock, with a few trees grow on its thin layer of soil on top. I don’t know what you think it looks like. I felt that it was “staring” at me, a bit scary…

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See the bubbles and stirred sand above? An evidence that thermal process is still active. The fart smell is from the conversion of dissolved sulphur in water to H2S by anaerobic bacterial activity, which suggests the water is from deep underground.

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There are other hot springs found in different places of Malaysia but the volcanic-related hot springs are only found in Sabah. Technically, it’s caused by the Quaternary magmatic intrusion of Maria volcanic complex. People should learn more about this attraction and promote it as a geotourism site.

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There was no fish in the spring but I saw some unknown small bugs, with many legs, swam in this acidic spring (pH 3.68-4.10). Anyone knows what they are?

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The sulphur in the stream turns boulders and stones in the water into white colour (sulphur-coated boulders).

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The water is lukewarm (25-30°C) because it mixes with the river water (That is why I do not call it a hot spring). The scientists say the chemicals from the sulphur spring has very minor effect to the river so it won’t pollute the water.

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Moving further up along the river and you will see other sulphurous springs.

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Here is another sulphurous spring at the river. You can tell easily from the sulphur-coated stones.

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There are about 10 sulphurous springs along this 100 Meter stretch of river, but they are smaller and less impressive than the first one. I hope you are impressed. In future I will blog about the real “hot” springs of Tawau.

Photos taken in Tawau, Sabah Malaysia

Giant Clams of Sabah

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Out of 9 species of giant clams (Kima Gergasi) in the world, Sabah has 7. Namely (number in bracket is the adult size of each species):-
1. Tridacna gigas (1.5M)
2. Tridacna derasa (40cm)
3. Tridacna squamosa (30cm)
4. Tridacna maxima (20cm)
5. Tridacna crocea (15cm)
6. Hipoppus porcelanus (40cm)
7. Hipoppus hipoppus (30cm)

Don’t be so happy yet. Due to overfishing, the two largest species, Tridacna gigas and Tridacna derasa, are now considered critically endangered in Sabah (some say they are locally extinct). All species of giant clams are listed in “Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora” (CITES), which means they are endangered and should be protected.

Above: Tridacna gigas, the largest species of giant clam, can reach 2 M in length, weigh over 200 KG, and live to more than 100 years old! But sorry, locally extinct already.

Above: Tridacna derasa, also a locally extinct species. Very rare in the wild.

Above: Tridacna squamosa species

Above: Tridacna maxima species

Above: Tridacna squamosa species

Giant clams live like a plant, as their main diet is organic nutrients which come from the photosynthesis of millions of symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) that live inside their mantle. In return, giant clams offer the algae a safe home.

Harvesting, trading and buying of giant clams are prohibited under the Malaysian Law. However, enforcement is different story. Just went to tamu (native market) in Kota Belud and see it yourselves. The hawkers sell and slaughter the giant clams openly. They don’t feel anything wrong about it, and didn’t even bother when I was photographing them.

Above: see the yellow and red boxes and two big white sacks behind the seller? They are all giant claim shells! There were many happy buyers and many giant clams were sold in just a few minutes.

Poor giant clams. They may have taken more than 3 years to grow to these sizes. They are eaten before they are mature enough to breed.

Giant clams live in shallow lagoons, reef flats, and the sandy and rubbly substrate of coral reefs in the tropical Indo West Pacific.

Giant clams were once everywhere. Now they are getting rare because human eats their meat. Humans are the worst predators of giant clams.

Giant clams do not get enough attention like sharks and turtles, though they are one of the most fascinating marine creatures.

Giant clams also uses a siphon to draw in water to filter and consume plankton. By absorbing and filtering nitrates, ammonia and other organics that are harmful to coral reefs, giant clams help to clean the water in marine ecosystems.

These giant clams were slaughtered for their meat and sold for RM5 (small) or RM8 (big) each.

Above: giant clams waited to be slaughtered alive. Business was good and they were unlikely to survive until sunset.

I also went to Gaya Street Sunday Market on the same day. More than 100 giant clam shells were sold as handicraft items such as soap dishes, ash trays, shell lamps and ornaments.

There were tourists buying giant clams. Under the regulations of CITES, giant clams, whether dead or alive, cannot be carried out of our country. I don’t blame the tourists don’t know they are sponsoring an illegal trade. But what the heck is happening to our authorities (Fishery and Wildlife Departments)? Are they blind?

Below: a big giant clam shell is sold for RM25 (about USD7.50).

More photos of giant clams sales in Gaya Street… It seems like giant clam trade has become an “industry”. It is very hard to find the whole complete set of giant clam shells on the beach, so very likely these shells were taken from live giant clams.

So you think that the problem is not serious enough? Just take a walk in dried seafood market nearby. You will see giant clams (as dried seafood) everywhere.

The most valuable part of giant clam is its adductor muscle, which is commonly sold as scallops, which cost over RM100 for a small pack in dried seafood markets.

Overfishing of giant clams is a serious problem, as they are considered as a delicacy and profitable seafood. Besides overharvesting, climate change and pollution are also factors that speed up the extinction of giant clams. Excessive CO2 from atmosphere makes the sea water more acidic and lessens the ability of giant clams to grow their shells. The rise in sea temperature will also disturb the symbiotic relationship between the clams and the zooxanthellae that nourishes them. The introduction of a coal power plant in Darvel Bay, which is located inside the Coral Triangle, would pose a threat to giant clams.

More giant clam handicraft items sold in handicraft market… My heart is broken.. FYI, giant clam in movies is always portrayed as a man-eater because it snaps swimmers’ legs by surprise and drowns them. Actually this is impossible. First, you have to find a really huge giant clam, which is extremely rare. Second, giant clams close very slowly and most do not close completely. They do not snap. They are not monsters ok.

Currently Sabah has two places that spawn and propagate giant clams and you can see all 7 species of giant clams in their sites. The first one is Marine & Ecology Research Centre (MERC) in Gayana Eco Resort of Gaya Island, and another one is Sabah Parks Hatchery at Bohey Dulang Island (see photo below) in Tun Sakaran Marine Park off Semporna. This hatchery was built in year 2004 and fully operational with a completed laboratory in 2009.

To start, the giant clams will be induced (by temperature or injection of chemical) to release their eggs and sperms for fertilisation. The eggs will be collected. A week later, the larva of giant clams will settle and find a spot to grow, then they are moved to settlement tanks.

The giant clam larva will spend half a year to grow up to 3 cm. Then they will be released to the sea inside a cage (to protect them from predators), until they grow to 9cm or more after a few months. At last, they will be released independently to the ocean bottom without a cage. Less than 10% of the eggs will survive at the end.

T. gigas and T. derasa have the fastest growth rate. They may reach up to 9-12cm after a year. The suitable release spot will be clean and well-illuminated sea about 10 feet in depth or less with mild water current. Giant clams reach maturity very late, at about 7 to 8 years old.

Bohey Dulang Hatchery Station has a mini exhibition hall and a settlement tank area, which are open for public to visit. You can see at least 5 species of big giant clams in their display tank, great for an education tour. To visit the islands of Tun Sakaran Marine Park, you need to get a permit from Sabah Parks first.

However, no matter how hard and how long these two centres try, they are only able to increase the population of giant clams in limited scale, not the whole ocean around Sabah. The conservation has to be started from you, the consumers. Just don’t eat and buy any giant clam product and the killing will stop. Eating giant clams is as bad as eating shark fin and turtle eggs. The key obstacle of all conservation efforts in Malaysia is the mentality of “if I don’t kill them, others will”, a selfish excuse for greedy mouth of Malaysians. Well, that’s why our country is so dirty, as everyone thinks, “if I don’t throw rubbish, others will.” Anyway, if I can make only one of you to stop consuming giant clam, this blog already worths my time and efforts.

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu & Semporna, Sabah Malaysia

Beetles of Kinabalu Park

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Kinabalu Park is the first World Natural Heritage Site of Malaysia due to its biodiversity. No doubt you could find many interesting (even the weird ones) insects everywhere. Like the beetle below, I found it rested on a shrub near the Botanical Garden.

This beautiful beetle has metallic-like case, and its shell also looks like body armour. Some beetles bite and some release unpleasant odour. This one played death when I put it on my palm.

Kinabalu Park is a paradise for specimen collectors and entomologists. However, you will be fined heavily for taking anything from the park. Recently a tourist was compounded RM1,000 (about USD330) for plucking plants.

The beetle below was also found near Kinabalu Park. It has a very soft wing cases that feel like leather cushion.

More beetle… In fact, there are less bugs at the foothill of Mt. Kinabalu today. Because of global warming, many bugs have migrated to higher altitude.

Last year I kept complaining about the non-stop rainy poor weather, but now the weather is too hot and dry after Chinese New Year. A minute under the burning sunlight and I already can feel smoke coming out of me. Dry season is supposed to be great for travelling, but the photogenic bugs are all gone hiding.. My blog has been quiet for a long time coz I am busy transferring my files from old laptop to my new PC, and I haven’t gotten a copy of Photoshop installed yet. I was using free graphic editor. It is less user-friendly and contains bugs, but can get the job done.

Photos taken in Kinabalu Park, Sabah Malaysia

Mataking – Islands of Romance

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What makes a perfect honeymoon destination? Tropical island? White sany beach? Crystal clear sea water? Beautiful sunset? Luxury room? Mataking Islands seem to contain all these elements. In fact, many Italian tourists spend their honeymoon on Mataking. To go to Mataking, first you need to take a flight to Tawau city (a 45-minute flight between Kota Kinabalu and Tawau), drive one hour from Tawau to Semporna town, then take a 40 minutes boot ride to Mataking. This island is also gaining popularity among Chinese tourists from Hong Kong and China.

Mataking consists of two islands, namely, Mataking Besar and Mataking Kecil (in Malaysia language, Besar means Big, Kecil means Small). Both islands are connected by a long and narrow beach (isn’t this look like connecting two hearts?). During low tide, you can walk to Mataking Kecil in 20 minutes. All the facilities and accommodation are built on Mataking Besar. At the moment, the island is managed by Reef Dive Resort. I saw a new luxury resort was being built in the middle of the island, so there will be two resorts in the future.

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Besides making baby, there are many other activities you can do on Mataking. They have a 5-star dive centre, which can bring you to dive around Mataking Island, as well as dive sites around the islands of Tun Sakaran Marine Park. The dive site that is worth a mention is the “underwater post office” in a ship wreck about 40 feet deep. You can send a letter there, probably Nemo will help to deliver? This is a remote island, so the best ways to spend your time are diving, snorkelling, canoeing, kayaking, batik painting and enjoying SPA. They also have a reading area with a lot of books. Asian tourists NEVER read, but westerners do read a lot.

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Upon arrival, we were welcome by a singing group at the jetty, the start of king treatment experience. After a short briefing by a friendly host at reception area, we checked in. I was staying a night in a King Chalet. Everything was perfect, but too bad I was sharing room with a guy, not a female, haha… The room was very comfortable, just like the room in 5-star hotel, completed with bathroom, big bed, air-con, TV, cabinet, etc., but I like their wooden structure and traditional architecture with more natural setting. They have a generator on island so power supply is available 24 hours. Each room was also given a mosquito insecticide. Since the accommodation is under the shade of trees, there are some mosquitoes around. Just keep your door closed all the time and it won’t be a problem. Don’t spray insecticide in your room coz it smells. I hope no tourists would spray this on their bodies like insect repellent.

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Chinese New Year was approaching so the restaurant was nicely decorated with new year theme. I didn’t really shoot a lot of nice photos. My external flash (Canon 580 EX II) was malfunction (and it costed me RM427 to fix it later, about USD$120!). Another thing was I had 3 dives at Sipadan Island earlier, so tired that I had little mood to move in such a relaxing environment.

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Anyway, I still checked out the sunset from a 20 Metres wooden tower inside the resort. It was a breath-taking view on top. They said we could see island of Philippines just 500 Metres away from east side of the island. Look at the photo below. I didn’t see any island though. FYI, my mobile phone could receive one bar of weak signal at the jetty. Sound quality was bad but I was able to text (sms).

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Next morning I waked up early for the sunrise shots. After that, it was low tide so I tried to walk to Mataking Kecil along the exposed sand. But I was a bit late. The connecting sand was flooded by incoming high tide. There were many stuffs washed up to the beach, like tree branches, corals, seaweed, etc. Not quite pretty for beach photos. They say April and May are the best months for photography, as there is little junk on the beach. Mataking Besar is not very big. To walk circling the island only takes 40 minutes.

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Previous night I was supposed to join the night safari at 9pm. But they cancelled it, for the reason that part of the trail was blocked by high tide. So disappointed… Because the famous coconut crabs only come out at night. Coconut crab is closely related to lobster and a protected species. They feed on coconut and pandan pineapples, and baby coconut crab also shelters in seashell like hermit crab. Another feature of the night walk is the firefly “Christmas” tree. I am surprised Mataking has fireflies. The fireflies there always gather on a specific plant every night. If you are lucky, you will see turtle laying eggs. They will collect the eggs and put them inside a hatchery area in the resort. When the turtles hatched, they will release them back into the sea. They have released thousands of baby turtles. 99% are green turtles.

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Anyway, I decided to exlpore the forest in the morning. The friendly host, Ms Fatimah, was kind to be my company and gave an educational tour. The “jungle” was not so jungle, as the trees on this island are small and short (but quite dense), look more like a city park. It was fairly a short tour. Fatimah introduced the fruits and herb we saw along the trail. The vegetation of this island forest is so different. I had visited so many places and islands in Sabah, but most of the plant in Mataking looks so unfamiliar, may be Mataking is too far from mainland so it has developed its own unique ecology.

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There was a police base on the island. On the beach, I saw so many old and new footprints of guide dogs, meaning that patrol is carried out regularly. They also have more police bases in nearby islands. Despite the travel advisory from US, this is really a safe place. I will come back again, hopefully next time bringing a female. I am not that irresistible but the island is. 😉

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Photos taken in Semporna, Sabah Malaysia

Tawau, the ecology desert

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Last month I was on a morning flight to Tawau and sat next to the window. When the plane approached Tawau and started to descent, I took out my camera, hoping to snap some beautiful aerial shots of Tawau. It ended up as a big disappointment because I saw only sea of oil palm, on the land, on the hill, next to the river, everywhere… There was also evident of forest being clear for planting of oil palm.

Actually you don’t need to be on the sky to see this. Just drive from Lahad Datu to Tawau. Along the way, you will see only oil palm. Everytime I passed by, I sighed in my heart, “the ecotourism of Tawau is over..” Most tourists also find this view an eyesore, as they know oil palm plantation is mainly responsible for clearing of Borneo rainforest and destroy of orangutan habitat. The tourists, who go for diving in Semporna, don’t even want to stop over in Tawau for a night. “What to see here? Oil palm forest?” I feel sorry for people of Tawau. They have no orangutan, proboscis monkey, elephant…

Currently Sabah is happily harvesting the fruits of ecotouri$m, as most tourists want to see our well-preserved nature. We are enjoying the success now, due to the right things we did 10 or 20 years ago. If we don’t stringently protect our forest now, we may not see the negative effects until 10 years later. Even Sandakan, our ecotourism city, can end up like Tawau one day, and it will be too late to do anything. The recent serious flood of Kinabatangan River was NOT the act of God. It was caused by overlogging and excessive land clearing. Do you know that oil palm plantation is taking 70%++ of Kinabatangan Floodplain now? Of course the politician will not want to highlight this.

Under the regulations, slopes that are too steep should not be clear. But look at the photo above. Oil palm is all over the hilly region. Can the authority explain why this happens? Who is responsible? Forestry Dept? Land and Survey Dept? Or Environment Protection Dept? Where is the enforcement?

Probably the only forest Tawau left are Tawau Hills Park and Bukit Gemok. Look at the photos below, and you will see oil palm is engulfing the forest area. It is so saddening. No wildlife can survive in such small patches of fragmented forest.

Maliau Basin (a.k.a. The Lost World), though not really inside Tawau district, should be monitored closely. It looks like a volcano crater but it is not. It is a disastrous decision that government allows the logging of timber in its buffer zone. Even politicians from Peninsular Malaysia are dripping for this natural treasure, which is full of coal and timber. The building of coal power plant would threaten this pristine forest, as it opens up an excuse for government to mine its coal. Remember the lesson of copper mine of Mamut? Its pollution is such a disaster that nobody can resolve it until today. We better watch out what government is doing, to prevent it from making second Mamut.

Just say NO to coal power plant. Politicians want to make it sounds like the only choice, “No coal plant = No electricity.” The fact is – we can have both electricity and a clean environment with alternative energy such as hydro-generated power. If you believe what the government says, you die lah. There is no such thing as “clean coal”, like there is no “clean shit”. If WWF says coal power plant sucks, then it sucks, no matter what others say.

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The Land Below the Oil Palm

Photos taken in Tawau, Sabah Malaysia

Miki Survival Camp – Part 3 of 3

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Continued from Part 2…

Day 2

The next morning we waked up quite early. Jimmy brought back more wild durians. Compared to durian on the market, wild durian is smaller. Its meat is thinner but tastes good. After having some fried noodle as breakfast, we started our last program at 8:30am.

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Jimmy taught us more survival skills. The most useful one is starting fire without a lighter. Just stack two flat bamboo wood, hold some coconut husk in between, cut a small air hole and “fiction rail” on top of a wood, then rub the opening hard and fast, up and down, on another dry wood. We saw smoke in a matter of seconds. The drilling-hole method we saw on TV is so slow and stupid. I bet many had tried drilling the wood but it never worked right?

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Another useful skill is making a bamboo rice cooker. Just cut an opening on young bamboo, put rice and water in it, then boil it on the fire. You also can boil the water in same way, as uncooked water is not clean. It is really handy if metal container such as empty tin is not available. Jimmy also showed us how to make a bamboo cup and pop-gun. It is not as easy as we imagine.

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Lastly we “graduated” and left the camp at 9:30am. Though cloudy, the rain stopped and it was a good weather. This time we were walking non-stop so we reached Kiau Village in about 2 hours.

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Mount Kinabalu showed her face clearly that day, forming a nice backdrop.

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Yesterday I missed the photography opportunity, now I could shoot happily. We passed through the farm land and saw many crops grew on the slope.

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Tapioca, banana, rubber, pineapples, hill paddy and vegetables are common crops in Kiau. Besides for self-consumption, they also sell them in market.

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Nothing much I need to say already. We arrived Kiau at 11:30am. After having delicious lunch with Miki and other guides, we headed back to Kota Kinabalu, took a shower and went to bed.

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Personally, I am a bit concern about the clearing of forest on the slope. At the moment it is still ok. Hope it won’t be overdeveloped, which would cause flood, soil erosion and landslide.

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Miki Survival Camp not only shows us how to survive in jungle, it also makes us appreciate the nature a lot more, as we know more clearly how resourceful a jungle can be. People could get almost anything (food, herb, building and handicraft materials) from the jungle. If done in sustainable manner, there is almost an unlimited supply of food and raw materials.

I believe this is how Penan people in Sarawak live in jungle. Sadly, the greedy logging companies come in and destroy their forest and living. The Sarawak government doesn’t do anything to stop this. Instead, the politicians try to label the Penan people as rebel. No newspaper speak up for them. This is what happens if voters give Barisan Nasional the full power. Absolute ruling by one party will bring only corruption.

Photos taken in Kiau, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Miki Survival Camp – Part 2 of 3

MySabah.com

Travel guides to Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Category Archives: Wildlife

Tawau Hills Park (Taman Bukit Tawau)

Sulphurous springs (Tawau Hills Park)

Giant Clams of Sabah

Beetles of Kinabalu Park

Mataking – Islands of Romance

Tawau, the ecology desert

Miki Survival Camp – Part 3 of 3

Miki Survival Camp – Part 2 of 3