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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Miki Survival Camp is a tourism project initiated by the community of Kiau. After they ran the project, villagers started to realize the benefits of the conservation. Instead of clearing the forest for farming, they keep the jungles, especially those near to Miki camp. Personally I like to visit those pristine places other than those attractions developed by blood-sucking and money-minded tour operators, who only want to build luxury chalets and charge tourists by thousand$$$.
After having warm porridge as lunch, our guide, Jimmy, led us for the afternoon education tour. He showed us some of the common traps used by the locals to catch wild animals. All traps are cleverly designed, with ropes, wood, strings, gravity and spring force as mechanism, no battery required. They either setup the trap in the animal path or put bait inside the trap. Jimmy also blew a folded ginger leaf, making sound to lure kijang (a lamb like small deer).
Few traps can be quite nasty, like the Vunsoi trap, if the wild boar or deer trips on a string, it will release a wooden bow spring that swing a spear. They even have smaller traps for snake, squirrel, mouse and jungle fowl. To avoid being wordy, I put more photos in album with captions, for your further reading. Tourists who join Miki Camp will get a small book, with info on trap setting. Besides the traps, Jimmy also told us the edible stuffs such as wild ginger fruit (tampo) and fern (pakis), herbal plant such as wadan vine, poisonous plant such as tohipoi, wild plum and bekago. It is interesting and useful to know all these.
Because of the wet forest floor, as we moved deeper inside the jungle, we were attacked by legion of tiger leeches. The leeches were hiding in the vegetation next to the trail, as we walked by, our raincoats were also sweeping the plant, harvesting leeches like vacuum. Haha… this is also part of the experience. We checked on each other regularly, remove leeches on our raincoat, so nobody got bitten (miracle!). Jimmy collected over 10 leeches and rub them in his palm, the heat killed all the leeches, and he showed me the “leech ball”, iyaak!
Later we were back to the campsite and Jimmy demo some craft works and skills, like making bamboo mat and roof, splitting firewood (in fastest and effortless way), creating bamboo fish trap (berusat), using blowpipe, etc. While we were happily sharing our excitement of the day, Rayner had started cooking our dinner, probably lizard soup and worm noodles, just kidding..
Early dinner in jungle is advisable. If you eat at night with light on, it will attract all sorts of flying bugs from the forest. We had fried rice, mixed vegetables, ketchup chicken and crab soup as our dinner. Rayner is such a good cook, or we were too hungry. It was also nice to have a cup of coffee or tea in the cold.
Jungle seemed to get dark sooner. The cold night kicked in, after a heavy meal, everyone already felt sleepy next to the fire place.
NIGHT WALK
The next programme was the one I anticipated the most, the night walk. In daytime, we didn’t see a lot of wild things, I only saw a huge stink bug and a Daddy Long Legs (Harvestmen Spider). However, the jungle is a extremely busy world at night. We started the night walk at 7:00pm and the noisy surrounding sounded very promising. In search of rare and weird bug, some foreigner photographers had visited this site much more earlier than me. In fact, this area is the buffer zone between Kiau Village and Kinabalu Park that is rich in biodiversity. With the aid of torchlight, we slowly walked across the jungle and scanned the plant and trees like treasure hunt.
After a short walk, the guide said, “turn off your light.” “Huh? what?” I replied but did so anyway. Then we saw patches of glowing green in total darkness (see photo above). “That’s a glowing fungus,” Jimmy said. When we turned on the light again, we only saw very ordinary green fungus on a rotten tree log. I was really thrilled and setup my tripod, attempting to capture the glow. I only took one shot coz I didn’t want everyone waited for me. Later we also spotted glowing mushroom.
Then the next interesting creature we saw was a very tiny frog (see photo above). It is so small that any normal frog can swallow it in one snap. It was sitting on a ordinary-size leaf. We carried on and saw more bugs, most were creepy types that could make girls screamed. I didn’t stop clicking my camera, every few steps there would be new things, like firefly, frogs (some are poisonous), stick insect, cricket, grasshopper, forest cockroaches, gecko, cave centipede, big snail, etc.
Guess what was the biggest bug we saw that night? It was not frog and lizard. The jackpot of this night walk was a giant caterpillar (see photo below)! This caterpillar is longer than my palm, probably about 7 inches long. Jimmy said, “I also never see anything like this before. You are so lucky.” Anyone can tell me what it is? We tried to look for the horned frog but didn’t find any. I was so happy already anyway. The cold weather drained the power of my camera battery very fast. My last battery only had two bars of power left. I needed to save it for next day. Damn… otherwise I would have spent more time and shot more…
About an hour later, we returned to our camp. There was no electricity and TV, so we went to bed, without taking a bath, lol… Though our camps were not too far apart, it was totally dark and I felt that my camp was alone. It was so noisy at night, with sounds from frogs, bugs and birds. Some lame writers like to describe this as the “orchestra” of jungle sounds. To me, it is just plain noisy. Since I was so tired, that didn’t really bother me. In midnight, I was waked up by a loud bang. Next day the guide told me it was bamboo “exploding”, it is common and can be as loud as gun shot.
Temperature still dropped in late night. So cold that everyone of us waked up and put on more clothing. Very soon I wanted to pee. I grabbed my torchlight and walked to the toilet. On the way back, I saw something moving slowly on a log. It was a very beautiful snake, with gold color and tiger-like stripes on its body, and got red eyes! It saw me and stayed motionless. Quickly I ran to my camp, took my camera and shot some photos. I was so glad I didn’t step on this snake by accident. When I was back to town, a snake expert told me that it’s a Bornean Dark-necked Slug Snake (Asthenodipsas borneensis) which feeds on snails and slugs. It’s endemic to Borneo and I’m very lucky to see one.
Rainforest is one of the worst places to get lost and there was one recent case in Sandakan. To learn the skills of a jungle man would make a difference. If you know how to use the resources of the jungle, the forest will be a buffet place, which offers plenty of food. That’s why I joined the Miki Survival Camp, a 2 day 1 night programme in Kiau last week. In Kiau, we still needed to walk to the forest in Mohan Tuhan, at the foothill of Mt. Kinabalu. The low mountain forest looks like the photo below, cool huh?
Kiau Village (Kampung Kiau) is 29KM away from Ranau town. If you drive to Kinabalu Park, you will see a junction at your left, somewhere between Nabalu and Kundasang towns. There is a brown sign of Miki Camp. Kiau Village is under Kota Belud district. I waited at the junction, and Mr. Sadib Miki, the owner of the camp, picked up me and drove another 30 minutes of bumpy road to the starting point (Kiau Nuluh Village). Most people in Kiau are Kadazandusun work as farmers and civil servants. Every house seems to have a farm there.
However, the weather started to turn bad, and the rain was kind of putting off my passion on photography. Below is a photo of the Miki team. From left, Jimmy, Sadib Miki (owner), Maik (his brother) and Danson. The rain didn’t seem to stop, so I had no choice but to proceed at 10:20am. Jimmy, Maik and Danson were our guides. They were so nice and helped to carry my heavy tripod. Thank you!
Walking from Kiau Village to Miki Survival Camp (in Mohan Tuhan, foothill of Mount Kinabalu) takes about 2 hours. We would stay in the forest for a night and came back in next morning. At first I was disappointed with the poor weather and hang my camera under the raincoat. Suddenly I saw a 5-inch earthworm crawling near the trail. Grew up as half a village boy, I noticed this earthworm crawled in an unusual way. After a closer look, I almost screamed, “that’s a giant Kinabalu Leech!!!” Giant Kinabalu Leech can grow up to 30cm long and we saw the baby leech. As sighting of this leech is very rare, I was as happy as a lottery winner. Giant leech only comes out after heavy rain, to chase for its prey – earthworm. Once it finds the earthworm, it will swallow the earthworm like a snake. Surprisingly, it doesn’t suck blood. Miki says such leech can be found in Kinabalu Park and Kota Belud, but it lives in very confined area. Very little is known about this creature. I should thank the rainy day.
Beginning of the trail was to walk pass a farm land for about an hour. Due to the cooling fresh air, I didn’t feel really tired or dehydrated. Then we walked into the dark, humid and dense low mountain forest. With an altitude of 1,000 Metres, this forest is characterized by abundant amount of mosses, lichen, algae, fungus, and mushroom on the tree and forest floor. Frequented by fog and mist, some trees even have hanging long roots that can absorb moisture from the air.
During the trekking, Jimmy, the Bear Grylls of Sabah, would stop occasionally, showing us some of the edible and herbal plant in forest, more like an interpretation walk. We didn’t only see, but also touch, smell and taste the forest produces such as wild durian and salak (snake skin fruit). Whenever Jimmy talked, I would take note. Otherwise I will forget what he says. I decide to post these info in my blog here. It is only a record, do not use my info as a forest eatery guide ok! Some food still needs special handling in order to consume safely. Don’t blame me if you get ill.
According to the guide, sometimes honeymooners also had their vacation in Miki Camp. A couple once carried a 2-year baby into the jungle. The 2-hour walk made us sweat but it was not too physically demanding. A walking stick and “kampung addidas” shoes (Village Addidas, a Malaysia made rubber shoes) will be your best friends. The forest floor can be wet, muddy and slippery, and you also need to cross a river. If you wear your hundreds dollar hiking shoes such as Camel and Timberland, you will soon find your shoes soaked with water and its bottom sticks a thick layer of mud. Kampung Addidas costs only RM3 (USD $1) but it is sold for RM7 (USD$2.20) in city. It is easy to dry and have firm grip on slippery rocks, but will not stick mud. Most guides wear it to climb Mt. Kinabalu and even won climbathon race.
Friends, I have 1 good news and 1 bad news for you. Good news – even though the forest is dark and wet, there was no mosquito. Bad news is – there are plenty of blood-thirsty slimy leeches, 90% of them are tiger leech. If you stop walking, they can crawl on your shoes in seconds, moving up and sucking blood on your feet, legs, neck and armpit. I was wearing leech socks with anti-leech spray on it, so I was safe. If you are a leech-phobia like me, you can wear leech socks or come in dry season. We crossed Hoya-Hoya, Inokok and Mohan Tuhan Rivers on the way, by slippery bamboo bridge, swinging suspension bridge and on foot (3 methods!).
Finally, after nearly 3 hours, we arrived Miki Survival Camp at 12:45pm in Muhan Tuhan. Actually the trekking took 2 hours, but we stopped many times for learning thus taking longer time. Probably coz of the rich negative ions, I didn’t feel exhausted, and the chocolate bars and 100Plus that I brought were untouched.
Miki Survival Camp started in year 2000. They have about 1 thousand tourists every year, mainly from UK. Miki Camp is in the middle of a forest, which was considered a sacred forest in the past. The hunters always buried some offering near the river, wishing for a safe and fruitful hunting trip. There are about 6 or 7 scattered raised floor huts, which house 1 or 2 camping tents. The campsite can accommodate 40 people at a time. Sleeping bag and carpet are provided, but this is not quite enough to fight the cold night. Besides, they have a kitchen that uses wood and gas for cooking.
Electricity and warm water are not available in the jungle. Since the camp has no attached bathroom, you have to walk to the toilet nearby. You shall not expect a 5-star toilet in a jungle right? In my previous camping, we only dag a hole, surrounded it with canvas and called it our toilet. I posted some more photos of the campsite in photo album, in case you like to see more. The guides said primates like orangutan, slow loris and tarsier were spotted in deeper site of this jungle. Wild boar and monkey were living around but they seldom come to the campsite.
They also have bathroom, but it is “underutilized”. It is so cold that none of us took a shower, haha… The temperature can drop to 8 degree Celsius, between wet and dry season. The Mohan Tuhan River is only a stone throw from our campsite. It is so clean that you can drink it right away, and the water is also freezing cold. Jimmy said we could take shower in this river, but I’m afraid I would never see my “little brother” again if I did so. In fact, this area is an important water catchment area, with unpolluted water straight from our majestic Mount Kinabalu.
Besides the guide, our cook, Rayner and his daughter, Diana also came in earlier. Dinomysia, the little daughter of Sadib Miki, was there too. The girls were very shy, probably I am too handsome, hehe… And their dog, Kurak (means white in local language), was a friendly company too. Kurak likes to hang around with Dinomysia and Diana, following them in and out of forest.
Another heavy rain approached, making afternoon even colder. We setup a fire place and sat next to it, to keep ourselves warm and dry. Same as us, Kurak also loved to stay near the fire, so near that I worried she would become a hot dog. If she was not sleeping, she would patrol around in the campsite, keeping wild animals at bay.
Is it a leech or slug or snake? I saw this unknown creature appeared at least twice in the newspapers. People seem to be bothered by this slimy worm that has a head looks like hammer. A smart ass reader even said it was a “wire snake”, making me chuckled a little. Actually it is a land planarian, also known as hammerhead worm or shovel head worm, it is something very common in countryside.
Hammerhead worm is harmless to human. When I was a kid, I picked it up once (I grabbed ANY bug when young) and found that it was very sticky. It likes dark and damp area, and the best time to find them is at night or early morning. You would see it gliding on moist surface such as wet soil and leaves. Its body is long and flat, with narrow stripes, and can grow more than 30 cm long. Wherever it goes, it will leave a slimy trail behind, like snails and slugs.
Hammerhead worm is native to Asia. However, it spreads to all over the world as far as USA and UK, through the pot of plant. The common species is dark brown in color, like the photo below. They do not have predator, probably because of their slimy flat body that makes them look like an awful meal. But they do feed on their own kind. You can’t kill it by cutting it into half, as it will grow into two worms. Just pour salt or vinegar on it to end its life, but there is little reason you want to kill it.
Hammerhead worm likes to hang around in garden, so you might think that it is a vegetarian pest which feeds on plant only. Surprisingly, juicy earthworm is their main diet, and they also eat slugs and insect larvae. When they attack an earthworm, they coil their sticky body over the earthworm, “melt” it with enzyme, then slowly eating it. Ill… I can imagine it isn’t a pretty scene. Their strong appetize for earthworm and ability to reproduce quickly pose a disaster to some earthworm farms. An expert said hammerhead worms once wiped out 3,000 lbs of worms in less than a week.
Above: land planarian preying on a snail
When I study more about it, I find that hammerhead worm is really an odd animal. It does not have anus. In fact its mouth is its anus and located in the middle of the body. Isn’t it cute? Keep it as a pet and your mom will be dearly impressed.
I thought all the beautiful island in west coast of Sabah was gone until I met Mantanani Islands (Pulau Mantanani). Sapi and Manukan Islands? They are not even in top 10 most beautiful islands of Sabah (but they were, 30 years ago), and it is funny that most tourists flow to these islands. That would make them think that all islands of Sabah are dirty, polluted and lack of corals. Local divers also expresses their concern about the dwindling corals and fish species in Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. Due to increasing pollution and garbage from the shore (especially Gaya Island), very soon swimming in Sapi Manukan will be same as swimming in toilet bowl.
Mantanani is fairly accessible (prior booking with travel agent is required). Just drive 1 hour to the jetty of Kampung Kuala Abai in Kota Belud, then take a boat to Mantanani. The boat ride takes 40 to 50 minutes depending on the sea condition. If the weather is bad, they might cancel the trip. Mantanani consists of 3 islands, namely, Mantanani Besar (the biggest) Island, Mantanani Kecil (Kechil) Island and Lingisan Island (smallest). Above is the map to Mantanani. In fact, these islands are so tiny that they are not appear in most Sabah map. I draw the map myself just for you to get an idea, the shape and scale are not accurate, so don’t use it in textbook ye.
Above is the view of Kg Kuala Abai (Kuala Abai Village) fishing willage. To go to Mantanani, you need to arrange the tour with the island operator prior to the visit. I went 2-day-1-night with Mari Mari Dive Lodge (of Traverse Tours), the sole operator of Mantanani Kecil Island. On Mantanani Besar, there are a few operators such as Mantanani Resort.
Lucky tourists would see dolphin in the boat ride. They usually follow behind the fishing boats. This is no guarantee and too bad I didn’t see any. Though it was a sunny day, the sea was so choppy that I felt the boat was riding on something rock solid and I got free shower from splashes. After 45 minutes, I arrived the jetty of Mari Mari Dive Lodge (MMDL). MMDL is built 400 Meters away from the shore of Mantanani Kecil. If not, tourists will have to walk extra 400 M from the island to jetty during low tide, which is too shallow for boat to enter. You can walk from MMDL to the island when it is low tide, but watch out for the venomous stonefishes and stingray that can hide really well in the sand. Better way is to snorkel to the island during high tide or ask the boatman to send you there. MMDL is a structure of 3 stilt houses joined together, i.e., a 4-room twin-bed accommodation, a dive lodge and a dining area.
Manatanani is also known as “Mermaid Island”, due to the presence of an endangered sea cow “dugong / duyung”, which is occasionally found grazing on the sea grass around the island. Sighting is rare and the most recent sighting was reported last month. Taking beautiful photos of Mantanani is so easy, coz everything is like a picture, the blue sky, crystal clear sea and white sandy beach… The visibility of the water can reach 20 Meters, so clean that as if it is drinkable.
Though very few Sabahans know about Mantanani, many tourists from Europe, Hong Kong, China, Japan and Korea had discovered this pristine island by words of mouth. You would be impressed if you see the photos. FYI, the dark patches under the sea are rocks and corals, in case you misunderstand they are something dirty.
The photo above is Lingisan Island, which is named after frigate birds that fly around there in the evening. Lingisan is very small and nobody lives on it. The big island behind it is Mantanani Besar. Personally I call it “flower pot” island coz of its round shape and dense vegetation on top. I was so curious what was inside its cave.
Before I came, I was not too excited about this trip coz I heard about the fish bombing activity in Mantanani, thinking that it was a degraded island. However, what I saw in snorkelling and diving was a huge number of corals like an underwater garden. Since the setup of a police base on Mantanani Besar, the fish bombing is greatly reduced. Some fishing boats like to come here to fish. There are over 15 dive sites in Mantanani, more adventurous divers can try out muck diving and wreck diving. You would see turtles, bumphead parrot fish, big stingray, giant clam, moray and eagle eel, nudibranch, finger corals and many other marine life.
The underwater current is quite strong under the sea. Instead of fighting it, divers can use the current as an “escalator”, go with the flow to “glide” above the corals. In one of the dives, my dive group was swept to 1.5 KM away within an hour! The boat man took nearly an hour to locate us. Honestly, I was quite pissed, but forgot it soon.
Besides the sandy beach, Mantanani Kecil has a nice view behind. You can walk to a small cliff behind the island and enjoy a bird view of its rocky shore (see photo above). The sea under the cliff looks deep and rough, so it is meant for watching only. There are only a few MMDL workers live on Mantanani Kecil, and they look after the power generators and water supply on this island. All communication is cut off on Mantanani Kecil, so no need to worry about phone call from your office. Kayaking is allowed if the sea is calm.
Mantanani Besar is a few KM away from Mantanani Kecil and mainly resided by local fishermen. The people there are very friendly and I saw some youngsters were playing volley ball in the evening. I visited there briefly to buy something, as there is no shop on Mantanani Kecil and Lingisan. Sadly, Mantanani Besar didn’t give me a good impression coz I saw rubbish everywhere on the beach. There were many cows wandering along the beach but too bad they were not the sea cow that I was looking for.
After the shopping, I toured around the islands and checked out the other side of Mantanani Besar. It is a rocky shore with interesting mushroom rock formation, probably the collaborative work of wind and water over years. I climbed onto the rock and walked around. The surface was slippery, rough and sharp, so I moved carefully with naked feet. Do visit this when you come to Mantanani.
Lingisan Island is the one I most eager to check out because of its big cave. A closer look reveals that it is not a deep cave and its bottom only submerges a few feet under the water during high tide. The staff told us that only swiftlets and bats live inside, and the owner comes to collect edible bird nest from the cave sometimes. It is a small but very unique island.
Sunset was approaching and we returned to MMDL. Everything was painted with gold color. Jesus light came out at north, later I had to call it a day. Most tourists only opt for day trip so most of them had left around 3:30pm. Unlike honeymoon couple who can make baby at night, I got nothing to do. But hey, this is a holiday, so I shouldn’t do anything right? Living in city for too long, I was not used to leaving my brain stops thinking for a moment.
Whole day of water sports already made me so tired. Surprisingly, Mantanani is supplied with 24-hour of pleasing sea breeze, so I don’t feel warm even in hot afternoon. I even slept a while on the veranda, just to enjoy the gentle wind, sound of ocean and freedom. The next morning I waked up very early to take sunrise photos and was rewarded by magnificent view of Mt. Kinabalu.
Hopefully government will gazette Mantanani as a National Park, so we could preserve its beauty and marine ecology for future generations to enjoy. There aren’t many pristine islands left in Sabah west coast.
However, with weak enforcement of Sabah government, who recently denied the presence of illegal coral mining that destroyed tons of coral reef in Tawau and release of effluents into Segaliud River by oil palm mills nearby, I am not so optimistic about our conservation.
I first knew pistol shrimp (aka snapping shrimp), one of the loudest animals on earth, from Discovery Channel, and I was so happy to see this strange animal exists in an unexpected place – Manukan Island (Pulau Manukan) of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park.
Compared to other islands nearby such as Sapi and Mamutik, the long and white sandy beach of Manukan Island attracts the most number of tourists. After I was done with snorkelling, I decided to check out the rocky shore behind the island.
Hearing popping sounds, I knew this fellow was around. I search among the rubble partly exposed on the water. Then I sensed something retreated very fast into a burrow under the water.
Quickly I stayed motionless next to the small burrow. About 5 minutes later, an 1-inch shrimp came out. My goodness, look at its left super claw. Doesn’t it look like a robot in Japanese anime? It was busy cleaning up the stone in and out of the burrow.
However, its huge claw is more than for display purpose. Pistol shrimp uses this specialized claw to shoot a burst of bubbles to stun its prey up to 4 cm away, and the force is enough to kill a small fish. The explanation of such sonic weapon is quite technical. Basically, this shrimp snaps its oversized claw shut to create a high-pressure cavitation bubble, like a jet of shockwave. As the bubble collapses, the cavitation bubble reaches temperatures of over 5,000 K (4,726.85 degrees Celsius)! FYI, the surface temperature of the sun is around 5,778 K.
Nature never fails to surprise us. I thought I would only see such phenomenon in “fireball war” in Dragon Ball anime. But our naked eyes can’t see a flash of light as it is very low in intensity. Pistol shrimp does not live in sea only. When you enter a mangrove forest in Sabah, you could hear many loud “bi” and “po” popping sound in surrounding. I contacted the experts and they confirmed these are the snapping sound of pistol shrimps.
Besides amazing pistol shrimp, there were many sea cucumbers in the water.
Photo below shows a naked marine creature doesn’t mind living next to a spiky sea urchin. I don’t know what it is but for sure it is not the penis of the urchin.
Monitor lizards are abundant along the quiet shore of Manukan. This one is a juvenile foraging for food.
Last week my camera (DSLR) have started to malfunction. I’ve sent it to KL for repair. Hope it will not cost a bomb. Luckily I still have a bunch of photos enough for about 3 to 4 blog. It will be a pain to live without camera for about a month. High-tech devices always don’t seem to build to last.
Photos taken in Manukan Island, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
This pitcher plant is Nepenthes Rajah and yes it is in Sabah! The best place to see Nepenthes Rajah is in Mesilau, about 2-hour drive from Kota Kinabalu (12 KM away from Kundasang town). All you need to do is just going to Mesilau Nature Resort and register for a 2-hour guided tour that is started at 11:30am. For Malaysian adults, the fee is only RM5 (RM10 for foreigner tourists). A park ranger will walk you to the natural habitat of Rajah pitcher plant.
Mesilau is nearly 2,000 Metres above sea level so the air is a bit cooling. You don’t feel really warm when you walk in the first 20 minutes of Mesilau trail, which is under the shade of sub-montane forest. The first thing you pass by is the Mesilau cave. It is not so deep anyway.
Sabah Parks ranger, Mr. Sukaibin, was very knowledgeable and introducing the plants that we saw along the trail. Above is a coffee plant that probably we can call it “Mesilau Coffee”? We also saw a bush warbler bird just feet away.
Photo at left above is a tomato plant, the left is wild pinang (betel nut). We saw a few ginger flowers too. It is such a lovely nature garden. Too bad I didn’t see any red-lipped snake, which is endemic to Sabah only. It likes to warm itself on the rock exposed to morning sunlight. Its kiss of death is 3 times more venomous than cobra. Sukaibin said someone cooked and ate the snake before, and got tummy ache, in a way suggesting that its meat is poisonous too.
Juicy wild berry (photo above) is abundant in Mesilau. It looks tasty but we are not sure if it is edible. Look safe to me. Then we came to a big boulder (photo below) with soil seemed to be removed at the bottom, enough to fit a few people. According to the guide, this huge rock was coming from top of Mt Kinabalu due to a landslide some 50,000 years ago during ice age. Legend passed down from ancestors said the space under this boulder was a temporary hiding place for villagers who were trying to escape from a plague.
Finally we arrived a locked gate. Sukaibin opened the gate and we crossed a small river on a hanging suspension bridge.
When you see many big rocks and boulders in river, that means it is an upstream. This ordinary river was how Mesilau got its name. During rainy day, the water will wash the soil down into this river, turning it into yellowish colour. Mesilau means “Yellow River.”
Then the next minute it was a walk to the trail uphill. The slope was created by landslide. Most part does not have boardwalk and railing for walking, so you need to walk carefully and make sure you wear suitable shoes.
Every soon I saw the first pitcher plant. It is quite big but it is not Nepenthes Rajah that I looked for. However, it is Nepenthes burbidgeae discovered in 1800’s and only found in Kinabalu Park of Sabah. The dark dots make this pitcher looks so cute.
“Monkey Cup” is another nickname for pitcher plants. In early days, researchers saw a group of monkeys sitting next to pitcher plant, making it looked like the cup of monkeys thus giving this name. I doubt if monkey really drinks the water in the cup coz the fluid is acidic and poisonous. Pitcher plants normally grow on the soil which is very poor in nutrients. As you can see in the photo below, the soil in Mesilau is dry and yellow and mixed with rocks and sand. Even the trees here are few and short, an obvious sign of infertile soil. The grass doesn’t look so green either.
Besides Nepenthes burbidgeae and Nepenthes rajah, smaller pitchers such as Nepenthes fusca and Nepenthes tentaculata could be seen in Mesilau. Part of the trail is off-limit to tourists so I think there are more species available here. Besides the standard 11:30am guided tour, visitors can request for another tour at 2.30pm a few hours in advance. I do not recommend this. Due to little shady area on the slope, it is quite hot on the slope in the afternoon, and we want to minimise disturbance to the pitchers. BTW, you could enjoy a breath-taking view of Mt Kinabalu foothill on top of the slope (like photo below).
Walking further up and finally I saw the huge Rajah Pitcher Plant! Most of them were laying on the ground and waited for the bugs to crawl into its pitfall trap. The nectar inside pitcher lures the foraging insects to climb into pitcher, fall into the fluid and drown, then slowly digested and consumed by pitcher plant. Pitcher is not a fruit or flower, it is a modified leaf.
Young Nepenthes rajah is quite bright in colours. It will turn to reddish brown when grows older. To let you get an idea how big it is, I place a 1-foot ruler next to it. Sukaibin was glad to be the scale model in my photo too. Rajah can grow up to 16-inch long and hold 2.5 Litres of water. It is really the king of pitcher plant, on top of 80 Nepenthes species.
Many think that pitcher plant can move its lid up and down to chew its preys. Some even call it a man-eater. I placed my hands to its mouth and nothing happened, so you have to believe me that pitcher can’t move. I didn’t insert my hand into its mouth coz pitcher plant is sensitive. Even too many camera flash light can make it to dry up sooner, the guides told me.
January to May is wet season so it is the best time to see pitcher plant. The pitcher can last 2 to 6 months, depending on the species. Even I went in Aug, there are still plenty of them around in Mesilau. Insects and bugs are the main food of pitchers. There are two documented cases of mouse corpses found in pitcher plant. Other small animals such as frog, lizard and snail were found too. Sorry, no baby monkey was found, like the myth claimed.
Inside pitchers is a murky and acidic liquid, which contains digestive fluid, wetting agents (to make escape harder) and rainwater. The pH can reach 1.90, so it can burn you badly if you drink it. All pitcher plants in Sabah are protected species. You can get fined RM5,000 and 2-year jail, or both, for stealing, owning and trading pitcher plant. In serious cases, the penalty can go up to RM100,000. In Sabah, there are more than 20 species of pitcher plant and many are endemic species.
Even though the fluid in pitcher plant is very acidic, some insects are adapted to it, as shown in the photo of mosquito larvae above. Certain mosquito spends its juvenile stage in pitcher, breaking down the death insect so the pitcher plant can digest it more efficiently. Once the larva grows up, they will leave forever and never come back except laying eggs. By sharing food, the larvae can help to keep the pitcher clean inside.
Pitcher plants kill insects but they have their own flowers that attract different kinds of insects, so they don’t go extinct by killing their pollinators every time. The seed will be distributed by wind. Surprisingly, the guide says nepenthes edwardsiana species is rarer and more sought after than rajah. It is very hard to find it and he hopes it still grows well somewhere in the park. Now I know what is my next target.
Sabah Parks tries to transplant some pitcher plants into the garden behind Mesilau Nature Resort but with little success. A long drought period can massacre pitcher plants in large number. For example, the droughts in 1997 and 1998 killed most nepenthes lowii in Mt. Kinabalu. Now we are even dealing with global warming problem, lets wish the pitchers still have a bright future.
