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Miki Survival Camp

Miki Survival Camp – Part 1 of 3

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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?


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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.


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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!


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TREKKING

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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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!).


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CAMPSITE

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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.

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Photos taken in Kiau, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Hammer Head Worm

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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.

Photos taken in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Mermaid Island – Mantanani

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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.


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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.

Related Post
Mantanani Besar Island

Photos taken off Kota Belud, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Shrimp that has pistol

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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

The Biggest pitcher plant in the world

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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.

Related posts
Lowland pitcher plants
Pitcher in Kinabalu Park

Photos taken in Mesilau, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

The Land below the Oil Palm

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If you drive along the road at Sandakan, Tawau and Lahad Datu, you will see an endless sea of oil palm, instead of scenic countryside covered with lush forest. Funny thing is – Tourism Malaysia setup some ad billboards, right in front of some oil palm plantation, portraying Sabah as the ecotourism destination. The disappointed tourists would ask, “is oil palm your primary forest?” The oil palm plantation is such an eyesore, whenever I know that it is strongly linked to the miserable haze that attacks our land every year. Indonesia has been a lousy neighbour and Kalimantan seems to have problem to stop farmers to clear the land by burning forest. A predict mentions Kalimantan will lose all its rainforest within 3 years. Great! They will have Nothing to burn soon.

Hundreds square miles of land in Sabah is now an ecology desert. Now this tree is invading area such as Pitas and next to new road from Keningau to Tawau. Trying to fool us that our forest conservation is doing great, government declares 12 new forest reserves earlier. Do you know that our forest reserves are surrounded by oil palm? So these forest reserves do not connect to one another and each reserve becomes an isolated island. Wildlife is locked in small patches of fragmented forest so they can’t move to other reserves for food and breeding. Orang-utan, pygmy elephants and rhino cannot migrate anywhere else.

Musa Aman said National Geographic praised Sabah has done a marvelous job in protecting the forest. Bull shit! I have read the article and National Geographic only said Sabah is not as corrupted as Sarawak and Kalimantan, so our conservation is only “slightly” better off than Sarawak. Just read the National Geographic article below:

Click Here to read the full article “Borneo’s Moment of Truth” by National Geographic and judge it yourselves.

Some extracts from the article..

But if you want to see the real Borneo, the Borneo of the first decade of the 21st century, it would be good to be the crested serpent-eagle perched in a tree across the river. Then you could soar high above the Kinabatangan [of Sabah] and see how quickly the unruly forest gives way to neatly planted rows of oil palm trees, stretching for mile after mile in all directions. The palm plantation is lush and green, and the arching fronds of the trees give it an exotic beauty, and for the incomparable biodiversity of Borneo it is inexorable death.

“Virgin rain forest is a dead concept now in Borneo,” says Glen Reynolds, chief scientist at the Danum Valley Field Center in Sabah. “All of the big areas of primary lowland forest that can be conserved already have been.

The natural world fares better in Sabah, the Malaysian state in northeastern Borneo. Though oil palm plantations have burgeoned here, more than half of Sabah remains forested. Much of the forest has been heavily logged, and more and more acres converted to commercial tree plantations, but Sabah sustains some of the best surviving examples of high-quality rain forest: the Danum Valley and Maliau Basin Conservation Areas…

…It retains some of the best rain forest on Borneo, but, since it occupies less than one percent of the island, it makes a negligible contribution to the overall conservation picture.

“… So you can log forests and still save that biodiversity. But the thing you can’t do is convert the whole thing to monoculture plantations,” such as oil palm. “Then of course you lose everything. It’s a biological desert.”

WWF geographer Raymond Alfred shows me around Sabah’s state-owned Ulu Segama Forest Reserve, where the forest has been thoroughly—and legally—logged, leaving woodland that seems downright puny compared with the skyscraping rain forest at nearby Danum Valley.

From the coal power plant, expensive Mt Kinabalu climbing fee and oil palm cases, by now we should aware that foreigner organisations do not love our land, so we should learn to love our land and protect it ourselves, instead of counting on government who loves those big companies and disregard the warning from citizens and NGOs such as WWF.

Undoubtedly, oil palm plays an important part in our economy. Oil palm itself is not a “sinful” crop. However, it is only the way oil palm companies plant it cause a lot of environmental problems. Hopefully, they will strictly follow the Roundtable Sustainable Oil Palm (RSOP) guidelines to strive for a balance between profit and environment. The western media like to point fingers at the negative impact of oil palm in our country. But they should realise that their countries want cheap palm oil instead of costlier palm oil produced under RSOP. So please stop to be hypocrite.

Everyone knows the recent storm “Morakot” flooded half of Taiwan, and landslide killed many people and some area was buried under 4 and 5 floors of soil and rocks! The Taiwan government acknowledges that the disaster was caused by over-development of hill area. Our government attitude is very different though. When over-logging caused flood in Tenom and weak hill structure made whole housing collapsed, they just attributed these as “Act of God”. And as usual, no government officer need to be held liability. When the slope is clear, the rain will wash the soil into the river causing a shallow and narrow river. One day, if the rain is pouring and the developed hill can’t hold the water as effective as hill forest, big flood will happen.

According to State Forest Enactment, any development and farming is prohibited on the slope steeper than 25 degrees I think? However, I saw many many steep slopes are clear for planting of oil palm. Isn’t it illegal? Hill development was asked to be stopped many times. But who are still approving such projects? One day when tragedy like Morakot happens (touch wood!), you will not surprise to hear government says that such man-made disaster is Act of God again. Good luck!

Clearing of forest for oil palm plantation is a win-win situation. Timber companies got their wood, oil palm companies can use this clear land to plant cash crop, and you all know, some politicians and government officers will win fat cash under table. The losing side is the rakyat (citizens), who will get flood and pollution. 90% of workers in plantation are cheap labour from foreigner countries, so this industry does not create many job opportunities for locals like government claims. FYI, the oil palm companies love our rainforest soil, coz it almost doubles the yield of oil palm.

After 308, anyone who still believe Barisan Nasional government is an idiot. Remember Musa Aman asked the plantations, which encroached the river side of Kinabatangan, removed their trees or “faced the music”? He said it twice on the newspapers in 2004 and 2007. But anything happened? No. He was really singing only. The encroaching oil palm are still there. Furthermore, the oil palm mills still dump tons of toxic chemicals into the Kinabatangan River. Many fishes die and the water is getting dirtier to drink, affecting thousands of locals who rely on the river.

Zoom in the photo above and you will see one of the ocean of oil palm, scary… Sabah is becoming the Land below Oil Palm. This is a common scene in Lahad Datu.

Above is a forest reserve being surrounded by oil palm. Isn’t this so-called forest reserve look more like an island?

Before the land was clear for oil palm plantation, there are beautiful forest with tall trees like photo above. These trees survive because these trees are in forest reserve, but is nothing if compared to the size of oil palm land next to it.

Looking at the photo above, may be you wonder why this tall tree in the oil palm land was not cut down. Usually the oil palm planters will purposely keep a few tall trees in the farm, but not for conservation. This tree is for bird predators such as eagle and owl to rest on, so they can help the planters to control the pest such as rats. What an exploit.. However, this tree does remind us that this land was once covered by many big trees like this. Malaysia Palm Oil Council (MPOC) claimed that no new forest areas had been allocated for planting oil palm since 1990. The photos here prove that they are liar.

Photos taken in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Madai Cave

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Chinese loves bird nest. Actually the nest is made of saliva from swiftlets. I have plenty of saliva in thick and thin forms for sale, if you are fond of eating saliva. Chinese says the bird nest contains minerals, rare protein and nutrients that keep you young and make your skin shines. There are two kinds of bird nests, i.e., (1) black bird nest, which contains 30% to 70% of feather, and (2) white bird nest, which has less feather and more expensive.

Madai Cave (Gua Madai), which is known as “Swiftlet Mountain” by locals, is one of the important producers of high-quality black bird nest in Sabah. You can see the limestone outcrop, where Madai Cave located, next to the road of Kunak, a small town between Tawau and Lahad Datu. It is the second biggest cave in Sabah.


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Idahan people are the traditional owner of Madai Cave. For profit sharing, the cave is divided logically into different sections, which have different owner and can be passed on to their next generation. To visit the cave, you need to get a visitor pass at the security gate before you enter the village in the foothill. A guide will accompany you for a guided tour inside the cave, which is only a 10-minute away from the village.


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Don’t worry if you see the hangman noose on the way. This is the sign to warn those bad people who want to steal their property. If you read the news, you would know that there were many armed foreigners tried to rob their bird nest. Tourists are very welcome here. Bird nest can fetch hundreds of dollars per Kg, so each swiftlet is a goose that lays gold egg (bird nest). The interesting thing about the baby swiftlet is – it always position its butt outside the nest to poo (then the nest can remain clean), so… visitors should not talk when they look to top, unless you want something drop into your mouth.


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Though the cave is huge, the air in the cave is warm and humid, and full with amonia smell coming from the bats and birds guano that accummulated over hundreds of years. You could walk on the boardwalk so you don’t need to step on soft and soggy guano of 1 foot deep. It is total darkness deeper inside. Point your torchlight to the darkest spot and you will find many cave centipedes on the wall. As they dislike light, they will escape from your light. This dark-side dweller looks very nasty, like the creature in horror movie, luckily this long-leg species is not venomous. But just watch out where you lean in the dark ok.


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Girls who are very afraid of cockroach could find their nightmare here, coz there are probably millions of them living in this cave. It is not too bad if you follow the boardwalk and you can’t really see them in the dark. But when I moved off-trail to take photos, WOW, there are hundreds of them in every square Meter (note the number of red dots in the photo above). They can hide themselves quickly into guano. These cockroaches eat the guano and corposes of dead birds, and become an essential part of the cave ecology.


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Besides the cave, I was also shown the “Stage,” a flat rock surface that temporarily placed the dead before they are transferred to other cave in the old day. The artefacts (e.g. coffin) of their ancestors were moved to the museum. The cave is very noisy with chirping of hundreds of swiftlets, which have the ability to use voice to “see” and navigate in the dark. The edible bird nest swiftlets use the same echo-location mechanism like bats, the only difference the pitch is in lower frequency and audible. The Idahan people setup a few security huts inside and outside a few cave opening, to prevent some outsiders come in to steal the precious bird nest.


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Knowing that I was photographing, the guides were trying to show me where were the good spots. But the cave is so dark that my camera couldn’t focus on anything, until they helped to light up the area with their torchlight (Thank you!). During non-harvest season, the locals also earn some side-income from tourists (need to arrange in advance). They were very keen to show me around. Since I only dropped by shortly this time, I will come back again.


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April, August and December are the harvesting months, you could see them harvest the bird nest, the bird nest is harvested on a sustainable manner, that means the broods have a chance to grow up and fly away before their nests are taken. The photo on left above is the photo of bird nests, the right is the traditional harvesting tool. The swiftlets are not stupid. They always build their nests on highest spot, safe from predators.

To harvest the nest, the workers need to climb up the ladders, which are made of rotan (rattan wood), with a basket to store the nest. It is a very dangerous job and carpet of guano can’t save a person falling from hundred-feet high. They also need to detach the nest carefully and don’t break it, as a flawless whole nest can get the best price in market.

Photos taken in Kunak, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Kipandi Butterfly Park

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No people say they don’t find butterfly fascinating. Kipandi Butterfly Park is the best place to see these beautiful insects in different colors and it is fairly accessible. Just take the road from Penampang to Tambunan. After an hour of driving, you will pass by a road with 120 degree turn going uphill. Be careful coz it is a black-zone for car accident. People believe there are spirits wandering on the hill next to it, the Widow Hill. Within a minute, you will see the park at your right.

The ticket fee for Malaysian adult is RM10, foreigner tourist is RM20 (about USD$6). Childern get half price.

Butterfly is most active in the morning, so that’s the best time to visit the park. Less butterfly will come out in rainy day and hot afternoon. I went there in noon. There were some butterflies still busy looking for nectar. If you come in big group, you can book a night tour to hunt for bugs at night.

Kipandi is more than a butterfly farm. They also keep a few insects as “pet”. I almost could not see praying mantis on the branch coz its body looked like dry leaf. The rhino horn beetles don’t fly in daytime, so the workers can leave them on the grass for me to photograph freely. Hmm… the rhino horn got horny too. They feed the beetles with sugar cane. At first I thought its horn is for display only, but they told me the horn really can deliver a painful pinch.

There is a small shop where you can buy souvenir, light food and drink. No lunch is offered so you better have your meal before you come. For beetle lovers, you can buy the insect keychain (RM15) and other bug specimens.

Before you enter the butterfly garden, you must check out the exhibition room of hundreds of bug specimens. I didn’t know that bugs in Sabah can grow so big. Besides impressive collection of various local and overseas butterfly species, beetles, tarantula, spiders, millipedes, scorpions, cicadas, centipedes, etc. specimens are also found here.

The guide, Jay, seems to able to answer any questions that I throw at him. He mentioned a lot of species names end with dae. Damn those latin names, I can’t remember any of them. I only know he spends a lot of effort to memorize these. According to him, a few beetles are poisonous. When provoked, they release acidic liquid that is extremely irritating to skin.

Even though I myself has seen so many bugs before, I could not stop saying WOW WOW WOW to all the display. This park is really something.

Later I entered the butterfly garden. As nectar is the food of butterfly, many flowers are planted. I was busy chasing the butterflies, trying to take their photos. It is a tough job though, as they always keep a distance away from me.

Jay says the caterpillars of butterfly do not have poisonous hair like the moth caterpillars. I can place it in my hand, and it feels like a soft plastic. When the eggs of butterfly become pupa, the workers will move them into a incubation room, to ensure a better chance of survival for butterfly to hatch.

How to distinguish a butterfly and a moth? A friend told me that when butterfly perches, its wings are closed, whereas moth’s will remain open.

There is another garden that has pitcher plant but I didn’t visit. Anyway, I will come back again.

Photos taken in Tambunan, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo