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Rhino beetle

Jungle Trekking in Kinabalu Park, Part 2 of 2

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

1. Bug and Insect (Page 1, 2)

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

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

2. Flower and Plant (Page 3, 4)

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

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

3. Snakes, Mushroom and Fungus (Page 5)

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

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


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

4. Moth (Page 6)

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

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

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

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

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Photos taken in Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Jungle Trekking in Kinabalu Park, Part 1 of 2

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

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


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

1. Liwagu Trail (5.5 KM)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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4. Bundu Tuhan View Trail (343 M)

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

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


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Photos taken in Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Kawang Forest

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


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


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


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


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


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

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

Photos taken in Kawang Forest, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Jungle Trekking at Gaya Island

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Malaysians do not like jungle trekking, so I bet 99% of you didn’t try the jungle trail on Gaya Island. Gaya Island is the biggest island of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park and it got the biggest island forest too. The jungle trail of Gaya Island is 4 KM long and need at least 2 hours to finish. You may start at Gayana Island and complete the trail at Hornbill Beach, or vice versa. I started from Hornbill Beach and ended at Gayana Resort, so I didn’t need to wait for a boat to pick me up at the Hornbill Beach.


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FYI, there is no leech in the trail, their staff says only the area more inside the island got. They also say if you are lucky, you can see wild boar, snakes, monkeys… Well, I saw some bugs only. It was so dark in the forest, making photo-shooting very difficult. I used a head lamp but still not bright enough to light up the subjects, sigh… I think there are thousands of cicada on the island and they are so loud that we can hear them from the resort. Just click this link to hear them sing. Turn your speaker to maximum volume and that was what I heard in the jungle. No kidding…


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To go to Hornbill Beach, you need to take a boat from Gayana jetty and you can arrange it with their staff at the arrival hall. If you are the resort guest, it is free. I paid RM5 and the boat ride took less than 30 seconds. Please note that you need to pay Sabah Parks a conservation fee to enter (RM3 for Malaysian adult, RM10 for non-Malaysian). But there was nobody there that day, so I didn’t pay. Hahaha… The Hornbill Beach is also a nice place to swim, dive, camp and BBQ.


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In the jungle trail of Gaya Island, you won’t feel that you are walking on an island. The jungle looks like a typical dense tropical rainforest. Plenty of hundred-feet tall trees, ratan, mushroom, fungus, bugs, lizards. I think I also heard the voice of hornbills. I know coz I have seen a lot of them in Sepilok forest before. The trail is not a flat path all the way. Half of the time I needed to climb up and down, very tired… I tried to find something interesting for photography, then I realised that I walked less than 1 KM after an hour (since 1 PM). So I walked quite fast later, probably missed out something cool too. I will come back again next time and start earlier (and carry a big lamp)… By the time I got out of the jungle, it was already 4 PM, but quite worth the time and effort.

FYI, Gayana Resort was used to have a Mangrove Forest trail. Due to poor maintenance, the broadway is out of order for a long time, though they still advertise this trail in their leaflet. Too bad…

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