Tag Archives: park

Revisit Lok Kawi Zoo

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My last visit to Lok Kawi Wildlife Park (Taman Hidupan Liar) was in Mar last year. That time there was no reptile house, sun bear, zebra, animal shows, etc. The place is getting more interesting now. Still, I haven’t seen everything coz of the rain at 3pm. Next time I will come back to check out their elephant ride at Children’s Zoo, and also the Botanical Garden.

We can see crocodiles, lizards, tortoises and snakes in the Reptile House. A few snake got weird names such as Banana Snake (Ular Pisang) and Dog-Toothed Cat Snake. The main attraction is the big long King Cobra. The funniest thing is the crocodile pond looks more like a wishing well. Probably every Malaysian think crocodiles only eat money, like our “Buaya” politicians.

Ah… finally I got a few upclose decent shots of Proboscis Monkeys. Unlike other monkeys, it is very hard to get good picture of Proboscis Monkey, as they are relatively more timid. I have seen them in my trip to Klias and Kinabatangan River, but they flee before I could have a closer look of them.

Last time they didn’t have any male Proboscis Monkey. Not only they got one now, they also two new baby Proboscis Monkeys born in the park.

However, to make the photos look like taken in the wild, I have to avoid the background with cage, fence, and man-make structures. To achieve this, I have to change the shooting angle, composition and depth of field setting. It can be difficult coz the hot weather would make the animals hide under the shaded area. I also need a lot of patient to wait for them to move to the good spot for photography.

Overall, I am quite happy with what I got. Last year a photography society organised a photography contest in this zoo. At that time, I was not confident so I didn’t join. Hopefully they will organise again this year.

This park will be my new favourite place for photo shooting. I also saw some interesting scenes along the way. I just shared them here. For example, the Orangutan below tried to chase away the baby otters during feeding time.


From their leaflet, they say they will build 1.4km forest walk, canopy walk, mountain biking track and the observation pavilion. I can’t wait to try them already. Please let me know if you find that they are completed.

Related Photo Gallery
Lok Kawi Wildlife Park

Photos taken in Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

orangutan open coconut

Animal Shows at Lok Kawi Wildlife Park

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Now you are not only looking at the animals at Lok Kawi zoo, they also do show to entertain you. There are two shows at 11:15am and 3:30pm daily in their Ampiteater. You will have chance to get close and interact with orangutan, hornbill, parrot, snake and eagle. I was there to watch the show on Mar 1. Marsha, the orangutan, started the show by peeing and shitting from the sky, haha…

Then an audience was invited to challenge Marsha on opening coconut. Orangutan’s arm is 3 times stronger than human, so peeling coconut by hands is piece of cake to them, while the audience was using chopping knife to cut.

Marsha kept watching at her challenger, so she started slow. Though she tried to catch up later, she still lost. Anyway, we learn the teeth and arm power of orangutan, and know why wild orangutan is not a suitable pet. Just imagine coconut is your head.

Hornbills also came in to impress us. The trainers made them to fly from one side to another. Nothing cool about seeing bird flying. The fun part was to see some audiences got freak out, as hornbills are big bird with huge beak and fierce-looking. They were only trained for a few months, so they would have more to offer in the future.

Paco and Carlo, the cute and colourful parrots also performed a few tricks, to show off their eye sight and slam dunk skill. You hide a ball under one of the bowls, shuffle them a few times, and the parrot could locate the bowl that has the ball. To prove that the trainer didn’t hint the birds, the audience could try it. If I were her, I would hide the ball in my hand and see how they respond, heheh..


The luckiest performer is the Sawa Batik snake, coz it doesn’t need to do anything. During the show, the staff also teaches us something about the animals, making the learning experience fun. This show alone is already worth more than the RM10 ticket.

Related Photo Gallery
Lok Kawi Wildlife Park

Photos taken in Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Tractor Millipede

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Tun Fuad Stephens Park never stops to amaze me. After finding Tarantula spider, giant forest ants, and ant-mimic bugs there, I decided to have a “night safari” in the park last week.

Probably it was near to year end. The day turned totally dark very soon, and all the joggers have left. I was waiting for another 30 minutes on the hill top alone, so the place was cooling enough for the nocturnal animals to come out. Slowly I walked along the trail with the aid of torch light. Then I noticed something long crawling on the ground.

Carefully I moved closer to check it out coz I was not sure if it was a snake. It was a big tractor millipede more than 6-inches (15 cm) long. I know some millipedes can be quite big but I never expect to meet it in city region. It is very different from the small and red millipedes that are commonly seen in our garden. Its body is brown in color, and its legs and tentacle are yellow color. I know the ladies won’t agree with me, but I think it is cute.

Tractor Millipede got many common names. Chinese calls them “Ma Luk” (Hakka), train bug, hundred-leg, incense oil bug… Tractor Millipede usually has 70 to 300 legs, but that doesn’t help them to run fast. To protect themselves from the attack, they will roll their bodies then secrete something really stink.

Their smell is really really terrible. I remember the first time I sniff this bug, the stink was so strong that I jumped up and down and nearly puked. From there on, I didn’t eat dried shrimp for many years coz it looks like a disgusting millipede. Til now, I don’t dare to touch millipede.

To give you an idea how big this millipede is, I post two photos of two different millipedes, side by side below.

If you think it is really big, then you haven’t seen the 1-feet millipede in Kinabalu Park. I will post the photo of that giant millipede if I see one in the future.

Photos taken in Tun Fuad Stephens Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Tun Fuad Stephens Park (Bukit Padang), Kota Kinabalu

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Tun Fuad Stephens Park (Bukit Padang) is closed for two years (10 Dec 2022 to 18 Sep 2024) for an upgrade to Tun Fuad Stephens Botanical Garden.

Facts Sheet of Tun Fuad Stephens Botanical Garden project by Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK)

Summary of the Upgrade Project:

  • The lake will be maintained and added with other facilities such as floating platforms, tracks around the lake, lighting
  • New gardens such as Ginger Garden, Orchid and Nepenthes Conservatory, Nadir Park, Herb Garden, Bamboo Corner and Botany Playpark.
  • Forest restoration by planting local trees
  • Upgrading and increasing the amount of parking, build an e-hailing vehicle stop
  • Upgrade of the main gate (main entry board, guard house, plaza and kiosk)
  • Other New Facilities / Upgrades: overwater platform, administrative, research and maintenance offices, nursery building, public toilet, existing jogging track, lights, stairs, park chairs, CCTV

Tun Fuad is the most popular jogging site in Kota Kinabalu city. During weekend and Sunday, there are so many joggers that very likely you would see your friend or familiar faces. Personally, I think Tun Fuad is far more better than Likas Sport Complex. If compared, the jogging trail of Likas Sport Complex is about 0.6 KM (correct me if I am wrong) and the path is flat. The jogging path at Tun Fuad is nearly 1 KM, with many up and down trails. And Tun Fuad has more nice-figured liang moi (pretty girls), heheh… Ok, seriously, below are the features that make me like it.


Click Here to see more photos of Tun Fuad Stephens Park >>

Feature 1. Superb KK City View

Besides the jogging trail, there are some hiking trails that lead you to the top of the hill. Normally, it took me about half an hour to walk up there. The last part is the “tyre” trail (should be renamed as “tired trail”) that I fear the most, extremely tiring… But soon you will forget all the pain, when you are washed by the windy fresh air and see the view of KK city under you. You can see most of the KK landmark building from here.


Click Here to see more photos of Tun Fuad Stephens Park >>

Feature 2. Jogging + Hiking

BTW, if you would like to experience how it feels to climb Mount Kinabalu, just walk up and down the hill non-stop for 6 hours. This place was once my training ground before the summit trip. Jogging is a monotonous and boring exercise to me, so a 2-in-1 activity (jogging + hiking) works well for me. Tun Fuad Park is surrounded by forest, so the air is fresher and you can spot small wild animals and insects on the way. At the end, I think jogging + hiking is not enough, so I bring my camera along for photo-shooting.

Tun Fuad Park gets more fern plant and spiders than any other places in KK. There are so many types of spiders, so I am not surprised if you find a new species there. Most of them are very small. Next time I will try to get a macro len for photographing smaller insects. See the “jade” spider below? It is like a jewellery. You can give it to your grandma as a birthday present, if you have no money to buy precious stone. Here you also can find one of the biggest ant in the world (see picture below). In the evening, these forest ants are everywhere on the forest floor of Tun Fuad park. Be careful while exploring area outside the trail, wasps are common, and they love to build nest under the leaf. Sometimes you can see snake but it is not common.


Click Here to see more photos of Tun Fuad Stephens Park >>

Feature 3. Magnificent Sunset View

Tanjung Aru Beach is NOT the best spot to view sunset. To truly appreciate the beauty of sunset, the hill top of Tun Fuad Park won’t disappoint you, but you need some luck. I shoot the “Sea of Cloud” photo below in a cloudy day. Haha… in case you wonder how the photo was taken, just turn the picture below upside down, or look at the original photo here. Both look equally good. You can see more Tun Fuad sunset photos here.


Click Here to see more photos of Tun Fuad Stephens Park >>

The road will be very dark after the sunset. Do bring a torch light with you, if you plan to stay longer on the hill.

Photos taken in Tun Fuad Stephens Park of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Tuaran Crocodile Farm

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


Click Here to see 70+ photos of Tuaran Crocodile Farm >>

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


Click Here to see 70+ photos of Tuaran Crocodile Farm >>

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


Click Here to see 70+ photos of Tuaran Crocodile Farm >>

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

Dance With Crocodile:
You also can see the crocodiles perform. You must look at the video clip that I created. I added a few effects to make it looks funny. Watch lah…
Click Here to see crocodile dance >>

Tawau Hills Park, Tawau

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If you are not a Tawau’s local, it is a bit hard to find Tawau Hills Park (Taman Bukit Tawau), and there is no bus going there. Tawau Hills Park is a recreational and national park about 20 KM away from Tawau town. During weekend and Sunday, many families and youngsters would go there to swim and BBQ. The locals normally call this place “Abacca”, “Table”, “National Park”, “Taman Negara”, “No. 4 Gudang”, “四號麻房” (Chinese)… If you say “Tawau Hills Park”, they will look at you with a “Huh? What?” expression, like you ask for direction to another planet.

To get there from Tawau town, go to the road that leads to “Jalan Muhibbah” and “Jalan Air Panas” roads. You will come to a few roundabout until you reach the one like the picture below. Take the left turn, you will see a yellow sign “Old Folks Home” after 10 meters, go straight for a few KM, near the end you will reach a T junction that got a “Muhibbah Jaya” sign at your right, turn right, go straight for quite a long way, you will passby Taman Semarak, Sungai Tawau bridge, big Golden Hope signboard… then pay attention to your right side, you will see the “Taman Bukit Tawau” sign, follow the sign to drive for another 8 KM, you will arrive Tawau Hills Park.


Click Here to see 24 photos of Tawau Hills Park >>

There is not much information about this park on the Internet. I thought it was just a small park. It is a very very big national park, with the size of 28,000 hectares. You need to pay RM3.00 entrance fee to enter the park. Most people go there to swim and picnic. There is a restaurant inside the park too. If you look at the map below (from the leaflet printed by Sabah Parks), you can see that there are lot of places you can go.


Click Here to see 24 photos of Tawau Hills Park >>

The popular extra choices are jungle trekking 2.7 KM to Gelas Hill Waterfall, or 3.2 KM to Sulphur Hot Spring. If you are lucky, on the way you can spot wildlife such as clouded leopard, hornbills, pheasants, giant tree squirrel. You may want to wear leech socks. For those who are adventurous, they can take the 10++ KM jungle route to climb a mountain. I am not sure if you need to get a climb permit and hire a local guide in advance, you may call the park at +60-89-918827 for info. You can stay in their jungle lodge (RM40 per night) or chalet (RM200 per night), or even sleep in the tents in camping ground for RM5.00 per night.


Click Here to see 24 photos of Tawau Hills Park >>

I was not so lucky that day. The weather was bad. I wanted to go to the Gelas Hill Waterfall and Sulphur Hot Spring. Their staff said these trails were next to the river. If the river flooded, I would trap in the forest. I really wanted to go, so I checked with a life guard at the riverside. He said it was quite safe to go. When I planned to move, it started to rain heavily. Well, my mission failed so not many photos were taken. The only place I can go is the small Tawau Hills Waterfall in the park. Due to the heavy rain, the waterfall was very big and strong. Quite a view. I have taken a video clip and share it here. Too bad, hopefully I can come back again one day.


Click Here to see 24 photos of Tawau Hills Park >>

I got a leaflet which has useful information of Tawau Hills Park (accommodation, contact, etc.). You can Click Here to download it.

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Photos taken in Tawau, Sabah Malaysia

Likas Sport Complex

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Today 2 PM I was on the way to KK City Bird Sanctuary. When I passby Likas Sport Complex, I decided to change my destination to there. I took some pictures until 4 PM. Due to the cloudy sky, the sunlight was soft but sufficient for some ideal close-up shoots for small objects such as insects, and nobody around to distract me.

Last week I just resumed jogging that I have stopped for nearly a year. Likas Sport Complex has been one of the popular jogging sites in Kota Kinabalu, due to its beautiful and nature surrounding. However, usually people just come and go quickly. I think I could explore it a bit to find some “surprises”.

Most of the pictures were taken near the pool side, usually the most active spot of the bugs. During the photo shooting, always got something crawled under my trouser, some got many legs, some are very cold. I didn’t check so I don’t know what they are, haha…

Click Here to see the photos >>

On Top of Tun Fuad Hill

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Today is New Year Eve. You might think that Smoke Head would go celebrate in a big party today. You are wrong. This year is the 1st anniversary of the Tsunami disaster 2004, so seem like everyone wants to keep the Xmas and New Year celebration low key. All hotels come up EXPENSIVE New Year Eve dinner package. Frankly speaking, I think food would not taste better coz of New Year Eve, so no point I pay extra for it.

This morning I went to Tun Fuad Park and walked up to the top of the hill. Why I was going there? This morning I saw a lot of dense cloud floated across lowly on top of KK, so I wanted to see if I could get a nice shot from the top of the hill.

On the way up to the hill, Tun Fuad Park also got some small animals and bugs that can be interesting photography subjects. I remember I saw 1 inch big ants there 2 years ago. I returned to Tun Fuad Park a few times and could not find them again. It is quite hard to take macro shot, as the bugs would run like hell when they see me. Some even bite me.