Tag Archives: Ranau / Kundasang

Miki Survival Camp

Miki Survival Camp – Part 1 of 3

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

The Biggest pitcher plant in the world

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

Rafflesia – the Biggest flower in Sabah

After the hunt for rafflesia pricei in Tambunan, this time I targeted at the biggest rafflesia in Sabah, rafflesia keithii, which grows in elevation of about 400 Metres. The rafflesia garden of Kg. Kokob (Kokob Village), which is only 9KM away from Ranau town, is my most recommended site, coz it is more accessible and save me the trouble of hour of jungle trekking. To get there, just take a mini-bus in bus terminal of Ranau town, and the ticket is about RM2 to 3 one way. Every driver knows where is Kokob.

Usually they will put up a banner at the roadside if there is any blooming. The blooming time of rafflesia is unpredictable and the flower can last less than a week. In fact, it starts to show sign of withering in 4th day. You should ask the bus driver to drop you right in front of the garden. I was dropped in the village function, so I had to walk 500 M uphill, where the fierce village dogs roamed. They didn’t seem to welcome tourist, so it was quite scary. At the end you will see a “Y” function, just take the one at the right and you will reach the garden shortly.

Surprisingly, the sign pointing to a house. The moment I stepped in, Pauline, the daughter of the owner (Mr. Kundong Ransiki), came out of the house for me, as if she always kept an eye at the door. Before that, I was told that the villager cut the rafflesia and plant it there. As a matter of fact, the rafflesia garden behind the house is a natural habitat certified by Sabah Parks in 2006. She brought me to the garden behind the house and introduced a bit about rafflesia. Entrance fee is RM10 for Malaysians, RM20 for foreigner (someone said you can try to negotiate for RM15). At the entrance, you can see some Tetrastigma vines, the host of rafflesia.

Rafflesia flower blooms here, in average, once every 1 or 2 months. Before you go, you can call +60 17-8380878 or 088-875114 to confirm if there is any blooming. On the guest book, I could see many names of foreigner tourist$. Wow, I hope rafflesia can grow in my backyard too, so I can “goyang kaki” (doing nothing) and collect money. Actually they also take care of the rafflesia, like watering them in dry season. I saw an umbrella in the garden. She said she used it to cover the flower when raining. Even so, sometimes the flower can’t make it.

Their garden is very small and grown with many bamboo. You can smell something like dead rat and hear flies flying around. That’s the bad smell of rafflesia to attract flies to transport its pollens for pollination. That’s why it has a nickname “corpse flower.”

Just look around, you would find some reddish-brown cabbage-like buds on the ground. Those are what will turn into rafflesia flower, after 9 to 15 months, even longer than bearing a human baby! However, the wildlife such as rodents would eat this juicy bud and kill it. Moreover, the logging also pushes rafflesia to extinction. As rafflesia is protected species in Sabah, you could be jailed for cutting it.

Boardwalk is built to prevent the flowers from eating the tourists. Just kidding, the boardwalk prevents the over-excited tourists will come to the flower and crush the fragile buds under the soil. You know lah, Malaysians got very itchy hands and they love to touch thing even if they don’t plan to buy it. The petal is also sensitive to touch that causes it turns black.

Here you go, the photos of blooming rafflesia keithii, which is about 80cm in diameter and biggest flower in Sabah. Rafflesia keithii was named after Henry George Keith. When he discovered this magnificent and stink flower, he gave it to his wife, Agnes Keith. The flower was so smelly that she couldn’t bear it. So she moved out of the house and spent a few months living in upwind. Later she wrote a book that called “the land below the wind.” Yeah, not a funny joke.

Rafflesia keithii also can be found in Poring, Crocker Range and Tenom Agriculture Park. But Kokob is the most accessible place. When I enjoyed watching the flower, some Japanese tourists and locals started to flow in. Some came with big travel bus.

Beauty doesn’t last forever, so is rafflesia. After a few days, it will wither and dry up totally. Anyway, no worry, I saw 2 to 3 buds that would bloom in next 1 or 2 month.

Damn… the chee-bye raining days are coming again. don’t know if I can go outing again. 🙁

Related post:
Rafflesia Pricei
Twin blooming of rafflesia

Photos taken in Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Mt. Kinabalu Climbathon

Mt. Kinabalu Climbathon is the craziest sport in Sabah. In fact, it is known as one of the toughest mountain race in the world. I was one of the volunteer photographers for the Mt. Kinabalu Climbathon 2008. Though taken by me, most of the photos below are now the property of Sabah Tourism Board. I asked their permission to post them in my blog.

Taking photos in cold and humid places on Mount Kinabalu is challenging. Many photographers have warned me that condition would be very bad to my camera. They were right. My camera hanged twice and the auto-focus didn’t work quite well sometimes. We got sunny day in the morning, but it rained in the afternoon and evening. The temperature was below 10 degree most of the time.

The photo above was taken at 7th KM of the summit trail at 6am. The athletes would arrive here after 8am, so there was plenty of time. The density and formation of cloud was so fascinating. I paid a few dollars to the porter, so he would stand there for some shots. You probably can’t get this view anywhere else in Malaysia.

The peaks near the summit are quite feature-less and there were too many climbathon photos were taken there before. Therefore, I decided to explore for good photo shooting points near the Donkey Ear Peak and Tunku Abdul Rahman Peak, somewhere between 6.5 KM and 7.5 KM of the running trail.

Slowly one by one, the athletes showed up. They were so tired that they were half-crawl half-walk, pressing their thigh, trying to push every bit of energy out of their feet.

There was rain at night so the rock surface was slippery. These people are really monsters. It is hard to believe they can complete the 16KM, up and down the mountain, in less than 3 hours. On high altitude like this, the oxygen is 15% less. above is the Women’s Open category champion, Corinne Favre from France, running down the mountain.

Personally I like the photo below. The background is Tunku Abdul Rahman Peak, named after the Father of Malaysia. I was lucky to get this coz the peak was covered by mist a few minutes later. I make some post processing photo enhancements to give it more punch. Take little time coz it was shot in RAW format.

Last photo… at the end is the South Peak, not the summit (at a height of 4,095M, highest in Malaysia). This athlete still had 1.5 KM to go. Due to lack of experience, I didn’t get a lot of good photos. Anyway, it was fun. at least I lost a few KG.

Photos taken on Mt Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Fish Massage

You may have read a lot about the fish SPA thingy on the magazines and newspapers. Seems like it has become a trendy and fashion health care stuff. The Moroli River of Kg Luanti (Luanti Village) in Ranau has its own version of fish SPA. Before I tried it, I thought I would experience something like below. Hmm… I wish I were the fishes..

Compared to our version, the fish SPA above is like children playing sand. The Moroli River is near to the Sabah Tea Garden after Poring. You need to pay only a few dollars of entrance fee. There are thousands of fishes living in this small river. This “no fishing” zone is part of the sustainable fishing programme to prevent overfishing.

Jeffrin is the manager of the fishes. He doesn’t hire Reddish Log Suckers, the tiny “Doctor Fish” commonly used in fish SPA, as the massangers. Pelian Fishes (Malaysian Masheer) are trained to massage bathers.

The fishes here live peacefully and not afriad of people. Just soak your feet in the water and all of them will come to suck your feet as if they haven’t eaten for days. Seeing the fat fishes so busy “eating”, making me hungry. Just wonder what a fish that fed on dead skin tastes like.

The fishes are about 5 to 8 inches long. Though big, their mouths are teethless and soft. It doesn’t hurt when they nibble off your dead skin. They are so tame that you can catch them easily by hand (or feet).

You also can have “river trekking”. The river is shallow so it is safe to walk in it. If you go with bare foot, the stones under the water will give you a free foot reflexology, quite hurt for weak body like mine.

The water is clean and cooling. Such a pleasure to soak in it during hot day. We are lucky to have clean water to drink. Now the world is fighting with river pollution that got serious each day. Many beautiful and clean rivers in the past have turned into stinky toxic rivers. Many have no choice but continue drinking it. Clean water will become rare in future.

The best part is to enjoy the hardcore SPA, having hundreds of fishes sucking every inch of your skin. The guy below looks like in pain, actually he is enjoying it.

Then he asked for more…
For maximum enjoyment, you may take off your pant. I hope the fishes got deep throat then, haha…

You can hold the fish food in your hand. The fishes will come to play with you when they smell it.

They also provide rooms for you to stay overnight. During school holiday, there are students come here to camp.

Photos taken in Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Plant of Kinabalu Park

Below are some random photos that I took on the trail to Mt. Kinabalu summit. Due to higher altitude, its plant and vegetation are so unique that you may not find them in other parts of Malaysia.

The weather has been very poor this year. Seem like we get too much rain this year, and the sky likes to pee on Saturday and Sunday, the only time I can do outdoor shooting.

The plant below is kind of odd. It is the simplest plant that I’ve even seen. Just a leaf and a stem. Note the leaf has no vein.

Another 1-leaf plant that looks like a falling leaf stands in the grass.

Apa ini ah?

Beautiful trees in mist..

Just a short note. Recently I was given an opportunity to write for a local media. A good exposure. However, my original nickname “Smoke Head”, sounds a bit… hmmm… not so polite, so I change it to “Tadpole”, the name which my friends used to call me. I am not doing very well financially in this and coming year, but I will keep blogging, keep traveling and keep buying better photography gears. No, you don’t need to send any money to my bank account no.168-888888-168. Please don’t give me Canon EOS 50D DSLR camera and Sony Handycam too.

Photos taken in Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Pitcher Plant in Kinabalu Park

Just to continue my Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes) hunting from my last blog. This time I bring you to Kinabalu Park, the 1st World Heritage Site of Malaysia. Normally climbers don’t pay much attention to the unique vegetation beside the trail, when they are busy on the way to conquer Mt. Kinabalu, the highest peak in Malaysia.

Personally I think it is not big deal to reach the summit, as EVERYONE can do it, even school students and 60-year-old men. Mt Kinabalu is not even the highest peak in Asia, but its unique vegetation and biodiversity is one of the most impressive in the world. What I am trying to say is – the peak is the target, but the real reward and highlight are the things that we see along the path.

Probably I am not a first-timer, now I spend more time observing plant grown next to the trail, though I don’t know most of them. If you like Pitcher Plant, you can check out your surrounding, starting from Mempening Hut (4th hut on summit trail) to Paka Cave Shelter, about 3KM – 5.5KM of the trail. You can Click Here to see the trail map. There is a high concentration of pitcher plant along it. Below is a photo of Nepenthes tentaculata grown on ground.

The pitcher plant I found at lower altitude are quite small and “feature-less.” They have no distinguish form, which allows me to tell what species they are (though I try to find out in the book). The species that I want to see the most are Nepenthes lowii, rajah and xtrusmadiensis, coz they are only found in Sabah.

But the one below you would never get it wrong, it is Nepenthes villosa, due to its unique shape and bright colors (red, yellow or green). The ribs on the edge of its mouth look like sharp teeth, so some tourists thought its lid can close+open rapidly and chew the prey, like the man-eater flower they saw in TV. FYI, in official record, the huge pitcher plant can trap prey as big as rat. How about monkey? You must be kidding..

Nepenthes villosa is big and grows in abundance along the summit trail in higher altitude, so you hardly miss it if you keep an eye for your side (sadly, most mountain guides are lazy to point it out for you). Someone told me that the monkey holds the pitcher plant like a cup and drink the water inside. I don’t know how true it is, as the digestive fluid of pitcher plant can be highly acidic (up to pH 1.90), though you would find mosquito larvae lives happily inside. FYI, scientist discovered new species of mosquito in it.

You can see more photos of pitcher plant in Sabah Agriculture Park of Tenom town. They have a good collection of local species in their pitcher plant garden.

Photos taken in Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Wild Kundasang

I was in Kundasang last week. Kundasang is so near to Kinabalu Park, so I was walking around at night to see if I could find any interesting animal. Probably it was windy, coz I didn’t find any bug around. But I found a lot of frogs in the pond.

Quite disappointed, there were dozens of frogs but all of them belong to one species, which is commonly found in Sabah. If I am not mistaken, Sabah Chinese calls them “Money Frog”. I am not talking about the Money Toad, which holds a coin in its mouth, like the one you find in the shop entance. In the dark, the frogs are less sensitive to my move, so I can come very close to them for a photo session.

The 58mm close-up len for my old Sony Cybershot DSC-H1 can fit nicely to my Canon EOS 400D. This allows me to magnify the subject by 50% more. However, without a “live view” (most SLRs do not have a LCD preview screen like all compact camera does) I found it extremely troublesome to take the photo with view finder. I have to tried 4 or more times to get the picture composition right.

Later I saw a toad on the mud trail. It was just laying there motionless, thinking that nobody and prey could see it. If there are frogs, there should be snake around (predator of frogs). After nearly 3 hours of waiting and searching, still no luck… Under dim light, I discovered something like a big worm crawling on the water weed. It was a “baby” of the dragonfly. With 3-inch of length, I think it can take down a small frog.

In the next morning, a friend showed me a small snake in a garden. It is only as small as a chopstick, but with bright color on its head and tail, seem like a sign of poisonous snake.

You can click the photo above to get a close-up look. I used a stick to move it to the grass, for a more “nature-like” photo. It escaped quite quickly so I only got one shot. If I was not in a rush, I would have spent a few hours playing with it.

Photos taken in Kundasang, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo