Tag Archives: Tenom

Wild fruit & plant

Weird flowers & fruits in Sabah Agriculture Park

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Sabah Agriculture Park (Taman Pertanian Sabah), which is located 15 Kilometers away from Tenom town, is one of the best agriculture parks in Asia. The park has about 20 gardens with different themes, the area is so big that you need to spend a few days to see everything. I had a day trip there last week and I find the following exotic plants are interesting:



Above: “Mickey Mouse” Flower. Do you see the eyes and ears?


Above: heart shape flower. Valentine’s Day is around the corner.


Above: Circular floating leaves of the giant Amazonian water lily (Victoria amazonica). It can grow more than 1 Meter in diameter and no problem having a 30-40 Kg child sit on it. Some visitors throw coin on these big leaves. Please don’t do it, coz it will cause “sunburn” to the leaf when the metal coin turns hot by sunlight.


Above: Dutchman’s Pipe from South America


Above: Dutchman’s Pipe stinks so bad when it fully grows and flies love it.


Pucuk Manis (species name: Sauropus androgynus) is a very famous vegetable of Sabah. Local Chinese calls it “树仔菜” (means tree vegetables literally). We always recommend tourists to try it.


Above: this flower looks like shrimp’s mouth.


Above: Mahkota Dewa from Indonesia, a magical fruit that can cure cancer of early stage.


Above: “cotton tree”?



Above: the seed with “cotton” inside.


You should hire a guide with you if you want to sample fruits in the park. Not everything is edible. Like the fruit tree above. This tree is used for decoration and the fruits are not edible, and it’s quite a pain to clean the dropping fruits.


Burahol / kepel fruit. Eat it and your urine will smell good.


The fruit of burahol / kepel needs to be cooked to yellow color before consumption.


Above: beautiful Hoya flower



We sample some ripen fruits. I can’t recall their names. They all taste sweet with a bit of sour.


Above: “Ah Bill” fruit (that’s how the name sounds like)? The meat is sweet and taste like pudding, nice!

To make the tour more enjoyable and informative, it is highly recommended that you hire a park guide to show you around. You may go in group and pay for the guide service. Even though I think Sabah Agriculture Park is one of the “must-visit” parks in Sabah, it is not a popular tourism attraction. One of the reasons is that this park is over 100 Kilometers from Kota Kinabalu city and travel agents are lack of interest to promote it.

Photos taken in Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Orchid Gardens of Sabah Agriculture Park

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Orchid is such a charismatic flower that some enthusiasts would risk their lives to collect it in the wild. Luckily, you can see many precious orchid species in Sabah Agriculture Park (Taman Pertanian Sabah) in Tenom, without putting your life in danger. There are two orchid gardens there, namely, Native Orchid Center and Hybrid Orchid Center.

1. Native Orchid Center

Borneo island has about 1,500 species of orchid, and you can see more than 350 indigenous orchid species in Native Orchid Center, making Sabah Agriculture Park one of the world’s famous orchid centers.


This orchid conservation center is housing some of the most valuable orchid species in the world, which include a slipper orchid (species: Paphiopedilum rothschildianum) endemic to Sabah and nicknamed “Gold of Kinabalu”. Valued at USD5,000 per stem in black market, this slipper orchid is known to be the most expensive orchid in the world. It’s also our Sabah state flower and locally known as “Sumazau Orchid”.


To protect those expensive and rare native Borneo orchid from being plucked, the park has to keep this garden locked and visitors must be accompanied by a guide from the park.


Most orchid collection of Native Orchid Garden are from lowland rainforest, which is a warm, humid and dim environment.


Therefore, the native orchid garden is also simulating the rainforest environment. The orchid nursery is shaded to avoid direct sunlight. You may not see any blooming orchid in photo above. Actually there are many of them but most of them are very tiny (only a few MM) and they are unlike the commercial orchids which are generally bigger and have bright colors.


In average, there are 30 orchid flowering per day in this garden. Some orchids have very interesting characteristics.


Have you ever seen a green orchid?


This orchid is known as “Bottle-Brush Orchid”. Go figure.


The orchid above have very strong and sweet aroma.


Above: Paphiopedilum lowii, a type of slipper orchid.


Above: Elephant ear orchid has the largest orchid leaf in the world. Click Here for more info.


Above: “Rat Tail” orchid (Ekor Tikas) has the longest orchid leaf in the world. Click Here for more info

2. Hybrid Orchid Center

The orchids in Hybrid Orchid Center may look more familiar to you, because they are those large, colorful and showy orchids commercially sold in flora garden. These are the end product of cross-breeding of orchids.


The hybrid orchids are usually tougher and easier to plant. Native orchids are very sensitive to change of environment.


In contrast to Native Orchid Center, hybrid orchids have bigger and denser blooming clusters.

As you can see, both orchid gardens are very different. I believe botanists will love Native Orchid Center and gardeners love Hybrid Orchid Center.

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The longest orchid leaf in the world
The Most Expensive Orchid in the world

Photos taken in Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

The longest orchid leaf in the world

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“Over here!”, Mr. Jain Linton, the botanist guide from Sabah Agriculture Park (Taman Pertanian Sabah) in Tenom, sounds really excited when he shows us “Ekor Tikus”, which has the longest orchid leaf in the world.


“Ekor Tikus” is “Rat Tail” in Malay language. You will agree with such name if you see its photos here.


Rat-Tailed Orchid (Paraphalaenopsis labukensis) is a rare native orchid with all four species live in Borneo island. It grows as an epiphyte on branches of large tree. The longest recorded length of Rat-tailed orchid leaf is 3.05M (10 feet) long.


You can see this orchid flower in Native Orchid Garden of Sabah Agriculture Park (Taman Pertanian Sabah) in Tenom.

Related posts:
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The Most Expensive Orchid in the world

Photos taken in Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

The largest orchid leaf in the world

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The largest orchid leaf belongs to Elephant Ear Orchid (species name: Phalaenopsis gigantea). The photos below are taken in Sabah Agriculture Park (Taman Pertanian Sabah) in Tenom.


Our guide says, Elephant ear orchid is only found in Sabah and Kalimantan of Borneo island and it is very rare.


The leaves of Elephant Ear Orchid are so huge that no wonder it gets its name. I know there are a few lowland forest in Sabah where you can see this orchid but I haven’t seen one in the wild so far. In the Botanical Garden of Tawau Hills Park, there was one cultivation that has leaf measured 60.5 x 22.5 CM.


Based on my understanding, flower usually spends the most resources on fruiting, so it makes me wonder that why this orchid wants to develop huge & thick leaves, so big that it’s inflorescences are hidden behind the leaf.

Photos taken in Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

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Murut’s Kalimaran Festival

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Sabah has over 32 indigneous groups, and each ethnic would have 5 or more sub-ethnic, so many that even Sabah Cultural Board can’t tell who they are by looking at the custom (I asked them before). Murut means “Men of the hill,” the 3rd largest indigenous groups in Sabah, they are usually farmers and hunters live in interior area. Murut are people also found in Sarawak and Kalimantan.

(Photo below is Murut Baukan)

Kalimaran Festival is an annual state-level celebration for Murut culture in Murut Cultural Centre, which is made of Belian wood (hardest tropical hardwood timber), at Kampung Pulong, about 13km from Tenom town. To marry a KadazanDusun girl, a few buffalo is enough. However, to marry a Murut girl, you would pay the dowry for life. This festival is the best time to see the demo of Tinauh, the Murut wedding ceremony that would last for week, the biggest of all indigenous races in Sabah. For demo, they only show it in a day.

Photo below is Murut Nabai. The Paluan, Nabai, Gana and Baukan sub-ethnics live in Keningau, Sook and Bingkor along the shores of the Pegalan River. The Murut Tagol (Taghol) is the biggest group and stay in Nabawan, Sook and Kemabong.

Murut has about 8 sub-ethnic (correct me if I am wrong). This year I only paid a brief visit (sigh… I missed the Miss Kalimaran beauty pageant). This year they have (sub-ethnic) Taghol, Timugon, Nabai, Kolor, Paluan, Sabakong, Gana and Baukan (Bookan) to introduce their cultres and customs. Though all Murut sub-ethnics sharesimilar culture, they can look very different from one another.

Kalimaran means craftsmanship of the Muruts, as they produce very impressive bead work and other crafts. Ralaa means young lady and alimar means hardworking, strong-minded, diligent and trustworthy. Below is a good background description of Kalimaran by Daily Express newspaper:

“The story has it that there was a young Murut lady named Ralaa who had all these wonderful personal virtues: hardworking, strong-minded and trustworthy. The sad part was, in the interest of their community, her brother named Yolomor believed he had to sacrifice her. But before that tragic event, she managed to produce a flurry of handicraft of excellent quality such as Tikar, Silaung, Tikalis, Buyung, Lintoyog and Onot by using raw materials like bamboo, rattan and bamban. That rush of Ralaa’s handicraft inspiration climaxed in her Kalimaran by weaving cloth, sampoi (scarf), using threads produced from Timahan roots. Ralaa was finally sacrificed by Yolomor in order to get seeds for cultivation in his farm.”

(Photo below is Murut Gana)

Murut Timugon and Kolor were mostly found in Tenom and some in Kemabong and Beaufort while the Sabakongs are mostly concentrated in Pulau Sebatik, Tawau.

I only managed to take a few photos. Click thumbnails below to see bigger photos. From left to right, top to bottom:
1. Murut Kolor
2. Murut warriors (wearing cloth made of tree bark)
3. Gana
4. Baukan
5. Serudung
6. Paluan
7. Timugon
8. Tagol

Related Post:
Kalimaran Festival: photos of Tinauh wedding and Kalimaran beauty pageant

Photos taken in Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Magic Fruit No.2

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Last time I blogged about a magic fruit that is sour, but turns sweet after you rub it in the hand. Last week I was introduced another kind of magic fruit in a Tenom plantation.

This magic fruit becomes bright red when it is rippen, much like a very fat chilli in oval shape.

For a magical moment, just chew it. The seed is big and the taste is sour. But when you put anything sour such as lemon and mangga in your mouth, it will taste sweet.Perhaps there is any chemical substance that turns fruit acid into sugar. An interesting experience anyway.

Goodness my fingers look so long when I am slim. It also reminds me that it’s time to cut my nails… 😛

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Magic Fruit

Photos taken in Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Murut Warriors

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Murut people (Murut means “Men of the Hills”) are famous for their headhunting history and bravery. Their traditional warrior costume is always my favorite, so are their stories. We still could find pieces of their past in their dance performance and festival (such as Kalimaran Festival). With a bit of imagination, I try to use some photos to paint a complete picture of how they looked like in the past…

Photo: Ontoros Antonom Memorial

Standing in the heart of Tenom town is the Memorial of Ontoros Antonom, a Murut hero who led the uprising against the British colonists in 19th century. Under the administration of British Chartered North Borneo Company (BCNBC) more than 100 years ago, besides imposing many funny taxes, which the locals never heard of, British also forced every Murut couple, who had two children, to give up one of them as forced labor.

Photo: Murut warrior get ready for battle

Running out of tolerance, Ontoros Antonom gathered nearly a thousand of Murut warriors from Tenom, Keningau dan Pensiangan to fight the British empire in 1915. According to the description in Murut Museum, the British officers were totally shocked to see hundreds of Murut flooded their administration building and attacked them. The document also mentions Ontoros Antonom built a few strongholds that even got underground tunnels and houses!

Photo: The rise of Murut warriors

In April 1915, British sent 400 soldiers equipped with firearm to counter attack. Though Murut were only using primitive weapons such as blowpipes, swords and spears, British army failed to take them down. Therefore, they set a trap by offering a peace talk at Rundum. When Ontoros Antonom and his followers were on their way to the venue, hundreds of British surrounded them and arrested them. Later Ontoros Antonom was executed. This Sabah hero died at age of only 30 (year 1885-1915). Seeing more and more corrupted, self-interest and big-mouth Sabah politicians nowadays, the more I respect this hero who loved his land and really did something for his people.

Photo: Warriors departed for battle

Photo: Murut girl celebrated the victory of the warriors with Anggalang dance

Below are the weapons used by Murut to fight gun and bullets. Note the hole in the spear. It is a 2-in-1 weapon (Blowpipe + Spear). Also note the human hair at the end of the headhunter sword. I wanted to buy the headhunter sword (for appreciation, of course not for headhunting), but it costs RM300 (nearly USD100). Ok… O_O

Below are the containers that store the darts and poison for blowpipe.

Photo: Murut girls waiting for the return of the Murut warriors

The era of conflict and headhunting has become a thing of the past. No matter you are British or tourists from other countries, what you will experience here is very warm welcome from our friendly Murut people. They will invite you to dance with them and even try the blowpipe.

Photos taken in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Pesta Kalimaran (Apr 1-2), Tenom

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You may call it Murut festival. I was staying in Tenom for 3 days coz of this annual event. In general, this festival is to celebrate and honour Murut people and their traditions. Murut is the third largest indigenous group in Sabah, with a population of over 100,000. Murut got 14 sub-ethnics and their costumes could be very different from one another. One of the best time to see them is in Pesta Kalimaran held at Murut Cultural Centre.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Pesta Kalimaran >>

Murut people are famous for three things: (1) Head-hunting (in the past), (2) Bamboo dance (Magunatip), and (3) Lansaran (a spring board). You can learn more about their culture in the mini-museum inside Murut Cultural Centre. To go to Murut Cultural Centre, you can take a mini-bus in front of Sri Perdana Hotel in Tenom. The Centre is about 15 KM away from Tenom town, and the one-way bus ticket costs RM2 (USD0.50). The earliest bus is available around 7:30 AM.

There were two highlights in this festival, namely, (1) Miss Kilamaran Beauty Pageant, and (2) Tilau Wedding ceremony by Murut Tagol. Besides, you can see hundred of Murut people wearing their traditional costumes. The Murut female costume we normally see in cultural dance performance is not so “traditional”. To make dancing easier, the dancers wear shorter skirt, use less accessories and the design is quite simple.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Pesta Kalimaran >>

If you like those cultural stuffs like me, you would be really glad that you came. The Murut traditional costumes can be so colourful and beautiful. The embroidery is hand-made, so you find no two same design. Usually they use nature things such as flowers, wildlife, insect, trees, stars… for the picture design on the dress. One of them even got the wording “Sabah Boleh” on it. The Murut costumes presented in Miss Kalimaran Beauty Pageant were even more impressive. I found that the most colourful designs are from Murut Tagol. BTW, the Miss kalimaran this year is gorgeous. The moment she walked out, I already knew she would win. You can check out the photo gallery. I got some photos of her.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Pesta Kalimaran >>

The Tilau wedding ceremony by Murut Tagol was also interesting. I consider Tilau the biggest wedding in Sabah coz it can take year to prepare. One of the tradition in Tilau is “Agiruandu”, all women dress like man, and “harras” the men who wear women cloth. It is just for fun. They also got “joker” in the wedding. The most important things are to eat and drink. I also tried a bit of Tapai. This local wine is very strong. If I drank too much, I would have danced among them already.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Pesta Kalimaran >>