Tag Archives: Tuaran

Balik Kampung (Back to Village), Tuaran

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I like to drive aimlessly to explore interesting spot. Tuaran is one of my favourite places, which has large piece of wetlands. Don’t you agree, many great photos are related to water, e.g. sea, beaches, rivers, lakes?

Below is a photo taken near a shallow river, which flows slowly, with many nipah and acrostichum plant grow on it. They grow so dense that I always wonder what are hiding inside, since I was a kid. But catching the fishes and crabs in the water are already enough to thrill me.

Then I found a small lake that looks like an abandoned aquaculture site. There were some local and migratory birds feeding on it.

Below is a photo of a “fisherman” who was catching fishes. Usually they are ordinary village people, who tried to get alternative protein source. Sometimes I find them extremely annoying. When I was fishing with friends, they always ignored our joyful activity and just threw the fxxking fishing net next to us.

I discovered someone dumped cotton everywhere on the ground. When I looked up, it was a tree full of “cotton” fruits.

Just wonder whether this is where our cotton coming from…

If you got time, feel free to visit, experience and “smell” kampung (village) life in Tuaran. But beware of the “land mines” (bull shit, cow shit, buffalo shit, etc.).

Photos taken in Tuaran, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Mimpian Jadi Resort, Tuaran

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At first I wanted to go to Pantai Dalit (Dalit Beach). Somehow I lost and found this Mimpian Jadi Resort on the highway from Tuaran to Sulaiman. To reach there, you need to drive through a narrow gravel road for more than 5 minutes. You will see lot of mangrove forest, swampy land, rivers next to the road. To me, it is kind of fun.

It was Monday and so quiet that I saw no guest. The resort is built near to a sandy white beach. I also would like to try out the Polarising filter for my camera. This filter acts like a sunglass that can block excessive sunlight comes into our camera, so the picture is more color-rich and not being washed out by the hash light. The outcome is quite good. That’s why the picture below is color-saturated.

I also snapped a photo of their guest houses. The shadows of the coconut trees paint a very interesting pattern on the greenish grass. The “tropical” feel is so lovely.

Then I go to their beach to take more photo. I used Photoshop to make the grass greener. I like its simplicity and sense of harmony.

The photo below is a “unique” collection to me. Actually it is a drain next to the resort, with thick layer of algae floats on the water. The sunlight shined through the tree leaves and lotus, forming a interesting mix of shadows on the green surface. Cool huh?

I walked nearly 1 km away from the resort to see this small “lake”. During low tide, the water was trapped here, together with some organic stuffs such as soil and leaves, so it got darker color. Note the beautiful long strentch of sandy white sand which separates it from the blue sea.

They have a few interesting statues in the garden. This is the first time I came to Mimpian Jadi Resort. If you expect a lot of privacy with your loved one, here is quite a cool place. I think they also have a golf field so you can play both types of golf. I remember one of my friends said the mating, no sorry… I mean match-making companies run their programme here.

Nobody was on the beach. I could even swim nakedly. But I found the sea waves were quite strong and scary. From a far distance, it looks like thousands of white snakes crawling. I took a video clip. You can check it out.

Photos taken in Tuaran, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Chicken on the Road

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Guess many of you had seen this funny sign at a roundabout near Tuaran. The sign reads, “Don’t Cross the Road like a Chicken,” “Look Right, Look Left, Look Right… Cross.” I have seen died snake, rat, lizard, dog and cat on the road, but didn’t see any death chicken, so the chicken is actually smarter than human on crossing road, consider more human are killed each year? Personally I think they should use cow as the “model”. If you’ve been to Kota Belud, you will agree with me.

Funny crocodile

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 >>

Trip to Tuaran

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I brought my aunty to Tuaran during Chinese New Year. My aunty was born in Tamporuli, so she went to Tuaran very often during her old school days. So we took a morning walk at Tamu (local native market) to bring back her childhood memory. Actually Tuaran is also an important place in my childhood. Whenever my family visited Tuaran, I liked to play around in Tuaran Tamu, which is open on every Sunday morning. They sell ANY kind of stuffs here. At that time, there was no Parkson, Servey, Bestmart… so the Tamu was like a big supermarket to me.

I still remember the suspension bridge that scared the sh*t out of me when I was a little boy. One day, my father brought me to cross the bridge. When I looked down, I was scared by the swift river under my feet. I cried and not dare to move further, so we were stuck in the middle. I remember my father asked me to close my eyes then he hugged me to cross. So malu…

The 9-Storey Pagoda Ling San has become a tourist attraction in Tuaran. When I first saw this tall building, it reminded me of the kung fu movie scenes. You know lah, the people fly up and down, fighting from first floor to top floor. The view from the top of the building is fascinating. That’s why you can see a lot of locals dating there. Somebody may feel unhappy about this and post something funny in the pagoda (see the left). FYI, you need to pay RM1 (USD0.50) to buy an entrance ticket.

Surrounding the pagoda are a garden and a temple. You also can find statues of many familiar legendary and fairy tale characters. Everything is so nicely designed and colorful. I took some pictures and share them here, but this only shows very small part of their craft works. It is better you go there to see it yourself.

If you are a Chinese, you should know a lot about dragon, right? Let me test you. Look at the pictures below, why some dragons got 4 claws and some got 5 claws? Try to guess. I will tell you the answer later.

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Yu Huang Temple, Tuaran

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If you go to Tuaran, you may take a short walk at the Yu Huang Temple. To get there, on the way from Kota Kinabalu to Tuaran, you will see a junction at the right, about 1.5 KM before Tuaran town. The temple is about 100 Meters away from the main road. The first thing you will see inside is the 12 Chinese Zordiac sign. I took a picture next to my zordiac sign too. But I like the dog statue the most. Haha… like me mah.

There were a bunch of children noticed that I was taking pictures, so they all climbed on the snake statue, yelled and asked for a photograph. I took one picture and quick quick walked away. If they broke the statue, the owner would think that I encouraged them.

The 10-feet tall Dragon Door is also a very creative design. As you can see in the photo below. The back of the dragon extended out from the door as the roof.

CNY Celebration at Yu Huang Temple, Tuaran

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There was a Chinese New Year celebration in Yu Huang Temple, Tuaran, on last Sunday (Feb 5). It was really worth the time to go there. You could see all kind of lions, dragons and qi-ling performed there. Besides, there were also other performances such as Wushu, Chinese cultural dances.

They played the lion dance so well that you thought the lions were real animals. The “Lion King” of Yick Nam School was also invited to perform. All the best lion teams were there. I must say this was a very enjoyable and high standard show. I was so deeply focus on photo shooting that I forgot I was exposed under the hot sun for hours. Unfortunately, due to the car tyre bocor, I missed the Green Lion performance in the evening. Not many chance we can see Green Lion…

Have been a long time I didn’t see the “Big Head Buddha”. So happy to see him again that day. On the same day, I also went to Ling San 9-Storey Pagoda and Tuaran Tamu. Later I will post the photos too. Tomorrow I will go for White Water Rafting at Padas River so I may not blog. If I manage to survive, see you again on Thursday.

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