141104 Cute Squirrel at Kinabalu Park, Pondok Timpohon, Sabah Borneo

This is the Kinabalu Park, the starting point to climb the mount Kinabalu, this place is called Timpohom lodge. And surprisingly a lot of squirrels running around asking for food.


They are all over the trees...





They are so cute then we feed then crackers, they use their two tiny hands holding the food, and stuff into their tiny mouth. And are not afraid of human at all :O

The Borneo Explorer Wilson Chin (me)

The Bungai Beach (Pantai Bungai) @ Bekenu, Miri

I'm at the Bungai Beach, is a family day :) this beach is a 40 minutes drive from the Miri town.

 

Just like Buntal Village at Kuching, this place is a fisherman village too. But the good thing about this beach is that it is very clean. The water is crystal clear, and the ocean is green blue in colour. I seldom see such clean ocean in Sarawak. Normally is a but muddy.

 

The the beach cost line is like a few kilometer long. 

 

I like this beach because it has a lot of big tress on the cost line, and I went there around 10am that day, we all just picnic under the trees shade. Without worrying the hot sun :)

 

And here it also has lots of jelly fish, some is huge!!! it give me the goose bum when seeing the jelly fish's back. Few years back (the first time encounter jelly fish), my brother and I went to a beach, and caught a few jelly fish, but we got stunk by it, and after that never in our life we dare to get close to a jelly fish anymore. 

 

ho ho... two of my brother swim out to the rocks, and show off...

As always the famous photographer who shoot all the magnificent pictures above, Wilson Chin

Visitation to the Niah Cave @ Miri Sarawak

I visited the Niah Cave last weekend with my family and friends. That morning, I wakeup at around 6am. Our initial plan was to wakeup at 5am, and starts our journey at 6am…. Both of my younger brother Kerry and Jye came back home at around 2am last night, so I don’t expect they will wake up on time.

We started our journey at around 7am; it takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes from Miri to the small town of Niah, and we had our breakfast there. Upon entering Niah town, a nice view awaits us, as I can see the Limestone Mountains surrounding the Niah town.

There are only 3 – 4 rows of shophouses. My brothers are familiar with this place, so we had our breakfast at one of the coffee shop there. Most of the Chinese people here they speak Hakka dialect. I ordered my favorite food, the koko noodles, taste really nice :) however, the pricing here are a bit expensive compare to Miri town. My brother told me this is because all the food here needs to pay extra transportation charges.

After breakfast, off we go to the Niah National Park. The park is one of Sarawak smaller national park, but this park contain evident of early human activities date back for more than 40,000 years ago. The archaeology found painting on cave wall, wooden coffin which looks like a wooden ship, chopping tools, axes, pottery, and human skull which data at around 38m000 years BCE.

The entrance fees for student is RM5, and adults is RM10, then we also need to use a boat to cross a river which cost RM4 per person. From the starting check point to reach the Great Cave (the end point) is approximately 4 KM from the park office.

We start our journey at 10am; to reach the cave first is a plank walk which is enclosed on both sides by dense primary rainforest. The trees are so huge that I think it need 10 person holding hands to surround the tree. The forest consists of swap and wetland, I’m pretty sure it might have crocodile there because the water is so calm and a perfect condition for crocs to live.

I’m the last one in the team, mum and dad walk so fast they lead the team. I have to stop and take some video and photos :) dad always told us he have knees problem, so I was quite impress that he can walk so fast *tsk tsk*

Entering the Great Cave

There are several small cave pathways, and the first to reach is the Trader’s Cave, here lies some strange looking rocks formation. Then a few minutes later, we then reach the Great Cave, according to the record is about 60 meter hight and 250 meter wide, and it is one of the world’s most spectacular cave entrance leading to an even larger chamber within.

On the entrance, I can see some archaeological excavation. The authorities fence up the place, so I can’t go in to take a clear photo of it. But it amazing to see it live how the site of an archaeology looks like (always seen this in the TV and books only).

Then, we proceed into the cave and I notice the sound of bats and swiftlets are everywhere. Pheww~~~ lucky I have wear my trekking shoes on, cause a lot of guano (bird and bat excrement) covering all over the cave floor. The locals here, they will collect the guano, pack it and then sell to people who use it as fertilizer.

Entering the Large Chamber (Padang)

Dad told us that he felt pain on his knee, so we all slow down and rest for a while. We are now inside a larger chamber know as Padang. I watched that movie “Santum”, and there is a scene where the water pouring in due to the heavy rain. The surround atmosphere are the same right now, it gives me the goose bumps. Okok, snap out of it…..

Here a shaft of sunlight stream down from the large holes in the cave roof, and the sunlight are so strong that time, it illuminates the bizarre rock formation inside the cave. This is just perfect for me to take a good shoot in the cave. If we’re trap down here, the hole at the cave roof is our only way out, but is like 10 stories height, not easy to climb up there.

After this chambers, we then enter to another chambers where is start to become pitch black, good that we bring a lot of torch lights, and are able to find our way along the plankwalk. In this chamber we get to see a lot of strange rocks formations, I believe these are all done by the Mother Nature with wind, and water. And after millions and millions of years later it then forms these wonderful shapes. My flash is not strong enough, so all my photos are pith black.

Entering the Painted Cave

Dear dad’s knees are getting worse, but in the same time he’s so exited on exploring the cave, so we keep on encouraging him to forget about the pain. After the pitch black plank walk, we then reach the famous Niah Painted Cave. Again, the paintings are all fence up by the authorities, so I only can take photo from a far distant. I saw some human like cartoon painted on the wall, so the cave man likes art.

Not just painting, here they also have this “death-ship”. Where this is the coffin for the cave people, I saw a human skeleton there; this might be the one which date back like 40,000 years ago. Is to fascinating to see in real life how a historical human skeleton looks like.

We all took a rest at this cave, and mum bring along some fruits and dumpling that she made, and this is the perfect time to have lunch after all the climbing and walking.

Back to the Park Head Quarters

On our way back, what we worry most is dad. He told us that his knees are killing him, poor dad. We all walk very slowly, and keep on encouraging dad to fight the pain.

At Niah Cave, the local here also collect birds nest. There are bamboo poles and self-made ladders on the chambers of the cave wall, so they only use this bamboo poles to climb to the cave wall and collect the birds nets. This is extremely danger, they don’t have professional climbing gears, all local made. Is pity where human need to do such danger work to put food on the table for his family.

We reach the park HD at around 2pm, before that we even visited the museum. Dad didn’t go in, he just sit on the chair outside *tsk tsk* he ask us to go ahead. The boat is waiting for us when we reach the jetty, after crossing the river. I drive the car to the entrance to pick up mum and dad.

Is a wonderful family trip, again I manage to cover a new place at Sarawak. Hope I’m able to visit all the magnificent places at Sarawak in the future.

Cheers,

Wilson

The Nature Lover

Visitation to the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park @ Sabah Penampang, The Sabah Zoo

On my last day at Kota Kinabalu, my family and I went to the Sabah Zoo a.k.a Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. This is the park that runs by the Sabah wildlife department, under the ministry of tourism Sabah.



Back in Kuching, Sarawak. We also have the ministry of tourism, and we also have a wildlife department. But just that the officer here they like to do paperwork, so the all tourism dude they will stay in the office for 360 days, just by doing paperwork, and write on the paper on how the tourism industry at Sarawak will growth. And wait for the payday, Very effective right, I salute them :)

Back to the Sabah zoo, the park has more than 100 species of mammals including birds, which all kept in captivity. They also have a botanical garden, an herbal and a ginger garden.
What I enjoyed most is the animal show which starts 11AM and 3PM daily. They really train the animals well, as they have orang utan showing off his strength by peeling the coconut, snake hiding in the audients seat, parrots playing basketball, and more.

My bros, dad and me also had our elephant rides with only cost RM5 (at Langkawi, it cost RM60!!!) this is our first time riding an elephant, while he is walking, you will feel like it swings left and right, so have to remember to hold tight.



Wonderful park, wonderful animal. We head back home with happy memories that we will never forget.

Wilson
I’ve touch a python snake for the 2nd time

First time touch snake is here.

Visitation to the Desa Cattle Milk Farm @ Kundasang, Sabah

What is this? Dairy Milk? The Milk Cows? cozy weather? is this New Zealand?

Nah, I''m at Kundasang, Sabah now. and I'm on my way to to the Sabah Dairy Milk farm. It is a steep driving to the Desa Milk Farm, but when almost reach the top, cozy weather again :)
I really enjoy the cozy weather here, don't get this kind of weather back in Kuching.

Mum are so happy when she saw the flowers along the road, the place are full of flourish flowers. There are entrance fees to go into the farm, not sure how much, my brother pay for it.

There are like over 50 herd of cows, and there are cow poo everywhere. We get to see how is the milk machine looks like, they will milk the cow every 3PM. And we also get to see how they process the raw milk, but this is not for us to drink, but is for the little cow cubs.



Check out the short video I made during my visitation to the Dairy Milk Farm :)

Cheers,
Wilson
mmoooooooo

The Strawbery Garden and Sabah Tea Garden @ Kota Kinabalu

My next stop is to visit the strawberry garden, and I’m so excited about it. The garden is a private own garden, they have hotel, and the strawberry is like an attraction for the tourists to come and stay at the hotel.

The daughter of the owner told us that actually they have a bigger farm, purely for planting strawberries. This small one is just for visitor, so I asked if I can eat these strawberries. She told me that they just spray the pesticide and is not advisable to eat it :(

I like the flowers, the flowers flourish beautifully. Maybe is due to the cozy weather…I don’t know… but surely I can’t see such beautiful flowers around my neighborhood.

Mum likes the flowers very much, she keep on reminding us to stop by the road side if there is any flowers stall, cause she wants to buy the seeds back to plant it. Tsk tsk…. No way mum, it will never survive in that hot weather.

Sabah tea garden

After that, my next stop is the Sabah Tea Garden. This tea garden is the only organic tea garden in the Borneo, back in Kuching I’ve seen this tea selling in the supermarket before, but never try it.

My family and I had our evening tea break at the restaurant here, we ate tea cake, and some of the special milk tea which can only be found here. And the tea taste very nice :) I like the pandan milk tea, it smell and taste really nice.

The weather here is not cozy anymore, and that time is around noon. So most of the workers went for lunch, I wanted to see how they pick the tea leaf and so on.

The view here are breathtaking, they have a lot of mountain views here. We don’t get a lot of mountains view back in Kuching, just jungles and rivers.

The tea garden don’t have much flowers, from here I am very sure that only on cozy weather the flower can flourish beautifully. Not in the hot weather…so tsk tsk…mum bought a lot of flowers seeds back home, so I wish my mum good luck with the flower…tsk tsk :D

Cheers,
Wilson
The flowers are beautiful

From Kota Kinabalu to Kinabalu Park (Part 2 of 2)

The panorama view on top of the Kinabalu Park






We finally reached the Kinabalu Park after hours of driving. We're excited cause able to visit the highest Mountain in the Southeast Asia, the Mount Kinabalu. I'm happy to become the family photographer, and keep on taking good picture with my family.

The weather up there are super cozy, I went to wash my hand, the water are freezing!!! and the mist keep on floating by just in front of me, the visibility are low.

We visited the starting point to climb the mount, and there is a second floor actually, but is under renovation now. My brothers and I sneak into the construction site to have a look to check the workers if they are working or not.

Just as I thought, they are sleeping there. Hey, the weather is cozy, who can resit this right. We took a lot of photos there, cause the view are nicer up there.

Then, we checked in at the place that we stay for that night. Is called the J-Residence. And good thing is that it is just 5 minutes away from the Kinabalu Park.

After we reach, we unload all our stuff. Mum and my brothers are preparing for tonight dinner. We will have steamboat dinner, so that's why today early morning we went to the fish market to buy fresh seafood.

This is the view outside our room, beautiful right! That night, we have a power blackout :( so dad have to start his car and uses the car light.

We laugh, we eat, we drink.... I'm very happy to know that my parent are enjoying the trip so far. This is a place that worth visiting again :)

Cheers
Wilson
the mist, I can touch the mist :)

To The Beach and Rain

”We still go to the beach?” I asked my friend once I’m in his car. I follow a group of friends to Sampadi Beach on the first of January. “Ya, still going :)” my friend answer me. Our destination is a open beach, it does not have beautiful resort, does not have toilet, does not have barbeque stand, does not have security guard, is just an open space. To get to the beach, need to pass by Matang, then cross a river by using a ferry. While crossing the river, the rain had stop. The win is strong and cold, can tell that a heavy rain is coming.

It tooks us about one hour to reach the beach, we unload all our drinks, chicken curry, lamb curry, eggs, chicken wing, fried noodles, junk food, and many more. The senior uncle and aunties, they start the fire for barbeque. While waiting, we all walk around the beach. The win is so strong that I had a feeling that I was going to blown away by it. The rain start to drizzle, I feel cold and hungry. The beach is cover by coconut trees and pine trees. There is an almost collapse pavilion beside the beach, we put all our bags there. It only took the uncle and auntie half-an-hours to get the chicken and pork meet cook. This is the first time I’m having lunch on a drizzling, strong win environment. A very good experience, after finish lunch some of my friends go swimming. While some of us stay back to finish the food.

The tide is strong, and is quite danger actually. I took a lot of photos, and post it up here. Before we go home, we have a lucky draw game. I get number 11 which is a note pad, the first price is to get all the left over barbeque chicken wings, pork meet, instant noodles, junk food, and soft drink. This trip is fun, if the beach has more facilities like toilet, and bath room it will be better. I sleep at 9.00pm that night, tired.


I was in my friend car, at the back seat. I was getting worried will the rain ever stop, will the sun come out today? I hope it will.


crossing the Sampadi river, the beach is just 10 minutes drive after we cross the river, and the charges is RM1.00 per car to cross the river.


Here we are, we have to unload all our food and drinks.


The win is cold and strong, I should bring my jacket.


The experience uncle and aunties are in charge of lunch, while we just wait for the food to be cook


good progress, is very warm when stand near the fire.


Beside coconut trees, there is also a lot of pine trees. Because this is an open space beach so no people take care of the beach, broken tree branches all over the place.


It starts to rain again, the tide is strong because of the win. This is a nice place, it will be better if it have more facilities.