Mountain Climbing @ Mount Santubong Kuching Sarawak - Part One of Three

Mini Series of Mount Santubong
Mount Santubong Post 1 of 3
Mount Santubong Post 2 of 3
Mount Santubong Post 3 of 3

The night before I had fever, I didn’t take medicine as I tough it will be ok the other day. I wake up around 2am, my head is aching. Should I cancel the trip tomorrow? I lye on my bed and fall asleep, I woke up again, the time was 5am. I feel cold, I wake up and read book to kill time. I wanted to have breakfast, but no appetite. 6.30am, give my friend a morning call, he’s up. Reach my place around 7am. We went to King Center for breakfast; I still feel headache, and a bit of fever. 7.30am, everyone arrive at the meeting point. There are five of us, Kuching is a small place, when the four of them meet up they have seen each other before.



It took us 40 minutes drive to Santubong. There are two places to start the journey; we choose the one at the Green Paradise Café. The path here will be rough than the other one. We choose here cause our car is taken care by the café owner.




We have to register our car plate number, our name and pay RM1 for the entrance fees. There is a wooden path to lead us into the jungle, the path look very old and fragile, it can collapse anytime. There is stream water flowing down from the mountain. The weather is a bit drizzling. Despite not feeling well, but I’m still exited, and looking forward to conquer mount Santubong. The time now is 8.45am.




We on now are the jungle track. There is a label on each station, the label indicate the distant that we have gone so far. Among the five of us I’m the last in the team, as I stop for photos frequently.






There are five of us
1. Bong
2. Austin
3. Peter
4. Chua
5. Wilson (Me)


The time was now 9am, we stop for rest. Bong had climbed Santubong for five times, Austin and Peter second time, Chua and Me first time. Peter told us a story, he said long time ago, there are five idiots who spend their Sunday by driving all the way from Kuching, to come to Santubong, and suffer. Bong continues the story by this five people can just sleep at home, and watch television enjoy the weekend. But this idiot don’t like to enjoy life, they like to get tired, wet by the rain, dirty.


This track is very easy to walk, what I heard is that Santubong is a stiff climb. Some part is as slant as 90 degree. But this is really piece of cake.


The track is very wet, though is a piece of cake, but I’m sweating. Before climbing Santubong, I should do regular exercise. Very hard for me to catch my breath and among the five of us Bong and Peter have the best stamina. Bong is an adventurers, he had participate something like iron man competition at Kuching where you need to run for a few kilometer then continue by swim, and then bicycle for a few kilometer again. Peter is a smoker, but he does regular exercise. And the three of us, only exercise when are too bored.


We had reached the final station of the jungle trek, after this is Mountain trek which will be indicated by red arrow. If you’re the first time here, there will be red mark on the tress all the way to the top. So just have to follow the red marks, now we have gone a total of 490 meter so far. From here to the top we have a total of 15 stations to go.


I tough after sweating I’ll feel better, but is still the same. My fever and headache still killing me, they all told me that my face look very white, I didn’t told them I’m not feeling well, cause I don’t want to spoil their mood, after all I’m the one who organize this trip so I must keep going. That time, the only thing in my mind that is to reach to the summit. So I keep on going, but along the way my body keeps on telling me to stop, and turn back. Is a fight between my mind and body now, what is my limit? I’ll find the answer along the way.

----------------- to be continue -----------------

Margherita Fort @ Kuching Sarawak

Margerita Fort a.k.a Kubu Margerita in Malay, was built in 1879 to protect the town of Kuching from surprise attacks by a strong enemy force. Its position by the river allowed defenders an unobstructed view of the surroundings. The fort was also designed to be aesthetically pleasing and add beauty to the town. The design is largely English.

The fort had seen four different governments science it was built. From its mast have flown the flag of Brooke, Japan’s Rising Sun during the Japanese Occupation of Malaya in the Second World War, the Union Jack of Britain, the colonial power after the war, and now the state flag of Sarawak.

Because of the peace enjoyed by Kuching, the fort has not fired a shot in anger since 1879. among its functions was as a jail, before one was built about 1.61 kilometers away.
Until the Second World War, the fort was patrolled by guards round the clock. They would cry “All’s well” every hour on the hour between 8pm and five in the morning. Their cries would be answered in sequence by their fellow guards at the palace, the clock tower across the river and the treasury. The system apparently was designed to prevent guards at the fort from sleeping on the job.

The fort is now the Police Museum. But all the historical artifact inside the fort had been move to Kuala Lumpur because of a nearby construction work. They worried that the construction area will cause certain damage to the artifact.


The Margherita Fort @ Kuching Sarawak


It looks like a castle.


According to the record, the fort was build on 1879, but it stated 1880 at the main entrance. It also stated “DUM SPIRO SPERO” on top of the year. Anyone knows what it means?


This is inside the fort. There are cannons on every direction of the fort. And there are one view tower, and a tower which use to keep…


a closer look at the cannon.


according to record, the all the cannon here has yes fire a shoot since the fort was build.


This are all British made cannon, it might still work today.


a view from the tower.


a pairs of binocular at the viewing tower, the position view in at the waterfront, so if enemy approach they will know. If they don’t fall asleep during work.


but after 128 years, this binocular is badly damage. It cannot function anymore.


this is how it looks inside the spoils binocular.


This is the second tower, it has a door. And the door was close, but it has a skeleton head mark at the door. So I open the door and..


a bag of skeletons was hanging there waiting for me to take a photo of them.Ok, say cheese guy.

Around the Universe @ Planetarium Sultan Iskandar Kuching, Sarawak

This planetarium play a 30-minute cosmic show. It explains about the Solar System, the Milky Way, some ET legend, and Zodiac Sign. I always wanted to watch the show, the entrance fees for adult is just RM2. The show starts at 3pm and I was there at 2:30pm, so there is still time to capture some photos. The Planetarium has a spheres shape rooftop.


From my imagination, a planetarium suppose to be like the spheres rooftop can be slip into half and open, then a huge telescope in the center of the spheres. But in reality, I am totally wrong. Inside the planetarium, it has a special projector in the middle, and then chairs surrounding the projector. The spheres rooftop is the screen. When the show starts, all the lights will be switch off. Then the spheres rooftop is projected with all kinds of image, it is a 360 degree screen. One of my favorite scenes is when it projects the stars, with soft background music. This feeling is like bring girlfriend to the beach, lie down on the beach and watch the stars.

The first Malaysian astronaut had just flew into space yesterday, this news was at the front cover of all the papers this few days. The Universe, is it really have no limit?


Inside the planetarium, at the middle of the planetarium there is a screen projector, a very special one. It is use to project the image on the spheres rooftop.


The control panel, which control the lighting, sound, and the projector.


A Carl Zeiss West Germany projector, it is painted with my favorite color.


The screen is 360 degree, so I have to turn my head from one side to another to see the shooting star


This is the starting scene, it project a city image 360 degree, and then the moon coming out from one side to another.


after 30 minutes the show ends.

Fish Pond and Santubong Mountain

I went to a fish pond near the Santubong Mountain. Is a 45 minutes drive from Kuching town. When there on an official business, the driver and me got a little lost when we reach the entrance. We’ve asked almost everyone we meat along the way for the direction. Very fortunately, we manage to find the actual location. Our destination is a fish pond; we need to send a generator to the pond. When we reach the pond, I step down the lorry and yell loudly for the worker name “Muhammad, Muhammad !!!”, he give respond by asking us to “Tungu, saya turun sekarang.” Yep, he’s coming out from his house. The worker came out and greed us politely, is a guy in his mid 50’s.

He told us that he is just having lunch with his wife, and the menu is a fresh fish that he just caught from the pond. And the fish weight about 3KG. OMG!!! Is a big fish, I can see that behind his house there is plant vegetable. So he eat vegetable which is free from pesticide, and eat fresh, juicy and free fish which can easily get at the pond. And can enjoy a beautiful scene with Mount Santubong and forest surrounding him. This is the life I told him. He told me that his job is to look after the fish, feed them on time, and make sure that no one come and steal the fish. And when the harvest season come, the owner will came and catch all the fish, and send it to other place. They need the generator for paddling the water, so that the fish will have enough oxygen, and they can also have electricity during the night time.

We help him lower down the generator to the small room that he had prepare. It took us quite a while to lower down the big generator, is heavy, and bulky. After everything is done, I went to the pond side sit under the tree shade to take a rest. Is very windy here, and I can see Mount Santubong clearly. Here’s some photos I took, enjoy.


on my way to the fish pond situated near Mount Santubong.

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along the way the driver had told me a lot of his story, how he court his wife, and what must men do. He share a lot of his life time experience with me, is funny, and very entertaining.


After a lot of turning left and right, we finally manage to get on the correct path.


here they don’t have any sign board, any lamp pole. We look for the direction by guessing.


After several guesses, we had reach the fish pond. Is a very windy place, beautiful scene.


the guard need to walk down this wooden path when is time to feed the fish.


Mount Santubong
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I'm having flu, sore throat, cough, and fever :S
My grandma will celebrate her 84 birthday this Saturday :)

The Fish at Friendship Park ….

When I reach friendship park, a gust of stinky win blowing at me. It smells like dead fish, I ignore it and start to jog. Just when I reach the man made pond, all the water had gone, and all the fish are floating on the water. I was shock and curious, what happen here? I took a lot of photos when I walk one round, then I sit down at the pavilion with one of the guard. He told me that two of the water pumps are damage, so the council had decided to change it. They only discuss on how to change the pumps, but did talk about on how to save all the fish.

There are millions of fish in the pond, pity too see all the fish die because of some damage water pumps. I cannot comment much on the council move, but I do think that they should think of a way to save some of the fish, before this everyday there will be people come and feed the fish. This can let couple know that their partners is kind, there are also family come and feed the fish, this can let parents to teach their children to love animal. The fish will follow you when you walk along the pond, but now this scene no more :(

The guard said now they need at least 3 to 4 weeks to fix the pumps, then a few weeks to refill all the water back again, and then another few weeks to put some chlorine back to the water. And thennnnn another few weeks to test the water, after everything is ok, they will just then put in new fish. With this thing happen, who to blame? The public by feeding the fish, or the council by sucking all the water out?

The Art Of Nature – Thunder

I was at the food court near the place I live having drinks with my friend. There are thunders all over the sky, my hand very itchy. There is only one thing in my mind that time; I must get all of this lighting into my camera. So I hurry send my friend back home, and then went home to get my tripod and camera. But when I start capture a few shoots, it begins to rain. And the lightings had become less and less. I had missed a golden opportunity. *regret*
Here are my previous post on the Art of Nature

Art of Nature 1

Art of Nature 2




This one is my favorite :)