Road Trip Tuaran: Cowboy Town & Crocodile Farm

After we back to Kota Kinabalu from Tambunan, we have a good rest and the next day we depart to Tuaran, the horse town. 

Tuaran is a small town where the Royal Sabah Turf Club is located. With the horse racing history, there established a Cowboy Town at Sabandar Tuaran - a mini theme park with western cowboy features that attract many here for family and leisure outing. 

The entrance fee is RM10 per adult and RM5 per child, both complement with a welcome drink claimable at Bamboo Restaurant in the Mangrove Park. 

The first building that welcome us was the Cowboy Lodge and a display of antique car and collections for visitors to take pictures. 

We were more attracted by the real horses and the mangrove park. 

At the Bamboo Restaurant there keeps a few geese which most children find it fascinating.
While queuing up for our drinks, Baby Forrest went to observe the geese.

The bamboo restaurant apparently is totally made of bamboo. Including the tables, chairs, the walkway, the wall, it's almost bamboo everywhere. We like it there, it's shady.

The House in the middle of Mangrove

People who built the walkway around the park has carefully thought of the mangrove trees by minimizing its cutting to the trees.

Importance of Mangrove

Mangrove is very important in maintaining the balance of ecosystem of nature. It is a nature habitat of many sea creatures, source of food, a natural barrier of sea corrosion and tides, supply of food and woods for human, and so on. 

This is also an educational place for children as well as adults. Hope the owner of this place can put up more signage on the information of mangrove for the public. 

We spotted a snake sleeping on a tree branch. With much amaze, we quickly walk away from that area. 

The tree grow in the middle of the walkway. They make a hole for the tree to grow. 

Tuaran Crocofile Farm

Since we are in Tuaran already, might as well visit the Crocodile Farm which is just a short distance away from the cowboy farm.

The admission fee for Malaysian adult is RM16 and RM8 for child.

The crocodile farm accommodates more than 1000 crocodiles. There is a exhibition of crocodile and a few other mammals' replica for tourists to take picture. We walked pass a petting zoo-like area with rabbits and fish pond, a butterfly farm without butterflies then walked into the crocodile farm area. 

The reptiles are laying on the land sunbathing. Some tourists bought meat (like RM10 or 20 per tin) and poured the meat in the middle of the lake for the crocodiles to eat. Bigger and stronger ones get the meat. 

We waited for 2.15pm crocodile show. Nothing much that I like to describe this circus-like show. I just don't like how animal becomes human's entertainment. 

 

May all the animals in the farm live happily. 

Road Trip to Crocker Range (3): Tambunan

So we continued our journey after Keningau. We drove all the way for about 45 minutes along the Keningau-Tambunan Highway. At first we wanted to go to the viewing tower but we didn't know where was the right way to the top of the hill... there were no signboard after we saw one at the roundabout. We have drove for 15 minutes and the road was getting smaller and remote. So we turned back and asked the villagers. When we found one back to the entrance, he said we were on the right track. Well, too late, we decided to head to town for lunch. 

There were not much of choice for food in Tambunan actually... I asked a lady where does she have lunch usually, she said Tambunan doesn't have any nice food and she does not have any favourite kopitiam there. So in the town centre, we walked around to survey approx 5 kopitiams and decided to go back to the first kopitiam. Most of them sell almost the same thing... mixed rice, or order fried rice or fried noodle, that is all. The shops were quiet, only a few people chatting and smoking inside the shops. 

Then we continued our journey to Mat Salleh Memorial. This place wasn't easy to be noticed because This site was used to be the home or fortress for Mat Salleh, who led a rebellion against British North Borneo Company in the late 19th century. Mat Salleh is a Sabahan Hero according to our local history book. There erected a stone structure to mark the site of Mat Salleh's fort, and there is a long display board that tells the rebellion story

 of Mat Salleh. 

 We continued the journey, and travelled all the way to Mahua Waterfall along the highway. The road was getting smaller, sometimes up hill and down hill, about 30 minutes later, we reached our destination. The entrance fee for this waterfall is only RM3 for a Malaysian adult. We took about 5 minutes to walk through the 500metres walkway before we reached waterfall. The park was well maintained with its paved walkway, handrail, bridge and toilet facilities. It was very convenient indeed. There were lots of bees or giant flies around the picnic area... I guessed it was due to the trash left by visitors that attracted so many insects around... I was holding a banana and immediately surrounded by the flies or bees and got stung!

Waterfall view from the picnic deck... there marked the ancient water level of the pond on the wall. 

Waterfall view from the middle of the pond... wonderful view, the water was very chilling and relaxing. It's a hidden gem of Sabah Forests. 

The water was freezing cold!! I just dipped my feet in the water for a while then quickly pulled them out.. Not only that, the water was so clear that some people brought their crystals gems and cleaned them here. I guessed the positive energy of water can cleanse the crystals. I rinsed my face with the cold water... ahhhhh.. so refreshing...

Anyway it's still a very pleasure walk in the waterfall... the park was surrounded by so many huge and tall trees, shady and peaceful. I liked this place very, very much but we got to leave the park as the sky was dark and I wanted to leave before it rained. Hope we can spend longer time in the park.

As we exited the park, I used the toilet at no charge. It was pretty clean and well-maintained compared to some worn out toilets I have been to elsewhere.

Overall, I'll rate Mahua waterfall 4 out of 5 stars for its natural authenticity!

Road Trip to Crocker Range (2): Keningau

So we head down to Keningau Town again to hunt for Laksa that we missed yesterday. Out of no one we know lives here, we randomly walked into a Chinese religious supplies shop and asked the owner to recommend a must-eat food in Keningau. He pointed us to the corner of the shoplot which sells Laksa - 阿川叻沙kopitiam. Unfortunately the famous Laksa was sold out yesterday so we ordered kuey chap (mixed pork internal parts noodle in dark bak-kut-teh-like soup base). This morning we ordered Sarawak Laksa - the taste for both were good. I just ate kuey chap noodles except for the parts, and I enjoyed the laksa very much. I should have tried the water dumpling instead of shrimp.

(Left) Kuey Chap                                                (Right)  Sarawak Laksa

Keningau word came from local word "Koningau" means cinnamon or Kayu Manis in Malay. You can find many stalls in Wet Market sell cinnamon sticks. One bundle like picture above is sold at RM10. It's mainly use as spice and some use it for decoration. 

Dried salted fish 

The old 大伯公temple. The staff said it wasn't over 100 years old yet. Nothing much info I could obtain from the temple as the staff wasn't a Chinese and couldn't share much of its history with me. However the interior is typical to most of the Chinese temples in Malaysia. They also celebrate birthday of different deities, significant persons, Taoism deities prayers, Chinese traditional festivals and so on, to keep Chinese in the town together. 

Forrest was attracted by this giant laughing Buddha while we were having breakfast next to this temple. 

Next we visited Keningau Heritage Museum. This building was formerly known as the Residence House to accommodate dignitaries and foreign visitors. It then used by the Japanese and British North Borneo Chartered Company until it was taken over by the State government. 

The first section on the left exhibits the excavation activities done in Tapak Bingkor, Keningau region. 

There're many antique collections displayed in the hall. These items are the collections donated by Sir Andrew Bacon and his wife Jane Sakunil. 

These pots or locally known as 'tajau' have some stories behind. It was first owned by the grandfather of Datuk Clement Jaikul, Sargent Imbayan Andoung from Kg. Nambayan. He passed these pots to his son, Datuk Stephen Jaikul Imbayan then Datuk Clement Jaikul before it's handed over to Sabah Museum Department. 

These pots were used to be placed together with 30 human skulls collected by Datuk Clement Jaikul's grandfather during the headhunting time. When Datuk Clement brought these pots back to his house at Kota Kinabalu, his 7-year-old son saw some human beings nearby these pots. Then he fell sick the next day. In another incident, a teenage girl fainted suddenly when she saw a thin woman shadow coming out from the pot when Datuk Clement was hosting a gathering at his house. Since these incidents happened, Datuk Clement decided to bring these pots back to his hometown in Tambunan. While on his way from Kota Kinabalu to Tambunan, his car suddenly stopped and the engine can't be started. So at the end of the day, Datuk Clement handed over these two pots to Sabah Museum Department on 25 July 2013, which are now being displayed at Keningau Heritage Museum. 

The items displayed above tell history of Keningau under Japanese occupation and how Australian army liberated Keningau. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) from 76 and 77 Squadron bombed Japanese positions in Keningau until the end of hostilities, when Japanese surrendered in 1945. Then the Australians kept Keningau up and running by supplying daily necessities to the inbahitants such as food, clothes and medical supplies when North Borneo was placed under the British Military Administration (BMA). When Malaysia came into being on 16 September 1963, Sukarno launched an undeclared war on the newly created federation known as the Indonesian Confrontation. The Australian government defended Borneo including Keningau. 

The Oath Stone, erected in front of the Keningau District Office in 1964, was planted to symbolise the Interior people's acceptance of Malaysia, when the new nation was created in 1963. The stone was obtained from the Pegalan River in the vicinity of Kampong Senegang. As the Interior native people accepted Malaysia, it means that their interests of land, religion and customs will be safeguarded by the Federal Government in the spirit of the Twenty Points. 

To be continued.