Kinabalu Park

Kinabalu Park which covers an area of 754 sq km was gazetted a park in 1964.The basis for the establishment of a protected area in Kinabalu were formed after a report from the Royal Society Kinabalu Scientific expedition in 1962-1964 led by Prof. Corner. It is the first Park in the Malaysian Borneo’s state of Sabah.

Its main feature is Mount Kinabalu (4,095.2 m), the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea. Its slope is home to a rich assemblage of plants and animal species. It is a hot spot of particularly the plant biodiversity with affinities to flora from the Himalayas, China, Australia, Malay Peninsula, as well as pan-tropical region.

The main entry point for visitors is the Park Headquarters located about 92 km on the Kota Kinabalu – east coast highway lying at an elevation 1,520m above sea levels. Cooler climates attracted over 250,000 visitors in 2009 with about 47,000 made the attempt to conquer the peak.

The administrative center is located in the ‘Conservation Center’ building. Also in the same building is the Research and Education offices and facilities.

Diving at Mantanani Island, Sabah

Diving at Mantanani Island, Sabah is one of the must-dive places here if you love muck diving or seeing macro life underwater. Pulau Mantanani is located just out of Kudat Town on the west coast and is about a three hour journey there from Kota Kinabalu.

Getting to Mantanani Island is quite simple and easy and if you book through a dive operator, they will pick you up from the Kota Kinabalu Airport and send you directly to the main jetty. At the Bembaran jetty, you will complete most of your diving gear like fins, BCDs and whatever else is needed for your dive trip. 

The boat which usually seats about 10 to 12 people will leave and pass beautiful mangrove swamp before heading out into the open sea where the overall journey will take about an hour. Once reaching Pulau Mantanani, the boat stops along Dugong Beach where you will have your lunch before heading to the resort which is another five minute boat ride.

Sabah, Tea Garden.

I was actually on the way up north and made a stop here to visit this unique tea plantation in Sabah. This award winning brand is also the top tea supplier and exporter in Borneo which carries a wide number of tea selections. As a destination on the way up north of Borneo, many travelers make a stop over here or even spend a night here to experience the unique teas and see how the tea process is done.



Once you get here, the first thing you will see is the main reception building which houses the reception, restaurant and also the souvenir shop which sells all the ranges of tea and many other products. Around the back, they have a cottage area which acts like a cozy little homestay with little gardens outside each unit. 

At the factory area, a full tour is offered from how the tea is collected, processed and final packaging process. Then a demonstration is done sin a room to show you the difference of low quality and high quality teas. This was quite interesting as I never knew that you could dye tea leaves as it was demonstrated in two cups before my eyes. Finally, in the last room, there was a range of all the products sold since the early days. When you exit the factory showroom, you can then go into the main tea plantation and see the actual tea trees there. For the record, Malaysia has a few tea plantations where Sabah Tea is the largest in Borneo while Bharat Tea in Cameron Highlands is the largest on the peninsular.