BAKO NATIONAL PARK

7 of us chartered 2 taxis and began our journey from Kenyalang to Kampung Bako’s jetty in the morning. Reached there, wasted no time, paid the park entrance fee and several speedboat drivers were ready there. Without asking the park staff automatically selected a boat for us to the Park.

9:50 AM The boat man was already ready with his boat at the jetty to take us the 20 minutes reaver cum sea journey to Bako National Park.

The fibreglass speedboat ride was an exciting one for all except little scary for Yin for this is her first experience of riding on a boat on the sea. Half an hour we finally get there.

The entrance to Bako Park is by the sea side. So the journey's 1st part is travel from the village out toward the river mouth facing the sea following by the 2nd part along the the sea cost on South China Sea to ward Bako PArk Entrance.

It was a beautiful journey - exciting boat ride, cooling sea breeze and the feeling of such a vast vast world we lived in.

http://www.sarawakforestry.com

Bako trip was the highlight or our family trip to Kuching! With a comfortable boat ride and we were fortunate to see the Proboscis, several wild pigs and lot of moneky at near distance. The mangrove forest is still beautiful.

The hike makes every really feel being in the jungle!

And there was a documentary filming team from Europe at the Kuching's Bako National Park during our stay.

Mount Santubong

Very few of us aware Charles Darwin already knew about this mountain 100 over years ago. This following is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santubong

"....In 1855 a British naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace who was collecting animals in Santubong, wrote a paper called "Sarawak Law" which can be considered as a precursor to the biological theory of evolution. A year later, Wallace left Sarawak and wrote another article on evolution based on his years of observation in the Far East, that was sent to Charles Darwin and was simultaneously published by the Royal Society......

.....Mount Santubong should be considered as a scientific world heritage in biological science and should be preserved for the future genarations. ..........It is suggested the the world community to set up a fund to buy back the land and save Mount Santubong that is very important in the development of concepts and theories in biological sciences........"

While we had a wonderful ride on a calm blue sea, some may not be that fortunate such as these 4 tourist who went in March 2008 just 2 months ahead of us:

" ... it was a very fine day, no rain and winds. However, after about 10 min, .... The tide of the sea was high, about 2m high, and the boat needed to ride over on the wave. Unluckily, the engine of our boat suddenly failed, so our boat capsized at that very moment. We all fell on the water. Luckily, our four tourists wore life jackets; otherwise, the result would be very terrible, since the waves were still high. After about 10 min in the sea, we finally got rescued by other boats.

So if you consider going to the Bako N.P, you need to be very careful. You should ask the tour guide and the boat operator about the condition of the boat and the engine before getting on the boat. Of course, you must also consider the weather. The one that you must DO, Wear Life Jacket, and Good Life Jacket......"

....... read the full review here : http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk

Bako is a huge park covering an area of 2,727 hectares, but most of the day trip visitors would only wondering around only a few hectares around the above park headquarter. Though we spend a 3days 2 nights stay here, we are typical Asian tourist who would not venture far into the park. Unlike the Western tourists, they are the real adventurers who explore and trekked deep into the jungle. They see more, discover more, know about and appreciate more on the natural treasurers in our Malaysian Parks.

Information centre at the park headquarters (in the middel of the photo). A request can be made to watch wildlife videos in the centre’s mini-cinema.

Bako National Park is not a huge sanctuary compared to Tawau Hills Park or Mulu National Park. It is popular because of the abundance of wildlife confined in a small protected area where one can easy to spot. Accessibility, Bako is less than an hour’s drive away from Kuching.

We are lucky to come to Bako at high tide when the river is deep enough fot the boad to enter to the park jetty. If we arrive few hours later when the tide is low, out boat would not be able to enter the park’s jetty and we had to made a walk some 80m in ankle-deep water to the shore.

What greeted us when we first arrived: see photo

The best time to watch the activities of the varied creatures at this park is just after the break of dawn and before twilight.

It is a good place for wild life enthusiasts as silver-leaf monkeys, wild boars, mousedeer and proboscis monkeys, which are found only in Borneo, make their home here.

Bako is also a fascinating place for bird watching as more than 150 species of feathered beauties have been spotted there.

Nocturnal creatures include the flying lemur, pangolin, mousedeer, bats, slow loris and palm civet.

To fully appreciate the wild life, incredible variety of plant species, jungle streams, waterfalls and rainforest, among others, a night stay is necessary. We choosed to stay for 2 nights

The park’s extensive trail system has 16 colour-coded jungle trails offering a range of walking and hiking options. The adventurous can opt for an overnight camping expedition.

Tap water is for cleaning and bathing use. For drinking water one can get filtered water for drinking at the visitor information office.

We SAW a proboscis monkey. Too bad I do not have a zoom camera for a picture of them. They are pretty shy and elusive creatures which we will never be able to get close to.

We also saw a Monitor Lizard, a snake, squirrels !

As for accommodation, there are chalets , jungle lodges, hostel-style rooms and a camping ground.

Bako National Park is a good place for finding new insects, insects we do not have a chance to see in the city. Rare insects here include orchid mantis, leaf grasshopper, stick insect, rhinoceros beetle.

When we are here we keep in mind to watch out for them on the forest floor and hear them everywhere. Here are what we found during our first day in Bako.

Insect 1 : Green Fly : Its lunch time, we went for our 1st meal in the canteen. As soon as I seated, there on the dinning table is a sparking metallic green flying insect laying death. It color is beautiful brilliant and I never seen one before.

Insect 2 : Grasshopper exoskeleton : Returning from the trial, this is what Foong and Xing brought back, a exoskeleton of a treehopper Xing found on the ground. The grasshopper emerged from the exoskeleton is likely also as colorful as this skeleton left behind.

Insect 3: Butterfly and ant :In the mangrove bush a yellow butterfly and an ant both attracted by the nectar on the stem of a crippling plant.

Insect 4, 5 : Dragonfly : In front out hostel amount the row of trees one is label Tree No: 33. This special tree is the roosting ground for a common dragonfly Tyriobapta torrida. At Left brown color is a female while right blue color is a male.

Tyriobapta torrida is abundant and widespread in the lowland swampy forest. The males are recognized by the broad, slightly metallic bluish-black area at the base of the hind wings. They perch vertically on tree trunks in shady environment

These dragonflies like hugging on tree trunks, even when disturbed, it will hover away only briefly and return promptly.

Insect 6 : Behind the Information Center is a swampy area where this young dragonfly found. Another widespread species from India to northern Australia, Agrionoptera insignis is principally found in the lowlands, margins of mangrove, sluggish streams and drains in disturbed forest and urban areas. Like to perches on twigs in shady places.

I love forest. I was born in a forest house (not born in the hospital) and grew up in forest environment. So back to the forest is like a time machine bringing me back to my childhood land. Here in Bako, I found myself back to my past when I arrived at this corner of the forest (see photo above) which resemble to the rubber plantation I once grew up.

3:08 PM Comfortable walk on a leaf covered footpath I strolled into the wood to explore natural lives (photo above).

"Do you see Tarzan ?"

"No. Tarzan never live in a forest like this. Tarzan lives in a jungle"

Telok Assam : Dead stumps on the shore line at right and rock cave at left

The furthest point we venture into was the above Telok Assam which is only half a kilometer from the park headquarter and is one of the locations to watch Probesis monkey. The jetty and mangrove boardwalks are just behind the dead stumps at the right.

We are able to walk to this rock only when the tide is low. The proboscis monkeys is said will come out of the jungle and hang around mangroves for food when the tide is low. So on the watch out point nearby were group of about 20 western tourist gathered there and waited patiently for the Proposis monkey. We joined in for the fun but there were non Probebise came out at that time. To keep every one not to be disappointed, a few long tailed monkey crowned around to keep us happy and filled each camera at least with a few snap shoots to take home.

9:10 PM All of us were sitting at the veranda chitchatting when a Borneo bearded pig came scavenging for food in front our hostel compound. I could see this pig has prominent bristles on both sides of its snout.

Almost immediately all the children especially Yin get excited. I threw a banana and that wild pig immediately wallop the whole banana into its mouth. From no where in the dark bushed behind the hostel came another pig. Yin threw another banana ..... and in a couple of minutes we had 4 wild boar infront our hostel.

The bearded pig is named so because it has hairs growing out of its chin and upper lips.

The bearded pig which were native to Bako were not as ferocious as their cousins, the wild boar in the Sabah jungle. They habitually wallow in mud.