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 Crocker Range Park
Located south of Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. Although there are no tourist facilities at this park, Crocker Range is
densely populated with wildlife and is a trekker's paradise. Primates such as orangutans, gibbons, tarsiers, long tailed and pigtailed macaques, along with porcupines, bears, civet cats, marbled cats, and wild pigs roam the park freely. Hornbills, pheasants and partridges can also be seen, as well as the renowned
Rafflesia, the world's largest flower
The park consists mostly of dipterocarps forest with a small percentage of mountain forest. The park has many varieties of wildlife, including five species of primates
Gunung Mulu National Park
Within the boundaries of Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak is one of the most extensive and spectacular limestone cave systems on earth, as well as the second highest mountain peak in the state. Gunung also enjoys unusually high rainfall. As a result it bursts with life, and many new plant and animal species have been discovered here. Gunung Mulu National Park encompasses only 544 sq. km in North Sarawak, Borneo.
Mulu is known to contain 1500 species of flowering plants including 170 species of orchids and 10 species of pitcher plants, excluding thousands of fungi, mosses and ferns. There are over 67 species of mammals, 262 species of birds, 74 species of frogs, 47 species of fish, 281 species of butterflies and 458 species of ants.
Gunung Mulu's Caves are extraordinary. Mulu's Sarawak Chamber is the largest natural chamber in the world, and Deer Cave is the largest cave passage known to man. It has two huge entrances at either end of the mountain it penetrates. Most of Deer Cave is illuminated; one can see 600-foot waterfalls pouring from the roof following a rainstorm. Perhaps the most popular attraction of this cavern, however, is the daily exodus of its colony of nearly a million bats. Every evening the bats stream from the cave to spend the night dining on Gunung's rich insect population.
From Miri, visitors can take a Malaysia Airlines flight (15 minutes) or take the express boat from Kuala Baram (3 hours) to
Marudi. From Marudi, take a commercial express boat to Kuala Apoh or Long Panai on the Tutoh River (a tributary of the Baram River). The express departs Marudi at noon daily and returns to Marudi in the early morning of the next day. The trip takes about 3 hours.
Kinabalu National Park
One hundred and thirty eight kilometers from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian state of
Sabah, rises the majestic Mount Kinabalu. With its peak at 4,101 meters (and growing), Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain in South-East Asia. The hundreds of square kilometers encompassed by its slopes, from sea level to the jagged stone edge marking its summit, form the Kinabalu National Park. Within this area is found some of the richest flora in the world, ranging from lowland dipterocarp forest to the montane oak, rhododendron, and conifer forests of the middle altitudes and eventually to the alpine meadows and stunted, windswept bushes of the summit.
One of the largest flowers in the world grows here. Its giant red blossom, the Rafflesia can grow to over 170 cm in diameter. Several bird varieties including the Mountain Bush Warbler, Kinabalu friendly Warbler,
pale faced Bilbul and Mountain
Blackeyes. More the 250 bird varieties have been recorded. Small mammals which inhabit the mountain include mountain squirrels, tree shrews and bats. hiking
The climb up Kinabalu is one reason why many visitors come. Despite its intimidating size, Kinabalu is one of the easiest mountains in the world to climb. No special skills or equipment are needed, and each year thousands of visitors undertake the expedition, which takes two to three days. Accommodation is available all along the climb, the highest lodging being the Sayat Hut at 12,500 feet. Those with high blood pressure or heart problems should not make the climb because of the high altitude involved.
Though the Kinabalu Park is famous largely for the climb, the climb is in turn as famous for the beauty of its route as for the view from the top. Kinabalu's slopes possess a wealth of plant growth and a large variety of birds, and much of the climb's interest and beauty lies in tracing the transitions from one ecosystem to the next as one reaches ever-higher altitude. For visitors with more time to spend in
Kinabalu, there are graded paths leading through rich lowland forest to Mountain Rivers, waterfalls, and tumbled bat caves.
The Poring Hot Springs, located nearby, are another prime attraction. The springs were developed first by the Japanese during W.W.II. Today the springs are piped into several open air, Japanese-style baths. The hot springs contain sulfur water, which has curative properties for skin diseases
The park is about ninety kilometers from Kota Kinabalu. The journey takes about two hours. Mini buses depart daily from Kota Kinabalu to
Ranau, from 6.00am to 3.00pm and stop at Kinabalu Park along the way.
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