BAKO NATIONAL PARK

Usually you start your journey from Kuching City to Kampung Bako’s jetty in the morning. Here (no the park yet) paid the park entrance fee and several speedboat drivers are ready there. The park staff will selected a boat for the final journey to the Park.

This final boat trip is a 20 minutes river cum sea journey to Bako National Park.
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 sea cost on South China Sea to ward Bako Park Entrance. It is a beautiful journey - exciting boat ride, cooling sea breeze and the feeling of such a vast vast world we lived in.

Make Bako trip the highlight of your visit to Kuching! With a comfortable boat ride and seeing the Proboscis, wild pigs and lot of monkey at near distance. The mangrove forest is still beautiful.
Take a hike. The hike makes you really feel being in the jungle!

Mount Santubong
"...Mount Santubong should be considered as a scientific world heritage in biological science..."
1855 Alfred Russel Wallace

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

"....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 generations. ..........It is suggested 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........"

The beach by the park headquarters is a place for walk. At low tide, sea crabs, prawns, anemones, star fish, annelid worms and young shrimps in small pool provide a good showcase.

If you arrive Bako at high tide when the river is deep enough for the boat to enter to the park jetty, you do not have to get down at the sea side and walk in sea water to the land.
But if we arrive few hours later when the tide is low, your boat would not be able to enter the park’s jetty and visitors need to made a walk some 80m in ankle-deep water to the shore.

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.

The facilities in this national park include Canteen, Information centre, Public toilets, 24-hour electricity, camping sites, lockers.

Accommodation has 3 types : Lodge, Hostel and campsite

The water supply is untreated and it is advised to boil the water before drinking. Electric cattle is provided in all kitchen.

Information centre at the park headquarters (in the middle 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.

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, mouse deer 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, mouse deer, 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 choose to stay for 2 nights

The park’s extensive trail system has 16 color-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.

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.

Insect 1 : Green Fly

Insect 2 : Grasshopper exoskeleton

Insect 3: Butterfly and ant

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 dragonflies are planty. 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.

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.

Borneo bearded pig came scavenging for food in front hostel compound. These pigs has prominent bristles on both sides of its snout. They habitually wallow in mud.

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 wild boar in the Sabah jungle.

Dragonflies of Borneo

"With 275 named species so far recorded in Borneo, the island has one of the richest and most exciting dragonfly faunas in the world. More than 40% of species occur nowhere else, making it the most distinctive sub-region of Sundaland." A Guide to the Dragonflies of Borneo by Albert G. Orr

Insects are diverse and dominant inhabitants of the tropical rainforests in Borneo Island. New species are discovered too often. Entomologists are still struggling to cope with the documentation of tropical insect diversity.

Most of the common dragonflies in Sabah are red coloured, especially from the family Libellulidae. Some red pecies are even confused as same species, for example the three species of Genus Neurothemis.

GO FURTHER

Zoos in Malaysia
Zoos & Wildlife Parks In Malaysia That All Animal Lovers Should Visit!

From mini zoos to large wildlife parks that are home to some of majestic creatures, Malaysia has many of these places for you to visit and educational experience.

FAUNA

Dragonflies of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore

Dragonflies are among the most beautiful of insects. Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore are home to more than 230 species (twice the number found in Europe). They include some of the most exquisite forms found anywhere in the World.

FLORA

Fig trees of Sabah

Borneo has 150 species of wild fig trees. Most of them are found in forests of Sabah.

FISHERIES

Tiger Prawn Farms in Tawau

Prawn farming is a main commercial activities in Tawau. Spawners from Tawau are graded the best in Malaysia. For decades, Tawau has been exporting high-grade tiger prawns to several countries such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Egypt and Australia.