The Red Dot of Similajau

Red - very dangerous
Yellow - dangerous
Green – safe, no lifeguard on duty

Upon arrival, there was a wooden display board
indication of three different levels of sea condition.
Right at this moment, even without the red alert sign,
it does not need a genius to figure out that water
surface which is 30 meter in front of me potentially
poses threat to any living soul. Fast muddy waves
strike on sharp riffs making big splashes and then
white foam gently reach the coastline.
Whatever things come with flow, not just damaged,
but totally destroyed. You should be insane to swim
there. Someone who indicates a red dot on the
safety board today was fully aware of the sea.





It is beginning of January, a monsoon season. Ocean
never will be calm. It is in the mood for more
excitement. In April when season ends, turtles
would come here to Similajau National Park. It is
an ideal place for them to lay their eggs. The
park by itself is a chain of sandy beaches with
sometimes rising from ground rocky headlands
and crossing fresh water streams. Hopefully,
you can hike all the way there without seeing anybody.
Thirty kilometers of pure and untouched coastline
is all yours. Take it!




Park is not far away from Bintulu (Sarawak, Borneo)


Wildlife

Introduction to wildlife of this area can be found in a small room at HQ. Yellow pages, withered photos and dust shows that room is far away from being renewed. Similajau was established in 1976 aiming to provide conservation zone for unique geographical features of the coast and to protect the flora and fauna.



Not much was change since then. Park infrastructure had forbidden condition and looks like not a lot of founds flowing there. The room which I explored is a good proof of it.

"Similajau have recorded 24 species of mammals including civet cats, wild boar, squirrels, gibbons and macaques. Sometimes on a beach you can spot Belangkas - descendant of the trilobites that populated the seas 400 years ago. Other lucky day, you can see salt water crocodiles resting near the river. Sharks sometimes pay a visit to shallow water. Bird watchers will call this a paradise as it is a habitat for more than 100 species of birds in this national park," - all this information you will get from tourist booklet. If you need to find out what is real, you can check out the area by yourself. It is not so easy to catch sight of wildlife, but be patience and maybe you will have more luck than me.






























Turtle Beaches


As you can guess from the name, this is the place where turtles come to lay their eggs. But even without the purpose to see that, those beaches still is a must visit. Its can take up to 3-4 hours to reach the beaches from the HQ. What you can see is rocky headlands looks like shield of giant turtle. When waves strike it, some amount of water would trap and causes the circulation within the uniquely formed rocks. I would consider that is a rare sight.

Trails

The map provided by Sarawak Forestry shows it would need 6 km and 7 km traveling to Turtle Beach 1 and Turtle Beach 2 respectively, if departure from the HQ. Further north, trail would lead you to Golden Beach. There is clear indication of red paint on trees to help you not to lose your path. There were wooden bridges and stairs along the way too. Fallen branches sometimes poses problem for trekking. The trail is quite easy even for beginners. Besides, the trail going through the jungles almost nears the coast. The mixture of the sounds of sea and forest giving you pleasure of inner calm and serenity. Giving me an advantage of one step closer to the nature.





Tips

1.There is camp site near HQ. Also you can order some food. But you can’t make open fire in jungles or beach. So, if you plan to overnight away from HQ, it will be easier if you bring some ready food with you.














2.It is preferably to start hiking in the morning because important to come back before sunset. Always bring a flash light with you because after dawn you can’t see trail without it.















3.If there seems to be a storm is coming, do not try to hike along the coast. Go only through jungles because during storming there will not be any ground anymore on a coast and you will be trap in middle of nowhere.















4.Although I did not seen any crocodiles, but it is better not to come close to muddy water streams at any point of time.













5.After Similajau National Park exploration, you can make your way to Niah Caves – another popular spot in Sarawak. The journey will takes around 200 km.



















Author's note

Date of visit - January 2009


See also...

Turtle Shield H.O.B. GALLERY


Links

www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my Forest Department Sarawak
www.about-malaysia.com Malaysia Travel Information Guide

Motosikal Diary: Batang Ai

I have seen...

...what man creates here in Malaysia.
I have stand in front of Petronas Twin Towers and admired how it
touches skies in Kuala Lumpur. I have walked around Historical
Town in Malacca and see things from man past. I have smelled
the flavors of pure green tea plantations in Cameron Highlands
and tasted serenity of calm atmosphere.

All of those are made by man, but here in Sarawak man created
something much more unbelievable. Man created a huge
water surface - giant lake between hills that looks perfectly
natural. In 1985, a dam was completed and now
Batang Ai is one of the most fascinating scenery in Borneo.

I was there with a small production team for
a television documentary program called
'Motosikal'.
For more info click here

First try

"I tell you, it is beautiful!
Believe me, Alex*. You even
can find Hilton Resort in
the middle of jungles
there!" - Jackson* keeps
telling me.

The best way of all is to
explore it. Hence,
we formed two groups -
the production team
jumps into Toyota Hilux,
Boy* and I use
a motorcycle. The trip
was short, only 15
kilometers and
surprisingly fine condition
of the road we traveled. When we arrived at the destination, we were very attracted by how magnificent of the lake is. Inside, I was shouting:

"It is so damn beautiful!"

It was one of those moments, beyond words, felt so deeply from
the bottom of my heart.

Jackson was right, as no one else. No doubt, Batang Ai truly is one amazing landscape and I barely believe that men are capable of creating it! As we standing near the shore of the lake, vividly it would reflect its dark green color in nature. Deep underneath the surface, it crosses path with the sunlight, the lake would give us another magical color of dark blue. Staring at it, it seems like Batang Ai is inviting us to release ourselves and enjoy its warm water. Unfortunately, time is the luxury that we do not have.



Everyone seems to know what to do at that time. Chang* starts preparing equipments. Felix* is too occupied making boat arrangement. Jackson is finding the spot to park the car.
Meanwhile, Boy and I wait patiently for them getting ready.Our schedule of today is to have shooting of the lake on a boat ride.

When everything almost ready, unfortunately, problems come. The boatman can not give us a ride and he need to leave immediately because his relative suddenly passed away. After awhile is started to rain. I noticed Chang is packicng his camera and I realized we have to leave. Felix made a decision we will come back the next day.

Boat ride

Next day we ride on a not very stable long boat. So, we are not able to move around much. All of us, including a local guide, have to sit still. The speed of the boat was rather fast and quite often we experienced water splashes. I was worried about my small pocket camera getting wet but Chang, the man with the giant camera is going through more challenging time than me. I admired him that he has such great patience of take good care his own belongings because I do not, the camera fell down on the boat, broken eventually.

“It can take 24 hours to make a circle around this lake” our guide, an Iban, told us that.

The lake is really huge in scale. At times, I would though we have reached the end of it but in actual fact I was wrong. Even after few hours of trip, I was not sure where are we. Anyway, it is better to be in the middle than on the edge, right?



We glide through the surface of the lake here and there; we took some shoot on the dam and the view from the boat. We had a lot of fun and we made it a show. It maybe a work for the production team but for me it was an adventure.

As results of trip - one broken camera(mine), two times at lake(planned only one), three injured toes(only mine), four sunburn faces(except Felix), five tired bodies(everyone), but still fresh souls.

Job is done.


Author's note

Felix - producer
Boy(Danny Koo) - host
Jackson - assistant producer
Chang - cameraman
Alex(me) - guest

Cover picture - Danny with helmet

See also...

Dark Surface H.O.B. GALLERY
Motosikal 2.0 ver H.O.B. GALLERY

Links

www.astro.com.my/motosikal Motosikal at ASTRO