“Uarghhhhhh” It’s going to be a
lazy start today, I said to myself. I had such a good night’s sleep that waking
up at 6am like I normally did seemed like a gargantuan task, more so when you
were at Tempurung Seaside Lodge. I have no complaint about the non-airconditioned
room as the sea breeze worked just fine. The 11 room of somewhat ‘boutique’ lodge
is located at Kuala Penyu near Beaufort, about 45 minutes bus ride from Kota
Kinabalu, Sabah. It is perched on top of a hillside overlooking the beautiful South
China Sea. We had a chance to witness the spectacular sunset from the lodge’s
large common balcony the evening before. The whole media team (me included) had
looked forward to this relaxing retreat after our grueling Sungai Padas white
water rafting programme the day before.
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| Tempurung Seaside Lodge - a cosy hillside retreat by the beach. |
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| Spectacular sunset from the common balcony of Tempurung Seaside Lodge |
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| My blogger friend, David, trying to capture the beautiful sunset moment. |
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| View of a section of the lodge that housed the dining/games room. |
Tempurung Seaside Lodge has to be
commended for its good food and courteous staff. Guests are welcomed to use the
facilities at the games room which consist of a pool and snooker table, darts
and a guests lounge with satellite TV (they don’t have TVs in the individual
rooms). The fine, white sandy private beach is very welcoming to the guests.
Some of us went for a beach stroll after our scrumptious breakfast while the
rest chose to either take a dip at the beach or simply laze themselves on the
beach chairs.
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| Its just you and the nature... |
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| A young couple having a morning stroll along the beach. |
We saw a couple of fishermen at a
distant and watched them row back to the shore. I rushed towards one of them to
take some photos as he approached the northernmost part of the beach. Apparently
it was not a very good day for the poor fisherman as the day’s catch was so
meagre. “It’s part and parcel of being a fisherman. Last week it was bountiful.
These few days were not so good, but it’s more than enough for Merah” said the
fisherman, throwing a fish to a cat, which had been waiting patiently for the
fisherman to return for its regular meal. Merah had earlier mingled with us at the beach.
Such a spoiled cat! We ended our short one-night stay at Tempurung Seaside
Lodge at 3pm after a hearty lunch. I really wouldn’t mind spending another
night at the lovely lodge. It’s simply a perfect place for total relaxation.
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| Merah being spoiled by a media friend. |
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| A lone fisherman rowing back to the shore. |
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| The day's meagre catch. |
Our next destination was the
Klias river for our monkey watch. We reached the the Klias jetty cum floating
restaurant at around 4pm. There were about 40 or so visitors already waiting
for their turn to board their respective boats. Easily half of them were
foreigners. We were served with tea and some local delicacies while waiting for
our turn. In no time we were already on one of the boats, cruising the Klias
river, with mangrove trees lining on both sides of the river. There were these
delicious looking apple-like fruits that were in abundance which, I was later
told, were poisonous. The juice of the ‘berembang’ or mangrove apples is being
used as poison for the blowpipe darts.
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| River cruising is big business in Klias. |
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| Klias river at dusk. |
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| A group of proboscis monkeys displaying their acts. |
There were other wildlife
animals to be seen like the monitor lizards, macaque monkey, silver-haired
monkey and the ‘spotlight’ of the cruise which was the proboscis monkey. Also known
as the ‘Dutch Monkey’ among locals, the proboscis monkeys are only found
exclusively in the Borneo with a large numbers found in Sabah. Seeing the
eccentric monkey with their natural behaviour in the mangroves is truly a
wonderful experience.
The river cruise business seemed
to be thriving in Klias, judging from the number of jetties and boats of
different shapes and sizes plying the river, ferrying with them hundreds of visitors
daily.The Klias river cruise will not be complete if visitors don’t observe
the display of lights by the fireflies after dusk. The species of fireflies
here emit yellowish lights and responded actively to flashes of lights from the
boatmen. It was so enchanting. Too bad I couldn’t capture them in photographs. My wish is that this
beautiful eco-system will be well preserved despite the rapid physical
developments for the sake of our future generations.
For more information on Tempurung Seaside Lodge and other interesting places in Sabah, please visit:
- www.borneotempurung.com
- www.sabahtourism.com
- www.tourism.gov.my
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