Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, Sabah

Run by Sabah Wildlife Department, Lok Kawi is an amusing park, with well tended animals and happy visitors. The park covers an area of 280 acres of land with more than 100 species of animals. Attached to the park is a botanical garden set up by Sabah Forestry Department.

The wildlife park is 25 km away from Kota Kinabalu City Centre. The best way to visit the park is by joining local tour. Taking taxi or rent a car might be a good option as well. The road access to the park is well maintained.

This is the third time we went to the park, and, it's getting better. We really like the animals there, they simply looked happy with abundant food in front of them.

If you ask how to define "happy"? We would like to relate "happy" to "active". Many animals were active in their exhibits during our visit. Borneo pygmy elephants that were showing their talents simply like they were on "Lok Kawi Idol's Show", sun bears, climbing, Malayan tigers, deers, ostrich, cassowary, as well as the otters that moving around, and ever swinging Orang Utans and Gibbons.

A deer-on-a-bath (upper left), Borneo pygmy elephant was trying to move as close to the visitors as possible (upper right), baby orang utan saying "hi" (lower left), and a naughty sun bear was trying to turn around at the corner of a climbing toy.

"Would they ever stop swinging?" That's the question that you might ask the gibbons (upper left). Otters family have a nice pool to swim, as well as plenty of grassland to rest after a tiring swim (upper right). Banteng (lower right) and Ankole laid peacefully under the shades of trees and huts, looking at each others, like saying, "hey dude, see, we are so popular over here...."

Never forget, the silent hunter in stripes. They will only be super electrified by food. So, don't miss the great show on the tiger's feeding time at 2:05 pm.

Proboscis, the species of monkey that only available in Borneo, are really well fed in the park (left). Ringtail Lemurs of Madagascar beside the Proboscis keep talking to each other.

A thumb up to the aviary, as well as the exhibits for the serval, sun bear, malayan tiger, gibbon, and otter. The reptile house is quite small. However, it is clean and well maintained. The canteen is small with little choice of food that is just enough for a light snack.

Ticket counter (upper left) and canteen (upper right) of the park. Almost all the exhibits have their own roofed observation platform (lower left). The observation platform for serval is really unique.

Reptile house (left) and the entrance of the aviary (right).

Our photo inside the aviary.

Many species of birds available in the aviary.

Betty and her sister, Katty at the elephants' exhibit.

The botanical garden located at the end of the wildlife park. The garden was not so organized. Shaded by the forest canopy, the plants there were not thriving. The only better part was the fernarium. The ferns were well grown during our visit.

The garden assigned for ferns.

Our advice, apply some mosquito repellent before you visit the park. Try your best to be early, to avoid stinging sunlight. Sufficient water supply, hat, and sport shoes guarantee a more comfort visit.

The park opens 9:30 am - 5:30 pm everyday. Entrance fee for adult and visitors below 18 years old are RM10 and RM5 respectively for Malaysian. For non-Malaysian are RM20 and RM10 respectively. Entrance is free for senior citizen above 60 and handicapped visitors.

Please plan your visit as the animal shows are on 11 am and 3:15 pm. The animal feeding sessions span from 10:20 am to 2:35 pm, not to miss is the feeding of Malayan Tigers at 2:05 pm.

As a full round of the park might takes few hours, a light snack at the canteen might be a good idea. On the way back from the park, you can spare some time on Sabah State Museum (will take around 1 hour 30 minutes for a complete tour) and get your feet wet at Tanjung Aru beach on your way back to your hotel. A dinner at Tanjung Aru is a good idea.

After the close touch with the nature, let's go back to city centre for the food around KK.

[Kota Kinabalu] [Lok Kawi Wildlife Park] [Food around KK]

[Shopping in KK] [Hotels in KK] [All Our Destinations]

Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu (KK) or Api-Api, capital of Sabah, is Betty's hometown. KK formerly known as Jesselton, was established by British North Borneo Company. The city, is a good escape for a relaxing holiday- beautiful beaches with great panorama, first class hotels (of course we stay in our own house), shopping centers with ongoing deals and bargains, clean streets, and nice food all fall unto one city. Stressed and need a relieve? The sea breeze sweeping the city 24 hours per day, free of charge is simply refreshing. The beaches, long coast-line at the edge of the city, nature beauty sites such as Tuanku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and Lok Kawi Wildlife Park will surely cure a ladened soul.

Tanjung Aru Beach, one of the most beautiful seaside around KK. There are some food stalls along the beach.

KK is a clean and well planned city. It is a hub to many other places around, such as Mount Kinabalu, TAR Park, Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, and inland townships. KK now is a safer place (compares to around many years ago), as strict government policy has diminished the number of illegal immigrants.

A walk down to well known Gaya Street from Tugu Road, you will see few rows of shoplots with many budget hotels and food outlets (upper left), then a small well embellished garden in front of the high court building (upper right), an arch in front of the city council (lower right), and lastly, Malaysia Memorial Park at the entrance of Gaya Street.

Jesselton Hotel, fountains, Sabah Tourism Board, and Borneo Backpackers are the landmarks that we can see around Gaya Street.

Tun Razak Road, one of the main roads in KK city centre, a block away from seaside (left). The road to Promenade Hotel and Marina Condo is just a few steps away from seaside, which is located on the right side of the photo. Most of the roads in KK city is completed with alleys for pedestrian.

Beauty of nature is not the only thing that makes KK a glittering star, we need to add in nice food, shopping centres, rich culture, and a wide range of hotels. We travel to KK quite frequently (at least once a year). So, our sharing might be more focussed on some of the places of interest in KK.

After our last visit to KK during Dec 2010, we would like to bring to you Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, food around Kota Kinabalu, shopping in Kota Kinabalu, and some of the medium hotels around the city area.

Please click here and we will bring you to Lok Kawi Wildlife Park.

[Kota Kinabalu] [Lok Kawi Wildlife Park] [Food around KK]

[Shopping in KK] [Hotels in KK] [All Our Destinations]

Labuan

Labuan is a part of Malaysia Federal territory and quite well known as an offshore financial centre. Offshore? Because it's an island. We took a two hours and 30 minutes drive from Kota Kinabalu to Menumbok. From Menumbok, we took another 30 minutes of speed boat to Labuan. The speed boat service is available almost once an hour, while ferry service (which will take one hour 30 minutes), twice a day. Of course, you can go to Labuan by air as well.

Photo shows the ferry (upper left), speed boat (lower left), our photo on the top deck of the ferry (upper right), and our photo inside the speed boat, with Betty's dad (lower right).

The journey on water with speed boat was really rocky. The boat, always drove by the wave off the surface and slammed back, splashed a certain amount of salt water few feet into the air with a hard knocking sound. The process continued for half an hour, with the speed around 60 km/hour. Can you imagine the feeling of staying in a moving DNA mixer in theme park for 30 minutes? We came out alive, with a little bit of advice: don't use the speed boat after 12 noon, when the sea gradually turns rocky, unless you're really adventurous. By the way, if you really wish to try once, please do it with your stomach empty (our photo inside the speed boat was taken a few seconds before the crazy journey begun). So, we decided to take ferry to return to Menumbok. The ferry was more steady, but move slower. Don't worry, the ferry was completed with air-conditioner, LCD flatscreens, foodstalls with nice drinks, and decks that offerred nice views. So, we had a really good time on the ferry (comparatively).

Labuan's streets.

Labuan is a small town, with around 80,000 population, which around 20% of them are not locals (students, immigrants, contract workers, etc.). It's the grown up place of Betty's parents. So, we have many (almost uncountable :-p) relatives here, and of course, we would never lack of good tour guides on this small island. We visited some of the places of interest on this small island- The Chimney, long stretch of beautiful beaches (Pancur Hitam, Layang-layang and Pohon Batu), International Campus of University Malaysia Sabah, State Mosque, the Surrender Point, Patau-patau and Bebuloh water villages, and International Sea Sport Complex.

 The Chimney, which its usage is still a mistery until today, stand 106 feet high at Tanjung Kubong (besides Labuan Bird Park). Believed to be built during the coal mining era (1847-1912), the structure contains 23,000 England imported bricks with 12 layers of foundations beneath the surface. The bird park was closed for maintainance during our visit.

Photo taken at Layang-layang Beach, backgrounded with a shrubed rock.

There is a must-visit historical place in our list- The exact surrender point of the Japanese army to the Australian army, marked the end of the 2nd World War in Borneo. The Peace Park is just a few steps away from the surrender point. Funded and maintained mainly by the Japanese Shipbuilding Industry Foundation, the park were really well maintained and served as a memorial of the war.

We took photo with Betty's father and youngest sister, Katty. The memorial stone states "Here, on the 9 Nov, 1945, the commander of the 9th division, Australian Imperial Forces, received the unconditional surrender of the 32nd Japanese Sourthern Army in North Borneo and Sarawak".

Sunset at the beach side just at another side of Surrender Point.

We went for seafood dinner with our relatives. Then, shopping for tax-free chocolate and alcoholic drinks. Can you imagine Hershey's Kisses (311g) is just around RM 15 per pack, imported Cadbury chocolate (with and without alcohol) at the price of RM 9.50 and Jolly Shandy at around RM 1.30-RM1.50? We managed to grab some imported chocs and shandy. The only shopping complex that we got in Labuan was situated in Financial Park. If you wish to get more choices, then you have to go the town area to dig from the spreaded shoplots. The prices for the tax free items were quite unified there, compared to Langkawi (we couldn't notice much different throughout the island).

Photo of Commercial Park from the ferry.

 Methanol Refinery at the outskirt of Labuan. We had the chance to take a look outside the big refinery on our way to ferry point, thanks to our cousin.

To make yourself convenient to move around, you can stay somewhere around Labuan town area (as the whole town area is accessible by foot). To move around outside the town area, such as the beaches and the Chimney,  the easiest way is by taking taxi (you can get many of them in front of the jetty) or rent a car. We seldom came across buses in this island. So, travel around with bus might not be a good idea.

For more information, you can visit Labuan Tourism Page and Government Labuan Tourism Board.

Back to All Our Destinations.