The Kinabalu National Park - Page 1

There are four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Malaysia. George Town of Penang, Bandar Hilir in Malacca, Mulu National Park in Sarawak, and Kinabalu National Park in Sabah.

Mount Kinabalu, with the height of 4095 m, is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and the Snow Mountain of New Guinea. In 1964, the park was established as state park. Then in 2000, the area which is bigger than Singapore Island was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for its mega biodiversity and the value to the world.

We both visited Kinabalu National Park around 20 years ago, when we were still kids, long before we met each other. Our recent two days trip to the park refreshed our old memories. Really, not much had changed. We should said the park was well preserved. The development took place here and there by the indigenous Dusun people, but basically, the nature beauty of the Crocker Range was remain untouched. Together with us, our parents and 25 other members from Sibu Peace Methodist Church.

Our bus departed from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah at around 10:30 am. We took 20 minutes to reach Tamparuli. From there, we started the ascending. We reached our first stop on the highlands, Pekan Nabalu at 12 noon. The town was not very attractive, except for the souvenir shops. If you wish to get some souvenirs somewhere on the top of Borneo, Pekan Nabalu is the place for you. We found that not much we could see from the observation tower at the middle of the town. We stopped at Pekan Nabalu for 30 minutes to shop for a while.

Pekan Nabalu is not far from Kinabalu Park Headquarters and Kundasang. We took our lunch at Fairy Garden Resort- Chinese style, 8 dishes, big portion for a table of 10 person. The price, RM 18 (USD 6) per person. The taste, not too bad for hungry visitors.

Panoramic view from observation tower at Pekan Nabalu. Click the photo for larger view.

 A few rows of single storey shops at Pekan Nabalu.

Fairy Garden Resort by the road (upper left). The seat arrangement in the restaurant (upper right). The dishes served were quite nice- roasted chicken, curry chicken, tofu, sweet sour chicken, soup, and vegetables.

 Nice view from Fairy Garden Resort.

In just a few seconds, the view is blocked by clouds. This is the magic show of Kinabalu National Park- Now you see, now you don't.

Then, we travelled further east to Pekan Kundasang. Kundasang Town was even smaller compared to Pekan Nabalu. But it was well-known for its Kundasang War Memorial Park. The memorial was built in 1962 to commemorate 2,428 soldiers who died during the World War 2, when they were transferred from Sandakan to Ranau in 1945, by foot. Their journey from Sandakan to Ranau was the last for all but six survivals, who lived to tell their horrific story- the Dead March.

The park was designed by J. C. Robinson, with 4 interlinking gardens- Australian Garden, England Garden, Borneo Garden and a contemplation garden engraved with all the names of the fallen soldiers. The memorial is now maintained by a devoted volunteer- Mr. Sevee Charuruks from Thailand. A minimal maintenance fee was collected- RM 2 for locals with MyKad, RM 10 for the visitors without MyKad, and RM 1 for students with uniforms and children under 12.

We reached the memorial park around 1:30 pm. The strong wind and shrubs in the park cooled us down in the middle of the day. We spent more than 1 hour in the park. By the way, the park was easy to locate- just behind the only concrete shop lots beside the main road in Kundasang Town.

Kundasang Town in fact consists of two rows of concrete shop lots. The war memorial is at the back of the shop lots. Please click on the photo for larger view.

The white gate marks the entrance of the war memorial can be clearly seen from the road. We don't have to speak "Friend" to enter, but we need to pay a minimal fee of RM 2 per person. Awaiting behind the gate are the stairs.

First stop, a small hut with the newspaper cutting, reports, and the photos of the memorial park. From the hut, we turned left and walked upstairs to reach the gardens.

The Australia Garden is the first garden on our left (upper row), followed by the English Garden. The gardens are not big but well-maintained. According to our tour guide, the grass in Australia Garden was imported from Australia. The park has been recognized by Australian Government with grants allocated for maintenance.

Borneo Garden can be assessed through English Garden. Borneo Garden was planted with rare local orchids.

Contemplation garden is decorated with pillars and a pool. This is the place where we paid our respect to the fallen soldiers.  We can see the stone plates engraved with the names on the right. For all the visitors, we would like to advise that we should be quiet and be respectful in this garden.

Several of the fallen soldiers were brothers, twins, and father and son.

We had the privilege to meet Sevee Charuruk. He restored the memorial in 2005, which made the park to be known to the world as it is today. He received recognition from both England and Australian Governments for his commitment in restoring the memorial. You still can meet him at the memorial if you are lucky enough. "Sabah is a good place, you two should come back." This was his message to both of us before we left the memorial.

Then, we continued our trip to Desa Farm, 20 minutes from Kundasang War Memorial. The farm was located along Kundasang Kauluan Road and Cinta Mata Mesilau Road. With light green grassland lined by white wooden fences, and the dark Mount Kinabalu at the back, The view at the farm was stunning! The cooling strong wind blew away the heat from the sun. We visited the farm by looking at the milking process and how the calves were brought up from the nursery. We bought some dairy products too. However, we spent most of the time walking around, enjoying the nice view and the cooling air.

The farm was not big. Not many places were opened to visitors as well. However, in a squeezing room, we observed how the automatic milking process was done (upper left). Calve raising nursery was located in another building in the farm (upper right). While the cattle were lined up to be milked, visitors lined up to buy the dairy products.

Mount Kinabalu showed its face when we were at the dairy farm. Clear view of this mysterious mountain was really treasured.

Our photo at the farm.

Photo of the grassland.

You won't get bored by staring at the pictureque scenery like this for one hour.

Grazing cattle.

Even the workers' quarters look nice from the farm.

We stayed at Desa Farm for two hours until 4 pm. We took 20 minutes to go back to Kinabalu Park Headquarters for a quick visit. As the sky turned dark under the raining clouds, we didn't stay long in the park.

Our journey turned disastrous when we came to the smaller road lead to our hotel. Stay with us as our journey continued.

[Page 1][Page 2]

Other sharing about Sabah are available at

[Kota Kinabalu] [Hotels in Kota Kinabalu] [Food in Kota Kinabalu]

[Shopping in Kota Kinabalu] [Lok Kawi Wildlife Park] 
[Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park]
[All Our Destinations]

Getting Around Bagan

Taking Flight to Bagan

The most concerning question about Bagan- how to get there? Flying within Myanmar is expensive. We tried to be early in booking the ticket. We contacted our hotel manager in Yangon a month before our departure from Malaysia. We got a simple reply by email- they would handle the tickets for us.

Without being asked for the information such as our full names, nationality, passport number, etc. we had wondered how exactly they could "handle" our booking.

Not to our surprise, our tickets were not ready upon our arrival at Yangon. The manager told us that in Myanmar, it was "normal" to book the flight ticket a day before the departure. Well, that's what we learnt in Myanmar.

As the tickets were not ready, we decided to scout for several airline agents in Yangon for the best deal- Air KBZ, with the price USD110 per person per trip was what we got. The fare was expensive compared to the domestic flights in Malaysia. However, that's the best deal we could get.

We found that the domestic airport in Yangon was really modest. Of course, we found out later that Bagan Airport was even worse. However, to our relieve, the aeroplanes used by KBZ Airline were in good condition, with remarkable good service.

The departure hall of the Yangon Domestic Airport is small, with a few stalls selling local souvenirs (upper left). Check in counters (upper right) with the eye-catching red analog weights (lower right) in the airport. These nostalgic analog weights has gone extinct in our country 20 years ago. The departure hall was quite crowdy when we were waiting for our flight.

The inflight service was better than what we had expected. The air cabin was clean and tidy (upper left). The food was served together with wet tower.

Bagan Airport was small. The building was well maintained from the outside (upper row). However, the arrival hall and baggage reclaim room were basically in a same small room (lower left). The waiting area, check in counter, toilets, money changer, airline representatives, souvenir shops, a small cafe, and everything else were located in a same area (lower right). The counter selling admission ticket to Bagan Archaeological Park can be seen on the right of the photo.

People

Most of people in Bagan couldn't understand English, except for those who work in tourism and related industries. They were friendly, as when we greeted them, they replied in a polite way. A few young monks asked us for "donation" at Shwezigon, while several vendors approached us to sell their products. We could easily turned them away through a soft and polite refusal.

One of the vendors that we met at Thatbyinnyu asked us many things about our country. He had friends working in Malaysia. Our first night at Bagan, we found two villagers singing and playing guitar ouside of our eatery. They were happy enough to take photo with us. Then, our hotel's manager talked to us regarding the education and future of kids in Bagan. We enjoyed talking to these friendly people.

Currency and Exchange

Money changing was available in Nyaung U. USD 1 to 930 Kyat at KBZ Bank. That was the best deal we had in Myanmar. Hawkers and vendors by the road offered money changing as well, with one problem- terrible rate.

In Bagan, Kyat was more convenient to be used than US Dollar. In fact, we used Kyat all the time in Bagan. US Dollar was used only for entrance fees (USD10 for Bagan Archaeological Park and USD5 for the museum).

Place to Stay

We stayed in Thiri Marlar Hotel in New Bagan. New Bagan is around 8 km south of Nyaung U. Most of the hotels are available in New Bagan and Nyaung U. Nyaung U is a small town, while New Bagan is like a small village. Thiri Marlar Hotel was located at Thiri Marlar Street at New Bagan.

Thiri Marlar Hotel was a good hotel. Ranked high in Tripadvisor, the hotel provided good services with just USD45 per night for a double room. Well, it worth every single cent that we had paid. The breakfast on the roof level of the hotel was an amazing experience- looking over the old temple structures while enjoying our breakfast. The room came with water heater in the bathroom, air conditioner, nice bed, mini bar and wooden floor. The room service was punctual and satisfying as well.

The down side, there were no water boiler and coffee making facilities (maybe the tap water was not safe for drinking), the water pressure was not powerful enough, and no tv.

Thiri Marlar Hotel was a nice place to stay. The two-storey building has a very unique design (upper left). Taking breakfast on the roof was a wonderful experience (upper right). However, we had to be early to avoid torturing sun ray and heat. The lobby where we could connect to internet (lower right). The connection was terrible, but we were grateful to get connected, especially at the place where the hand phone receiver was unstable. We were satisfied with the room.

The surrounding area from the roof top of the hotel.

In our opinion, both Nyaung U and New Bagan can be a good place to stay. However, if you wish to stay at somewhere a bit closer to "civilization", then Nyaung U will be a better choice. Well, at least we could find general post office, banks, clinic, and police station in Nyaung U. 

However, for us, staying in New Bagan was all right. At least, the place was far from being a no man's land.

Traffic and Transportation

Mention about the road, uh, we should put it in this way- only a few roads in Bagan, which connected the major villages were built by asphalt, the rest, could only be considered as sand paths. The sand paths were not friendly to bicycle and motorcycle riders, and it turned worse in rain.

So, if you are not planning to take a bicycle, then you have less choices- either the horse cart or taxi. Hot, dry, and filled with sands. This was what we could feel with the air in Bagan. So, if you wish to have a nice enjoyable trip, cooling air conditioning taxi with full protection against the sandy wind might be the only choice you have. For us, we took taxi for all our trips around Bagan.

Price for taxi, 7000 Kyat was charged for New Bagan to Nyaung U trip, and from airport to New Bagan. However, the rental for one day was 40,000 Kyat, and 23,000 Kyat for half day. Haggling will help to reduce the price a bit. By the way, the rental for a bicycle was 1500 Kyat per day. For the horse cart, the rental was more or less similar to taxi.

Sand path with the shoulder of gravel (upper left). Our taxi driver for the first day was good in English (upper right). We used the service from our hotel to get the taxi services. The fee can be negotiated through the phone. Bicycle is good to be used on the main asphalt road (lower right). Horse cart provides minimal protection to the weather and sandy wind.

 Some of the asphalt road was narrow.

 Bigger and better road connecting New Bagan to Old Bagan.

 Bicycle for rent.

Street in New Bagan

The street was safe and quiet, day and night. Cars and anything with four wheels were not many. Motorbikes were the most commonly used vehicles by the locals. The streets in New Bagan were covered by a thick layer of sand, bringing the feel like walking on a sandy beach.The houses were rare, which most of them had their own compound.

At night, the streets turned quiet after 10 pm. Lack of illumination, a torch light was required to move around without being tripped by stones, or stepped on a sleeping dog. By the way, dogs were roaming freely within the village area. Lucky, these beasts were tame and friendly to the visitors.

 One of the house beside the street in New Bagan.

 Sign for internet service.

Whole stretch of night street with no human activity at all. This photo was taken around 8:30 pm at the street where we had our dinner.

      
Food

Lucky, the food was nice in Bagan (just a bit oily). We found that the food served were quite similar to Chinese food, with a little bit different with the spices that we used. Some traditional Myanmar food could be found too. A few shop that we would like to recommend- San Carlo Restaurant and The Golden Bagan Restaurant.

San Carlo Restaurant was a combination of a restaurant, art gallery, and a place to rent a bicycle, the restaurant was located 50 meters away from our hotel. We dined there for two consecutive nights.

Food served at San Carlo Restaurant. The price was around 2000 Kyat per person (RM7, USD2.30), including the drinks.

Golden Myanmar 121 was located around 200 meters north of Tharabar Gate (if we follow the main road). What attracted us was the Myanmar cuisine served in special buffet style.

The special buffet- we had more than 10 traditional Myanmar food, which we could refill once we had finished it. Some of the food were quite oily, as overall, it was OK. The price was quite cheap- 3000 Kyat per person (RM10.50, USD3.45).

 Our group photo at Golden Bagan 121.

Sarabha Restaurant was located 50 meters north of Tharabar gate. It was nicely decorated, good food, and polite waiters, but the flies were intolerable.

We had a lunch at A Little Bit of Bagan at Thi Ri Pyitsaya 4 Street. It was a famous restaurant at the famous street in Nyaung U. However, we found the price was a bit expensive with the taste, a bit overrated.

What to Buy

Lacquerware is something that you need to see with your own eyes to appreciate. Made by bamboo and wood, the lacquerware required excellent craftsmanship and time for the lacquer to dry up. We visited Bagan House which was located at Sabae Street, New Bagan, some 50 meters away from our hotel. Click here to visit official website of Bagan House.

How about supermarket? Forget about it. As far as we could see, there was not even a grocery shop in New Bagan.

The sign board of lacquerware workshop could be easily spotted from the road.

The raw material for lacquerware- natural colouring powder, bamboo, wood, lacquer from the tree, ash of buffalo's bone, etc.

The pattern displayed on lacquerware was 100% hand drawn.

 Lacquerware with amazingly fine hand drawn pattern

Lacquerware were available at the vendors scattered around the temples. Beside lacquerware, sculptures and other small decorative items are available too. Our experience, these items were not cheap, and the prices were more or less the same across Bagan.

We don't know what to recommend beside this unique lacquerware. The lacquerware is not cheap. A small piece of cup can easily cost USD3, and a small tray, USD10. So, if you wish to get a special souvenir at Bagan, you can pick one small lacquerware. Well, for us, we picked a small tray to be displayed in our living room.

Overall Remark

Bagan is a place for old temple lovers. If you don't have a special interest in these relics of the old kingdom,then Bagan is not a place for you. Frankly speaking, a place without even a convenient shop, an eatery with air conditioner, and a pub or coffee house that people can drink and talk is not suitable for everyone.

Internet access connection and hand phone signal were limited during our visit as well. Plus, the temperature soared to 38 degree Celsius (in May) and we had to take our shoes and socks off and walking barefoot in boiling hot temple compound, the trip was simply had nothing to do with "pleasant" or "enjoyable".

So, if you are interested to see some of the scenery as shown in our blog and have no intention to go deep into the history part of these temples, two days trip should be more than enough. You can take off on the evening of day 2, or early morning in day 3.

The environment was harsh to tourists. However, Bagan depicted to us the living where constant provision of electricity and water were not an obligation, where cars were rare and limited, where the roads were filled with sands and horse carts, where the locks were not required on a bicycle, and where people were still smile and greet the strangers. In Bagan, we saw the relationship between human beings, which the language was the only barrier. 

By the way, please bear in mind that the temples in Bagan, all of them are considered as tiny and small compare to the temples in Angkor Archaeological Park. The exquisite architecture of the Angkor's temples is far beyond the Bagan's counterparts. We visited Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap, Cambodia in 2010. Our sharing is available here.

[Bagan,Ancient City of Myanmar] [Getting Around Bagan] 

[First Day in Yangon- From 38th Street to Bogyoke Aung San Market]

[Second Day in Yangon- From Shwedagon to Karaweik]

[Food in Yangon] [Getting Around Yangon]

[All Our Destinations]

Bagan, Ancient City of Myanmar- Page 3

Second day, the tiredness took effect. We took a long rest in the morning, and started our trip at lunch time. Our target, a group of temples at Minnanthu Village, 5 km south of Nyaung U.

Our tour guide cum driver brought us to Nyaung U for lunch. Then, we started our second sequence of temples walkthrough- Leimyethna, Tayokepyay, Thambula (built by a queen), Thon Zu (the only triple pagoda structure), Dhamma Yazika pagoda (the pagoda with 5 faces), and Pyat-Tha-Gyi for sunset. We took a quick stop at Gawdaw Palin before we headed back to our hotel at 6 pm. Many of these temples were not stated in map. We could never get to these temples without a local guide. Overall, the temples at Mannanthu are lesser compared to the temples around Old Bagan area.

Lei-Myet-Hna

Leimyethna means "four sides". Believed to be built by the prime minister of  King Htilominlo, the temple is well preserved, with the quarter for the monks, praying hall, and a few other structures were built within the compound of the temple. The temple was said to be "whitened" by the villages. The restoration of the temple was ongoing during our visit. 

Leimyethna is a small white temple. Frankly, the walkway with metal cover ruined the view of this ancient temple.

Other ruins within the compound of Leimyethna.

Thon-Zu

Thonzu means "three", thus Paya-Thon-Zu is the name for the three temples that joined together. All three temples are identical to each other. The building of this temple was taken place in late 13th century, and it was left unfinished when the whole kingdom was abandoned.

Thonzu is located just 200 meters from Leimyethna, with Tayokephay and Thambula just 200 meters away. More information about this temple is available at BaganMyanmar.com.

Thon Zu is neither magnificient, nor attractive from the outside. Some web information stated that the interesting part of this temple is the mural drawn inside the temple. So, maybe you will have to go into the temple instead of looking at it from the outside.

Tayoke-Pyay

Tayoke-Pyay, or pronounce as Tayok-Pye carries the meaning of "The king who fled the army from China". In fact, the intruders were came from Mongolia instead of China. Built by King Narathihapate (1256-1287), this is one of a few last temples built in Bagan.

Tayoke-Pyay in the rain. We didn't went into this temple because of the raining, and the temple looked dark inside. This was one of the temples which the upper level was still open to visitors, but it wouldn't be long.

Thambula

It was built by a queen. That makes this temple unique among the others. Thambula, who was the consort of King Uzana built the temple in 1255 AD, one year before King Narathihapate succeeding the place of King Uzana. Although some historians are keen in debating the real name of Thambula (some said should be Thonlula), we found the only interesting part of this small single storey structure- its builder.

Located close to Tayoke-Pyay, Thon Zu, and Leimyethna, this small Thambula was built by Queen Tham Bula. You can see from the sign board that Thon Lula is written in bracket below Tham Bula. Interesting.

Dhamma Yazika

This pagoda is around 2 km south west of Minnanthu (at the middle of the road from Minnanthu to New Bagan).Dhammayazika means “Pertaining the King of Law”in Pali language. King Narapatisithu built the pagoda in 1198 AD to enshrine four holy relics from the King of Sri Lanka.The distinct part of this pagoda- it has 5 sides instead of normal 4. 

Dhamma Yazika was under restoration during our visit. We just took a short stay, about 10 minutes at the pagoda.

This pagoda is smaller than Shwezigon, and quite remote compared to the town-based Shwezigon in Nyaung U.

Surprisingly, the surrounding of the pagoda was nicely landscaped. Photos show the bells decorated with figures (left), and the walkway covered with flower trees.

Pyat-Tha-Dar

Pyatthadar, or Pyatthada is a big monastery, and is believed to be the last big construction in Bagan. King Kyawswa (1287-1298) is believed to be the builder of this monastery. As most monasteries in Bagan were built in wood, it is believed that the builder of Pyatthadar wish to show his power by building it with bricks.

What we found interesting about this structure- the double cover design (or double-cave style) exhibited within the entrance. There are small stairs built for us to access to the rooftop area of the building. We came for the sunset, and again, rain crushed our hope. The nice view around compensate a little bit but not much. We didn't stay there for long.

By the way, the road to Pyatthadar turned muddy in the rain and we saw a few cyclist stuck in the middle of the road. Please take care if you are planning to visit the temple on your own.

Pyatthadar from the main road. The land around the monastery was barren.

We went through the narrow stairs lead to the roof of the monastery (upper left), and saw the structure topping the building (upper right). The double cover design of the entrance can be clearly seen.

North-eastern view from Pyatthadar. Dhammayangyi can be seen on far left, while Sulamani is the biggest temple figure 1/3 from right side. Thatbyinnyu and Ananda, both with eyes-catching golden spire can be seen far away. Please enlarge this photo by clicking on it.

Close up of Sulamani using telephoto lense.

Southern view from Pyatthadar, with Dhamma Yazika can be seen at the far center of the photo. The land was barren. Ancient temples are dispersed beyond this point. This site is definitely not as good as Shwesandaw for us to see the sunset. Please click to enlarge this photo.

Gawdaw Palin

We visited Gawdawpalin on our way back to our hotel. The temple was completed by King Htilominlo (1211-1231). For us, it is a shorter twins of Thatbinnyu with the whitewashed wall and golden spire resemble the architecture of Ananda. This temple is located beside Bagan Archaeological Museum. Saturated by the temples, we didn't went into Gawdawpalin.

Whitewashed temple structure from outside the compound. Compared to Thatbyinnyu, this temple is short by only a few meters.

Closer look on Gawdaw Palin.

Third Day, we were quite relaxed with only one place left in our itinerary- Bagan Archaeological Museum. That morning, we went for a stroll around New Bagan, went for lunch around 12:30 pm, visited the museum, and went straight to the airport. We will share more about the accommodation and transportation in Bagan in our upcoming post.

Bagan Archaeological Museum
We struggled a bit before we put this museum into our place-to-visit list. Why? First, the comments by reviewers, good and bad were sort of 50-50, plus, the entrance fee of USD5. However, we came out with the decision- since we had travelled far into the land of Bagan, and since we had whole day to dispose, so why not (we had decided earlier that we had visited enough temples and were not going for more)?

 The museum from the gate.

 The decoration of the museum.

Statue of the hunter in front of the museum, with Gawdaw Palin at the back.

The museum is big, with many items exhibited- replicas and the genuine objects collected from the temples in Bagan. The ground floor- main chamber of the museum contained the sculpture of the kings in Bagan, with four side chambers exhibiting the life in Bagan, the work of restoration, and the artwork in Bagan. Many replicas were exhibited in this level. The first floor- the right chamber contained the drawing and the dimension of the temples in Bagan, and the left chamber displayed all Buddha statues recovered from the temples.

By visiting the museum, no doubt we have understood more about the history and the people in Bagan. However, some down side which could be improved- many of the description was written only in Burmese language. The air conditioner was not well functioning as well, which made a few chamber quite deterring.

If you ask,is it worth to visit the museum? Then our answer is yes, but if possible, visit the museum first before going out to the field to look for the temples. Some of the artifacts displayed with the places of discovery might give you more hints on where to visit in Bagan.

We will write more on getting around Bagan soon, with more sharing on accommodation, transportation, and food.

[Page 1][Page 2][Page 3]

[Bagan,Ancient City of Myanmar] [Getting Around Bagan] 

[First Day in Yangon- From 38th Street to Bogyoke Aung San Market]

[Second Day in Yangon- From Shwedagon to Karaweik]
[Food in Yangon] [Getting Around Yangon]
[All Our Destinations]