She Sell Sea Shell at the Sea Shore

Sea shell and coral have always facinate me with its texture and colours. In Sabah, I always go to the local market to see all this interesting sea shell and coral being display by the local seller.

For those creative people, it has been used as part of the media for painting which resulted in fantastic and esthetic arts. For interior decorators as a decorative items for the house and for those who have acquarium with beautiful fishes, this is some of the ornament that can be found in their aquarium.

The beautiful colour of the sea snail.
This is a biggest sea snail that i have found. The colour and texture is interesting.

Some of the decorative items from the sea.

I always love the coral.

It interesting especially when you travel to see all this product from the nature to be sold. For the local people, it is nothing special. For us who are not staying near to the sea, it something beautiful that mother earth provide.

Another point to ponder, will tourism be the cause of extinction of the flora or fauna species?

Be smart when you travel.

BBQ Ikan Keli (Cat fish) at Padawan stream

Picnic with a wonderful lunch, beer and good friends

A much needed weekend rest was spend going for picnic with friends at Benuk stream. We start our journey after a hearty breakfast going to a friend house. To my surprise, my friend have a fish farm, mainly rearing cat fish or keli in the local language using the canvas system. how wonderful it is generating money using minimum space by rearing ikan keli using this system.

We tour the farm and to my surprise they also conduct training for those interested and give a very professional and good advice on cat fish rearing. After looking at their ikan keli, I pursuade my friend to contribute some of his cat fishs for BBQ and cook it using the traditional style of bamboo cooking or 'pansuh'.

Here some of the Ikan keli in the canvas pond. It seem that when i was at the farm, a few people came and purchase the ikan keli for their meals or for rearing.


The ikan keli fry about 1 inch long for sale to the public. They do conduct course on ikan keli breeding method for those who are interested.


The canvas system of rearing the ikan keli.

After the tour, all of us when to the crystal clear river stream for BBQ and their kids was having a wonderful time. Seem like ages my friend's kid playing/swimming in the river or catching river snail. Kids... all about fun.


My friend's daughter start to swim before we even ready the tent for the picnic.
BBQ ikan keli, lamp chop and pansuh ikan keli with 'tempoyak' (traditional preserve durian) for lunch. Yummmy... i guess my stomach was bigger after lunch.


BBQ ikan keli...only bone left after lunch. The ikan keli are sweet and tender after BBQ.


Friends having a good time, fishing for river fish. Unfortunately caught none.


Having a good swim at the river. We will venture up river just to experience the wonderful stream in the near future. Just wait for it.

Waterfall: wong musuh at Kampung Nyukat, Sarikei

Beautiful Waterfall at Kampung Nyukat, Sarikei


I have spend a bit of time in Sarikei with my friends doing reccee to find suitable place to conduct the Localised Nature Guide course. Hance, we were invited to go to Rumah Panjang Nyukat (rumah panjai (iban) mean long house). It is actually an Iban long house. The invitation actually was from another group of friend doing recce to certified this longhouse as homestay. One of the activities that was planned was a hike to the waterfall called Wong Kepala Musuh. The name itself have some legend or folklore story in it as explained to us by the community there. During the hiking to the waterfall, we came across the paddy field (padi bukit) planted by the people of Rumah Nyukat. for me it beautiful and relaxing just to sit there and enjoy the breeze blowing.
Throughout the hiking we came across a lot of beautiful plants, snail and scenery. The picture below show a type of snail which is 7 cm in diameter. I have no idea of the local or scientific name for this snail.

We basically have to do some crossing on the stream during our hike. Unfortunately, during our hiking it rained and the supposed to be crystal clear water became milky colour because of the siltation. What to do! The small make shift bridge from a fallen tree. That will do for now.

A scenery duirng the trail to the waterfall. Palm trees, and nice trail...the palm trees not the same as at the seaside.



For about 40 minutes, we reach the waterfall as in the pictures below. This is just stage one of the waterfall. Because of our friends who is tired thus we did not proceed to the next stage of waterfall which is just above this one. As it require us to do some steep hiking.
A friend of mine enjoying the waterfall. all of us want to swim but it cold as it is raining.

On the way back we stop at a small hut belong to one of villager of Rumah Nyukat. Lunch was prepared in a traditional style by cooking using bamboo. It chicken and fish are cook in the bamboo. Giving out a nice aroma.

All of us are having a nice lunch consisted of cook chicken and fish in bamboo. Young shoot of palm trees (nibong). Rice rape in the leaves from the forest. Well, the problem we were facing is how to get going after lunch as all of us are full and satisfied.

It is a day worth of experience that I will never forget. Do join me for other trips. Hopefully, i will be going back to this waterfall when it is not raining to enjoy the crystal clear water.