Borneo International Marathon 2008

I had posted an article on this event in another blog Sabah,but I think visitors to this blog might also be interested too.Here is the link: Sabah.

Bird watching to lure tourists

Students from more than 20 overseas and local institutes of higher leanrning together with members from the public took part in replanting mangrove trees in Sabah Wetland Conservation Society (fomerly known as KK City Birds Sanctuary),witnessed by the minister of Tourism,Cultures and Environment of Sabah,Datuk Masidi Manjun and Tengku Zainal Adlin,Chairman of Malaysia WWF. Datuk Masidi praised the participants for contributing a concious effort towards conserving the mangrove trees in Sabah.

These trees not only provide a sanctuary for birds,they also offer excellent protection against natural disasters like tidal waves (tsunami) by forming a natural barrier for the sea shores. He said the large area of sea fronts grown with mangrove trees(about 1/3 of the nation's mangrove trees are found in Sabah)helps to prevent soil erosion every year. Datuk Masidi suggested that Sabah should capitalise on the large number of birds of diferent species to lure foreign visitors.This will greatly enhance the tourism industry.

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Happy harvest festival

Wishing all my KDM friends:

2008 Sabah Dragon Boat Race

The 23rd Sabah Dragon Boat Race will be held at Likas Bay,Kota Kinabalu on 15 June 2008. The event is jointly organised by the Sabah Tourism Board and the Chinese Cultural Association of Sabah. Datuk Chau Tet On,chairman of the organising committee,reminded managers of participating teams to submit their completed entry forms at the following places:(1) Sabah Tourism Board's office, (2) Sri Travel Agency at Sinsuran,before end of May.This is to facilitate the committee to draw up time table for pratices. Datuk Chau,who is also the chairman for CCAS, disclosed that Shen Tzen City from Canton Province in China will be sending a team organised by the Bao An district.China is sending a team for the first time,making it the historic precedent which will serve to encourage the interactions between Shen Tzen and Sabah,to enhance tourism and to promote Chinese cultures. Datuk Chau also hoped that with the strong support from the state government through sponsoring and gazetting this Chinese cultural event as an official annual event for the state,the Chinese community will show more support and participate keenly,thus not letting it to be dominated by bumiputra teams as it did in past years. It is learned that the 2 local major Chinese political parties,MCA and SAPP,are definately sending their teams,so are the Foo Chow Association and Sze Yup Association. To add more excitements,other dialect clans like Hakka Association,Hokkien Association,Hua Pei Association,Hainan Association,United Chinese Clans Association and The Federation Of Chinese Associations are in the midst of organising their teams for the event.Datuk Chau added that beside sending a jointly organised team,outstation societies are also allowed to send their own teams through individual affiliates.Blank entry forms can be obtained at the 2 places mentioned above too. Please be informed that the event will be completed within the same day,that is on 15 June itself due to lack of fund as there is no allocations. There will be 6 categories:

1. TYT Governor cup
2. Chief Minister Cup
3. Chinese Cultural of Sabah Cup (Men)
4. Chinese Cultural of Sabah Cup (Mixed)
5. Dragon Cup
6. Tourism Cup

Students may participate through: (1)School teams - with prior approval from the Education Department,(2)Non School teams - with prior approvals from parents and Head Masters. Similar articles
Sabah Dragon Boat Competition

2008 Sabah International Fishing Tournament

The 2008 Sabah International Fishing Tournament will be held at Mengalum Island and the waters within its 20 nautical miles radius on April 11-13.The tournament,which is jointly organised by Sabah Anglers Association and the Sutera Harbour Marina & Country club,will be flagged off at the resort's Marina Club at 9:00AM on April 11.All participants are requested to register before April 10, and subsequently to attend a briefing the same evening in order to familarize themselves with the newly amended rules and regulations. The Association's President,Datuk Wilfred Lingam,announced that a team event will be introduced in addition to the existing individuals event.Each team will comprise 3 persons,entry fees will be RM180.00 each person.Closing date is at 6:00PM on April 10. Below are some of the prizes up for grap:

	Team Event
Position	Prize
1	RM10,000.00
2	RM3,000.00
3	RM2,000.00
4	RM1,000.00
5	RM 800.00
	Individual Event
Position	Category	Prize	Qualify Wt
1	Marlin	RM1,000.00	100kg
1	Sailfish	RM1,000.00	50kg
1	Tuna	RM500.00	50kg
1	Trevally	RM500.00	50kg
1	Wahoo	RM500.00	10kg
1	Mackerels	RM500.00	10kg
1	Cobia	RM500.00	10kg
1	King-Fish	RM500.00	10kg
1	Barracuba	RM250.00	10kg
1	Jewfish	RM250.00	10kg
1	Grouper	RM250.00	10kg
1	Snapper	RM250.00	10kg

The theme of this year's event is: SAVE OUR SEAS !
Minister of Tourism,Datuk Masidi Manjun, will give away the prizes to winners at 10:00AM on April 13. 2009 update

Mahua Waterfalls

Category: Hill Resorts

The Mahua waterfalls is located 26 km from Tambunan,an important town to the Kadazan-Dusun community.It breeds many outstanding mommunity leaders and is the home to their current Huguan Siou (Paramount Leader) Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan.

Tambunan is 1 hour and a half drive on an uphill road,which is winding but properly sealed and graded.It is a pass in the huge Crocker Range which is the watershed of the island with east coast on one side,and west coast on the other.Here you will discover this is a wide stretch of flat land amongst the surrounding hills,thus forming the "rice bowl" of Sabah.It is also the only gateway between the east coast and the west coast long before any access road was constructed. On the way you will pass by several small resorts which cater for small groups of visitors who want to relax in the cool mountain breeze and fresh air for the weekends. Notably is the Gunung Emas Resort which started as a refreshment stop-over for taxi and truck drivers and served meat of wild animals like foxes,squirrels,snakes,deers and wild boars during weekends.As its popularity grew,it increased the number of rooms and introduced the tree-top huts.

Near Tambunan is situated the Tambunan Rafflesia Garden which boasts of the largest number of naturally grown wild rafflesia buds.

When you leave Tambunan town and head in the direction of Ranau,you will reach a village,Patau after 15 minutes.Further down the road is the waterfalls.

Since the Mahua waterfalls is surrounded by tall rainforest trees the air is cool, temperature can be as low as 15 degree Celsius at night.Mahua falls’ breath-taking scenery is reminiscent of the famous Niagara Falls, which continuously sprays mist as the water crashes into the pool below. The environment, beautiful and serene, is definitely captivating.

The authority,according to Datuk Pairin, is going to have the access road surface properly sealed and scheduled to be completed by July.The fascilities at the site like changing rooms,toilet,hostel and canteen will be upgraded to attract more foreign visitors.There were 5022 visitors to the waterfalls last year,from countries including Canada,USA,Australia,Germany,France,UK,Norway and Brunei.

Datuk Pairin, who is the elected representative for Tambunan constituency, said the government will build more fascilities to lure more visitors to come here and have longer stay which in turns will enhance the local folks' income through sales of their agricultural products , handicrafts and traditional food.

Chinese New Year Influx

Datuk Masidi Manjun,the Sabah Minister of Tourism,Cultures and Environment has disclosed that visitors from China,Hong Kong and Taiwan has continued to increase tremendously.The increase last year was 34.4% over the previous year. Over 5000 visitors from this sector are expected to arrive during the Chinese New Year season alone.They will arrive in 22 chartered flights.Therefore there is a lingering fear that there might be a shortage of hotel rooms during that period considering there are also visitors from other parts of the world.