Friday, February 26, 2010

Pulau Sapi *by JS*

The next day after the Mt Kinabalu adventure, monkey and JS decided to go island hopping around the Tunku Abdul Rahman(TAR) National park. The National Park was established in 1974, just offshore Kota Kinabalu. It comprises 49 square kilometers of which two-thirds are sea, and the rest are coral reefs and five islands namely Pulau Gaya, Pulau Sapi, Pulau Manukan, Pulau Mamutik and Pulau Sulug. The park is named after the first Prime Minister of Malaysia.
The little island is Pulau Sapi

Pulau Sapi, literally known as "Cow Island" in Malay is just off the south-western tip of Pulau Gaya. The 25 acre island features one of the nicest beaches in the park and most popular with tourists for snorkeling and scuba diving. It is developed with tourist facilities that includes a jetty, picnic shelters, barbecue pits, tables, changing rooms and toilets. The forest is inhabited by curious crab eating macaque monkey so watch your belongings !

The island is underlaid by folded sandstone, shale and marl which are basically sedimentary rock and are part of the Crocker range rock formation of the western coast of Sabah. Towards the end of Ice Age which happened about one million years ago, changes of the sea level occurred, resulting in portions of the mainland being cut off by the sea, thus forming the islands of which one of it is Pulau Sapi. Exposed folded sandstone outcrops still feature the coasts of most of these islands forming cliffs, caves, honeycomb and deep crevasses hence creating a very interesting shoreline.
no crab eating macaque monkey insight but got this carnivore monkey :)
Pristine beach
View of beach from the other side
Contrasting rugged side of Pulau Sapi
Interesting sedimentary folded rock formation
curved sandstone cliff sculptured by the forces of nature
This honeycomb rock was probably form by waves trapping exploding air as it crashes on the shore thru the course of time
Really serene side of Pulau Sapi
The island in the distance is Pulau Manukan which we are heading to soon
amazingly crystal clear turquoise water and just look at the fishes!!
there was a few garfish swimming around!!
and something for you wildlife enthusiast!
So folks, you have seen quite a fair bit of Sabah in the last couple of days.....it's now time to log on, book your flights, book your hotel pack your swimming trunks/bikinis and head for the "LAND BELOW THE WIND" :)

7 comments:

amy guan said...

very informative entry complete with geotechnical informations!!!! lovely

Tsu Lin + + said...

This is def a change from the normal programme of cherry.com but I must say I quite like it. JS's commentary is so informative & interesting but I especially love the way he punctuates them with photos of "Interesting sedimentary folded rock formation" or the "curved sandstone cliff sculptured by the forces of nature" (PS : should be CURVACEOUS, not curved :P)

Brilliant.

I managed to visit Manukan and Mamutik? Love Sabah! Monkey is lucky she has a local to bring her to explore the place.

js said...

thanks guys for the feedback :)
i shall make my postings even more interesting in the future......well, us ingeniers sometimes do get carried away with technical details...... :)

CHER-RY said...

Amy the Guan: I think all engineers *incl urself* are very very technical....kekekeke
TL: wah Js got fan base liao. He will take over the blog next month when I'm in Switzerland for work :))

Tsu Lin + + said...

Ahem Cherry, I am an engineer too... (E&E).

js said...

yes, we ingeniers build this world :)

CHER-RY said...

Alamak!!! i m in an Engineer forum pulak!!! :P

me only half engineer...financial engineer :P that was wat written on my paper but never utilise oso :P.