beautifulkk.com

an orangutan on its way to the feeding platform

The future looks grim and the present looks cloudy, this is the plight of the orangutan. The forests in the world are shrinking rapidly day by day, even in the the last frontier of Borneo. The orangutan is loosing their home land (habitat) to the continuous clearing of the forests to what man called human development. Deforestation due to illegal logging and the continuous land clearing for the oil palm plantations are taking its toll on the orangutan population in the wild. The scientists estimated that there are about 11,000 wild orangutans left in Sabah, this might seems a rather hopeful piece of news. But orangutan has the slowest reproduction cycle in the mammals world, and most of them live a solitary life, their species survivor is really left in our hands. Conservation is the key to that goal.

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Kota Kinabalu (KK) is well known for its grand beach resorts, beautiful mountains, exotic islands, and not forgeting its well organised eco-tourism industry. For those who love nature and wildlife, a wonderful and exciting holidays experience are waiting for you at KK. Since KK is situated in the northern part of Borneo Island, the most viable way to get here is by plane. With this in mind some people think that visiting KK can be expensive, which is not true at all. With a little planning, budget airlines, and a few good tips, visiting Kota Kinabalu on a shoestring is really possible, and even though on a limited budget, your visit to KK can still be a memorable one.

How to get here?
Since Air Asia started the budget airline industry some seven years ago, backpackers suddenly have a tool to visit Kota Kinabablu without burning a hole in their pockets. Today not only Air Asia has cheap fare to KK, Malaysia Airlines and Jetstar also have great saving and budget air fares to Kota Kinabalu through out the year. Watch out for their sale and special offer online.

• www.airasia.com
• www.malaysiaairlines.com
• www.jetstar.com

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beach bums jetty

If you want to relax and take some time out from your busy schedules, Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park is the prefect place to unwind and laze your day away. Pulau Manukan, Pulau Mamutik and Pulau Sapi are the three most visited islands in this marine park. Beach Bums is one of the three jetties in Kota Kinabalu that provides hourly ferry service to these islands, the other two are at Sutera harbour and Jesselton Point. Located at the marina of Tanjung Aru Beach hotel, Beach Bums service starts as early as 8:00 am and this service will run until the last ferry schedule at 4:00pm. Return from the islands begin as early as 8:15 am and end at 4:30 pm.

ready to go

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clown anemonefish (nemo)

One of the best activities at Manukan island is of course snorkelling, and it is also very affordable. All you need is a few equipment like mask, snorkel and fin, and you are ready to jump into the sea and snorkel away. For those who want to be more cautious, just put on a life jacket and it will help you to float and ease your swimming effort. If you don’t have these equipment, no worry, they can be rented at the various jetties in Kota Kinabalu, namely Jesselton Point, Beach Bums, and Sutera Harbour, while on your way to the island.

Manukan Island has a big coral area, the size of a football field, at its north east corner. With clear sea water, shallow coral reef, and the warm weather, you can snorkel for hours here looking at the many interesting tropical fish and corals. Just watch out for the strong sun, sunburn is not fun. At any given day one can spot as many as 30 species of tropical fish. If you are lucky enough you might spot one or two turtles on the outer skirt of the reef. Some of the popular and colourful residential fish at Manukan are clownfish (nemo), butterflyfish and parrot fish. To find the clownfish, one has to look for the sea anemone a kind of coral. Clownfish live among the tentacles of the sea anemone, the only fish that not get stung by the sea anemone tentacles.

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