A DAY IN MONTORIA

25th February 2018

Some may have heard and some may not. It's a new hiking trail anyway, just opened for visitors last year around this time. It is located in Kota Belud and is about 2 hours drive from the city center. Believe me, it is totally away from the busy city but that doesn't mean that it's not keeping up with modernization. The people does, but the nature...? They are incredibly preserved. 

 Yessir! This is where we went to lose ourselves again but managed to come back intact. Aura Montoria is what they called it. It's where you'll find lots of unknown plants and weird rocks, I mean large rocks, like LARGE! Uh... Maybe huge is more appropriate. 

I've watched a documentary about this Borneo island once,  I don't remember if it's a Discovery Channel or something, but it was said that Borneo was once a 150000 years old inhabited island before the sea level decreased and connected it from the mainland. Then, at some point the sea level raised again therefore isolating this island from the other lands. The treasures on this island remained untouched for another thousand of years.  If you really been around this island, you can see the evidence of these thousand years legacy. This place is one of the many things that remained. The unexplained existence of the large rocks, the diversity of wilderness, creeping insects and rare plants and herbs. No leech, thanks God. 

The locals lived around this place for quite some time before it was opened for foreign visitors in early 2017. Since its close to the village, you will see lot's of agricultural activity along the way. Mostly rubber estates and orchards. The organizer is quite friendly and kind, we even get to eat pineapples from their farm and some wild fruits, it's fresh and sweet. 

Do you like water? Yes! Of course there is the white water river for you. You can soak, swim, dive from a cliff and even row a bamboo raft. It's amazing!  Ah!  Yes. Who likes fish?  They allow the visitors to swim with the fish and feed them, but don't catch them. They're part of the nature. 

Stopping to fill our bottles with the mineral water. The water is certified and ensured safe to be consumed by a research team. I am still kicking and alive as a proof to that. The water is cold enough to quench your thirst and prevent dehydration on a hot day in case you run out of drinking water. 

Super durable hiking shoe made of  rubber. It last longer than any good brands out there. It's what we prefer to wear every time we stomped on the muddy, rocky and slippery trails. 

FYI this is not a cave. It's just a tall tree with passage at its base. It was roughly 7 feet tall and 2 and a half feet wide. Huge innit? 

Resting and having lunch at the last check point. We were thinking of dipping into the water but later decided to lie down and rest our tired feet before hiking our way back. 

Last but not least, let the pictures do the talking. 

I could have put all our pictures here but it will consume a lot of space because there were tons of them. So just enjoy these few memorable pictures at the moment. 

LIPS FEATURING WANDERLUST

This is the core member of our team.. Team Wanderlust.

It started nearly two years ago... 

I met these two friends, Arleen and Nara, and everything became awesome and wonderful!  We are the Wanderlust. Although we are not celebrities, but we live our lives to the fullest and enjoyed everything that is fun and crazy.

We started going on adventures by adventures together. We went paragliding by the mountain, almost drown to death in a white water rafting, dived from the cliff into the waterfall bed and even fight leeches in the tropical forest together. It was crazy but we survived.

But not until this year I had the chance to write about our adventures. It's going to be another fruitful year I promise. So, I decided to make this blog, my Lost In Places blog, a dedicated record for our activities from today onwards. Hopefully it also helps to guide people out there to an awesome adventure too. We are based in Borneo, so for the time being, I'll write mostly about places in Borneo particularly Sabah. However, our team always wander so, there might be writings about other places as well. 

This blog is more like our journal for now. So, if you found it interesting, you might want to leave a comment or two and if you have a place back in your neighborhood that you want to suggest, you're welcome to put that in the comments too. We're up for suggestions anytime and anywhere as long as it's fun-tastic.

Have a great day! 

MURUG TURUG WATERFALL HEAVEN ADVENTURE

January 30th, 2018

It was a perfect Tuesday for an adventure in the wild when we set out to try the longest trail in Murug Turug Waterfalls Heaven. It is located roughly thirty to forty five minutes away from the city center in a small town called Tamparuli. This town is famous among the locals for it's suspension bridge and there was even a song about it. You might want to check it out some time later, the Jambatan Tamparuli song. 

They said that you might want to take a deep breathe if you choose this trip and it's true. Have you ever go for a hike where you need to go down the hill first then finish the hike by climbing rocks?  No, right?  At least we haven't. Usually we'll start off climbing the hill then only we descend. This trail is the against the the Newton's law. But you'll be treated with extraordinary views. It's a win win situation, mi amigo. The trail is hard but the view is expensive. 

I've been to some hiking trails around but I give this one a thumbs up, I mean out of five star, I'll give four and a half. It is a real forest, with minimal signs of agriculture, the river is untouched you still can see the aftermath of the storms few weeks ago and the waterfalls are more than 10 feet tall so there's no way you can dive from the top. You'll fall on the rock bed though. There were seven tall waterfalls and all of them are beautiful. 

The package that we chose that day has the longest trail of 12KM. I'm telling you, 12KM is not a child play. At first you might think that it's easy to turn back but when you reach the first waterfall, you'll give up the idea. It's better to keep moving because the trail you've passed is way too far and exhausting. Ah!  There is this tower on top of a hill on the way to the waterfall, they called it Malas Kalas Peak. That tower allows you to have a wide view of the surrounding mountain ranges.  It's made of wood and it's shaky though. But, don't worry so far, no incidents happened. The most important thing is, there are guides along the trip. They are good qualified local and always willing to help. 

What you need to bring with you on this trip?  What did we bring?

Hiking gear 

Hiking shoes - preferably made of highly durable material like rubber

Slipper - in case you want to change in the waterfall

Cap

Drinking water - 1.5 - 2 L

Waterproof bag 

Snacks, fruits and food for lunch

Camera with waterproof casing

Phone with waterproof casing

Change of clothes - in case you want to dive into the waterfall

Raincoat - in case it rains

Well that's all... 

If you're not a mosquito friendly person, you might want to bring some repellent, because its tropica. There are some part of the trail that you might need to use hiking pole and some part of it you might want to use gloves but we didn't bring any. Most of the last five kilometers was very steep that they installed rope along the trail for hikers. You'll feel like you're going rock climbing sometimes. Their guide have first aid kit so don't worry, but you might want to bring your own medicine if you have any allergic to bugs or bees. It's unexpected to get stung by bees or insects since it is their habitat. 

It took us five exhausting hours to finish that day. We started hiking at 9 a.m and came back at three in the afternoon. The weather wasn't so good and we had to take it slow because the trail was so slippery and lots of loose rocks.  

If it wasn't for the rain we would have had a chance to dip into the last waterfall but the nature did not allow us. The last waterfall is quite unique, the water spins before falling from more than 10 meters. They called it the Murug Turug Waterfall, literally means the spinning waterfall in Dusun language. 

This is the starting point and also where you will finish. It by the road side on the way to another famous town, Ranau, so not so hard to find. 

The observatory tower fully made of wood. Feels like you're in a Spartan war observing your teritory from the top of a hill.  

This is where you can show your hiking with rope skill. The muddy trail is slippery and if you're wearing improper pair of shoes this rope helps a lot. But your hand is going to sting a little too. You can wear glove if you want. 

Lunch guys!  It's necessary since we've been exerting too much for hours and unfortunately we went off without breakfast that day. 

This is the time when you are going to need a raincoat. We didn't bring any, therefore we went home soaked in the rain. It's been a great experience for us anyway. We joked, we laughed and we relaxed in the rain. 

So, that's it. Our day trip to an interesting place with beautiful views and hardcore muddy trail. It's been an awesome day. 

If you're a trail hunter and looking for a spice, you can try this trail. You can contact their crews and get more information about this place in their Facebook account, Murug Turug Eco Tourism. Let them know you're interested, they have friendly and welcoming crews. 

Ciao. See you on our next adventures.