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I visited Bako National Park few month back during Labour Day holiday. Due to time constrain, I only made a day trip to Bako and visited 1 out of 17 trails in the park.

From Kuching town, it will take around 45mins drive to the boat terminal. From there, we need to pay RM10 for registration and fill in a form to be submitted to the park office during arrival. A boat to Bako National Park cost RM47.00 per way, or RM94.00 return trip for max 5 person. So if you want to save cost, you may need to wait for more passenger to share a boat.

The boat journey to Bako National Park took around 30 mins. Before we reach the park, we decided to visit Bako’s famous landmark first, ie the unique sea stack which the local calls it “Batu Belah” (the split rock). This iconic landmark is situated between Teluk Pandan Kecil and Teluk Paku and the boat trip will require additional RM35.

We reached Bako National Park main office at around 11am.  Once completed the registration, we visited a simple park exhibition that introduced the history, geographic, flora and founa and visitor statistic of the park. There are 17 trails in the park for you to explore and we decided trek to Teluk Pandan Besar, one of the famous trail recommended by the park ranger for day trippers.

The trail runs for 2 and a half km from the park’s headquarter. We passed by mangrove area where the Proboscis Monkey can be spotted. After that is where the ascending starts… you will enter the high humidity rainforest jungle trail with steep slopes and moss covered rocks. This is definately not suitable for those who dislike sports. I’m already exhausted before I reach the top, yet I still need to lug along my camera and heavy tripod.

Well, I nearly suffered from sunburn as I didn’t know I need to trek at least 1 hour under hot burning sun. From mangrove till rainforest and suddenly, we reached a place with less vegetation which known as sandstone plateau or Kerangas forest. It consist of siliceous rocks, sandy and acidic soils, so only small shrub and shorter trees can be seen along the way. There are plenty of pitcher plant along the trail, really a bonus for pitcher plant lover. However, I’m very regret to say that I didn’t even take a single shoot of pitcher plant as I was nearly dehydrated under the hot burning sun and all I can think of was walk as fast as I could and hide under any shade that I can find (there were barely none!). I saw a lot of dried up pitcher plant on the shrubs too, not sure if it is due to the hot weather.

After some struggle, we finally reach Teluk Pandan Besar, cliff by the seaside. Nothing spectacular with the view (probably I’m too exhausted to enjoy the scenery) so after few clicks of photos as record, we headed way back once again under hot burning sun, back to the waiting boat that will bring us back to the terminal.

The lesson I’ve learned through this trip was, 1st, make sure you search extra info before travel, so you can prepare well. 2nd, Never bring along tripod to climb mountain unless you are physically very fit person. Sun block lotion or small unbrella and extra water supply (1.5 Liter is not enough!).