THE eyebrow-raising verdict is out: The Asean Sustainable Tourism Award (Rural) 2022 goes to Walai Penyu Conservation Park, Libaran – an unsung island 40 minutes from Sandakan, which was excluded from the 1,740ha Turtle Islands Park Sabah set up between 1966 and 1968
BACK to travel writing. This time I suggest try one of the most interior towns of all – Pensiangan, a Murut name meaning located at the confluence of two rivers, in fact, two beautiful, crystal rivers – Saliu and Tagoh.
The reason is on my 3-5 December 2021 trip there with Tham Yau Kong, I heard Ansom Putiang, President of Murut Tahol Association, poured out his concern on what genuinely mattered to villagers of fantastic Kampung Salinatan.
Ansom said: “This is our plight, there is no economy here, so young people are leaving because they see no future.”
But Ansom, a learned primary school principal of 34 years, saw an economic future in ecotourism, who fought very hard to protect and conserve Kg Salinatan’s pristine river bound 500ha old growth forest and water catchment that is studded with a stock of belian trees, managed to persuade his young teacher nephew, Aloysius Robert, to form and become president of the
BACK to exciting travel writing as a roving reporter. The usual thing is everybody travels to places. What about travel to hearts and minds to see what unsung folks in Sabah’s Murut heartlands are thinking and doing?
In so doing, I was stunned by a core of real conservationists doing real conservation among people one least expects – Murut Tahol in the middle of nowhere set to monetise their stock of belian treasure standing rather than logged and cut down for short term money!
That happened December 3, 2021, in far flung valley-bound Kampung Salinatan, Pensiangan, hemmed in by pristine forests and soaring hills by the bank of crystal clear River Saliu.
After a scintillating afternoon boat battle up pure river Saliu against multiples of roaring rapids steered on by unbelievably skilful Murut lads, sights of undisturbed riparian reserves impressed all the way, sheer jungle, a stock of 500 year-old famous hardwood belian trees soaring by the river bank, e
The parents of Zara Ruttherford, the 19-year-old who successfully completed a world solo flight, thanked the Daily Express for its coverage of his daughter’s stopover in Kota Kinabalu on Dec 16-19.
Capt. Sam Rutherford and wife Beatrice De Smet said:
“We are immensely proud, not just of her skills as a pilot, but more importantly the success she is already having to encourage girls and young women into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) studies and careers.”
Zara’s stopover in Kota Kinabalu was covered by the paper
WOW, after a three-day (December 16-19, 2021) stopover in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, 19-year-old aviator Zara Rutterford struck home two Guinness World Record title for being the youngest woman to fly around the world solo, when when she finally touched down in Belgium last Thursday (January 22, 2022) after a marathon 155-day stint!
She received a rapturous welcome home, after first leaving it on August 18, 2021