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What is so interesting about the tip of borneo?
The "tip of borneo" has recently been discovered to have the best beach resort in Sabah.
This area is home to the most traditional ethnic groups in Sabah, Rungus people.
The original rungus name for the tip of borneo is "Simpang Mengazou" which means Pirate Junction.
But the Malay name is Simpang Mengayau which you will see on the signpost directing you to here.
You will see a few longhouses here which for today remain a tradition rather than the function for what it was meant for many years ago.
The longhouse is built on stilts with outward sloping gate wall about one feet spacing.
In the beggining of the century before the europeans arrive dangerous animals were a present danger and pirate raids are quite frequent from the sea.
Historically, this little headland has a very interesting history.
It is the staging post for pirates. Chinese trading junk hug the coast en route from Singapore to the spice islands , "Sulawesi" in present day Indonesia.
Unfortunately there is very little documented evidence other than old British sea merchants record.
There has been a fourth discovery in NOVEMBER 2010 of a sunken Sung (800-900 years) dynasty trading vessels laden with centuries year old cutlery. After been looted by the local fisheren and sold the remaining pieces are taken by the Sabah Museum.
The remaining pieces are in the Sabah museum in Kota kinabalu.
Olden days shipping always hug the coast if they can because their wooden ships constantly need repair and they need provisions of water and fresh food.
Look at a map of borneo and you can see that chinese junks have to pass the tip of borneo en-route from Singapore to Sulawesi (for spices).
As this is the turning point for vessels hugging the coastline it is also a place of great tragedy. Local historians estimate that there is at least twenty more undiscovered wrecks in the vicinity of 10 nautical miles off the tip of borneo.
WHY DID THE "TIP OF BORNEO" SINK SO MANY OLD TRADING VESSELS?
The tip of borneo cuts two seas, "the south-china sea" and the "Sulu Sea".
If you are sailing over the tip of borneo, the cross current is sometimes stronger than the wind power SO if the wind is not strong enough the current will push you to the coral reef. Modern sailing boats have engine power but olden day sailing boats only have sail power.
That is why it is impossible to estimate how many ship wrecks there are.
Local fisherman has sold many of the sunken treasures.
The sabah museum has only a small portion of the what is left. To see teh remaining treasures of "Tip of Borneo' please go to the Sabah Museum.
The cross current between the sulu sea and the south china sea makes surfable waves readily available.
Local surfers are making day trips there often nowadays.
Diving at Kudat.
Kudat water is very rich in plankton as it is located in the coral triangle , between Palawan and Sulawesi and Borneo.
Kudat is also the main station of wwf marine in Sabah.
There is a very good recreation borneo diving in front of Tajau laut or Tip of borneo headland and near the lighthouse island.
You have frogfish, and seahorse,moray eels, lobster, and a very interesting octopus that changes colour by itself.
For more adventourous divers Banggi or Balambangan is the nexus.Balabangan cove has saltwater crocs so its a bit dangerous.
We provide snorkel sets for rental and fins too.
Turtle laying.
The beach is a popular place for turtle to lay eggs as it is the nearest beach for the two seas in front.
Unfortunately the villages always collect the eggs to sell them at the local market. Recently thru our efforts we have started encouraging the local villages that turtle eggs is good for tourism and therefore will provide a better livelihood than poaching eggs.
So the result is that we have our first nest that is caged by our resort.
It was bought back from a poacher for 50 ringgit and another 50 ringgit will be given to them if the turtle eggs successfully hatch. I will upload pics for you soon.
Please click the link above to see the turtles finally hatching.
Our room quality.
All rooms are newly built. They are air-conditioned.
All bed sheets and bed linen are new.
Its simple and basic and we hope you enjoy your stay.
Being friendly to the enviroment also makes commercial sense!
Most of our design centers on trying to naturally cool as we have too much sunshine in our tropical climate.
All units are designed to cut down the sun rays heating up the rooms such that it stores the heat at night and forces guests to use the air-conditioner full power.
We use various methods such as double roofing and walls higher than the roof to block the sun.
All our rooms have fibreglass mosquito netting to enable guests to open windows to sleep soundly at night.
We use instant water shower because we can keep water consumption minimal, instant water shower uses up to ten times lesser water.
Water had to be pumped to our storage tanks on the top which uses a lot of electricity power to do so.
We are also at the moment installing solar panels for hot water and electricity and wind turbines in order to minimise power from the grid.
