Rich Malaysia

Malaysia is a tropical country that belongs to the Sundaland

biogeographical region and covering an area of about 33.02 million
hectares (ha) consisting of; Peninsular Malaysia, the states of Sabah and
Sarawak in the eastern region and the Federal Territory of Labuan in
the north-western coastal area of Borneo Island.

In 2013, Malaysia’s multi-racial and multi ethnic population is

estimated at 29.7 million. Malaysia practises a system of Parliamentary
democracy with a constitutional monarchy with three branches of
government, namely the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.
The Supreme Law of the country is the Federal Constitution of
Malaysia, where it provides the authority to legislate matters relevant
to biological diversity under the jurisdiction of the Federal and State
Governments. Some subject matters pertaining to natural resources
such as land and forests fall under the responsibility of the State
Governments.

Geographically, Malaysia lies entirely in the equatorial zone with an

average daily temperature varying from 21°C to 32°C throughout
Malaysia. There are eight mountain ranges present in Peninsular
Malaysia making up close to 20% of the land area of Peninsular
Malaysia with a general alignment of the mountain ranges in a north-
south direction. The Main Range, known as the Banjaran Titiwangsa is
the largest, most prominent and continuous mountain range in
Peninsular Malaysia stretching approximately 500 km from the border

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of Malaysia with Thailand in the north to Negeri Sembilan where its
height decreases and merges into the State of Malacca’s coastal plain.
Overall topography of Sabah is mountainous and the iconic Mt.
Kinabalu stands at 4,095 m while Sarawak’s mountain ranges rise to
over 1,500 m and thereby forms the division between Sarawak and
Kalimantan (Indonesia).

Under the pledge of 1992 Rio Earth Summit, Malaysia is committed to

maintain at least 50% of her land area under forest and tree cover in
perpetuity and approximately 18.01 million ha or 54.5% of Malaysia
remains forested in 2012. Of this area, approximately 14.5 million ha
have been designated as Permanent Reserved Forest (PRF) or
Permanent Forest Estate (PFE). Peat swamp forests contributes a
significant portion of forest cover in Malaysia with estimated 1.54
million ha still remaining. Majority of peat swamps are found in the
State of Sarawak estimated at around 70%, while less than 20% in
Peninsular Malaysia and the remainder in Sabah.

Malaysia has a coastline of some 4,800 km in total and sits on the

geologically stable Sunda Shelf. Peninsular Malaysia has a coastline of
about 1,972 km that borders the South China Sea in the East, the Straits
of Johor in the South, and Straits of Malacca in the West. About half of
the coastline is beaches and slightly less than half is fringed with
mangrove forest. Coral reefs in Malaysia are estimated to cover close
to 4,006 km² supporting not less than 700 species of fish that are
dependent on coral reefs as a habitat.

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In Peninsular Malaysia, mangroves are found largely sheltered along
the west coast that borders the Straits of Malacca. Key near-shore
islands such as the Pulau Klang in Selangor and Pulau Kukup in Johor
are also predominantly colonized by mangroves. Sabah and Sarawak
contain almost 82% of the nation’s mangroves. In Sabah, mangrove
forests are found largely on the east coast facing the Sulu Sulawesi Seas
while in Sarawak, these forests are located at the river mouths of Rajang
and the Trusan-Sundar. Within the PRFs in Malaysia, a total of the
544,032 ha of mangrove areas was recorded in 2012; showing an
increase of mangroves areas from 2009 at 539,142 ha. Of which, the
largest area of mangrove forest in the country and within PRFs is in
Sabah at 333,019 ha, followed by Sarawak at 112,165 ha and in
Peninsular Malaysia at 98,848 ha.

Blessed with a vast array of ecosystems, Malaysia is recognised as one

of the 12 mega-diverse countries in the world. The core of biodiversity
in Malaysia lies in its tropical rainforests, a unique natural heritage
which has evolved over 130 million years, resulting in very rich flora
and fauna. Both the beach and mangrove ecosystems also boast a
distinct, unique and spectacular biodiversity, and provide a broad range
of ecological services ranging from tourism and recreation to providing
critical habitat for reptilian, crustacean, mollusk and fish species.

Malaysia biodiversity accounts at high fauna diversity with 307 species

of wild mammals, more than 785 species of birds, 567 species of
reptiles, 242 species of amphibians, more than 449 species of
freshwater fish and more than 150,000 estimated species of
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invertebrates. The flora diversity in Malaysia is not absolutely known
but is nonetheless exceptionally rich. A conservative estimate of flora
could consist of around 15,000 species. Particularly, there are about 38
species of true mangroves and generally, mangrove plant species
diversity is comparable with that of the global diversity; as at least 70
species from 28 families have been recorded.

Hi there, my name is Tasha and I am from Kajang Selangor. I am

14 years old and I study at S.M.K Convent Kajang. I am blessed with
lovely parents and a darling sister who are my heart and soul, blood
and flesh. MY parents are full time professionals, my father is an
engineer by profession and my mother is a teacher. My eldest sister,
Renee is a nature lover and therefore upon completing her form 5, she
decided to explore a different path. She decided to pursue a degree in
botany at the Univeristy of Southern Australia. After three years of
exhilarating , tireless effort on researching on plants and nature, she
deicded to take a break and return home for summer holidays, in the
pretext of working on her final year project thesis simultaneously. To
my immense surprise, she brought along her best friend, housemate,
roommate, Shirley along with her. Shirley, an australian final year
botany science student. My sister and Shirley were in a devoted mission
in completing their finl year project thesis on nature and environment.

In order to achieve this mission, both my sister and Shirley had to

visit nature oriented destinations, to collect enough sources towrite up

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their thesis. SO, here comes the exciting part...........Yahoo..they
included me in their mission as they explored nature themed places in
Malaysia. Shirley was memerized by the beauty of Malaysia.Shirley
was over the moonbecause not only she got to collect data for her thesis,
she also got to experience the weather, the culture, and the environment
here at Malaysia. Therefore, I am going to take this oppurtunity to talk
about my exciting outing with my sister and Shirley, a tri[ I would never
forget.to talk about a recent nature themed holiday that I had.

CAMERON HIGHLANDS PAHANG

Our first destination in our itenary was Cameron Highlands.. We

quickly did a fact check on this place. Wow, to our amazement, we got
to know that Cameron Highlands in Pahang is one of Malaysia's most
popular tourist destinations, a collection of peaceful townships perched
1500 meters high on a nest of serene mountains. Cooling resorts, tea
plantations and strawberry farms sprawl lazily across lush valleys and
meandering hillslopes, the perfect setting for a relaxing holiday.

The sea of tranquility, pleasant landscapes and cold climate impart a

special experience upon the multitudes of visitors each year.
Meanwhile, a different world lies hidden away among the natural
surroundings - a rainforest ecosystem rich with the wonders of nature,
long held with fascination by researchers and naturalists across the
world.

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 A little bit on its history, Cameron Highlands was discovered in
1885 by English surveyor William Cameron, under a commission by
the colonial government. Forging a path through dense vegetation, he
reached a magnificent and sublime plateau ‘shut up in the mountains'
along the vast Titiwangsa Range. Yet, the place lay unperturbed for 40
years, until British Administrator Sir George Maxwell developed it as
a hill station.

IT was our most exciting trip.. Father took the route via Tapah.
The road was very adventurous and windy. I wound the the glass of my
father’s Honday CrV and I could feel the cool breeze strewing on my
face.... It provided a cool respite from the sweltering heat of the
lowlands. The sprawling lush valleys about the size Singapore has
much to offer nature lovers like my family. My family stayed 2 nights
in Cameron Highlands and did a full day local tour of the beautiful
countryside. We visited tea plantations, strawberry farms, Rose
Valley, Lavender Garden, Bee and Butterfly farms, the Brinchang
night market and more. Here at the 10 hotspots that captured my heart
in Cameron Highlands!

1. Tea Plantations

Visiting a tea plantation is the top thing to do in Cameron

Highlands. No visit to Cameron Highlands is complete without

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visiting the vast tea plantations. We visited the Sungai Palas Boh Tea
Plantation which offered an educational tour of the tea factory.

Thanks to its fertile valleys and cool climate, the British realised that
this was ideal for planting tea, even developing the area into a hill resort
in 1925. Now, it is the leading tea-growing region in Malaysia.

Me and my sister imagined ourselves in a different country as we stood

in the middle of this majestic sea of green. Rustling tea leaves form
Mexican waves with every brush of the wind.

No visit to a tea plantation is complete without sipping a cup of tea

while enjoying the view of the plantation. We had a lovely English-
style breakfast with aromatic tea, scones and pastries at the Boh Tea
Centre at Sungai Palas. As we sipped our tea and reached out for the
breath taking scenery, it was the most relaxing day in my life… My
mum also bought some aromatics tea packets to be brought home for
our consumption.

Here is a better view of the stunning vistas of rolling hills where the tea
plantations are tendered. Did you know that Cameron Highlands got
its name from a British surveyor called William Cameron back in the
1800s?

It is also worth exploring the scenery just outside the Boh Tea Centre.
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There was another Boh Tea plantation in Cameron Highlands which
was further away from other attractions and where you have to traverse
a windy road to get there. Apart from Boh Tea, there were two other
tea plantations in Cameron Highlands – Cameron Valley and Bharat
tea plantations. Both had tea cafés overlooking the plantation and stores
to buy tea as souvenirs. I especially liked the strawberry tea from the
Cameron Valley tea plantation, pictured below. Cameron Valley tea
plantation was the easiest to get to, although the carpark was rather
small.

2. Strawberry Farms

Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, is famous for two things – tea and

strawberries. It’s hard to walk around Cameron Highlands without
seeing strawberries. As we strolled around tanah rata, the only things
we saw was strawberries, from strawberry milk shakes, strawberry ice
cream, strawberry cakes, strawberry cushions, strawberry keychains,
strawberry bags, strawberry t-shirts – you name it, Cameron Highlands
got it.

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After all, strawberries can only grow in cooler climates and being near
the equator, the hot weather is not conducive for strawberries to grow
unless it is high up the mountains like Cameron Highlands.

Even before reaching the heart of Cameron Highlands, we saw a

number of strawberry-related shops. Strawberry chocolate fondue and
a strawberry high tea at Avant Chocolate was a great choice after
driving up to Cameron Highlands.

Picking strawberries at a Strawberry Farm

Strawberry farms were abundant in Cameron Highlands and a number

of them allowed visitors to pick their own strawberries. Shirley wanted
to pick strawberries. Of course, she didn’t understand that it costed
much more than just buying a pack of strawberries. We went to one in
the afternoon and it was a bad choice. There were hardly any good ones
left after busloads of tourists visited the farm in the morning!

The second farm we visited was just outside of Equatorial hotel

where we stayed and it only allowed strawberry picking on Thursdays
to Sundays Shirley was disappointed at that time, but it was truly a
blessing because when we visited the farm again on Thursday morning,
we got the best pick of strawberries since we were there first to arrive!

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My sister enjoyed the experience of picking strawberries. She learned
the proper way of picking strawberries i.e. plucking from the stem
instead of tugging at the fruit. Check out our harvest below, half a
kilogram of big, fat and juicy strawberries!

3. Rose Valley

Our next location was the Rose valley. Yet another landmark in
Cameron Highlands. On the way up to Brinchang , the Rose Valley can
be easily seen on the left hand side of the road. The valley is renowned
for its huge collection of roses, which can be seen around the entire
valley. We really admire the patience of the owner of the valley, as we
can see that a lot of effort has been put in to take care of all the roses
around. The Rose Valley is filled with more than 100 variety of roses
and other types of flowers. The Rose Valley is perched on slopes along
a small hill. Flower lovers would enjoy the Rose Valley.

Entrance fee to the valley was RM 5.00, however, the experience

of walking under so many roses at a time is valuable. Look to your left,
you see roses, and look to your right, you see roses too. We had 1
question though. Why can't we see purple colour roses? Searched
around the entire valley but didn't manage to find one. Pink coloured
ones were the most common ones around.

Apart from roses, there were also other species of flowers in the valley.
Carnation, dandelion, lavender, you name it. They even planted some
tomatoes in the valley! Too bad they were not ripe yet during our visit.

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In the middle of the valley there was also a small pond with lots fishes,
and with some swinging chairs around, allowing visitors to take a break
from all the walking.

After our visit to the Rose Valley, we realised how beautiful nature can
be. Cameron Highlands was indeed a very good place for flora and
fauna to live in, however, looking at the current development projects
going on, we believe that the environment is already starting to get
worse. Perhaps we should really sit back and think ahead, other than
developing new metropolitan cities or creating amazing tourists spots,
we should also preserve what ought to be preserved. Hopefully we can
still see the natural beauty of Cameron Highlands in the future decades
or centuries….

4. Cameron Lavender Garden

More flowers bloomed at the Cameron Lavender Garden. As we

entered the garden, we saw a sea of purple, red and yellow flowers
sheltered under a large canopy.

On the higher slopes, there were rows and rows of gerberas in all sorts
of colours. Visitors could also pick strawberries there.

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5. Vegetable Farms

In Cameron highlands, are lots of vegetable farms and strawberry

farm,along the main road. But we have only seen one watercrest farm,
so we decided to swirl our car off the rod for a impromptu lunch at the
Chiew Grade Café within. We were not disappointed. The dining area
is perched on a hill top, overlooking pools and pools of watercress.
We joyously sat down for our meal in this serene and carefree
environment. Even the drinks had watercress as an ingredient

6. Bee and Butterfly Farms

The Butterfly Farm itself is not really that big, it does not have a huge
collection of living butterflies, mainly observed the Rajah Brookes
(Trogonoptera brookiana albescens), the Malaysian National "Bird"
and some smaller species. The interesting things of the farm are a quite
good collection of beetles that are on display; they had on display,
Cheirotonus arnaudi, Odontolabis femoralis femoralis, and some other
interesting species. It is an interesting trip to visit the butterfly farm and

7. Sunrise on Gunung Brinchang & Mossy Forest

Something really worth doingin Cameron Highlands is we woke up at

around 4.30am, drove up to the top of Gunung Brinchang, climb up a
watch tower with the cool crisp wind blowing at your face, and wait
patiently while the sun reveals itself and the spectacular scenery. The

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scenery was breath taking and Shirley was anguished and she said that
she had never seen anything like that before.

9. Brinchang Night Market (Pasar Malam)

We went to the Brinchang night market (locally known as “Pasar

malam”) near Star Regency Hotel. It normally opens on Fridays and
Saturdays but during Malaysian school holidays, it opens every
night. Local produce like strawberries, vegetables, and fruits were sold
in abundance at the night market. There were also many stores selling
vegetable fritters, crab fritters and prawn fritters. One thing to try was
the corn with the white kernels. The white corns could be eaten raw
and surprisingly, it was sweet! Apart from food, there were lots of
value-for-money stuff and souvenirs on sale. If you are driving, you
need to go there early to find parking.

10. Enjoy the local delights

Apart from the food at the Brinchang night market, steamboat

restaurants seem to be quite a hit in Cameron Highlands. We only ate
at the steamboat restaurant once, though. Most of the time, we ate the
local food fare there. Our favourite was Nolina food. The food was
cheap and good. Try the blue nasi lemak with sambal chicken. Nolina
Food was just 5 minutes from Copthorne Hotel at the bend towards the
direction of Ipoh.

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Redang Island: Terengganu’s Tropical Beauty

After returning from and exciting getaway from Cameron, Shirley and
my sister started planning for exploring below ground level, the marine
life. After a lot of research, Shirley decided that exploring Redang
Island was indeed a good choice because of its richness in marine life,
especailly coral reefs and underwater marine life.

We decided not to tire ourselves so we flew directly into Redang Island

by Berjaya Airfrom Kuala Lumpur .

As we used the road to travel to the resort, my sister was narrating to us

about this island . According to her, Redang Island is the biggest out of
nine islands that form the Malaysian Marine Park. This 7km long, 6km
wide tropical haven is located in the Kuala Nerus District in Terengganu
which is also a part of the South China Sea. Redang Island was believed
to be discovered by Buginese settlers from Celebes, Indonesia. Up until
recently, Kampung Air (known also as ‘water village’) on the island
housed a population of about 250 fishermen along with their families,
assumed to be the progeny of the founding Bugis settlers. The once
booming fishing industry has now been left behind and instead, many
have turned to the tourism industry as the breathtaking island becomes
more popular over time.

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Redang Island, known for their white sandy beaches, crystal clear
waters and abundant marine life swimming across the various reefs, an
exciting adventure waiting to be explored. Upon hearing this, we were
more than excited for this trip. We expected a more luxurious vacation
on this paradise island.

A popular tourist activity that is enjoyed on Redang Island is turtle-

watching. The prime location to watch this phenomenon is at Pasir
Chagar Hutang where turtles come to copulate and lay eggs. Over time,
Redang Island has become an important conservation site for sea turtles
as the extensive economic mistreatment of turtle eggs have resulted in
a decrease in turtle nesting on the island. Hence, the Terengganu state
government came up with the Koperasi Setiajaya Pulau Redang in 1989
where the aim of the corporation is to develop and manage socio-
economic programmes that could help advance the standard of living of
the locals on Redang Island without endangering the natural resources
as well.

The Marine Park Centre on the island is a hub for turtle research and
conservation efforts where the management mainly commits to the
protection of the delicate marine life and global ecosystems by limiting
the negative impact from human activities. The research centre claims
the abundant population of green turtles on the island are a result of
reproduction of turtles from Philippines and Indonesia. You can even
volunteer at the centre or just pay a visit to learn further about it through

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research. Adventoro's Redang Island tour offers a visit to the Marine
Park Centre as well.

PLACES OF INTEREST:-

1) Taman Negara Pahang –

(http://www.tamannegara4u.com/blog/tag/flora-di-taman-
negara-pahang/)
2) Cameron Highlands -
(https://www.lokalocal.com/blog/outdoors/cameron-highlands-
20-must-do-things-for-first-timers/)
3) Gunung Gading National Park
4) Rafflesia Forest Reserve, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah –
(https://theculturetrip.com/asia/malaysia/articles/the-10-best-
ecotourism-experiences-in-malaysia/
5) Belum Rainforest Reserve
(https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6176/)
6) Tropical Botanical Garden in Putrajaya –
(https://www.malaysiavacationguide.com/tropical-botanical-
garden.html

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