The Private Leslie Thomas Starcevich Memorial, Beaufort, Sabah

Recently, I purchased a copy of "Sabah, Under the Rising Sun Government, by Stephen R. Evans, as both my husband Terry and I are interested in the WWII history of Sabah and North Borneo as a whole. Terry had read this book a few years ago and he now remembered a piece about an Australian soldier who won what happened to be the last Victoria Cross of WWII for single handedly over-running a Japanese machine gun post, on a hill in Beaufort, allowing British troups to overcome them and gain victory.

After a bit of research on the internet he found out that the memorial stone was on Victoria Cross road near Beaufort Police Station. then he found a map of Beaufort with the Police station marked on it, and thought htis would be a good place to start looking.

Early this morning (while I was getting soaked to the skin after a very wet and windy night of camping on Mamutik - story to come later!), Terry made his way to Beaufort, slowly, in our 28 year old Toyota landcruiser BJ40 (see earlier post). an hour and twenty minutes later, he was at the Beaufort Police station. Expecting to speak Malay (with words pre-prepared on a piece of paper), Terry greeted the female desk Sergeant with a "Salamat Pagi", to which she replied in perfect English, "Good Morning, and how can I help you?" Terry explained that he was looking for this memorial which was supposedly near the police station, and showed her the photo in the book. She didn't know where it was, but went to two of her colleagues and pointed to the picture. One of the police men knew exactly where it was and, realising it would be easier than explaining the location, he gave Terry a police escort to the site!

On arrival at the memorial site, there is a brown tourist road sign pointing up the road to the memorial and also a brownish granite engraved description of the history of the memorial which says:

"The monument honours the memory of Private L T Starcevich of B Company. He was awarded the British Army's highest honour, the Victoria Cross, for gallantry, during the attack on Beaufort. Private Starcevich charged Japanese positions with his Bren gun to relieve British troops that had come under relentless and heavy enemy fire. He killed five enemy soldiers at one fortification and two at another. His actions enabled British troops to advance and secure victory. The monument was designated a heritage site in 1998."

The police man pulled over and indicated for Terry to do the same and when Terry got out of the car, the police man pointed down the small embankment to the memorial (which you could easily drive past if you didn't know it was there!!) and explained that the building next to the memorial (which is now a school) was the old Beaufort police station and the road that they were standing on was Jalan Victoria Cross, but was know named Jalan Tugu (Memorial Road). Terry thanked the Policeman profusely and was left to his own devices and take photos - as seen below.

With the help of the local police, the mission was made easy.

Here is a map of the location of the Memorial:

If you are interested please have a look at this Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Thomas_Starcevich to read more about Leslie Thomas Starcevich.

Thought I would share my butterfly video with you! Just got myself a camcorder (Panasonic HD) and try to film things that interest me (obviously!) to get some practise in. This was handheld, hence some shakiness. I have now purchased a tripod which I hope to get a lot of practise with when I go to Singapore this coming weekend! Still learning the editing software (Adobe Premiere Elements) so its a whole new learning curve for me.

No idea what species of butterfly this is, so if you know please do tell.

Location: Damai, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo

Kawang Forest Reserve

The Kawang Forest Reserve can be found between Kota Kinabalu and Papar, on the old road. With Bill and Rina in the car in front, we took the old Penampang road from the Kadusan Hat roundabout in Donggongon and headed towards the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, passed that and continued passed the Kinarut turn off. We passed through kampung called Limau-limauen, and soon afterwards there was a wooden sign on the left indicating the Kawang Forest Reserve, which was about another half kilometre through some harvested date palm trees.

On arrival, there is a rather gaudy new signboard on the left, and a building in front of you where you must go and register and pay! Yes, its one of those places where we had to pay double, but that only amounted to RM5 so can'tt complain! We were greeted by a very friendly malay "ranger" who seemed extremely pleased to have some visitors - I don't think they get very many, as once again, they are off the tourist trail! We declined the offer of a guide as the paths didn't look to hard to follow. The main attractions here are the Waterfall, and a Bat Cave! It looked like there had been recent "tarting up" of the grounds around the main building. There was a nice new toilet/shower block, some plunge pools (which were empty), and some nice looking cabins which you can rent out for RM250 - they are 3 bedroomed so if there are a few of you, its a very cheap night! There is a BBQ too.

The grounds a lovely and clean and were being tended to by gardeners who all said hello with big wide smiles. On the left ran the river which was beautiful and all of us thought that we would come back and spend a night and bring some G & T!

We followed the path which took us to the front of the waterfall, where there is a nice viewing platform. all around is forest and butterflies and lizards. Terry and I left Bill and Rina here for a half hour or so while we set off to try and find the Bat Cave. This part of the trail was actually not well maintained and there were a lot of fallen trees to negotiate. We weren't really prepared (again!) for a long trek and so turned round agreeing we would come again but with our studded shoes, at which point I fell on a rock that had been disguised by leaves. I fell right on my coxis - the pain was extreme and I lay still for a few minutes, relieved that I hadn't dropped the camera. After a wee while I ventured up right and everythings still worked OK, but I knew I would be bruised and in pain for a few weeks to follow.

Back with Rina & Bill at the waterfall we made our way back to the entrance area and removed a couple of leeches we had picked up (note to spray on more repellent next time!), and decided to head off to Kinarut town for some lunch, where we had noodles and rice and drinks for just RM20! Bargain. All in all, I liked Kawang, and will definitely go back, maybe alone next time so I can spend more time in one spot with the camera, but also with a group to spend the night.

Please see: http://www.sabahtourism.com/sabah-malaysian-borneo/en/destination/159-kawang-forest-centre/ for contact details.

Kiansom Waterfall and Babagon

Around mid-August, my friend Cheryl paid us a visit from her home in Puerto Galera, Philippines, and so I wanted to take the opportunity to show her the parts of Kota Kinablau that most tourists do not reach! Most people who come to KK tend to stick to the more established attractions, like the Waterfront (who wants to pay RM26 for a glass of beer on the Waterfront, when you can get 3 cans for RM10 in Foh Sang!??), a trip to TARP, the mountain and Sepilok. But ask any of them if they went to Kiansom or Babagon and I'll bet you get a blank look.

We picked Cheryl up from her temporary home at the Hotel Tourist in Jalan Pantai in town, had a quick roti in the indian restaurant up the road a bit, then headed along the seafront to Likas, to Inanam and onto Jalan Kiansom. We followed this road to its end whereupon there is a nice little car park. We were lucky and it was empty! Terry stayed with Dirty Gerty (the car), while Cheryl and I paid out entrance fee of RM1.50! No extra to pay here for being a tourist which gets my thumbs up. We were both happy to see that the surrounds were very tidy. No litter lying around which can sometimes adorn places like this. Once you go throught the turnstile, you follow the concrete paths to the different "tiers" of the fall, of which there are 5. Tiers 1 and 2 were a 15 minute walk and as neither of us had walking shoes on, we went straight to tier 3 which had a nice spot for taking photos. There hadn't been much rain so the water wasn't falling in torrents, but jsut enough to get some nice pics. We spent about half an hour there happily clicking away, and I look forward to going back after a period of rain to get some more snaps.

Next stop was Babagon. Terry loves to go here so he can drive across the river which he did with glee, whilst Cheryl and I paddled across and made friends with some local Kaduzan boys who were having a dip after school. Their politeness and friendliness both charmed and surprised us. Such manners I have not seen from children in the UK for a long while! They happily posed for some photos. After Terry had driven Gerty through a few times, we climbed back in and drove a wee bit further down the road, near Kg Madsiang to a nice spot we go to with the Hash now and then.

We spent another happy half an hour or so here before the rain made us have to put the cameras away. This was when we noticed out tummies rumble and so, headed into Donggongon for some pork and rice. Lovely.

The day didn't stop there thought as we took Cheryl to the Api Api hash later on in the afternoon which took us to the highest point around Taman Tanaki, but I didn't have my camera as it was more of an exercise for exercise than for photography!

The three of us had a really great day out and Cheryl went back to the Philippines with a whole new view of Kota Kinabalu - not just the ones int he guide books!

Long Time No See!

Its been SO long since I wrote anything. I am ashamed! There really is no excuse for not sitting down and writing something - even for just 5 minutes!

Its been a busy few months I must say. We (thats Terry, my husband and I) are now the proud owners of a Toyota Landcruiser BJ40, whom we have named Dirty Gerty!

Gerty is Terry's dream vehicle. We have been walking around Kota Kinabalu for months just waiting for the right car to come along. Then one day, we hired a car (a tiny Kancil!) as we had a friend coming to stay, and thought we would go out for a drive and see if we could find any BJ40's. We were driving up the old Penampang road from Kinarut when we saw Gerty coming towards us. "That's gorgeous", said Terry, "and it's for sale!" I cried noticing the sign in the back window!! Almost killing ourselves and a few Malaysians, Terry screached the Kancil hard right, floored the pedal and caught up with the BJ40 and followed it as it pulled intoa driveway, just before the Tanaki turnoff.

To cut a long story short, the owners were Martin and Janet who worked for the WWF in Sandakan but were moving to Martins homeland, Australia and they needed a quick sale. Terry had already fallen in love and when Martin told us the price he wanted, there was no way Terry could walk away!

Our plan is to make her worthy of entering the Borneo 4x4 Safari this coming November! We have already bought and added a PTO winch to her and are working on getting a roll cage fitted inside.

So watch this space for progress on Dirty Gerty over the coming weeks. Or join the "Dirty Gerty the BJ40" group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=103335828692

Gerty has lots of advertising space on her body! If you would like to be one of her sponsors, please leave a comment with your email address and we will contact you!