Maliau Basin

Maliau Basin or also Maliau Basin Conservation Area, is a region in Sabah, Malaysia, which represents a geological catchment surrounding the Maliau River. Located around the center of Sabah in the Sandakan Division, it was designated as a conservation area by the Sabah Foundation (Yayasan Sabah) in 1981. Later in 1997 the Sabah State Assembly gazetted the Basin as a Protection Forest Reserve (Class I) with a total area of 588 square kilometres. The region also features Mount Lotung (1667 metres), Maliau Falls, and Lake Linumunsut. Efforts are underway to nominate the area as a World Heritage Site.^[1]  (From Wikipedia)

Both Maliau Basin and Danum Valley are managed by Yayasan Sabah (Sabah Foundation). You can find more information and contact numbers here. Previous blogs on my Danum Valley trip is here and here.

Again, we flew AirAsia from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau. Our 9D/8N stay with full board in Maliau Basin, twin sharing, cost around RM1200 (USD 400) for Malaysian, and RM2730 (USD 900 for non Malaysian).

A little bit on the cost breakdown: 4WD transportation from Tawau to Maliau Basin Conservation Area (MBCA) is RM650 for two ways for 4 passengers. Full meals is RM65 for Malaysian and RM150 for non Malaysian. Twin sharing rest house is RM80/night for Malaysian and RM220 for non Malaysian. Entrance fee RM30 for Malaysian and RM50 for non Malaysian.


4WD from Tawau airport to Maliau Basin (return), RM650/round trip. The journey from airport to Maliau Basin takes around 5 hours.


Left: tea/coffee/milo - self service
Right: Typical lunch/dinner, rice with 3 or 4 dishes. For breakfast, it's normally fried noodle or nasi lemak, and bread with butter and jam, and cereal with milk.


Left: Rest area next to the dining hall (on the right) and deck on the left with forest view.
Right: Rest house with boardwalk


Left: misty forest in the morning.             Right: sunset


More misty forest in the morning. I got up at 5:40am almost every single day to shoot these:D


The hanging bridge spanning across Sungai Maliau



Once you cross the river, the Maliau Skybridge (canopy walk) awaits you!


A moon moth, Actias maenas, that visited us one night.


Many wild boars there too, day and night.


A staff holding an injured Moustached Hawk-Cuckoo he found


Malayan civet, Viverra tangalunga that visited us at night.


Residential Brown wood owl, Strix leptogrammica. It's there every night!


Jerdon's Baza (?)

Stay tuned for part II with mainly macro images: violin beetle, dead leaf mantis (Deroplatys truncata), jewel beetle, owlfly and more!

Edit: Part II posted. It's here.