Sabah is popular for being the third largest island in the world and it’s known to occupy fairly smaller chunk of land. Sabah could be smaller in size but it is vibrantly colorful, the smooth turquoise outlying desert lined with coral reefs adorned with proliferating marine biodiversity and the majestic Mt Kinabalu deemed as the best trekking venue also the forest and wilderness buzzing with bug-eyed tarsiers, pythons,clouded leopards, gibbons, and enormous crocs are worth seeing. Nearly 55% of Sabah has protected areas and forest, although earlier reaching Danum Valley Conservation Area and Maliau Basin was difficult but these days one may reach the places easily.
It’s Time To Identify SABAH More Closely
Some Facts To Know: Borneo is comprised of total five Indonesia provinces and the northwest part of it is popular as East Malaysia or Malaysian Borneo. Now this part is comprised of Sabah and Sarawak. however, the northern direction of Borneo is identified as Sabah. The place is widely popular as ‘Land Beneath the Wind’ for Sabah is located just beneath the tropical typhoon belt so fortunately this land is not hit by the horrible impact of typhoons. The land experiences summer all the year round such as 22-33ᵒC but amidst all, Kinabalu Park is visibly different for here the temperature drops to 2ᵒC around the mountain area. The area entices people for the oldest Borneo Rainforest is here existing over 130 million years. The rainforest has the tallest tropical tree in the world.
Population:The population of Sabah is more than 3,000,000 and identified as the third most populous state in Malaysia. Although in 2000 the population of Sabah was 2,449,389 but gradually Sabah crossed the population of Johor. HoweverJohor and Selangor used to be two larger Malaysian states. Sabah has actually the highest population growth rates. The population however is known to be divided among 32 ethnic groups. However the largest group is Chinese. These people are spread across the areas of Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, and Tawau. Then the following bigger aboriginal ethnic group is Kadazan-Dusun. However all the people belonging to Sabah are identified as Sabahans. Malay is spoken among all, as this is the national language but there is that Sabahan dialect that actually differs from Malay inintonation and inflection, however it has similarity with Indonesian in pronunciation. Apart from Sabahan, there are other dialects such as English, Chinese Mandarin also Hakka along with Cantonese. AdditionallyKadazan-Dusun, Murut together with varying other minor races they have their ethnic languages.
History: Prior to joining the Malaysian Federation,Sabah was identified as North Borneo and in 16th century it was one of the important parts of the Sultanate of Brunei, however the north-eastern shoreline of the state turned out to be the essential part of Sultanate of Sulu. In mid 18th century, Europeans initiated making an appearance, and somehow, British tried to open inPulauBalambangan a trading post however unsuccessful to make much out of it. In 1865, over North Borneo, Claude Lee Moses who was the American Consul for Brunei acquired lease, gradually the lease was handed over to the American company that made an attempt to establish a post, recognized as Kimanis. It was a failed attempt whatsoever. Hence the lease was obtained by Baron von Overbeck and later it was transferred to Alfred Dent, endowed with a responsibility to form British North Borneo Company to shape up the colony.
In Kudat the capital was first set up and then shifted to Sandakan, Japanese kept it at their disposal for 1942 and 1945 and under their tyranny and brutal ruling the capital suffered badly, one of their the infamous Death Marches is still inglorious in history. In 1946 British rule started and British Crown Colonywas North Borneo, in 1963 North Borneo in amalgamation of Singapore, Malaya and Sarawak emerged out to be the Federation of Malaysia and gained popularity around the world as Sabah.
Weather: Sabah has tropical climate and not much different from Malaysia. Sabah has all throughout the year the hot and humid climate condition. Temperature hardly goes below 32 degrees Celsius. This temperature continues all throughout the day time but in night the temperature drops down to 24 degrees and particular around Mount Kinabalu this temperature can be traced. As sometimes the temperature drops below zero during nocturnal hours. There is no dry season, but June to December are comparatively wetter than January. While along the eastcoast November to January enjoy more rain, the drier month is April and to some extent March. Rain may come at any moment and sometimes it exceeds500 mm of the rain.
Tourist Arrival: Sabah experiences wonderful tourist increase in the first half of the year as compared to the previous year. Every year almost two million tourists come to Sabah and such tourist group is comprised of domestic as well as international tourists. Such tourist influx is noted as 50.8% increase in tourist from South Korea and from Taiwan this increase 15.2%, from Chaina this is 14.5% and so on. Such spike among tourists is actually unexpected to Sabah Tourism Enforcement and they have duly accepted this fact in a seminar. All the statistics are showing much promising interest in Sabah and Sabah tourism is thriving wonderfully.
Tourist Attraction: In Malaysia, Sabah is certainly one of the best states when it is about experiencing the natural bliss. Sabah has everything from high range mountains, to islands, jungles, flora and fauna. One may enjoy the vibrant colorful culture as here the multi ethnic inhabitants would make the tourists feel never going back to home. Among the well known destinations one will love places like Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Tawau, LahadDatu and Kudat. These places would unveil the potpourri of natural beauties. In Sabah tourists would experience the throb of modern Malaysia, at Sipadan one may take pleasure in diving, to experience wildlife the opportunity is here as in their natural habitat animals do take pleasure. The pristine water will surely steal away mind also the overall buzzing and night life of the city is worth noticing.