the green connection

Venue: The Green Connection, KM2 off Jalan Tuaran, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Date of visit: 16 January 2012.

While surfing the internet for attractive places to go and spend some free time while doing my errands in KK, I came across some information about this place, The Green Connection. Located not far from the main city center of KK (10-15 minutes drive), it is, as I understand, a conservation and educational center about rain forest and its inhabitants, particularly marine life in Sabah. Visitors can enjoy the aquariums and tanks filled with unique marine life designed to imitate the real condition down there so the visitors can see them as they would be in their original home.

And so, with curiosity, I went there by taxi (from the city center, it would take around RM10-15). If by bus, take the bus heading to Tuaran and get off at Km2 off Jalan Tuaran, near the Wisma Wanita building. Then walk a little further in (8-10 minutes) to reach the place. The entrance fee is RM15 for adult MyKad holders. You can search the internet for more information about the rates and the place itself.

now i know the difference between a turtle, tortoise and terrapin

life in the green connection

Reaching there, I felt a little bit dismayed by the condition of the place. Supposedly this place is quite new as I understand it was opened in 2010. However, it looked a little bit unkempt and not well managed. The water inside the aquarium was so dark green that I couldn't see the fishes inside well unless they swam close to the visitor's side of the aquarium (or is it meant to be like that to represent the real condition under the Borneo rivers?). However, I tried to search for past reviews about this place in other blogs and when I compared their photos with what I had seen, I was assured that the past condition of the tanks were much better than what I had seen during my visit. Some of the enclosures were also empty without any animals inside. Some tanks are in renovation or upgrading phase, so keep your fingers crossed for something interesting to come up later, I hope.

the tank water behind is as dark as the night

information boards

There are nice information boards about rain forest and animal conservation which I considered very informative and educational. However, there are not enough information being put near some aquariums and it left me still uninformed about the marine life that are inside there.

However, there's still something good and enjoyable there. I enjoyed my experience holding a 4-year-old female python. It was my first time, the python is a tame one and perhaps being handled by the staff there everyday.

me and ms. python

I also enjoyed the open tanks of starfish and 'belangkas' (horseshoe crab). I could feel and touched the starfish and 'belangkas' while the staff there briefed me a little bit of information about them. It is said that the horseshoe crab is perhaps one of the animal with the least evolution process since the dinosaur era.

the first time i saw inside a horseshoe crab

the activity room

The highlight of the visit was probably the feeding show at about 11.30am. There's a massive tank with fishes, turtles, stingrays, sharks and the current attraction, the guitar shark (ikan jerung pari, as the locals call it). It is said that there were stories about the shark that was evolving to become a stingray but it wasn't complete so there are still features of both the shark and the stingray in one body.

the guitar shark

So, in the show, a diver dived in the tank to feed all marine life inside there. It's interesting to see everybody swam around the diver, rushing and scrambling for food. And the diver affectionately patted them after feeding them. The center is currently running a campaign to reduce the demand for shark's fin for consumption. There's a big banner about it there and the staff there briefed about it as well.

feeding show twice per day

And so that wraps up my post about The Green Connection. This place is supposed to be a very cool educational center, however it really need to be revived and add more crowd-pulling attractions. With novel objectives, this center should be the place to educate the people mainly the younger generation about the importance of protecting our rain forest and the life flourishing in it.