Southwest of KK

Named after Leicester P. Beaufort, an early governor of British North Borneo, BEAUFORT is a quiet, uneventful town whose commercial significance has declined since the sealed road from KK into the interior lessened the importance of its rail link with Tenom. The town’s position on the banks of the Padas leaves it prone to flooding, which explains why its shophouses are raised on steps.

It’s also the river that attracts most of the tourists who visit the town – Beaufort is the starting point for many whitewater rafting trips. Otherwise, once you’ve poked around in the market, inspected angular St Paul’s Church at the top of town and taken a walk past the stilt houses on the riverbank, you’ve exhausted its sights.

Thirty kilometres west of Beaufort, and served by regular minivans from the centre of town, the Klias Peninsula is an area of flat marshland that’s popular with KK-based tour operators for proboscis monkey or firefly tours.

The most westerly settlement on the Klias Peninsula, tiny MENUMBOK has no accommodation. It’s notable only for the jetty that links it to Labuan; a couple of cafés here may be useful when waiting for a boat.

Around an hour northeast of Beaufort, or 45 minutes from Menumbok, at the northern point of the peninsula, KUALA PENYU is the departure point for Pulau Tiga National Park. It’s a simple grid of streets with little more than a few stores, filled with basic supplies, and a couple of kedai kopis.

In the South China Sea, 12km north of Kuala Penyu, Pulau Tiga National Park once consisted of three islands, but wave erosion has reduced one to a mere sand bar. Of the remaining two, Tiga and Kalampunian Damit, only the former holds any accommodation. It acquired a degree of fame in 2001 as the location of the first series of the American reality-TV show Survivor.

Most visitors today content themselves with relaxing on the sandy beaches and snorkelling or diving in the azure sea, but it’s possible to hike right around the island in six hours. An easy twenty-minute walk to the centre of Pulau Tiga leads to a couple of (lukewarm) mud volcanoes. Slip and slide around there, then walk 1.2km further to clean up at lovely Pagong-Pagong beach. Be warned, though, that walking can be hard going if your feet and flip-flops are muddy.

Just 1km northeast of Pulau Tiga, Kalampunian Damit is also known locally as Pulau Ular (Snake Island), because it attracts a species of venomous sea snake called the yellow-lipped sea krait. The island is normally visited as part of a morning trip from Pulau Tiga Resort, combined with some snorkelling. It used to be possible to see dozens of snakes on a good day, but now they seem to be much more scarce and some visitors come away disappointed.