Day 2: Desa Cattle Farm & Mesilau Nature Resort

Date: 28 June, 2013 (Friday)

5^th stop: Desa Cattle Farm, Mesilau.

The journey from Kundasang town to the Cattle farm took only 10mins. Now only we realized how steep our route is as we couldn’t see the condition when we first arrived in Kundasang.

The farm is opened daily from 8am to 5pm but the milking is done once daily from 3pm to 5pm. There is a processing tour as well every Tuesday and Thursday but since our visit was on Friday, we can only observe the milking. We arrived at 2.30pm and the cows were already lining up at the center. Before that, do mind the gravel road all the way from the main junction to the center and stopped halfway to pay the RM4 entrance fee per adult.

Parking was quite limited and we’re fortunate enough to have a spot opened for our car. There were a lot of people around but it’s not too crowded. We head to the calf and kid pen first. There were few calves and kids available to be feed by visitors. U can buy the milk and the veggies there. The condition was pretty sad though, I don’t know why. Maybe coz the youngsters look really starved. But these young Holstein Cow and Saanen Goat were really adorable. Huge but adorable LOL.

Close to 3pm, we walked to the main building where the milking took place. Visitor will watch from inside of the building, directly across where the cows were lining up. Milking was done while eating and each cow is attached to a glass container. I didn’t really stay until the 1^st round of cow was finished, so I don’t know how long each milking process take but the cows don’t seem to be bothered.

A quick shop for milk, yogurt ice-cream and some souvenirs marked the end of our visit to the farm. The ice cream costs me RM4 but the milk is undoubtly the best I’ve ever tasted.

6^th stop: Mesilau Nature Resort

Since it’s only 3.45pm, we drove on to the ‘nearby’ Mesilau Nature Resort. Well, it’s only a 15mins drive from the farm to the entrance of the Resort passing through the gold course. But another 10mins is needed from the gate to the resort. Plus, it was drizzling and again, we seemed to be driving deeper into the forest. No more view of Mt. Kinabalu and no one else was around. Even the booth at the gate where we're supposed to pay for the entrance fee has no one there.

The Mesilau Nature Park also serves as the entry point to the Mesilau Trail—an alternative to the Summit Trail (which starts from the Kinabalu Park HQ) to conquer Mount Kinabalu. Opening hours is 9am to 4pm.

Well, it was quite odd coz when we reached the Center, it is already closed. Apart from that, we weren’t able to get a pic of the Mesilau Gate since there’re a bunch of trekkers BBQ-ing there and we’re not kin to climb up to the gate. 3.45pm, we drove back to Kiram since it’s getting dark and raining heavily; and we still have to drive out from the Resort.

KFC was calling for dinner and it’s time to pack since we’re checking out early the next day.