Date of Exploration: 11 August 2018
Mooving along our day trip itinerary which took us to
Pekan Nabalu for a panoramic appreciation of Mount Kinabalu's grandeur followed by meeting some of the native botanical giants at
Kinabalu Park, we arrived next at an attraction that has been...
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| ... in Kota Kinabalu's tourism scene. |
Resembling a page out of a New Zealand travel brochure - waves of mountains, verdant fields and idyllic countryside charms, it is no wonder that visitors are herding to Desa Dairy Farm for some scenic grazing.
Plus, of course, the lower highland temperature of around 20°C makes it a cool escape from Sabah's sauna climate.
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| The village of Mesilau, where Desa Dairy Farm calls home, is nestled on a high plain with the stately Mount Kinabalu for a backdrop. |
Getting here by public transport is a mystery as it seems non-existent; so the best way is to join a packaged day tour, hire a private transport with driver, or self drive. It takes about 2.5 hours to get here from Kota Kinabalu City and under 30 minutes drive from Kinabalu Park.
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| Entrance driveway to Desa Dairy Farm. An entry fee applies (Adult - RM5, Child - RM4) and our minivan queued for about 20 minutes before it was our turn to pay and enter. |
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| I wouldn't have thought this is Malaysia! |
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| Another setting to shoot Mount Kinabalu. |
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| Clouds caressing the mountain peak ever so gently. |
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| Purple fireworks. Quite some interesting flowering plants can be spotted around Desa Dairy Farm. |
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| Desa Dairy Farm is nicknamed Kota Kinabalu's Little New Zealand. |
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| Desa is actually a local household brand name with generations of Sabahans growing up with milk from this farm. The farm serves only the domestic market and does not produce enough to export. |
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| Step on in to enjoy fresh milk, ice-cream, yogurt, cheese, cakes and also watch the milking process. |
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| Viewing gallery to watch the milking process which happens from 2:30 - 4:30pm daily. |
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| The farm produces about 900,000 litres of milk every year. |
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| Cows at the farm are of the Holstein-Friesian breed, which produces one of the highest milk outputs and also interesting to look at because of the black-and-white patterns. |
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| Milk straight from the farm... can't get any fresher than this. Too bad I'm lactose intolerant so I refrained from tasting anything at the farm in case I leave a brown all the way back to Kota Kinabalu City. |
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| After viewing the milking process and tasting the dairy products (have to pay hor, not free), walk around to the back of the milking facility to a small shed to feed some calves and baby goats. They are perpetually hungry! |
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| Feeding milk to get milk... a bottle costs RM1 to feed the animals. Same price goes for a bundle of grass feed. Have to put up with some smell from the livestock. |
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| This fella is rather friendly and endearing. Makes me feel bad for liking beef. |
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| First you feed. Then you bleat. Hope not bleed. |
The visit to Desa Dairy Farm was quite an eye opener to discover such a picturesque highland farm setting in Malaysia. But because of my lactose intolerance and restraint in sampling the fresh produce, and the large visiting crowd, the place became a yawn for me after about 15 minutes.
If you can control passing mootion after dairying up, you'll have a more fulfilling here.
Related Posts:
Pekan Nabalu and the Mountain of Love
Supersized Nature at Kinabalu Park
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