The Mysterious Trail of Aura Montoria

So one of the places that I managed to go to when I was still based in Sabah was a place called Aura Montoria. Located in the far corner of the beautiful district of Kota Belud, I had actually heard quite a lot about it and had to put it neatly in the list of my highest priority – and yet it took me almost 2 years before I managed to get around to it.

So the day before I was to hit into Aura Montoria, I drove over from KK to Kota Belud where I spent a night at a place called Tegudon Tourism Village. It was more of a riverside camping area, with a number of huts and chalets. A local lady was there to welcome me and she ushered me to one of only a few more chalets available for the night. The walls were fully made of stitched bamboo so it felt so rustic and traditional. The room was quite comfortable to stay in and it wasn’t long before I was lullabied to a deep sleep by the sound of lizards calling out to each other and the soft roaring of the nearby Tegudon river.

I arrived quite late at night so I didn’t really get to see the surrounding. But it wasn’t until the next morning when I opened the door and was welcome by the astounding view of the river with the majestic Mount Kinabalu towering high in the far distance.

After making myself a cup of hot Tenom coffee, I took it to the river where I let myself be enchanted more by the beautiful river view. I really wished I could stay there and enjoyed the moment longer but of course I had to leave because Aura Montoria was the ‘ultimate’ destination.

Aura Montoria is actually located near to a village called Kampung Sayap. Most of the trail operators including the guides are from that village. After a quick registration and a short briefing by our guide, we set out onto what would become one of my favourite hiking trails in Sabah.

Well, it was quite a light and easy hike, except at certain spots where the ascent had required more than I was prepared for. What made the trail different from other hiking trails that I had been to before was the existence of unique boulders of rock along the way. There did not appear to be solid boulders, but more like pieces of rocks that were cemented naturally over time and formed different shapes, unique features and beautiful appearances.

Then what made it even more interesting is the existence of creeks that flow from whatever sources upstream, through rock openings and creating natural pools and waterfalls along the way. The trail takes hikers into caves with waterfalls and natural pools in them! I mean, I had no idea a place with such unique natural landscapes did exist in Sabah, or even in Malaysia as a whole.

Even more amazing was the fact that there were fish in them, shimmering against the lights when we pointed our torch lights to them. I mean, we must be some 300m from the bottom of the valley from where we had ascended and just how the fish managed to swim to such heights had remained a mystery in my head up until now. I can only assume that they must have been there since the beginning of time. I mean, they really were part of the mystery of Aura Montoria trail.

There was nothing much to shout about the peak of the trail but of course the greenery all around was so therapeutic and easy on the eye. It was descending all the way down from there until we arrived at river that formed into a beautiful natural pool. The guide told me how the water was supposed to be crystal-clear but a heavy downpour that occurred the day before had made it quite murky and not quite up to what he had expected and what he wanted us to see. And yet I could easily see plenty of fish swimming all over the pool.

It was supposed to be a hike back to the starting point right from there but we didn’t want the fun to end just yet so we decided to do a little bit of detour to a place called Green Lagoon. It was the best decision really. The color of the water explains the name. It was another natural pool surrounded by beautiful rock boulders and greenery all around. The best part of it was that, we had the place all to ourselves. The guide seemed to know how to summon up the adventurous demons in us. He asked us to jump into the river from atop a boulder.

The jump had required more guts than I had expected though. When the guide did it, it looked very much doable. But when it was my turn to do it, a sudden surge of self-doubt suddenly washed over me for a long moment I tried so hard to muster up enough courage to do it. In the end I just gritted my teeth, said fuck yeah and pushed myself off the boulder. The moment I launched myself off, everything just went into a blurry slow motion and it took like forever to hit the waters.

The feeling was amazing though and I actually let out the loudest congratulatory shout-out to myself when I resurfaced and was convinced enough that I was still very much alive. Just to make sure it was not a one-time courage, I did another jump and another and it just got better every time. It felt like I was thrown back to my childhood time when I used to go to the river near to my village where I’d jump into the river from even a higher spot. But of course that was long time ago when everything in my being was still very much light and functional. Heh.

So after spending almost a couple of hours enjoying our time at the Green Lagoon, we hiked back to the starting point to complete the loop where we were given the finisher certificate. By then it was way past lunch time so we drove back towards Kota Belud and later to the hectic and noisy Kota Kinabalu.