Visit to a dairy farm

Desa dairy farm

There isn't much of a dairy industry in southeast Asia. Milk and dairy products are scarcely available. The few times I was served butter for breakfast it came from New Zealand. Since I'm lactose intolerant, I don't really miss dairy products but sometimes I hear from other travelers that they wish there was yogurt or sour cream.

I was quite surprised to discover that there is a dairy farm in the area around Kinabalu National Park in Borneo and that they advertise it as a tourist attraction. Or perhaps that's exactly why it's a tourist attraction: because dairy farms are so rare around here. I wasn't all that excited at the prospect of seeing cows but it made a convenient hiking destination so I decided to pay them a visit.

Platform for viewing cow milking

Whenever I visit this type of tourist attraction I marvel at how the entrepreneurial owners make extra income. For example, at the dairy farm, they charge an entrance fee, they offer bunches of grass for sale so that children can feed the calves, they charge a hefty fee for wedding photographs (maybe I lost them here, who wants to take their wedding photographs on a dairy farm?), they have guided tours through the production plant and tourists may view cow milking every afternoon (I was there in the morning so I missed it).

They also sell milk at 1,30 EUR per liter which is rather expensive, chocolate milk, and homemade ice cream. There weren’t any dairy products such as cheese but I’m guessing they sell all the milk and don't have any left over to make cheese.