The Kinabalu Experience

Day 1

It started in the morning at about 7:00 am, where we started out our journey from Kota Kinabalu town to Kinabalu Park. The van ride took about 2 hours and cost RM15/pax. Along the way was a winding mountain pass with many Catholic Churches laid by sides. Gradually as we climb to higher altitude, the breeze got cooler and much morerefreshing. After about an hour Mt. Kinabalu was in sight. It was a cloudy day, the peak was shrouded in clouds which cast a mysterious identity upon this South East Asia highest peak.

It was a magnificent sight especially for us who are going to scale its peak tomorrow. Soon after, we reached Kinabalu Park at about 10:00 am. The weather was cool and windy. Here, we had a much clearer view of Mt. K. We couldn’t help to be snappy happy and started whipping out our cameras and happily snapping away. We have to wait till 2:00 pm before we can check in to Grace Hostel, so we took a taxi to a nearby town, Kundasang to do some last minute shopping. Kundasang is only about 10 mins away form Kinabalu Park and the taxi ride cost RM10.

We went there in search of the famous Adidas Kampung which is the ideal pair of shoes for climbing Mt. K. We found them and they were selling at RM 8/pair. We never thought that it would be so cheap but later we found out from our friend in KK that we can get it at half the price in KK. But there was nothing much we can complaint about as we did little research for this trip. After we had our lunch, we got hold of a “Ba Wang Che” (unlicensed taxi) to goto Poring Hot Spring. It was a 1 hour plus drive there and the weather was very hot due to the haze from Kalimantan. Along the ride we stopped by one of the locals as they were displaying a banner stating “Rafflesia Blooming”. It’s not at full bloom yet but indeed it is very unique as the world’s largest flower.

Poring Hot Spring is both a tourist attraction for its open and close hot water bath and a nature reserve. We didn’t lay our hands on the hot spring; instead we went for the tree top canopy walk. It was a short 20 mins walk to see the lush greenery and breathe taking view. We got back to Kinabalu Park at around 5:30 pm and we quickly checked in and had our shower before heading out for dinner. We went to the restaurant just opposite the Kinabalu Park for dinner and it wasn’t expensive compared to if we had our dinner at the Balsam Café inside Kinabalu Park. We had fried rice, fish ball noodle, sweet sour fish and mixed fruits. It was a fulfilling dinner accompanied by cool weather and a soothing evening skyline. We ended our Day 1 pretty early at 8:00 pm, as we turn in early to get a good night rest for tomorrow’s journey.