Searching the Kinabalu Mountain
For the first time, we migrate to another airline, the competitor of
AirAsia,
MALINDO AIR. Comparing orange with orange, this airline gives more edge, providing snack, I mean a small pack of biscuit and drinking water. Not bad for a start. Baggage of 20kg is included in the ticket price, so this really is a
BIG different. Entertainment channels right in front of you, you only need to bring your headphones. I didn't, so I just watched them. One thing though, seat booking cost you RM25 a seat, compared to RM12 for AirAsia. We don't mind about seats, so we just check in early enough and got all seats in group.
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| A fitting programme to watch. |
As the idea is to search for the Kinabalu mountain, we opted for rented transportation. This guy from
BORNEO EXPRESS charged us RM450 for a 12-seater van for twelve-hour tour from
TH Hotel to Kundasang, Poring and back. I would say this is definitely a bargain. Good job bro.
First stop, or rather second stop after
Tamparuli Bridge, is Nabalu Town. This is where the Kinabalu name comes from.
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| Errr....so this place is called Nabalu? |
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| Viewing tower is out of order. |
The view from the edge of Nabalu town is none other than the mountain itself. Here you can take all the pictures at will and you don't have to juggle from one side of the van to the other when on the move. This
VIDEO tells the story better.
As we arrived at the Kinabalu park, the first thing to do is to look for the
museum hall. Nothing much have changed since the last time I was here.
Desa Cattle Dairy Farm
Familiar with farm with cattle grazing dark green grass? Cattle raising is familiar in our kampung (not anymore), but a big scale dairy farm is a rarity. Located at Kundasang, this farm has become so popular nowadays that they have started building more complexes. I missed it last time, was it not so popular then?
It is located about 6 km from the Kinabalu park with the entrance at RM5 per head. With Kundasang located about 2000 meters above sea level, an afternoon heat does not feel too much for us. Moreover, it was misty that time, only the side effect is that we can't see the mountain. It would have been a very nice backdrop on our photo.
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| The backdrop in the mist is Kinabalu mountain. |
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| Milk-based ice cream. |
Whoever comes here has only one intention, taking beautiful pictures with cattle field as the background. So we did exactly that.
Poring Hot Spring
Further inland from Kundasang, there is Ranau town followed by Poring which is a slight detour into the forest. The distance between Kundasang and Poring is about 40km and with empty stomach I thought we could stop at Ranau for lunch but the driver has different idea.
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| Hot springs with shades. |
Poring hot spring is a reserve forest that have a segmented hot spring from the earth of the nearby mountain.
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| Now which way to go? |
Besides submerging your already hot body into the hot springs, you can also go for a canopy walkway or if you are fit enough, walk further into the forest for waterfall and cave.
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| Murky water due to the sulphate from the hot springs. |
Instead of increasing our body temperature further, we chose to walk into the forest to find the canopy walkway. Canopy refers to the Borneo jungle which is thick with all sorts of plant and enclosed by overlapping leaves and branches of the tallest trees. The walkway is built by connecting cable and string from one tree to the next. We have to step only on a very narrow single board hanging bridge. By the way, the canopy walk cost us RM3 per head only.
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| Act macho only. |
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| Look mum, no hands..... |
The highest walkway from the ground could easily be more than 40 meter, so I asked the ranger if that point is really the highest. He said the highest point is at double of that, but that particular stretch is currently under maintenance.
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| Walking on the air. |
We could feel a sense of achievement having completed the tour and we burnt thousands of calories in the process.
