Hello! I'm Tortoise~ So I've traveled to Sabah for a 1-week vacation, and it was a great experience! Sabah is the east-most state of Malaysia, situated at the northern end of the Borneo island which resembles a dog's head. It has beautiful islands and coral reefs suitable for snorkeling and diving. It also states the prominent Mount Kinabalu, rising 4095m above sea level (Low's Peak), which sits in Kinabalu Park, the first Malaysian UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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| That's me!! |
It was a 2hours 45mins flight to Kota Kinabalu International Airport, and I arrived rather late at night. So my local friends picked me up from the airport, went for dinner, and they dropped me at X-Plorer Backpacker, my inn for the first 3 nights (only RM25/bed per night). Another 2 friends reached later at night and they joined me in the inn.
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| Looking at the changes in scenery and cloud patterns... |
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| Crossing the South China Sea... |
Day 1 - Snorkeling at Sapi and Manukan island:
Woke up early in the morning to catch the early boat to the islands, we had 生肉面 (sang-yuk mee) as breakfast in a nearby coffee shop. Nice tender pork thinly sliced with some offal (intestines, belly, etc), served with dry mee tossed in soy sauce. It tastes great and I highly recommended it!!! Then, we headed to Jesselton Point to take a ride to Sapi island.
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| The shop where we took our breakfast - 生肉面, RECOMMENDED!!! |
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| Jesselton Point |
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| Off to Sapi island!!! |
Sapi island was said to be the best island to hang around out of all the islands in Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park! It was fairly crowded by the time we reach it. We left our things under the shade and off we go into the water~ The white sandy beach was clean, and the water is quite clear for snorkeling (within the buoys area). We can see a variety of fishes but the corals aren't very colorful. Around noon, we showered and took a ride to Manukan island.
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| Under the shade at Sapi island |
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| Planking in the water?? |
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| Nice white sandy beach, somebody's sunbathing over there~ |
Manukan island is the largest island in Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park. We had our lunch there and rested before going into the water again. We get to see more corals and fishes, including sea urchins hiding among the corals. However, the place would be a lot better if there aren't so much rubbish in the water... We came out of the water in the evening, showered, and took some photos while waiting for our ride back to the city.
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| Under the shade at Manukan island |
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| On the way back to the city... |
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| Evening view from Jesselton Point |
Upon returning to the city, we took our dinner and went back to our inn for some rest. And that's the end of day 1.
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| View from the balcony of X-Plorer Backpacker |
Day 2 - Tour within Kota Kinabalu city:
Took breakfast at Yee Fung coffee shop, I ordered the Yee Fung laksa and Teh Maderas. After that we headed towards the Atkinson Clock Tower, a very old-looking structure with 2 clocks facing the opposite direction. It was named after an officer who died of some sort of 'Borneo fever'. Then we walked along Signal Hill Road for about 15mins and reached Signal Hill Observatory.
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| Yee Fung coffee shop |
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| Yee Fung laksa, tastes like curry mee with a little sourness from the lime squeeze... |
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| Teh Maderas, it's actually a combination of coffee and tea... |
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| Atkinson Clock Tower |
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| Signal Hill Observatory, can see most of the city from here... |
From there, we walked along a trail back to the city and we continued towards the waterfront. We walked past some fish statues, the central market (lots of fresh fruits and vegetables), the Filipino Market (crafts and souvenirs), and our destination was the bus station, or rather, the van station. It seems that in Kota Kinabalu, the main public transport is van, because they have more vans than buses here. We took a bus to Inanam, waited around 20mins before the bus departed.
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| At the waterfront, spot the fishing boat behind... |
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| "Fish" statue!!! Can you see me?? |
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| Non-air-conditioned bus, it was very stuffy when it's stationary!! |
We dropped off right in front of 普陀寺 (Puh Toh Tze temple), a Buddhist temple. We stayed there until lunch time, and started walking a long way towards the shop we were going to have our lunch - 京华烧鸭 (Kin Hua Restaurant)!! It's quite a famous shop here, and they serves roasted duck, chicken, and pork. After that we walked into another shop nearby just to taste their famous Tuaran Mee. The taste and texture of Tuaran Mee is very unique, again I highly recommend this dish!! After that, we took a public van back to Kota Kinabalu city, walked around looking for the transport to Kinabalu Park for the next day, and rested in our inn.
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| Puh Toh Tze temple |
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| 京华烧鸭 - a mix of roasted duck, BBQ chicken (char siew), and roasted pork belly!! |
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| Tuaran
mee!!! Tastes like
yee mee but with a hard center, served with some minced and sliced pork,
and have a nice egg fragrant~ RECOMMENDED!!! |
We waited in our inn for our local friend, and he brought us to Tanjung Aru beach. There are people setting up and rehearsing for Malaysia Day celebration. We had our dinner there, and then we proceed to hang out at Shangri-La Resort. Not forgetting to mention the avocado drink in Tanjung Aru, it's the best we had, and I highly recommend it!! Then, we went back to the inn and called it a day.
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| Sunset at Tanjung Aru shoreline... |
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| Shangri-La Resort, there's a band playing music in the background... |
Day 3 - Kinabalu Park and the Dairy Farm:
Checked out of X-Plorer Backpacker and took a van to Kinabalu Park (RM20/person 1-way). I bought some chocolates in a nearby convenient store before boarding the van. It was quite a long journey to Kinabalu Park, and the road is quite dangerous for unfamiliar drivers. Upon reaching Kinabalu Park, we arranged our documentations for the hike, deposited our luggage momentarily, and took our lunch in a nearby stall. Then, we took a van and visited the dairy farm in Kundasang.
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| Air-conditioned van to Ranau, but it dropped us at Kinabalu Park entrance... Unfortunately, my luggage bag caught some chewing gum left by irresponsible passenger >.< |
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| The driver turned off the air-conditioning and asked us to open the window, as the temperature outside is much cooler now that we are half-way up the mountain in elevation... |
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| Entrance to Kinabalu Park!! A UNESCO World Heritage Site!! |
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| Our lunch near Kinabalu Park, braised boar with ginger and green onion... |
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| The
trail map, we started hiking from Mesilau (lower right), hiked all the
way up to Low's Peak, and down to Timpohon gate (lower left).. |
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| The other trails within Kinabalu Park... Spot me? |
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| The cows in the front rows are being fed with some sand-like thingy, probably some sort of ground nutrients prepared by the farm. As for the cows at the back rows... Well, they're being milked using some sort of sucker tube... |
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| Look at the number of cows!! All the cows have tags on their ears... |
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| They have goats here too! Tourists can also buy some leaves or bottled milk to feed the goats~ |
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| View from dairy farm... Looks like Switzerland? |
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| Queuing up to buy ice-cream, but gave up at the end due to the slow service... |
The van we took to dairy farm charged us RM150, that is RM50 per person (2-way). Then, we reclaimed our luggage bags and departed to Mesilau Nature Resort, where we are going to start our hike the next day morning! *nervousness* Before departing from Kinabalu Park, I bought a pair of hiking gloves for RM20, which I kinda recommend it too. From our previous inn to this resort, it was so much more pleasing and comfortable!! Here we have proper bunk beds, much better washrooms, and nicer scenery~ After bath, we had our buffet dinner at their restaurant. Upon returning to our beds, we packed for the next day, and off to bed...
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| My much more comfortable bed~ There's also a reading lamp at every bed! Spot me? |
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| Shampoos, body lotions, toothbrush etc... |
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| The living room, there's a brochure on the table regarding services provided by Sutera Harbour... |
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| The windows along the hallway... |
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| Buffet dinner! |
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| All fruits are topped with a lemon squeeze~ |
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| The salad... |
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| Main dishes served on the other side, the dishes aren't the same on both sides! |
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| Winter melon soup~ |
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| Packing for the next day... |
Day 4 - Ascend to Laban Rata:
Woke up very early in the morning again, to bathe, check out, and have buffet breakfast before the hike. I had a simple breakfast, but I should have taken in more calories than I usually do... We took our packed lunch, and headed to the starting point of Mesilau Trail to meet our mountain guide, and to obtain our walking stick. The fee for hiring mountain guide wasn't included in the package that we bought, so it's another RM143 to hire a mountain guide for 3 (around RM48 per person) Well my advice here is to not carry too many bottled water as there are untreated water refills along the way (bring water purification tablets instead). The reason is that, carrying 1kg extra might not show that much difference at first, but carrying that extra 1kg for another 6hours does show a big difference!! So with everything ready, I started my stopwatch, and off we went into the woods and no more turning back!!!
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| The HQ to check out and send our luggage bags to be transported back to Kinabalu Park... |
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| Our room key: Bishop's Head, House 1 Room 4 |
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| Our packed lunch and small bottled water |
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| Weighed around 7kg thanks to the 1 big and 2 small bottles of water... Nevertheless, 7kg is still an acceptable weight... |
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| The starting point of the hike, the first parts are mostly stairs... Better stay in a bottle from here onwards, to avoid getting dirty~ |
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| There's a nice waterfall far away~ |
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| Mickey-shaped petals? |
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| First up-close waterfall we encountered |
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| Another nice mini waterfall |
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| And we reached the hanging bridge, at this point our physicals are still good~ |
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| Another waterfall which looks like a rapid... |
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| Can you spot the mountain squirrel? |
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| Feeling very hungry, stopped to have a banana and a sandwich... |
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| The plantations at this height are starting to change into weird-looking plants, most of them have thin pointy leaves... |
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| Look at that nice scenery... Just fascinating... |
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| And finally, we reached the junction where Mesilau Trail meets Timpohon Trail... It's 2km less if we started our hike from Timpohon gate, but we'll miss the few nice scenery spots, so it's totally worth it!!! Another 2km to Laban Rate!!! |
My pace started to slow down after I passed the 4km point as my legs grew more and more tired. It rained now and then, but not really heavy, so there wasn't much problems after I pulled out my raincoat covering my backpack as well. The last 2km of the hike took me more than 2hours!! In total, I used 465mins to reach Laban Rata from Mesilau Trail, that's more than 7hours of hike!! (Well, I'm a tortoise after all...) Laban Rata is situated at 3272.7m above sea level elevation, and this is the place where most hikers took their rest before proceeding to the summit on the next day. Upon reaching here, we had our buffet dinner (yes! DINNER! at 4pm!), rested, and continued another 150m to reach Gunting Lagadan Hut, which is our resting place for the day. Although I sweated a lot, I don't really feel dirty probably due to the low temperature, and considering that the shower is non-heated, I did not take my bath. I changed into clean cloths, put on a sweater and a winter jacket, packed my mini backpack, and slept at around 6pm.
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| The touching moment when I saw this sign... Finally, end of "first half"... |
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| The food served in Laban Rata restaurant tastes a lot better than I expected! There's nice bowl of green bean soup too to whet my appetite~ |
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| Their home-made pudding and caramel as desserts~ |
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| My bunk bed in Gunting Lagadan Hut... |
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| My name tag and the room key... |
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| Packed for the next day, and time to rest... |
Day 5 - Ascend to Low's Peak, and descend to Timpohon Gate:
Woke up around 1am to prepare and go back down to Laban Rata. As it's very dark out there, we wore our headlights to shine our ways. Had our supper there, met with our mountain guide again, and off we went into the woods again!! Our mountain guide told us that it's another 2.7km up to the summit, 700m of mountain trail or stairs (like those we went through in the last 8km), and 2km of rope climbing, including 300m of "danger zone"... That's the part where we started to climb with the help of ropes! We were told not to let go of the ropes no matter what happen when we're still within the danger zone. Some tourists gave up at this point, probably because the journey from there onwards is rather scary and dangerous, being all dark and having very steep slopes. As our mountain guide assured us that he'll be right behind us, I grabbed the rope and started ascending, not a moment thinking of the descend afterwards!!
At that height, it's almost all rocks and I can barely see vegetation anymore. It's getting really cold up there, as there's no more canopy to trap the heat. The tiredness from both legs haven't yet recovered from the night's rest, therefore my hike to the summit is almost purely fueled by sheer determination. We are asked to show our name tags at Sayat-sayat Hut, which serves like a check point and the proof that we've made it to the summit. However, it's still a long journey to the Low's Peak, the ultimate destination of the hike. After a while, Low's Peak is finally within sight!! I'm panting quite heavily, but I did not stop anymore, moving in very small steps, but moving forward!! When I start to see the sky turn brighter, I know I have to move even faster. Along the way, other hikers also encouraged each other to move on. At 227mins into the ascend from Laban Rata, Low's Peak's signboard is finally within touch!! I sat down, and looked around, the feeling is just incredible... Looking at the scenery, feeling the mountain breeze, I still don't want to think about the descend, just want to stay there and enjoy the moment...
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| Low's Peak in sight, so near yet so far... |
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| Finally reached Low's Peak, 227mins into the hike!! *proud* |
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| View of South Peak from Low's Peak~ |
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| Comparing South Peak with the picture in the old RM1 note... |
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| Now comparing it with the one in the new RM100 note... |
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| Some vegetation that grows up there... |
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| The rocky surface at the summit... Somebody's planking there? |
At around 7.30am, I reset my stopwatch and started my descend because it will get dangerous if I stayed for too long. As it's a lot brighter now, the descend doesn't seem that scary anymore. It took me 140mins to descend back to Laban Rata, had breakfast, and continued to descend via Timpohon Trail. The descend was much easier and less tiring compared to the ascend (except for the pain at the knee joint), and considering we didn't stop for too long at any huts, the time we took for the descend is far shorter. There was this waterfall called the Carson Fall, which tells us that we're only 200m away from Timpohon Gate. After 220mins into the descend from Laban Rata, we reached Timpohon Gate, the end of our hike.
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| Laban Rata sign |
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| Took a photo of Laban Rata building before descending... |
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| Carson Fall, another 200m to go~ |
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| End of the hike, another 'oh finally' moment... |
Again we were told to show our name tags to the counter, then we walked out of the building, and boarded our pre-arranged van back to Kinabalu Park for document processing and buffet lunch at Balsam restaurant. We sat in the restaurant for quite some time, then we reclaimed our luggage bags and took a van back to Kota Kinabalu city (RM150/trip, so RM50 per person).
The van dropped us off right in front of our next inn, Borneo Backpackers. It is right beside the main road, next to a roundabout. We stayed in bunk beds as well (RM25/bed per night), and this inn is a lot better than the previous inn. The place is cleaner, the toilets and bathrooms are more appropriate, and there's more space to move around. Thus, I'll recommend this inn as well!! After the bath, we went out searching for dinner, and end up dining in Little Italy, a restaurant who obtained the Certificate of Excellence from tripadvisor. It was quite crowded but we still manage to sit at a table for 4. We ordered
Crespelle al Forno (crespelle),
Tonno, Cipolla E Peperoncino (pizza), and linguine in
Gamberi sauce. After the dinner, we returned to the inn and rested for the night.
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| Buffet lunch at Balsam restaurant... |
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| The certificates of the hike!! |
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| Borneo Backpacker across the street, RECOMMENDED!!! |
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| There's an exchange corner for travelers to take or leave anything here... |
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| And this is a book exchange corner... |
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| The Certificates of Excellence in Little Italy by tripadvisor~ |
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| Crespelle al Forno, a lasagna-like dish, with pasta wrapping around spinach, mushroom, ham, and cheese |
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| Linguine in Gamberi sauce, with fresh prawn sauteed in olive oil, garlic and chilly butter sauce |
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| Tonno, Cipolla E Peperoncino, pizza topped with tuna fish, onions and chilli |
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| Little Italy napkin |
Day 6 - Visiting the Upside down House, Tamparuli:
I woke up to a peaceful morning without any plans for the day. I walked back to Yee Fung coffee shop to try their 牛什 (ngau-chap) for breakfast and it was really good. It was actually beef (and offals as well) served with bihun in beef broth. It tasted very well and I'll recommend this to beef lovers!!! From there I walked slowly to Wisma Merdeka, and took lunch at Wiya Chicken Rice shop. One thing special about them is that their chicken rice is served in the shape of a pyramid.
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| 牛什 - nice tender beef and offal served with bihun in smooth beef broth, RECOMMENDED!!! |
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| Wiya Chicken Rice shop |
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| Wiya pyramid-shaped chicken rice served with BBQ chicken and Hainan steam chicken... |
After lunch, we went to the van station again, and took a van to Tamparuli Upside down House. As the name says, everything in this house is upside down! We had to pay the entrance fee of RM10 per person to enter the house, and we weren't allowed to take any photos inside the house. We were led by a guide, and she guided us into the house and told us stories about it. Within the house there's a living room, a bedroom, a child's playroom, and a toilet. What's truly amazing in the house is a "ceiling mirror" in the bedroom, and yes it's now on the ground because it's upside down. When I looked into the mirror, it reflected everything on the "floor" into a more sensible orientation, as if there's a hole in the ground, and there's another room in it, everything in the right orientation!! We didn't stay in the house for long, after we exited the house, there's an upside down garden and an upside down washroom. We rested in their cafe for a while before crossing the road and waited for public vans back to Kota Kinabalu city by a watermelon hut. Instead, we hopped onto a van going to Tuaran, and from Tuaran took another van back to the city.
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| RM10 entrance fee for Malaysians |
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| The side view of the Upside down House |
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| At the entrance of the house |
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| Upside down bicycle |
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| Upside down cloth hanging area |
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| The backdoor of the house. Spot me? |
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| Hmm?? Something's not right... |
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| Isn't this just a normal garden? Spot me? |
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| Upside down washroom? Hey wait a minute!! |
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| Upside down car? Something's definitely wrong here... |
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| The upside down car and the upside down house... |
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| Waiting for public van beside a giant watermelon stand... |
From the van terminal, we walked towards the city through the many shopping malls, and we went to 佑记肉骨茶 (yu-kee bak kut teh) for dinner. They serve the usual bak kut teh ingredients (pork belly, ribs, intestines, kidney etc) separately in bowls and priced them separately as well. After dinner we went searching for a certain chicken wing all the way to Sedco complex, but we did not manage to find it. At Sedco complex, there were many seafood restaurants thou, with stretches of fresh seafood to handpick from. So we gave up on the chicken wing, and went to Jesselton Point to relax by the sea before calling it a day.
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| 佑记肉骨茶 menu |
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| Pork belly and kidney served and priced separately... |
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| A weird looking crab at Sedco complex |
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| A whole tank of clams!! And other seafood as well!! |
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| These are from another stall... |
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| Jesselton Point |
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| Took a coconut while relaxing by the sea... |
Day 7 - Penampang seafood, 1Borneo, and Filipino market:
I made myself some hot chocolate from the inn while waiting for my local friend to bring us around. Her mom brought us all the way to Penampang to try out the famous seafood restaurant in the area! The name of the restaurant is 旺旺茶餐室 (Wan Wan coffee shop), and they serves all kind of fish-made dishes. Then, they drove us into UMS for a short tour around the campus, but unfortunately the aquarium was closed on Wednesdays. We also drove past their student hostels (which are situated on a hill slope) and the stadium. After that, they sent us to visit 1Borneo, the largest shopping mall in Sabah. It has all kinds of boutiques and surprisingly it houses many department stores as well!! In the evening, they dropped us back at our inn, and we walked towards the Filipino market to bargain for some souvenirs and dried seafood. On our way back we passed by the central market, and they were on sales to clear off their cut fruits, so lucky me got 3 packets of papaya just for RM1!!
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| A cartoon-istic map of Sabah found in the inn~ |
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| 旺旺茶餐室 menu |
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| There's fish paste, fish noodles, fillets, and also fish skin!! The soup tastes very nice too, RECOMMENDED!!! |
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| Served with dry noodles... |
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| Bought off the central market in the evening for only RM1!! |
I took a simple dinner just below the inn, and called for a van to the airport. I checked-in my walking stick as well to be brought back as a souvenir from the hike. I also bought some Tenom coffee at the airport to be brought back home.
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| Checked-in my luggage bag and the walking stick... |
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| Tenom white coffee~ |
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| On the flight back home... |
So that's about it, my 1-week travel to Sabah. Went into the sea to get sunburned and bitten by fish, hiked above the clouds to see nothing else standing above me... It was truly a memorable and exciting journey!! Hope I get to come again for some other nature activities which I haven't do, especially rafting in the Kiulu or Padas river~
Recommendation Summary:
Food
- 生肉面 (sang-yuk mee)
- Tuaran Mee
- Avocado drink
- 牛什 (ngau-chap)
- 旺旺茶餐室 (Wan Wan coffee shop)
Hiking gear
- Hiking gloves and walking stick
Inn
That's MY story, what's YOURS?
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