A continuation of Neko's travelogue to Kota Kinabalu.
12 Jan 2012
6.00 am
I have never woken up to bright daylight at six in the morning in Malaysia. And yet, as I blink my bleary eyes, the sun shines in through the window, happy to disturb my sleep. Normally I would have just covered my eyes with my eye mask and fall asleep again, but I have not bathed since yesterday, and fortunately there is running water again.
7.00 am
Our waiter from the hotel cafe is a pleasant young native who speaks fluent English. When a neighbouring tourist, whom I'm guessing is from China, starts to talk Chinese to him, I am pleasantly surprised to hear him reply in Chinese as well. Apparently many natives in Kota Kinabalu prefer to send their kids to Chinese schools, I hear from our tour guide later.
8.30 am
A different tour guide from yesterday has arrived to take us for a visit to Mount Kinabalu. Melvin is only 21 years old, but is already a veteran in this field. Upon hearing that my mother's shoes have chosen the worst time to die on her (basically the soles came off the bodies of the shoes, making it highly impossible to trek through muddy soils found on every nature trails), he promises to bring her to buy a pair of Adidas Kampung, proudly made in Malaysia.
Really curious to what they look like.
10.30 am
Mount Kinabalu is always in view the whole trip. The challenge here is getting the perfect shot of the summit. Since we're driving
towards Mount Kinabalu National Park, it can only grow bigger and bigger, offering clearer and clearer shots.
The car ride takes forever! Okay, more like an hour plus. Before reaching the park, Melvin lets us off the Land Rover to visit the local pasar, partly to return blood circulation to our poor legs, and for some shopping!
It almost slipped my mind that I'm very near Mount Kinabalu. The feel I get here is close to being in Cameron Highlands, with the nice cool weather, and stalls manned by natives selling goods. But of course, the majestic Mount Kinabalu stands before me, and every tourist, as if in a trance, would get as near as possible and take a few dozen of photos, if not hundreds.
Melvin calls to us, as he stands in front of a stall selling sundries, and
voila! Adidas Kampung!
We're Malaysians, but we haven't heard of our home yard Adidas before! Apparently, only outdoorsy guys would have known them, as they're quite famous due to their durability for mountain climbing and jungle trekking, and are incredibly cheap. For a pair of rubber shoes that is waterproof and has great anti-slip property, the locals sell for only RM 7!
But then again, the look is nothing to shout about. Mom keeps on fidgeting with that pair of hers, bought halfway along the trip. She feels so self-conscious about them, she even hides behind me when we take photos.
11.30 am
What is Sabah famous for? Having ridiculously long and winding mountain roads. Exactly the reason why almost every family owns a four-wheel drive. After two hours of sitting in the bloody vehicle, we rejoice to see the gate of Mount Kinabalu National Park welcoming us.
Technically, we're in a forest, only with paved roads and a large cluster of buildings (accommodations for mountain climbers, which is really not bad at all). A blast of cold wind blows, and I quickly seek refuge from my warm jacket.
Melvin brings us to the signboard showed prominently at the starting point of the climb towards the summit of Mount Kinabalu. He talks about the climb that starts from where we are standing, and reaching four hours later (if you're lucky, that is) at the guest houses halfway to the top. After a few hours of rest, climbers would start their ascend just after midnight, and reach the pinnacle with the reward of an incredible sunrise. Then, it's an excruciating eight hours climb down to the bottom of the mountain, non-stop.
It's no wonder then, that people talk about trainings a month before the actual climb. It
really isn't a walk in the park. Still, it boggles me to see the fastest record of reaching the top is 2 hours 37 minutes. That's almost inhuman to me.
12.15 pm
On our way to lunch, we drive past the Kundasang War Memorial, established to commemorate the Australian and British POWs who died in Sandakan and during the death march to Ranau during World War II, and also the North Borneo people who risked their lives to save them. I wish we could visit the place, but we're on a tight schedule.
12.30 pm
From this quaint restaurant that we stopped to have our lunch, I've got the clearest shot I can get of Mount Kinabalu.
As you can see, the summit is made up entirely of jagged rocks. It's too high up for trees and bushes to grow. I keep straining my eyes during the whole journey to see if I can spot some climbers, but Melvin laughs and says it's farther than I think. Humans will be smaller than ants in this distance.
1.30 pm
We arrive at Poring Hot Springs, which is famous for its, er, hot springs. But before we could even jump in, Melvin suggests us to take a walk among the canopy, another must-see if you visit Poring.
To get to the top of the trees, it's expected that you have to work your way up the muddy trails surrounded by tall trees and low shrubs. Good thing Mom has her Adidas Kampung on. Her old shoes wouldn't have survived the trip.
The hike up is insane! Everywhere there are giant roots snaking across the trail, and the mud isn't helping with the walking either. Only the wish of walking across planks of wood suspended a few stories high above the ground, with no safety net below them, propels me forward on the gruelling climb.
And we've made it! We are atop Menggaris trees, looking down upon the slopes several stories below us. The canopy walk consists of a couple of platforms connecting the bridges together forming a walk that is over 350 metres.
Walking on the bridges, I expect to see a few animals such as squirrels and birds frolicking, but sadly there aren't any. At least the view is spectacular. The bridges themselves are quite sturdy, and they limit six people across at any time. I don't have a scare of heights, so the walk across is quite peaceful, albeit a bit wobbly because of the suspended nets.
Word of advice: slather on copious amount of mosquito spray!
2.30 pm
Finally after a long trek down, which almost killed me as much as going up, we're rewarded with a soak at Poring's most famous hot springs. The hot springs are rich in sulphuric minerals which have healing properties.
Different from the Japanese hot springs, Poring Hot Springs are individual tubs that you can decide how much hot water or cold mountain spring to mix in, controlled by two faucets. The three of us decide to just soak our tired feet, but there are a lot of visitors that have prepared wet suits to soak their entire body.
However, just waiting for the water to come up above our knees takes forever. I can't imagine how long it would take for it to reach the neck, even in sitting position.
3.00 pm
Leaving Poring Hot Springs, Melvin says if we're lucky, we might catch a glimpse of the world's largest flower, the Rafflesia.
Just two minutes on the road, we see a banner that advertises the giant flower that can be reached via a three-minute walk. Melvin decides to try our luck to look for another species that is bigger than this one, as he judges by the illustration on the banner.
I think he's impressed with our luck. So far, we've managed to see everything a visitor would wish to see (e.g. Mount Kinabalu on a clear day), and avoid everything bad (e.g. rain). He mentions that seeing a Rafflesia requires luck, and he's had a handful of tourists who return empty-handed. He points at Mount Kinabalu and says it's quite unusual for the summit to be seen this clearly after noon. We may have special qualities.
And we do! Just a few minutes ahead, he spots another banner, this time a bigger species and a shorter walk, only one minute. We get off the vehicle, and come to a stall manned by natives. We are required to pay RM 10 per person (voluntary highway robbery, anyone?), and led a short way behind the house obviously owned by the natives manning the stall, to an area surrounded by nets and sequestered from public view.
Luckily for the natives, several Rafflesia buds have sprouted literally in their backyard. Since each of the flowers are at a different growth stage, they can attract visitors for a long time. Melvin says most of the natives will no longer have to work and can just live on the 'ticket' fees for the whole month.
We can't get anywhere near the thing! Luckily I can take a close-up using my camera.
And look at this weird flower! I don't know what it is. Anybody out there who can identify it?
I've always thought that the flowers would stink, but we don't smell anything. Maybe if we can get closer...
On second thought, maybe not.
3.30 pm
We pass by a row of stalls selling durians by the roadside. As our guides have told us about Durian Tembaga that people outside rarely get the taste, we decide to try some.
Now, having durians beside the road is nothing new to Klang Valley residents. SS2 is famous for its durian stalls. It is, however, a new experience to me. As someone who normally can't stand touching food with her bare hands, I have to make do with eating the messy durians, and later only washing my hands with clean water from a water container. Can't say I enjoy it. The durians are not as tasty as our guides said, tasting a little bland than the pungent ones we get here in Semenanjung.
6.00 pm
Never thought that we would be caught in a traffic jam in Kota Kinabalu! I seriously underestimated the amount of cars in the area. KK people start and end work early. Naturally, dinner and sleep comes early too.
For our early dinner, our tour correspondent, Crystal, has invited us to a well-known seafood restaurant among the locals -- Welcome Seafood Restaurant (大茄来海鲜餐厅）at Asia City. The eatery is famous for the fresh seafood, having both fridge-stored and live seafood to choose from, and also the low price. As heard from Crystal, most restaurants around the area cater to tourists, and more often than not charge higher on the bill. Welcome Seafood Restaurant caters to the locals who are familiar with the market price and the occasional in-the-know tourists.
I guess I was too tired and hungry, that I even forgot to take pictures of our dinner spread. We had steamed fish, kam heong crab, garlic steamed scallop, wine braised prawn, and sayur manis aka Sabah vegetable. It was delicious! They weren't kidding when they said the seafood there is heavenly. Everything tastes so fresh.
8.30 pm
We are so full from the scrumptious dinner, when Crystal suggests that we try the local famous eatery, Fook Yuen, just a few steps away from Welcome Seafood Restaurant. According to her, the locals love the food there because they're very cheap. Their toast is most famous, which are made fresh daily in their own kitchen. So is their kaya and coffee.They also have lok lok and other street food, all at a very reasonable price.
I don't know how we managed it, but we stuffed ourselves silly with their soft toast with kaya spread. It was good, and I can see how the eatery made a name for itself. In fact, there are a few branches around the city. One of them is right next to an Oldtown Ipoh White Coffee (an overpriced and bland eatery in my opinion), and the crowd will choose the local brand over the newer eatery.
9.00 pm
Crystal drives us around the city for a short tour, pointing out the old parts of KK, and the new parts that was built on reclaimed land. With new developments every day in the city, it's not hard to understand how KK is rapidly turning into an area worth investing in. According to her, a lot of retired foreigners choose to stay in KK, making it a popular choice in the Malaysia My Second Home Programme.
Most people we see in the city are Hakka Chinese, with increasing numbers of natives outside of KK. Natives are given free land from the government, and are mostly self-sufficient farmers. Chinese are mostly businessman, or working in the tourism industry. Catholic churches are everywhere! We see them everywhere in the city and also the outskirts. KK people live a relaxed lifestyle. Life is easy, but money earned is little compared to the Semenanjung. Almost every goods is priced higher than West Malaysia because of the added shipping fees. It's not fair, but that's how they operate.
She drives us to Tanjung Aru, a favorite haunt of the locals, sort of like a lover's lane. Overlooking the waves crashing on the shore, we let the feeling of "being here" sink in. I wonder how will the city keep up with the rapid development, and coincidentally the future of the pristine nature of Borneo.
So ends day 2. Day 3 coming up real soon.
