Magnificent KK Day II

Continuing from Day 1…

We were pretty knackered and needed some grub after some brisk walk along Tanjung Aru and Sutera Harbour (thanks Sandra!). So we went back to the hostel to have a good night’s sleep. If you are looking for an affordable accommodation around KK, try looking into Hotels Combined which is something like an online accommodation booking aggregator. Hotels Combined even allows you to sort the hotels by its pricing, distance from the city, popularity etc. We did our booking for our upcoming trips from there too!

The great people from Lavender Lodge helped us to contact a few inbound tour agents and got us a One Day Tour to Kinabalu Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre & Poring Hot Spring for only RM 185 per person. Vkeong and SL who desires to do white water rafting at Padas River went on separate way (read about their little adventure here).

The journey to Kinabalu Park starts early in the morning. We were greeted by our tour guide – a sweet Dusun Kadazan girl at 7.30 am.  Along the way, our tour van picked up another family and two Singaporean girls from their respective hotel.

The ride along the sealed road was pretty winding so we get some shut eye. After 45 minutes, we stopped by the Pekan Nabalu, Tamparuli to do some shopping for crafts and local products while enjoying the most scenic view of Mount Kinabalu.

A majestic view of Mount Kinabalu

cam-whoring

We continued our journey to KK Park which lies at an elevation of 1,563 meters (5,128 feet) above sea level. The foot hill was the Mount Kinabalu Park headquarters where the hikers register for their climb but we proceeded to the botanical garden. This flora and fauna paradise covers an area of 754 square kilometers. Due to a diverse range of temperatures and climate, KK Park is a home to various exotic plants, birds and insects with new species found every year.

As our tour guide was explaining and pointing out the vast array of plants, we were busy snapping around. I felt the lovely cool wind blow on my face, such breezy weather! Though we didn’t make the trek up the mountain due to time constraints, but we truly enjoyed the park.

Mother Nature’s creation which leave us in awe

Wild Berries. Even if some of the cherries are slightly sour, they are still edible and I’ve tried it! Haha

The Naked Tree – tree that changes its “skin”

We stopped at a little restaurant near Poring Hot Spring for lunch and an energy boost because we need to do a little bit of climbing later. Do you know that one is required to climb 550m in order to reach the 157.8 m long canopy walkway with an average height of 41m? The hike up to the canopy walk is pretty strenuous to us as it is an uphill hike all the way.

I was sweating like cow by the time I reached the treetop canopy walkway…

The walkways are  planks hardly a foot wide placed on aluminium ladders supported by the ropes. At 40m above the  ground, it’s really bad for people with acrophobia like me! Walking through the first suspension bridge is tough, but as I feel much better as I go along. The view from the suspension bridge is simply awesome! It sort of distracted my attention away from the height issue.

KampungBoy & his “kick”

Rujuta from Singapore  smiling for our camera…

We are like little ants when compared to nature…

Meet Sue and her little girl from UK…

To rejuvenate our body by enjoying a refreshing dip in some sulphurous water (good for skin apparently!), we walked towards the hot spring tubs. There are limited private tubs and several tubs scattered around the communal area. Those available tubs appeared quite unsightly so we opted for a “foot spa” instead of a full body dip.

Our one day tour ended after this, where we took a ride back to civilization. With hundreds of pictures captured, we just can’t wait to share it with you guys!

Next Up: TWO rounds of seafood dinner in Kota Kinabalu town!