On our third day in Sabah, we rented a car and made our way up to Kundasang for a nights stay at The Pine Resort which is halfway up Mount Kinabalu. I was super excited coz i have baby pictures of me up here at the same resort when i was barely learning to walk!! The wonderful concierge at Sutera Harbour drew us a simple map to help us get there with some pit stops along the way. We hadn't intended to rent a car so we didn't bring along the gps. Our initial plan to get there by bus was scraped when Sabri the Super-concierge explained that it would be majorly difficult to get around if we didn't have our own transport- boy were we glad we listened to him!! More on that later.
After another huge breakfast we went up for a short nap before checking out and going on our way. I love the Sabah coastal roads. They're so picturesque!! But i imagine it would look rather scary when a storm is brewing- coz the sea looks to be really close to the road!
We swung by McDonalds for a quick bite and ate while we drove to save time and made it to the Borneo Upside Down House at about 1pm- with the sun right over our heads. It was super super suuuuuuuuuuuuper hot. Sabri had insisted we make this pit stop as he himself has not visited it before. This attraction is new- having only been in operation since September last year. The name is self explanatory- the house was literally upside down, furniture, car and all!! It was interesting but it got old quickly as it was rather small and the heat did nothing to help.
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Our next stop was the Jambatan Gantung Tamparuli or the Hanging Bridge of Tamparuli. Lagend has it that a virgin was sacrificed in the making of this bridge. Apparently the bridge was washed away many times as the spirit of the river wasn't happy about it. The girl was sacrificed as an offering to appease the spirit. Must have worked coz its still standing! It seems that if you were to swim underneath the bridge, u would see the name 'Solungkoi' engraved on a plaque underneath it. Solungkoi was the sacrificed virgin's name. I'd take the historians word for it. No way am i going swimming in that river!
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After leaving Tamparuli town, we begin our climb up the mountain. The road leading up was in pretty good condition- think Simpang Pulai Cameron Higlands Road. We took a slow drive up and savoured the beautiful sceneries we saw along the way, stopping occasionally to snap a pic. Before checking in, we stopped by Kinabalu National Park. Hubs was under the impression that i wanted to go for hike. I don't know where he got this idea coz with my backache from the long drive and aching feet- i wasn't gonna walk 3 metres let alone 3 kilometres. So we drove around inside the park with d windows down then headed straight for the hotel. This turned out to be a blessing coz it started raining soon after.
We got a room facing Mount Kinabalu!! I was so happy!! Even tho the room was a far cry from the one we had at Sutera Harbour, the scenery more then made up it. It fogged when we arrived so we couldnt really see the peak, save for some peekaboo's here and there when the clouds broke.
We drove around a lil later in search of dinner and omg- ranau and kundasang just dies at night. Like seriously the town just dies!! We drove quite far out looking for restaurants before stumbling across Ranau town n saw a couple of restaurants which looked barely promising. After going around for a bit we settled at a malay eatery where i had the meehun soup n hubs had the chicken fried rice. Both turned out to be yucky! It seems that there are no good eateries up there- you're lucky enough to be able to eat at all!!
We took a walk later that night coz hubs had trouble sleeping and it was dead silent- well cept for the annoying karaoke going on next door and i looked up to the sky and it was dotted with millions of stars- it was really beautiful. I hardly even see stars in the city and to be able to look up and see so many was just breath taking.
Tune in for our next and last edition of our Borneo Babymoon coming up soon!!
I hardly slept a wink on our 1st night there for some reason i cannot fanthom. The bed was comfy, pillows were plush, aircond was jut nice. But i could not fall asleep. This resulted in me jumping up at 6am to have a nice long hot soak in the tub and bugging hubs to lets go down for breakfast nowww!!
The hotel breakfast was really good with a good balance of local and international cuisine. I stuffed myself silly with so much food that i could hardly move afterwards. The pancakes with cinnamon sugar and maple syrup was out of this world!! i went to sleep that night dreaming about it and could not wait to get up the next morning to have it- only to be told they didnt have it that day. Im gonna make it myself this week.
Coming to Sabah, I had wanted so badly to see some live orangutans at Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary, but after learning that it was 230kms away, I settled for the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. Sadly, the orang utan enclosure was closed when we got there :( We did see some pygmy elephants and probiscis monkeys which Borneo is famed for but for the RM120 cab fair (30 min journey)- i felt really dissppointed. Hubs almost got muzzled by this playfull baby elephant and actually fell trying to get away from it. I laughed so hard I was practically falling off my seat!
The Wildlife park was really just a small zoo. I saw the closed place where the orang utans were being kept while their enclosure was being renovated and stood outside the window and called out to them. I heard a distinctive sound of it sticking its tongue out at me and going "pbhttttttt!!". That made my day eventhough i didnt get to see them.
After leaving the wildlife park we tapau-ed some lunch to eat at the hotel and to get some shut eye before going out again when it was cooler. It was superbly hot while we were there as it was the dry season and they werent getting much rain just like us over here in the peninsula.
After our siesta, we headed to Tanjung Aru to catch the world famous sunset which everyone raved about. We walked along the stretch of restaurants but decided to reserve our tummy for dinner at this little italian place a friend had recommended. The beach was dotted with tiny crab holes. Hubs held on tight to my hand so i would not go running around like a mad fat women trying to catch the baby crabs.
We settled at this foodcourt and ordered some chicken wings and avocado juice to while away our time while waiting for the sun to set. The sunset was really beautiful. I dont think ive ever seen the sun looking so round and big n orange. But then again we never really pay much attention to sunsets over here.
After sunset we headed back to town to visit a local market recomended by our cab drive and to have dinner. The market turned out to be a disappointment with used clothing and other equally non interesting things on sale. Hubs talked me into walking to the italian eatery we were having dinner at instead of calling Jeffry our trusted driver. He pointed out it was only 600m to get there. I relented and we walked. We walked past huge billboards and crossed 3 laned roads. We cut thru roundabouts (I have never walked on foot at a roundabout b4. EVER!) and past giant hotels- and still not italian watevers.
At one point i just stopped walking and gave him the death glare. I was not going to walk another step. He fiddled with his phone and nonchalantly said- "ohhh mann!! we missed a turn!!". I gave his phone a glance and saw that it was going to be another 2km walk to get to dinner. I sat my butt down n waited for him to hail a cab. He was still fiddling with his phone then and proudly announced- "Eh yang! Its not 2km's laaa!! its 1.9!". I swear if it wasnt for my religion forbiding it- he would have had my foot for dinner.
But all was well when we got a cab who despite being clueless about the place- got us there in 4 mins flat. After all drama in getting there, I have to say, the food hardly made up for it. It wasnt bad- it just wasnt that good. We ordered a pizza, a lasagna with a side of garlic bread to share. The pizza was okay but the lasagna somehow tasted strangely like sambal to me. Our bill which included 2 iced lemon tea's came up to about RM70.
Jeffry was plenty surprised to find us there when we called him to pick us up. Even he said it was far!!! grrrr!!!
Safe to say i slept like a baby that night. All that walking drained me of all the life i had in me that night.
