Taman Negara Kinabalu Things to Do

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Kinabalu park has a lot of jungle treks. The treks are clearly marked on the map from the tourist office at the entrance. Almost all the treks are inter-linked. I prefer the treks in Kinabalu park, due to the higher altitude, it's a pleasure to walk in the forest, the air is fresh and chilly. And with iPod playing my favourite music, I can do this everyday.

You can see the Carson Waterfall during the first part of the climb just a short walk after the Timpohon Gate. This is a very nice welcome to the many trekkers who hope to reach the summit of Mount Kinabalu.

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Poring Hotsprings is also managed by the same people at Kinabalu Park. Before we left the Park HQ, we asked the receptionist to call Poring to book our accomodation. Luckily, there's an available room at Serindit Hostel. It's a dorm-type room with 4 bunk beds and yet again we had the room to ourselves.

Rate at Serindit Hostel: 46 ringgit/person

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As if we haven't had enough of climbing stairs, cuz and I climbed up many steps to the Poring canopy walk. We had a blast scaring each other as we walked across the hanging bridge. Later, we soaked our tired feet at the hotsprings as we smoked our lungs away...

So that's our adventure to Mt Kinabalu. I hope you had fun reading.

Wet but victorious we started our descent from Laban Rata at about 9:30am.

The hike down was generally pleasant altho' hard on the knee. The hikers are more animated, perhaps due to the euphoria of reaching the summit. I forgot to mention this about our previous day's climb but whenever we meet hikers on their way down, we'd greet each other and they would say 'goodluck'. Now its our turn to give the encouragement...

Arrived at Timpohon Gate at 1pm.

Back at the Kinabalu Park HQ, we received colorful certificates for our 'bravery'. Gave Bungin our heartfelt thanks (and tip) and left for Poring Hotsprings.

I'm proud to report that cuz and I are hikers #5 and 6 who logged in at the checkpoint at Sayat Sayat hut. But from there, it's all downhill (or rather, upmountain?) for me. The rain started to pour again, it conspired with the darkness and the howling wind to turn us hikers into some sort of zombies. No talking. All I could hear was my mental drill --- 1,2,3,4. Move those legs!

As we navigated the granite face, I turned off my headlamp and just followed the white rope fixed on the granite. Just as well because it's more intimidating to see the rainwater flowing down. My cousin the veteran climber was already lightyears ahead of me. I was thankful that Bungin stayed with me.

Met my cousin on his way down not far from the summit. He warned us not to stay long up there because of the threatening lightning. Bungin decided to skip the summit traffic by leading me away from the roped path and over the craggy boulders. Crazy man. Anyway, we made it to the top at 5:35am, snapped 2 trophy photos and quickly descended to rejoin my cousin.

Minutes after we checked in at Laban Rata, it started to rain like crazy. The rainwater flowed over Mt K's granite face like waterfalls.

Woke up at 1am and left for the summit at 2am. It stopped raining when we started to climb but poured again halfway up.

At 7pm we attended the climb briefing conducted by the park rangers at Balsam Restaurant. It's suggested that climbers attend this briefing as the rangers give many pointers about the climb: the trail, what to expect, how to negotiate the granite surface, what to wear etc. Some pointers that I can remember are:

a) Hikers can wear shorts on the hike to Laban Rata, long pants to the summit
b) On the granite slope near the summit, if windy, walk with your back hunched
c) It almost always rains past the 3000 meter elevation
d) Leave them heavy rucksacks in the Park HQ storage, just bring stuff needed for the climb

Any questions?... When the ranger asked this, my cousin the chimney wanted to know if smoking is allowed on the trail, hahaha. The answer was yes.