Mt Kinabalu, part 2 ( July 07)
Well, after a lovely breakfast on a beautiful terrace overlooking some gorgeous high fern trees, (with majestic Mt Kinabalu in the distant clouds) we then took a short bus ride to go the starting point of the trail to the summit. We had decided early on, when we planned this, not to do the whole trail as it'd have meant staying overnight in a very cold lodge (2C) and would have meant taking lots of warm clothes in our (already super packed) suitcases just for that one night. Besides, after having done lots of hiking in Sardinia where I really suffered uphill, I failed to see the plus of doing something like this again, esp. as the top was just stones, with no vegetation at all. The average person needs 3 days to complete the trek, but expert runners, who compete vs each other every December for the annual race to the top, can make it in 2H30 !!!! These are usually porters who work on the Inka Trail and other such places, high up, who don't get altitude sickness. Pretty impressive ! I tell you, after 1km, I back tracked. I wanted to just go down again slowly and take in all the plants I saw on the way. I counted about 15 different species of moss alone... and lots of different designs of ferns.
Roberto went a lot further up, but he's like a mountain goat, he doesn't seem to 'suffer' at all on his legs and doesn't even use a stick to go down when the average person desperately needs on to relieve pressure on the knees.
After another lovely lunch on the same beautiful terrace - the food is truly incredible, we feel so spoilt, so much nicer than Chinese (too blend) or Thai (too spicy), we set off to the orchid farm.
It wasn't in our itinerary but our guide mentioned such a farm was on the way back to KK and as Roberto was in no rush to go back to KK (and neither was I, the air smelt too good up there), we thought it'd be a neat excuse to hold back time.
It was a most enjoyable afternoon, with lots of very vivid orchids... they come in so many different shapes and forms. Some are very big, others are minuscule. Roberto said it was the 'most beautiful garden he had ever seen'... and our guide was really friendly. In fact, most of our guides have been really sweet and welcoming. Even our talkative guide, annoying as he could be, was so passionate about his job, and he was so organised, he had taken all sorts of things to show us to make our treks more interesting (i.e. a lighter to set a seed alight that has gasoline inside, well, a type of bio oil).
We eventually reached KK at 5:00pm and checked into the phenomenal Sutera Harbour Resort. Wow. You can pretty much do every sport you'd want (from golf to... play station for kids - a whole centre set aside for that !). They have 5 huge pools, including an olympic pool. The beach isn't great but Roberto still went in and saw quite a few fish.
The sunsets here are the best we've seen... well, they are the ONLY ones we've seen... and the buffets, mama mia. I've never seen so much choice in my life. Starters including salmon, caviar, tiger prawns, oysters, mussels, + lots of 'perfect bites' with grilled aubergine + slice of tomato + slice of mozarella, with a basil leaf on top and pesto... all sorts of similar food parcels. The desserts were like: geee, where do you start ??? We had to seriously refrain ourselves not to be sick.
It's now quite late so I'd better sign off, tomorrow we have a 7:30am pick-up (steep !) to go on our white water rafting venture. Everybody has been telling us we are quite brave which is making Roberto slightly nervous by now. I therefore hope that this won't be our last update! hum... But the brochure states that it's suitable from 7 year old upwards... so, it can't be that bad, surely? It hasn't rained for 2 days (a first, so far it's rained every day, mainly at night) so I hope the weather will stay clear so that the river won't be too wild as it'll take us longer to float down then and enjoy the scenery... and it'll probably be safer too. The one time I did white water rafting, in New Zealand, back in 1993, I didn't really enjoy it. I was glad when it was over. One of my colleagues who went on the same ride here said that 'he thought he was going to die' but then the adrenaline rush was incredible when it was over.
I shall report in due course... God willing !!!!
Well, after a lovely breakfast on a beautiful terrace overlooking some gorgeous high fern trees, (with majestic Mt Kinabalu in the distant clouds) we then took a short bus ride to go the starting point of the trail to the summit. We had decided early on, when we planned this, not to do the whole trail as it'd have meant staying overnight in a very cold lodge (2C) and would have meant taking lots of warm clothes in our (already super packed) suitcases just for that one night. Besides, after having done lots of hiking in Sardinia where I really suffered uphill, I failed to see the plus of doing something like this again, esp. as the top was just stones, with no vegetation at all. The average person needs 3 days to complete the trek, but expert runners, who compete vs each other every December for the annual race to the top, can make it in 2H30 !!!! These are usually porters who work on the Inka Trail and other such places, high up, who don't get altitude sickness. Pretty impressive ! I tell you, after 1km, I back tracked. I wanted to just go down again slowly and take in all the plants I saw on the way. I counted about 15 different species of moss alone... and lots of different designs of ferns.
Roberto went a lot further up, but he's like a mountain goat, he doesn't seem to 'suffer' at all on his legs and doesn't even use a stick to go down when the average person desperately needs on to relieve pressure on the knees.
After another lovely lunch on the same beautiful terrace - the food is truly incredible, we feel so spoilt, so much nicer than Chinese (too blend) or Thai (too spicy), we set off to the orchid farm.
It wasn't in our itinerary but our guide mentioned such a farm was on the way back to KK and as Roberto was in no rush to go back to KK (and neither was I, the air smelt too good up there), we thought it'd be a neat excuse to hold back time.
It was a most enjoyable afternoon, with lots of very vivid orchids... they come in so many different shapes and forms. Some are very big, others are minuscule. Roberto said it was the 'most beautiful garden he had ever seen'... and our guide was really friendly. In fact, most of our guides have been really sweet and welcoming. Even our talkative guide, annoying as he could be, was so passionate about his job, and he was so organised, he had taken all sorts of things to show us to make our treks more interesting (i.e. a lighter to set a seed alight that has gasoline inside, well, a type of bio oil).
We eventually reached KK at 5:00pm and checked into the phenomenal Sutera Harbour Resort. Wow. You can pretty much do every sport you'd want (from golf to... play station for kids - a whole centre set aside for that !). They have 5 huge pools, including an olympic pool. The beach isn't great but Roberto still went in and saw quite a few fish.
The sunsets here are the best we've seen... well, they are the ONLY ones we've seen... and the buffets, mama mia. I've never seen so much choice in my life. Starters including salmon, caviar, tiger prawns, oysters, mussels, + lots of 'perfect bites' with grilled aubergine + slice of tomato + slice of mozarella, with a basil leaf on top and pesto... all sorts of similar food parcels. The desserts were like: geee, where do you start ??? We had to seriously refrain ourselves not to be sick.
It's now quite late so I'd better sign off, tomorrow we have a 7:30am pick-up (steep !) to go on our white water rafting venture. Everybody has been telling us we are quite brave which is making Roberto slightly nervous by now. I therefore hope that this won't be our last update! hum... But the brochure states that it's suitable from 7 year old upwards... so, it can't be that bad, surely? It hasn't rained for 2 days (a first, so far it's rained every day, mainly at night) so I hope the weather will stay clear so that the river won't be too wild as it'll take us longer to float down then and enjoy the scenery... and it'll probably be safer too. The one time I did white water rafting, in New Zealand, back in 1993, I didn't really enjoy it. I was glad when it was over. One of my colleagues who went on the same ride here said that 'he thought he was going to die' but then the adrenaline rush was incredible when it was over.
I shall report in due course... God willing !!!!
posted by Sylvie at 1:41 PM
<< Home