e rest of e guys were still snoring but Swee Cheng was already up. opened e door to go to e washroom, & kai1 men2 jian4 shan1 in e literal sense - rising above e laundry lines was e Kinabalu massif. called Swee Cheng to come out & take a look, & we climbed up to e road to take photos before e clouds moved in. didn't know that it could be seen from here (or even e fact that e hostel building was pale green in colour) as we'd reached here way after dark. looking at e peaks & western summit plateau, we tried to imagine tiny little people crawling all over them. agreed that climbers who were up there this morning were just as lucky as us weather-wise =)
[280504]
Kinabalu National Park HQ - Kota Kinabalu - overnight Trekkers Lodge
 |
 |
Asrama Menggilan, Kinabalu Park HQ (HY) |
Swee Cheng & I got up before e rest at 8am, & literally kai1 men2 jian4 shan4 when I opened e room door (HY) |
 |
| e big fat mountain that I saw above e laundry lines; Swee Cheng & I climbed up to e road above e hostel with our cameras (HY) |
 |
| BIG BIG FAT FAT mountain =P have labelled only what I know; not sure if e two peaks to e immediate left of Low's Peak are Alexandra Peak & Victoria Peak? (HY) |
e rest got up after clouds started to close in on e mountain. started on e slow cool morning walk back to e Park HQ reception. stayed at e back with Teck Chia who was now OK enough to carry his own load, & pointed out e flowering banana trees to those who've never seen banana flowers before.
Yangchen found a van belonging to Borneo Eco-tours that was going to fetch one of e company tour guides back to KK, & e driver was willing to take us along for e same fare as e Ranau-KK minibus. no one was going to walk all e way back past e hostel to Liwagu restaurant, so we settled for late breakfast at e other restaurant closer to e reception, e Kinabalu Balsam. unfortunately e restaurant's name sounds better than e food tastes =P
 |
 |
Kaimin, Ivan & Swee Cheng inside our dorm at Menggilan hostel (AK) |
Yangchen literally hitting e roof (TC) |
 |
 |
walking from Menggilan to e Park HQ reception (SC) |
Swee Cheng photographing Ivan's sunburnt lips over breakfast (AK) |
 |
| outside e Park HQ (SC) |
e Borneo Eco-tours guide was a Dusun guy who had studied in e UK & spoke perfect crisp English - with an American twang =P everyone else fell asleep on e van as it journeyed on e winding road through Tenompok Pass & e highlands, past e turnings to Bundu Tuhan & Kiau, forested hillslopes with wooden houses & neat square plots cleared for cultivation, a spectacular view of e Kadamaian waterfall, dogs sleeping by e roadside, chickens that didn't dare cross e road, schoolchildren, banana trees, a landslide, roadside stalls at Pekan Nabalu, & Gunung Sadok-Sadok.
finally came back down to sea level near Tamparuli. just as I dreaded, urban shock set in when e van came to a halt at e first red light we encountered along e Tamparuli-KK road =( always happens when I spend time in e field & then return back to e civilisation, just like how I hated Patong after e waterfalls, jungles & countryside of Phuket during e honours year BL4103 fieldwork module.
e van continued past e new UMS campus that e guys from previous BLE expeditions to Pulau Banggi had told us about, a beautiful pinkish-red mosque, e weird-looking Tun Mustapha building, Likas mosque & e port before entering e city centre. e driver dropped us off right at e doorstep of Trekkers Lodge along Jalan Haji Saman, since e Borneo Eco-tours office was just somewhere across e street. for RM20 each, Angeline & I were given a big fat double room large enough to fit all 5 of us in (Yangchen & Swee Cheng were flying back to Johor Bahru this evening), with air con & an attached bathroom, plus breakfast.
 |
 |
Trekkers Lodge, Jalan Haji Saman, KK (AK) |
2nd floor reception & common area (AK) |
 |
 |
view from room 101 (HY) | 75L vs. 36L pack (HY) |
 |
 |
room 101 with a floor mat identical to e one in my room back in Singapore (HY) |
view from e common area (HY) |
 |
 |
view from stairs (HY) | reminds me of Bangkok =) view from kitchen (HY) |
headed across e road to Wisma Mendaki after checking in as e guys needed to hunt for a moneychanger's. spent a long time at Borneo Books, a really good bookstore on e ground floor. bought a postcard & stamp from Borneo Craft, & started writing Yie Hui her souvenir. e rest thought it was a great idea & followed suit, buying postcards & stamps & addressing it to THEMSELVES =P went up to e top floor of e building to try & get a view of islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, but e whole place was occupied by offices - only managed a glimpse of Pulau Gaya from a side window. e sky had turned grey by e time we figured out that e best view would be from e carpark levels, & it started to pour when we went outside to mail e postcards.
lunched at a kedai kopi behind Trekkers Lodge, where a stallholder told us that he had relatives living in Singapore. e rest of e gloomy rainy afternoon was spent walking past e Central Market to get to e Filipino market, & stopping by e Tadau Kaamatan open house at e Padang. e Filipino Market was full of souvenirs mostly from Indonesia & e Philippines, & e stalls were mostly clones of one another. Swee Cheng & Yangchen left us at e Padang to fly back to Johor Bahru a day earlier. e rest of us spent e evening in an urban shock-induced daze, browsing through a traditional handicrafts fair & rotting away in e Sugarbun & KFC in Centrepoint, planning for e next day. stocked up on food, water & mentos at a supermarket before walking back across e city centre to Trekkers Lodge.
 |
 |
e postcard-writing craze that I triggered off at Borneo Crafts, Wisma Merdeka (HY) |
e best PLMM I met in KK =P (HY) |
 |
|
| City Parade (HY) | |
think we all suffered a really bad case of urban shock - wish we'd spent e rest of e day exploring e trails around Kinabalu Park HQ instead of rushing back to KK by noon, but then Yangchen & Swee Cheng had a flight to catch. our wishlist for e next time we ever return:
walked over to e Sabah Ports Authority ferry terminal somewhere north of Trekkers Lodge. shared a boat to Pulau Manukan with a group of 7 Malays who were heading for Pulau Sapi to picnic. e friendly boatman couldn't speak English but was bent on being our tour guide, trying his best to point out e islands & other sights in a mixture of Bahasa Malaysia & animated gestures =P through e language barrier, managed to figure out that his name was Julian, & arrange for him to pick us up at 3.30pm - but still noted down his boat number just in case. for some reason he didn't talk to e other group at all.
 |
 |
Sabah Ports Authority ferry terminal (HY) |
Island Express speedboat |
 |
 |
| top & bottom: KK waterfront (HY) |
 |
| Pulau Gaya (HY) |
 |
| Pulau Mamutik & Pulau Manukan (HY) |
 |
| fine weather & calm waters, or Teck Chia would have become a Merlion =P (HY) |
 |
| Pulau Sapi (HY) |
 |
 |
on e way to Pulau Manukan from Pulau Sapi (HY) |
approaching Pulau Manukan (HY) |
since yesterday was spent rotting in e rain, we were going to spend today rotting in e sun =P
 |
| Pulau Manukan jetty (HY) |
 |
 |
waters off Pulau Manukan jetty (AK) | close-up of sushi buffet (HY) |
 |
| coral below Pulau Manukan jetty (HY) |
 |
| Pulau Manukan (HY) |
 |
 |
Teck Chia at e entrance (HY) | Pulau Manukan jetty (HY) |
 |
| Ivan on e jetty (HY) |
despite being 2 biologists down after Yangchen & Swee Cheng returned to Singapore yesterday, e first stop on Pulau Manukan was still e Marine Education & Research Centre (MERC). went to e wrong building at first & knocked on e door of e research scientist's office, but when we peeped in through e windows we recognised e organised chaos characteristic of a biologist's work area & realised our mistake =P
e ground floor of e MERC has a little museum with e skull of a Bryde's whale Balaenoptera edeni taking up most of e entrance area.
 |
 |
Bryde's whale skull at e Marine Education & Research Centre (HY) |
turtle's skeleton (HY) |
 |
|
 |
|
| top & bottom: looking towards KK (HY) | |
 |
|
 |
|
| top & bottom: life guard post (HY) | |
 |
|
| looking across to e jetty (HY) | |
 |
 |
top & bottom: Angeline, Kaimin, Ivan & Teck Chia (HY) |
 |
|
| Pulau Sulug (HY) | |
 |
|
| Tiger beer delivered by boat straight to e beach from mainland (HY) | |
 |
|
| e sea off Pulau Manukan (HY) | |
 |
|
| Teck Chia kept shouting at Ivan to move further & further back; after taking this photo we told Ivan to turn around =) (HY) |
|
 |
|
| buoys demarcating e area safe for swimming (HY) | |
 |
|
| entitled 'mei2 you3 ren2 yao4 de hai2 zi3' by Ivan, shot by Teck Chia while I was taking e previous photo =P (TC) |
|
 |
|
| when everyone had had enough of being sunburnt (HY) | |
 |
 |
Kaimin (TC) | Angeline takes her photos seriously =P (TC) |
 |
|
| laughing at e previous photo =P (TC) | |
 |
|
| deceptively peaceful: earlier on there had been plenty of screaming when a snake decided to join a big fat bunch of tourists enjoying a buffet lunch under e palm trees (TC) |
|
 |
|
| school of fish below e jetty (HY) | |
 |
|
| gives an idea of how e boat ride back to mainland was like =P we were going against e winds & current (HY) | |
 |
|
| back on terra firma (HY) | |
 |
|
| KKIA domestic terminal, while waiting for our retimed flight (HY) |
|
