Mt Kinabalu Park

Signs in the forest

Although we rocked into town at midnight last night, we got up early this morning to go to Mt Kinabalu Park. After breakfast at the hotel (noodles, rice, curry, fruit) we asked at the desk how to get to the park on the bus. She tried to get us to book an expensive tour but we said no, we just wanted to go on the bus, and she looked at us like we were totally insane creatures. "One moment, I will find out." We waited about 10 minutes and finally she handed the phone to me, where a man said "I am the driver, it is 350 ringgit..." We gave up, obviously the clientele here does NOT take the bus anywhere (no great shock I suppose) and walked around to the backpackers down the street where a lady happily walked us over to a taxi area. We thought she said 60 ringgit but it turned out to be RM16 ($4.50) for a 2 hour ride in a shared airconditioned car. Score!

Wild orchids everywhere

I actually slept most of the way but the view was really nice, though we couldn't see the mountain because of low cloud. We got there, found a trail map and proceeded to get thoroughly lost and take 3 hours to do a 1 hour trek! We had a good walk though, beginning in the botanical gardens. I was disappointed because it's supposed to be pitcher plant central, but I only found one tiny one. There are 9 species in the park including a giant one that can hold 3 litres of water, but they were all hiding today.

Pitcher plant

We went up the Bukit Tupai trail to the shelter, which was all stairs at the beginning but then ok after that. It was well signposted until we reached a fork in the road and had to make a choice - neither direction said Bukit Tupai. We chose the left trail and went down, down, down. After 5 minutes or so we realised we should have been there already and there was no sign of stopping, re-checked the map and decided we had looked at the wrong part. So we turned around and went up, up, up! Back at the signpost we now took the other trail, walked 6 steps... and realised the shelter we had been trying to reach was actually just above the signpost, concealed by trees. Go team! After some water and well-earned chocolate we continued towards the Bukit Burung shelter and then back to the park headquarters. On arriving we discovered of course that it's a tourist trap, and you may be able to get there for RM16 but getting home is an entirely different affair. Nobody will help tell you what the bus looks like or when it comes, because they want to sell you taxi rides. We bumped into an Aussie couple from Melbourne and decided to share a taxi, bartering and negotiating from the "normal price" of RM250 down to RM90 for the four of us. This offer was from a randomly-passing taxi, which irritated the rip-off merchants who were waiting in the park NO END!!! I have learned to count to 5 now so I negotiated for "empat orang" (4 people) and off we went.

See the lightning strike?

Back in KK we went out for some lunch/dinner and wandered around the city. We went to the most dead, empty shopping mall I've seen, not just empty of people but empty of shops! I think it's new and they're still selling the space. We thought we might go to the movies but the only things showing were very violent and horror movies, same as in Tawau, we think the people who go to the movies in Borneo must be a bit warped by now. Yvon had a big win on one of those games that you pick up lollies etc and drop them onto a board which pushes them out. Don't know what she pressed but she ended up with a huge bag of lollies, stickers, toys on one of the turns. She took out a couple of things and gave the rest to a passing family. We then sat outside with some watermelon juices and watched an amazing electrical storm.

Oh and if you're wondering - yes there was a bus crash last night in KK and no I wasn't on it. Mostly because nobody will tell me where to get the bus.