Day 12: Kinabalu Nature Reserve and Poring Hot Springs

Mt. KInabalu in the sun

Wow, what a day, but unfortunately not for good reasons!  Today was our trip to the Kinabalu Nature Reserve and Poring Hot Springs, arranged by the same company who did the river cruise last week, so we were really looking forward to it.  We were picked up at 8.10am by a small coach and then went round the backpackers places picking up more and were then transferred to a bigger coach for the trip back up the mountain (we had passed the nature reserve on our way over from Sandakan)  It is a very windy and steep road, so we bedded in, made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed the view.  When we came from Sandakan, it was torrential rain and we were in the clouds so didn't see anything, today it was clear blue sky and the view was amazing.

Dwarfed by the mountain

Mt Kinabalu is just over 13,000ft, so taller than Mt Fuji, it has a very craggy top and sheer sides.  It doesn't look particularly climber friendly although many do walk up it every day (it takes two days to do it).  It has never snowed at the top.  Anyway it is a spectacular site.  We stopped off at a viewpoint at Nabalu Market.  The idea was to take photos of the mountain, have a toilet break and look around the market.  However, we only had time to take photos and go to the toilet, so we completely missed the market which was a shame, I do like a good market, and also spending money there means you are supporting the local community.

Nice view for lunch

Next we continued climbing up to the foot of the mountain, so much so that it disappeared from view. Our guide took us on a tour of the mountain garden which was interesting as she pointed out so many plants and was able to explain their good / bad properties to us.  She did go at 1,000 miles an hour though and woe betide you if you wanted to take a photo, you got left behind!  We were bundled back on the coach and then we had a 50 minute trip to Poring Hot Springs where we were having lunch.  Well the 50 minutes became 3.5 hours due to a landslide!  Ouch, the rumbles of discontent were getting louder.  We literally sat in a queue that went at about 1 meter every minute.

Lush forest

Matt in the Hot Spring

It was excruciating.  Our guide told us it was a landslide, and we know you can't account for these things, but she knew where the landslide was and taking into consideration the amount of time it was taking to crawl along the road, they should have abandoned the trip.  We ended up getting to our lunch stop at 3.30!  Not exactly lunch time.  Next stop should have been the canopy walkway in the rain forest, but that got cancelled as the walkway closed at 4pm.  We went straight to the hot springs, and were given 30 minutes to 'enjoy' them.  Well of course that isn't long enough, just as we were beginning to relax and enjoy them we had to rush back to get changed and back to the coach.

They were in a lovely location, just a shame we didn't get the chance to appreciate anything.

The world's largest flower

We then went to see a Raffleisia in bloom, well Matt did as it was 90RM (just under £18) for the 3 of us to go. We then got on the coach of doom and headed back to KK and yes, we got stuck in the same traffic jam again.  We got home at 9.40pm when we should have been back at 7pm.  Not a great day, so yesterday evening was spent composing a letter of complaint rather than blogging as we were not happy bunnies.  When we got back Tom went straight to bed so our tea was a can of beer and crisps!  Not a great end to not a great day!  Humpfh, a shame as everything else we have done here has been amazing.

One thing of note was that Tom was a complete angel, he didn't complain once, and was so well behaved.  We can't fault him at all on anything.  He got a massive hug and kiss and went to bed exhausted but happy after a very boring day.