dtraCorp - sabah, mount kinaba-luuuuuuuuu!! sepilok (orangutans), labuk bay (proboscis monkeys), and beaches

sabah, mount kinaba-luuuuuuuuu!! sepilok (orangutans), labuk bay (proboscis monkeys), and beaches

12th-jan-2010 - posted by dtra

onto the second week of the malaysian trip, and after spending new year's eve in kuala lumpur, we had a flight out to kota kinabalu (kk) in sabah on malaysian borneo on new years day. while ozzy will blame our missing this flight on being hungover (or just drowsy), i like to blame alf () for making us be that little bit late (i have to admit mine the previous night was one of the smoothest i can remember having, not that i really remember any of them). so we missed check-in by about ten minutes, and had to get the next flight to kk, which was about three hours later. the plan for borneo was, climb mount kinabalu, see the orangutans, see some proboscis monkeys, visit turtle island, and spend some time on some nice beaches. we managed to complete four of those five tasks, unfortunately, all our earlier attempts to contact crystal quest to reserve a place to visit turtle island were not received, and when we finally got in touch with them, they had no availability until the day we were meant to leave. there's some advice for you, book well in advance, however, due to that fact, we were able to go to sapi island just off the coast of kota kinabalu, and spend a day there, definitely the best beach we visited, and probably close to being as good as tulum. well, the good beach was really small, but the water was crystal clear and a perfect temperature, but the size and difficulty in getting to the beach (not really that difficult, but hard enough to keep the families away, ten minutes walk over shallow rocks) meant that it was pretty quiet, very tranquil, until i arrived .

kota kinabalu, we stayed at borneo backpackers, which was a nice, clean hostel, with free internet (though the computer's browser was pretty random) and wifi. spent a day at the beach on manukan island, ok, but a bit rocky, the water was really nice though. sapi was definitely better, the secluded beach on manukan is accessible by either going to sunset beach and then walking down one of the trails, and then over some rocks, or the fast way (the way we went to get back to the main beach), over shallow rocks (south of the main beach), about twenty minutes probably.

we got a taxi about 7.30am up to the kinabalu national park (crazy, crazy driver), cost us $80rm total, going at that time, you might get a clear view of the mountain on the way there, it's pretty impressive. onto mount kinaba-luuuuuu!! (cool name right up there with mendoza!!), all 4095m at the summit, starting from about 1 866m (or something like that), over 9km, so the average gradient is about 25%, that's pretty crazy. the hike is broken into two parts, the first six kilometres goes from 1 866m at timpohon gate up to 3 270m at laban rata where the night's resting huts are. that's about 23% right there, so you know the last three kilometres are going to be tough. it was pretty misty on our way up but that didn't stop us taking photos, it is a national park after all. i think it took about four hours to do the first leg, with frequent breaks along the way. you probably wouldn't believe it, but i'm pretty sure there is a mobile signal all the way up till at least laban rata, not sure about higher than laban rata (i only tried on the summit, couldn't connect). but that's a tough six kilometres right there, seriously don't want to be carrying too much weight there, i would say more than five is too much (i think i had about seven, but i'm tough). so included in our package with sutera sanctuary lodges (the only place that you can do the summit climb with) was a packed lunch, buffet dinner, supper at 2am, buffet breakfast (more or less the same as supper), and buffet lunch when you get back down the mountain. about a four hour break between reaching laban rata and dinner, good time for a bit of rest, but also clothes drying (drenched in sweat, coolish weather but the body is working hard), we had really good weather, clear skies for the most part, apart from the bit of mist going up the first five kilometres or so.

after dinner (and a nice sunset), we had until about 2.30am to rest before supper and tackling the final 3km to the summit. i didn't get much sleep, i think i was just really excited, so after supper, we were to leave about 3am (a bit later than a lot of others cos we were among the fast ones). we had really amazing, clear skies with millions of stars, so that my cheapo aussie disposals headlamp was pretty much rendered useless. the start was slow going as all the early-leavers struggled up the early parts of the final ascent. i thought it was pretty boring personally, the first 500m or so, as it was such slow going (with only a narrow trail everyone had to use), but once we passed the tree line, and the surface was pure granite, there was a lot more room to move and the slow-coaches went by the way side. i got to the top about quarter past five, so a bit more than two hours to walk just three kilometres horizontally, but 800m vertically, about 27%, and i can tell you the last 1-200m was definitely the toughest. i took my beanie and gloves, and i'm pretty glad i did, even with the gloves, my hands were freezing, but it must have been better than alf and ozzy without gloves, pretty much my hands, nose, and ears were cold. the wind was biting cold, but it wasn't wet or anything, so it was bearable, for a time. we got some (hopefully) great sunrise photos, despite the cold, and a certificate to prove our climbing prowess.
the way down was not as hard on the heart and lungs, but it was a serious pain on my knees, calves, and quads. my quads were sore up to five days after the day, my calves maybe one or two days. it was tough-going descending, probably due to the steepness, and also the 9km we'd already put in going up. 3km down for breakfast, then a bit of rest before going back down the six kilometres back to timpohon gate and lunch. my legs were more or less shaking the whole way. after lunch, we just waited outside on the main road for something to happen, and we managed to get a taxi/mini-van for $20rm each back to kota kinabalu afterwards, other options are to get a taxi to sandakan (near sepilok), or wait for a big bus going either way.

update
oh, i forgot to mention some of the food options in kk, cos there are some really good ones, if you go along the main road (from north (jetty end) to south) for a bit, you'll eventually find an open air market, where fresh fruit, vegies, and other assorted foods are sold. there are a bunch of tables set up with people cooking food (mostly seafood) around them, there you'll find some really great, fresh seafood, i got a great, massive tiger prawn, and the most succulent squid (whole) ever, for just $40rm (price will vary based on size and person cooking). little italy has good pasta and pizza (good size portions too). don't go to upper star for food, drinks ok, but food no (it was slow and the food was very ordinary). there were some other places, but they probably weren't better or worse than anything else that was around.

we had already booked a flight to sandakan and didn't have our luggage with us, so we went back to kk for the night before heading to sandakan the next day (in a large amount of pain i might add). if you get the morning flight to sandakan, there is a chance you will get a cool aerial view of the summit of kinabalu, try and sit on the left hand side of the plane, we were on the right unfortunately. i read on the internet somewhere that you could take a taxi from the airport in sandakan to labuk bay in the morning to see the proboscis monkeys feeding, and then see the rangas in the afternoon, so that was the plan. we got our taxi, and he asked where we were going, then told us that we could see the rangas for their morning session (at 10am), and then get to labuk bay for the proboscis monkeys feeding time at 11.30am. so we trusted him and went for it ($250rm for three of us, didn't bother negotiating). we got to the orangutan sanctuary in sepilok just after 8am, so we had breakfast before the opening time of 9am ($40rm inc camera fee). we walked in with what seemed like a thousand other tourists (old people on package tours ozzy likes to call them, i heard someone say there were about 200+ packaged tourists that morning, i heard that at labuk bay), and pretty much immediately there was a ranga playing with a staff member right near the walking platform. then several more came out just before feeding time, i think we probably saw five or six reasonably close up, they are very cute. we were in a rush, so we left about 10.15am, but we'd seen them for about an hour or a bit more, and they had already started to disperse a bit, it was enough time to take several dozen crummy photos.

back in the taxi we arrive at labuk bay proboscis monkey sanctuary ($80rm inc camera fee) about 11.15am, it was much quieter, far less tourists, maybe 20 or so, the staff were just about starting to call out some animals. while the animals are wild, they're also relatively tame (from what i could see), first a hornbill bird of some description came flying down, then a bunch of silver leaf monkeys came down out of the trees and ran amok on the viewing platform. then finally, what we'd all been waiting for, the proboscis monkeys came out of the trees (accompanied by some unwanted macaques), the big schnozzes on the big males were very impressive. it was a great site, the big belly, the big nose, the number of wives and girlfriends all sitting around the big male eating. then they left, it would've been nice to really see them in their natural habitat (in the wild), but we weighed up the options of spending an extra day at the beach (in kk), or doing a wildlife river cruise near sandakan (the day that would otherwise have been used to visit turtle island), and decided that out muscles needed more healing in sea water. for the one night we spent in sandakan, we decided that we would live it up a bit, and stayed at the three star (i think) swiss-inn hotel, which was nice.

our last day in kk was spent going to sapi island as mentioned earlier, and it was definitely worth it, best beach of the trip, only cost $13rm each to get there by boat (plus terminal fee $6rm, and national park fee $10rm), no more than twenty minutes or so. then our flight back to kl got delayed by three hours (and now i just realised longer than two hour delays gets you a gift voucher with air asia, wonder if i'll use it ).

last days in kl were spent shopping (or attempting to), i found that most t-shirts were either too small, or the design i wanted was not available in the size i needed. oh well, depending on your size, ymmv. my last full day, i visited the bird park (hailed as the largest walk-in aviary in the world), it came across very much like a zoo, but since i already mentioned it yesterday, i won't go any further. the orchid and hibiscus garden across the road is good value for free on weekdays, and $1rm on weekends and public holidays.

hdr picture of alf playing some game on his iphone at laban rata, just before dinner, and just before sunset hours before our ascent to the summit of mount kinaba-luuuuuu!!