Kinabalu Park & Poring Hot Spring

This is the main reason of our trip to KK. HB as some of you know loves mount climbing. He has somehow injected this peculiar dose to my elder girls with his stories & photos. They are thrilled with the natural habitat, flora, fauna & most of all the idea of hiking. (Camping we have done, you can read it here).

Their mama is not much of an outdoor person. Hence, they have to rely on their papa for that sort of fun. When HB informed me that he had gotten tickets for us to KK, I knew this was coming. The hike. But for the sake of family & my love for them I was able to force my lazy bum to play along.

We started off after breakfast at Restoran Rahmat which was quite nearby to the hotel we stayed. My girls were all excited about the hike. Yasmin & Wardah kept drilling Balqis to pronounce Kinabalu properly. That girl didn't know where we were taking her. Didn't even know what hiking meant. Nadeen, as always an easy baby to travel with.

The girls stuffing their stomach before the drive to Kundasang - foothill of Mount Kinabalu.

Nadeen was rather irritated for only watching her sisters eating. (She had hers in the hotel room - same old, boring baby food)

Wardah & Balqis had Soto.

No, not Yasmin. She doesn't eat soupy food. She had roti canai with HB & I tried this gado-gado.

We rented a car. Quite cheap. RM100 for a day. Here are the girls posing before seat-belts fastened.

Along the way, HB stopped at Tamparuli Bridge. There is a song about this bridge & Yasmin learned it in school. She was so telling her friends that she had been to the very bridge. She even sang the song. Had it taped but the file is too big to upload. Seriously, I did not understand a word of the song... must be in Kadazan dialect. But the melody was lovely. These are the photos of them at the bridge.

Continued the journey. Warned Wardah not to be too excited. She vomited the last time we drove up a snaky road. But the road was way better compared to our journey to Cameron Highlands (you can read here).

Our next stop was Nabalu. Famous for its juicy pineapple. I am no fan of this fruit but having tasted it I was addicted. The girls have always been crazy over fruits . The pineapple there, according to them was the best they ever had. I couldn't agree more.

The girls waiting for the lady expertly cutting the pineapple for them

Balqis lollipopping her share of pineapple.

We came across these bananas. According to the lady, it was the bronze banana. Quite rare for me though...

Back in the car. After about 15 minutes drive, we reached Bundu Tuhan. HB knew a spectacular place to snap photos with Mount Kinabalu in the background. Here are the pictures.

At last we reached Kinabalu Park. We headed straight away to Timpohon Gate. HB of course knew his whereabouts. It was his 4th time at the Park. The weather was extremely beautiful. We could see the many peaks of Mt. Kinabalu clearly, namely, the donkey ears, ugly sisters, saint john etc etc & of course we never missed the chance to stop for good photos. Frankly the girls were almost annoyed with us kept on stopping to snap photos... but hey, "Who's the Boss?!!"

Finally, the moment they had been waiting for. The elder girls were all ready for the hike. I frankly agreed merely to be part of the family. To make it more excited for them. But really, for those who are really couch potatoes (my case is different.. am stuck with the Net rather the TV) like me.. do give hiking a shot. You will love it. At least, I did. Especially after witnessing the inquiring & overwhelming joy looks of each one of those innocent faces. Even Nadeen was appreciating the nature. She was attracted to the waterfall & of course the cool breeze.

Yasmin & Wardah led the way. We bumped into quite a number of climbers who were on their way down after climbing up to the peak. Many were surprised with our troop. Of course, did not have the intention to climb all the way to the peak. We were simply doing leisure hiking. Hehehe...

The Timpohon Starting/Ending Point

Climbathon 2007 result

Yasmin registered for the hike on our behalf.

A squirrel welcomed us as we were stepping out of the starting point.

The starting trail was descending. What an irony motivation for climbers...However, this first 100 meters is the easiest part during the ascending but the worst vice versa.

The Carson Waterfall. Nadeen was indeed amazed. She refused to look in front.

We chose the summit trail

Among the 3 girls, I noticed that Balqis carried herself easily. Well, it was no surprise at all. She weighs only 13kg! I expected Wardah to complain. She in a way inherits her maternal puteri lilin gene...;-) I was wrong! Not a single whine... from her. Yasmin, she was the one so looking forward to the hike. A Brownie in school & loves the character George in Enid Blyton's Famous Five. The hike sort of opens a chapter to the many adventurous things she is to experience (hmm.. not very keen to the idea though!hehehe...) OK, this is a video of their climb at 0.2km.

After like 25 minutes climbing, my low stamina legs hinted to stop. HB was aware of his beloved poor potential in hiking. He knew the exact place for me to rest with Nadeen & Balqis. My... was I glad. By this time Nadeen was thirsty for milk. There I was (in the photo below) on that solid bench nursing my baby. Balqis refused to stay with me. She chose to join the torturing climb (well.. it was to me!) You should check out the steep trail that awaited right in front of me.

For the first 10 minutes, I was never alone. Lots of climbers were on the way down. My chirpy self was congratulating most of them. That was the best I could do... you should look at their exhausted expression. At least my words of praises brought smiles to their fatigued faces.

After like 15 minutes, suddenly it was silence, no more climbers. I was all alone with Nadeen napping. Turned left & right, up & down. Even tried to strain my neck & admired the nature behind me. Yes, I was indeed surrounded by nature! Fresh air. The Oxygen all to myself & Nadeen. Hmmm...

I somehow discovered something bulging from one of the pockets to my khaki cargo pants. My handphone! With full signal!!I just had to communicate with someone. I called my parents. After newscasting the morning event, I ended the conversation. Still no more climbers. OK, I had to be fair... Needed to make another report to my parent in laws & I did.

Still holding on to my phone & nobody around me but Nadeen, I checked my mail. Yes, my yahoo mailbox. a&a's mom, Waterlily, Wanshana & yatie_t, I actually read all your comments on my post - Babysitting at the foothill of Mount Kinabalu... ;-)

Done with my mails, a couple from KL stopped to chat. I safely secured my phone back in the pocket. HB & the girls returned after almost 45 minutes. They managed to climb up until 1.3 km which was like 10% of the climb to the peak. So proud of you girls! These are the photos shot.

During the climb down, they still had the stamina. Wardah was so excited telling me this & that. It was difficult for me to tell her to stop talking & kept her concentration on her steps. Told her to tell me everything from A-Z about the things I missed once we reached Timpohon Point. Nadeen was still asleep. Balqis behaved & Yasmin seemed to be quieter than usual. I could see she was tired.

Sleeping Nadeen

Alhamdulillah, we reached Timpohon Point safely. Here are the girls pointing out to the trail they succeeded.

HB still did not have enough of the mountain. Went up to a view point on top of Timpohon Point with Balqis. This is the video of our potential mount climber. Warming down after the climb ;-)

The time showed a few minutes past 1pm. Time for lunch. But before that, we stopped at the Kinabalu Park entrance for one last shot. Hehehe... none of the girls was happy with the idea. Only yours truly posed willingly for the camera ;-)

HB took us to Ranau, about 20 minutes drive from the park. This was our lunch, soto. Wardah's favourite & did not complain at all for having another one for lunch.

Yasmin ordered this Chinese fried rice. I tasted. Not bad at all....

Balqis was napping in the stroller. I did not wake her up. Instead, bought a take away KFC for her lunch.

After lunch we took the girls to Poring Hot Spring. This was Yasmin & Wardah's second time. But they couldn't remember a thing of course. Yasmin then was only 2 & Wardah was about 8 months.

Yasmin & Wardah with our tickets at the counter

Sungai Mamut hanging bridge

The girls were fascinated with this brook

The last time I was there we rented a private cabin for us to dip ourselves in the natural sulfur hot water. It was extremely hot & I was told that the water could boil an egg within 5 minutes! However, the private rooms were not available this time. They had problem with electricity power supply & could not pump the hot water to the cabin. The girls settled with the cold pool instead. HB somehow managed to get hold of an individual hot water pool. Perhaps it was the water supply but seriously filling up one small pool with hot water took us almost forever. We were not putting up the night somewhere nearby like we did last time. We had to drive back to KK. So, we were in a way catching after time. In fact, the girls were not thrilled with the hot spring. They preferred the cold pool a lot better. In the end, HB decided to call it a day.

The cold pool

The waiting was like forever. Just look at the slow flowing water!

All showered & fresher. Ready to start the drive back to KK.

I mentioned that this trip to Poring was our second time (not HB though... it was like his 6th or 7th). Look at these photos below. The 2 are the snaps of Yasmin, Wardah & I. One was quite recently & the other was in the year 2001, on the similar hanging bridge, at the same exact spot ;-)

And after 7 years, the party of 3 has turned to a merrier 5! Hahaha...!

Our ride, Proton Wira Aeroback. Hehehe... insisted on KL plat number.

From Poring, we had to go back to Ranau. Reaching Kundasang it started to get colder. HB made his final stop at the vegetable stalls along the road. I remained in the car with Nadeen who was napping again. I was too tired to purchase anything. I just wanted a bed to sleep on!

At a vegetable stall. HB searched for my favourite Sabah vege but didn't find any.

One last shot with Mount Kinabalu in the background.

The drive back to KK was very misty. Though how tired I was, I chose to be awake co-piloting HB. Not that he really needed one. Merely someone to talk to him. The girls enjoyed the mist. We unwound the window. But the minute the windows were closed, it was total silent at the back. They dosed off with seat-belts still fastened. So cute.... not sure whether they were comfortable though. HB prevented me to snap any photo. Afraid that the flash would wake them up. He was right.

We reached KK safely. Had a hearty supper at Garden Seafood Restaurant, very nearby to the airport. I was too tired & famished to even think of my camera! Sorry no picture of the inviting seafood...

*to be continued