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Kinabalu National Park, Malaysia
6° 9' N 116° 39' E
Nov 30, 2007 12:29
Distance 0km

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Other entries in Kinabalu National Park

A bear went to the top of the mountain..

Text written in: English

A bear went to the top of a mountain to see what he could see...  and all that he could see was an amazing sunrise over Borneo Island.

I couldn't believe it when the alarm went off at 2am but I guessed it was better to be out walking than freezing in bed.  We hit the trail to the summit at 2.30am hoping to make it in time to see the sun rise at 5.45am.  The climb was really steep and went up over 1000m in altitude.  At times we were using a rope to pull ourselves up and patches of ice made head lamps a must.  It was really cold as we went up and I was glad for the socks and gloves I had on my hands.  Finally we reached the top just before sunrise and all the hard work was worth it.  The view over the jungles of boreo was amazing and it was hard to believe that we had climbed all the way to the top of a 4095m mountain.  Even harder to believe was that we had to climb all the way back down!!  After a few photo we headed back down for two hours to Laban Rata for breakfast.  Here we picked up our sticks and the rest of our gear and headed back down.  Our legs began to feel jelly like at the end and I was really thankful I had the stick.  At about 2.30pm we reached the entrance gate and jumped onto our waiting taxi.  We picked up bags, had a quick lunch and then caught a cab to Poring Hot Springs.  Poring Hot Springs is a bath complex built by the Japanese in WW2 using natural hot springs.  The main accomodation is a Sutera Sanctuary lodge complex which we stayed in.  We were so tired we couldn't be bothered going anywere else even though the 150RM for a crappy twin room with A/C only after 5.30pm and a bathroom down the hall was an absolute rip off.  We had desert with some fussy Scotish girls (who had dinner) at the Sutura restaurant.  They seemed to be missing half their menu and the our dessert was average and expensive.  Overall I was disapointed with the Sutura accomodation and food but would reccomend people eat and stay across the road at the Budget Cafe and Mini Mart which also has a room to rent.  The pools were nice to rest our tired legs in but filled very slowy.