WITH the help of cheap airfares and a couple of internet research, we have finally rewarded ourselves with a few days off work to recharge.
Together with my fave travel buddy, Claudette, I have packed my bags and headed straight to the adventure that awaits us in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
We stayed there for almost a week and we went home with a lot of stories to share. This travel log will be divided into four parts. As always, this is a budget-friendly vacation so watch out for the budget summary in Part four (*wink!).
A short background though: Sabah is a Malaysian State located in the northern part of the Island of Borneo with Kota Kinabalu as its capital city. Kota Kinabalu or KK is just a 2-hour flight away from Manila. The city is the home of Southeast Asia’s highest peak: Mt. Kinabalu which was the major reason why we chose KK.
The Tour
Claudette and I arrived at around 2 a.m. at our hotel which we booked on Airbnb. We took a short power nap and headed off to our booked tour at around 7 a.m. We booked our Kinabalu Park and Poring Hot Spring tours through Amazing Borneo Tours.
The travel time to Ranau town took around three hours and we are thankful of the spacious bus that Amazing Borneo provided for us so we can take some naps along the way. We mostly stayed awake during the trip because of the pretty view especially on the portion where Mt. Kinabalu was already visible.
Our first stop during the tour was in Nabalu Town wherein you can grab a quick snack, buy fruits and souvenirs and also enjoy the view of Mt. Kinabalu. The mountain’s cone was surrounded with clouds during our stop but it was still a beautiful sight nonetheless.
We then headed to Poring Hot Spring in Ranau where we had our first major activity which was the famous canopy walk. Hiking up to where the canopies are located was very exhausting but the experience was worth it. It was not scary at all for us but we felt a little dizzy after since the walkways were shaky. After the exhausting walk, we then soaked our tired feet in the warm hot spring pool.
Our Poring Hot Spring adventure ended at around past noon and we then proceeded to have lunch at the Kinabalu Park. As we went out of the bus at KPark, we were instantly greeted by the cold weather - it was very relaxing.
Another fun fact: Kinabalu Park is Malaysia’s first World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The park also serves as the starting point going up the 4,095-meter-high Mt. Kinabalu.
After lunch, we then proceeded to stroll inside the park and went on a short tour at KPark’s Botanical Garden to cap off the tour where we had a glimpse of the different plants and flowers in the area.
That is all for the first part of our trip! Read up next week to find out more of our KK adventures!
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Hi, I’m Kriztja and thanks for reading My Notebook! Check out my blog: rainbow-wishes.blogspot.com for more. Comments? Suggestions? Email me at kriztja.labrador@gmail.com.