Kundasang, Sabah.

That sunrise greeted me after my Subuh prayers on that morning of Idul Adha from my hotel room in Kundasang. Thank you Allahfor this wonderful view. To my left I could see half of the peak of Mount Kinabalu. Not knowing that there was a mosque nearby, I decided to go out early and do a photo shoot of whatever I could find.

I was taking shots of this flower when a voice behind me told me that the flower is edible. I turned around to see this man who after a short conversation told me that his name was Koh and he came from Sungei Petani Kedah.

Earlier I had seen him standing infront of his shop. I couldn't figure who he was but he was definitely an early bird. He was waiting for his workers to report for work on that morning of Idul Adha. It was a working day for him and perhaps for some of his workers.

After further probes he told me "Semua ini saya punya" (all these are mine) while making a small circle with his fore finger. I can understand that he owned the farm but there was also the hotel which was opened a year ago. I had stayed the night at his hotel. Next to the hotel was a hardware shop and another shop dealing in agro products like fertilizer and chemicals. Yes he owned them all. Hey this is a very rich man I was talking too.

Later I talked to his wife as the friendly Mr. Koh had gone down to Kota Kinabalu and won't be back till evening. Mrs Khoo whom his workers called her as Nyonya. Her name was Woo Mei Yin. Mrs Koh who came from Kota Kinabalu Sabah. She said Mr. Koh came to Sabah in 1972 and worked as a lorry driver. Wow, this is really a rag to riches story.

Mrs Koh and me in front of her shop selling agricultural produce.

The hotel business was managed by his manager Mr. Michael Chong while his sons took care of the Agro and hardware businesses.

The ever friendly Michael Chong manages the hotel. He will greet every customer who came to stay at Cottage Inn especially those who came to dine at the restaurant.

The hardware and -Shop belonging to Mr. Koh.

We didn't know there was a mosque in Kundasang until my son in law made an enquiry. All the while we thought the nearest mosque was only in Ranau some 20 odd kms away. Thank Allah, we would be able to do our Idul Adha prayers.

The mosque was just within walking distance but nevertheless we rode the car to there as it was atop a hill.

Ustaz Markhizam led the prayers. I have never heard such melodious and lilting recital of the surah during a prayer. With him leading the prayers, I could pray behind him all day and not feeling tired.

After the prayers Ustaz Fadley delivered the Khutbah. He exhorted on the danger of Muslims questioning tha Fatwas (edict) by the ulamas.

I can't really discern the locals among the congregation but most noticeable was the presence of Indonesians and Bangladeshis as significant. Thus when we did the Takbir, there was a distinct group of people with two different timings.

Mount Kinabalu as viewed from the mosque.

At about 10.00 AM, we checked out of the hotel to begin our tour of Kundasang.

15 months old Balkis was the most eager to move out. She immediately climbed into the car after seeing her dad seated behind the steering wheel.
The next stop was barely five hundred meters away at The Kundasang War Memorial. The memorial was established in 1962 to commemorate the death of hundreds of Prisoners of War comprising of the British and Australian soldiers who died in the march from Sandakan to Ranau, a distance of more than 200 kms in the harshest of condition. The memorial is a must visit when you are in Kundasang. The three gardens in the memorial compound are simply amazing especially the Contemplation Garden with Mount Kinabalu in the backgaround. Read more about it here.

The entrance to the Kundasang War Memorial.

She will approach you as you walked up the steps to collect maintainence fee. Its maintainence fee not entrance fee OK?

They installed CCTV to deter thieves from stealing the plants inside the memorial.

This is the route for the march, 265 kms of hell.

The contemplation garden. The pool is well stocked with kois.

Next we stopped at the Kundasang vegetable market since this was my other half's first visit.
This vegetable market could do with a better well structured building. As it is, the place is quite unattractive.
Just like Cameron Highlands, beside fresh vegetables, colorful cut flowers are the main attraction.
Next on our destination was Poring Hotspring, quite some 32 kms away on the same way to Ranau.

The entrance tickets to Poring Hot spring which is a World Heritage site. Don't throw these away as the same ticket will allow you entrance to the other park where the hiking trail to the summit of Kinabalu begins. If you feel charitable, buy a new ticket at the other entrance like I did during the first visit.

The manay outdoor pools. This is the third generation pool as they keep on improving the design of the pool. According to Dr. Zhaini Shaarani who is a prominent adventurist, Poring Hotspring is the best in the world in term of layout and design. Any other hotspring development should follow the concept done here.

This is the source of hotspring and this pool is out of bound. From this pool the hot water is channeled to the other smaller pools via an underground pipe reticulation.
Each tub is drainable so you can always bather in fresh water and not feel scared of what germs the previous user may have left. There are two faucets to each tub, one delivering the hotwater and the other the cold spring water. You can mix the two to get your own preferred temperature.

Balkis thouroughly enjoyed the bath. Here they are waiting for the tub to fill up.


If you are ealy you may book the chalet and bathe in privacy. Of course you may have to fork out abit more.
The general view of the open air bathing area.There is also the bigger childrens pool with life guard to look after them.

The signboard to other facilities at the hotspring.

The last time I came I didn't get to see the butterfly farm. It was a disappointment as there were not many butterflies were found. I managed only to sight one Rajah Brooke and a papilion other than the other smaller butterflies. Thus I had to resort to taking photograph of the butterflies set in display cases.

Butterflies mounted in a box on display

Kipungit Waterfall can be reached after a trek up along a clear forest trail. I took this shot during my June visit.

I promised these youngsters that I will put their pictures in my blog. So here it is tokeep to my promise. Unfortunately for then rain started coming and they decided to turn back with me.

We stopped for lunch at a stall in Ranau which was located infront of this lodge. There are a number of lodging places in Ranau so if you can't find any place to stay in Kundasang, try you luck in the town of Ranau. A friend of Lokman came without prior hotel bookingand he found a nice homestay around Ranau complete with cooking equipments and stove. He was very happy with it.
Next we stopped at Kinabalu National Park Base camp.

This is the main entrance.

We drove right up to this point where climbers will strat their hike. There is a lodging place near here so climbers can start their hike very early in the morning.
By the time we got back to base camp, the cloud was so low that we couldnt see anything from the yet to be completed Vista Point.
We drove down the mountain in early evening on our way to Kota Kinabalu. The cloud was so think and it was raining. Visibility was so bad that we could hardly see the tail light of the car infront which we used as the guiding light.

Due to the bad visibility, we missed the stop at Pekan Nabalu. From my previous trip, these pictures at Pekan Nabalu excited Fatthiyah so much and she wanted to see it. We overshot the place but in that condition of visibility, making a U turn was just too dangerous.


The watchtower
The signboard.
The handicraft at the stalls. On a clear day, the sight of Mount Kinabalu summit is best seen from this town.The last time we went up to Kundasang, we came via the old town of Tamparuli to see the famous Jambatan Tamparuli made famous by the song of the same name. There is another bridge beside it which is passable when the water level is low.


This is a picture of the old shop house in Tamparuli which I captured while on the move when passing by the town in my previous trip. Later we came to know that these old wooden shops were razed down by a fire. What a loss.

We checked into Tune Hotel in Kota Kinabalu. We bought 2 rooms over the internet and paid a total of less than RM80 for two rooms for 2 nights. Later when we extended our stay, the same room cost us RM80 per room per night.

That night Balkis had a bad fever. The medication we got from a clinic in the One Borneo Complex didn't seem to help. We had to compress her fever using ice cubes. We had to take her to another clinic the next day.
The last time we came back from Kundasang she had fever too. This was how she looked then.

That was how she looked when she had the same fever about 6 months ago.

The next post will be about Kota Kinabalu and the trip back to Labuan. It will be the finale to my trip to Borneo.