Thursday : Drive Towards Mount Kinabalu
So we turned around heading back south and turning towards Kundsang the access town for Mount Kinabalu. The Mountain was always visible on the drive getting bigger and bigger. It's different from other mounts cos it's mostly rock with few trees; that's why it's got good views when one climbs it.
Mount Kinabalu from a viewpoint on the way
We checked the Rose Lodge, but it lacked atmosphere. So we went to check a couple of other places. We ended up at a Lodge outside the park gates. Selva was miffed they didn't have hot showers.
We went into Kundusang for dinner, but it was like a ghost town.
| Mount Kinabalu Scam ??
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You are told that climbing MK takes 2 days : 1 to walk to the lodge 2. then you climb up to see sunrise on the second day. The thing is this creates a bottleneck as there are only so many beds at the resthouse. Other tourists told me that it's booked up for 3 months ahead. So what people often do is book with a tour company for 400-500 and get a bed. Yet when you arrive at the reshouse it's not really full. So you can always get a "cancellation". Seems to me the tour companies are deliberately booking up the resthouse.
We met some English boys they told us "yes no problem in getting up and down in one day", you don't need to sleep in the resthouse at all They said that took them 3.5 hours to get up and 3 hours to get down. They said they took the 7am bus to the entrance then it's a 9Km walk to the summit. Other people didn't believe this, but I do. It is a steady walk and the record is 2.40 minutes up and down. This way appeals to me.
1. I don't want to get up at 1am to start walking with a crowd just to see a stupid sunrise, and there might be cloud anyway.
2. If you do it in one day then you only need a small bag.
3. you don't have to book the expensive hostel.
OK you run the risk of having to walk back without summiting if it rains in the morning and the resthouse has no beds
| Thursday : Decided not to visit Mount Kinabalu
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As it was I didn't go up.
1. it wasn't practical I would have to have left Selva on Thursday morning.
2.The costs add up 15Rm conservation fee, 150Rm foreiegner entrance change, 25Rm Insurance, another 50-150Rm for a guide/safety man. I don't mind paying something small, but I have climbed plenty of other mountains before. That's the best part of $80US never mind paying $20US for a hostel bed when you get up at 1am. What's the point in that ?
3. As a small protest against foreigner fees
4. I've done similar before
me and Mount Kinabalu
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Thursday : Visit Mount Kinabalu
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So we had breakfast and when the park office was open we drove in and paid our money and went round the information center. Then we went on a guided walk with a park ranger which was OK. One of the park workers told us she had had to convert to Islam to get this government job.
We drove 5Km further into the park to the entrance gate for the walk. I took these photos and a video of mountainview
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stew_mount_kinabalu
| Thursday : Driving on|
Selva wanted to take the same paved road back to KK, but I leant on him to go the other way as 1. I hate taking the same road twice instead of seeing another view. 2. We would pass nearby the town of Kisingau where Chai is teacher, so I could stop off to meet stay with him.
So we went down to lunch at Ranau. Another not intersting service town. And then took the road back to KK. This road is not so bad, as they are halfway through turning it into a full highway, but Selva hated it. We reached the Crocker Range over which is the sea. At Tabanau on the we stopped for coffee then Selva headed back over the
other side of the range and into KK. I'm sorry that the road was a bit rain damaged, but he was back in KK in 90 mins washing the dirt off the car.
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