Sum up of the trip

Finally I have finished updating all about my trip. It took quite some times as I was simply too lazy to upload all those photos, haha..

Personally I do like Sabah for its beauty of nature and rich culture. I like back to nature type travel as it relaxes my mind looking at those greeny scenery. Besides that I love to experience the cultures of different etnic, so backpacking is more suitable for me as I can spend more time to stay at certain places or even homestaying to be really involved in their daily activities.During this trip, we visited quite a numbers of islands as Sabah is famous for its beautiful islands. It's nice to lay on the hammock ,listening to the patting of waves on the shores.

I think sometimes I did act a bit weird during the trip, which has frightened my friends I guess. I like to be quiet sometimes, since all of you claiming I'm too noisy,haha... I like to be alone certain times, reminiscing or thinking myself. It 's not that I'm not in a good mood, just that sometimes I prefer to be alone....In some cases I reallywas in an annoying mood , so I just walked away to cool myself down , or certain times I just don't wanna affects others.My friends thought that I' having depression,haha...

There are fews things that we learnt from the trip:
1. Check the car before you rent you, if not things occured on our 2nd day will happen to you
2. If you are planning for islands hoppings,I mean a few islands, it's better to bring your own snorkelling set ( if not you would need to rent it everytime, RM15-20)
3. Sun block is super super important
4. Wear those long sleeves diving suit for snorkelling, if not you will end up becoming charcoal like me,haha
5. Be prepared for riding bus on those bumpy and rocky roads. (No highway there) Plus, the bus system is slightly different from us , too many bus stops/stations ,make you confused where you are~

Basically, we did not really follow the itinerary that we had planned earlier on, we have added in many places to visit, but luckily we still managed to keep the budget under controlled. The next destination I hope to visit is Surat Thani, Thailand. I hope to go there with my parents as that place is suitable for them to relax , especially my dad.

I came across an organization named Contiki recently. They can help us to arrange for the accomodation and bus services. We can choose vary types of accomodation, ranking of those 5 stars hotel, to homestay, or camping etc .It 's all depend on what type of experience you would like to have and also your budget. It's only for 18-35 years old adults. The tour guide which is on the same range of age will provide all the info when you reach the place and you can arrange your itinerary yourselves with bus services provided. There will be many others tourists from different countries to join in, so we will have the chance to know others.Sounds nice, some more it's main on Europe countries, so maybe I will consider joining it ,haha...

Hiking KK mount

Finally our last destination-KK mount. Due to some circumstances, we arrived at the starting point late and started off around 11am . A young couples from India joined in our group. They were friendly and nice couples working at Singapore, we still kept in touch now.

We started off using the Mesilau trail.

Group photo before departing

All 6 of us were separated on our way up the hill. One of my friends cramped an hour after we started the hike. So the guide left us walking in front while he accompanied my friend to walked in a slow pace behind us. Later , 3 of us were far in front as the India couples were a bit too slow and kept resting. We can't waited and rested for too long as we need to get up the place we stayed before 7.30pm and the before the sky grow darker.

Luckily we managed to reached our hostel around 6.15pm. It was so cool and tiring. The only motivation to move us forward along the way was just our mental strength. I felt like just slept on the way uphill, moving out a step took me a few seconds. We all walked like old granny in 'tongkat' during the last 2 km up the hill.Oh ya, there were many squirrels in the hill, so bad I did not manage to take any pictures of that.

It was already sunset when we reached the hostel . We rushed down to a hostel below to have our dinner as the dinner time will be over at 7.30pm. We packed some foods for the India couples as they reached there almost 8.30pm .

Right after the dinner, we got on the bed . The weather was damn cool and chilling, even wearing a thick jacket still made me feeling cool.We woke up at 2.30am to prepare for the hike to the peak at 3am. We did not go down the hostel for supper as it was quite far from us and we were simply to cool to move any.

We started off in the dark. Soon after, I was separated from my friends, due to some misunderstand and too many people kept moving forward. Left with no choice, I had to clmin the peak following others people as it was damn scary standing alone in the middle of night not knowing where my friends were. I was indeed quite lucky as the guy I followed was a young student guide that guided me a lot. Thanks to him for nonstop hiking, I managed to reached the peak early at 5.15am. Felt so great as we were among the few that arrived earliest top the peak. It was just a small place at the peak.

Pictures taken half way up. Super cool!

Finally I reached the peak, uhoo!

Waiting at the peak for sun rise. But so sad, we did not manage to view it that day as the cloud has blocked the sun. However, the scene at the peak there was really significant .

I was to have known many friends up there as I was kept asking help from others to take pictures for me.

I went down the peak with an uncle since my friends were still missing. Tips to my friends that wish to hike KK next time, remember to wear a thick jacket, thick trousers, thick gloves, and mask. Because it was really really cool up there. Don't forget to have some training before the hike. Even though it's not the most difficult mountain to hike compared to Gunung Tahan all that, but it was very tiring and mental exhausting,haha...Nice hike.

Trip to Sabah-Kundasang & Ranau

We boarded a van to Kundasang and Ranau in the late evening 2 days before our hike to kk mount. It's the gateway to hike kk mount, so we spent 2 nights resting at Ranau to rejuvenate enough energy for the climb.It was a 2 hours drive from KK to Ranau. Between Kundasang and Ranau just roughly 30 minutes journey or less. Kundasang is a highland surrounded by mountains, with lots of mist at night and chilling air. It is just like the Cameron Highlands in West Peninsular where agriculture one of the main economic activities eg growing vege, strawberry, tea etc. But there's nothing much in Kundasang, even shophouses are rarely to be seen, just some resorts and houses. So we have all our meals at Ranau.

We visited the Kundasang War Memorial , a small memorial with nothing much to see.

Besides that, we paid a visit to the Sabah Tea Farm and withnessed ourselves the processes of tea making. ( Not to make you guys bored, so I won't put the processes here=p) But for me, the tea farm in Cameron Highlands has a far more nicer view,haha...You can choose to bike up the mountain here, or have some team building activities.

Before we had our dinner, we went to the Poring Hot Spring where there are a few waterfalls , trekking trails and canopy walk.

Soaking ourselves in the smelly sulphurous hot water ~

The people in Ranau are all quite friendly and nice. In the morning before we started off our journey, I went searching for any car renting service. The people there are so warm , even wanna offered me a ride to the place for car renting. Later while I was waiting for the confirmation of car renting in a restaurant, an Uncle came approached me and started talking to me. Later he insisted on treating me my breakfast. But it was scary as well as I was alone that day, my friends has warned me not to kena tipu by 'Kam yu lou",haha..

Trip to Sabah-Survivor Island

This was another new itinerary that we added in when we reached KK. Pulau Tiga, which is more known as the Survivor Island where the television program 'Survivor' took place in one of the series. It was famous for its mud volcano and snake island nearby. Although the scenery there was really nice, especially the sunset, but this island did leave an indelible mark for me as well as this was the place where I got stung by the jellyfish.

We went jungle trekking the whole evening and dip ourselves in the refreshing volcano mud.

Those beautiful sunset pictures recalled me how I was being stung. My friend and I was playing in the water, he had warned me earlier on to watch out for jellyfish as it was low tide that time. Aihz, I kena stung just when we were walking back after taking pictures in the water, I should have just gone up the shore without turning back to farer side to take pictures. Like what my friend claimed, perhaps that jellyfish was a male one, that's why it just stung me,haha..But now I knew how it felt like being stung by jellyfish. Should be grateful that it was not jellybox, which is very poison and has killed many people even in Sabah, just few minutes after the stung will kill. I suspected that the jellyfish that stung me was a sand jellyfish as I saw spots of sand -like things on my foot after I being stung. It was like fire burning on me once my feet touched the jellyfish, I jumped up to my friend immediately , feeling burning and painful. There was no medicines or doctors in the island, so I was just given some vinegar to apply before I could see a doctor the day after I got out from the island. But the vinegar did not soothe my pain , my feet was burning and painful the whole night, till I hardly fell asleep. Luckily I just kena on one of my feet, not leg or other parts. My leg swelled like 'pig's leg' , reddish for so many days even after seeing the doctor. Now the scar was still there, dunno when it will disappear, ugly black scar covering my whole feet, damn it~ How worried I was that time as there was only 4 days left before my kk mount hike.

Our delicious buffet dinner at Pulau Tiga resort.

After the dinner, we play the snooker and sing karaoko at the resort. This was my first time playing snooker, although some of my friends claimed that they were first-timer also( I guess they tipu wan as they are so 'pro'), but it seemed all of them knew how to play quite well, all the techniques ,rules all that , except me,haha....But I found it was very nice to play it, perhaps should practice more next time.

I searched some information about the jellyfish. Tips for you guys: If you are so lucky being stung, soak the part in the seawater, removed the tentacles using gloves . Can apply vinegar as well to prevent the neomycytes from releasing venom into the body, don't use tape water to wash it, it will just worsen it. For jellybox, you will feel suffocating , seek for doctor as soon as possible.

Trip to Sabah- Kudat

Kudat- the 1st capital of Sabah and a place with beautiful beaches . It is the home for many of the Rungus etnic. It is the place that I miss a lot in my trip, I will certainly visit this place again in future.

Kudat is a small town 2 and a half hours journey heading to North from KK. Along the way up, we stopped by Tuaran, a small place to try the famous Tuaran Mee. Erm, the taste was still ok and quite nice.

The road to Kudat was really a bumpy one, with many rocks along the roads. We reached our first destination - Kampung Sumangkap Gong Factory in the late evening. The gong is the most important Rungus musical instrument which is played during festivities and grand occadions such as weddings. The gongs that are sold in Kampung Sumangkap vary in sizes. We also have the opportunity to witness the method of gong making by the gong makers in the village.

The biggest gong in the village

Next, we rushed for the Tip of Borneo for sunset viewing( the part of the ear of the dog's shape map ). The road to reach there was simply unbearable, all rocky roads , pity the Kancil 660 that we were driving, next time should have a 4-wheels car here. We managed to reach the tip just on time for the sunset. Sorry guys that I went mad there and nearly spoilt the nice view=p Since the sun was already setting when we reached, so we did not really have as much shots as we could as the sky was getting darker. The beaches along the tip was really nice and scenic, sad that we did have enough time to take pictures there.

We reached the Rungus longhouse late at night and tired.This is where we slept.

The food we have for dinner. It was delicious,typical home-cooked food of the Rungus. The unknown vege-picked from the jungle was quite nice and taste like grass.

The children showing us their traditional games using the bamboo sticks( paiseh I forget the name already) . We joined in after they demonstrated to us. It was quite fun, but exhausting as well, a good exercise for cuting weight as we sweated profusely after a few minutes playing,haha..

Taking pictures with the performers. They showed us their traditional dance and we urged us to join them at the end.

The Rungus women blowing the pipe using the nose .She was blowing the songs to show her love to the Mr Right.

Here's the Mr Right playing the musical instrument like guitar to his beloved one.
The next day morning, we walked around the longhouse and watching the women making those beads crafts. Rungus people are famous in making those beads. We bought some as souveniers as it was quite cheap and nice.

Next we bid farewell to the longhouse and visited the Gombizau Honey Bee Farm.

We have to wear the hat like this to avoid being stung by the bee.

See, this is the where the honey comes from.It was later cut into pieces and sampled by us. Tasted very sweet and felt like chewing chewing gum, it was elastic , i mean the bee comb.

On the way back, we stopped by Kota Belud-the cowboy town. But we did not have much time to view the Bajau etnic performing riding the horses and the rattan crafts making.We also stopped by a small water village along the way back.

Strongly recommend to my friend to visit Kudat to experience the culture and living style staying at the Rungus longhouse, not forgetting the beautiful sunset at Tip of Borneo.