Mount Kinabalu Re-open to climbers in September 2015

After near 3 months of closure to repair the mountain trails caused by the magnitude of 5.9 earthquake on 5 June 2015,  finally Mount Kinabalu of Sabah, North Borneo is now opened for climbers starting from 1st September 2015 amidst a mild quake struck Ranau on the very same day.  Climbers can climb up to Laban Rata via Timpohon trial.

The summit trial to the Low's Peak is expected to open by December 2015.

A photo from my brother with his tour coach at the fore ground and a nice and clear view of Mount Kinabalu as background.

The view of Mount Kinabalu

After living in my current house for almost 3 years now, I only came to realise that the view of Mount Kinabalu is clearly visible from our first floor bedrooms.  I noticed it when I went to close my girls' bedroom window one fine morning before rushing to work (rain in the afternoon is very frequent here so I have to make sure all windows are closed before leaving the house each morning).  

Honestly, I always envy those who have houses with nice view of Mt. Kinabalu all this while without realising our house is one of them too..I am so very pleased.

Here is the view of Mount Kinabalu taken from our room on a clear sunny morning. I cropped the picture to get a nearer view.

A trip to Desa Cattle Farm at Kundasang

During the school holiday in December last year, we made a day trip to Desa Cattle Farm in Kundasang.  The last time I went there was in my high school year, it was a school outing. As far as I can remember the place has not changed much in the last 20 over years except having a bigger building now. 

On a uphill not far from Tamparuli town, we stopped by an orchid farm. The orchids are well grown, looking at those orchids, I can't believe they are all real, just too perfectly grown to my eyes.  The price are very reasonable too, but I did not buy any because I don't think I have got the time to care for it.  

We have taken a lot of photos so let the photos do the talking.

 the owner of the orchid farm serving tea 

 entrance fees needed to enter to Desa Cattle farm, this is the little pondok collecting entrance fee

 It was a public holiday, the farm was very crowded with people and traffic was congested 

 The milking area

 The milking cows look skinny

 Fresh cow's milk for sale.  Exactly what we get from the supermarket, there are only two flavours, plain & chocolate

 we bought 2 cartons

 souvenirs are sold here 

 the road leading to the farm from the pondok entrance

 the place is cool and refreshing

Rainbow over the Mount Kinabalu

These scenes were taken when Cletus was on his way to Sandakan last week. A rainbow over the majestic Mt Kinabalu can rarely be seen by most of us living in the city.

Mt Kinabalu view from Kota Kinabalu

One fine day on our way back from work,  the sun was still brightly shining; the view of the majestic Mt Kinabalu was clearly visible from Kota Kinabalu.  It is usually heavily covered by cloud most of the time.  We love the scene so much that I took out my camera and captured the beauty of Mt Kinabalu from our car.   I just love the view of it, giving me a kind of strong and stable feeling.    

A Mt Kinabalu Trip as reward

During these school holiday seasons, almost all of the resorts, chalets and hotels are fully booked over the weekends, big or small alike. 

Crystal was very disappointed that we couldn't book a place at Kinabalu Pine Resort or Mount Kinabalu Heritage Resort & Spa this weekend.  After our last Christmas outing at Mount Kinabalu Heritage Resort & Spa which she enjoyed so much that she wanted another mountain trip.

She has put in her effort to strike good marks in her recent examination.  She brought back an average marks of 92%, a 5% more than the benchmark we have set for her to achieve in order to go for a Mt Kinabalu trip as reward. With such a good result, how could we disappoint her?

As a loving daddy, Clet dislikes the idea of letting Crystal down.  He searched through the internet again and finally got ourselves a place at Golden Kundasang Highland this weekend.  He took up to 5 chalets at one time gathering our brothers and sisters and their families to join in the trip.

Crystal has a smile at her face again when her daddy announced the good news to her last night and showed her how Golden Kundasang Highland's chalets look like, our girls are excited to see a double-decker bed in the room.  We haven't got a double-decker bed at home so to them it is fun to climb up and down the bed, i guess!

Christmas update

We spent our Christmas eve at Perkasa Hotel, Kundasang this year, with the Wong's family, it was the first outing for Crystal and Pearl to experience the cool weather at the foothill of Mount Kinabalu. Crystal was excited to be able to touch the cloud (fog) at night.

We arrived at the hotel at around 2.00pm much later than Cletus originally planned, due to diversions supermarket to get certain stuff that we forgot to pack into our luggage, to the workshop to check on the car, and stopped by Tamparuli town to have our lunch, the famous Tamparuli Mee, and to Bundu Tuhan to check on the time for the Mass.

The Hotel Lobby, now then I realised it had changed its name to Mount Kinabalu Heritage Resort & Spa, previously was Perkasa Hotel, Kundasang, luckily I took this photo, I did not realised it while I was there though. The hotel is a much better place to stay after it had been renovated.

Had our Christmas Buffet Dinner at the hotel. The pricing were very reasonable considering at Christmas Eve. There were no turkey or roasted lamb in the menu of course, but we filled up our tummies without complains.

Ring, ring, ring, Santa came around to distribute goodies to the girls.


After dinner, before leaving for church, we took a walk at the surrounding area of the hotel, there is a hanging bridge leading to the chalets, at first we thought our girls wouldn't dare to cross the bridge but we were wrong.
We attended a brief mass at the St Pius X Bundu Tuhan church, this picture was taken upon arrival at Bundu Tuhan. The last time I went there was more than 15 years ago, can not remember exactly when actually.

The view of the majestic Mt Kinabalu that we captured the next morning.

To Sandakan by road (2)

After breakfast, Edmund grabbed the wheel and started their journey. It was a uphill winding and mountain drive. The views of Mount Kinabalu are magnificent. Mount Kinabalu ranked 20th in the list of 125 most prominent peak in the world with the height of 4095 metres or 13,435 feet above sea level. And I conquered it twice. I am glad that I did, I don't think I am able to do that now. :D

On the mountain, above the cloud

The view of the Majestic Mount Kinabalu (1)

The view of the Majestic Mount Kinabalu (2)

The view of the Majestic Mount Kinabalu (3)

The view of the Majestic Mount Kinabalu (4)

:O :O a little problem with the braking system

After a breath taking long and winding mountain drive, they stopped by Telupid for a drink.

Telupid is a very small town where I have not been

Run out of diesel in Telupid but petrol station couldn't operate without electricity. They found this alternative manual petrol kiosk. This is how refilling is done hopefully no water is added. The price of diesel is much more expensive, RM3.00 per litre as compare to RM2.58 per litre in KK. Wow..