The Journey to Mt Kinabalu - the Boring part

The first thing after we landed was to get food and for the 3rd successive time that I been here, we went to this place Selara Kg Air for seafood dinner. We first discovered this place during our first visit way back in 2008 and thought the food was pretty good but now, I think it is overpriced and pure mediocre. And I cannot stand the way they stuff the still alive mantis prawn in plastic bottles and leave them in the tank. But still there were a few seafood outlet to choose from and we didn't have to be too concerned with who don't eat what and it was near enough to our hotel for us to walk to.

Talking about hotel, we stayed at the Best Western Kinabalu Daya hotel. It was cheap enough but my advice to those going there to stay - don't. Firstly, they put us in rooms that had no windows and I really detest that. And worse, our friend Tony was trapped in the lift after we returned from our climb and the hotel actually called the police for help with the result that a fire engine, an ambulance and a police car came - all just to rescue poor Tony. So don't stay there not even if it is near to town.

The only advantage in staying here is that it is right opposite this place where Tony bought us to shop for trekking stuff. The shop turned out to be a department store but it had no brand trekking pole for sale at RM15 and all sort of hiking gears at dirt cheap prices. 

After checkout, we proceeded to our first destination but en route we stopped at this place which overlooks the Kinabalu range for a group photo and some shopping.

At Pekan Nabaru

Lunch was at this place which had more moths than customers. More about the moths in another post later but the food was cheap and it kept us full. And best of all, there was another magnificent view of the mountain range

Our next call was this place called the Don Bosco Children's Home.

Part of our fees for the climb went to the benefits of the children of Don Bosco Children's Home. The lovely children performed some songs for us before the warden asked us to distribute our gifts to them. Tony had also used part of the proceeds to buy some food stuff for the home while we had bought some stationery items from Singapore as well as some candy from the local supermarket.

Our last place was our home for the night before our climb the next day, the Mesilau Nature Centre. 

It was a beautiful place surrounded by trees and plants. We stayed in chalets which had 3 rooms all of which come with ensuite toilets and heater. The only blight was the food they served. Every thing was so oily, from the curry to the vegetables to the pasta. Maybe they think the climbers need fuel to climb the mountain and so they decided to lend a helping hand by providing us with oil for fuel! But this was our start point for our attack on the summit and so we had no choice but to endure.......