One hour east of Koto Kinabalu is Kinabalu National park which the main attraction is to climb the highest mountain in South East Asia at 4100 metres high (half the height of Everest). I joined a group of four people myself, Ceci and diede from Italy and Holland recently married and on there honeymoon, a girl from Canberra Oz and escorted by a Malaysian guide (which we did not need) for a two day hike to the summit point, The first day of walking consisted of 7kms to your sleeping quarters this took us 6 hours and the last km there was a huge downpour and we all got soaked, so on to our accomodation this was a absolute joke we paid for the non heated room and did we suffer it was freezing, but luckily not all the beds were occupied so we all had about 4 covers each and we needed them, there was gaps between all the window glass panels, anyway our guide woke us up for our climb to the summit at 3am yes 3 in the morning this was the one and only time i needed my guide, i was already dressed to go as i sleeped in all my clothes but just needed to gather my gloves and torch which at 3.30am you need when climbing a mountain....... To my surprise the couple i was sharing with didn't want to go because there clothes were still wet from the prevous day and decided to stay in bed so it was just me and the Australian girl left in our group she found it really difficult and after 10 minutes the guide told me to catch up with another group and so i did and after 2 and a bit hours made the summit just before sunrise and one of the first to arrive even though i didn't leave until gone 3.30am......... I was really glad i managed to reach the summit its hard work and also quite expensive but well worth it but on the way down back to the starting point i stupidly asked a chinese person (Frank Spencer) to take a photo of me and my group he accidently dropped my camera on a rock "How unlucky" I was furious inside such a sad end to a great two days. plus my 1 month old trainers feel apart, so i had warm hands, i made the summit, one broken camera and cold feet.

One day before the climb i went to the hot springs park its ideally to use after the walk for relaxation but i went before and bypassed the hot springs which was under construction anyway and opted for the two walks to the canopy walk and waterfalls, the trek to the waterfall was good because i joined in with a malaysian group all friends from Kuching, On the downside we all got biten by leeches but at the end of the day they offered to drive me back to the parks main headquartors where i was staying via the fruit and veg market.

The Orang Utan sanctuary centre in Sepilok was where i spent two nights after the mountain climb, i could of sat on the grass viewing area all day watching the Orang Utans playing and swinging in the enviroment that was set up by the centre for them, there was two feeding times and i went to both after missing my bus to Sandaken, i was sickened of the fact that i had no camera and everyone else was snapping away, at first it was full of tourists and difficult to see but after 1 hr they got bored and i was sitting with a handfull of people on the grass just observing the movements of the orang utans in peace this was the best part, also a great picture opportunity missed was at the end of the afternoon session they were all escorted out of the feeding area in a wheelbarrow all six of them what a sight that was to see, this was the orang utans not the leftover tourists.