A Day in Kundasang and Poring Hot Spring

11th December 2009 Friday - Poring Hot Spring
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KINABALU NATIONAL PARK

Breathtaking jagged peaks of Mount Kinabalu, the most famous natural monument of Sabah. Mount Kinabalu rise 3,273 meters from a blanket of tropical rainforest. Declared by UNESCO as a world Heritage Site in the year 2000, it is Sabah's best international icon. The mountain is also a revered symbol pf identity and pride of Sabah local people.

100,000 years ago Mount Kinabalu was enveloped by ice and glaciers. Ice flowed down the slopes when the weather got hotter. The ice-cap is believed to have melted away a mere 3,000 years ago.

The glacial flow scoured the surface of the mountain and as a result in various parts of the summit the surface was as smooth as highways which are well-graded and paved. During the ice age, only a few sharp summit peaks stood out above the ice and they are bestowed with names such as Low's Peak, St. John's Peak, Ugly Sister Peak, Donkey's Ears and a few others. We are irredeemably indebted to Professor E.J.H. Chen the Crown Colony of North Borneo. The result was the enactment of the National Park Ordinance of 1962 by the colonial legislature. This in turn led to the formation of Kinabalu Park in 1964 a year after Sabah's independence through a merger with Malaya.

KINABALU NATIONAL PARK

A WALKING STICK INSECT IN ROSE CABIN

I found this stick insect in a 2 meters plant beside a garden pool for decoration in front of Rose Cabin restaurant.
When I found it, everyone was excited to see it and take snapshots.
Then later on everyone started to find for more stick insects.

After about 5 minutes I found the second one. The second one is larger and looks like an old twig.

There is a family from West Malaysia. They also became excited once again when they saw the second one. They forgot about the first one and focused on the older one.

Unfortunately, the second one died several minutes later on. It must have died of over frightened. I think it must had heart attack!

In Rose Cabin, there are many different kind of living creatures. There are dogs, birds, bees, spiders, caterpillars, flies, mosquitoes and many other more.
This is a unique species of crab spider which adopted itself to live in the cold mountains of central Sabah.

	This caterpillar is undergoing metamorphosis. It is on its way to becoming a pupa.
	This moth keeps predator away by spreading its hairy tail to frighten them.

This big mosquito is much bigger than the mosquitoes back in our town. It is about 8mm from head to toe or larger.
We found only two walking sticks so far in Rose Cabin. This one is still young.
Its not surprising to see many bees here because there are many flower plants in Rose Cabin especially in the flower garden.

Giant crane fly might come at night. This crane fly is attracted to the bright lights in Rose Cabin. From the tip of it's forelegs to the hind can reach 10cm.

This is a spider EXOSKELETON. This type of big spider exoskeleton are commonly seen in Tawau but we so far never seen the real spider itself. We thought it is a low land spider so is unexpected for us to seen it in such as high altitude. To our great achievement, we discover the spider for the first time few days later in Sabah Tea Garden.

For Aunty Alice and Teresa, this is their first visit to Sabah from Kuching. For a first timer to Sabah, no trip is complete without a visit to the Kinabalu National Park.

After purchasing 6 Park Entrance tickets for each of us, we went to look for foods to eat. Kinabalu Park is very well laid out with modern facilities including restaurant, private lodges and tour guide, but all these come at a high price though.

The price of the meal in Kinabalu Park restaurant is much too expensive for us to afford.
So we had to eat in a small restaurant just opposite Kinabalu Park.

It is called 'Restoran Panataran Kinabalu'. Only opens from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

More picture on our Malaysia Trip trip in 1995 | More picture on our Kinabalu National Park trip in 2000
The first time Shirley and Xing came to Kinabalu National Park was on 17 August 1995. We stayed in BCCM, a quiet peaceful holiday accommodation on top of a hill in Kundasang town. In 2000 (5 years later) the mother and "baby" came back again when he was 6 years old.
Our visit this time is only to the Park with no plan to climb to the submit of Mount Kinabalu. Hopefully, in a few years time, we will organize a Wong Family Mt. Kinabalu Trip when all the member of the family meet on the submit of Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in South East Asia.
What to bring when visiting Kinabalu National Park
Good walking shoes * warm clothing * wind breaker * long sleeves shirts * change of clothes * drinking water * plasters * insect repellent * binoculars * camera * water proof bag for camera * torchlight * extra socks * towel * tissue paper / toilet roll
We saw many animals in Kinabalu Park. Big and small, weird and beautiful.

This is a very strange caterpillar. It does not have any hair nor eyes. It look more like a worm.

This silkworm that was hanging on a tree drop on our front car screen.

Although this beautiful web spider is very weak and skinny. Spiders are fierce and strong hunters which can take down insects that are more than twice their sizes.

Harvestmen usually can be seen lifting their bodies high above with their 8 or 7 thin legs supporting them in Malaysia. Well this species is different, it spreads it's 8 legs wide and lifting it's body very low.

This invertebrate does not look normal. It looks like it is an alien animal. This fly owns a pair of special antennae that are oval shaped.

Lucky for me, I found another stick insect. This one looks more larger than the previous one.

Ants are the most social predators and scavengers in Kinabalu Park. However, many animals like spiders, anteater and birds prey on these fierce small creatures.

Beetles and bugs are common here if one looks around the park carefully. As soon as they saw someone, their instinct tells them to fly away.

This earwig is not fully developed into an adult yet. I can tell this by seeing its wings isn't fully sized, it's wings only covered it's thorax only.

These two millipedes are fighting each other very slowly.

A group of about 100 tiny cricket nymphs just hatched from one single egg sack.

When these two moths land on the forest floor, big predators will be fooled by them.
They will be mistakenly thought as dried leaves.
The moth at the upper picture is found at the hut ceiling.
It's wingspan may be longer than 20 cm. It has a unique design of patterns on it's huge wings.

The smaller moth below owns a pair of dull wings.
Predator will be less interested to eat it because it looks more like a dried leaf.

波令溫泉
A Day in Poring Hot Springs

波令溫泉Poring Hot Spring
Poring Hot Spring is one of Sabah's famous tourist spot. The hot springs water contain sulphur, which have health properties for skin diseases. This hot water spring is located at the foot hills of Mount Kinabalu near Ranau. The park has accommodation and restaurants managed by Sutera Sanctuary Lodges.

Poring Hot Spring is 3 hour drive from Kota Kinabalu City. 13 kilometers from Ranau, 40 kilometers from Kinabalu National Park Head Quarters in Kundasang. The Hot Springs was first built by Australian Prisoners of War in World War II for the enjoyment of the Japanese conquerors. Pipes carry the natural hot water from underground to the open-air Japanese-style baths. Each bath can easily accommodate a small family. Beside the hot spring, there are graded paths leading through rich lowland forest to the mountain rivers, waterfalls and the tumbled bat caves. We can see birds and wildlife along the trail. Also, there is an orchid garden containing most of the native species, and a butterfly farm. The Forest Canopy walkways is constructed high up in the forest canopy for use by scientists to conduct research. With magnificent views, tourists can walk on it, seeing new insights into the canopy.
While big squirrels chasing each other on tree branches, we are lucky quick to find an empty pool to refresh ourselves.

Arrived Poring. On right hand side of the street are stores in wooden barracks. On the other side is the office of Kinabalu nature park where hot spring is.

After parking the car outside at the hot spring car park, we showed our tickets to the ticket checker to let us pass through and go in.

Be careful of Mamut Stream. It is not safe to play and swim in there or drink the water either.

To get to the hot spring water baths, One should cross over a bridge and walk for another 50 meters.

These four people enjoyed themselves in the warm water. Sulphuric hot waters of the spring are piped into open-air Japanese-style baths, where you can rest your tired limbs after a long journey..... When fully filled with water, the pools become too deep for children.

Poring Hot Springs

20 December 2004

波令溫泉

19 November 2000

波令溫泉

Photo above : Yin first came to Poring Hot Spring in 2004 when she was 2 and half years old with Aunty Stella's family.

There are a large variety of animals here. Someone managed to capture a large tarantula illegally and sell it to a gift shop in Kinabalu Park for selling as souvenir. I manage to take pictures of some animals here. Shown below

This is the largest jumping spider I had ever seen in Ranau's Poring Hot Spring.
From head to the tip of it's abdomen is 10mm.

This picture shows a moth at a lamp pole.
It stayed here since last night.

This spotty grey gecko has lost its tail either from a fight with predators or with other geckos.

Most hairy caterpillars can sting so I rather not touch this one.

ARISTO RESORT
That night we spent in Aristo Resort. Aristo was formerly named BCCM (Basel Church Christian Mission) . From Aristo we can have a magnificent view of Mount Kinabalu and other smaller mountains.

We occupied Dometary Room D and E at Rm30.00 per person. Same rate for children. Aristo newly took over the resort from BCCM and made some improvement on the rooms with new matress, new pillows and new blanket all of good quality.

Once night fall here, thousands of thousands of night creatures will come flying and crawling out to the open.

Moths, spiders, snails, snake flies, mosquitoes, bats and slugs are only a small portion of animals that become active at night .

Animals that can be found in Aristo.

On the way up to Aristo, we saw chickens.
These chickens are owned by farmers.
These chickens are the only chickens we saw on the mountains here.

As night fall, many night living things showed up.
Most of them are attracted to the bright light bulbs here.
In the light from the toilet moths swarm. Geckos catch the moths in the air superfast and eat them with a cracking sound.

Cicadas fly out at night to buzz around the lights.
They are the noisiest night insects.

Snake flies also join the night insects at night.
We discovered 3 species so far in Aristo.

Clever praying mantises climb near lights to grab unwary victims.

Night beetles, can fly and the cannot are also attracted to the lights. They come in all sizes. The big beetle on the right which attacked Xing is 10 times larger than the one on the left.

Moths in Aristo also come in different shapes, sizes and colours.
The pictures on the right shows moths that looks like a skeleton and a bat wing.

Loud croaks can be heard at night.
Frogs can be found in the garden pool
outside the lobby.

Although the water in the garden pool is dirty, it still can provide a habitat for the frogs and tadpoles.

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Giant crane fly might come at night. This crane fly is attracted to the bright lights in Rose Cabin. From the tip of it's forelegs to the hind can reach 10cm.
This is a spider EXOSKELETON. This type of big spider exoskeleton are commonly seen in Tawau but we so far never seen the real spider itself. We thought it is a low land spider so is unexpected for us to seen it in such as high altitude. To our great achievement, we discover the spider for the first time few days later in Sabah Tea Garden.

Night beetles, can fly and the cannot are also attracted to the lights. They come in all sizes. The big beetle on the right which attacked Xing is 10 times larger than the one on the left.
Moths in Aristo also come in different shapes, sizes and colours. The pictures on the right shows moths that looks like a skeleton and a bat wing.

Loud croaks can be heard at night. Frogs can be found in the garden pool outside the lobby.
Although the water in the garden pool is dirty, it still can provide a habitat for the frogs and tadpoles.