After a couple of well-spent days in Kota Kinabalu we pushed west to the biggest attraction on Borneo: Mount Kinabalu. The mountain, one of SE Asia’s highest, tops out at 13,435ft (4,095m) and this is made even more impressive by the fact that there aren’t any other peaks of comparable size in the area. A short two-hour van ride was all that was needed to reach the park from KK.
Climbing the mountain is why many tourists visit Borneo but Amy and I were quickly turned-off to that idea because of the cost and because neither of us really fancied a two or three day slog up the mountain. After paying for permits, guides and 
For sleeping arrangements, we stayed at the Kinabalu Mountain which is about 2km from the park entrance. Inside the park there are a whole range of accommodations that were just above our price range. Rather recently a hospitality company secured an exclusive contract covering all the in-park housing and dining options and this seems to have driven prices up drastically. Even the cheaper restaurant in the park was charging RM50 (about $17) for a barely passable lunch buffet! No thanks.
Despite the hordes of climbers buzzing around park HQ all day, it was surprisingly easy to get away from everyone by hiking some of the lesser-known trails in the immediate vicinity. We had read that there was a very informative guided tour led on some of these trails. Honestly though, we were quite disappointed. The walk was very brief (40 minutes) and the tour group was quite large. Hiking on our own was a much better.
In addition to hiking around the park, I found some great bird watching right at our lodge. The lodge has a nice big front porch that overlooks the valley and all sorts of birds pass through at various times of day. I didn’t do so well with identifying them but I did manage to capture photos of a few.
The evenings at the lodge were also quite entertaining. As soon as the sun goes down all sorts of insects wake up and start their day. I saw dozens of different types of moths as well as a few different giant beetles. I have never seen such huge insects before!
