Jesselton Misty Tales Day 2

Day 2

The skies had really opened up the next morning and we were advised against driving up to Kundasang in the weather. As we sat broodily looking out from the lodge pantry, the rain slowly reduced to a light drizzle.

We spotted a chicken rice shop nearby and having has our fill on steamed chicken( funnily we couldn’t find any restaurants that sold Roasted Chicken rice), we happily bertolak to Kundasang to stay closer to the majestic and very shy Mount KK. Along the way, we made a pit stop at the Puh Toh Tze temple in Tuaran, where they have a large statue of Kuan Yin greeting visitors.

We then proceeded to get some snacks and drinks at the Giant along Tuaran. This is very advisable, as Kundasang really doesn’t have much save for a couple of simple stores. Will probably need to drive all the way down to Ranau for a decent drink or a Guardian store..so we decided  to get our stash before heading up

Mummy, how do i get to school, my cycle is stuck on the roof

Dorothy's house landed on a witch..and here?

We then made a pitstop at the Rumah Terbalik at Tamparuli. We Paid an entrance fee of RM5(for Mycard holders) and got to take some pictures outside the house and were told no photo taking inside the house. To be honest, the story the tour guide gave us of the background of the house made no sense and this visit was not really worth the time. Basically we were walking on the “ceiling”, with fans, lamp and even lizard toys next to our feet. All the furniture is arranged above our head, so it was sort of like we were ghost hovering along the celing like spidermen. Probably would have been cooler if someone got some motion sickness or something and everyone would have gone nuts trying to get out, but it was would have been too confusing, motion sick and all..and then..well you get the point, it just would have made the trip more interesting. But my companions are all made of steel and were happily skipping room to room terbalik-ly.

Rumah Tembikai also got

The road to Kundasang was winding and the rain and fog did not make the journey any easier but lucky for us, Tonti is a great driver and nothing could distract her from the long drive up. We missed the turning to our hotel, not our fault, the Kinabalu Mountain Lodge is situated away from the main road and if you miss the sign, you are pretty much screwed, like we were. GPS doesn’t really work way up here, so it was just us and our instincts, which just made matters worse cause everyone’s instincts was pointing to a different direction. So we drove up the Kinabalu Park which was actually 2km away from our lodge to ask for directions. The lady at the counter asked for entrance fee before realizing we were only asking directions. We then headed down and got lost again and went back to the Park for better instructions and the lady asked for entrance fees again!

This was actually taken at 6.30am on Day 3 when the mist cleared for like half an hour, but this is the view from our room at the lodge

Drive up to the lodge

After getting more accurate directions from the very helpful staff at the Park, we headed onto the road that leads to our lodge. The lodge is situated 1KM off from the main road. It’s a steep drive up to the lodge and can get quite muddy heading up and we had to drive on the lowest gear. It is advisable to get to the lodge before 6pm as it gets dark fairly quickly and there is no lights along the road heading up to the lodge.

The weather was very cold, and were all freezing, except for Deviljoe, whose shorts was still too warm for her. The rooms have no heater nor AC and trust me, none is needed. The bathrooms are shared and dinner is RM8 per pax, prepared upon request by the caretakers. We had brought some instant noodles and the warm soup was more than comforting.

Couldn’t see much of the view, which was all mist anyway, once it got darker and we got down and ready for a cold night