Blogs from Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia

On Friday morning we set off for a three-day, two-night tour in the jungle around Mount Kinabalu. The mountain is, with an altitude of over 4,000 metres, the tallest mountain in Borneo. It is surrounded by jungle, and one can take various tours. Amongst them is a two-day tour up the mountain. On day two, one can watch the sunrise from the peak of the mountain. However, Mizzi and I had deliberately decided against it. We both did not feel in the physical condition for it. Moreover, we were more in the mode of relaxing and exploring than in the mood for challenge. Thus, we had booked a tour that would take us camping at the foot of the mighty mountain, with a few easier hikes included. We left our hostel in Kota Kinabalu early, dropped ... read more

My very scientific title refers primarily to the Bornean Mountain Ground Squirrel and the Lesser (Short-tailed) Gymnure. The former is very common and extremely cute and fluffy, the latter I’ve seen once very briefly dash into the vegetation by the side of the road near the top not far from the Timpohon Gate. They super cool and not actually mice or even rodents (they’re insectivores, in the hedgehog family). There are lots of different squirrels around though, many of which are very cool like the Whitehead’s Pygmy with its awesome white ear-tufts as well as the almost as small Red-bellied Sculptor Squirrel along with several other montane squirrel species. If you like squirrels, Mt Kinabalu is definitely the place to be! There are also lots of treeshrews that look confusingly similar to ground squirrels. But the ... read more

My morning birding at Danum was quite productive and the French guys also found it more productive than usual completely independent of me. This seemed to be a common trend with occasional days of great birding and others with almost nothing in the same areas. I added quite a few new species actually, see the list below which were all from only a couple of hours this morning, as well as a great and first-photo view of a Large Green Pigeon being worth noting. I've refined my breakfast strategy by this point too so I don't miss out on birding. Breakfast is officially 7-8:30 but if you're not there at 7 on the dot there will be no food left and you'll be stuck behind a long queue and waste loads of birding time so the ... read more

Cs kamos ma vyzdvihuje presne o 9.00. Som fakt prekvapeny, ani raz nemeskali ked ma vyzdvihovali. Boli presny ako svajciarske hodinky. Vyhadzuje ma na jalan padang odkial chodia minivany do roznych destinacii. Mna vyklada pri destinacii ranau. Vyberci vravi, ze 25rm. Cakaju tu 3 nemci (2babi, chalan), idu do kundasang. Neskor prichadza sikmacka, niekam odbieha a privaza dalsie dve. 12 ludi + sofer a kopa batoziny. Chlapik co mi vravel 25rm vybera prachy, domaci davaju 20 (traja ludia), sikmacka aj s dvoma babami co donisla 25rm, sused nestiha zaplatit a nemci tez ne, bo vyberci sa zakecal, dosol sofer a isli sme. Co som rozumel tak nemcom tez hovorili cenu 25rm (mozno zaplatili skor nevim). Na konci mesta je opat mesita obohnana jazerom. Zacina stupanie do vrchu. Vyhlad nic moc, hmla, zatiahnute, poprcha. Obcas chytime kamion ... read more

From Sepilok to Mt. Kinabalu is about four hours by bus. You just head up the road from Sepilok to the junction with the main highway and flag down any bus heading past. The bus we caught was playing The Hobbit, and when that finished there was a Chinese movie called Monkey King 2 which had the most hilariously-indecipherable subtitles I have ever seen. Really the only reason I knew what was going on was because I was a big fan of the Japanese Monkey tv series from the 70s. There are a couple of places to stay just outside the gates of the national park. Tahubang Lodge is directly opposite and the Mountain Resthouse is five minutes walk along the road. There is accommodation inside the gates as well, but this is owned by the ... read more