A Week in Borneo - Days 3 and 4: Mt.Kinabalu and Poring Hot Springs

The main reason we chose Sabah over Sarawak when deciding on which end of Borneo to visit was Mt.Kinabalu. At 4095 meters, other than the mountains of Himalayan Myanmar and the giant peaks in New Guinea, it is South East Asia's highest peak. The time and monetary commitment required to summit Gunung Kinabalu as well as the rainy weather we were arriving in made a climb an impossibility but we knew that connecting with this spiritual energy of this mountain was something that we wanted to do. We took the road that circumnavigates the western edge of the mountain and settled down at Poring Hot Springs for two nights. Other than the groups that poured in during the late afternoon each day, we were practically the only ones there. Having the hot springs to ourselves in the morning and evening was exactly the relaxing experience we needed after a tough first term at school. The boys loved it, too, (thanks to some great short hikes in the surrounding forest and a mini-waterslide park right next to the hot springs) which made our few days in the foothills of Mount Kinabalu an even more wonderful experience. To top it all off, we were lucky to catch the world's largest flower, the Rafflesia, in bloom in the valley just outside the hot springs park. The rare and hard to find Rafflesia blooms for just three days so we were lucky to arrive on day three of the bloom to see the single blossom discovered in this valley this year! For Ash, this was particularly special as she remembers teaching about this incredible flower for years when she taught Biology. It's one of those things you teach or learn about and never imagine that you'll see or experience in person and here, several years later she finds herself in the jungles of Borneo, looking at a 75cm wide Rafflesia bloom, in person. Incredible!