… continuation
Upon reaching Poring Hot Spring, which was a stone throw away from where the Rafflesia flower sighting was, we were greeted yet another green scenery.
Poring is a small tourist resort in Sabah, Malaysia. Located 40 km south-east of the Kinabalu National Park Headquarters, in the district of Ranau, Poring is situated in lowland rainforest, contrasting with the montane and submontane rainforest of Kinabalu National Park. The name Poring comes from a Kadazandusun word for a bamboo species found in the area.
– plucked from here
With the main building and souvenir centre situated at the entrance, there were other building scattered around that area.
Beside that, there were a couple of hot springs too. These hot springs were known for the therapeutic properties whereby the sulphuric-based water will somehow ease aching muscles. Some of them were for the public usage while the rest were for private (in this case, one needs to pay a nominal fee to use them).
Apart from the pools, one could opt for soaking their feet only without having to submerge their whole body in it. There were designated stations for that purpose.
The group was given time to use these facilities but before that, we had to complete our Canopy Walkway first.
This Canopy Walkway is a must visit for anyone who ever sets foot in Poring Hot Springs. Take a stroll amidst the lush canopy of the Menggaris tree – king of the forest – the walkway is 157.8 meters long and 41 meters high.
– plucked from here
As usual, Malaysians get a better rate compare to other nationalities and since my package included this, I didn’t to pay for anything at all except for my camera fee (again!).
The stupidest thing I found out was that one needs to fork out RM30 if they want to use their video recorders. What an exorbitant price! But then again, with technology getting more advanced, compact cameras nowadays have HD video recording in it. So, that will pretty much save you about RM25 fee.
We were told (by our tour guide) that the route to the canopy walkway won’t be easy as it was 550 metres long and it was a hike up the steep hill.
Little did we know that the hiking trails weren’t as ‘level’ as what we thought it would be.
As you can see from above, the slope wasn’t easy at all. It was so steep that I managed to capture 3 levels (of stairs) within a single frame.
On the way up, I stumbled across a huge millipede. Scary Gross shit…
Upon reaching (at 550 meters), I was pretty much out of breath. It was definitely a challenging climb for people like me.
Panting and sweating, I had to climb another couple of steep stairs to start the canopy walkway.
At 41 meters high, the sight was nothing but trees, trees and more trees.
Looking down is not favourable at all if you’re suffering from acrophobia (afraid of heights).
It’s pretty bouncy when there’re more than 2 people on the bridge. It gets bouncier if a sucker brat behind you decides to walk faster. I was amazed by the speed of officials / staffs (people who were there to meddle the crowd) walked as their balancing act were pretty much accustomed to the moving bridge.
They even had warnings that plastered all around it. But, having said that, from what I saw, there were no more than 3 people on the bridge.
There were a couple of platforms (5 platforms, IIRC) between those bridges.
And one of those platforms is for viewers to have a look out of the forest. The width between the ‘railings’ of the bridge varies. Some were narrow while some were wide. What I found out was towards the final part of the walkway, the bridge was kind of loose. Freaky shit.
Tourist : Did you enjoy it?
Me : No.
Tourist : Me too. All those adrenaline rush literally killed the fun away.
Me : Yeah. Exactly. Haha.
Going down the trail wasn’t easy either. The tracks were wet and muddy and slippery, we had to walk carefully. It was about 4pm when I was out of the canopy walkway. I wanted to at least soak my legs but there weren’t much time as by 4.30pm we had to assemble. By 4.45pm, we left the place and headed back to Kota Kinabalu city centre.
It was about 8pm when I reached at my lodge. Not sure what to eat or too tired to eat, I had my dinner in Warisan Square again. Moreover, I had to wait till 11pm as I purchased my Transformers 2 : Revenge of the Fallen movie ticket a couple days earlier. The experience of watching the movie in Kota Kinabalu was… er…. something different. I remembered them cheering when Optimus Prime made its first appearance in the movie. Fun crowd, I would say.
Chronicles of Sabah Trip 2009 :-
- In Sabah – Day 6
- In Sabah – Day 5
- In Sabah – Day 4 (Part 2)
- In Sabah – Day 4 (Part 1)
- In Sabah – Day 3 (Part 2)
- In Sabah – Day 3 (Part 1)
- In Sabah – Day 2 (Part 3)
- In Sabah – Day 2 (Part 2)
- In Sabah – Day 2 (Part 1)
- In Sabah – Day 1
- In Sabah – Prelude
