Mt Kinabalu to Kota Kinabalu

We awoke to a clear day with great views of Mt Kinabalu.
The first stop was the Kundasang War Memorial Park. This was a very sobering experience, commemorating the Sandakan Death Marches of WW2 where 2,400 British and Australian POWs were marched 260kms through the jungle with only 6 men surviving.
In addition there were many locals who also died trying to assist escaped POWs and resisting the Japanese invaders.
The memorial had Australian, British and Borneo gardens and a wall of remembrance for all the POWs who died.
What a tragedy.
Next we visited the Kinabalu National Park and the botanical gardens. Mags was in her element as we walked around looking at orchids, pitcher plants and other exotic plants. One of the orchids was tiny and is in the photo with Dave’s hand. There is a photo of a “corkscrew vine” which is a relative of the Bauhinia.
We then made our way to Kota Kinabalu - the provincial capital - with a stop at a handicraft market along the way.
We were afforded many great views of Mt Kinabalu as we drove around it on our journey.
Our final hotel was the Hilton hotel which was a definite step up from some of our initial hotel.
In the evening we walked into town, along the harbour front and through the local market. The fish section was really interesting with unbelievably large crayfish.
We ended up at an Irish pub on the water front and had a very nice western style meal - not that our meals had not been good, in fact quite the opposite but rice and multiple cabbage dishes with each meal was different to what we are used to.Read more