September 16, 2025
Today is our 6 month travel-a-versary! Ollie will still periodically look at me and go, “I can’t believe we’re on the big trip!” At this point, this pace of travel feels like our new normal but we know we’ll all be excited to go back to our home in the new year.
We were up at 6am to get ready and have breakfast before we were meant to meet our guide in the lobby at 7am. Our guide didn’t show and we couldn’t get a hold of anyone at the tour company until 7:45am ish. We learned that our original guide was flooded in due to the rain so Young, our new guide for the day, took his place instead. The driver’s name was Freddy and they said, '“You know like Freddy Kruger!” which then prompted Ollie to ask them about a movie/ video game he learned about from kids at school— Five Nights at Freddy’s. Ollie has never seen the movie, but used to have nightmares about it back home, so its curious how he acts so interested in the characters. He and the driver had an ongoing joke all day about Freddy Kruger.
Our first stop was Jalan Lama Tamparuli where we could see that the roadway had been taken over by the river. Young let us know that it floods all the time and that the road had been designed to withstand all the flooding in the area. Before crossing the Tamparuli extension bridge, we listened to a local youth orchestra. Afterward, they invited the boys to play the instruments but only Ollie took them up on that offer. He liked to hit the Bonang (the set of smaller gongs) and the bamboo pipes where we learned the kids like to hit them with flip flop bottoms instead of drum sticks.
After crossing the suspension bridge, we began driving up the winding mountain roads to a large outdoor market. Other than trying the honey pineapple (loved!) and the love fruit (meh) we could have skipped this stop. The stalls were packed with mostly touristy souvenirs which left us fighting off kid requests for ridiculous souvenirs like a bulky coconut guitar and a stuffed monkey that made loud noises when his belly was squeezed. Len picked out an approved small leather fish wallet and Ollie went on souvenir strike after his coconut guitar request was refused.
After more winding and uphill driving, we arrived at Mt. Kinabalu where we first followed the Silau-Silau Trail with Young as our guide. The trail was thankfully passable but very wet with small streams running through it at different points. We learned that we were technically in a rainforest but because of its high altitude, there were no mosquitos there! We saw a few wild chickens and neat bugs along the journey.
Next we walked through Kinabalu Park Botanical Garden. Kyle and I were keen to learn more about the huge variety of plants but this activity barely held the kids’ attention. They were most interested in trying to grab onto the crazy vines and less interested in the crazy variety of orchids that can be found in the rain forest. The tropical pitcher plants caught their attention when they learned they were actually carnivorous and ate bugs, though. Sadly the Poring Hot Spring Canopy Walk was closed so we weren’t able to go for a dip in the hot springs as originally planned.
After a quick lunch, we had a brutal ride back to the hotel. It should have taken 90 minutes but took 3 and a half hours. Len slept for nearly all of it and Ollie even fell asleep at one point. The van didn’t have an audio system to play Harry Potter so Ollie likely fell asleep from boredom.
I was feeling nauseous from the ride so stayed back at the room to lay down while Kyle took the kids bowling to burn off some energy. Ollie bowled his first ever spare and the kids’ scores combined beat Kyle’s so they were pretty jacked up. We ended the day with another room service dinner— mine and Kyle’s chicken satay consumption knows no limits this week!
