Then we took a bus to a small town called Poring, which is known for it's hot spring and a lovely mountainous view. It's located quite near the mighty Kinabalu mountain.
Before going we booked a hotel trough hotels.com. Our next accommodation was called Kinabalu Poring Vacation Lodge. It was about 15 minutes walk away from the hot spring in a secluded and peaceful spot. The walk is via gravel road that's in a bad condition so it wouldn't be nice to walk there with all the bags.
But the surroundings are lovely.
There are both flora and fauna.
Our minivan driver from the town of Ranau where the bus dropped us took us all the way to the lodge. First they tried to charge us 40 Ringgits for the trip but we ended up paying only 20. That's how it always goes, the price is double first.
We really enjoyed our stay there; we had a nice big room that was clean, nice hot shower and television with cable channels. Also the staff of the place was really friendly and helpful even that they didn't speak much English.
The owner of the place, Joe, came to say hi on Sunday evening. He was also really nice and he spoke fluent English. He even gave us a ride to the airport couple days later in Kota Kinabalu where we flew to Taiwan.
The hot spring area, as nearly the whole mountain of Kinabalu, is run by a company called Sutera. They have put their prices high and it's quite expensive to climb the mountain. Their accommodations and restaurant are over-priced and they like to charge for everything possible. The hot spring turned out to be crappy. It was a bit under construction, which they didn't bother to mention in the ticket counter.
These are the cool pools. The hot once were tiny and not nice at all.
We had a little bathing moment anyway and
also went for a nice canopy walk on the treetops.
That was fun.
We had to pay for that one separately but it wasn't too much money. Just the way of doing things by the Sutera company was annoying.
Luckily outside the hot spring's fences was some nice restaurants with cheaper prices and we ate really well there.
All in all those two nights in Poring were really good. If the hot spring would be in better condition it would be definitely a place to go.
The last day one of the workers brother gave us a ride back to Ranau where we jumped in to a bus to Kota Kinabalu. Lodge's owner Joe took us to the airport and it was time to leave Borneo after 5 weeks of exploring.
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