Kinabalu Pine Resort, Kundasang, Sabah

If I had another chance to go to KK again, I would definitely want to spend another night here. Especially when I already have my bionic legs so that I can jalan-jalan up and downhill. Enjoy the beautiful swiss-like scenery, the pine trees. Since I was handicapped this time so I couldn't really enjoy the stay there. I missed going down to the orchid farm, just below the resort's restaurant especially. I didn't want to trouble KN pushing me up and downhill on the wheelchair so I spent most of the 2 days 1 night indoor or rather at the balcony of our room - even that was satisfying enough for me.


I just love the resort; its tranquil surrounding, beautiful scenery, fresh air and the marvelous Mount Kinabalu backdrop giving guests a beautiful view each time they open their room door. All rooms here are facing the mountain so one does not really need to leave the room to enjoy the breathtaking view of Mount Kinabalu.


Sun rises rather early here compared to in Kuala Lumpur. It's usually already bright come 6 am and no way should you miss the sunrise (or even the sunset) while you're here. Unfortunately the sun does not rise nor it sets anywhere near the mountain but a little off to the side. It was however a beautiful sight not to be missed!


You may also want to try the special steamboat buffet - a specialty dish here at Kinabalu Pine Resort. The restaurant menu however is very limited. If you do not have transport coming here, better bring food supplies like instant noodles for your vacation. Otherwise there are aplenty restaurants in Kundasang town selling all sorts of local dishes.

Nabalu Town and Kundasang Town, Sabah

Due to my being on wheelchair for this trip we didn’t go to many places. We visited the essentials and only to those places KN wanted to go as a first timer – so what else, we went shopping for souvenirs lah! Nabalu Town, unlike 6 years ago when I was last there, there were only a row of souvenir stalls. Now there is a complex selling all sorts of souvenirs from Sabah but I think they were a little bit pricey (As a matter of fact we had the same price offered to us for a Mount Kinabalu Tee at Warisan Square in Kota Kinabalu the next day – lucky we didn’t but any t-shirts on our visit to Nabalu town. Instead we bought tokens for office mates.


Like many other places in Malaysia, the Nabalu town souvenir complex was not Handicap friendly. The tour driver had to carry me over 3 flight of stairs in order for me to spend money there.To note people there were very friendly, the shopkeepers and locals alike were always smiling and welcoming us.


Kundasang town too had changed from the last time I was there – the stalls selling fruits were now on the opposite side of the road and the roads were better and wider. We bought a fruit named buah Tarap; a jack fruit and mangoesteen like fruit. I kinda like the sweet taste and smell of the fruit.

Inilah dia buah Tarap - Macam dyrian pun ada

Kota Kinabalu Day 1 - February 13, 2009

Dalam keadaan kaki sebelah Kal El dan KN teruskan juga percutian ke Kota Kinabalu yang telah dirancang sejak bulan Oktober tahun lalu. This trip, a gift from me to KN was really a memorable one. We spent a night at Kundasang and a night in Kota Kinabalu City. Namun, percutian kali ini memang amat memenatkan buat KN dan Kal El kerana banyak melibatkan fizikal, ahahah bukannya kami pi panjat gunung tapi keadaan Kal El yang berkaki sebelah ini, terpaksalah kami bekerja keras; for me to move and for KN to help me move.

We left Bukit Antarabangsa 30 minutes past 4am. As usual my brother Sapit was the one who sent us to the airport. He was nearly an hour late and we arrived LCCT just with enough time to check in, arrange for assistance to get me up on the plane and board the Airbus. We have indeed made arrangement for assistance more than a month ago in anticipation of the trip and I’ve reconfirmed with Air Asia’s Booking Centre a couple of days prior to the flight and was told that everything will be in place on the 13^th. Unfortunately nothing was done and fresh arrangements had to be made before our flight – ahahaha because of that, no ambulift was available for me and the airport staff had to carry me onto the plane – kesian la 73kgs tu! (Cheh sempat lagi brag about my weight tu… hehehe).

We were fortunate that Air Asia ground staff and the stewardess were helpful. We arrived at Terminal 2 of KK International Airport at approximately 9:30am, greeted by KK Tours driver who would be taking us to Kinabalu Pine Resort in Kundasang from the Airport. We paid RM450 for the return transport from KK Airport to Kundasang and to KK City the next day and back to the airport the next day. We had a quick stop at Nabalu town to shop for souvenirs and made our way to the hotel. All in all a two and half hours journey on the hilly roads.

Kinabalu Pine Resort was a beautiful place but definitely not for the handicapped. They had beautiful Swiss styled chalets but unfortunately there were staircases to each of the chalet. If they had ground level units, KN had to push me up and down very steep slopes every time we wanted to go out. The day was spent with a Chinese meal lunch at the hotel’s restaurant and we spent a couple of hours enjoying the great Mountain View. Lucky for us the day was bright and clear.

There were nothing much to do at night, partly because my handicap , but to enjoy each other’s company, how more could we have spent time other than being close to each other. We slept early as KN planned to shoot photos of the Mountainous sunrise – a first for KN.