Sabah 2019 Day 7

16-8-2019

We were fortunate to find this Rafflesia parasitic flower. This is the biggest flower in the world! It takes 9 months to bloom and it only bloom for 5 to 7 days. We were lucky to see this flower on its 3rd day blooming.

Woke up in the morning, breakfast and check-out. Living this place for Poring Hot Spring. We planned not to return to this place again as the track was very risky. However, not all can be done as per the detail planned. In the agenda was: Lodge - Poring Hot Spring - Rafflesia - Wild Boar Tea break - Back to Kota Kinabalu. We cancelled the added wild boar tasting due to time limit.

 This was the environment in the morning of Kinabalu Poring Vacation Lodge.

 Goose in the house

 Morning view of our room, the chicken woke us up!

 Dating! (遛猫）

 The children with German beauty

 Auf Wiedersehen!

 Track living the Lodge!

 Going through the river!

 This was the Poring Hot Spring. It has changed a lot. Children were ready for the hot pool!

 Love this river!

 Hot Spring tub... was given 1 hot spring pipe and 1 fresh water pipe. Mix it with your choice and start bathing into it! But it took time to fill up the tub!

 This was the public hot tub where you can share with other group of people and the water temperature was well mix. Chilled with hot water!

 This was the nature cool water from the mountain. It was really cool especially when you just left the hot spring pool. Enjoy!

 Family photo before leaving the hot spring!

Lunch and Teh Tarik at the nearby Chinese restaurant before leaving for Rafflesia. Nice and refreshing!

Rafflesia is the biggest flower in the world and it happened to be in Malaysia. Poring has it. Anyhow the local Poring citizen took this opportunity to make business to collect some fees for guiding the tourist to the Rafflesia destination. The Rafflesia in Poring were natural. They does not have specific location to plant the Rafflesia, therefore you need the local guide to bring to the location to view the flower in real. The fees were negotiable! It took 9 months to bloom and we were lucky enough to see it on its 3rd day. Looks smelly but not really smelly as I have tried to put my nose into it. There were flies around in the flower. Surprisingly, the Rafflesia were located just right deep inside a little from the Lodge that we stayed! This time we hiked into it instead of drive!

 Hiking towards Rafflesia

 This was the river we passed and we only found that it was a mixture of fresh water and hot spring. The water was cool on the left and hot on the right! The local guide fill up his water bottle here,

 Jungle tracking now!

 The 3rd day Rafflesia... There was a little darken at the edge of the flower.

 Rafflesia flower bloom on its roots but it is a parasitic plant, it grows depend on the tree surrounding and climb to the top of the tree to contact with sun light. The plant along the tree was the plant of Rafflesia.

These were the plant and seed of Rafflesia.

 Talap plant and fruit!

 So funny we gone back here again... and we left the key at the restaurant!

Lazy bug stays on my shoulder!

This was the shop that we engaged to see the Rafflesia. 12 years back, this was a restaurant where we engaged!

After 2 hours of travelling, finally we reached Little Gaya Hotel. It was just only a shop lot but it was beautiful and finally we have a hotel room to overnight. The price was a little more expensive compare to A&J Hostel. This was our last hotel before heading back Penang. This strategic location took us 3 minutes to Gaya Street Market and 3 minutes walk to Jesselton Jetty.

 King size bed that fit 4 of us.

 Beautiful window light as well. Always chose the wooden floor that can reduce noise to keep the environment more peaceful.

After all, we still preferred to go back to the Seafood corner besides the Sabah Central Market. Miss it so much and the price was reasonable!

 Fried butter milk prawn

 Kong Pou Thenus

 Butter milk prawn

 Fried Paku Pakis

 Fried Garoupa with sweet sour

 Squid Tepung Goreng (Fried Squid with flour)

 Entire table of seafood! More to come!

 8 person share the dinner!

 Steam Parrot Fish

Salted Egg Crab, All in at RM 250. Super delicious!

The farewell dinner ended up our day 7. The other family was going back on Day 8, where else we were going back on Day 9. This meal of seafood really rock! It just fulfilled my craving for seafood! We were going for island tour on Day 8. Instead of island hoping, we chose to go for island tour. All the island were similar, therefore we chose to let the children really enjoy their time by the beach and the clear sea water!

See you Day 8!