Beautiful Kundasang

The Sabah trip was to pay some kind of homage to the black granite, Mount Kinabalu. What else is there to write about an iconic summit that's made of legendary stuff, admired and conquered by people from near and far?
It's been several nights now that I've been troubled with this in my mind. A quick Google search makes all the usual kind of information about it readily available. There's no need to repeat that here.

Except for one thing...that what they say about the mighty mountain is true...it is very shy, elusive, perhaps even a tad snooty. I suppose that's to be expected, given its reputation and popularity. A giant diva on the slopes!

Our two nights in Kundasang was absolutely beautiful. For most, a day trip would have been enough; one night would have been plenty, but for us, two nights was too short. The entire area brought to mind images from my childhood "Heidi" book. It was the Swiss Alps of Asia.

We booked rooms at the Kinabalu Pine Resort, a clean yet modest resort that exceeded our expectations for the amount we paid (RM190 per room per night with breakfast and dinner). The website promised views of the Mount Kinabalu from every room, and it was a promise they delivered. The mountain's presence was huge. I don't mean it's size. Just the thought of it being there, wherever you looked. It had some kind of omnipresence.

The pines around the resort, the chill, and our little "river" right next to our room, made us feel like we were in Salem High Country!  Hubs and I just loved the whole place. We would sit out by the balcony till late at night, sipping our already cold coffees, watching the moon, listening to the river, chatting. With two small kids, sometimes, the late nights after their bedtime, are all we have to be together. Truly something I cherish.

The weather in Kundasang wasn't ideal for viewing the mountain, though. Erratic weather had brought about showers during the time we were there when it should have been clear skies by March.

But hours of rain and heavy mist in Kundasang finally gave way to clear weather in the afternoon and the clouds floated away to reveal the black, jagged edges of the summit. It was a Godly sight and a moment of divine revelation for me and hubs.

Simply magnificent, magical and absolutely unforgettable. Now I know its allure. So, there we stood, on the balcony of our room, like two grinning idiots, feeling too stupendous for words and action. All we could do was gaze and gaze and gaze at the mountain. Seconds later, the very same clouds that had given way to the magnificent sight earlier, floated right back in to block the view like the curtain call at the end of a great performance. Our standing ovation wasn't enough to bring about an encore appearance from the diva.

It was so amazing, I fell in love all over again.

New year happiness

Every time Zainal comes back from the east coast, I feel so jealous of all the things he gets to up there -- the people he meets, the places, the food. And now that I finally got to go with him, I can understand why he's so smitten with the place and the east coast in general.

After four days of being in Kuantan -- the wet weather, the gloomy skies -- I just want to uproot and make my home there, by the sea, close to the jungle, the fishing villages, the great vibe, the fresh-fresh seafood. The rain was wet and put a damper on many of our plans, but in the end, it became a friend and we loved the whole grey and gloomy atmosphere.

We celebrated both Musa's birthday and the new year there, made new friendships with Atord, Erica, Kieran and Inez. Ice cream was shared, beautiful paper lanterns were released into the air at midnight, there was fireworks, a sentimental auld lang syne...

The new year started out great and I hope that we will be blessed again.