Well, I’m in Kota Kinabalu now, going to climb the mountain tomorrow. There’s been quite a lot of wild, blustery weather recently so fingers crossed! The city itself is fantastic – Indonesia could really do with looking at what they’ve done over here – there are pavements, it’s clean, friendly, you don’t get hassled by locals trying to sell you rubbish every 5 minutes! Very civilised and orderly. A truly lovely little city – you could easily have a couple of days just wandering round and sitting in the cafes on the waterfront. The backpacker places are quite cheap as you can just stay in a dorm room. Great place, very much recommended!

It is very interesting to hear about the ‘red tape’ issue on this mountain. The highest in Borneo. How good that sounds. I’m off to climb it and neighbouring Trusmadi in late July. The both have a similar problem – huge expense caused by dubious moral and administrative practices. Whilst it is good to encourage people to climb and great to have a few signs (very much lacking in Indonesia) how a company can own a mountain and have a monopoly on all visits to it is highly questionable. It’s something I may write about for a newspaper here in Jakarta. In addition to the openly racist policy of charging ‘foreigners’ a higher rate I’m sure most ordinary Malaysians cannot afford the expenses required for the Malaysian rate. A great mountain I’m sure, but it seems somewhat ruined by all the admin.

If you are in good condition it’s possible to do the hike in 1 long day. Get the first bus to the roadhead & head up as soon as the trail gate opens. This involves a good bit of ascent but if you hike regularly is achievable & works out a good bit cheaper. You still need to go with a guide & they will try to dissuade you from this option.

There is a place to stay just outside the park, 100 M down the road, cheaper than lodge accomodation in the park.

kinabalu is a great mountain to bagg and the highlight is walking along the granite rocks near the top.the trail is quite easy although there is alot of steps so coming down wrecks havoc with the knees.its a 5 star mountain but i only rated it a 4 due to the red tape,high costs and the over crowded summit experience.its still worth while.

One more thing, they revised the official height of the mountain to 4095m.

Just did Kinabalu this past weekend. It was a good hike, the trail was well marked and we were blessed with good weather.

A company called Sutera has a monopoly on access to the mountain so in order to climb you have to book rooms in their lodge, Laban Rata, about 3300m up. The authorities won’t allow camping on the mountain. Cost for the night includes dinner, 1n accomodation, pre-summit breakfast, post-summit breakfast, and lunch at the bottom. That all adds up to about RM 800…not cheap but worth it I suppose considering that the food is good and its all buffet (!).

To expedite the process I also linked up with a guide company that picked me up from Kota Kinabalu at 730am on the morning of the climb, drove me to the mountain, provided a guide all the way up and down, then drove me back to KK the next day. They also booked the room at Laban Rata lodge. After talking with some hikers who arranged everything on the ground by themselves I might have paid at most RM100 (approx USD 30) more than them. A small premium for a pretty efficient guide service that was seamless. Great value and good service, highly recommended. They’re at(http://www.wildlife-expeditions.com/z-index.php). I would recommend this for people who want to do a quick trip from Jakarta (can be done in 2 nights, Thurs-Sat) just to climb!

In short, outside of flight and hotel in KK the first night I paid about RM900 for the guide + accomodation. Its hugely expensive compared to hiking in Indonesia but it is what it is. The summit is worth it!

Basic accomodation is good in KK for the night you arrive. Hotel listings abundant on wikitravel.

Finally, AirAsia flies three times weekly (Tu, Th, Sat) from Jakarta direct. Great arrangement. Look for the promo deals which can drop the price to around 1.1 return. Not too bad.