Borneo's highest peak
Mount Kinabalu at about 4,095 metres.
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Malaysia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed in 2000, and a national park founded in 1964 around Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak on Borneo at about 4,095 metres. It covers some 754 square kilometres and holds more than four and a half thousand species of plants and animals, including over three hundred kinds of birds. The park headquarters sit above fifteen hundred metres, so the air is cool and fresh after the heat of the coast, with a mountain botanical garden and short trails through forest draped in moss and orchids. Early in the morning the mountain's rocky summit stands out clearly; cloud usually hides it before noon. A day visit needs only the entry ticket, about fifty ringgit for foreign adults and half that for children. Climbing the mountain is a two-day undertaking that requires a permit of about four hundred ringgit for foreign adults, a compulsory guide and a night at the Laban Rata rest house, and climber numbers are capped daily, so the climb is booked as a package months ahead. It is about two hours' drive from Kota Kinabalu, usually combined in one day with the Poring hot springs and the hill town of Kundasang and its farms. Bring a light jacket, as mornings and evenings can drop to around fifteen degrees, and set off early to see the summit before the cloud.
Mount Kinabalu at about 4,095 metres.
Malaysia's first UNESCO site.
Moss, orchids and fresh air.
Park headquarters on the Ranau road, about two hours east of Kota Kinabalu
No. The climb requires a permit, a licensed guide and a night at Laban Rata, with daily numbers capped, so book a package months ahead. Visiting the headquarters, garden and short trails needs no booking.