2D/1N Trip to Kundasang – Our stay at Kinabalu Pine Resort

7 and 8 July 2022

One of the things I like about Kundasang is the weather. Located at about 1900 meters above sea level, it is one of the coolest places in Sabah with natural air-conditioning feel. At night, temperatures could drop to 13 ºC. Therefore, after a day of travelling and activities at Poring Hot Spring, I was looking forward to some relaxing time at Kinabalu Pine Resort, located in Kundasang.

We checked into the hotel just before 5 PM. The resort is built on a slope of a small hill facing Mount Kinabalu. All of Kinabalu Pine Resort's cabins are fully built using Balau wood, giving the vibes of a Swiss chalet. There are Standard and Superior Standard cabins with size of 15 square meters (for two persons) and larger Deluxe or Superior Deluxe cabins with size of 33 square meters for up to three persons. The Deluxe rooms also boast larger terraces in front of the cabin.

  

Layout of Kinabalu Pine Resort.

We were booked into a Deluxe Twin room with an extra bed to accommodate our family of 3. Our room N1 is located at the resort’s crest, providing excellent view of Mount Kinabalu. In fact, almost all the rooms in the resort faced the majestic mountain. 

I immediately fell in love with the large terrace in front of our cabin. One of the first thing I did was to take a seat in that terrace and soak in the fresh air and gorgeous mountain views. A friendly local cat came to welcome us.

View from the terrace.

We had about an hour before the sun set. We went to explore the resort’s ground. There are many colourful flowers in the premises including hydrangea, begonias and tall pine trees that gave the resort its name.                   

Typical wooden chalets at the resort.               

 

   

                  

Zoomed in view of Mount Kinabalu as seen from Kinabalu Pine Resort.

Being animal lovers, we went to check out the rabbit hut. All the rabbits were adults and behind wire cages.           

Rabbit house was located next to our chalet.

Thinking about the time when we had rabbits as pets.

Dinner at The Pines' Restaurant starts at 6.30 PM. This restaurant caters local cuisine.  Our tour agency had catered the set dinner package for us and it was too late for us to upgrade our dinner to a Chinese hot pot, which would be better for a cold night in the mountains.        

Package set dinner at the Kinabalu Pine Resort.

Since it was a Thursday, we had beef with carrot soup, spicy tomato chicken stew, fish with ginger and spring onion, baby kailan with oyster sauce, steamed rice and Chinese tea. The food was not great but palatable.

There was not much to do at the resort after dinner. So we stayed in our room. Although this is one of the better accommodations available in Kundasang, the furnishing in the room is quite basic and cannot match those in luxurious 5 star hotels in the city.

There is a TV with a few satellite channels but there is almost nothing worth watching on those channels. Fortunately the wi-fi connection speed is decent enough for us to entertain ourselves with our mobile phones.      

We woke up early the next morning, just before dawn. At Zermatt, we could see the light from the rising sun lighting up the Matterhorn. There is no such beautiful picture of the dawn sun against Mount Kinabalu. Instead, we lay in bed and watch the sky turned from black to purple to deep blue and light blue.

Morning is a good time to view Mount Kinabalu as it is usually shrouded by clouds in the afternoon.

Enjoying the mountain view in the morning from our chalet in Kinabalu Pine Resort.

Mount Kinabalu with a little bit of cloud.

Breakfast is included in our stay and we need to pre-book it at The Pines Restaurant latest by 9.30pm the day before. They only serve ala-carte breakfast and there's Malay, Chinese, Western or kids breakfast set. Apart from that, there's free flow of coffee, tea and orange juice. 

We ordered the Nasi Lemak (coconut milk rice served with anchovies, hard boiled egg, beef rendang, peanuts and sambal) and Nasi Goreng Kampung (spicy fried rice served with sweet cabbage, sunny side up egg, anchovies, fried prawns, local crackers and local chilies) and a Chicken  porridge. Once again, the food is not great but palatable.

At 9.30 AM, we met up with Gabin, our driver and guide, from Amazing Borneo. Our next stop would be the Desa Diary Farm, located 20 minutes away from the hotel.