Kota Kinabalu

Climbing means getting inside the daily quota. You sleep at the hut, leave at 2am and reach the summit for sunrise. Nobody goes up without a guide. The 2015 earthquake destroyed the old route, so the path in use was cut after it.

Twenty minutes by boat from the city jetty puts you on the first island. Five islands sit inside one park, so a single ticket covers several, and each runs to a set boat timetable with no recourse if you miss the last one.

Go on a still morning. Built over an artificial lagoon, it reads as floating, and walls and domes mirror cleanly only then; by afternoon the surface ripples and the shape breaks up. Non-Muslims enter outside prayer times, in a borrowed robe.

People come for the sunset rather than the swimming. It faces west, so the sun drops straight into the sea, and stalls selling coconuts and grilled corn set up for that hour. The water is not clear, which argues for the islands instead.

It runs on Sunday mornings only. A stretch of Gaya Street closes and fills with orchids, spices, pearls and even puppies, and since packing up starts after midday, arriving late leaves you half of it. One stall inside roasts Sabah coffee on the spot.

Houses of five Sabah peoples stand full-size in the forest, each with someone from that group inside demonstrating fire-making, tattooing and cooking rice in bamboo. Entry runs three times a day at set hours, with transport bundled in.

The botanical garden needs no climbing. At 1,500 metres it runs cooler than town. When a rafflesia opens, the smallholding nearby signs the road and charges to show it. The bloom lasts about five days, so the question is whether one is open.

The canopy walk has overtaken the hot springs as the reason to come. Five rope spans hang at 40 metres and take two people at a time, which makes weekends slow. The baths themselves began as pools dug by Japanese troops during the Second World War.

You go upriver before sunset, when proboscis monkeys sit in the trees along the bank, and come back down the same water after dark to the trees the fireflies settle in. A bright moon washes them out.

It carries the most facilities of the park islands, which makes a full day easy. The sand right of the jetty stays shallow and holds the children; the fish are over by the rocks to the left. Wide stretches of coral are dead, so go in with expectations lowered.

Wooden tower honouring Atkinson, the first district officer, who died young of malaria; his mother donated the clock. It survived the wartime raids and is among the few prewar buildings downtown. The slope behind it leads up to Signal Hill.

From the platform on the rise just behind downtown you take inthe street grid and the islands offshore. On foot it is about 20 minutes of steps and slope; taxis can drop you at the summit parking. At dusk the sky colours behind the islands.

One of the smaller marine park islands, so everyone shares one beach. At low water a sand spit appears towards Gaya Island and you can wade out to its rocks. Monitor lizards come down to the picnic tables at the smell of food, so keep lunch packed away.

24 hectares of mangrove left in the Likas district, listed as a Ramsar wetland in 2016. A raised boardwalk runs over the water past mudskippers, crabs and wading birds. Winter mornings, when migrants stop over, bring out people with binoculars.

Zoo and botanic garden in one, a 30-minute drive south of KK. Orangutans, proboscis monkeys and Bornean pygmy elephants, Sabah's own animals, are all in one place. The grounds sprawl over a hill, so do the loop in the morning, well before the heat climbs.

A village in Penampang run by descendants of the Kadazan warrior Monsopiad. At its centre hangs the House of Skulls, holding the 42 skulls he took, then bamboo dances and rice wine. A little over 30 minutes by car, making it an easy half-day outing.

A small island group off the northwest coast, with clearer water than the marine park, so a popular day tour. You drive to a jetty before dawn and change to a boat, so travel eats half the day. Dugongs are said to live here, but few visitors see one.

The Kiulu River near Tamparuli runs at grades 1-2, fine for first-timers and kids. Getting there from the city takes roughly sixty minutes by road; half-day packages come with lunch. For stronger water, the Padas River near Tenom runs at grades 3-4.

A dairy farm on the Kundasang highlands, with Mount Kinabalu standing right behind its pasture. Fresh milk and ice cream are sold, and visitors can bottle-feed calves. Cloud covers the summit by afternoon, so plan on a morning arrival, the earlier the better.

Gardens for the Allied POWs who perished during the forced marches from Sandakan to Ranau in World War II. It is split into Australian, English, Bornean and contemplation gardens, names carved on a wall. It shares the highland with Desa Dairy Farm.

The state's main mosque in Sembulan, its gold-patterned dome visible from afar. It holds up to 5,000 worshippers. Quieter than the lagoon City Mosque, so easier to look round, though non-Muslims stay out during Friday midday prayers.

A winding drive up the ridge behind Menggatal puts the city and sea at your feet. When the wind is right, paragliders launch off this hill and land in the fields below. Cafes near the top pack out with sunset watchers.

The rocky cape capping the Kudat peninsula, where the South China Sea meets the Sulu Sea. The drive from the city runs around three hours, using up a whole day. A globe sculpture stands at the point; the rocks beyond take heavy surf, so stay above them.