My usual assortment of boots and shoes and socks:
- my trusty Mammut Mt Cliff boots which have been with me on various hikes
- North Face Hedgehogs which I use as general trail (and bad weather) shoes - I chose not to take them with me to Kili and regretted it
- a pair of generic flips flops for walking around indoors and bathrooms, which I bought on my first backpacking trip donkey’s years ago
- at least seven pairs of hiking socks of various thicknesses
The hiking socks I have are of the Smartwool brand. They’re quite pricey, but given how long I’ve had them, they’ve definitely been worth my money.
The lot I currently have were mostly acquired for trekking in the Himalayas, which means they’ll probably be a bit too warm for the jungles of Borneo. More socks required!
You can’t ever have enough socks - expect to get through two pairs a day if you’re hiking, and even more if you think your feet are going to get wet. Take care of your feet!
Afterthoughts:
The weather on Kinabalu was nowhere near as cold as I thought it’d be - light socks would’ve done the job for the whole trip. Luckily, we got to do our laundry at the Round Inn in Poring.
My flip-flops saw the most use while I was out there - I’m glad I took them. Unfortunately, one of them developed a hole via an embedded bit of grit and I had to replace them with a new pair of knock-off Quiksilvers in Sandakan.
Probably sandals or light trainers would’ve been more practical than flip-flops - we did a lot of walking around where the heat made my trail shoes impractical.
My boots once again did their job on the rocky path - ankle support and grip on the sloping rocks.