What was I thinking...I must have been drunk when I booked this trip! I'm going to hike and summit a 4,000+ meter mountain? What happened to relaxing by the beach idea? Well I've already paid for the trip so I guess I'm going to summit Malaysia's highest mountain (and third highest in SE Asia).
I joined up with 6 other fellow travelers (Ben from England, Evy and Tom from Belgium, Niels and Karin from Holland, and João from Portugal) to hike up to Mt. Kinabalu. It's a two-day trip - 3,000 meters the first day, overnight at the 'half-way' station and leave early next morning (2am!) to see the sunrise. The day started out cloudy and warm, and as soon as we started our hike, it started to rain...right, it's rainy season in the topics! By the time we got to the half-way station, the temperature had dropped and we were now wet and cold. Oh, we just learned there's no heat or hot water at the station...yeah!
Dinner at 5pm and sleep for few hours, so we could be off by 2am for the final 1,000 meter climb to the peak. We went to bed when it was raining, so our hike could be canceled (ugh!). By the time we got up the rain had stopped...crap. Off to the top!
By 7am, everyone made it to the peak for the sunrise - not much of a sunrise since it was mostly cloudy but still felt I was on the top of the world (ok Borneo). For me, the best part of going up is going down. Yes, I'm one of those crazy ones who prefers running down the mountain, and my favorite sections of the climb were the guide rope portions where I just ran down as if I was abseiling...now that was fun!
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| Trail leading up the mountain...yes, it's a jungle |
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| Clear view of the island (before the rain) |
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| Top half of the mountain covered in fog |
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| "The Lodge" at the half-way point |
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| Kinabalu Peak @ 4095 meters...and of course, it's raining |
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| Kinabalu Peak...thank goodness for the guide ropes! |
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| 4008 meter marker at the bottom of the peak |
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