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Other entries in Kinabulu

4095.2 meters.... way, way up!

   One of the things that drew us to travel over to Borneo was Mount Kinabalu and the opportunity to conquer it!! We had read that though the highest peak in South East Asia, many people of all fitness levels challenge themselves to reach the summit. Well you know Hannah and I... we couldn't pass up the challenge! The thought of the possible altitude sickness just stoked the fire a little! Unfortunately when we arrived in Kota Kinabalu we learned that trying to get a spot to climb (ie accomadation at the top) was going to be a bit harder than we imagined as it was booked for a month! Luckily when we walked into the booking office on the second day there had been a cancellation and we were in, if we could go the following day. We jumped at the opportunity (Emily wasn't as inclined as we were to attempt the feat) and off we set to pack our bags.

    We hopped on the earliest bus we could get to the park that ended up getting us there (with a near vomiting incident from motion sickness on the way to the park a la Lindsay) just after 9am. We paid all the required fees and met up with a Welsh guy named Gary who decided to share our Guide with us. We met Ronnie, our guide, who in the year and a half he has been doing this has climbed the mountain over 200 times!! Well it can't be that bad right? We had to take a quick jeep ride to the bottom of the trail where they had nicely posted the results from the race that they have up the mountain every year or so.... a little inspiration I guess... the top Male made it to the Summit and back in 2 hours and 41 minutes! Now we were thinking that we could definitely do this no problem!! We started the ascent by 9:40am. We knew we had to take it slow at the beginning since it would only get harder and the old adage "slowly but surely wins the race" has been proven true more often than not. The beginning was great... the scenery was beautiful, Gary is a wonderful guy and quite entertaining, as was Ronnie so there was no shortage of fun for the first few kilometers. The first day we were headed to "Laban Rata" which is 6.2 km up the entire 8.7km trail to the summit, and where we would stop to sleep and eat before climbing to the top for dawn. By kilometer 3 we were definitely sweaty and a little tired, but hey, we were half way there... no problem! Well then the air started to thin out a bit and we were definitely climbing up, up and only up, so the fatigue was starting to set in... before we knew it we were going only about 50m before we had to stop to catch a breath and rest a bit. We (FINALLY) made it to the camp by about 3pm. Not too bad we thought... 5 and a half hours... we were especially pleased when we found out that on Ronnie's first go up the mountain it took him 8 hours to get there... until he told us that he was a porter and was also carrying 30 kilos of stuff up. The fitness of these Asian guys will never cease to amaze me. We were all too happy to rest, enjoy some way overpriced food at the restaurant there (well, they do have the corner on the market and someone had to haul those noodles and hotdogs all the way up there!) and find our "bunks". Hannah and I being the budget queens that we are, had opted for the cheapest accomodation there was up there, dorm bunk beds in a non-heated hut. We knew it would be chilly, but it couldn't be that bad. Wrong. It was freezing... we had to wake up at 2am so we could leave at 2:30 am to make it to the summit by dawn... so we went to sleep around 9pm. Correction... we tried to go to sleep at 9pm. Even with the tiredness, we were wide awake, shivering in our beds for most of the night (if you can even call it that). The weirdest thing was that since the air is so thin up there we really noticed the effect on our breathing while simply trying to sleep... had to breathe out of our mouths and heavily just to get enough oxygen... not conducive to a sleepfilled night. We got up at 2, bundled up, had a quick bite to eat and then off we went. None of the three of us had a flashlight so we had tried to rent one from the company but they "ran out of batteries" so not only were we climbing a mountain at 2am, tired and on little to no sleep, but we were doing it in pitch darkness!! It was really interesting to see how our surroundings and all the plant life/rocks changed as we went higher and higher... the last 2.5 km to the summit were mostly over sheer granite rock, using a rope that marked the path when necessary. It was really hard work, especially when we got to what we thought was the summit only to find out that we still had 0.7km to go and then see the actual summit looming way way up in the distance (talk about heart break!). We pushed through and finally made it to the top in time to see the sun breaking over the clouds (around 5:30am). The view was absolutely spectacular and totally made it all worthwhile. Weird to be above the clouds and not in a plane! Definitely one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed in my life! The beauty was rather short lived since it was extremely windy up there and about -2 degrees... soon the absence of feeling in our fingers, toes and noses kicked in and we started down. We made it back to Laban Rata around 8am... stopped for a nice hot Milo and rest and then left for the rest of the descent by 8:45am. We thought it would be smooth sailing from then on out... boy were we wrong. Going downhill... especially 8.7km of it all at once, is really hard work. It wasn't long before our knees were aching and out leg muscles were on the verge of buckling with every step we took. I think the lowest moment for the 3 of us was when we got to the 3km marker... we felt like we were physically finished and we still were only half way down! We finally made it to the bottom at about 1pm. Weird to think that we had already put in an 11 hour day of intense physical work and it was only lunch time!! In hind sight, it was totally worth it (though I wouldn't have admitted that at any time on the way down that day) ... an amazing thing to have accomplished and definitely one of the hardest things physically we have ever done... if only for the sheer volume of work we did in such a short time period!! And boy are our bodies letting us know! We walk like grandmas.... barely able to bend knees and stairs are absolutely out of the question. We hopped in a mini bus with Gary and some other friends from the mountain and headed off to Poring Hot Springs...how convenient that there are hot springs located 45 minutes from the park!! After the quick drive (and a quick pit stop for Hannah to vomit - hmmm 11 hours of climbing + a Milo + a can of pineapple juice + Uber Windy Road = Motion sickness.... who would have thought?) we arrived at the Hot Springs park... found our beds and conked out. We didn't even use the hot springs that day we were so exhausted (and unable to move).

    Had a quick dinner that night and went to back to bed for perhaps the best sleep of the trip so far. We got up early the next day and decided to go for a soak... also with the hopes that it would alleviate some muscle soreness. The park area was quite beautiful and there was pool after outdoor pool filled with hot spring water. Unfortunately it is the school holiday in Malaysia still so all of the pools were filled with screaming children and their leering fathers... we figured going for a dip in our bikinis would really only be asking for trouble, so we went ahead and rented a private tub for an hour. It was nice to have the hot water and the quiet. We went for breakfast and then met up again with Gary, his girlfriend and some of their friends who were visiting from Wales and decided to head out to Sandakan a day early, where we had said we would re-join Em. The bus ride was interesting... long, it took about 6 hours... but that included the multiple breakdowns. I do suppose that the driver made up for it by speeding like a mad man... we were all surprised the bus managed to stay in one piece (and that we were still alive) for the trip. To top it off when we arrived, the hotel that we had made a reservation for the following night had no rooms available and had given the rooms that Gary and his friends had reserved away. Great. We're tired, hot and can barely walk and now we have nowhere to stay. Luckily the guy called another hotel that had 2 rooms left.. well there were 6 of us... 6 big white Westerners and only 4 single beds. We tried to tell Gary that they should take them and Hannah and I would fend for ourselves but being the great guy that he is, wouldn't have it, and insisted that we would make it work. We ended up sharing one of the rooms with one of the Welsh girls... we really didn't want to inconvenience her, especially since she was only on a 2 week vacation and not really used to the whole Backpacking, sleeping in a shit hole is okay mentality, so we gave her one bed and decided that we would share the other bed. Needless to say it was a cozy night... there was definitely some necessary snuggling and spooning (just to stay on the bed... right?) but we were tired enough that we slept no problem. Good thing the room was air conditioned!!!

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