Choose another map, showing:

• Borneo
• Philippines
• Malaysia
• South East Asia
• Asia
• Eurasia, Africa & Pacific
• The World

Other entries in Kinabalu National Park

Mt. Kinabalu

I got into KK, Kota Kinabalu early in the morning. I found some accommodation on Mt. Kinabalu a couple of days after and settled in the backpackers for my first taste of Borneo. I caught an early bus to the Kinabalu Park HQ.

To climb the mountain was a very organised, to organised affair. First you had to pay RM15 (Riggit Malaysian (RM7 = $US2) to get into the park, a permit to climb the mountain, another RM100 and for the guide RM70. The guides were all lined up outside the guides office, waiting for the next group of tourists. I joined up with a guy from Hong Kong to share the cost, and started on our way up the mountain. The guide would stay with the last person in the group, so I didn't see much of the guide for the rest of the trip.

There is a race up the mountain, that at the moment is held by a Spainish guy, 21km in 2hrs 39mins. It starts 100m from the first check point and finishes 4.5km away at the Park HQ, having visited the summet 8.5km away. It was straight up and straight down, with steps cut into the mountain or built out of wood and concrete. It took me 3 and a half hours to the hotel, 2 to the top, an hour and a half back down to the hotel and an hour and a half from the hotel to the bottom, and the last part was at a run. I don't know how the Spainish guy could make it up and down in the time that he did, he must have been flying.

The forest and jungle on the way up to the summet looked very similar to that of NZ. Full of Pungas, Tree Ferns, and very low growing trees and shrubs. It rainined all of the way up to the hotel and huge 50cm worms were on the track, blue in colour and very wriggly.

The cafe that serves everybody at the half way stage up the mountain was very expensive. All of the food has to be carried up the mountain by the local youth of the area, the loads that they were carrying didn't seem to be as heavy as the loads in Nepal, but the porters all seemed to be younger. They earnt more money carrying loads up the hill than the guides did, but they did have to carry more. The guides had it easy, following over weight, unfit toursts up the hill, and only walking for a few hours per day carrying their own gear and stopping to talk to their friends on the way up. So far as I can see you don't need any guides to climb the mountain, at the top theres a rope to follow all the way, so may be like China, its a job creation exercise, and a good money spinner.

The accommodation was expensive as well. Down in KK you got a room for RM20 a night, free breakfast, free internet, good quality shower room with heated water and air-con, on the moutain you got a cheap room, dodgy shower, no internet, no breakfast and no heater, which would have been nice, and 2 blankets, and all for RM46. I suppose that it's a captuered market, and no other cheap places to stay. On top of that we had to get up early to make the summet for sunrise, so not only was it expensive, you didn't get to spend that long in the bed. Most people left at 2:30am to make the summet, but we left a bit later, at 3am. Me and some Astralians were the first to the summet, over taking all of those more mature walkers on the way up that had left at 2:30am or earlier. Most of the people there seemed to be 30s or 40s + with not that many younger travellers there. We paid for our quick asscent to the summet, having to wait for an hour for the sun to rise. We made it in 2 hours, and the sun finally came over the horizion at 6am, most of the early arrivals to the top were nearing hypothermia, and made a quick exit from the summet down for some breakfast. I managed to get ahead of the group coming down and part way down, stopped to listened to the absolute silence, something thats been missing this year. The only sounds were that of your own breathing and the odd bird in the distance, the same sound you get on a ski slope. So loud its deafening. It didn't last long as the rest of the people started heading down the mountain. It was time for an expensive breakfast. It had been a clear morning with blue skies on the summet and by 9am the clouds were rolling in and it was time to leave before the rain really hit. It started half way down the track and didn't stop for the rest of the day.

Part way down the track we passed a Japanesse women that had twisted here ankle. She was using some strange methods for pain relife, if thats what it was for. She had a small needle that she put into the effected area may be 25 times. Once that was done she got a small pump and started to pump the skin up into the pump. When she released the pump, lots of blood came pouring out of the holes. She did it twice, and it was starting to make me feel quite ill, not from the blood, but from the self mutilation. I guess it must be some ancient medical thing past down through generations. We left them to it when the rain really started to hit, and made it back to the Park HQ in good time. 

Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "Mt. Kinabalu":