Kinabalu Mountain

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The first few hours in Malaysia where complete chaos, from the airport I was dropped off downtown, where I new the majority of cheap hotels and hostels would be. The first place I checked was full, and then the second, then the third, fourth, OK now I’m getting a little concerned. I frantically check five more places, and have been everywhere from the nicest place downtown, to hole in the wall hostels down dodgy back allies. I am really starting to reconsider this whole booking ahead deal. Upon asking why everything is so full I find that it is the last week of summer holidays, last years university students are doing their ceremonies, and its Malaysia’s national holiday coming up. OK, where in lonely planet do they tell you that? So looks like I’m sleeping in the streets, or better yet maybe I’ll catch a taxi back to the airport and sleep there? I decide that there has to be something; the only comfort is seeing a few others from my plane looking frantically as well, and their couples, so even harder to find a place. I stumble across Asia Backpackers hostel, in one of those dodgy allies. They have one dorm bed left; I jump at the opportunity, and say I’ll stay without even checking the room. (Sleeping at the airport couldn’t be as good), Well maybe it would have been. I check in and go upstairs, to find I’m the only western guy there, no big deal, maybe I can visit some locals. Well they really didn’t want any part of that. They said some quick hello’s and stuck to themselves. OK one night I tell myself, I’ll find something better in the morning. So in my room I find four beds, and a dozen or so cockroaches. I reluctantly go to sleep and around 5:00am awake to this girl propped up in her bed and talking on her cell phone in Malay? Really??? OK I think, one of the other two will surely tell her where to go, or at least give her “A what’s up!!” To my surprise they just tolerate her being on the phone and waking everyone up. This would never be acceptable in western cultures. OK, well that’s all part of traveling I tell myself and try and sleep through it.

Finally the morning comes and first thing, I’m out looking for another place to stay, I’m even debating writing off Malaysia in general and even looked on the internet at plane tickets back to Indonesia. I decided to give Malaysia another couple days chance, and managed to find a different hostel that morning by 10:00am after checking with about 8 different places. It was still a dorm room, this time shared with 19 other beds, however at least there was a good mix of travelers there with whom I talked with. I met a guy named Peter (70yrs) from New Zealand, who’s traveled all around the world, and was full of info about Malaysia. I also met a guy named Alex, from Whales, who is staring a jungle trekking business up, with ties to University education. So all was much better, just had to get used to the whole dorm room thing. Later in the day I met a Dusun girl (Rin) who speaks really good English and is also traveling. She lives in Singapore and does very well for herself, so she was back visiting the village she grew up in. To my surprise she has been all over the world, and has quite the sense of humor. She told me that I need to change my name in Asia because no-one will be able to pronounce it and she’s right no-one can. She suggested to either shorten it, or completely or make up a new travel name. I have decided to continue being Trent. The three of us decided to head over to Kinabalu National Park. I had planned on doing some of the lower trails, as the cost of climbing the mountain was too high at 700RM. (3RM - $1). That night I met another guy from Switzerland named Remy, who also was considering going to the park, and was also not willing to pay 700RM to climb the mountain. We talked a bit a he decided to come along with us, and we could look into how much it was to climb if we booked right at the mountain.

The following day, the five of us caught a minivan over to the park very cheap; an advantage of staying in the dorm rooms is these guys know how to do things cheaply. We arrive and on Peter’s advice, as he’s been before, we head just past the park 150M and stay at a little home stay for one tenth the cost of in the park. Awesome! This is going very well. We check in and Remy and I decide that we wanted to look into the cost of climbing the mountain now that we’re here, and not through a travel agent.

For the two day, one night hike from Kota Kinabalu (KK), we were quoted 700RM including Transport for the first morning to the park, and transport back to KK. Once we got inside the park we found that the hike itself was approx 165RM with guide and park fees, and the one-night stay at the hostel was 200RM. Well ok then, that’s still a huge discount from the 700RM we were quoted, however we did have to get our own transport, and some food which totaled about 75RM all in. We then tried to see if we could rent tents and just camp halfway up - NO. Ok well how about you let us do it in one day. (Remi and I look at each other, not sure if we even could if they let us.) The guy behind the counter is unsure; he says you can only do it, if you get Mr. Richards (The Park Warden) permission. “Alright” I say, “Where’s Mr. Richard then”. We are directed to another building and taken upstairs where Mr. Richards’ secutary knocks on a big Oak door; she has some brief words him, and looks back at us, “Now you may see Mr. Richards”. Wow, who is this guy I wonder, he sure has a lot of pull around here, we walk into his office, and it’s bigger than some gymnasiums. (Well No, but it’s big). We walk into his office, “Hello Mr. Richards, how are you today Mr. Richards?” (totally kissing ass) We then explain to him that we would like to try and climb the mountain in one day, we make up a story like we are on a tight schedule and otherwise don’t have two days worth of time. (We didn’t want to pay the extra 200RM to stay half way). He looks us over, and says, well there is already a group of 8 U.S Marines going, and you have to be in top shape in order to make it to the top and back in one day. We explain that we think we can make it. He says sure, but you have to reach the middle part by 11:00am or you’ll have to turn back. “Alright so can I start at 5:00am” I ask. He says it’s not possible and we have to start at 7:00am when the park opens. “OK Thank You Mr. Richards” we say. We then go over to the booking counter and tell the first guy we spoke to that Mr. Richards, says we can. He points us to next door where we have to signup. We tell the girl behind the counter what we want to do, she say’s we can’t, but we then tell her “Mr. Richards already said we can”. She looks a little pissed off, so I jump into action “I bet you’ve climbed the mountain in one day, judging by how fit you look”, she blushes and says giggling "no, it took me two days”. Within seconds she has all our forms filled out and we off to the payment counter. Sometimes it’s too easy in South East Asia.

The next day we wake up at 6:00am, walk over to the restaurant that opens at 6:30, scarf down a quick breakfast, and are waiting at the park gates by 7:00. No messing around, we have to be half way up before 11:00am. We get our guide, catch another minibus to the trail gates, and begin our climb at 7:45, (why did it take 45 minutes, this is important time here.) We meet another two guys from Germany who also ending up convincing Mr. Richards, to do it in one day, (mostly because the rooms were all booked), so they joined us. We all setout from Timpohon Gate 1,866.4M with a good pace, the trail winds up a steep staircase of gnarled tree-roots to a mossy world of drifting clouds and orchid-draped trees. We pass the first shelter (Pondok Kandis at 1,981.7M) without even thinking of stopping, the second shelter (Pondok Ubah at 2,081.40 M), gets passed in a similar fashion. Upon seeing the third shelter (Pondok Lowii), we decide next shelter we can break. We arrive at the fourth shelter (Pondok Mempening at 2,515M approx 3.5km) in one hour, “you guys are doing very well” the guide says surprised. We stop for a well deserved 5 minute break, but all four of us are determined to make it to the top, and we know that we have to get to the 5.5km mark at (Paka Shelter at 3,080 M), before 11:00. We are practically jogging up this mountain, and I was starting to get concerned that maybe I was going to wear out to fast and not make the end part.

It turns out we all made it to the Paka Shelter by 10:00am, Ok maybe our pace was a little quick. People we seen coming back from their sunrise at the top, thought we were crazy for trying to do it in one day, but wished us luck. We kept hearing things like, “you guys must be fit” Well they couldn’t have been talking to me, because aside from that Volcano climb, I have been just laying around beaches, sitting on busses, and drinking beers. The other three seamed to be regular guys as well, we were just determined to reach the top.

We stopped for a quick break and kept heading up, the last 3.5 kilometers go up another 1,000 M are suppose to be the most difficult, and apparently they were. Walking up steep stairs, and across bare granite slabs that stretch endlessly ahead, in an eerie moonscape of stone, the last two Kilometers are completely roped to help you pull yourself up. We trudge higher and higher, the thinning air makes it harder to breathe, our pace has definitely slowed. Finally at 1:00pm we reach our final destination (Low’s Peak at a stunning 4,095.2 M. We rest at the top enjoying magnificent views of the surrounding rainforests and valleys below, we took a few pictures and celebrated our success. WE BEAT THE MOUNTAIN IN 1 DAY!! As I mentioned before this is normally a two day exercise, then it dawns on me, we still have to make it back down. I had a stunning recollection from the Volcano trek, going down is harder on my legs.

OK so after about 30 minutes we stammer up enough courage to make the hike back down this mountain, we start slowly, carefully choosing our steps downwards. After about 50 minutes of descending, we come across a group of worn out men, all sweating and swearing at the difficulty of their climb. It was the for-mentioned US Marines, I can hardly contain myself “What time did you guys start?” One of them tells me 8:00am. I say “Oh only 15 minutes after us, you guys have a long way to go”, we beat these guys up the mountain by a good hour and a half. The rest of the way down our group made jokes, about them, “I thought they where suppose to be fit”, and “We rinsed the US Marines”. Aside from making fun at the marines expense, the hike down was excruciating, I kept looking at my watch and was calculating that we wouldn’t make the park gate by 5:00pm. That’s when Remy and I decided to run down the mountain, the German guys opted not to. So from the 5 Km mark to the 2 Km mark we kept a solid pace of running, jogging, and tip toeing where need be down the mountain. After the 2 Km mark I noticed we had enough time left to walk the rest, and rather than risking breaking a leg, (which we had been risking) we decided to walk the rest of the way. We managed to get back to the park gates at 4:50pm. And catch one of the last minibuses off the mountain.

What an adventure.

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Photos

Petter
This guy knows how to travel, its a shorter story to ask where he hasn't been.

The crew
We ate dinner together after heading out to the national park.