Day 119: Kinabalu National Park, Borneo

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Monday, May 25th

Veels geluk met moemie se verjaarsdag! Hoop ma geniet ma se verjaarsdag video boodskap.

Summit morning. We slept pretty well but for some reason our alarm didn't go off at 01:30. Luckily the Polish couple we shared a room with had an alarm. We got up and went down for the first breakfast of the morning and by 02:30 we started our climb.

We had to battle our way through clusters of really slow moving people. We couldn't get a proper rhythm with them stopping every second step. After an hour we had no one immediately ahead of us and we made good time. We chatted away and really enjoyed the night climbing. Sections of the trail were very steep and we had to use the provided ropes. Nordin, of course, walked up these sections as if they were flat. The guides and porters on this mountain have legs (especially calves) like champion body builders! Unbelievable.

In the early morning light, with the bright morning star behind us, we could just make out the massive peaks rising all about us. We were so busy scrambling up the steep slope that we were very surprised when we reached 4095.2m, the summit of Mt Kinabalu (and Borneo), at 05:00.

It was still dark but a faint glimmer was in the east, promising a gorgeous sun rise and, we hoped, some relief from the terrible cold. Talita was bundled up like a cute Eskimo and Ferdi's fingers were frozen and throbbing because he had to remove his gloves to take pictures. At 05:50 the sun peaked over the clouds in the distance. This was the moment everyone up here was waiting for. It was a true delight to once again be on the summit of a mountain.

At 06:00 we had enough pictures and were chilled to the bone so we started making our way down. We prefer going up mountains because going down kills our knees. We arrived back at Laban Rata around 07:50, had our second breakfast, packed, and at 09:00 we headed the the three hours and 6km down to Timpohon Gate. From there a bus transferred us back to park HQ where we got our big bags, repacked (again), walked to the Grace Hostel to shower, and had a very quick lunch.

After inhaling our food at the park restaurant we rushed to the park entrance to catch the 2 o'clock bus to Sandakan, a city on the east coast of Borneo.

For the first time on our trip we were on a bus with a toilet and we sat right by it. This might sound like a bad thing but we feel it was a blessing. You see, the bus ride was worse than that roller-coaster in KL and after a while Talita started to feel really sick. Luckily we were sitting right by the toilet. Talita had to squash herself into that roller-coaster toilet four times to throw up. Since she'd never been motion sick before we concluded that it was that tasteless lunch she had shortly before.

The ride was endless but we did make friends with a Dutch girl, Marije. We really like the Dutch! They're a very friendly people.

After what felt like an eternity we arrived in Sandakan at 18:20. We were so tired and stumbled off the bus, focused on finding our way to some accommodation in the dark.
(This few moment would come back to haunt us the next day)

We shared a taxi with Marije into the city (the long distance bus station is 4km from the harbour area) because she was going in that direction. The first hotel we checked was full but the friendly proprietor directed us to another hotel close by. They had a twin room available and since there was two beds and it was already dark we invited Marije to share the room with us for the night. That way the room costs us less and she doesn't have to continue looking for accommodation in the dark.

We checked in and decided to order pizza from Pizza Hut and have it delivered. Meanwhile, Ferdi went on the hunt for celebratory beers. This city is a ghost town after dark but after he had walked a good while (as if he hadn't just climbed to the top of Borneo that morning) he found a supermarket and got "the goods".

The pizzas didn't arrive but after numerous phone calls by Talita (the people at Pizza Hut called her Alicia) they finally made their appearance. We enjoyed pizza, beer, music and a good "kuier". At 22:00 we were brave/foolish enough to try to read a bit but after a paragraph each we gave it up and crashed. We'd been awake since 02:00.

Today's highlights:
1. Enjoying the sunrise on the summit of Mt Kinabalu together.
2. Catching a bus with a toilet to Sandakan.
3. Meeting and sharing an evening with Marije.

Thought for the day:
The LORD always looks out for his children, sometimes in the strangest ways, like having a toilet on the bus for the first time, when you really need it.

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Photos

Mt Kinabalu summit
4095.2m