Blogs from Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia
March 26th 2012
Today was a rather massive day...We woke up slightly later than we would have liked this morning and didn’t get on the road till 9am by the time we had breakfast and got the kiddies organised to leave for our drive to Mt Kinabalu. The drive to Mt Kinabalu took about 2 hrs, but somewhere along the way we took a wrong road so it maybe could have taken slightly less time. The drive was nothing like we expected. I expected it to be fairly flat with Mt Kinabalu just sticking up. It wasn’t this way at all. It is very mountainous the whole way. Not easy driving at all. Once at Mt Kinabalu National Park we decided to do the walk up to view the mountain and the waterfall. By the time we got up ... read more
Mount Kinabalu - the first and probably last attempt
Published: March 28th 2012Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Mount Kinabalu
February 15th 2012
We had read that climbing Mount Kinabalu was easy, compared to the hassle of organising it. Having done both, we have to disagree completely. Despite having to pay a national park fee, a climbing fee, a guide fee, mandatory insurance, a fee for transport within the park, and a fee for mountainside board and lodgings, the pain on the wallet compares not to the pain in the thighs, calves, knees, feet, head and heart. But it was worth it, just about, for the sense of achievement and awe-inspiring views of Borneo at dawn. It’s not the distance travelled, nor the time spent walking that hurts, it’s the height gained. It’s hard to convey just how steep the climb is. Try to imagine walking up a seemingly never-ending staircase for eight or nine hours. For the mathematically ... read more
January 12th 2012
Us girls all agreed that 2 nights at the ‘homestay’ was overkill and we were all happy to move on (Soffia and I were sad to say goodbye to the warm platter of homemade donuts we received each morning for breakfast though). We spent the next 6hrs driving to our next destination- the Poring Thermal Hot Springs and Canopy Walk. It was quite a surprise to us all because we had imagined the hot springs to be ‘natural’ but in reality they are man-made bath tubs where people turn on two taps- hot from the thermal spring and cold from the cooled water supply and have a eggy smelling soak in their swimmers. Naturally enough, we bypassed these and went straight up to the canopy walk. This elevated, tree top walk is gorgeous, albeit scary as ... read more
January 12th 2012
We kicked the day off with some serious energy food at the resort’s restaurant. Soffia ate more in this one meal than she had in the entire trip so far. I think that the colder weather and yummy toast helped a lot! We all felt a strange mix of anticipated nervousness and excitement all rolled into one. We walked to the beginning of the Mesilau Trail and met our mountain guide Rony. There was just enough time for some ‘pre-climb’ snaps and then we were off into the unknown! Obviously it was tough at times but in general I found it a nice walk. The last bit up to the rest point was steep and Soffia struggled with the effects of altitude sickness. We all made it to Laban Rata well before sunset though which we ... read more
Malaysia - Kota Kinabalu - Another epic trek with two fellow travellers from……..NORWICH!
Published: December 17th 2011Asia » Malaysia » Sabah » Mount Kinabalu
December 9th 2011
Malaysia – Kota Kinabalu – Another epic trek with two fellow travellers from……..NORWICH! When I stated in my last blog that normal service had resumed that wasn’t quite the case because things went a bit pear shaped after departing from my parents, I originally headed to the East Coast to a city called Kota Bharu because I was hoping to catch a ferry or maybe a flight to Borneo. Well as it turned out Kota Bharu was very un-interesting and the only sensible priced option to get to Borneo was to fly from Kuala Lumpur, bring on another ten hour bus journey back to KL, mistake number one. Mistake number two was trying to stay in budget accommodation whilst in Kota Bharu, after laying on my bed mid-afternoon for about twenty minutes I was covered in ... read more
September 23rd 2011
I had decided to attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Kinabalu (Southeast Asia's highest mountain at 4,095 metres) this time in Sabah seeing that I had given it a miss last year. I went to the Sutera office in Kota Kinabalu and booked a dorm room 2 days later on the mountain for RM522 including 5 meals and the climbing permit. The other costs involved were RM15 for entrance to the park, RM8 for return trip from park headquarters to Timpohon Gate at the start of the trek, and RM38 for the guide (sharing with 3 others). The day before the trek I caught a local minibus (RM20) 2 hours to a guesthouse just 500 metres from the entrance to the park. The place was in a nice position with good views and cost ... read more
June 27th 2011
Catching the minibus to Kinabablu NP was surprisingly easy, i made the bus full so there was no hanging around and we headed straight off to the National Park. Having told the driver where i wanted dropping off i thought it would be simple, but i forgot i'm in Borneo and nothing to do with public transport is ever simple! The driver missed the drop off point for Kinabalu Mountain Lodge and arrived at the park where he thought i would happily walk the 1km back to where he should have dropped me off then the 1km up the drive way to the lodge. He turned around and took me back. Kinabalu Mountain lodge is in a perfect setting, views over the mountains and into the valley below, vegie garden and its much cooler than the ... read more
May 12th 2011
From the depths of the ocean to Borneo's highest peak..... it's been a very busy few days! After 2 days diving and an overnight bus, we arrived at 4am at the park HQ of Mount Kinabalu. We managed to catch a quick nap on the office sofas before trying to organise our paper work, a guide and a way of paying! It was all rather rushed as we only decided the day before (whilst diving at Sipadan) that we wanted to climb the mountain, and a difficult phone conversation with the park headquarters then proceeded! We wanted to climb a couple of days after diving to give ourselves a rest but the only space available was for the next night which meant a long day of travel and then an overnight bus to get there! We ... read more
April 7th 2011
Mount Kinabalu We flew out of Singapore into Kota Kinabula, Sabah in Malaysian Borneo. We transferred into our hotel which was next to yet another shopping mall. The next morning I set off to climb Mout Kinabalu a 4,095m (13,500ft) mountain about a 2hr drive outside of Kota Kinabalu. The day started out on the wet side and I kept raining for the whole day. We started walking from the Timpohon gate at 1,860m with my two Swiss walking companions and our 2 guides. The walk up apart from being wet was out of the way fairly quickly and we settled down in our dorms at about 3pm and as it was chilly we stayed there until we made our summit attempt at 2am the next day. It had stopped raining – hurray!! We set off ... read more
February 20th 2011
Arrived at Mount Kinabalu today. Did two tracks at the bottom of the hill. Thought about Climbing up the mountain next day, 4000meter, but didn´t fit in our timetable. Coming back on my own a day later would be to difficult, to much effort. Therefor the weather isn´t good enough, we had heavy rain again that night and clouds. So, the only thing I would have seen were my toes in 4000meter height. Well, I might come back one day ;-)... read more
