Blogs from Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 5

Introduction Le parc national Kinabalu s'étend sur 754 km2 dans les collines du nord du Sabah. Il s'agit de la destination touristique la plus visitée de l'État. Deux raisons à cela : premièrement, la diversité exceptionnelle de la faune et, surtout, de la flore dans cette région a conduit le parc a être classé au patrimoine mondial par l'UNESCO – et oui, désolé, ça doit grincer des dents sur les hauts de Bienne – et, deuxièmement, le Mt Kinabalu, au coeur du domaine, offre un splendide trek jusqu'à son sommet pour qui dispose d'une condition physique correcte ou d'une bonne dose de volonté. Voilà qui tombe bien, j'avais justement envie de mesurer l'un et l'autre. L'année dernière, je m'étais arrêté à Laban Rata, la station intermédiaire, où l'on peut dormir en cabane à près de 3'200 ... read more

On the way back between Poring and Kota Kinabalu, I stopped off for a few more days at the Mt. Kinabalu National Park. Its good there because there are no leeches or mosquitoes. The only thing that’s of the bitey persuasion are these big horsefly type jobs with a really painful stab. It’s a fly of such a size that you can actually see it preparing its proboscis as it readies itself to jab you. They usually come in ones or twos so technically shouldn’t be as much of a problem as mosquitoes but I found them much worse because of their tenacity. Once they have you in their sights then there’s no escape. I became quite proficient at snatching them out of the air on their approach and crunching the life out of them. In ... read more

Because Borneo is so full of tourists it seemed best to do the thing that I don’t like doing, and arrange all my accommodations in Sabah in advance. So I booked myself stupid to make sure of getting to the places I wanted to get to, and got four nights at Mt. Kinabalu National Park, then five nights at the Danum Valley Field Centre, followed by two nights at the Kinabatangan River, two nights at Sepilok and two nights at Poring Hot Springs. There really are a lot of tourists on this island, and all the tourists themselves seem surprised at this. Think “Borneo” and you think untrammelled rainforest, not tourist crowds, but its just one big intermeshed web of tourist routes. The two Dutch lingerie models that were in my dorm at Kubah National Park ... read more

Sunday, May 24th We shared a nice big breakfast with our Dutch friends then went to meet our guide Nordin. At 8:30 we set of by bus (it cost extra of course) for the 4.2km to Timpohon Gate, the start of the route. Our climb started at 8:50. We only had to hike 6km today. The first 200m is downhill to Carson waterfall (small) but after that it's uphill all the way. After all the rain last night we expected a muddy mess but the trail was mostly steps that drained the water well. We made good progress and it wasn't too hot. At our first rest spot we spotted a small, jumpy squirrel. Soon there was a whole troop of them running, jumping and climbing trees. They were so cute and came right up to ... read more

Day 283: Wednesday 8th April - The first of many steps up Mount Kinabalu When you’re climbing a mountain tomorrow, a fairly substantial one at that, one recommendation would be to get an early night. I was about to follow my own advice when I ended up talking to a South African, Steve until the early hours in my hostel last night. Sometimes it pays to not take the sensible option. Although I only talked to Steve for a matter of a couple of hours, I felt so comfortable in his company that I told him about my incident in Kuala Lumpur. It’s a story alright, but until now I have shared it with just a few select people, all friends or family, no strangers. But, do you know what, it felt good getting it off ... read more