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Published: April 12th 2008
We must immediately apologize for the blog title.
After our quick jaunt through Indonesia to check a few destinations (never enough!) off of our list, we're back north of the equator in Malaysian Borneo. John, our good friend from home, is still travelling with us.
Malaysian Borneo
We flew from Jakarta to
Kota Kinabalu (also called KK) on
Malaysia's side of the island of Borneo. While waiting at the airport in Jakarta we were recruited by a man offering cheap accomodations and free pickup from the airport, who also happened to be flying with us. We decided to go with him and it worked out well as we got a private dorm room for the three of us. It was late so we walked into the downtown core and had some dinner before going to bed.
The next day was filled with annoying administration. We wanted to climb Mt. Kinabalu, do several things on the east coast of the island, and check out the country Brunei for a day or two, and we only had about 7 or 8 days to fit it all in. The problem was all of the Mt. Kinabalu full packages we were offered from KK were very expensive. After
Malaysian Borneo - Mt. Kinabalu
Low's peak is beautiful and is also featured on the Malaysian one ringit billtalking to about five seperate tour companies all offering the climb for different prices, someone nicely told us that all tour companies book through one company, so if we booked through them it would be about half of the price. It took us most of the day, but we were finally able to arrange a room for the three of us at about half the price. The rest of the day we spent exploring KK and taking in a great sunset.
At the sunset viewpoint a man introduced himself to the three of us and followed us as we wandered around looking for the best place to take a picture. As the sun set we began to make our way down the hill and oop - there he was again, asking us questions about our travels. In preparation for our mountain climb the next day we wanted to stock up on water and trail mix so we went to the supermarket and oop - there he was again! The three of us spent about 30 minutes buying groceries (and Travis bought a headband style flashlight) and were about to leave for some dinner when oop - he popped out
from behind a display and said "mind if I join you for dinner?"!?! We were all a little stunned that he was still around but said sure and the four of us went across the street for some pizza! He was a nice enough man. After dinner we parted ways finally. The funny part was the next morning we had to be up at 5:30am to catch the bus to the mountain and in the taxi to the bustop we pulled over and there he was again?! We think this last encounter was a coincidence but what the heck? Let's get out of here!
Mt. Kinabalu
We drove from sea level to the base of
Mt. Kinabalu (the base is 1,563 M elevation) where we arranged climbing permits, a guide, meal vouchers, and insurance. Guides are mandatory for the climb. Two other climbers wanted to join our group to lower the cost of the guide so we accepted. There names were Johan (Sweden), and Gabriel (Hungary). Our guide's name was Marcellus and he was incredible. He never tired and he always stayed with us, often helping Michelle keep up with the longer legged guys (she has to take 1.5
steps for every one of the guys!).
We were driven from the base to Timpohon Gate (1800 M) where the climb begins. We started climbing at 10 am. The first day was a 6 KM hike from the Gate to the accomodations at Laban Rata (3300 M). Since the elevation increases by about 1.5 KM I'm sure you can imagine that the entire 6 KM is uphill. At about the 2 KM mark we noticed a group descending with someone on a stretcher. An altitude sickness sufferer, and a reminder to make our ascent slow and steady. Typically a group reaches Laban Rata in less than six hours and we reached it in four and a half. Much to our dismay, about the last half of our ascent was marked by heavy rain. We were so wet that we might as well have just jumped in a lake and continued climbing the mountain! The temperature was dropping as we ascended too, and we arrived shivering to the huts of Laban Rata at 2:30 pm in about 10 degrees celsius heat.
The three of us still had to climb another 200 M to our unheated accomodations, which really doesn't
Malaysian Borneo - Mt. Kinabalu
Tired Nurm takes a nap after the first 6 Km seem like a long way, but took us awhile nonetheless. We found our room and had hot showers and a nap before returning to the main hut for dinner. We all had minor headaches from the high altitude/lack of oxygen. We also couldn't stop laughing at each other. Not sure if that was from exhaustion or altitude acclimitization but we were all laughing at unfunny stuff which made us laugh even harder! Strange!
After dinner we returned to our hut and slept. We woke up at 2:30 am to begin our summit. It was 4 degrees Celsius and we had to dorn our wet shoes, socks etc. from the night before. The remaining 2.7 KM hike was to be done in the dark and under 3 hours from an altitude of 3,300 metres to the peak at 4,095. It was immediately clear how thin the air was as simply walking up a flight of stairs could leave you winded and requiring a short rest. Michelle's flashlight ran out of batteries early on, so Travis ended up walking close behind her to light both of their ways, and Marcellus took her hand to help her avoid falling down any crevasses
(not very many, but still better safe than sorry!). As we approached the summit we found we needed to take a rest after every few metres. In some places the only way to continue was to haul yourself up using ropes. Slow going, light headed, out of breath, headaches, but totally worth it when we summitted.
We summitted at 5:30 am just in time for the start of the sunrise, and were very lucky to have a clear one. John, Michelle, and Travis all high fived and had a group hug. According to our guide the last week had been cloudy every morning. It was truly awesome seeing the sun show you what you had just climbed. In the dark and when you can only see a few metres in front of you it's tough to get the big picture. It was spectacular terrain and we found it hard to stop taking pictures! Hours after the sunrise people were still trickling up to the summit. The altitude affects us all a little differently and some people found they had to take longer and longer breaks as they approached the summit. One man was a mere 5 metres from the
Malaysian Borneo - Mt. Kinabalu
"I can see for miles" by The Who was going through my head at this point of the descent summit and couldn't take one step further! We tried to encourage him but he said he had fainted on the way up and had a splitting headache and felt nauseous, so he couldn't make another step. Poor guy. Luckily we all felt pretty good, except for a bit of a headache.
By this time it was about 6:15am, so we had climbed 8.7 KM and ascended from 1,800 metres to 4,095 (2.295 KM) in a little over 20 hours. Now it was time to do it in reverse!
It was immediately clear that descending would be harder than ascending. Ascending is a cardio workout and descending is brutal for the leg muscles! After descending the 2.7 KM to Laban Rata the three of us had "jello legs" and increasingly noticed that our legs were not obeying orders! The thousands of steps down became tougher and tougher, and John and Travis noticed that running down some sets of stairs actually felt better on the leg muscles, than trying to walk them slowly and fighting gravity. After we finally descended it was about 1 pm. We grabbed some lunch and could hardly walk after sitting for 45 minutes! The next
Malaysian Borneo - Kinabatangan River
This black moth was about the size of a dinner plate three days all 3 of us were hobbling around with sore legs, which was hilarious in itself, but extra funny for the locals who would yell out "Oh! You climb Kinabalu hey?! Very difficult! Ha Ha! Now you walk like penguin!".
Kinabatangan River
The next day we took a bus to the east coast of the island for the tour of the
Kinabatangan river which was great. We took a 2 hour boat tour, followed by a night safari, then slept in cabins. The whole experience felt like a summer camp, with exotic wildlife! On the boat tour we saw 3 Orangutans, dozens of Long-Tailed Macacques, dozens of Proboscis Monkeys, 2 Crocodiles, 2 Monitor Lizards, and several birds:
Oriental Pied Hornbill,
Black Capped Kingfisher,
Stockbill Kingfisher,
Crested Serpent Eagle,
White Bellied Sea Eagle,
Purple Heron, and
Egret.
The
Proboscis Monkeys are so weird! Only found on Borneo and they have beer-guts! Really it's two stomachs to digest the toxic mangrove leaves, but strange looking monkeys! They also have huge noses, the bigger the nose the more likely to find a mate. They sit like humans! Weirdies! Our pics didn't really turn out for these guys but we suggest you click the link to see a pic of one of these
freaks of nature!
Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilition Centre
The next day we headed to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Sanctuary to get a closer look at these amazing primates.
Orangutans are 97%!g(MISSING)enetically identical to humans, and by our estimates 99%!g(MISSING)enetically identical to our friend Adam. They are fascinating animals and it was immediately clear how much more intelligent these apes were than the hundreds of monkeys we've seen over the past few months. The taxonomical grouping of
Apes includes Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Orangutans, Gibbons, and Humans.
The park takes in orphaned or domesticated Orangutans and slowly reintegrates them into their natural habitat. The Orangutans live in an exclusive jungle area and are slowly encouraged to eat at feeding platforms further and further from the rehab centre, with the hopes that eventually they won't return to the centre at all. Visitors can attend feeding times at the platform closest to the centre. Visitors watch the Orangutans swing their way to the feeding platform. There are also a lot of Pig-Tailed Macaques around, trying to steal the food left for the Orangutans. At one point the dominant male Orangutan swatted the thieving Macaque off of the platform and the visitors cheered
Malaysian Borneo - Mamutik Island
One of the islands just off shore from Kota Kinabalu. The "Survivor: Borneo" island is very close to this island! - it's clear that everyone likes the Orangutans better!
We took a wacky night bus back to Kota Kinabalu. Being blasted awake at 11 pm by Malaysian power metal to eat a greasy truck stop diner buffet was not the greatest experience we've ever had, but we arrived at the hostel at about 3 am and got some sleep.
Mamutik Island
After so much travel we needed a day of rest and relaxation so the three of us booked a day trip to one of KK's beautiful nearby islands - Mamutik Island. We snorkelled, napped and suntanned the day away! It was great!
Brunei
Also on the island of Borneo is the small country of
Brunei. The total area of the country is 5765 KM/squared and the population is just under 400,000 people. The sultan of Brunei is one of the richest men in the world, and therefore it is a very rich country. We could definitley tell this country wasn't in the same league as most of the other SE Asian countries we've visited. The houses and infrastructure looked the same as Canada and we didn't see any signs of poverty while we were
there.
Brunei is so small you only need a day or two to explore it! It ended up taking us much longer than expected to travel there, which unfortunately left us with less time to explore. We departed KK around 8am and took a ferry to the island of Labuan. Labuan doesn't have much going for it except it is a tax-free island so everyone comes here to buy duty free items! We had lunch on the island before getting on another ferry to Brunei. Once we arrived there we had to take a bus to the city and then walk to the hostel - we finally arrived at about 4pm...we weren't too happy about that since we had to leave at 8am again the next morning! We met two other travellers from Ireland on the boat - Norma and Pat. The five of us toured around the city together, first taking a river taxi to see the palace and stilted-houses of the river village. We had an excellent taxi driver who took us through the village where he lives. He pointed out all the schools, fire departments, police (all built on stilts in the river).
Since Brunei
Brunei - Bandar Seri Begawan
Unfortunately the mosque was being renovated, but it was very beautiful anyway! is such a wealthy country (due to crude oil production) they have free school (including university), free healthcare and tax-free wages. They also receive a monthly bonus for each child they have. We think this is why the average amount of kids/family is about 6, however, the last generation it was about 10-12 kids/family. Our taxi driver had 12 kids - 11 boys and 1 girl!!! He said it was great! We're just not sure if his wife would say the same thing as she is the one home with them all day. They range in age from 2 weeks to 13 years old so she's bascially been pregnant for 12 years straight!
Back on land, we went to see the very beautiful Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque and then grabbed some dinner. There isn't that much to do in Brunei at night as alcohol is prohibited in Brunei! So, restaurants shut down fairly early and there is nowhere else to go. Pat made the joke "So, do you guys feel like going for a beer?" which is funny as it dons on you that there is no option to do so! We went back to the hostel and
Brunei - Bandar Seri Begawan
A nice sunset and rainbow over the stilted water houses. chatted for a bit before we hit our seperate quarters - girls and boys had to sleep separately. This is due to the strict Islamic culture in Brunei. The male quarters were much nicer than the female ones, "due to a male dominated society" according to the owner of our hostel.
The next day we had to travel back to KK the same way we came. We could've spent another day exploring but it was nice to at least get a taste of this laid-back country. We went back to our hostel and got organized to leave for our next country - Singapore.
Next up, Singapore and Malaysia (peninsular)...
Love Michelle & Travis (and John says Hello)
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