Blogs from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 39

Clambering down from the rickety base-camp bunk-bed, I turn off the 2am alarm and wonder vaguely what was going through my mind when I packed for this trip. Already shivering in the frigid early morning air, I blearily consider my woefully inadequate clothing options. Let me sum it up for you like this: I'm about to climb to the summit of the highest mountain in South East Asia and I don't even have dry underwear to put on. A t-shirt still wet from yesterday's climb, a pair of light running shoes, a thin jumper, rain-jacket, quick-dry travel trousers, a beanie, gloves & a make-shift scarf (the bandanna I used in India to filter out road-dust) complete my rag-tag ensemble. The up-side is that I don't have to decide what to wear; I just put on every ... read more

We spent the second day at Sipadan snorkelling. It was great, tons of wildlife, the best moments were when I touched a turtle (which means good fortune and long life) and followed a shark for 5 minutes. Sipadan is apparently number two divesite in the world after Galapagos Island. Early next morning we took a bus to Sepilok, famous for it's Orang Utan sanctuary. We got a room 10 minutes walk away from the sanctuary itself. It was a nice place with plenty of animals, turkeys, ducks, water buffalos, sheep, goats, dogs and a deer. We relaxed the rest of the day and decided to go and see the monkeys the next day. At 10 it was feeding time and we shared the place with quite a lot of tourists. I managed to get quite a ... read more

Via AirAsia (Aisa's version of EasyJet), Ally and I flew from Kuta to Kualur Lumpur, which is the capital city in Peninsular Malaysia. We had arrived at the height of the monsoon season, and it was safe to say that most passengers where apprehensive when a violent lightning storm surrounded the plane as we approuched 'KL'. The clouds surrounding the plane where amazing, eg, huge white fluffy clouds reaching up in to the atmosphere, surrounded by dark thunder clouds. It were proper nice, but proper scary too!...Anyway, we landed safely, then made our way into KL city, which conveniently was 70km away! I'm not going to blabber on about KL, as it was a hot, dirty, sweaty dive! We walked to the Petronas Towers - which used to be the tallest towers in the world...but apart ... read more

I somehow came up with the great idea of climbing the highest mountain in south east asia, Mount Kinabalu (4095 m). It says in the lonely planet that it is one of the easiest mountains in the world. They most likely lie, not that I have ever climbed any mountains or ever will try again. First you have to climb up to the "basecamp" at 3300 meters. It was hard, mainly because the air contains less and less oxygen. Each step was hard, my heart beat like a drum (a fast one) and I felt very lightheaded. But we made it, after 5.5 hours (it should take about 4). Well up there we we're totally exhausted and fell asleep. We got a room with 2 aussies. They got the top bunkbeds. This was a room with ... read more

My last morning in Borneo, and I have spent most of it in the Doctors office. Yes, my worst fear came true. I had to see a doctor in a third world country. My left ear has been leaking clear fluids since my diving trip. At first I thought it was just excess salt water. Day two, I was just trying to convince myself it was. Day three and I woke up with a wet pillow case and mats in my hair from the ear junk. I couldn't continue telling myself it was just excess water. An ear canal just isn't that big. Something was wrong. So it's off to the doctors office or 'klinik' with images of 'piles, lumps, and accupunture' going through my head. It too ke a while to find a klinik that ... read more