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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 single thing I have with me. As I pull them on, wincing as the damp t-shirt clings to my skin, I wonder just how cold it will be up there. I've been told it often dips below freezing. Should I be worried about the fact that I don't have any boxers to wear, and only very thin trousers? Is frostbite a possibility?! In my sleep-befuddled state, I actually start to genuinely worry about this.

Climbing Kinabalu

Michael Meadows
2007-01-23 12:14:54

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my blogs. (Since the trip to climb Kinabalu, I also spent twelve amazing days wandering around Burma/Myanmar with a good mate. I hope I'll have time to write that trip up too before I leave Thailand.) Anyway, I'll say no more about all of that: back to the mountain...

Taking advantage of a week off school - a 'genuine', university-sanctioned holiday! - and a special on selected AirAsia flights, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to fly to Kota Kinabalu, (in the Malaysian part of Borneo), and climb Mount Kinabalu. This mountain has the distinction of being South East Asia's highest, (4100m), as well as earning Malaysia's first World Heritage listing. I didn't know too much about it, but one of the other exchange students here - Daeng - had been planning to climb it for a long time and decided to join me. Daeng's a fun girl, with a "crazy/weird" (Edwards 2006) sense of humour - it was good times travelling with you Daeng!

Emerging from the mid-renovation shambles of KK's airport, we were literally pounced upon by Vincent, a drug-crazed guest-house owner waiting around for scruffy-looking backpacker types just like ourselves. Since we hadn't made any plans for accommodation, we decided to join the other travellers in Vincent's rusty old van, (once Vincent had finally managed to wrench the battered doors open), and check out Tropicana Lodge. It ended up being a brilliant decision. Tropicana was one of the cosiest guesthouses/hostels I've ever stayed in - a real 'home away from home'. And we ended up climbing the mountain with two of the people who caught the Tropicana van with us. Gareth's an Australian engineer, currently working contract jobs in London and travelling all over the world, (his story about a crazy trip to Kabul kept us all entertained at dinner that night). Vananh's an American, although her family's originally from Vietnam. Like Gareth, she works ...