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September 2002

Kota Kinabalu, Mt. Kinabalu, Kuching, Georgetown

Brett Voegele
2005-11-16 18:58:27

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Once at Nunaken, a city on the Indonesian coast of the island of Borneo (the Indonesian part is known as Kalimantan), I bought an immediate ticket for Tawau, Malaysia. That ferry took 1 hour, dumping me in the state of Sabah, which, along with Sarawak makes up Malaysian Borneo. From there I simply killed 4 1/2 hours while awaiting the departure of the overnight bus to Kota Kinabalu - KK. My first impressions of Malaysia were the obvious wealth as compared to Indonesia. Cell phones were abundant, as were nicer cars and clothes. People were extremely helpful and friendly, and in general were not out to cheat a person - if you were quoted a price in Malaysia, it was generally pretty accurate. The bus was modern, air-conditioned, clean, there was free water, an onboard toilet, and the driver would turn on lights if somebody got up to move around. Welcome to the more affluent and progressive parts of SE Asia....quite a change!

Kota Kinabalu

Trip to KK took about 8 1/2 hours on good roads. I enjoyed wandering around the clean city for a few days - checking out the markets, and arranging for my trudge up Mt. Kinabalu, which was the real reason for being in the area.

Climb of Mt. Kinabalu

I ended up hooking up with 3 others for the trip, as it was cheaper. Climb really wasn't my style, as it was expensive (probably about $60 all-inclusive for the 2 days); a guide was mandatory; there were a lot of people (reportedly 232 at the huts the first night); and, at 4095 m/13436', it's lower than 60+ peaks here in Colorado that I can climb for free. Then why? Because it's there......and so was I. The first day we climbed 3 1/2 hours from about 1866 m/6123' up to the huts at 3324 m/10904'. The following morning we awoke at 2 AM, and were finally climbing around 3. It was slow going, as there were many bottlenecks - particularly ...