Mount Kinabalu Hike

The whole Mount Kinabalu hiking thing is controlled by the Malaysian government, so basically it’s a monopoly. Two days into my stay in Borneo, Malaysia, I decided that I should try to climb the mountain, despite all my reservations about it. After attempting to hike with Jula and Martin and crossing the jungle on the way back to Salang on the Tioman Island, I felt I may not have what it takes. The physical and mental challenges thus far are much greater than I expected. That said, I was told by numerous people that their moms hiked the mountain, so I figured I should try.

There are all kinds of rules and regulations with the hike. The first thing the government requires is proof of accommodation at Laban Rata, the half way point and the second thing is the hiking permit along with numerous miscellaneous fees that need to be paid. After comparing the prices with the ones of the all-inclusive packages, it made sense to just book through an agency rather than collecting all the documents and reservations myself.

Once I booked my scuba diving trip and had set dates, I was ready to book the hike as well. All of the 5 agencies that I visited told me that booking a day in advance is impossible and that the hotel at Laban Rata is all booked. I figured it was all BS. I returned to my hostel asking Betty, the lady that set me up w/a lucky trip to Sipadan for scuba diving if she could hook me up with the hike as well. She made a few calls and shortly after, I was all set to leave the following morning at 5:30am to Mount Kinabalu.

The following day I met the other 2 people that were doing hike as well. They were a Czech couple, the least friendly people I’ve met yet. Perhaps it was the fact that they didn’t speak English that they seemed unfriendly, but either way, no fun at all. I wanted to hire a porter and our guide, Tumas said that he can carry my 8kg bag for RM9/kg. Totally worth it! Tumas suggested we get hiking sticks and having read the Lonely Planet carefully, I remembered the book saying that the hiking stick is a must. I’ve never hiked with a stick before and this was a wooden staff, but hey, it was only RM3, I could just leave it somewhere if I didn’t like it. When the Czechs saw the wooden stick, they decided it was unnecessary, despite my telling them that my book highly recommended it.

The hike started as a small path in the jungle with a few rocks around. Shortly after, it became rock, the kind that definitely required the use of my ankle brace. I was told that it’s cold during the hike, but the air was fairly warm in the beginning. Usually, I’m tired after climbing 4 flights of stairs, but here, I just kept going slowly and everything was fine. I remembered Jule telling me that the trick about hiking is finding your pace, and I must have found it. Maybe it was the stick, maybe it was my expectations of an impossible hike or maybe the ability of doing the hike was all mental like some locals told me, but I was doing just fine. I was happy that Tumas was carrying my bag and that I had a stick to assist me.
Near km3, the vegetation started to change. The lower branches of trees were covered in thick moss and trees had large roots wrapper around rocks . Concerned that one might be a snake, I insisted on poking the suspicious objects with my stick.



The jungle seemed more moist with a few puddles between the rocks and the soil was starting to get slippery. Before we reached km4, fog rolled in quite suddenly.



The weather change was so sudden that it’s no wonder the local people believe the mountain is mystical. At km4, it started pouring. My raincoat from the 99 cent store worked surprisingly well. By km5, many of the tall trees were replaced and red leaves covered the ground. I saw this peculiar leaf, not sure what to make of it.



After a while, people started catching up us, but they weren’t hikers. The people were carrying gigantic packs on their backs made of wood with straps over the shoulders and across the forehead. They all must have been carrying at least 20 kilograms and were going at a pace double ours. It was amazing. As we later learned, there is no road that goes to Laban Rata Hotel , which runs a restaurant for the guests. This means that all supplies must be carried up the hill by people. No wonder it’s so expensive to stay up there. Many of these porters passed us on the trail, some had packs full of apples and oranges, some had a couple cases of coke attached on top of their packs. These porters were both men and women, crazy!





By km6, the thinning air was definitely evident as we were all gasping for air. Every step and every breath was work and short breaks became an absolute necessity. Finally, by 3pm, we completed the hike at the Laban Rata hotel only minutes before the wall of water came down on the mountain.
After dinner at 5pm, I was lucky to have witnessed an amazing sunset above the cloud line just outside my dorm room.





Due to numerous requests as to how my accommodations look, here's a picture of the dorm room.




The next day, we got up at 1:45am and breakfast was served at 2am. All the Chinese tourists were wearing ski jackets, pants and face masks. It was chilly outside, but I didn’t think it was that cold. I heard that it can get down to 0C and winds can reach 120km/hr, but ski gear seemed like an overkill. I thought that maybe they knew something I didn’t and opted for a RM10 jacket.

The hike began near our cabin and the difficulty level was high. I was sandwiched in line between the Czechs and Chinese, slowly moving up really steep stairs, illuminating the way with a flashlight on my head. The line was moving slowly, but I was glad. The last thing I’d want is to be the turtle up front and a long line of people behind me. After the first kilometer, which was probably the hardest kilometer of my entire life, people were starting to give up. I was shocked that I was passing people. I found my pace yet again and didn’t want to stop for a break because it’d be so difficult to start again. I lost the Czechs, probably because the girl kept having to stop to throw up due to altitude sickness. I just kept moving. I knew that I should stop to have some water though, so I did, which killed my pace. After that, short breaks were frequent, but I’d try to keep them under 30 seconds. Then the stairs ended and the ropes started. The rocks were so steep that it was too dangerous to walk. At first, I liked the ropes. It appeared to be so much easier to use all 4 limbs to get up the mountain, but it wasn’t long before my arms got tired and I used rope as an emergency railing and slowly walked upwards.
The rocks were so steep that turning around seemed terrifying. It would have been really easy to lose balance. At some point, I found a somewhat flat spot to sit down and look back. The moon was illuminating the clouds below and the entire sky lit up with lightning every 15 seconds or so. I could see the trail of lights snaking up the mountain, going kilometers back. Of course, I couldn’t help myself, I set up my tripod.



Another kilometer passed and it was starting to get light. The sun was rising and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful sunrise. The air got cold very quickly in the last kilometer, but my jackets remained tied around my waist because I was just way too overheated from the strenuous climb. Slowly, the stars were replaced by the beams of light peeking through the clouds and the sun was up. I was still about 400 meters from the top, so I quickly found a good place to set up my tripod and snapped a few shots and headed to the top.



After a photography break, I got all my last strength and climbed to Low’s peak. Wow, I couldn’t believe I made it.





More pictures can be seen here: http://public.fotki.com/FierceKitten/travel/2010-atw/mount-kinabalu/