Run through the Jungle

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

 

(picking a title for this entry was so hard, so many good jungle themes, Welcome to the Jungle, It's a Jungle out There, In the Jungle the Mighty Jungle, the Jungle Book, and that's not even getting into the Forest stuff etc etc.  I think I showed admirable restraint)

 

I haven't been updating recently because I've been on a somewhat overpriced trek through the Borneo rainforest.  When I signed up for this tour I was in darkest India and that Malaysian Borneo would be similarly hassleish and inaccessable.  That waasn't the case as I was able to watch Monday Night Football (well, Tuesday Morning Football here) shortly after arrival from my waterfront room at the Hyatt.  While this bit of luxury was not unwelcome, I didn't expect the development to go up to the edge and into the rainforest, which it does and is both good and bad.

 

Kinabalu climb

 

The first adventure was a climb of Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia's highest point (as well as the highest in SE Asia though maybe Burma might have one slightly taller, not sure) at around 4200m/14k feet or so. As I said earlier, it's not a huge peak either absolutely or relative to July/August's advenrures out in Ladakh, however it's just high enough to give mild altitude troubles but not high enough to bother acclimitizing to.  Normally on the way up to the mountains on this trip, my journey has started crammed into a rickety jeep or bus traveling up a dirt road screaming around blind curves and prayint that the 18 Tata trucks you just passed by don't have a 19th companion on the other side.  Here however, it was smooth asphalt on an A/C Bas Mini, so that was a sign of things to come.

 

On arrival at the tastefully appointed park HQ, I received my mandatory climibing guide, a toothless Dusung named Justin.  I'm not sure why a climbing guide is mandatory other than as a state sponsored scam; the trail up the mountain is pretty well marked with stairs and railings at lower levels and ropes at the higher spots.  The only reason why you would need a guide would be if you were a complete idiot who totally sucks at climbing mountains, which we have established I am not.  Though to be fair, there were a lot of Australians on the mountain...

 

So accordingly I was a bit disappointed both by how crowded and developed the mountainside was (though I was grateful for the toilet at the last checkpoint before the summit).   To be fair, I should say the Malaysians have done a much better job as far as making it accessible without being too tacky, with the general atmosphere being not dissimilar to a US national or state park.  If this were China, there would be a souvenir stand selling stuffed orangutans every 10 feet and a cable car going up to the Karaoke bar at the summit.  Here the stuffed orangs are confined to the park HQ. 

 

Now at this point you're probably saying: "hold on, jackass, you were just praising the various starbucks of KL last week and now you're going all rousseau noble savage on us, what the f?" Fair point, but when I sign up for a seven day borneo adventure, I want to be hacking through the underbrush with a pith helmet, not slogging past a traffic jam of middle aged Kiwis pretending like they're traversing the South Col.  And the accomodation (shack) I had to sleep in sucked - if I'm going to have my illusions shattered, I'd prefer it to be in opulence considering the Ringits I malayed out for this trip.

 

So I reached the grotesque lodge at 11k feet up after 3 hours instead of the expected 5 by not stopping other than a quick food break, even though I was out of shape and operating on a twisted ankle from too much partying in KL.  I did so in order to punish my mandatory climibing guide for his presence (he was thoroughly unpunished) and to show the slow people how slow they were.  Of course, this just meant more time at the crappy lodge, so nobody wins there.

 

I should say that the mountain and the forest are pretty cool.  Not much fauna, but lots of crazy exotic flora and smooth granite.  THe whole place, from the fantastic gnarled trees growing at impossible angles to the well worn rocks is polished and smooth from eons of tropical rainfall. 

 

On day 2 I got up at the absurdly early hour and was moderately taxed on the way up. Slightly difficult due to slippery wet granite, but moreso due to the traffic jam of aussies & japanese on the way up and down.  Apparently the sunrise over the South China Sea is something, but as it was cloudy I'll never know.  Even the obligatory summit photo was a bit anticlimactic; like anything, if you do it too many times it gets boring.

 

[edit, I meant to continue this with the account of 4 days in sarawak but the internet screwed up on me and I lost a whole bunch of work, so will continue later]