Mt. Kinabalu: The Hardest Day of My Life

Morning view of Mt. Kinabalu
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Excited to leave the city and shopping in Singapore, we arrived at the little airport in Kota Kinabalu late on January 30.  The next morning we hopped on a 3-hour chartered mini-bus to Kinabalu National Park, home to Mt. Kinabalu (14,000 ft), and a massive rainforest.  At about half the height of Mt. Everest, Mt. Kinabalu is the main feature of the park and attracts tons of climbers every year.  The climb is usually done in 2 days, with climbers staying overnight on the way up in a guesthouse at (11,000 ft).  The climb is fairly safe and doesn't require special equipment, but nonetheless is quite difficult.  Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) for us there were no rooms available in the guesthouse for the day of our climb and we decided to attempt the climb in a single day.  Starting at 8am we climbed, up through the rainforest where a times, all I could hear was the sound of my heart beating and the symphony of rainforest birds and bugs.  When we reached the granite summit around 2pm the view was incredible!!!  It was by FAR the most exhausting thing I've ever done.  Literally one-step, one-breath up near the summit and breaks after every 15 steps.  For the next 4 hours we 'ran' with jello legs all the way down to the base arriving around 6pm.  Now completely EXHAUSTED.  All in all, this was one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever done and both Jon and I are very glad we did it.  Hope you enjoy the pictures!

10 hours of this.
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Next stop, off to relax in Brunei.

one-step, one-breath

Kota Kinabalu Food & Drink Highlights

• Best food:  Prawns and spicy Indian curries
• Best beer:  Tsingtao - Great Chinese beer.  Can't wait 'til China!
• Weirdest food:  Roasted pigeon brain (small - like mashed potatoes, kind of nasty actually)