Mood:
a-okI had completely under estimated the prowess of Mount Kinabalu. Having accomplished Mount Everest Base Camp only 10 months ago I had continued my fitness regime and saw myself as someone who is fairly athletic. Never had I expected that I would struggle through the 13 hour return trek and be assaulted with so much pain for days after. It was only on reflection I realised that the total ascend for the climb was approximately 2,229 metres, which is an extraordinary height to conquer in 2 days, especially considering we took around 8 days to ascend 2,700 metres in Nepal.
Nonetheless there was nothing exceptional about my achievement on reaching the summit. Each day approximately 180 people attempt the climb, resulting in an overcrowded summit at sunrise. I do, however note with pride that I had broken the record of Asian trekkers with my tour guide. In his experience, most Asian tourist takes between 20-25 hours return and he was convinced that even if I managed better timing than that I would not have been far off.
Climbing aside, in the few days I spent in Sabah, there were several interesting stories and encounters. I had an animated chat with a taxi driver about Malaysia politics. Apparently the natives of Sabah and Sarawak are not of the Malay racial origin but a mixture of many tribes including Dusun, Bajau and the notorious Murut or Head-hunters clan. Sabah and Sarawak did not ‘join’ Malaysia. The 4 areas (pre-1965) namely Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore together formed ‘Malaysia’. According to the driver, Sabah and Sarawak weren’t particularly excited about being part of the Malaysian federation as they felt that Borneo had many natural resources, yet their leaders were unable to get a grip on their politics in time to be independent. He even went as far as saying that a suggestion was made at some stage to have Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore (three ‘S’s) to form a nation. I wonder how our lives would be if that had been the case.
