We jetted into kl with the ever reliable airasia (like easyjet but more reliable, cleaner and not run by a greek) and immediately bounced over to kota kinabalu. We had a mountain to climb.
Mount Kinabalu stands 4095m tall in the middle of Kinabalu National Park. As you arrive the top is ominously shrouded in cloud and it looks like an awfully long way up without going all that far on the horizontal. Our briefing kindly informed us that the slopes ranged between 15% and 30% gradients.
We set out in some mildly inclement weather that unfortunately was only going to get worse. The slopes are brutal from the start with steps measuring 2 foot in height kindly put in for your convenience. It was a 4 hour trek through some fantastic rainforest to the resthouse at 3200m where we were to spend the night. We arrived in relatively dry conditions but the poor bastards who trudged in after dark soaked to the skin must have wished they'd hauled their asses out of bed a little earlier.
The final trek to the top was only an extra 2.7km but the sheer granite slopes past the "edge of vegetation" and arctic conditions mean its a slow and steady 2 hour climb. The torrential rain that kindly came in overnight didn't help and we were feeling less than enthusiastic at 3am as we set off.
The painfully early start is designed to get you there for the spectacular sunrise. As we arrived triumphantly at the top we were unfortunately only greeted by cloud. We hung around briefly for a souvenier picture of the low's peak sign before heading back down. Luckily the cloud lifted a few 100m down and the view all the way to the South China Sea was spectacular enough to soothe our frozen and aching bodies.
Mountain conquered, we headed east to Sepilok to see some apes. Orangutans to be precise. The Malaysian government sees a lot of money in oil palm plantations (roughly 60% of malaysia's land mass is covered with the things) but to make way the rainforest is a big casualty. The orangutans orphaned and made homeless by this land clearing are taking in by Sepilok for rehabilitation.
As a visitor you're entitled to see them at feeding station A. Baby orangutans doing cartwheels through the trees and a short tailed macaque monkey picking a fight with a fully grown male orangutan over a banana provided some cracking entertainment for the day. That said, it does feel a little like a case of who's watching who.
Next stop was semporna, the mainland base for diving trips to pilau sipidan. This ranks amongst the top ten dive sites in the world and it's soon obvious why. Sipidan is a picture post card tropical island in the middle of the south china sea. No one can stay on the island as they've had a couple of minor problems with some pesky pirates trying to kidnap people.
This has helped to preserve the island though, and the gently sloping coral that fans out in all directions is like the biggest aquarium in the world. This is nothing however compared to the "drop off" on all sides of the reef. One side plummets to 600m whilst the other falls away to a staggering 2km trench. As you swim along the wall the ocean drops away to nothingness beneath you, whilst turtles, sharks, more turtles and more sharks, casually drift around you.
Probably the best place we've been so far and highly recommended for anyone in this part of the world. 10 days of adventure out of the way, we headed over to Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia to see what they had in store for us over there.
