First Time in Asia.. Two Sisters Do It Differently.

“Only seven hundred metres left to the summit!” Pingi, our tour guide exclaimed, with far too much excitement for four-thirty in the morning. The small man, going on at least fifty; with bowed legs and a smile full of pearly white teeth turned around and made sure none of our group of five had disappeared off the mountain’s edge. Pingi grinned at us.
“Small steps, everybody. Small steps”
I glanced up at him with a smile. Ever since we met Pingi two mornings ago, he has pounded the ‘small steps’ advice into our weary, hiked out brains. I paused for a moment to glance around me. We were standing on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo’s eastern state of Sabah at approximately 3,500m above sea level but it was difficult to see what our surroundings looked like because the sun was still settled below the horizon.

“Remind me why we’re doing this again?” I asked my sister Kate behind me jokingly. “So much for Asia being all about relaxing! Why didn’t we go to Phuket?”
The rest of our group laughed, agreeing in unison. The climb to South East Asia’s highest mountain was known for being relatively easy, however my knees begged to differ. We continued on in silence, concentrating on stepping carefully and using the thick, worn out rope to pull ourselves up the rocky surface. The sun started to slowly peek above the horizon and the mountain was becoming clearer to see. The summit just a few hundred metres away and up ahead, people were scrambling over the rocks, eager to witness the unique sunrise.

A rush of adrenaline burst through my body and suddenly my sore legs were forgotten. We pulled ourselves up the final part of the track where we were officially standing on Low’s Peak, weary from the trek but elated to have made it. 4,095m above sea level and feeling like we were on top of the world, Kate and I high-fived and laughed - we’d done it! The fatigue that I had felt before had disappeared and my face was fixed in a state of permanent grinning.

That afternoon, back in our hostel at the base of the mountain, Kate asked me “So, better than Phuket?” I looked at her, let out a little laugh and put my backpack between my legs so I could zip it up – wincing as my tender thighs burned from squeezing my backpack shut.
“Absolutely!” I said breathless from trying to close my bag.

Outside at the minivan, we dropped our bags and I took a final look at Mt Kinabalu, who stood there silently and majestically above the lush, green jungle.
“So much better than Phuket."