Hello all,
I write from Phang Nga, Thailand. It's been about four days since I've had a fluent English conversation and I'm starting to wish I knew Thai. . . I last left you in Semporna where I was recovering from an ear injury from diving beautiful Sipidan. We headed to Uncle Tans next and took a 3-day, 2-night jungle safari starting with a visit to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. That was pretty cool. We met Andy from Scotland and Maxine from London on the bus there. Andy joined us on the tour, but they were fully booked, so Maxine went off on her own. We saw 5 orangutans (see the pics) and lots of Macaques (monkeys). Then we were whisked off (I use those terms very loosely as we waited several hours for our bus and then our boat) to the jungle camp in the lower Kinabatangan valley. Our "hut" was a very basic sort of six-person lean-to with 3 full-sized beds with mosquito nets. While at the camp we went on 4 boat safaris (1 at night) up and down the river and 2 trekking safaris (1 at night). We saw lots of jungle critters including orangutans, gibbons, proboscis monkeys, macaques, flying foxes, cervid cats, river otters, crocodiles, eagles, owls, egrets, king fishers, frogs, flying lizards, and various insects and spiders, including a largish tarantula.
Next we were off to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah state in Malaysia. Andy, Lauren and I were planning an excursion to Brunei, but we ran into Maxine and she wanted to go to Kinabalu National Park. I couldn't resist the temptation of more hiking so I went with her, while Lauren and Andy split to Brunei. That night I was awoken by some insect biting me at 2A (bed bugs). The biting and scratching continued until I finally went to reception at 5A to see if I could get another room. My options were to either pay (a lot) more for my own room or wake up the people in the dorm room next to ours (where there would likely be more bed bugs), so I decided to crash on the lobby couch. At 7A Lauren and Andy came down and I went up to pack for the park, tired and a little grumpy.
The park boasts the highest mountain in Borneo, Mt. Kinabalu at 4095 meters (13,435 ft). It's a very popular mountain to climb. The hitch is that you are required to have a permit and guide to climb it and most people take two days to do it, stopping over in dorm beds that go for US$100/night (plus the permit, insurance, and guide US$42). A bit out of my budget. We discovered that we could do it one day, but they only issue 4 permits pre day for the one day hike and the next day was fully booked. So we decided to try it anyway . . . and got turned around halfway up (4 km or 2.5 miles). When we got to the bottom we checked availability for the next day and got permission to do the one-day climb (for about US$42). Our guide, Wilfred, met us at 7 the next morning and we were at the trail head shortly before 7:30. By this time we were a little tired from the day before, but determined to make it to the top, so we asked Wilfred how many people make it to the top in one day. He tells us he had 7 groups in Feb. try to climb the summit in one day and 1 group made it! So we had our work cut out for us. Turns out we were pretty motivated and made it to the summit (8.7 km or 5.4 miles) in 6 hours with a one hour break included! We were ecstatic and exhausted. Unfortunately, there was no view because it tends to get rainy and misty in the afternoons (which is why most people do it in two days - reaching the summit at dawn the second day), so we took our pics with the summit sign, had some ginger cookies, and headed back down. The steep and slippery trail took us 5.5 hours to get down, so we completed the roundtrip journey at 7P.
Maxine had a flight to catch the next morning, so after dinner, she hightailed it to Kota Kinabalu while I stayed the night and headed to Poring Hot Springs the next day to soothe my aching muscles. I wouldn't recommend them though. It took me two public buses to get there and a lot of haggling. Then you couldn't actually go in the hot springs. Instead there were outdoor tubs with two taps, one from the hot springs and one with cold water so you could adjust the temp. Each tub took about 2 hours to fill. There were plenty of other things to do there - an orchid garden, a butterfly garden etc., but each garden charged admission ($2-$3 and up). I decided to forgo these activities just on principle. So I walked around a bit, soaked in a tub and spent an hour trying to find a ride back to Kota Kinabalu (KK). I finally finagled my way into a chartered van headed back to Kinabalu National Park where I knew I could catch a bus to KK. When I arrived I was told the last bus had left, but I was pretty sure there'd be more (it was only 4:30P and I'd been told the last one left at 5), so I waited. A few minutes later a van pulled up to ask the local standing next to me if he was going to KK and he said no. I said I was and, assuming he was a bus driver (many drive minibuses or vans), hopped in. I soon discovered that he was not a bus driver and I had inadvertently hitchhiked. But he seemed nice enough and charged the same amount as the bus. In the end he dropped me near the guesthouse I had stored my bags at. I met Lauren there and we found a new guest house (w/no bed bugs, yay!).
I spent the next day and a half recovering from the hike and running errands. Then Lauren and I said goodbye for the last time in SE Asia and I caught a plane to Manila in the Philippines. A German named Felix was staying at our guest house and happened to be on the same plane, so we journeyed together.
Okay, that's enough for now. Philippines to come . . .
Here are the links for the photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2714611&id=8369089&l=4bf2708026 AND http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2714597&id=8369089&l=6303510c21 I hope you are all happy and healthy.
Sierra
