Climbing the highest peak in SE Asia

Yes we did it - all 4,200 m of Mt Kinibalu - on a rainy but hot day in Malaysian Borneo. I was with M. who carried our bag (all 10 kg of it) for which I am truly grateful. It allowed me to skip up and down the mountain in the pouring rain, overtaking [mad/unprepared] people in flip-flops who we later saw with twisted ankles, etc looking remarkably tired at the guest house 3/4 of the way up...did they not know of the Timberland store in KL we wondered, did they not want to walk ever again?


And the summit really was worth it! We set off at 3.30am, with our new found Australian room mates and our Guide. Going up was like a pilgrimage as we joined a line of climbers - all you could see were rows of head torches! The top however, was worth it- it was so peaceful, a bit like reaching an end of the earth - all granite where nothing grows..


Our Guide didn't show us anything about the mountain or really guide us in any way. But he was nice and did give me his springy stick to walk down with-which helped!

Stiff for 3 days or so afterwards, but quickly rushed off to the jungle to see orang-utans and, native only to Borneo, proboscis monkeys (perhaps unfairly called Dutch men!)