Round the World 2008

We spent our final day in Borneo at Manukan, a beach island off the coast of Kota Kinabalu. We snorkeled, sunbathed and had a nice lunch on the water…good relaxation after all the adventure in Borneo.  We had a final night’s dinner and celebrated our tour leader Wasa’s birthday on Monday night and I parted with the group on Tuesday flying back to Kuala Lumpur where I’ve spent the last few days sightseeing in the city.

K.L. is a large modern city and I am staying at a hotel off the Central Market in Chinatown where there are vendors selling food and all kinds of goods from morning to late at night. The line for the Petronas Towers skybridge was just way too long so I photographed the Towers from the the city’s Skytower instead.  The Petronas Towers held the title of the tallest buildings in the world until they were surpassed by Taipei 101 in 2003.

Today I spent the day at K.L.’s city parks which include the Butterfly Park, the Bird Park, the Orchid Park and the Museum of Islamic Arts.  Tomorrow I will fly to Bangkok for a long weekend before going to Delhi/Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

24 hours after reaching the summit of Mt. Kinabalu we were in boats headed to our jungle camp on the Kanabatangan River. Seemed like a world away but was just a 2 and a half hour bus ride across the state of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo. There was a great open deck at the camp where we had our meals and were surrounded by the jungle. We went out three times on the river to view wildlife, twice during the day and once at night.

On our first river expedition our guide led us off the boat up the muddy slopes of the river to see some wild elephants. They were way too close and started to approach us making loud elephant sounds. Our guide told us to run back to the boat but there were so many of us and it was hard to get past the muddy area. When we sensed the urgency in his voice screaming for us to get back on the boat everybody started to slip, slide and fall in the mud. We managed to get back in the boat before the elephants got there but it was pretty scary. Afterwards we were able to take photos of the elephants safely from the boat when they arrived to the area where we we had just been standing.

Then we saw some macaque and proboscis monkeys, with the boat going right under the trees where the monkeys were eating and climbing. I got some good use of my telephoto lens. On our night cruise our guide reached out and grabbed a baby crocodile and brought it into the boat. Some people held it but I totally wasn’t interested. We also saw some huge snakes and some beautiful strange birds.

We also took a jungle hike which where we saw all kinds of creepy insects and creatures. I ended up with a leech sucking blood out of my foot right through my sock. It was kind of gross and bled for a long time but I survived.

The week here in Borneo has been incredibly exciting and amazing. I really had no expectations because I was supposed to be in Tibet right now and only came here since the Tibet tours were all cancelled. We have a few more days in Kota Kinabalu, the largest city in Malaysian Borneo and then I’ll head back to peninsular Malaysia where I’ll spend 3 nights in Kuala Lumpur.

July 10, 2008

Climbing Mt. Kinabalu (4,095 meters) was one of the most challenging things I’ve done. On Day 1 we hiked uphill for 7 hours through the jungle and then above the treeline. We camped at the park facilities and woke up at 2AM the next morning for the ascent to the summit. The goal was to arrive by sunrise, so we started uphill in the dark and made our way with headlamps. Climbing this mountain was more than just hiking to the top. There were walls of rock, ropes to climb and no harnesses. All this as we approached the 4000 meters mark and were feeling the effects of high altitude. It began to rain heavily as we headed out and then suddenly it cleared and we could see a sky full of stars. After the most vertical climbs I just started to walk uphill, stop to breath and then continued walking. I could see shooting stars in the sky and it was sheer will power that brought me to the base of the final push to the summit which involved climbing large boulders. Even though we were close to the equator, it was freezing at the top and I couldn’t stay up there very long. After we returned to the camp for breakfast we spent 3 hours walking downhill with sore legs to where we got the bus to our hotel for the night.

Next: Two days at a jungle camp

I just got to Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo in Malaysia after a day and a half of travel via Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. I got into Kuala Lumpur late, stayed in an airport hotel and left early this morning, but I’ll have more time to spend in the city after the next tour. We leave tomorrow for Mt. Kinabalu which we’ll attempt to climb in two days, camping over for one night on the mountain.

The last days in Japan just flew by. One day we went to Miyajima an island close by to Hiroshima where we climbed the twin peaks in the center of the island. The views were amazing.

Tokyo was like a blur. We saw as much as we could in the little time we were there and again I found myself saying goodbye to another group. I spent two and a half weeks traveling with Mill, Ken and Natalia who I also traveled with in China and I will miss them very much. China and Japan were both very different and it would be hard to say which I enjoyed more…but I know that I’d like to return and spend more time exploring both countries.