Trip - Sabah Mountain Kinabalu

Hi Blog,

I just went for a trip to mount Kinabalu where is a mountain on the island of Borneo in southeast Asia, located in the east side of malaysia state of Sabah. it is protected as Kinabalu national park, a world heritage site. Wow! And it is measured 4095 m above sea level, surrounded with the most important biological sites in the world, with over 4500 species of plant, 326 species of birds, 100 mammalian species identified. My aim is to try to climb this legendary mountain and find some pitcher plants.

I always remembered my first day when we reached Sabah airport, Juraibi was the first guy who greeted us with a nicely decorated with "Pauline Li" (who helped us to plan these trip) printed on A4 size cardboard. Tanned and polite looking, Juraibi was our driver for the whole trip. In spite of his difficulty of communicating with English, he still tried his best to speak up with whatever English words he knows. Due to our flight was delay for one hour plus, our dinner (vegetarian) had to settle at a famous well known seafood stalls in Sabah, Evening Food Stall. Thanks God that the seafood restaurant doesn't mind to cook specially for us.

Mountain ground Squirrel 

Next our tour agent, Alan who is the boss of Skyland, pop by in the seafood restaurant. After introduction of himself and insurance that we have no problem complete the mountain climbing, he listed down a few things that we should take note.

1) Never underestimate the mountain
2) Be aware of mountain sickness
3) Take every single step slowly, don't rush our way up
4) Respect the nature
5) don't bath when you reach Laban Rata rest house. The temperature is around 9 degree or below, the water will be freezing. No heater!
6) don't force yourself
7) be mindful that high price will be charged if you need a helicopter to fetch you down (250,000 RM) or carry you down (500 RM per kilometer)

Actually I tried to flood myself with positive thoughts, yes! I can do it! Beside I always wanted to see Pitcher Plants which he replied that I should be able to see small tiny pitcher plant, which was not what I hope for. I want to see Nep Lowii which seems impossible. Oh well, just forget about pitcher plants then, just focus on the climbing. So we were arranged to stay overnight at a rest house near the mountain Kinabalu.

Cold floor.... Freezing...

Cold weather welcomed us when we reached the rest house. In spite I had many experiences of bathing with cold water, but I never like it at all! I was like a cat jumped out immediately from a pool of water. Even though they have warm heater above the shower, but I told myself that I shouldn't use it at all. Can you imagine that if you do, what will happen to you when you step out from the toilet?

That is the MOUNTAIN!!!

Look at it!

Look at the summit

Kind of dangerous

Next morning, we geared up ourselves and ready to climb mountain Kinabalu. The moment when we stepped in the entrance gate, I saw a trail of stairs where was built by those park rangers for easy access to the summit. With my heavy bag and positive thoughts, 4095m of Mount Kinabalu was just a normal mountain hence I am used to walk quite a direction and shopping for hours in local. Beside we won't be completed the whole course at one shot, we divided our summit into two parts. The first one will be 3270m where we will camp ourselves at Laban Rata rest house. Second is we have to wake up 2am in the morning to complete the remaining distance to the pit and then descending back to civilization.

Based on my research, There will be seven shelters (pondok), each shelter have toilets and untreated mountain water source.

1) Pondok kandis (1981m - 30 mins)
2) pondok ubah (2095m - 20 mins)
3) pondok lowii (2286m - 30 mins)
4) pondok mempening (2518m - 40mins)
5) layang layang hut (2702m - 30mins) lunching
6) pondok villosa (2690m - 45mins)
7) pondok paka (3080m - 45mins)

Seem easy, isn't it? No! I was wrong! They only showed the height of the mountain, not the distance! Another word, based on the map, the distance of the first shelter and fifth to sixth shelter are 1000m, and the distance covered from shelter to shelter is around 500m, so we have to cover around 6500m to reach the rest house. Fainted! It took us nearly one hour in average to complete a 500m distance hence in this 500m are stairs! It is different from normal stair, mount Kinabalu stairs are measured average of 30cm in height; double the effort which we used in local excluding the weight which we carried.

Beginning of the path

In spite of the challenges, we were accompanied by many tourists and locals. Some climb the mountain daily and some are newbies like me. The ages of the visitors varied from 9 to 75++ I remembered a local climber carried three times the size of my bag, shared with us that he has been climbing mountain nearly 30years! Compare to me, when I reached around the fifth shelter, My heart pumped fast and hardly cannot breathe in properly. And in addition, it was cold (15 degree) while I was climbing up, the cold air got into my body gave me a serious headache and dizzy. Eventually I took a long time to push myself to complete the first course, but I was told not to join the second part of the course as it was too dangerous for me. So I rest at Laban Rata rest house and skipped the view of sun rise at mount Kinabalu. Still God I didn't carry on with my ego.

Nepenthes Tentaculata

Check out its peristome

Along the way, there were something interesting, which was why I went for the trip. Pitcher Plant! The first one I saw is Nepenthes Tentaculata, it is cousin of nepenthes Hamata. Look at its V-shaped peristome. Interesting appearance among Nepenthes. Based on its growing condition, cool (20 degree below) and highly humidity are the key factor to grow Nepenthes Tentaculata successfully. Very excited!

Nepenthes Villosa!!!

Look at how Reddish it is!

Dont forget about their rigged peristome

My dream to hold it in my hand!!

The second one was the one which excited me the most. Nepenthes Villosa!!! Look at the rigged peristome! It is one of the dream pitcher plant to have among Nepenthes lovers. Unique and fierce looking pitcher, it is one of the most challenging plant to grow, it can only grow well at 15 degree or lower, and constantly high in humidity (must mist its leave at all times)

Beautiful Scenary

Overall view of Mount Kinabalu

But in this trip I learned one thing, while I was resting in the rest house, I was battling myself (conscious side) with my own desire. My desire to bring back a pitcher plant. Look! I know it is illegal and that was the one which was holding back my action. Especially when I think of nepenthes villosa, omg! I can't take it anymore! I know big pitcher plant is a bit too mainstream, maybe I should try a smaller one. While ascending I see no smaller villosa, so in some sense, It restricted me from taking But my descending, there were time when I was left alone because my leg hurt, I will look around for villosa and I spotted many many villosa plantlets! They are growing in front of me, my desire hit me so hard that my fingers already surrounded the plant root.... But I resisted... I just simply closed my eyes and moved away. Even though I didn't steal that plant but deep inside my heart I know I had lost myself to devil in me. I have to repent for my action, but this proved one thing.

"whatever desires or thoughts we seeded, it will be given a chance to be fruited."

Even though I didn't steal the fruit, but the 'whole plant' is still there for me to pluck its fruit. I have to be mindful over this 'plant' I grow.

Phew! After sharing about pitcher plants, my nightmares was not over. I have to descent from the mountain. Many have said, "上山容易下山难。＂Can you imagine that the average height of a stair is about 30cm tall, and you have to step down from the top of the mountain to the base for five hours straight? All the weight of my fat body and bag stressed onto one foot. At the beginning still okay but as I continued down, I realized that I hurt my feet badly. I walked like an old man while walking down the stairs after I came back from the trip. My shoes worn off too.

Eventually, The visit to Sabah and to conquer Mount Kinabalu was one unforgettable trip. I will never forget the stairs from HELL, a chance to browse a foreign area with a map, a chance watch over my thought, a chance to challenge myself, a chance to wake myself up from ....ing her (i know it is impossible) and learn to say no to forever alone. Thanks Pauline for suggested this wonderful trip and the help from members of PSG@PVPS, Yunli who gave me maps and highlighted certain interesting places in Sabah. Thank you my friends who morally supported me.

Jeff