Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Day 8 in Malaysia, Day 1 in Mt Kinabalu National Park
It took about 1.5 hours to bus to Kinabalu National Park in a bus that showed really bad Malaysian karaoke videos and an even worse horror movie.
The national park houses Mt Kinabalu and several species of animals, flora and fauna endemic to (only found in) the area. The cloud closes in on the mountain around mid morning so we were lucky to get a great view of it whilst on the bus before the cloud set in.
If you had asked me a week ago if I wanted to climb a mountain I would have thought you were crazy but now we are kind of regretting we didn't take the opportunity. Unfortunately by the time we were warming to the idea it was too late as you need two days.
Mt Kinabalu is the tallest mountain in South-East Asia and one of the easiest to climb. The facilities are really good as well, i.e. restaurants and hostels halfway up the mountain.
Oh well, we may get an opportunity to do it another time. It is definitely a tough climb and we are not that fit at the moment. It's probably better that we don't kill ourselves climbing and spend the rest of the trip in agony (o:
We ended up doing a nice 3.5 hour walk around the park with David and Nina (an Aussie father and daughter). It was very misty in the park which gave it an eerie atmosphere. The Aussies were at our hostel in KK and we had a nice dinner in the evening with them.
Our first set back for the trip was Joseph leaving his wallet on the bus from KK. Luckily the staff at the Park called the bus company and within a couple of hours we got it back! They said we were very lucky as it is quite common for people to leave wallets on buses but not very common for them to be retrieved.
Day 9 in Malaysia, Day 2 in KK
We traveled back to KK this morning. Got a lift with a local as there were no buses going past. The trip was slightly hair raising (we were almost knocked off the road by a van just before passing a serious motorcycle crash scene just out of KK) but we arrived safe and sound and checked back into the hostel we stayed in previously.
The hostel in KK is good for meeting other travelers. Amongst those we've met are an Aussy chick who wants to live in Wellington and a British couple who are moving to Nelson to teach English to foreign adults! It was nice to hear that people think fondly of New Zealand. It made me feel a little homesick. Joseph also chatted to a Malaysian couple on the plane who had lived in Upper Hutt (we didn't hold that against them) for 18 months. The husband was a construction engineer and worked on the Police Headquarters in the 80's.
Off to Kuching tomorrow.
It took about 1.5 hours to bus to Kinabalu National Park in a bus that showed really bad Malaysian karaoke videos and an even worse horror movie.
The national park houses Mt Kinabalu and several species of animals, flora and fauna endemic to (only found in) the area. The cloud closes in on the mountain around mid morning so we were lucky to get a great view of it whilst on the bus before the cloud set in.
If you had asked me a week ago if I wanted to climb a mountain I would have thought you were crazy but now we are kind of regretting we didn't take the opportunity. Unfortunately by the time we were warming to the idea it was too late as you need two days.
Mt Kinabalu is the tallest mountain in South-East Asia and one of the easiest to climb. The facilities are really good as well, i.e. restaurants and hostels halfway up the mountain.
Oh well, we may get an opportunity to do it another time. It is definitely a tough climb and we are not that fit at the moment. It's probably better that we don't kill ourselves climbing and spend the rest of the trip in agony (o:
We ended up doing a nice 3.5 hour walk around the park with David and Nina (an Aussie father and daughter). It was very misty in the park which gave it an eerie atmosphere. The Aussies were at our hostel in KK and we had a nice dinner in the evening with them.
Our first set back for the trip was Joseph leaving his wallet on the bus from KK. Luckily the staff at the Park called the bus company and within a couple of hours we got it back! They said we were very lucky as it is quite common for people to leave wallets on buses but not very common for them to be retrieved.
Day 9 in Malaysia, Day 2 in KK
We traveled back to KK this morning. Got a lift with a local as there were no buses going past. The trip was slightly hair raising (we were almost knocked off the road by a van just before passing a serious motorcycle crash scene just out of KK) but we arrived safe and sound and checked back into the hostel we stayed in previously.
The hostel in KK is good for meeting other travelers. Amongst those we've met are an Aussy chick who wants to live in Wellington and a British couple who are moving to Nelson to teach English to foreign adults! It was nice to hear that people think fondly of New Zealand. It made me feel a little homesick. Joseph also chatted to a Malaysian couple on the plane who had lived in Upper Hutt (we didn't hold that against them) for 18 months. The husband was a construction engineer and worked on the Police Headquarters in the 80's.
Off to Kuching tomorrow.
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