Climbing Mount Kinabalu

After a few days lounging around Kota Kinabalu (in Borneo), we decided to climb the nearby Mount Kinabalu. With a peak at 4095m (about 12,300ft) this is the highest mountain in South East Asia, and all the more impressive since it stands on its own and is not surrounded by other tall peaks. This was sure to guarantee a great view from the top!

Conor’s cousin, Thomas, had climbed it a few months before (and proposed to his fiancé at the top!) and had told us it was well worth doing. Getting one of the limited permits to actually climb the mountain proved to be a bit of an ordeal.....it would have helped if Thomas had warned us that it needed to be booked well in advance.... but thankfully due to a very last minute cancellation we got it at the last moment (literally 10 minutes before we set off to climb).

Well, getting a permit was hard, but climbing the mountain was much harder than we were expecting. We had already climbed two fairly deep Canyons on this trip so far (Grand Canyon in USA and Colca Canyon in Peru) so we considered ourselves relatively seasoned at such hikes, but Helen and JP had never actually climbed a mountain before so picking this one as their first surely was some challenge. Nevertheless, none of us were prepared for just how tough it was going to be. It was very steep and the conditions changed drastically during the climb (it was tropical heat at the bottom, thunderstorms in the middle, and almost freezing at the top) and the thinning air as we got higher didn’t help the breathing!

Day 1 involved a 6km hike up to the overnight resthouse about 2/3rds up. This was not too bad and we managed to do it in 5 hours. We were rewarded by a great sunset and then a lightning storm in the clouds down in the valley beneath us. Day 2 began at 2.30am (yes in the middle of the night) and we made the 3km hike up to the summit. The idea of the early start is such that you reach the top in time for sunrise. Sounds great but climbing in the dark is not something you ordinarily do and it didn’t help that all of our head-torches failed along the way (only giving out a minimal glow). The later stage of the hike involved pulling ourselves up very steep sections of rock with a rope! Anyway, you’ll be glad to hear that we did all make it up to the top and the sunrise was really spectacular, as was the view of the surrounding area, which gradually revealed itself as the morning got brighter.

The 9km hike down to the bottom afterwards was the real killer. The next day we were all walking around like 80-year-olds with our sore muscles but it was well worth the pain....we’re just not sure why!

Helen and John Paul!

Throughout our trip we’ve been lucky to meet many friends along the way and it was great to now meet up with Helen and John Paul in Kota Kinabalu. Fearghal, you’ll be pleased to hear we had a few drinks in your name as promised!

A detour...

After a relatively short time in Thailand, we have decided to make a last minute diversion from our intended travel route and get a flight to Malaysian Borneo, where we will meet Conor's cousin Helen and her boyfriend John-Paul before they head on to Australia. For anyone who knows JP, we will report back about whether that unfortunate facial growth is a disease or just bad Portugese taste :O

Ahhh....the freedom of being able to go anywhere we want is great :) We don't have a return flight out of Borneo and as we write this, we are checking out potential onward destinations from the in-flight magazine.

Kitesurfing

After a few days in the Capital, the “temple tedium” (as Myra and Graham call it) set in and we decided to head south to a coastal town called Chuphon, hoping for a bit of kitesurfing.

(Along the way, our bus made a pit-stop at some roadside rest area and everyone got off. We weren’t quite sure what to do but we obviously stood out as clueless foreigners because one lady got our attention and led us into a back room where all the passengers were being served some food. The lady then brought us to her table and gestured for us to eat the food (helpfully demonstrating the motions of putting food into her mouth), and then proceeded to stare at Kadi continuously as she ate….presumably checking that she was doing it right!)

Chumphon itself is not a particularly noteworthy town (like a Thai version of Naas) but nice to see some non-touristy Thailand with real Thai people. As they don’t get many tourists, there was a distinctive lack of taxis, but nevertheless, we eventually found a Sawngthaew (basically a pickup truck with benches in the back) to take us to our final destination of Tung Wa Laen, a tiny beach town nearby.

We first went kitesurfing last summer but because we were tied up with the Irish skydiving record, we never really got into it and then the Irish winter came. So we wanted to do about a week here to shake off the cobwebs so we can start up again in Australia. As it turns out, this is not the best time of the year for it, as the wind is less predictable around now, but nevertheless, we’ve been out for a few hours each day and it’s great to be back doing it. The best thing about doing it here is the water is UNBELIEVABLY warm. It’s like being in a bath. You don’t need wetsuits and even after being out for a few hours, you just don’t get cold.

During the down time, our instructor brought us on a bit of a sightseeing tour of the area which included a temple with….guess what....more monkey feeding!

Bangkok

So what about Bangkok?

• It’s a very big place (7-10 million people depending on what source you look at) and very frantic.


• A great spot to do some cheap shopping too (if you’re prepared to haggle away with the locals….but that can get tiring after a while)! They do like their fake merchandise though :o


• Plenty of temples around. A lot of them are finished with pure gold (gold leaf) so they are VERY shiney. You have to cover up when you go in (wear long trousers and cover your shoulders). The monks are not allowed any direct contact with women.


• It’s a serious offence to disrespect the King.


• Some “helpful” locals have the scam of telling you that the place you’re trying to visit is closed (it isn’t) and instead strongly persuade you to go to some other attraction (which no doubt turns out to be somewhere they can sell you stuff). We had been warned about these guys and they’re already proving to be a nuisance.


• Massages are widely available and great value.


• They serve your meals with a fork and spoon! No knives here.


• We’ve become college students again….well, according to the fake ISIC student cards we picked up on Khao San road anyway :)

From Christchurch to Bangkok

We had intended to title this post: "From Christchurch to Krungthep mahanakhon amonratanokosin mahintara ayuthaya mahadilok popnopparat ratchathani burirom udomratchaniwet mahasathan amonpiman avatansathit sakkathattiya witsanukamprasit (aka Bangkok)"......but it wouldn't fit!

Believe it or not but that essay above is the formal official name for Thailand’s capital, Bangkok!

Our trip from Christchurch to Bangkok had a stopover in Sydney. It felt very odd hanging around the airport, being in Australia and looking out at the Sydney skyline, knowing that we’ll be living in this country when we finish this trip. Due to the cancellation of a flight, the airline actually wanted us to spend the night in Sydney and catch a new flight to Bangkok the next day. This would have been cool as we could have met up with Conor’s old flatmate, Barry (who lives in Sydney)….but unfortunately this wasn’t an option for us as if we left the airport, it would have activated our 1 year Visa, so they found us a new flight on a different airline. Oh well….see you in 3 months Barry and Emily!

Apart from Kadi being pulled aside twice for “random” security inspections by airport security, the trip was uneventful. Interestingly, the airports are now using heat sensitive cameras to scan arriving passengers to identify any with flu symptoms. This means that thankfully we haven’t caught the Swine Flu yet.

It’s funny how we’ve settled into the travelling lifestyle….on any normal holiday, you might arrange where you’re staying in advance, and have researched the country to some extent. The total of our preparation for Thailand involved downloading a chapter of the relevant guidebook from the Lonely Planet website the night before and having a quick scan through it before we got off the plane! We got a taxi to the tourist centre and arrived there at about 1am and looked for a place to stay (thanks to the delays involved in the flight cancellation, this was about 26 hours after we woke up that morning!) Even the next morning, we still weren’t quite sure where in Bangkok we were due to inconsistencies in spelling streets between our guidebook and the local map. (Because Thai’s don’t use the Roman alphabet, it is perhaps understandable that there are slight variations in how they might spell words in our letters, but “Jakkapong Road” and “Chakrabongse Road” are the same place? Come on!)

Anyway, first impressions of Bangkok: It is extremely hot and humid…..all the more noticeable because we’ve been in southern hemisphere winter for the last month or so.

Conor is not a fan of taxi drivers back in Ireland and the Bangkok variety are no different! You have the option of a fixed price or meter fare. On entry, the driver will always try to agree a fixed price on the basis that the meter fare will be ridiculously high (they are doing us a favour apparently)! As you might expect, the meter fare always turns out to be about ¼ of the original quoted price. (This practice can be particularly annoying sometimes because they will sometimes refuse you if you don’t want a fixed price!)

We did have to opportunity to take a ride in a Tuk Tuk (basically a 3 wheeled motorbike with a back seat and roof….often used by the locals for “see how many people you can squeeze into a Tuk Tuk” competitions). These taxi rides are like a rollercoaster providing some excitement as they weave through the busy city traffic, but unlike rollercoasters, they don’t have any seatbelts or safety restraints :O

Kadi loves all the New Zealand wildlife...

There is so much cool and weird stuff on this side of the planet. Well… Conor doesn’t find that cool now, but I do and want to talk about it. So if you’re not much into the birds and flowers then you can skip this one.

So… there’s this mad looking moss on the trees that looks like an old man’s beard. It’s white and long and hanging down the branches everywhere. Like this…

Also there is this black one that looks like a disease (no picture).

Another thing that I didn’t get my head around was a fern tree (s6najala puu for Estonians). Ferns are not meant to be trees… They look like something surviving here from dinosaurs’ era. (We actually saw them in Jamaica too.)

These birds are called keas. They are really alpine parrots and they don’t seem to mind the snow much at all. Keas are very funny… they walk like they are drunk, they’re curious and smart and love to eat rubber (so maybe not that smart after all). I had a bit of trouble of taking pictures of them. No, not because they won’t stay still or fly away. But because he wanted to check out my camera and got too close for focus :P

These blue ones have oddly big feet and that’s why they walk funny too. Especially the chicks!

-Kadi

A stopover in New Zealand!

After travelling for 3 months through the Americas, it’s nice to be taking a short break in New Zealand. Some of the simpler things that we appreciate (that we hadn’t really realised we were missing) are...

English – When everyone speaks a language we can understand, it makes things so much easier. Not to mention that we now fully understand food menus, supermarket items and the book shops have a load of titles we might actually want.

Tea – Being a British colony, they appreciate a good cup of tea. We’ve been drinking mostly coffee for the last 3 months, and surprisingly, South America didn’t have the great coffee we were expecting from it (some exceptions!) So it’s nice to have some nice normal tea again....they also have great coffee!

Carpets – Airports, apartments, hostels, bars, etc have carpets. Most places we’ve been so far (bar USA) have mostly stone/tiled/wooden floors. You just realise how comfy carpets are for lounging around in.

Yes...we are easily amused :)

When we arrived, we immediately went to Christchurch and met up with Myra and Graham, two of Conor’s old friends from Ireland who have been living here for the last 3 years. It was great to meet them and they were very hospitable during our short time here. Thanks guys! Especially for lending us the warm clothes for our stay...how can we forget that Chubaka outfit Graham!

Ok, New Zealand is a large enough country (bigger than the UK) split into two islands and with mountainous terrain, so there is only so much you can see in 1 week. We decided we’d rent a car and go for a road trip from the east coast to the west coast and loop back again. This gave us a chance to see some of the fantastic scenery, wildlife and geographical features that NZ has to offer such as.....Castle Hill, a bundle of interesting boulders perched on top of a dramatic hillside (the area resembles the ruins of an old castle and was used in the film Narnia apparently).....Pancake Rocks & Blow-holes, unusual shaped rocks with little tunnels carved out by the sea, and when the tide is high and waves are strong, they spurt out massive plumes of steam and foam.....but the nicest scenery around had to be the rugged snow-capped mountains, the valleys with rivers and lakes, and low cloud in between. No one place in particular stands out but the country seems to have unlimited impressive views.

But New Zealand is the adventure capital of the world and no trip there is complete without risking your life to some extent! So we spent an evening rock climbing with Graham (great fun), did a few hikes, and also got a chance to do a bungee jump off a bridge (Kadi’s first!) :)

One thing that struck us as odd about NZ was the place is very calm and quiet. The streets are empty, very few cars on the roads, coffee shops and restaurants have very few people in them, hostels and shops close up very early in the evening. Kiwi’s obviously live a different type of lifestyle....they get up early, tend to be fairly active (running/cycling/etc) and go to bed early. Something we were not expecting. But all in all, it was great to spend a week there between South America and South East Asia.