Journey to Mount Kinabalu

Early Sunday morning, I started in a quest to search for the highest peak in South East Asia. Standing at 4095 meters, it is ranked 20th tallest peak in the world. We started off from Kota Kinabalu and about 30 minutes later, we reached a place called Tamparuli.

Here, we had to cross a river without going through a proper bridge. It is very narrow and only one vehicle can pass at a time.

Next to it is a hanging bridge called Jambatan Tamparuli. It is famous and was even mentioned in one of Sabah's popular folk song. This hanging bridge allows people from Tamparuli town to cross the river to Kota Kinabalu city. This bridge has actually been upgraded to make it stronger and safer.

After a quick breakfast in the small town of Tamparuli, we continued our journey. The weather was fair but there were a few clouds hanging low. Before long, the majestic Mount Kinabalu starts to appear.

I can see its peak appearing between clouds. I was so happy to finally be able to see one of World Heritage Site with my own eyes.

Eventhough I can already see the mountain, it is not the end of the journey. We still have to go though another 2 hours drive on a long and windy road. Sometimes we are stuck behind heavy trucks so we have to slow down and wait for the road to clear before we can overtake and zoom away.

Finally we reached the entrance to the Kinabalu National Park. This is official entrance to Mount Kinabalu. We had to pay a RM3 ticket for each person. After entering the site, we parked at the information center where we can learna little bit more about the mountain and its surrounding. Outside the information center, there is a map to show you the trail up the mountain.

Next to it is a board to display the latest time taken by participants who enter the annual climbathon. In the last race, the winner in the men's event took less than 3 hours to run up and down the mountain!!

That's very quick!!! The ladies did it in about 4 hours... That's quick too! We are talking about going up and down and not just one way. According to my friends, the normal leisure climb takes about half a day to reach 3/4 of the way before you continue the next day right to the top to watch the sunrise.

You can watch a video of the peak here.

There are a few peaks of Mount Kinabalu. One is called Donkey's Peak because there are some rocks that looks like donkey's ears.

The main peak is called Low's Peak. I thought that this is quite funny... shouldn't it be called High Peak since the mountain is not that low?

They say that it is quite 'easy' to climb the mountain. There is a track for you to walk on and you need not use any proper climbing gears. Higher up at the peak, there is a super long rope for you to hold on to so that you can pull and guide yourself up. This sounded quite easy provided that you are fit and have enough energy to face the challenge. So start exercising if you plan to climb the mountain!