Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival, gave me a week off to do some more traveling. I ended up deciding on Kota Kinabalu (KK) in Borneo Malaysia. This is a large tropical island in the South China Sea that has the oldest rain forest in the world. A friend of mine from Seattle, Erika also joined me. We met in Kota Kinabalu a spent a day at the nearby islands known for great snorkeling. We also got a nice taste of local Malaysian sea food. After that, we headed inland to Mt. Kinabalu, a 4095 meter (13,435 feet) where we would spend the next two days climbing up to the peak. It was a brutal hike…It’s only a bit over five miles from the start to finish, but you gain about 7,500 feet in altitude, so the whole way is lots and lots of stairs. In the end though we reached the summit to watch a beautiful sunrise and then had the even harder hike down all the way to the start. It was an epic experience and something neither of us will ever forget.

Below are my pics from this part of the trip. Part two will be the dense rain forest and dark caves of Mulu a short plane ride south of KK.

An amazing sunset over the South China Sea welcomed me to KK.

Browsing through the local markets.

Off to Sapi island for some snorkeling and enjoying the beach.

Chrystal clear waters. Perfect for snorkeling!

Off to Mt. Kinabalu. Finally the clouds broke once we got near the mountain and could finally see what we would have to conquer the next two days.

An area of the path that washed away and was recently rebuilt. The mountain was rocked by a really bad earthquake 2 years ago, where more than a dozen climbers were killed and parts of the trail were destroyed.

Unique flowers along the path.

One of the much needed rest stops along the path.

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A view of the trail. Never ending stairs!

The mountain seen from the trail.

Me nearing the camp. The environment has changed from dense juggle to alpine, with the treeline not much higher up.

Some friends we met at the overnight camp. To help acclimate for the climb, you are required to stop at the 6km mark and spend the night at the hostel.

We started at 3am to reach the summit before the sunrise. We ended up getting there about 30 minutes early, so we had to sit near the top, waiting. Even though its normally 90 degrees in KK, at the peak of Mt. K it was a chilly 34 degrees.

Sunrise.

Pic from the way down.

It was a steep and slippery path even near the top. You can see our guide (required for all hiking groups), he was great and made the whole hike look easy. Apparently most guides do 1 to 2 trips a week.

Clouds over Borneo with a small town far below.

Finally made it back to the park gate, after many hours of hiking back. Our legs were like jello!