Easter Trip to Malaysia part dos

Ok, so where were we? Ow yeah at the top of mt. Kota Kinabalu. Here are some more pictures to give an impression:


And to top it of I tried to make a panorama shot, but I'm not to sure if the result is everything I hoped for. Well, anyway:

As can be seen on the panorama shot, the summit was completely located above all clouds. It was advised to start the hike back as soon as possible because the sun gets really strong at that point. At around half past 6 I started to notice that, and we started to hike back. The hike back to the base camp only took an hour and a half, but already took al lot from me, since there is constant pressure on my legs. We stayed for about 45 minutes at the camp, packing our stuff and resting for a bit, before making the last hike back down. The hike down was supposed to take half the time of going up, so this would mean it should take us 2.5 hours. For some reason I had more trouble going down than going up and after 3 hours we reached the starting point again. My legs were hurting, and I had trouble just to walk normally. Lonely planet describes this to be one of the easiest hikes... well I think I really have some work out to do to be able to climb some of the thougher ones!

That afternoon we came back in Kota Kinabalu at around 2pm and we checked in the hostel again. I guess the owner was happy to see us again because he gave us a private room instead of the dormitory this time, for the same rate. Unfortunately the room didn't have AC and I'm still not sure what would have been better, the dorm which had AC or the room. I didn't have trouble sleeping so I guess it doesn't matter much.
That day we just took it easy and we wanted to end the day mellow at the same bar that we went before to drink a few beers. I guess fate decided differently, because we met the Americans again at that place and ended up partying untill four in the morning (this might have been a different time, but my guess is around four). That night one of the girls convinced me to take a diving course with her, and since guys are weak (and I wanted to do the course for a long time already) I said yes. The next day (saturday already) I woke up reasonably early to go sign up for the diving course. I also received a book which could be used for self study in order to make the dives easier. However, it's quite hard to learn when you are on a holiday.
That same day we went with the same group to a swamp, which took a two hour drive to reach. Since Olli and me made a last minute decision to join the van was really crowded. Upon arrival, a lot of people were sore from the trip... well for what it's worth, sorry bout that!
The trip through the swamp was both fun and in my opinion showed some good scenery. We were basically taken on a boat and made a trip over small rivers that led through the jungle. On the way we saw monkeys, water buffalos and some birds and stuff. Especially the sundown was beautiful. I tried to make a good picture of that:


That evening we enjoyed a good dinner at a restaurant at the starting/end point of the tour. After that the guide brought us to a place where we could see fireflies. It was already dark and one of the trees was filled with those flies, it seemed like the tree was decorated for christmas or something. No pictures of that unfortunately...
After returning to KK we decided to go to bed early, since i had to start the diving course quite early. This was probably the first saturday in Asia where I got to bed early, it's like a completely different world out there! well anyway...


The next day I went to Ming's hostel (the girl that I was taking the diving course with) to be picked up by Rueben, our diving instructor. We went to the harbour and took a small boat that would bring us to one of the islands for our first dive. We were joined by a group chinese people who were dropped of before we made our dive. We had our course with a guy from Singapore called Jason. The first day consisted of two dives, and we had to perform some skills like removing the mask and putting it back on under water and that kind of stuff. Every dive ended with a fun part which was basically a half hour swing in the surroundings of the boat. We swam near coral reefs, which at first didn't look so good since fisherman blown up a part of it to catch fish. However, during the second dive we saw a sea turtle swimming very near us. This was quite cool and we tried to follow it. Unfortunately it went too deep (or were we too slow??).
That evening we went out with Rueben and some of his friends. Ming's friends all rented a car to go to Brunei and wouldn't return untill late the next day. It was a really good evening and we had a lot of fun, especially in a certain questionable karaoke bar.
The next day we had to go diving again and this time we went to our maximum depth which is 18 metres. Again we had to perform some skills and had the fun dive after that. At this spot the coral was way better and the scenery was more colourful. Ming brought an underwater cam and I wonder how those pics will turn out to be. I really enjoyed the whole diving course and I am happy Ming convinced me to do it. Can't wait to go diving 'for real' now.


That evening was the last evening in Malaysia and we took it easy by sitting on a terrace and having a few beers. At around two o'clock at night Ming's friends came back from there trip. Appearantly they had an amazing roadtrip and the story (as far as I could make up a story from everything I heard from them) was truly hilarious. The next day most of them had to get up early to catch a flight to Thailand, where Olli and me had to back to Macau. Our flight was at 1pm and it took 3 hours again. Coming back to Macau wasn't too great since it was very cloudy, and the temperature was low. This fact, together with the memory of a good holiday made me quite bummed out to be back, especially because I had three exams in the following two days (I'm still hoping for a miracle)...

Well this finishes my report about Malaysia. I highly recommend everybody to go to Malaysia, especially since appearantly there are way more beautiful in the country. This makes me want to go back in the future, and if I have a chance I certainly will.

But for now; thank you, bye bye!

Easter Trip to Malaysia part uno

March was a quiet month for me in Macau, but April started out great! Because of the Easter festivities, school was closed for four days. Including the weeekends this means we had six days of. Olli and me took one day extra off and set out for Malaysia on tuesday the third of April. After a three hour we arrived in Kota Kinabalu(KK)which is on the Borneo part of Malaysia and is the capital of the Sabah province.

Once we got out the plane at around 7.30pm we immediately noticed that things are a bit different when it's the weather concerned than in Macau. Where Macau is hidden under a big pack of clouds for a month already, the sky was very bright in KK and the temperature was about 10 degrees higher than in Macau. This promised a lot of good, but troubles started once I wanted to cross the border. Appearantly some guy with a name similar to mine is on the blacklist, and since some people have problems with their eyesight, I had to go to the immigration office. After inspecting my passport properly, there was no problem and I could finally enter the country. The airport is suprisingly close to the city, especially since we were assuming that KK would a big city.
On the contrary however, the city is quite small and it's hard to imagen that 400.000 people are supposed to live there. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing because it was easy to get around, and with the lonely planet as a guide we could find an affordable hostel right away. For some reason I couldn't remember the name of the hostel the whole week, but now I do; 'Planet Backpackers'. Not that it really matters...
Well anyway, that day we didn't do much since it was already late. We figured that the next day we should go try to get to some travel offices to see if there are any places available for the hike to mt. Kota Kinabalu.
The next day (Wednesday) we woke up too late to go to the mountain that day so we decided to just see if we could get a good deal. We found out that because of the easter holiday, all accommodation on the mountain was already full and there was basically no option of going to hike the mountain the next day, or any day while we were still there. There was one agency that wanted to sell us a package, but we found it way too expensive, and we figured that if they could offer us something, there must be a place for us if we just head out there. So we decided to just take the first bus to the mountain the next day and hope for the best. That evening we took it easy and we went for a few drinks 'downtown'. There we met some people who are studying in Hong Kong as part of an exchange program. I guess it's a small world after all...

The next morning we took the first bus to the mountain which departed at 7am. We arrived at the entrance two hours later, to hear that all accommodation is in fact full and that we couldn't go up. We were of course dissapointed, but stubborn as we are, we still tried to see if we had any chance at all. We went to talk to some kind of supervisor to see if there was a possibility to do the hike in one day, but this wasn't possible. However, he did tell us that if we hiked up to the base camp where the accommodation was, we should ask the manager if he could settle something for us. That was enough for us and we quickly went to unpack our backpacks and pay for the whole thing, so that we could get on our way. Not knowing if we would actually get any place to sleep we set out for the top. Our enthousiasm was high at the start, but we heard some rumors about certain stairs that would make the hike less easy. Unfortunately for us fit people those rumors became reality.


This picture shows Olli getting up the hill. I'm guessing this was still in the optimism phase since there weren't much stairs yet. At this point we also saw old woman coming down the mountain telling us the summit is absolutely amazing, so we figured it couldn't be that bad. Since we are supposed to be in the prime of our life, it should be a piece of cake for us.
Five hours later we knew better. We started the hike around 11am and reached the base camp at around 4pm. There we found out that there still weren't any cancellations and that we probably had to sleep on some mattrasses on the flour. Well, fine by us! we were so tired that we couldn't care less, as long as we had a place to sleep and would be able to make a go for the summit the next day. One hour later we got told that four people cancelled and that we could have a proper place to sleep along with two Sweedish people we met on the way. Ofcourse we were pleasantly surprised and quickly made it to our accommodation which was still a 10 minute hike uphill. Since our legs were so sore and the fact that we are in such a good shape made us have a little break during this little hike. This was the perfect to promise not to drink and in Olli's case smoke anymore (yes, we too can be naive). Our hotel room was actually a little house which has a small kitchen on the side. Not that we needed it, but that's not what counts at that moment. I must also note that the view from that place wasn't the worst I ever seen:


And a pic from our mountain hut:


That same day we went to bed at 7pm (!) which was even too late for me since I wanted to sleep basically since the very moment I reached the camp. We had to get up at 2am again to get breakfast at the restaurant. We would also meet our guide there and together we set sail to the top at 3am. The goal was to reach the summit for 6am when the sun comes up. Appearantly (according to many grandma's on the way) the view from the top is amazing and worth all the trouble. Refreshed as we were we reached the top in three hours and arrived at 4095 metres at 5.45am. And indeed, the sun did come up at 6, and it was absolutely astonishing. The temperature at the top was around 5 degrees celcius and my fingers were freezing when I tried to make pictures, but when the sun set this was all forgotten. The view looked something like this... not to bad ey!


Since I am such a lazy person, I will stop typing now, and write a second part when I feel like it again. This will hopefully be tomorrow... well anyway,

Thank you, bye bye!