Not really sandakan -- Mt Kinabalu
Trip Start
Dec 16, 2009
1
13
28
Trip End
Jan 13, 2010
Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Off to Mt Kota Kinabalu by bus in the pouring rain. Interesting experience. $8AUD for a 4 ½ hour trip through palm plantations and picturesque run down towns and then into the mountains and the clouds with windy roads and great views. The driver was excellent even given his suicidal tendencies and the trip was enlivened by the children taking turns in vomiting, having clothes changes and repeating the whole operation. Oh how we laughed
Arrived at mountain to encounter first serious Malaysian officialdom. Anything private (like a bus will pick you up from somewhere at a certain time) is no problem. At official things (eg National Park) six twittering girls take an hour to establish that, yes, you do have a booking and it's going to take another hour to get a key and then you go and register to climb the mountain and then come back later to confirm that and then come back tomorrow to get the permit which we couldn’t stamp yesterday. Makes Greek systems look almost efficient.
Plain sort of day really with an excellent dinner and the discovery of "the local wine". Real wine 140MR this 6.50RM. Puts the wine cask in a whole new perspective.
Colder here – 2000 metres up.
Up early tomorrow (what a change) as the young folk are climbing the mountain. Mighty have been their preparations. And so the should be. It’s a bloody long way up and it’s bloody steep. We are currently in cloud and they go up 2000 metres from here. It’s good to be old and not have to go. H and I would love to but someone has to look after the kids.
