This week-end was very different from all the previous ones you could have have seen on the blog. We went to the mount Kinabalu, culminating at 4,102 m. asl and thus being the highest point of south-east Asia.

Friday afternoon, after few mishaps on the way that made us really wonder if we would be on time, we finaly flew from Johor Bahru (the malay city next to Singapore) to Kota Kinabalu, the biggest city of the state of Sabah, in south Malaysia (on the island of Borneo). After a short but good night in the Borneo Backpackers, we took a taxi to the HeadQuarters of Mount Kinabalu Natural Park. It was a short 2 hours ride shared with two german guys making an internship in a subsidiary of Deutche Telekom in Singapore. They had bought a package for this Mount Kinabalu and went to their appointment at 6 am but found nobody ! So they were trying to phone the travel agency and everything, quite funny :). No travel agency, no problem and more fun !

So after having paid the climbing permit, the guide, the shuttle and the insurance (for around 140 ringgits, ~65s$ or 30€) and met our guide Jep, we began the climb. The weather was not good, just looking like dithering between rain or not ... After one hour of the 4-hour-long walk, the decision was probably made and we had rain till the end of the day, with a lot of fog, a very nice weather to sum up the situation. But it didn't affect our determination and we reached the Laban Rata hut (3,272 m. asl) at 2.30 pm. (having departed from Timpohon Gate, 1,800 m. asl, at 10.30). We were quite happy to reach the hut, the weather was very bad and the temperature of 7°C is actually quite cold when you're wet, believe me :). We had a few teas to warm ourselves, then took the key of our hut (which was 5 to 10 min away, at 3,314 m. asl) and settled there. Even if we were only 3, we had the 4-beds room for us. It was non-heated and the windows weren't closing so it was very cold and windy inside, we just jumped in our beds for a small rest. We had dinner around 6.30 pm (down at Laban Rata, 10 min walk in the rain ...), meeting Luke, an australian consultant working in Kuala Lumpur and a few other people. We went to bed at 9.00pm (and after 10 min in the rain and the dark to go back to our dorm).

This morning, we woke up at 2.15am ... quite early i would say, since i didn't manage to sleep till 10.30 at least, but it was ok. We went to Laban Rata again to have breakfast and meet Jep (the guide). After a good breakfast and a few mishaps again (thx sam :)) we left around 3.20 am, among the last probably, the first one leaving at 2.30 am. The weather was better, it wasn't raining and the light of the fullmoon was pleasant. But there was still a lot of clouds on the top and the hope to see them going away was very small :(. (we tried to blow and pray whoever wanted to be prayed, but unsuccesfully !). After a small hour of trail in the forest, we reached the top part, almost made of big granit rocks. The path was marked with a rope that everyone followed. We overtook a lot of people: they seemed to find the climb hard, especially having issues breathing enough, but everything was fine for us. Everything but the weather actually :(. We reached the top (4,095 or 4,102m. asl, depending on books, but i prefer the second one :)) right on time the see the day waking up and hopefully the sunrise, at 5.30am. But the weather was so bad we saw nothing! It was even hard to have pictures because of the fog. We stayed on the top more than half an hour despite the terrible coldness (actually 7°C being wet is confortable when you experience -2°C all wet in the fog the day after :)) but still nothing so we went down.
We reached the hut at 7.30am (after a good rain while we were walking on the rocks, so nice!) and slept there till 10am. We made our bags, had another breakfast, checked-out and leaved the hut around 11.30. During our morning sleep the clouds had gone away so we had a sunny way down, it was rather pleasant. A little bit frustating too since we would have liked to have the sun at the top, but it's like that. Anyway the top was still in the clouds. The way down was really cool at the beginning, stopping all the time to take pictures of flowers and landscapes. Since we were once again the last, there were nobody on the trail and it was nice. After one hour of walk we were in the clouds again and walked faster, overtaking a few people and meeting the people on the way up. The rain started again at 2.00pm, at the very moment we reached Timpophon Gate, the end of the journey: we had the perfect timing :).
We made the way back to Kota Kinabalu under a pouring rain in a strange taxi car called Zorro. We asked the driver about this name, it didn't really get the answer, sorry, but he pantomimed a sword fight so i guess it was the well-known Zorro :). Back in KK (everybody calls the city like this :)) we had a good shower, a shamy pizza hut (still on my stomach, f*ck*ng western food) because Adrien being sick he supposedly cannot eat anything else and a tea in a nice bar.
Sam took his plane back to Singapore tonight because he has an exam tomorrow and we're staying till tomorrow with Adrien. We plan to go to a small island not far from KK, hope the weather will be better ...
Sorry, no picture for the moment, you can go to this flickr photoset to have an idea of landscapes and flora. Ours are coming soon, but I've got a lot a work in Singapore and I'm still late with midsemester break ones so it may take a few days :).