Gunung Kinabalu

Nearly every visitor to the state of Sabah, in eastern Borneo, takes a trip out to Kinabalu National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fifteen ringgits gets you a seat on a 10 seater mini-van bus for the uphill climb from the coastal city of Kota Kinabalu to the mountains. Fifteen ringgits is five Canadian dollars; we're dealing with an easy exchange rate of exactly 3:1 here in Malaysia.  The bus leaves every hour on the hour, or earlier if it's completely full.  It's an hour and a half ride with the driver constantly gearing down as the bus chugs onwards & upwards.  

mountains near Gunung Kinabalu

Snaking through the mountainous jungle, my first glimpse of Gunung Kinabalu (Malay for Mount Kinabalu) made me catch my breath in awe.  To say the mountain is majestic is certainly a hackneyed description, but I'll use it anyway. Wearing a cloudy mantle about it's rocky shoulders, it's sheer granite face jutting high above the other mountains in Borneo's Crocker Range... this was as dramatic a view as one could hope for.  We would later learn that this was the only photo op we were going to have of Mt. Kinabalu itself; that at 10:00 am, this cerulean-skied moment was a rare clear shot.  It would be too cloudy later on that day, and the whole next day.  Our apologies as we would have loved to include a photo of the mountain, but please take the time to google images of "Gunung Kinabalu".  At 13,435 ft. the mountain is still growing at a rate of 1/4" per year, due to earth movement.  Local Kadazandusun people still believe their ancestral spirits live on Mt. Kinabalu.  The name of the mountain means "revered place of the dead".  Moss which grows along the bare rock of the summit is food for the spirits.  To this day, once a year, a religious ceremony is performed to appease the spirit of the mountain itself, and the ancestors who live there.

Umbrella fern tree

It was tempting to sign up to climb Mount Kinabalu but it's not cheap. It would have run us upwards of $300 each to do the climb; paying for the compulsory guide, insurance and conservation fees.  Plus, we had to consider the fact that we didn't have the proper gear to take on a trek of this magnitude.  We could buy it, but then what?  Toss it out?  Give it away?  The trails at the foot of the mountains turned out to be incredibly rewarding, with plenty of sections to keep us challenged.  We realized that if we wanted to test the limits of our endurance, we are blessed with the Rocky Mountains back home.  Here, we could spend endless days just exploring the jungle itself.

the beginning of the storm

In the rain forest, the air is close, heavy with moisture.  Strange bird calls and animal cries pierce the silence, insects incessantly drone.  The darkness is deceptive; at 2:00 it feels like dusk.  A mist begins to waft around us so we make our way back to the tourist center building.  Visibly is decreasing fast and we don't want to contend with a downpour high up on an already slick jungle trail.  We take refuge under a shelter to wait out the weather.  However, instead of it "blowing over", the storm intensifies.  The sky opens up, a flood of rain washing down the pathways.  For the first time since we left Calgary, I'm outdoors and my arms are prickled with goosebumps.