I was setting off on a journey where I would attempt to climb the highest mountain in South East Asia: Mount Kinabalu, Borneo. As a girl who is neither fit nor particularly adventurous in practice, I needed all the strength within to achieve such a climb, so when the plane touched down in Kuala Lumpur at 2 in the morning I jumped out of my seat, ready to explore the new land. It so happened to be that the person in front of me was not as eager in his quest to get off our 9 hour plane, so when the time came to wait patiently in line so that our fellow business class flyers could be escorted out, he stopped dead in his tracks and so did his suitcase. My feet however did not. Being an Aussie, I was naturally wearing my flip flops for this plane ride and at first didn’t notice the impact that his wheels had on my climbing devices. It wasn’t until I had set foot on Malaysian land that I realised my toenail was no longer it’s whole self.
Now there are two issues here, one is that I need my feet to do the walking so any sort of injury was not appreciated and two, where on earth do I find a medic in a ghostly airport in the early hours of the morning?!?! Luckily, after a hesitant knock on the First Aiders door, a man came out and I was ushered into what potentially were his sleeping quarters/ not exactly the hospital conditions that you would see in Sydney. But he patched me up. For free. And I was happy because I was able to break the ice with my tour group the next morning and got the sympathy looks that I so desperately sought.
More stories from Borneo coming soon to
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Must have been a trip to remember, for all kinds of reasons! 
When do you begin? I climbed Mount Kinabalu 10-15 years ago, and it was harder than expected. Luckily we hired porters (sherpas) to hike with us and carry our stuff up.
I think you sleep at a pretty basic hut near the top, then wake up in the middle of the night in order to reach the summit at sunrise. Let us know if it still works that way!
I did the climb (well most of it) in early July. As i went with a tour, we were able to leave our big bags with the guide and only carried day packs with us on the climb.
I am most definitely not the fittest person and had to get the poor guide to virtually carry me all the way to Laban Rata which was indeed basic. The showers weren’t working, the toilets were barely flushing and they had some sort of water lock outs which made life a tad difficult, but we were only there for a bit…
I actually only ended up making it to the rope because I had a horrible stomach bug and was essentially walking on 1 egg and 2 bottles of sports drink so the energy wasn’t quite there to go swinging on ropes in the middle of the night. I promise I will complete it one day though!
I’ll be posting about my Borneo experience later this week so please feel free to follow me and relive some good memories! http://cricketsaunty.wordpress.com/
We were in the KL airport the other day, and just outside of the arrivals area at the AirAsia terminal there is a full service medical clinic! I was surprised by it, but maybe there are more flying-related injuries than one might think.
In any case, I’m looking forward to reading about Kinabalu, it’s definitely on my bucket list.
I’ll post something on my blog on Sunday so check back then!
Great blog! I could never post my feet! Not super fond of my size 10′s. lol
These babies are size 9! well in Australia at least
As you like, but do know that you can photograph just part of your foot/feet, or as little as just one toe, as is stated in our About.
We don’t think size matters lol
So now I have to admit I didn’t make it to the top either! My friend did, but the accommodations were definitely basic, and it was pouring down rain all night. Not ideal conditions for a trip to the summit. I think I stopped at the rope too!
my entire tour group did as well (only 4 of them but still!), including a girl who had a massive boil on her inner thigh from a laksa spill on the first day.
luckily for us it wasn’t raining at all and was actually perfect weather – it wasn’t hot and there was a breeze every once in a while, there was also no rain in the previous days so it was very dry.
however, the moment we stepped into our accommodation after completing the climb (so about 4 hours later), it started absolutely pouring – very lucky we were indeed!!
Reblogged this on Isa Ibrahim.
Thanks!
Welcome! Enjoy reading your post