Accessable Mountain Climbing

Mount Kinabalu, Borneo: An accessible Mountain

At 4.38am early morning on the 12th November 2005, I stood briefly alone on top of Lows Peak (4095 meters), Mount Kinabalu, Borneo, the first person to breach this mountains defenses, on that particular day. Below me, piercing the almost total blackness of night, I watched a quite bizarre line of head torches, carried by one hundred or so other climbers moving slowly up the mountain towards me.

The whole idea of climbing Mount Kinabalu was spur of the moment stuff, typical of my restless mind (monkey brain I’m told), thought of and put into place within an hour of arrival in Bangkok.

Without much doubt in my mind, Bangkok is just the place for such a quick decision and possibly the pivotal travel center of Asia, perhaps the whole world! From Bangkok there is practically no place on earth you cannot fly directly, or with just one change, indirectly to! ‘Air Asia’, Thailand’s fairly new budget airline, has drastically cut the price to many destinations in South East Asia and my travel agent in Bangkok (taxi there directly from the airport), informed me, they have direct flights to Sabah (Malaysian Borneo), for less than half the price of Malaysia Airlines, who only fly indirectly to Sabah, via Kuala Lumpur (obviously no contest!). There was a slight problem though, with only two return Air Asia flights weekly to Sabah, the only practical option for me was to go the following morning, which I did of course.

Kota Kinabalu town Sabah, appeared slightly more prosperous than I remembered from a previous visit five years ago. I was quickly out strolling, re-familiarizing myself with the town almost as soon as settling into my hotel. Whilst wandering it was impossible not to notice the friendly smiling faces and good nature of local people. I cannot recall visiting any part of the world where I have felt completely at ease, so soon after arrival. With only a week to spare my first mission of course, was to quickly arrange the Mount Kinabalu climb, which was no problem and swiftly dealt with, thanks to information easily gleaned from the central tourist information office.

Stats: All Mount Kinabalu accommodation and travel arrangements via Sutera Sanctuary Lodges. Lot G15. Ground Floor. Wisma Sabah. KK. Tel: (60 68) 243629. email info@suterasancturarylodges.co m (Situated close to the main dockyard) There are at least a dozen other tourist offices on the ground floor Wisma Building, offering a variety of tourist