Mt K hike

Did it! I survived Mt Kinabalu! Ouch.
Anyway, here's a pictorial journey to give y'all an idea..

First sighting of Mt K from the ground..


Details of the trail



the hike itself covered lots of steps, trails and then natural rock steps..



An idea of the foliage up once you pass 3,000m up the mountain ..





After arriving at Laban Rata, about 6km up the mountain, higher than 3,000m, we continued hiking at 230am next morning, to cover more than 2km up to 4,095.2m.
This is the granite terrain that we had to trek across in the last 500m to the peak of Mt K. See the ppl "rappelling" down? (this pix is taken while descending.. in the morning, we had to climb it in utter darkness, save for the torches strapped onto our foreheads!)



so close to the peak.. and yet so far..


A long trek over sloping, granite terrain - took me close to an hour, I reckon, slowing following the white rope, taking 30-50 steps at a time, while all the time the rising sun on my right was urging me to go faster


Here's Low's Peak, which at 4,095.2m or close to 4,100m, is the tallest mountain in SEA. Climbing that last steep bit wasn't easy - I really wanted to give up!


The sky has brightened up.. and you can still see the climbers inching their way up, like ants on a granite hill..


Started climbing down the mountain at about 615am, arrived at bottom at 4pm. Legs pretty much as stiff as boards. :)

Pix - finally!

This here's the church I attended on Sunday Morning.. the SIB church is truly Malaysian .. cos it's a church group started in Sarawak's interior.


yushan - this shot's for you.. a vintage MG in bright orange.. seen quite a few vintage cars here in Miri. Can bring your chequebook here next time too. there's a vintage volvo a few doors away from my friends' home!


Here's a "nodding donkey"..they're in people's backyards and gardens in Kuala Belait, Brunei! Amazing.. no wonder Brunei is so rich.. oil can still be pumped from the ground here. Even in some Arab countries, oil is now being pumped offshore.. not on. miri used to have its nodding donkeys too, but no more. It's offshore drilling nowadays


you know what.. the skies here are amazing. Saw a stunning sunset today but I didn't have my camera with me. I should take more pix of the skies at different times tomrw. The land is very flat in Miri, it's by the coast. But the skies seem a lot closer to the ground somehow and not so far away. makes u think the earth is flat!

book project

HI folks.. greetings from Miri.. have kicked off my legwork for my "book project" - for which I don't have a catchy title yet. :(

For those won't don't know.. it's a travelogue on Malaysia and I cover a topic in each state.. On leave to do this from May to July.. Do pray for open doors and favour for me, as well as inspiration when I write!

anyway.. dropping a note from Miri since I'm at the computer now. Staying with my friends from Penang who're working at Shell. Shell is the biggest employer here, btw, and we even drove over to Brunei yesterday.. where oil was being pumped at people's backyards! Imagine that.. these machines are called nodding donkeys and each pump movement is one barrel.

I'll put some pictures up when I figure out how. Anyone else with problems posting pictures? I don't know why I can't seem to get them uploaded..