S A B A H 2 in 1


before the actual beginning; my personal basic introduction into to the region for the non-south-east-asian-experts: geographically sabah is the north-eastern part of the malaysian part of borneo, a rather large island to the east of singapore which is split into four parts: sabah and sarawak as parts of east malaysia, brunei, and kalimantan, which is the indonesian part of the island. ethnically and sociologically the people in sabah could not be more different from the west malaysian malays if they tried to win a competition for extremes. while in most parts of west malaysia a guest in a resort or hotel is mostly seen as a notorious nuisance disturbing the staffs otherwise blissful paid day of couch-potatoing behind a counter or on any suitable object resembling a seat, the locals in sabah outdo most of the asians famed for their smiles and friendliness, and this without even trying. they simply are really really nice people, eager to help and very rarely, if ever, trying to rip you off. sabah resort my faith in malayasia as a travel country, if only the western part so far ;)

now to stage one - the descent into the mighty ocean: flying to layang layang, a tongue twisting man made island somewhere in the vast stretch of sea between borneo and the philippines. actually island is nearly a lie, strictly speaking layang layang is an atoll, with a man-made island in one part of it, created to lay claim to this stretch of the ocean and all its possible oil and gas resources. luckily enough someone had the smart idea that the island is big enough not only to host the navy but also a few divers. hence we all ought to thank them for building a dive resort there, as the atoll is surrounded by a immediate 600m drop off, followed by another 1500m drop shortly after, which as all divers know means a lot of big fish ;) :) and for the big fish i came, the hammerhead shark to be specific, and as fate had it, i saw one, a solitary greater hammerhead shark in 26m during my very last dive, and that right after i came up close and personal with a grey reef shark at 40m... can you believe that??? two rare sharks in one dive... wow!!! the most amazing thing about this was that actually only my buddy and i saw the hammerhead and i was the only one taking photos, and to make it even more bizarre; we were the only ones in a group of 12 who were on our last dive, hihihihihi.
yet, to give that dive an even more incredible closure we were escorted by an entire pod of dolphins on the way back to the resort, six or seven of which swimming right in front of the boat; sitting on the prow with my feet dangling just centimetres above the water the dolphins with their movements synchronised to the level of coordinated breathing while staying glued to the boat at whatever speed seemed like un-harnessed horses pulling the boat in ever changing fluid formations... a truly memorable spectacle...

but before that, the days i spend diving at layang layang where marked by many beautiful and amazing encounters. there where the many black and white-tip reef sharks sleeping on the sandy ledges, the hawkbill and green turtles that crossed our way so often, the beautiful underwater landscape as a backdrop for thousands of colourful fish. but there were many other large fish around, we spotted three mobula sailing past in the distance, had schools of barracuda swim right past us, found a huge potato grouper in a cave, and then my favourite, his cousin, the yet unidentified large black and white grouper - it would be great if anybody can tell me what the real name of this one is, otherwise i shall call it the white breasted grouper and be done with it ;) hihihi - and then there were the small wonders at various depths, the many pairs of red and … yes yes yes purple firegobies in the dusky depths of 43m, the crevice filled with ornamental crayfish, the reef octopus, ornate ghostpipe fish, scorpion fish, longnose hawkfish and pygmy seahorse trying very hard, and each in their own way not to be seen... and all that amongst the most pristine coral i have seen so far, it was a wonderful trip indeed.


















and finally to stage two – the ascent to the highest peak in south east asia: you might have heard it said that the very mount kinabalu is boring and overrated, but it is still the highest peak in south east asia. and after my wallet emptied itself rather quickly with the purchase of two return tickets to germany, necessary to witness two major family events this year, namely the wedding of my sister and the 90th birthday of my granny, i decided that it might be wise to abandon my previous exorbitant idea of trekking through png, and replace it with an similarly thrilling yet less impoverishing idea. this alternative became even more attractive when my friend uli decided to fly over from germany to join me. in short, we met in kota kinabalu, book our accommodation for the base, mountain, and poring hot spring resort after and jumped on the bus to the kinabalu national park. starting the trek from the mersilau resort rather than the national park office proved to be a fantastic idea. even though the ascent from here is 2km longer than the main path, is hundred times less crowded, and a million times more beautiful; actually it is the nicest bit of rainforest i walked through ever, going past enchanted cliffs with gushing waterfalls, giant pitcher plants, down wet narrow valleys, across a cloud enshrouded pass, till it finally meets up with the rather overcrowded main "path" in parts resembling orchard road in terms of business ;)

starting from 2000m we first climbed up a fair bit, only do then go it all back down and then climb it up all over again, and more, and more and more till after 8km of walking i arrived at laban rata, the accommodation at 3300m at 4:45. uli came in a bit later, could not sleep a minute in out dorm which we shared with ignorant malay prison wardens-only we can have so much luck-and hence decided that 2am is not a good time to get up to climb another 800m altitude to the peak in the dark and freezing cold. i have to asdmit there were a few times during my 2 1/2h climb to the top in which i thought him a very wise man, but when, at pretty much exactly 5am, under a star filled sky i scambled as the second person this moring on top of low's peak, with its 4095m the highest of the many peaks of kinabalu, i was awfully happy - and i have to say that seeing the sun rise up there was, despite what anybody might say, truly very special, especially when you know how rarely that actually happens, as a 4000m mountain creates a lot of weather, bad weather of course - i was so happy that i even endured the hour long wait for the sunrise in the freezing cold and wind, with my fingers stuck in soaking wet gloves, before i descended the 800m altitude i had climbed in the dark. now i walked under a slowly rising sun past the phallic west peak, the pointy south peak, and many other enticing cliffs and points towards my well earned breakfast, or so i thought, which constituted nevertheless only a brief interception before the gruelling descent for another 1500m altitude to the park head quarters at 1800m. if you have done your math you realise that i walked more than 3000m altitude this day, and anybody who has ever climbed any mountains knows what this means. uli did a great job on the mountain, unlike our group member from singapore who turned up the first day with light shoes and office pants, a plastic bag in one hand and a video camera in the other... needless to say how well he did...

hihihi well anyway, the reward was a long hot bath in the sulphurous hotsprings at poring, before we dragged our rather painful muscles back to kk the next day...