Mount Kinabalu 2010 - The Summit

It was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast, the same as our snack yesterday.  Which wouldn't have been so bad but it was pretty much Wonderbread and Jiffy.  Not exactly the best fuel for a six hour hike.

Check out the clock - that's AM, folks.

Our guide showed up promptly at 2:30am to go over the schedule for the day.  "It will take about 3 hours for the 2.7K to the summit, you will watch the sun rise, and then 5-6 hours for the Via Ferrata, and then we will be back here for second breakfast.  After that maybe three hours to get down."  Wait, WHAT?  This could take another twelve hours?  No one told me this would take another twelve hours, I had a massage appointment to get back for!

I'm only smiling on the outside.

And we were off.  

It started out warm, and we had to go slow because were stuck in back of the big group of Taiwanese tourists, so it wasn't so bad at first.  Then it started to get cold.  And the wind began to blow.  Then came the ropes, where you had to haul yourself over boulders.  There was a full moon out, which was sort of pretty, not that you could see anything.

See the little lights?  Those are the headlamps of the people behind us.   My only comfort was that we were ahead of all of those people.

After a couple of hours it started to flatten out a bit, and then we were there!  The summit!  There wasn't much room at the top, and more people were coming, so we had to take a quick pictures and scramble down off the little peak again.

Not to be un-appreciative of all this natural beauty, but it was freakin' freezing waiting for the sun to rise.  I wanted it to hurry up so we could get back down.

Woo hoo! The sun!

As we decided that we had officially seen the sun rise at 13,500 feel, we started to head back down.  I can't tell you how great it was to take my first steps that were not up.  And we could finally see all the stuff we missed on the way up. 

I practically skipped my way down to the next meeting place, about 45 minutes down the mountain, not quite halfway to base camp.  Next time - Via Ferrata, or, How Did I Get Talked Into This?

Mount Kinabalu 2010 - Stairway to Heaven

Climbing day dawned bright and clear.  I loaded up at the hotel on pancakes and peanut butter, and we headed out for the 90-minute drive to the national park at the base of Mt. Kinabalu.  The mountain got bigger as we got closer.  Yes, we're starting from down here and going way up there.

Waiting with us were several other groups of people, namely a large groups of Taiwanese tourists.  I helped take a few pictures of the group, and they were thoroughly entertained by my attempt at Mandarin.  "Yi, er, san!"  I counted.  I noticed that a lot of them were not wearing hiking shoes, some even wearing those slip-on canvas shoes.  Well, maybe David was right, I thought.  If they can do it...

Having carefully arranged our backpacks the night before, I was a little irritated that right before we headed onto the path they handed us a large cloth bag with our pre-packed lunch inside.  Where in the world was I supposed to put this?  I barely had enough room for my camera, let alone a plastic tupperware container the size of a cake pan.  So giving me another 15-minute reprieve, David opened up his bag and re-packed our lunch.  Okay, now we're ready.

It was a six-kilometer hike to base camp, with one planned rest stop at the 4-kilometer mark for lunch.  The first kilometer was deceptively easy, with even a couple of flat parts.  This might even be fun, I started thinking.

Then, the stairs started.

It's not so much that the stairs were really big, it was that they kept relentlessly going up.  And up.  And up.  There was never more than two or three paces of flat between hundreds of wooden stairs, rock and boulder stairs.

I never really saw David that much, he left me behind with Rony (our guide) most of the time.  Who seemed like a nice guy, but wasn't much of a conversationalist.  (This is pretty much David's MO, when he says he wants to do things like this "with me", he doesn't really mean "with" me, he just means he wants me there at the end to hang out with and have a celebration beer.)

There was a disappointing lack of wildlife along the way.  "Will we see any snakes?" I asked hopefully.  "Monkeys?"  "No, don't worry, just birds and squirrels."  "Oh."  There were some cool plants, though.  David, when he did wait for me, tried to engage me in a discussion of how some ferragated leaves were designed to maximize surface tension to hold the rain water.  I ignored him, instead pointing to the wild orchids and saying "Look, pretty flowers!."  The huge pitcher plants were the highlight.  Lots of dead bugs inside.

Stopping briefly at the 4K mark for a lunch of ham-and-cheese sandwiches and hard boiled eggs, we donned another layer and trudged on, as it was getting too cold to stop for long.  The first four kilometers took us two hours.  The last two kilometers?  Also two hours.  A blistering pace of one kilometer an hour.  I had even trained for this, that's how hard it was.

It doesn't look that bad?  Get on a Stairmaster.  Press start.  Now keep going for four hours.  Other people had paid local porters to haul their stuff up (extra water, warm clothes for the summit, etc.), and these guys blew by us at regular intervals.  One guy was hauling two propane tanks on his back, and he didn't even look winded.  I consoled myself with the thought that they must just be used to the altitude.  I took exactly one picture during the last two kilometers, concentrating only on going up one step at a time.

I cannot express in words how relieved I was to finally reach base camp.  Rest!  But hold on, you have to climb over a hundred more stairs to get to the bunk house.  My goal for the day was simply not to cry.  So far so good, but the climb wasn't over yet.

We staked our claim on our bunks, and then tried to keep warm while we waited for dinner.

After dinner, we pretty much just sat around eating granola bars and taking cloud pictures.  The clouds are pretty cool when you're above them.

The sun set around 8pm, and I headed into my sleeping bad to try to catch some sleep.  Unfortunately the big Singaporean group that was in the room next to us had decided to stay up the whole night in order to not feel worse when the 2am wake-up call came, so sleep was not to be had.  (I've heard that the loudest groups of people are the Italians and the Koreans, but Singaporeans have to be a close third.)

As I lay in my bunk with my headphones (Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, you think if anything that could put me to sleep) I tried to mentally prep myself for the next day.  How many layers should I wear?  Should I try to go hard and just get it over with, or a little slower and try to enjoy it just a little bit?  Is that old Japanese guy going to be faster than me?  Probably, those guys are hard core.  What's going to be for breakfast?  I hope it's not peanut butter and jelly sandwiches again.  Are there bathrooms that high up?  I'm hungry again already what if I didn't bring enough granola bars?  What if we have to walk behind these loud people the whole rest of the way?

I hear David get up at 1:30am to start to get ready, and then my 2:00am wake-up call arrives.  Here we go.

Mount Kinabalu 2010 - Back to Borneo

The argument started over a year ago.   We were in the taxi, on the way back to the Kota Kinabalu airport the first time we were in Borneo.

David:  "Next time we come here, we should climb that mountain."
Chris:  "Mmm hmm.  Maybe."
David:  "It's supposed to be really cool."
Chris, shrugging:  "Sure."
David:  "You don't sound very excited about it."
Chris:  "I'd rather sit on the beach and wave while you climb the mountain."
David:  "Well I'll just have to find someone else to do it with, if you don't want to go."
Chris:  "Sounds good to me."
David:  "Fine."
Chris:  "Fine."

Fast forward one year later, where somehow David has talked me into climbing up Mt. Kinabalu, the highest mountain in southeast Asia at 13,435 feet.  I hadn't initially agreed to go, but David's friend backed out on him at the last minute, and I felt guilty depriving him of the experience.  It was our anniversary (nine years!), so my present to him was climbing the mountain.  His present to me was staying at the Shangri La before and after the climb.

The first day was great, we arrived at the hotel in time to have some quality sitting-on-the-beach-and-doing-absolutely-nothing time.

On the way to dinner, we were treated to a spectacular Borneo sunset.

Happy coincidence, our friends Matt and Kim were also staying there (relaxation only, they weren't doing the climb), and we were able to meet up for dinner.

Loaded up on pasta and bread, we went to bed early, ready for our climb the next day.  "It's like a hike", David had assured me, "anyone can do it.  You'll be fine."  Making sure I had my gloves, headlamp and a couple of extra granola bars, I slept well.  Little did I know that I would not really sleep again for the next 48 hours.

Adventures in the Ordinary: Snacks

David and I were in the grocery store the other day, and spied the shelf of potato chips.

"I could go for some Pringles.  But no Sour Cream and Onion this time."

"Okay... looks like they have Blueberry and Hazlenut."

"What?"

"Blueberry and Hazlenut."

"Pringles?"

"Yes, Pringles."

"No way, let's try them!"

"Or not, because if they're terrible then we'd have the whole can to throw away.  I'd rather get Seaweed."

"Or plain."

"How boring is that?  How about Soft-Shelled Crab?"

"Ew.  That's worse than Grilled Shrimp.  Lemon and Sesame?"

"Um, no."
"Well, what kind then?"

We ended up with the "safe" flavor of Hot 'n Spicy.  But David still wants to go back for the Blueberry and Hazelnut.

Adventures in the Ordinary: Bintan Island

"What are you guys doing this weekend?"

"Not much.  Just hopping over to Bintan for a day."

"Oh.  I went there a couple of weeks ago.  It was nice."

"Yeah, it's all right."

Back in Minnesota, if you wanted to get away for a weekend, you asked around until you found somebody's cabin that was free to use for a couple of days.  If you were lucky, the place might have a TV and heat.  If you were really lucky, the place might have a gassed up boat you could take out fishing.  In Singapore, the equivalent of going "up North", is taking the 45 minute ferry over to Bintan Island, Indonesia.  Here is what is considered a common vacation here in Singapore:

Views of a local fishing hut way out yonder:

And visits from the local wildlife:

Ordinary?  Well, not for me just yet.

Adventures in the Ordinary: Learning to Cook

Okay, I already know how to cook.  But I won't be able to have Dahl Makni, Chili Crab and Pad Thai at my beck and call when I get back to the states, so I'd better learn how to make them myself.  I started taking cooking classes from an Indian lady named Kay, and even though my (and David's!) waistline has suffered a bit, it's been great fun.   It's not all Indian food, too, she teaches Thai, Chinese, MIddle Eastern, Japanese, Indonesian, and Singaporean.

First, today's menu:

Mushroom and Pea Pillau

Tandoori Chicken

Prawn Marsala

Palak Paneer (Spinach and Cheese)

Stir-Fry Mix Vegetables

Tomato Chutney

Gulap Jamun (Dessert)

And this is Kay, our awesome cooking instructor (if she looks familiar, she's the one who took us to India):

She goes over every single ingredient and how to pick it out, prepare it, and what you can and can't substitute for the stuff you can't find in the US.  Spinach, potatoes, onions, most spices are easy:

This... might be a bit more challenging to find.  It's a certain type of food coloring that goes into the Chicken Tikka to make it red.

Or this stuff, called Asafoetida, which smells like feet.  You put a pinch of it in any bean or lentil dishes and it's supposed to help not make you gassy.  It's the Indian version of Bean-O.

After all the chopping and preparing, comes the cooking.

You're not part of the class until Kay grabs the spatula out of your hand to show you the right way to toss the food around the wok.

Chicken Tikka!

And last is the Gulap Jamun.  Basically, it's deep fried dough soaked in sugar syrup.  Best. Dessert. Ever.  I should try to bring them to the State Fair, I'd make a fortune.

And then we eat everything...

And then I roll myself home.  And diet until class next month.

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Secretly my favorite perk is checking out other people's houses.  This one was at Julie's, who's done some extensive traveling and has some great stuff around her house.

This is the sign outside her gate:

Here's what you find inside.  He ignored most of us as we walked in the house, and kept trying to shake my hand while I was taking his pictures.  I think the sign was basically wishful thinking.