The crown jewel of Borneo has to be without a doubt Mount Kinabalu.
People from all around the world come to Borneo to trek to the top.
For some reason it is known as the highest mountain in Southeast Asia which is a complete lie.
Highest mountain in Malaysia and Borneo but not Southeast Asia.
Either way the climb is spectacular one that has you summit right before sunrise. Or in my case an hour too early!
Like everything in Borneo, you need to do some organizing and company hunting before you trek up Mount Kinabalu.
You need a permit and you have to arrange accommodations at the small group of guest houses below the summit.
Like everything else, this place is highly regulated by the government so there is no rocking up and doing this all by yourself.
Through some recommendations I ended up with Jungle Jack. A crazy fun individual that finds the cheapest way to get you up the mountain.
He probably pisses other tour companies off with his tactics but either way he was saving me money and was fun to join up with.
Backpackers have to go with him (find him on Facebook). He made all the arrangements and hooked us up with a guide to get us to the top (mandatory to have a guide).
First day was pretty easy. We all took off at 9:00am and met up with our guides and they led us on the one and only trail to the guest houses where we would spend the night.
Trail was pretty straight forward and involved simply climbing up. We arrived early afternoon and hung out until the cafeteria opened for dinner.
After that everyone hit the hay for an early 2:00am departure.
You up super early, you get dressed in the warm clothing you have, supplied by Jungle Jack, grab some breakfast and hit the trail.
The first hour is a little slow because of the amount of climbers and the various levels of speed.
A lot of bottlenecks occur as people slowly make their way up.
Our group set a good pace and tried to get ahead of as many people as possible before we would hit the rope section.
Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Borneo: Mount Kinabalu
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