Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 15:55:01 +0800 (SGT)
From: Lin Yangchen
Subject: Expedition to Mount Kinabalu

Hi folks,

Welcome to the Kinabalu trekking team and thanks for your interest in
an expedition to Mount Kinabalu. D-day is in May and the duration will be
about 5 days including travel to and from Singapore.
[edited]
Frohes chinesisch Neujahr und schoenes Wochen ende!

Yangchen

yangchen - http://sps.nus.edu.sg/~linyangc/knbl.html
swee cheng
teck chia
ivan
kaimin
angeline
huaying

photo credits:
AK - Angeline/Kaimin (Fujifilm Finepix 2800)
IV - Ivan (Canon Digital IXUS 400)
SC - Swee Cheng (Canon EOS 10D)
TC - Teck Chia (Kodak disposable)
HY - Huaying (Olympus mju300)

N.B. whatever logistics info that could be useful in answering e multitude of questions that friends have asked about planning something similar has been included, so those who tend to get bored with such details, well TOO BAD

waited. & waited & waited at Kranji MRT with Swee Cheng, Yangchen & Teck Chia, & then Angeline & Kaimin, until we finally saw Ivan's yellow backpack sailing down e escalator about an hour late. e Causeway Link bus driver let us alight & walk through e traffic jam along e Johor half of e Causeway, so technically we walked from Singapore to Malaysia. e next driver insisted that he was going to Larkin, but dumped us at Kotaraya instead. e last bus to Senai was gone by e time we reached Larkin on e 4th Causeway Link bus we'd boarded that night, so we had to share 2 taxis for RM30/cab.

along e way Yangchen, Teck Chia & Swee Cheng encountered two traffic accidents. meanwhile, Kaimin discovered a leak in his Camelbak, & Swee Cheng's Platypus became incontinent on e floor of Senai Airport. by e end of this trip, Teck Chia & I would be e only ones who never encountered any leaks in our water supply, precisely because we used e simplest hydration system: Nalgene bottles & mineral water bottles. no valves, no tubing, no water bags = no leak.

Swee Cheng & Yangchen on e Smiling bus (AK)	with Ivan & Teck Chia (AK)	Larkin bus terminal (AK)

we weren't e only nuts staying overnight at Senai Airport in e middle of nowhere (actually, in e middle of some industrial park). camped on e floor outside e airport restaurant (open from 5am to midnight). lights out was sometime after e airport staff were done cleaning e place after e last flight of e day had touched down close to midnight. a few dim spotlights were kept on throughout e night, just bright enough so that e rest could still play daidi. meanwhile Swee Cheng took out his sleeping bag, Yangchen used a packet of preserved dried guava as a pillow, & this cat disappeared into a sleeping sack next to e shutters of e restaurant.

overnight in Senai Airport (SC)	outside e airport restaurant (AK)
Senai Airport after midnight (SC)	morning in Senai Airport restaurant (SC)

AK620 (wonder if Air Asia will number any of their flights AK47?) took us over Singapore, Indonesia, e Natunas/Spratly Islands, Sarawak, Labuan & finally Sabah. saw islands, bays, fringing coral reefs, a cuspate delta, a heavily silted estuary, river meanders, incised meanders, an oxbow lake, marshy wetlands & floodplains, a spit, small cities & container ships.

Air Asia staff work hard for their pay. e staff who do e checking in of cargo luggage also guide passengers along when they walk across e tarmac to e waiting plane, & those who check boarding receipts at e gate area are recycled as air crew. for all we knew e air stewardesses might be doubling up as flight engineers, baggage handlers & aircraft maintenance technicians too =P

on e tarmac at Senai Airport (SC)	AK620 (SC)
on board AK620 (SC)	Singapore with Johor in foreground (AK)
Pulau Tekong (IV)	southwest of KK (HY)
landing (HY)	KK city center - Kayla this is for you =) (HY)

e minibuses at e long distance bus terminal in Kota Kinabalu function pretty much like e bumboats that ply between Changi Village & Pulau Ubin. they leave only when full (12 pax paying RM10 each) or when all passengers agree to pay e driver a total of RM120.

had to close e windows as we waited inside a Ranau-bound minibus, as big fat dried fish (longer than my forearm), sunglasses, mineral water, etc kept appearing in front of our faces like those pop-up windows that annoy web surfers. but e hawkers are really OK, shake your head & smile nicely & they'll leave you in peace, unlike in certain other South East Asian cities. come think of it, my scariest experience with hawkers was in e Geylang Serai pasar malam during Eid/Hari Raya in Singapore.

e ride to Kinabalu Park HQ passed through what seemed like e Central Plains provinces of Thailand, albeit missing a million ricefields & with a different language on e traffic signs & advertisement billboards. had lunch at one of e Park HQ restaurants, where there was a little pot with 4 sticks covered with thick sticky glue stuck in it - a fly trap that Angeline mistook for joss stick offerings in an urn =P

from our table at e verandah, spotted a squirrel with white tufts of fur on its ear tips & an Indigo Flycatcher (literally black faced, with white chest & yellow vent) on a tree branch. took turns observing them with Swee Cheng's binoculars & had our first glimpse of e full power of his digital SLR & super power zoom lenses.

lunch at Park HQ restaurant (IV)	lunch companion #1 allows Swee Cheng to demo e power of his zoom lens: suspected Jentinck's squirrel Sundasciurus jentincki or Brooke's squirrel with white ear edging (SC)
lunch companion #2 that refused to be in focus together with e squirrel: Eumyias indigo Indigo Flycatcher (SC)	Renanthera restaurant, Mesilau Nature Resort (SC)

at 2pm daily there is free transport from e Park HQ to Mesilau (11am for e reverse direction). Swee Cheng & I shared a minibus to Mesilau with 3 Germans. shortly after turning left out of Kundasang, we hit a stretch of unsealed road & e minibus ended up swerving & lurching from side to side, zigzagging across e loose rocks. quite a difference from all e other types of unsealed roads that I've travelled on, which were either mud tracks &/or loose gravel; this one was a bit like driving on a dry riverbed.

Mesilau is at +1900m on e Pinosuk plateau, beautiful & wonderful in its isolation from e outside world. apart from e 3 Germans, no other guests were encountered in a place that can accomodate slightly over 100 people. each block of Bishop Head hostel has 3 rooms with 8 bunks each. 7 of us shared a room in an empty block, so we had a spare bed dedicated for daidi-playing & 8 bathrooms for 7 people. e afternoon temperature was ~18'C & bathing in cold water was wonderfully refreshing =)

went up with Yangchen to e park ranger office just next to Tambang Gate, e starting point of e Mesilau trail. Yangchen made arrangements for e guide, climbing permits & other stuff required for e climb. from e balcony of e ranger office, e 2 of us (who had packed e least for this trip & carried e lightest loads) shouted to e rest below to ask if they wanted to hire porters for e climb, & e fateful consensus was a 'no' *grin*

map of Mesilau Nature Resort (IV)	room 2, Bishop Head hostel block 1 (TC)	Yangchen unpacking (TC)

Mesilau is a birdwatcher's dream, & tree ferns, wild raspberries, gingers, bamboos & Medinella spp. abound. there are 2 walking trails from e resort, one of which leads to e place where Nepenthes rajah can be found, as well as e Mesilau Pinnacles....if you follow it all e way beyond Mesilau Cave & can bash your way through e unforgiving jungle like what one Canadian expedition did.

Swee Cheng, Yangchen & I explored e boardwalks that link e chalets of Mesilau Nature Resort, enjoying e fresh crisp air, spotting birds with binoculars & listening to fantastic birdsongs, examining spiders with hand lens, photographing flowers with Swee Cheng's big fat camera & my tiny little Olympus, & trying to catch a glimpse of e Mesilau River rushing past somewhere in e thick forest below. all decided that e next time we come back here, we're going to spend a much longer time than just one measly night.

Yangchen's laundry & mine, Bishop Head hostel (HY)	wild raspberries Rubus fraxinifolius? along Mesilau boardwalks (HY)	Mesilau Nature Resort, altitude +2000m on e Pinosuk plateau (HY, taken by SC)

met e rest for dinner, where we were e only guests in e only restaurant. a middle-aged Dusun guy came to our table & introduced himself as Gabriel, formerly of Sabah Parks & now working for Sutera Sanctuary Lodges, e company that runs all Kinabalu National Park accomodation. he invited us to watch a video about e park & attend a briefing about e climb at e function room. most people who climb Gunung Kinabalu by e Mesilau route are repeat climbers who have taken e shorter Timpohon route before. he seemed a little concerned that all of us were first-timers starting from Mesilau.

Yangchen & I heading for dinner, Mesilau pinnacles hidden by clouds (SC)	e only guests at e only restaurant (SC)	tree fern at e Renanthera restaurant terrace (HY)

in e function room we met Richard, e park warden & Gabriel's old friend. when told that we were not planning to hire any porters, they told us that Sutera Sanctuary Lodges would send any excess baggage that we didn't require for e climb over to be deposited at e Park HQ for free, a complimentary service for guests at Mesilau.

Gabriel offered us coffee & tea & told us e lengthy story behind e name 'Mesilau' as Angeline & a few others nodded off, & offered us good advice for e climb ahead. Rafflesias were not in season now, but he had just climbed up from Mesilau 3 days or weeks (cat memory loss) ago & had seen plenty of pitcher plants along e way.

according to him, e 5.7km from Mesilau to e intersection with e main Timpohon route would take about 5 hours, & from there it would be another 2-3 hours up to Laban Rata, making a total of 7-8 hours for e first day. he didn't know that 4 of e 7 of us are biologists, & that a 5th used to grow plants as a hobby, & thus grossly underestimated our fascination with e flora & fauna of Kinabalu National Park =P

in e end we probably set a record by taking almost 8 hours to complete e Mesilau trail & another 2 hours from e intersection to Laban Rata; this 8:2 ratio can be said to reflect e relative proportions of interesting species & spectacular scenery found along e 2 routes - Mesilau trail wins hands down!! guess our guide was fully made use of with us taking 10 hours of his time on day 1 & about 15 hours on day 2 *grin*

at e end of e briefing Gabriel wished us well & said that he would be praying for a safe journey & good weather for us =)