Kinabalu

I just arrived back at school after 9 days off - my first real holiday here in Malaysia. I headed east (to the far Far East) for the break...into the jungles of Borneo!

Borneo had big appeal to me before I came down here (I'd just read a book of short stories set in 19th century Borneo by Somerset Maugham), and I wanted to make it the first place I visited. The stars were aligned: there was an international climbing race down there that I wanted to give a shot, and a friend from school wanted to head down there as well.

We left directly after class on Friday, and by Friday night we'd checked in to a beautiful lodge at the bottom of Mount Kinabalu - the highest peak in South-East Asia. We were expecting something a bit more spartan, as you can tell by the look on Gord's face (right). Below is a photo of the mountain from the porch of our hotel room.






This was the mountain I was going to race up and down a week later, so on top of taking in the sights, I wanted to break in my legs and get acclimatized.

The hike was a beauty - if somewhat busy (it was a Malaysian national holiday). We had to camp out halfway up in a hut that was a bit more rustic and very cold (right), but we got an amazing sunset (below).


Both Gord and the guide wanted to start the hike to the summit at 3am, so we woke, layered up, and set off. When I made the summit (4095m), I realized that my camera's battery had gone!!!

Following the climb and some over-priced celebratory beers we hitch-hiked south to a small town from which we heard that you could climb Borneo's second highest peak. It ended up that despite being a forest reserve there were no maps available, and all guides insisted on a 4x4 ($200 CDN) ride to within a 5 hour hike of the summit. Some guides.

With money in our pockets, and our sore legs relieved of a second hike we put out our thumbs and got a long ride in the back of a pick-up to the capital - Kota Kinabalu. From there we rented a tent and headed out to a small island off the coast and camped out on a little secluded beach with monitor lizards and washed-up pop bottles for 3 days. We'd been tipped off that the snorkeling off of the island was excellent. We kept a fire going on the beach, lay in the sun, went hiking and swam in the coral: perfection.

After the island, Gord headed home to Kuala Lumpur and I turned back to the mountain. I shared a room with a guy who ran a half-marathon in 1:06 - Brunei's fastest distance runner. When he told me that I was in equal parts impressed by the man and terrified at what I'd gotten myself into. After a couple of stomach-turning days I found myself at dawn on the starting line. It was there that the organizer told us that we had to summit in 2.5 hours and be back at the finish line within 4.5 hours and that on average only 40% of the participants completed the race in time - the steepest one in the international mountain running series. I looked around me. My heart sunk. There were about 3 ounces of fat spread around the other runners in the men's category. Their calves were as big as my head.

In the end I got to the top in 2:18 and back down for a total of 4:02. And aside from my knees I'm feeling pretty good right now...I think my quads are still in disbelief.

As much as I enjoyed the break, I'm actually happy to be back here. I like my place, my students and my day-to-day back in KL. Most of all, I like my elevator.

trapped in paradise

I just realized the other day that I've been here for over a month. Almost a month and a half. I have a local bank account, a phone, a condo, a driver's license that works (actually just my Canadian License, but it works!) and I'm working on becoming a Malaysian "resident". That status, however, comes with some hitches...

If you're a "resident" you qualify for local taxes (15%) versus foreign taxes (28%) + being taxed again upon returning to Canada (I think). In order to become a resident you have to spend 182 days of the calendar year in Malaysia. However, once I arrived I realized that I only had something like 185 days left in the calendar year - you can do the math. I think I'm going to take some time to go south to Singapore for a weekend or two, but aside from that it's all Malaysia, all the time.


Fortunately, this is an interesting country.

I made it out for a walk in the jungle close by (the above photos), and I've crossed Peninsular Malaysia twice on my way to the east coast and the South China Sea (photos below). The sea is nearly blood warm and it has these amazing little creatures in it that are like underwater fireflies that light up when they sense motion around them. As you pass your hand through the water 10-20 of the little things start glowing and it looks like sparks are flying off of your hand. When they are caught in the breaking waves they light up and make the crashing waves glow. Last Saturday a bunch of us were nightswimming in the ocean as a lightning storm rolled in. All of the stars were covered so it was pitch black except for the glowing waves and the lightning breaking the sky over the ocean.


I have my first holiday coming up in a week and a half (9 days off). One of the other teachers and I are going northern Borneo to climb Mt. Kinabalu - South East Asia's highest mountain (4100m). After that I'm going to tour around the eastern end of Borneo for the week and then return to the mountain for the last weekend. I've signed up to compete in a race up and then back down Kinabalu. I've been running the stairs in my building to prep for it (which is one good thing about living in a condo). The mountain may be a painful climb, but at least it will be out of the heat! The photo below may give some idea of the power of the sun here. I've honestly walked around on a sunny day holding up my umbrella like a lumbering t-shirted geisha. Anyways, here's the link to the race website:

http://climbathon.sabahtourism.com/2008/


I should get back to work now. I like my students and I like what I'm teaching, but it's been busier than I expected. At times that seems like a good thing: I was on a 6 hour bus ride the other day listening to Sarah Harmer and started missing Kingston - something I haven't done in years. Whenever I think about canoing I get a little sad too - my Asian suburbia is a far cry from northern Ontario. Still, I have no serious regrets about coming, and I'm happy to be working/living here rather than wandering around South East Asia with a backpack - even thought that would be fun! With my "resident status" aspirations taken into account, the two seem as different as can be.