Konnichiwa!
That’s right, we are in Japan!
We’ve done a little travel since Ren was born: Vancouver, most of the East Coast from Maine to North Carolina in several trips back east, and Hawaii. Hawaii was like a dream, and we spent a week on Maui in November 2014, so when the opportunity arose to join Grant on a business trip to Tokyo, we jumped at it. Literally, since we bought our tickets just over a week ago, and now here we are! We are loving Japan, and Japan loves…Ren.
Ready for our first Dreamliner flight!
The flight yesterday went really well, and she charmed everyone on the plane and in the airport yesterday with her clownfish backpack. She was consistently greeted with “Nemo…kawaii!” She was in great spirits. Today she’s been making friends with her Hello Kitty hat on. I think Japan was made for adorable two year olds.
The hardest part of yesterday was the final 1.5 hours on the bus from Narita to Tokyo, Ren started strong but about 40 minutes into the ride (perhaps not coincidentally as the sun was setting) she started to crash hard. Can’t blame her as it was around 1 AM Seattle time and she had a normal nap on the plane around 4 PM Seattle time, so she was zonked. We were all very relieved to reach the hotel and get Ren into her crib, where she crashed around 7PM local time/2AM Seattle time. The grown ups stuck it out until around 8:30.
This morning we were up bright and early (around 4:15AM)! We decided to strike while the iron was hot (while the kid was energetic), and head to Tsujiki Fish Market. It’s a 10-15 minute walk to the actual subway station (Ebisu) closest to us, but luckily it was a straight shot on that line to the market. Ren dozed off on the subway, even though she had been really excited to take the “choo-choo”. We had her in the Beco carrier, which she was delighted to ride in again (it has been a few months since we’ve used it at home).
Yum!
Strolled around in a drizzle, dodging carts and trucks (it is a very busy area, and clearly a hard working market!), and spent most of our time in the Outside Market, which is stall after stall of fish, vegetables, restaurant supply stores, and tiny restaurants serving the freshest sushi. Had to take advantage of that, so once Ren woke up, we headed back to the one that had seemed the friendliest. The ground floor was packed, but the man outside waved us in, shouting orders to the people inside. They whisked us up a flight of stairs, to a tiny room with four tables. Very friendly people, colorful picture menu, and we both ordered miso soup and a chirashi bowl (rice with sashimi on top). Grant stuck to tamago, tuna, salmon, and minced fatty tuna (which Ren declared yummy), and I got a bit more adventurous with salmon,albacore, tuna, shrimp, sea cucumber?, and salmon roe (ikura). The biggest surprise and hit of the day for Ren was ikura, aka bubbles. She ate almost all of them (probably 3-4 healthy spoonfuls), along with a nice amount of the fatty tuna and two-thirds of my salmon. The restaurant loved her, and brought her a little teddy on a stick, and several people stopped by to say hi to her. She must feel like a rock star.
A little more wandering around, and we headed back to the hotel by 10, with a stop on the way for bunny bread – a little roll shaped like a bunny with chocolate chip eyes and chocolate pudding inside. That may become a regular treat!
Bunny bread
We’re certainly getting our exercise, walking around and carrying Ren in turns in the Beco! We’re working on our Japanese, and are saying Ohio (good morning), Arigato (thank you), and Sayonara (good bye), and trying to get Ren to say it too. The funniest thing she’s doing is responding to our requests for her to say Ohio with Ni hao! I guess the Mandarin stuck! It’s an extremely consistent response.
Namiyoke-jinja, Shinto shrine next to the market
Post nap, we headed to Harajuku to visit KiddyLand, a huge toy store. Something for us in the morning, something for her in the afternoon! We strolled down Omotesando, a broad avenue apparently sometimes referred to as Tokyo’s Champs-Élysées, and dodged the crowds until we found the store. We worked our way from the top floor down, since the top floor was Hello Kitty central, and Ren has a close, personal relationship with Ms. Kitty. Sure enough, we now own a Hello Kitty doll in a kimono, and a plate, washcloth, and toothbrush adorned with the cat. And, we have a very happy little girl currently snuggled up to the doll in her crib.
We were aiming for gyoza for a mid-afternoon meal (Dinner? My stomach has no idea where it is.), but at 2:15 PM there was quite a line at the restaurant that had been recommended, so we wandered the small side streets and made our way back to the JR station and on to Ebisu figuring that our quieter neighborhood might have some good choices around here. In Yebisu Garden Place, there were plenty of options, and Ren’s request was “bubbles”! Ok, more chirashi, and she ate almost all of my tuna, avocado, ikura bowl.
Not satiated, we detoured through Mitsukoshi, a big department store with food halls in the basement, on a quest for more bubbles. We found them, along with cherry blossom shaped rice crackers and an assortment of other kid approved treats including a teddy bear shaped bun. They were showing a film made in the plaza that we were walking through, and Ren watched a little and ran around to get her wiggles out before we headed back to the hotel by 5. She made it to 6:45 tonight, and has really been a trooper. She’s already looking forward to another choo-choo ride tomorrow.
It’s so much fun to see the world through her eyes. The silence in a Japanese subway car isn’t oppressive or intimidating to her, but a great opportunity to make funny noises and tell everyone that the train is going fast!
Evening view from our hotel room
Bikes and beaches in Bali
After a couple of days back in KL, Krista and I took off for six days in Bali. We had a pretty loose plan going into this, but we knew we wanted to start in Ubud (and had hotel reservations for the first two nights), do a bike tour through some rice paddies, and spend some time relaxing on a beach with great snorkeling. I’ll admit, my preconceived notions of Bali were mostly gleaned from Eat Pray Love, and I didn’t spend the time researching that I normally do. Did it matter? Not one bit.
View of the rice paddies
Ubud is known as the cultural heart of Bali, and I thought I’d fall in love with it and want to spend lots of time there. I liked using it as our base for exploring, but the town was more developed than I had naively expected and a couple days was just about right. Perfect base for a bike tour, and you can do as much or as little as you like. Temples and shopping galore, and a healthy dose of culture.
Thumbs up for Ubud
We jumped into the local cultural fare, and went to a shadow puppet performance. The plot was based on the Hindu epic of the Ramayana, which I had a little familiarity with from our trip to Cambodia and the murals we saw in Phnom Penh’s Silver Pagoda. Oh, and it’s probably important to note here that while Islam is the primary religion in Indonesia (practiced by about 88% of the population), about 83% of the population of Bali practices Hinduism. Well, the performance we saw wasn’t particularly reverent. They provided notes with which to follow the plot, and translated parts into English. The humor was pretty infantile, and it felt like they were assuming that tourists wouldn’t want to see a more traditional show, and the number of fart jokes they included finally drove us off. The imagery was really impressive though!
Shadow puppet show in Ubud
We chose Banyan Tree Bike Tours the next day for our bicycle adventure, and loved every minute of it. They picked us up at the hotel, and took us to a restaurant for breakfast (pineapple and banana pancakes – yum!) that had beautiful views of farms and rice paddies edging up mountain slopes.
View of central Bali
The next stop was a coffee and spice farm, where we tasted a dozen different types of tea and coffee including the (in)famous kopi luwak. Kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee, is highly prized by some for a flavor improved by a “fermentation” process…in the digestive system of a civet. We were brave enough to try it, and it did have a smoother, less acidic taste. It is mostly produced in Indonesia, and is ridiculously expensive. We bought a small sample pack for Grant, which we served to him before he heard this story. Safe to say, none of us really need to seek it out again, and we can check that off the bucket list.
Kopi luwak vs regular coffee
Krista looking slightly skeptical prior to tasting the kopi luwak
Next, they set us up on mountain bikes and our small group (just us and a family of three) set off on a very relaxed ride. Our route kept us on small back roads, cruising by houses, temples, and fields. We visited a Hindu temple preparing for a ceremony, pedaled along a narrow dirt track through rice paddies, and stopped for a perfectly refreshing hunk of watermelon by the side of the road. It was as idyllic as it sounds, and exactly what we had hoped for.
Biking through rice paddies
Just as the heat had us beat, we arrived at the end of our ride, and mopped our brows with cool damp towels as they took us onward to lunch. Lunch was at Bagi the owner’s home, and it was a family affair. Delicious food – probably the best we had in Bali, but then home-cooked meals always are. I said they should add cooking classes to their offerings, I would have signed right up! In the casual conversation over lunch, we said we were looking to head to the coast and asked for recommendations.
Everyone has an opinion on what you should see, and everyone is an entrepreneur in the making. No surprise, Bagi could help us out with this one. He agreed with us that our initial thought to head to the northeastern coast was a good plan for snorkeling, and he had a friend who worked at a hotel in Amed. Bagi himself was free to take us on a scenic drive around Mount Agung, and along the coast to Amed. We had taken a sweltering taxi ride from the airport to Ubud, so we confirmed and reconfirmed that his car had air conditioning, and booked ourselves on a private tour.
Gunung Kawi, carved out of the rock
On the way to Mount Agung the next day, we stopped at Gunung Kawi, an 11th century Hindu temple complex with shrines carved into rock walls. Set amid rice paddies and dipping down to a small creek, it was very peaceful with hardly any tourists. The 300 some steps to descend to get to it, and then to ascend to get back to the car might be a small deterrent for some, but we felt it was really worth it. It is important to be properly respectful to those who still worship here, so we borrowed sarongs to cover our legs and Bagi dripped holy water on our heads before we entered. Although the steps were lined with souvenir stands, once you entered the temple complex the atmosphere changed. The rocks and carvings were coated in moss, and the lush greenery added to the hushed worshipful feeling. I liked the juxtaposition of the huge scale of the carved shrines and the small offerings left throughout the complex.
Bagi, our tour guide
After our climb out of the temple complex, we drove even higher. Mount Agung is the highest point in Bali, and we’d gotten a few peeks at it as we drove along. It is popular to do a sunrise climb here, but after our Kinabalu climb we thought we deserved some relaxation. We stopped for lunch at a pretty nondescript restaurant, but it served up one impressive view! We lingered over pretty terrible food, just to soak it all in.
Mount Agung, the highest point in Bali
This was quite literally a high point for us, and the trip down the other side of the mountain on dirt roads was pretty exciting as well. We were thankful for both the AC and the four wheel drive of the SUV. After a long day in the car we arrived in Amed, and checked into the hotel that Bagi had recommended. It was a lovely place right across the road from the beach, and I think we were the only guests there. Just us and the geckos, that is.
Sunset in Amed, view from our hotel
We spent our days either on the beach or in the water, and were so happy we had bypassed the more popular and crowded beaches on the south coast. Amed attracts families and those looking for peace and quiet, which is about all you’ll find here. The local beach boys were very friendly and funny (favorite joke: How many sons do you have? I have two, sunrise and sunset!), and they invited us to join them in the evenings, but it was exhausting doing nothing and we enjoyed catching up on our sleep.
Our traditional outrigger boat
We snorkeled right off the beach, with equipment rented from the beach boys, but one day we took a trip by outrigger boat out to a “Japanese” wreck for a change of pace. The water was a bit polluted with floating trash, but it was neat to see the wreck (which probably isn’t actually a Japanese boat), and you could dive down towards it for a closer view. We saw tons of fish, including barracuda, and some really neat coral here.
Snorkeling on the Japanese wreck
All in all, the relaxed pace of life in Bali was a perfect way to wind down Krista’s trip.
Krista diving down to the Japanese wreck
Where have you been?
I‘m actually just back from a two and a half week adventure, that was my most nerve-wracking trip yet: traveling across the United States with a five month old baby. Happily, the trip was fantastic, and little Ren was a pro. It’s clear that she has inherited our love of travel, although it probably shouldn’t have been surprising since we trained her from the womb!
So, yes, I’m back. Why, after so long? When inspiration calls, you must answer. Okay, that’s the short, flip answer. Here’s the long, heartfelt one. Now, more than ever, I find myself intent on preserving memories. These days, they are mostly focused on my thirteen pound ball of fire, but I want her to know more about us as well, and I think we did some pretty neat things before she came along. I’ve enjoyed hearing more stories lately from my own parents and grandmother, triggered by the firsts we’re going through with Ren. This urge for documentation would probably have passed unrealized (babies take up much more time and space than you would think, relative to their size!), but then I got the best birthday present ever. It’s not actually my birthday yet, not until mid June, but Dad was gracious and excited enough to share his May birthday with me.
Some years it’s tough to figure out what to give him for his birthday, but this year we had three slam dunks: Mom gave him a small kinetic sculpture made with a 3D printer, that is really quite clever; Grant and I gave him a heart rate monitor that connects via Bluetooth to his tracking app for bike riding; and Ren gave him a cereal bowl with her handprint on it, so she can wave hello to him each morning. The fourth present on the table was a mystery to me…because it turned out to be for me!
Dad has some unique hobbies, and one that has developed over the past few years is publishing. Castle Knob Publishing has produced five, soon to be six, books. The sixth is a printed copy of this blog, complete with pictures. It’s not unusual for me to receive a book as a gift, but as you can imagine, unwrapping a proof copy of my own work really blew me away.
With the double motivation of wanting to record my memories, and having a physical solution that is halfway there, I’m picking up my pen (computer, iPad, whatever is within arms reach as Ren naps), and we’ll resume the stories of our adventures!
Ren and Grampy watching the planes at the airport
Getting back to nature in Sabah
Borneo is the third largest island in the world, and it’s divided between three countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, and itty-bitty Brunei. Two of the thirteen states of Malaysia are found on Borneo: Sabah and Sarawak. Mount Kinabalu is in the state of Sabah, so with Krista we continued our adventures there.
After climbing Kinabalu, we hobbled around Kota Kinabalu (the nearest city) for a couple of days. Krista spent one day scuba diving, and Grant and I took a speedboat out to Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. We weren’t up for much more than sitting on the beach, and luckily that was about all there was to do there. The park is made up of five small islands, that are largely populated by tourists and monitor lizards.
Huge monitor lizard on Pulau Manukan
It was really easy to get here, as the Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal in Kota Kinabalu has a dozen different speedboat operator stands with hourly departures. It was a nice treat to be able to enjoy the beach without any planning.
Recovering next to the South China Sea
Grant left us in Kota Kinabalu to go back to work, and Krista and I continued to make our way around KK, going blocks out of our way to avoid having to step up or down high curbs. On the whole, I didn’t feel that there is much to recommend for Kota Kinabalu itself, other than proximity to the natural wonders like Mount Kinabalu. We were happy to move on to the second part of our trip near Sandakan, and surprised to see our old friend Lowe’s Peak out of the window on our flight!
Mount Kinabalu peeking through the clouds as we flew over
We landed at Sandakan, and went straight to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. There are two places in Borneo where you can see the wild orangutans being fed, one in Sarawak and this one in Sabah. At this point I’ve visited both, and I think Sepilok has a more serious approach to it. At Sepilok, we had to lock up all of our belongings, and could only keep our cameras with us so that there was no chance of a forgotten granola bar or water bottle distracting the orangutans while they fed. The experience began with a brief presentation from a ranger and a short video talking about the work being done at the center, which helped to set the stage for what we were about to see.
Just hanging out
Sepilok was established in 1964, and there are about 60-80 orangutans living on the 43 sq. kilometers of land that make up their reserve. We had heard reports from people we’d met that during their visit they’d only seen two orangutans, and had been underwhelmed by the experience. It might have helped that we tried to keep our expectations low but we were really excited and impressed by it! The feeding platform is out along a boardwalk, and we were lucky enough to be standing right in the front. There are lots of ropes and smaller platforms for the orangutans to approach/feed on, and it took a little while for them to show up, but in the end we saw seven or eight of them plus dozens of long tail macaques. I probably took seven or eight hundred photos too, but I’m trying to show some restraint here.
Monkeying around
Got milk?
After the orangutans had eaten their fill (pretty bland food, bananas and milk, to encourage them to go forage for more interesting things to eat), we were on to our next stop: the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge. Just getting there was quite the experience, as it really is in the middle of nowhere, but after a long and bumpy minivan ride followed by a short boat ride we had arrived. They offer very basic accommodations on the banks of the Kinabatangan River, but the point of staying here isn’t to stay inside, it is to get out! They go on evening and morning boat trips up the river searching for wildlife, and out of the many animals commonly seen we were really hoping to spot some proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants. Luck was with us! On that evening’s cruise, we saw orangutans in the wild and lots of monkeys, including both harem and bachelor groups of proboscis monkeys – who really do have some of the funniest looking faces.
Nosy little monkey
As we were just giving up on seeing the pygmy elephants that evening, the muffled cry went up from another boat, and our captain swung around to check it out. Success! Three of them appeared in the foliage on the far bank, coming down to the river for a drink. This was the first time I’ve seen elephants in the wild, and it was pretty exciting. I can’t imagine exactly what they thought of the two boats full of tourists jockeying to take their picture as they came down to the river for their nightcap, but we certainly were grateful that they had made an appearance!
Pygmy elephant!
Still tired from our climb, we crashed early that night, but we were up for the 6 am river cruise to keep looking for more animals. The morning was foggy, and we saw more birds than anything else, but it was a nice relaxing way to end our wildlife quest.
Early morning mists on the Kinabatangan
All in all, we definitely enjoyed our time in Sabah, and if you’re looking for immersion in nature with a healthy dose of wildlife sightings, this is a great destination. The cities that we visited weren’t very impressive, but you hopefully are not going to spend much of your time in them while in Sabah anyway!
Catching up…
I know, it has been forever since I’ve updated this blog, but don’t worry – in the meantime we’ve done lots of things to share here! We’ve been hosting a steady stream of visitors since Krista kicked everything off in April/May, and now believe it or not, we’re in the final stretch of our time in KL. In fact, Grant is booking my return ticket to the US as I type. I’ll be headed back (first to Maryland) at the end of October, and Grant is expecting to return when his project ends around November 15th. I think everyone who reads this blog already knows, but we’re expecting our first child at the end of December, and it’s funny but the airlines don’t like the idea of a really pregnant lady on a 25+ hour flight! Honestly, I don’t really like the idea either, but what can I do.
Highlights from the past few months that I’ll work on posting about:
- Sabah and Bali with Krista in May
- Beijing and Sarawak with my parents in July
- KL & Singapore with Brenna and Mark in July
- Vietnam with Grant, his parents and Blythe in August
- Phuket with Blythe in September
- Singapore for the F1 race with Grant in September
Then there’s our last big trip while we’re here, which we just booked yesterday. We’re leaving on October 11th for five days in the Maldives and four days in Sri Lanka! Go big or go home, right? Or should it be go big and then go home? Bear with me, and I’ll put up as many stories and pictures as I can in the meantime.
My favorite pose!
Climbing Kinabalu
Mount Kinabalu is an UNESCO World Heritage site, and the highest mountain in SouthEast Asia, reaching 4,095 meters or 13,435 feet at Low’s Peak. It’s located in the state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo about a two hour flight from KL. Grant and I had been interested in climbing it during our time in Malaysia, and when my friend Krista started planning her trip to visit us, we knew immediately that she’d be interested too!
Timpohon Gate, smiles before the hike
In planning this, I’d gone my typical route in trying to book the pieces independently. This was a little tough to do, as there are a lot of components required: local guide, insurance and permits, and last but not least mid-peak lodging. Lodging was tough to come by, as most of it seems to be booked immediately by tour providers. Krista had the eminently logical (but entirely surprising to me) idea of trying to book through a tour company. Genius! We were limited to a weekend so Grant could go, and the only organization that had availability for our preferred dates was Mountain Torq.
Mountain Torq manages the world’s highest Via Ferrata. Grant was familiar with this concept, and I’d actually heard about it in relation to Kinabalu and written it off with my crippling fear of heights in mind: Via Ferrata means “iron road” and it’s a mountain route with fixed rungs, cables, and footholds. It’s superficially similar to rock climbing, but you don’t have to place any gear yourself or have any technical skills – in some places you’re actually just climbing down ladder rungs bolted into the side of the mountain while both roped on and clipped on to safety cables.
Hardware on the Via Ferrata
To book with Mountain Torq and to stay in their mid-mountain hut, you have to pay for a Via Ferrata segment (no obligation to actually do it, but you’re paying for it anyway). I wrapped my head around this, and decided that the shorter route sounded like something I could actually do: Walk the Torq, a 1-2 hour (430 meter) route starting at 3,521 meters and descending 109 meters towards the Laban Rata lodging area. The overall plan was to get to the area on Friday night, check in at the base of the mountain by 7:30 am on Saturday, April 21, hike for 6 km and get to our lodging by mid-afternoon in time for the safety briefing from Mountain Torq. Mandatory early bedtime that night for everyone with lights out by 8 pm, and a 1:45 am wake up call to get us up in time to summit for the sunrise, followed by a detour on the descent for the Via Ferrata routes, and then back down to the base of the mountain.
Gampat and the trail map
Everything actually went according to plan! We were so eager to get going that we were at the Mountain Torq office before they opened, and we quickly got all of the necessary paperwork completed and were assigned a guide, Gampat, who has summited more than a hundred times. A short drive took us to the trailhead of the Timpohon Gate trail, and we started off. We did the first three kilometers through a shady rainforest in an hour and a half, and we were surprised by the rest facilities present about every kilometer along the trail – roofed pavilions with flush toilets and a water supply! The next three kilometers were considerably steeper, and we certainly understood why they suggested training for this hike by doing lots of stairs. This part of the climb had scrubbier trees, and uneven stones that made for a tiring climb. We made it to Laban Rata at an elevation of 3273 meters and the Mountain Torq Pendant Hut at 1:15, after four hours and fifteen minutes of hiking. Perfect timing, since it started pouring rain shortly thereafter.
Krista on a typical section of the trail
We were thrilled to have hot showers and we sat around drinking plenty of tea to warm up, because it actually had gotten pretty chilly at that elevation. I was glad to have brought my fleece jacket to Malaysia! There were several dorm rooms, and I think each room had about eight people in it. It was a pretty congenial group overall, and we got a thorough safety briefing later that afternoon to prepare for the Via Ferrata, including a demonstration of how to safely transfer the rope and carabiners along the route. Krista is an adventure hungry thrill seeking cliff hanger (seriously, it says that on the official certificate that proves she lives life on the edge!), and decided to opt for the world-record setting Low’s Peak Circuit. Grant stuck with me on the Walk the Torq route; I’m pretty sure it says somewhere in those marriage vows that he can’t abandon me on the side of a mountain.
For better or for worse...
The rain finally let up briefly, and we were surprised to find legitimate waterfalls gushing down the exposed faces of the mountain, but we made it to the main hut for an early dinner and we were all sound asleep around 7 pm, resting up for the next big day. 1:45 came quickly, and we geared up with our headtorches (in the local parlance) in place. We’d heard rain throughout the night, but were lucky in that it was dry for our trek to the summit. The first stretch was wooden staircases built over the mountain, which gave way to the bare rock face with a white rope secured to it to help you pull yourself up some of the steeper sections.
Summit of Low's Peak
My fear of heights and adrenaline kicked in together, and I felt like my heart would leap out of my chest for a lot of this. Gampat was my savior at this point and while Krista led the way, he held my hand tightly and steadily walked me up the slope. This was my first nighttime summit, and it was bizarre to only see within the scope of my headlamp which left me imagining the worst: steep dropoffs and who knows what else in the dark. The landscape was eerily lunar in nature, and we somehow managed to outpace almost everyone else on our way, so it was also pitch black. Looking behind us, we could see a bobbing line of lights following the trail, looking like monks on a pilgrimage. Shockingly, because I kept crouching down to pat the rocks and reassure myself that I was on solid granite and to try and get my heart back out of my throat, we were among the first to the summit – top ten out of the 150 or so to attempt the summit that day. We got there around 4:45, and had a little over an hour to wait for dawn.
Sunrise from Mount Kinabalu
It was freezing up there, and we snugged down into the rocks for protection from the wind. Happily, the sunrise was inspiring, and the view above the clouds was worth every ounce of effort. The walk back down to our Via Ferrata meeting point was comparably a walk in the park, and we sauntered down the slope I had hesitatingly staggered up with Gampat. He really was my rock, and he still took my hand to help me through the tougher sections.
All smiles after the summit
We left Krista at the higher Via Ferrata, and Grant and I continued down to the lower meeting point to suit up in our harnesses. As we looked back up the slope, we could make out her group above us and while I was excited for her to have such a thrilling experience, I was really happy to be walking further down the mountain! Grant was the leader for our group, and set a good pace – slow enough for me to follow without feeling rushed, and fast enough for me to stay focused on the repetitive movement of moving my safety equipment along the cable.
Me on the Via Ferrata
I actually liked the vertical descent better than the traverse, because the ladder rungs and footholds made it easy to relax into the mountain. The scariest part was a two wire bridge – one wire above your head to hold onto while you walked along the other like a tightrope. One deep breath, and I made it across, shaking and not looking down! Just as we finished our Via Ferrata it started to rain; Krista got hit with the rain while she was still on her route, and got soaked. Grant and I had plenty of time to dry out while we waited to meet her at the hut, and before long we packed up and set out to finish the descent.
Krista leading her group down the Via Ferrata
It continued to rain lightly on us, but the bigger challenge was in navigating the rocky steps which were now wet and slippery, and in some places had turned into shallow waterfalls. It was a brutally slow climb down, and my knees were giving out before we reached the end. The last short stretch was actually uphill, and I’ve never been happier to change direction! We were all so achy and sore for the next few days that as Krista and I were sightseeing around Kota Kinabalu, we actually walked two blocks out of our way to avoid a particularly high curb. All in all, really tough climb, but extremely rewarding and we’re all happy we did it!
Me and my new boyfriend Gampat. It's a good thing Grant's not a jealous guy.
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