Sabah – East Malaysia

After planning this trip more than 3 times Gabi and I finally made it to Sabah, East Malaysia.  Kota Kinabalu was our first stop and from there it was over to climb Mt Kinabalu and then onto the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary before returning for a rest at a nice beach resort just north of Kota Kinabalu.

Sunset over Kota Kinabalu from Signal Hill.

We discovered some interesting architecture whilst exploring Kota Kinabalu including the oldest standing structure in Sabah, the Atkinson Clock Tower. It has survived the destruction of Jesselton town, now called Kota Kinabalu, during World War II and is a wooden structure built in 1903 with no nails.

The mighty Mt Kinabalu with it’s summit at 4095.2m above sea level. It took us 4hrs hard slog to reach the over night stop at Laban Rata in the bottom right picture.  Laban Rata is the white speck just above the vegetation line in the top image.

An amazing sunset seen from Laban Rata heli pad at 3273m above sea level.

After a chilly trek to the summit, it seemed we were in luck with clear skies for the sunrise.  However, the mountain had different ideas and as the sun came up the mist rolled in and visibility was restricted to only a few hundred feet.  Once we started descending the low clouds disappeared and some of the peaks became visible. The top and right image are of South Peak (which can also be seen on the Malaysian 1 Ringgit note) and the middle image is Donkey Ears peak.  The left hand image is what can only be described as an endless steep rock ramp.  It’s difficult to comprehend how steep and vast this area was so I tried to give the image some scale by including the people in the shot.

And finally we got to see some wild, or should I say rehabilitated, Orangutans in their own jungle environment. I also managed to get a couple of close up shots of a cheeky Macaque monkey who decided to play havoc with the tourists.  He could see his reflection in my lens, so he looked right down the barrel for me.

Overall, we had an adventurous and educational trip to Sabah. It’s a great place to visit, the people are friendly and helpful and I would highly recommend it.