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Sarawak, Brunei,
Sabah,
Kelantan and Terengganu
Part 3
22-
23.8: Munich -> KL
24.8: KL -> Kuching
25.8: Kuching
26.8: Kuching
-> Bako NP
27.8: Bako ->
Kuching -> Miri
28.8: Miri ->
Mulu NP
29.8: Mulu NP
-> Miri
30.8: Miri ->
Belaga
31.8: Belaga
-> Sibu -> Miri
1.9: Miri ->
Bario
2.9: Bario
3.9: Bario ->
Brunei
4.9:
Brunei -> Mt Kinabalu NP
5.9: Park HQ
-> Laban Rata
6.9: Laban Rata
-> Mt Kinabalu -> Kota Kinabalu
7.9: Kota Kinabalu
-> Kota Belud -> Kota Bharu
8.9: Kota Bharu
-> Perhentian
9.9: Perhentian
island
10.9: Perhentian
island
11.9: Perhentian
-> Redang
12.9: Redang
-> Kuala Terengganu -> KL
13.9: KL ->
Ayutthaya
14.9: Ayutthaya
-> Munich
Continues
from Part 2
30.8: Miri -> Belaga
(via Bintulu)
Budget Belaga
hotel, 25 RM for a double room with no windows but with A/C, bathroom
but
no shower; the water comes intermittently - but what can you expect for
RM 25 ?
Weather: It
has rained during the night. In the morning in Miri it's sunny with
some
clouds in the sky. So far the weather has been perfect, with all rain
happening
during the night and none during the day. Also in Belaga the sun shines
the whole day (it's very hot and the sun is very strong)
GSM coverage
(Belaga): surprisingly TMTouch (strong signal) - who would have
believed
that ?
We get up at 6am. I'm flying to Bintulu
at 8:30am, while Shirley is flying to KL via Kuching at 8:40am. The
plane
I'm on (a Fokker 50) leaves on time from Miri airport and is quite full
(only a few seats are still available).
The Bintulu airport, probably very
new too, looks like an exact copy of the Miri one. In the plane to
Belaga
(a Twin Otter) there are just two other passengers besides me: a Czech
couple which is travelling across Malaysia for three months.
The airport in Belaga is basically
just an airstrip with a small building nearby. There is apparently no
control
tower. We land at 11:34am, a few minutes ahead of schedule. A group of
people is there to greet us - no wonder - just three visitors arrived
this
time. To get to Belaga city you have to take a boat as there are no
roads
connecting the airport to the town. The boat trip takes 20 minutes.
Again
the sun is incredibly strong and hot. The boatsman tells us that right
now it is dry season in Sarawak, but the boat service to Kapit is still
operating. The only problem is that the boat now leaves at 6am - not at
8am as written in my guide book. Will have to get up 5am tomorrow.
At the jetty in Belaga a friend of
the boatsman is waiting for us. This guy owns a guesthouse (the Budget
Belaga hotel) where I end up taking a double room with A/C. With the
boatsman
I agree to do a boat tour in the afternoon - two longhouses and a
waterfall
for RM 100. The price seems a bit high, but the boatsman insists that
the
fuel is very expensive etc. He is by the way the father of six
children,
so let's make a small donation and support a local.
After lunch in the Budget Belaga
hotel (fried rice which I can't finish as it contains too much chilli),
I wait for the boatsman. We were supposed to leave at 1:30pm, but he
doesn't
show up. Then after half an hour he shows up and we finally manage to
leave
at 2:15pm (when leaving he offers his friends an alcoholic drink - kind
of a good fate ceremony ?).
The boatsman by the way is a Kenyah
and we will visit the longhouses of his family and of his wife's
family.
It takes only 15 minutes to reach the first longhouse. This longhouse
is
a bit modern (was built in 1969) and the people there are quite modern
too, have electricity, TVs etc. I was kind of hoping to find some more
rural, original people, but it looks that even Belaga is too close to
the
civilisation. No wild people wearing ancient tribal dresses.
Several longhouse inhabitants don't
like being photographed. Kind of understandable - these longhouses get
many tourists and I'd guess that some of these locals must be feeling
like
animals in a zoo. By the way, while visiting the longhouses we
distribute
the gifts the boatsman told me to buy (ballons and sweets for the
children).
At 3:50pm we leave the last longhouse
and head towards the waterfall. The boatsman first heads back to Belaga
and from there he drives the boat upriver into another river (Belaga is
at the confluence of the Rejang river and another river. After almost
40
minutes and after passing some rapids, we finally stop somewhere and
start
a brief climb. After 15 minutes we reach the waterfall (not much of a
waterfall
actually - the thing is 5m high). The boatsman swims a bit then we go
back.
We reach Belaga at 5:40pm.
In the evening I just go out briefly
for dinner in a Chinese restaurant (RM 3.50 for a noodle soup with
chicken
and a coke - one of the cheapest dinners I've ever had in Malaysia).
The
whole town is pretty much firmly in Chinese hands - most shops and
restaurants
are owned by Chinese people. Makes me wonder why on earth there are so
many Chinese in a place like Belaga.
Tomorrow I'll get up at 5am to catch
the 6am boat to Kapit and Sibu. I think I'll take a rest in Bario -
will
do nothing there for two days.
31.8: Belaga -> Sibu -> Miri
Crown Prince
Inn, Miri (somewhere downtown): 56 RM, (smallish) double room with A/C,
bath & hot shower, fridge, TV, decently furnished, although the
furniture
is a bit old; outside it's a bit noisy. I choose this place as the
other
10 hotels I call are all fully booked (see below).
Weather: fresh
in the morning in Belaga, not too hot in Sibu; clouded with some
sunshine
every now and then; no rain
GSM coverage:
TMTouch has coverage in Belaga, Kapit, Sibu and Miri
Last night the owner of the hotel
woke me up at midnight to collect the room rent, as I'm leaving early
(his
wife refused to take the money from me). Anyway, I manage to get up at
5am and be at the jetty at 6am. When the boat leaves at 6:20am it's
still
dark and quite fresh. In the boat itself it's freezing, as the boat
owner
turned on the A/C to the maximum, without taking into account that
outside
it's not hot at all. The boat itself is a bullet - or cigar-shaped
speedboat
(reaches Kapit in just 3:40 hours!).
This speedboat ride is probably the
coolest thing I've done so far. Until Kapit the boat passes through
relatively
less civilised territory, with settlements and longhouses every now and
then along the river. It is possible to stay outside, as the boat doors
are left open. The coolest thing is when we reach the rapids near
Pelagus
and when the boat driver has to quickly manouver to avoid rocks and
does
fast turns (between Belaga and Kapit the Rejang river is still a bit
rough).
I guess it must be even more fun to do the ride in the rainy season
when
the river carries more water.
The boat reaches Kapit at 10am and
stops there for 15 minutes. After that the journey continues. The more
downstream we go the larger and smoother the Rejang river gets.
We reach Sibu at 1pm. The immediate
problem is where to put the backpack, as my flight to Miri is only at
6:30pm.
Since it's lunchtime and I'm quite hungry, I take a taxi to the New
Capitol
restaurant. This is supposed to be one of the better places in town. I
order lemon chicken and explain that the chicken meat should be without
skin and without bones. This is necessary as in the original, not
westernised
Chinese restaurants they serve dishes with small pieces of chicken with
meat, skin and bone. You are supposed to eat the skin and spit out the
pieces of bone onto the table.
In spite of my efforts to explain
what I want they still serve me pieces of chicken meat with skin and
bones.
Either they don't know that chicken filet exists or perhaps they don't
want to serve it to a foreigner.
After lunch I leave my bags in the
restaurant and stroll through Sibu. It's not too hot, so it's possible
to walk on the streets. There is a Chinese temple along the waterfront,
the Tua Pek Kong temple. The Lonely Planet of 1999 which I'm using
explains
that the temple has a caretaker who will give you a crash course of
Taoism.
And indeed when I walk into the temple
I get adopted by Mr. Tan Teck Chiang, the caretaker of the temple. He
starts
teaching me Taoism. Actually quite interesting and since I have some
time
to kill I have a chat with him. Taoism interests me also personally, as
my wife is Tao (she is Malaysian Chinese). After a while chatting with
this very friendly guy, I've got enough and my supply of time is
getting
less unlimited, so I politely put an end to the conversation and climb
on top of the temple. Very nice view of Sibu.
After that I have a look at the market
between the temple and the Sibu harbour. Around 5pm I'm back in the
restaurant
to fetch my bags and then take a taxi to the airport (RM 27). The
airport
in Sibu is relatively old and less imposing compared to the ones of
Bintulu
and Miri.
The flight leaves on time at 6:30pm
and reaches Miri 55 minutes later. In Miri there are big problems
finding
a room. I call about 10 mid-class hotels and they are all fully booked.
Finally I manage to find a room in the Crown Prince Inn with the help
of
the airport staff. The taxi driver later explains me that today, August
31st, is National Day in Malaysia and politicians from all over Sarawak
meet in Miri today for celebrations - which is why most hotels are
fully
booked.
1.9: Miri -> Bario
(Kelabit highlands)
Tarawe's Inn,
Bario: room with three beds (and nothing else), RM 15/night, no A/C,
shared
bathroom, water bowl for tooth brushing is the one in the kitchen. This
is the highly recommended place in the Lonely Planet of 1999 (don't
have
the newer edition). According to the 1999 LP, John Tarawe, the owner,
married
to a British woman, runs this place and will provide you with a lot of
information and maps of Bario. Food should have also been available.
Well,
this place has seen better days. When I arrive, John is not it, his
brother
says he is no longer married to this British woman, they serve no food
and they have no maps of the area. Looks like the place to be now is
Gem
Lodge, run by Jaman Riboh, a lodge 6km out of Bario, in the jungle. By
the way, Tarawe's Inn has only electricity from 6:30pm until 10pm.
At 9pm I check
out of Tarawe's and move into the Bariew Lodge (see below).
Weather: sunny
in Miri in the morning, overcast in Bario, but no rain; in the
afternoon
the sun starts shining through. Fresh - the temperature in Bario is
23°C.
GSM coverage
(Bario): no GSM coverage
In the morning I find out that the
Crown Prince Inn charges 30 sen/minute for local calls - three times
the
standard rate. They charge me 18.50 RM for one hour of surfing the
Internet
(local call). Never mind...
I get a taxi to the airport and fetch
the plane to Bario at 9:35am. There are four empty seats in the plane,
in spite of the fact that the flight was fully booked. It turns out
that
travel agents block seats with fictional passengers, and don't release
them even if they don't use them. According to what I hear MAS can do
nothing
about this.
We reach Bario airport at 10:25 am.
Surprise, surprise, the airport is much more developed than the one of
Belaga (the runway is of concrete). I get a pickup truck to Tarawe's
Inn
(see above). This place doesn't seem to get too many visitors - right
now
I'm the only one. After settling down and going out I meet Jaman Riboh,
the owner of the Gem Lodge, with whom I had a chat at the airport. He
explains
me a bit Bario and shows me a restaurant (actually a shop where you can
eat something). So I have some lunch. Once back in Tarawe's lodge I
meet
the brother of John Tarawe. He offers to be my guide tomorrow. For RM
60
he will show me some places for the whole day.
Around 1pm I start walking around
Bario village. Everywhere there are rice fields and women planting
rice.
Lots of water buffaloes also - people here don't use tractors. As
the owner of the restaurant explains me in the evening, the Bario rice
is famous for its quality - it's even better than rice from Thailand.
Tomorrow
I'll give it a try.
It's not too hot and the sky is overcast,
so walking is easy. I manage to get past the village and until into a
forest
(no leeches by the way), until the path gets very muddy forcing me to
turn
back. I'm back in Tarawe's at 4:30pm. I only walked for three hours but
am quite tired. I take a rest until about 7pm.
It gets dark... and the generator
isn't switched on. They explain me that the generator is broken and
that
they are trying to fix it. Great. Imagine being in a dark room without
power. Never mind, I wait one more hour in the room.
Then I go down again. They are all
there having dinner with the emergency light. This time they explain
that
the generator probably won't work the whole night. So I go out and
start
looking for another guesthouse and indeed find one, which does have
electricity.
But it's 9:20pm and they have power only until 10pm and I need at least
three hours to recharge the batteries of my notebook. But for RM 15 (RM
5/hour) they can keep the generator running for three more hours.
Suddenly
it becomes clear why there is no power in Tarawe's place. If
electricity
costs RM 5/hour, they would spend RM 20 for the four hours in the
evening
and at the moment they only have one paying customer for RM 15/night.
No
point switching on the generator for just one customer - they would
lose
money.
Anyway I check out of Tarawe's and
check in this new lodge - which indeed is a much better place. The
Lonely
Planet should remove Tarawe's Inn from the list of recommended places.
Accomodation
in Bario (brief overview September 2003)
Tarawe's
Inn
Manager: Tarawe brothers
Located centrally in Bario town,
RM 15/night per person, rooms with three beds, shared bath and toilet,
no A/C, water sink in the kitchen, no food provided; no electricity at
night. Not recommended.
Bariew
Lodge
Manager: Reddish
Aran
Address: Kelabit Highlands, Bario,
98050 Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia
Located centrally in Bario town,
RM 15/night per person, rooms with three beds, shared bath and toilet,
no A/C; food provided if you want to eat here (costs extra), helpful
staff,
electricity from 6:30pm until 10pm. This is the best place to stay if
you
want to be in Bario town.
Gem's
Lodge
Manager: James
Jaman Riboh
Address: Pa' Umor, Bario, Kelabit
Highlands, P.O.Box 5, 98050 Bario, Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia (Phone:
019-8553546
in Kuching)
Near the Pa' Umor longhouse in a
beautiful setting in the forest, RM 20/night per person, rooms with
three
beds, shared bath and toilet, no A/C; food provided (costs extra) (and
you'll have to eat here as the place is 6 Km from Bario and from the
next
restaurant), helpful staff, electricity from 6:30pm until 10pm. This
looks
like the best place of the Bario valley; only drawback is that it is 6
Km out of town (but very peaceful in an idyllic setting)
De
Plateau
Lodge
Manager: Douglas
Munney Bala, http://www.kelabit.net
3 Km out of Bario along the road
to the Pa' Ukat longhouse, in a peaceful setting, RM 20/night per
person
including breakfast, rooms with three beds, shared bath and toilet, no
A/C; food provided (costs extra) (and you'll have to eat here as the
place
is 3 Km from Bario and from the next restaurant), helpful staff,
electricity
from 6:30pm until 10pm (?). This place is new and is still being
developed
by Douglas and his wife. |
2.9: Bario
Bariew Lodge,
RM 15/day per person, my room has three beds, no attached bath, no A/C
(there is no need in Bario); shared (cold) showers and toilets; nice
meeting
room; friendly owner; they will cook food for you if you want
Weather: a
mix of overcast and sunny the whole day; very strong sun when it shines
through; not too hot unless you are in the sun; very brief shower at
3pm,
then it starts raining at 8pm and it is still raining when I'm writing
this (10pm)
No GSM coverage
I sleep until late and get up at
10am. When I'm ready and have taken a freezing shower, it's already
after
11am. As I'm about to start my day and get out of the lodge I run into
Reddish who just came back from the airport looking for new tourists.
He
grins and greets me with a "Good afternoon", I reply "Good evening" and
smile. They (Reddish and three other tourists staying in the lodge) are
on their way to the Bario school, which has Internet access, to check
their
email. I join them and check my email (Internet access is RM 4/hour).
Once
back in the lodge I ask Reddish what I could do in the afternoon. He
says
I might do a walk to the Pa' Umor and Pa' Ukat longhouses. Since I'm
not
familiar with the Bario valley and don't want to get lost I ask for a
guide.
Rose, a local Kelabit, will show me around in the afternoon for RM 40.
I have lunch again in the same place
(the shop/restaurant owned by the Chinese/Kelabit couple, near the
Bario
Telecentre. I tell the owner that I'd like to try the Bario rice in the
evening. At 1:30pm we start our walk. There
is no cloud cover anymore and the strong sun is now shining directly,
but
walking is still ok. We are heading towards the Pa'Umor longhouse.
Interestingly
the scenery resembles very much the one in the Bako NP. The ground is
sandy
(why is there sand here in the mountains ?) and the vegetation is
similar.
Everywhere there are pitcher plants (Nepentes).
At about 3pm we reach Pa' Umor and
walk into the nearby Gem's Lodge. Just in time to avoid the rain which
comes all of a sudden very heavily, but only lasts for a few minutes.
Gem's
lodge is very nice and lies in an idyllic setting in the forest. We
have
a chat with the owner/manager, Jaman. Apparently there are very few
tourists
coming to Bario, but there are plans to increase their numbers, mainly
by addressing local Malaysian tourísts.
At 3:50pm we leave the lodge and
visit the nearby Pa' Umor longhouse. There is a church and an airstrip.
By the way, so far I haven't met a single leech. But I heard that there
should be many deeper in the jungle. 20 minutes later we continue the
trek, this time heading to the Pa' Ukat longhouse. The path becomes
small
and very muddy (my shoes get wet), as we cross the jungle.
It takes one hour of fast walk to
reach Pa' Ukat. We stop briefly, have a chat with the local villagers,
take some photos and then continue the trek this time back to Bario.
When
we leave Pa' Ukat it's already 5:20pm and we have to rush a bit in
order
to be back before dark.
On the way back we briefly stop at
the De Plateau lodge (see above). We are finally back in Bario at
6:30pm.
In the evening I have a dinner with Bario rice in the shop/restaurant
where
I usually go. In the evening it rains from 8pm to 11pm.
3.9: Bario -> Miri ->
Limbang -> Bandar Seri Begawan
(Brunei)
Jubilee Hotel,
Bandar Seri Begawan, 70 B$, nice room with A/C, bath with hot shower,
telephone,
fridge, cable TV, breakfast and transfer to the airport included. Good
value for a hotel in Brunei and good location also (was prepared to
spend
upwards of 100 B$ for a hotel room, and was positively surprised by the
lower rate.
Weather: rain
in the morning in Bario until about 9am and quite cool, overcast sky
the
whole day; still overcast in Miri, Limbang and Brunei, but no rain in
the
afternoon and evening in Brunei
GSM coverage:
local Brunei GSM operator
It's raining heavily in the morning.
I'm ready with my bags at 9am - flight to Miri is scheduled at 10:20am,
at 1:20pm I have a connecting flight to Limbang. At 9:30am we leave for
the airport. Due to the bad weather conditions the flight to Miri is
delayed,
but luckily not cancelled. These small Twin Otter planes are not that
suitable
for bad weather conditions (heavy rain). As the time passes and the
plane
from Miri is still not landing, I start getting a bit nervous, because
I have the connecting flight to Limbang in Miri at 1:20pm.
Finally the plane lands and about
half an hour later, at 11:55am the Twin Otter takes off. We reach
Marudi
at 12:28pm and there the plane fills up with passenger for the route
Marudi-Miri
(on the route Bario-Marudi the plane was almost empty). The baggage guy
in Marudi almost unloads our baggage in Marudi (mine and that of
another
traveller) - we stop him at the last moment. We take off again, arrive
in Miri airport at 12:55pm, where I immediately rush with the bags to
the
check-in counter. Luckily they check me in (the flight to Limbang is
delayed
anyway).
After another flight in the Twin
Otter (I'm starting to get tired of these small planes) I arrive in the
small airport of Limbang. There I fetch a taxi to the harbour (RM 5).
The
problem now is that the speedboat to Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) costs RM
15, but only if the boat is full of passengers. Since apparently I'm
the
only passenger they want to charge me RM 150 for the half hour trip to
BSB. The alternatives would be a) wait until there are enough
passengers
to fill the boat (it's 3pm and I'd like to do some sightseeing of BSB
before
dark) or b) drive by taxi to the border in Kuala Lura (RM 50) and there
fetch a bus to BSB (and the bus is going to take 2 hours!). So I
negotiate
down the price to RM 100 and after going through immigration I leave on
a speedboat to BSB.
I reach the jetty of BSB at about
3:30pm, go through immigration and get a two weeks visa (will only stay
one day though). Then I walk out and start looking for a bank with an
ATM.
I'm lucky and nearby there is a Citibank branch (where I can withdraw
cash
with no fees).
Then I start looking for a hotel.
After walking a bit around and finding nothing I start looking for a
taxi.
And that's not so easy. It takes me about 15 minutes to find one. I
tell
the driver to go to the Jubilee hotel (listed in the Lonely Planet of
1999
as one of the relatively affordable ones). The taxi has no meter and
the
ride costs 5 B$.
In the hotel I'm surprised by the
relatively low rate. After unloading my things I start my walking tour
of BSB at 4:30pm.
I'm positively impressed by what
I see. Based on the stories I heard, BSB was supposed to be a boring,
sterile
place with nothing to see. Instead it's a very nice and interesting
town,
with many nice buildings and a comfortable and laid-back atmosphere.
It's
also relatively clean and elegant. An affluent place, as everybody is
driving
good quality cars (mostly Japanese ones). People are very friendly. I
guess
all these bad reports must have come from disgruntled oil industry
workers
who are stuck in Brunei for months and cannot live without pubs and
beer.
After some time I reach the Omar
Ali Saifuddien mosque - a very nice mosque, which kind of forms the
centre
of BSB. Then I continue onwards to Kampung Ayer and fetch a boat for a
short ride to the palace of the Sultan. I think I'll visit the palace
tomorow
by taxi. I ask the boatsman to drop me off at the green mosque in
Kampung
Ayer. From there I slowly walk back to the centre of BSB. On the way
back
I run into a group of children. A small girl poses for me - first time
in my life that a girl in a Malay society poses for a photo. I guess
Brunei
doesn't get that many tourists and locals find tourists interesting.
In the evening I check my emails
in an Internet cafe (very low rate of 1 B$ for two hours). By the way,
already 1800 images (total 10 GB) already taken in this holiday.
4.9: Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB)
-> Kota
Kinabalu (KK) -> Mt Kinabalu NP
Nepentes Villa
(accomodation within the Mt Kinabalu NP), 88 RM, room with two beds,
some
furniture, bath+shower shared with the other half of the Nepentes Villa
(but this evening I have the whole Nepentes Villa for myself); no A/C,
no heating, hot showers
Weather: in
the morning in Brunei hot & sunny with a thin clouds layer; cloudy
in KK in the afternoon; rain in the evening and at night in the Mt
Kinabalu
NP (quite cold)
GSM coverage:
TMTouch has coverage in KK and even in the Mt Kinabalu NP (as do Celcom
and Maxis)
In the morning I'm ready shortly
before 10am for my morning visit of BSB. I'm planning to charter a taxi
for one hour to see a mosque and the palace of the Sultan. The
receptionist
calls a taxi at 9:55am and tells me it will be here in 10 minutes. At
10:15am
the taxi has still not arrived. The lady explains me that there are few
taxis in Brunei as most people have a car and the foreign workers use
the
bus. It's just the tourists and foreign businessmen who have a
problem.
At 10:20am the taxi finally arrives.
We drive to the Jame'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah mosque in Kampong Kiarong,
which
we reach in a matter of minutes. Very nice mosque - even nicer than the
Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque. I shoot some photos. Going inside is not
allowed,
because today is Thursday (but why? I thought Friday is the holy day of
the muslims).
We then drive to the park near the
palace of the Sultan. Going inside is not allowed and from the outside
it is difficult to take a photo, because there is a thick tree belt
around
the palace. After a further stop in town I'm back in the hotel (cost of
the taxi: 40 B$ for the hour spent).
I finish packing my things and check
out at 11:45am. The cost of the laundry is a whopping 30 B$.
Unbelievable
it is so expensive to wash a few T-shirts and some underwear. Outside
the
van of the hotel is waiting (the ride to the airport is included in the
price of the room). We reach the airport about 15 minutes later. After
check-in I have some lunch in the restaurant of the airport. The
airport
of Brunei is not that big - there are just eight gates.
The plane is a Boeing 767 - a too
large plane for such a small trip. The flight is delayed by one hour,
as
the plane arrived to Brunei late. Instead of arriving in KK at 2:05pm
as
scheduled, we reach KK at 3:05pm. It takes half an hour to get through
immigration and retrieve the luggage. I then take a taxi to the minibus
station of KK. We arrive a few minutes before 4pm and luckily there is
an almost full minivan leaving for Ranau (the Mt Kinabalu NP is on the
way to Ranau).
We leave at 4pm sharp. The road to
Ranau has been substantially improved since last time I've been there
(2001).
Over large sections of the road there is now a third lane, which makes
overtaking slow trucks easier. The higher we get and the closer we get
to the park, the more it rains.
When I finally walk into the Mt Kinabalu
NP headquarter it's 6pm. I book some accomodation in the park (see
above)
and in the Laban Rata resthouse at 3300m. They have increased again the
fees they charge to climb Mt Kinabalu. This time there is a RM 100 fee
for climbing Mt Kinabalu (RM 30 only for Malaysians), and a compulsory
RM 70 fee for a guide - which nobody needs, as it's virtually
impossible
to get lost on the very well marked trail. Basically these RM 70 are a
donation you make to the local people. Total cost, including
accomodation,
fees and permits, for climbing Mt Kinabalu is well over RM 300 now.
In the evening I have a dinner at
the restaurant in the park. It keeps on raining through the night.
Copyright (c) 2003
Alfred Molon
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