(Un) Tick the Box

Mother Nature is trying to send me a message and the message is JenniB is not supposed to be adventurous! Let’s think about my scuba diving experiences (on more than one occasion)…near death experience, rain, rain, rain, choppy water and weather so bad they had to call off the dive. Now to my first climb, cold, rain, mist…yup that about sums up the weather…weather so bad that we were informed that climbers had not reached the peak for the last 10 days! I was determined to remain positive even upon hearing this bad news.

Ok I am getting a little ahead of myself so let me start of the beginning…..

It was Thursday afternoon, Phil and I were getting picked up from the office at 3pm and heading to Malaysia to catch a flight to Kota Kinabalu. P was still in total work mode so the hour long car ride consisted mostly of cheesy Malaysian music and the click, click, sound of blackberry keys. I, on the other hand, had left work behind and was dreaming of a nice glass of wine at the airport to start off the vacation.

Rude awakening #1: Once we got to the airport and got ourselves all checked in, we went on the hunt for a vacation starting beverage only to remember that we were in an Islamic country so no bars or alcohol sold in the food outlets..sorry but a latte is not how I like to kick off my vacation.

Disappointed and feeling like two people who should be headed for the Betty Ford clinic as opposed to vacation, we sulked and waited to board the flight. Being the one that booked the flight, I assured P that Air Asia’s website was full of Asian faces and would certainly serve booze (not sure of my rational here but oh well).

Rude awakening #2: You guessed it fruit juices and soft drinks only! This made us both laugh as we kept catching each other examining the menu is hopes that we missed the booze section (mom and dad I really don’t have a problem I swear).

One other strange experience worth mentioning from this flight was that they sold Air Asia merchandise (hats, t-shirts, keychains) on the flight. I have never seen this before and people were actually buying them! The guy next to me as a matter of fact (not Phil but could you image …I would die) purchased a bright red baseball hat with Air Asia in big white letters written across it. You have got to be kidding me! Now, (some of you know) that one of my pet peeves are people who purchase and wear concert t-shirts at the actual concert…this experience has taken that pet peeve to a whole new level.

We get to KK and are met by our driver who then informs us of the inclement weather on the mountain. Here is where I started to get nervous…perhaps I really was cursed by Mother Nature! We checked into our “boutique” hotel (don’t get me started) and set out for some food and DRINK along the KK waterfront. We stumbled across this cute little Indian place with outdoor seating, ordered proper beverages, made a toast to a great vacation and before the sweet taste of wine could touch my lips, we heard a huge crack of thunder and without a warning the skies opened and it started to POUR … like torrential rain! We had a good laugh and enjoyed the rest of the evening inside without much incident.

Phil's first vacation drink


Next day, day 1 of hike. We are up at 6 for our 6:30am pick-up. I put on my carefully put together hiking outfit. You know..it had to look sporty but nice and not like you are trying too hard…cargo shorts, short sleeve safari-like shirt and long sleeve shirt tied around my waist in case I get cold (ornamental really). We wait outside and it was quite cold so I had to put on the ornamental shirt which really didn’t look good.

Rude Awakening #3: Carefully crafted hiking outfit….losing it’s style.

As we make our way up the mountain to the starting gate the weather starts to get colder and colder, wetter and wetter and cloudier and cloudier. Not good for hiking business.
This is when I realize that I will have to wear Phil’s water proof jacket the whole hike totally ruining the outfit.

Rude Awakening #4: I look like a total man is various shades of green/brown (Why didn’t I buy my own waterproof jacket??)

Is that a man...nope its me


Day 1 of the climb, other than being wet and cold, was uneventful, fun and challenging. We had to give ourselves a pat on the back as we were told that it takes hikers 5-6 hours to do the first part (approx. 10,000 ft)…we did it in 3 ½.

Here I am displaying my serious moutineering skills..NOT! I was upright shortly after this photo


Favorite part of hike


By the time we reached the lodge I was an ice cube and being inside the lodge did not make things much better. The heat is not turned on until 8pm…it was 2pm. It was so windy and cloudy that it actually looked like it was snowing outside. We sat around wearing all the dry clothes we had with us, hats, gloves and numerous pairs of socks. Seriously, I don’t think I had ever been that cold.

Next morning (2am) we get up to the sounds of howling wind for the hike to the peak. Phil comments on my lack of moodiness…impressive!

Rude Awakening #5: 3:00am…we are advised that it is too windy and cold to go to the summit. We went all that way and could not complete the climb. I was so upset and I felt really bad for Phil as he loves this kind of stuff. I surprised myself by how disappointed I was!

Nothing else to do but head back to bed and wait to climb down around 8am. The climb down was much of the same…rain and wind. Oddly enough the climb down was so much harder and I was dead by the time we finished.

Finally it was time to head to the Shangri-La for some relaxing beach time with Val & Alex. This time Mother Nature was on my side and the weather was absolutely beautiful. It was unbelievable that we were in the same country.

We slept all the way to the resort and made quite an entrance upon arrival. We were both still so cold that we walked into the lobby in all of our fleece which by this time was caked with mud. Val is a Shangri-La VIP so we were treated the same way…there we were at the VIP check-in: unshowered, in fleece & hiking boots, wet and muddy. They were bringing us iced tea and cooling hand clothes which surprised me as I am pretty sure we looked homeless.

Sunset at Shangri-La


Won’t bore you anymore about the rest of the weekend but it was great. I sailed my first boat and went parasailing or is it paragliding??for the first time…Mother Nature cooperating the whole time.

Finally…Rude Awakening #6: I can barely walk! No joke. I cringe at the site of stairs! I am hoping some restorative yoga does the trick this evening.

I WILL climb that mountain!!

Love Me.