Spring is here and a group went 5 hours north of Melbourne to frolic in the Australian bush. We battled Friday evening peak hour traffic, arriving past midnight and walked under a magnificent canopy of stars, to set up our tents for the night.

Next morning, up Mount Fainter and set up camp under the summit. I wish I could say something silly went on, besides the massage train, tent party and lying about on assortments of towels, bags, inflatable beds and my own lilo –  yes, a lime green inflatable water toy 1800m above sea level.

Next morning, the most amazing view for morning coffee. Fresh spring water, wildflowers, wild brumbies (horses) and a shower of snow. Happy right now. I think the delayed muscle soreness will set in later….

Also, some epic news, I am now – pretty much – a graduate! So glad it’s done (clutches head in hands) It’s been a big year. Capping it off with a trip to Asia at year end, so hope to see some of you soon

Big love,

Shi.

Thurs, 9th Sept 2010

SilkAir Flight brought us from the energetic efficiency of Changi Airport Singapore to the small local airport in Mataram, Lombok where we would begin our adventure to climb Mount Rinjani, Indonesia’s 2nd highest mountain at 3,726m or 12,224ft high. After being picked up at the airport, the guide briefed us at the hotel about the plan for the next 3 days.

The Mount Rinjani hiking plan.

Day 1: Drop off at Sembalun.Meet porters and guide. Trek across grassy asavannah to the foot of the mountain. Camp at plateau, start at 2am for the summit sunrise.

Day 2: Back to base camp then to Sagara Anak Lakeside and the hot springs.

Day 3: Descend the mountain for pickup from Senaru to Sengigi for some beach time!

Friday, 10th Sept 2010

We are up nice and early to make the 3 hour drive to Sembalun. It’s the first day of Idul Fitri which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadhan, so many families are on their way to the mosque for prayers. Despite the bouncing of the van, I manage to drift into slumber. I’m awakened when the van stops for our first view of Mount Rinjani that we will soon meet. The guide points out a cloud on the mountain and informs us that there is where base camp is located. To my eyes, that looks very, very, VERY high up. Gulp.

After picking up our porters and guide, we start walking through grassy fields. The small villages and paddy fields slowly melt into vast stretches of grassy savannah. There is a desolate, wild and untouched beauty to the landscape. I’m starting to enjoy the walk and soon after, we make our first stop for lunch. All the food is cooked for us on the spot by our guide/cook. In fact, we only realize how fresh the supplies are when we hear clucking coming from the porters’ bags!

After 2 to 3 hours of walking, we finally arrived at the foot of Mount Rinjani. Alas, the gently sloping hills had to end sometime and so we began the real grunt work of climbing Mount Rinjani. There was a fair bit of heavy breathing, teeth gritting, possibly a tear or two and most certainly a lot of sweating. After several hours of climbing, we turned around to see the most beautiful rainbow over the vally. It was as if our legs had a new strength and we bounded up the last 10 vertical meters to the view from the crater’s plateau overlooking the Sagara Anak Lake, just as the sun dipped below the horizon.

After the sunset, the remaining light started fading quickly and the thick clouds enveloped us as we hurried along the narrow path to the campsite on the plateau. It would be an extremely early start tomorrow at 2am and our legs were screaming for rest and our stomachs growling for a hot meal.

The night passed in a blink of an eye and it was soo time to ascend to the summit. Mount Rinjani is known for its difficult climbing conditions, where the sand on the slopes causes climbers to slide back 2 steps for every 3 steps we take. We are no exceptions and after several hours, it became a battle of willpower and stamina. The sun peeked out behind the mist and bathed the valley and lake in color.

The view was good, but it couldn’t compare to the feeling of accomplishment that we’d made it. In the daylight, I could see how the narrow paths fall away to drops hundreds of meters down. To descend we slid and glided down the sandy slopes as if we were skiing on dry land. A hot cup of tea sure felt good back on flat ground!

Since it was too late for us to continue to the Sagara Anak Lakeside which would have been our next base camp, we stayed where we were and took the opportunity to visit the small fresh water spring which provides the camp’s fresh water, play with the monkeys, build a fire and stargaze until the fire died. Not rushing to the lakeside meant that we could enjoy the view. The next day’s sunrise was spectacular.

Being up on that plateau was a great opportunity to sit back and enjoy eht most amazing natural spectacles including a night sky stuffed with constellations of stars that are never visible in the brightly lit cities and the opportunity to have conversations with friends away from the distractions of mobile phones and mp3 players. But 2 nights were long enough without running water and flushing toilets so with a fair degree of anticipation we packed up and descended the same way we had come.

At the beautiful Santosa Resort at Sengigi Beach, we stayed in the hot showers long enough to turn our fingers and toes into prunes and placed our camping gear into separate bags so that they could release their odours onto any unsuspecting person who opened the bags, such as baggage inspectors and dry cleaners.

Then we set out to sample the famous Indonesian massage and also because we believed that having little Indonesian ladies knead our sore legs and feet into a soft pulp would help us the next day. Either way, a good meal was surely deserved. I didn’t manage to get many food photos as the food didn’t last long on the plate once it was served, but it was very delicious and fresh. Thumbs up for the seared scallops and fresh basil pasta.

Lombok really is the stuff that postcards are made of. I really hope that it stays this way.

Our local guide took us to several of the temples around Lombok. Although a majority of Lombok’s population is Muslim in comparison to the majority Hindu population of neighboring Bali, all religions are openly practiced here. We visited the Pura Batu Bolong on South Sengigi Beach. It location is a god place to watch ships come into Lombok. Further into town is the almost 300 year old Meru Temple devoted to the Hindu Holy Trinity. The jasmine flower is the national flower of Indonesia symbolizing purification and is most commonly used during religious rituals. And it smells really good too!

In one of the small back alleys at Meru temple is a family industry for traditional hand loom cloth weaving We were curious to see what was for lunch and our guide didn’t disappoint. The restaurant serving Lombok food had open air pavilions where you could sit cross legged and elevated above the ground. And then the food! A veritable feast of grilled and barbecued fish and “kampung chicken” – chicken that’s been running around the village and organic in the truest sense of the word. With iced honey and coconut drinks, Teh Botol, sambal and steamed rice all around, we waddled with full bellies and sore legs (yes, still sore) back onto the flight to Singapore.

Lombok, we shall be back!

x

Shi

Vid of kinabalu trip. Forward away, but please no posting on facebook.. I think that I just want to keep this channel private and not have random people subscribing etc etc

Enjoy

x

ps: Song Tommy Sparks, she’s got me dancing

What a brilliant excuse to eat as much chocolate and raisins as I like, I thought, as I boarded the plane from Malaysia’s capital to the steamy rainforests of Sabah in the island of Borneo. My emergency ration pack was indeed a symbol of fine planning and consisted of 3 snickers bars, 3 boxes of raisins and an assortment of waterproof and elastic bandaids. What could go wrong in a forest with meat eating flowers (Rafflesia), monkeys with the strength of 3 men (orangutan) and flash floods? I certainly hoped that illegal logging had wiped out 2 of the 3, which only left the flash floods, so I could use my waterproof band aids to lash myself to a tree.

In high spirits, I stepped off the plane and into the van to met up with the singaporeans who true to their nature had shopped and kitted themselves up with gear including aerodynamic sunglasses, a titanium walking stick and an assortment of dried apricots, muesli bars and about 1/2 a year’s worth of zip lock bags. All singaporean men undergo compulsory army training, which I am informed, includes basic army manouevers and a carefully co-ordinated contingent of land and air buffet and catering services that ensures that a hot meal is able to be served on time whether by chopper or mpv, anywhere and anyplace in the jungle. But because we were in malaysia, for lunch we were each handed a styrofoam box with half an egg sandwich and fried chicken to carry with us.

Our guide, the tough chain smoking and nescafe swilling Jo was a former famer who spoke little, smiled even less and charged the market rate of RM10 (GBP2) per kg to carry up and down the mountain. Jo was also an enthusiastic and humble guide who followed up the rear, sometimes lagging back for a chat but then reappearing effortlessly (with his 20kg load)later. We were told by another former guide that they once carried a 200 pound man (about 95kg) up and down the mountain. He now does white water rafting after his knees were wrecked. We also spotted a former national body building champion, resplendant in his lycra costume and many locals carrying food parcels bigger than themselves. All food and gas for cooking is carried up by the locals.

It made my backpack of 8kg (+2kg for water, 19% of my body weight) pathetic by comparison even though I had packed the bare essentials. For me, bare essentials include a digital slr with only 1 lens, no flash, no spare battery, no charger and a backup digital camera :p With an estimated 22 hours of climbing over the next 30 hours I was going to feel every kg.

We had decided on the Mesilau track, the alternative route to the usual way up the mountain – more steps, more scenic, our trip planner was told. After 1 hour of going uphill, we started going downhill for almost an hour into a beautiful valley, which was rather demoralizing even if the bamboo forests and mist were gorgeous. We finally started going uphill again and along the way we were overtaken by the Japanese Retirees, all 10 women and 2 men of them. Deceptively and demurely clad in cotton hats and polo shirts, these japanese mums and dads were all business with compression tights underneath and swept by us at a brisk pace barely breaking a sweat. Go Oba-san power!

Reaching the halfway point of laban rata 9 hours later, we gratefully tucked into the buffet dinner and attended a briefing for the via ferrata (iron road). 2-3 hours rest, we woke up again at 130am for the 2am ascend to the summit for the sunrise. Stairs became ropes against sometimes vertical granite faces, all in the darkness of night and under the light of torches and the moon. At 5am the first rays of light peeked over the mountain, illuminating the ant-like climbers below.

Silence, clouds and very fresh air. No noise, no birds, no insects, no signs of life except for rock, water, grass and 200 other climbers scattered over the mountain.

Time to go back down on the via ferrata way (highest in the world at 3,800m) abseiling along granite faces to get to the bottom. In reality, you spend half the time attaching and re-attaching safety equipment and the rest waiting or hanging on the side of the mountain, but oh the views

If I thought I was broken before, there was still the climb down. Rain and mist covered the track, making every rock and step muddy and slippery. Half way down we remembered that the van would leave at 6pm. So the walk down became a run down the mountain. In total it took us 4 hours downhill and 2 hours drive back to Kota Kinabalu. A hot shower never felt so good and we had a seafood dinner including lobster, tiger prawns and crab. A bag full of sweaty clothes and a head full of memories, I crab-walked my way on the plane back to Peninsular Malaysia.

At home, a message titled ” Lombok leisure stroll” dropped in my inbox.

“Wake up early morning to start the trek at 03:00 AM for the hard three hours climb to the summit (3,726 m) on volcanic screen. Once there, enjoy proud feelings of satisfaction and the amazing sunrise views across the Wallace Line to Bali, Mt. Agung and Sumbawa.”

Perhaps I can ” enjoy proud feelings of satisfaction” via cable car to the summit and with a papaya daiquiri in one hand?

x,

Shi

ps: Mt K stats

Mesilau (altitude start) 2,000m

Low’s Peak 4,095m

Timpohon (end) 1,866m

Total trail = +8.5km

Mesilau + 1.5km

Total 8.5km + 10km = 18.5km, vertical height of 2,095m up, 2,249m down

9 hours mesilau- laban rata (1st leg)

4 hours laban rata – summit (low’s peak) (2nd leg)

2 hours summit – park ranger hut (3rd leg)

2 hours via ferrata

4 hours laban rata- timpohon (final leg)

21 hours total climbing from 1st may (sat) 9am – 2nd may (sun) 4:30pm (29:30h)

21 / 30 = 70% of time climbing