So I went to Batu Punggul as part of the bucketlist challenge that I put up for myself last year. I had always wanted to come to this place for as long as I could remember, having heard a lot about it from my friends at school especially when I was in my secondary school at SMK Pekan Keningau where quite a majority of students came from the area where this magnificent limestone pillar is located.
I joined a group of strangers, comprised a majority of ladies from Kota Marudu – probably one of the loudest groups that I had ever joined in in a trip. I gotta say they did annoy me in the beginning but then I managed to make peace with myself and decided to just join along. They turned out to be fun to be with when I gave myself a chance to accept the way how they were, instead of expecting them to be how I wanted them to be. Heh.
This nature wonder is located in Sapulut, one of the remotest places in Sabah. Or at least it used to be, but the opening of the main road connecting the district of Keningau (or rather Nabawan) and Tawau had provided quite a much more improvised access to this place compared to how it was before. Yet you need to stay overnight at a village quite near to it so that you can make it early to a boat ride that will take you right to the foot of the pillar. The boat ride itself was already very much part of the fun.
Batu Punggul is probably not the tallest of pillars, but it requires you to climb almost vertically at most parts of the trail. It is more of a rock climbing than a hike. Accidents are so likely to happen, so it requires a great level of focus and concentration to say the least. This is where the local guides are of a good use – even mandatory. Most of them are local youngsters and still attending school.
I don’t remember how long it took for us to reach the top from the bottom, but it should have been less than two hours. It wasn’t the toughest, but I remember thinking it definitely wasn’t for those who are afraid of heights.
The view from atop was magnificent, just as I had imagined it would be. It is surrounded by greenery. The limestones had definitely protected the area from extensive deforestation activities in the past, because it is located in a patch of (almost) intact forest surrounded by palm oil plantations. The sound of nature as I called it was amazing. I think the fact that it was a part of a small patch of forest that was still intact made it such an attractive sanctuary for what there was left of once a massive area of virgin forest.
I spent almost an hour or so at the top of the pillar, doing a lot of cam-whoring of course and enjoying a simple meal provided by the tour guide team as part of the package. Going down was not an easy task either. A simple mis-step could lead to a fatal occurrence and the risk was very much there. I was told that fatal accidents did occur in the past too.
Batu Punggul was great, but a place called Gua Tinahas that we went to later had surprised me so much, not only because it was such a beautiful cave but also the fact that I never heard of it ever before had left me wonder if the tourism industry in Sabah had really done enough to promote it. For one the cave is massive. A simple search on Google would lead you to Gua Gomantong in Kinabatangan as the biggest cave in Sabah but I am pretty sure Gua Tinahas is bigger. The cave chamber required a little bit of hike within itself and I am sure I was not wrong if I said it is quite comparable to those renowned caves in Mulu of Sarawak.
The highlight of the cave is probably the gong rocks that gives out the sound of a gong when it is struck with a wooden mallet or something. The rocks are conveniently located near to the exit, so striking it is like your gracious way of checking yourself out of the cave complex. Somehow, I felt like there was much more to explore of the cave but of course I’d save them probably for another trip. I just wish relevant industries could do more to promote it, because seriously, it really deserves the recognition and people especially Sabahans deserve to know what more is there in store for them to feel blessed about in this beautiful land of Sabah.
So my job had required me to fly over to KL just before Christmas last year and the arrangement for accommodation had had me staying very near to the main campus of University of Malaya, the university that I had attended and later shaped the career that I am still holding on to up until now.
I made my time to go jogging inside the campus area while doing a lil bit of going down the memory lane while I was at it. I went to some of the buildings that I spent so much time lounging around, to the lecture hall and classrooms that I had first visited and later to the residential college that I was first placed in as a freshie.
Memories just came flooding in as I recalled how I started off so innocently as a curios 18-y-old teenager, eager to take on the world. I was lucky because I already went to a boarding school on the East coast for two years prior so the exposure to the cultures of the people in the Peninsula was already there for me I actually fit right in so smoothly and without much hassle.
I went to the building block that I stayed in, where the other block was already allocated for female students instead of male ones as it used to be. Other than that, and a new cafe that was built independently to replace the old one which was an extension from one of the hostel blocks, everything doesn’t seem to have changed that much.
So many things happened at the hostel block that I stayed in where I shared a room with two other students who were also both from Sabah. I chuckled at myself when I looked back and noticed that most of the funny incidences that came to mind had involved alcohol. We worked hard and partied just as hard. Heh.
Somehow, all I could think of were the distant memories of me as a student. I don’t particularly miss them, or missing the campus life because they are just distant memories that I had moved on from. All of the people that I created the memories with are no longer there of course, and thanks to the social media and cellular technology, I am still in contact with most of those that I were close with.
I was there for two years before I moved to an off-campus residential college, and later to a house that I rented with more than a dozen others! I mean, I kept moving from one place to another since, but this place will certainly have a special spot in my memory and heart.
It’s a week through the fresh new year of 2024. 2023 was like my second full year since I moved back to Sabah. It was not the most eventful of year, but at least it was a big jump from those gloomy and dark years when the pandemic was still very much in control of how the world revolved and worked.
Travel-wise, I managed to go to three countries, which was still above the targeted average of traveling out to at least two countries per year. Of course, the highlight was my very first trip out to China. It was so modern and beautiful just I had expected it would be, at least at the two major cities that I went to, and wish I could explore more of the giant country but of course I couldn’t do that since I was there on an official job where the itinerary was pretty much pre-arranged.
Then I returned to Manila to fulfil the promise that I made to myself, which was to take my every family member to some kind of pilgrimage, visiting churches and all. It was the last of three batches and I was so glad that my mom managed to join me in all the three batches. When she contracted Covid when this deadly virus was still all over, it was quite bad that it did come to me that she might never get to travel with me any longer. She survived, but of course at 75, it took quite a great deal of effort to convince her that she still had the energy to go out traveling. And she did.
Then I travelled out to Yogyakarta to fulfil the long overdue plan of visiting the Borobudur. It was quite a last-minute self-arrangement. Borobudur was great, but visiting it once is probably enough for me, unlike Angkor Watt where there is much more to explore and is always worth to come back to for more. At least I got to retrieve my solo travel mojo again, and everything just went into place and was almost effortless. Going solo was always my favourite type of travels and it still is anyway.
Half way through last year, rumours came around that my office might have to close doors due to what I saw was more of a political demand. Staying based in Sabah didn’t seem to be quite an option at that point of time. Things went quiet chaotic because it was quite sudden, but still I came up with a list of places and activities that I aimed to go and do before I got transferred back to the Peninsula. Quite in the rush, I managed to tick quite a great deal off the list, until I was told that our office would still be there to stay for at least another couple of years or so. So things just slowed down a bit, and I’m continuing ticking things off the list to 2024.
Career-wise, I don’t think I did any better than I did in previous years. I just did what I was paid to do. I was still trying to get used to working in my own homeland of Sabah after spending so many years working in the Peninsula. The job environment itself is pretty much convenient, logistic-wise at least except for all the traveling and long gruelling road trips that I had to endure through to get my job assignments done. I have to admit I enjoyed it in the beginning, then it became quite too much. The nature of job required me to go running around to get things done, and time just flew past before I knew it. I’m not quite sure what lays ahead of me this year, but somehow, I’m not really worried of any possibility, including getting transferred back to the Peninsula. I think at this stage of life, I’ve been through quite so much that any possibility no longer worries me, at least career-wise.
So that was about it, and somehow I know that 2024 is going to be a BIG year for me, or at least I’m planning to make it one, traveling to more places and climbing more mountains. I seriously need to get my mojo back.
So I had this plan of climbing the majestic Mt. Kinabalu for the 6th time while I was still based here in Sabah, or at least before my job called out on me and demanded that I be returned to the Peninsula again. I was determined to do it before 2023 rolled to its end. So I had actually started eyeing for a slot right from the beginning of the year via the Sabah Parks official website – or even the year before. I knew slots were running out quickly but my indecisiveness in dotting in a slot had cost me quite dearly. Before I knew it, slots had almost run entirely out and I only managed to get a weekend slot where my availability was not even guaranteed on the 31st of August.
So with quiet limited physical training, I drove over to Kundasang the day before the climb and stayed at a cottage hotel called Mile 36 Lodge. The room was tiny but I liked it instantly. The staff hospitality – which is hardly a rare encounter when you come to Kundasang where the locals are mostly so super-nice to others – made me like the place even more. I actually did not expect that they do provide free breakfast (not really free but included in the room price) but my simple hello to an elderly man who happened to be one of the caretakers of the chalets while I was walking towards the car after checking out had led me to him telling me that I should take the free breakfast before leaving. And damn, the breakfast was not bad at all. The fried noodles were good and so was the coffee, and they were served in buffet style, something that I would have missed out on if I did not say hello to the elderly man!
So after the unexpected breakfast, I drove over to the Kinabalu Parks office where I did all the registration and payment requirements. Since the regulation was to have a guide to take care of a maximum of 5 climbers, I had thought of joining a group that could still take in a climber so that I didn’t have to pay for the full RM350 per guide fee but decided not to on a second thought. Instead, I asked for a guide who could take good pictures. The lady at the counter went onto her walkie-talkie and asked for a guide that could take good pictures. That led me to Julius, a veteran tour guide with more than 30 years of guiding experience. The moment I talked to him, I knew it was going to be an exciting and interesting climb.
So I did the usual stuff – registration at the entrance gate and a little bit of safety and dos and don’ts briefing by Julius the guide – and started off slow and steady for the first few stops. The heavy breathing at the beginning of the climb was definitely expected, as it was part of the warm-up. The package that I took didn’t provide a lunch pack, and I was glad that I prepared a lunch pack from the hotel room myself. At least it could keep me going until I reached the Laban Rata restaurant where lunch was supposedly waiting.
I’m not sure if it was the age or simply my lack of preparatory training, but I found myself quite struggling this time. I remember during my last climb back in 2016 when I literally ran my way all the way up to Laban Rata and later to the peak. But that was when I was climbing just about every mountain and hill that I could think of and doing marathons and running events like there was no tomorrow. Coming to Mount Kinabalu this time, I knew I was quite physically unprepared. I reached Laban Rata at about 4pm, which was a far cry late from the last time I did it when I reached sometime before noon.
So after taking the late lunch and all, it wasn’t long before dinner came. Being surrounded by strangers in a packed restaurant and later at the dorm, it wasn’t really a pleasant experience. I was far from new when it comes to mingling among strangers since I travel solo quite a lot too but it had proved to be different when you are traveling solo in your own homeland. I was not interested to talk to anybody but somehow, I got irritated when people talked too loudly and disregarded the existence of others in the room. I found it quite disrespectful. Perhaps it is just a Malaysian thingy because I remember when I was in Bromo where I had to confront a group of Malaysians who stayed at the room next door and talked so loudly with each other, denying us the peace that we needed so badly before hitting onto Mount Bromo early the next morning. Then a group of Malaysian aunties who happened to visit the same massage parlour that me and my group of friends did back in Krabi, Thailand. Seriously, they were just so damn loud.
I actually wished I could stay longer at the restaurant after dinner so that I didn’t have to go back to the dorm early where I’d most probably be tortured by the loud mouths of an all-lady group. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t serve anything past the dinner time, so I didn’t have much choice but going back to the dorm. I was shocked when I found the door was locked, and after a few rounds of light knocking, a lady came opening it – and I was even more shocked to see that the lights were all switched off so it was completely dark when it was only about 7pm! I mean, they’d only start climbing to the peak at two the next morning, and they already went to bed at 7pm! Again, I wished I had somebody that I could talk to at least before I was sleepy enough to go to bed.
Feeling defeated, I joined the clowns and pushed myself to sleep. It wasn’t the most comfortable sleep and I had some of the longest hours ever before I could really put myself to sleep. Needless to say, I was probably the last one to get out of bed the next morning, putting on my climbing attire and walking groggily to the restaurant for breakfast before starting off towards the peak. For a moment I thought I couldn’t find Julius the guide and had to ask around before he finally showed up sometime before 3am. I assumed either he overslept or he probably saw my performance the day before and decided I could start the summit attack a bit late at about 3am, an hour late from the usual 2am.
Climbing to Laban Rate was already a struggle, and pressing for the peak at three in the morning was not an easy feat either. I had to gather all the mantra and summon all the motivational quotes into my head before I even managed to get to Sayat Sayat – the last hut before the peak – half an hour before the cut-off time at 5.30am after which climbers would not be allowed to continue. There was one time when it was beginning to drizzle and me and most of the climbers had already put on a raincoat, but somehow the rain just stopped as quickly as it had come, putting me and the rest into a big relief. At 4000m, things could turn ugly when it was raining and in certain cases when the rain poses some level of danger to the climbers, climbers are often asked to turn back.
Somehow – the weather just kept on improving even though there was no apparent sunrise because of the heavy clouds. And yet – reaching the peak this time was somehow very satisfying, as it was my first time of doing it since I hit 40 about 5 years ago. It emanates some kind of assurance that I’ve still got it – despite the struggle. Heh.
Things just went quite smooth and easy from the peak onwards, and all my breathing and muscles suddenly relaxed. I took all the time in the world to enjoy the views from the peak, probably the longest that I’d ever done since my first climb as a 14-year-old school kid about 30 years ago. In most of my climbs there was always the urgency to descend, but this time I refused to listen to any of the urges to descend quickly because well, nobody was there waiting for me anyway. I must be up there for about 30 minutes or so before I decided to descend, and even taking all the time in the world to slow down and enjoy the views in their entirety along the way.
Julius the guide was also so great, taking me off the beaten tracks, doing detours and let me see the views away from the usual trails. He also told me about their incredible rescues in the past including the famous disappearance of a pair of kids from Britain where the elder sister was found dead at one of the peaks, while the younger one was found sound and safe at the foot of another peak. Then the death of one of the army group members that went on a mission to dash across the mountain range and refused any escort offer from the mountain guides. I was told that it took them more than a week to reach to the body.
Then of course the infamous earthquake that rocked the mountain and killed about 18 people back in 2015, mostly kids from Singapore who were doing the world’s highest via-ferrata when the earthquake hit. Julius told me how they were killed by fallen rocks, and that they were not allowed to take pictures of the scene. The way he described it, it was definitely a horrible scene. RIP.
After what felt like a never-ending descent, I arrived back at Laban Rata at about 10.30am and rushed to get the breakfast before it was supposed to close at 11.00am. After a quick pack-up, I continued descending, this time determined to go the fastest I could. And sure enough, I managed to reach the Timpohon – the exit gate – before 2pm. After saying good bye to Julius, I returned to my car and for a moment I was worried that I might not be able to drive. I was actually prepared to stay another night in Kundasang if my legs were too shaky to drive so I started off towards the direction of Kota Kinabalu while eyeing for a place that I could probably stay in for the night before returning to the city the next day. Somehow my legs felt just fine so I just continued on until I reached the small town of Pekan Nabalu after which I knew I was going to drive all the way back to Kota Kinabalu.
Driving along the Ranau – Kota Kinabalu zig-zag road, Mount Kinabalu was showing itself in full, towering high against the blue sky of Kundasang. It was hard to believe that only that morning I was very much on top of it, enjoying the view of the mountain range to the East and the blue South China Sea to the West. It felt surreal really.
So that was about it – my 6th climb, and my 5th to the peak. I’m not saying no to any possibility of another climb, but I might need to be prepared more to enjoy it more. There are so many other mountains that I’ve been planning to climb but Mount Kinabalu certainly has a special place in my heart, probably the only mountain that I don’t mind climbing again and again and again. We’ll see.
We returned to Shanghai after spending the first two nights in Wuxi. Wuxi was amazing in its own ways, but I was looking forward more to spending our next few days in Shanghai.
We checked in at the Mercure Hotel which was located right smack in the middle of Shanghai, except that it was hard to tell if there was such a thing as middle of Shanghai since the whole city is more of a combination of a few sub-cities. I actually caught myself laughing when I found out that everything about the toilet was remote-controlled, from the positioning and adjustment of the toilet bowl to the temperature as well as the type of splashing and spraying of water that you’d prefer on your damn ass to finish your damn and stinky business with. I found it funny and yet admirable how a toilet could easily define and represent the modernization and technological advancement that China is now serving to the whole world.
After having our late breakfast at a Muslim restaurant, we wandered off towards where we believed the iconic The Bund would be. The fact that Shanghai really is a combination of modern and past is widely represented by the building architectures. Some of the buildings are so oriental, some are heavily European and most are of modern architectures especially the newer ones.
The excitement just grew when we arrived at The Bund which was probably the most iconic part of Shanghai. It is a wide esplanade that spans a few kilometres along the bank of Huangpu river. Right across the river is the famous chunk of Shangai that consists of towering buildings including the iconic Oriental Pearl TV Tower and the Shanghai Tower – which has recently been surpassed by the Merdeka 118 Tower in Kuala Lumpur as the 2nd tallest building in the world, although many are contending since the last 160m of the Merdeka 118 Tower is an unhabitable steel spire.
The esplanade was not as crowded as I had imagined it would be, may be because of the cold, and it turned out to be quite a nice walk. I was expecting a rain because the sky looked heavy right from the beginning but amazingly it never rained all throughout my stay in Shanghai. May be it was just the nature of weather in Shanghai. After sauntering up around for a bit, we turned westwards towards Nanjing Street, which was probably the busiest and most crowded street in Shanghai. It cuts across rows of shopping malls and we took all the time in the world to stop by whenever we felt like stopping.
One thing I immediately noticed when I started shopping for a bit was the fact that shopping in Shanghai was not cheap. Of course it all comes down to the current currency exchange rate which was and still is pretty bad on the Malaysian side for now. I am not really into shopping but I found myself struggling to find anything that I would at least willingly buy without thinking much about the worthiness (of it). In the end, I returned to Malaysia with much of my Chinese Yuan intact. In fact, I found myself exchanging them back to Malaysian ringgit upon returning to Kota Kinabalu. Urgh!
Food in Shanghai is massively abundant if you are not stricken by your religion. I am not really into Peking ducks, but the one that I had for late lunch at a small back-alley restaurant off Nanjing Street was superb. They were so soft, they felt like they melted in my mouth as I chewed on them in disbelief. The majority of Shanghai population is Buddhist, or probably Tao but there are restaurants that serve Halal food. You really have to know where to find them or you’ll starve.
Just as it is in most big cities, the people of Shanghai don’t really talk much to each other. They seem to be so disciplined though, may be because they have been ruled by the strict regime for so long. They’d open up if you came to their shops of course, and some of them have got quite a good sense of humour too. I remember one time when a key-chain selling lady jabbed her finger right into my belly when I tried to negotiate for a lower price. It was intended to be ticklish of course and I just played along. Heh.
The people of Shanghai may have long embraced the quick-paced modernization that’s been going on all over China and beyond for quite some time now but I had to cringe every time I saw somebody spitting so casually away in public. I wouldn’t judge or anything but somehow most of those who did it were ladies. I guess some old habits just don’t go away.
If there was something that I would really want to highlight about Shanghai, it would be a place which I later found out was called Temple of the City Gods which I bumped into while trying to find my way back to the Bund from the hotel during our last evening in Shanghai. What appeared to be a massive complex of temples was apparently an expansive market consisting of shops, restaurants, parks etc. Walking aimlessly along the streets that intermingled with each other amongst the temples, I felt like I was thrown to the filming set for a Jackie Chan’s movie, probably one of the sequels for the Rush Hours or something.
There was one section of the temple complex where there was a pool set in a patio which I later learned was called the Yuyuan garden. There was an array of lanterns that glowed so beautifully at night and made the whole place look so magical and otherworldly and yet so real. I let myself be immersed in the beauty of the Temple of the City Gods for a couple of hours or so before I decided to continue walking towards where I believed The Bund would be.
The cold of the night was beginning to tug at me so there were a few times when I had to stop to reconsider my mission but somehow I knew I’d continue every time until I found myself back on the wide and long esplanade that was The Bund again.
The night view was spectacular and I wish I could stay there longer but then the cold was beginning to dig deeper into me so I had to walk back to the hotel and spend the rest of my last evening in Shanghai curling myself away in the comfort of the bed back at the hotel room.
And it was time to go back to Malaysia the very next day before I knew it. My time was too brief in China, and I know I did not really see anything of it. And yet I was so fascinated by the very little fraction of China that I had seen and experienced through within the very limited time that I was there. The economy is definitely booming, and it really shows. The infrastructures are very well-maintained, and the landscaping is so well-crafted and well-tended. I probably did get a little bit of taste on the urban sides, but I know for sure that China offers some of the most amazing natural wonders in the world and I can’t wait to go to some of them on my next visit to this beautiful country.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ” - Mark Twain
