Pontian – Kuching - Kinabalu

I didn’t know when we started planning for this trip. it was just out of a sudden when we’re talking over supper that the topic of grad trip come trickling by and it was decided that we would go on a trip to east malaysia.

in fact, out of all 4 of us, i’m the only one graduating this semester. so i guess grad trip wouldn’t be an appropriate term.

So here we are, back in one piece after a 2-week break. Though we couldn’t get our initial plans going (we wanted to drive all the way from Kuching up to Kinabalu stopping by the little towns in Sarawak, but the car expenses that would incur is beyond imagination), we still managed a fine trip, ending with sore thighs and hips.

The aim was simple. It is utterly frustrating to keep track of how much to spend on eating and worrying whether or not the food will taste good. This is especially true of visiting countries with a higher living standard when travelling, and i’ve experienced that quite a bit. So we aimed to visit these 3 places and eat until the cows come home without bursting our budget.

Well there was another aim actually – to see how dead we can be by climbing the highest mountain in the region with minimal training. Turns out it smothered 2 guys’ motivation to climb ANY other mountain in their entire life.

So here goes some highlights. Pontian was great with awesome food. particularly, there was a dish called ‘Tong kang bee hoon’ in which the rice vermicelli is stir fried with a kind of fish that i’m not familiar with. very shiok. Btw, i have no food pictures because we were (me included) simply not interested in waiting for me to whip out my camera and take some photos. Digging in is the first thing to do. And of course the famous Pontian Wanton mee. shiok.

Sun setting over by the beach at Pontian. Click to enlarge.

Next, it was Kuching. From my memories, Kuching doesn’t really have a lot of tourist attractions – malls are not very big, (even the new Spring is well, hmm… fair-sized?) beaches are not very happening, no coral reefs... the only thing that interest nature enthusiasts is probably the rainforest. But we are no nature enthusiasts. we are food enthusiasts and food is just what Kuching has to offer – at a dirt cheap price. Along with a kick-ass shiok-daoooo mouth watering resort.

Damai Puri resort. I don’t remember it being like this but this is quite some scenery actually. Click to enlarge.

Anyway, the trump card was the last supper. Let me recount: 3 med-huge crabs, butter prawns, yam wall with mixed veggie, fried bilin (local veggie), fried beehoon, sweet n sour sultan fish, fried oyster, soup, 6 rice and 10 cups of drinks – all for 6 person. it amounts to less than SGD 12 per pax. seriously, we nearly flipped. Too bad there’s no food pics, or else you’d see crab carcasses all over the place.

 Sunset by the beach at Permai. i just liked this picture a lot. Click to enlarge.

Then came Kinabalu. You can imagine that we were still dreaming over what to eat and showed no concern whatsoever for what awaits us in the last days of our trip. Btw, we really give thanks to God and to all our friends for providing us lodging, car and food throughout our trip. You guys are awesome.

And so we’ve planned the climbing to be on the last 3 days, a wise move from hindsight. Food in Kinabalu wasn’t as cheap as Kuching, but in return we were rewarded with much sceneries to look at. It’s the tourist thing. you see, the more tourists a city has, the higher its living standard has become and that’s the case for Kinabalu i guess.

Just a random shot by the island. It really looked fantastic. Click to enlarge.

We did almost everything we could before climbing – eat, shop, hangout at malls, play bridge, BBQ, swim, snorkel… and then on the day before we climb, we went to have some simple briefing and mental preparation of what we were pit up against.

Mighty mountain behind the range in the clouds. It decided to show its face when we were on the island. Most of the time it’s hidden in clouds. Click to enlarge.

Turns out we really need the mental preparation. It didn’t sound so bad but uh… let’s just say that you need to at least train a bit larh before climbing. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Meaning i only want it once in my life. At the end, it’s something that we would be proud of and i believe that all of us now appreciates flat surfaces to walk on.

The most famous peak in Mount Kinabalu. It’s behind the RM 1 note. Click to enlarge.  

It’s almost a miracle that there wasn’t a drop of rain throughout our climb. KK has been very consistent in its weather – hot blasting morning, cloudy noon and braaahhhh.. poured in the late afternoon. But we really thank God we could witness sunrise on the peak and got home without a single drop of rain on our shoulders. Even the mountain guide was surprised.

I dunno whether we’d have such a trip anymore. Probably not since 2 of us decided that they’d only go to a mountain provided there’s car/lift/escalator. So this really makes it once in a lifetime :D thanks guys, you guys are awesome!