Kota Kinabalu

I arrive into the KK airport in Malaysia from Bangkok on a Sunday night, the smallest airport I've ever seen. The room inside had two customs agents and baggage claim was right next to it. That's it.

There it is. Piece of cake, right?

See that backpack I'm carrying? That's all I had on me for the entire two week trip. Good thing I picked up some pants in Bangkok and Matt had an extra sweater.

Check out this high roller! Do they really know how to pimp out their 80's cars here or what? It even has matching yellow splash guards. People can't seem to get enough.

Some decent cloud cover to keep us cool for the climb.

At this point we were still waiting in the parking lot to get registered to climb. It's getting a lot more serious than I thought it was going to be.

The reason we're in Kota Kinabalu is to hike Mt. Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Southeast Asia. The next morning we get up at 7 am and are picked up by our tour guide Julie, who gives us some info on the drive to the base to begin the 13,428 foot climb. No problem!

Some temple type place on the way.

Trash cans and funky huts never looked so cool.

Standard miniature Malaysian cars.

Two French dudes, three from Sweden, and the guide. Almost ready to go through the gate.

Just before the main gate, we get a glimpse of the valley.

That's our guide on the way up. He didn't do very much besides take up the back and make sure we weren't eaten by any tigers or mountain lions.

We grab our bag lunches in the restaurant, and I snap a final shot before we start the walk.

Serious hikers indeed.

We're hiking up there? No problem.

The paths along the way were pretty flippin' sweet. Roots, rocks, and low floating clouds for a nice misty effect.

The first hundred yards of the climb was downhill, the second four thousand were up.

I'm not going to lie to you, but the next hundred or so photos are a lot like this.

Looking energetic and optimistic. Not for long.

... but that's where my informative, creative, and witty narration comes in.

Watch your step, or they'll grab your feet and make you pay!

There were rest stops like this every kilometer or so, but it was really nothing more than a covered place to sit and a outhouse.

It's about this point of the walk when you start thinking about what you packed, as it weighs you down more and more.

Up ahead come some people who had reached the summit that morning.

The climb starts getting steeper.

And rockier.

We're still only about 1/6th of the way there.

No bears or mountain lions yet.

The second rest stop.

We passed this guy about 1/3rd of the way up, slowly but surely carrying 50 kilos (110 pounds) of rice. Whoa.

We got to this group of older Japanese folks who had started earlier that morning. I think a few were in their 50's and 60's.

Obviously way more prepared than me and my 1992 blue Jansport bag.

The serious climbing begins.

You definitely don't want to lose your step here.

I coast by, but they still keep chugging along. Just like the Terminator.

Still a long way to go.