Pacific Asia 2010
This was my first real backpacking trip. I packed way too much, spent too much and traveled too fast. I kind of based my flights stupidly too, and took like 9 flights to and from Kuala Lumpur. Instead of a nice cool loop, my flight map looked more like an angry spider. Despite these things I had a great trip, made a lot of friends, climbed some nice peaks, got my scuba license and became more open-minded. First I went with a few friends to Malaysia, and onward to the Philippines for a missionary trip. I wasn’t officially a part of anything but it was ok for me to tag along to the different kinds of things they did, like going up to mountains and cooking for kids, organising a week-long youth camp, skate comps etc. There was also a rad cablepark 1km from where we were staying. We did a lot of wakeboarding. It was sad to leave the friends we had made.
From there I went to Taiwan for a month. I more or less made a loop around the country, and went into the interior to visit Shei-pa National Park. I couldn’t get a bunk bed in a cabin halfway up the mountain so i tried for a 4am start to reach the summit and get back down by dark. It was here I experienced altitude sickness for the first time, and threw up my noodles. Other Highlights of Taiwan include the BBQ street food, bubble tea, surfing on the east coast for a week with a friend i made in Hualien, and the people. The Taiwanese are the nicest people in the world. I didn’t even have to put out my thumb… they just pick you up.
Finally I spent a month in Sabah, Borneo. Here I jumped in line and climbed the 4000m high lump of granite called Mt Kinabalu. I found its popular for a reason, once I got above the trees and the clouds, this place felt like the moon. Totally bare rock of a huge scale, twisting up into horns. Really cool, and really cold. The 3 months ended with 2 weeks of hanging out on Mabul island off the east coast of Sabah, diving everyday.
