It was my first time going to Malaysia and I overall found it a great experience and adventure. I had to face challenges i had not faced before such as making my own fire for cooking and preparing my own food, managing my own equipment to carry in my 70l bag for the jungle trek which was quite a difficult trek as a whole as it required a high fitness level as the pathway was mostly uphill and there was a high risk of tripping so managing a balanced bag was more important than I thought. What I found most tough during the jungle trek was probably not having clean water, as we hiked in the sun for long hours, it was indispensable to drink water and the bleached water wasn’t motivating to drink and it also made me realize that water is quite precious and we sometimes take it for granted so one good thing out of this experience is that it made me more aware about the things I have and the world around me.
The next hike during the trip was the Mt Kinabalu summit trail. I quite enjoyed this hike actually as the weather was refreshing and the view was just beautiful and I had never gone to such a high altitude before which made me discover something new. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the summit due to an earthquake and even though most people were really disappointed, I was fine with it because I was with my group, happy and we had already done a great job and we manage to do our best to reach to where we were. I’d say the most difficult part was going downhill, as you had to be extra careful to not slip as the stairs were really steep and so you needed great balance. I am proud to say I only tripped twice and made some great memories with the people while hiking,
A thing I would do if I went on this trip again is I would bring more of the right equipment. For example, trainers. I didn’t bring a pair of trainers and turns out I needed them for our rafting day which was a very marking time for me as we had a great laugh, and sports day which was really fun as we played different versions of the sports we know with locals and the ambience was just overall great.
This trip was a really great experience for me to be more open-minded about the world around me and I would be delighted to do it again.
