Mount Kinabalu

Adam was sitting at the end of the class. This is ‘ Women in Asian literature’ class.

‘I went through some of your assignments and many of them copied from websites’

‘sorry, madam, indeed I did because I was confusing how to cite properly’

‘ This is the problem with many students. That’s why I think in the first-year student should take English for academic purposes’ they teach this subject in final year and when students do their assignments and they do not know how to cite properly. This is really tiresome for lecturers’

Dr. Ara ended her class and went out of classroom and Adam followed her.

‘Excuse me Madam’

‘Yes…Adam’ Madam stopped walking .

Adam stood face to face with Madam.

‘Madam, I have a competition in Sabah to climb Mt Kinabalu. Therefore, I am unable to attend this Thursday class. I did not visit anywhere outside this part of Malaysia. Would you please excuse me for next Thursday class?’

‘ Sure…Adam…No worries….Wish you all the best’ Dr Ara left.

‘Yessss….’ Adam said to himself. This was very important from Adam since if he did not take excuse from lecturer, his 3 marks would be deducted in final markings.

Adam went to barber shop and asked barber to cut his hair like army style. Adam got his flight ticket from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Kota Kinabalu 3 months before and it was only 300 rm with return ticket. Now it is 1500RM approximately. He was lucky in a way that he got his ticket early.

Adam is on the plane now. He took his flight in day so that he can see the beauty of nature. There are clouds and their plane is flying through cloud. At last, when the plane was about to land, he saw the Brunei and the beautiful view of Kota Kinabalu. He saw Mt Kinabalu and Sea shore with Kinabalu city. The water seems dark from sky. This is really astounding view that Adam has never experienced previously.

The plane landed at Kota Kinabalu airport. Adam took his luggage and started to walk towards immigration department. Last time, he faced immigration in 2013 and it was mixture of experience. In Bangladesh immigration, the officers brought them in one room asking nonsense questions and left them just before the departure of plane. Also, they even checked his certificates. In Kuala Lumpur, it was very different. They just said that wait for your institution to come and Adam has to stay whole day with other students. Some of them were staying for 3 days also. Most of them actually came with language program and went for job. Now government has closed most of the language institution after the investigations.

Adam met with lady officer and showed his paper. Lady officer said ‘ wait for another officer to come’

Adam was waiting and the way Adam dressed was he is real Bangladeshi worker. He just simply wears his slipper and one T-shirt.

Officer came and Adam wanted to say something but before that Officer stopped him talking and took his passport and said , ‘ Tapi …Tapi…Tapi…’ He indicated Adam to go far from the place where Adam was standing. Adam went few step backwards. Then, Officer was waiting for confirmation and he talked with Sabah Tourism board. Then, He gave Adam pass for 3 days and said, ‘ you do not stay in this territory and must come back after 3 days for your flight as mentioned’.

‘ Thank you…Sir’

Adam started to walk crossing immigration. He took a taxi to go to Bus stand. The problem is many workers come here and do not go back . These immigration officers have experiences . That’s why they behaved with Adam like that in initial stage. Adam did understand that. Adam was dropped in Bus stop. Unfortunatey no bus is available for Kinabalu park. Adam prayed Magrib at one Musollah. Then, he booked a grab. The grab was expensive for Adam but this time nothing to do. He reached in his hotel with grab. He called to hotel owner and he said, ‘there is one aunty, she would receive you’. It was raining and somehow dam managed to enter in that hotel. Not many people are in the hotel. Most of the rooms are empty. There are few tourists have come for Climbathon. Adam met one of them. One is from Spain. He saw him running in youtube. They talked and became good friends. They went to different place from the hotel for dinner and had pasta together. Adam is used to with any kind of food so long that is halal.

The very next day Adam went to Kinabalu park and did registration for his Clambathon. The committee informed Adam you are allowed to practice for climbing. Adam told them, ‘ I want to practice now. How can I go there’. The staff talked with someone and informed Adam that there is one car coming to receive you.

The Car came and there were few people there. Adam saw one Indian old man. He is Sikh perhaps. He started to talk with him.

‘ Uncle, how is life here’

‘ That’s very nice for me’

‘How long are you here uncle?’

‘ Since 2nd world war ’

‘ damn… uncle that’s a looong’

‘ Yes… I am taking care in this area’ kept on talking ‘In fact, this climbathon I started for decades ago. Are you coming from which country’

‘Bangladesh…uncle’

‘Oww…really? Nobody joined so far from Bangladesh’

‘ Yes…uncle…I love these kinds of activities’

‘ This is indeed good for travelling and good for health also’

‘ Yes …uncle…That’s why I prefer these kind of activities’

The car stopped in one place and uncle said, ‘ You can start climbing from here’

‘ Thank you so much uncle’ Adam left the car and started to climb.

As Adam was climbing to top, he encountered some tourists and also the locals who are carrying Barang up to 70 kg. This is tiring work no doubt on that. They need to carry till Laban Rata where there are some restaurants. Adam tried to carry one Barang asking from one local when he was taking rest. He smiled and let Adam carry his Barang. Adam carries that around 100 m and He is tired already. He handed over the Barang and carry-on climbing. He reached at Laban Rata and went to restaurant. Everything is very expensive here compared to park restaurants in down. This is because they need to pay workers and this is really not easy to cook something at such high altitude. Adam finished his food and again started to climb to the top. As soon as he reached in rocky part at the top, Adam can not control his emotion. He started to run like crazy towards the pick. He reached to the pick in half an hour time. He stood up on top of Mt Kinabalu. He felt as if he conquered the universe. What a magnificent feeling. If we do not explore, we do not realize the beauty of our universe. Adam looked at sky and thanked his God. Alhamdulillah.

He wanted to spend more time but he started to feel cold. The wind is so strong here, but Adam forgot already due to his journaling rush. He started to climb down. He returned to his hotel by afternoon. It is raining like crazy. Hotels have umbrella. In fact, this is normal at this high altitude. Adam and his Spanish friend went to nearest Restaurant today also and enjoy the food here. Adam ordered 2 dishes with Milo Panas. This is best time to enjoy the food for him as he thought.

The whole night rain did not stop and it was so cold and the wind is also so strong. The race started at 9:00 am and the committee decided to run until Laban Rata since the raining and wind does not stop. Adam started to run. Those who are professional runners they left them very fast. Adam felt very difficult to run but he did not stop. He gave the song ‘Rain over me’ . The music seems working for Adam. He reached at Laban Rata in 3 hours’ time which is 30 minutes extra from allocated time. It does not matter for Adam. At least, he has joined the race. As he was coming down, he was trembling due to cold but he kept on running. There are 120 climbers. Many of them are slower than Adam. At one instance, Adam stood up and one 6 fit tall young man from New Zealand came to Adam.

‘Are you all right?’

‘ Yes..bro…I am okey’

‘ Where are you from’

‘New Zealand’

‘How did you come to know about this?’

‘Well, I just wanted to travel Malaysia and I came across with this ‘

‘ That’s great’

They again started to run, but Adam can not go with that man. He disappeared after a while. Adam kept on running by his own pace. He came down, but he needs to go till the main entrance. Another 5 KM perhaps. Another man was coming by running from behind.

‘ Hey…bro… how is race?’

‘ pretty cool’

‘ where are you from ?’

‘America’

‘Oww… How did you know about this climbathon?’

‘ Well…I am IT expert and I needed holiday and I searched and I found this race’

‘ That’s excellent man’

‘ yeah…’

They saw the place where the race ends. They went there and some welcome us. We took rest for 15 minutes there. They gave prize for winners and we got our certificates and medal. We left for our hotel.

In afternoon, this was sunny weather and Adam started to walk along the mountainous road. He never ever experienced such beautiful scenery in his entire life. All the mountains he can see. He is walking and looking at different corners. He reached at one small town called Kundasang. He saw so many shops selling local fruits. Adam went there and bought some fruits and started to explore the town. He saw there is one memorial. There were groups of Australians who were forced to built this place. They died here. They could not meet their family and nobody knew that they were captivated here. They wrote sad letter on the walls in stone for future Australians. Adam went around the buildings and there is no doubt the amount of labor needs for this building must be very laborious.

Adam prayed Magrib at city mosque and ordered grab car there. He went back to hotel. The very next day Adam left his hotel and got bus to Kota Kinabalu. He saw the biggest water fall coming down from Kinabalu Mountain. Wherever you go, Mt Kinabalu is like a moon for Kinabalu People. You can see from everywhere. The highest mountain in Malaysia. This is like a Goddess for locals. They honor this mountain. This is indeed a sacred place for these local people.

Adam reached at Kota Kinabalu and he noticed he has still time to visit Kinabalu city. He hired a taxi and asked him to bring the famous mosque in Kinabalu city which is next to sea. The taxi dropped him there. People love to visit this place with their family members. There is a place like park next to sea. The mosque Adam went also great place to visit.

Adam left Kinabalu at evening and came to Kuala Lumpur before midnight. His friend Ali was waiting for him to congratulate him. They met and had coffee at Starbuck together. Then, they decided to walk back to their university.

They both came out from KL International Airport and they started to walk. They walked whole night non-stop. They take food and drinks where usually other vehicles stopped for rest. The road police stopped car once and asked them why they are walking.

‘ We are students and just walking for fun’

‘Police officers can not say anything but just laugh’

They left them. Both of them kept on walking.

At Fajar time, they were in the high way and the blue sky with full moon was above the palm tree garden. Such a marvelous scenery is rare if we just sleep at city and became crazy for money. The millions dollar can not buy the peace Adam remembered that phrase. The phrase may be false but at that very moment Adam thought that might be true.

It is afternoon and it is sunny. Both are sweeting like crazy but they keep on walking. They do not care about anything. Adam found a wallet with IC of a Chinese girl. There was no money there but there were bank cards and IC.

‘ brooo….’

‘Yes…’ Ali came near to Adam. Adam shows the wallet and cards to Ali.

‘ Bro…just throw the wallet… we can not take any responsibility. Who knows this Chinese girl was killed or kidnapped or had fighting with some criminals’

‘ True…”Adam throw the wallet

They started to walk.