So I have returned from jumping off moving busses in India and summiting Mt. Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia.

India was intense. We had to change our plans on the first day since we couldn’t get a train to Varanasi like we originally planned. Instead, we went from New Delhi to Jaipur to Ranthambhore to Agra to Varanasi and then back to New Delhi. Pretty packed itinerary for a 7 day trip I’d say!

We saw a lot of historical monuments, and the only day it rains, of course, was the day we went to see the Taj Mahal. Luckily, it didn’t really take away from the beauty of the building. I was quite impressed with how well preserved all these places are (not just the Taj, like most of the heritage sites we visited were very well maintained, not to mention high in security)!

Of course seeing all these sites are just part of what made India interesting. I think the other part was the fact that we weren’t on a tour. People were just so curious about us, probably because most of the Asian tourist I saw in India were with a tour. We were walking around Red Fort in New Delhi and suddenly these two teens came up to us and wanted to shake our hands and take a photo with us?? Strange.  Or we’d be driving down the highway and you can see everyone in the surrounding cars just blatantly staring.

One of the best was when we stopped outside farm near a small town, we were trying to chase some antelope or deer. So as we ran through the tomato field, these kids saw us and started running with us. By the time we stopped, there were probably 15 kids surrounding us, and they all wanted to be in the photo, etc. Needless to say, I had alot of fun with the children I met during my travel in India.]

Another time, we were sitting in a train station for about 2 hours. At the time, we didn’t know most people waited for the trains at the platform as opposed to inside the waiting area, so we were the only visible foreigners in the waiting area. This, of course, drew alot of unwanted attention from people, and even the cows wandering the station (yes, there were cows. In the station..) As we were about to leave, these two young men, probably around my age, came up to us, and gave us very beautiful hand drawn card!! It was very, well strange yes, but also touching? cute? I don’t know the word.

Oh, by the way, everyone there knows Japanese, totally was not expecting that. And I jumped off a moving bus, true story.

Mt. Kota Kinabalu was a different experience. Although, heightwise, it was comparable to Mt. Fuji the physical feature of the mountain, the terrain, the camps and just about everything else felt completely different.

The summit was very… pointy (for lack of a better word). I guess I understand now why they limit the number of climbers allowed on the mountain, because Lowe’s Peak only has room for 5 climbers at a time!! My climbing partner and I made excellent time, arriving at the summit just after a group of Malaysian Navymen. In fact, we made such good time we arrived a good 1 hour before sunrise and had to hide behind some rocks a few meters below the peak because it was too cold up there.

Unfortunately, clouds kind of ruined the sunrise, but in all honesty, I didn’t really climb it for the sunrise anyway. We made good time going down the mountain as well and enjoyed some time out in town, where I ended up drinking 6 oversized  flavoured Yakults.

Photos and more detailed blog post later this month … hopefully.