Kota Kinabalu or KK for short, is probably the most populated city in Borneo including the Indonesian part of the Island, but still tiny in comparison to Cape Town. Our apartment was within four huge blocks of flats. It was clean enough and we had the luxury of a shower that was set aside from the toilet bowl!  There was a shared swimming pool, much to the kids delight, and I found a battered old gym which was full of broken equipment from the 80’s, no aircon, and littered with cigarette butts – a far cry from my swanky gym in Cape Town, but still enough equipment to have a work out.

In general our kids are very adventurous with food and spices, and since we’d been in Borneo they had enjoyed the Malay cuisine; but I think one too many  servings of ‘Nasi and Mee Goreng’ had sent them over the edge. Tiana especially wasn’t really eating, and it culminated in a ‘hangry’  (tired and angry) outburst where the wheels completely came off. The focal point of the hangry outburst would almost always end up as me being the bad guy for selling the house and taking them away from their pets and friends. One day they’d appreciate this journey!

We did a few excursions whilst in KK  the highlight being an island hopping tour to snorkel. The kids were super excited to hook up with the family (Mark, Laura, Holly and Zack) we had met in Bako national park, and it went up a level when we heard they’d be staying in the same complex. We met up by the pool and the kids started chatting like they had been friends for years; there really was a connection. The four adults also got on famously, and despite our varied backgrounds, it appeared we  were cut from the same cloth when it came to outlook on life and morals.

The two families went to dinner at a local open air market that evening and the kids soon enlisted some local children to play with them. Our plans as a group escalated quickly, and a journey together was initiated: to the cooler climes of Kundasang which was the village below the mighty Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Malaysia. Lara and Becky had a kindly agreed to field Tiana and Holly, whilst the male contingent would scale Mount Kinabalu on a two day one night trek.

The wheels were put in motion the following day and there was a lot to organise: accommodation,  transport, trekking gear, supplies and the trek itself. We had to work fast, and everything was accomplished with minimum fuss – things just clicked into place.

Naturally, travelling to Asia, neither Mark or I had any warm clothes with us so it was by chance that we found a hall just a street away from us that was selling imported  second hand clothing from Korea, and we managed to kit out ourselves and the boys out with warm clothes and gloves for the trek, as we were expecting temperatures around zero degrees for the 2 a.m. hike to the summit.

We were all  set for the next leg of our journey; the newly founded commune was on the road!