Complete strangers offered beers, meals, words of support, and random acts of kindness. On the trail I made some of the most unlikely friends and met some of the most determined, unique, intelligent and kindly people. I hiked with Thai, Malaysian, Australian, and Indonesian adventurers.
We laughed, danced, swore, spit, walk under stars, woke wet and cold, but mostly just walked. I felt bored, felt crazy, felt exhausted, I performed a feat without any concrete value, that most folks can’t quite seem to grasp.
Somehow with each day I fell more in love with the wild, with the journey, with humanity.
And people must have seen this in me.
Mount Kinabalu is a mountain in Sabah, Malaysia. It is protected as Kinabalu Park, a World Heritage Site. Kinabalu is the highest peak in Borneo’s Crocker Range and is the highest mountain in the Malay Archipelago as well as the highest mountain in Malaysia. Mount Kinabalu is also the 20th most prominent mountain in the world by topographic prominence.
The mountain and its surroundings are among the most important biological sites in the world, with between 5,000 and 6,000 species of plants, 326 species of birds, and more than 100 mammalian species identified.
Are you ready for a trip like this?
Em Surasak currently lives in Bangkok, Thailand and is an avid adventurer, traveler, photographer, and mountain climber. These days you can find him scaling cliffs throughout Europe and Southeast Asia.
“I’m a dirt person , I trust the dirt. I don’t trust diamond and gold.”
You can follow more of his adventures here on instagram.