Re: Nepenthes Excursion in SE Asia

Andreas Wistuba (A.Wistuba@DKFZ-Heidelberg.DE)
Thu, 20 Oct 1994 14:52:36 GMT+1

> Hi Andreas, you wrote:
>
> > If you travel with the first bus from KK to park headquaters you can
> > even start hiking on the mountain the same day. Guides are no problem
> > to find within half an hour. You would then reach the overnight
> > shelter by the afternoon after having crossed villosa-zone with huge
> > populations of N. villosa. You should start climbing to the summit at
> > 3am to reach it with the sunset - phantastic!!! -a must!!!
>
> Actually I'm not terribly interested in reaching the summit of Mount
> Kinabalu. It's pretty bare up there, though I guess the real
> attraction is the excellent view. Yes, it takes all day to hike
> up to the summit from the overnight shelter

That's not true. You walk around 3 hours with the flash to reach the
summit. Though there is quite a lot of tourism on Kinabalu :-( the
summit is phantastic. It is not the view but the absolutely unique
landscape that makes the summit a must (from my point of view).
Crippled Bonsai-like trees cling theirself into little cracks in the
bare rock...like on another planet! I would not like to miss this experience!

>, and I'd rather spend
> that time stomping around the villosa-zone

You are not allowed to leave the path and so the time you need for
the villosa's is limited, even if you take many photographs.

>, or perhaps stomping
> around areas outside the Park where I am allowed to collect seeds.
>
> Am I being incredibly naive or foolhardy by not going to the summit?

Just a little! (:-))
(I would rather miss the villosas than the summit (and I am a rather
fanatic Nepenthes-person!))

All the best

Andreas