Environmental Issues

What say you?

It has been quite an issue during the past few weeks. Politicians and businessman talking about it. Somebody will get rich and a lot of people will get poor if they build casino on Mount Kinabalu.

I know, it’s not an issue for most of Kinabalu climbers, but the impact of the gambling industry to the World’s Heritage Site need to be considered.

Yeah… I read it from the newspaper few days ago. Our Sabah’s Minister of Tourism, Datuk Masidi Manjun urged us to vote Sipadan Island as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. Although we have not heard any good news on him getting the price of Kinabalu climbing down, I think we should support him and our government vote for Sipadan.

Yes, that was what they said on the complaints about Sutera’s monopoly of Mount Kinabalu. If you can’t afford it, don’t climb the mountain.

Go climb other mountain in Java, Indonesia or Vietnam. Theirs are cheaper and don’t have much problem with the government. Or even spend your hard earn money in Phuket. You will thank me later.

I received an official call from Mr. Guna, the investigating officer for our complaints against Sutera Sanctuary Lodges on the ridiculous pricing of climbing Mount Kinabalu starting from 2008. For the other 15 complaints that had been submitted (thanks for those who submitted the complaints), you will get a similar call from him soon.

Basically, this was his explanation:

1. Prior to 2003, the accommodation in Laban Rata was managed by Sabah Parks, i.e under direct supervision of Sabah State Government.

We went back to Kudat last weekend for holiday. I had the opportunity to go to Kota Marudu Tamu (Sundays open market here in Sabah) for a test of my new Nikon D40 that I bought from lelong.com.my last month.

It’s actually my Sunday mornings ritual every time I went back to Kudat – a visit to Sikuati Tamu for fresh fish and vegetables, but this time around, my wife suggested that we go to Kota Marudu instead. My brother in law also said that Kota Marudu’s Tamu is bigger, and I could find more local people to shoot.

I was shock when I found out that they are planning to manipulate Mabul, the same (or maybe worse) as Kinabalu. One of my friends in Facebook invited me to join another cause that could hopefully spread the awareness on how human greed can destroy the future of Sabah. Although I am not Sabahan myself, my kids are…

After Kinabalu and Kudat Riviera (have anybody heard about that?), Mabul Island will soon be transformed.

I received at least 3 emails asking about the weather on Kinabalu each week. I think I better write this post and lead the inquirer about the issue here. It will save me a lot of time, answering the same emails over and over again.

I have been writing about SCUBA diving in this blog for the past few months. Yeah… I am shying away from Mount Kinabalu temporarily as the issues with Sutera drags my feet away from the highest peak of Borneo. However, it does not mean that I am not writing about Kinabalu anymore. I will write about Kinabalu – almost about anything – until it is free from human greed.

I received an email from Patrick again this morning. He sent me one before, asking about some issues on Kinabalu climbing with his children. This time he was asking us a favor – to donate to his fund raising climb – for survivors of Cyclone Nargis which hit Burma few months back.