Hong Kong John

I’m back from Malaysia, and I’ve posted the first round of pictures.

You can find them here…http://www.hongkongjohn.net/?page_id=246

and here… http://picasaweb.google.com/john.myers.erwin/AVeryMerryMalaysianChristmas#.

I made it back alive, but came down with the flu later in the week which stopped me from enjoying the final day of activities. I was able to grab a few hours sleep after arriving home before I had to head in to work. Before my nap I enjoyed a bowl of Pho Tai from Nha Trang, my favorite Vietnamese noodle shop. There will be a lot more pictures from the trip coming in the next few weeks when I get copies from everyone on the trip.

It was a strange Christmas experience. The mountain was an absolute beating. It took 5 days for my legs to recover and I suspect that I caught the flu because my immune system was so depleted from the climb. The first day of the climb up Mount Kinabalu covered 6km in distance and a 1km increase in altitude. We arrived into base camp around sunset. As a group we were already exhausted. I think the trip up was harder then everyone thought. After dinner we went to bed just after dark. We were about 3000 meters up at this point and experiencing altitude sickness. For me that meant not sleeping, a headache, and frequent trips to the bathroom. About 2am we got out of bed and I was feeling extremely nauseous. We ate a little food, drank so hot tea and water, and headed up the mountain. After about 10 minutes I really wanted to turn around and quit. That feeling really didn’t go away until we  actually had the summit in sight.

It felt like the mountain never ended. You could see the summit and feel like you knew how much farther you had to go, but then you’d come up over a ridge and see that you weren’t even close. After we got above the tree line the wind really started pounding us. Basically for 4 hours you’re pushing yourself up a dark, cold, and windy mountain when your legs are beyond tired,  you have no energy, the oxygen is getting thinner and thinner, and there are a million places you’d rather be. I had to force myself to breathe in a pattern and step to the pattern. One leg in front of the other over and over again for what seemed like forever.

You feel a lot better once you get to the top. I think it’s a combination of knowing you don’t have to climb up anymore, a big sense of relief and accomplishment, and the fact that you’ll be on your way off that horrible mountain sooner rather than later. We stayed on top for a while taking pictures, but it’s really cold up there and the more pictures you take the colder you get.

The climb down was brutal. At first you feel good because you’re using a different set of muscles, but those muscles succumb to exhaustion pretty quickly so you’re once again just having to force yourself to take each step. It rained on the way down and the trail was covered with mud so the rocks that seemed stable on the way up was now extremely slippery and precarious. The last 1km of the trail seemed like 2, really I reached the 800 meter mark and walked about 20 minutes and came to the 500 meter mark which was a real blow to my psyche. Each step, down or up, was painful and I leaned heavily on any guard rail that was available. The trail ends with a big stair case that leads to the pairk gates. As I slowly and painfully ascended the stairs I was sure that the park officer that sits in the little room at the top was looking out his window laughing as he watched me make my way towards him.

All told in about 26 hours time we hiked 16 kilometers and changed 4 kilometers in altitude. I ended up being awake for about 39 hours straight, except for a nap on the van back to town that last a few sweet minutes. My legs ended up needing over 5 days to fully recover.

We took it easy the next day, sleeping late, I had real pizza for the first time in Asia and it was great, painfully walking around town (we should have video taped ourselves, especially when we had to go up or down a curb when crossing the street), and a delicious Malay dinner.

On Wednesday we went whitewater rafting. It seemed like everything required a 2-3 hours ride from Kota Kinabalu. I’d been whitewater rafting once, but the Arkansas river was low and there were nothing but Class 1 and 2’s. The Padas River in Borneo had some Class 3’s and 4’s though and it was extremely fun and I wished it had lasted longer. I saw a small crocodile in between rapids, never got knocked out of the boat, and rode on a flat top train car.

We spent Christmas on a few islands off the coast. I tried snorkeling for the first time, but unfortunately my beard kept the mask from sealing very well and I kept getting saltwater up my nose. When a parrot fish bit my leg that was the last straw and I called it a day. It was by far the clearest water I’ve ever seen before and it was really cool to see tropical fish in their natural environment. I took a stroll down the beach at one point and saw a monitor lizard headed into the forest which was pretty cool. After the islands we went back to the hotel and changed and went to dinner. I stuffed myself with an entire pizza, the second pizza I’d eaten in 3 days, and while it wasn’t a typical Christmas dinner it was a tasty one.

On Friday I really started to feel ill. I had been fighting something off ever since we got off the mountain, but it really starting to beat me down. I had a cough, sore throat, little appetite, and no energy. Nothing else too eventful happened the rest of the trip since I spent most of it sick in bed. I can’t think of anything else to share about the trip right now. It was nice to get back to Hong Kong and it probably felt like home more today then it has since I’ve been here.

Due to the over-reactions from my concerned parents I have removed the FICTIONAL story I wrote several months ago, “An Unfinished Story” from my blog. While all the feedback I got regarding the story was that it was well written and entertaining, apparently I didn’t make it clear enough that it was a fictional account. While I used certain parts of my past in writing the character I am not interested in trying to convince anyone that this story is indeed fictional and that I am not an alcoholic with a sever mental disorder as the character in the story is. If anyone is interested in reading the story please let me know and I’ll happily email the story to you.

Regards,
John

A funny thing always happens when I lose self discipline, it feels like I have to climb a mountain to get it back. I know this to be true for physical self discipline as far as working out, or spiritual self discipline as far as praying or studying, or self discipline in regards to saying no to sin. In reality all you really have to do is say “No” to your flesh. Colossians 3:5 says to put to death your flesh, and the only way to do that is by being able to deny it. Recently I’ve been struggling to pray and read the Bible consistently, when I felt like I should do it or I even knew I should do it, it always felt like it would be so hard to do in my head. I had a really great time of prayer today though, and all it took was saying “No” and getting on my knees and starting to pray. I was tired as usual and wanted to just go to sleep. As usual my flesh gave me bad counsel and told me I could just pray when I woke up, and I’ve listened to this bad advice many times and I think I’ve actually prayed after waking up maybe twice in the last 3 months. My prayer time felt a little awkward at first and I started to run down my usual list of prayers, but something happened while I was praying. It got easy and felt a little more natural. Towards the end I really felt like I was talking to my Father in Heaven. I know that my flesh is stubborn and lazy and doesn’t know what’s best for me, and I don’t know why I keep forgetting that. So for this season in my life my life verse is Col 3:5, and I’ll be begging God to help me to put my flesh to death.