Word: kinabalu
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...December see conditions at their best, and beds at "base camp" - the Paiyun Hostel, located a 9-km hike from the Tatachia Recreation Area, near the Jade Mountain Scenic Highway - should be booked for this time. From here, it's a two-hour haul to the top. Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia, 4,101 m Southeast Asia's highest mountain gets its name from Aki Nabalu ("Mountain of the Dead") - the term used by the local Kadazan people, who believe their ancestors inhabit its highest peaks. Start the trek early from Kinabalu Park HQ, and you can make your overnight stop...
...only moments before takeoff when Tony Fernandes, chief executive officer of high-flying budget airline AirAsia, rushes onto a plane destined for the Malaysian resort town of Kota Kinabalu. But there's no plum seat waiting for him. Even top managers at no-frills airlines don't get any frills. Fernandes treks through the crowded plane searching for an empty chair, ending up in one of the last rows. When flight attendants appear with a cart of sodas and instant noodles for sale, he plunks down 80? for a can of Milo chocolate drink. Fernandes then spends much...
...than the price she says she was quoted on national-flag carrier Malaysia Airlines-she decided to fly to Bangkok for the first time in July. "I will travel much more with AirAsia," she says. Omar Jaafar, a 51-year-old professor waiting for his AirAsia flight at Kota Kinabalu's airport, says budget travel has belatedly introduced him to the joys of vacations. Before AirAsia, he almost never traveled for fun. But with tickets costing as little as half of what Malaysia Airlines charges, he's heading off to climb Mount Kinabalu-his second leisure trip in the past...
...officials are clued in to the possibility that budget airlines can invigorate underused airports and attract much-needed tourist dollars. Singapore is considering building an entire new terminal as a hub for budget carriers, and other countries have been wooing no-frills airlines by reducing airport fees. In Kota Kinabalu, AirAsia took over a mothballed terminal, which now buzzes with five flights a day. Fernandes wants to expand the building and turn it into a hub for flights around the region. "The loyalty to national carriers is getting more and more compromised," he says. "There's no more cozy cartel...
...increase as the plane fills up, especially on very popular routes, so passengers need to buy early to get the dirt-cheap fares. Sam Chan, a Singaporean trader, found this out on a June business trip to Malaysia. He purchased a one-way ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu the same day as the flight for more than $80-not much less than the Malaysia Airlines price, he says. And then, he gripes, he had to buy his own food. When a passenger with whom Fernandes is chatting complains that the number of cheap seats should be expanded...