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Climber who caused uproar by posing naked for pictures on Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu may be Hong Kong resident
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 09 June, 2015, 2:38am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 09 June, 2015, 2:38am
Staff Reporter
Emil Kaminski became infamous among the online community after posting the pictures.
A Canadian hiker said to be a Hong Kong resident was one of a group of tourists that posed for pictures in their birthday suits atop Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu, a stunt which caused uproar among locals and officials who said they had offended the spirits of the sacred site and so caused Friday's earthquake.
Emil Kaminski became infamous among the online community after posting the pictures, and has since called Masidi Manjun, the minister for tourism, culture and environment in the East Malaysian state of Sabah, an "idiot" and "not a minister of tourism" for blaming the nudists for the quake, which left at least 16 people dead.
Kaminski posted the comments on his Twitter account along with a picture of a naked man's derriere against a background of several mountains.
An earlier tweet also referred to the minister as a "dildo".
A Facebook search for the name Emil Kaminski suggests the user is a Canadian living in Hong Kong.
The name is also linked to MonkeeTime, a travel website dedicated to videos and pictures of Kaminski's exploits.
Messages sent to the website by the South China Morning Post last night received no reply.
Sixteen bodies have been recovered by the search and rescue team on Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit the eastern Sabah state. Photo: Xinhua
Media reports said about 10 foreign tourists had broken away from their entourage of 27 and stripped naked for pictures on Mount Kinabalu sometime last month. When warned not to by their guide, they called him "stupid" and told him to "go to hell", the online news outlet Malay Mail Online reported.
The act angered many locals who consider the mountain a sacred site as it is believed to be the final resting place of their ancestors.
On Friday, the popular climbing destination was jolted by a magnitude 5.9 quake while the 4,095-metre World Heritage Site was crowded with hikers.
The mountain is a popular destination for travellers from around the world who rise during the small hours to view the rising sun from its peak.
The Toronto Star last week reported that two Canadian siblings were barred from leaving Malaysia after being blamed for the earthquake. Lindsey and Danielle Petersen were among the tourists who have been identified as disrespecting the holy mountain.
"When the earthquake occurred it can be taken as confirmation of what the consequences would be when these people decided to bare all on top of the mountain," Joseph Pairin Kitingan, paramount leader of the Kadazandusun community, told the Borneo Post.
"We cannot play around with the spirits on our sacred mountain."
