I can’t believe it! I climbed Mt. Kinabalu!… :-D

In the month of May, I've went to Sabah to do my elective for my 2nd year. The topic of my group was "Study of Sabah Culture". But actually we went there for vacation, hehe… ;P 1st of all, we went to climb the legendary Mt. Kinabalu.

As soon as we arrived at Kota Kinabalu, we straightaway head towards Kinabalu Park. It's located at the foot of the mountain which actually is on highlands and the weather was quite cold. Man, the water here was already freezing man if u didn’t take the hot shower or your hot water shower is broken like what I went through. & there were some funny-looking bugs that kept me accompanied in the toilet & the shower room as the Kinabalu Park is surrounded by the lush green rainforest. There was something interesting here: the packaged food like Mr. Potato, Tiger Biscuits or Maggi Hot Cup were bulged like they are going to explode in anytime because the atmosphere pressure here is thinner than the air trapped inside those plastic covers. Simple physics theory explained it all.

We had our first dinner here & the food was priced surprisingly high. My group leader said the pricing was set according the level of ground. It sure made me think how astronomical the food they offer at the next rest house above. Sound ok for somebody but not when u forgot to punch card at the ATM machines. & so, the next morning, we continued our quest. After leaving our luggage at the HQ & a ½ hour drive, we reached one of the entrances to start our mount climbing with a guide. There are 2 entrances to climb Mt Kinabalu. One is Mersilau Gate which is shorter & easier route & the other one is Timpohon Gate which is a lot longer & tougher. The adventurous part of us drove us to choose the latter.

the forest plants that catched our attention.

Whew! It was a tiring journey on the slippery route but the view on some part of it was quite breathtaking. Through rains & tough terrain, we managed to get to the Laban Rata Rest House which is located approx. 3050m above sea level (ASL). At there, we’ll spent one short night b4 continue to the top. The food here was ok & the price was also ok, not much differed from the Kinabalu Park, just that it’s freezing over here. The electronic thermometer showed it’s around 10 degree celcius.

Much much cooler than ur house air-con. & we need heater instead of air conditioning inside the rooms. There were many foreigners here, especially Caucasians. They were talkative, fun but pretty annoying when they start making all the noise. The water here was also freezing, cooler & quite painful when u washed ur hand. So do the shower when the heater stopped in the middle of my shower. Oh Man! I can’t possibly take the shower like usual times without jumping & kept moving vigorously when showering! The shower sprays were like gazillions of needles…….

& so we all slept at about 5.30pm when the sky turned dark (oh, forgot to mention that the day & night here starts & ends much earlier than peninsular.) We woke up around 2.30am in the same night to get ready for the adventure to the top. Man, it’s getting colder when it dropped till 7-8oC here. Scared of becoming a frozen tiger up there, I decided to wear 2-3 layers of sweaters & track bottom. The routes at night get tougher when the sight was pretty much limited. But I enjoyed it coz, I dunno, it’s just surprisingly enjoyable. May be I was getting a little excited at the thought of conquering the Mt Kinabalu which is not an easy task to be accomplished without sheer determination & wills. Hehe… In fact, it was dangerous for someone with asthma to climb to the top with low pressure of air but who cares anyway, I don’t.

After all sorts of dangerous route & slippery mountain stones, we managed to get to top but alas, we didn’t make it to catch the sacred moment of the dawn of a new day.

I missed the majestic sunrise….It was because there were some of our mates that got a little self-conflict on whether to climb or not to climb & it had taken quite some time. But never mind, I still managed to catch a glimpse of it by looking at the beautiful sun & the picturesque view on the summit plateau & the summit itself. Man, I was so happy & proud. It gave a special sense of satisfaction in me after the cold & harsh journey along the way. Being on 4095.2m ASL sure gives u the sense of being on top of the world… or should I say world of south East Asia. He he…: D

Man, I looked very cham coz no enuf sleep & so tired...