my trip up to the mountain

it never cross my mind to climb the highest mountain in SEA, Mount Kinabalu. my sisters have been pestering me since last year to go for it. my reply, No Thank You! and last year when AA was having the cheap airticket sale, they just bought tickets for the family, minus the youngest as it clashed with her study. 

and slowly, from a small group of 12, it grown to 24! double! "can i join you all?" "you still have place for me?"... and they didnt really shout out about this trip. and they closed it at 24. the max of place they could secured for Laban Rata. and after many months of waiting, the trip was executed! 

did we train for this climb? of course we did. we walked up to Apek Hill almost every sundays, and added Luxury Hill into the list when it was nearer to the climbing date. i was concerned about my stamina as i am not an "active" person! my 63 years old dad walks faster than me uphill. so you know how i fare. hahaha. 

off we went to KK on 4th May, with a troop of 21 person in the first flight. 2 arrived via MH and the last to arrive from Singapore around 1pm. and we stayed a night at Mesilau Park before the climb on 5th May. my sisters chose the Mesilau trail, as it has more scenery compared to Timpohon trail. but Mesilau trail is 2km longer. so we had to walk more before we could reach Laban Rata. 

i started walking at 8.42am. we were the last fews from the group. the others were way ahead of us. for the first few metres, we were happily taking photos. and then we started walking more "seriously", without long stops. the guide said we must not allowed our body to cool down, or else it would be tough for us to continue our journey.

this was taken when i was still with the group. slowly, our group got "detached". my sisters and uncle were ahead of me. i was supposed to be walking with dad, but he stopped longer to take care of my friend who has cramp on his left leg. i tried to catch up with the front group, but i failed. i was still faster than dad & friend. so, i was alone starting 3pm, until i reached Laban Rata. no one was with me except for a few passing porters. they carried heavy bags, and yet they were faster than me. ARGH!

it was drizzling along the way. although we had raincoats, we were still wet, from perspiring and the evaporation from the rain. there were stony grounds, and many many flights of stairs along the trail. had a slice of sandwich, a banana, an egg, and drank water along the way. when i was separated, my sisters left message to those climbers resting at the hut, asking them to inform me that they would be waiting for me in front. i sang to myself along the way, as i was alone. what song? i could not remember any song that i could sing from the start until the end. and i ended up singing gayatri mantra whenever i was alone. when i was with other climbers, i just smiled to them and continued walking.

the last kilometre was the toughest for me. i was tired, i was thirsty, i was in the edge of hallucinating. tired because i didnt eat alot. thirsty because i didnt see anymore running water for refill. hallucinating, because i thought i saw a building in front of me, but when i was getting nearer, it was just trees. i was glad that a porter accompanied me at that time. i asked him many times, "are we there yet?". he gave a positive answer, "yeah, abit more".

so i walked about 10 steps, and i stopped. and the sky started to get dark by 6.30pm. i passed my 7.5km..and i told myself, almost there...a bit more to go. i told the porter that my dad and friend were still behind me. he said not to worry as there were 2 more porters at the back. dad didnt have headlight as we didnt expect to reach so late. and i arrived after 10 hours of walking.

dad reached half an hour later after me. he "ditched" my friend and headed straight to Laban Rata when he saw our porters went down to "rescue" them with headlights. and the remaining 3 of the group finally arrived at 8pm. the canteen was closed at 7.30pm, but those who arrived early have saved food for the later comers. so, they took their time to eat their dinner, and of course to share the stories.

we went to bed straight after dinner. didnt shower as there was no hot water. didnt want to catch cold, so, just a changed of clothes and we slept at 9pm. we were told to gather at 2.30am for the climb to the peak. so we gathered, and by the time we started, it was already 2.45am. and if we didnt reach sayat sayat checkpoint by 5am, we would not be allowed to continue to the peak. ok.. we have to cover another 2.7km to the peak.

and the group started walking. some were quite fast. my uncle and dad were in front of us, tried to catch up with the fast ones. my uncle felt he could not catch up. he was too kan cheong, and he decided not to go further. and dad joined him and detoured back to rest house. then sookmun & aunty yong also detoured after a few metres.

as i started walking, i felt a pull behind my left knee. i thought the knee guard was the cause. so i removed it. and i still felt it. i told my sisters that i didnt want to continue further. they tried to convince me to continue to climb. i said no! blackface! i told them to go ahead! kin said he would accompanied me down. he didnt want to go further too. so we headed our own way. twins up, we down.

the twins came back to the rest house around 7.30am. that's early. and i only knew they didnt make it to the peak as they were 30min late. hai... i felt bad. they wanted to go so badly, but they spent time trying to convince me to go further. that has taken some of their precious times. but they were not heart broken, as they planned to go back again next year!! their spirit to go up Low's Peak.... me?? i dont know. i said NO when they asked me on that day. after 2 weeks time...or maybe later in the year, will i say YES to them?

we checked out earlier, around 9am as we knew we needed more time walking down. we left Laban Rata by 9.30am. the first km, we took our own sweet time, taking photos as we missed that the day before. and we noticed the sky started to turn dark. the rain!! and we separated with some of the members again. we walked faster as it was downhill. and when the rain poured, it was pouring very heavily. we were wet knee down. our shoes were filled with water. some part of the trail was flooded with water, ankle deep. the rain did make our walk faster. we reached timpohon gate by 2.45pm. and it was still raining.

we gathered at kk park for lunch. it was late lunch for us. but before that, we changed into our dry clothes as we were so wet and cold. and we waited for the rest to arrive. and all of us walked "weirdly" due to the aching muscles. hahaha. we could identified who went up to Mt KK by the way they walked.

the latest to arrive at kk park (5pm) were han & shelly. han accompanied shelly who took a longer time as she was not good with descending. and we left the park at almost 6pm. we got a news that there was a landslide en route to kk town. OH!! our local guide decided to use another route back to kk town. it took us 4 hours instead of 2 hours.

we reached our hotel in kk at 10pm. we were all tired. but i told them i wanted FOOD before sleep. and we went to a mamak shop and had roti canai. quickly went back to the hotel for a hot bath and hit the sack for a good night sleep. our journey up to the mountain has ended, but another journey was waiting for us the next morning. where to? Survivor Island!!