We arrived at Tanjong Pagar to take the night train to KL. After 23 years here, this is the first time I have taken the train to Msia. It was an old and kinda rundown train station but I was nonetheless excited. Train set off around 10pm.
Big boo boo of the day: there was no stamp when we entered in JB. Q worried that we may face problems getting out of JB later on.
Besides my sis and my dad, the rest of us couldn't sleep well coz the train was shaking so much and it was really noisy
4th June 2005 (Sat)
We finally reached KL train station at about 7am. We took the KL expresstrain-sported to the KL airport terminal. There we took the 11am flight on Air Asia to Kota Kinabalu. The plane was small (similar to the one I took to Koh Samui) - small and old seats, no beverage or food, no inflight entertainment system.
Arrived KK at about 1.20pm. Dad and Mum had nasi lemak on the flight and they kept saying it's nice... but I wasn't hungry! Sneaky sis took a photo of the AA plane. Not sure why the ground crew didn't allow that (they said it's a restricted area where no pictures are allowed).
The terminal was small. Nothing much to do there. We were picked up by Michael (our tour guide) and transported to Pacific Sutera Habour (a five star resort not more than 15 minutes away).
Had a quick lunch at the resort (sandwiches, pizza and chicken terriyaki rice) and met up with the rest of the group (my dad's 50 yr old frens) to take a 2 hour bus ride to Mt Kinabalu headquarters.
Mt Kinabalu is 4,095.2 m high and the park headquarters is about midway. It was a cold day (very much like Genting) and I was wondering if I had brought the right clothes for the climb!
We stayed at the Peak Lodge. Apparently that's the best lodge there because it has the perfect view of Mt K peak and sunrise. It was really a nice lodge which has 2 bedrooms, 1 toilet and a warm and cosy fire place. Definitely 5 star.
Had a full 7 hour sleep that night.
5th June 2005 (Sun)
Finally, it's time for our climb. I was dressed in a sleeveless tshirt and shorts ready for the cilmb. But we had an extremely long wait before we could set off. Good thing about travelling with 50 yr olds was that they were rich and could afford porters. So we paid RM70 for a porter to bring our stuff up the mountain for us while we just carried the necessities.
We started our long awaited climb at 11am.. It was a tough one. The first goal was to reach the 4km mark (in terms to distance not height) where we could have lunch. We reached the Layang Layang hut at around 1.30pm. Very hungrily, we gobbled up our cheese sandwich, chicken wing and an apple plus 100Plus. After the 4km mark the climb was tough. The slope was steeper. But that was not all, it started to rain at 5km and eric's legs were giving away. He "collapsed" at 5.5m with both legs cramped! I didn't know what to do. Luckily there was a group of Koreans at the hut nearby. They came and offered a helping hand. Eric was dragged on his feet to the hut and laid down on the big pebbled floor with both legs in the air. They stretched out his legs and pushed his feet perpendicular to his legs. I was SOOOOO glad they were there to help, coz i wouldn't know what to do! In about 30 mins he recovered and we continued the journey up to our next goal which is the Laban Rata resthouse at the 6km.
I've never been so relieved reaching the resthouse! But little did I know this was not th worse part of the climb....
Michael told us that most people sleep by 8pm. But I couldn't sleep the whole night. It was HOT like sauna because of the heater. So i put my mattress on the floor. Then it was NOISY coz the walls aren't soundproof and people were chit-chatting. There were four of us in the room: Me, Ms Lee, Ms Choy and another girl Then half way through, the other girl switched off the heater and it became very cold.
6th June 2005 (Mon)
1am woke up to prepre for the midnight climb to see sunrise. Set off at 2.30am. It was dark and we had to climb in a single file. Each of us carried a torch and i dropped mine halfway! The skies were clear so we saw a very nice spread of stars aboev us. But we didn't get to admire much of it coz it was dark and we had to watch our steps. When we reached the granite slopes, that was the start of a scary climb. It was VERY steep and we had to cling on to the ropes. But the amazing Koreans seem to take it easily and hopped from stone to stone! There were some parts which I think one slip and I can say bye bye...
The peak was at 8.7km mark. But when we reached the 8km mark our minds weren't working anymore. This was the most arduous part of the journey. Every step we took was a pain! I could only cover half a feet with each step. It was still dark and we could hardly see our way. We kept walking towards what seems like a plateau but it seems never-ending! Finally at 8.5km, Eric and I started to become breatheless. After every 2-3 steps we had to stop to take a breath. I felt terrible, cold and tired. We urged and encouraged ourselves to move on slowly. By then the sun has risen and we have missed the sunrise we wanted to see. But that was not important anymore. What we wanted was to get to the summit - Low's Peak!
Lucky thing was a guide took my hand at that point in time and took us up the last 200 m. I was grateful as it would have been much more difficult doing it on our own. When we finally reached there we took two photos and that was when Eric "presented" me with the proposal ring. Although there was NO kneeling and NO "do you want to marry me?", I was really surprised. It made the journey to the top so much more meaningful! I don't think I will ever forget that moment! To think he told me that he called Caratell and was told that the ring was not ready yet!
The view on the peak of the sunrise was beautiful
Our journey down was a bit lighter. At that point in time, the sun was out and the scenery was great. I could see far down there was vegetation and a few houses. It was very very very nice. The granite rocks was a stark contrast to the green fields further down. The sky was clear and clouds were below us. The sun was shining.
But soon our legs started to weaken. Going down slope was bad for our knees and ankles. And the bouncing made me naseous. I dropped Ronnie's camera and was feeling guilty for the rest of the trip. Sigh. I'm such an idiot. But at that point in time, our hands were already numbed by the cold and our brain was not really functioning anymore.
Very soon, we were moving mechanically without much thoughts. All I hoped was to the Laban Rata resthouse again which we did at around 9.15am.
But we didn't get to rest much before we had to set off again. At 10.30am, we started our last leg back to home sweet home. But that leg was very very very long. I was just amazed at the amount of distance we have covered on our way up. Because it started raining at the 4km mark again, we only reached the park headquarters at 4pm. That was when we had lunch finally. My socks were wet and my feet was cold. I was smelly, wet and dirty! The worse thing was, we couldn't bathe or change until we went back to KK city.
All in all, we have covered about 8.7km x 2 and in 18hours.
That night, we checked into the beautful and extremely comfortable Pacific Sutera Habour resort. We had the perfect sea view where we can see the swimming pool and marina habour with the boats. It was the best sleep I had during the trip!!
7th June 2005 (Tues)
Morning breakfast was sumptuous. I ate like everything bcoz i was sooooooooo hungry. We then took 1 hour to shop in the city and another 1/2 hour to swim. We rushed to the airport at 2.30pm to check in for our Air Aisa flight. To our surprise, we were told that the flight is not at 4.20pm but at 9.05pm!! the internet info was not updated. I was quite pissed bcoz if we had known earlier we could have stayed in the pool longer, went jet skiing or island hopping!. I was really mad!! (Will definitely complain soon). So we spent the afternoon back in the city shopping. I think my sis was the happiest coz dad bought her a watch. Eric also bought 3 tshirts.
We only reached home at 1am the next morning. Great to be back at home in my nice and comfy bed. It's a realy spectacular trip!
Rating for trip: 9/10 (would have been 10/10 if I could have gone island hopping the last day!)