Mount Kinabalu trip
Monday, December 20, 2004
Hi everyone! Got back from Mount Kinabalu, said I'd Blog about it on my board so I'll start now, but it'll be long so bear with me k?
Met in school on 15th December, took a considrably long bus journey to Senai Airport in Johor Bahru. Was quite boring for me because I didn't have anyone to talk to, didn't know most people there, but got to the airport anyway, and our flight was delayed for an hour. Spent that hour wasting time, reading Mad magazine, and when we finally boarded the plane to Kota Kinabalu I realized there isn't anything to do on a budget airline like AirAisa, so got bored for another 2 hours plus till we reached the airport in Sabah, and took ANOTHER 2 hour long bus journey to the base camp at the mountain. Spent the night there, and the "chalet" wasn't as shabby as I expected.
Next morning we took a walk to the park HQ, and from there had another bus ride to the Timpohon Gate, which was the start point of our little extravaganza. First leg of the journey was step climbing, and though it wasn't difficult climbing steps upon steps and soaking in rain isn't very interesting and after awhile the jalan-jalan gets a bit monotonous. The scenery was great though, snapped a whole lotta cool pics as I clibed with my digicam. Anyway, soon found myself with Aloysius, Jonathan (sec 4'04), Weiquan (sec 4 '04), and Natalia. The five of us stuck together through thick and thin, through wind and rain and weariness, cheers you guys thanks for helping each other out, will remember our "crusade" for life.
Made it to the Laban Rata rest house with the team, spent the night there, and woke up at 2am in the morning to commence the final leg of the climb to the summit. It was really dark and I wouldn't have seen anything if not for my clip-on torch on my backpack. If anything it was even harder than the climb to Laban Rata, steeper steps and a new foe - rock faces. But after the world ended and was reborn I made it to the checkpoint at sayat-sayat, and took a short break before the final flight to the peak.
That final flight really tested my strength, stamina and faith, but I had this white rope to guide me and save my life, which it did more than once (I'm not joking), and my friends behind me. Gotta admit I wanted to give up a few times, but I promised myself I'd see the sunrise from the summit, and persverence paid off - I got to Low's Peak, 4095m above sea level, to see the day break over Borneo.
Coming down was quite easy, but I got seperated from my friends and teachers and I was a Lone Wolf for 2 hours plus, abseiling down rock faces and walking over barren mountain rock, before I returned to Laban Rata. Back at Laban Rata washed up, then was time to start the climb back down, with Natalia counting her steps (a third of the journey numbered over a thousand steps), and finally reached Timpohon Gate for our transfer back to the park HQ, and in turn, to Shangri-la hotel, Kota Kinabalu.
Too bad, I fell sick on the 18th, the worst day to fall sick because that's when we're free to explore the town, but I got better on the next day in time to buy souvenirs and walk around a bit. Don't think I wanna say anything about the return journey, nothing exhilirating, just a heap of boredom.
OK, that's about all of the nice parts of the trip, thanks for reading till here, won't add in any unimportant details for the sake of your eyes, suffice is to say I climbed the mountain, reached the summit, and made it back here to Blog. Will stop here now, nitez all.
PS: Fare thee well, Mount Kinabalu. You threw all you had at me, fatigue, force of gravity, freezing winds and rain, even despair. But, you did NOT defeat me.
10:13 PM
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