Saturday, January 30, 2010

5th Day: To the Peak!

Continue from previous post.

Last night slept at about 8pm, even is very early, the tiredness just pawned us.

Our bed is double deck bed, I slept upper deck, while Bobby slept lower deck. Each person has a wool blanket, comfort. I thought it will be very cold at night, so I wore gloves and thick jacket that I will use to hike tomorrow. Very soon, I am in dream.

About 12am, I woke up, caused by nightmare. Actually the room quite warm, maybe is because the blanket is thick, so I removed my jacket and gloves, basically, top less. It’s getting so hard to fall asleep, because the air is quite thin and low oxygen. I notice my breathing rate getting so fast, even myself is not moving!

After rolled for 2 more hours, I get off the bed for early breakfast.

Our guide told us, if it rains, and too dangerous, we got to turn back… No~~ Please don’t rain~ But see the below clear sky, there is no cloud~ wahaha. We are lucky.

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This is the star view in the morning, thanks to Nana’s super DSLR camera. I had never see this star cloud in my life before… so beautiful…

So we start the hike. Plants are getting short, like the one below.

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In the first part of journey, the floor is quite slippery due to some stream water. My knee joints were pain, like the kind of rainy day pain, aka 风湿. Some terrain are manmade stair cases, thanks for making our life easier~

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Until some point, there is no more stair case, and plants left grass only. The terrain is granite stone like you see above, with ropes to support us go up.

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This is the way they locate the ropes into the stone, by screwing in.

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The last part of the journey is not easy. I feel, the hardest part is not because your muscle pain, but is the thin air. I hardly walk more than 100 steps without taking a rest, and got to keep remind myself to breath faster and deeper.

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The only motivation for me to keep going is to reach the peak on time, and see the clearest sunrise ever~ Was together with Bobby, but after hike for a while, Bobby is gone! Left me with some strangers…

Must keep moving.

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At 5:56am, I reached Low’s Peak~ Sunlight has appear a little by that time.

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Another side of the view.

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Yea, finally~ While hiking, I not yet feel the coldness, maybe is the heat in my body; but when stop at the peak, I can feel the coldness on my lips and face, cold! My wool gloves are not working…

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Around 6:10am, Bobby Reached. See his face, cold till numb.

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Awesome view!

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The sun rise is so beautiful. In our normal routine, we can never have chance to see sunrise at 10am (the time I wake up usually), that moment I feel a kind of “finally..!”. Maybe is after so much hard work, the beautifulness make me wanna cry~

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Sooner, Nana and Kelvin arrived too. It’s time to go down, it’s cold!

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Mini lake.

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The famous peak of Mount Kinabalu.

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Above the cloud~

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This is the rope that guided us along the journey.

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Nana hiking down slowly with his DSLR behind.

Coming down is making me dizzy. Maybe is because body lack of mineral, or water, or anything. While hiking in dark with only 1 head gear, we can’t see how steep the terrain is; when the sunrise, the terrain is scary… Going downward is quite dangerous. We saw Laban Rata from far, but no matter how long we hike, it’s still that far… And finally~

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After breakfast, is time to check out from Laban Rata, there is still another 4 hours journey to the park entrance at Timpohon, damn.


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Going downward is killing most of us, it hurts toes and knees.


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Along the downward journey, we noticed porter carried supplies from bottom to above.

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Check this, empty gas tank. Even the full one is also carry in the same way with legs! Bobby got stunned.

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This 2 kakak is carrying food supply to Laban Rata. I asked them:

Me: Kak, ini berat tak?

Kakak: Berat.

Me: Berapa kilo ar?

Kakak: Saya punye 27kg, yang itu orang 30kg lebih.

Me: hebat…

Respect.

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Squirrels are everywhere on the mountain. They appear at the places with human, like resting stop, hoping human give them some food. They are attracted by the left over food in rubbish bin too.

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Forest~ This is so big different with the peak.

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On our way down, it rained. Luckily we brought raincoat. The atmosphere is misty.

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Carson Fall, a mini waterfall. This is near to the exit ~

Reached the exit at about 2:56pm. Finally, I had did something I feel satisfied in my life.

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The food at Kinabalu Park is awesome. Maybe we are too hungry. Never feel so delicious before~

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Certificate for reaching the peak.

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Certificate for hiking from Mesilau Gate, wahaha.

This is one cool great experience for us. I not sure if this will be the last time I hike, or there will be another in the future.

For this journey, we used 7 hours from Mesilau Gate to Laban Rata; 3 hours to the peak; going down to Laban Rata for anothe 3 hours, and from Laban Rata to Timpohon Gate is another 3 and half hours.

Total up of 16 and half hours. Never exercise so long before! But everything is worth the price. I need to have something significant in my life, as proof that I live before~

 

 

**FYI, Mount Kinabalu still far away from Top 100 Tallest Peak in the world.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Day 4: To the Mountain!

Continue from previous page.

Finally is day 4, the scheduled climbing day~

Thanks to Mr. Weather, the sky is clear, no rains.

So here is the plan:

1. Get transport to Kinabalu Park,

2. Start hike.

Of course step one is quite troublesome: take taxi to Kinabalu Park is about 2 hours, cost about RM180; or take minivan, RM15 per person. We took mini van for sure. However, mini van will only start when the vehicle is full…

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waiting. It’s 6am in the morning.

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There will be daily mini van to Ranau from Kota Kinabalu, which will pass by Kinabalu Park.

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Our talkative van driver who likes to share his experience with us. He shown us his saman, his rubic cube, his 8 times Mount Kinabalu hiking experience etc. (Locals always hike Mount Kinabalu, like pass time)

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Finally the van is full, start driving. On the way saw this Mount Kinabalu from far. It looks small, I know, wait till you climb it.

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This Mr Russian is teaching me how to solve Mr. Driver’s rubic rube. I am noob, I still can’t remember the steps.

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Reached Kinabalu Park! Nana, Bobby, and Kelvin, and camera man Me. FYI, Kinabalu Park is located at roughly 1950m above sea level, higher than Genting Highland.

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This is the closer look of Mount Kinabalu, marvellous.

What the process at Kinabalu Park?
This is the place we report our arrival, hire a mountain guide, get our packed lunch.

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There are 2 trails for climbers to chose, 1 is from the Timpohon Gate (left side), and another is the much harder one from Mesilau Gate (right side).

Mesilau Trail is 2km longer, but with more beautiful scenery than Timpohon Gate.

Since this is not the always opportunity, let’s take the hard one up, and come back down from the easy one, hoho.

To start from Mesilau Gate, we need to take transport to there for 20 minutes, cost us total of RM85 per van, kena chopped…

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Reached, Mesilau Resort signboard.

Hiking Starto~ It’s already 11am, quite late.
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The trail consists of all sort of surface, like the above one.

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Our mountain guide, Simpson. He is like a super human, won’t tired one.

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Nana with his super camera. The scenery is very beautiful, and there his camera start working.

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Look down at KM1. HAHA.

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KM2, hoho, still can smile.

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Some random waterfall in the forest.

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Starting, the road is going upward, after 1km, it going down until starting altitude… then going up for about 1 hour, then going down again!!!! Shit, this is killing my knees!

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KM4.5, out.

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This is the packed lunch from Kinabalu Park, not something special, but in hungry time, anything taste nice, plain water can taste like 100 PLUS, tea can taste like beer.

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Along the trail can easily spot this kind of toilet. I wonder where the waste flush to….

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My hiking permit card.

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With names one, precious~

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Like Alice in Wonderland.

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Can’t smile anymore…. tired.

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Big flower!

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The background is awesome, we are above the cloud finally~

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This is the water tank that can be seen along the trail. It written: “Air tidak dirawat; Untreated Water”. but it is safe to drink.

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Beautiful…

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Turn left to Timpohon Gate, turn right to the peak? Turn Right!

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One of the hell terrain. Our steps are getting heavier and heavier, slower and slower, and the terrain is getting harder and harder… where is the end point?

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Kelvin with his “lunch”.

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Another terrain. The trees are getting shorter and shorter..

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This is the white tree.

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The air is getting thiner, breathing is getting harder. I need to inhale and exhale faster, else the dizzy feeling strike on me. Finally, reached Laban Rata Resthouse! It is already 6:08pm, a 7 hours non stop climbing, just to get our dinner on time, because the dinner will close on 7pm.

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My first proper meal of the day, not very special, but is super delicious when hungry!

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People playing sepak takraw on the cloud.

Check in, get room key, put down stuff… huh, tired! I shall bath first before sleep, the water is… VERY FUC***G COLD! The feeling same exactly like soak your hand into ice water, 5 seconds can make your hand numb!

So… It’s the fastest bath I ever had in 21 years.

Slept at 7:30pm, got to wake up at 2am tomorrow morning to conquer the rest of the mountain.

Stay tune!

 
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