Day 4: To the Mountain!

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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…

waiting. It’s 6am in the morning.

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

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)

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.

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

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.

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.

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…

 
Reached, Mesilau Resort signboard.

Hiking Starto~ It’s already 11am, quite late.

The trail consists of all sort of surface, like the above one.

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

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

 
Look down at KM1. HAHA.

 
KM2, hoho, still can smile.

 
Some random waterfall in the forest.

 

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!

 
KM4.5, out.

 
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.

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

 
My hiking permit card.

 
With names one, precious~

Like Alice in Wonderland.

 
Can’t smile anymore…. tired.

 
Big flower!

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

 
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.

 
Beautiful…

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

 
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?

 
Kelvin with his “lunch”.

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

 
This is the white tree.

 
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.

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

 
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.

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