"Climbing Mt Kinabalu, the highest mountain in SEA" Taman Negara Kinabalu Travelogue by ph7

17 April 2006, Monday
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Reached KK by AirAsia around 9.30am. Then took a taxi ride to Kinabalu Park straight from the airport. The taxi cost RM150, neither cheap nor expensive for a 2 hr ride to the Park.

The taxi driver is kind enough to stop at a spot where we could snap some photos of the beautiful scenery of the mountain. Getting really excited for the climb.

We reached the Kinabalu Park HQ around 12pm ++. Checked in at the Garden Lodge, a lovely lodge with 3 rooms, a living room, dining room and a complete kitchen. Of course there's a bathroom too. Oh, and also a cool fireplace where you can actually use. Since we need to pay RM10 for every bundle of wood, we never use it. I was quite surprised to see Astro decoder... and we could watch the movie channels as well. But then we were not there to watch TV.

After settled down our things in the lodge, we went to the Bayu Restaurant opposite the Kinabalu Park (across the road) to have our lunch. We had a long discussion over which trail we should take to get to Laban Rata. Finally, we came to agree to take on the Mesilau trail. We will eventually find out that we've made the right choice.

After dinner, we started to arrange and pack our luggage for the next day's climb. I think we spent about 1.5 hrs doing that, :P trying to decide what to bring and what not to bring. We end up with 2 bags weighing 13kg to be carried by potter. Each of us carrying our backpack 3.5kg-6kg.

Picture taken from the Mesilau Trail

18 April 2006, Tuesday
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Departed from Kinabalu Park to Tambang Gate, the starting point for Mesilau trail at 7.15 am. The transfer cost RM75 one way. We started the hike at 8am from the Tambang Gate. Bought a wooden walking stick for RM3. Didn't regret buying the walking stick, though only found that out during the descend fr the mountain. :P

Glad that we chose Mesilau trail instead of Timpohon. Though need to hike for an additional 2km, we're able to enjoy beautiful scenery on the way.

We also saw some "periuk kera" aka nepenthes mirabilis aka pitcher plant. Heheheh.. actually I only knew the name of this plant in Malay. Pita, a gal who shared the transport fr Kinabalu Park to Tambang Gate with us, and also our room mate in Laban Rata, was asking us whether we saw any Nepenthes on the way. Hahaha.. and I had no idea what is it that she's talking about.

Taken some where near the Pondok Lompoyou

The air getting cooler. We stopped to eat some food at Pondok Lompoyou (4.5km - 5km). This is my favorite spot along the Mesilau Trail. The trees are very beautiful.

Sun set

LL and PS reached Laban Rata first. Based on LL's watch, they arrived at 3.17pm. Soon afterwards, I arrived at approximately 3.37pm and finally Tracy arrived with Marcellius, our guide at 4pm.

After checking in to our room and getting some rest, we had our buffet dinner which cost RM30. The food sucks. Though I'm very hungry, LL said I looked like I'm forcing the food down my throat. :P Anyways, I did enjoy the hot Sabah tea.

Right after dinner, we checked out the bathroom and found one of them empty. Happily I asked LL to bath first.. thinking that I could bath with hot water after her. Unfortunately after LL bath, we ran out of hot water. The water is freezing cold. I took the icy cold bath anyways, :P coz I couldn't stand not bathing when my body is sticky. yikes...

Went to bed around 8.30pm. Took a very long time before I can fall asleep. I could hear clearly people are still very active outside the room, chatting, and walking around. Slowly the voices / noised died away and I finally started to sleep. Before long, I started to hear noises again. And it's time to wake up for the climb.It's about 1.30am and I had barely slept.

The view from Low's peak, my Fav

19th April 2006, Wednesday
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We started the climb up to the peak at 2.20am. I think most of the ppl started at the same time. At first we were still able to walk at a consistent pace. But as we get higher, the air is getting thinner, and it's getting colder, we started to slow down. I think I stopped every 10 steps. LL started having a headache after the Sayat-Sayat Hut. Seems like she's going to give up.

Eventually, we stopped at 750metres away from the peak, to eat. :P... feeling too cold and hungry to continue. My hands were still freezing although I'm wearing 2 layers of gloves. After eating a bar of chocolate, we continued the journey upwards, trying to catch the sun rise. 750metres seems like 7500 metres away....

LL seems to be getting a lot of energy from the choc bar. Immediately after we started again, she went so fast that she left 3 of us behind. I think she reached the peak around 5.50am, followed by PS about maybe 10-15min later.

Me and Tracy were still behind trying to catch up. Me knowing that I couldn't catch the sun rise, slowed down and waited for my turn to get to the peak. Many ppl has started to climb, some "Mat Salleh" were jumping/running down. :O

LL managed to reach the peak before sun rise. But then after snapping a few photos of the sun rising, her camera ran out of battery.

Lesson learnt: Always bring a spare battery when travelling especially if you're travelling to some place like the peak of Mount Kinabalu.

Finally I reached the Low's peak around 6.30am. By then the sun has rise, and too bad I missed it. Anyways, the view from the peak is so so so beautiful and breath taking. It really makes me feel that all my hard work (:P so many hours of climbing) has finally paid off. Hahahhaha...
I've actually spent almost 4.5 hrs to climb 2.7km.. more than the average time taken, probably caused by lack of food. Should have eaten more before starting to climb.

South Peak - on the way down.

We started to descend around 7am. Stopped a few times along the way to take some photos of the South peak, Donkey's Ears, Ugly sisters. We reached Laban Rata nearly 9.30am. We had our breakfast once we reached Laban Rata. I ordered the fried rice which had no taste at all. Finding pieces of egg, and chicken meat in the rice is like digging gold in the mines. :P
Btw, the fried rice cost RM11.50.
After eating, we had quickly packed our things and checked out at 10.30am. Then onwards, we started our torturuos trail down the Timpohon trail. The stairs are endless... gosh.. I wished I had knee guard, for my knees.