Kota Kinabalu adventure part I - mount. Kinabalu
We reached KK on 13th Nov 2006. After noon, we were picked up by our tour guild, Mr. ‘Caesar’ from Suniland travel to spend our whole afternoon in center point (the largest shopping mall in KK) to have our lunch and also to stock whatever we need for the up-coming climb. Besides that, we also took the chance to tour around the area such as the le Meridian Hotel, the Philippine market and took some pictures at the seaside.
In front of Le Maridien Hotel KK
Around 4pm in the evening, we departed from KK to Mount. Kinabalu National park which is around 2 hours ride from the city. We already felt cold and windy even after 1 hour journey and the scenery was superb. At around 7pm, we reached Bayu Lodge (our super cheap hostel which is just outside the entrance to the national park) and had our dinner. The lodge is very small with roughly around 10 rooms. There were 3 bunk beds in our room. I think we were the only guests that night as most of climbers prefer to live in the resort located in the national park itself. Well, how cheap is the place? It has absolutely no facilities except a mattress, a pillow and a thin sheet of blanket. The bathroom is not heated so the icy water could make you jump into the air when you’re in for a bath. There was no aircond or fan or what-so-ever as the place is naturally cold. We slept early that nigh at around 9pm as there was really, I repeat, really nothing else to do.
The journey up to Kinabalu National Park
We woke up early the next morning and were heading for breakfast at 7am. After having breakfast, we entered the national park and waited for our mountain guild to bring us for the climb! However, we were forced to wait for 2 ½ hours because our ah mo climb-mates only arrived from the city at 10.30am!!! fuck em!! I felt so tulan to see other groups leaving one by one towards timpohon gate while we had to wait for those stupid ah mos!!! I think we were one of the last to get to Timpohon gate!
We met a friend while walking to Kinabalu National Park
We shall conquer that mountain!!!
Timpohon gate is officially the starting point of our climb. It is around 20 minutes drive from the national park’s entrance. Oh, before I forgot, we bought a climbing stick from our guild as well, it’s a must and you’ll definitely find it extremely life saving for most part of your climb. It cost about RM3 per stick. If you don’t feel like carrying your bag, you can hire a porter to do so too. It typically cost around RM6-8 per kg. Due to the peer pressure from the other machaohais, I didn’t give away to the porters as I don’t want to be label a sissy although I had a damn bad diarrhea that time.
Timpohon gate
Okay, after so many hours waiting for those ah mos, finally it’s action time. We started the climb around 11.30am. The route was labeled 6km from timpohon gate to Laban Rata (the place where we will spend our night), that’s a cibai lie! It felt like at least triple the length; this must be the longest 6km in my whole life!! There were multiple rest stations along the route where you can refresh yourself with their free-flow untreated water (it's quite nice actually, one sip and you'll are hook to the refreshing, icy mountain water) and replenish your energy with some tidbits you brought along. After the second rest station, I had succumbed and Kang Kai (as KK refered to Kota Kinabalu in this post) and Siu Min went ahead of us. On the other way, Felix was way behind me with the guild. Hence, I was in a way, alone during most time of the climb.
The road up
I spent about 5 hours to reached Laban Rata at about 4pm. I know, I took a shameful lot of time but I always have diarrhea as the reason to blame :) (it's true, I had the worst diarrhea in my life 2 days prior the climb, I repeat, WORST!!) As added info, Kang Kai & Siu Min took 4 hours, felix took 5 1/2 hours. We spent the evening taking lots of pictures as the view here was magnificent. At this height, we were above the clouds and the mount peak seemed so close that as if the second part of the climb looks quite easy (this is a mistake that I painfully regret on the second day). The temperature here is cold and you'll definately need at least a sweater if you want to venture out to the open. The food here is also ridicuously expensive, one 100 plus and a bar of chocolate can easily cost you to about RM10. We paid RM30 to have a buffet dinner and I guessed it was pretty worth it as a plate of fried mee will already cost you RM15. Most of the climbers spent their evening like us (camwhoring) and leisuring around the restaurant area drinking beer. After the dinner, there wasn't anything much to do except to sleep. We were unlucky as the electric supply was interrupted during our stay. There was no luxury of a radiator or a heated bath! The water was so freaking cold that it's chilled into your bone marrow!!! When the shower hit my naked body, water vapour appeared and I looked like some master from a chinese Kung Fu film concentrating his 'qi' before using his ultimate skill. We slept at about 7pm that evening, I think that's the earlist time I tried to sleep in my whole life.
Laban Rata
We woke up at 1.30am in the morning the following day. After getting ready with our full gear on, we left Laban Rata at about 2.30am. It was dark, fucking dark. There wasn't anything to see (as it was soooo dark) and we just kept going up, up and up. At one time, we even had to use rope to propel ourselves along. Bear in mind that the route is a lot tougher than the first part of the climb and the rest stations is more further apart. After 2 hours, I felt so exhausted and yet, the peak was still no where in sight. The thin air also made me so hypoxic that i felt nauseated. However, this time I was able to follow the two cibais as I was so afraid that I would be along like the first part of the climb. Finally, at around 5.45am, we managed to reached Low's peak (the highest peak of mount Kinabalu) just in time to see the sunrise!
Sun rise at the peak
We are on top of the world!
Yes! We finally made it to the highest peak of south east asia!! The view was so great that's it worth every sweat to reach here! The wind was very strong and chilling here that even I took off my gloves for a while to take picture, it felt as if that your hand will start to necrotize if you don't put back your glove soon. The worst thing was that you have no where to hide from the wind on the peak! We headed down at around 6.15am and the journey down back to Raban Lata was another 2 1/2 hours. We had a little rest in our room before we departed from Raban Lata to descend back to Timpohon gate.
The descent took us about 4 hours (5 hours for Felix). Siu Min and I suffered from knee strain and we walked like a crab when we went down steps. Although the descent didn't strain your cardiovascular system at all but the strain to your lower limb is enough to slow you down a lot. We reached Timpohon gate at 1pm and got our certificate in Kinabalu National Park before we headed for Poring Hot springs. This will be continued in part II, stay tuned.
