Travel Note:- Sabah, Malaysia

friday, 18 april 2008

we reached sabah in the evening then went straight for dinner before heading to our b&b at kota kinabalu. luckily enough, we're the only two occupying the room. once settled we went out to "explore" whatever can be explored and ended up sitting in a pub since there's a live band playing nice songs. chitchatted over a cup of milo we decided to call it a night at 11pm and walked back to our hostel.

saturday, 19 april 2008

woke up early as we'll be fetched at 6.30 to kinabalu park before starting what we came there for - trekking. there's few other japanese and another lady that were together with us, but we're all divided into groups and me, cin and another girl were assigned to a guide name rony. and a wonderful guide he is! we were then transported to timpohon gate and started our journey up. my bag was so darn heavy; 7.5kg that at first i wanted to hire a porter for it. but i wanted to challenged myself as well so i strike a deal with the guide - he'd carry it when i couldn't take it anymore. and not even halfway through the journey i gave up. the sleeping bag is so darn heavy man! i took my own sweet time up, chatted with other porter or guide i met along the way as my guide was way behind with the other girl and cin was ahead of me. 5 hours later i saw the resthouse. yes!!

we were blessed as we're supposed to be occupying one of the shared room but since it was fully booked our agent upgraded us with no additional fee to a suite. two single bed, bathroom inside and heater!! such a waste carrying that sleeping bag. the heater didn't work though but it's alright as we managed to sleep amidst the cooling weather with our jacket on. the guide advised us not to shut the window totally to avoid altitude sickness when we wake up later.

sunday, 20 april 2008

woke up at 2am to get ready for climbing up to the summit. i was breatheless when we started climbing up the stairs that i began wondering if i'd be able to reach the top. but like my fave instructor always said "mind over body", i took a long deep breath and walked in my own pace. again, no competition. it was pretty tough but honestly i love the rope part as you got a chance to use your upper body and let your legs have a little bit of break. the journey to the summit was tough that i stopped several times just to catch my breathe before continuing on. rony spent the whole time "holding hands" with that girl. she's so very demanding man that both of us really couldn't stand it. everytime rony passed me who's resting or i passed him who's waiting for the girl he'd say "come on, you don't want to miss the sunrise" and that's what i kept telling myself to keep on moving. my energy was getting lower as i didn't have anything but a glass of milo before hand. i didn't even have my energy gum with me. the moment i saw the moon set (is there such word?) i quickened my pace in hope of watching the sunset from the summit. who am i kidding? of course that wish didn't come true. i was at km 8.5, between the donkey ears and ugly sister's peak when the sun rises and i enjoyed the view. the breathtaking view of God's creation and from there onwards i took my own sweet time to the summit. the last torturous 200m. while taking my own sweet time walking, my hand was grabbed suddenly. it was rony who kept on asking me to walk faster to the summit so that we can get back fast and not get sunburnt. cin was already there when i reached and we spent time enjoying the view, photo taking before heading down to the rest house. apparently the other girl is afraid of height (duh!) that she decided not to continue. on our way down we met her AND she wanted to go to the summit now. we were totally speechless but our guide was so darn nice that he brought her up when he's been telling us to go down faster for a rest before we started our journey down to the starting point.

i fell twice on my journey down to the guesthouse; because my shoes are quite slippery and i almost fell dowm for the 3rd time when a lady asked me something. luckily i managed to hold on to something and only had a bruise on my arms now. had breakfast when we reached the guesthouse then we started to prepare ourselves because we're only given 45mins resting time. the journey down was pretty tough because i realised my shoes don't support my ankle and i had problem balancing that several times my ankle was twisted between rocks. this time around i decided to carry my own bag as well. all in all i fell 3 times and my ankle was twisted several times, mostly to balance issue. some of the area was muddy as well hence the slippery. by km 2.5 to the starting point my left knee kinda gave way that i put all my weights on my right knee. still i have to be extra careful 'cos my right ankle was weak from the twisted i had earlier. there was a time when i couldn't control myself and the guide was telling me "don't run don't run" and all i can said was "i'm not running, i just can't control myself". i spent most of the journey down alone as again cin was ahead of me and the guide was "holding hands" with that manja girl. at one point i almost gave up because of my knee that i felt like crying asking why did i do this to myself. seeing the starting point was like seeing heaven but still there were few stairs to climb. but all in all i made it and i'm happy for not giving up on my 5hrs journey down. it started to rain when we reached the meeting point, wasn't that a bless? we rested while waiting for the girl and rony to reached then went back to the station for our late lunch. back to our hostel in kota kinabalu we decided to again explore the area even when we barely could walk. still, we managed to go to the night market before heading down to the filipino market for dinner. dinner was interesting and from there we went back to our hostel and sleep.

monday, 21 april 2008

we were picked at 7am to fly back home. bringing back with us the certificate of accomplishment, whole body aches and a great memory.

will i do it again? ask me in few months or maybe even years time. i'm still intrigue with via ferrata though. but for now i'll just enjoy my muscles aches and bruises from the fall...