~JcZw

Wow... just had a very interesting experience... just came back from mount kinabalu, arriving home at 4.30 am this morning... here is an account of our journey to the roof of SE Asia =)

Day 1: Before the mountain
It started just like any other day... met Nelly who lives just down the road... met Wei Quan at simei... then we pushed off to tampines to find Brynner, Alex and Zhi Yong.... Benjamin Cheng was there to help them with their stuff also? We went to buy "The Incredibles" shirt... one each person.... hehe... to wear on the journey... then ate lunch at the TM food court there. After lunch we just went to school by taxi with all our stuff..... back pack.... carrier bag.... first aid kit.... yeah..

In school we changed to our shirts, then hung around and waited lor. Saw the AAs training there. Saw wei lun also... he was telling me not to wear my new shoes.... too bad, my old ones broken liao.... then we boarded the bus and headed for the Second Link... cos to fly to Sabah we were taking AirAsia from Senai Airport in JB... then played games in the bus. We were introduced to our guide.... a fellow called Allen... yeah... he organized everything until very-the thorough. Through customs.... then reached the airport lor.... then must scan our stuff and prepare to check in the luggage... then Mr Chua was filming our "The Incredibles".... wah... hao leng arh... Ate dinner at the airport... the stuff very ex lor.... RM 4.90 for a couple of sandwiches.. so ex! Then we bought donuts... cos its more hua suan (to eat on the plane)... then we went through the gate and were waiting there... then.... hehe... they announced that our flight was gonna be DELAYED for one hour! eeks! So Brynner they all were playing games with the netball girls lar.... then i watched them... cos kinda tired... although it was very amusing to watch.... *who what har*...

Our flight came at 7.25. we boarded. we flew. we landed. okay, not so simple. we forgot to bring stuff to do... so we were bored out of our brains... except for eating donuts lar. The plane was okay I guess… same as other flights except no free drinks or what lar. Anyway we reached Kota Kinabalu in Sabah at erm.... 9.50 ++ pm.... then had to get all the luggage n stuff... took the bus, went to supermarket to buy things to eat for the next day. Then we bought biscuits… spreads… cup noodles… yeah… then we took the bus to Kinabalu Park HQ… wah… now then I know how to appreciate the fact that S’pore has so many streetlights…. It was pitch dark, the journey was 2 hours + long, and you can’t see anything outside except for the bus’s headlamps. Then as we were driving up the mountain the mist closed in and the road was totally obscured lor. Scary. Praying the driver doesn’t drive off a cliff. Then Brynner they all were singing every song they could think of in the back of the bus…. Then they were singing the “12 days of Christmas”…. Wah… funny man…go ask them how they sang… hehe… anyway we reached the HQ at 1 am I think… when I got out of the bus the cold wind hit me in the face… whoa…. Perpetual air-con. The first thing I heard was Natalia saying “who turned on the air-con” or something like that… we went to the hostel and got our briefing for the next day from Allen… then we went to the rooms and got ready to sleep lor... Discovered that the toilet water was errr, yellow!! Slept at 2+… exciting…

Day 2: To climb a mountain
Arise and shine at 6 plus…. So little sleep…. But anyway everyone was very excited lar. Checked n rechecked the first aid kit, making sure everything was still in its waterproof bags. We met in the main hall of the hostel with all our stuff then we took a walk through the morning mist to the park HQ. There we deposited all our unwanted stuff. I retained my backpack n FA kit... Then we went to eat breakfast… the stuff there all so ex, I think I spent most of my money on food for the trip lor. The weather was also beginning to become cold… the mist was all around us and all of us were feeling quite frozen. Maybe we just not used to it?

After breakfast we took a bus to Timpohon gate where we were supposed to start the journey. There we saw the record times of people who had gone up n down the mountain. The record was 2 hours++ lor! My goodness! And we were going to take what, 2 days? Anyway we started the climb. Follow the trail, down the waterfall then climb up n up n up. I’ve never seen so many steps in my life. My goodness, it can kill man, especially when you’re carrying all your stuff. Soon we were hot enough to take off our coats to climb liao. Wei quan they all had the climbing poles lar, so it was kinda helpful for them. Lucky got many rest stops lar, the huts (or pondoks) then we could eat our oreos or muesli bars, drink water etc. I had only 1 bottle of water, but that was enough, thank goodness, I didn’t really fancy drinking untreated mountain water.

Oh yeah, Mr Chua injured himself on the very first step of the trail. Apparently he had been trying to video tape the people walking down the slope and had slipped and fallen on the first step out of the gate, hitting his pelvis quite hard and rendering himself unable to climb. He had to be evacuated to the hospital in Kota Kinabalu. Later on he would rejoin us after we came down from the mountain. The next day when we reached the top of the mountain we discovered the school flag had been with him, so no flag =(. Anyway, the video taping job was done by Mr Yeow instead.

Anyway I think the climb was one of the things that really tested my endurance. Imagine you climb for 7 hours, at an average gradient of 45 deg, and almost every inch of the ground is uneven, and covered with rocks and puddles, and imagine that it is raining for at least 6 of those 7 hours. Add that you have to stabilize a swinging first aid kit with one hand and you roughly get what it was like…. BUT IT WAS VERY FUN! =) Haha… My group was soon lagging behind (Wei Quan, Natalia, Aloysius, Wen Rong), but we made our way up own time own target lor… Saw a lot of nice scenery, especially nearer the top when the vegetation began to thin. Natalia arh… even when the rest of us were tired she still had the capacity to continue talking… haha… she really livened up the climb. Then Wen Rong still had the enery to chiong at the last part when we were getting to the Laban Rata hostel lor.

Reached Laban Rata at around 4.30 pm, approx 7 hours after the climb started at 9.15. We found our rooms (nice warm rooms… actually had HEATER) then we drank hot milo and stuff…. Horrible lor… they charged so much money for food there, RM 11.50 for fried rice, or noodles, RM 0.60 just for a glass of hot water to make milo. Anyway we had our dinner and then had our briefing for the next day, for the summit climb. We bathed at the hostel. Wah! The water was so so so cold lor… like ice water! When I went under the shower I thin my heart stopped beating… in the end buay ta han, so I just used my towel to wipe myself, sort of very drastic tepid sponging in home nursing… sorry, its icy sponging, not tepid sponging.

Went to sleep at around 6pm. The room was very hot n stuffy lor… cos of the heater. So they turned off the heater, but still quite hot. The windows also jammed lor. Lucky I was sleeping near a small window, so I had the best bed in the entire room =))

Woke up at 6.30 Fell asleep at 7.00
Woke up at 8.30 Fell asleep at 10.30
Can’t sleep, too excited… hehe