Kota Kinabalu, revisited

I blogged about my previous trip in 2007 here. There was unfinished business and therefore I landed on the Land below the Wind again in December 2008 .... to conquer Mount Kinabalu. As you'll see later, I chose an auspicious day for this adventure.

I booked the following accomodation at Kota Kinabalu ....

No, it is not a sleazy karaoke bar. I had the same thought when I first arrived. I even checked with the taxi driver to make sure this is the right place. You see, I booked through the internet, and somehow I cannot associate Tiger beer with backpacking. What the heck, I went in .....

And wow, is this some gay lodge or what ???

I got to know some wonderful people .... the 'topless' guys are from Belgium, the lady a Canadian, and the guy in orange T is the owner of the place, Vincent.

Ann, my new Canadian friend, joined me for the climb. Vincent drove us to Kinabalu Park the following morning. This is the view of the peak from far.

and here's the start of the trail ....... Selamat Mendaki or Have a safe Climb. We started from this point, called the Timpohon gate at about 10.30am.

We had lunch midway from our lunch box - one hardboiled egg, a piece of fried chicken, a few egg sandwiches, and two spring rolls, and drank sacred water from heaven, also called rain water :)

All climbers are required to have a local guide. Let me introduce to you my climbing guide, an extremely experienced climber who is an indigenous Kadazan. Very tough and has extremely good stamina. Told me can go up and down the mountain in just a few hours ... yes, absolutely no joke about it. People, let the drums roll ...... My excellent guide was ........



Da da ... Makcik "something". Sorry, I forgot her name :( That's the problem when I only blogged about this trip now, after 2 months. She is 56 or 57 (forgot also) years old. But hey, I really respect her physical stamina (or maybe mine is too poor in comparison). She plucked wild fruits for me to eat along the way, telling me which plants are herbs, cure for what sickness, and so on. I felt like attending a traditional medicine lecture :) One type of wild fruits that I tasted ....

Some of these hiking guides and porters plying the trail were really helpful. So don't worry if you have a whole family climbing and worry that your young son or daughter could not hike very far. Don't worry, the porters can do this .....

Yes, all the way to Laban Rata (six kilometers from the starting point), but for a fee of course. Nothing is free :)

I have always liked hiking because hikers are so courteous. When I hiked in China and passed by other hikers, we would greet each other "Ni Hao", in Japan "Konichiwa", Westerners "Hi", but at Mount Kinabalu I heard "Merry Christmas!!!" Huh, Merry Christmas???

Yes, I climbed Mount Kinabalu on the 25th December ;) It was such a wonderful sight to see people greeting each other while gasping for air ...... "Mer .... ry , he he he , mas ...". Well it wasn't that bad, I exaggerated :)

After a gruelling 5-hour climb, I finally saw the check point where I will stay the night before the final ascend to the peak on the following day. This point is called Laban Rata, which is about 3300m above sea level.



And upclose .....



It was cold .....



There are several huts at this check point and my hut is called "Gunting Ladagan". The view here was absolutely fantastic. This is where I spent the night and woke up the following morning at 2.00am.




The climb on the following morning was tough. I couldn't take any pictures when ascending as it was 3.00am in the morning. However, when I was going down the mountain I could see what I had to go through in order to reach the peak. I'll show the pictures later.

So I started at 3.00am and after struggling for about 2.5 hours, I finally reached Low's peak (3km from Laban Rata or 9km from Timpohon) at 4,095m above sea level. As you can see, it was still dark at 5.30am, and it was freaking cold.



Here are some photos showing what's at the top and the climbing route, which was basically the white rope. The view up there was awesome and I felt like walking above the clouds. Actually, I was walking above the clouds!
















I started to descend at 7.30am and reached Laban Rata at around 9.30am. Had breakfast there for an hour and then reached Timpohon (start point of the trail) at around 2.00pm. What a great sense of achievement to be able to post this certificate on my blog ;)