All of us woke up at around 530am to shower, pray and get ready with our stuff to have our carboloading breakfast session at 7am...
We left our luggages at the reception (to be picked up the next day after the climb) and left our backpacks (filled with our climbing gears for the next day) for the porter to carry at the checkpoint...
These bags will be divided and carried by 3 porters
Salute to them!
We quickly had our breakfast, picked up our lunch bags which the resort has packed for each one of us and we went back to the start point of the Mesilau trail for the guide to weigh our bags, charge us (it was about RM9 per 1kg) and brief us about the climb...
There are 2 trails to get to Laban Rata: Timpohon (which is about 6km long) and Mesilau, which is longer than the Timpohon one (about 2.2km longer)... We decided to try out the Mesilau trail since we've been told that the trail is quite scenic...
Posing with our hiking poles...
19 of us and ready to climb!
Pic credits to Rosey
Shaz and I with our permits
As per Rosey's caption: Holoh holoh holoh :P
Pic credits to Rosey
These boys were READY!!!
Oprah ladies with the mentor :)
Our ranger, Mr Dominic aka Dom explaining to us about the Mesilau trail...
After a short doa recited by Ariff, the journey started for all of us eventhough we didn't have enough guides at that time!
Everyone was still smiling because we haven't even reached 1km! :P
Happy to take on the challenge! :)
The BF posing like a pro climber :P
The BF, Danial, Faizal and I at the 1km marker!
There was a marker at every 500m of the route and there was a hut for the climbers to rest at every 1km...
There were a couple of beautiful waterfalls along the trail...
The BF, Danial and I at the 2km waterfall...
The BF, Danial and Doc Malek...
An even super cantik one at the 3km route...
At that time, I was pacing with the BF, Doc Malek and Danial... We were complaining that the we kept climbing 'down' for the first 3km route...
Boy, we got what we wanted after the 3km marker... The route was pretty much like the below for the next 2.5km:
Yikes!
ANDDDDDDDDDD..... It started to rain!!! Double whammy for us... So we had to quickly stop and put on our disposable raincoats...
Me in my stylish purple raincoat! ;)
The BF, Danial and I posing with our raincoats!
Pic credits to Danial
We decided to take a break and have our superquick lunch at the 5.5km's hut...
The views between the 5.5km to 6km marker were just so beautiful... We were like in between the mountains... Felt scared since we could see how far we've climbed up but I was just in awe as well...
The BF, Danial and I
The misty fog as the background was just perfect for this candid pic! ;)
I also felt like I was in the movie set of Avatar...
Don't you think so? :)
We were so happy when we saw this sign below after feeling that the trail was a never-ending one!
2km to go to Laban Rata!
Only God knows how I was feeling at that time and how my legs were at the last 2km route... It felt as though the trail was never going to end:
Super tired at this time already :S
While climbing up, I saw these lady porters and said 'Hi' to them and asked them the amount of weight that they were carrying:
"Tak banyak, 30kg je"
(Translation: Not that much, 30kg only)
Super duper respect for these ladies!
After seeing these ladies, I told myself to just keep going and going 'til Laban Rata... I was so happy when the BF and I finally saw our resthouse's signage:
Reached our destination after 8hrs 40mins of climbing!!!
Laban Rata is the pit stop for the climbers to rest before climbing to the peak in the am...
Eating our early dinner before our hitting the super cold showers!
(The water heater was broken... 'Great'!)
Pic credits to Rosey
It was so cool to have all of us sleeping in dorm-ish rooms filled with double-decker beds:
With Nyna and Rosey
The lights were switched off at about 9pm and due to the cold shower that I had, I couldn't really sleep that night..
Day 4: The Climb to Low's Peak, Mt. Kinabalu
We woke up at 1am to put on our climbing gears before headed downstairs to have supper at the dining lounge before the climb...
We had 4 guides in our group... Out of 19 of us, 12 of us decided to climb to the peak... We were briefed at about 230am and we started our remaining 2.7km of the climb at about 245am...
My penyeri Shaz decided to stop her journey at her 700m of the route as she was taking a no of breaks before that... So it was up to 11 of us to make it to the peak!
I must say that the last 1km of the route was really challenging as we had to depend on the rope ONLY that was lying on the path to the peak and that I was experiencing altitude sickness by then...
Basically, I couldn't breathe properly, felt my lungs were not functioning and I was having migraines... There were moments where I just wanted to breakdown and cry like a little girl but the voices in my head kept telling me to toughen up and keep going...
I was super grateful that the BF was with me throughout the journey... He could've left me as he was fine while climbing up but he just waited for me and walked hand-in-hand like tortoises with me 'til we reached the peak :) :) :)
Also, our guide Shafik was there for me and Nyna and guided us all the way to the peak!
A couple of pictures before reaching to the peak:
200m to go! (See the white rope that we had to use on the ground to climb up!)
Pic credits to Danial
The sun was about to rise when we were still climbing up!
Notty BF was having a smoke when I was having one of my many breaks...
Trying to put on a happy face when I was actually suffering like crazy!
Felt slightly better after I took off the headlight!
Our guide (in the middle in white) kept telling us that it wasn't too far ahead...
Yeah right la... :P
We're almost there!
The lovebirds: Nyna and Faizal
Nyna had a really bad reaction to the altitude, and she had to be carried down by the guide at her last 1km journey of climbing down from the mountain... :(
I teared up a lil' when I finally reached the peak with the other climbers cheering on us after 3hrs 45mins of climbing :)
ALHAMDULILLAH...
WE MADE IT!!! :D :D :D
Trying to be ecstatic with the achievement with the little energy that I have left in myself :)
The BF and I ♥ ♥ ♥
View from the peak! We were above the clouds!
Absolutely breathtaking!
Apparently this particular peak (in the middle) is featured in our RM notes!
We were hanging out at the peak for about 10-15 mins before we started climbing down (darn!) since we didn't want to hog the peak and there were other climbers waiting to have their pics taken there... And it was getting kind of hot up there ;)
We took our time climbing down and camwhored like mad since we had Rosey with us and she was happily snapping away with her camera :)
Sliding down is the laziest way to climb down! ;)
Rosey and I
Thanks for being the cheerleader in our group!
Love you!
Posing like a ninja ;)
Ariff was still climbing up to the peak when we were climbing down...
Salute to him for not giving up! :)
The BF and Rosey
When you have less oxygen in your head, cuckoness is one of the side effects ;)
Four of us: One of my fav shots from Rosey :)
We conquered Mt. Kinabalu!!! :D
Posing with our bootcamp tees!
HOOYAH!
My FAVOURITE shot of myself climbing down from Rosey :)
Can't believe we were climbing THIS high in the dark!!!
We rested at the one and only checkpoint called Sayat-Sayat Checkpoint and this is when Nyna couldn't climb down anymore...
:( :( :(
I felt much better when I was climbing down since I could finally breathe properly and didn't have those painful migraines anymore...
HOOYAH again!!!
Shafik guiding us on climbing down the gunung!
This was the super scary part when we were climbing up and down from the gunung...
It didn't look so bad when we were climbing in the dark k!
Pic credits to Danial
Dancing in the jungle! :P
Squad pulses - one of Original Bootcamp's favourite workouts!
Pee-kaa-boo!!!
Pretending to be grandpa and grandma with our poles :P
As per my previous post, we found out that we had to immediately check out of the guesthouse and climb down for about 5 hours through the Timpohon trail in heavy rain to get our luggages at KK park and rushed to the airport to catch our 850pm flight back to KL!!!
Eventhough the last 2 days of my trip were just beyond madness and in pure 'rushness', I had a blast and it was definitely a trip that I will remember for the rest of my life :)
I'd like to thank all of the climbers for their never-ending support towards each other 'til the very end of the trip... You are all winners! :)
And I would like to dedicate this post to my one and only BF, Farhan... Thank you for being the sweetest BF and for sticking by me from the very first climb 'til our crazy-and-rushing climb down to reach to KK park within 5 hours (we were practically running at our last 1km in 15 mins!)... And for giving me encouragements when I felt like giving up when we were climbing up to reach the peak... I don't know what I would've done without you by my side... I've learned so much about you and us during the trip and I hope that you've had a wonderful time with my friends and I of course!!! ♥ ♥ ♥
When I was climbing up to the peak, I kept telling to myself and the BF that I will NOT do this again...
Maybe I shall try the below instead in 2 years time? ;)
Can't wait for my next adventure! ;)
