The Journey of Mt KK (Day 2)

24th April 2008

Trail colored in Pink is the trail we took on first day, Trail colored in Green is the trail we took to the peak, Trail colored in Orange is the trail we took from the peak to Timpohon gate! :s

5.30am - Green Day starts to sing from my phone... Dang.. do we really have to wake up so early? It's sooo cold.... Thank God for the heavy rain last night, the sky is super clear now.. none of the ladies are brave enough to jump into the shower.. washing face is already a torture.. :s The boys however try to prove their machoness brave the cold water and came out trying very hard to control their body shivering... haha... boys and their ego..

8.30am- After a hearty breakfast and Dom finishing off 4 eggs, 1 glass of oats, 1 sausage, 3 or 4 toast and pisang goreng, we are all set for Mesilau Trail. The drive to the Mesilau trail is beautiful. It's 15km away from the Kinabalu park and it's about half an hour ride on a winding road with many beautiful views of the mountain itself.

Before the hike - all still looking fresh

The road to Mesilau - Photo from http://www.mount-kinabalu-borneo.com/mesilau-mount-kinabalu.html

9.00am - Reach the Mesilau gate, the guide brief us on the trail as well which stop we all will have lunch. Our luggages weight about 60kg.. :s and it will be distributed to 2 porters only!! siau right?! per person carry 30kg go up... wah lau... shit bricks lar!!!

Briefing by the guide

9.30am - The hike begin! The initial phase is fine, going up, flat road, then up some more and it's just like normal jungle trail.. then after that... there's one part where we keep on going down that it scares me for awhile.. I mean.. Mt KK... aren't we suppose to climb UP... not going down further... cham... don't tell me it's the wrong trail.. :s

1.5km.. dying already.. :(

going down...

soon.. we saw our porter with our loads.. phew... thank God it's not the wrong trail!! The journey is crazily long... lots of time, me & geoff keeps questioning ourself... why are we torturing ourself like this...

our porter is like superman.. geoff follows at the back..

We pass by the waterfall... my God... with this kind of torture, the water looks damn inviting.. how i wish i can jump into it and just forget about the bloody hike! But i'm forced to continue as there's a purpose to it...

The journey of going down soon comes to an end and now it's all going upward... the view gets nicer by every steps upward. The air is cooler too... Thank God that it didn't rain and the weather is as clear as it can be. Mist will come occasionally and turn the whole place into dreamland and it's just so beautiful.
Instead of describing the scene which i sux at it, i'll just post some pics for your enjoyment! :)

Mist...

Dreamland...

dreamland

i hate stairs...

still no sight of laban rata.. :(

5/5.30pm - Finally, civilization!! I saw a hut and i thought it's Laban Rata... but it's not.. it's another few more steps to Laban Rata... damn... why they are so far away? :(

So happy to see Laban Rata... hehe...by the time we reach there, WM & Mel already showered..

men wif muscle

wah lau... these supergirls... didn't waste a single cent of their gym membership lar!! David was outside welcoming us... haha... from far can spot his red jacket & red pants! hehe...

When we arrived, the temp is showing 11 degree celsius...

Then later in the evening, dom drag my lazy bum out to "acclimatize" ourself with the weather, the temp drop to 9 degree celsius.

Night - We all are tired but all find it hard to sleep, probably it's too early to be sleeping (i'm guessing the time should be around 9-ish) or maybe it's the thin air. All 8 of us are in 1 dorm and it's kinda stuffy to be honest. There's a heater there but we didn't turn it on cos our body heat is enough to warm the whole room. WM, Dom & David already start to complain of headache, Mel's feeling a tad difficult to breathe and same goes for me too..Geoff... he's too tired to notice anything.. hehe...sign of old age.. :p

Day 3 coming up....