It is said that a picture speaks a thousand words.. trying to be different, I've included a few pictures in my "slide show".. hehehe. of course there would be more pictures, but these are the ones that I've managed to save in my thumb drive. The others all in office.
In a nutshell, it was a wonderful experience. Although it was my 2nd time to hike up Kinabalu, the experience was totally different from my first. The first time, I had to "take care" of my mom. Yes, role reversal begins early. Last time my mom would take care of me, but these days it's the other way round. Anyways.. this time, I didn't have anyone else to take care of but myself (and didn't have to rely on others too that much).
The hike up, began quite well. As the official pace-setter (nominated by Surej), I managed to bring our group to distances in good time. As with all pace-setters, you're not expected to win the race.. I did the same. Haha. dunno whether it was co-incidence or I just didn't have enough steam to finish. Needless to say, in our little group I ended up arriving last. Haha. but it's ok.
Same thing happened on the way up to the peak from Laban Rata. At this moment, all I could think of "why am i here again? what's my main objective on reaching the peak this time?" It's a killer stretch for me. However I had the guider's support throughout (thanks to the mix-up in names). He was by my side throughout until Sayat-sayat (then he left me cause he made sure that my name and number matched). After that, everyone else left me. I had to make new friends pulak.. thank goodness I'm adaptable to all groups.. haha.. angkat bakul sendiri.
Anyways reached the peak before sunrise. Saw the sunrise. Everyone said it was beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, amazing.. but truthfully, i didn't think it was that great then. Only in KL after seeing the pictures taken by the others, I have to agree.. it was all as said. Such a shame I didn't feel it then. But then again, it was cold and cold and I had to pinjam gloves and the ski-cap from Faz and Surej respectively (thanks guys!).. I couldn't think of anything else.
The walk down to Gunting Lagadan was surprisingly fast (got accused of running some more).
As we spent an extra night at Gunting Lagadan, we had many hours to kill before the next day's hike down to Timpohon. The first few hours were spent recuperating by having our much needed sleep. Then I woke up due to hunger and the cold. Walked to the kitchen with my tupperware and instant soup & noodles. Was joined by Azrul, then Surej, then Faz and a few others. We all started to bring out our ration of food and shared with everyone. Shana delighted us by cooking maggi pooled from our rations.
As it was sunny outside, I took the opportunity to dry out my towel, hiking clothes and myself on the rock just outside our dorm. It was splendid (sunny but cold). Was joined in by the others. Decided to play charades before going to dinner. The guys beat us girls by one or two points (but we kasi chance.. haha). After dinner, we went back to our dorms and packed for tomorrow's departure.
The hike down the next day was surprisingly ok (don't know if the others would agree with me). Despite my 9kg load.. i felt surprisingly energized! I dunno why. To ensure we would not get bored during the hike down, we decided to motivate ourselves by thinking of the hot shower available at Kinabalu Park. To further motivate ourselves, Azrul, Shana, Izlan and myself decided to be part of Amazing Race. That was funny.. hahaha.. it would end with the hot shower, and reaching the Kinabalu Park office.
The other agenda of the trip was white water rafting in Padas River. The journey began with a 2 hour delay of the train. Apparently the engine was spoilt and had to be replaced. Upon arrival, we changed to our swimming attire, had the safety & technical briefing and we were on our way. Unfortunately the team members on my raft were skilled enough that we didn't capsize (much to some of our disappointment :p). and to think we were all raring to capsize!
After that it was BBQ lunch and back to KK.
Thanks guys for everything.. I had great fun! Can't wait for Bali.
*Note: Pictures that initially appeared in this blog were lost during the migration to blogspot.
In a nutshell, it was a wonderful experience. Although it was my 2nd time to hike up Kinabalu, the experience was totally different from my first. The first time, I had to "take care" of my mom. Yes, role reversal begins early. Last time my mom would take care of me, but these days it's the other way round. Anyways.. this time, I didn't have anyone else to take care of but myself (and didn't have to rely on others too that much).
The hike up, began quite well. As the official pace-setter (nominated by Surej), I managed to bring our group to distances in good time. As with all pace-setters, you're not expected to win the race.. I did the same. Haha. dunno whether it was co-incidence or I just didn't have enough steam to finish. Needless to say, in our little group I ended up arriving last. Haha. but it's ok.
Same thing happened on the way up to the peak from Laban Rata. At this moment, all I could think of "why am i here again? what's my main objective on reaching the peak this time?" It's a killer stretch for me. However I had the guider's support throughout (thanks to the mix-up in names). He was by my side throughout until Sayat-sayat (then he left me cause he made sure that my name and number matched). After that, everyone else left me. I had to make new friends pulak.. thank goodness I'm adaptable to all groups.. haha.. angkat bakul sendiri.
Anyways reached the peak before sunrise. Saw the sunrise. Everyone said it was beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, amazing.. but truthfully, i didn't think it was that great then. Only in KL after seeing the pictures taken by the others, I have to agree.. it was all as said. Such a shame I didn't feel it then. But then again, it was cold and cold and I had to pinjam gloves and the ski-cap from Faz and Surej respectively (thanks guys!).. I couldn't think of anything else.
The walk down to Gunting Lagadan was surprisingly fast (got accused of running some more).
As we spent an extra night at Gunting Lagadan, we had many hours to kill before the next day's hike down to Timpohon. The first few hours were spent recuperating by having our much needed sleep. Then I woke up due to hunger and the cold. Walked to the kitchen with my tupperware and instant soup & noodles. Was joined by Azrul, then Surej, then Faz and a few others. We all started to bring out our ration of food and shared with everyone. Shana delighted us by cooking maggi pooled from our rations.
As it was sunny outside, I took the opportunity to dry out my towel, hiking clothes and myself on the rock just outside our dorm. It was splendid (sunny but cold). Was joined in by the others. Decided to play charades before going to dinner. The guys beat us girls by one or two points (but we kasi chance.. haha). After dinner, we went back to our dorms and packed for tomorrow's departure.
The hike down the next day was surprisingly ok (don't know if the others would agree with me). Despite my 9kg load.. i felt surprisingly energized! I dunno why. To ensure we would not get bored during the hike down, we decided to motivate ourselves by thinking of the hot shower available at Kinabalu Park. To further motivate ourselves, Azrul, Shana, Izlan and myself decided to be part of Amazing Race. That was funny.. hahaha.. it would end with the hot shower, and reaching the Kinabalu Park office.
The other agenda of the trip was white water rafting in Padas River. The journey began with a 2 hour delay of the train. Apparently the engine was spoilt and had to be replaced. Upon arrival, we changed to our swimming attire, had the safety & technical briefing and we were on our way. Unfortunately the team members on my raft were skilled enough that we didn't capsize (much to some of our disappointment :p). and to think we were all raring to capsize!
After that it was BBQ lunch and back to KK.
Thanks guys for everything.. I had great fun! Can't wait for Bali.
*Note: Pictures that initially appeared in this blog were lost during the migration to blogspot.
