(Sept 27)
"What? You're going to climb a mountain???...you??" was the general response i got when i mentioned to people that there was a mountain to climb while i was in malaysia. Sigh.
Our day started off with an early buffet breakfast, which conviently allowed us to top up our packed-for-lunch sandwich with extra meats. In hindsight, this was a super bad idea cuz it made the sandwich super soggy...and made me want to gag when i ate it.
Here's our group pre-trek, all gung ho to go. This includes our mountain guide, our porter and our tour leaders. Wooohoo.
Right when you begin, there is a waterfall which distracted us all for a good ten mins.
The first of many signs that you will see, showing the distance hiked and the altitude of where we are.
See that blue thing on my back? Its a rain jacket covering my pack bc i wasnt as geared up as others with rain covers for their bags. Lol
Everyone 1km or so. There were toilets and water refill tanks...untreated water in rusty bins....gross
Yay! 1km! See the poles? Thank goodness for them! Instead of using my legs i could use my arms too! Put all that weight lifting to good use :)
Im not sure if we had fortunate or unfortunate weather going up the mountain - it was relatively cool, very windy but no rain. However, it had rained for three of four hours prior to our climb and then stopped right before we started. Unfortunately for my camera, the sky was completely covered with clouds. :(
If you look at these photos of me and the landmark signs, i look more and more worn out...
I think i took two bites of this sandiwch and gagged. No more sandwich for me :s notice i have a rain jacket on? If i had a parka i would have put it on. By the time we got to about 4km, it was freeeeeeeeeeezing. Aparently its the coldest its been in 33 years and all i had on was a t shirt, shorts and the thinnest rainjacket north face has to offer.
Cold!!
These were super cool, never seen them before in my life - pitcher plants! They hold liquid inside their flower filled with an insect-attracting liquid that is so sticky that it makes it impossible for bugs to get out. Beautiful, but Evil plants.
Check out this fog! Its like i was on a movie set. Aparently ive been on a lot of those on this trip so far.
I would like to say how tired i am at this point...it was sooooo freezing that i was just speeding up the mountain as fast as i could.
Check out this porter. Crazy? Or crazzzy? These porters carry up to fifty kilos on their backs....nuts!
See these guys? They were wearing jackets that said "mount kinabalu challenge 2011"...and i passed them. Yep. All guys. I paased them. Hah!
If i had a photo of the 5.5km mark without me in it, i would have psoted that one. But alas, i did not. So i hafta post this horrid one.
Almost there!!!!
My arrival time with frozen extremities...completely no feeling in my fingers. I was so keen on running inside into the warmth that i completely forgot to take my victory photo. Sigh. Unfortunately for me, climbing up the mountain that quickly meant that i had arrived before my porter...who was carrying all of my warm clothes -__- i had to wait another 2.5 hours before he arrived with the rest of the group.
At four thirty, dinner starts. My tour leader, scott, lead the line.
I think this was one of the photos that he asked me not to post, but how could i not? So cute! Sorry scott :) ps. I wouldnt have made it up the mountain as fast as i did if it werent for his encourgement! Thanks for waiting for me lol.
Yay! Warm clothes. I should not that i was an idiot and didnt realize how cold it would be, so i didnt pack properly for this trip. Lucky for me, my gorup did and in this photo, i was wearing a collection of donated clothes from the rest of my group. Dinner was great...massive buffet of malay and chinese food. Yum
Yay for me! 1866m above sea level to 3250m! 6km may sound really short, but just imagine 6km purely uphill on wet and rocky terrain. And now imagine that some of the steps are two feet high. Now imagine you have short legs like me. Painful? Yes it was! But i made it and im proud :)
We headed to bed at around 7 to prepare for our potentional 2am wakeup call......
Location:Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia
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