We made it!

It was all worth it. We made it to the peak of Mount Kinabalu.

On Feb 23, the eight of us set off to Sabah. Early in the wee hours, we cabbed to Senai Airport in JB to catch our flight out. Proving too much of a trip right from the start, I kinda realised that Kelvin and Grace got together. Wow. And I always give myself credit for being sensitive about such stuff.

Anyway, the trip was just awesome from the get go. Over the six days, we stayed at a different place each night, starting from Step In. This was more of a backpackers' place which we stumbled at upon arrival in town. Here's all of us at the balcony.

The first day was a chill out day... until we started to get physical with frisbee! That was such a sight. Qiyou somehow had his disc with him and we started our game at a green patch called Merdeka Padang. Sure, it was state land but tourists can't read signs right :) That was real good fun. Prema and I even had a TAF Club walk-off! The next morning was a breeze. The couple were somewhere out there, Prema and Audrey went out early too, so the final four (Jeremy+Qiyou+Mel+Me) went out to check out the Sunday market and had our fill of their dim sum :)

Then it was off to the National Park, aka the base camp of where we would start off our amazing journey. Sunday night was spent at Grace One, a log-ish kinda of lodging with a nice fire place. Of course, Jeremy, Qiyou and I couldn't start a fire. It was still good. All of us except Kelvin played charades before our sleep and it was a blast. Qiyou's "thrill" brought the house down. That was such a moment. Oh ya, the three of us guys couldn't resist taking pictures by the fireplace - throw in Mel's direction and shirtless us and we kinda got some pornish pictures. Shall put up the gals' pic instead. Haa...

The next morning was the start of it all. We needed to reach the mid section of the mountain. Our aim was Laban Rata, where we would sleep for bits before out ascend to the peak the next morning. All of us were just ready to go. Of course, the rain had to share our joy along the way. And after what seemed like six hours of eternity, we saw it. Laban Rata!

Our night there was the start of our nightmare. Six of us were in a zinc hut and the couple was in another. It was such a squatter! But I loved how cosy it was! Haa... that was when people started feeling unwell from the climb. As Jeremy calls it, the Panadol parade started. The colds and aches came in from then. But it was still worth it. Even though Qiyou, Mel and I had to go pack dinner for the rest, the view at night was simply just awesome.
Yeap, that was where we were, above the clouds. We didn't get to enjoy much of that though. Just after less than six hours of sleep, we got up at 130am to prepare to ascend all the way! Pity Audrey and Kelvin couldn't make it all the way. It was treacherous, ropes, rocks and all. The thin air didn't help one bit. But the six of us pushed on and it was no turning back. After maybe four hours of "We're almost there!", we saw it.

We caught the sunrise. I don't think I expected to see something like that in my lifetime. Or at such a height. I was pretty damn proud of myself. Pretty damn proud of my group. Pretty damn proud that we made it together. The view was simply breathtaking. I tried to take as many mental pictures as I could. I never thought I would be able to do something like that. Didn't such things only happen on TV? We wanted to soak in the moment for as long as we could but out guide started to say we were late. That was the start of another torturous time. Our descend was painful but I shall remember the good times. We stuck by one another, going as fast as our slowest person. I think we each lost 10kg coming down.

We made it down to the base only after sunset. 8pm to be exact. Our knees were gone by then. If any part of us wasn't damp by then, it was our flaming desire to get to a rest place in town. And there we were, our fourth lodging of the trip.

From then on, it was all about being nice to ourselves. We had supper that very night, and kinda celebrated Audrey's birthday in advance since she and Prema had to leave us the very next morning. It was chill and relax from then on... snorkeling, sumptuous seafood dinner (FREAKING NINE DISHES FOR FOUR!), massage... And Jeremy got himself a rookie in Qiyou. Somehow, Qiyou was very interested in media reporting and tagged along with Jeremy on his assignments to interviewee the election candidates.

We made it back. This trip was super amazing for many things... for the great friends, for the unimaginable feats, for the laughter.

But we all know that we wouldn't try to climb this again. :)