Mount Kinabalu Expedition - Final Episode : Low's Peak

Right after our long 5 hours hike from Timpohan to Laban Rata we finished up what was left from our packed brunch at Laban Rata's restaurant and later on we checked in into our dorms at Gunting Lagadan Hut which is another 5 minutes hike up the mountain.

[caption id="attachment_915" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Gunting Lagadan Hut, Mount Kinabalu"][/caption]

Story fast forward...

I had yet another sleepless night at Gunting Lagadan Hut. I was too tired or probably high in anxiety to even sleep. Finally, I think I settled for a mere 2 hours sleep and got all geared up with my 4 layers of clothes, gloves, beanie, buff, my trusty Adidas Response Trail shoes, headlamp and the bag pack packing one small bottle of mineral water, camera, extra headlamp, first aid kit and chocolates. The 2 am, way too early breakfast consists of tuna spread on 2 pieces of bread, a couple of sip of someone's milo I think and another couple of spoons of someone's Maggie cup and cold, plain water. Haha. With all these so called 'energy' I was about to set for the summit of Mount Kinabalu together with little sleep starting from one night before. Greaaaat!

Animals Anecdotes 4: The working dogs

I would like to introduce Blackie and Chokie. They are the best companion a man can have while at work because they will be the one venturing first up the bushes to check out if the trails are safe before his owner passes the trail. Chokie is about 7 or so months old while Blackie is slightly older. Chokie is said to be on a vegetarian diet every Friday because he tends to eat too much so he is in much need to loose that extra weight. I think he is back on his ideal weight by now. They are really smart and won't make the slightest noise unlike Jojo. =)

[caption id="attachment_898" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Chokie"]
[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_897" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Blackie"][/caption]

Mount Kinabalu Expedition Day 2 -Timpohan To Laban Rata

[caption id="attachment_885" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Pondok Timpohan Starting Point"][/caption]

Armed with food and water in our back pack alongside the ever so useful RM 3 wooden stick, we made our way down hill from the Timpohan gate or Pondok Timpohan starting point. Bungin the guide told us that the hike will take approximately 6 hours and by all means we should arrive at Laban Rata the latest by 5 pm because dinner will be served from 5pm – 7pm only. The last thing you want to do is to miss a buffet dinner after burning thousands of calories on hours of an uphill battle.

Hence the hours of ascent began and everyone started well with a steady slow and easy hike. All of us started to hike at our own time and right after reaching the 1KM rest station in less than 30 minutes, I decided to catch on with 5 others who were already leading ahead from the rest of the 13 of us. So there I was, climbing the wooden stairs alongside Azleena, Marlina, Zue and occasionally Fazilah and Azril whom at all times were on the lead.

Climbing and making it from Station 1(1KM) to Station 2 (2KM) brings back memories of myself hiking the exact same trail last year under a condition where I was wearing only flip-flops, no water and close to zero stamina, panting like crazy just after reaching the 1KM mark. It is glad to mention that I was in good shape and great stamina this time around because I did undergone some series of trainings for this expedition and hiking through Station 1 to Station 2 proved to be quick, easy and was simply a breeze. I also had put on my breathing technique into gear right from the start of the hike and that helps a great deal because I was never caught panting hard throughout the whole ascent. The ascent hike feels almost like a natural walk where I don't really need to exert myself for each climb.

The most daunting times during the first few kilometers of the Summit trail would most probably be the long stretch of continuous wooden staircases. Initially a couple of us started to name the stairs as “The Staircase to Hell” but I thought it was best to put on a much positive nickname and so the stairs got called as “The Staircase to Heaven” instead. The higher we go, that is much closer to heaven we shall be. Hehe.

No doubt the hike got tougher as we climb higher up on the mountain. At most times, the 6 of us will rest for about 5-10 minutes at each station and I was constantly checking that we didn't rest for too long at each stop so that we won't lose our pacing momentum after each rests. Since I only brought along a small bottle of roughly 750ml of water, I made my first refill from the untreated water tank right at Station 3. At this station, all 6 of us stopped for a little while to munch up a bit and if I'm not mistaken, I was pretty darn hungry by then. The untreated water is perfectly fine to drink and it was one of the best, cooling fresh water I've ever tasted. Do bear in mind that some tanks do have some sediments in the water and adding a sachet of flavoured ORS helps to drink up these kind of untreated water.

[caption id="attachment_890" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Over the clouds at Mt. Kinabalu"][/caption]

For the long hours of hike I didn't bother to listen to my mp3 because I didn't want to disturb my chi with my crazy, head spinning dance and trance music. Haha. The only sound I tune to was the sound of the surrounding and if you teach yourself to learn to the sound of the flora and fauna, you will receive peace and a great calming effect which is the key to keeping focus especially when your game is to make it to the top, keep on walking no matter what and never stop until you get there. A lot of prayers and a positive mindset helps a great deal too during this long, tiring ascent. As I chant my little prayers, I felt that every steps was surge with great energy and ease and without a doubt it was the best motivational boost that kept me going rapidly towards the top.

[caption id="attachment_891" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="At this point, I felt like crawling all the way up. Thanks to the porter guys, they told me I was only 5-10 minutes away from Laban Rata. My legs started cramping by now and I kept going of course."][/caption]

It was out of my mind to think that I could ever made it to Laban Rata in just about 4 hours but what do you know, I did just that! All in all, I managed to clock a total time of roughly 4 hours and 43 min from Timpohan to Laban Rata which was just under 5 hours and totally out of my expectation. Fazilah and Azril both made it to Laban Rata around 15 minutes or so ahead of me, while Marlina got there a couple of minutes just before me and soon followed up with Azleena and Zue trailing behind minutes after I arrived. The rest of the gang made it too in fairly good time in under 6 hours which was a really good time for first timers on the Mt.Kinabalu expedition. It proves to show that all of us were in pretty good shape and stamina and man, it felt really great to actually arrive and step foot at Laban Rata.

[caption id="attachment_892" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="We made it to Laban Rata Yo!"][/caption]

Mount Kinabalu Expedition Day 2 - RestHouse to Timpohan Gate

Day 2 of the Mount Kinabalu expedition kicks off early for everyone and by 6 ish am all 13 of us gathered around at the parking lot of our rest house for a short briefing from Mr.Boss.

[caption id="attachment_862" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Mr.Boss morning briefing before we begin our hike at Timpohan trail[/caption]

*photo by Azrul

Soon after that along with a little prep talk by Boss, we begin our little 'warm-up' before we hit the jungle trail. Since we came in a big group, Boss told us that we had to walk roughly around 100 m towards Kinabalu Park from the rest house and we should meet up with him at the entrance while he went to arrange other things for our expedition. And so we went for our supposedly short warm-up.

If you must know, the hiccups didn't get better overnight. It chose to continue on through the early part of the 2nd day of the expedition too. Our 100 m warm-up walk ended up becoming a close to 2 km warm-up walk mainly due to miss communication and a slight misunderstanding from the team leader. Thank God the weather was great and chilly so no one went totally berserk because we had just walked 2 km away to basically nowhere when all the while the Kinabalu Park was just 5 minutes away from the rest house. Funny thing was despite having confirmation from a fellow local about the direction of the park, we continued following the leading pack and that shows a pretty good team spirit between everyone. We shall stay together regardless of anything and if we had to be lead by the blind and so be it! LOL!

The warm-up walk was refreshing and we had a great time walking  along the street, dodging dog poop and huge trailers along the way while capturing snapshots with signboards which we could never have done if we didn't miss the park. In a way, things happen for a reason and it wasn't a bad hiccup after all.

[caption id="attachment_868" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Uncle Gampat (our guide/porter) tying the sack[/caption]

Upon reaching the entrance gate of the park, we each received our badges to be worn at all time during the hike because it is important for easy identification to our guides. We also got our loads (the one for the porters/guides to carry) weighed and most of us packed our clothes, jackets, gloves, food etc in a plastic bag because it's light weight, won't cost much for the porter fee and will be easy for the porter to simply gather the plastic bags into a huge sack for him to carry. The total combine weight that I shared with FF was 7.5kg and at RM4/kg , our shared load cost us RM60 for a return trip. The bag will be weighed once and won't be weighed again from Laban Rata, so most of us ended up stuffing more load into the porter bags during the return trip and I guess the poor porter uncles had to carry just a little bit more load during the descent hike. Hehe.

Later on, we grabbed our brunch pack from the Sutera Sanctuary Lodges Restaurant and munched on our breakfast during the short 5 km bus trip from the main gate towards the Timpohan trail entrance.

[caption id="attachment_865" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Brunch set provided for hikers[/caption]

* photo by Azleena

More briefing coming up from our guide, Bungin just before we set foot from the starting point at Timpohan Trail. For this expedition, we had 3 guides ( Bungin, Gampat and Downy) following all 13 of us and they work also as our porters. The guides function as the sweeper and at most time they will be at the back of the group walking along who ever is at the back of the team. In other words, through out the hike, the greater part of us including myself hiked on our own all the way to the top. I think it was pretty safe to hike alone because there will always be other people hiking along the way be it porters or other hikers plus guides from other teams.

After a short doa (prayer) by Bullert, we set off heading for Laban Rata and the long hike begins.

Mount Kinabalu Expedition Day 1

[caption id="attachment_856" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mt.Kinabalu from afar"][/caption]

The wait was finally over on 13th May 2010 for our most anticipated big hike which is non other than Mount Kinabalu. The team had been planning for this expedition since late 2009 after a couple of us who visited Sabah for the first time last year went totally head over heels with the mesmerizing beauty of Sabah and of course the majestic mountain itself - Mount Kinabalu. The whole journey and preparation towards the Mount Kinabalu expedition was no easy feat and I have to give a lot of credit to our team planner, Zue for putting up with all 12 of us through those endless emails since last year for all the bookings,payments, travel ideas and etc. Also not forgetting Mr.Boss for arranging all mountain bookings for everyone cum becoming our local tour guide around Kota Kinabalu.

Since I only know a handful of people out of these 13 people in the team, it was great to know that we all ended up blending very well with one another throughout the trip. I suppose all sports or outdoor adventure people are the coolest and friendliest bunch you can ever be with and we gel almost instantly well with each other the moment we greet and meet. After a brief greeting and exciting chats later with the newly met team members (Aida,Lily,Huna and Azrul and my old time friend - Bullert) at the boarding gate, we met with the first hiccup of the expedition which was a 2 hour flight delay. All I could think of at that time was by hook or by crook, we have to be in KK the latest at midnight because our hike from the Timpohan trail will resume at around 8 am the next day and I was not going to blow this big expedition out just because we couldn't fly out from KL to KK in time for the hike. Thankfully after a quick gobble of lunch since we all got kicked out of the plane to 'comfortably wait' at the boarding gate again, the plane started revving and up we went to the sky towards Kota Kinabalu.

The plane trip was sucky because I got a wailing toddler sitting  just behind me and if that was not enough the little kid went kicking at the back of my seat too. The last 15 minutes of the flight was so horrible and I was like come on, get me out of here quick! The toddler for some unknown reason went on a wailing fit for a good 15 minutes or more right until touch down but regardless of that I'm thankful to be seated next to an adorable old Chinese couple who were really pleasant during the trip.

After gathering our bags and a couple of quick photo sessions later, we met up with another half of the team who came from Penang the night before. Zue got really excited seeing me after what had been years and we had loads of XOXO's moments going on and after that followed by more XOXO's moments with Azleena too. A brief hello from a couple of others ensued before we hopped into the van for dinner and towards Kundasang to rest for the night.

The trip from Kota Kinabalu towards Kundasang is a long, winding 2 hours trip and I really enjoyed the trip because our driver, Nik is a pretty competent driver and by that I mean fast, local driver. However one of us surely did not enjoy the road trip as much as I did because apparently we had to stop Nik twice during the drive to give way for Aida to puke by the roadside. Hehe. I was told by her that she always get nauseous during long, winding drives and I really feel sorry for her to puke all her dinner out during the short trip. Ouch!

[caption id="attachment_855" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mountain RestHouse at Kundasang"][/caption]

This is the place we overnight on our first night at Kundasang, Sabah - Mountain RestHouse. The price is RM 15/night. The rooms have no heater but because it is a tiny room with two double decker bed enough for four people, we managed to get the heat from everybody collected inside the tiny room and that works very well as the heater for the night. Plus they also provide nice thick blankets so it was warm enough for the night. The restrooms and showers have no heater too but that didn't determined me to not bathe for the night. I thought after a nice cold bath later I should be able to have a good night sleep but I was wrong. I dozed off finally around 12 ish pm and woke up around 2ish am thanks to the rats running and bumping the ceiling noisily above me. I ended up tossing around bed, listening to two couple  who just arrived at the room behind me around 3 ish am chatting and finally decided to wake up at 4 am just before my alarm went off.

Oh another major point I need to mention here is the crazy packing and unpacking of stuffs during the night just before bed. Initially I had decided to bring my bigger bag to carry all the way to Laban Rata but it ended up being ridiculously heavy and I finally transferred everything that I wanted to carry into the small bag pack leaving the  bigger pack to be kept with Mr.Boss and another vacuum plastic bag filled with clothes to be used at Laban Rata and for the summit hike set aside for the porter to carry. Packing can be really sucky and the tips here is to always minimize your load as much as you can and always repack again after you have done with the packing just to lower down on your loads. Haha.

Since I woke early and the earliest amongst everyone, I got to check out the sunrise at 5 ish am around the rest house and it was getting pretty chilly in the morning. Next up we had a quick briefing with Mr.Boss until our next hiccup for the 2nd day begins.

Fun beach run and swimming a.k.a mini Biathlon

I was watching a lot of marathon and triathlon events on the Sports Channel lately and it got me itching to have a fun beach run and swimming on the beach thus making my very own mini Biathlon. I did exactly that two weeks ago and man, I really love it. The beach run was awesome especially when you get to breathe in cool, salty morning sea breeze and the weather was just perfect too. I suppose I made approximately a 1km run along the beach mostly making 100 m or so of repeated laps and I made one long run on another end of the long beach during the final lap. There weren't a lot of people on the beach that morning so the run wasn't interrupted by overcrowding beach goers.

Since I weren't keen about running shoeless on the beach because I was afraid to step on some sharp seashells, I was running with my open-toes sandals which was a bad idea. I kept brushing my big toe on the side of the sandal and thanks to that, I had to poke a blister out from the side of the toe later that day. It felt good though to poke your blister although I'm not sure if it is a recommended thing to do when you get a blister.

After the fun beach run, I went straight on for a couple of laps of swimming in the ocean. It was tough because I was getting out of breathe and tired from my beach run and now I have to strain the lungs with breathing in the water. I didn't get to do much laps because I was tired by then and I stepped on a sharp thing in the water, so I called it a quit after a couple of short laps. The biathlon ended soon after that and I have a newfound respect for triathletes out there for their strong endurance and stamina.

Since I had a pretty mini Biathlon, I got to play around with my camera on the beach. So check out the pictures and tell me what do you think? Care to have a mini Biathlon with me perhaps? =p



[caption id="attachment_839" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Beach run aka Mini Biathlon"][/caption]

Breathing techniques while running or hiking

If you are finding yourself gasping for air after a short time of running or ascending hiking, you may want to try out the proper breathing technique for your run or hike. So, how is it done?

It works simply by following the standard 3:2 ratio of breathing where it is a 3 deep inhale for the first 3 steps and 2 slow exhale for the next 2 steps and repeat. As you get used to this 3:2 breathing technique, you can see yourself running or hiking steadily but most importantly you will be relaxed and are able to keep a constant pace or momentum throughout your run or hike.

Do note that the way you breathe differs from one individual to the other and following the 3:2 breathing ratio may be difficult for first timers. I know that very well because initially, I did find it hard to get used to the 3 deep breathe with 2 exhale and at the end found myself gasping and panting even harder than before. If that is the case with you, you can vary your breathing to 3:3 breathing ratio and alternately changing to 3:2 ratio later on during your run. For fast running or sprint, most runners implement the 2:1 breathing ratio while most elite long distance runners do the 2:2 breathing ratio throughout their miles of running.

It is also vital to know that good breathing techniques particularly as I have recommended which is deep breathing may help your body to function well and efficiently. It works quite simply by making your body more oxygenated. Enough oxygen in your blood cells help to process more energy for your body to function better especially during strenuous long run or hill/mountain ascent. Moreover, deep breathing can give you a calming effect during your run or even your daily life and it is the easiest fix for stress.

Keep on practicing and working on your breathing techniques to build your overall stamina and performance. It is also very much recommended to breathe (inhale and exhale) using your nose instead of using your mouth and nose because nose breathing helps to filter impurities from the air and regulate the body temperature. Will that all said, never take your breathing technique for granted because if you get the technique right, it will do wonders in your running or ascending hiking performance.

Shoe Review: Adidas Response Trail 16

A couple of months back I got myself a new running shoes as the one I had earlier was pretty much battered. The sole came out and there are little traction left on the sole. I was looking for a trail and outdoor running shoes and finally decided to get this – Adidas Women's Response Trail 16 Running Shoe


httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grRsHdzF9Ls

How I feel about the shoe while running on different terrains:

1.Jungle trekking – going uphill and downhill
Since the sole is new, I still slipped a couple of times while walking on slippery tree branches and rocks. The traction is pretty good although I was expecting for better grips on the sole while going uphill the slippery jungle path. Coming downhill, I feel rather confident with this shoes because it provides great toe support at the front of the shoes.

2.Running on grassy trail
Traction is great because the grass was dry. I have yet to test it out on wet morning dew grassy trail but I expect it to be an excellent run with this shoes. I feel comfortable running with this pair but do watch out for blisters on your ankle if you wish to wear a low cut/invisible socks. Since this is a really new pair of shoes, it is best to put on an ankle length socks to avoid blisters before the shoes starts to season as you frequent the shoe's usage.

3. Hiking on wet terrain
Of course the Response Trail 16 will get absolutely wet if you have to cross a little patch of water as deep to just below your knee which in my case that's what happened and I had to cross the water trail to move further into the trail. Despite getting all drenched, the nylon mesh upper on the shoes is quick to dry and it has a lightweight-breathability function which is great for any wet or damp trail running condition. With good exposure from the sun during your trail running, you can expect for the shoes to dry as you run along. Also since it is a mesh upper, it can get pretty breezy at the front of your toes especially if you tend to run towards the wind direction.

Conclusion:
This Adidas Response Trail 16 is great for outdoor trails with great traction from the ForMotion control . The price is pretty reasonable for a new arrival in Adidas Stores throughout Malaysia. I got a 20% off from the original price, hence it was a good buy for me. Go get one of your own Adidas Response Trail 16 for your outdoor runs right now by clicking the link  here.

The most anticipated month has come!

Yes, the most anticipated month of the year has finally arrived. It is another 8 more days left for us to do some last minute 'muscle acclimatization' and finally just DO IT! I'm talking about the big hike of course.

I've been doing preparations for this Mt. Kinabalu hike since a couple of months back although in the initial phase, it was a mere pathetic twice a month little hill hiking and later on proceeding into some long distance walking on the golf course with probably once a week of jogging. Yes, I've picked up golfing and ditch the game altogether during this whole duration. Not until exactly 29 days ago, I've begun to literally put up a chart, hang it up beside the mirror and chart out on daily basis on what workout I've done on a day. I was ambitious like any typical goal setter will be because I wrote a little remark by the side of the chart that was written " TO RUN 5 KM IN 45 MIN OR 30 MIN/DAY - NON STOP BY 17/4/2010. Yes there are all in caps so that it stands out and would eventually stuck into the brain that it is highly important to achieve this goal regardless.

Of course I could never keep up with the 2 weeks duration to run 5K non-stop I've ambitiously given myself and up until now, my best record was to jog/run non-stop for 15 minute for a distance of 1.2K. Despite not being able to run non-stop in 45 minute for a 5K, I've managed to finish up a 5K in a record of 40 minute by doing a combination of jog/run/fast walk/jog and a good 200m final sprint towards the end. Come to think of it, I've actually reached my goal of running 5K in 45 minute don't I? Next time around it is going to be a 10K in an hour. Oh yeah!

Besides the running and jogging, of course there is the hill hiking. My last proper hill hike was last week. I didn't clock my best time during the uphill battle and I was struggling to breathe until later on I went home and read up on proper breathing techniques for running because it sure helps a lot to keep you going farther uphill or running for a longer duration. Other practices are going uphill on a 100m stretch and repeating the process five times or more. It gets easier on each hike as you begin to master the deep breath and slow exhale technique. However the best workout so far was doing almost a 1K beach run and later on swimming in the sea. The run was fun although people were of course watching because I was the only one running on the beach. On the other hand, I was having shorts of breath during my short breaststrokes laps probably because it is very tiring indeed and I really think those triathletes are really very strong people.

It is about a week's left before we will fly to Kota Kinabalu and I still need to get some stuffs ready. I've been missing some jogging because it is more of a 'do more hill running or walking' week. I hope all will go well next week and I have to admit that we are all getting excited on this and we are having the 'summit fever' alright.