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.