Mountain Kinabalu, the peak

Helloooo, have been posting too many wordy posts previously. It’s time for me to blog with more pics.

I would like to continue my KK post. If you missed out the first part of my KK mountain climbing story, do click here to view it.

 

We slept in a dorm at Laban Rata after having our dinner. Not long after (approx 2am), we got to wake up to continue our journey to the peak of the mountain. Before the hike, I felt uneasy and nausea. But then I knew I have to eat something. Hence, I kinda forcing myself to chew on a bun.

The feeling of dizziness worsening during the first 30 mins. However, I kept forcing myself to go on. Without any warning, I actually vomited at the side of the sloppy mountain. After vomiting, immediately, I felt great. I was so relieved by then.

It was sooooo dark when we were climbing up the mountain. We have no idea where were we and what kind of mountain were we climbing. All we knew was keep going up up up. We climb awhile and rest awhile. Frankly speaking, it was quite tiring to climb this mountain especially for people who didn’t do much training like me. What kept me going the most was my mind. I kept telling myself to go on just because I paid for this hike. If failed to reach the peak, memang memalukan lar. lolz

The happiest moment was to able to see the sunrise although it was quite cloudy on the day. Once I took off my gloves, my fingers were numb. Gosh, it was freaking cold out there.

 

   

You could see the hat that I was wearing was different from other pics. It was almost Christmas, that’s why I purposely brought the Christmas hat along :) just to snap a pic ><

 

  

It was scary to look down the valley. One wrong stepped could end up to death ><

We were amazed to see the pathway that we have gone through during the pitch dark morning. It was freaking sloppy. When we were heading back, I felt the time was crawling instead of speeding. Perhaps the clearer we could see the surrounding, the harder to walk.

I met these 2 sweet aborigine girls half way through the mountain. They descended so fast and agile. I reckoned they climbed the mountain frequently. It was just a piece of cake for them ><

After descending from the mountain, we got to wait for another partner of mine for quite a long time before we could head to the town. Anyhow, I had an enjoyable climbing trip in Sabah. Thinking back, I couldn’t really imagine how brave and naive I was to plan this climb impromptu.

Alright, that’s all for now. Enjoy climbing, I reckon it would be more fun if you climb with a group of friends who have a strong will. Having a strong body doesn’t mean you are strong internally. get it? haha.

 

Mountain Kinabalu, Sabah

OMG, I am slacking for the whole day. But who cares, it’s time for me to blog again. Looking at the Veni Vici Vidi column on my blog’s sidebar which you could see right now is the list of the mountains I have conquered so far with the dates on it. I just realized that I never blog about my experience on climbing Mt Kinabalu, Sabah. So, decided to blog for the sake of remembrance for the future.

Well, when I was almost having my finals of SAM in 2008, I came out with a crazy idea of climbing Mt Kinabalu. Don’t ask me why, the answer would be aiks, it’s complicated to explain :D

Since it’s hard to find kakis to climb together at the very last moment, the easiest way is to search online for kakis. In the end, I knew a woman from the net who was interested to join me at the same time, without thinking twice, JOM d. Here, I would like to thanks heaps to my parents for letting me to go to this trip alone with a total stranger. Their mentally supports is always helpful for me no matter what situation I am in. Plus, so happen one of my friends, ZhiYong, boyfriend of my dear friend, Mei Ying would be there at the same time, I invited him to join us. Here goes our journey.

I met with my climbing partner for the first time @the airport. Once my dad saw her, he was relieved as well. Well, old sayings said, never follow a stranger home. This was true, but the risk that I have taken was worth it at last :)

Firstly, we went to the agent office to finalize everything. Will tell you the contact at the end of my KK post. After that, a driver drove us to the Kinabalu Park which was situated deep in the jungle. It was raining heavily at that time too.

This was my temporary accommodation for Day 1. When we were there, it was freaking cold as I was not used to cold weather.

Some souvenirs shops that you could find at Kinabalu Park. The area was surrounded with lots of trees and not to forget, the freaking tall Mt Kinabalu that I was going to conquer on the next day. Basically, we walked around the park and it was kinda relaxing though.

Freaking awesome right? so much mist some more

The very next day, I was so not prepared to climb *takut* as basically I have not been training on my stamina. Not at all other than frantically swimming for 2 days at the very last minute. When thinking it now, I totally have no idea why was I so brave and naive few years ago. But, at least, I experience it with no regret for the climbing part :)

We boarded a mini bus up the winding road to the main entrance for the climb. We were welcomed by a freaking amazing sign board. OMG, how could those ppl climb up and down on this mountain for less than 3 hours. This is insane. (2 x 4095m) But it’s the fact.

My partners for the climb and of course, the great guide as well. I guess he has been climbing up and down for dunno how many freaking times. He even helped my friend carried the heavy bag. Other than the guide, while on our way up the hilly slope, we saw lots of women, especially were carrying “look_like_it_was_a_heavy_basket” on their head and climbing up the mountain like nobody’s business. This is truly amazing. I was astonished to see how fast they could walk with the heavy burden on it. *Salute*

It’s true if you have heard ppl saying that climbing Mt Kinabalu is actually climbing up the staircases & easier than climbing Mt Tahan. but this is true only for the first half part.

This was the food that we received earlier before the climb ><

Because my other partner, the woman, Sarah couldn’t climb up the hill at our pace, the guide told us to climb up on our own.

Easy? Medium? Hard?

Personally, everything is about your mentality, not much about phsycial capability. Of course you are fit to climb if you choose to climb at the first place. I actually kept telling myself that I could do this. If not, you definitely will give up easily. Trust me!

The air was damp and my hair was full of droplets

I dunno the exact time I reached Laban Rata. Let me recall. hmmm. We started to climb around 8.30a.m. And reached Laban Rata at 3pm something if not mistaken. This means the journey took us approx 7 hours to finish HALF WAY. Anyway, I was delighted because it mean, I can eattttttttttttttt.

The temperature was approx 9.6 celcius plus the never stop blowing strong wind plus the wet clothes I were wearing making myself totally helpless and it was freezing cold

The must do thing is to order a hot chocolate/milo. Yummyyyyyyyyyy.

My other partner reached Laban Rata around 7 something. We were too exhausted and the scary part was, we have to wake up at approx 2.30am the next morning. I hardly doze off because of the scary weather ><

Till here now. have a great day everyone :)

Tragedy found GOLD

Few days ago, I came across a saddening article which instantly reminded a story of my past that I believe only my family, she and him know. Meanwhile, the article below was about a man died after free falling from the sky while paragliding.

A British father has plunged 45 metres to his death in Turkey, while tandem paragliding with his daughter.

The Daily Mail reports Glenn Hudson, 50, fell on to a beach when his harness broke while the pair were being towed through the air by a boat.

His daughter, Emma, 25, looked on in horror as her father fell to the ground in front of hundreds of holidaymakers.

"We were up there for about ten minutes and suddenly he dropped. I was right next to him, we'd been chatting happily and then he was gone," Miss Hudson reportedly said.

"Then it seemed to take forever to get me down. Dad was lying on the beach below and I was still dangling above."

Source: Yahoo! 7 News

Hmm… Why am I relating paragliding to my life? You would know soon~

N years ago, I went backpacking with my best buddies. Our first stop was Penang. The second day of our unplanned trip, we hitch hiked from the butterflies farm to Batu Feringgi.

Once we reached there, instantly I was attracted by the colorful “lolipop” appearing in the sky. I have forgotten the exact name for the lolipop thing. I guess it was called parachuting. I kept persuading my friends to play with me but to no avail, they were not interested. Anyhow, after bargaining hard with the person in charge, I only agreed to play for RM20.

 

My first time parachuting ^^

 

 

The most enjoyable moment was when I were high up the sky, I felt like I was flying and being able to see the beauty of mother nature which was just underneath my feet was truly amazing.

After a few minutes

 

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Something has gone wrong.

 

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I  began to free fall from the sky. And just a few seconds, my whole body dropped into the deep sea. harshly

At the very moment, I felt weird rather than shocked. When I was started to fall, I thought the boat man was playing the “banana boat game” where when you were playing the banana boat, you were ought to drop into the sea eventually. But I was wondering how could it be the banana boat trick as I was high up in the sky now.

When I was in the deep sea, strong waves kept pushing me, I hardly can open my eyes to see my surrounding. From far, I saw the boat man driving towards me and drove me to the shore. He told me the engine was not functioning all in a sudden and offered me another ride for compensation. Without thinking twice, I agreed.

 

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This was the most precious moment I had which I remembered till now.

My friends thought that I was going to die and while I was combating with the waves, she cried. *awww. deeply touched*

Fortunately, the second round of parachuting went smoothly and I landed safely on the ground with joy =)

 

 

This sapo changed her mind and wanted to play right after my turn >< How weird she was.

 

And, she landed safely as well.

Back to the above article, if only if I started to fall when I was suppose to land on the ground like the British man, what would happen to me? I couldn’t think and I wouldn’t want to think the consequences. Some of you might think why on earth do I agree to play twice after the first tragedy. Hmm.. Seriously, I have no idea too because at the very moment, my mind was just having the desire of playing it again =D Yea, I know I was too playful ><

Through that incident, I realize that some of my current friends are irreplaceable. True friends are only appeared when you are in trouble but not when you are somebody.

 

My partner was enjoying the sunset scenery. lolz

 

 

Seriously, the sunset scenery at Batu Feringgi was freaking awesome and beautiful~

 

 

Sapo and I were enjoying too~ We were lying down on a hammock. Awww~ feel like relaxing my mind and body now from the hectic and challenging semester.

That was basically part of my backpacking experience N years ago.

~the end~

p/s: Gold from the title means TRUE FRIENDSHIP =)

Well, thinking back, thanks God that I’m still alive and could still enjoy every moment with great people.

True enough, life is unpredictable. R.I.P the British man.

Backpacking with crazy freaks – Day 1.1

Hey guys, I am back. Whenever I look through people’s awesome pictures and some graphic designing pics, I feel really great ^^

Ok, stop the crap. Let’s resume my day 1 journey of backpacking. Note that all of the pictures displayed here are without any editing work done. Sorry if any of the pic is not in good exposure.

p/s: the piled pictures are very unclear here. If wanna see a better view of the pics, feel free to view the album.

Well, once we reached Butterworth, we headed to a mamak stall to have FOOD. Our breakfast was Malay food and everywhere around us was dark and quiet. Why? It was 5a.m. in the morning lar, dude.

After finish eating, we headed to the ferry terminal and guess what we were the earliest passengers for the day. lolz.

Once we were at PP, we took a bus to “forgotten_what’s_the_street_name” to find accommodation. The street was damn quiet and we were walking in dark aimlessly. Besides, we saw some “CHICKENS n orang yg gatal” mumbling beside the street. Oh gosh, we walked past a damn creepy Chinese style punya guest house. No doubt that it was a haunted house @_@

We walked walked walked and walked…………

finally we found a “nice looking + reasonable” guest house at the love lane road. Why is it call love lane? Tell u later.

Well guys, to all wanna be backpackers, pls don’t assume that backpackers lodge would be always dirty, no air-cond, many chickens and bla bla bla.

We were fortunate to stay in SD Guest House because the place was well handled and clean. We took the triple air conditioned room and guess what, we have to pay RM15 RM65 per person only. Damn cheapkan?

After unloading our stuffs, we cari makan again. There were lots of people in almost every food shop especially old folks. I love that kind of feelings whereby “togetherness” came into my mind instantly.

We had an awesome dim sum breakfast at a reasonable price ^^

The morning street of PP. Lovely, isn’t it?

So, what’s next?

Map was a crucial tool for us. Around 930a.m, we headed to “Names’ Jetty” to have a look. We went to “陈、周姓”housing area.

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Ewww, there was one pic depicting how they manage their waste. Really eyesore when seeing the tourists who walked in felt disgust with it >.<

You see how INN their toilet was. Someone had used it and hopefully the fish in the sea were still alive.

We sendiri request for a boat ride to the place where fishermen used to catch fish.

Yea, we saw the Penang bridge from far ^^

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Once we reached near the place, the fierce dogs kept barking on us =.=’’’ Thanks GOD they can’t swim. Wait a minute, who knows? They were capable on roaming around the platform yang berlubang-lubang.

Since the fisherman has done a great job, we offered him RM20.

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After that, we headed to the town to have asam laksa. Well, till now, we can’t find the most delicious asam laksa’s location cos we really did not know which one mar.

Penang Hill punya Asia Cafe ^^

While waiting for the stall to open, we went to an ice-cream shop to have some yummy ice-cream ^^

Oh no, after eating the “mar mar asam laska” someone’s perut terbuncit pulak.

After that, we headed to bus station and continue our journey up to the hill to somewhere lor.

Hey yo, don’t ever underestimate the kehebatan of the popo. I was sitting beside her and she kept talking with me in HOKKIEN. OK lar, I admit that I just know Hokkien sikit-sikit, so I have no idea what she was talking about. Ying more xia sui. She was a hokkien nang yet did not really know about the language. haha.

The popo kept talking with me. Then she talked about her children thinggy, I replied her in Mandarin after got help from another passenger >.< Not really sure that she understood what I was saying or not. Hence, I talked with her in Cantonese. I was amazed that she knew that language and started to converse in Cantonese. Then, the conductor came and wanna us to show him the tickets.

Wasai, the popo Malay pun sibeh boleh. She could speak fluently without any ahhhhh ohhhhh ehhhhhh. I was astonished and ok lor, saya bertutur dalam BM with her later on. The 2 fella kept on laughing like no one business =.= wtf

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We were lost when we reached our so called destination. Rupa-rupanya we took the wrong bus. But no worries, we jalan sini and sana ask for directions. In the end we took a taxi and went to lagi up up hill. We were quite lucky to get a “bersopan-santun and beriman” driver.

In order to go to the butterfly farm, we got to drive pass a very freaking winding road whereby NO BUS was allowed to access. Along the freaking road, I was very headache. However, we did see lots of beautiful scenery from the top and of course not to forget the “wonderful” kampung houses. Eh, Negeri Sembilan pun adalah. swt. Wait a minute. Then how are we going down after that? Aiya, main dululah, later baru think.

We drove past a hugh dam with scenic view ^^

The butterflies farm which was located far-fetched from the town

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Yes, we did like butterflies. However, we felt geli when the butterflies flied everywhere as who knows when would you step on it or it would give you a big kiss suddenly?

Well, when we came out from the lovely farm. We were stuck as there would be no bus nor taxis because none of them were allowed to be there unless you hire a taxi driver. lolz.

Well, no worries. At first, we showed our hitch hiking sign towards any car coming from a blind spot area. To no avail, we stood there like statues waiting for “baik hati” citizens to fetch us down. If it was around 1km we can walk lar but the problem was we were not so sure how far from there.

A great Malay couple willing to fetch us down. So good of them. Excuse me, had we interrupted your sweet sweet short moment? lolz. Anyhow, our first so called hitch hiked attempt was succeeded. wohoo

After that,

here come BATU FERRINGGI. Well if you came from the farm, just descend from the hill and you would reach there.

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We love beach, aren’t we?

I shall end here for the time being. This one day journey hasn’t come to an end yet. Guess what had happened to us while we were at Batu Ferringgi? Good or bad? Each pic below did convey a certain meaning. Stay tune to know more. Cioz

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• Backpacking with crazy freaks - Day 1

always appreciate what you have