Cont…… Well, I’m not one to be put off by a mere landslide, i juz got off the mini bus, walked over to the other side of the land slide, and hitched a ride with a local turning back to Ranau town. He was bound to KK but unable to as the entire road was blocked. At the park, i made some queries to climbers there to check if there were cancelled reservations. Lucky for me, there were two cancellations so i took up one of them for accomodation on top of the mountain. Lady luck was smiling graciously as it turned out that i got 1 of the best rooms at a low rate, they were heated rooms with bathrooms in them whereas the rest were unheated with a common bath room.
The tour agent that held the reservation also made arrangements that i needn’t hire a guide, i only had to pay a small fee and share the guide with two other climbers, Christian Bartz, a German and his gal. both of em were from Beijing. Well, we ended up as activity partners throughout the entire trip all the way up and down the mointain rite to KK. They were staying at Nexus Karambunai while i had to head back to get accomodation back in KK.
The climb was excruciatingly painful, as all of us weren’t prepared, on my part, probably it was overconfidence, as this was my fourth climb, i thought that this time, since i wasn’t racing , i needn’t prepare, well, i was wrong but i still made it. It was tiring, with all the seemingly never ending steps and rocks, we made it in 4.5 hours to Laban Rata. Had some rest after lunch, which was damn expensive. I had food but i wanted hot food so forked out RM33 for what would have cost RM5 in any other place for mixed rice. Almost choked on a chunk of undercooked beef. But understandably, it was tough getting all the supplies up the mountain which was why things were damn expensive up there.
I advised Chris back at the Park entrance to get some chocolates and extra food as the climb saps energy pretty fast, believe me, i had the worst of them two years back. Myself on the other hand, bought juz enough energy releasing fodder as i didnt want to be burdened by excess baggage. I have to salute Chris as not only he carried his bag but also his gal’s and still he were more fit than me as he kept his pace up the mountain. On the other hand, me and Shien Ling were looking forward for the rest huts. I had the feeling that i would have been faster if i climbed solo. I wanted to have a slow climb and was indeed lazy, easily giving in to tiredness, thinking that "we are gonna reach the top after all so how long we take does not matter". We reached Laban Rata at about 4.15 pm after starting at 11.45 am. I saw Mito, the jap dude back from the lodge in KK up at Laban Rata. Apparently, he came juz a lil earlier than me, he had made travel arrangements with tour agents from KK to Taman Kinabalu.
Day 3:
After getting some rest and sleep, we left for the summit at 2.30 a.m. This was a dreaded climb as our leg muscles were already sore from earlier and then there were the 75 degree wooden stairs waiting for us for the first 2 kilometres from Laban Rata, i remembered this from previous climbs. This part was one i hated most in each and every climb, damn tiring. Also since it was dark, we had to hold torches to see where we were going. The rest of the climb was easy but due to the fact that we were out of energy, we needed constant breaks, and the fact that a few steps forward after each break made it more difficult to continue walking forward. We guessed it was the breaks, the lesser breaks taken and shorter, would be better as it was pretty cold up here and the longer we stopped, the faster the cold seeped into our muscles. Finally, though we made it in time to watch the sunrise and it was beautiful as always. It was like an anthill on the peak, so many people moving here and there to get pics taken. I took out my ciggarettes and lit them up , it was great to have a puff on top of the mountain, ppl found it amusing and amazed to see me smoking there. Probably, they would have thought no smoker would be fit for the climb, haha.
Took some great pics and then it was time to get down, legs all loose and wobbly. After leaving Laban Rata for the Timpohon gates, it seemed suddenly there were too many stones and steps which hadn’t been noticed earlier!!!! They were great for the knees and soles indeed, enough to be bedridden for two days for the unsuspecting. Chris had some trouble on the way down, slipped a time to many, landing on his bottom, ouch. he was limping a lil but still wouldn’t admit the pain but continued down. Back at the gates, the agent Chris had booked the holiday package picke us up and brought us back, Chris and his gal to Karambunai, me to KK.
I went back to the Summer Lodge for the night, i was satisfied with it the night before, freshened up and saw Mito again. We had dinner and some beer at the BBQ place below the lodge then decided to walk around town a bit. I wanted to get a small bag which I intended to smuggle some bottles and crates from the airport with. My flight was 7.30 the next morning and I had to be at the airport at 5.30am. The Summer lodge host arranged a wake up call for me and also got me a cab to take me to the airport.
Day 4: I had wanted to get some duty free liquor and ciggs from the airport but unfortunately, the duty free shop opened only at 8.30 a.m. SO it happened, while I was disappointed with this, 5 mins before my flight, the flight got rescheduled to 9.45 am !!!!!
Normally, ppl would be miffed at the long delay but for me, it was another roll of good luck. I juz waited for the shop to open when suddenly, the electricity went out in the airport, critical systems were up but no lights, machines operable in any of the shops and eateries in the airport, everything was to be dealt with cash and manually jotted down. The f!@4ed up part was I wanted to use my credit card to make duty free purchases. I also had cash but inaccessible as ATMs were down due to the power failure. Again, my stubborn instincts kicked in, I didn’t want to go back with an empty hand luggage. The time was 8.55am. I took a cab back to KK town, about 15mins from the airport, managed to get the taxi driver to speed up, he was going thru some strange shortcuts and brought me to the nearest ATM. Got some cash out, rushed back to the airport just in time to get two bottles and a crate, and wait for my plane back to KL. See how far my stubborness go? willing to take the risk of losing my flight juz because of something i have planned earlier and wanting to going through it. But, in the end, I did succeed though.
