Lady Frances in Malaysia

Mt. Kinabalu hiding behind the clouds

After the flight delay from KLIA2, finally touched down at Kota Kinabalu International airport on the 5th of February 2015. The suffering of our butts didn't end there though because we need to travel by bus for almost 2 hours to D'Villa Rina Ria Lodge, Kinabalu Park where we're gonna stay for the night before our ascent to Mt. Kinabalu the next day.

with my friend Kellani getting ready to climb Kinabalu via Mesilau Trail

6th February, woke up early had breakfast, checked out from our lodge and walked 500 meters to Kinabalu Park to register for our climb via Mesilau Trail. Upon paying the necessary fees, we were assigned a mountain guide, Jon who will assist us all throughout the duration of our trudge.

The taxi cab driver, Paul brought us to Mesilau Park about 40 minutes away. The road going up the park was really winding and high, I couldn't believe a car can navigate it. Upon arrival in Mesilau Park, we were briefed shortly before we started our ascent at 9:00 AM.

Enjoying the cool weather in Mesilau Trail

Mesilau Trail is a mix of up and down trails

Total distance to trek before Laban Rata guest house(this is where we're gonna stay for the night before our final ascent to the summit) is 6km. The first 4 km was an enjoyable walk for me passing by waterfalls, easy up and down paths, and it was really cool walking because we were protected from the direct rays of the sun by the tree bushes. Hell came upon reaching Km. 4 which is the start of an unending "uphell" trail to the top, I already started to feel sick, headache, lightheadedness, nauseated, drowsy and finally vomited. I guess am feeling signs of altitude sickness. I have to calm myself, took Panadol hydrated and deep breathed, I have to tell myself it's just another 2km more to go and you can eat and rest.

Waterfalls

This is the beginning of an "uphell" climb!!!

At around 4 pm after almost 7 hours of walking endlessly, finally reached Laban Rata, vomited non stop though until nothing won't come out anymore.

Laban Rata Guest House

The much deserved buffet at the Laban Rata Restaurant

At the Laban Rata restaurant, early buffet dinner was served with variety of food such as lamb, beef, chicken, salad, vegetables, nice desserts, tea, coffee, etc. I fancied to eat all of those since I was so hungry after a long walk plus barfed all I ingested but seems my system couldn't take it in every time I attempted to chew and swallow, it just wants to come out. I just gave up and went to our homestay (another 150m walk going up) refreshed myself, douched and got ready to sleep since the wake up call will be at 2am.

Unfortunately I really couldn't get the rest that I need because aside from the noise coming from our next door neighbors, I was very anxious and nervous thinking if I can make it to the summit the next day since I still don't feel good having slight headache and still nauseous.

2 AM all set for Low's Peak!!!

2 am, time to get up, warmed ourselves up with our gloves, earmuffs, thick jackets, protected our faces from sunburn and windburn by applying sunblocks and creams and of course readied our headlamps to guide the way. We had to go down to the restaurant again for our early breakfast, I decided to fill myself up by eating noodles, 5 pieces of french toasts, and drank tea. By 3 pm, we are now ready for another 2.7 km climb to the summit. First few steps, am feeling dizzy and nauseated again. Am already having doubts if I'd still go or just go back. I vomited everything again non-stop. People were just passing by and one kind guide stopped and asked if am okay and if am having a headache. I assessed myself, do I have a headache? No La! So I guess I will be fine maybe I am just acclimatizing, I can still go on and it would be really scary going back alone, you know. After throwing up all the food I ate, I then realized I started to feel better although as oxygen becomes thinner as we're nearing the summit, I could still go on!

If you get lost just follow the white rope

The whole stretch to the top consists of wooden stairs and rocks to climb some needed ropes to help us go up. At last! Just as Mr. Sun was starting to rise, we were already up the summit ready to take a snap.

Our feet at 4095.2m Low's Peak Summit Taman Kinabalu at last!!!

PICTURES at LOW'S PEAK

We enjoyed the summit for a while and got ready to go back to Laban Rata for breakfast before we descend the mountain via Timpohon, which is a 6km knees torture. Unlike, Mesilau where the trails are gradual up and down, Timpohon is an unending trail of wooden, rock, and some muddy slippery steps. We managed to be at the gate after 2.5 hours. A van was waiting for us to take us back to Kota Kinabalu park where we got our certificates and enjoyed our buffet late lunch.

Having my numb feet stand at 4,095m, I felt contentment and happiness, at last I came back to Kota Kinabalu after 4 years not for water rafting, not to see the the proboscis monkeys and the sun bears, not to sightsee, and not just to enjoy the food but to climb and survived Mt. Kinabalu, against all odds!!! Another one checked from my bucket list.

*** For friends who wants to try climbing Taman Kinabalu just a few tips:

1. Things to bring:

Waterproof backpack to store your items

Trekking or running shoes with good grip

Warm clothing / Long Sleeves Shirt / Hiking Pants

Jacket /Wind Breaker

Extra Clothing and socks
Small Towel

Hand Gloves and Winter Hat

Disposable raincoats

Head Torch

Personal Toiletries

High Energy food as such as chocolate, nuts, biscuits, sweet, energy bars

Medication such as headache or altitude sickness tablets

Tissue Paper

Sun Block Lotion, Lip Gloss, Plasters

Camera with water proof bag

Sandal /Slippers
Plastic Bags

2. Very important to hydrate yourself, water source is available along the way but if your system can't handle it, better bring your own water.

3. If altitude sickness attacks, sit back, breath in and out and if you need to throw up, just barf all the way like I did and you'll feel better.

*** Fees for the climb/head in MYR (Foreigner)

Mt. Guide: 75

Transportation via Mesilau going and Timpohon coming back: 58.50

Permit to climb: 107

Certificate (optional): 12

Porter (optional): 12/kilo

Some videos to share along the way:

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Side trip: after the climb we visited other places of interests in KK, sharing pictures and vids

New friend: Paul. Learned a lot from him about Sabahan Culture.
Pandataran Restaurant, Kota Kinabalu Park.

Time to relax at Poring Hotsprings

Rafflesia!

Pekan Nabalu View Deck

Masjid Bandaraya biggest mosque in KK

New Friend: Roy. Rode his van coming back to the city centre. Funny Guy.

Tambayan: Pinoy Restaurant at Api-api Centre. Ate sinigang baboy, daing, kangkong, drank fresh buko juice and got serve by nice Pinay ladies. Feels like home.

Enjoying the pool where we checked in at Sabah Oriental Hotel a 4 star Hotel. Was lucky to book it at a very cheap price.

Chillaxin

New Friend: Shin. We first met him at Taman Kinabalu. He was the Mt. Guide to the Koreans. He said he climbed Kinabalu 200 times already.

Kampong Nelayan Cultural Dance Performers

New Friend: Glen. Lady from Cebu who was a very kind staff at D' Villa Lodge.

4 years ago, I was in this place the Kampong Nelayan Seafood restaurant with my friends Alexander Taclan Aldrin Taclan Meei Wong Megumi Natsumi Balsalubre and ate Jen Taclan. We joined the Sumazau Penampang dance and was dancing happily while I was recording it using Candy my cam. The next day, we went water rafting took a lot of photos and videos as well but suddenly the rafting guide without warning capsized the rubber boat we were on. I was thrown out of the water and later on realized my camera "drowned" down the river already. There goes most of our Kota Kinabalu adventure documentation. So, February 2015 I'm back to KK to climb the famous Taman Kinabalu and side trip is to take some photos of the places that I've been before and most especially come to this restaurant to repeat the dance using the same dress I was wearing that time. NOSTALGIC!!! HEHEHE

Living in Malaysia has made me realize that wherever you are, it is still possible to be happy even though you are hundreds of miles away from your family and friends for the reason that you can build fresh connections and make new friends where you are. Leaving my comfort zone put me into a slight panic at first; I had a lot of questions on my mind like do I still get to enjoy the things that I do back home like hiking, swimming, running, cycling, Zumba and, most especially, traveling? And would there be new people whom I’m going to connect with and share the same interests? Can I survive Malaysia without my homesickness killing me? All of the questions were immediately answered the first day I stepped into ICTI and felt the warm welcome of everybody. Rapport was quickly established and I didn’t feel different at all; I easily blended in.

Our first run as a group, training day

One thing that really brought us close together was when Nurul, one of my colleagues, invited us to join the PJ Half Marathon Run. I was so excited that I signed up with no hesitation knowing that others from the officewere also interested to participate. At first we trained separately on our own, Harry and I updating on each other’s run, motivating each other every day to go further and train harder. Then the Orange Frog workshop happened and we decided to train together. Florence, Harry, Chan How, Hamida, Fitri,Nurul and I decided to set up a schedule for training after work and during the weekends. Empire Damansara, Mutiara Homes, DamansaraPerdana, and TTDI park became our training grounds. We also continued our after run bonding like going out for dinner or refreshments making the calories burn as our excuse where the hashtag #runtoeat was born. We actually ran to the nearest NasiLemak or Nasi Kukus to supply our body with carbs and protein! And, of course, the after-training selfies would never be missed out and posted on my Fitness Diary Album on Facebook; it’s not only a way for me to document our activities, but also a way for me to inspire others, to show themthat despite our busy schedules, if we are determined we can still squeeze in time to run or exercise.

After work night runs

The rain won't stop us from training

Nasi Kukus Run #runtoeat

TGIF walk before the run on Sunday, carbo loading fever!!!

A day before the run, we collected our race kits, went for a relaxing swim and met up with Shahrina in Kampong Bahru for a nice carbo loading the night before the run: Nasi Lemak!!!

After almost 2 months of training, event day came! I am very proud to say that all of us finished the 10km run, (and the 3km run for Fitri)clocking impressively credible times for beginner runners. All under 2 hours!!! Harry clocked in at 1:07:25, very good time for a first timer; Chan How – he was injured during the run – still managed a time of 1:22:35; Florence clocked in at 1:29:18 – she bested her last 10k run time, Hamida at 1:40:03 – she had problems with her breathing during our training but was never discouraged to quit (!), Nurul at 1:45:01 despite rarely training with us but still very hard core, our beloved Fitri who never realized he could actually make it BTD (before the dot), and, finally, yours truly at 1:01:21 – my best run ever because I had never clocked that fast in my 10km runs back home, really a lucky day for me for my first MY run!!! The best part is, we all received medals and certificates which we could take home to show our beloved supporters, our ICTI, JE, and ELS family! Thank you so much for the cheers and encouragement. We hope next time we get to see you in the running tracks with us! Kudos and Merry Christmas to all!

Some photos taken during the event: