I was neither an adventurous nor the outdoor kind of person before this. It took me 9 months to prepare myself for this climb. I went on a diet to lose 5KGs, trained at Mount. Kiara every week and sometimes even at Batu Caves. I have never had such determination or discipline over something until this hike came about. Each week, I carried two 1.5 liter bottles of water with me in my bag and walked at least 3 hours at Mount. Kiara or 2 – 3 rounds up and down in Batu Caves.

Anyway, the trip was extremely tiring but it was worth all the effort to make myself hike all the way up. The journey started at 7:30am with breakfast near Kinabalu Park where we registered ourselves and were given a dog tag with our IDs and names on it. The ID signifies the group and the date of your climb which was AA26 for my case. A lunch box was given to us with 5 slices of sandwich, an apple, a bottle of mineral water, a hard boiled egg and a piece of chicken. We arrived ar Timpohan Gate at 8:30am (1,866m) and then we hiked all the way up to Laban Rata Resthouse (3,270m). The distance from Timpohan Gate to Laban Rata Resthouse is 6 KM with 7 stops in between for you to rest, have a toilet break or recharge yourself with food, power bars or drink some water. For your information, there is another route to Laban Rata through Mesilau Gate which is 2KM longer but apparently the scenery is much nicer than the Timpohan Gate.

Most of us arrived at Layang-Layang (4KM) at 11:30am which was considerably fast and we were supposed to have our lunch there but some of us decided to hike all the way up to Laban Rata and have our lunch there. With the determination, we continued our hike after a short rest at Layang-Layang. As we walked further, the weather started to get colder as we are approached higher altitude. I would say, the last 2 KM was the toughest journey for me by far. I was hungry, my legs were very tired and my feet started to ache. Before I knew it, the rain started to pour and I had to put on my windbreaker. The combination of cold, hunger and tiredness kicked in and that’s where your mind starts playing games on you. You will start to think of negative thoughts and at certain a point of time, you will start to give yourself excuses to have more stops in between and rest. I stopped for 10 – 25 minutes at 5 KM to have my lunch under the drizzling rain because I was really very hungry and freezing there! Throughout the whole journey, you will have a constant battle with yourself. For instance, my mind kept telling myself to keep walking but then my legs were aching and needed a break. I was actually tearing myself up into two and it felt like I had a split personality in me.

Without realizing it, I arrived at Laban Rata Resthouse, overjoyed and glad that finally it came to an end… for the first day. Once there, I finished up my lunch box with some hot tea to warm myself up. It was approximately 10 – 12 degrees there because it was raining and it felt so darn good after a good rest and hot tea to keep warm. I quickly registered myself, got my dorm with the rest of my friends and ran to shower before the hot water finishes as advised by a friend of mine. After the shower, the only thing I looked forward to besides the arrival of my friends, was the buffet dinner!!! It was awesome with delicious beef and yummy lamb served. Everything seemed to be extremely tasty, it could have been because of the weather and the tiredness or maybe we were just too hungry. After the buffet, I went straight to bed because we had to wake up at 1:30am to prepare ourselves to hike to the peak for sunrise. We were briefed by our mountain guide on what to bring and what to expect on the second day hike before I hit the bunk. I prepared and packed most of the stuff and then immediately knocked myself out to sleep to avoid myself from being lethargic tomorrow morning. The sunset was amazing and when I say majestic scenery, I really mean majestic scenery! It is the combination of colors that you have even seen in your whole entire life and trust me, sunrise was as awesome and breathtaking as sunset.

I managed to wake up at 1:30am and by then, I realized that a lot of people already awake and preparing themselves. I thought I was early but some woke up much earlier and I heard from our mountain guide that some groups left the resthouse at 1:30am to start the hike up to the peak. Can you believe it? We had our buffet breakfast and again, the breakfast was awesomely good too!!! We started our morning at 2:30am with our headlamp, beanie, winter clothing, track bottoms, gloves and “adidas kampung” is a shoe you MUST buy and wear. PLEASE DO NOT WEAR ANY OF YOUR FANCY Adidas/ Nike/ New Balance whatsoever. Please invest RM 6.90 on “adidas kampung”. It will give you more grip on the granite than anything else. You can either get it there in Kota Kinabalu or if you are in Klang Valley, please get it at the address below. It is actually a rubber shoe with rubber spikes below and even if you walk at 45 degrees with that shoe, you will still have a strong grip and you will not worry about falling or slipping off your feet. Trust me on this! As we were climbing, 9 of us were so glad that we were wearing the “adidas kampung” shoes especially when we saw other people slipping and having difficulties finding grip to stand firm on the granite rock of Mount. Kinabalu. This shoe is mainly for the second day hike.

Chiong Keng Trading

3, Jalan Sawi, Taman Goodwood,
Jalan Kucai Lama, 58200, KL.
+603-7982 6422

The sunrise starts at 5:30am so you are sort of racing against time to reach to the peak just in time to see the sunrise or at least for me, that was my expectation. For the first 30 – 40 minutes, it was all about taking wooden stairs to cross the forest where you will start using a rope to pull yourself up the cliff. Here is where your “adidas kampung” come in handy. The trick is if you don’t have the shoe, you will use your upper body’s strength to pull yourself up but if you have a good grip on your feet, you can choose not to rely so much on your hand you will not get exhausted so easily. Here is where it gets cold and strong winds will sweep you off if you are not wrapped in thick clothing. As I went on, I really would not hear anything else. My mind started to shut down due to the exhaustion from yesterday’s 6KM hike, the high altitude and temperature down. I started to have thoughts like “Why am I doing this?”, “What have I signed up myself into?”, “Why am I paying to torture myself?” and many more. I told a couple of my friends that the last 1.5 KM is where I learned to hear out myself, my own voice  from within, loud and clear. I could not hear anything else around me, not the wind, not other people talking, nothing. Everything around me disappeared except for myself and my own breathing.

I reached to the Low’s Peak at 6:00am, overjoyed. I shouted as loud as I could with a few friends who made it there first. We stayed at the peak for more than 30 minutes to rest, refresh ourselves with drinks and some power bars. Most importantly, we took as many pictures as we could for memories. The adrenaline rush in my body made me totally forget about the tiredness, coldness or whatsoever. I didn’t expect that I could have made it and even wanted to try to tweet from up there but unfortunately there was no coverage. For your information, you still can tweet or Facebook when you are at Laban Rata. Cool right?

After all the hype, this is where you have to start hiking down 2.7KM to Laban Rata. Once you have arrived at Laban Rata, you are supposed to rest, pack your stuff and prepare yourself for 6KM down to Timpohan Gate. Yes, hike down again so in total the second day you hiked 11.4KM with 2.7KM to the peak, 2.7KM down to Laban Rata and another 6KM to Timpohan Gate. The thought of hiking down 6KM on the second day made me so reluctant to move, seriously. As we started our journey, it was very misty and to make things worse, it started raining. It was not just drizzling but it was quite a heavy downpour. The journey down is no way favorable because my knees and ankles were failing me and with the rain, you cannot go any faster because it is slippery. I reached the Timpohan Gate at around 2:30pm and that’s where I knew my journey to Mount. Kinabalu has ended, finally.

I strongly recommend people around me to do this because I have learned a lot from it. Also, I think the majestic view and scenery is something that is worth all the hard work, effort and time. I am sure this is something that will leave a footprint in my memory for a very long time and I did not regret doing this, not even for a bit or a split second. I have to admit that it is tough but then again, nothing is easy in life, right? I met someone in Mount. Kinabalu who goes by the name of Kalai. He was the guy who told me that Michael Jackson passed away on the 26th of July 2009. We bumped into each other throughout the whole journey; during buffet dinner or breakfast and even in Laban Rata. On my way down from the peak, I bumped into him again. I greeted and congratulated him because he made it up to the top as well. He shook my hand, hugged me and told me “At the age of 35, I promised myself that by the age of 55, I want to be at the top of Mount. Kinabalu and today I am 55″. Immediately, I was moved by his determination and passion. I asked him whether he was alone and he answered “Yes, I am all alone for this”. I was shocked and really moved by him and as I walked down, he was my motivation to continue walking even though my knees hurt like hell. So if you really want go, don’t wait or hesitate!!!

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