My Kinabalu Escapades (May 6-14, 2006)

Kota Kinabalu:
My best adventure holiday ever despite nearly drowning and choking up my arteries (no) thanks to all the seafood I’ve been stuffing my face in.

Was in KK for 8 days from May 6-14, 2006. Apart from doing the obvious (was literally dragged heaving and groaning up the peak), I went for a Discovery Dive session in Manukan Island (was literally dragged kicking and screaming into the sea) and shot rapids at Sungai Padas (was literally dragged howling and cursing into the boat before falling head first into the currents).

I've kept a log of my journey and here it is for your reading pleasure:

Day 1: May 6
S and I flew in one day ahead of the others. S left his shoebox at the LCCT and only caught onto his absent-mindedness at 32,000 ft. Of course, he blamed me for being a distraction (as I would him though for other reasons) but it was too late. His hiking shoes were gone and he had to resort to scaling the mountain in his spare crazy heavy 2kg boots.

To make matters worse, we landed smack in the middle of torrential rains and due to AirAsia’s “excellent hospitality”, we were encouraged to remain in the plane for an hour before somebody had the sense of passing out umbrellas to the passengers. We spent the rest of the day shopping for groceries and other necessities for the climb. It continued to rain the whole day thereafter, and we were praying it wouldn't set the stage for the "oh so exciting" mountain climbing expedition later.

Day 2: May 7
We roused to sunny skies this morning! After breakfast and some loitering, we packed up and were transported from our hotel, Berjaya Palace to Mesilau Nature Resort in the afternoon where we greeted the rest of our group members (10 others) who just flew in. Mesilau Resort is a 2 hr drive away from the city, and 2,000m above sea level with charming chalets amidst a paradise of cool, rustic and natural mountain air and forestation.

Fully recommended for a one-with-nature getaway even if you're not climbing the mountain! Incidentally, we could already catch shy glimpses of the majestic mountain edges between the thick clouds on the way up to the resort. The sight of the mountain so up close and personal truly brought home the fact that I was actually gonna scale the highest peak in this part of the world! Already shivering from the excitement (and cold)..



Day 3: May 8
We started our long and challenging trek up at 9.15am via the Mesilau trail. Reputed to be the more physically challenging one of the two, Mesilau, though longer by 3km, is very scenic and picturesque with pretty waterfalls and bio-diversified flora peppering the trail throughout the climb.

The climb was tiring but fun with S and I leading the way. We were the first ones to reach the midway point, Laban Rata (3,300m) at 3pm. We could already see the incredible mountain backdrop in its full glory of teeth and fangs, gulley, precipice, cliff, plateau, gorge, peak, projectile points - you name it - from there. We could even trace the faint outline of the moon in the late afternoon sky. Nature in its pristine conditions is truly an awesome gift from God indeed!

We took a quick nap on our very cramped bunk beds before the others caught up from 5pm onwards. We had a communal dinner at 6pm, took a quick sponge (in freeeezing waters!) and marched straight to bed at 7pm.



Day 4: May 9
We woke groggy-eyed at 2am the next morning to begin our final push up the peak. This part of the climb was traumatic for me cos I found myself gasping for breath due to the thinning air. S was literally pulling me along towards the end, as I'd refused to budge after a while (typical me throwing tantrums at all the wrong times!).



In spite of the difficulties, we managed to make it to the peak in 2.5 hrs with 15 mins to spare to catch the sunrise. It was damn kow crowded and like a "pasar malam" up there but when the sun appeared over the horizon, the discomfort was immediately forgotten. The sight itself was magnificent and all that huffing and puffing was truly worth the effort! Then came the nightmarish decent!! Survived it all under 7 hrs with killer aches on the thighs and lower back the next day.



Day 5-6: May 10-11
We took a boat out to Manukan Island, 10 mins from KK town and spent the next 2 days being beach bunnies and discovering how to dive!



My first time breathing through the regulator underwater was nerve-wrecking to say the least! I was hyperventilating non-stop and frustrated with myself for feeling so. Took me a while to acclimatise myself to the whole new experience of breathing underwater with a 25kg tank strapped to my back. After learning the basic skills (breathing through the regulator, regulator retrieval, mask clearing and equalising), we proceeded to take a leisurely dive along the shores 2-3m below sea level. We said hello to many fishies mainly moon wrasses, playful clown fishes, trigger fishes, a puffer fish, sea slugs and plenty of corals in the clear turquoise waters. Awesome!



Day 7: May 12
We went back to KK and put up at Promenade where we made arrangements for seafood dinner in the vicinity that evening. S and I even managed to catch Mission Impossible 3 to pass the time before dinner.

Day 8: May 13
The next day, we had the privilege to ride on the oldest train in Borneo for two hours which took us to Sungai Padas, Sabah’s most popular rafting destination. It’s 9km long and holds 7 exciting and challenging rapids graded 3-4 (read: for thrill seekers only!). The rapids have funky names like Scooby Doo, Headhunter, Adrenalin Flow, Lambada, Break Point and the Merry Go Round. Shooting them was exhilirating and I didn't know which was worse.. the fear of falling into the river or being thrashed about as you see an approaching rapid! I fell victim to the Merry Go Round lol! Freaky but fun!

We spent the rest of the day and time stuffing our faces with seafood galore. I came back 2 kgs heavier than before (I'm sure it's muscles not fat).

Now that it’s all said and done, click here for the pictorial depiction of my KK adventure :-)