Saturday, June 21, 2008

Mt. Kinabalu - first set of pics

Finally, was able to make some time to download the pics from my cam and upload them here.

The six days Kinabalu trek was really really awesome. It'll remain an unforgettable experience forever. I met lots of new people and made many new good friends. Open trolley ride of 45mins covering 7-8kms, me myself driving it for 2kms, grade II - IV Padas river rafting, trekking for 20+ kms in total, also trekking in rain, climbing up 4000+ mts peak, 1½ hours journey on old train, many hours of car/van journey, etc. are all amazing.

Day1: Flew from Johor Bahru to Kota Kinabalu airport and transferred to Trekkers' lodge. Evening was spent in strolling the streets of KK town.

Day2: Van journey to Tenom (??), trolley (open plank on ball bearings) ride to starting point of rafting, then some 1½ hrs river rafting, return to Beaufort station by old train, journey back to trekkers lodge by Van.

I must mention that rafting was too wonderful. Two boats with six people each and we're doing racing at many places, ofc, just for fun. Suan Hai and Peng Siong from other boat fell off into the river. Peng Siong swam towards our boat and we pulled him in. Suang Hai caught hold of rope thrown at him and finally made into the boat. I'm not sure if Liyana also fell off. Henly from our boat fell off into the water but got in back immediately.

No vege food for lunch :( But I didn't want a good friend of mine to be disappointed due to this and hence I tried chicken burger for the first time. Some of my friends know that I value humans more than my habits. The same day I tried BBQ fish from Peng Sion and Stingray fish from Liyana.
Should I say 'Waaaaaaaaaooouw!!'??

Day3: Reached Mesilau nature camp (at an altitude of 2000m ASL) at around 5pm. This happens to be our base camp too. Misty, foggy, cold, chill, drizzle, etc.. Waaaaaooouuw!!

Day4: Trekking towards Laban Rata, the next camp. It was all foggy and rainy the whole day. Liyana accompanied me the whole trek and it was great to be with this cool and really good girl. Waiting and worrying for Soon wee, Suan Hai and peng Sion. Oops!

Day5: Summit day. Awesome moments. Realised that every meter matters for an high altitude trekker.

Climbing using ropes all alone in the dark with heavy chill wind blowing you off, oops, they're still before my eyes. Of the twelve member group, only eight of us left from Laban Rata rest house (second camp at an height of 3272m ASL) for the summit (at an height of 4095m ASL) at exactly 2:55am (yes midnight). Two of them returned halfway due to AMS and risky steepy slippery hiking on the way. So finally only six of us (three guys and three girls) made to the top between 6am and 7am, me being the first person to summit (am NOT PROUD but mentioning to show that I gained some confidence for my future treks). Yong fell on the wayback from summit and got some hurt on her forehead. Down to KK park and finally to trekkers lodge.

Evening seafood dinner. Waaaaaoouw!! (Un??)fortunately I'm a vegetarian.

Day6: Flight delay for 7hrs. Did some souvenier shopping, tried the 'sedap' spicy tomyam soup, playing 'Rummy' cards, reached JB and finally Singapore.

Below is the first set of pics. Enjoy them while I compile another set of them and post soon.

















8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Peru,

I envy you da! Enjoy your adventure journey.

Sankar

Unknown said...

hey peru..nice one..yet to see the pics in a leisure manner..mmm..Hope i wld get to trek such places one day...

Prabul said...

bappre bapp...good snaps dude...looks like you have improved in your photography considerably !!!!
keeep going

Anonymous said...

Yoz Peru!!

Nice pics you have!

Looking forward to see ur another set of photos! =D

Felicia

Anonymous said...

Yes, I did fall off the raft! Suan Hai fell on me so I slipped out. Quiete happy I fell into the water though. Pretty refreshing.

Peru said...

Thanks to all you guys.

@Ram, Surely man. You've already circled most of the globe i guess :)

@Prabul, Is't? :) hehehe.. sure buddy.

Peru said...

Thanks Felicia. I'll post another set very soon. Btw, I checked ur album too. Beautiful pics indeed :)

@Ros, I think you'r e only one who's happy abt falling in rapid waters while rafting ;) Bravo!!

Anonymous said...

This one is beautiful. Where was this taken?
http://bp0.blogger.com/_ikkoVWclBxI/SFyq_r5Q2tI/AAAAAAAABsw/78CBVjpQDVo/s1600-h/day5_07.JPG

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