It has been quite sometimes i didnt update my blog, this is the continuation of he “ultimate getaway” franchise.
Next important place that we went is Kinabalu Park located near Kundasang, Kundasang is a highland and of course the weather is cool, fresh and very cold at night and about 50 kilometers from Kota Kinabalu. Our hostel in Kinabalu Park called Rock Hostel, this place owned by the company that owned Sutera Harbour Resort and Spa. The room, eventough called as “hostel” but the toilet is very over the top and the room with comfortable mattress, nice view, and handsomely arranged double decker bed. That night we light up the fireplace and we sing and shouting and storytelling loudly because there are no other occupant at that very hostel except us. One of our colleagues, Jiman, cannot bear hearing ghost stories, he will be the one who cabut first before the story being told. His reason; he said he is very imaginative that anything that people said that can be visualized vividly, but though, he admitted he never even met a ghost before and how can he imagine it, from the movies? That movie thing is not even real.
The next day in the morning, kinabalu park is a hell of very cold place, but yet we know that on the summit of Kinabalu Mountain will be much colder. We start our hiking with a massive buffet breakfast. It was served at the Balsam Coffee House or restaurant or whatever and we ate like there is no tomorrow. The guide and the kinabalu park people ask us to fuel up in maximum before we hike to the Laban Rata(that is the stop place before proceed to the summit) because during the hiking, full stomach is essential to conserve more energy. They said six hours needed before we reached Laban Rata for hiking (I didn’t expect that). The Kinabalu Park also fix our lunch in a packaging that we can have our lunch in the middle of hiking. At first, we were of course very excited, with our tongkat, thick clothes(I wore three layers of shirts including my sweater), water bottle, lunch box, footwear, chocolate bar, biscuit, camera and later the park gave us a name card/tag of our trip’s batch and participant number complete with our names.
We started the hike at the Timpohon Gate that is the shortest but toughest way to go to Laban Rata. There is another trail that started at Mesilau where the trail is much lighter in a way there is not much climbing but more walking. We start hiking, the more we sweat, the warmer we felt, all of our layers of clothes later being taken off, we realized that sweat aka water is a very good heat insulator. The first and second kilometer is quite motivating, but the next kilometer is hell! I stopped for rest like hundreds or thousand times where my isotonic water ran out, too lazy to eat my lunch and just depend on the cookie and wafer that I brought earlier. Finally I reached Laban Rata. Embarrassingly, earlier I lead the way but later my friends keep potong me, after one, came another. Laban Rata is a very beautiful place, we practically above the clouds! So beautiful, so lovely and sooo cold! We arrived at the coffee house of the laban rata hostel that is also owned by the sutera harbor resort company. They provide free coffee and tea and we enjoy the laban rata view from the coffee house balcony while sipping our hot-turn-warm-so-fast tea, you know, the temperature out there is like 10 centigrades. We snap pictures of the view, a lot with multiple poses, and the good thing is, every snap of the picture is not wasted since all the captured picture, even candid or unprepared, it turn good, all because of the fantastic and realistic view. Later, we were served with buffet dinner before we go to the bed to sleep like 6 hours before starting our journey to the peak of kinabalu mountain at 2 o’clock in the early morning.
That night I just couldn’t sleep, first because I don’t take bath yet since the water heater in the bathroom not functioning, secondly, the heater in our room suddenly working and we are in sticky sweaty condition. Then I went to bathroom to take bath. When I started to open the shower, the cold water running on my body and it feels like every drops of water pinching me, damn cold, and I just ignore the coldness and bath as usual. First time in my life showering with icy cold water and I will never do that again if not necessary.
On two o’clock in the morning we woke up and prepare for climbing to the summit. It was really dark and very cold. The hostel gave us supper buffet for energy to climb up to the summit. Outside it was very cold, I thought it should be less than 10 centigrade. With our jacket, layers of shirt and tracksuit and headlamp, we were given briefing by the guide for dos and don’ts. 2.30am, we started our journey from the hostel, it was dark, we just depend on our headlamp for guidance and just follow the leader in front of us heading towards at first, I don’t know where. 500 meters later I stopped to catch my breath, the altitude is already high, less oxygen, easily get tired. What pokes me is that when I looked up to the sky, I saw groups and groups of stars like never before. When it is very dark where no bright light around us like in the city, we can see so many stars on the sky. It is just so beautiful, heavenly, wonderful, blissful, divine and magnificent, I said “subhanallah”, it just so brilliant how God created the stars like shining drops of diamonds on a very dark canvas! I nearly cried but suddenly I realized I got to move faster or else I will be late to the summit. The night was very cold, my jacket and three layers of clothes is insufficient, and I stop like millions time just to catch my breath, rest, eat a little bit, drink and brushing my jacket with my hand hoping that more heat would be produce and conserve. I nearly gave up, thinking that this is the stupidest thing I’ve done in my live, after two and a half hours, still the summit is beyond my view and couldn’t imagine whether I could reach the summit on time. The guide earlier briefs us that if 6.30am strikes, either we already reached the summit or not, we need to go down as we need to have out breakfast and checkout on time.
I took a long breath and rest at one point because I think I’ll never reached the summit on time, I’m exhausted, super tired, hungry, and cold. When I’m about to gave up, there come my friend Aklima, also stopped resting at my exact place, we are like very cold and in no time we are hug together, friendly and warm hug. We both very cold, by hugging, I felt a little bit warmer and later I cried because I just cannot do it, its dark, and Aklima did not realize it. She asked me to continue climbing, and I did, we went together, if she stops to rest, I stop for rest. Our water that we brought together when in Laban Rata also already finished. Still, we also stop like a million times before we go for subuh prayer and later met Nene just below one of the highest peak on Kinabalu Summit. Nene refused to continue climbing because no friends with her at that time, and she said she will not enjoy the moment if she is not with friends, so she waited for us, have group hug and later continue climbing to the peak, and we did. We took some pictures, three of us, it was the best moment in my life, also a big moment to Nene’ and Aklima’s life, we finally reached to the highest peak of the summit, and just so happy and joyful and everything. The view from the summit is spectacular, I can see the clouds beneath us, the mountains, the hills, the nearby town, and it is just overwhelming.
