I took this trip together with Dennis & Andelina, Adrian (Dennis's brother) & Faith, Philip and Nicholas (Philip's friend).
All the photos here were taken by Dennis, Adrian and Philip. I did not bring any camera, because i wanted to be light.
We arrived at Kota Kinabalu and stayed in Mandarin Hotel.
We took a coach (M$15 each) from Kota Kinabalu to Kinabalu Nature Park. We reached there at about 10:30 am. The park HQ was at 1500m. The temperature was quite cooling and the air was quite misty.
Kinabalu is one of the two world heritage sites in Malaysia. The other site is at Mulu.
After checked-in, we decided to charter a van to go to Poring Hot Spring and to see the Rafflesia flower enroute. Poring was about 1 hour away from the Kinabalu park HQ, at a low altitude of about 500m.
The Rafflesia flower blooms in the wild for only a short period of time, at random locations. There was a sighting at some private site, so we took the opportunity to see it. We had to pay an entrace fee to enter that private site.
The Rafflesia flower we saw was slightly smaller than 1m in diameter. We did not smell any odour even we got near it (2m away). There was another unbloomed flower lying next to the one in full bloom, and it looked like a coconut to me.
We then headed to the Poring Hot Springs nearby. This is also part of the Kinabalu Park. Inside, there were several pools which were filled with the hot water coming from the hot spring. There was also a fun pool with slides.
Before we entered the park, we decided to have lunch first.
Going deeper into the nature park, we went to a waterfall. We had also wanted to go to the Forest Canopy walkways, but decided not to when we realised that we had to pay a separate entrace fee for it.
On the way back to park HQ, we stopped by at Kundasang to buy some vegetables.
Upon reaching the park HQ, we got our keys and checked into our lodges. Dennis, Andelina, Adrian and Faith stayed at the Nepenthes Lodge which is a two-storey lodge. I stayed at a single storey cabin.
We had dinner at the restaurant just outisde the Kinabalu Park. The food here is cheaper than inside the park.
We stayed at the park HQ for a whole day, to get used to the high altitude.
In the morning, we visited the Mountain Garden. There were various plants there.
In the afternoon, we moved to a different lodge. And then we walked through some trails around the park HQ.
Today we begin our ascend to the summit. We will stop at Laban Rata Resthouse (about 3400m) and rest for the night before continuing to the summit the next morning.
The start of the summit trail begins at Timpohon Gate, about 4km from park HQ. The guide who followed us was Micheal Torimo. We took off at around 9am.
After passing Carson Falls, the path led upwards. There were several shelters along the way, with toilet and water refill (untreated water).
Philip, Nicholas and I reached the Laba Rata Resthouse at about 2:30pm. Dennis and the rest reached about 1 hour later. They were slower because Dennis stopped to look at various plants along the way.
We felt quite hungry. Philip, Nicholas and I took our "lunch" at the canteen at 4 pm, and later went for the buffet dinner (M$20) at 6:30pm.
After dinner, we went to bed early at about 8pm. We were physically quite tired, but most of us could not really sleep.
We woke up at around 2am. I did not have a good sleep. At 3am, we left for the summit.
There were quite a lot of people, causing a "traffic jam". The slower people in front were slowing down the faster people behind. Soon, people behind began to overtake those in front.
The trail became tougher. Adrian and Faith decided to give up and turned back.
At Sayat Sayat Hut, there was a checkpoint where the names of people going beyond this point was taken down.
From here, the temperature got colder and the wind started to blow. The air was also thin and it was quite difficult to breathe. I walked slowly step by step and felt as if I was jogging. At times, I also felt sleepy and thought I might just black-out suddenly.
At around 5:30am, the sky began to get brighter. Sunrise was expected to occur at 6am. We were at the final part of the summit trail which became slightly tougher to climb. I was using all my four limbs.
At 5:50am, we reached a signboard and decided to stop there. The peak was slightly further up, but it was crowded with other people. We began to take photos (which we were too tired to do since we left the Laban Rata Resthouse) now, just in time for the sunrise.
At 6:30am, we began our descend. It was bright now, and I could see the whole surrounding. It was a cloudy day, but the clouds were all below us. I now see the trail which I had climbed up (in the dark) earlier. I could not believe that I had climbed up all the way here (from 1500m to 4000m).
The way down was relatively easy. But it felt longer than I thought. We reached the Laban Rata Resthouse at 8:30am. After taking breakfast, we checked out at 10am and began our descend to the park HQ.
We walked super-fast and reached the park HQ in 3 hours, at 1pm. We collected our certificates and chartered a van to Kota Kinabalu. We stayed at the Jesselton Hotel.
We decided to spend the day at Pulau Manukan, one of the islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. It is a small but popular island where many people come to snorkel at the corals.