Kota Kinabalu

It was 2am.

We put on our winter coat, hat and groves. With a torch, we started off in dark. The climb was not
only up wet, slippery granite, but there were also sections we had to pull ourself up using a rope. I
was struggling and pushing on quite hard. My groves were wet and my shoes were soaked.

In dark, I suddently realized that I lost Cher and our guard. They supposed to be behind me. So I
stopped and climbed to a big rock beside me and waited them. A Japanese man was sitting
there too. So we started chatting. His name is Bobby. He was suffering from altitude sickness. So
he left the rest of his group go ahead. After 20 mins rest, Bobby decided to catch up with his
buddy. But I still couldn't see Cher and our guard. I become a bit panic. Bobby suggested me to
make a move with him as Cher might waiting for me on the top.

The higher we climbed, the colder it became and the air became thinner. I was drenched in sweat
inside and cold outside. Right before, we reached the last checkpoint, I heard someone called my
name, oh it were Willy and Cher. I felt released.

At 5.40am, as the sky lightened, we were still on the way to summit. We made it to Lows Peak at
6.30pm, we were late to catch up the sunrise. However, we delighted to be looking out across the
whole of South East Asia! All clounds were under our feet. We congratulated each other, although
I was slightly sad that we missed the sunrise.

We were freezed on top. We managed to take some photos at our best. We descended together,
marvelling at the views and stopping for some more photos as possible. We made it back to
Laban Rata around 8.30am and went straight to the canteen.

By then, I couldn't even lift my leg to walk up the stairs. I sat on the canteen and put my head on the
table and immedately fall asleep. After half an hours, Cher woke me up and he had ordered me a
bowl of noodles and a pot of Sabah tea. I just realized that I was hungry.

My legs were pretty sore. Luckily, we run into Pei Wan, our friend in the canteen. She gave a tude
of muscle rub gel. I put a lot gel onto my legs and rub. It releases some pains.

At 10am, Willy came toward to us and reminded us that it was time to do the last 6.4KM to base
camp. As going down put a lot of weight and tension on our knees and feet. It causes blisters. I
regretted that I didn't bring my knee guard. I had to take baby steps. After 1km, my joints were
dying from the long hard steps. I had to walk backward with stick. Willy approached me and hold
my left hand so that I won't fall down as walk backward.

Walking backward released a lot of weights on my knees. And Willy have a very strong hand to
hold me from slipping down. He gave me sense of safety so that I could move fast.

Then it began to rain. We kept moving. I didn't want to give a chance for the pain to swallow me. If
we stopped, our legs might probably not respond well..

The steps become even more slipper. Each step became an effort. I felt my legs were going to
drop off. Finally, we were 1KM away from the starting point. I still remembered there were a little
waterfall we had ever passed yesterday when we started going up. I heard the voice of water
pulling off...I guessed we were almost there reaching the final curb. I felt so exciting and suddenly
filled up with all energies to move fast.

We were so exciting to pass by waterfall. I thought all these would be over. Then we saw stairs
going up......ahhhhhhhh......my god, Cher hold my arms tight and helped me to make each move,
step by step ..it was really a stretch..I thought from now on, I would sick for stairs...no more stairs
please.

We reached the gates of Timpohon at 5.30pm. Alamak! We took 7 and half hours going down.
Still remember the winner of the 2006 race up and down the Mt. Kinabalu? He had accomplished
the feet in a staggering 2 hours and 50 minutes. "Gosh...he is not a human!"

Our bus left at 3.30pm. We were far late behind. We got to the HQ, got our certificates, paid and
tipped our excellent Guide, Willy. No choice, we had to rent a cab (RM100) back to our hotel.

Originally, we planned to try more seafood in the town tonight. But after the 20 hours trekking, we
have no more energy to go around and look for best dishes. Both of us agreed to have our dinner
at Tian Tian Chicken Rice Resturant which was just next to our hotel. To our surprise, the dishes
there were happened to be the best. We even took away some chicken for tomorrow.

Once back to our hotel room, after shower, we went to bed directly and slept like the dead fishes.