Happy birthday~

I can't believe that it has only been one week since my birthday.

I thought I had my most fabulous birthday in my life last year. I had never expected much to come this year - I've had the best anyway.

Thank God.

It was the most satisfying birthday I have ever had in my life. Well. Am only 22 anyway. What more could I expect?

No merry countdown, no colorful fireworks, no ecstatic crowd, nothing.

This year, I was bringing myself close to the nature.
Well, I hiked the Kinabalu mountain.

Fine, it has nothing to do with the celebration at all. Apparently the organizer did not plan the trip on the Merdeka day because I was born on that day 22 years ago.
It was merely a beautiful coincidence. Practically speaking, it was merely due by the long weekend.

It wasn't the first time I did the hiking.
I had my first at my age of 17 - it was not so satisfying. I wasn't strong enough, be it mentally or physically, to make myself to the peak. Towards the end, I was literally crawling - my legs were to weak to bring me on further. That was such a shame.

Gaining the painful experience, I made my best effort to improve my physical status this time.

And most importantly, I aimed for a walking stick - which was magically useful in your trip.Focus on me and my magical stick. Not my cappy sai sai lou.

I didn't buy it, I asked from someone who had done hiking (cheapo!! It was only 5 bucks for God's sake). Listen. I wanted to buy it from him but he gave it to me for free, alright?
Anyway, in the end, I didn't get to use this magical stick because my dad needed it more than I did, hence I just picked up an ugly untreated stick along the trail - it served the same purpose anyway.

Right. Back to the hiking.
We started from Mesilau trail this time - it was 2kms longer than the Timpohon trail. 2kms are really nothing if it's a field track, but apparently it was something 10 times more difficult. The scenery are not as boring as Timpohon's, but it was crazily unsteady.
Not recommended for the beginners.

I didn't quite remember how did it go last time. This time, we stayed one night over Mesilau.
The chalet wasn't too bad but unfortunately, the heater in mine and my sister's room was damaged. I didn't have nightmare that night - by sleeping under such temperature itself was already a nightmare.

After one loose sleeping night, we were served with good breakfast. My definition of good breakfast being, any breakfast with eggs are good. So yea.

Speaking of food, you don't need to worry about it if you sign up for the package. We had superbly heavy dinner the night before, 6 dishes for 6 ppl at one table, and the amount of rice is hideous. Western decoration with Chinese food.

Wine glasses with Chinese tea. =.=

Besides good dinner and breakfast, you will be provided a set of packed lunch, which consisted of 3 sandwiches, an egg, a spring roll, a can of 100 plus, and a bottle of mineral water. If you have a tracking companion, it is recommended that you share the food with others and toss the rest to the potters - you really wouldn't want to carry a heavy backpack for 8kms.

We started off leisurely, with a steady pace, while keeping our breathing steady too.

And you know what? It took forever before we could reach 0.5kms.

Hello we had been looking for you!!

Babi lor.

When we saw the signs, we were like... =.= We had be trekking so long and it was only 0.5kms? That means, we still have to face 18 times of such hardship.

That is why, it is vital to have companions while hiking. Thank God I was going with my greatest source of happiness - my family members~~

Unlike hiking the Gunung Ledang (well I didn't have much chance to do hill hiking, that was the only hill I have ever hiked), the scenery of this Mount K changes as the temperatures changes too. It was really amazing to be this close to the nature. The greens, the rocks,

the sky,
the cloud, everything.
Oh. I can hear the mountain calling me again.


Hello housemate~~

Anyway. Me and my fam members didn't take much pictures at Laban Rata. Most of us were dying already and what we really in need of were food and a place to rest.

Dad fall asleep once he was in the room. Seriously dad, that should be the last time for you already. It's good to have the desire but your legs couldn't afford to have such heavy impact.

We slept pretty early that night. When I said early, I meant it was really early.
Who would sleep at 8pm??
Usually I'm still catching those Hongkong soup on Astro Wahlaitoi.

And we had to rise at 1.30am for preparation, taking off at 2.30am.
Come on. Usually I'm still widely awake.
Couldn't sleep hence go around taking pictures.

Ended up that they lock us in here.
Could only take a picture of the restaurant with no one in it.
E-ve-ry one has gone to the bed.

It is not recommend to remain awake all night long though. You gotta force yourselves to rest. You need to have that little extra charged energy to face the hardship you would have on the next day.

I didn't have difficulty in breathing which I had last time. I thought it was because of the thin air. But no, it's not. Again, the heater in our room was damaged. And it was the most fabulous damage ever. It was the heater which caused the stupid breathing difficulty. Do not turn on the heater if possible. And trust me, it was warm enough for you not to turn on the heater. In fact, the flow of air was quite bad because the window was deadly locked.
We were breathing each other's breathing. Yuck.

It was 30th August night. At about 12am, I received some birthday greetings.
Thank you people- for waking me up. T.T. No la. I mean it, really thanks for the greetings.
And yes people, use Maxis, there is no signal for Digi at Laban Rata. Wakaka.

Anyway, unconciously, I fall asleep again.
Few minutes before the alarm rang, I was waken by some noise and it seemed that everyone had risen.
Aww. It sucked to have not enough sleep. How could you be possibly sleep well while 4 others were snoring? (my big brother doesn't snore. So yeap. Another 4)
Another loose sleeping night.

Upon washing up, we went for 'breakfast'. Breakfast at 1.30am, yea. Supper lar that.
We were announced a sad news - food would only be served only at 2am.

Babi.

I need hot water to make my cereal drinks. Cereal drinks are my best energy booster in the morning leh. And hot water would only ready at the same time.

Mana boleh begitu???

Which means I have to starve for another 30 minutes - I have no idea why I get hungry so fast despite that I had quite heavy dinner the night before. (sidenote: muttons are good)

Anyway, breakfast was good too. =.= I'm basically complimenting all the food prepared in Laban Rata, despite everyone else was criticising it.
I told you, every breakfast with eggs and my cereal drinks is good for me. They serve scrambled eggs. And hot water for my drinks. Fantastic.
Fried beehoon and fried rice were quite oily anyway. Not good for breakfast.

So we slept, we ate, and geared up, and go.

Again, you gotta keep a steady breath and pace to face this. A headlight is ultimate important for the irregulars. Instead of going for fast but steep steps, aim for the far but low ones. That's my strategy for keeping me going.

Sadly, my strategy couldn't be used all the way. Towards the end, the steepness remained the same. And I'm lucky to have a guide to hold my hand, brought me up all along. The hold was magical I tell you. It has nothing to do with your mental state. It was not the case that wow I'm so happy because there's a guy holding me. No. My dad told me I could walk faster than any other because the guide helped to balance up my steps and he brought me to walk some easier path as compared to the others. My target was to walk 100 steps before I could take a rest. It was considered as a good one as compared to some who took a rest once they walked 10 or 20 steps as advised.

Hence in the end, I went ahead of my brothers and our hiking mate.

I reached the peak first. First as in among my brothers and the hiking mate. Not among all. It was almost 6am when I reached and T.T the sun had risen. I didn't get to watch sunrise. Nevermind la. Stargazing was good enough.

When I reached, few uncles from our trip were already waiting there. Shame on me. Uncles reached the peak earlier than I did. They cheered they congratulated they took pictures and I cried.

After all the hardships, that was what I was looking for. I was standing at the top of Kota Kinabalu. More than 10 hours of hiking, and that was it.

But that wasn't fun. I need someone closer to share my happiness. There were some other people on the peak, each congratulating each others for making it up to the peak but those were not what I needed.

No one. Just someone I met at the peak.

My brothers said they would try to make it up to the peak. I waited. I wanted to wait for that. I was afraid that they did not show up in the end. Dad and sis had decided to give up and stayed at the Summit. What about my brothers? I had faith in them anyway, especially my dai sai lou. He is a regular. It was the 8th times he did the hiking. And I'm sure that he would bring my sai sai lou along.

And then. I saw him. The one in black orange windbreaker.
It was my sai sai lou.I wanted to cry again. Seeing the approach of someone who was close to you really feel good.
He made it.

=) T.T ^.^

Finally there was someone for me to share my happiness with.

And then there it was.
My dai sai lou. The one in blue windbreaker.

Yes!! I see you!! Faster come leh!! Faster faster faster!!! Still wanna pose?? Faster!!!!

I was gratefully glad.

Last but not least our hiking mate who had been all along with us.

Yes yes yes.
All of us made it.

And remember? It was my birthday.
It's quite pathetic la cause I had to bring my own cake, and distributed it to the others.

Of course I didn't bring the normal soft cake which was mashable, brilliant me brought mooncake. Wakaka. Mooncake, it's still cakes isn't it??

Eating mooncake at the peak of Mount K, happy birthday, Shang Hui.
There gone the happiest moment.
There came the hardest moemnt.

Hiking up ain't easy. But you have a target to aim for.
Going down was miserably sucked. You have fulfilled what you aimed for. Now the other target of yours is to go home as soon as possible.


For hiking up, you have a choice, whether or not to continue on.
It's different when you are going down. You have to go anyway.

And I wouldn't have imagined that how much I had been through when I hiked up until I go down.
I had been through this place??? I cannot remember so!!
Awww that was scarily high!!! How did I make it in the morning earlier?
Why was it so far before I reach?? I didn't remember me going so far!!

Yes. You would definitely feel it.
You would be amazed of how much you have made it when you looked back.

Hahaha mei mei needs someone to carry her down because she was afraid of the steepness.
Me, too, was afraid. But I thought carrying me down was the hardest task the guide would ever have. I'm too caring to be cause them hardship.

Anyway. We didn't stay long at Laban Rata. Me, my brother and our hiking mate have a mission in hand.

So you see, we hiked up from Mesilau. But when we went down, we used the Timpohon trail. The problem was that we parked our car at Mesilau. The original plan being three of us going down via Mesilau to get the car. The plan crashed because we were too tired to do so. If you ever hiked Mesilau, you would know the hardship of going back through Mesilau.

Anyway. The current plan was that 3 of us go down first, then we took a cab from Timpohon to Mesilau, then to get the car.

It was really fun going with someone with equally sound fitness. We could make it as fast as we wanted to - although my brother has a slightly sprained ankle. I think that would be the fastest record I would have made - I reached the Timpohon gate from Laban Rata in 3 hours 15 minutes.

Duh. Hiking up using freaking 9 hours. That was insane.

Yeap. That should round up my very fabulous birthday.

Thank you dad for sponsoring.
And thank you Mr Chua for organising, althought I know that you are not reading.
Thank you my dad brothers sister for all the fun.
Thank you people, whom I have met along the trails for the conversation.

Thank you Shang Hui, for taking the initiative to making yourselves fit for the trip.

Happy belated birthday. I love you.
See you next year~