Fish noodles.

Tom Yam noodle soup.

“Giant Grouper soup.

If you are local or frequent traveler to Kinabalu, you should know this coffee shop that serves the delicious noddles.

Our next destination was Sutera Harbour Resort.

From the resort, we can see the Tungku Abdul Rahman National Park, established in 1974, consists of Pulau Gaya, Pulau Manukan, Pulau Mamutik, Pulau Sapi and Pulau Sulug. The pictures shows only 3 of the island.

This Sutera Harbour is a wonderful place you should pay a visit and to enjoy your holiday.

I believe this is a man-made beach specially for the hotel guests to enjoy.

Sutera Harbour Marina & Country Club with its berth for yacht.

The Pacific Sutera view.

Look at this swimming pool, isn’t it good if you can jump in now ?

Of course, why not have a picture with these friendly and lovely ladies ?

While on our way to next destination, we saw this Sabah Foundation Building, which was once created big news when the “spider man”, Alain Robert from French was trying to climb this building in year 1997.

When entering to the hotel’s lobby, I thought this could be a nice place to shoot for a picture.

Yes, it’s me but not at the lobby yet.

This view is simply just that beautiful and is at top of my list !

Of course, successful corporate guy would not want to miss this !

It was really a hot day. Although it has a nice beach but I still give the thumb up for Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria resort. See the picture that I have taken during my visit to there and you know why I say so.

But that does not mean at this Nexus Resort Karambunai, you can’t find a reason stay here. How about this Tropicana feel and nice swimming pool ?

Spotted these lovely flowers when we were about to leave.

A close-up shoot !

I do not know what is the name of this tree but according to my friend, this tree should not have the fruits on it. So, in case you know, please inform me. Thanks !

Another pretty flower.

Our final itinerary is a very exclusive lunch in Dongonggong. The name is very funny and again it would not be easy to locate this restaurant either if you are not local.

Steamed bean curd or we call it “Tofu” with pork meat.

Soup that was boiled with only Pork Bones, this was the last bowl of the day !

Noodle soup, of course with BBQ pork added in.

Kway Teow or Flat Noodle prepared with black sauce ingredients.

Pork meat cooked with black soya sauce.

Everyone seems busy to enjoy the lunch !

At the end, a picture should be taken to remember this “Mee Sup Pipin”. A house converted restaurant !

Yes, you have the street name but still can’t find it in Google Map.

Finally, time to say Sayonara to Sabah.

Wondering why this picture is here ? This 2 packs of groundnut had followed us from Giant Hypermarket in Kinabalu city up to Laban Rata rest house in Mount Kinabalu and then back to Kinabalu city again. My friends made specially arrangement to hire a porter to carry this 2 packs of groundnut during our climb to Mount KK. So, we thought these 2 packs of groundnut are worth much more than the price we purchased and the taste must be very different from those normally sell at ground level ! ):))

We have learned a lesson….never bring too many junk food when you climb Mount KK ! :>>;D:P

Well, that’s all for my 5 days trip to Kota Kinabalu and Mount Kinabalu. Hope you have enjoyed the pictures that I took during my trip there. Welcome to contact me if you need any information regarding the Mount KK climb, I am not an expert in mount climbing but I hope we can share and learn from each other. We always live to learn, right ? Cheers !:)

We woke up at about 2.30am in the morning, in fact I guess all of us did not have a good sleep. We were awaken in between our sleep by a sudden increase in our room’s temperature, I could not remember what time it was. It was that hot enough that my friend has started to sweat and our guess from Western country has already took off his cloth 88|. What happened ? I was curious and later found out that it was the heater in our room had started “to do its work” by giving us what we would suppose to need it during noon and evening time.

Apparently, the heater was only operating at certain time in the Rest House due to power limitation and it was controlled by the Rest House operator. I remembered I has switched it “ON” during noon time as it was very cool but when it did not work, I left it without switching it “Off”. That’s the reason we have this little drama happened in the middle of the night. Sorry guys ! :>>

Back to the topic, after washing ourselves with those cold water, we equipped ourselves with all the weather protection cloths, lights and drinks before going down to the cafeteria to have our very early breakfast, or shall I call it “Supper” in Malaysia ? How often do we have our breakfast at such an early time at 2,00am ? I believe during this hour, most of us already in our Sweet Dream. I remembered during school days we used to hang around until mid night and then went for our Supper before going home, but not now… for those married and have family, you should know why !

After our buffet breakfast, we started our final journey at about 2.45am. The weather was good and we saw many stars in the sky, very pretty night. As other groups also departed at the same time, the trail was full of people and head lights. It was fun also because we did not know how the trail looked like as the sky still was dark. We were in a very slow pace because we had to watch out each of our step. Then when came to ascending, we encountered “human jam” but there was no air pollution in this nice environment;D.

This time, I did not wait for my friends because I did not want to miss the sun rise moment. According to our guide, we have to reach the final check point at 4.30am. The distance from our Rest House to the check point is 1.0km and to the summit is 2.8 km and based on yesterday statistic, if we were to slow and take many rest, we might not be able to reach the top before 6am. So…friends, sorry for letting you guys behind, it’s not what I wanted, hope you can understand. :no:

The sky was clear and so beautiful, the stars and moon were there, the dim moonlight provided us some guidance in some of the trails. I was walking at my own pace, knowing that I must not walk too fast to avoid suffering from the altitude sickness at that critical situation. The air was thin, the weather was cool and the air pressure was low as we ascending to high altitude. Although I had taken Diamox (altitude preventions and treatment medicine) few days before coming to Mount Kinabalu, I still needed to be careful.

By the way, in case you want to know, there are few levels of altitude sickness or Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). The symptoms of mild AMS including headache, loss of appetite, shortness of breath and fatigue. The middle level of AMS including severe headache that cannot be relieved by medication, vomiting, shortness of breath and increasing fatigue. The serious AMS symptoms are inability to walk, shortness of breath even during resting time, decreasing mental status and fluid built up in lungs. I would advice anyone wants to climb to above 2,500 meters(about 8,000 feet)high, please find out more information about this Altitude Sickness so that you know what to prepare to avoid AMS. Anyone can be affected from altitude sickness, please do not take it easily or else you will miss the opportunities to harvest your hard work at the top of the mountain or it may threaten your life, if it is a serious AMS.

I tried to take photo for the scenery as I was ascending to the summit but unfortunately my camera did not have the extra function for me to take a nice photo in the darkness. So, I just kept walking and rested when I felt a bit exhausted. One thing I realized was that if I took too long to rest (more than 5 minutes), I had a very hard time to start walking again as the muscles needed to be warmed up once more before they could adapt to the situation. In addition, the cool weather made my muscles more harder to warming up if rested for too long. Thus, I only stopped when I wanted to have a sip of water, then I moved on.

After walking for about 1km, I reached the check-point at 3.50am and we have to show the staff inside our identification tag for registration purpose.

The trail was more tougher and I had to walked like an old man, one small step at a time, worrying the rocks would be slippery and dangerous but later when I observed how one of the lady guides walked on the rocks, I followed her footstep and it gave me more confidence to walk on such a steep rock. Though exhausting but I kept walking and as what I use to do normally, enjoying the beauty of the sky, the moon and the stars. The cool weather made my body fresh enough to be awaken. I had only one goal in my mind, to reach the TOP and i knew I could do it !

4.23am, I reached 8km point at 3929 meter high. Felt more excited, few hundred meters more, I would reach to the summit. My body really felt exhausted…. but I was determined to be at top before sun rise ! At this last hurdle, I needed Perseverance and Determination, never give up ! Yes, you have to believe in yourself now that you could do it !

4.55am, I made it to the highest mountain in Malaysia, The Low’s Peak ! At the elevation of 4,095 meters, I was standing on it now !

Yes, I made it to the TOP !

Taken at 5.43am

At 5.44am

People are approaching the summit at 5.45am.

5.48am, more people arriving.

Isn’t this beautiful ?

We are above the clouds.

Another view at 5.55am.

Different view at 5.55am.

Sky changes fast at 5.56am.

Since my friends have yet to arrive, climbers there were so kind to help shooting my solo pictures.

Anyone notices anything at the far side of this picture ?

This climber was so helpful and kind that he asked me to post in 3 different view that he thought was beautiful. Later I found out that he was a good photographer ! If you are the climber that I am writing and is looking at this, thanks a lot !

I could not resist to take more of this beautiful scene. It was 5.59am

5.59am now.

At 6.00am, I discovered the forming of these clouds on top of a mountain.

As the weather was freezing and more people were reaching the summit, I started to descend at 6.00am.

I was impressed by the pattern formed on this mountain.

Same view taken just now but this was at the time of 6.09am.

At 6.09am, although many have missed the sun rising moment but they still climbing up to the summit. I guess they just wanted to reach to the summit. My salute to these people for their determination !

Sun continued to rise at the time of 6.19am.

This is the spirit that these climbers have, late better than given up half way !

6.22am.

6.25am. I met one of my friends and he told me another friend could not make it and has already returned to Rest House> He has only walked for less than 500m height and started to vomit and chest was uncomfortable. The guide did not allow him to contunue the climb. I guess he must be suffered with altitude sickness. At that moment, I could understand how he felt for not able to join us here, it was really frustrating. After all, he already done his best to walk and climb for 6km distance.

Sun is rising but climbers keep climbing to the summit.

Taken at 6.28am.

Look at the shape of this rock !

At 6.30am

6.32am, by now we could see the city view clearly.

At 6.35am. For those who were moving fast than others in the early dawn, white rope become their guide to climb to the summit.

This is how the trail to the summit looks like. I took it after descending for 20 minutes.

The turtle is raising up its head to welcome another new day ! Can you see it ?

Few climbers already descended here at 6.38am.

8km point at 3929 m height. If you think there is only 166 meter height (summit : 4095M)to reach the summit and should be easy now, you are wrong. To walk or climb another 800 meter on the rock is totally different compared to walking on the normal road. So, do not try to increase your pace.

6.39am.

30 minutes descending from the summit. Oh yes, better to remind you that try not to hold the rope and pull yourself up when ascending as some part of the rope have already broken. Hopefully, the Park Authority can replace with a new rope soonest. Please keep me inform if you know the rope have ralready eplaced.

6.42am.

Grasses able to survive with this level, enduring the cool weather and hot sun, shouldn’t we learn from them ?

The surface of the rock is rough enough for you to walk without holding the rope.

I hope I can have the professional skills to capture all these beautiful view to share with you all.

A goat head with its little horn ? Or you see different thing here ?

7.5km with the elevation of 3,800 M.

Can you see the steepness here ?

So high from the ground.

Reaching to the check point.

If you were to climb during day time, you may give up easily as it seems that there is no end of the climb. Even during the dawn, I was wondering how many of this I have to climb over before seeing the summit. Then, I just looked at my footstep and focus on my walk, less bringing my head up. It made my climb more easier. Maybe what those successful people say is right, when you have plan, take action and focus on what you are doing, do not let other things distract you, then you are already half way to the success.

This is where I started to learn from the lady guide how to walk on this tough trail.

At this heigh level, you can even call back to talk to your love ones.

Don’t be mislead that the far view is the summit, you have to be there to see it yourself. Seeing is believing, right ?

7.0 km point.

Another turtle is climbing up to the top.

Well, it’s time to take rest and enjoy the pretty flower now. ;D

When descending from this point, you better hold the rope. See what the warning notice says on next picture. Don’t worry, the rope here is safe to hold. The broken rope I was writing is up there.

When I read this, I was puzzling 88| Who wants to run down from here ? I guess it is for the runners who took part in the Climbathon as they were the one who can only run up and down to achieve the amazing record of less than 3 hours from The Park to Summit and back to The Park !

This is the most difficult and dangerous hurdle to cross. Make sure to hold the rope tight and no jumping queue, most importantly, watch your step !

I met this friendly young climber half way descending. He was from UK and was there for few days and next stop-over was to Kuala Lumpur.

You can’t see this so clearly in the early dawn when the sky is still dark.

The turtle is still taking its sweet time to enjoy the sunshine

6.5 km point, my friend almost reached here before he turned back due to the mountain sickness.

This was the place where “people jam” happened during ascending time.

It was 7.58am when I took this photo.

I arrived at the Rest House about 8.10am and saw my friend sitting in the Cafeteria. He was so disappointed because he could not make it to the top there. As what I said, he has already tried his best and when something happened and was beyond our control, we have to accept the fact and face it. After all, the Mount Kinbalu will be always here for him to conquer again !

Another friend came down 2 hours later. We took our 2nd round of breakfast, packed and started to descend to the park office at 10.50am.

I was hoping to see people carry a cooking gas cylinder so that I can take a picture of them, now I found one.

As writing earlier, thess people earn my respect. This is their life and it is their rountine work. If we do not have a choice to choose our living, we just have to accept our life as it is. But sometimes too many choices also confuse us. :yes:

Carrying 16kg like this everyday ? Would you want to do this ?

Sometimes when I needed to be alone and feel the tranquility, I would go into the jungle.

This is where we can have our fresh air and cherish the moment of our life.

Just walk slowly, relax and enjoy the surrounding.

We reached the park office at about 4.00pm and taking our last picture before saying goodbye to Mount Kinalabu.

Yesterday morning, we were here, Now, we are saying goodbye to this beautiful mountain. If the Mount Kinabalu sings “When Will I See You Again“. My answer is next year, I will see you again !

Here is the certificate that I received for reaching to the summit. Of course it was not given for free !

Well, I hope you have enjoyed all those pictures that I had taken during my wonderful trip with my friends at Mount Kinabalu.

Oh yes, before I forget, have you noticed that I did not write Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain in South East Asia ?

Well, out of curiosity, I have done some researches and found out that in fact Mount Kinanbalu is not the highest mountain in South East Asia. Surprise ? Can you guess which one is The Highest Mountain in South East Asia ?

The answer is Hkakabo Razi from Burma, the peak stands at 5881 m. The 2nd highest is Puncak Jaya from Indonesia at the height of 4884 m. Mount Kinabalu only come 3rd (4095 m). I guess many people is not aware of this fact. But when I searched more to verify the above fact, I was getting more confusing, there is one blog having many arguments about this topic.

I went into UNESCO website and it clearly written that “Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea” but it does not mention “Highest in SEA”.

If anyone of you have information to proof the above fact is incorrect, do let me know so that I can update here. I will do more researches on this topic and update here when I have time.

Meantime, don’t forget to come back here again to see what we had for our breakfast and lunch during our last (5th) day in Kota Kinabalu. Till then, Cheers !

Mount Kinabalu – Day 5

The right side is the registration office where we have to register and pay for the necessary fees. There are 2 small rooms for us to keep our big luggages, of course with RM10 per luggage.

On the left is where we can get our mountain guide and booking of transportation (from the park to Timpohan and from the park to KK city).

Our friends decided to hire a porter to carry their food and backpack so that they can have less burden to walk up there. For the first 10kg, the charges was RM80 and thereafter it was charged according to per kg. Guess what is the total weight on the weighing scale there ? …….. 15kg ! What is the weight for a normal cooking gas cylinder in Malaysia ? Maybe you already know…it’s 14kg !

Our friend here taking a photo before the mission starts.

Me too

We can see the 2008 climbathon record holders for those “Supermen and Superwomen” here.

Notice at the bottom ? “From this point to summit 8.72km”. Looks not very far right ? But……we will see later.

We started our climb at 9am. Not so tough at the initial stage, only small rocks.

Found this flower, does it top part looks like a Play Boy symbol ?

After 13 minutes, we only walked for 0.5km.

If you think our backpack is just too much a burden to us, what will you say after seeing what this guy is carrying ?

Started to walk up on the stairs now.

Kandis Shelter for us to rest after about 1km walked.

Although the water is free, be careful if you want to drink it.

Need a place to do “small business” ? You can find it here also.

9.27am (27 minutes), reaching 1km point.

Guys, getting tougher now….

We have some flat roads in between.

At 9.38am (38 minutes), we reached Ubah Shelter.

9.51am, crossed 1.5km point.

That’s the Mount KK.

Friend, you are doing great, keep it up !

Time to move on…..

10.08am, reached 2.0km point.

To these people, this is how they earn their living.

10.34am, 2.5km. For every 0.5km, we took average about 30 minutes to complete. No easy job huh !

Looks exhausted at 3km ? It’s only 10.52am, long way to go….. Don’t worry, I will not give up easily !

This gentleman is carrying 2 long bamboos, imagine how you can balance them with such a tough trail ? It needs skills, I guess.

3.5km at 11.02am.

After seeing this, feel regret ? You better not ! There is a reward waiting for you up there.

See, this is what I meant. GOD never lets you suffer all the time. He just wants to train you to be more tougher

At 11.35am, we stopped at Layang-Layang hut to have our lunch. There were many squirrels over here, just waiting for us to feed them. Our friend is feeding a banana to one of them.

According to the guide, we would face more challenging trails after the Layang-Layang hut, that’s why we were asked to take our lunch there before continuing our 2nd part of mission. Looking at this picture, he was right ! But it won’t deter us to proceed.

Just when we about to start moving, we found this little plant.

There were few insects trapped inside.

12.15pm, reached at 4.0km point.

When you choose to depart from Mesilau, this is the meeting point where you will be on the same trail again. The starting point from Mesilau to here is about 1.5km more but I heard that the trail is not that tough compared the trail we started from Timpohan Gate. So, maybe you wanna try Mesilau trail and then let me know how the condition looks like ?

Friend, we have 2km more to go, you can make it ! If you think you can, surely you can ! After all, being a successful CFO in your company, I am sure this little hurdles will not make you give up easily !

There is no turning back now even if you cry

This is not to scare you away, just want you to have a closer look so that next time you can be well prepared to take this challenge.

12.39pm, we have already walked for 4.5km.

When we start feeling down and complaining about the trail, why not just relax and enjoy the tranquil environment that is surrounding us ? Isn’t life should be like this ?

Just when you feel helpless at this moment………

There is always something out there for you to reach….

Then again, there is always something that is worth for you to stop for a while and enjoy.

When you see this Villosa Shelter, meaning we are approaching 5km.

Who am I to complain about life when others are working harder than me !

Yes, we did it, 5km at 1.16pm. You are doing great, friend !

When others are faster than us, let them move on, we can have our time to enjoy and leave a good memory when we return later.

When you face stiff challenge in life, remember to smile always ! :>>

Then, we have to return to the battle again…..

One step at a time, carefully laying out our battle strategies….

Paka Cave shelter, there is a helipad nearby, anyone notices it when you were up here ?

Just have to be slow and careful so that you will not injure your leg.

When you walk slow and enjoy, you would be able to see little cute plants like this.

One is not enough, how about one more.

Sometimes, we just need motivations in our life !

There is always an ending part although it seems so hard and far away.

Time now is 1.37pm, total of 4 hours 37 minutes, we only walked for 5.5km but we are almost there !

Cherish the moment that we have and we will find many pretty things around us.

Little flower able to survive in high level and cool weather condition, surely it has its own unique characteristics to adapt to this environment.

Finally, we reached Laban Rata at 2.10pm ! Yes, we made it ! Yahoo….

This is the reward after few hours of hard work ! It was 9 degree Celsius, I was freezing !

The place where we stayed, Laban Rata Rest House. It also has a cafeteria, a common bathroom, all rooms equipped with a heater which operates on certain of time and is centralized. Although the bathroom has hot shower but you better be hurry to use it, else you would end up with a very cool shower.

There is another rest house over there.

Always remember this when we go into the mother of nature !

Entrance to the registration counter and cafeteria.

Here is our Dormitory Bunk Beds, which we shared with another climber.

Our friend, arrived an hour later but who cares, as long as we all arrived, it proof that we already half way to accomplish our mission.

Can you feel it ? Mount KK is welcoming us !

We have our buffet dinner at the cafeteria in Laban Rata Rest House at 5pm. It was a yummy meal, maybe we have already used up our energy and felt very hungry, that’s why it tasted good especially the curry chicken.

Well, after the dinner, we rested for a while before jumping to our bed to take an early sleep as we have to wake up at 2am to battle our way up to the summit ! After all, there wasn’t any night activities there, why stayed up late ?

So…. do come back here again as I will share with you the most exciting part of the Mount KK mission. Cheers !:)

Mount Kinabalu – Day 4