I Survived Mt Kinabalu

to everybody who ever said or implied that i’m a lazy lounger who lies around all day eating chocolate and being fed grapes by my manservants or that i cant even walk down the street to buy ice cream : despite your unrelenting accuracy in describing my slothiness, but minus the grapes by manservants because grapes isnt exactly my preferred choice of fruit, i can now rightfully say with 100% conviction,

I AM A ROCK STAR!

I AM A ROCK STAR WHO CLIMBS MOUNTAINS!

wait wait let me say that again. just in case, you know, you didnt catch it the first time around.

I AM A ROCK STAR WHO CLIMBS MOUNTAINS!

yes ladies and gentlemen, the pinkpau climbed Mount Kinabalu. oh, only like the tallest mountain in my country. no big deal no big deal. *fans self*

no lah actually it was a damn big deal, for me lah at least. i was so eager to do it at first, but as the date of the climb drew nearer, more and more people started scoffing at me :( they patted me on the shoulder, saying i shouldnt take myself so seriously. and then there were all these stories from friends who climbed Mt Kina and said it was the toughest thing they ever did.

then when i excitedly told my (former) trainer that i intend to climb Mt Kina all the way to the top, he didnt bother containing his laughter. i quote : “you cant even do 40 reps of leg presses and you want to climb a mountain???”. yah now you understand why he’s not my trainer anymore.

even the guy at Timberland, where i bought my climbing shoes, gravely told me it’s not too late to cancel the climb when i said my only preparation was running up 13 flights of stairs the day before coz the elevator broke down.

so of course i thought i was going to die lah!! -____- what to do, coz everybody in my life and even a freaking shoe salesman are so encouraging right.

eh but i did it. i climbed Mt Kinabalu all the way to the peak. it was DAMN BLOODY GRUELING but i did it. without training! even though it rained cats and dogs throughout our climb! and even though i sit around being fed grapes all day! see Ma, your daughter quite fit also.

some pictures from the climb :

Kenny and i with our trusty Powerbars! his is vanilla crisp and mine is chocolate peanut butter. heehee i was actually quite thrilled when i went shopping for Powerbars! coz i thought they’d be these crappy disgusting unflavoured things, but turns out they have nice yummy girly flavours like Cookies and Cream and Double Chocolate. awesome possum!

that would be kenny in the background taking a picture

1 kilometer and dying

this was the part where it started raining. okay nvm. more challenging. bring it on!

a bunch of japanese old men who were climbing with us. look, these were frail old 60-70 year old men with white hair and creaky joints and bad backs!!! climbing mountains!!!

me with a porter

this pic and the above pic are proof that you can never be too tired to camwhore. this one is me and a new friend Ethan doing the mountain toilet thing

all banks, fear me! this was the nighttime part of the climb from the Laban Rata resthouse onwards

sun started creeping in at 5.30am. motivation to get our asses up to the very top so that we wouldnt miss the amazing sunrise!

the sun makes you wanna do crazy things. like run off a cliff. i swear.

and we reached the top :) this was our moment of complete ecstacy and exhiliration and pride in each other!

hehe the Japanese old men from before. they arrived at the peak almost the same time we young fit ones did! what the???

i dedicate this accomplishment to Sri Garden, my high school. my 11 years in there were exactly like the entire climb up Mt Kinabalu; difficult, demanding, painful, exhausting, and many a time i wanted to quit. but when you’ve finally reached the peak and you’re on top of the world looking down, the feeling is priceless. and you feel so damn good about yourself, because you did it, you fucking did it although everyone else said you couldnt. thank you Sri Garden for being so Sri Garden. you prepared me for things like Mt Kinabalu and life.

being smug at the peak, heehee.

something stupid happened on our way down from the peak. barely 10 minutes into our descent from Low’s Peak, i fell off some rocks and sprained my ankle. yes, it’s probably the zillionth time i’ve sprained it to date, and i was so pissed off at myself for being so careless about my bad ankle. anyway it hurt like crazy and i was crying like a baby from the pain. i couldnt walk, so climbing down the mountain was definitely out of the question. so guess what happened?

my guide along with another guide, piggybacked me the 2km down from the peak to the Laban Rata resthouse.

yes can you believe that. they piggybacked me AND practically RAN down the mountain, skipping and hopping past other climbers who were precariously trying to keep their balance on the rocks or descending slowly from their ropes. it was so damn amusing, i wish i had taken a video of them prancing down the mountain with me on their backs. but alas, i was too morose and tearful (read : crying like crazy) to want to do anything else except, well, cry.

when we arrived at Laban Rata, the guides had to call for the rescue team to bring me back down the remaining 6km to Timpohon, the foot of Mt Kinabalu. i was so frustrated. i mean come on lah - who goes to Mt Kinabalu, climbs up, but gets piggybacked and stretchered down??? it takes away almost half of the experience! so i cried and begged and pleaded to be allowed to climb down on my own, but they werent having any of it. it was their responsibility to ensure all climbers get down safe and sound, said they.

even after one of the guides put this mystery green ointment on my leg and bandaged my leg up real tight and i could prove to them that i could sorta walk, they wouldnt let me climb down on my own. pouting didnt work. crying didnt work. big puppy dog eyes didnt work. tantrums didnt work. threats didnt work.

bribing did.

HAHAHA.

so guess who climbed down the rest of the way down Mt Kinabalu on her own despite a sprained ankle!

like i said, rock star!

actually it was damn painful. but a walking stick really helped, plus i could distract myself by talking to our mountain guide Jikon, who is so full of stories and experiences despite his young age. before i knew it, we were already down at Timpohon.

back down on solid ground with our certificates and Jikon! coolest guide ever. Jikon, thank you for piggybacking me, even though you keep saying i’m heavy. goblok. but i forgive you.

after our climb, Kenny and i stayed a night at the Nexus. lurvely beachside resort but got too many lizards. photos of us doing the calendar babe thing at the beach! :

who wins?? kenny or i?? faster say. and dont be biased just because he’s a celebrity blogger :(

all in all, the climb up Mt Kinabalu was a fantastic experience and i enjoyed every single moment of it. it was such an engaging challenge, exciting as well as bloody fun. bloody bloody fun. tiring but so worth it. everyone should go. i definitely want to go again, just to climb down the 2km from Low’s Peak to Laban Rata myself this time. who’s up for it?! :D

many hugs and smooches to Kenny who took such good care of me the entire time. thanks Mr Calendar Hunk, for 4-hour long drives in the middle of nowhere, headlamps, coconut milkshakes, bites of powerbars, drying shoes, smoking heaters, 5-star breakfasts, keeping warm, encouragement, conversation, staring-at-starry-skies moments, never giving up, camwhoring, and a really good trip :) HUGS.

he isnt feeling too well now, so mosey over and give him some love!

okay. so i climbed Mt Kinabalu. what’s next?

Comments May 14th, 2007