I think I did an achievement lately, I climbed a mountain!

I climbed Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, which is 4,095 metres high.

You may argue that I didn't climb, because I was carried by Trevor. But so what?

I took the photo at the top of the mountain, and I'm better than a lot of bears (and even human, yes, I'm sorry but, human)


Group photo, with me appearing like a small dot among them.


This was where I "stayed" thru out the whole journey. (I wonder why Trevor smiled like a gay in this photo)

It wasn't really comfy but it was water proof. I didn't get wet even though it was raining thru out the journey on Day 2 (please refer to Trevor's post earlier)


This trip was quite fruitful as I met a lot of friends. This is Sarah, whom I know for long time, who is "taking care" of my long lost sister, Francesca.


Siew Kee, my new human friend.


Me with waterfall as background, in the hand of Sarah


Me and Sarah... she was helping me to do warm up exercise before the tough journey

Then I stayed in my room for the rest of the journey, until Day 3

I felt very cold because the weather was less than 8 degree Celsius.

Finally, at around 6.30AM, Trevor and I reached the peak.


What should I say? The gay-est photo you can find - I wonder why Trevor always use me to achieve his gaygenda (gay agenda)

No matter what, this means that I climbed higher than him.


I took a photo with St John peak as the background


I also sat on a rock to take another photo. Sarah was the one who gave idea on this.

There was no need for Trevor to say 1-2-3 smile, because I've been smiling all the while.

I like this photo very much



Me and South peak.


This photo rocks cos of all the climbers in Trevor's group, none of them took proper photo with this signature peak. I felt beary (very) superior.


Me and the valley


Me in the plane, on the way back to home


This trip was an unforgettable one. I've been to some European countries, Asia countries, and now to a mountain.

But diving is not possible I guess, because I don't know how to swim

Verdict: A well-plotted movie, that is enjoyable if you minus the expectation with superheroes in action

The movie poster, trailer, teaser or whatever has been misleading.

This is not an action movie.

I saw movie-goers left in disappointed faces.

I can share with you, in the first half an hour - I was quite disappointed with the movie, because there was no action but a lot of talking.

Then, I shifted my expectation, and yes, the movie plot is smart and equally good, make sense in a way.

I enjoyed the movie, as well as its OST, but that's because I really minus-ed the expectation of superheroes in action.

You should do the same (if you have read the comic, you'd know it won't be an action movie) if you want to watch this 2 hours long movie.

Rating: 7/10

Link to Rotten Tomatoes
Link to Wikipedia

Verdict: A black comedy that made sense out of nonsense.

First of all, this movie is an ordinary movie.

But Secondly, this movie is complicated

Thirdly, it's a black comedy

Fourthly, and hence, many people died

Finally, the movie still make sense but sacrificed too many innocent people

Brad Pitt performed well. He acted really sissy in the movie - it was a big contrast with Benjamin Button.

This movie is not for everyone :-)

Rating: 6/10

Link to Rotten Tomatoes

Verdict: An entertaining drama with laughter and tears

This drama talks about 3 brothers & siter, who lost their parents when they were young, spent their whole life searching for the murderer.




Correlation chart

While doing the investigation, they found an even brighter idea - by acting as different type of professionals, and cheat people's money to fund themselves.

They cheated with "integrity", because they would only cheat those "@$holes"

Hence, this is not only a drama with suspense, but also a drama that has another drama within.

It's enjoyable to watch a drama with a lot of plots, this one is no exception.

Rating: 8.5/10

This day was a rather uneventful day. I guess all the people were tired and would just look forward to go home.

I learned that Sarah, Siew Kee and Siew went for foot massage the night before. It was cheap and good.

Some of us woke up early to have early breakfast with Sarah & Fuihan, as they were catching the early flight back to Johore Bahru.


7AM: The buffet breakfast.... getting lil' bored with these already.


8.25AM: Emotional moment, before Sarah & Fuihan's departure (to Singapore??!)


Emily's postcard, signed by the group members.


The reason why it was photographed was because - I told Emily to post it, so that she could get a Kota Kinabalu post office stamp on it. She was afraid of the Pos Malaysia quality of delivery ;)

I hope it had arrived safely. :-)


1.30PM: We were having snacks while waiting for the flight. I saw someone familiar but I couldn't tell who the person was, as he/she was covered with hairs.


Out of sympathy, I decided to donate RM1 note. The person didn't respond to me.


1.57PM: The plane arrived but not available for boarding. Now everybody can late ?


That's not the case, because it's "Now Everyone Can Cry" because we had to climb up the ****ing stairs to the plane, with our tired legs!


Some aerial shots


Islands


I wonder what island is this?


It was raining in the Klang Valley - perhaps that explained why it was cloudy in that region.



5.15PM: I saw another plane from the plane window.


Joking, I saw the plane on the way back, in a taxi.

This, marks the end of the KK Trip.

It was a memorable one for sure, and some say they were ready to go for the same mount climbing - using via ferrata!

This day was the important day. It's the highlight of the trip and it pushed everybody to the limit, in terms of physically and mentally.

Whatever training or preparation we had done in the past will be reflected in the next few hours - now it just depends if we could make it.

All of us woke up at 1.30AM, quickly prepared and gathered outside the room.

2.35AM: Gunting Lagadan, 8ºC

2.47AM: After the mountain guide gave a briefing about the climb to the peak, with the 2.7KM route, all of us started climbing.

I saw a beautiful scene far away - the moonlight shined on the rocky mountain. But my heart felt nervous, despair as well as exciting - I don't know if I could make it, because I was so tired, the sprain on my left leg still hurts, and it'd be a pity if I can't make it.

4.40AM: I reached Sayat-sayat Checkpoint, got my water bottle refilled, sat for a short rest, had my energy gel.

It was still very dark around that area but I could see some rats running around.

I wonder what do they feed on.

5.30AM: I was having slight emotional breakdown.

I was walking alone, (note: it's not necessary to wait for your friends because you won't know if he/she could make it in the end, it's not being selfish at all, because after all, there is mountain guide who would take care of your friends)

I didn't know how long would this route end, I kept walking but I still see the same steep rocky road, I didn't know if my body could take it - I could walk for 30 seconds but would need another 1 minute to rest.

My left leg still hurts, that I'd need to rub it occasionally to keep me walking (at the same time, I felt lucky cos the hotpad that I brought did work)

I had my last pack of energy gel (I brought two). It tasted so yucky that I swear that I won't want to take it in the near future.

Around this time, I had my last of three "hallucination" - my mind started to think about Quantum Showcase (a direct sales TV advert that's quite common in Malaysia) I thought about those user who gave the "amazing" speech about their achievement: "I felt so great, I've lost 10KG in just one month, this is truly amazing, I'd like to thank this product for giving me the instant result, this is so unbelievable"

There's one time I also thought: why the hell is American so good in giving motivation speech? All kinds of direct selling, motivational speech come from USA, WHY?

Then, this hallucination gave me some motivation (in a weird way) - if they can make it (losing 10KG in such a short time), then I can climb up to the peak too.

Weird.

5.58AM: I saw Low's peak.

I was like given two or even three extra caffeine shots, I walked faster. I almost cried because of the mixture feeling: I didn't know that I could make it, the journey had almost come to an end, all the preparation was worth it, and, f***, I didn't know if I could still see the sunrise. LOL!

6.37AM: 9 of us who made it - Trevor, Siew Kee, Gary, Kuan Yew, Samantha, Sarah, Emily, Pui Ying, Fuihan

Gary gave a motivational conclusion


Kuan Yew & Sarah - the fastest man and fastest woman climber in our group



While me - the slowest climber in the group, LOL!


But I wasn't alone after all, Francesco was with me... we're the last two of the 9+1!!!

Group photo with the valley behind


Group photo with St John's peak as the background

South peak & St. John's peak


If you think the South peak is some kind of small hill near your house, think twice: the black dots in the enlarged section of photo were humans!

Yes, human looks so small and so vulnerable when we face the mother nature.

7.03AM: Samantha & Fuihan felt so tired that they need to lie down. Meanwhile, Sarah was taking another energy bar. If not mistaken, she told me that in this trip she had about 8 energy bar, am I right, Sarah?

7.08AM: We decided to descend to Laban Rata


While I walked slow and took my time to take some photo


South peak - the signature of the Mt Kinabalu


This photo clearly shows that I need to work a lot on self-portrait.

Camwhore course anyone?

Breathtaking valley view, I can still feel my goosebumps even when I see this photo now.

Sayat-Sayat checkpoint - where you register that you are going to the peak and returning from the peak.

This is the last point where you could get your water refilled.

I'm pleased with this photo - it's the best self-portrait I had in this trip!

9.05AM: I arrived at Gunting Lagadan. I'm truly exhausted. (Photo with Emily)

11.03AM: After having our breakfast and packed, we decided to walk down to Timpohon Gate.

Group photo with the forced-front-smiling-but-tired-behind faces.

11.40AM: I have the "Oh shit, not again" feeling, because we need to walk down this time!

From articles I had read, I knew there will be a lot of stairs for Timpohon Gate route.

1.19PM: Emily and I saw a gross and long worm.


2.48PM: Emily and I been walking in pair since 2 hours ago. Reason being we both are like rheumatic disease patients - we have hard time walking down the stairs! We had to move slowly and patiently.

We do feel for the pain of the rheumatic patients.

Yes, God bless these stairs. For that moment I thought of:
1) Asking my mum to install a lift for my house, so that I won't need to climb the stairs when I reach home
2) Ban myself from going to shopping complex for 1 week cos seeing the escalator will make me equally angry (because they look like stairs)

3.55PM: Carson Falls, we know that we are near to the end of our journey

4.01PM: Emily and I finally reached to the end of the journey. Before that, there were another 100-200 metres of stairs.

Just for that moment, I felt "pissed" and "humiliated" with the tagline printed at the gate "Terima Kasih Sudi Datang Lagi" which literally means "Thank you Please Come Again"

So the fastest person to climb up to the peak spent merely 2 hours 33 minutes, while us, spent averagely 12 hours. What a big difference

Journey to the Peak had come to an end, starring Fuihan as Sun Wukong, Kuan Yew as Zhu Bajie, Betty as Tang Sanzang & Sarah as Sha Wujing

We went back to Kinabalu city centre, stayed a night in Shangri-La hotel, and had a dinner at SheungTin (HoiLei) restaurant... muahahhaa

But well, I thought the price was reasonable given that it's city centre and it's a tourist spot.