there were about 50 of us, with "mrsm semalaysia" students and teachers, then a bunch of guys from kudat, and 4 of us - my sister hana, my aunt babu damit, elyssa and me. the weather was not very nice, it rained almost all the time and up there on the peak it was very foggy up until noon so i didn't really see anything. but it was the mass of rocks i was standing on that really fascinates me. can you imagine a desert of rocks frequented by some small mountain ponds and baby waterfalls?! the presence of hana and babu damit made me feel right at home.
the journey to laban rata was ok at first. i felt a bit clever though, for travelling light - with only 2 shirts, 2 sweaters and 1 pair of jeans on my legs - before it rained. my only jeans got soaked up by the rain and the shirt i was wearing felt like it had been soaked in a pail for a long time. when i finally got up to laban rata at 3;00 pm, i quickly went to the toilet, took everything off and squeeze em as hard as i can.
on the way i made friends with one of the young guides, jamil who was walking beside me. he was a small, soft-spoken and shy boy. as i treaded on with tired legs he said "just step on slowly. you'll get there. because if you don't you'll regret it. it's really beautiful up there." then i asked him how many times has he gone up there. "20.." was his answer. wicked isn't it?
we stayed at gunting lagadan hostel, a bit up from laban rata. there we made friends with the guys from kudat, especially the 3 schoolboys - jam, fauzi, and farhan, also shah and alex since chatting up the mrsm kiddos was a bit hard when they're around. the temperature at gunting lagadan has got to be below 10 degrees, since it was located only 2 km away from the summit. but there wasn't any heating system, no heaters in rooms and the hot water in the shower went cold when there were somebody else taking a shower next cubicle.
at night we spent our times with trying to dry our wet clothings; shoes, socks and JEANS hahaha.. - using the stove. there were about 30 pairs of shoes and socks arranged along the stove perimeters. went to sleep at 9 pm and woken at 1 am so that we could continue the journey at 2 am approx.
we climbed about 700m of jungle trail before getting at the rocky surface. the fact that it was dark and raining almost dampen my spirit but i kept going, seeing hana was already far ahead of me. after the last stop at sayat-sayat (1 km from summit) i went on without waiting for anyone, until 10 minutes later there was already no one ahead of me, and no one behind me. my heart drummed really fast. i was falling into desperation, strongly clinging to the rope that was leading me to the summit. all around me was dark and cold. suddenly there was a light about 10 m ahead of me, quickly decided to go there. the light, it turned out, belonged to farhan, with jam and fauzi sitting with him on the rocks. i was SO relieved! i stopped and sat with them for a few minutes.
jam accompanied me up the mountain, stopping every now and then when tired. then shah and a female teacher from i don't know which mrsm caught up with us. jam was being a really nice boy keh2, he went with me up the mountain to the peak, helping me go down to gunting lagadan, and then even walked me down to timpohon gate - a 6 km journey. both of us were among the last to arrive down, about 2 and a half hours late from everyone. my foot hurts from the stupidity of wearing tight shoes so walking was really painful - hence the lateness.
i can't wait for next summer!! *sigh..*
