Climbing Mt K – Day 2, May 18 2011

Woke up bleary eyed and found the rain had stopped (yay!!). Had a light breakfast, took our packed lunch and went to meet our guide.

- Our packed lunch, which we ended up only eating the banana and some sandwiches..

- Comes in a SSL eco-bag where the logo started to come off when it gets wet...hmm..

- That’s our destination right up there!

Initially planned to carry our own backpacks up but we ended up being sissies. Our bags each weighed 6kg (!!), so we paid our guide RM48 (RM8 x 6kg, return) who carried both Ping2 and my bag. Ping3 (henceforth known as “Lobster”) was an experienced climber so he had no trouble with his bag.

- The Ping Team (haha absolute coincidence!), our climbing permits

- Ping1, Ping2, Ping3 at Timpohon Gate (Pix frm Lobster)

- Inhuman feat!!! From the Gate up to the peak and back down in less than 3hrs!!

There are distance markers every 0.5km, we cheered whenever we reached one. At first it was steps going up and up, after point 2.5km it started to be rock steps, which I found much easier to navigate. We also met people coming down about 3hrs into the hike.

- Just keep going up, just keep going up... (Pix frm Lobster)

- 3km mark! Halfway!! (Pix frm Lobster)

- Our 40 year old guide who looks much younger

- We brought along our "best friend"..

- Pening pening... fooling around. There are about 7 stops (or huts) along the way, this one has a funny name. (Pix frm Lobster)

- Porters carrying up supplies, all thanks to them we have food up at Laban Rata..

- The intersection with Mesilau route at about point 4km

- 5km! One more to go! (Note that I'm holding a lollipop which I don't know how to eat ..@_@) (Pix frm Lobster)

- Gah, neverending!!

We've had beautiful weather all the way and then it started to rain when we were almost to Laban Rata. Ping2 was feeling out of breath so we rested at Warus Hut for a while.

- Our dorm, which was another 10min walk from Laban Rata resthouse...oh no... with NO heater and NO hot shower due to power supply failure.

- Heavy mist on the hills after the rain, temp @ 9C

- Beautiful sunset after dinner

Shared a table with a guy from England who was climbing alone. He'd spent the past week in Bali and some parts of Indonesia. First time to Mt K and Sabah as well, he wants to visit Asia more in the future.

As we had to get up at 1.30am, we tried to go to sleep at 8.30pm. We were in a super tight 4 person room with the other bunk beds occupied by two guys from NZ (before they came in we'd secretly hoped that we'd be able to hog the room..too bad =P). Initially I was worried that they might snore but they didn't and I couldn't sleep anyway...too cold and also probably due to drinking too much hot tea... =_=