Mount Kinabalu Trip - Day 1
After nearly 7 months of intensive training, my company’s trip to Mount Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia at 4095.20m, is finally coming right in front of us. Yes…this is what all of us were waiting for, a memorable trip of a life time for some, an unique experience we could sit down and talk for years.All of us met at the airport at 12 noon on 25th October 2007. I was definitely excited by this trip. After the hassles of checking in, we finally boarded the flight MH638 and the plane took off at around 1330 smoothly. We reached Kota Kinabalu, capital of East Malaysian state of Sabah, at around 1740, with a 45 minute transit in Kuching.
The guides there met us at the airport and we boarded the mini bus that would fetch us to Marsilau Lodge. The journey was nearly 3 hours long from what I recalled.
The sky there got darker much faster and by 1800, the surrounding was already shrouded in twilight shades. Soon, it was pitch dark when we were travelling on the roads.
At about 2100, we reached the little lodge (below) where we were supposed to change to a smaller sized vehicles for the mountain roads.
Another 35 minute trip up the mountainous roads and we reached Marsilau Lodge (below) where we were to spend the first night.
After a sumptuous late dinner, a briefing was conducted about the climb next morning. Next we walked in coldness to our own assigned lodges where we were to rest for the night.
Over there, we had problems with the water heater as it took ages to heat up the water. Even after 30 minutes or more, the water was still very cold. How to bath in this type of freezing water? Lucky, the warm water came by in gushes and a simple bath finished it all.
It was a very nice sleep that night.
[...] Continuing from Day 1.. [...]