Day 1 KK (22/03/06)

Liwagu Suite

View from Kinabalu Park

Time	Event
4.50am	Our ride to the airport (taxi limo) arrived. There’s just 2 of us on this trip – Ellen and I.
5.30am	Arrived at the airport and checked in. This was my first time on an Air Asia flight.
6.00am	Had a heavy breakfast of Burger King. Burger and fries so earl in the morning!
7.10am	We left KL!
9.40am	Arrived in Kota Kinabalu. What a long queue!
10.05am	Transferred to Kinabalu Park. The ride there from the airport is approximately 1 ½ hours – 2 hours,
11.30am	Arrived at Kinabalu Park (base camp), 1,563m. What a beautiful sight! It was cold and there were many people around. We walked down to the shops to buy some water. It was a steep walk back up to Kinabalu Park and it made us wonder if we’d make it to the peak! We felt so tired just walking that 100m up! Settled our guide fees. Tony earlier had recommended a guide by the name of Nazri to us. We pre-arranged it with Nazri before we left KL.
12noon	Walked down to Liwagu Suite where we were to spend 1 night. Psychologically, I felt like my knees had started to ache already!
12.30pm	Finally got into our room! It is a cosy room, with a split level. The hall and bathroom was downstairs while the bedroom and toilet was at the mezzanine floor.
12.30pm – 6.00pm	Since we were starting our climb on the next day, we decided to take it easy. Otherwise I would have gone for walks around the place and perhaps one of the small trails. Honestly I did not know what to expect of the summit trail as I have heard horror stories from some people. Decided to play it safe and not do anything. Had an Astro movie marathon. I’ve never watched so much TV in my life! I hardly get to watch TV back in KL so this was the first time in a long time that I was a couch potato. Managed to catch Bring It On Again, Million Dollar Baby and some Billy Crystal movie. Showered and rested
6.30pm	Went for a briefing on the climb. The park ranger gave us a summary of the trail, what to expect and what to bring. Thanks to Jenny, I had most of the things except a ski mask. I remembered Jenny said that a ski mask was not required and just a cap would do. We got ourselves walking sticks to assist our walk. It comes in handy especially going down. The ranger mentioned that it took her 7 hours for her first climb. We estimated that we would probably take about 6 hours up to Laban Rata.
7.30pm	Went back to our room. Had some dinner. Ellen brought lots of food…the only thing she didn’t bring was the kitchen sink. Rested and watched TV (again).
9.45pm	After watching Alias, we called it a day.