Day 2 KK (23/03/06)

Time	Event
6.00am	Woke up, had tuna sandwiches and Uncle Toby Sports Plus bar for breakfast.
6.50am	Walked up to the Kinabalu Park reception to get our climbing permit and meet our guide. We were told during last night’s briefing that there are some shelters along the trail, and there are toilets and water tanks at every shelter. However the ranger advised us against drinking the water as it is untreated and may cause diarrhoea if our body cannot take it. So kiasu me did not want to take any chances (after my mega tummy upset post Hanoi)_and decided to lug about 5 litres (5 kg) of water. Of course, we were going to hire a porter to carry all this for us to Laban Rata. It was quite a task carrying the water plus my other belongings up that little slope to the reception. I later got my bag weighed and found out that the whole bag weighed about 14kg!
7.30am	Finally met our guide. There were no porters available so Nazri was kind enough to carry our load for us. He had 3 bags to carry – mine, Ellen’s and his own. These people are really fit! Took a van to Timpohon gate, the starting point.
8.00am	Arrived at Timpohon gate. We were the first to enter the gate! As we walked further down we were greeted by Carson’s Fall.

Carson's Fall

8.25am	Arrived at Pondok Kandis (1,981m), first stop.
8.40am	Arrived at Pondok Ubah (2,095m), second stop. By this time Ellen was beginning to experience some dizziness and fatigue. We took it slower from this point onwards.
9.25am	Arrived at Pondok Lowii (2,286m), third stop. Ellen was complaining that I was walking too fast, so we took a longer break here. She managed to recover and felt much better after this stop. At this point it was already slightly more than 2km. The scenery was really beautiful…I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my walk. Although I didn’t do any train training prior to the trip, I was really glad I did a lot of alternate lunges. That really helped in ascending all those steep steps.
10.00am	Another 35 minutes, and we arrived at our 4th stop, Pondok Mempening (2,518m). I was wondering whether this is the point that makes us pening. Then I found out that Mempening is actually the name of a tree.
10.30am	We reached 3.5km mark! I checked my phone and amazingly there was still reception!Being the city girl that I am, I decided to send a couple of sms’es….
10.50am	Arrived at Layang-layang Hut (2,621m), 5th stop where the staff HQ is. We were supposed to stop here for lunch but we did not pack any lunch. Anyway it was a wee bit too early to have lunch but we refueled with some energy bars and chocolates anyway. It was after this point that Ellen began to experience more severe altitude sickess and nausea. We had to slow down tremendously.

The road ahead

11.50am

Arrived at Pondok Villosa. Vegetation here begins to become more stunted. 6th stop. Had to slow down even more after this..every 10-20m Ellen had to take a break as she was experiencing very bad headache.

Just before Pondok Villosa. Japanese uncle resting behind me.

Rocky Road

12.30pm	Arrived at Pondok Paka(3,000m), last shelter. The terrain becomes more rocky. We were at snail pace by then. I felt more tired every time we stopped as I lost momentum and had to start again each time. But Ellen was already very weak by then. She threw up about 100m before we reached Laban Rata.
1.30pm	Finally arrived at Laban Rata(3,292m)! Immediately took Ellen to the room. We were booked into Buttercup 2, one of the 2 rooms in Laban Rata which has attached bathroom and heaters. Showered.

Outside Laban Rata resthouse

2.00pm	Finally had lunch. The fried rice was the blandest I’d ever tasted, but it tasted so good at that point in time because I was dead hungry. Mucked around, snapped some photos and rested.
4.00pm	Went outside for a stroll. Bumped into this really cutie-pie guide who asked me if I knew Tony. I said, “Yes”. Then he said “I’m supposed to be your guide” “You mean you’re Nazri?” I asked. “Yes” he replied. Omigosh!!!! My guide wasn’t Nazri at all!!! And all this time he kept answering to the name Nazri! Sat outside at the verandah to appreciate nature.

View from the verandah

Above the clouds

Laban Rata

The sun doesn't only shine on TV

6.00pm	Went to the cafeteria again for dinner. Had mee hoon soup this time , it was a lot better than the fried rice. After that, Ellen finally woke up and walked around for a bit. She was still feeling dizzy and weak.
8.00pm	Tried to get some sleep but was woken up several times because some nincompoop kept banging the door asking for Bernice and I had to wake up to yell “wrong room!”. Ellen threw up another 2 more times. Her body could not retain any food and was going through some kind of shock. At this point she was still adamant to climb to the summit but I told her she was in no shape to go as she had not eaten much and had no energy. At this point I was also wondering if I should proceed with the summit climb…what if something happened to her in the room while I was away?
9.30pm	Finally dozed off.