Kinabalu Park

FuFu Travel - Kota Kinabalu, Sabah -
18 - 24 April 2009 + Episode Three + Kinabalu Park +


We came to the bus stop near the clock tower.


We took a van to Kinabalu Park at 7.30am. RM15 per head.


It's a long journey to Kundasang where the park is located.


The weather was absolutely fine for us to climb the mountain.


The God must have gotten my email. LOL


You can see the native houses and stunted bushes on the way.


It's a two hours leisure scenic drive from Kota Kinabalu.


It's landslides area but the driver still drove very fast.


Yet, we enjoyed the cool wind and invigorating air.


We finally arrived the first World Heritage Site in Malaysia.


For your information, Kinabalu Park is bigger than Singapore.

Kinabalu Park is Malaysia's first World Heritage site designated in 2000 for its outstanding universal values' and role as one of the world's most important biological sites. Staggering five to six thousands plant species which is more than all of Europe and North America combined together, the park is one of the richest plant regions of the world.


Ops, i still hadn't changed my slippers.


Ok, we're all ready to climb the mountain.


We walked to the park's office to register and get our guides.

Permits were issued after paying for the guide, the insurance and the climbing fee. The permit, which is individually numbered with the day of departure, must be carried on the trail for the duration of the climb.So we started our climbing at about 1030am at Timpohon Gate.


We all given the permit card, FuFu was 002 of Team AU20.


It says "Have a safe climbing".


Here we started the trail at Timpohon Gate.


The essential climbing stick that you must have.


Once entered the gate, no return guys! Gotta CLIMB.


The summit trail is the well trodden main route for all climbers.


The Summit Trail of Mount Kinabalu.


Wow, surprisingly to know that Japanese are so powerful!


"Hey guys, let's go."


The trail winds up a steep staircase.


Few of them paid the guide to carry the bag up to the mountain.


It's incredibly cheap! Only RM8 per kilo up and down!


I wanna experience the truly hiking trip so i carried myself.


The first 1KM at 2039m above sea level.


A short group briefing before we proceed farther.


We climbed up 500m farther half an hour later.


We continued on past the mossy forest.


We all still looked fresh and energetic for the first couple of hours.


We hurried up to climb up to a shelter for lunch.


We had chicken, sandwich, mineral water and isotonic drinks.

We stopped at Pondok Mempering for lunch and a quick rest. Here, it gave us one time to observe the squirrels, and birds that seem so unafraid of the climbers. The trail continues up to the mossy forest of mixed bamboos, gnarled tree roots and tree ferns.


Squirrel approached us for food.


The squirrel was eating the bread i gave. So cute.


Yeah, it's an easy climb.


Three hours already passed actually. We're pretty slow though.


We came to the next shelters having a short refilling break.


Picture with a porter who having rest at the shelter.


We recharged again at Pondok Layang-Layang (2702m).


Where the Summit Trail meets with the Mesilau Trail.


The nightmare eventually started to haunt some of the members.


We had passed 4.5KM, five hours passed.


"Damn super tired."


"I need to rest more!"


"I wanna go back home".


The God of Rock, please grant me some power up to the peak.


The forest becomes even more stunted as we climbed farther.


We're at the fifth shelter, Pondok Villosa.


The trail changes dramatically by its orange-cinnamon soil.


It's 5.5KM, a bit more to go.


Superb view of Mt. Kinabalu towering above as we followed the trail.


What a lovely couple with a cutie toy.


We finally could see the granite slabs of Mount Kinabalu.


A huge cloud was coming to welcome us to Mount Kinabalu.


We're walking through the clouds. Great!


The cloud suddenly passed by when we posed for the pictures.


The majestic view over the clouds.


The cotton tree? Great!


You could see these awesome views on a fine clear day.


The majestic view was the motive force to keep us climbing up.


"Hey yo, the view here is great!"


We actually created tonnes of hilarious conversations.


A good way to cheer and keep us climbing up and not feeling tired.


The half dead of us, but we did it finally.


Yeah, let's JUMP.


Not enough, one more.


To celebrate our six hours hiking from Timpohon Gate.


Of course we gotta show off to everyone.


Yeah.

At the top of an open area (3300m), a small track leads us off to a helipad on the left, just below the Laban Rata resthouse. It's worth hanging around there for the dramatic view of the towering peaks and the sea of clouds from the helipad.


We could see the Peak of Donkey Ear and Tunku Abdul Rahman.


What could i do apart of snapping down these picturesque pictures.


The stunning view of sea of clouds.


Oh my goodness, this is definitely one of the best i had ever seen.


We all indeed felt happily and proud of ourselves.


Oh no, we all had gone crazy because of the altitude sickness?


Oh no... 18SX, watch these pictures with your parents please.


We even gratefully dancing to the God on the open area.


And thanks to wooden sticks that accompanied us all the way up.


We're having 神山論劍.




Hey buddies, let's go for dinner.


"Meow~ we wanna live here as the view is damn too good."


"Hey, we're leaving for dinner."

The thinning air makes it harder to breathe. Finally the various accommodations for overnight stop is reached at Warsa Hut, Laban Rata, Panar Laban, or Gunung Lagadan Hut. The most comfortable is Laban Rata which equipped with restaurant. However, we stayed at Gunung Lagadan Hut because it's late for us even though we booked it half a year before the trip.


The Laban Rata resthouse serves dinner until 7pm.


"Wow... let me peek the superb view of sea of clouds first."


Nice view from the balcony.


The buffet dinner in Laban Rata resthouse, crowded with climbers.

The dining room at Laban Rata is quite a pleasant place to unwind from the walk. Dinner is available from the early evening onwards until 7pm. A range of five or six dishes of is served, both Malaysian and Western dishes are offered. And it's amazing how much food we had eaten after expending so much energy during the day.


The buffet style dinner real satisfied our hunger.


We couldn't miss the sunset after dinner.


Wow... another majestic sunset view over the sea of cloud.


Really love the breathtaking view!


I captured the romantic moment!


It's getting freezing cold.




We still not willing to leave but taking pictures.


The group picture of the AU20 team.


We're the best members.


The altitude sickness attacked us again.


Enough, we gotta leave and rest for tomorrow.

[Next Episode : FuFu on the Peak of Mount Kinabalu]