The morning sun at Mt Kinabalu

It was indeed a trip to remember.  Through the two days going up and down the mountain, I have gone through a lot physically, mentally, and spiritually.  I write this down to share what I have gone through and to remind myself of this incredible experience I had.  And, praise the Lord for giving me this opportunity of learning.

Mount Kinabalu, located in Sabah, is the highest mountain in South East Asia, and is 4,095.2m above sea level.  Usually, people spend 2 days and 1 night to cater for the climb.  The first day is to start the climb from the base, the Kinabalu Park Headquarters all the way to Laban Rata, a rest-house located (3,263m) about three-quarters way to the top.  After staying there for the night, one would start doing the rest of the climb from about 2am in the morning so as to meet the sunrise at the summit by around 6am.  Following that is the trip climbing down to the base, with a brief stopover at Laban Rata again for a lunch.  This is what people generally do for the climb.

Every year, as I was told, there is a competition going on to finish the climb from base to the summit and back in the shortest time.  The fastest record so far is 2 hours 36 minutes, by a guy from Spain.  It is a really, really incredible speed.  In contrast, I ended up spending roughly nine (9) hours for the trip up to Laban Rata in day 1, and a record-breaking 17 hours to finish the rest to bring me back to the base in day 2. For your information, my last climbing experience happened some 24 years ago when I was at the Yellow Mountain in China.  Needless to say, this one was very demanding to me.  But I enjoyed it tremendously.

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