mount kinabalu challenge: day 1

opps, i did it again! leaving for a trip without sleeping at all the night before... *sigh* when will i ever learn?

got off work very late the night before departure, coz need to make sure all my work is settled and also need to leave lots of instructions to my intern during my absence. haha... u should see her desk that night! filled with post-it notes all over the place, on envelopes, water bottle, her pc screen, on top of her table... and follow-up instructions in e-mail too! that should keep her bz for the next few days... hehe...

neeways, got home late, took bath, waited for N to come to do her drop-off, do my laundry, settle some stuff... and not yet pack! started packing only at 2am! crazy... decided to bring only my backpack and a small 'casual backpack' for this trip. so need to pack sparingly.

by the time i finished packing, there's only abt 1 hour left for me to sleep before i need to wake up again and prepare to go to KLIA. so i decided not to sleep at all, becoz if i were to get only an hour's sleep, i would run the risk of oversleeping and not being able to wake up on time! so i continued to do the things i need to do, took my own sweet time to check and recheck my bags, going through my 'to-bring list' and even had time to cut my toe nails (a must! will explain y later).

at 5am, i went to take my bath and prepare for my trip. left the house at 5.45am and took a slow stroll to the lrt station (coz it's just so early!). but even at that early hours, there were already quite a number of people commuting to work... *haiz* that's city life for you!

anyway, switched to the KLIA Transit at Bandar Tasik Selatan. as i've already checked-in my departure flight the previous day (online), i only need to get to the airport at 8am for my 9am flight. so convenient of MAS to come up with this feature! anyway, i was making good time and was very relaxed. that is, until i discovered that i've forgotten my phone!!! argh! of all the things to forget!!! *sigh*

there were 8 of us on that 9am flight, and flight from KL to KK took abt 2.5 hrs... at KK town, met up with clg SP with her bf, who went to KK a few days earlier for their holiday, and also clg J with her friend, who took the 6am flight due to no more seats in the 9am flight. from KK international airport, clg HL (our organiser for this trip) had arranged for a van to bring us to the Kinabalu Park, 2 hrs from KK town.

before that, we dropped by at the KK Reliance office to have lunch with D. as there were 4 muslims in our group, D planned to bring us to a malay makan place around that area. But in the end, half of us decided we wanted chinese food, so we split up into 2 groups.

meatball noodles for lunch... no comments, as i dun take pork! :S

after lunch, we continued on our journey to the Kinabalu Park. on the way up, we were supposed to be able to view the peak along the way but that day was raining. so the peak was hidden behind a thick mist. reached there at abt 3.30pm and we were brought straight to the Kinabalu Park Headquarters to get ourselves registered.

in front of the map board at the Kinabalu Park Headquarters...

hmm... no wonder i couldn't reach the top... i was only pointing
at Sayat-Sayat! next time must stand on a chair to point to the peak!


9 colleagues and 3 friends...

after registering, our van took us to our guesthouse a little up the hill from the headquarters, the Fairy Garden Guesthouse. by then i was very very tired already... so right after i took the photo below, i konked out for 2 whole hours!

view from the balcony of our twin-sharing room,
already at 1800+ meter above sea level...


chilling out after dinner at the eating hall of Fairy Garden...

after dinner, HL did a short brief on our trek tomorrow, things to bring etc. after that we sat around to chat for awhile and then went back to our rooms. on the way, there were talks of a card game session, since it was still so early (8pm plus). but when we all got to our rooms, everyone just went to sleep! long day tomorrow...

read also:
1) bestest friend in the world!
2) mount kinabalu challenge: failed
3) updates and such...
4) mount kinabalu challenge