Why so early? Because our Japanese friend and host told us to leave the apartment at 7:00am and we really wanted to eat properly before climbing and have some time just not to rush.
3 fried eggs with cheese and roasted bread was the main dish, but 2 small bananas and orange juice were also in the menu.
After this and upload the last part of the yesterday's blog post, we got ready and Kuni (our Japanese friend) gave us a lift to the place where the buses depart to Kinabalu park (Ranau direction).
We were 8 people going to KP and one local guy going to Ranau on the bus. Almost 2 hours was the time spent from KK to KP.
after arriving we registered ourselves and paid the entrance, guide and bus transit in between the headquarters in KP and the path's starting point.
I have to say that Kuni helped us a lot booking in advance the lodging place in Laban rata heated dorm (3500m high). And I also have to say that it is not so cheap to climb this peak.
Around RM1000 was the complete compulsory price for 2 people. (around 200€)
Thanks Kuni, without you it had been even more and who knows if we would have heated dorm! ;)
Climbing up
The first part until Laban Rata, where we were spending one night, took us 3 hours, doing it in a very good time, and also rhythm!
It was 6km distance, so 2km/h was the speed. Pretty fast for the conditions of the path.
Big steps, some stones and windy parts. A stop of 10 mins was really needed to eat some energy bars, bananas and drinking some water to keep ourselves hydrated.
We really thought it was not so hard as it was, and once arrived we realised what we'd done...
But in the end, once sitting, eating rice and drinking Sabah tea, our strength cam back again and our mood was recovered.
During the afternoon we did nothing but eating, taking some pictures outside[Picture Laban rata] while the widn was freezing, trying to dry some sweated clothes outside the hut (with the help of some stones), playing some chess [Picture chess] and meeting new people from different nationalities as Australians, Germans, Italians, Malays and even Spanish ones.
Two Aussies from Tasmania were our roommates for that night. We shared a nice chat and some experiences, as well as some advices about Malaysia and our close next steps in the trip.
I really enjoyed your company guys! Nice to meet you Brett and Ashley!
Now I write these lines from bed as usual having my head-torch switched on and about to sleep at 20:30 because at 2:30 am the trail to the summit wants us active again!
The steepest, windiest, and coldest part is waiting for us, so I'll tell you in the next post how it looked like.
Good evening-night!
Mt Kinabalu
Laban Rata
20:30
31st July 2009
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