Paw Tales paws away,its adventures galore!!!!!!!!

Its been like 2 and a half weeks since I climbed Mt Kinabalu but as
my frens here wud attest to it,I haven't come down yet!!!!!!! Physically I'm
down here but mentally,emotionally,spiritually.....I'M STILL UP
THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL,ITS AMAZING,ITS
FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL OF U GUYS HAVE TO CLIMB IT ONE DAY,U WUN REGRET IT,TRUST
ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All of us kept on lookin at the photos and grinning like some idiot,I even
decorated the cd with pics of the diff peaks of Mt K.My seniors had digicams
so we compiled all their pics n burned it into a cd.....there's like over
1000 pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wah,I'M IN 7TH HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus
our own pics with non-digicams.....n I'm still talkin bout Mt K even though
its been so long since we 'supposedly' came down,my frens confirmed that I
was a freak!!!!!!!!!! Now all of them want to climb the mountain
too....lol,i deserve a commission for promoting that slab of rock
la!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went on thurs 6/1/05,went to Kundasang(again),Tamparuli(to change
tyres,was gettin worried mind u then i saw all the vans were changing tyres
too),Pekan Nabalu(some kraftangan village) and Mesilau!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
About 70 of us,mainly biotech seniors and just us 4 juniors.....went in 1
minibus and about 5 vans i think....Mesilau was gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!! The road
was soooooooooooo steep,i didnt want the engine to conk out coz i didn
relinquish walkin up man.......n it sounded like the bus was gonna rosak at
any moment,wah wen we finally reach the top,there was this sign that said
'2000m above sea level,u r breathing in 100% pure oxygen from
trees'......cool rite.....and u cud see mount K's majestic peaks so high
above.......ooooohhhh,I so fell in love with dat place!!!!!!!!!! Funnily it
was colder here and at Laban Rata than at the peak,guess I was too excited
wen i reached the peak to feel much cold,hehe!!!!!!!!!! And being the blur
me,i only found out that the trail up the peak started at Mesilau,there's 2
ways,1 is thru Timpohon Gate(at Kinabalu Park) n d other is
Mesilau......recommed Mesilau,the scenery is SUPERB!!!!!!!!!!!! There's this
part high up dat looks like some China-Japanese-made garden,all the flora up
there I've never seen b4 in my whole life.....its all bonzai plants with
hundreds of diff species of flowers dat r soooooooooooo
beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's this cotton-like tree n tons of ferns,damn,kept on thinking bout the
form 6 project,we cud have gotten top marks if we did it here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tons of funny insects too.....Lol.....neway,u cud see the whole trail in
front,its a narrow trail with cliffs yang menjunam on both sides(dun wanna
think bout fallin) n surrounded by mists.......IT LOOKED LIKE THE ROAD TO
HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha,call me a freak but the whole journey was exactly like LOTR to
me......after we reached the fork where both trails meet,it was an uphill
climb all the way....I kept on hearing Gollum's voice saying "The winding
stairs.....CLIMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"......man,dat was eerie.....then,nearing
Laban Rata(d restpoint) it was all sharp n steep rocks uphill,no proper
trail,was thinking of Frodo and Sam at Emyn Muil.....took me forever to go
up those rocks n I was like "bet Frodo has already finished his journey
twice n I'm still here!!!!!!!!!!!". Then,it occured to me,darn,I hv to come
down the same way,at least Frodo got saved by Gwaihir the Eagle,I don't have
an eagle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And those ppl cheated me,kept telling me I was reaching,but every turn I
made I didn't see any damn roof dat told me I reached Laban Rata!!!!!!!!!

Finally,reached it.....been climbing like 8 and 1/2 hours.....most of the
time alone coz all our climbin speeds were diff,all got separated....my fren
took 10-11 hrs!!!!!!!!!She n another senior were still climbin in the
dark,in Sabah ,by 6pm its already like 8.30pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Turns out our
restplace wasn't Laban Rata but Gunting Lagadan which was even
higher!!!!!!!AAARGHHHHHH,more stairs n rocks!!!!!
Slept a few hrs shiverin in the cold,terrible sleep it was......12.45am woke
up,2.45am started climbin again.....IT WAS PITCH DARK MAN!!!!!!!!!!! Cudn
see a damn thing,again all of us got separated.....then we reached the core
stone part of the mountain,oh god,it was sooooooo dangerous,dah lah can't
see,torchlight hanging round neck,pullin on the rope with both hands,didn't
really know how to climb dat stupid rock....no sign of any guides as
well......danger part over,continue climbin like normal......gosh,CHECK OUT
THE STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ITS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU CUD SEE
EVERYTHING,thank god for the moonlight,coz my battery already ran out of
power......still quite dark but not so bad la....got cheated again,saw the
peak,so happy,then.....wait a sec,there's another peak behind it....climb
somemore,eh,got another peak behind there......sheesh,its still very
far!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cud see the final summit,its so near but dis was the
part where u hv to start scrambling up the rocks WITH BOTH HANDS N LEGS so I
miss the sunrise......DARN!!!!!!!!!

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE CONQUERED MOUNT
KINABALU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! reached at around 6.15am,2 of my seniors reach
at 4.30am(gasp!!!!!!!).....I can't describe the feeling up there,u hv to
climb for urself.....the scenery.... WOW.....we were above clouds,felt like
heaven!!!!!!!!! And all the various peaks surroundin the
summit,MAGNIFICIENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!The south china sea was totaly covered
in clouds....got dis peak with a rock dat look like a lady with her baby,its
a legend,she waited for her husband to come back from sea but he nv did so
she turned into a rock waiting for him.....n the Ugly Sister Peak....its
actually a face etched into the rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Woah.....they had Donkey
Ears,South Peak(sideways look like someone's face),St John's Peak(supposedly
look like the bandage)....etc......spent over 40mins at the summit,my hands
were cold n the wind blowing was freezing my face but I didn't feel cold at
all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha,too excited d.....we took forever to get
down,kept stopping to take
pics.....ahhhhh,HEAVENLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Got dis wishing pool too,we made wishes n threw some coins in......jus found
out its actually a sacrifice pool,we were screamin at the expedition captain
who told us its a wishing pool.....lol,my senior was shouting "I cud have
hit the head of a spirit with the coin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Saturday,8/1/05 was the best day of my life!!!!!!! Reached the summit,came
down in record 4 hrs,n we went to Poring(again).....reach around
10pm.....went to the hot springs late at night,waged water battles with the
seniors till 1am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!That was soooooooooooooooo
cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Next day,went to see rafflesia again for 2nd time this semester,went bk uni
on sunday,I was actually wailing in the van,"I dun wanna go back" .....well
folks,hope ure inspired to climb the mountain too.....added bonus;YOU LOSE WEIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I needed 2 safety pins on sunday coz my shorts were DROPPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!