Kinabalu Climb - 10th Thoroughbred 20 years of friendship (part 2)

Day 1 - 20 May 2009

Woke up at 4:15, went out arnd 4:45. Picked up Bedul at Taman TAR. Supposed to rendezvous with Ayun at KL Sentral. Arrived arnd 5:30, tapi Ayun lambat sikit so we couldnt check-in at Sentral. And we scrapped the idea of using a cab as ERL would be much efficient and just cost a little bit more. Arrived at KLIA arnd 6:15, tried to check-in using the kiosk, failed. Nasib baik Ayun stayed in the line, so managed to check in without much problem, anyway, I didnt have any check-in luggage, so it was fast.

At arnd the same time, Farouk, Mantat and Capoi were on their way to LCCT. The Air Asia flt was abt 30 mins earlier than us. They spent the night before at Itik's house, and they did not sleep at all, as they were busy looking for Farouk's watch which was lost, as assumed by Farouk, in Itik's house. So terbongkok-bongkokla diorang tgh2 malam dok cari jam farouk.

While waiting for Itik and Idi to arrive, we had breakfast at KFC. Ni semua Ayun punya pasai la, dok mengidam KFC dari dlm train lagi. So hentam la kat KFC without knowing that MAS provides meal. Arnd 6:45, Itik and Idi sampai. While waiting, sempat la jugak aku 'kubab'.

Along the way to the aircraft, Idi dok mintak mcm2 kat Itik, mintak upgrade la, mintak tu lah, mintak ni lah. Sekali Itik sudah perli baik punya "Company in memang aku punya, mintak la apa2 hang nak mintak" Adusss, tajam...

Flt was 80% full. I think the meal in the box by MAS is a good idea, cos u can easily carry it off the plane if u want to. And BTW, we did that, saje nak bagi Mantat panas bcos dia naik air Asia, makan kena beli.

Flight was smooth, except for the landing, bumpy sikit. Mantat, Capoi and Farouk greeted us at arrivals as the van picked them up first. We pushed off straight to Hyatt where we will meet Izzat and Own who had checked in there the day before. Bila sampai, berlonggok2 lah kitorang semua duduk dlm satu bilik while waiting for transport to Kinabalu Park. Rasa mcm lepak kat 'bunk' masa boy dulu la. Asap berkepul2.

We had lunch and last minute shopping kat mall sebelah Hyatt. And Pelat, the last member met us there. For some, that was the first time they met Pelat after RMC, 16 years ago man. Quite emotional, especially for the Delta boys.

Bought myself a pair of football socks, to give extra warmness while climbing. Most of them bought towels as Capoi told us our next destination tak provide towels. Ada jugak yg stocked up their medical kits and food supplies, But Farouk was the best, he bought a digital watch for 48 bucks. Dia kata tak complete kalau tak pakai jam.

At 1430, we pushed off to Rose Cabin, located 5 mins from Kinabalu Park, 2 hrs from KK. We split 8 into the van and 3 in a car. The view along the road was breathtaking. Its kind of ironic as Sabah has so much land, but still some areas need to be reclaimed. I can understand this bcos its easier to dump land rather than to blow up hills, especially to widen roads that are sandwiched by the sea and the hills.

We were busy taking photos of the mountain at any glimpse we could get from the van. Memang susah, siap pening2 kepala semua cukup. Fortunately, we pit stopped (more than an hour actually) at pekan Nabalu, abt 30 mins before Rose Cabin, which has an opposite view of the mountain. The town is about 1000M above sea levels, and it is separated with the mount by a valley. We had tea break and took a lot of photos again. Some did their craftworks shopping. I bought a fridge magnet, beli la something buat kenang-kenaangan, takkan tak beli langsung kut.

We reached Rose Cabin arnd 6 and checked in. This was when we supplied our names for certificate preparation. I bunked in with Itik and Mantat. Crap, masa tu terlupa pulak yg Mantat punya dengkur mcm bot ekzos pecah. Settled in an waited for dinner. We had a good look of our track for tomorrow because u can see the landmarks(Power station, Laban Rata) from our balcony.

While waiting for dinner, we were busy packing our stuffs for the climb tomorrow. We tried to minimised as much as possible but not leaving the essentials behind. I brought my medical kit, knee guard, compression top and tights, 1 dry-fit shirt, windbreaker, gloves, scarf, snowcap, toiletries, camera, phone, polar HRM and footpod, a small towel, PowerBars and Gels and last but not least my beloved mini pack Sneakers. I guess the others were also bringing up more or less the same stuffs.

We had a good dinner at 7. After that we had the last briefing for the climb by Capoi and distribution of supplements by Mantat. We did discussed on the strategy for the climb and decided that we shd only decide whether to break into groups after the first checkpoint tomorrow. The objective for tomorrow was simple, to reach Laban Rata and yet still conserve enough gas for the summit climb the next day.

After dinner, lepak2 and sembang2 until 10-11.Some of them were still packing and repacking their bags. I only managed to sleep after putting on the ear plugs. Dalam bilik tu mcm medan perang, kalau tak pakai ear plugs tak tidur la aku.

End of Day 1.