My coolest birthday ever, on the highest peak in South East Asia!

I couldn’t believe I turned 25 last Monday. It seemed like just yesterday I was that ugly, skinny, awkward kid. Who would believe that kid could go through such an amazing metamorphosis, and bloom into this ugly, skinny, awkward lady? My birthday this year was the most memorable and no doubt unforgettable one, after the one when I was six and my over imaginative brother, Dodi, who helped my aunt to carry my birthday cake from the bakery to the car suddenly heard a cry of help thus swung the box over his head an yell …Thunder! Thunder! Thunder cat!!!. Because at that time Thunder Cat was among children like Desperate Housewives among adults these days and Dodi strongly believed that he was Lion-O. My birthday cake that year was a lump of gooey colorful icing on cake that had shattered so much there was not a stable piece for the candle to stand at all. My 25th birthday cake was equally special; it was a chocolate cupcake that cost RM1.90 or USD0.50. No, Azman was not that broke. He just didn’t wanna break his back.

Because we had spent my birthday, the 9th of April 2007 walking through 8.72km of pure ascending nightmare. We climbed Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in South East Asia that day, believe it or not, because my husband and I were sick sick people that took up the mountain climbing challenge without any actually reason other than celebrating my birthday. After spending a night at Kinabalu Park, we started to torture our legs and knees as early as 8 in the morning. Our guide, William was a funny dude; it’s ironic how he introduced himself as Prince William when hello! I was Princess Di, bow to me now, son!

Kinabalu Park was already 1600 meters above sea level and the air was cool. I carried tuna sandwiches and chocolates in my backpack while Azman carried all the heavy extra sweaters, gloves, water etc. Don’t make those faces now, Carrying heavy backpacks when we go mountain climbing had been agreed on the pre-nup! I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and my thin Levis Tee for Two, but less than a kilometer up I was already drenched with sweat, and it turned so hot so I took the outer t-shirt off. We spent five hours of constant upward climb before reaching Laban Rata, the camp where climbers stayed before making the ascent to the summit at 2 or 3 in the morning. It was done in that fashion so we could watch the sunrise from the peak. By the time our tired feet touched Laban Rata, we have already completed unbelievable 6 kilometers of constant upwards climbing. As the heart was beating really fast, the tummy got really hungry too. In between,we had many stops to fix the simultaneous drop of our blood sugar. Azman was very concerned about this, he wouldn’t want me to get down on all four and eat those exotic high altitude ferns. I did those kinda things sometimes when I got starving. I was very proud of my five hours record. 4 to 6 hours was considered average among Kinabalu climbers, and reaching for average for someone who could puke after exercising was a super huge achievement! And by the way, when I said puking after exercising, I meant Si Cemong lah, who do you think could be such a loser? Me? Shisshhh!!

At Laban Rata, we shared our room of two double decker beds with Peter from Canada and his sister. There was a canteen in Laban Rata that served hot disgusting food for amazing high price but knowing how the porters carried loads of food and gas tanks from the base to here was comforting. When we reached Laban Rata at 1pm, the temperature was chilly 12°C. We rested and sleep until at 3 in the morning, we got up and start to ascend to the peak. It was 7°C, I was wearing two sweaters and glove and a snow hat. Three minutes later I took the thick gloves off. Ten minutes after that I took the hat off. As the air was getting thinner, I got more tired and was sweating furiously. I was hungry and my head was dizzy. After a couple of bite size Snickers, finally I felt a little better. From Laban Rata upwards, the climb was difficult. The track was very steep and we had to depend on the rope to stable ourselves. Nevertheless we were very blessed to be climbing on such a beautiful starry night. The sky was clear and the twinkling stars seemed so near. How I wished I could lie down on the ice cold rocks and watched the glowing moon but we need to hurry to catch the sunrise from the Low’s Peak. I did not feel really bad about myself, every body seemed slow in their climbing too. By half way through the summit, fatigue was kicking in and I had to stop every 10 steps to catch my breath. Huffing and puffing for oxygen,around 5.30 am we were about 400 meters away from the summit. The wind chills made me put on my gloves back. It was cold; I was going really slow and would be very sorry if my lacks of energy caused us to miss the sunrise. So I asked Azman to go ahead without me. He was hesitant at first, all these while he had been climbing close to me and watching my back. I told him it was okay, so my crazy husband RAN three hundred meters up to Low’s Peak while I watched him hopping on the huge rocks like a hyper bunny from below. Azman reached the summit at 5.55am and I at 6.05am. The greatest thing was, I actually made it on time to see the sun rising. I thought I had missed it. And we did it!! We reached the highest point of South East Asia!!!

The view from the summit was simply amazing. Having to stand higher than the clouds was like a dream. All praise for the Al-Mighty. Though it was the hardest part of the climb, the journey down from the summit back to Laban Rata was really quick. The trail was so steep; I was feeling tipsy and holding strong to the ropes.

We had anticipated the descent down from Laban Rata to Kinabalu Park was quick too. But we were wrong. We thought that going down would be easier than climbing up but again we were wrong. The most painstaking part of climbing Mount Kinabalu was descending the 8 kilometers of steep slippery wet trail. The best way of climbing down was going fast, jog if you could because it would take more energy to try going down slowly since most of the energy would be used for slowing yourself down. And this would put a lot of pressure on your knees and muscles. This I did not do because my Adidas for leisure did not have a good grip and this Azman did not do else I would be left miles behind. And failing that resulting our legs to be painful for the next 4 or 5 days. Back at Kinabalu Park we received our certificates for reaching the summit with knees wibbly wobbly made of jelly! But it was worth every drop of sweat,every inch of aching muscles! What a joy! Considering the highest point I have ever reached before was Genting Highlands, which I painstakingly climbed by driving in a car, this was an achievement I could have never dreamed of… You should experience it too…