As usual looked for cheap flight from Johor Bahru, this time booked a flight to Kota Kinabalu for thirty odd dollars. When talking about Kota Kinabalu, any traveller would like to climb the Mt Kinabalu, highest peak in South east Asia. One needs to be relatively fit to climb it though. Met couple of travellers on the way to Senai airport in JB, they had planned to climb Mt. Kinabalu as well.
We took an early morning flight to Kota Kinabalu. Locals suggested us to take shared vehicle to Kinabalu nation park from the city. It was jam packed and locals were carrying some essential materials from the city to the national park. But journey was very scenic along the mountain ranges and villages.
We reached the park entrance in the evening, went to the information center to get details on stay and about the hike to the summit. But the dorm beds inside the park was very expensive, so stayed opp to the park in another dorm. Climb to the summit was cheaper if done in a day but will cost six times the day cost if done in two days. Decided to do it in a day itself.
Evening went around exploring the neighbouring villages and talking to locals about the life around the national park. Visited a village called Raut, it had a street market and a small bazar area. Ate some local cuisines and bought a backpack as well from the bazar.
Early in the morning started for the trek. We were given with ID cards and guides took us to the base for hike. All of us knew it’s going to be a challenge to climb Mt.Kinabalu in a day but we were upto it.
Initial strech of climb was very beautiful , had to cross a waterfall and a bridge. The peak is about 4000 m high and Laban Rata where the summit gates are is 3300m above sea level.
Mount Kinabalu is the most dramatic feature in Sabah and the tallest peak between the Himalayas and the New Guinea. About 5,000 to 6,000 plant species are found here. Some of them which are native to Himalayas and Australia is also found here. The magical granite peaks touching the clouds will mesmerise anyone. The beauty of this colorful mountain and hike cannot be explained in words.
We hiked during the peak monsoon, notably weather was playing hide and seek with us. The temperature dropped as we went higher, the wind was very strong and adding to that was hail storm.
While clicking pictures, my fingers started to get numb. I was not able to climb quick and got tired soon. Asked my guide and friends to go ahead and not bother to wait for me, as I may spoil their chance of climbing the summit. I waited for a while and then continued my hike.
Mist covered the entire area and visibility dropped to 10-15 metres. But for few seconds when mist cleared up it was a magical experience to see the colorful mountains and enjoyed seeing the botanical life. Saw a sign board saying Laban Rata is another 3km away.
I knew if I have to give myself any chance of climbing the summit I need to reach Laban Rata soon. Started moving little quicker and still the weather was challenging. I started pushing myself as much as possible as the summit gates will close. I reached near the summit gate and saw my friends waiting there as well. They all thought that I might drop out midway and were very happy to see me.
All of reached the summit gate almost the same time are about 3300m above sea level. We still have another challenging 2-3 km to reach the summit.
But unfortunately that’s the most we could make that day as the summit gates were closed due to harsh weather. We were informed that the next morning if weather gets better they will allow the hike to summit. It all depends, but we thought will get back to the base because no one was sure whether the summit gates will open next morning or not.
Although we didn’t reach the summit but hiked the entire day on the Kinabalu mountain and that was something to definitely cheer about. And we returned to the base same day with some challanging experiences and beautiful memories of Kinabalu mountain.
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