Sabah trip [Part 3]

some of you might know already that we didn't go all the way up to the peak, which was somewhat of a disappointment... :(


the gate towards the peak after the back door of Gunting Lagadan Hut...

Jo caught a cold (fever) had altitude sickness as she felt dizzy & vomited a couple of times at Gunting Lagadan Hut while my legs were totally exhausted. told Januarius that we decided not to climb up to the summit, and will meet him up at Labuan Rata the next morning for breakfast and start our descend.


dawn at Gunting Lagadan... it's worth it being able to see this despite all the tiredness...


I was cold... and tired...


we left Labuan Rata at around 830am. going down was even more tiring than climbing up as our entire body weight was to be absorbed by the knees and ankles... plus being overweight didn't do me any good...


took us almost 6 hours to reach Timpohon Gate, got shuttled to the registration office, and went for a late lunch at the restaurant. after that we were driven over to Rose Cabin for the night... the woman skipped dinner because of a slight fever still while I joined a guy from the UK for dinner...



view of Mount Kinabalu from our room balcony...


tired people...


Augustine drove us to the Poring Hot Spring the next morning, and we spent half a day there before heading back to Kota Kinabalu...


a dip inside the jacuzzi with hot-spring water was definitely relaxing... too bad the pumps of the jacuzzi weren't strong enough... not very shiok... -____-'


checked back into the KK hotel in the evening, got back the un-used climbing stick of mine, and off we went for dinner at the waterfront... then we spent the next 2 hours getting massages there...


I was trying hard not to laugh as the guy massaged those dead legs...


head over to Gaya Street for some shopping before packing up and catch our flight back to Kuching in the evening...


a lot of souvenirs, t-shirts, handicrafts and etc on sale... pretty similar to our Kuching Sunday market...


it was crowded... with both locals and tourists...


bought a Mount Kinabalu t-shirt, a few key chains as well as some postcards...

it took me another week after I reach home to recover from those sore muscles... that's how unfit exhausted I was...

footnote: I think I'll attempt another climb to get to the peak in the near future, but in the mean time, I'd have to shed off more kilos, and train up those legs of mine...

Sabah trip [Part 2] - The Climb....

Our travel agent driver - Augustine arrived at the hotel at 7.30am to pick us up to the Kinabalu Park for the climb. of all things that I could forget, stupid me left my climbing stick, which I bought purposely for this trip, in the hotel room, despite Jo twice reminding me to stuff it into my backpack... -_____-'....

by the time I realized that, we were already halfway to Kinabalu Park... so I called the hotel and got the receptionist to safe keep my climbing stick until we check back in the hotel 2 days later... sigh~~~....


Augustine got us registered, and introduced us to our guide - Januarius


and for a fee of RM7 per kilo, we got Januarius to carry our two backpacks, which tipped the scale at a total 14 kgs...


hehehe... still can pose and smile before the climb... wait till you see my half-dead look later on...


we started off at 10.05am at the Timpohon Gate... bought a wooden walking stick for RM3 each... damn... the one that was left inside the hotel room cost like 15 times more wei... argghhh...!!!....


reached the KM1.0 mark in less than an hour... and I still felt pretty okay...


had lunch at the 3KM resting point, and the lady still got time to go feed them squirrels... surprisingly they were not afraid of people... probably because they charm most climbers for food with their cuteness...


my half-dead look at the KM3 pit stop... -____-
my legs were getting tired already... but the lady was still chirpy and stuff... wt...


my pace slowed down from being able to cover less than 1km per hour to a tortoise pace of 1km per 1.5 hour in the final 3km+ of the climb. plus, the fog/mist was getting heavier, and it also started raining, which made our climb even harder, with slippery rocks and muddy terrain... aduhh....


told Jo to go ahead and not wait for me as Januarius would be following my pace instead. she reached Labuan Rata in less than 7 hours, after wasted some time waiting for me at the 4th and 5th pit stops while I reached Labuan Rata at about 6pm, 5 minutes short of 8 freakin' hours... *faint*...


I literally could not feel my legs when I sat my butt down... stayed stationary for a good 30 minutes, enjoying the outside view through the glass panels and kept on drinking water before I proceeded with the buffet dinner...


dusk at Labuan Rata... simply indescribable...


after dinner, we headed towards our cabin in Gunting Lagadan Hut for the night's rest. That wasn't our first choice because there's no heater there... and it's gonna be cold during the night, but Labuan Rata was fully booked...

__to be continued__

Sabah trip [Part 1]

we reached Kota Kinabalu in the evening, and after checking into the hotel, off we went for dinner at this seafood restaurant (forgot name) next to Promenade...

all seafood served at this restaurant is fresh from the aquarium located beside it, and the range of live sea creatures is huge...


ranging from the typical more eye-soothing huge-ass lobsters...


fresh oysters...


weird looking prawns (yea, I remember the waiter telling me that those were some prawn species)...


to one hell of an ugly fish, which according to the waiter, it's poisonous, but quite tasty... -___-


we ordered this belacan fried authentic Sabah vege... yummy stuff!


err... I forgot what were these called... you need to use toothpicks to dig out the meat inside, then dip it with some chili sauce...


fresh oysters... but it was a total let down... they were pathetically small and juice-less... I've had better ones even back here in Kuching...
apparently, for big fat juicy oysters, another seafood restaurant at the other end would be a better choice instead of this one...


abalone... now these were good stuff, and cheap too... only RM40...


after racking up a bill of about RM180, we headed over to the waterfront, ordered a couple of beers, sat there and enjoyed the cool sea breeze...

next post: the Mount Kinabalu climb... I almost died... -_____-

have been busy after the Sabah trip, and still am... - . -

I have wanted to post an entry on the Sabah trip since last week, but work has been taking up most of the time I have, both in and out of the office... I'm still, and will be busy on my reports until somewhere end of next week, with the overtime period stretching until end of August... wtf!... -____-'

Like what hedo mentioned in her rants, it has been from 9am until 7 or 8pm (work plus overtime), then I have to attend to my other commitments until around 10pm, which at an average drains another 2+ hours of my brain juice after leaving the office during weekdays. That translates to about 13 freakin' hours of work, and THAT is excluding working overtime on Saturdays... :(


yea I know... I have no life... and I need more S.L.E.E.P.

of course I could look at the $$$ side of the whole situation, but I'm tired man, physically & mentally... and I'm seriously thinking of taking a long break by the end of the year, and I don't mean going for a 2 weeks leave kindda thing... I meant something like a 3 - 4 months break OFF work... totally...

assorted snapshots III

just got back from Sabah... dead tired now... and while I compile the tonnes of photos taken, below are some assorted snapshots prior to the Sabah trip...


view from Mount Singai...


sunlight through the canopy...


went for lunch at this Red Dragon Cafe after the Mount Singai climb...


ordered this frog soup (田雞湯), which was surprisingly good... especially the thick soup...


squirrel meat cooked with soy sauce & dried chili... looked impressive but it was a total let down... we weren't even charged for this dish as it was really lousy...


this huge bowl of laksa cost RM6, but I tell ya, it's worth every penny paid...


salmon sushi, salmon sashimi and caviar... I like!!


assorted seafood @ the Hilton Mediterranean Buffet...


and I bought this Camel Active belt before going to Sabah as my old one is almost spoilt...

the Nuffnang cheque finally arrived...

got home last Thursday to find out that the Nuffnang cheque had arrived... so it's somewhat abit of extra petrol money for the week... heh... Many Many Thanks to Nuffnang and Timothy!


RM2.70 per liter for RON97 means that I'm only getting a mere 18.52 liters for RM50 into the tank after the lau-yaa stiuupid G announced the new price increase... -____-

Sashimi Hana...

tried out this 3-piece Sashimi Hana set at Rakutei last night, and I'd say it's pretty worthy as each piece came wrapped with two huge slices of salmon sashimis...


the combination of sushi with salmon, tobiko and mayonnaise tasted brilliant...

by far the best I've tasted...

went to The Hilton Steak House for dinner a couple of days back, and I ordered the Steak Diane...


the dish was cooked at the table, with the chef playing these fire stunts to that piece of tenderloin... it was a trill to watch how the steak was being prepared...


presentation looked good eh?? the sauce was a mixture of mushroom, butter, wine and *I forgot*...


the taste was incredible... by far the best I've had there compared to the sirloin, rib-eye and t-bone steaks...
I asked for the meat to be medium done, and the texture of it was way tender and juicier compared with the rest I've mentioned before...
and I only paid RM29.50++ for it... :))

impulsive purchases...

it was initially more of a window shopping session, but I ended up with quite some purchases... damage to the wallet was pretty huge... and I'd probably have to work more overtime to heal the wallet...


this pair of Police shades is to replace the ZeroX, which has been around since late 2006...


and having 50% discount on Dockers Khakis is simply irresistible... so I left the shop 30 minutes later with 2 pairs of jeans and one pair of working khakis... -_______-"

Gawai Holiday Food & Drink Spree...

it was a long Gawai holiday (over the weekend till Tuesday) for us Sarawakians and Sabahans... and apart from going visiting (which I failed miserably on locating Niny's place despite being there before)... sleeping late, go swimming, eating out and having drinks at nights were pretty much the routine for the 4 days...

Suzuki Sashimi...


the Salmon Don I ordered... very generous amount of Salmon slices given...

ordered Nama Kani Karaage (soft shell crab), Yasai Salad as well as Komochi Shishamo (Grilled Smelt Fish), which I totally forgot to take a few snapshots of due to me busily digging into my Salmon Don... -_____-"


went to this place called MyHouse Steamboat & BBQ Seaffood along the road towards Pending on the weekend... the open garden concept was really soothing and relaxing... plus with the constant breeze... you won't even feel the heat from the steamboat...


waiting for the stuff to be cooked... and again I forgot to take a snapshot of the fried chicken wings served, which were seriously to-die-for...


opened up a Glenmorangie at Ipanema on Gawai night... and surprisingly, business was quite slow for the night, cos probably everyone got themselves hangovers on the Gawai Eve booze parties and having too much tuak during the day...