Mt Kinabalu - The Journey Begins

These are the nine supercharge human eyeing to set foot on the tip of Mt KK

The fanfare from LCCT to KK airport to hotel was too exciting n juicy so we fast forward to the foothill resort - The Sutera Sanctuary Lodges, that's where all trekkers need to stay a night. We need to register ourselves and as usual the males is males so it was only polite and natural to make friends with the species of the other kind.
Well ain't he happy and so were the staffs there. I think we were the only group that is so friendly. And of course their smiling service is very commendable. So we made a date with them for a party at our lodges but sad to said they didn't turn up so makan sendiri la. The next morning, got ourselves prepare and went to meet our guide. We total 14 members squeezed into a van. 9 of us, 2 guides, 2 porters exclude the driver.
The destination is Mesilau gate. We need to report ourselves at the gate and we proceed to climb. Our destination is Laban Rata Resthouse. It is 6km uphill climb and boy oh boy sure made you gasping for air and sweat till your underwear.
Almost 3km up we found ourselves in a very different surrounding. The breeze was very cooling. The trees are shorter. Overall surrounding is brighter. The view of Mt KK, the land below is just so superd.
Just wish could spend an hour to admire the natural beauty but we have to move on. This stretch we walk a little slower to enjoy more. The flowers, the leaves, the tree trunks, the cool breeze and these particular stretch is flat.
An easy walk after 3hrs of uphill climb. We stop by a junction, have our lunch of simple bread. It took us 4hrs more to reach this junction. This is the junction where either you start from Mesilau gate or Timpohon gate, all will pass by this junction and the route will join into one that leads to the resthouse. After the lunch we start off and halfway up it started to drizzle and some of us in luck as they were near the hut so they can shelter there. There were quite alot of Koreans ahead of us and were cramp into this small hut but we squeeze our way in.

Peter and Chee were the 1st to reached the resthouse. Me and Chak just reached and it started to rain. So poor 5 of them behind us will get wet even with rain-coats on. The temperature at that time was 8.6C and we were at 3200M above sea level. We had our dinner, admired the setting sun. The rain had stop and hope tomorrow will be a fine morning as this is what everyone hope for. If the weather is bad then we won't be able to ascent further than this point and we ahve to make a very sad descent. We got to tuck into our bed early as we need to wake up 1am the next morning to start our climb to the summit.