Tokyo: Blooming Sakura's - Part 1

The news that I was to visit Japan was a flurry of mixed emotions. On one side there was the excitement to finally go to a country I've longed to go for ages. Having never flown out of Malaysia before kinda puts the excitement in overdrive. The trip being in April puts me in euphoria because it would be Spring in Tokyo... season of the blossoming Sakura (Cherry Blossom).

And then there's the sudden anxiety and worried rush because there's a whole load of work already piling up. Being notified 2 weeks before the trip itself kinda adds to the list of concerns; is my passport still valid? Will the Visa be done in time? How much will I need to budget? What are the documents I need to prepare to bring along? Do I have enough formal attire to last me the week-long trip?

Alas, all worries and excitements aside, I finally embarked on my virgin flight out of Malaysia on April 10th 2007, 10:50pm. It was a flight of many firsts;

• First international flight
• First night flight
• First flight with entertainment services =Þ
• First flight on Japanese Airlines
• First flight to Japan

7.5 hours, a sore butt, legs screaming for space, and a body longing for restful sleep... finally we touched down on the land of the rising sun. Location: Narita International Airport, Tokyo. However, the trip is nowhere near completed. Our destination was Musashi Nakahara, Kawasaki area. In geographical terms, that is still nearly 1.5hours away on a series of efficient and fast train systems. It starts with the Narita Express ride that takes 1hour through 5 stops, all the while maintaining speeds that puts our ERL to shame. Then comes the plethora of transits to eventually reach Musashi Nakahara. My first 2 hours in tokyo was a transportation nightmare. The system was scarily efficient, punctual, and down-right confusing. Never have I felt so lost.

The truth of the matter is that Tokyo itself is a magnificent metropolitan. It has amongst the most advanced and extensive railway systems in the world. The following are some approximate statistics that should give the number crunchers an awe inducing overview of Tokyo:

• Tokyo is 13,500 square km; approximately 5% of the area of our country
• It has a population exceeding 35million; surpassing our own
• There are 2,500km worth of rail tracks, with more than 100 individual rail systems/lines
• 60-70% of the population utilizes the rail system as their primary transport
• Shinjuku is the world's busiest station; used by more than 3million people daily
• Almost all the trains are still manually controlled; yet the trains arrive within seconds of their quoted schedule, averaging one train every 3-4 minutes, and they stop with precision that rivals our automated Putra LRT.
• You can almost never use the 'delayed train' as an excuse to be late for work; If a train is *really* late, you must (and can) obtain an apology letter from the track manager explaining the delay.
• If you want an overview of their railway map, check it out here.

So what awaits us at Musashi Nakahara? Our hotel, of course. We checked in to a famous chain of hotels calls Toyoko Inn. There's practically one everywhere and anywhere in Japan. We were supposed to get rooms at a place closer to the office (which is now 20 minutes away from Nakahara), but they were all out of rooms. Check in time was only at 4pm, so we just left our luggage in the care of the front desk whilst we headed off to our real destination: Panasonic Office Network Company, Yokohama. How do we get there?

First, buy a ticket amounting to 260yen. Get on the train at Musashi Nakahara and head toward Musashi Kosugi. Take the local or express rail from Musashi Kosugi to Tsunashima, which is in the direction of Kawasaki. Makes no sense? Didn't make much sense to us at first, too. Took us 2 days to actually get used to the sequence and names of the stations, not to mention the exits to follow in the stations to get on the right train. Anyway, from Tsunashima, it was roughly another 15-20 minutes walk to the office.

Yes, the Japanese are very healthy people. Walking seems to be a norm. You see many people walking from the stations to their offices, and generally there's a station within 15-20 minutes radius from any location you would possibly wanna go to. Bicycles seem to be the next favorite transport. Cars and motorbikes? Rare. The density of road vehicles is very low in Tokyo. This is further discouraged by the severe lack of open parking spaces and the expensive rates for parking areas.

Eventually we reached the office after a scenic and enlightening walk through my first close experience in a Japanese neighbourhood. The details of what I saw shall be reserved for the upcoming posts, cause this post will not have any photos. But before I end this post, I would like to summarize the few things that captivated me from the first few hours of my moments in Tokyo.

• The climate was AWESOME! In spring, it averages 18-20 degrees at day, and 14-16 at night. I was afraid I would be having trouble with the cold; instead, I grew accustomed to it and loved it so much, I had trouble adjusting back to Malaysian climate on my return :(
• It is so darn clean! You don't see many rubbish bins around, yet at the same time they don't seem to need it. The stations, the roads, the canteens...
• The colours; I will vouch first-hand that Japan is a truly beautiful country to visit in Spring. Not only are the flowers colourful, even the vegetables and fruits seem so fresh, I'd swear I mistook them for fakes.
• Coming from a world where driving is such a norm, walking never felt more enjoyable. I wouldn't mind walking my way around anywhere in Tokyo, if only it weren't for the shear distances involved.
• There are vending machines for everything, haha. Cigarettes, beer, beverages, snacks, meals, more beverages, toys, candy, more beverages. Did I mention more beverages? The only reason you would die of thirst here is if you're broke and there's not a soul to be found in 200m around you for 7 days =Þ

Anyway, our first 5 work days were pretty mundane. There train rides, work, more train ride, food, and more train rides home. Nothing much along the lines of sight seeing. So the bulk of the photos were taken on our way to office closer to the second half of our stay in Tokyo. I also did not have my camera along, and my colleagues camera was misbehaving with regards to storage issues. I do have photos (60+) to share, but they only highlight a part of what I experienced over the free weekend in Tokyo.

Next post: Peek at the colours of nature and our first official touring to Minatomirai~

Endau Rompin: Geeks Wildlife - Part 2

*Yawn~*
*Stretch~*
Feels good waking up from a long uninterrupted sleep on a cold Sunday morning. Makes you wish every morning was like this...

Anyway, as has been the trend lately, 'episodic' posts seem to be coming in almost immediately one after the next. Would like to keep the pace :) Besides, I'd best make use of the momentum to actually write while I can. I'm occasionally nicked as the lazy blogger, but in defense I'd like to say that I spend a lot of time on each post. Just that such time is a luxury in recent times. In short: Bite me! :P Back to the topic in hand...

-----

So there we were, trekking through Endau Rompin and completing 4 challenges in total as we go from checkpoint to checkpoint. The last shot I showed was probably challenge 4, but I won't claim to have a clear memory of it. Some of the photos of in-door activities are already mixed up, so don't take my word for it :P



As noon approached, we had to make our way back up to our rendezvous point. I say 'up' because most of the trekking was through flat terrain (elevation wise; it is still a forest, so it ain't barren). However, the journey back is almost entirely on an incline. Half-way up, we encounter this jewel of a spot. We were the last team in line, and only the team before us took the liberty to take photos. We took it a step further... hehe. As I said, if there is water, I'm ready anytime. To kick it off, our guide dove from a large rock into the pool below. Apa lagi... we were dirty, sweaty, and boiling up from the hike. Nothing like a short dip in cool mountain water.

It wasn't a long stop, unfortunately. We do have a schedule to keep up to. But a refreshed body is an alert body :) In a way, it was a blessing to have taken a break here... the next segment of trekking was on a steeper incline that required us to be on all-fours several times.

The last stretch was quite taxing for most. However, once we're through it, we're safely at our final stop. Food!

Under normal circumstances, I would have not enjoyed the food. But, hungry people who've just returned from a 4 hour trek through more adventure than some of us have seen in our entire lives kinda puts things in a different light. I wanted to pig out, but there wasn't much to pig out too... this is the sacrifice we had to pay for getting to have fun in the water whilst everyone else was already chewing away.


Just before we got on the bus, it was time to pose yet again. Most of us were drenched, by the way :P

The bus ride was long enough to take a short nap. We were off-schedule, though, so the afternoon in-door session was cancelled. Instead, we were given time to rest and return for the evening activities...

... which was preceded by a short brainstorming and execution plan discussion. What's the occasion? Well, at night, there's gonna be a BBQ dinner. Each team will need to showcase a special performance. There are no restrictions or themes to the performances... free-style!

Our game plan? A rather daring attempt to enact a hilarious scene that basically involved a tourist and a clan of cannibals :P So we had a game plan... we just needed time to rehearse.


We had a few beach games at around 5pm onwards. This here was a simple game that involved a ball in the center of the play area. Two teams line up on opposing sides of the area, each member designated by a number. When a number is called, the 2 people from each team corresponding to the number must dash in. The goal? To retrieve the ball and return to your side... without getting hit by the opponent. The catch? The first person to touch the ball automatically becomes the vulnerable party. No retaliation, no defense. Run.... run as fast as you can!


This shot and the previous shot were of the same two people; the Boss is on the right :P In both rounds, Boss lost. Quite painfully, if I may say so. My colleague was sweating from anxiety... wondering if he still had a job to come back to on Monday :P


We had several other games, but nothing really fancy. I think they were all rather impromptu plans to make up for the cancelled events earlier. They needed the events because it was all pretty much a competition... the teams needed means of accruing points.

Seen here is Phillip, the main man from Equinox. He's probly gesturing about how jakun we are :P Then again, Phillip's quite the carefree and very friendly guy. Funny, too!


Dinner started! Food was pretty good but the whole atmosphere was interrupted by rain, so we were all sitting under cover and not in the open air by the shore. Due to the rain, all performances were also cancelled. This was disappointing news for the Endau Sakais because we were truly eager to do the performance. We even had an elaborate rehearsel after the beach games and before dinner, set with all-natural props (sticks and palm leaves :P) and even a so-called ritual song :P

Anyways, a lucky draw was conducted over dinner. We had a lot more sponsors this year compared to last, but the grand prize remained the same: an iPod Nano!!! Nobody cares for the other gifts, haha. So it was always a disappointing affair if your name got called for anything BUT the Grand Prize, coz that immediately meant you're off the roster. Yup... I was disappointed :P Regardless of that, it was good this year because everyone walked home a winner. There were enough gifts for everyone!

This night, it was free and easy after dinner. It was wet and cold, and most of us were seriously not ready to sleep yet. So what did we do? I heard there were 2 rooms playing off choh dai di. Me? I was hanging out with the more carefree and chatty bunch. Eventually, the group grew large enough for what we initially planned: Ghost stories! There we were, 10+ of us congregated in the room; lights turned off and a few Maggi cup-noodles around the room driving the rest of us hungry... sharing ghost stories. If memory served me well, we started around 1:30+ and ended past 3. I must admit, there are quite a selection of good story-tellers amongst my collegues. Kudos!


Of course, sleeping late is not really in our best of interest because we had to wake up by 7:30 for this... Chi Kong on the beach. Nothing fancy.. but good breakfast followed this.

We assembled at the foyer at 9 for our final outdoor activity. Treasure hunt... of sorts. Each team is given a compass and directional instructions to our next checkpoint. At each checkpoint, we will obtain one set of pre-determined items. All the items we collect will eventually be used for...


...constructing our own raft. It was to our advantage and best interest to obtain all materials fast so that we can begin construction sooner. The winner of the event is the first team that reaches the other side of the lake using this raft.


Of course, setting it in the water was a moment of prayers. You never know if the tyres would all start going in opposite directions, haha. Lucky for us, our raft was tough as a buffalo!

In case you haven't noticed, not everyone is equipped with life jackets. 4 of us had no jackets... which implied we had a special role...


4-valve propeller engines :P The for of us (me included) were like tug boats... hanging on and giving extra boost from the rear via synchronized thrusts, whilst the others paddled. Seen here is our team versus the next closest team.

For the record, we started behind them... this shot is the critical point of the race. We were overtaking them, clearly benefitting from our human engines, haha.


And the hard, tiring and insanely wacky concept got us in the lead! We really struggled and pumped a lot of effort into this dash across the lake... so the victory was really a good sense of achievement for us.

Some of us even jumped back into the water (me, too) to wade a while longer in the cool (albeit murky) waters. We assisted the incoming teams with their rafts too.


We also assisted in getting Fabian wet and 'involved' in the activities. I mean, we're all wet... doesn't he feel all left out being so dry and all :P

...and OFF he goes! The next few seconds were hilarious because after we let him off, we all kind lost balance. The mud was soft... so most of us in the shot ended up in the water too. But we're already wet to begin with, so its no biggie :D


And there you have it... a very drenched Fabian and 2 Equinox members clearly in their element. Haha!


This is the lake we had to raft across. It is still and clean, though not crystal clear. I truly enjoyed this experience for one important thing; I learnt to not fear the unknown depths. I may not be a great swimmer (or even a good swimmer :P), but I can swim well enough to keep myself alive. However, I've always feared swimming in waters that I'm not certain of its depth. Even in swimming pools, I need to test the depths... just so that I know how deep it is. Something about knowing it keeps me reassured. Here, there was no time to think about that... no time to worry. Just swim as hard as I can. At the end of the rafting, I realized I really enjoyed the swim. I jumped back in the water and went quite a ways in, realizing I was perfectly confident of swimming into the unknown. I even learnt how to keep myself stationary in one spot that day, hehe. Yes, I learnt swimming on my own... the only way I knew to keep afloat was to keep moving :P Good to know I got my twisted sense of swimming knowledge corrected... naturally, too.

After the rafting, we were basically all pooped. We had free and easy time up to lunch, so most headed back to the rooms. Some of us decided to give the pool a try. I mean, we've been getting wet in everything except clean water, so might as well complete the experience, right? So what started off as a 3 person swim eventually grew large enough to have a game of Water Polo!! I am not kidding when I say this: in those 3-days 2-nights, the water polo was the most thrilling and fun moment of all. Nothing but pure free time used to its best :)



But everything comes to an end. We had to pack up and check-out by noon. This here is us, over lunch. Why the balloons? Don't ask, hehe. Let's just say we ended up dancing to a very funny song... the name of which I can't remember at the moment. *Darn!*

Most of the balloons on our heads actually looked obscene... so you can imagine the amount of laughs we were having.


And finally, it was time for farewell. A good long 3 days of tiring and adventurous activities. In many ways, I enjoyed the trip quite a bit more than expected. The only thing I really wished was that there was more free time to relax. There was very little in the ways of relaxation time, so when Monday came the next day... most of us were feeling rather fatigued from the trip. Well, at least it was fun :)

Actually, we had one final in-door gathering after lunch. However, it was just a mini-game and the final score comparisons of all the teams. I'm proud to say the Endau Sakais took quite a lead overall, and we went home proud as winners as well as a team that made full use of our warcry and gung-ho attitudes. I wouldn't trade my team for any other...

Oh, and the winning team gets 3 additional 'mystery gifts' to be awarded to the team leader and 2 other members of the team leader's choice. The mystery gifts were compact travel bags, courtesy of the event organizers. We also got a hamper, which was distributed amongst all members in the team the following day to celebrate our victory!

And that was my company trip this year. Something tells me we won't be having anything this busy in future trips because I heard rumors that Boss found the trip too... tiring. I agree it was tiring, but I also agree that it was fun enough to warrant similar activities in the future. Would be a total disappointment if we completely discard such options when planning for a team outing.

So would I go Endau Rompin again? Hard to say... we didn't really trek about in a small group, so the feeling of adventure is partially masked by the notion that this was a team building event. I'm not sure how much adventure does Endau Rompin really have in store for the adventurous. Maybe someday, if I hear of a good way to experience Endau Rompin for what it is... then I shall return.

Endau Rompin: Geeks Wildlife - Part 1

The next installment of uber-delayed trip updates is here! The location this time is the state forest reserve of Pahang; Endau Rompin. It is common practice for companies to organize yearly trips. Ours for the past 2 years has been fully organized by selected members, and the trips themselves turned out rather relaxing and fun. This year was a major change because the management decided to hire event organizers to handle the trip for us. All we did was to find a good organizer, and the rest was out of our hands.

That was how we ended up on this 3-days 2-nights trip to Endau Rompin. To be precise, we did not stay *in* Endau Rompin. Accomodation was arranged at Serai Di Lanjut, which is around 90minutes from the actual forest reserve. The bulk of our activities were split into 2 categories; in-door and out-door. All in-door activities were conducted in the confinements of the resort facilities. Out-door activities were mainly in the forest reserve itself, with a few additional activities around the extended vicinity of the resort area.

I was in-charge of keeping headcount and managing attendee lists each time we board our buses. This also meant that I get to choose who sits in which bus; I had to make sure the *important* people aren't bunched up on the same vehicle =Þ They called it a 'management risk'. So, early on Friday morning, 2 full buses set off on a 4 hour ride to our resort...



... to be greeted by a humble banner and the Equinox team. The unique thing about this trip is that the main organizer handled the overall coordination and all in-door activities. However, all out-door activities are delegated to another event organizing team who's specialty is, you guessed it, outdoor stuff! Equinox is their name :)


Unloading time! This is the 'herd', all grazing and wandering aimlessly whilst the room keys are sorted out. After initial check-in, we're to head off straight to lunch. We need to reassemble at the hall for our first in-door activity; teams formation!



Of course, lunch is short. So we had some time to loiter around and snap some shots of the surroundings. The lunch spot is a short walk away from the main resort block, and we pass thru these areas. Seen here is the makeshift beach volleyball court.


Now, although this is the East coast, waters here ain't clear blue and the sand ain't sparkling white. The waves are a tad larger than I'm accustomed to in our shores, but at least one thing stays true to the East coast flavor; the beach and waters are clean.


Fast forward... in-door activity one: Team formation. This is the team I was in. It was a general consensus from EVERYONE that none of the Project Leaders can be team leaders here. Hehe, what a sigh of relief. Hate to do team management on a break :P

Team formation was a somewhat intricate issue. There are 4 teams, and each team has been pre-assigned by the management based on criteria that only they know. What remains are 4 tasks:
a. Assign a team leader and several other key roles
b. Decide on a team name
c. Decide on a team warcry
d. Create our own team flag

Our team was called 'Endau Sakais'. Hehe, dun ask how we came up with that... but it is amazing how many things you can get away with by having that as a name. 'Eh, why you all so noisy?' - 'We're sakais mar'. 'Oi... who said you can do that?' - 'No one. We don't need permission. We're sakais'. I know it's not something to be proud of, but it was fun :P

War cry was suprisingly easy, and even more surprising that they took my suggestion seriously. For those programmers out there, I'm sure you're familiar with the term 'foo'. I do not know why foo even exists but almost every other programming examples use foo to some extent. I, however, always had a natural tendency to use 'Unga' in place of foo. Why? Beats me... just comes naturally :P So, lo and behold, our warcry was a simple, meaningless, and utterly flexible: Unga! And the Endau Sakais used it anytime we felt like using it; which is a LOT.



In-door activities were supervised by Fabian. In all honesty, I seriously gotta hand it to him for being good at his job. He was a fun, motivated person. There were a lot of things we had to do in-doors but I'll skip the details. This particular photo is one highlight worth mentioning.

Each person was handed a paper with 9 questions on it. They cover likes and dislikes, and we need to find one person amongst us that agrees to the question. One of the question was: Do you like Hindi movies?

Being the only Indian present on the trip, it occurred naturally to everyone to hunt me down so that I may give them the green to use my name. I'm in no way a fan of Hindi movies, but I had to be nice. So who did I write on my sheet, you ask? Believe it or not; I had one Chinese colleague who likes them more than I do!

Anyhow, at the end of the session, a sheet is selected in random for each question. The owner of the sheet and the person who's name is written for an answer will be called forward. What happens next is purely random; from bizzarre dances to awkward games. I was stuck to enact a typical Hindi song session. Roles: Hero, Heroine, and angry Father of the Heroine. You can't see him in the photo above, but angry Father was my Boss :P Add a real Hindi song in the background, and I got stuck in the oddest and hilarious performance of the day. Just don't ask me to do it again :P


Evening was free and easy time. Since we're practically the only guests there, we had the volleyball court to ourselves. Seen here is a seriously over-crowded session of beach volleyball, Panasonic style.


Some of the photos here are not in chronological order. This is one of it. An in-door activity this was. We were shown a few odd stances. We need to mimic the stance that the instructor does. Anyone caught hesitating or performing an incorrect stance is eliminated.


After a while, the crowd gets smaller, and the game gets quicker. I can't remember what the objective of this game was, but it sure was hilarious. By this stage, I was already eliminated :(


This was one of the more mentally-challenging activities. Each team is given a set of screws and a rubber cork (of sorts). The goal is to balance 6 screws (or more) on 1 screw. Once you get the technique, you can start stacking loads of screws. I think the record was 16!




This is one of the many ways the flag is transported around. Crazy? Desperation! Each team must protect the flag at all costs. Losing your flag will incur a penalty to the team score for EACH logged loss. So teams are always on the look-out to steal the others' flags. You never know when or how the attack comes, but come it will! Proud to say that I played my role as flag bearer very well :)


The first night, there was an activity after dinner. Slow and lengthy it was, but somewhat interesting and it had a good value behing it. As can be seen in the picture, all the members in a team stand in a row. 2 of them are additionally tied to each other at the arm and leg. Everyone, except 3 members, will be blindfolded. Those without blindfolds are provided with candles.

The goal? Those with visibility must lead and coach the others through an obstacle course in the pitch dark. We had to go zig-zagging in the field, up and down small flights of stairs, even walk across an elevated log. The final hurdle was to move all members up and over a 5-foot high wall. The purpose? The blindfolded represent the average person. The 2 tied together represent special cases of people with disabilites. The exercise was meant to teach 2 things.

1. How do the more capable people communicate to others who are bound to be apprehensive and fearful of the unknown? How to keep them calm and gain their trust?
2. How do you, as a member in a team, entrust full trust in your leaders?

I suppose it was quite a scary experience to some. I was not blindfolded, but it was difficult to lead the blind. They can hear your instructions; but its another thing to get them to trust your instructions. You can sense the fear in some of them when you tell them to take one step ahead, when you tell them there's a branch to avoid on their left, when you ask them to lean forward onto your shoulders as they walk sideways along an elevated piece of log no wider than their feet. It was also intriguing to notice how, over the course of the activity, people tend to slowly adjust to the situation and begin to trust you whole-heartedly. The challenges got tougher towards the end, but it felt like it was getting relatively easier as it progressed.

That ended rather late.. midnight. Everyone was tired and knocked out soon after. After all, it was an early day the next morning...


7:30am - Morning exercise by the pool. Yup, we sure are showing signs of 'rusted joints'. This was followed by breakfast and preparations to Endau Rompin park itself!


This is the lot of us at the entrance of the park. Notice the life-jackets... it implies water activites! *grin*


Everyone was required to suit up for safety purposes. I must say, the overall event organization emphasized safety quite well. Kudos to the organizers :)


Water!!! Just what I was looking forward to. Before we carried on with the activities ahead, we were requested to jump into the water. Water confidence drill... so that we get accustomed and confident about our safety in the water.


This was really an exercise in disguise. We were each given rubber tubes and need to reach the other checkpoint down river. The implicit requirement is to ensure that we look out for each other in a team...


...and after some struggling, we discovered that the fastest and most controllable way to stick together was to literally stick together. Introducing: caterpillar tubes! Now with human engine at one end... haha.


Unfortunately, we were taking longer than expected, so we were sent 'reinforcements' to tow us to the checkpoint at hyperspeed :Þ


Once at the checkpoint, we had to go through 4 different trials. One of the more interesting trials was this. We were provided enough material to create a makeshift stretcher. We must transport one member safely (and dryly) across this pool of water. Trials like this are a piece of cake when you have a whole group of gung-ho, water-neutral people in the group :) As you can see, if it involves water, I'm ready anytime.. hehe.


Soon after this, we headed back to our final checkpoint for food. That and the activities following that shall be covered in the next post. There are 20 more photos to cover for the Saturday evening right up to Sunday lunch before our departure. Need to get my shut-eye now...

Chiaoz~

Sabah: In fast-forward - Part 2

Surprise surprise! Part 2 actually came much sooner than *some* people's expectations! =Þ I already sorted out the photos for this one, so I don't really have an excuse to delay it. So, moving on with part deux!

Before I continue with the mountain-story, let's back track a little.. kinda forgot to put the following image in the previous post. I've been trying to keep a chronological order to the events I'm mentioning, so forgive the interruption :P


This here was an experience during the island hopping. Para-sailing, or so they call it. Yup, we got a giant smiley for a chute~ HEHE! We had to go in pairs coz its roughly 10-15 minutes per session, which amounts to more than an hour for the entire group... We were running on a time constraint coz we need to catch our ride to KK Park in time before it gets dark.

If you get the chance, try this. It's LOADS of fun!



... back to KK Park. Honestly, the sight of Mt. Kinabalu is majestic. The pictures never do it justice. The sheer size and beauty of it, like a giant looking over our seemingly miniature world. It is well worth the effort to just go to the park to SEE it, if not to climb it.

At this point, I think I should give a more detailed explanation of the trip. We arrived here late evening, around 6-7'ish. The hike up the mountain starts in the morning, so we need to bunk over at the hostels available in the park. Nothing fancy, just a simple offering of bed and shelter with decently well maintained toilets/washrooms. Warning; KK Park averages around 20-24 degrees, and the water is ICY cold. Hot water is available on.. er.. available-supply basis. I love it cold, but can't say the others were keen on it. I have stories to tell about the kinds of noises ppl make when the first drop of icy cold water strikes their skins :P

After a good night sleep, the next morning is when the adventure starts. Going up Mt. Kinabalu requires you to think of what you wanna lug with you. Trust me, walking up 6km with 1 weeks' worth of suppiles ain't the smartest thing to do. Travel light, travel with necessities only. For us, we left most of our stuff with our tour guide (of sorts). We got this VERY friendly and resourceful guide, Mr Saiful, who took us around everywhere. He even took care of our excess luggage and provided us with good, sturdy walking sticks. Yes, WALKING STICKS! Trust me, you want to have one of these. They come in very VERY handy on your way down, if you don't want to kill your knees.

So, back to the topic; it's 8am after breakfast and after a 5-10 minute drive thru the park, we reach the entrance to the tracks!



Here we are, being briefed by our 2 mountain guides (and part time porters... notice the bags). The 2 from the left are Francis and James. Very friendly and supportive pair... in general, Sabah-ans are seriously nice ppl!



... then comes the customary 'We're off to war' photo =Þ Yup, this is our gang! All holding sticks like going for a fight ala Tamil movie, hehe.



THIS is somewhere around 3km through the hike. They say that the altitude does... weird things to people. 'Nuff said...



Mt Kinbalu is an amazing showcase of 3 major 'worlds'. What starts off as a dense rainforest gradually transforms into a semi-temperate environment. Trees are shorter and noticeably varied... even the algae showcase colors and textures that astound your sights. It even gets more colorful the higher you go. Around this altitude, sneaking a peek of the peak (pun intended) is not only easy, its a good motivator. After 4km, another 2km seems like a monumental distance... and then you look towards the peak... What's 2km more, right? :)


At 5km, you almost forget that this is *still* Malaysia.




Told you it gets colourful up here. Don't have very many pictures to prove it, but I don't just mean the flowers at ground level. Even the trees, they start to be more non-green than usual.




... but the altitude seriously does things to your head. I even had a 'bright light at the end of the tunnel' experience=Þ This path was actually leading to something thats almost a drop-off. *scary*



Finally, at 6km... civilization!! 6 hours never felt so long. This is Laban Rata; the base camp that we need to check in. It is roughly around 3pm now, and there aren't many trees here to hinder your view. Temperature is an awesome 17-18 degrees at its warmest... by night it dips to about 10-13, I think.




There are many hostel 'blocks' available, and the view is quite nice from our vantage point. At around 4+, it was quite cloudy... a nice atmosphere to take a break after all that walking... What better time than ever to...


Gamble! Well, since there was nothing at stake, it isn't really gambling. However, it is good to know we are playing card games higher than Genting, hehe.




Having a good hand helps, too =Þ


This is a panoramic shot taken from our block... at eye level! No kidding... this soooo made my day. I LOVE clouds...


Anyhow, I don't have any shots of the night. You see, the trek up to the peak starts at 2:30am. We travel VERY light, and there's almost no visible light aside from our torchlights. At about 6am, we reach the peak just in time for sunrise. Unfortunately for us, it was cloudy and we could only see the light of day, not really the sun itself *sigh*. But, we reached Low's Peak! Yippee!! Thank the heavens for the blessed weather :) By the way, it was insanely cold here by my standards. I'm guessing it's around 5-8 degrees.


This is pretty much what our 'sunrise' looked like. Thankfully, I'm more of a cloud person, so I got my dose of excitement, hehe!

As light fills the horizon, the dark surroundings of the night are illuminated with details that we would not have imagined. The trek through the night was unnervingly bland. You can't see beyond a few metres ahead of you, so the return trip was an eye-opener to what we have been traversing. Rocky surroundings, with the highest shrub being no taller than your ankles.

It is sights like these that make me want to come back here again, someday. It almost feels like you're in a floating island among the clouds. A truly remarkable scenery... to be basking in the early drops of sunlight, surrounded by an ocean of clouds. It makes you forget that down below, there is a world comparatively alien to this... a world that is far too, exploited and robbed of its beauty.


But, all great dreams and moments must come to an end. We needed to hike back down fast for two reasons; At these altitudes, the sun may not feel hot but it does more damage to your skin than you know. We also have to check-out of Laban Rata by 10am to avoid being charged for another days worth of stay. Managed to take a shot of the real-time temperature report. This is at around 10am.
Oh, did I mention that water here is SOOO cold that when you take a shower, you'll be 'smokin' cool :P

We stuck around here for a break until 11am. The hike up, although only about 3km per-direction, is a lot more tiring because the air is thinner, and the cold kinda saps your energy reserves faster. We couldn't dilly-dally here too long either because we need to get back to the base by 6pm. It gets dark here earlier, and hiking in the dark ain't fun.
We don't have any photos on the way down because the trip from Laban Rata to the base was horrid... it was raining. Heck, it was a massive downpour. We only had one objective; get all the way down safe and sound. We decided to each go at our own pace, so we kinda split up eventually into groups of 2-3. If there's one thing I did not enjoy in this entire trip, it was the trek down.

But, thankfully, bad things apparently come to a pleasant end :) It was a motivating thought to know that once we're at the bottom, our next stop was the Poring Hotsprings! Nothing like a nice chill-out at a hotspring after a strenuous day of almost 13hrs of non-stop walking.

Poring itself, was about 1hr+ from Kinabalu Park. It was quite late by the time we reached there... around nearly 8.30pm. Everyone was so tired, some even skipped dinner and went to bed early. The few of us who didn't... bedtime kinda followed soon after dinner anyway :)

The following morning was a treat. Hot springs time!!! Unfortunately, the open bath was closed for maintenance... so we decided to check out the 'Hot springs jacuzzi'! Too bad it was closed for maintenance, too :( *sob sob* I guess the standard 'private' baths will have to do. Each room can accomodate 2. It was sooo worth it. Nothing beats a hot bath when your entire body is exhausted from a journey up Mt. Kinabalu.

Refreshed, we checked out by 10am. This is me, right outside the hot springs resort. There was a row of souvenir and snacks stalls here. The wonders of sipping cool, refreshing, fresh coconut water! I could have died happy at that moment... not that I wanted to, though :P

After Poring, we headed back to KK. We checked in to a backpackers lodge; Borneo Backpackers Lodge. HIGHLY recommended, this! This is where our group branches off; only 4 will remain for the next 4 days, whilst the rest head back to west M'sia. But before we split, we went souvenir hunting AND snacking. Nyum nyum~ this here is satay-flavoured barbeque chicken wings! I would love to find one of these back home... *sigh*

... and Sabah offers one heck of a squid dish. Grilled squid here is awesome. Cheap, too. And fresh... Did I mention the grilled squid here is awesome? Well, the grilled squid here is awesome.

The rest of the trip details are hard to share from this point onwards coz it was mostly sight seeing around town, going for a full-body massage package (4hrs for RM150+) and then there was the water-rafting experience which I have on DVD only. What I can share is that this became somewhat of our beverage for the nights at the lodge. We even had an interesting card session; I had a pack of Cheezels that went up AND down the mountain climb *unopened*. Shocking, but true. So, because of its astounding significance, it became a 'prized' commodity in our game. The winner, gets to take 2 pieces per win, and all but the loser get to take one each. When you have 4 ppl who love Cheezels, and you make it a challenge to get any... its a formula for pure fun and laughs! I'm glad that lady luck was on my side, and I got my fill of the meal that night, hehe.

It is truly unfortunate that I don't have good shots of the water rafting experience. However, I will tell you this; it was fun. We even capsized once, so you could say we got the full deal of the trip. It was also an amazing eye-opener to the lifestyle of ppl in rural Sabah... life in west M'sia is seriously leaps and bounds more 'luxurious' than the deeper parts of Sabah. To some here, an ancient train system with only a single-track and not exceeding speeds of 20km/h is the only means to go around. There's a lot you will see and experience here that is not easy to put in words. You gotta see it and experience it first-hand to realize how much (or little) of our country we really know.

Either way, Sabah is a 7-day trip that provided me with memories unforgettable for a lifetime. I dare say it was the most adventurous, busy, tiring, and downright fun trip so far in my life. I just hope I will be able to encounter amazing trips like this again in the future... preferably far more rewarding, if that is even possible.

So would I go to Sabah again?

Definitely!

Would I climb up Mt Kinabalu again?

A month or two ago, I would have said no :P But going through the photos and walking down memory lane kinda makes me enthusiastic to try it again. My only worry is the weather... else, I'm game! The view is worth the trouble. But not so soon :) Maybe a year or two from now... who knows.

Final thoughts:

A truly enjoyable trip is decided neither by the places you go, nor by the things you do. What truly matters is the people you're experiencing it with. Coz at the end of the day, its the human touch that makes the memories precious and worth remembering. it works both ways... you remember people by the experiences you've had with them... you also remember the experiences in life that you shared with the people that make it worth every second of it.

So did I have an enjoyable trip?

...I'm wondering if I can ever experience another trip that can even remotely surpass this.

G'nite.