YAY!

Back from Mount K Trip since 22nd Nov 2am!

The trip is definitely FULFILLING TO THE MAX! (:
Thanks to 24th Comm, Mr Chin, Ms Yap, Ms Amelia and Mr Lee for making this trip is a very, very memorable one.

Alright, here I shall narrate the whole trip, from Day 1 to Day 5.

Ah, don't know if I have the brain and energy to complete it. Lol.
Sorry if it gets too dry and narrative; bear with me readers!

Day 1 - Our Way to Sabah!
Woke up at wee hours in the morning (at around 3am).

Took a bus to Woodlands Checkpoint then to Senai Airport, boarded Air Asia to Kota Kinabula then took a bus from there to Rose Cabin Lodging.

The whole journey lasted for 8+ hours okay!

I practically slept throughout the entire journey.

Anyway it was my first time taking a plane! Wahahahas, exciting.

Fortunately it didn't have any repercussion on me.

Reached Rose Cabin in the noon and we soon settled down.

Oh yah, the place is like 2000m high!

We even past through clouds and mist!
It was rather cold up there and most of us had to put on 2 layers.
My first time in such a cold environment other than in an air-conditioned room in Singapore.

We rotted the rest of the day again, playing cards, chatting, napping, pillow fighting, standing in the cold, etc.

10pm plus LIGHTS OUT.

Day 2 - Our Way to Laban Rata (3273m high)!
4 mini vans picked us up from Rose Cabin to Base of Mount K - Mesilau Nature Resort (2000m).
And there, we started our trek to Laban Rata!

There are 2 routes for us to trek and Mr Chin chose the much harder way.

Reason because we are ODACIANS. Lol.

We trekked from 8am to around 6pm with a few short breaks in between.

We are standing alongside the clouds!

Felt so tempted to jump onto the bed of clouds. Haha.

The trek was indeed tough and tiring.

But we persevered on and encouraged each other all the way despite we were all feeling drained.

I really love and appreciate this spirit 24th Comm has.
I believe this helpful nature is inborn in every 24th Odacians.

For me, when helping Gina during the trek, I suddenly felt this surge of power in me and I could actually trek more confidently and much easily.

I couldn't explain this phenomenon 'cause I was having quite a lot of difficulty in trekking when I first started.

Maybe it's the sense of responsibility that kept me going and strong. Yeah.

Thanks to Keet as well.

"I don't know why I feel so safe and secure when you are walking in front of me."

This really made me move on and I told myself I must not disappoint anyone, especially myself.

At Paka Cave, after the merge of the 2 routes.

The stretch of rocks (or I called it the "Lion's Den") was really tedious.

The steps you need to take were super big kinds.

I became really breathless.

The more I climb, the more my head was splitting as well.

I think this was the so-called Altitude Sickness.

After 10 steps or so, I had to stop and coordinate my breath before I could continue.

Not even me, but everyone was trying their best to move on.

After seeing Dawn, despite the cramps, so determined and chionged all the way, I felt that I had to buck up.

Only with one goal in mind - Laban Rata.

So I just walked and walked and walked until I could finally smell food.

At that point of time, I felt so damn happy and relieved.

Some people were even moved to tears.

"OMG OMG OMG" was what I could think of upon entering the hut.

Thanks for the hug, Katherine! (:

Okay, that's my Sir. Lol.

A picture of Laban Rata somewhere on the Summit Trail.

Freezing cold - 9 Degree Celsius!

Oh yah, another new discovery about myself!

I'm not afraid of cold actually.

Despite the temperature, I only wore AJ PE tee plus track pants for the trek.

Vincent said maybe my metabolism rate is high. o.O

Seriously, I think it's those fats! Hahahaha. Thanks to them, I could climb w/o shivering!

Day 3 - Our Way to Summit (4095m high)!

I didn't make it to the Summit. ):

After 10-15 minutes of climbing, I gave up and went down to Laban Rata with a guide.

I felt happy and sad that I didn't continue to climb.

Sad because I didn't get to see those beautiful sceneries with my fellow mates.

It was a pity 'cause I already reached 3200m+ high and had only 800+m more to go.

The slopes to the Summit are more challenging as they were much steeper.

Happy on the other hand, because I could never know what would happen to me if I continued.

Maybe you guys can never see me blogging here or what.

At the beginning of the Summit trek, I was already very breathless and having headaches.

I tried to continue but my headache wouldn't go away.

I suspected I had Acute Mountain Syndrome (AMS), which can be deadly.

So I heeded Mr Lee's advice to descend.

And on my way down to Laban Rata, I slipped like 3 times 'cause I was feeling dizzy.

When I got to the hut, I slept and ate till the rest descended.

Congrats to the 19 people who had made it! So proud of you guys!

Some sceneries taken from Summit. Those were real clouds, mind you!

We started to descend at around 11am to the base of Mount K.

I was wearing SJAB Training Camp tee plus tracks pants yet again.

It was raining then and we had a hard time walking down.

The steps were high and the rocks were slippery.

We had to be EXTRA careful while walking down.

And thanks to Yu Rong and Zhi Yan, for helping me down all the way.

My "descending skill" really sucks to the max. Lol.

Finally reached the base at around 6pm and took a bus to Rose Cabin for a 6-course meal.

After which, we took a bus (2 hour ride I think) to KK City.

Slept and rotted throughout the journey.

The sky was dark and I couldn't even see the front and side of the roads at times.

Scary...

Day 4 - Our Day @ White Water Rafting!
We stayed in Trekkers Lodge in KK City for the remaining days.

There, something disastrous happened.

About 7 or 8 people began to fall sick.

Diarrhea, vomit and fever.

Hmmm, I know it is like very bad to say people la, but that was my first time seeing so many people falling sick at the same time.

It was due to food poisoning. Yup.

So in the end, around 20 people or less went for the White Water Rafting.

We spent almost 8 hours back and fro.

Took 1 and half hours for the bus ride and another 1 and half hours for the train ride.

First time taking a railway train!

It was like sitting on the MRT, except that the train was more unstable and slower.

Played cards with the usual Kakis on the way. Lol. Addicted I guess.

My first white water rafting experience!

The rafting took around 45 minutes and the experience was great!

The more exciting rapids are Head Hunter and Scooby Doo.

Eh, my vocab very limited la.

So all in all it was fun, something you can't experience in Singapore River la! (:

My raft mates! Katherine, Wan Qing, Nigel, Wei Cheng and Mr Chin.

Shaam and friends!

RongJie and friends!

Eugene and friends!

After we got back to Trekkers Lodge, we got to know the bad news that Veron and Ms Yap were sent to hospital for observation.

Everyone got worried.

Keet, Mei Hui, Vivian and I stayed back to help the casualties while the rest went to dao bao food for us.

After that, Rong Jie was being sent to hospital as well.

Marcus and Shaam went to a clinic I think.

Hmm, everything was in a chaos but everyone just did what they could to help each other.

Then at around night time, everyone was okay and the 3 of them came back from the hospital.

Thank God everyone was well again after the injection.

So Katherine, Mei Hui, Wan Qing, Wei Cheng, Yi Hang and I stayed in our room and played cards till midnight before we turned in.

Day 5 - Home Sweet Home!

Woke up at around 745am with Wan Qing whinning! Wahahahas. So funny.

A lot of people went to our room and tried to wake her up. Haha.

Had breakfast and Mei Hui, Nigel, Wei Cheng and I officially became the dish washers. Lol.

Packed our bags and dumped in our room before going to the guys' room for a debrief.

The sharing session lasted for around 2 hours.

It was filled with laughter, emotions, memories and etc.

Some words left me reflecting and agreeing, while some left me sobbing away.

What Ms Yap said really really impacted me. She rocks!

People like Eugene, Yi Hang also blew me away with their sharing.

I am glad that Odacians, especially the guys, are so sensible and mature.

After which, we had a mini celebration of Nigel's birthday (20th NOV)!

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY MARIA!

Mr Chin thought it was MY birthday. -.-

The beach outing was cancelled due to unpredictable weather.

So we all went to shop at KK City.

First is KK Plaza, where the girls wasted our time walking aimlessly and deciding to eat or not.

Then after an hour or so I think, we headed to Centre Point, the biggest shopping mall there.

We just walked and looked and walked and looked.

Seriously, who says the girls are shopaholics?

Please la, Odac guys are so much better okay?

They bought a lot of nice and cheap souvenirs.

At least they had something to give to their family and friends and themselves.

Should have stick together and shop as a whole. Lol.

Anyway, after the girls reached Centre Point, we met the guys.

They told us that Ms Yap went to this saloon for a wash and blow, and it only cost 5 RM!

OMG, fascinated, all of us headed there.

I think the hairdressers were kinda shocked to see so many people at one go la!

Them cutting and washing their hairs!!

The only girls who didn't do their hairs. Lol.

We spent more than an hour in there.

By the time all were done, it was almost 6pm.

So, we did minial shopping and had to go back to Trekkers Lodge almost empty handed.

Okay, at least I bought a Mickey Mouse watch at 10 RM, 1 box of Sabah Tea, 1 bottle of Chewing Gum and 1 pack of Dried Mango. Haha.

Once everyone had returned, we took a bus to Kota Kinabalu Airport.

Us at the airport!

Lao Ba acting cool!

I bought some stuff at the airport, which included 3 notebooks, 1 pencil holder, 1 piggy bank (made of wood).

Wanna get Tee-Shirts but it's rather expensive la.

Boarded the plane at 10pm due to some delays and played cards yet again with Katherine, Vivian and Rong Jie.

Reached Senai Airport at 12am or so and took a bus to Woodlands Checkpoint.

YAY, Home Sweet Home at around 2am!

This ends off my fun and fulfilling 6D5N Mount K Trip!

Really wanna prolong the trip. Lol.

I really love the bond that we fostered during the trip and the many first-experiences I had.

Human body can vulnerable, but not his spirit.

Thanks once again for making this trip a very special and memorable one for me.

Thanks for all the concern and stretching-out-of-helping-hands.

I grew to become a stronger and a more responsible person!

This will definitely be one of the greatest takeaway in my JC life.

I

.

LOVE

.

ODAC!

Hmm, I guess I will blog about my Clay Target Shooting experience tmr or what.

This post is toooooooooooo long already! Lol.
Tata.

Every step you take is unique and different from the previous one.