Another long awaiting post. Warning: Very long length post.
I know, you know. I am busy, ya-da ya-da.. ya-da ya-da.
Well, enough excuses and why not we just head over for the majestic Mount Kinabalu photos because this is going to be another worth reading travel post (I wonder, is there any unworthy blog post that I’ve ever posted? Never!)
If you still remember in my first few posts about my Sabah trip (which I didn’t expect you will because that was like so long ago.. -_-), you might be aware that my family, relative and I were staying in Kota Kinabalu, the city of Sabah. We stayed 2 nights at the same hotel in KK (Kota Kinabalu) before moving to Kudasang. You might want to find out what had happened in the 1st day and 2nd day if you have missed those posts. (WARNING: Never miss any post of mine, you get what I mean? NEVER! Because you’re risking your daily dose of happiness. Or maybe weekly.. lol)
Ok. Back to our main business.
Journey To The Goddess Mountain
#Morning at Kota Kinabalu Hotel
First of all, I would like to highlight the number of hours we had spent in that journey from Kota Kinabalu to Kudasang, which was our 2nd stop. It took about 6 hours with the help of GPS to reach the foot of Mount Kinabalu (I wasn’t sure it is exactly the foot. Well, since Uncle Khoo told me it is, than it is). We woke up early in the morning, about 6.30 am; me being the leader of the room leaded the whole plan – take bath and luggage packing plan.
Overall, the plan was a success. My cousins and I did a quite good job (to show to the adults that we can take care and handle things ourselves. Woo hoo!
That made us depart early. Oh ya. Have I told you about the day time in Sabah? It is earlier compare to the West Malaysia – like 2 hours in advance? Same thing goes to the night time. The day become dark at around 6.30pm. That’s mean, I have to sleep early and wake up early. Ah Man… =_=
My breakfast in the hotel breakfast buffet. You need fruits to help you in digestion especially during travel because you will tend to drink less water while traveling.
Anyway, that is not a problem because I am good with adaptation (muahaha).
Uncle Khoo rented 2 cars for travel purposes from a good friend of his. So, my parents, Ary, Alice and I travelled in the same car – WAJA. As usual, the 3 of us were busy joking, singing and dancing animatedly in the car (with and without background music). That is the dynamic of the cousin-ship. It happened whenever we were together – when grandma was not around. Or else, we will be labeled as ‘siao zhar bo’. Lol..
There is a new behaviour formed among the 3 of us. Wait, it’s 2. There are new emerging photographers in the group and they are Ary and I… *applause*
Did this spontaneously.
Mum treated us with these Connetto ice-cream. Which hand is mine? The first 2 who manage to guess it correctly will get a free Connetto ice-cream from me. Wahh… =D
Ever since the 2 of us start owning a digital camera, the craziness of photo-taking never miss a beat whenever there are enough battery and memory saving. This what I call, ‘The Now Phenomenal”. wtf..
#Hey UMS – UNFAIR leh!!!
Along the way, we did drop by Yayasan Sabah building (I wonder did I write the correct name?) and UMS – University Malaysia Sabah. Seriously, UMS is a beautiful university. In fact, it should be the most appealing university. Firstly, it is a brand new university (much younger than University of Malaya ok). Secondly, the architecture design, the colour and the view are marvelous (don’t compare it with UM ok. Hmpm). Next, it has the most spectacular view. This university is surrounded mostly by sea. That means, you can see, smell, hear and touch the beach and sea water whenever you want.
Only a picture was taken when I was in UMS because we were rushing to reach our destination early.
Unfair! Unfair! Why UM don’t have this scenery but only a bunch of civilize monkeys. Yes, civilized monkey which can steal laptop chargers, handphone, bra, instant noodle & etc. These are so far the record of the missing objects that I had heard of when I saw still staying in the hostel. Don’t pray pray ah.. =_=
Ok lar.. It’s my wrong too because I didn’t apply UMS at all So, I can’t complain anything about the ‘unfairness’. Yes?
So, after the 15 minutes tour in UMS, we soon, headed to our destination: Kudasang. It was a long journey from UMS to Kudasang. At first, the scenery did fascinate me as the view of flora and fauna are so wonderful. Besides, I love the clear cloudy sky and green. You can’t find this in Kuala Lumpur as it is too congested with sky-scrappers, vehicles and people.
Somehow, the repetition of the similar scenery and the long hour of car moving slowly rocked me to sleep, joining my other 2 cousins who had fallen asleep much earlier than myself. We were physically tired, as a result of too much outdoor activities at Pulau Manukan.
Also, we played like mad the other night with our video recording project.. Shhhh… this is a secret. Keep it.
Thus, good reason for a short nap in the car right?
# Pekan Nabalu
Well, I did wake up once in a while in order to make sure that my dad wasn’t fall asleep (who was also the driver). The whole journey was quite before dad saw the name of ‘Pekan Nabalu’ curved on the board.
We had another stop here for rest, lunch and mini shopping. Well, there wasn’t much stuff you can get here, other than pineapple, dried food and honey.
While the adults were busy doing their shopping, Ary, Alice and I took this chance to run up the mini tower. It was located in the middle of the big road.
From this tower, we could see the whole Pekan Nabalu – which is actually quite small. At the same time, we could see fogs almost everywhere. Remember, when you see fogs, it indicates the weather is cold. That’s right, when you can see fogs in those pictures, that shows the temperature too. Chilling air... =)
To be frank, I love this place. I love the scenery, the air, the trees and the endless of bird chirping as well as bugs buzzing sounds.. It’s like listening to a full piece of Sonata pieces.
This place has convinced me that something even spectacular is going to show up when we travelled even further up the mountain; and I was right.
# Kudasang – The Perkasa Hotel
It took about another 1 and a half hour to reach Kudasang with the car air-conditioned being shift off. The whole journey was filled with only the natural O2 (and ours CO2 of course). You could spot Orang Asli housing area along the road – just like when you travelled up the Cameron Highland in Pahang.
Kudasang is even a colder place. My body might be frozen if I didn’t equip myself with a long sleeve shirt, a pair of long pants and a warm jacket. I am lucky to bring them seriously. Well, I have a weak body. I cannot stand extreme weather – not too hot and not too cold. I wonder how am I going to experience a snowing area with this type of adaptation.. I wanna play with snowman. haiz.. =_=
Uncle Khoo had made an early booking in one of the finest hotel in Kudasang and it is called the Perkasa Hotel. The 3 of us (the so called children lah, who else?) screamed and yelled in excitement when our hotel room was unlocked for the very first time.
“WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! THIS ROOM IS BEAUTIFUL!!!”, we chorused together.
Again, Ary and I were rummaging around in our bags for cameras.
A LCD TV hanging on the wall man!
Notes: Not a 5 stars hotel but the atmopshere has already made these kids happy =D
Well, this is totally an healthy habit because that is why you can see all these pictures in my blog. Not an annoying habit k? *showing high mode of self-defense mechanism*
It’s true what! *firm tone*
This is how we transformed ourselves before we decided to go out for a chilling walk. Look like winter.. =P
# The ‘gruuu-gruuu’ night.
In the end of the day, the 3 of us decided to sleep early because we will see sunrise from our room windows. This is the main purpose on why we come to Kudasang and booked these 4 rooms in Hotel Perkasa. Uncle Khoo (who had been here before) wants us to enjoy the never-will-be-forgotten-scenery. Thus, we don’t wanna miss any chance in capturing this soon-to-be historical moment.
We went to bed when the Titanic ship has just hit on the enormous iceberg. It was about 11.40pm. We were watching Titanic movie half way, but forcing ourselves to end the pleasurable moment earlier before our parents come knocking our door, asking us to sleep.
Well, we thought we could very fast fall asleep with our tired body and mind. We really thought so. However, no one ever predicted that our stomachs stopped us from entering our dreamland early. Guess what? They screamed and cried hysterically for food!!!!
“GRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuu!!!”
The scary thing was, each of us could hear our neighbours’ rumbling stomachs. If you haven’t realized, the 3 of us were sleeping together on a combination of 2 single beds. Alice was the one who slept in between me and Ary, and she could hear very clearly on our stomachs.
The persistence sounds of our crying stomachs followed by giggles from the 3 of us didn’t last long because the next 10 minutes, I gave up with our unstoppable noises by asking the very basic question.
“Want supper?”
Immediately, the 2 of them jumped out from the bed with an even louder laughter and heading to food. We were still laughing over our silly stomachs. Lol. Unfortunately, we didn’t store any food in the room. No milo, no bread and no biscuit. All we had were the Nescafe 3 in 1 packet and Sabah tea provided by the hotel. Oh ya, and some packets of Malaysia Airline roasted peanut.
Well, we were left with no choice. What else can we have other than caffeine drinks and junk food? Sob… We didn’t wanna wake our parents. No no.
I guess, the caffeine drinks were working because we didn’t sleep right after the s0-called supper. Instead, we spent some minutes cam-whoring on the beds. We wanna recorded this meaningful yet silly moment. Lol..
Lesson: Always store some food in your luggage/travel bag. You don’t know when you need them.
The 2 of them slept right after the cam-whoring session, leaving me alone in the reality land. I couldn’t sleep. The mild Nescafe drink had kept me away from joining my both cousins.
# The Distressing Moment.
I guess, I could only steal not more than 4 hours of sleep before my N-eggie started singing my favorite song “Way Back To Love”, indicating that the sun-rising moment was going to happen soon.
It was 5.30am and the sky was still dark. I pulled away the thick, heavy curtain so that I could see the sky dark sky clearly. The wee hour was extremely cold. The cold air which rushed in through the narrow gap between the windows chilled my spinal cord.
“Emmm…. no hints on where the sun will rise”, I whispered silently to myself.
Before I decided to return to the warm, comfy beds, I heard a tiny sound of foot steps from next room and a light knock on the connecting door (Did I tell you, the rooms were connected? Sorry if I have forgotten). It was Uncle Khoo.
I was told by him that we were going to watch Mount Kinabalu from our room, not sunrise. Weird, did I hear the wrong thing? I thought all of us were expecting sunrise. Anyway, it is still great for me because I have never seen Mount Kinabalu for real!
We waited for another half an hour, witnessing the sky moderately getting brighter. Still, no sight of Mount Kinabalu. All I could see was the thick, white clouds, waltzing in front of me. Another 20 minutes passed, still no sight of the mentioned mountain.
In the end, Uncle Khoo announced, “Kelly, I don’t think we are going to see the peak as it is almost 7am. The receptionist said it is impossible to see the peak with these thick clouds especially during December. Maybe we should go to bed to have another hours of sleep”.
Gosh! No sunrise and no Mount Kinabalu?! I don’t wanna go back with disappointment. I want to see the mountain. I want to witness the mysterious scenery like what I heard from my friends.
I secretly revenged over my uncle’s suggestion. I didn’t move an inch from my seat which was placed beside the wide window. My determination was quite high at that particular moment. Although my brain was blank as a result of lacking of sleep, still, another part of me wanted to wait for miracle to happen. I didn’t know how high my possibility in meeting the mountain.
I had no idea. All I could do is to pray, wait and pray and wait for a fairy to come to make my wish comes true.
At the same time, I did tweet this whole moment. If you had followed my twitter on that day, you would have experienced your twitter timeline being flooded with my waiting-for-miracle-to-happen moment. I was very hopeful at that moment when everyone was sleeping soundly.
# MIRACLE HAPPEN!!! MOUNT KINABALU =D
Well, I guess you know what was going to happen next since you have read my blog post title and seen the gorgeous photo of Mount Kinabalu. Yes! My prayer had been heard and responded.
MIRACLE DID HAPPEN!!!
If you could get this ending, you’re a sensitive person – which is good =)
I COULD SEE THE MOUNT KINABALU FINALLY!!!!
Isn’t it gorgeous?
What a splendid scenery. Oh my. I have never seen anything as impressive as this. I must have been dreaming… *knock knock*
Within a second, my uncle, who was still awake ran over to our room and wake the rest of the children (Ary and Alice) with an excited tone. “Wake up! Wake up! See the Mountain dear…”, he shouted animatedly.
Immediately, I called my parents too who was in another room. Within 2 minutes, the whole families were awake, including my grandma to welcome the arrival of the Mount Kinabalu.
I feel like saying, “Your highness.. welcome to the family”.. Lol.. this is crazy.
Again, Ary and I were busily snapping pictures in almost every corner (wherever we could get). Not a minute was wasted because the peak was easily being covered by the thick clouds. Well, we were lucky because the wind was quite strong in which it carried the clouds away in a faster speed before Mr Sun came out.
I heard from uncle that the mountain will be covered by the clouds again when the sun is getting brighter and warmer. It will roughly at about 10am. Also, it is a time where all the Mount Kinabalu hikers should leave the mountain because it is the most dangerous moment when thick clouds and fogs conquer the whole area. You might have difficulty in finding way to walk back home.
Wooooooooooooooo~
Isn’t it sounds scary? Somehow, I wish to climb the majestic Mount Kinabalu one day with my cousins and friends. It must be a fun experience!
Ary told me the same thing too. She wishes to plan a trip to climb the mountain one day when she is financially stable. Oh dear.. I can’t wait!
You might be asking, why I called it the Goddess mountain or the Majestic mountain. Uncle Khoo has told me that if you make a wish in front of this mountain with sincerity, your wish will come true.
Well, I did make 3 wishes.
Not going to reveal. Nop. *zip my mouth and fingers*
The moral of the story:
a) Never give up until the end of the battle.
b) ‘There can be miracle when you believe’. (A big thank to Mariah Carey and Whitney Housten for the ‘When You Believe’ song. It kept on playing in my mind when I was waiting for Mount Kinabalu. Thank God for the wonderful moment or else, this wouldn’t be a happy ending post).
*wink*
;)