Sabah: The land below the wind

Jesselton is the capital of North Borneo. No, wait....let me try again. Kota Kinabalu (formerly known as Jesselton) is the capital of Sabah (formerly called North Borneo). Yes, it's correct now....

Myself, Saw See, Poh Yong, See Keong, Chui Tee, Long Kin, Boon Hock with Yuen Chee (front)

Anyway, the eight of us flew into Kota Kinabalu on 5 Apr 2008. Our main mission was to climb Malaysia's highest mountain (and, so it seems, South-East Asia's fifth highest mountain). Our appointment with the mountain was made six months ago. My personal goal was to reach Laban Rata but if I could make it to the peak, it would be a bonus.

So we jetted in and went off immediately to the Kinabalu Park, only stopping briefly for lunch in a quaint little town called Tanparuri, to check into the Rock Hostel. Five of us eight had at one time or another worked together in Ban Hin Lee Bank. The five of us go back a long way. Old friends. We knew one another very well.

This hostel had none of the luxury of the Rajah Lodge which I had enjoyed about two years back with another group of friends who were from Singapore. At Rock Hostel, it was four-to-a-room on double-decker beds with no heating but we were prepared to rough it out. Communal bathrooms but they were clean.

Next morning at 8.30am, we began our climb from Timpohon Gate. Interestingly, we were required to descend for about 100 metres but after that, it was up up up all the way.

My wife and I took our sweet time to take in the 6km climb: enjoyed the fine weather, listened to the chirping of birds, marvelled at the changing landscape, amused by Alvin, Theodore, Simon and friends, and appreciated the flowers and plants. As expected, we were the last to arrive at Laban Rata. Time was 3pm.


Much of the terrain required us to climb up knee-high steps or rocks. This wasn't easy on me and I do have problems with my knees, especially the left side. But I've braved it all these years. As I was going up, I was wondering how I would be able to come down. I've heard people tell me that it would be tougher coming down since all the weight would be on the knees and toes. As for my wife, she had an unexpected minor surgery on one of her toes two weeks ago and the wound had not completely healed. So she had to walk rather gingerly.


We took about 6.5 hours to reach the Waras Hut which was about five minutes away from the Laban Rata resthouse. Again, this wasn't a heated accommodation and we had to endure temperatures of about eight degrees at night. I was covered with three layers of blanket and I hardly slept. The wind was howling and the walls were cold. So I made it to Laban Rata after all. My goal achieved. Now, to see whether I could go further. In the meantime, we were all pretty mesmerised by the display of colours at sunset, including the cloud formation. Beautiful.

Is this Mickey Mouse or is it the map of Sabah?

Stay tuned for Part Two.