It was around 8pm when we reached our hostel. Since we would have to wake up at 2am the next day to resume the climb to the summit, we were supposed to sleep early. But, after unpacking our stuff, bathing, and chatting for awhile, it was soon 10pm.. which means I could only get 4 hrs of sleep at most before continuing our journey up the mountain!!

It turned out that it didn’t matter what time I got to bed in the end, because the room without heater is simply TOO COLD to sleep in! Temperature then must have been below zero degree, and my winterwear (+gloves+socks+blanket) wasn’t enough to keep me warm. And so, I spent 3 hr plus fidgeting in bed without much quality sleep.

***

It is 230am, and my friends and I had finished our maggi mee breakfast. We had our bags ready, headlamps strapped onto our heads and were ready to do the 2.6km climb to the top. The way was easy at first, but it got difficult gradually. After what seemed like an endless flight of stairs, we reached the granite part of the mountain (where there isn’t any vegetation). Now, instead of walking on paved steps, we had to walk with our bodies bent forward to lower the centre of gravity (physics!). As most part of the climb was very steep, we often had to use ropes to assist ourselves to ascend.

3-4 hrs after climbing, we’ve finally reached the summit!! But I wasn’t happy. Guess why? Cos.. it was raining rather heavily, and I couldn’t have the opportunity to take pictures with my camera (So you won’t see any pictures of views from the summit). Sounds terrible, when my main objective was to take pictures at the summit, yah? But nevertheless, it was a good experience being able to conquer the mountain.. heh. And then we spent the rest of the afternoon descending the mountain and went back to our hostel in the city.

Ok, since I didn’t manage to get any nice pics at the top, I shall put up some pictures of Kota Kinabalu (city area). Hope you people will enjoy it.

The last pic shows an iconic statue of a swordfish at a turn-about in Kota Kinabalu. At the far end, you could see some "mountain-like" feature. That is actually one of the 5 islands that people go for sea sports (snorkelling, diving, etc).  

Guess that is all for this third instalment. I should be wrapping up the details of my trip with 1 more post soon.. Keep a lookout!