Lesson learnt from Mt Kinabalu

As much as it's great to go out there and meet friends, it's not a good time to meet new people climbing Mt Kinabalu, a tough conquest that requires lots of motivation. Here's why...

A brief introduction on the group (not team). From the left:

How Tze: He's from Sabah! Ironically, he has never been to Mt Kinabalu. He's a Hakka, like me! Nice guy!

ME.

Xinyi: My colleague, more of friend.

B: I dunno her and I don't quite like her. (Understatement).

Wing Yee: Nice girl too!

B totally destroyed the trip, and jeopardized the safety of Xinyi and I. From the moment I saw her at the airport (I've never seen her before), I knew she was weird.

- She carried a HUGE luggage for a 5D4N trip.

- Her baggage weighs 17kg.

- She exceeded the weigh limit given by air asia of 15kg.

- We helped her with the limit.

- She didn't thank us.

- She brought only RM120 on a trip overseas.

Upon the 2nd day when we reached Sabah, we went to Mt Kinabalu. I was sooooo freaking excited! Okay more of that some other time. Here's the MOST irritating part.

B totally hogged our guide cos she was soooooooooooooo freaking slow!!! Not to make fun of her or what. But her slowness could be worse than your grandmother. I mean, if you're so weak and slow, don't climb Mt kinabalu la! Go practise Bukit Timah first. Okay. BUT, I was very tolerant. Since she's slow, Xinyi and I proceeded to do the climb by ourselves. We were pretty much okay. Even met a very cute ang moh!!! And many other nice people who wondered why it's just us climbing, without a guide.

So Xinyi and I reached the halfway point rather early. We waited 2 hrs for the others to arrive. We had to wait as they won't know where we're. Our phones didn't work.

4 of us shared a room. I was appalled at how much B brought up the mountain climb! She brought huge bottles of everything! I forgot to mention, she didn't carry her own bag up. She passed it to the guide. Like what the hell right. The poor guide was our porter too. So we paid him to carry some of our stuff. That B didn't pay extra.

So anyway, we embarked part 2 of our climb the next morning, at 2.30am. We stared off well, together. Then B got way too slow. Xinyi, Howtze, Wing yee and I went up by ourselves. It was sooooo dangerous!!! At one point, we had to pull ourselves up, with nothing but just ropes. It was so steep! We didn't have any guide to tell us how to do it, where's dangerous, where's safe to go. NO ONE. We had to rely on other guides!!!

We eventually made it up the summit. Here comes the horror. Coming down part. It was so dangerous. Thank goodness to other guides! I got a personal guide, unofficially loaned by a pair of malaysian sisters. Xinyi had one, from a pair of german cousins! hahahha. We walked with them! I would have slipped and fall so many times, and Xinyi would have fallen off the cliff, if not for our guides.

GUESS WHAT. B insisted on going to the summit. It was already very late, and it started to fog at around mid morning. A lot of people couldn't go up the summit. So they gave up halfway, for safety reasons. But not B! She was so persistent and she made it up to the top. Congrats to her.

We had to rush back, pack our bags, and THEIRS, cos the check out time was at 10am. Any later, they charge a hefty sum. HER BAG WAS SO FREAKING HEAVY. I had to carry them down for quite a distance. I was cursing and swearing. I was such a disgrace. Poor xinyi had to bear with my profanity for the whole trip down to the breakfast area. And by the time we reached the breakfast area, almost all the food were gone. Sian to the max.

We waited a while for them, and finally they arrived. We told them we'll go ahead first. As my unofficial guide told me I'll take 6hrs to go down the summit, given my speed. He told me to faster begin my descend after breakfast.

Xinyi, Howtze and I went ahead. Cos we wanna take our own sweet time walking down. It was rather pleasant with just us. The view was fantastic. We had to quicken our footsteps though at the last 1km. It was almost dark and we had to use our headlights. The final 100m consisted of numerous steps, about 2 storeys worth of steps. We rushed up, despite being damn tired. It's so hilarious that we walked (almost to the point of sprinting) unanimously.

We reached Timpon gate at about 7pm. Slightly earlier than that. We couldn't go anywhere but wait for them. At 8pm (yes 1 hr), we saw lights! We got damn excited to finally go back. But it turned out to be just Wingyee. She paid for portering service down! (yes you can pay someone to piggyback you down if you're injured or tired). Smart Wingyee. B was nowhere in sight.

B refused to be piggybacked down. Before you think she's so persistent (AGAIN) and determined, I think she's just damn kiam siap. It's impossible to wait for her. We were so cold and hungry. We left first. (long story, but we did).

So we got to a hotel, ate and had a nice hot shower. She appeared, at 1130pm. Poor guide!!!!! He looked so shagged!!!! So here's what happened: At the 1km mark, he piggybacked her, on top of our load, and her freaking bag (which she didn't pay for portering). omg and here's the worse part. She actually bargained with him about the fees!!!! He had to agree, if not, it'll take them dunno how many hrs to get out of Mt kinabalu.

AND she didn't tip him!!! All of us had the courtesy to tip him for carrying our bags. When I asked, she said "Oh it's included". RUBBISH. omggggg. If you're thinking, maybe it's cos she didn't bring enough money, we volunteered to lend her some! She should be giving the biggest tip!

- For hogging him

- For him carrying her bag, on top of her portered bag (which was the heaviest)

- For him having to piggyback her down. If she had been like Wing Yee, someone else would have taken over. And our guide would just focus on carrying the portered bags

- For being soooooooooooooo annoying.

At the start of the story, I might have been portrayed as being very mean when I called her slow. But towards the end, if you realized, I'm not the mean person!

p.s. During our planning stage, she was telling us what to do based on her experience with Grand Canyon, like an expert.

p.s.s At the airport on our way back to Sg, her luggage weighted 19kg. WTF.