6th June 2011, woke up as early as 6am in the morning. Got up and get ready for breakfast and the two and half hour car ride to Kinabalu park in kundasang.
Abang was very kind to send us both up to kundasang with his car. He was basically our tour guide for the day. Along the way, he even told us the story of Gunung Kinabalu. How it got it’s name ( although part of it sia lupa sudah,LOL) and other history of sabah. Syiok juga la dengar cerita. Even nama kayu pun abang sia bagi tau kami…LOL!
We arrive at national park around 8 plus in the morning. We first have to register ourself at the registration counter. Got our name register and then proceed with taking a guide up to the mountain who also turn out to be our porter for the day. Yep, we did not carry our bag..we asked him to carry it for us.. don’t think we can survive carrying 7kg bag all the way up. 
After paying Rm136 ( rm80 for guide and Rm56 for the bag, oh 1kg equal to rm8) Abang then sent us to the Timpohon gate. Oh yea, if your family member did not send you to timpohon gate there is a shuttle bus services to send you over but you will need to pay rm16 per way per person! Super expensive yo! We only paid Rm36 because Abang send us over the first trip.
At Timpohon gate, abang bid us goodbye and promise to come and get us the next day. I felt like i was a lil girl whose dad left them at kindergarten that time. I don’t know whether i want to cry, be happy and excited or scare. I seriously don’t know what’s ahead of us. There was so many things playing in my head as soon as i cross that timpohon gate. One of it was..my knee problem. I was asking myself… can i actually survive this climb? What is my knee decided to really go very bad on me?? Can i still walk?
The 1st Km was a breeze for me.. but by the 2km..my knee started to lock up. I can feel the pinch on it but i continue till the 3rd km. We stop for while. Taking shelter from the rain and of cos the pain on my knee. At this point of our journey, i saw the biggest LEECH ever in my whole life and it’s in red color! OMG! Here’s the wiki on this leech Apparently this leech doesn’t suck on human blood but only the giant earth worm in mount kinabalu!! Yes, i also saw the giant earth worm,hahahahha and yup…i squeal whenever i see this earth worm..geli la… here’s another site where you can check this creature out.
After about 20 min rest..we continued our journey up but decided not to stop at KM4. We only rest for 5 min at km5. The more we rest the more i feel it’s hard to keep the momentum of my Heart rate at steady pace everytime after i stop for rest. So in order to feel less pain for the knee and keep the pace of my heart rate steady, we decided to just walk again after 5 min rest at the km5. KM5 was the toughest route i feel of all the route from timpohon gate. The rocky road, the altitude, the wet weather, the knee pain… makes it a lil tough for me. It does really challenge you emotionally,mentally and physically. The last KM before laban rata was the toughest.
But aside from it being tough, i also experienced and offered the most beautiful and gorgeous view that one could ever ask for! I really don’t feel like im in Sabah my very own hometown… the scenery, omg!! Breathtaking! The greenery that was offered to you there… wow!!! I can’t explain… you really need to go up and experience it yourself. I really feel like im almost near heaven! I’m not joking!
If you realize, i never mentioned our guide in this post that’s because we’ve lost our guide! hahahah yes, we literally did lost our guide. He could not be seen anywhere near us..
We reach laban rata at around 2 plus in the evening. It took us 4:19 min to reach laban rata. Apparently, this is super fast for first timer…even our dear tour guide said so. He said our pace a lil toooo fast for first timer…but seriously, we were walking at super slow rate! We were basically dragging our feet on the grown!
Our dear tour guide only turn up after good 40 min upon us arriving at laban rata,LOL! We were freezing to the bone by then…the weather was at 10 degree at the time and all our fresh gear is with our tour guide! To keep ourself warm,( because we were all soaking wet) we have to buy hot drinks and hot maggi mee (instant noodle) and spent like hmm let me see…Hot milo Rm12, Hot Tea ( rm9/10) not the sabah tea because sabah tea is more expensive and maggi mee at rm10/rm12! GILAAAAAA!!! And the food gets cold really really fast too! hahahahahaha… i have to eat super fast in order to get the heat in my body!
The sight of our tour guide was a relief for us. We quickly changed to a fresh gear and get ourself organize at our dorm. If you think we took a shower.. you must be crazy! There was no hot shower for you to get clean at laban rata and if you dare enough to shower at freezing temperature… you can take an ice cold shower that freezes you like in 5 second!
This was the first time in my entire life that i did not take any clean shower after being sweaty and wet from all the trekking! I basically just wipe my body clean and rest in the bed after that and only to get up for our early dinner which was served at 4:30pm till 7pm.
After taking our dinner, we decided to take an early rest because we were required to be up at 2am in the morning the next day. I managed to pop 1 panadol and a pain killer just to relief the next day pain or known as Delay onset muscle soreness.. 
so i could continue my journey the next day. Trust me, the pain killer really help specially if you have knee pain
We did not sleep well that night not because of anything, but the dorm was so stuffy and small. There were 6 bunks in a room… and there was no window or fan for the air to circulate… i have to asked Daniel to let the door open a lil for the air to come in.
By the way, the dorm is no longer equipped with heater, so if you need to dry your shoe up for the next day climb, you will need to pay rm20 for each pair of shoe to your guide so he can send it to a heated room to dry it up for you. Cut throat but you have no choice if you wanna be comfortable for the next day hike. It apply to all things that you want to dry up…even your nurse uniform 
Hmm that was our first day in laban rata. Will be updating again on the second day hike after this. So stay tune for more.
Meantime, here’s our first day hike pictures for you to enjoy.
The night before, packing all our belongings…
The view inside my abang’s car at likas bay! Mount K is calling us
The registration center at kinabalu park.
Before the climb face. Still at kinabalu Park registration center.
Almost starting
KM1
The beginning of the tough terrain kM5 .
The scenery all the way up from KM5 to Laban Rata.
All smiley despite feeling drained out,wet and cold!
The time we did coming from Timpohon all the way to Laban rata.
Yup. That’s it for today peeps. Will continue again soon!
We came, we saw and we conquered! I now am officially a SABAHAN!