Alex + Deluxe = Esther

A week after Hephi & Voon’s wedding, it was time for us to celebrate the first of the CG’s babies passing the 1 month marker. 🙂 Esther’s chinese name is Ru Yao so the joke is that I’m “Big Ru” and she’s “Small Ru”.

I dunno about being ‘godmother’ to all the CG babies though, as suggested by some in the group.

“The idea of a godparent came about because converts to the early Christian church were usually adults whose parents were not Christians. The role of godparent was to provide a Christian mentor to help them in their journey as they embraced their new faith.

Over the years the role was refined to a supporting one in which other adults – often, in the Anglican tradition, two of the same sex as the baby and one of the opposite sex – agreed to help the parents instruct and inform their new offspring in the Christian faith. But this role has been eroded, and these days for many families the religious significance of a godparent is less apparent than the honorary status.“

Source: http://www.babyworld.co.uk/information/newparents/christenings.asp#godparents

Yikes, I can’t even manage my own spiritual journey much less mentor someone else’s! 😛

Voon & Hephi

Next of the backlog blog posts, pictures from Voon and Hephi’s wedding. Should be the last of the CG weddings. The focus will shift to baby showers next. 🙂

Semi-pro tour guide

I can’t be bothered to write much at the mo so just some brief updates starting with PC’s recent visit to Kuching where I had to play tour guide.

1. SCV

We were lucky that our visit coincided with those many many groups of rombongan sambil belajar (ie. school field trips). That meant the residents of each House put in extra effort to perform their mini dances and explain their craft. Otherwise, normally you don’t see squat.

2. Annah Rais Bidayuh Longhouse

To me, this was a disappointment. Without a proper tour guide, visitors are basically left to their own devices whilst they wander about the village (which actually consists of at least 2 longhouses and many many many individual houses). There were some banners pointing out various units of interest (eg head house, traditional Bidayuh bilik, traditional sugar cane press) but there were no further descriptions to explain the significance/layout etc of the room/house/press. Given that Annah Rais is heavily promoted as a tourist destination in Kuching, the lack of information at the place itself is very disappointing. Not recommended for independent travellers.

3. Orchid & Pitcher Plant Garden

This place made up for the disappointment of Annah Rais. The variety of pitcher plants is awesome. Pity the orchids weren’t in bloom though. May return when they are to attempt some flower photos. 😛

Mt KK(2) – the ‘During’

It’s actually difficult right now, sitting here in the comforts of home and a month down the road, to properly put down in words the extreme ups and downs that I experienced on the Summit Trail.

I remember the underlying excitement running through the entire group as we packed and had our breakfast that day.

buffet breakfast for champion climbers

Breakfast was also when we learnt that a group of 70 Koreans uncles and aunties would be climbing that morning as well. That worried us no end because we didn’t want to be stuck behind them. They were bound to be slowpoke oldies, so we thought. The stupid, misplaced confidence of youth. 😛 As it turned out, the Koreans were much fitter than us and our head start was reduced to nothing when they steadily overtook us one by one along the way. 🙂

Tip – don’t stuff yourself during breakfast! But make sure you eat enough protein and sugars to have energy to sustain yourself until lunch break.

Tip – if climbing on Sutera Lodge’s package, check with the Hotel staff the night before about your packed lunch or you might discover that they’d overlooked it over those of the tour groups.

The first 1.5KM between Mesilau Nature Resort Operations Room and Pondok Bambu was a ‘gradual’ ascent. At the highest point of this section, we were rewarded with this view:

take a breather to enjoy the views

After that, it was downhill all the way from KM 1.5 to about KM 4.5. Very odd when you think that you’re suppose to be making your way up towards the peak but here you are trekking downhill instead. *shrug*

Tip – buy your walking stick from the operations room for RM5. It is a MUST.

Midway through this sector is also where we paused for lunch. We had sandwiches, sausages, egg(?), a piece of fried chicken, and a can of 100 Plus (God send!). The Koreans on the other hand, had rice and………wait for it…….kimchi!

kimchi kings

told you there were loads of Koreans climbing with us

check out their leg muscles!

Tip – don’t bring a huge water bottle. Just a 500ml one will do, which you can refill at any of the Pondoks along the trail.

This section was more scenic than the first 1.5KM though. We passed several streams and bridges:

time to go a-fishing?

Change in vegetation from tropical to temperate also became more evident:

my fave part of trail

And, with the mist rolling in it was time to bring out the jumpers and wind breakers too:

going, going, gone!

Tip – make sure you carry your jumper in your backpack or you’ll freeze!

By lunchtime, we had trekked for about 3-4 hours continuously. :-S Unfortunately, we were still another 2KM from the intersection point between the Mesilau trail and the Timpohon trail! *double sighs* And, after that we still had another 2KM to go to Laban Rata! *sobs*

It was also from this point onward that I started struggling to keep going. The group had also clearly split into 3 separate packs. The boys way up in front by about 2 hours, Gladys and Ellis in the middle and about 1 hour behind the boys, myself and Dtg at the tail end…a further hour behind them.

Tip for future climbers – make sure your team stays together, regardless of everyone’s climbing speed. Safety is one reason. But it’s also useful to have the faster climbers around to motivate the slower ones to keep going.

To make matters worse, the heavens opened up between KM 6 and KM 5, which turned portions of the trails into mini waterfalls. 😛

Very important tip – pack your poncho in your backpack or you’ll drown as well. 😛

No matter how crap I felt though (and believe me, I felt like chopping off my legs from KM 5 onwards), I knew there was just no turning back. So we just kept pushing each other on…and on…and on. Righteous waited for us at Pondok Villosa and kept us company the last KM, which was fantastic in terms of motivation to keep going. His classic line – yao dao liao, yao dao liao.  Yeah, right. But the lie worked anyway. 😛

Our first glimpse of all the peaks was at this point, where we also paused to enjoy the sunset. 🙂

nearly there...

We reached Laban Rata about 6.30ish pm, some 10 hours after we first set off earlier that morning. Now that I think back, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ellis and Gladys as glad to see us as they were that evening in Laban Rata. *laugh* They really demonstrated the meaning of welcome with ‘open arms’. 🙂 So, we’d made it to Laban Rata at least. After all that, can the final ascent possibly be any worse?

The final ascent to follow…

Mt KK(1) – the ‘Before’

5 months after setting our plans in stone, D-day finally arrived and we found ourselves on MH 0384 bound for Kota Kinabalu.

'I believe I can touch the sky!'

Lis had given me a minor heart attack earlier in the morning when she phoned at 6.30 am bearing the worst possible kind of news – she had missed her flight. >_< But, an hour later we gave her a warm welcoming party at the airport and set off for some food. Food always comforts the stressed soul what. 😉

X, Y and Lis.

I might add that it was round 2 of food for the rest of us as we had earlier killed the 1 hour waiting time by going for dim sum. Ahaks. 😛

KK dim sum beats Kch dim sum hands down!

From there it was an approximate 3 hours’ drive to Mesilau Nature Resort. Our beds for the night were at Witti Lodge No.6 (not No.4 as someone in our climbing party mistakenly thought. Ahem.).

not bad, right?

This is actually my 2nd visit to Mesilau and I was glad to find things were as beautiful and well-maintained as I last remembered.

I can feel the stress disappearing...

The rest of the group were 1st time visitors so it was important to me that they liked the place too, otherwise they’d have my head for overselling it. 😛

the mountain air entrances

As it turned out, no such problems occurred. 🙂 The mountain air sucked them into the magical spell of the place during our pre-dinner walkabout. 😉

non-edible paku

Dinner was ‘alcoholically’ merry and we went to bed in eager anticipation of the climb, blissfully unaware (on hindsight) of the adventure which awaited us…

only carlsberg would do...

The ‘During’ follows next…