Suddenly a total stranger, a foreigner, passed me by. After saying “sun bathing, eyh” he sang the exact lines of a song that crossed my mind at that time:
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray…
And he passed me by while I fake a giggle just to sound friendly and said, it is a lovely sunrise. Hurm...
I was there for the second time, and I can’t be thankful enough. But for a moment there, I forgotten the cold. And all I can remember was the face that I have forsaken. My heart suddenly felt this clenching pain and a few tears came slowly out of my eyes and I quickly wipe them away.
Life (well, my life at least) is like mounting Kinabalu, I guess… every time I see a steep set of steps, I never fail to complain. Although it was in my dreams to be there again, I sigh every time I feel the hardship I have to go through to get to the top.
First day: to Gunting Lagadan
This second time I got to experience another trail—the summit trail via Mesilau gate; a different experience to the first-time experience via Timpohon gate. Different in the sense that less people take this trail, it’s more challenging with its extra 2kilometers and steeper steps. But the view is so much awesome-er… I just can’t stop smiling all the way to Gunting Lagadan...
Second day: to the top, and down
That night, I can’t really sleep. Was thinking too many things, I guess. In my head, I was still Alice falling down that rabbit hole. God knows when I'll hit the ground. I woke up several times and once I thought to myself, the place wasn’t as cold as it was 10 years ago. I took a walk out to the porch and back in to the toilet without feeling a bit too much of freezing. But perhaps that was just my ‘weng’ head talking because at 1:30 am, I decided I can’t take my shower—as I planned a few hours before.
And to my surprise this second time, the trail to Low's peak seemed a bit ‘easier’ (?), should I say that? If it’s not offensive. I was waiting for that big rock that I can’t go pass without almost having a heart attack during my first time, but there was none.
But it was okay.
Going down was err the ‘fun’ part? I used less energy but my knees were having a hard time ‘sucking up the impact’. Back to Gunting Lagadan from the top was too long for my liking. But that was because I have to wait for a friend to pass me my camera. But that’s okay. At least I was able to do that sun-bathing…(refer to first paragraph).
The next trail was towards Timpohon. I partially jogged down… landed ‘wrongly’ a couple of times causing slight pain on my both ankles and both knees. Geez.
One of the things that I love most about climbing this most-climber-friendly-mountain is that most people that you came across are friendly and encouraging. I love the feel it gave me. My heart warms up with all their smiles and words of encouraging.
There’s this one guy though, I remember the most. He was too tall for an average Malaysian man and his face was a bit foreigner-ish anyway so I thought at first that he wasn’t from around here or Peninsular. We both said our hi’s and the usual “huh this is hard but still is an awesome thing to do” lines.
And I asked him where did you enter the trail? Mesilau or Timpohon? He said oh I was from Mesilau. Then I said Oh really? So did I. When did you start? Didn’t see you when I was starting. Then he said Er, I started at 1130 I guess?
And then it hit me, I started at nearly 9, almost 3 hours apart and this guy is surpassing me… And so I commented “well, now I feel discouraged” with a bit of fake giggle. And he continued climbing—too fast for me. Owh he was from KL, didn't expect that too.
Our lives are like that I guess. We go at our own different pace. I shouldn’t feel anything except happiness for that guy for surpassing me. He was more prepared; physically and mentally. He has longer legs. He was better. But that shouldn’t make me feel any worse about myself. Well, I should’ve trained longer though…hah.
Anyway, my point was—I’ll go up/down this trail at my own pace…and the next time I go through a similar trail, I should be more prepared. And stop complaining and sighing when seeing those steep steps. You are after all, climbing a mountain, damn it waz.
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