Sabah 2015: The People. The Climb. The Mountain

home is behind

the world ahead

there are many paths to tread

through shadow

to the edge of night

until the stars are all alight

mist and shadow

cloud and shade

all shall fade

all shall

fade

this is indeed a very special post to me. i'll try my best to describe the details of our climb to the peak clearly. maaaan, i wish each and every one you guys can experience this chance of a lifetime

we started off at about 9.30 in the morning. it was a bit late due to some technical problems nonetheless the weather was incredible on that morning. and yeahhh, i was mentally and physically prepared for the journey. 

off we go

at 1km, all of us were still hyped up

at 1.5km still full of energy

meh, baru 2 km

time jalan ramai ramai dalam group takde la rasa macam pancit ke apa. sebab borak borak then sedar dah sampai km 2.5km. all us were like "eh, laju jugak kita jalan!" 

                    meet the fellowship of kinabalu : azri azrie anis amin and amir aka afgan

with both azrie and azri

still going strong ayy mate at 4km!!

semua excited jumpa air terjun along the way

heheh, the trail keeps getting higher and higher and yeah i was not an athletic person. kaki dah lemau so makin slow la berjalan. lol. i kept on bumping into stairs. many stairs. i was practically crawling up the stairs like a gollum sebab makin pancit. memang merangkak ah sebab dah agak penat time ni. and the boys jalan dulu lah. yeah, i would rather follow my own pace. so i crawled up the stairs slowly till i met the junction

spot amin in this picture

i've reached the junction!!! finally!! another 2km and then laban rata. muka excited jumpa signboard!

there it is. 4.5km yaww!

i continued walking alone, having deep thoughts along the journey to laban rata. and yes the exhaustion kept haunting me. tu la time orang suruh training for fitness kau jadi chipsmore, masa ni la baru nak menyesal. heh. nevertheless, i kept on walking till i reached 5km

heheh. soooooooooo laban rata is still not that far aite??  on my last 1km my judgement was clouded, i was drowsy most of the time. boleh pulak main stop stop pastu amik port nak lelap jap. lol. at about 5.30 ish i arrived at laban rata.

finally, sampai pun ke first stop. i was sleepy as f at this time. btw, credits to ustaz mizra for taking this picture.

we departed at 2 am ish for low's peak. it was freezing at that time. and yeah, since the altitude keeps getting higher, the oxygen concentration decreases. i had to take  big gulp of air for every few small steps. up up and away we go. the trail was more steeper and there were times when we have to use the white rope as guide. i was gutted that i hadn't took much pictures during the early morning climb. the view are to die for. you could see how freaking far up you've been at that time.

fatigueness was catching up on me after three hours of constant walking. makin lama makin kecik aku langkah. there were times when i was barely able to walk. so berhenti jap, golek golek atas batu, counting stars. at about 5.30 am i checked in at sayat sayat. it was quite late though. tapi nak buat macam mana my pace was slow as siput. time ni boleh nampak dah lights from a few person yang set set awal dah sampai kat low's peak. i was like, maaaan, will i ever reach the freaking low's peak before sunrise. dah lah pastu kena tinggal dengan porter. so jalan la sorang sorang. dengan sejuk yang sampai ke tulangnya, bukan takat hidung berair mata aku pun dah bergenang sebab rasa macam jauh gila lagi. i fucking cried alone in the dark! typical act of zafirah jamal la ni. dramatic. lol. time tu pikir, fine, aku duduk diam diam ah kat batu ni tunggu dorang turun.

but then the realization hit me hard. i've practically spent almost 2k for this trip. wtf zaf! berapa langkah "je" lagi. so i wiped my tears and hingus and continued walking up to low's peak. otw up i bumped into few of my teamates yang dah start turun semula ke laban rata. nevermind then, i gotta finished what i started ye dok?? the following incident was the highlight of my walk to low's peak. cerita dia begini sebenarnya, the coldness made both my hand fugging numb. memang time ni gigi pun dah vibrate cam apa je. sejuk bakhang i tell ya. aku, masih gigih nak panjat ke low's peak tarik la tali putih tu konon nak buat support la sebab batu tu a bit high and steep. sekali amik kau, my fugging kasut getah tercabut sebelah and i almost lost my grip. ohh great, tangan kebas and kaki tergantung kat batu! i was like, this is it. i won't ever reach low's peak.  so since this is definitely not a fairy tale, if you lost your shoes there will be no the king above the clouds to get it back to you. so i slowly descend to the celah batu batu untuk amik semula kasut and at that time i was seriously thinking of quitting. so dalam 5 minit jugak kut duduk bertapa celah batu mengenangkan nasib. #dramaqueen. azri and nisa yang nampak incident ni dari bawah dah pikir macam macam. lol.

but this girl is ain't no quitter, i get my arse up and continued my climb. many thanks to people i met along the last 30 steps to low's peak for the support.  alhamdulillah though it was quite late i managed to reach low's peak at 7 i guessed. the sun was shining gloriously  above the clouds. tskk tskk. terharu doh time sedar yang i finally reach the peak. this daughter of cikgu wan and teacher norafidah had conquered the great mount kinabalu. ecececehh

ridiculously waiting for help from eagles of middle earth to bring me down to laban rata. gahhh

the mountain

with ramzee yang setia teman time turun dari low's peak sampai laban rata. heheh. goyang lutut bila tengok bawah. 

sooooo. i hope this post will somehow inspire you guys out there to get your arse up and embark on a journey and keep on pushing your limits. this is by far the most challenging event i've joined so far. honestly saying, i did doubt my ability at first. but yeah, belum cuba belum tahu kan? and if any of you would like to know more about my adventure just leave a comment. i'll try my best to answer them.

till then.

*thanks to jv and azrie for the pics 

Sabah 2015- The day before The Climb

our journey to kundasang took about two hours from KK if im not mistaken. upon arriving at kinabalu park the person in charge settled our hiking administrative stuffs and the rest enthusiastic fellas took pictures at the famous kinabalu park landmark

from left: puteri, fatin, JV, nad, kok wei, anis, siti, wani and kak hafizah

meet aida, jv, mimie , anis, nisa and fatin

azrie and the girls

after lunch at pekan kundasang we shoot of to mesilau nature centre where we stayed during the night before the climb. just so you know there's two track available. we choose the mesilau trail since the track is friendlier (?) to those who aren't fit enough. though we have to walk for extra 2km the view was breath-taking. that i can assure you.

muka excited esok nak naik gunung

with cik pengarah anis syahira and jv

and our journey continues in the next post

Sabah 2015- Menggapai Kinabalu (Intro)

earlier last semester, i had joined this menggapai kinabalu(MK) project. basically the highlight of this project is to go climb the great 4095m mount kinabalu in sabah. 

it all started the moment i first registered to kolej kediaman kinabalu during minggu haluan siswa. the college master gave a short glimpse about this project and by that time the realization hit me, i have to seize the chance offered to me self. later on without further considering the pros and cons(if any) i joined the organizing committee. at first it was hell, i was assigned as the fund and sponsorship bureau and yeah i never had the experience of handling such responsibility. time sekolah dulu acah acah je kalau bab jadi organizing committee ni. 

for the next three months i get through my shizz doing the best that i could. enough with this boring shizz. now lets get to the interesting part.

oh before that, lets meet few of the familiar faces which will frequently appear in my next post

 meet the  MK14/15 organizing committee

my fund and sponsorship teamates 

and off we go the kota kinabalu

we flew to kota kinbalu on the 25th of january. Everybody were so pumped up for the next few days there in sabah. Upon arriving at sabah we held a short so called motivational programme with the pre university students in smk putatan. Maaan, those students were soooo enthusiastic. Aku pulak yang ter-culture shock time awal awal handle the activities. 

On the next day we packed up our stuffs and went to kundasang where the great mount kinabalu was located. Two days were spent on climbing the great mountain, the highest in south east asia as i recalled. 

*i'll write a special post bout the climb to the mountain

*picture credits goes to publicity bureau