Finally I'm writing this post haha.

So, actually, before you really hike up the mountain, you would be worried about all sorts of things... Am I fit enough? Can I make it to the top on time? Would I end up being carried downhill by a porter? Do I need to hire a porter? Do I need to shower at Laban Rata? Etc etc...

Now that I've done it... I think I overthink it before this. Haha.

Let me pen down my experience and thoughts before I forget. Maybe it can serve as a note to self if I ever want to go for a second time (I doubt it), or for others who are going for the first time.

Before the climb, we stayed a night at Kundasang, which I hoped would help our bodies to adapt to high altitude. But Kundasang is a rural town, something like Cameron Highlands. So most of the shops close early, and open late. In order to make sure we have breakfast in the morning of the hike, we bought KFC burgers the night before (somehow there were many KFCs in Sabah but only one McD we saw) and just heat it up in the oven the morning of the hike.

After we quickly ate our breakfast and bid farewell to Sabrina, our Kundasang homestay host, we drove around 30 minutes to meet our guide at the Kinabalu Park. We reached there about 8.30 AM.

We met our guide who introduced himself as "Paul". He helped us with the registration. We got our ID tags and our lunch packs. We gave our bags to the porters and some of them rented hiking sticks. For the porter service, we were charged RM13/KG and I think the hiking sticks were rented at RM10/stick. We later found out that the price for the porter was for two-way, which means when we come back down from Laban Rata, we don't have to pay again but we must use back the same bag. After we were all set, we said goodbye to JY because she's not going to hike with us. Then we took a van for around 15 minutes to the starting point of the hike.

At the starting point, in front of a big map of Mount kinabalu trails, Paul gave us a short briefing. The trails were fairly simple, there were only like two places with branch roads and there will be a signage at both of the places. There will only be one guide following us which is Paul himself and he will be following the last person in the group. Another guide was actually our porter who would bring our bags up to Laban Rata and he wouldn't wait for us. So, the group members who are faster can just go ahead without waiting because it's unlikely to lose direction and besides there were many other hikers and guides too.

So we started our hike around 9AM. Oh FML we already had to climb stairs from the beginning =.= I hate cardio exercises because I really suck at it. Maybe because my heart is not used to stress or maybe my mindset does not like stress. So I would stop down to rest once my heart rate becomes really fast or when I'm out of my breath. I guess my other group mates just push themselves and just keep going even though they're breathless. So not even 30 minutes, all my group mates already left me behind.

The last time I saw them =.= until Laban Rata that is.

And because I have history of hypoglycemic episodes during Bukit Gasing training, I paid a lot attention to my heart rate and my body during the hike. Not even 30 minutes, I already started drinking 100 Plus. The guide of another group some more teased me saying how could I reach the top if now already need 100 Plus lol. Haha whatever I just laughed at it and carried on. Sometimes the other guides told me to let my guide help me carry my backpack but I refused because I didn't think I'm incapable of carrying my own backpack up, it's just 3.5 KG. Also I worried that the guide may charge me a fee lah haha but I paiseh to clarify about this.

There were hikers from other countries like Japan, Thailand, China, Germany?? Also along the hike we had to make way for the porters because they're faster than us even though they carry stuffs that weigh around 14 KG and more. I hiked really slow, like every step I took I had to catch a breath haha.. Paul became my personal guide coz my team mates were no where to be seen. But Paul is a quiet person so he didn't talk to me or anything, just quietly followed me from behind. Once in a blue moon, he would tell me that we're going to reach a rest stop / checkpoint. That's it lol.

I think whenever I reached a rest stop I would take less than 5 minutes to rest, just enough to slow down my breath, because they said you would lose the momentum if you rest too long. But anyway I didn't need much rest because I didn't really push myself you see, I just need to slow down my breath. Whenever we stopped at a rest stop, Paul would smoke a cigarette and when I was ready to take off again, he would ask me to go first but slowly because he haven't finish smoking his cigarette. So, I just moved on without him lol I knew he would catch up anyway.

Didn't have any mood to take nice pictures during the hike up to Laban Rata because as I said I was breathless most of the time. Maybe sometimes I felt a bit lonely because I had to hike up myself but most of the time I was focusing on my breath really.

Not all the trails were stairs, some we had to walk on rocks, but still fairly easy.

When I reached Layang Layang rest stop, I stopped for 10 minutes or so to have my lunch. Our lunch pack consisted of a fried chicken wing, a boiled egg, two small bananas and some egg/cheese sandwiches. Nothing fancy, but it's a healthy energy meal and easy to keep in a backpack. I didn't finish all at once because I normally don't like to stuff my stomach until very full. I saved some for the next time I feel hungry. The hike at first was quite normal, nothing memorable.