Wednesday, November 28, 2007

alright shall update on my life before more activities come in and i forget all about what had happened. there's clay shooting and badminton bbq to talk about. but lets start with mount k trip. there were many times that i just feel so lazy to blog about it but whenever i see the photos, somehow there's an urge to make me blog about it.

so this is going to be a super duper long entry. read it only if interested eh! (: will add in the photos between these paragraphs tomorrow.

first day 16nov
alright. we went back to school and did the final bag check in school before we slept over in the mph. the rest had a game of volleyball, while we had rounds of asshole daidee before we turned in for the night.

however, didnt really sleep because i was spending 1hour talking to yunlin who was just beside me. it was nice talk to round up the whole year events. (: then she went off to sleep while i was still having random thoughts on everything else.

then something just made me open my eyes and found meow ghimmy qia not asleeeeep yet! hahaha so i rolled over and joined them. we laughed and talked and laughed for almost an hour plus. qia became high and started to do many weird things to ghimmy. hoho. everyone became tired soon after.

second day 17nov
had to wake up at the weeeeeee hours of the morning. we broke up into groups and sat the van which brought us to senai airport in malaysia. it was a nice ride cos it was early in the morning and the traffic was smooth. we had our super early breakfast at senai airport also.





explored the super small airport for awhile before we boarded the plane. sat with huiwen and yihang weicheng on the other side. it was a 2hour plus flight and we spent the first half and hour or so playing the suan ming game. omggggg weicheng one is damn zhun can.

slept for the rest of the flight to replenish my forgone sleep. then we boarded a big bus which brought us to rose cabin, somewhere 1000m plus above sea level. spent most of the journey talking to yihang and trying to contain my vomit. hahaha then i went off to sleep again. woke up and found myself in cold air. brrrrrrrr.



had dinner and all the girls shared a room where we further divided into 2 groups. slept in the bigger room with ghimmy meow qia huiwen vivian zhiyan yurong keeeeet. but the damn heater wasnt working and we had a broken window. great!

we had 10hours of freee time. people crammed in our room and played card games while kat and i went out to the balcony and look at the scenery. we stayed in the cold for i dunno how long. hahaha walked around the whole place and took many silly photos also. :p





















it was already pitch dark by 6pm and you can hear the wind howling like some scary movie. and mind you, its the wind thats howling not animals! had dinner before we did our final packup and slept.

third day 18nov
breakfast at 7am and broke into vans which brought us up to melisau resort where we started our hike. it was somewhere at 2000m already. okay, that was when my torture started....

the hike started so abruptly, despite we had done some of our own stretching but i wasnt prepared mentally! okay, it was still bearable in the beginning then i started to break out in sweat, cold sweat. i could only hear myself panting like some pig and i was breathing harder each step i took. it was cold.



people around me started to take notice of me and tried to keep me warm. zhiyan lent me her rain jacket, vivian lent me her gloves when my fingers started to freeeeeeze. my partner allister rongjie took turns with my bag and they distributed the load.

i was carrying nothing else except my own weight and everyone else's encouragements. if not for them, i would have died along the trek. i could feel that every breath i took was taking away the energy i needed for each step. every time we took a break i just feeel like crying when they asked if i was alright.

i am alright. but i wasnt even fit enough to say i am. i really wanted to carry on but i couldnt. i was a lament right from the start. we could have summmitted long before 6pm and allister would not have such bad cramps if he hadnt wait for me every now and then.

it was a 8km trek, the gradient was torturing especially when it came to the last few km. i felt myself falling and breathing so hard. it was getting colder. they put me infront but i ended up at the back again because i can hardly move 10 steps at a go. i had to stop and breathe real hard every odd steps.













thank god/shen/mother nature/whatever that ms yap was with me all the way up. though i know it was impossible for her to blame me or whatever. but her simple words of encouragement really want to make me cry. i wasnt being emotional but because i had such selfish thoughts about odac before the trip yet at that time, everyone showed me their concern which made me felt like a jerk. a big asshole.

anyway i felt so guilty towards ms yap as well. she was experiencing AMS nearing the end yet, i couldnt bring my legs to move faster. i know she was having dizzy spells and she was cold. she was wearing shorts while i was wearing track. i wanted to move up faster but my body didnt allow me to. the top of the slope seems so far everytime i looked up. i could see her shivering yet i couldnt do anything to help.

finally after what it seemed like million of years, i smelt food and saw buildings. we have reached laban rata resthouse (3927.7m) though it wasnt the summit but it was a feat, it was an achievement for my physical/mental limits. i was the last one to reach. everyone else were resting and warming up inside. meow ran out to bring me in.

she was going "wanqing wo men dao le! EHHHHHHHH ni kan! you yan leh! *started to blow out the air and see the smoke* ni kan ni kan!" i could still picture out so clearly. i couldnt do anything but only smiled at her. i could feel the tears coming up. i went in and most were in the daze and some were congratulating each other. i bet those angmoh there must have think we are crazy.





had no appetite actually. mountain food is sure expensive but the portion was extra extra large, it was practically catered to the caucasians la. and all the food were brought up by human labour, it was really worth spending that amount of money.

shared a room with the same group of people and the stupid heater is seriously not working but thank goodness the room wasnt that cold as rose cabin. we had debrief before lights out. omg mrchin asked me to share my experience. i had so much to say but whenever i wanted to speak up, i was choking on my tears.

it became worse when i told mrchin that i wasnt going for the summit climb the next day. i dont know how to put it. it was the goal of every odacian right from the start - to see the sunrise at the summit. that was our goal but when i had to struggle and made my mind not to go for it, it really pained my heart. so much more than the torture that i was put through for the whole climb. it was really heartache.

forth day 19nov
woke up with the rest and see them off for their summit climb. they were all geared up, head torch, beanie, fleece, longjohn. i did not have the chance to wear that. now to think of it, kinds regretted not taking a photo in my beanie la. imagine wearing that in singapore, people think i siao. haha.

while the rest were climbing up, me qia dawn stayed in rose cabin where we had our super early breakfast at 3am. suddenly ghimmy came back, she was covered with sweat la and was dizzzzy too. omg scared me to death la. brought her back to the room to rest and dabao the food up for her. luckily she was better after drinking something. after which, we decided to turn in.

meanwhile, 3 more came back too. jocelyn russell and gina. haiiiiiiiii the summit climb was sure more tedious that the climb itself. only 19 out of 25 of us made it up! but im still as proud of them who made it up! nice job 24th! (: meow! (:

the summited people came back at 9 plus. while the 5 of us went out to welcome the rest. (: it was 5-6 hours descend after which. we were trekking in the rain for the last 2-3 hours. and i guess thats why many started to fall sick the next day.

went back to rose cabin for dinner and off we went back to the foot of the mountain. checked into trekkers' lodge in kota kinabalu. most of them went to have kfc for supper while meow huiwen and i went for bak kut teh but only meow and i were eating. haha bought cup noodles back for qia ghimmy vivian yunlin.

shared a room with ghimmy meow qia! (: couldnt sleep initially, talked for awhile before we decided to turn in for the night.

fifth day 20nov
happy birthday nigel! (:

many woke up feverish, vomitting, diarrhoea-ing. i wonder if its the kfc fault. everyone looked so listless on the way to the train station. the train was late and we had to wait for slmost an hour. rongjie threw up at the station.

a handful of them who wasnt feeling well returned to the lodge, including ms yap. while the remaining of us took the train to the water rafting place. played cards with kat before i started to feel the effects of sitting backfaced. it was a long way there for a 45 minute water ride.

shared a raft with odac west and laoba. hahaha it was fun for a first-timer but i thought it could be longer and more exciting. oh well, for the experience i guess. (: had the bbq lunch at the water raft too, it was actually just some buffet style. stoned while waiting for the train to come to pick us up. rongjie and some others started to feverish again.

it seemed a long way back on the train. sick people remained sick. playing cards people remained playing cards. dialect people continued their dialect conversation and while the people who were well started silent um-ji-ji and chop-chilli-chop. hahaha it was funny!

took a bus back to trekkers' lodge from the station. sat with yunlin and we were talking the whole way back. it was sure a bumpy ride back cos the bus kept us jumping up and down. ouch for our painful thighs and calves.

those who went back earlier had their checkup and rested in our room, veron was hospitalised, rongjie went to the hospital because of his high fever. sigh, it was a scary sight. felt so helpless at that point of time, looking at so many of your fellow mates falling sick yet i cant do anything myself. i cant even perform a proper first aid.

looking at how everyone is so busy attending to the sick, i feel like some extra there, fighting with them for the limited oxygen in the room.

went for a quick dinner and dabao dinner back for the rest. veron and rongjie came back from the hospital. everyone seemed better and went back to their own room. it was the last night of our expedition. yihang and weicheng came to cram in our room until past midnight and we ended up playing bridge all the while.

at this particular game and time, we started to laugh non-stop at every small little detail. maybe thats what you called symstoms of being sleepy. the last round of bridge lasted for half an hour. the guys went back to their room and we slept.

last day 22nov
everyone looooooked so much better in the morning! but outing to the sapi beach was cancelled so we could sleep to a later hour. debrief started at 10am and ended only at 12 plus. it was a really long debrief, everyone shared their words. emo again.

went shopping in the nearby shopping centres. didnt buy anything actually cause nothing really interest me so i was practically walking aimlessly while the rest had bought like so many bags of stuff.

oh i had a haircut at loreal for rm7! plus wash also. omg their wash was shiok man! (: but the whole thing lasted for an hour which really wasted alot of our time because we had to report back by 630pm.

took a plane back to senai airport where before that at sabah airport, we did some last minute shopping and the plane was delayed by an hour. we were practically stoning the hour away anyway. slept on the way back to jb, where another bus was catered to bring us back to woodlands customs.

parents came to fetch me home and longbang-ed nigel home too. he wasnt really feeling well then. came home and cooked myself a pot of instant noodles. how i missed the food here. mmmmmm.




not that i didnt really enjoyed this trip but probably it was because i wasnt feeling good on the hiking days so i didnt really get to enjoy as much as the rest. secondly is that i didnt get to summit so it kinda defeats the ultimate purpose but it was still a breakthrough for my own limits. lastly, i had a june trip to compare against.

i never felt so handicapped in my whole life before, be it during the 1st day climb where i couldnt even wear my own gloves properly or the day when everyone fell sick. i could do nothing but sit there and watch.

though june trip really tested our endurance and all stuff, this dec trip really tested on my perserverance. i made it up because of everyone. no words can express the gratitude i have for all of them. yes, this was yet, another bonding trip for the 24th comm. (:

realised i didnt get to say this throughout the whole expedition but i still have to.

G-double O-D J-O-B GOOD JOB! *clap clap* GOOD JOB! *clap clap*

I LOVE MY ODAC.

(:

9:58 PM