Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Journey to Conquer Mount Kinabalu : Pre-Climb

This year marks the 12th year I live in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Even though I live so near but I have never climbed it before until recently. My schoolmate Kenny invited me to join his group to climb the mountain. Total of 14 of us, 6 of us were schoolmates. We didn't really know each other back in high school days. We only get to know each other better via Facebook recently. This is almost 20 years after high school! I want to blog about this fantastic experience as remembrance.

13 March 2010
All the group members arrived in KK at night. Most of them flew from KL, except for Fiona from Singapore and Ming Pei from Penang. I went to Terminal 2 twice to fetch 2 rounds of them.

14 March 2010
On 14 March 2010, we went to Kundasang and stayed overnight at Kinabalu Pine Resort, which I have never been there for more than 10 years. Surprisingly the resort is quite well maintained. The landscaping is nicely done and the room is quite comfortable.

Kinabalu Pine Resort


Kundasang fruit market

Jalan-jalan, cari makan... (craved for chicken wings)

View of Mount Kinabalu from Kundasang town center


View of Mount Kinabalu during sunset... the red circle shows Laban Rata at 3,273m. This is the place where we need to stay overnight before we hike to the summit of Low's Peak.

And the place actually looks like this .... The yellow roof is Laban Rata Resthouse.


At night, we had a fun & crazy night. We had ice-breaking session, self intro and get to know each other better. The highlight of the night is we had a closed door (and windows too) card playing with $$ involved. You know what I'm talking about! We played the card game called "In Between", which is an easy game to play. The biggest contributors of the night were Ming Pei, Tan Ca & David Goh. Never mind la, they can afford. hehehe...

15 March 2010
After breakfast we went to Kinabalu National Park for the mountain climb registration. We spent about 45 minutes to walk around the park.

"Take nothing but photographs. Leave nothing but footprints."


Later on, we hopped on the taxis and went to Mesilau Nature Resort, where we stayed 1 night before the climb.

Surprisingly the lunch served at Mesilau restaurant was not bad at all. The setting is very comfortable too.


After lunch, the guys went cuckoo again ...

4-big-head models :D

That night, we checked in Bishop Head's Hostel. That day was free & easy for everyone, before the big day came.


Both Yann & Ming Pei have great potential as models :)

At night, we had a warm & delicious steamboat at the Mesilau restaurant. It was a very cold night. Only 12
degree celsius when we had our dinner at 7PM! I am sure that night the temperature fell below 10 degree celsius when we slept. It was so cold that I woke up few time . At one time I couldn't stand the cold, I digged out my turtle neck sweater from my backpack, wore it and continue to sleep. I didn't really sleep well that night partly because I was anxious for the next day.
Steamboat dinner at Mesilau. It was a cold night.

Chinese New Year Cookies - a mother & son teamwork

This is a long overdue post... i know. I have been very busy lately. Just completed a "big mission" last week, which I will blog about it next. Back to this topic. During this year Chinese New Year, Jaden's primary school organised a CNY celebration, whereby there were lion dance performances, traditional dance performance as well as tea party (potluck) at each class. The school warned that NO junk food is allowed. But on that day, there were still some big yellow packs of keropok on the desks. Haha Even the parents don't really follow instructions, huh? In order to make my son proud (at the same time to show off my baking skill, aiseh!), I decided to bake Horlicks Doggies Cookies for this occasion. This was my nth attempt, so I was quite confident that it would be done quickly & yet still tasted great. Here is my result:


Not bad, right? I followed the instructions where I first found the recipe. I made 48 cookies but Jaden's class has 45 students. Oh no! They wouldn't have enough to eat. hmm... At the end, I found this empty container with the 福 sticker and all cookies nicely fitted inside it. Wow! Aren't they just look adorable? The thing is for those doggies with the nose pointed out, they nose was cramped and distorted a bit. Next time (if ever I bake again) I should put pointed nose inward (which means round nose). Taste wise, they are good. Oh ya, another thing is, thanks to my assistant - Jaden Lee - we managed to complete the whole baking process within 1 hour time. Jaden helped me to decorate the cookies, especially the ears, & noses. Good job. On that day, we saw a lot of food placed on teacher's desk. So much food - fried meehon, fried noodles, junk food, packet drinks (4 stacks of them!), sausages, peanuts, biscuits, puddings, cookies, etc. And here came our masterpiece - The Doggies Cookies, standing proudly in the corner. Even though the serving quantity is limited, but I think we are probably one of the most hardworking team to bring homemade food. Jaden was very happy. He was very proud that he could share the cookies with his friends that he helped making.