Bucket List Ticked - Kinabalu 2020

There's only been 5 times that I've ever hiked in my entire life.

1st one was in 2015 when I joined some other guys to hike Bukit Tabur one Ramadhan month and sahur dekat atas sambil tunggu sunrise.

That was one of my attemps to live more and do some activities on the weekends rather than just work and work like there's no life around.
But that was the first and the last and I never hiked anywhere since. I mean it's great while you're doing it, all the sayings about penat tapi berbaloi when you see the view from the top is worth it,yes. Its all true.
But it's not something that I want to do every week.

Then 5 years later, Chaoi and I decided that we wanna do Kinabalu despite my lack of hiking experience and also my inferior cardio strength.

So as a preparation, we hiked few places few weeks prior to Kinabalu.

So maybe siapa-siapa yang have a similar experience in hiking, or lack of it, to be precise, like me, maybe boleh follow what I did to make sure I'm fit enough to do it.

So first thing we did was stair climb at Precint Diplomatic Putrajaya. We do 10 rounds naik turun tangga kat situ. Semput juga la.

Then we upgraded bit by bit from there.

So my 2nd hike was Bukit Saga, Ampang (approx. 400m)

3rd Gunung Angsi (approx. 800m)

4th Gunung Datuk (800m jugak)

And the 5th one, the most interesting hike for me, we upgraded to a higher mountain - Gunung Nuang (via Janda Baik dulu) (1493m)

This one is the sweetest top for me, mainly sebab constantly mencanak all the way to the peak, plus lumpur kaw2, cuaca berkabus and hutan dia cantik like,for the lack of a better word, other worldly..


So anyway, that's all the hiking we did in my lifetime and also as our so call Persiapan untuk mendaki Gunung Kinabalu.

Berguna tak?
I believe it does help you get used to prepare what's gonna happened on the actual hike. What shoes is good, how to dress what to bring along, cam botol air ke, snack ke, what to do etcetera.

But, when I hike Kinabalu for real, there's 3 problem yang sy terlepas pandang or maybe tak take it too seriously,
1. Hiking with a backpack on.
2. Hiking in a freaking cold weather.
3. Kasut yg sesuai during decend.

My friends yang dah naik Kinabalu mmg dah cakap pasal first two benda ni.
And I did bring my backpack along on one of those hikes, but the things in my backpack are just snacks and water bottle, and a jacket.

In Kinabalu, u will be spending a night at Laban Rata, so you're going yo need all your baju and overnight stuffs along with you on your hike to Laban rata. Which is more or less the same height as  Gunung Nuang. So, that end up to be my biggest mistake and I took 6 freaking hours to get to Laban Rata due to thousands of stops.

So don't take it for granted, training naik Nuang bawak backpack with baju tdo and everything ye kawan-kawan.

And second part is the coldness. I don't know where to hike in a cold place in Semenanjung, cos when you started your journey from Laban Rata to peak, it's gonna be at 2am and its less than 8 degree up there. AMS is a common case up there. So maybe you just need to learn how to control your breathing. Cukup tidur, cukup makan.

Teringin juga nak sampai peak before sunrise, but due to the altitude, I was super duper slow, need thousand stops and reached there at about 6.30am. Terang benderang dah.

And  the kasut. The hardest part about hiking for me is not the ascend but the decend.
I start rasa masa turun Gunung Nuang. Ya Allah sakitnya ibu jari kaki, tuhan je tau.
But the hiking shoe I was wearing is so sedap pakai masa hike, so I plan yo bawak satu lagi kasut running bodo, just for decend. So better la sikit.
Cumanya masa decend from peak to Laban Rata, ada kawan pinjam kasut tu. So masa turun dari peak tu memang seksa gila la.

By the time turun ke Timpohon Gate dia pulang balik kasut, so Alhamdulillah.
Better lah sikit.

So carilah kasut yang  sesuai  untuk korang naik DAN turun. Kalau rasa boleh bawak lebih bawak lah lebih.

But it's okay. It was a great experience nonetheless.

Nak pergi lagi? Hmm... maybe if we planning to do something bigger like Everest Base Camp,(ada hati tu) Kinabalu is definitely tempat wajib untuk kitorang hike sekali lagi.
Or who knows in God's will, bawak anak naik pulak.

InsyaAllah.