The "Are We There Yet?" Trip: Part II

Right! Back to the story! After arriving at the Kota Kinabalu(KK) Airport, we headed straight for lunch! Somehow our instict told us that we won't be having good food on the mountain, so we went for the supposedly best seafood restaurant in KK(since Sabah is famous for its seafood I heard). It was a hearty meal like there's no tomorrow!

When the gastronomic tank was finally filled, the journey to the mountains started. It was a long journey, reaching the hotel required almost two and half hours from the town. By the time we are there, it's already evening.


According to some resources, the sceneries from the Mesilau trail is better than the regular Timpohon trail. The only price to pay is another 1.5km of uphill walk. At that time I was thinking "Hey, it's just 1.5km, how much difference will that make?", I thought it was easy.


I wouldn't really call that place a hotel, it's more suitable with an "S" in it - Hostel. With 4 bunker beds and water heaters which don't really work effectively especially on a night with below 10 degree celsius. The worse thing for me would probably be the towels, a city boy like me always expect towels to be readily served in hotels. I was wrong. =(


This photo of the thermometer was taken around 7am in the morning. The temperature was much better after the sun decided to start working!


I was wrong about another thing too. The food they serve there is simply fantastic! Dinner was a 3 course meal(soup, rice and fruits) with 6 Chinese dishes! Breakfast was of course the international buffet style with a chef frying omelette in the corner. Another hearty meal like we weren't gonna live thru the hike!


The climb started around 7.45am. Our mission of the day, to complete the 7km uphill walk. I've been to both Mesilau trail and Timpohon trail, although this trail was significantly longer by 1.5km(trust me, 1.5km counts when you are going uphill!) there's more plants along the way(nepentes, orchid, etc...).



As we walk deeper and deeper into the forest, we started to see fog(or was it clouds, I don't know). There's one part of the Mesilau trail which look extremely mysterious as if it was a heavenly path.



After 6km, the mountains were within sight. The surrounding flora started to change as well.


We continued walking till the 7km was finally over. Exhausted, knowing we can finally rest after seeing our hotel, we turned behind and "WAOH!" We were now standing at the same level as the cloud we see on the sky...