To be on the top of an amazing height of 4095 MASL, Mt. Kinabalu in the island of Sabah, Borneo was really a great achievement to start the year 2011. Accompanied by my friend Nerissa Neri and John Nixon who came directly from London just to join this climb.

There's a lot of places to be visited in Kota Kinabalu like night market, malls, parks, beach and etc... Although Kinabalu Park is one of the most visited place in the city, a lot of tourist still go island hopping in JESSELTON POINT ferry terminal and visit the 4 islands namely: "Manukan Island", "Sapi Island", "Manrutik Island" and "Sulug Island". Cost around RM 22 for a 2way trip for an island, but it'll cost more if you plan to visit the 4 islands.

On our first night we stayed at the "Kinabalu Backpackers Budget Hotel" for RM25/pax/night. They have dormitory type with 6 beds in it and they also have private rooms for a higher price. They serve breakfast early in the morning at around 6am, bread and coffee. Their bathrooms have heater and all their rooms are air conditioned and lastly they have 2 desktop computers at the lobby that you can use for free and of course with free wi-fi as well. After we checked in at the lodge and left our things, we go out to look for the night market and have our dinner there. We were surprised when we saw the market is still very alive and still many locals are still out to eat their dinner too at around 11pm in the evening. We have spicy fried noodles and spicy chicken wings for the first night at the city and after we headed back at the lodge and took rest for an early preparation for the climb.

The next day we woke up at 5am and prepared all things needed for the climb. After we ate our breakfast we went directly at the bus terminal going to the Kinabalu Park, but unfortunately there are no buses at that early and we decided to stop a taxi and rent it to take us to the park. The driver charge us RM 100 for the five of us because there were 2 others who joined us, it's much cheaper compared to the bus. After 2 hours of travel, we reached the Kinabalu park and settled all the permits and mt. guides. We started at around 10am and it took us 6 hours to reach the Laban Rata Lodge because it was raining all through out our climb, so we really had a hard time climbing up to the lodge. We reached the Laban Rata at around 5:30pm, gladly we still arrived while the dinner buffet is still serving. After we ate our dinner, we talked about the plan for tomorrow's last ascend to the peak. But sadly, Nerissa decided not to proceed because she's really not feeling well and keep vomiting along the climb. But John continue encouraging her that she can still make it to the top, we planned it very well and say our prayers to the Lord to give us the strength to finish the goal to the top, and after that we went to bed and took rest.

2am in the morning, John woke me up and we prepared for the climb, in a moment Nerissa suddenly told us that she'll go with us, me and John were surprised and happy at the same time that she finally decided to join us despite of not feeling well. So we took our breakfast and called our guide to start our trek to the peak. But the weather at that time was really bad, it was still raining and it's really very cold at around 5 degrees Celsius, so again we had a hard time climbing from the lodge to the top. After several minutes, Nerissa spoke up and said that she'll just go back to the lodge and rest and will not continue the climb, cause she's still on nausea and keep vomiting, so I let her go and let her just rest at the lodge, so its just John me and the guide left. We continue our climb even though the rain is still strong with the cold temperature. But after 15 minutes John told me that he can't go on anymore, he didn't got enough rest and sleep so he's body is weak and not prepared to climb to the top. It was just me left to climb and reach the goal to the top. I prayed to God at that time and said that I will continue to reach the peak despite of the bad weather and cold temperature, I will make it to the top no matter what, because this is for You. I said it to the Lord. Then I told John that I will climb and make it to the top for the group.

So I continue the trek along with the guide. Upon reaching 8.5KM (4008 MASL), the rain got stronger and stronger and the wind going against the flow, its like a storm, and still I continue praying to God to give me the strength and not give up just because of the strong wind and rain. But I admit that I also thought about giving up at that time because the wind wasn't really good at that time, but I promised John and Nerissa that I'll make it to the top for the group. So I really decided to give it all and push it through the top no matter what happens.