Day 2 – 6 March 2025, Thursday

We woke up at 5:45am, feeling extremely excited about our Mount Kinabalu climb today. I generally slept well even though I woke up several times during the night despite the bed being very comfy, I’m not sure why. After washing up, we walked a short distance to the Liwagu Restaurant for our breakfast at 6:35am. The temperature was a cool and pleasant 17 degrees C outside.

The breakfast buffet spread was much better than what was offered for last night’s dinner. I scooped some beef rendang, potato wedges, sausages, spring rolls, baked beans, roti canai and pancake onto my plate. I love that there was an eggs station, and I ordered an omelette with all the works. We chose an indoor table with a good view of the forest outside whilst having our meal. As we ate, a staff member went around offering shots of pineapple juice with chilli to all the diners. The unusual concoction was slightly spicy and tangy, a jolt to give us an early boost!

After finishing our meal, we went back to our Hill Lodge to do our final packing before waiting for the van to come pick us up. I really loved our Hill Lodge accommodation and was quite sad to leave. The surroundings were very serene and it was so relaxing to just sit on the bench outside our chalet and soak in the forest view. Too bad we arrived late last night and didn’t have more time to enjoy it.

At 7:48am, the van arrived and we hopped on, joining several others who were staying at the other lodges and been picked up before us. After a short drive, we alighted at Kinabalu Park HQ. It was a hive of activity as the place was swarmed with dozens of other climbers, all decked out in trekking attire and armed with hiking poles. It appeared that almost everyone there was Asian and many seemed to be local Malaysians.

We proceeded to the reception at Sutera Sanctuary Lodges to deposit our two pieces of luggage. It costs RM15 (S$4.55) per piece of luggage for storage. We then checked in with the staff from Borneo Calling, who issued us our climbing tags and gave us our packed lunch. We were also introduced to John, our mountain guide. John appeared to be a senior and experienced mountain guide, a guy who’s seen it all and done it all.

John informed us that he would also be our porter. TH and I had combined all the things we needed for tonight and the summit climb tomorrow into one backpack for the porter to carry while we climb Mount Kinabalu. John placed our backpack on the scale to check the weight so as to calculate the porter fee, which is charged at RM14/kg, with a minimum fee of RM140 (i.e. 10kg). The backpack weighed 11kg, so I paid John RM154 (S$46.67) in cash.

After a quick toilet break, we boarded a van with another couple and drove to the starting point at Timpohon Gate, arriving just before 8:30am. Here at Check Point 1, we registered our attendance with the park officer and we were on our way. Our Mount Kinabalu climb has officially begun!

For Day 1 of the Mount Kinabalu climb, we will start from Timpohon Gate at an elevation of 1,866 metres and end at Panalaban base camp at 3,272 metres. The elevation gain is thus 1,406 metres. The second day is tougher because we will climb from Panalaban to the summit at Low’s Peak at 4,095.2 metres (with an elevation gain of 823.2 metres), and then climb back down to Timpohon Gate all within the same day. Hence, you are advised to pace yourself and conserve your energy for the second day.

For today’s climb from Timpohon Gate to Panalaban, the trekking distance is 6 kilometres. Along the way, we will pass by seven shelters, or pondoks. Some of the pondoks have toilets. The route is well marked and there are distance markers every 0.5km so you can easily keep track of your progress. John told us that the normal pace is to cover 1km per hour, so today’s climb will take around 6 hours and we’re expected to reach Panalaban at 2:30pm.

After passing through Check Point 1, we climbed a flight of steps down and soon reached a small waterfall called Carson’s Fall, named after the first park warden of Kinabalu Park. This was the only waterfall we would see for the entire climb. The trail cut through the lush green forest and we were surrounded by trees and vegetation. I felt so happy to be here, hiking through the forests of Borneo.

We reached the first shelter, Pondok Kandis (1,981.7m), at 8:57am and took a short break while waiting for John to catch up. He was slower than us because he was carrying our 11kg backpack in addition to his own small bag. In any case, the route was clear-cut so we didn’t need much guiding from John for Day 1. He later found someone to offload our backpack to, but our pace was still much faster than his so we ended up walking by ourselves for most part, meeting only at the pondoks.

We continued climbing after a 10-minute break and reached the second shelter, Pondok Ubah (2,081.4m) at 9:22am. Along the way, we saw many locals who were carrying heavy loads on their backs. Some of them carried large, square wooden boards, which John said were construction materials. Others carried food and drink supplies, and also LPG gas cylinders. Some of the men looked very young, perhaps around 20 years old. I wondered how much they earned from doing this job. It’s not an easy way to make a living.

TH wondered whether drones could be used to do the deliveries instead of human labour. I think the load is too heavy for drones, and helicopters might be required instead. Even if the cost of deploying helicopters is not a factor, the weather at Mount Kinabalu is also unpredictable and frequently foggy, making it challenging to operate helicopters.

Then there is also the issue of job displacement. Mechanisation or automation will mean that these locals will lose their jobs. Can they upskill themselves and perhaps be retrained as mountain guides? For the moment, the work still needs to be done manually. I have the utmost respect for these people who put their bodies on the line every other day to deliver supplies to Panalaban so we can all climb Mount Kinabalu comfortably.

After leaving Pondok Ubah, we crossed a narrow ridge, which offered a scenic view of the surrounding mountains. The mountain slopes were completely covered with trees, a green lung providing valuable oxygen to Planet Earth. After trekking through vegetation for the past hour, it was nice to have a change of scenery and encounter open skies again.

We reached the third shelter, Pondok Lowii (2,262m) at 9:53am. The temperature started to drop a little and a light fog began to form. The weather forecast showed that it would rain in the afternoon so we were eager to complete the climb as early as possible to avoid the rain. We kept our break short and pushed forward.

We reached the fourth shelter, Pondok Mempening (2,515m) at 10:30am. By now, we had covered slightly over 3km so we were already halfway through, just two hours into our climb. Feeling motivated that we were progressing well, we pressed on.

At 11:00am, we reached the fifth shelter, Layang Layang (2,702m), which was the designated lunch stop. Unlike the other shelters, this rest point had two shelters and a small building that functioned as a mountain rescue hut. The other climbers who were faster than us had already gathered here and were having their meals. We took out our packed lunch and ate while resting at the same time.

Our packed lunch was provided by Borneo Calling and given to us at Kinabalu Park HQ earlier. It comprised a ham & cheese sandwich (which was very tasty), a hard-boiled egg, a slice of butter cake, a packet of Oreo biscuits, a banana and a packet of mineral water. Some of the other climbers had fried rice for their packed lunch because they engaged other tour operators so they had different food from us. I was keen to offload as much weight as possible so I tried to eat most of the food. After a 20-minute lunch break, we resumed our journey before most of the other climbers did.

The terrain got rockier from here and my breathing got more laboured as we ascended the steep slopes and the air got thinner with the increasing altitude. I took constant short breaks to catch my breath and lower my heart rate before continuing. While taking a pause, I spotted a beautiful pitcher plant growing at the side of the trail. It was called the Nepenthes villosa, endemic to this area. It was quite large and a magnificent specimen.

We reached the sixth shelter, Pondok Villosa (2,690m) at 12:03pm. The shelter is named after the pitcher plant that I saw earlier. With just slightly more than 1km to go, we were doing good time so we took a longer break here. Two other guys were also resting here so we chatted with them. They were from Penang and invited us to call them for a hike the next time we visited Penang. Malaysians are really quite friendly. One of them wore the same purple Uniqlo T-shirt as me so we took a photo together haha.

From Pondok Villosa, the landscape changed quite dramatically as the tall trees gave way to low vegetation, due to the higher elevation and the nutrient-poor nature of the underlying serpentinite rocks at this section of the trail. A blurry outline of the mountain came into view as fog enveloped the slopes.

After a while, the trail returned to granite rock along with the taller trees. It was getting colder and it started to drizzle sporadically so I put on my rain jacket. We reached the seventh and final shelter, Pondok Paka (3,080m) at 12:30pm. I quickly gobbled down a pack of energy gel for an extra boost for the last 600m to Panalaban.

Half an hour later, an apple green building came into view. After climbing up the stone steps, we emerged at an open space, where a brick red sign bearing the words “Panalaban 3,272.7m” painted vertically in white signalled our arrival at our destination. After 4½ hours of climbing, we had made it to Panalaban at 1:04pm, well ahead of the targeted 6 hours. We were exhausted but also elated. Mission accomplished for Day 1!

There are a few lodgings at Panalaban, including Lemaing Hostel and Pendant Hut (reserved exclusively for Via Ferrata climbers), but the largest one is Laban Rata Resthouse, which is where we would be staying for the night. There is a whiteboard in front of Laban Rata Resthouse where you can check which lodging you are being assigned to. It is easier to just ask the staff there, but if you’re interested to know how it works, let me explain.

Each climber is issued with a tag, which acts as the climbing permit. You are supposed to display the tag at all times during the climb. It includes a lanyard with a personalised plastic tag printed with your name and date of climb. There is also a series of two-letter codes and numbers on the tag, which indicates which lodging you are assigned to.

My tag showed “AI06 (001)” and TH’s tag showed “AI06 (002)”. On the whiteboard, we saw that “AI” came under “SSL”. It stands for Sutera Sanctuary Lodges, which operates Laban Rata Resthouse. Besides our “AI”, there was also “AC”, “AD”, “BA”, “BB” and so on, assigned to the other climbers who would be staying with us at Laban Rata Resthouse. Those whose code names start with “B” will stay at the Buttercup rooms, which are private rooms with ensuite bathrooms. Those with code names starting with “A” (like us) will stay at the unisex shared dormitory with common bathrooms. I’m guessing that the “06” in our code name refers to the number of climbers assigned to the dorm room, because some dorm rooms have up to 12 beds. You can read about the different room types at Laban Rata Resthouse here.

The whiteboard also indicated that a total of 153 people would be staying at Panalaban tonight. When we entered Laban Rata Resthouse, we saw that it was mostly empty, with fewer than 10 people in the restaurant. Perhaps some had already gone to their rooms, but I think we were among the first 15 climbers to arrive.

John was also not here yet, so we went to Reception on our own and checked in by showing our climbing tags. We obtained the key to our room 7, which was on the second floor, above the restaurant. Our dorm room had 8 double-decker bunk beds and it was clean and bright. As expected, our roommates had not arrived yet so we could pick our beds. We chose the ones closest to the power sockets because the power supply in the room is limited to two timeslots – 4:00pm till 10:00pm and again from 1:00am to 3:30am, so we wanted to be able to charge our devices easily.

There are no hot showers at Laban Rata Resthouse so we used wet tissues to do a basic wipe down first. After dropping our bags in the room and using the toilet, we went back down to the restaurant to chill while waiting for John to arrive with our backpack and supplies.

The staff handed out hot towels and hot tea to the climbers who had just arrived. It felt like bliss pressing the hot towel onto my face. I also ordered a cup of hot ginger tea (RM13/S$3.94) to further warm myself. If you’re hungry, you can also order fried rice, noodles, porridge or sandwiches from the restaurant. A can of Coca Cola here costs RM13 and a plate of Yang Chow Fried Rice costs RM24. As you’d imagine, the food and drinks are quite pricey because everything is delivered to the mountaintop painstakingly by the locals on foot.

John arrived shortly after. He handed us our backpack and briefed us about the plan for tonight and tomorrow. We thanked him for carrying our stuff for us, before he retreated to his own quarters at a separate building. It started pouring heavily at 2:10pm. We were so glad we made it here before the rain because it wouldn’t be fun climbing on the slippery rocks while being cold and wet.

After that, we went back to our room to unpack and change out of our climbing attire. Two of our (Japanese) roommates had arrived and they already were fast asleep on their bunk beds. I did a more thorough wipe down and changed into my comfy sleeping attire – a short-sleeved Uniqlo Heattech T-shirt, a long-sleeved fleece top and sweatpants. I then packed my bag for tomorrow’s summit climb before taking a nap.

Somehow, I wasn’t very tired and couldn’t fall asleep. As I lay in bed, I reflected about the day’s climb. It was quite tough for me because I am not as fit now as before. Almost the entire route comprised of steps, with hardly any flat sections so it was up and up all the way. Before coming on this trip, I was worried about the pain in my wonky left knee, but it has held up well so far. I was also happy that my Decathlon hiking boots had good grip on some of the slippery rock surfaces.

Dinner is served from 4:30pm to 7:00pm at the Laban Rata Resthouse restaurant. We went for dinner at 5:30pm, after TH woke up from his nap. He was not feeling well and had popped some Panadol before napping earlier. I think he was experiencing a mild case of altitude sickness and also dehydration because he didn’t drink much water during the climb.

In complete contrast to the scene when we first arrived, the restaurant was now packed with climbers and it was buzzing with activity. Everyone was in high spirits and happily chatting away with their companions. It was a buffet dinner and I got some rice, noodles, pasta, mashed potato, chicken, beef, fish, eggs and veggies. The food was quite decent.

We shared a table with two Taiwanese climbers, who also happened to be our roommates. The older gentleman had retired and he was a seasoned traveller. We struck up a good conversation as we both shared a common interest in hiking and travelling. He had hiked to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) and Everest Base Camp (EBC) in Nepal, visited Iceland and travelled to many other countries, including Singapore several times. He holds our country in high regard and spoke about his admiration of our first Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. It was really nice chatting with other like-minded people and sharing travel experiences.

After finishing our meal, we went to the balcony outside the restaurant to take in the view. The sky was still cloudy but at least the rain had finally stopped. The sun set at about 6:25pm and it cast an orange glow, with the view partially blocked by the mountain in front of our resthouse. Some of the climbers went to the open space below to get a better angle of the sunset but it was too cold and I was wearing flip flops so I didn’t go.

We returned to our room to get ready to sleep. In the end, there were only the six of us in our room so we had two empty beds. We turned the lights off at 7:00pm so everyone could have an early night as we would need to wake up at 2:00am for breakfast. However, my body was simply not able to go to sleep so early and I tossed and turned in bed for a long time. I think I only managed to fall into a light sleep at 10:00pm, dreaming of scaling Mount Kinabalu in a few hours’ time…