Third week of June 2010 was quite a crazy week for me. What I did? I did my first ever Mt. Kinabalu climb from 15/6/2010 till 16/6/2010. On the 17/6/2010, I took another wedding day photography and on the 20/6/2010 morning, helped my church to do an event shooting and at night, helped my friend to plan and execute his wedding proposal to his fiance, also being a photographer for the night. It's a very tiring week but everything came out quite smooth and frutiful for me. Why do I say that?
First, for the Mt. Kinabalu climb, we spent a night at the Kinabalu Park on the 14/6/2010 at the Grace Hostel, if I didn't get the name wrong. That night was quite a terrible night for us, five of us live in a hostel with 3 double-decker beds, which make up to six beds space and we didn't sleep well for the whole night as all of us felt itchy throughout the night. Well, we believe is the hygienic issue of the mattress and the bed sheet. Anyway, it's late into midnigth, we choose to suffer the night through. 15/6/2010, we started our foot trip up to Laban Rata resthouse, with a backpack of almost 10kg on my back. Oh ya, I forgot to mention that I brought alone my Nikon D3s with Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 which weight around 2.2kg, 1/5 of the weight of my backpack. We started the trip at around 9.30am. and I reached Laban Rata rest house at around 2.30pm, so it's a 3 hours walking trip. Although it's just merely 6.5km of walking journey, but this 6.5km of journey was not an easy trip, whoever went before knows what I am speaking of. Making it worse, I'm not that kind of sporting guy who goes exercising frequently, so, adding pressure to my feet with my whole body weight of almost 75kg plus 10kg of backpack, imagine the pressure on both my poor feet. Anyway, after reaching Laban Rata, I went for a nap right after my shower. We walked down to the Laban Rata rest house for our dinner at around 5pm and the scenery at that time was so magnificent, look at the photos below and you will know what I'm talking about. (Hopefully I am able to show you the nice scenery.
Taken at the open space in front of Laban Rata resthouse.
We also have some fun time taking shots in front of the open space of Laban Rata, well, realising how "nice" a person will look like by using UWA like the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8. The day ended up with massaging of our leg and also "kua sha" by my friend as I had a heat stroke.
The 2nd day started with a wake up call at around 12am, ya, it's 12 in the morning as we need to start climbing at 2.30am in the morning so that will be able to reach the peak before sunrise. The trip up to the Low Peak was a very good experience as we need to climb the stone wall with the help of the rope. The trip up to the Low Peak is another 2km but that 2km seems forever for me as I sprained my ankle. With the injured leg and with the help of my "athletic" friend, I made it to the top of the Mt. Kinabalu at around 5.30am. The view from the top of the Mt. Kinabalu was magnificent. All the way up, I felt so tired and wanting to give up but thinking of to get a shot at the top, that is the main reason that drive me all the way up. At the Low Peak, I took my Nikon D3s and start the shooting session.
First photo taken at Low Peak just before sun rise. Believe this is the first photo taken by using Nikon D3s.
This is the slope in front of the Low Peak, we were separated from the slope by some simple fence, imagine if you have a fall.
Turning 180 degree and you will see this.
Attracted with the moment where the sun lie on the small cliff.
I am attracted to the shadow made by the sun onto the Low Peak.
Turn to right at the Low Peak and you will see this, added some silhoutte feel to it.
Saw this man walking down the slope, pick up my camera and took this shot.
They called that "The Donkey Ear".
I wonder how I manage to climb up this slope.
Some more snapshot of the famous rock top.
After this trip, I am really exhausted. Following by that on the 17/6/2010, I have a wedding day shooting but I manage to make it through and came out with quite a nice series as well. The wedding will be in another post. I am not totally satisfied with the shots I had but luckily still able to get some good shots. Hope this post will be able to show you the beauty of the Low Peak of Mount Kinabalu.
