This is my story when I was 17 years old. It was such an anticipating experience i ever had in my life..The story begins.....
"I awoke early at dawn because I have a mission; such a vast mission that I never anticipated before. My colleagues and I congregated in front of the school great hall. Expeditiously, my teacher named Ustazah Zubaidah hurried toward us as if she wanted to ask or tell us something. She informed us that the bus would reach us in ten minutes, so she directed me to inform all of my friends to get ready.
A few minutes later, the much awaited bus arrived and we got into the bus straightaway. We were going for an expedition to conquer Mount Kinabalu; the highest mountain in Malaysia and south-East Asia. Our group consisted of 20 students and escorted by three teachers. We departed to the aerodrome to take an aircraft to Sabah and we arrived there in the middle of the night. The area was very dark; as dark as grave and eerie. We were very pleased when our hosts arrived to welcome us. Our hosts were the teachers of Sekolah Menengah Sains Sabah. We stayed at the school for a night before we continued our expedition to hike up the mountain peak.
The following day, we got up early and packed our belongings. We left the school and made our way to the Kinabalu Park. It took about half an hour to reach there. On arrival, we kept our bags in a provided room and the gamekeepers gave us a packed of lunch each. A few minutes later, we took a bus to head to the Timpohon Gate. As we arrived there, we did some stretching exercise so that we would not suffer from muscular cramps during the climb. We started to climb at 11.00 in the morning and we had to reach Laban Rata before night fall. There are seven sojourns before we reached Laban Rata. Even though, it was just about a few miles to reach there, due to the challenging and windy path, we took some time to get to each sojourn.
Even though the sky gradually became darker but we had yet to reach Laban Rata. A storm was raging up. It then rained hard and the sky was fully dark. Every minute, the sky lighted up momentarily as streaks of lightning raced across the dark ominous clouds. We made up our mind to fasten our paces in an effort to get there as fast as possible. At long last, we reached Laban Rata and checked-in at the camp site. We relished our dinner in a bistro beside the lodgings. It seemed an implausible thing, how the restaurant could be there and even the services and food provided by the bistro is that of five star restaurants.
Then we went back to our lodgings and took some rest. We had to catnap on that night because at 2.00 o’clock in the morning on the following day, we had to continue our way to reach the alp.
We woke up before hour two and prepared to start the second part of the journey. The guides came five minutes later and told us that we needed to start our journey as soon as possible. Without wasting time, we walked out of the room and stepped forward. The second part of the journey was more difficult and challenging compared to the first. It was too dark and silent; as silent as a graveyard. On this journey, we needed to walk on the slope of the mountain along a rope. It was very dangerous.
Finally we managed to finish the climb. It was a most exhilarating experience that I had ever had. It was a great achievement when we set foot on Low’s Peak;
Even though I did not think that I could accomplish the success but now deeply, madly I believe that nothing is impossible unless you are afraid to try...
