To Sapi Island With Penny

Meet Penny!

So Penny is one of my closest friend. She came all the way from Melbourne to visit me. So of course, I took a couple of days off to guide her around Kota Kinabalu. Today, I brought her to one of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park's Islands, Sapi Island. It was a nice day to spend a day in the island; nice weather albeit very hot (more like scorching hot!), clear water and coupled with a few picnic neccesities, we had a really good time snorkelling, picnic-king, chatting, reading magazines/books, people watching and just enjoying the view around.

So here're some picture collages.

Love the tree that hovered over us and shaded us from the glaring sun.

Love Penny for coming all the way from Melbourne.

Love me, I guess.

Love the time spent reminiscing the old times and catching up with presents.

Gonna miss this girl when she leaves in two days.

****

Morning, just got up. Going to go for breakfast and off to city tour. :)

Doulos in Kota Kinabalu

Doulos came to Kota Kinabalu from 29th August to 20th September. The first and last time I've been to a Doulos ship was like a decade ago. I remember then that I was so excited because first, I always get excited when going onboard a ship even if it was just for visit, and second, books. So when Doulos made it stops in Kota Kinabalu, I pestered Oli to go there. But sadly, the magical feeling that I had then was no longer there. I guess, it has something to do with growing up. You don't get as excited as you used to when you're little. But oh well, after spending for awhile in the ship browsing at book, we decided to leave but we did take a few pictures with Oli's family.

Oli's Parents and Jon

Us :)

Oli's Parents: Lucy & Constantine

:)

:)

I think I need Titanic to get me excited. Hmm..

While it last (Part 3- Mt. Kinabalu Climb)

Being born and bred in Sabah, I was often asked, ‘Have you climbed Mt. Kinabalu?” For years, I had to sheepishly reply, “No. But I plan to one day.” Then, I proceed to live my mundane life, and soon, forget all about the dream to climb the tallest mountain in Southeast, Asia until one fine day, I decided, “I must climb Mt. Kinabalu and this time, I shall make no excuses.” After months of anticipating, the day finally arrived. Little did I know, that what lies ahead would be the most torturous and challenging day of my life. Normally, one would train themselves to be fit before a climb. My idea of training, was, window shopping, which, didn’t help at all. Idiot, I know. Still beating myself for it.

Anyway, let’s get to the climb, shall we. We drove up to Kinabalu Park, Kundasang. It took us about two hours from Kota Kinabalu. We checked into our lodge, went to Sabah Park Centre to pay our climbing permit fee as well as book ourselves a guide. Come evening, we went for a short briefing on the climbing and proceed to dinner afterwards. Buffet dinner was served. Sumptuous.

We had our dinner and chatted over coffee and tea afterwards before deciding to retreat to bed early that night.

Next day, our climbing adventure began. We started from Timpohon Gate at about 9.30am. Destination: Laban Rata. That my friend, will be a 6 km journey. So up we went.

Friendly Squirrel

The Potter

Up the wooden steps.

Up the rocky steps.

Oli kept telling, "Take smaller steps" How to take smaller steps when most steps were bigger ones.

And more steps. (While I did develop this immense hatred for steps during the climb, rest assured, I have now reverted to being oblivious to steps.).

Group picture! From Left-Right: Eriko, Nicholas, Stephanie, Lukas, and Yours Truly. (Oli was the cameraman)

The only picture of us climbing to Laban Rata.

On the plus side, the weather during the climb to Laban Rata was nearly perfect, except for the little drizzles when we were about to reach Laban Rata. But all was well. We finally reached Laban Rata shortly after 4pm albeit, being among the last one to reach Laban Rata. Not cool. Plan was to have an early dinner, shower, rest and sleep by 7pm because next morning climb would start at 2.30 am. I repeat, 2.30 am. Insanity. So, we did just that.

At 2.30am, after a short breakfast, thus began our grueling 2.7 km journey up to the peak.

All rocks and granites

Barely 50 metres up from where we started, I wanted to give up already. It was cold, and being at high altitude, I find it harder to breathe normally. The legs were not willing. But Oliver wouldn’t let me back out. He kept telling me, “Don’t give up. You won’t regret it.”

During the climb, I asked myself why did I will myself to embark on this climb in the first place. I huffed and I puffed, cursed and cried, all the while taking one step at a time.

We were almost near the peak, but, sadly, we missed the sunrise. Again, I wanted to give up because there wouldn’t be a point to go to the peak since we missed the sun rise, the supposedly highlight of the climb. But still, Oliver insisted we reach the peak.

And finally, we did!

The feeling I had when we reach the peak was indescribable. I was too overwhelmed by the whole thing that I couldn’t stop crying. So, Oliver pulled me aside.

He started comforting me with words that I could hardly comprehend at that time because I was just too drained out and all of a sudden he asked, “Will you marry me?” whilst holding a small opened box showing a beautiful ring. I was momentarily speechless.

Oliver said, “Say something, the photographer is waiting.” Nicholas was beside, taking shots.” So, I said “Yes.” But not before asking, “Why don’t you kneel down?” I was, by the way, trying to be funny to diffuse the awkward moment. And I guess, that’s the highlight of the climb, afterall. What is sunrise compared to this?

Thus, we began our journey down, happily but then, the steps came which turned me into a bitter, just-been-proposed-girl. Period. That’s the end of our Mt. Kinabalu climbing trip. The good part was, we made it. And you probably can figure what was the best part. And if you’re wondering, when is the big day? Well, we’ll let you know. Some day.

To overcoming many more challenges in life together.

Love,
Oli and Mel.

While It Last (Part 2- Scuba Diving)

First, I want to say that scuba diving ROCKS! You see, I was a bit skeptical about scuba diving because first, I can't swim. second, I have this love and hate relationship with water. You may assume that, I'm a little phobic when it comes to water. Which is why I don't like to bath. Just kidding. Really. Don't give me that look. Anyway, third, I actually tried diving. Once. I could barely be in the water for more than a minute. Okay, I panicked. And thus, I gave up. That was two years ago. So, when the rest chose scuba diving over white water rafting, I was, like i said earlier, skeptical. But we went ahead, booked ourselves Discovery Scuba Diving course with a dive operator called Downbelow (Highly recommendable), and the next thing we knew, we were on a speedboat to Gaya Island. This time around, the group consists of me, Oliver, Lucas, Steph and my two younger brothers, Mitchel and Marshal.

Mitchie and half of Marshal

The Crew!

Anyway, we departed from Jesselton Point, Kota Kinabalu and it took the speed boat a mere 15 minutes to reach Gaya Island. Once we reach the island, we were led by Ashley to the reception area to register and sign some forms.

Applying sun block all over

On our way to Gaya Island

Ashley (Downbelow Staff) briefing us on the program

Signing some forms

This was us fitting into our dive suit! Cool right!

Meet our dive intructors, briefing us on some basic knowledge on scuba diving.

And off to our preliminary dive in the confined area which is about 5 metres deep. *Gulp*

So, first we were learning how to descend into the water and vice versa. Double gulp. Anyway, the rest did fine while I was struggling at first. But once I overcame my panic attack, I managed to dive with the rest. But not without the dive instructor who was patient enough to guide me all the way. Like literally pulling me along during the dive.

So not cool.

Anyway, preliminary dive lasted for about 45 minutes. We took a break afterwards. Went hiking for a bit around the island, and had lunch.

Off to our second dive. The real deal. This time, it was out on the open sea near by Sapi Island. Water depth, 12 metres. Yikes. But, the second time around, surprisingly, the dive was smooth. I was more calm than previous dive and I was able to actually enjoy looking at the corals and fishes. It was really cool being underwater.

The boy who did not check his oxygen tank level

But the second dive was cut short because, Marshal, my youngest brother, did not check his oxygen tank and thank goodness, Oliver checked on it and noticed that the oxygen level indication was a little alarming and when Oliver notified Kelvin, true enough Marshal's oxygen tank was nil. So, we ended our dive and swiftly made our way up to the surface. And yeah, that was pretty much how our scuba diving went. We got our certificates, took group pictures, and sadly, it was time to return to Kota Kinabalu. Thus, the end of our scuba diving trip.

Everyone agreed that it was an awesome trip and maybe next time, we will take the actual Open Water Diver course so we can dive all over the world. Alrighty then. Next post would be on our Mountain Climbing adventure and of course, one of the most memorable moment for both Oli and I. For now, that will wait. :)

Resminicing island days.

And missing each other.