Day 3-Part 1 -- Reaching New Heights: Mt Kinabalu (4, 095.2m asl) Borneo

Mt KK Trip: Day 3-1-Summit Bid and LPC Via Ferrata (28 Oct)

This is it!!! I woke up so early, around 12 midnight. Still raining, OMG I hope we can summit and the Lows Peak Circuit Via Ferrata (LPC) will not be cancelled. I slowly set off my bed and went to the toilet to hmmmmm....Nevermind. I checked my gears and ate some bread and sipped some Sabah Tea. I checked the temperature drop, wow 9 degrees Celsius. At 1:00 am the rest of the group is preparing.

All set and the guides are here! We set off at 2:00 am for summit bid and meet to 7.5KM for the Lows Peak Circuit Via Ferrata. When we set off, the rain has stopped but the temperature and the wind conditions are unpredictable. The road to summit is never been easy. We passed some stairs, rock scrambling with water flowing and all sorts of terrain. You need a very good shoes for this. Preferably waterproof with good soles with good traction. As we go, hardcore guys are so fast that we cannot keep up with them. Anyway, it is not a race but a race of time to catch up LPC at 7:30 am. Once you are late, sorry no LPC Via Ferrata.

Honey and Mike are left behind with the guides and unfortunately for some reasons they turned backed. So sad that I cannot summit together with them especially with my sister for we planned this for so long. However, it is okay. I motivated myself to summit for my sister Honey and Mike.

Lows Peak Circuit Via Ferrata (LPC -- 3, 776m asl) Sections and Highlights. Mt Kinabalu. Borneo

I am also thinking of giving up but what's the point if I know I can still go on. I trust the guide to take care of my sister and Mike in going back to Laban Rata. So I continued climbing even lagging behind the others. Moth is the nearest team mate I can reach if distress will come. I climbed without guides behind me. I just followed Moth's trail and pace. Moth became my guide during that time.

When I reached the terrain wherein I need to hold the ropes, I prayed and asked God's guidance and strength. The rock terrain is slippery and the ropes is wet. I continue to hold the ropes and I never slip. Thank God for your guidance. Thank you also Mountain Design shoes. The soles got very good grip, very good traction that even I missed out the ropes I never slip.

After this section, I managed to coped up with Moth. Actually, Moth waited for me. We climbed together, stopped together, sit together. I always asked him, how many more hours? How many more meters? He just said, "just continue walking, don't mind the time or distance. We will surely reach there."

So we continue walking, climbing, holding the ropes. At last, we have reached the first stop. The Sayat-Sayat checkpoint. Sayat-Sayat checkpoint is a point wherein climbers are being validated. Identification card issued by the park are being check at this point. However, during our climb; they never implemented such rule. Probably because of heavy rain.

Adding to the injury, after we passed the shelter at few hundred meters. The rain started pouring again. At 4:00 am, the rain poured heavily. Once you are on the top of Mt Kinabalu, climbers are totally exposed. No trees or big rocks to hide. Turning back is hard. You must commit to the mountain. You belong there already. All climbers must do is to deal with the climate of the mountain. The temperature hover to 4.5 degrees Celsius plus the wind chill. Including the wind chill, for sure it is below 4.5 degrees. The wind chill hit my face and my lips and the tip of my tongue cracked. I also noticed "crystal-like" to the leaves of the vegetation during the summit climbed. Maybe ice or what. I do not know. Plus, if you come unprepared you will end up hypothermia. You really shiver to your bones.

I saw climbers wearing only down jackets. Down jackets are not waterproof. They chill and holding each other. I hope they are okay. This group is from Indonesia. If you wear down jackets under the rain, you must have a hard shell. Hard shells are generally waterproof to protect you from elements like rain, snow, and of course windchill. Windchill is a very cold wind that will hit your body. It is colder than the surface temperature.

In my case, I thank my gears 'coz I came there prepared. My shoes is Gore-Tex and my jacket is waterproof. I never experience chilling. I am dry from head to toe. My only problem was that the water managed to sipped in my water resistant gloves. Moth suggested to use heat packs. I opened my HotHands and squeezed it and the gloves slowly dried up.

The first traverse. Temp: 4 deg C, Windchil: 0 deg C

At first I used my Clima Barrier SoftShell jacket. This is only water resistant but managed to survived for 35 minutes of heavy rain. After that I used the Westcomb Polartec Neoshell through out the summit bid and it really kept me dry. The Icebreaker thermals also kept me dry, the Ski Merino socks same, thus, I felt warm.

My buff also gave added warmth to my neck, so with my Arctic Fox beanie.

Somewhere over the trail, our guide who helped my sister and Mike managed to coped up with us. He passed me Honey's pair of gloves and the iPhone. This guy is really fast and nice.

As we almost reached 7KM mark, Ryan regrouped with us. Now, Ryan, Moth and I worked together. However, I made a decision not to continue to the summit. I am thinking of staying to the junction for Lows Peak Circuit at 7.5KM mark. I really thought I cannot reach the summit for I thought the time was against us. Moth never agreed, he said "if you will stay there for sure you will chill, for you are not moving." He suggested to continue as still early and the time is still with us.

My plan is this. I will wait for them and give up the summit bid and take LPC instead. Moth strongly disagreed. So I continue. We continued. We climbed, we walked under the rain and cold wind. I noticed some climbers are now descending too fast for they chill. I also noticed that the hardcore climbers have already reached the top and now going down. Amiel, Allan and Nesty are among the first people there.

I never get intimidated. I continue to walk and I saw the end of the line, a cliff. As I lean on the right side I saw the summit. The summit a bit crowded. Not a bit. Really crowded. Few more meters and we will reach the summit. We experienced boulders, scrambling here and there. 

After few minutes, here we are. We have reached the Lows Peak at 4095.2m above sea level. Hardwork pays. My summit climb is for my sister and Mike. Also for my family. We stayed there for short span of time. Enough to take some photos and enjoyed the view. The scent of the summit.

There I experience the coldest temperature I've been through. Now, I opened my emergency blanket and it really works.

After the summit climbed we rushed through the 7.5KM mark for LPC Via Ferrata.

Summit of Mt Kinabalu (4, 095.2m asl) L-R: Me, Ryan, Moth. 

When we reached the junction, our group members are waiting for us. Ryan reached the junction last but still our Via Ferrata guides are late not us.

So we took some pictures of the scenery. We observed the place as the wind chill hit us to our bones. As I am wearing enough gears I passed my emergency blanket to my group mate. The temperature at this level is so cold, it is not a joke. Really really cold.

After few minutes, we have a glimpse of our guides. Yes here they are.

The German couple with there guides went first for the LPC. After we set our gears, the harnesses and the ropes we are ready to go. The guides split us into two groups. Moth, Ryan and I for the first group and Amiel, Nesty and Allan for the second group.

At 3776m above sea level, Mt Kinabalu's Lows Peak Circuit Via Ferrata became Asia's First and World's Highest Via Ferrata. Certified by Guinness World Records. Successful climbers will also be validated and certified by the Kinabalu HQ and will receive two certificates stating the elevation reached and a separate Via Ferrata certificate with Guinness' seal

At first I got some fear but I do not have fear of heights. Overcoming fears doesn't mean no fear. No fear for me means death. If you have no fear, you tend to be careless and if you are careless accidents happen. As we started the first loop, I enjoyed the overall view of Kinabalu. We go down a bit, then traversed to the left, then going down and traverse again. Loop unloop. Smear to the wall, hold the cracks, hold the steps and the cable.

Here, if you drop something; all you can say is "GOODBYE." It belongs to the Mountain now. At 3, 776m asl, I don't think you can still retrieve your things once you dropped it. So, take care of your things and take care of yourself too. 

Doing Via Ferrata is like doing rock climbing, I am not very good with it but it really helped me. Since I am short, some of the steps I really cannot reach so I used rock climbing techniques like smearing and rappelling type of styles. Thank you to my shoes again, my shoes is so sticky. Its grip and traction is very good even to wet surfaces.

LPC Via Ferrata Junction (3, 776m asl)  

Rock climbing skills are not prerequisite for LPC Via Ferrata but the skills will help you to make the Ferrata easier and more exciting. Some climbers are scared because they think that maybe the cable, lanyards and connectors cannot hold their weights. I would like to stress that Via Ferrata is very safe. I knew since I used to go wall and rock climbing. The gears are almost the same. The harnesses are strong enough to hold you. The connectors or carabiners have 28KN each for the capacity. The lanyard is more than 15KN and the dynamic rope is around 9.5-10mm that can resist impact during falls. That is why I wasn't scared of hanging there especially the swinging Lebanese bridge section. The LPC is 1.2KM long with vertical height traverse of 365 meters.

I will rate all section of the LPC as 10/10. It is really gravity defying, exhilarating, thrilling and exciting. Any adjective to use for this?

During the entire LPC experience, I felt more human. The more dangerous situation you are in the more you feel that you are indeed a human being.

I really love all sections of LPC especially all the bridges and the first traverse going to the left. When the water pours like a small falls wherein you will step and hold in a slippery wall. It is a big wall actually.

According to the guides, the normal LPC will take 5 hours to finish. The record holder is about 1 hr 29 mins and the slowest is 13 hours. Walk the Torq on the other hand is easy to finish since the route length is 430 meters with a vertical height traverse of 109 meters and the highest point is 3520 meters only. So sad I forgot the figures for the record holder. Walk the Torq is also a Via Ferrata. Only that the starting point is different from LPC. The overall length, height and time duration are shorter than the LPC. Degree of difficulty is also different. It is much easier than LPC.

We ended up the LPC near the tropical jungle area. We started 7:30 am and ended up 10:30 am.

However, this is not the end of the LPC activity. LPC activity includes short walk around 300 meters inside the tropics going to the jump off for Walk the Torq section. LPC activity is from LPC start section of 3776 meters -end to jungle section - walk down to the tropics - start again to the Walk the Torq section.

The Walk the Torq starting point is near Sayat-Sayat check point but for LPC programme, climbers will meet near the intersection after the tropics.

After we finish the LPC, we rested around the tropic area. We hydrate ourselves, eat some chocolates and raisins. After that, the second group proceeded to walk down the tropics and started the Walk the Torq. We originally from the first group left behind for I am a bit exhausted. With no more water left I asked water from Ryan. I almost fall down to my knees as I walked through the tropics. Maybe I am just hungry. No more energy. Ryan and I have decided to walk through Pendant Hut and give up the Walk the Torq but unfortunately there are no other way home but to cross the Torq. Moth motivated us by joking about the German sexy lady saying that she is waiting for us there. He then gave me a chocolate.

Our Prize. LPC Via Ferrata (3, 776m) and Summitter's (4, 095.2m) Certificates.

Suddenly I felt invigorated, maybe with the chocolate or with the German sexy lady. Just joking. I am thinking of foods. Once I reach there, foods await me. I'm so hungry. All inside my head is food food and food.

When we reached the jump off for the Torq, we set up our gears again and we proceeded. We chit chat with our guide, we talked any topics under the sun without realizing we are close to finish the Torq.

Few meters away, the guide congratulated us for finishing the (LPC) Low's Peak Circuit Via Ferrata.

We walk down through the trail that we used to passed by during the early summit bid and reached the Pendant Hut at around 1:00 pm.

Guess what, I take off my jackets and other gears and eat a lot and rest for awhile. At 1:45 pm, the guides have said that we must start to go down the mountain and reach Timpohon Gate before sunset. Going down late and caught up in the middle of the dark is strongly not recommended for it is tough to do for the terrain is tough to negotiate. Wild animals are also starting to go out at early break of sunset.

Even tired for whole day activity and we do not have enough time to rest, we packed our things and we prepare to descend. 

To wrap up, we woke up at 1:00 am and started climbing at 2:00 am and finish at 1:00 pm. Going down to the foot of the mountain will take 3 to 4 hours. Our ETA to the foot of the mountain is 6:00 pm. Quite tough that on the same day that you are in a very long hours climbing and descending Mt KInabalu. However, it is worth it. I really loved this adventure. 

Day 2 -- Reaching New Heights: Mt Kinabalu (4, 095.2m asl) Borneo

Mt KK Trip: Day 2-Strawberry Garden to Laban Rata (27 Oct)

Wake up! Wake up! said the alarm clock. Sleep was good. I enjoyed the view and the sunrise from our veranda. We checked the temperature, it's 20.4 degrees C. Not bad but still the wind a bit cold. Definitely, wind chill is colder than the surface temperature.

At  6:30am, guess what, hahaha breakfast is ready according to hotel staff. They served pancit bihon, eggs and Milo. They also prepared packed lunch for us.

After some picture taking and preparing some stuffs we again board to our mini van but so sad that our driver was a bit shy and silent type. He drove us to HQ and fetched our 2 mountain guides. Again! some picture taking.

After which, we proceed to Timpohon gate. This is the jump off in climbing Mt Kinabalu. The guides gave us briefing about the summit trail and some guidelines. After this, Nesty led a morning grace for the group and we proceeded to the climb.

Timpohon Gate. Our starting point.

At first all are energetic; picture taking, especially near the Carson Falls. Longer strides, faster pacing. All was okay. After awhile hardcore climbers like Amiel, Nesty, and Allan were nowhere to be found..Mike, Honeybee, Moth, Ryan and I maintained our slow pace.

We kill time by picture taking and looking for some flora and fauna. Luckily, I found a beetle and some squirrels. First time I saw a squirrels running around my feet. I remember a German couple who really opened a guide book to check what species was that. I do not know, maybe they are conservationist. 

After a long walk, around 2KM mark, we felt that our bags became heavier. We took refuge by dealing with our guides as porter. Mike, Honey and I hired them for RM10 per kilo up and down the mountain-package deal.

I know I can reached the high altitude base camp by carrying my bag. However, it takes time and I will surely miss the Via Ferrata briefing. By missing this out, I cannot proceed to this activity the next day. So, I decided to hire a porter to speed up my ascend and to cope up the time for the briefing. The briefing is set at 3:00 pm. We started to climb at 8:00 am. With this, I know my body strength, I still lack training and need more training. I thought I was strong enough not to get tired of my heavy bag but I am getting tired that time and for sure my ascend will be delayed.

Next time, I will train hard (hope I'm not busy:-)) and no need for porter services.

Another factors of the delay are picture taking. Hahaha, the view is nice, I cannot resist not to take some pictures. Especially, the flora and fauna. Truly amazing mountain.

My sister and I are enjoying the majestic view of Mt Kinabalu.

As we ascend, Mike played some music using his Samsung Note. Our fave is "it's the climb." Hahhaha.

We also take consideration of slow ascend, not to slow but normal pacing to avoid AMS or Acute Mountain Sickness. This was our first high altitude climb and we wanted to be careful.

Moth and Ryan sometimes are ahead of us sometimes left behind. We never hurried. One step at a time, enjoyed the view, more chit chats, met some climbers, met some descending climbers, met some porters and guides. I interviewed 3 porters. Their work is to carry stuffs like veges and meat to the restaurant at the high altitude base camp "LabanRata." The porters carry 30, 33, and 35kg. Wow, awesome, so heavy and they are just wearing crocs sandals and normal shirts and improvised bag carriers. Wow! Truly amazing.

Another porter carried a gas tank, now he is descending. Not with normal pace but jumping, hoping and running style. Wow, these guys are very good.

We also met lots of climbers, we took photos of them and took photos for us.

As we ascend, the terrain became tougher and tougher and so taxing to our knees. Steps are steep, narrow and wide. All sorts.

At 3KM mark, Ryan experienced stomach ache, later on a bit of headache and muscle tightness. Moth said, relax, one step at a time, maintain your pace and breathe.

At 4KM mark, we have reached Layang-Layang shelter -- lunch time! We stayed there for 15 minutes to eat and took some photos.I ate so fast and finished eating the chicken wing, apple and water. I set off ahead of them. Near the 4.2KM mark, I waited for them and they told me that there was a cute lady tailing us all through the shelter. I requested to slow down so that I will have a glimpse of this lady. Hahaha, a German lady working in KL. Beautiful, like a "Barbie" like a model...hahahhah.(I am single so no problem)..hahahha. So much for this delays, we are lagging so much time and maybe we miss out the via ferrata briefing:-)

At 5KM mark, I felt a bit weird. Hmmm headache, OMG maybe AMS or maybe I am just hungry. I asked medicine from Ryan. After awhile the headache was gone.

Not AMS maybe, so I motivate myself to go faster because something awaits me there...It must be food...hahah..The goal is the food. I told myself that I will eat all sorts of food once I reach Laban Rata.

At 5.5KM mark the rain started pouring. We took our jackets from our bags. Honey used the Westcomb Event as I used WestComb Polartec Neoshell. These jackets are really good. Breathable and waterproof and it regulates body temperature. You will not feel overheated.

Honey, Mike and Moth overtake us while Ryan and I left behind. As we reached the helipad section, the rain poured heavily and the wind blew stronger and colder. So we walked faster and took refuge from a nearby shelter.

Around 300m, we can see the Pendant Hut. Our resthouse. Resthouse set by Mountain Torq for those who will go Via Ferrata. This Hut is situated at 3, 289m above sea level.

Ryan and I walked faster as the rain pours heavily. The way to the resthouse is a bit taxing to our knees. It will take you more than 100 steps to reach that hut. I counted it wrongly, so I asked Ryan to count as he climb but also missed out the counting.. Hahaha because of tiredness maybe. Atlast, I reached the Pendant Hut at 2:43 pm. Mike and Honey reached around 2:30 pm and Ryan at around 2:50 pm. I thought I will miss the briefing. Thank God we reached the hut on time. 

When we reached the hut, some of the team members are sleeping. When we asked why, they gave us a different reason. They fell asleep not because of tiredness or sleepy but because of AMS or Acute Mountain Sickness. Acute Mountain Sickness is characterized by dizziness, headache and loss of appetite. They told us that they are experiencing headache. Even they talk or move their heads they can feel the pain within their heads. Probably, because they climbed so fast and that they never give their bodies enough time to acclimatize. High altitude climbing requires proper pacing. One step at a time. Not too fast and not too slow. Otherwise you will experience AMS.

Laban Rata at 4:00 pm. Temp check at 7 deg C.

Exactly 3:30 pm, the trainers and guides from Mountain Torq gave a briefing. There are 10 who will try their luck for Lows Peak Circuit. Eight from Filipino group and a Mexican/German couple. This couple is working here in Singapore.

Other groups are from different nationalities.

After the briefing, some of us already dress full gear like me. I already used by Icebreaker thermals, MontBell gloves, MontBell Clima Pro SoftShell pants and MontBell Clima Barrier SoftShell jacket. Since the temperature is dropping, I really used my gears.

We descended few metres for our buffet style dinner.The restaurant is fully packed and we waited for some climbers to finished until we secured our seats. Climbers can choose any type of foods they wanted to eat. It is like "eat all you can" style. They served very good food. We ate lots of carbs. This time I never think of my diet since I need carbs loads for the summit bid early in the morning and also for Via Ferrata.

After this; again, picture taking and we ascended back to our hut. However, Honey and Mike left behind and requested me to go back again for them for their jackets and headlamp. It is a bit dark and raining and they cannot cross from the restaurant to our hut. I am about to go out when they arrived and said "alama, I prepared things for both of you and here you came." Anyway, that saves my energy.

After our dinner, we went for our usual ritual. Packing and preparing our gears for the summit bid at 2:00 am. After which, we rested. Our room is not heated, that is why we already dressed our gears and comfort ourselves with the sleeping bags that the Mountain Torq provided.

The toilet rooms are not heated as well and the water is wow damn cold. So cold that I shiver and was not able to brush my teeth so well. A 10-second brush will do for this situation. 

At 7:30 pm, the signal to turn off the lights started. Of course, we turned off the lights, set our alarm to 1:00 am and sleep. 

Have a nice sleep guys. See you later at 1:00 am:-)

Day 1 -- Reaching New Heights: Mt Kinabalu (4, 095.2m asl) Borneo

Mt KK Trip: Day 1-Singapore-JB-Kota Kinabalu (26 Oct)

This is it! Exactly 4:00 am I jumped from my bed when I heard the sound of my alarm clock. Wake up! wake up!, O yes I am awake. 

Honey and Michael woke up at around 4:30 am. Honey cook some breakfast. Guess what tocino and longganisa. I think these are enough.

The group will meet at Woodlands Checkpoint. That would be our jump off. Meeting time 6: 30 am. Ryan is super early, early bird award for him.

We arrived next to him and the rest of the group also arrived.

We board a bus from our jump off to Johor Bahru Sentral and from JB we hired 2 taxis at RM 50 to take us to Senai International Airport. All are sleepy!!! So sleep. We arrived there at around 8:00 am and ate some light breakfast.

AirAsia flight to Sabah.

At 9:00 am we started to print our tickets and check in our baggage. Of course picture taking is always there.

At 10:30 am, Air Asia flew us to the State of Sabah. We touched down at 1:00 pm. Tommy, our tour guide and driver fetched us there. Hu! all are hungry and Tommy mesmerized us by telling us some of the features of their placed. He shared about their way of life, main transportation, food and religion. After a short conversation, we stopped for awhile somewhere Kota Kinabalu area to buy some stuffs. I forgot the name of the convenient store. Alama!. After this, Tommy drove the group to KFC, (our request) to have our lunch. Since we are all hungry then we eat. Hmmm we had nice food.

After 30 minutes, Tommy's back to drive us to Strawberry Garden. About 2.5 hours drive from the city.

So early but the rain poured so hard that Tommy slow down. Almost zero visibility at first but later on a clear way for us. We dropped by to Kinabalu HQ for registration and picture taking, also we purchased some stuffs like t-shirts and badges.

After the registration, here we are,"welcome to Strawberry Garden Hotel." This hotel is situated at 1390m asl. We arrived there safely (Thank u Tom) but still raining. The temperature hover up to 16-19 degrees C. At night time, wow damn cold. Anyway, thank you for the Westcomb Polartec Neoshell jacket. I felt warm. It's waterproof and breathable.:-)

We spent time together by talking whatever topics under the roof. We watched movies, picture taking and of course we eat.

The staffs served us good food at around 7:00 pm. Wow, chicken adobo, omelette, chopsuey, rice, and fresh papaya. Catered for Filipinos.

Bon Appetit.

After eating, some of us enjoyed the night with cans of beer. But we slept early. Our stay there was awesome. Staffs are friendly and accommodating. Amenities are good and Wi-Fi signal was strong.

I slept at around 10:30 pm and woke up at 4:30 am. My room mate, guess who, Allan. A very good friend of mine.

Enough for now. See you guys on the 2nd day of our trip. Allez!!!

Prep Day -- Reaching New Heights: Mt Kinabalu (4, 095.2m asl) Borneo

Mt KK Trip: Prep Day (25 Oct)

Few more hours for much awaited adventure trip of this year. Eight Filipino mountaineers working in Singapore are attempting to scale Mount Kinabalu. A prominent mountain on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. It is located in the East Malaysian state of Sabah and is protected as Kinabalu National Park, a World Heritage Site. 

Kinabalu is the highest peak in Borneo's Crocker Range and is the highest mountain in the Malay Archipelago. Mount Kinabalu is also the 20th most prominent mountain in the world by topographic prominence. The team consists of Rizalde Riz Calija, Honeybee, Michael, Amiel, Ryan, Moth, Nesty, and Allan. Most of the team members are hardcore climbers in the Philippines.

Packing time.

They also scaled lots of mountains overseas. As this is the preparation day, all of us are really busy preparing our gears. My sister Honey joked that preparation day is tiresome "no more energy for the next day." Hahaha just a joke. We finished packing around 11:00 pm but we slept around 3:00 am. Maybe because we are so excited that is why we cannot sleep. Michael is still playing NBA, Honey is still watching American Idol, and me hahahah still looking and setting up the company's roster. 

My gears consist of different types and brands and this is the best time to test the gears. I am sure these gears are worth the price. Now, let's do the packing. See you soon guys. Allez!!!

The Art of Packing -- Packing Tips For Mountaineers

The Art of Packing

Planning for a trip is not just planning for itineraries, hotel reservations or even air tickets. Travellers must take considerations the items that they will bring.

Generally for trekking, travelling and mountaineering, weight matters. Travellers are avoiding overloading. They are packing light without compromising overall safety. They want to avoid over dressing and under dressing. They are tracking the useful gears that they have. The rationing of trail foods are also in considerations.

How they Pack?

First. They will put all stuffs together and carefully choosing what to bring and how many to bring. All stuffs are being put together by category like footwear, base layers, mid-layers, shells, communication and navigation equipment and others. From these, they carefully choose what to bring. Once they determined the essential items. They pack.

My gears from head to toe before heading to Nepal expedition. Before packing.

For the apparels, they fold once or twice and roll and use rubber bands. Not just the weight that they consider but also the space.

After packing.

Other gears like power cords/cables, communication equipment are placed into mesh gears or any other containers to make them intact. Alas!!! All packed now.

Being organised in packing for any type of trip is essential. Otherwise, you tend to overload and uncomfortable.

Travelling: A Glimpse of My Passion.

Since then, I travel non-stop.  So funny that some of those travel experiences I cannot remember the exact details. However, those memories are worth it. Yes, there were ups and downs, happy and unhappy moments but still worth to keep.

I never thought that I made travelling as lifestyle. Early years of my life, I've reached different places and situations. Places both local and international. Situations like plain easy-going hiking to life and death moments.

My volleyball team reaching the regional competition in Lanao Del Norte.

I had a glimpse of how it feels to travel when I was a little boy wandering different places in our local community. I tried hitchhiking to reach other places or even used my dad’s bicycle to experience different places, different scenery and even bizarre places. Sometimes, I asked myself; why travel? Travelling requires time, requires money, planning and everything that are essential for travelling. 

Yes, I got addicted to eat. I felt so happy and intense once I started to travel. I travel simply because I want to enjoy life. I want to enjoy other places. I want to experience new things in life and to put myself into new situations. For me, these stuffs are bits and pieces of whole me. Every experience was a new adventure. For me, it is an escape to daily routine of life that seemed to be a waste of lifetime.

Does travelling requires money and budget? Good question. Simple travelling that does not need much. Hopping from one place to another can be done without spending much of our budget. However, if you wanted to make the most of your time in that place better have a good budget that will cover every cost of your travel like taking bus or taxi or even trains and planes and of course foods.  

As I grow older, I became ambitious that I wanted to see the world. I wanted to experience other culture and their way of life. I wanted to understand why they think and act the way they used to be apart from other culture and society. I wanted to experience the world as it presents itself to me.

World's Highest Via Ferrata (3, 776m asl). Mt Kinabalu. Borneo 

Yes, I get addicted to it. Despite what had happened to my recent travel I still want to experience something different and something great. I know that I was born to live like this. I was born to travel.

I've already experience different places and different situations. I've been to other places through sports. I used to be a volleyball varsity and reached various competitions held at different locations. I reached different places through other activities like mountaineering. Through these, I experienced bigger picture of the world. I started to know more about myself. I started to get more independent and decide for my own. Travelling when young or without other family members beside you is a bit tough; but doing it makes you more matured in handling oneself.

I've reached new heights and enjoyed the beautiful landmarks from other countries and experience new adventures. I saw their immense culture and way of life. Their traditions, religions, and the way they treat people. There were also misadventures. However, these misadventures were still became adventures of our lifetime.

One thing for sure; adventure or misadventure. Just make the most of it and be happy and make it memorable as much as you can.