Jan 14 – 19. Third time in Hong Kong, and by far the most enjoyable HK trip 🙂
I am going to remember this for a long time to come.
This has got to be the longest, toughest hike in my life so far! Not so much about physically but more of a test of mental endurance.
More than half a year ago, we planned our own hiking expedition to Mount Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in South-East Asia standing at 4095.2 meters or 13,435 feet.
My health was getting better and training became regular in the last two months in preparation for the hike. The expedition group consists of:
Haha, call this a joint expedition between Malaysia and Hong Kong to take the summit! 🙂
The hike from Timpohon Gates to Laban Rata on Day 1. We started the hike at nearly 9 in the morning with Verine reaching Laban Rata first at 1:20’ish in the afternoon, followed by myself 10 minutes later.
Overall, it was alright. Not easy but not hard either.
It was the 3:00 AM hike to Low’s Peak that was hardest.
We had an early dinner and slept in early (or at least tried to). We woke up around 1:00 – 1:30 AM to have an ‘early breakfast’ – which on any other midnight would have passed for supper.
Then we geared up for the so-called 25% remaining route to Low’s Peak – which felt like 75% of the entire journey!
The first 700 meters was the same as the day before; stairs and forests. Except that since it was night, the plants were giving out carbon dioxide instead of oxygen. As if the thin air at high altitude wasn’t already bad enough!
And we were just getting started.
I had breathing difficulties and took more breaks than the day hike earlier. Is that how the word ‘breathtaking’ came about?
Where the forest ended, the next difficult part of the climb presented itself in the form of granites. Climbing on unforgiving pavements that know no equal.
The higher I climbed, I started to feel like I was going to puke, and even though I was wrapped up I had trouble coping with the cold. It was 3 degree Celcius and the regular hiker would have scoffed at it for being generously warm already.
Yet I am very vulnerable to cold.
I took a few video clips and merged them into one – this would describe my situation best.
When reaching the lower end of the mountain, I had already missed the sun rise by half an hour.
(In the video, I made a mistake mentioning that I caught the sunrise in time… I suppose that was how detached from reality I was then!)
At this point, I was debating between hanging around there and save my energy for going back to Laban Rata
OR
Continue ascending to the top though it meant risking being one of the last people to go back.
I went with the latter. And continued climbing to the peak.
… And sure enough, because I ascended to the peak LATE I was also the LAST person to go back to base.
Not last among my friends.
Last among the 100+ hikers that morning.
I was in a state of what I can describe best as ‘half dreaming’ as I took half-steps down the granite mountain. My mind was occupied with only going back home and wishful thinking such as instant teleportation, hoping for a helicopter, and even tempted to ask a porter to carry me back even at the expense of RM300 to RM400 a kilometer and my pride.
Yeah, you’ve guessed it. I had altitude sickness. Shit.
Even with all the training I went through, I returned to Laban Rata last. Earlier I told my friends to go ahead and not wait for me, fearing that I would just wind up being a burden to their speed.
I got back to the Laban Rata inn just in time to check out. I had difficulty eating the breakfast they saved for me because I had lost my appetite.
Yet we needed to leave right away and track back to Timpohon Gates.
This time, Shawn stayed behind with me to make sure I was alright. Now I gotta tell you what a badass Shawn is. Shawn has been training for hiking and outdoor adventures, and this is already the sixth time he’s here at Mount KK. In fact, he’s going to join an expedition to the base camp at Mount Everest soon.
While the rest of the group went ahead of me, I was still stuck at half-step gear. I would take a break after every few dozens of steps.
However as I descended lower the mountain, my appetite came back and breathing became normal again (yay!) I followed Shawn’s lead on how to hike down the mountain properly – which must have saved my knee caps and my calf muscles less sore even as I am writing this.
It got to the point that I went from being the last person to overtaking half of the group and even the other hikers that left in the dust earlier so to speak, haha! Not that there was any race going on. But I was amazed at the sudden recovery within several hours.
It was definitely altitude sickness up there!
However our Hong Kong friends were not to be messed around with. Sasa has been hiking regularly for 15 years and counting – and her training includes climbing 70 flights of stairs. Tak was no less a hiker too.
All in all, the pain and suffering was worth it! I am glad that in many ways, I passed my own physical and mental endurance test – the fact that I didn’t give up going to the peak in spite of my condition.
If I had just turned back when I was so near yet so far, I would feel my regrets now. I kept telling myself that if I could survive this, I could survive anything.
And it wouldn’t have been possible if not for my friends who supported me especially on my way down when I looked pale and green. Haha!
1. I will be going to Bandung, Indonesia again on 28th Feb – 3rd March to attend a Facebook Ads private workshop. The program will be conducted by the same underground marketers I met last month. Looking forward to learn their trade and network with them after the event, and look into possibilities of doing a product launch joint venture.
2. I have to watch what I eat and come up with something to withstand their chain smoking habits though; last trip I went there things didn’t go well for me! I wasn’t prepared for the cold weather, the food was too oily / starchy and sitting in discussion with their chain smoking habits set off my dizziness and nausea feeling! Yucks.
3. I started recovering during the Chinese New Year and went back to gym again last week. My training session is all about getting back my form and gradually return to lifting heavy again. It’s obvious that I shrunk quite a bit when I look into the mirror. LOL
12th – 14th January 2014:Â I flew to Bandung to meet a group of underground marketers. When I arrived, I didn’t know what to expect as I knew only one of the members in their band. For one, I didn’t know the weather here was so cold! Regret not bringing my jacket or any thick clothing.
What followed later was a crazy 2 days with these guys. The word ‘underground’ is overused and jaded in the Internet Marketing scene but these guys are truly the definition of underground (hence the blurred out faces).
I got checked into a 4 star hotel here on the treat of one of these guys (thanks a lot! Will do the same for you when you come to Malaysia).
Anyways, one of the guys in this photo makes an average $50,000 a month and growing, and his teacher banked in $300,000 during the holiday season just a month ago. I also got to meet their ‘fledgling students’ who make anywhere from $1K a week to even $1K a day.
And get this: these folks are one-man online marketers, not conventional business owners with showy office premises and a massive team to impress (though they do work as a team of their own).
I also visited the most successful person in their group at his own residence, where all his students and even employees work at his place.
While I have sworn under oath not to reveal their secrets, what these guys – and more not shown in the pic – have accomplished are feats that put many self-proclaimed Internet marketing experts and ‘seminar teachers’ to shame, and I had to fly over and meet them to believe it. It was both eye opening and humbling experience learning from these unsuspecting giants.
15th January. Now I am in Jakarta. Dee Ferdinand had arranged for me to speak at his Inner Talk event at the DBS Tower, this being the fourth time they are holding the event already.
The event is sponsored as part of Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia (GEPI) with the aim of growing and training more entrepreneurs in the country. It’s akin to being an incubator hub.
So I delivered my 45 minute keynote presentation to the audience, and by extension some more time due to the late arrival of the second speaker.
I was slowly recovering not long ago but my case of nausea worsened again while I’m here, so the 45 minutes seemed longer and torturing! I survived on several packets of Fisherman’s Friend and downed countless bottles of lemon.
How I pulled it off is still beyond me, but I crashed on the hotel bed by the time I got back.
And that brings me to the here and now. I’m typing this from my hotel room. For the next two more days I will be at Calibre Works to brief Dee’s people on how to carry out the next product launch we are working on together.
I’m glad I got done deal with that talk, however it made me seriously think about how I am going to carry on some more talks and seminars if my health is constantly threatened by nausea.
On the 18th, I will be flying to Singapore before I go back to Malaysia.
I didn’t think I’d come back to Hong Kong again. Not so soon, that is. This is where I stayed this time.
Yeah, this is some ghetto alright. I’ve played video games and watched films where they have settings in the dirty suburbs of Hong Kong (think Sleeping Dogs, Pacific Rim, Call of Duty: Black Ops, etc.) – and I never imagined it more horrible to live in one.
My friend Nick booked us a hostel to stay in the short notice, and my friends and I spent 3 nights living in what I would rate as the worst hotel / hostel I’ve stayed ever.
The room is very small and claustrophobic. The walkways are creepy as hell I bet this is where games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil drew their inspiration from. The toilet door is flimsy and the towels… damned towels always disappear! The military compound I stayed in Palembang a while back is a luxury in comparison.
It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t secure the same hotel I stayed in months earlier due to the holiday season and the short notice – no thanks to Nick’s poor planning! (In a twist of irony, Nick arrived one day later and spent his birthday in the same shit hole as us LOL)
So what brought me to Hong Kong again so soon? New batch of friends want to do their shopping spree this time. And while we were at it, might as well sample some of the food here. 🙂
We also managed to ‘self invite’ our way into Redwolf Airsoft (my second time here) even though it is in their policy not to entertain walk-in visitors. Their impressive armory of airsoft guns always make my mouth water. 😛
We spent the last night with our Hong Kong friends Leo, Sasa, Kit, and Ah Chi eating a prosperous dinner, sampled some nice desserts (their cold red bean soup is the best!) and ended the night with an amazing (also spooky experience) of CQB airsoft in abandoned school 🙂
This time’s trip to Hong Kong is just as rushed as the first one. If I come back again, I will definitely want to visit other places – I’m bored of Mongkok and Nathan Road already!
