the one about the peak* 

Date: 30 August 2005
Time: 7.32 am

History created - I conquered the peak of Mount Kinabalu. Woo!

And as the saying goes, “It’s not the destination but the journey that matters.”

Thus, it mattered not that I was the second last person in the whole convoy (and last in my group of 12) to reach the peak that day. Heh. Shy also.

And it surely mattered not that I beat Evelyn, a new-found friend from another group, to the peak by a good 12 minutes. Smirk.

What mattered was when Evelyn and I took our victory picture together; we looked like a million dollars. And that’s in USD, mind you. What mattered was that we were the only two climbers who were lucky to admire the breathtaking view from Low’s Peak. The heavy fog cleared as soon as Evelyn reached the peak alongside me. It’s as though God saved the best for last. I lie you not when I say we could see up to Manhattan and Leonardo’s mum was winking at us while holding the torch. Anyway, the icing on the cake was when we saw a circular rainbow being formed on St Andrew's Peak.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Let’s stay here awhile.” Evelyn whispered softly. Actually she was out of breath la.

“I can stay here forever if the coldness doesn’t kill me first!” I puffed back. The temperature was at 2 – 3 degrees and I was not really clothed well for the weather.

We stayed a good 20 minutes up at the peak before our guides shooed us down.

Being propelled to emotional high, I descended quickly. I am somewhat a weird climber. See, I have this mental struggle to go up the steps. So I envy this girl, ML who moves like a fully charged Duracell bunny on heat whenever she sees the steps heading upwards. She said it’s the PowerGel, but I swear she has a battery opening somewhere along her spine.

As for me, let’s just say, I prefer going down. And as I said earlier, it mattered not that I was the second person from the team to reach the Timpohon Gate, 5 minutes after TQ, our leader.

Nope, it mattered not. But I want to have that on record anyway. Heh.

What’s next, you ask?

Perhaps Everest.

Perhaps in the next life.

Perhaps not.
September 05, 2005 // anjali* pranced on tip-toes all over the keyboard at 10:37 am
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