And the Gates Opened..

The group of us, 2 girls and 2 guys, had our breakfast at the restaurant of Mesilau Nature Resort, the place we spent the night. It was a buffet spread of mainly local food with some western staples of omelettes, cereals, and pancakes. The food was good and I had 2 cups of coffee, above my usual ration of one cup each morning. We all ate till we were full, though we didn't stuff ourselves silly, heeding the advice of our tour guide.

Once breakfast and toilet visits were done, we set off to the Mesilau Nature Resort's administration office. Our ever reliant tour guide had already walked first with our lunch bags in hand. Once we arrived at the lower part of the administration office, we were given our lunch bags and duly introduced to our mountain guide for the first time. Aida is a petitie young lady, from the local Dusun tribe. We would later find out that she's just 23 years old and had only been a mountain guide for over a year or so.

We then proceeded up to the office, where we had our luggage weighted and agreed on the price to carry our luggage. Since we only had a bag to bring up, Aida had do it herself. Our luggage weighted 7.5 kg and since we agreed on the sum of RM10 per kg, we would have to pay her RM75. We didn't make the payment right away, though. Perhaps, later, after descending. That one bag held things for 3 of us, while the 4th guy opted to carry all of his things in his backpack.

That settled, we then were advised to do some warming up. I felt awkward having to do so with people that I just met, and doing it in front of an office, where there were at least 2 other guys sitting nearby. Nonetheless, safety first, I moved along, stretching my arms and legs as best as I could. I knew very little stretching moves, and did what I usual do before my badminton sessions.

The gate of the submit trail was just beside the office door. The weather was looking fine, though I could see some mist around here. Jackz, our tour guide, gave the prediction it would mostly likely rain, based on that. That unsettled me a little. I moved towards Aida and asked if a disposable raincoat would be able to withstand the batterings from heavy rains. She said, probably not or something along the lines.

Jackz tried to psyched us and gave us words of encouragement. He then unlocked the gate to the Submit Trail. One by one, entered through the gate, the start of our trekking. Number 4 went first, followed by Number 3, then Number 1 and me, Number 2. Yes, we decided to adhere with local believes and instead of using our real names in the jungle, we would just identify ourselves with our numbers on the tag. Better be safe than sorry, I guess.

Aida went after me, the weight of her bag and our bag at her shoulders. She was only wearing a simple pair of sandals, without socks and the aide of a walking stick. As the mountain guide, she was the sweeper, going last so as to ensure none of her charges were left behind. There was one other woman behind us, an Australian, who was taking only on a jungle trek.

Thus, we started our trek of the Submit Trail via the Mesilau Gate at about eight in the morning of 25th April 2011, a Monday, when most other people were getting ready for work. The inexperience trekkers labelled Number 1, 2, and 3, each with a pair of black Adidas Kampung at their feet and a walking stick in their hands, respectively, while Number 4, the experienced trekker who had gone up Gunung Ledang, with his trusty shoes and no desire for the walking stick, started their journey to ascend the highest peak in Southeast Asia!