e only other people left in Gunting Lagadan hut were e Sutera Sanctuary Lodges staff who were cleaning up e place before e next batch of climbers checked in. cleared out of e verandah & left e hut just before noon. e restaurant at Laban Rata was all ours, until a Caucasian couple wearing 'MA27' tags came in - they had made it up here from Mesilau this morning in less than half e time we had taken yesterday, shocking even e guides. wasn't hungry so while e rest had lunch, went out to e balcony to enjoy e scenery, & to take what else but even more photos =P

leaving Gunting Lagadan for e last time (HY)	time to relieve Teck Chia of his load (SC)
entrance to Laban Rata, where e night before a Kadazan guide had exhausted his knowledge of Chinese singing 'shi4 shang4 zhi2 you3 ma1 ma1 hao3' to me =P (AK)	e guys waiting for lunch inside Laban Rata (AK)

Panar Laban rockface from Laban Rata balcony (HY)

big fat hole in e sky above e open space in front of Laban Rata (HY)

top & bottom: view from Laban Rata; e green 'pole' of Gunting Lagadan hut is somewhere in e middle of both of e photos (HY)

apparently Sabah Parks awards some sort of certificate to climbers - black & white versions that Japili referred to as 'second class' for those who made it up to Laban Rata, & full colour 'first class' versions for those who made it up to Low's Peak. so Yangchen & I went over to another table to settle e spelling of e names of our group members with Japili, who then told us that we each had to pay RM12 instead of RM10, as they were going to give us each an additional certificate for having climbed up by e Mesilau trail. up till now I'd only come across summit logs & notes left in bottles as forms of proof of having reached e summit of any mountain, but certificates....thought we'd left e paperchase far behind in Singapore =P

Teck Chia outside Laban Rata (AK)

outside Laban Rata, e place where longans are called lychees =P (AK)

finally started on our way down at about 1.30pm. had wanted to hire a porter for Teck Chia, but Japili offered to carry his stuff all e way down. yesterday when we talked to Japili about his job, he told us that e guides there make two climbs a week, & that he had been doing this for 5 years - more than 500 trips up & down! most of e guides were under a contract with Sabah Parks to bring visitors up from Timpohon, while a smaller number like Japili worked from Mesilau instead, earning slightly more. e guides & male porters can carry up to 50kg loads, & female porters up to 30kg.

Yangchen ran off & disappeared down e trail. told Ivan & Swee Cheng to go ahead as I would keep on stopping to enjoy & photograph e plants, but overtook them after they stopped to rest at Pondok Paka. Angeline & Kaimin stayed behind us & were not seen until we stopped to take photos at Carson's Falls. Teck Chia & Japili, last seen outside Laban Rata, would meet us at Timpohon Gate only after dark later this evening. given e amount of time they spent together alone, Teck Chia & Japili would be very good friends by e time they finished e climb, & true enough, Teck Chia squeezed every last bit of personal info out of Japili by e time they reached Timpohon =P

started to meet climbers on their way up to Laban Rata from Timpohon - British, German & Japanese tourists, Malaysian secondary school students, Singaporean NS guys (as identified by Kaimin, Ivan & Swee Cheng), etc. & all of them threw e same question at us when they saw us on our way down - HOW MUCH FURTHER?? =P their guides & porters grined at me whenever they heard this. Japili later told Teck Chia that this is one of e English phrases that every single guide understands only too well, even those who barely speak English =P

caught up with Yangchen at Pondok Villosa, & he asked WHY THE HELL had I taken so long & WHERE ON EARTH were e rest - he'd already been here for half an hour, trying to spot birds while enjoying e scenery. continued on together, helping each other to spot orchids, pitchers & other interesting plants adapted to surviving on e band of ultramafic soil stretching from below Laban Rata to e intersection. there were just so many many Coelogyne necklace orchids on both sides of e trail going unnoticed by other climbers.

Yangchen had met a few guides earlier on, & they had told him to hurry as Timpohon Gate would close by 6pm, & after that there would be no transport from there back to e Kinabalu Park HQ. at e rate that Teck Chia was going with his injured knee, it was decided that both of us would hurry down before 6pm to settle e transport arrangements, & if need be, ask if e park staff could wait for those behind us.

not long after, a familiar face appeared along e trail - Gabriel from Mesilau =) he was on his way up from Timpohon to deliver mail & spend a week at Laban Rata to take over e manager there who was going on leave. reassured us that e park staff stationed at Timpohon would not go home until every climber had been accounted for, no matter how late. told him that his prayers for good weather for us were more than well answered, & thanked him. not bad, second day on e mountain & we were already bumping into friends =P he would meet e rest of our group on his way up, & let slip to Teck Chia e fact that Japili was going marry one of e staff from Mesilau Nature Resort on 5th June =) from there on Japili had to endure endless good-natured jibes from Teck Chia all e way down to Timpohon =P

looking down towards Waras hut from outside Laban Rata (AK)	Medinella berries(HY)
Rhododendron ericoides a species endemic to Gunung Kinabalu; e flower is only ~1cm long & is far larger than e leaves (HY)	looking back along e main summit trail (HY)
Schima brevifolia from e tea family (HY)	rhododendron fruits, possibly of R. rugosum (HY)
necklace orchid, either Coelogyne rhabdobulbon or papillosa (HY)	orchid inflorescence stalk (HY)

necklace orchids (AK)

top, middle & bottom: more Coelogyne (HY)

Ivan & Swee Cheng caught up with us when Yangchen stopped to test his spoken German with a German couple we had met - they had raced up to Low's Peak from Timpohon this morning & were already on their way down. e four of us continued on together down to e intersection, meeting a few porters along e way. Yangchen found e German couple again at e pondok outside e Kinabalu Park staff quarters at Carson's Camp, & stopped to talk to them once more.

e rest of us left Yangchen behind & continued down e trail, but he caught up with us again. after e intersection there was a marked change in terrain from dry orangey ultramafic soil to smooth greenish-grey rock. e trail was now much harder on e feet & too slippery to continue hopping from rock to rock. worse still, we were now in e lowland rainforest zone, where e vegetation started to resemble that of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve & lost its entertainment value for us. with e excitement & anticipation of seeing more & more new & interesting plants gone, we slowed down considerably, stopping at every pondok we came across.

unidentified (HY)	unidentified (HY)
at e intersection once again (HY)	unidentified suicidal caterpillar in e middle of e trail (HY)

came across 3 porters sprawled across e benches of a pondok, fast asleep. tried not to disturb them but one of them heard us & woke e other 2 from their nap, telling them to move out of e pondok & let us sit down. we felt really bad about it - porters & tourists alike both have butts & an equal right sit down, no? & there was more than enough space for all of us. made me wonder about how porters seem to be available in e national parks of developing countries but not in those of developed nations (don't think you can find anyone willing to take on such jobs there?), & how those who hire them treat many like servants.

all along we had been wondering how Teck Chia, Kaimin, Angeline & Japili were doing, not having seen them since we left Laban Rata. further along e trail, another bunch of porters tried to tell us in halting Malay that they had seen Japili & our friends way behind. managed to catch that Japili 'atas lagi' - useful phrase learnt from sharing a 3-storey house with 7 Indonesians =P turned out that they were more comfortable with Dusun & English than speaking Bahasa Malaysia. once they realised that we understood English, they started rattling off, describing to us Angeline & Kaimin & their big fat Osprey backpacks, & how Japili was seen together with another guy =) so glad to hear that everyone was safe & accounted for!

at e next pondok, met e same 3 porters whom we'd earlier woken up, & watched them feed Bornean mountain ground squirrels (Dremomys everetti) by hand. passed Ivan & Yangchen chocolate wafer bars as both were hungry & had zero food. legs were fine but big toes on both feet were starting to hurt - to e guys e steps on e trail were just nice, but they were way above knee height for me.

passed by a patch of thin forest with a thick understorey of ferns (pictured below). Yangchen & Swee Cheng agreed that it looked no different from Bukit Timah. Yangchen decided to rush ahead & left us walking through a stretch of mist forest draped with dead Racemobambos bamboo. apparently this species of bamboo flowers together gregariously at e same time, & then everything dies together all at one shot, leaving behind e scene of 'mass destruction' we were looking at, & this cycle repeats every 10-20 years. also came across e montane fern Cheiropleuria bicuspis, which has green fronds shaped like a goat's hoove.

further down along e main summit trail; just after this point, e mist forest was covered with dead Racemobambos bamboo, which undergoes 10-20 year cycles of mass flowering followed by mass death (HY)

e rest of e way down was B-O-R-I-N-G, e monotony broken only by e odd pink periwinkle-lookalike Kinabalu balsam or orange rhododendron flower. can't imagine how people can actually climb up AND down by e Timpohon route & not die from boredom between Timpohon & Carson's Camp. nothing to spur us to walk any faster than a plodding donkey *YAWN* - until we realised that light was fading, & thunder was heard, as well as e sound of generators that came from e power station somewhere below.

suprised to see a guy making his way up e trail when it was almost evening. turned out that he was on his way up to e Telecoms station at Kamborongoh (or Kambarangoh?). reached Carson's Falls at 6pm, & still no sign of Angeline, Kaimin, Teck Chia nor Japili. stopped to photograph it, & Swee Cheng's camera flash lit up e dim recesses of e waterfall in a blinding burst of light. ended up with a picture that looks like it was taken at noon, & with more detail than what our eyes could make out there & then =P

more rhododendrons, maybe R. crassifolium; different species thrive at different altitudes (HY)	Carson's Falls near Timpohon Gate; it was almost dark but never underestimate e power of Swee Cheng's camera flash =P (SC)

next thing we knew, Angeline & Kaimin appeared on e steps leading to e bridge at e base of e waterfall =) Ivan led us up e last bit of e trail, an uphill stretch of wide steps that ended at Timpohon Gate, which was CLOSED....until one of e park rangers who saw us came over to unlock & slide open e grilles.

guys at Timpohon Gate; Yangchen was already waiting for us near e road (AK)	girls at Timpohon Gate just after 6pm (AK)
Calla(?) lilies, a non-native species planted outside e power station at Timpohon Gate (AK)	Kinabalu Climbathon results (AK)

by now Yangchen was drying out his laundry at e bus shelter - it was e only other set of clothes he had apart from what he was wearing, & it was still wet when we left Bishop Head hostel at Mesilau, & remained wet all e way up to & down from Gunting Lagadan =P joined him & together we began e big fat wait for Teck Chia & Japili.

night fell, & e shelter was bathed in e yellow glow of e power station lights. realised that e last bus back to e Park HQ had long since disappeared, so Yangchen asked e only park ranger left at e gate to help us arrange for a vehicle that could at e very least bring Teck Chia back to e HQ. worse come to worst e rest of us could walk back by e Kamborongoh Road past Kiau Gap - it was only 4km, paved & downhill most of e way, & we might even get a chance to spot nocturnal animals =) but in e end a van pulled up at e bus shelter, & e driver joined us in e wait.

by now it was pitch dark & getting chilly. wondered how e remaining 2 were going to make their way down even with torches. what more, Teck Chia had passed all his food to Yangchen to carry down, & Yangchen had carried it down, but in his stomach =P some time after 7pm, we finally heard e sound of e grille gate being pulled open, & a half-dead & limping Teck Chia & a smiling Japili emerged from e longest climb of their lives =)

waiting for Teck Chia & Japili to reach Timpohon; e sun had set some time ago & we were getting worried (SC)

climbers usually get back by early to mid-afternoon, so e guides & park rangers hanging around e Park HQ were surprised to see us return after dark. collected e whole bunch of certificates & invited Japili to join us for a dinner treat, but he had to head home. felt that he deserved far more than e total of RM90 in guide fees that e 7 of us had paid to Sabah Parks, so we gave him all our walking sticks for him to sell again or recycle into something useful, as well as a big fat wedding ang pao-cum-tip, & embarrassed him by congratulating him on his upcoming wedding in front of e other guides & park staff =P

Japili & Teck Chia at e Kinabalu Park HQ reception after surviving e longest climb of their lives =P (AK)

started on our way to Asrama Menggilan along Kambarangoh Road, winding past shelters & banana trees in flower. carried Swee Cheng's smaller backpack so that he & Kaimin could carry Teck Chia's big fat backpack together, while Ivan walked together with Teck Chia. kept e map of e Park HQ complex that showed e route to e hostel & Liwagu restaurant with me, but e rest insisted on taking a look at it, & just as I'd expected it demoralised all - HOW COME SO FAR?? Yangchen was of course nonchalant - if he had enough food & water & no return flight to catch, he'd climb all e way back up to Laban Rata right now =P

about one-quarter of e way, suddenly realised that we'd forgotten to collect e garbage bag full of belongings that had been sent over from Mesilau, so Yangchen ran back to e Park HQ reception. went ahead of e rest to look for e hostel building, & bad news for them - there was an unlit flight of stairs down to e hostel entrance, & then another flight up to e room, just when they didn't feel like climbing up nor down any more stairs for e rest of their lives! thankfully e wooden steps were broader than those along e Mesilau trail, which e guys complained reminded them of Jacob's ladder.

in e end, all still made it to Liwagu restaurant for dinner & back to Asrama Menggilan in one piece. once again we had 8 bunks for 7 people in a room, & just like in Mesilau, e hot water supply played tricks on those who couldn't take cold water showers =P