I will be posting all 3 days of the trip in one post, as the trip was too short for me to split it, and effectively Days 1 and 3 were transport days.

I've always loved mountains, but I've never had the chance to actually climb one. Given my physical fitness though, I had doubts about Jinjun's plans to scale Mt. Kinabalu. We thus decided to climb Mt. Ophir (Gunung Ledang) in Johor first, as a sort of trial run.

As usual Jinjun and Calvin were present, but we also had Huijun, her mom and Jinjun's parents along with us. While I would have much preferred to reach the resort by rail, the consensus was to take a van there and back. Now I do have somewhat of a love-hate relationships with road trips, so I was somewhat apprehensive about the van ride. But then, what choice did I have?

Reached Jinjun's place at around 1330, and almost immediately boarded the van. We met up with Calvin and Huijun here, and set off for Malaysia. We reached the causeway reasonably quickly and soon crossed the border into Malaysia once more. The new checkpoint was some ways in, and resembles their airport in a way.

The trip north was uneventful save for some card games. Mercifully I didn't feel as carsick as I expected once we reached, though it was still a little uncomfortable. On reaching the resort, we took a short walk, then went for dinner. Food at the hotel was good, not 5 star but definitely high quality.

During dinner we had a "briefing" from Jinjun's mom highlighting some useful safety pointers. We then filled up some paperwork (Ophir requires you to declare everything brought up, and you are fined for anything not present when you return, and did some mugging (in Huijun's case). Finally we retired early, as the next day would be a long day.

The next day we got up early, had our start-of-day brief, then set off for breakfast, which was a far cry from the previous day's dinner. We then met up with our guide, Mr Faizal, and set off for the start of the climb.

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In this case, there were a lot of them. We had to reach the summit by 1, we were told, so we had to quicken our pace. This proved to be a bad idea, as my energy was getting drained way too quickly. The climb route was easy at first, but soon turned rough, with high steps and difficult footing.

We stopped at each checkpoint for around 15 minutes, but after a while realised that we might not be able to make it in time. This caused our pace to quicken further, in turn progressively sapping my strength as we went along. However the climb was interesting, passing by many rock formations and vegetation, which grew increasingly temperate as we climbed higher.

Soon it became apparent that at the rate we, or rather I, were going, we weren't going to make it. Our guide thus decided to take the shortcut, going almost straight to the top. This was good in the sense that the climb would be shorter, but it also meant that the gradient became hell. It probably averaged 45 degrees and got up to stretches of 80 degrees at some points. I'm sure it was no problem for my colleagues, but I felt as though I was dying. I had to literally pull myself up some parts using trees or my trusty walking stick. Fortunately at some harder parts, there were also ropes to pull on, which probably saved my life. Still, it was discouraging to hear our guide say "half an hour more to the summit" every half an hour, as our pace kept slowing as we ascended.

At this point our guide revealed our saving grace - there did exist a 4 wheel drive service down from the summit. I was extremely thankful for this as not only did it mean we could ascend at a slower and more manageable rate, we would not have to descend. I was not confident of my ability to descend, as even in perfect condition I'm not agile enough to descend dirt/rock terrain, especially when wet, as was the case near the top due to the cloud layer we were in.

After long and arduous climbs punctuated by brief moments of awe-inspiring scenery, we hit the 1200/1276m mark. I was elated... then turned a corner to see a sheer wall of rocks, ladders and branches. However the fact that we had the same number of metres as trombones spurred me on, and I attacked the climb with renewed strength, though it wasn't renewed by much. At a small clearing around 1250m high our guide pointed the way to the summit and left us to do it ourselves. The other three went on first, I climbed slowly up the last ladder and reached...

More rocks. But after a quick stretch of that, at approximately 1425, I reached the summit.

It was a good moment. The views were fantastic, except for a telecommunications tower in the back. The wind was cool and refreshing, and we could see clouds drifting and rolling here and there, even seeing their shadows on the ground below.

A moment of patriotic pride as we planted the flag of the Republic of Singapore on the summit monument, signed the guestbook (the other three put Singapore as their location while I decided to be specific and go for Raffles Junior College) and had lunch. Due to the effects of air pressure our packets of Sunshine buns had inflated and were quite firm. Jinjun delighted in popping them open. We also had a group shot with flags of Singapore, Malaysia and, for some unknown reason, China.

After some quick photos, we descended from the summit, with some great difficulty on my part. We had a toilet break at the small clearing (with Jinjun annoying Huijun most of the time) before heading down. Like a scene out of a Jurassic Park movie, if we wanted to get out alive we had to head for the telecom station where a 4 wheel drive would pick us up. This wasn't that easy though, it involved more jungle climbing and descending. To make matters worse, I suddenly suffered a massively painful leg cramp somewhere along the way. Though it eased off after a while, it continued to bug me. Still, there was no choice but to press on. Along the way we heard rain warning sirens coming from the resort.

After a while, we scaled a small cliff path to a rocky outcrop, and suddenly, looking down, I saw a road. To me it felt like salvation, but there was one more obstacle - getting down the cliff face, again like a scene from a survival movie.

Still, we made it down, and, feeling like kissing the tarmac, I finally felt as though the battle had been won. A short way down the road, waiting for us, was our truck. It turned out to be a Toyota Hilux, the indestructible pick up truck. In an episode of motoring show Top Gear, it survived being driven down a flight of stairs, scraping rock walls, ramming a tree, being left to drift out at sea, being dropped from a height and smashed with a wrecking ball, having a caravan dropped on it and being set on fire. In the next episode it was placed on top of a building which was subsequently blown up, and yet it still survived and, amazingly, worked. I think there is much that can be learnt from that truck, surviving throughout all odds.

We enjoyed the trip down, stopping by a dam to take some shots. We then sped down the highway to head back to the resort (with Jinjun and Huijun in the back). Upon reaching we noticed the flags were flying at half mast, and I later found that this was due to the unfortunate passing of the Sultan of Johor. Also incidentally, due to our method of descent, we were never checked for litter in the end.

I was grateful to have a good shower and some rest, and I'm sure the rest were too. We then went for durians (which I didn't eat, as the only durians I like are the ones next door to Marina Square), and dinner at the same place.

After dinner there wasn't really much else that happened. I slacked around the room, Jinjun and Huijun went to play mahjong and Calvin had fun with my com. After a couple of rounds of poker, I turned in.

The next morning, after breakfast, we took a short walk up to the waterfalls, although unlike Benjamin's class, we did so on dry land. The waterfall was scenic and peaceful, but not as impressive as some I've seen to be perfectly honest. We had some snacks and bought souveniers, then packed to leave.

We headed home by van, stopping at a bak kut teh shop for lunch. The food was pretty good, and I enjoyed it. After lunch we headed back. The ride was really uneventful as we didn't really have the energy to do much.

Thankfully we made it to the Causeway before the jams started, and along the way Calvin and I held a miniature flag ceremony. We hit Jinjun's house and dispersed.

In the end, I'm happy that I managed to scale Ophir, it's definitely a good achievement for me. It did cast some doubts on whether I was ready for Kinabalu, but after looking at Bertrand's photos I feel that Kinabalu wouldn't be too hard. Of course it's moot now that we can't get rooms, but still, I felt a sense of achievement. However, I did feel some things lacking, and I didn't manage to complete one major objective that I wanted to complete. Also, I felt that it wasn't really as fun as our previous travels due to the presence of nagging parents, and most of the stuff was decided by them. One of the things I enjoy most about travelling with friends is that we get to organise and plan it our way, so I really hope that future traveling experiences will be this way. Still, I did enjoy the weekend out to Ophir, and gained valuable experience in mountain climbing. Onward to Bali!