What is love to you?

The more I think about it, the more I realize, love is like soup.

I love my soup hot. Sometimes, when I can’t finish my soup, I’ll keep it for another day. Some people don’t mind drinking their soup cold. It might be nice to them. But to me, the soup will never be as nice as it should’ve been when drank hot. With a little bit of effort spent on reheating the soup, it will be nice and warm all over again, as good as it was from day one.

Sometimes, after drinking the same soup over and over again, you might get bored of it. And because the soup is there but you don’t drink or do anything about it, it will spoil.

Just like love.

You can love that special someone with all your heart. And that special someone can love you too. Sometimes, that person may love you a little bit more than you love her. You can choose to accept the fact and do nothing about it, or choose to learn to love her more. And hurt her less.

When you accept the fact and do nothing, it is similar to drinking cold soup. The soup might taste okay, but it would not be as good as it could’ve been drank hot. Just like in a relationship, with a little bit of ‘reheating’, the relationship will grow stronger each day.

But here’s the confusing part. If you make your soup too hot, it will burn your tongue in the end.

That’s what love really is. Soup.

“It takes no time to fall in love, but it takes you years to know what love is” – Jason Mraz, Life Is Wonderful

This is my journey, this is my soul,
My reflections on everything that I have sown.
The trials that come each year,
With God, whom shall I fear?
Live mighty, live high,
Like an eagle soaring across the sky.

I am me, different in my ways,
I’ve always known, I don’t belong in this place.
Here, I pour my heart and all its load,
As I walk the opposite side of the road.
In the end, when we part,
I hope you’ll know, my life was His art.

Matthew Ong, 2011

The first day was spent traveling from home to LCCT to KK and then to the Kinabalu Park where we had our dinner, a short briefing and an introduction session before we were all tucked in for the night.

The next morning, we had breakfast and did a little warm-up before another briefing session, this time by the guides who accompanied us all the way to Laban Rata.

The journey from Kinabalu Park to Laban Rata was approximately 6km long and it took us 6 arduous hours of going up rocks and wooden steps. Oh, the agony!

A few kilometers from Laban Rata, it started raining cats and dogs. Water was gushing from the rocks above us and it seemed as if we were walking up waterfalls.

Fortunately, we arrived at Laban Rata safely (albeit all wet) and we had a quick meal before calling it a day at around 8pm.

It was 6 degrees Celsius when I checked the temperature at Laban Rata and we all slept with extra clothes, socks and gloves.

Come 2am, all of us were ready for the climb to the peak. In the dark!

It was another 2.7km of uphill climb but this time, the path was steeper and more dangerous (like super life-threatening kind). We only had ropes to assist us in our ascent to the peak.

After approximately 5 hours of climbing with ropes, we arrived at the ironically named Low’s Peak. Apparently, it was named after Sir Hugh Low who led an expedition and made the first documented ascent of Mount Kinabalu in 1851.

Trust me, Low’s peak is not low at all.

The view up there was AMAZING.

Then came the descent. And the rain. It took us another 6 hours to reach Laban Rata. The rain made the path slippery and I slipped a few times. If not for the rope…

We took a 30 minutes breather in Laban Rata and continued the descent down to Kinabalu Park at 3pm.

Come 6pm, it was already pitch-dark in the jungle and we had another 3km to go. There were 6 of us but only 3 headlights. To make matters worse, it was raining and there was a mist enveloping us. We could hardly see more than 2 meters ahead.

And that’s when the scary things appeared.

830pm, we saw the lights to the Timpohon gate, and it was such a sight! We call it the Timpohon gate to heaven, because we felt as if we’ve just gone through hell.

After exiting Kinabalu Park, we were brought to our home-stay village where we had dinner and a good time of singing and dancing. That night, I had to share a bed with another guy.

-_-”

The next day, we headed to Pulau Manukan, a beautiful island with crystal-clear water.

As I sit down and reflect back on the 4 days I’ve spent in Kinabalu, words just cannot describe how I feel right now. It was one of the most amazing journeys of my life. I am truly blessed to be able to share this life-changing experience of climbing Mount KK with 36 other amazing individuals, and I would not have done it any other way.

To end this post, here’s a picture of me doing something silly near the peak of Mount KK.

The boy and girls.

We played the usual Mafia. Trust me!

And this is what you get when you leave your camera lying around.

Calvin – 1:05
Chong Keat – 1:19
Matt – 1:24
Kel Vin – 1:38

We ate a lot, but took even more pictures.

Eu-Gene decided he wants to be Mary Poppins.

I also want lah!

And then we decided to have some kung fu fightin’.

Overall, it was a sweaty but fun trip!

The last time I went in 2007, we only caught 1 fish.

This time round, I definitely caught more than 1 fish.

The place was quiet and serene.

The weather was perfect. The sky was clear.

And most importantly, the fishes were biting.

It was one of my best fishing experiences ever.