flip'n travels

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place.  ~Lance Armstrong

 As I approached Panar Laban, my feet gave in and I fell a few steps before I reached the door.I did not resist the fall. I sat down for minutes thinking it was a well deserved rest. Finally, I picked myself up and dragged my painful body inside the hut to sleep. 45 minutes later, Ron arrived and we started to prepare ourselves for the final showdown: the trip back home…

We hurried to the restaurant to eat our breakfast and started our descent. As was expected, I went on ahead and left Ron to the mercy of the mountains. After going past the 2 kilometer mark, I felt the burning pain on my feet. My muscles started to shake and my hands were blistered as I used a cane to support my weight as I go down. My ipod died on me and I had to hum ACDC songs to pick up my speed.

As I walked down, I met people asking me how the sight was. I told them about the place where we stopped and it was magnificent. I’m sure the sight on the summit was a hundred times more fabulous. I saw excitement on their eyes, much like our excitement the day before. And try as I may to complain about the pain I felt, I did not utter anything that would dampen their spirits. I was ashamed for even thinking of exhaustion when I see porters climb up with their heavy load.

The people I walked with were my distraction. We were talking non-stop even as we drink our fill on pit stops. I even saw a Japanese guy strumming a guitar as he climbed. We even got to sing a few songs before parting ways. I felt the pain leave my body as I met brave souls trying to conquer nature.

Finally, I saw the gate from where we started. I had to stop every few steps to rest. As I cross the threshold, I was almost close to tears. I made it out of Kinabalu alive.

Somewhere between the climb up, I thought of quitting. Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t. There was something about this crazy idea of mountain climbing that made me something else, maybe even something more…

I have conquered my metaphor of fear, I no longer fear pain…

I said to my soul, be still and wait… So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing… ~T.S. Eliot

I never realized I’d be able to survive the 7-hour climb to Laban Rata. Unlike Ron, I never vowed to quit smoking but decided to swear off mountain climbing for the rest of my life. The agony was unspeakable as I approached Waras Hut, the first sign of a good night sleep. I moved closer to the hotel and went straight to the dining hall to gorge on food. The late comers started trickling in and Ron finally was able to drag himself to the chair beside me. He was close to dying.

We got our fill and drowned ourselves in coffee. The sun started to set as everyone stared in awe at the magnificence that was around us. The air was cold and heavy as we pulled our coats closer to us. At this point, we were not talking anymore of the pain we felt while climbing but the overwhelming feeling of being able to reach our first pit stop. My heart was swelling with pride.

After several cups of coffee and a couple of cigarettes, we decided to settle in our cottage, Panar Laban. Our group will meet Julius at 2am for dinner before heading to the summit. We had to walk a few hundred meters more before we arrived at our cottage where we found a Holland based couple who were celebrating their nth year together and decided to climb Mt. Kinabalu. The room was not heated much to our dismay. I had to put on all my clothes (three long-sleeved shirts, my jacket, a leg warmer, and pants) and hide myself under a cotton blanket plus two wool comforters. Ron did the same. We felt like we weren’t able to sleep properly because of the cold. Ron was even telling me I was talking in my sleep.

Our greatest fear was to not be able to move when we wake up, but our alarms rang and we automatically jumped out of bed and started preparing for the most difficult assault. We headed back to the dining hall and filled ourselves to the brim and dragged ourselves out of the hotel to assemble with the group and started walking.

Then the darkness enveloped us… The million stars did not help at all. We relied on our headlamps and the trail of people walking to the same destination. The cold was unbearable and the altitude made it more difficult for us to breathe. The frosted stones and wooden planks made it harder for us to climb all the more. The German couple we were with when we started climbing were long gone and our guide was nowhere in sight. Suddenly, we felt the terrain change. There were no more trees, only mammoth slabs of granite rock in front of us. And the rope that was to serve as our guide and support to the summit materialized. I was scared for my life.

The pain slowly started to make my body weak, so did the darkness to my heart. Ron whom I was encouraging earlier in the climb was now the one who was pushing me to go forward. Our headlamps mysteriously died off, we were leaning against a cold wall of rock and walking on what felt like a ledge not more than 6 inches wide. It was so dark that we could not see what was there below. Ron, due to freezing wind and fear, was trembling and repeatedly telling me “don’t lose the grip! don’t lose the grip!” I grabbed the rope and started walking while crying and cursing like I’ve never cried and cursed in my life. At some point, we thought we were the last people at the end of the line, we just wanted to sit and wait for the light of day. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of staring at god on the face. It was a chance I would never want to pass on.

Steadily, the dawn began to break and the rock we were trying to overcome became visible in front of us. We did not dare to look back lest our spirits lose courage.

Three hours, a little after passing Ugly Sister’s peak, we finally stopped. We have reached the plateu that goes up toLow’s Peak, the summit. Our legs refused to carry us any longer and we sat in silence.

I had great many challenges in my life. I guess the mountain is the manifestation of all things I need to overcome to be a better person. It makes me proud that Ron and I have done that.

Now I know why mountain climbers have to do what they do. To stand on top of the world and to realize how tiny we are and how insignificant we are in this immense universe is the most humbling feeling. And to be a part, to be a speck, to be a stardust in this infite space gives us a sense of belongingness. After drowning in darkness, I was able to emerge. I do have a brave heart after all.

Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be… a prudent insurance policy. ~Elizabeth Gilbert

You might think that it was a typo. You might think Ron and I developed another liking to weird things (ok, maybe not weird, just unconventional [ok, maybe conventional, but not many people would admit to liking it]). You might even think that we gave in to Bangkok’s glitter. I have to correct myself when I said that Lub’d was the only highlight of our trip. It was Lub’d AND the PORN house. Yes, you read that right, the PORN house. Feast your eyes on this…

with the porn chicks

Remember when we had to leave Grand Palace? Well, the ticket there included a pass to the world’s largest golden teakwood mansion, the Vimanmek. We decided to visit the place the next day. And because we were bursting with energy, we left the hotel a couple of hours past noon, stopped by 711 for our daily dose of cheap coffee and arrived in the area with only a few minutes to spare.

Somewhere between the main entrance and the tourist information center, I told Ron I smell bread baking. And holy guacamole, it was us! Yes, you could have stuck a fork in our butts and turned us over because we were done. We rushed to the center for shade and walked around, there was really nothing to see. And finally, we saw the huge mansion. We approached. Lady guard informed us they were about to close. Ahhh… our last day in Thailand and THAT was just the wonderful cherry on top of the cake. We walked out of the complex with no hopes of redemption in the last leg of our god-forbidden trip.

Please note an absence of pictures of the mansion, right here.

And then… in my peripheral vision I saw a shop. It was nothing out of the ordinary, I think it was because we were cramming in buying trinkets for the people at home that we let ourselves get side-stepped. We were welcomed by two lovely Chinese ladies who offered us tamarinds while we shopped. They were very accommodating and conversational in a non-irritable manner that by the time we were finished with our shopping, we already know their family history. Ron haggled with the prices while the other lady stuffed him with guavapple (hybrid of guava and apple) like there’s no tomorrow. I tried to find something small to carry and would fit in my already-filled bag. We ended up buying more than what we have planned. Basically, 95% of our pasalubongs came from that store. We promised them that if we have friends who are going to Bangkok, we’d recommend their shop. So here we are… recommending… *wink wink* We left with our bags full, plus an extra plastic bag of tamarinds.

So… where ever did we get the porn house?

Ron and I were sitting in a restaurant, waiting for the sunset while talking about our experience in the store when a waiter approached us. We showed the picture to him, hoping to get the name of the store. He said porn. Ron and I looked at each other and smirked (and we were not being meanies, we just thought it was funny). I asked the guy to repeat it and I got the same answer. Ron decided to have the guy write it down in English. He wrote: PORN. We just knew those ladies had us at hello.

Getting to the PORN house store:

Go to Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha), Go to the river bank side of the temple (Thanon Maha Rat St.), right across the temple gate is the souvenir shop with the blue signage.

They have the lowest prices we’ve seen all across Bangkok.

The sun baked our skins as we made our way out of the Grand Palace feeling bitter and shunned by everything Thai. We wanted to turn our lucks by walking towards nowhere thinking we’d probably stumble upon something interesting, like a drag queen who looks like Lady Gaga. A tuktuk driver spider-sensed that we were confused and disoriented and approached us with a plan. “I’ll take you to two temples for free if you can drop by to this tailor shop that I know,” he said. Too tired to argue, we hopped on to his mechanical beast and drove off to the shop.

hahahaha… ha!

Like what Ron mentioned in the previous article, these tuktuk drivers commission their passengers to visit jewelry shops and tailor shops in exchange for gas coupons. The receptionist welcomed us with disappointment. He knew we were just looking around… We really didn’t care. The first day, we were taken to this huge jewelry factory (not sure if this is the appropriate term) and the lady kept insisting Ron to buy me a ring. People! If you could just lend me your ears… We are NOT dating! So anyway, we hopped back on to the tuktuk and asked the driver to just take us wherever it was he was going to take us.

Luang Pho To at the Wat Indravihan Temple

A guy selling birds for offering

Flowers for sale

A faithful

The driver took us to Wat Indravihan Temple where a huge well-known statue of the Buddha stands. The 32-meter tall and 11-meter wide edifice is called Luang Pho To and was built during the reign of King Rama IV. It was noticeable that the place was very much like Quiapo with the noise and number of people roaming around the complex. At some point, I really thought that the guy barking his merchandise sounded like the guy facilitating a BINGO game on the sidewalk. It was so chaotic that I practically dragged Ron out and back into the tuktuk and told the the driver to take us to the last of the temples he suggested.

Not sure if this is Wat Bowon Niwet or Wat Ratchanatdaram… Pft!

So the driver rode off and parked at a seemingly nice temple. We went inside. It was closed. We were not amused…

It was about 3pm when we got back to the hostel. We dumped our bags and went to 711 and had lunch. Back at Lub*d, we went straight to the PC and updated our statuses to hateful bantering. I decided to get my book and read and Ron obtundedly sat inside the hostel room. Clearly, at about 4pm in the afternoon of our second day in Bangkok, the day was officially over.

After our anticlimactic Muay Thai momentus-interruptus and we finally convinced ourselves that watching two amateur fighters throwing bravado on each other is too high a price, we headed of the most beaten path in Bangkok.

Upon entrance in the grand palace, Monette rented a mothball smelling cover-up. Apparently, we were entering the most sacred temple in Bangkok and her tank top was too revealing that monks may get an unwanted wood works.

hor phra monthian dharma

It was mid-day and it seemed like clouds were not so popular in Thailand. It was too hot it can make straight hair curl, and gay men straight. Despite that, we still tried savoring every single minute inside the temple complex. After an hour, we barely moved and we were still within 20 meters away from the entrance.

giant yak in front of hor phra monthian dharma

phra siratana chedi

kinnorns (a mythological creature, half bird, half man) adorning prasat phra debidorn

It was uncomfortably hot to sketch and taking photos was a painful effort. There were lots of tourists loitering the complex and so the numerous distractions were hovering us unstoppably. So we just sat, looked around, watched tourists, stared blankly in front of a Chedi.

Temples of Wat Phra Kaew are actually… well they’re… pretty… and… sorry I’m short of words to say. Just like the over-used break-up excuse, I would sincerely say–It’s not the place, it’s me!I may have to blame the route that we took, because Siem Reap is definitely a hard act to follow. Wrong order of destination.

Siem Reap temples invoke unexplainable emotions. You stand there and you feel that you are standing in the presence of something great and magnificent and ancient. You feel one with the environment. Temples in Bangkok are nice, don’t get us wrong. The intricate designs, wonderful carvings, detailed paintings and tedious mosaics are all pleasing to the eye. It’s just that seeing them within the city with all the other buildings takes away the spiritual essence of such religious edifices. They’re just… buildings…

The comatose-inducing boredom was broken when another tourist approached us, telling us we better hurry because the complex will close in an hour.

“What the F*ck!? How come the lady in the ticket booth didn’t tell us that the king and queen of Malaysia were in town and that they will be closing the palace!”

Unbelievable! That meant we barely had an hour to explore the 218,000 sqm complex. GREAT!

notice our pictures from hereon… fake smiles or no smiles at all…

We tried demanding for a refund, but what’s the point of arguing if the one whom you’re talking to cannot even conjugate a clear message.

ME: “we want a refund, we just bought the ticket an hour ago”
Ticket Lady: “Yes?”
ME: “we want a refund, you didn’t tell us that you will be closing at 1:00 PM”
Ticket Lady: “No, ticket not wasted, can go to Vimanmek”
ME: “But we haven’t seen 80% of the Grand Palace!”
Ticket Lady: “yes?”
ME: “NAK NG TOKWA NAMAN ’TEH O!”

We gave up the hopeless battle and asked what gate we’re suppose to exit. They unanimously pointed us towards the other end of the square. So we walked under the scorching sun and reached the other end of the enclosure wall just to find out—they sent us to the WASH ROOM!

After 30 minutes of trying to find the exit, we found ourselves outside the walls of the Grand Palace, just in time for the arrival of the entourage of the king and queen of Malaysia. We decided to leave the scene before our schizophrenic selves ran amok because of the harsh deprivation. And no, this was not the last of the mishaps we encountered that day.

So… why don’t we continue the story… in the next entry…