Bits and Pieces

Taman Pertanian Malaysia Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam

2011-11-13T19:00:00.000+08:00

This was planned as an Aspirers outing and my sis and I were invited to join the Youths. :D I called Minch along too. So there were like 4 adults and 27 youths who went for this trip.We paid RM15 each for entrance fee and transport. I don't think 31 of us covered for the bus fees itself. :(

So, we were told to meet at church at 7am. Jian took attendance. The bus came about 7.15am and we left at 7.30am.

It was free seating and I sat in front with one of the Youths. :D

It was drizzling lightly when we arrived at the park.

Anne got us our tickets and we were ready to go in.

The park was huge but 'walkable''.

Some of us wanted to rent bicycles, but we were too late to rent the cheaper ones. We expected to a RM3 - RM5 per hour bike rental but they have only have the RM10 per hour bikes left.

There are 3 ways to get from one place to another -
1)cycle
2)catch a tram
3) walk

We all walked and were envious of the cyclists cycling ahead of us.

Our first stop was the Animal Garden.

We spent some time looking at the animals and taking pictures of them.

I think all of us have not been to this place before, so most of the time we just kept walking ahead hoping to get to somewhere.. anywhere interesting.

We stopped for a break. Some of us brought food while others bought mee-in-my-cup and burgers.

The next taman - the Mushroom Garden.

A look-out point.

It was very steep. Those with big feet would have trouble descending.

A mini exercise spot.

A moving wooden platform.

Jared was being vain again. :D

It started to rain again and Anne hurried us to a shelter. We were running late. It was about 12.20pm and we told the bus driver that we should be out by 12noon.

It didn't rain for long though and we walked back to the entrance. By 1pm we were all safely in the bus going back to Seremban.

Aspirers - The Next Level

2011-10-01T22:00:00.000+08:00

Aspirers is finally moving from the chapel to ARC, the bungalow right behind our church. Anne, the youth leader was especially pleased about the move. It means, more space to grow since the chapel is really cramped for space.

They started their move at 4pm in the chapel. After reminiscing about how far Aspirers had come up to this stage, they were ready to leave the chapel which they called "home" for 5 years.

They even SEALED the entrance. NO TURNING BACK!!

Walking towards the new bungalow.

Pastor Sally officiated the opening of the new Aspirers place by cutting the ribbon. It is a 2.5 storey bungalow and Aspirers will only be using the 1st floor.

Aspirers entering the hall after Pastor Sally and Anne.

First worship and pray in this place. There were about um... 70 people and the place looked cramped to me. The hall is small, but there's another hall at the other end of the floor and the compound outside this floor is big.

Makan time. Too many people, not enough food, or maybe the Youths were just too hungry. :D

Souvenirs From Hawaii

2011-09-20T23:00:00.000+08:00

My sister is back from Hawaii. This is her 2nd trip there. This time I didn't really expect much souvenirs from her because she should have all the interesting gifts covered during her first trip. :)

She got me these :-

A pink T-shirt, a um whatchamacallit waterproof container, a short stainless steel cup, a mote pad, a hair-clip, an ANTI-BOTTLE, and a pair of create-any-pattern-you-like sandals.

I find 3 items interesting :-

The waterproof container is practical for our PD outings.
The anti-bottle is a flexible container that stands when it's full and folds when it's empty.
The sandals. With just a pair of rubberize soles, strings and patterned hooks you can create so many designs.

Merdeka Day - 16 Sept 2011

2011-09-16T23:00:00.000+08:00

We started our day playing badminton. It was a holiday here in Malaysia and many of our youth friends turned up.

Since there were so many youths, Rachel's car was full, 7 of us in her sedan.

We went for breakfast cum lunch. We were so looking forward to have our 3-layer tea, but FS, the food court which we usually go to did not have it. So after lunch, Jared, my sis and I purposely went to Ah Seng's coffee shop to have our 3-layer tea.

Oh, it was also after UPSR, a compulsory nationwide exam for the primary school students, and my niece had already made plans to go to PD with her friends.Rachel and I decided to tag along. We called Arnold and Brian too. Earlier during badminton, we also told Danny (knew him from our recent Kinabalu climb) about our plans to PD and he said he would bring his family and meet us at Teluk Kemang, a popular beach spot in PD.

At about 3pm, it started to get dark and we could hear thunder and the rain eventually came down. In the car, my niece prayed for the rain to go stop and that the weather would be good. When we reached Teluk Kemang, the sun began to shine so brightly and it was so hot that all of us put sun block on our faces and bodies.

We brought along our colourful tubes. There were only 3 tubes, so they had to share.

Sue-Yi's first visit to the beach. She enjoyed it so much.

En and her friends.

Danny came slightly later. We played volleyball on the beach. It was fun.

The kids came out of the water to build sand castles.

Later, Danny and Rachel tried to set up her sailboat kite. They took more than an hour to fix it. A guy came along to help too. By that time it was too late to fly the kite.

Beautiful sunset. :)
As usual, we left way after the sun set. It was close to 9pm when we reached Seremban.

We had dinner at Bidara.The children weren't that hungry because they ate the sandwiches and cakes we brought to the beach.

Rum & Raisin Slice

2011-09-02T21:00:00.002+08:00

Had the sudden urge to bake something. I had rum, I had raisin and just enough eggs to make a rum & raisin cake. :)

I also had a very short time to bake because I had a waterfall outing appointment in 1.5 hours.

I switch off the oven 10 minutes sooner than I should, but it still turned out nice and moist. I can't really taste the rum. Maybe the next try I'll put more rum, or get a better quality one.

Gonna bring it for my badminton kaki tomorrow. :) They are my guinea pigs and they won't feel guilty on putting on weight because I will offer to them only AFTER a few games of badminton. :D

Volleyball

2011-08-20T22:00:00.004+08:00

My sister and I were once volleyball school players. Even after we left school, we still played every now and then.

I think the last time I played in a real game was 10 years ago.

I played for my company in the year 1999 and 2001. They had the sports event every two years. Come to think of it, if we didn't win any medal, I would have forgotten that I played at all for my company.

As far as I can remember, I always had a personal volleyball ball (hmmm, you get what I mean) during my Secondary school days, since I was in Form 2 if I'm not mistaken. It was always shared with my sister. And when the ball got out of shaped (always due to them being rolled under a car), we would get another one, though maybe not immediately.

After our final exams in Secondary School (High School), we didn't play much and soon when the ball was old and worn, we threw that away but never got another.

This year, during our Kids' Sleepover party in March, we played volleyball with a BASKETBALL after the children went to sleep. There weren't any net, just passing the ball from one person to another- volleyball style.

Our forearms hurt like crazy.

It was then that we decided to get a volleyball, a cheap one. Cost only RM30. :)
Oh, we did ask about the Mikasa volleyball, a very famous brand during our time (and still is, I presume). It was priced at over RM200 now! Used to be worth only RM40.

So here's our brand new ball. Looks good and it was easy on the forearms. We didn't play with it until during church camp in May.

We only played 1 session.. and look what happen to the ball....

It got torn at the seams. :(

I think the guys did some kicking with it too, so yeah.

It was still "playable", but the direction of the ball wasn't accurate.

Then, a friend from US came to visit. It was her summer holidays and every year she comes back to see her relatives. It seems she played volleyball for her school and she wanted to practise her serving.

My sis discussed with me and we decided to get another ball.

So, we went back to the same shop again and told the shopkeeper what happened to the first ball. He was sympathetic and introduced another brand, a slightly more expensive one. I noticed, this ball has a bar code stamped on it. :D

We played only once with this ball, so let's just see how long this ball lasts. :)

My Very Own Mortar & Pestle

2011-08-13T14:00:00.000+08:00

Yup, I FINALLY own an old fashion mortar and pestle. I had no reason to own one before, but ever since my cousin told me that she uses this to pound the biscuits for her cheesecake crust, I started looking for one. I remembered seeing a simple one in Ikea, but when I went there 2 days ago, they said it was a discontinued item. :(

I went shopping again today to one of the local shops in town and bought one. It wasn't perfect, but I didn't really mind.

Baking again

2011-08-12T22:00:00.003+08:00

I planned to make cheesecake 2 days ago but I was too lazy. It's not that I don't have the ingredients. Just that I was plain lazy. :) Nah... I was busy cleaning the house. :)

This morning when I woke up, I asked myself, "Must I really make cheesecake today?". Yup, that lazy symptom was there again. I forced myself to get up and bring out all the stuff from the fridge and cabinet.

I dilly-dallied for 2 hours in front of the computer before actually starting to measure the ingredients. My reason was (It's a valid reason I must say), "hey the cheese takes time to soften." :D

My lazy mood kicked in full force. I took more than 1 hour preparing the cake!!

So, this is how it looks like before it's baked.

After being in the oven for more than 2 hours, it looked... err.. terrible. LOL

I used only 1 recipe but my cake tin wasn't big enough to fit in all , so I put the balance in another tin.

Fortunately I had a smaller oven. It saves me time. However, I noticed that this smaller oven didn't do justice to the cheesecake. The cake didn't rise at all. Come to think of it, it didn't work for my scones and pretzels the last time too.. hmm...

So, I had 2 cheesecakes at the end of the day. I gave 1 cake to my youth friends and brought the bigger cake to my cell meeting just now. I sorta forced everyone to eat. Thank God it tasted good. I failed in making the cake looked presentable though. I sprinkled some icing powder to cover the brown spots, but on the way to my friend's house, it started drizzling and the icing melted off.

I should have drizzled some chocolate on top, but I didn't have time.

I made green tea sponge cake, but it didn't turn out good. It was dry and not spongy at all. :(

I would definitely make the cheesecake again. Oh, I got the recipe from this website - click here.

Pale Scones

2011-07-17T20:00:00.002+08:00

I've tried making scones but they didn't turn out good. In fact, they was hard and lousy. It took me quite some time to want to try making them again.

Today was a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was in Rach's house but I wanted to bake something. Using one of the recipes online, I asked Rach if she has all the necessary ingredients... and she did. :)

We were frantically looking for a mould to cut the dough. Rach found a plastic cup and the size was just nice for the scones.

She didn't have any eggs in the house, so we didn't get to brush egg yolks on top of the scones. They looked so pale.

The scones rose in the oven. I was so worried that they would be flat. They tasted good compared to my previous ones. I don't know when will I make scones again. Hopefully soon. :)

Aspirers 28th Anniversary- Masterchef Competition 2011

2011-07-03T21:30:00.009+08:00

I have never heard of Masterchef until the Aspirers decided to have a little cooking competition for their 28th Anniversary.

It seems that when the idea was first brought forward by one of the committee members (and supported by others), Anne, the youth leader was not really all for it. She was concerned about the lack of interest and non-participation of the youths since, well, youths these days don't cook. Not only that, Anne was not in town most of the time and she didn't think she had time to organise and look into all those minute details.

I guessed the committee members managed to convince her that it will work and she should learn how to let go and leave everything in their very capable hands. :)

So, with the approval from Anne, the committee had about 5 weeks to plan. During the 1st meeting, Jian, one of the committee members said he was still quite relax and calm. He was expecting only about 5 teams to participate. "Controllable," he must have thought. Well, he should aim for a higher number because it's always best to expect the unexpected. :)

By the end of the registration period, 13 teams registered. By then the committees were frantically looking for portable stoves and gas tanks. It was kinda difficult to get these from people who has them coz duhhh, they use them everyday. :)

Okay, during the registration period, each team were given a group registration form with guidelines attached to it.

The guidelines were :

1. We will be preparing the following for you:

a. Oil, salt and pepper

b. 2 eggs

c. Onion and garlic

d. Potatoes and carrots utensils

e. Stove and gas and a shared oven.

2. You are required to bring your own necessary utensils (i.e. pot, pan, knives,chopping board, bowls, fork, etc)

3. You will have a full hour to prepare one appetizer and one main dish (Note: plan with your team ahead of time so that you know what ingredients and utensils you need to bring)

4. A secret ingredient will be revealed on that day which you MUST add into every dish.

5. We will be giving out awards for the "Best Food", Best Team" and "Most Creative Dish".

6. Please be in Agape by 4.30pm on the 3rd of July 2011 in order to set up your stations.

So, at 5pm....

Joel Jaya and Jian were the emcees for the day.

Introducing the three judges - Aunt Chris, Uncle Dick and Pastor Ben.

Okay, everyone, DO NOT START FIRST, we are about to reveal the secret ingredient," says Jian. " I want one of you from each team to come here and get the ingredient".

13 team members came forward to grab a packet of........

err..... mushrooms????

Becky's wondering how to incorporate these enokitake (long thin white mushrooms) with her Chef's salad (appetizer) and Carbonara (main dish).

Group name : Royal Smallies

Group Leader : Sarah Tang

Members : Rebecca, Kennysha, Faith, Brian Lourds

Food prepared by the Royal Smallies. Pasta & Garlic bread? not sure.

Group name : Noobcooker

Group Leader : Becky

Members : Justin, Pei Wen, Shaphan, Arnold

Food prepared by the Noobcookers. Carbonara and Chef's salad.

Group name : Salt and Pepper

Group Leader : Reuben

Members : William, Chee Hoe, Jing Jing, Melissa

Food prepared by Salt & Pepper.

Group name : Mushi Bear

Group Leader : Arthur

Members : Asher, Aiden, Juen Kiet, Jin Han

Food prepared by the Mushi Bear.

Group name : Diz Paulians

Group Leader : Joel J

Members : Karlson, Dhivvian, Thiviyan

Food prepared by Diz Paulians.

Group name : Lim Kok Wang

Group Leader : Matthew

Members : Tian Lee, Michelle, Elaine, Kimberly

Food prepared by Lim Kok Wang.

Group name : The Form 1's, Chris & Az

Group Leader : Jared

Members : Martin, Shane, Chris, Azriel (Absent).

Food prepared by the Form 1's, Chris & Az.

Group name : The Spirit of Chef

Group Leader : Jeah Hueey

Members : Jeah En, Daarsyanita, Ze Lin, Ze Ting

Food prepared by the Spirit of Chef.

Group name : Super Chris-py Loh-Tee

Group Leader : Debra

Members : Grace, Chrissie, Pei Rinn, Yi Qing

Food prepared by the Super Chris-py Loh-Tee

Group name : Royal Angels

Group Leader : Shem

Members : Amos, David, Rehgoel

Food prepared by the Royal Angels. Fried rice and carrot juice.

Group name : Jokers

Group Leader : Priyanka

Members : Rozelle, Rita, Prissie

Food prepared by the Jokers. Pizza & mushroom soup.

Group name : Krazy Kookers

Group Leader : Becca

Members : Stephanie, Shawn, Larissa, Joel C

Food prepared by the Krazy Kookers. Boom-ba-da-boom & THE BED.

Group name : Sushi

Group Leader : Akane

Members : Megumi, Alisa, Samantha, Joel L

Food prepared by Sushi.

Here you are, the 13 teams displaying their hidden talents.

The judges had a tough time deciding.

Each team had to describe the food they prepared and the ingredients they used in their dishes.

A little sarong dance from the emcees. They were supposed to prepare a surprise dish but there wasn't enough time.

Those who weren't participating, had a good time roasting their marshmallows.

It was an exciting evening. I do not know the name of most dishes and some were made up by the team members. I will try to add a video here some time soon.

I didn't stay when the judges gave the verdict but I received an sms later from a reliable source that the awards went to the following group : -

Best Food - Lim Kok Wang

Best Team - Super Chris-py Loh-Tee

Most Creative Dish - Krazy Kookers

The event finished at 8.30pm, 1.5 hours later than planned.

Tubes

2011-06-27T20:30:00.001+08:00

Okay, it seems that we are quite serious about going to the beach again. 2 days after our last trip to PD, Rach and I were at Tesco and we thought we'd better get at least 2 floating tubes for the kids.

We got the green and orange ones first. I went home and inflate the orange one to check the size and to see how sturdy it was. Looks good. :)

Then two days ago, we found ourselves at Tesco again. We thought "ahhh must as well get the blue one and a beach ball".

You know, this is the 2nd set of tubes and ball we bought. Two years ago, we bought 2 tubes and a ball. We used them for at least 2 times. Then they went missing. Hmmmm. :)

Granny turns 92

2011-06-26T21:00:00.000+08:00

Wow! Talk about long life. My grandmother celebrates her 92nd birthday this year.

Okay, I admit, I had to count the candles. :) We weren't sure what was her actual age because not only she was born pre-war, she also follows her Chinese birthdate which is always 1 year extra.

My grandmother bore 15 children. Amazing!! :)

Climbing Apek Hill for the 1st Time

2011-06-25T15:00:00.010+08:00

It's been quite some time since I last went for a hike. Early this month I went for a get-together dinner in the La Bodega, Pavallion with my hiking friends. One of the topics discussed was climbing Apek Hill in Cheras. We had a show of hands to see whether to set the date on the 25th June or the 2nd July. Most of us were free on the 25th June, so we blocked of the date mentally. Oh, I'm certain that ALL of us did not set it in our appointment books or electronic devices because ALL the KL friends had some form of excuse not to climb when the day drew nearer.

We made Kang Bee to leader that time because she has been to Apek Hill before but a few days before the 25t h, she emailed to say that she sprained her leg. After that another KL friend said he couldn't make it and then slowly one by one everyone gave their excuses.

Now Danny, a friend from my hometown, was a bit anxious. After the email from Kang Bee, he asked if the trip would be cancelled. I told him that it was still on because I've asked Johnny, another friend who has been there before to lead us. And it was a plus that Johnny stayed very near Apek Hill.

So, I set my alarm at 5AM. We were supposed to meet at the Lobak food court at 5.30AM. Based on previous climbs to Nuang, I remembered eating noodles at 4.45AM there. But this time, non of the stalls were opened. We saw 2 stalls cleaning up though. We ordered our drinks and our only option for food was bread and eggs. Danny said it was a poor choice of place for breakfast. Right, next time I will ask him to suggest!!.

We left the food court at about 6AM and reached Johnny's place at about 7.10AM. It was like a 5 minute drive to the foothill.

7.21AM - We parked at the playground and took about 4 minutes walk to the foothill. There were 5 of us - Johnny, Danny, Minch, Rach & I.

7.25AM - The foothill and one of the many entrances in this hill.

It was an easy hike I would say. :)

Johnny passed his responsibility as a point man to this lady called June because he wanted to accompany her husband who was walking much slower.
So June was telling us that this tree has got some medical value and people are slowly breaking off the roots from this tree.

7.42AM - Soon we reached Station 1. A tent from the Pasar Malam KL. Now if only they relocate the Cheras Pasar Malam to this spot. :P

Crossing a little stream at Station 1.

We didn't have to use the ropes because the ground was dry.

7.53AM - At Station 2, you can either go left or right. June usually use the left trail. If I'm not mistaken, she said that the left trail goes to Apek hill and the right, to Saga hill.

Oh, there's a clock here at Station 2, with a message written on it, "Don't take away please".

8.04AM - We reached station 3. Obviously this is a popular spot for small chats and gossips because many of them stopped here for a longer break. June said she would not go any further than this point because she had a dinner to attend in another state that night.

We waited for Johnny here for about 10 minutes at the Golden Station (That's what the Chinese words on the trees says). There was a little bench in between 2 trees and a boy was sitting there for quite some time. We noticed that this boy was sort of waiting for us because after a while everyone either went up or down the hill except this boy.

When we made signs of wanting to continue our hike, this boy went ahead of us but soon, we lost track of him.

Oh, there's a left trail at this Station which says "to station 4 & 5" if I'm not mistaken.

Apparently, this trail goes straight up to Station 6. It wasn't a strenuous hike and we reached Station 6 in no time and was greeted with.......................

" Come! Come! Have some watermelons," said one of the hikers who was there first.

Oh, at first we didn't know that they were inviting us to have some, but they repeated again. So without being shy, each of us took a piece. It was really juicy.

We reached station 6 at 8.35AM. There were some interesting stuff hanging just below the tent- the 2 Chinese jugs, a cup and 2 hula hoops. Also, someone was kind enough to donate a 4 or 5 liter water container for hikers to refill their water bottles.

It was at this point where we were deciding whether to go to the waterfalls or turn back. Actually, all of us wanted to go to the waterfall but none of us knew the way.

We made up our minds in less than a minute. :) All of us were gamed for it. We weren't sure when will be our next trip here.

8.47AM - We headed off to the unknown.. :)

8.55AM - The 7th station. Only 8 minutes from Station 6. I supposed we could have been faster than this.

At this point, we could see a trail after the tent and another one on the right. We recalled one of the hikers asking us to go ahead. They didn't mention a turning to the right so we decided to ignore that turning.

After walking for like ages (less than 15 minutes actually), we thought we took the wrong path.

We backtracked for less than 1 minute before we saw a group of hikers and asked if they knew where the waterfall was. It seems we were on the right track. We decided to follow them.

The trail to the waterfall was very steep. There were ropes along the way to help and guide us.

Even those with long legs were very cautious.

By now we could hear the waterfall..

First impression.... "WHATTTTT.. we hiked all the way here for this??"

It was a mini waterfall. We now knew why the regular hikers weren't keen at all to lead us here.

Anyway, since we were here... must as well spend some time admiring the waterfall right? :)

We were here for a grand total of 9 minutes. :)

Some people just don't know how to read. -.-

I kept my camera in my backpack when we were climbing up the steep trail and only took it out when my hands were free. :D

10.24AM - Station 7

10.32AM - Station 6.

We didn't stop at Station 7 and only rested for 1/2 a minute at Station 6.

Going down was a breeze. :)

11.02AM - Back at Station 1 again.

Rubber trees at the lower part of the hill.

Ahhh, a bit steep here.

11.19AM - Oh,, and we are out. :)

I was so hungry when I reached the foothill and was glad to see people selling food. Everything looked yummy but I had to restrain myself because we planned to have a good lunch after we have showered. I bought some curry puffs to keep my hunger at bay.

We went back to Johnny's place to shower and had a light meal before going out to have dim sum at Taman Connaught.

All in all, I enjoyed this short trip very much. It was not too strenuous and the company was good. :)

What??!! PD again??

2011-06-09T23:30:00.003+08:00

Yes!! PD again. This time I went with Rach, En, Bri and Arn. :)

This is also an impromptu trip. I was bored with work and today was too beautiful not to go out. You know that kind of feeling? :). Okay, I admit, I was lazy. :D

Having been to PD less than a week ago, I was day-dreaming about it and a thought came to my mind. Since the kids are having their mid term school holidays, why not bring them out for a swim? I send a text message to Arn to see if he was interested. He was non-committal. I told him I had to finish my quota of work first before going out. So at about 2pm, I started firming up the plans with Rach. We called Bri's grandma who confirmed on behalf of him. The we called En who said that she would only go if Bri goes. So that settled it. The I send a text message to Arn to tell him that we would pick him up at 4.30pm.

We left for PD at about 4.45pm. I told Rach that we'll take them to Teluk Kemang. She was like "uh, where's that?" :D

We took the highway, so it was much faster. The instructions from Rach's friend was, "at roundabout turn left and you'll reach Teluk Kemang in no time." True enough after the roundabout, not 5 minutes later we reached our destination. :)

So here we are. It was already nearly 6pm. The sea was calm, unlike the other day.

At first we rented 2 tubes at RM5 each for Bri and En because they can't swim. Later, En gave Arn her tube and went to get another one for herself. So sweet of her. :)

I don't know.. but it seems as though that a trip to the beach is not complete if you don't do the following -

a) Swim in the sea

b) Build a sand castle or attempt to do one

c) Walk a certain length on the beach collecting seashells

So yeah, the three of them attempted to build a sand castle, but I guessed the sea was calling out to them. They went back to swim again.

Ahh.. a deep heart carved out by Arn. :)

We walked along the beach looking for seashells. Much to En's disappointment, there weren't many. We gave up after 10 or 15 minutes and the kids went to swim again. They were having so much fun and time just slipped by so fast that soon it was time to leave. At about 7.30pm, Rach was quite concern that it was getting dark and there weren't many people on the beach. She asked us all to take a shower and pack up. Oh well. :)

We packed some otak-otak back home. We found out that Bri loves otak-otak. He was begging for them in the car but we told him that he could only eat them once he's back home.

It was truly a fun evening. I guessed all of us were quite satisfied with today. We were back home by 9pm. Tiring but fun.

I wonder when will be our next PD trip. :) Looking forward to it. :D

Spanish Dinner

2011-06-05T23:30:00.000+08:00

"Anyone tried La Bodega before?" asked Danny 2 months back when we were at the Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC). None of us had. So he suggested, the next time we come up to KL for a meal, we have to try this.

Right, so here we are, not at the La Bodega in BSC, but in Pavillion because ONE of us wanted to shop before dinner.

We had 3 hours of shopping before meeting the KL gang. I was wearing high heels and it hurt so much after an hour of shopping. :(

The entrance of La Bodega.

Danny ordered -

Paella Valenciana Mixta - tuna and chicken

Queso de Cabra Frito Con Miel al Limon - Deep fried goat's cheese with lemon sauce

Gambas al Ajillo - prawns in olive oil and garlic.

Albondigas Sant Climent - Lamb Meatballs in rich brandy sauce.

Salchichas al Diablo - Spicy chicken sausage sauteed with onions,chilli & tomato

Not forgetting the Sangria which he said we MUST try.

There were 12 of us this time. My brother came late. He's not in the picture. It was during this dinner that we talked about wanting to climb again. Someone suggested "Saga Hill" and we all started discussing the dates. We finally fixed it on the 25th June. KB said that she will lead as she has been there before. :)

We left about hmm... almost 10pm?! :)

Another Impromptu Trip to PD

2011-06-04T23:30:00.001+08:00

It all started when I saw RW online on FB.

Our conversation went like this : -

Me - Where are you?

RW - at home

Me - tmrw spanish food?

RW - wanna go lake garden now?
2molo got dinner wor... i see u no invite me :-(

Me - now? Im at home weii

RW - if 4pm, we talk, maybe still ok? now too late?

Me - yeah... want to lepak or smtg?

RW - when? where?

Me - now... anywhere.. go pd? :p

RW - just 2 of us? who else? now? serious?

Me - now lah, yes lah

RW - i can pack and go now!! fetch u from ur house?

Me - come..

RW - i log off now lor...

It was late. I didn't intend to swim, so I wore a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. We left my house about 5.45pm?! We took the old way to PD. It was a pleasant drive and we even saw a beautiful half circle rainbow. What a treat. :)

Of all days for an impromptu trip to PD, we had to chose this day, a public holiday!!.

The trunk road was narrow and full of cars. Even the proper car parks were packed with cars and we could see long rows of cars parked at both sides of the road.

We were driving aimlessly, not sure which beach to bum. RW said that her mom suggested to go to Teluk Kemang. I honestly had no idea what and where is Teluk Kemang. We just followed the signboard and after quite a distance, we reached Teluk Kemang and I don't know what made us think that it was THE place, but we saw so many cars there at the parking lot and we went in to look for a parking space. Fortunately, a car was pulling out just as we came in.

Ahh, two signboards confirming that this is the right place. :)

One of the most beautiful sunset I've seen for quite sometime.

Like SERIOUSLY!! It was nearly 7pm at that time. The tide was coming in real quick. The waves were unexceptionally high.

There were lots of people. Oh how I wished we came earlier. It was a nice day for a swim.

The waves kept rolling in. This little boy was having the time of his life.

RW's shoes. She took them off and kept it at a safe distance, but soon the waves came sweeping her shoes off. She put them on a higher ground again, but the waves kept coming. Finally, she placed them on a much higher ground and began snapping pics of the sunset.

We decided to have dinner here. Too bad the stalls weren't at the seaside. We had satay, otak-otak, mee goreng and mee bandung.

RW was so hungry that she nearly ordered a burger while waiting for her noodles to arrive. Fortunately, she didn't because by the time we finished our food, we were full. :)

After Teluk Kemang, we went to other public beaches, but the waves there were not so high. We took some photos and left PD at about 9.45pm.

It was an interesting outing. We should do this more often. :)

He Will Carry You

2011-05-18T23:45:00.000+08:00

Here's a song I find comforting whenever I face trials and difficulties in life.

Title : He Will Cary You

Song Writer : Scott Wesley Brown

There is no problem too big
God cannot solve it
There is no mountain too tall
He cannot move it
There is not storm too dark
God cannot calm it
There is no sorrow too deep
He cannot soothe it

If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders
I know, my brother that He will carry you
If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders
I know, my sister that He will carry you

He said come on to me all who are weary
And I will give you rest

Hard-Like-Rock Pretzels

2011-04-06T20:00:00.000+08:00

Thought I blog about this before continuing my Kinabalu series. Be patient ya?!

Auntie Anne's pretzels has always been my favourite snack. Whenever I go to any of the malls in KL, I will stop by at the outlet to get one or 2 pretzels. My favourites flavours are green tea and sour cream.

Last week, I googled for the recipe and to my surprise, the recipe could be found online. Not just any pretzel recipe but Auntie Anne's pretzel recipe. I printed out and bought the necessary ingredients.

I had no intention to bake until I have completed an outstanding project, but today, as I was doing my work, the sky colour changed from bright and sunny to dark and gloomy. It started to rain heavily after 3pm. I thought I better switch off my laptop because I could hear the thunder roar and lightning was flashing everywhere.

I thought of reading... but after reading a few pages, I decided that I should do something more worthwhile. And then I thought of trying out the recipe.

I must say, it's easy to make....

...but.. it's hard to shape it!!!!! Bleh..I think it took me 10 minutes just to shape the first pretzel. The big hint that was included in the recipe was "The longer and thinner you can make, the dough rope, the more like Auntie Anne's they will be".

I was like... okay.. it shouldn't be a problem. But it was, as you can see. :( Fortunately I made only half a recipe.

So, here's my pretzels, fresh out from the oven. They are hard and taste NOTHING like Auntie Anne's pretzels. I must try this again and again until I succeed. My friend Anne has volunteered to be my guinea pig. :D

Korean Dinner

2011-04-03T23:30:00.000+08:00

In my recent Kinabalu trip, there's a climber who loves anything Korean. Every training climb and even during the Kinabalu trip, he was full of "Korean this, Korean that". From Korean movies to K-pop, to Korean girls to Korean food.. you get the idea. :)

Then during our post Kinabalu climb dinner in early March, he was telling us that there's this Korean restaurant which he frequented every week. He claimed that they have the BEST Korean food. We were like, "okayyyy, if you say so". But then, we were also curious about this place. So we asked him to set a date and time and we'll be there.

After much thought over the next few days, we decided that 3rd of April would be the best day.

There were 6 of us from N.Sembilan. We went to Bangsar for shopping first before heading to Mt Kiara. I think we took like an hour to reach there because we weren't sure of the place. Rach's new GPS failed because she didn't use for more than a month. Danny's GPS.. hmm.. I'm not sure, maybe he didn't update it?! And so we had to call our Korean-crazed friend for directions.

So here we are, at Little Korea @Jln Solaris, Mt Kiara. Our KL friends were already there waiting for us. Oh at least 3 of them were there. The other 2 came later.

Since our friend knows what is good here, we let him order.

I must say, it's VERY good. Oh don't ask me to name all the dishes he ordered. :) The price is pretty decent too. :)

Yummy. :)

A group picture courtesy of Desmond. :) He was the only one who brought his DSLR. :)

After dinner, we went to a KOREAN supermarket before heading back home :D

Mt Kinabalu for the 4th Time-Day 4

2011-01-15T23:30:00.002+08:00

The alarm was set at 1.30AM? I can't remember, but it was raining rather heavily for about an hour before our alarm rang.

I'm sure most of our thoughts were whether we could venture out and brave the cold rain. Maybe some of us were thinking "YAY, can sleep in". I had the latter thought. Terrible me!! :D

Those who woke up earlier boiled water to make hot drinks.

Francis brought maggi mee and shared with a few of us. It was delicious of course. Everything taste much better on a mountain top. :P

The kitchen at Gunting Lagadan is equipped with cooking facilities and there are sufficient cups, plates, bowls and cutleries. If you look closer at the picture above, there is also a wok at the bottom of the cupboard. :)

I would say, Gunting Lagadan is now our preferred choice of accommodation. We can cook & boil water for bathing. I heard that there was no hot water to shower in Laban Rata.. like for almost a year??

The lead guide came at about 2.30AM. It was still raining but not as heavy. He told us that there was a possibility that we could not continue our hike to Low's Peak. Some of us were crestfallen by the news, others were elated and promptly went back to sleep. The guide explained that it has been raining heavily for about 2 hours and even though the rain seemed to be lighter now at Gunting, the mountain top was still flooded with rain water. He showed us a picture of how the flood looked like on his mobile phone. He said he would make his decision by 3.30AM whether or not to lead us to the peak.

We had about 40 minutes to kill. Some went back to sleep, some hung around at the hall and others went into the room to pray.

The moment we finished praying, we could hear someone shouted, "The guide said it's okay to go now". Praise God!! :D

So at 3.30AM (thereabouts), 34 of us left for the Peak.

It was drizzling very lightly and we had our raincoats on... but not for long. It was more tiresome to walk with a raincoat, so many of us took it off.

My 4th Kinabalu climb and this was my 1st time enjoying the hike up from mid-point to the Peak. The last 3 times I was in a very bad shape. This time, I was able to encourage some of my fellow climbers.

At one point in time (It's all so vague now, I don't know which point :p ), it got really warm. I was with SH at that time. I asked him to take off his thick jacket and stuff it in my backpack. He didn't bring a backpack and so I made him stick close to me because it would get chilly again later and he would need his jacket.

Above picture middle right - 7KM marker before reaching Sayat-Sayat (5.08AM). Rach was nearby so we took a picture together. It looked like it was snowing but nah.. it was drizzling very lightly.

The 4 pictures above was taken using SH's camera. I didn't want to take mine out from my bag for fear that it might get wet.

Each of us had to register at the Sayat-Sayat hut. We had to show our name tags (given out to us when we register at the Park) to the Park personnel. Without the tags we cannot proceed beyond the hut.

After about 20 minutes (estimation) after the Sayat-Sayat hut, it started getting cold. My gloves were wet making my fingers numb. I had to constantly move and wriggle my fingers.

The never-ending walk was really LONGGGG to some of us. I thought I would struggle at this stretch but I was doing fine. SH was finding it difficult. I understood how he felt. I stayed with him until at 8.3KM where we met up with Messner. Sirdar was way behind and I didn't see him until at about 8.3KM too.

6.48AM - Reached the 8KM mark. SH and I met a few of our climbing friends in the never-ending stretch. Kang Bee who was so gung-ho the day before was feeling really tired today. She didn't have enough strength to smile. One of the guides saw her state and held her hand. The guides usually look for people (especially females) who are slow and who find difficulty in getting to Low's Peak. They will hold their hands and encourage them. Many of these climbers are very grateful towards the guides.

Never-ending stretch, with only a rope as a guide to Low's Peak. It was a misty morning.

7.14AM - We met up with Joel after the 8km mark. He didn't look good. I made SH and Joel walk at least 10-15 steps and let them rest for 30 seconds. I did this repeatedly.

South peak and Low's Peak. The mist didn't clear until we got nearer to the 8.5km marker.

St John's Peak. Sirdar caught up with me from behind and at the same time I saw Messner some hundred metres ahead welcoming the climbers. It seems Sirdar was way behind with Swee Leng, but she turned back just before the Sayat-Sayat hut. Sirdar made sure that a guide was there to accompany her back.

Joel - suffering from indigestion or something. I "passed" him to Messner and was told later that he vomited and was able to complete the climb without much difficulty.

The mist cleared at this point. We could see St John's Peak and South Peak so clearly.

The organisers - Sirdar, Messner and me. :) We never had our pictures taken together on this mountain. :D

I love this picture. In my previous climbs I never had the opportunity to take many pictures of the last 200metres. I was either too tired or too lazy. This time I was "well" enough to take a few good shots and this is one of them.

Met up with some of my climbing members who were descending.

Another shot at the peak.

View of St John's Peak. Some of my friends were climbing behind me.

8.36AM - Finally reached the peak. YAY!!! Yup, we were kinda late, but then, WE ARE ALWAYS the last to reach the peak. We had the Peak ALL to ourselves. This was one of the reasons why we didn't mind being the last. If we were here.. say.. at 6 or 7AM, lots of other climbers would chase us off from the peak, so that they can take photos. You see, the summit of Mt Kinabalu is NOT a plateau. It's a jagged peak. Only a few people can be there at any one time.

Francis made maggi mee and hot soya bean for us. It was a good experience. Oh by the way, his maggi mee got cooked because he used a THERMOS flask to store the hot water.

We were at the peak for about 25 minutes.

Descending. The mist came back after we left the peak.

9.33AM - 8KM marker.

10.07AM - Hey, we can see the Sayat-Sayat hut. :)

Sayat-Sayat Hut. We stopped here for like 10 minutes.

10.51AM - 7KM marker. Yup after Sayat-Sayat is the rope section.

11.29AM - Reached the end of the rope section. We waited for each other so it took a bit of time here.

11.43AM - the 6.5KM marker.

12.08PM - We finally reached Gunting Lagadan. We (probably 8 of us) were the last, so we roughly check if any of our belongings were left behind at Gunting. The day before, we made arrangements with the guide to help us carry our stuff from Gunting to Laban Rata. Early this morning, we told Amy and Kelly to make sure that all of our belongings were out of the room by 10AM. They were quite fit and we knew that they were able to make it to the peak and back long before 10AM.

Gunting Lagadan. I never had a chance to take pictures of this hut yesterday.

Descending to Laban Rata. Pendant Hut is on the left.

Ahhh.. I felt so relieved when I came in view of the Laban Rata Resthouse. I was dead tired and hungry. I missed the PAID buffet breakfast but then it didn't matter. The 8 of us ordered set lunch. I can't recall what I ate though. It cost about RM6 per person I think or was it RM12? LOL. Can't remember.

I remembered getting irritated at Sirdar just before lunch was served. He kept wanting to discuss something and he was a few tables away from me. I was trying to pack my thick jacket and all the other unwanted stuff into the bag for the porter to carry down. I told Rach to ask him to WAIT!. I was really very very tired. I could see that both Messner and Sirdar were exhausted too. Messner and I found it difficult to register the questions that were asked by our fellow climbers. We were like in a daze. I think Sirdar was tired, but I could see him talking with the others.

After lunch I settled the porter fees with the guides (they double up as porters too). I was so tired that I even with my mini calculator I couldn't add properly. In the end I copied their figures down onto my sheet of paper and paid them accordingly.

Now, Sirdar had made arrangements for the 3 of us to have a short nap in one of the huts. We were in no condition to descend. The hut was about 200mtrs (??) after Laban Rata.

We napped for an hour and left the hut at about 3.05pm. Believe me, that 1 hour was just enough to regain my energy. I felt refreshed.

It was drizzling when we were about to leave the hut. Now, many of you know that I take a longer time descending. The first time in Sep2007, I took about 5 hours to reach the Timpohon Gate. Then probably 4 hours plus in Jul 2008 and Jan2010.

This time I thought I would reach the gate by 7pm. I was a bit worried because both Messner and Sirdar were fast "descenders". Furthermore I wore my Columbia sandals instead of shoes. The last few times I wore sandals too but they were more sturdy. The Columbia sandals were quite flimsy but Thank God it didn't break while I was running down the rocky not to mention slippery path.

Messner had to ask me to slow down because they couldn't catch up with me. Actually they were too busy talking. They stopped at the 2nd hut-Villosa Hut for a coffee break. I thought they were taking a bit too long for a coffee break. They were discussing something. My mind was just to reach the base before dark. In the end they asked me to go down and try to catch up with the other climbers. We received news via our ham radios that one of the guys were not doing well.

4.09pm. A brief stop at the Layang-Layang hut. I caught up with some of the climbers here. I reminded them that they had only 2 hours of daylight to reach the base. They responded saying that they targeted to reach the base at 6pm. Hmmm.... I thought. I excused myself and continue running down the path.

I passed a few others long the way- SH, Yvonne, Yee, Dr Moktir, Jimmy, Chris and Joel. I wanted to get past Joel but he was also quite fast. In the end we split from the last group and went ahead.

I slipped and fell at least twice but I was alright. We stopped only once or twice to remove my raincoat and to have a drink.

I did not take any pictures anymore after the Layang-Layang Hut because of the rain.

5.45PM - YES!! Joel & I made it!!!!

The last um.. 2oo meters or so, the pathway sloped up instead of down. Joel and I took 10-15 steps, rested for 10 seconds and then took another 10-15 steps again. We did this a few time before we reached the main gate.

I started counting..between 3.05PM and 5.45PM, I made it in 2 hours 40 minutes!!!! Record time!!!!!!

One of Faustine's van was waiting for us at the Timpohon Gate. There were 13 of us left either still in the mountain or at the gate. 7 or 8 of us got into the van where the driver was instructed to take us to Grace Hostel to wash up.

7.25PM - The last 2 people to arrive at Grace Hostel were SH and Peter. 4 vans had already gone to Gaya Seafood Restaurant, some 1.5 hours away from the Park. The 5th van departed at about 7.45pm. The 6th van left at about 8.30PM or so. We arrived at Gaya Restaurant at 10.17PM. The rest of our team members were ready to shoot off from that place. They were dead tired.

I arrived at the hotel at about 11pm. Fortunately, I had already given a copy of the rooming list to the hotel earlier on and by the time I reached the hotel, most of my team members were already in their rooms.

End of Day 4. :D

Mt Kinabalu for the 4th Time-Day 3

2011-01-14T23:00:00.000+08:00

I didn't have a good night's sleep despite of the comfortability of the hotel room. I had so much on my mind. Yup, I'm a worrier. :)

I set the alarm at 5.45AM. Breakfast was scheduled at 6.30AM. We thought of taking a group picture before breakfast but it wasn't possible. Everyone was like all over the place, checking their bags, asking where to put their "left-behind bags" and "bring'along bags". You see, I've made tags for the group to identify which bags are supposed to take up to the mountain and which to leave behind with Faustine (our driver) for safe-keeping. The ones that are supposed to be left behind are blue in colour, and the "take along" tags are in yellow, with our individual names and phone numbers on them. I've also added a small print "left BEHIND" for blues and "take ALONG" for yellows. From previous experience, many climbers got confused with the colours.

Having the tags coloured made it easier for us the organisers to check where the bags were supposed to go. Faustine was also aware that he was supposed to keep only the bags with blue tags.

It was buffet style. The hotel was kind enough to include noddles in the menu. Originally it was just fried rice, eggs, sausages, baked beans, toast, coffee, tea and juice. I asked for noodles and they obliged without charging extra.

I tried to eat as much as I could but it was difficult to eat that much at 7AM. :S

This was the only opportunity we had for a group photo taken outside the Cottage hotel. Yeah, the 45 of us looked like boys and girls in school uniform. :D

7.35AM - We left Cottage Hotel and reached Mesilau Nature Park 15 minutes later.

I went up to their office to get our group "checked in". We were given 8 guides and the main guide gave us a little briefing while KL Chan & David (I think) had the honour of weighing the bags for the porter to carry. On my first trip to Kinabalu back back in 2007, we didn't think of name tags and each of us had to be there when they weigh our bags. Now, with the tags, we just assigned 2 people to do the weighing and recording.

8.24AM - I spent some time choosing my walking stick (RM5 per stick), while Rach went ahead. She was so sure that I could catch up with her.

8.44AM - at the 0.5 KM mark. I was doing alright, but still could not catch up with Rach.

9.06AM - The beautiful view of Mt Kinabalu. You can't see this if you are using the Timpohon trail.

Everyone's smiling here. It was too early to get tired.

9.09AM - 1KM mark. In good time but still no sign of Rach.

9.30AM - 1.5KM mark. I met up with others but Rach was not one of them.

After the 1.5 mark, we found ourselves descending. It was like so steep.

10.12AM - Waterfall, 10.21AM the 3KM mark.

10.22AM shortly after the 3KM mark we came across this bridge called Jabatan Gantung (Kipuyut).

10.54AM - 3.5KM mark. On and off I would see the boys, Yuen and Samuel. They were like talking all the way with no sign of fatigue.

11.07AM - A little snack before we continue on. It got steeper after this point.

11.24AM - 4KM mark,

11.56AM - 4.5KM mark - still no sign of Rach.

I guessed I was doing pretty okay. They said that if you are within the 1 hour 1 KM range, you should be alright. I only took 3 hours for 4 KM.

Some man-made stairs, an earth-worm and a hut. :)

12.26PM - We had our lunch here at the Lompoyou hut. Lunch was provided by Faustine. Yummy and so filling. I think rice is good for us Asians. In 2008, we had a couple of sandwiches, a hard-boiled egg, 1 pc of chicken and banana. I was famished by the time I reached Laban Rata.

I took about 20minutes to eat and chit-chat with my fellow hikers. Everyone was still so full of energy. The scenery after the Lampoyou hut was awesome. It's like being in another world or something. :D

1.25PM - the 5.5KM mark. I must have missed the 5KM mark. Rach was nowhere to be seen. I got really tired during this stretch. Many of my fellow climbers passed me by. They were puzzled about my tiredness. I guessed it was because I had to "attend to nature's call" but I didn't because I was alone at that time.

2.14PM - I reached the "Y" junction. I saw a few of my friends here taking pictures. Yvonne, who was slow at the beginning, managed to catch up with me just before the "Y" junction. That shows that I was in a very bad shape.

After the "Y" junction, the KM markers drops 2KM following the Timpohon Trail. I saw Yuen, sleeping while Samuel went ahead. Yuen kept saying that he was sleepy. He also said that the Timpohon Trail was much easier. He used the Timpohon Trail 2 years back. I stayed with Yuen for a while then woke him up.

Samuel was going very slowly too so that Yuen could catch up. I met some of my buddies here at this hut, but they had their rest and were about to continue their hike as soon as I reached them. I did my "nature's call" here and was very much relived. :D

Mrs Annapurna (not her real name) came up just when I was about to leave. She and her husband sick since the day before. I was amazed that she made it this far. I made sure that she was alright before I left the hut.

3.44PM - 5 KM mark. I was still struggling.

3.47PM - I caught up with the boys again. They were talking about songs and were singing too. :)

One step at a time.

Getting closer to Laban Rata. Probably 600metres more. Yuen was feeling really tired.

4.22PM - The last hut before Laban Rata. It's roughly about 500metres more to go. Yuen was so sleepy that he slept on and off.

4.39PM - 5.5KM mark. Yuen was left behind while Samuel went ahead. I was accompanying Yuen now. His bag was heavy, probably 9kgs, but I didn't offer to carry because I was huffing and puffing myself.

5.17PM - Reached Waras Hut. YES!! Laban Rata is round the corner. :D. Yuen and I waited here for a while. Correction - he was sleeping and I was frantically calling for help. I called Douglas (he was already at Laban Rata) to come down and carry Yuen's bag. Douglas arrived less than 5 minutes later. (Told ya that Laban Rata was round the corner). Yuen immediately passed his bag to Douglas and started walking and walking and walking.. leaving me behind.

5.28PM - Arrived Laban Rata finally. I was dead tired... too tired to even scold Rach for leaving me behind.

Dinner was well.. dinner. I couldn't remember what I ate if I didn't snap a picture of it. :P

It gets dark early in Borneo. By 6.15 most of us were ready to leave Laban Rata for Gunting Lagadan. I was like... WHATTTTT .... have to hike up some more. It was about 150meters or so to get to Gunting. My friend, Jyrki kept looking back to see if I was alright. It was drizzling and I was so cold. I was thinking.. if I could just reach Gunting, have a nice shower and hot milo, then I'll be fine.

When I reached Gunting, I did have a shower... but the COLD water from the tap was dripping pathetically. I didn't wash my hair and I think I didn't soap myself. Hey, it was cold!!!! :D. Anyway, I could have hot water if I was patient enough to boil the water. Yes, they have cooking facilities and only 3 (or was it 4?) bathrooms for bathing and it's not an all female bathroom, we had to share with the guys.

The ladies toilets however are separated from the men's. :)

Each room (as far as I know) can fit 4 people. We took 10 rooms from Gunting and 5 beds from Laban Rata. Room number 6 in Gunting had water dripping from the ceiling. Poor Jyrki had to sleep on the upper deck where the water dripped onto his mattress. The people in that room complained to the management but they just shrugged it off saying that it was condensation and they couldn't do anything about it. :(

We had a short briefing and hit the sack by 9PM.

Mt Kinabalu for the 4th Time-Day 2

2011-01-13T23:30:00.001+08:00

The rest of the team flew in today. We booked six 12-seater vans for 45 of us. We could have saved cost by booking 5 vans but we had enough experiences to be smart enough to book 1 extra for contingency purposes. And hey, with the extra space in the van, we don't need to cram in like sardines right?

Today, I woke up at 6.45AM. A bit too early but I'd something to do that I had never done alone before. The plan was for me to get to Kinabalu Park in the morning to register the team for the climb so tha they need not rush to get to Kundasang (where Kinabalu Park is) by 5pm. There were 3 climbers who took the 11.10AM flight from KL. They would only arrive KK at 1.40PM. So getting to Kinabalu Park by 5pm would be an added stress to everyone.

So at 9.30AM, I took 8 others with me and we headed off to Kundasang. We stopped at a small town called Nabalu just before Kundasang It was about 1.5 hours drive to Nabalu.

A little observatory tower here. The arrow's points to a part of Mt Kinabalu.

Our short stop turned out to be a long one. I think we were here for 45 minutes.

12.20PM - We reached Kinabalu Park. I went to register the team, get the name tags, paid up the guide, insurance and permit, and entrance fees. We were there for an hour.

After that, we checked into the hotel at Kundasang. The first 2 times I was here, we booked the dorms at the Park. I find it too expensive to stay there, so what we did was to scout round Kundasang for a cheaper place. Last year we stayed at Golden Kundasang Highlands Resort. It was much cheaper but the place was kind of run down and not clean. There were bed bugs resulting to a sleepless night. This year, someone recommended this hotel to me - Cottage Hotel. The price was very reasonable for a twin sharing room with bathroom attached as compared to the Park hostels (dorm style) and Golden Kundasang (5 or 6 in a room).

The 9 of us had lunch at the hotel. We wanted to eat fast and go explore Kundasang. Someone suggested going to Poring hot springs for a dip. Jyrki preferred to have a nap at the hotel rather than to join us for an adventure. I wasn't that keen on Poring, having been there before in 2006. But still, the majority wins.

On the way to the hot springs, Danny asked if we could spot for any Rafflesia sightings signboard. Rafflesia is the largest individual flower in the world and is only found in the jungles of Souteast Asia. Since we are in Sabah, where the State flower is the Rafflesia, naturally we wanted to have a close up look at the flower.

We spotted a signboard. There were a few boys "manning" the "shop". They wanted us to pay RM10 per person but we negotiated with them - RM60 for the 8 of us. I guess this is considered cheap as compared to what I paid last time - RM20 and a 10 minute walk into the farm to look at the flower for 3 minutes!!

The Rafflesia in full bloom, the baby Rafflesia and the dead Rafflesia. :)

Poring hot springs. Nothing much for me. Entrance fee is RM3 per Malaysian and RM15 for foreigners.

I remembered the last time I was here, it took like forever to fill up the tub. What most people did was to use the existing tubs that were already filled. Goodness knows who and what disease the previous occupants had. I think that everyone should drain out the water after they have used the tub. Also, each tub has 2 taps.. 1 cold and 1 hot. Hmmm... I wonder.... nevermind, I better not say it here. Further behind the compound there are 2 pools (I think) with a no entry sign. The steam rising up from the pools indicated that the water was hot.

We spent about an hour at the Hot Spring then we head back to the hotel. The balance of our team members had already checked in.

My messy room. :)

Dinner was at 7pm. We had steamboat, something unusual for Jyrki, Amy and Kelly. (Amy and Kelly are originally from Scotland).

The Cottage Hotel Manager, Mr Michael brought a band in to entertain us with local music while we eat. After that we had a short briefing, collected our climb T-shirts and luggage tags.

Rach and I planned to sleep at 11pm, but I had to sort out the name tags for all the climbers. I was so stressed up that it took me a while to fall alseep. :(

Mt Kinabalu for the 4th Time-Day 1

2011-01-12T23:00:00.000+08:00

Yup, this is my 4th Kinabalu climb. Now, now, don't assume that I'm really into climbing mountains (although my blog postings seems to suggest so). The main thing that attracted me to climb mountains are the people, the climbers. Okay, let's get this straight. I'm an introvert and I usually find it hard to talk to people... especially ones whom I've just met for the first time. Going for these climbs enables me to open up.. you know, in the jungle when you are all alone with a fellow climber, you just TALK, and I noticed that people tend to share their personal struggles more in the mountain rather than during a dinner or yam char session.

Let's see, was I excited about this trip? I guess I was more stressed than the previous 3 Kinabalu climbs. Little little things bugged me, like there were some who still didn't paid me fully for the trip, the climb T-shirts were only coming today, whether I have sufficient cash for all expenses that will be incurred during the climb, plane delays and a few other worries.

We had a group of 47 climbers this time, but early this morning Sirdar called to say that 2 pulled out from the team and he asked if I could make arrangements for the refund of rooms booked at the various hotels. I was like "Whaaaat???!! How come??? Whyyyy so last minute?". Another stress to attend to. :(

So, anyway, my group of 5 were the first to leave for KK. We met at the LCCT airport to have our breakfast. We were about to enter McDonald's when Douglas suggested to have breakfast Coffee Beans.

I must say, it's definitely a big change to our standard McDonald's meal. :)

Our flight was at 9.30am and we reached KK at about 12pm, took a taxi (RM30 per sedan car or RM42 per MPV) to Daya Hotel in KK town, checked in and met up with Danny and Jyrki.

Oh by the way, this trip was kinda special because Jyrki from Finland whom I "met" via my blog 2 years ago took time off to climb with us. I issued him an invitation to climb with us and was shocked (and excited) that he actually said yes. :) (Note to self : Never issue a DARE to a Finnish. He will take on the DARE before you can even blink).

We met at the hotel and then went out for lunch at a famous Italian restaurant. I somehow cannot remember the name of the restaurant... was it "Little Italy"? Hmmm..

Here is where we learn the difference with eating in Malaysia and eating in Finland. Each of us were given a menu and we started looking through. Jyrki had his order in mind when someone suggested we order a few pizzas and share. Jyrki was surprised. He said, "In Finland, we don't share." We told him over here, we share because in this way we get to taste a little of everything.

After lunch, we went to look for the famous observatory tower which is located just outside KK town centre.

3.15PM - We a map in hand, we started walking. We asked around for directions... and we walked... and we look at the map and we continued walking..

...and we walked.. and walked and walked....

Then we saw a signboard "the Manikar, Signal Hill, Kota Kinabalu, with an arrow pointing to the right. We were more interested in "Signal Hill" than the Manikar, so we followed the signboard. We walked... and walked... and finally decided to ask a resident there. It seems that we should just follow the main road instead of veering to the right.!!

3.40PM - At last we reached the Observatory Tower.

From the Observatory Tower, you can see most of KK town and the South China Sea. We spent about 10 minutes there and then walked back to KK town. I think it took us less than 15 minutes to reach town centre. We consoled ourselves saying that this was good exercise for our coming climb.

Ah... coconut drink. It was indeed refreshing to drink cold coconut on a hot and humid day. There was nothing much to do/see in KK town. If you want, you can visit the Filipino Market. We decided not to, because of the heat and also the guys were not interested in shopping. We parted ways with the guys at a shopping complex, bought our food/water stuff and headed back to the hotel.

This is Kinabalu Daya hotel. The room which I stayed in was spacious and comfortable.

The guys room. They were given a room at the old wing. Not as spacious but comfortable I guess.

7.05PM - We went to the guys room to discuss where to eat for dinner. Danny suggested a place behind the Centre Point Shopping Complex.

7.30PM- So, here we are at the restaurant. It's more like a food court kind of layout. We just simply choose a shop and I must say, we chose the right one because the food was very good. :)

We had soft-shelled crabs, Salted eggs crabs, steamed fish (most expensive), a local veggie, chicken, fried rice and noodles. The bill came up to about RM350 for 7 of us!!! It was pretty costly but really worth it. I guessed for Jyrki, it's considered cheap.. imagine EUR10 for a Chinese meal... dirt cheap for him I think.

We went back to our hotels feeling satisfied. Later, we met up with Messner Sirdar and some other climbers who were on the 6.45pm flight.

Climbing Gunung Ledang / Mt Ophir the 3rd Time

2010-11-17T23:00:00.016+08:00

One of the reasons why I don't mind climbing Ledang is because I have this assurance that there are no leeches on mountain. Where did I get this assurance? Why, from the net of course. Just before the 1st Ledang climb, I entered the words "leeches and ledang" in google.com. After spending quite some time on the computer, I was convinced that there were no leeches in Ledang. Hence, my eagerness to climb Ledang for the 2nd time on the 23rd of May last year, and my 3rd today the 17th of Nov.

Our target was to get about 40 hikers but because this was an interesting mountain to hike, many people signed up for it. Since we had to book the guides ahead of time, Messner had set 7th of Nov as the last day for registration. There were about 60 confirm climbers then and Messner booked 6 guides. But as the trip drew closer, we received calls from our buddies asking if their friends/relatives could join in and it was really a tough decision for Messner to make.

So, as at yesterday morning we had 67 confirmed climbers. Messner had requested for an extra guide, so we would have 7 guides in total. Afternoon came and one by one the calls started to come in. Two were sick, two didn't want to come because they didn't think they were fit enough, another one was in Sabah. His plane got delayed and would be back very late and the last one said he thought we were taking the extended trek and declined last minute when he found out that this option was no longer available. It was deemed too dangerous for hikers because of the heavy downpour the last few days.

Many calls were made between Messner, Sirdar and I as the number of climbers decreased. By the end of yesterday, Messner regretted booking guide number 7.

My day started at 3.05AM. The alarm rang but I lazed around till the 2nd alarm sounded out. I felt good, having adequate rest. I had been very good, sleeping early these past few weeks and getting like at least 7-8 hours of sleep daily.

Some of us planned to meet at 4AM for breakfast at the Lobak foodcourt. Madeline came at 3.35AM to pick me up and together we went to pick up 2 other climbers on the way. I didn't have the mood to eat, but still I had to eat something to curb the butterflies in my stomach. I ordered wontan noodles and a cup of tea. By 4.25AM, Sirdar gave signal for us to leave the foodcourt. We had to be at Kemayan Square by 4.30AM to meet the others who didn't join us for breakfast.

When we reached Kemayan Square, Rach and Sirdar sorted out the transport. Shortly after that Rach told Sirdar that she wanted to leave early because she didn't want to speed. So the 3 of us, Madeline, Pat and myself quickly got into her car and off we went. Pat and I were talking at the back when Rach made her way to the tollgate. 30 seconds on the highway, Pat looked around said "Eh, isn't this the road to KL?". We were stunned for a moment. Yes, Rach took the WRONG turning and the next toll was about 15 minutes away. Rach accelerated and made the U-turn at the Nilai toll-gate (nope, we didn't time it as we were all too tensed up, not daring to make a sound).

To cut the long story short, we reached the Tangkak toll gate at 5.50AM, We made it in time... but I don't know what happened the cars from Seremban. They didn't wait for us as expected. I was a bit shocked because usually we would wait for each other unless there was a call from anyone of us saying that we would leave first. Fortunately, we stopped there for toilet break because I recognised one of the drivers from KL. He was parked right behind us. I called Messner and he gave me the directions to where they were having breakfast. (Messner and some other climbers stayed over night in Tangkak). We waited until 6.05AM before shooting of from the toll.

We didn't linger around much at the restaurant. It took about probably 1/2 hour or so to reach the base of Gunung Ledang.

My first photo shoot of the day at 7.07AM - The Park office. :)

My duty on that day was simple. All I needed to do was to pay the Park Authorities the required amount for the entrance, permit, insurance and guide fees.

After declaring all our stuff, we had a short briefing and the guides were introduced to us. The Park Personnel was kind enough to scrap off one guide because there were only 61 of us.

We were told that the peak of Gunung Ledang was off-limits to the public since the 8th of October 2010 by the Sultan of Johor. Today we would only reach up to CP7 (Checkpoint 7). It's really sad because the view at the sumit is VERY beautiful. To climb up to CP7 only would have been a waste of time to some.

During the briefing, Messner assigned Douglas the the front man (no one was allowed to overtake him) and Edwin to be the sweeper (the last person of the group). Sirdar appointed 4 "ropemen" to carry 4 30-foot-long ropes and some others to carry the harnesses and other extra stuff. Jeffrey, Wilson, Kenny and one other guy were given the honour the be ropemen. :)

8.06AM - Our journey began with 739 steps. Having trying to build up my stamina by hiking up Broga hills, Bukit Kepayang and walking at Lake Gardens, I was quite confident that I could walk up the steps without any difficulty. To my horror, I was panting at probably step number 300. :(. I slowed down my pace and allowed others to overtake me.

8.20AM - Sometime after the steps, I suddenly realised that we were walking on soil. Wow, I concentrated so hard on finishing the steps part that I didn't even realised that we were off the cement concrete.

CP1 came in view at 8.26AM. 1 down 6 more CPs (checkpoint) to go, I thought. I was feeling good. We took a 2 minutes rest before leaving CP1.

The ground was not as wet as we thought. I was constantly looking out for leeches despite my conviction of Ledang being a leech-free mountain. Hey, you'll never know.. a leech may just pop by to say "hi, can I have some of your blood pleaseeeee? ". :)

8.44AM - CP2 YAY!!!! 2 down 5 more to go..

Kolam Gajah sign (Elephant Pond)- the extended route to CP5. I heard someone said that this route is more scenic, but it would cost you another extra 1 hour.

9.19AM - CP3. Yes!!!!! 4 more CPs to go. Either my camera was not good enough or my hands were shaking (I suspect both reasons are valid), but can you see the orchids growing out of the boulder?

This tree is so big (pic above on the right). It kinda reminded me of the redwood trees in California.

10.03AM - This is a T-junction, left is to CP5 and right is to Kolam Gajah. There isn't any CP4 to bypass, s this sign marks as a CP4 to me. They have taken out the Kolam Gajah signboard so you can only see the Sg Segi Tiga (CP5) sign.

After the T-junction, it's all the way downhill to CP5. This is the part where you can move a bit faster to catch up with the rest. When you hear the sound of water flowing you know you are very close to CP5. There's a brook just before CP5. Cross this brook and you are like 10 seconds to CP5.

10.37AM - CP5. YAY!! 5 down , 2 more to go. Boy was I glad to see the team. Rach and I had a bite here to recharge knowing that next 2 hours would zap up all our energy.

10.47AM - Off we go again.

The trail gets steeper after CP5. A signboard stating where we can get our FREE KFC.. no lah. :). KFC here means "Killer for Climbers". Unfortunately this time I do not have Sirdar to carry my heavy backpack. He is way ahead of me helping out with the rope section at Batu Hampar. I guess I have to carry it myself.

Oh, btw, lemme introduce Desmond (pic above). He, together with his friend Christopher, was with me almost the whole journey. He encouraged me by saying "jia yu" (add oil) once in a while.

Here comes the steep terrain.

The song "One Step At A Time" by Jodin Sparks ran through my head with every step I took on the KFC stretch. (Thanks Arn, for introducing me this song which really helped to keep me going).

Yes!!! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LADDERSSSSSSSS. Makes it easy to climb.

All I can think of is.... TAKE ONE STEP AT A TIME. :)

Thank God for roots.

11.43AM - CP6. YESSSSSSS. 6 down, 1 more to go.

Gua Kambing. (Goat cave). We slowed down a lot here because there were many 1st timers and they didnt know what to expect in this cave.

11.59AM - Out of the 1st cave. We had to climb a ladder to proceed to the 2nd cave.

Another steep slope just before the 2nd cave.

12.03PM - 2nd cave. Here, Joo Tatt was making goat noises. After going through the 2 goat caves he is now qualified to make those noises. (Funny guy).

We were all on fours. After 2 climbs I sort of know what to expect, so going through the 2 caves were quite easy for me.

Met with another ladder. Have I told you before... I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LADDERS. :)

Grab ropes, roots, rocks, whatever.. but DON'T let goooooo.

How in the world did I managed to pull myself up at this part, I really don't know. I'm pretty amazed at myself sometimes. :P Previous 2 climbs I had Sirdar with me most of the time, but this climb, I had to depend on myself. There was no doubt that others had helped by their encouragement and once in a while lent a helping hand. :)

Hmmm.... more strength needed to pull oneself up.

Ladder, YES!!!!

I guess Pam was wondering what was in store for her as soon as she reached the top of the ladder.

One could only guess......................the rope section???

Well, looks like it, but it is NOT THE Batu Hampar This is just an appetizer.

Some used the roots to ascend, some used the rope. I thought I'd better save whatever strength I had, so I went up with the help of the roots.

After the appetizer, there was this scary signboard which pointed out where we should go next. According to the guide, it would take about 15 minutes to Batu Hampar (rope section), but I thought it should be less than that. Let's see, it was 12.25PM when I crossed this signboard.

Going up.. walked for about 5 minutes.

and ta da.......

We reached Batu Hampar at 12.30PM. So it took us only about 5 minutes from the signboard.

This is what we call the Anak Batu Hampar. ("Anak" means child). Pam was like.... aiyuhhhhh "do I need a harness? This slope looks steep. Can my shoes take it?" I bravely said (as an encouragement lah) "Let me go first. If I can do it, you can also do it". I was a bit scared, but I pressed on. (TAKE ONE STEP AT A TIME... was ringing in my head).

I made it FINALLY. It wasn't too bad. I hollered out to Pam and said "It's okay, you just need to use a lot of your arm muscles". Yup!! My arm muscles were screaming out, "Hellooooo why did you wake us uppppp? We weren't prepared at all". Oh well, the brains were the ones giving out the order... what can I do but follow, right?

12.40PM - Now, for the Mother of all rocks. This is THE Batu Hampar. If you let go of the rope, you're a goner.

Hmmmm.... now with or without harness??? My muscles cried out "YES ", my brains said "WHAT?? you want to be a WIMP? No harness!!!! My muscles sighed.

I heard Messner called out to Sirdar "One coming up without harness. THE BOSS". Aiyoooo, it was so embarrassing. Sirdar came down to assist. I asked him to take my backpack while I gather all my strength for this section. Surprisingly it was easier than the Anak Batu Hampar.

Yup! Our 2 heroes.. Kenny and Jeffery. Jeffrey helped from the top and Kenny went up and down the slope to assist the ..ermm damsels. Jeffrey gave a lot of support by encouraging damsels with words such as, "Pammy honey, come on, sweetheart, you can do it" :). His voice was even sweeter then honey. I told him not to overdo it, or they might let go of the rope. :P

One by one, we came up. Some had the guts to look behind to admire the view.

The view was simply breathtaking. Since the peak was off-limits, I think this is the only view of Ledang's surroundings. I helped take a few pictures before heading off to the bonsai section.

1.02PM - at the Bonsai section. Here's Desmond again.

I like this part after the Bonsai section. It was like another world or something. My camera didn't capture what I saw. :(

1.21PM. And here we are greeted by Wilson at CP 7, the final checkpoint for today. BIG SMILE HERE..

We managed to have a quick bite and some coffee mixed with milo (Neslo). At 1.37PM, the sky let loose. It started off with a few reasonably-sized drops of rain, enough to make us get up and take out our rain gear.

Soon we were heading upwards again. We had to go up a little to descend from another route called the "Jalan Pelita". While ascending I spotted a leech. YIKESSSS!!!! I pointed out to Rach who was behind me. I didn't have time to take a picture of it (sorry, Jyrki, I knew you have a fondness of leeches but I would slow everyone down by taking a picture of it). The rain made it slow for everyone to go at a faster pace. I was kind of glad because I didn't feel like walking fast at all in this rain.

But once we started descending, everyone (in a line) was moving very quickly. We could hear the thunder and see lightning flashes, and I was praying in my heart , "Oh God, no rain, no thunder, no lightning PLEASEEEEEEEEEE... and NOOOOO LEECHES... not on my legs, not on my hands, not on my body.." This prayed was repeated over and over again in my heart.

At the beginning, Rach was behind of me and Siva was either in front or behind of me. He was telling us stories about his experiences in other mountains. Once in a while we had to stop because either the guide was waiting for the back group to catch up, or he had to block a pathway or something. Once he had to give in to "the call of nature" and was away for quite some time. We were all waiting in the rain thinking how long will he take. I think we waited like 10 minutes before we someone gave orders to go ahead. So we moved on and suddenly the guide was zooming passed us. Then once someone spotted a small green snake. The guide helped to put it away.

Many a times we stepped into brown/black murky puddles of rain water mixed with goodness-knows-what living creatures swimming in them and each time I went "erkkkkkkkk" or "yuckssssss". This was sooooooooo not my cup of tea. :)

We were moving so fast and I couldn't believed it when I saw someone went past me very quickly. It was Jeffrey. Wow!! He was way behind me when we first started off. We finally reached CP3 (Jalan Pelita bypasses CP4-7) at a decent time. I did not bother to take my camera out from my bag. My pants were soaked with rain water and although my Timberland was certified as water-proof, the rain from my pants soaked my socks and stepping in the puddles of water didn't help at all. I could feel my toes getting old and wrinkled.

When we finally reached the steps, I was like... wow!!! this is the end!!! At the bottom of the 739 steps, I asked Michele for the time. It was 4.40PM. We made it in 3 hours!!!!!!! DOUBLE WOW!!!!!!!!!! I didn't know I could descend so quickly. We hurriedly declare our rubbish to the Park Authorities and went to the car to get our clean clothes. It was still raining then. We bathe in cold water and came out fresh. :) The rain stopped not long after we came out from the bathroom.

Oh yeah, while I was in the bathroom, one of the climbers was bathing the the cubicle next to me. She screamed, "leech, leech" and I had this thought "Thank God it's not me who is experiencing the bite of the leech". After like 20-30 seconds I remembered I still have my packet of salt in my track pants. I asked if she wanted salt, she said yes and I threw it over to her cubicle. Later, she told me that she tried to get it off her leg by pouring her shower creme on it but it didn't work. Fortunately I still had my packet of salt.

About 20 minutes after I bathe, I saw Sirdar. I was surprised. Usually he would go back to help the last of the climbers, either to carry their bags or give moral support just by being with them. Hmmmm...I guessed this time he was confident that all will make it out of the jungle before dark.

Those who came down early had a good time talking about the trip, getting to know one another and all. As you can see in the above picture, even the kids didn't mind waiting for the others to come out of the mountain. :).

We left probably at about 7PM and had dinner in Tangkak at our usual restaurant. Surprisingly, this time the food was so-so only. I thought perhaps it was just me so I kept quiet, but some new climbers in my table voiced my thoughts. Hmmm... usually after a full day's climb, one's appetite would be so huge that they wouldn't notice what they were eating. I guessed wrong. I even forgot to take pictures of the food. This is highly unusual of me.

All in all it was a good climb despite of the downpour. The company was excellent. I've made some new friends and got re-acquainted with the others. Will we have another Ledang trip in the near future? I'm not too sure. And before I forget, THERE ARE LEECHES IN LEDANG!!! :D

Surprises From Hawaii

2010-10-16T13:00:00.001+08:00

Nope, I've not been to Hawaii but my dear twin was there recently and my clear instructions were "DON'T GET ME ANYTHING EXCEPT HIKING SANDALS"

Two days ago the twin gave me a bag of what I assumed contain my light black jacket and some other goodies. She also gave me a pair of hiking sandals which was expected because she called me from Hawaii to check if I mind a size bigger.

So anyway, when I finally open the bag, I was amazed to see so many things inside.

A HOT Pink jacket.. WOW... she must have spent quite a bit on this. I have like 3 other light jackets but all of them are black in colour. Hmmm... come to think of it, it never strike me to get other colours. Cool, now I've got a hot pink which screams "LACK-OF-ATTENTION" even from afar.

And you know what's the main advantage of having a twin? I don't have to be there to try on and see if it fits me or not. :)

Next is a pink recorder. Wow! I believe I've not owned one before. Neat.. and it's PINK. Okay, to tell you the truth I don't know how to play this instrument even after taking many lessons during my primary years. So I guess now is a good time as any. :)

A pink-ish water-bottle. Okay, I'm sure by now you would have guessed that my favourite colour is pink. You are so right. :)

A spoon holder, a bar of chocolate, a GET THIS... a pair of no-tie shoelace, a purse ( we buy purses for our siblings EVERY TIME we visit the States), a tube of hand sanitizer, torch light, glitter eye-shadow, a fushia nail polish, and a 2-mirror with the word ALOHA on it.

A pouch which transforms to a bag pack when you pull out all the material from the pouch. Very useful for shopping.

My COLUMBIA sandals. YES!!!! The twin called from Hawaii to let me know that they do not have our size and if a size bigger would be okay she would get a pair for me. I said "sure go ahead if you get for yourself, get for me too". When I tried it on 2 days ago, they fit perfectly... well, they are slightly bigger but it's still okay.

I got these today. I'm here at her house and she gave me sneaker balls for my smelly shoes and a fridge magnet which she insist was very useful for opening bottles. Hmmm.. I "complained" that she bought so many things for me to which she replied "if you don't want, then give me back". Ahhh.. I kept quiet after that. :)

This morning we went for morning walk in Lake Gardens. After that we went over to Top Curry House for breakfast. The place was full of people and we couldn't even order a proper meal. The waiters were just too busy. We had a vadai each and left. That was our breakfast and the twin said she had to do something at 2.30pm and we will only get to eat our lunch at 2.45pm. So I went to her kitchen to check and see if there was any snacks to munch. I spotted a few packs of Korean seaweed and asked if I could eat them. She said okay and she thought that she had given me a pack.

So, this is the 15th item (excluding the sandals since I paid for them) she gave me.. and the only one from Korea. I wonder how much she spent on the stuff she gave me.

Thanks TWIN. :D

Gunung Angsi via Ferny Trail - through Jeffrey's eyes

2010-07-25T12:00:00.001+08:00

Having missed the first Angsi hike two moons ago, I was not about to let this one slip past me come what may. So there I was, excited like a child longing for a lollipop - tossing and turning in bed not able to zonk off in anticipation of a great adventure south of Kuala Lumpur the night before. My two still-menopausing friends ditched me for some other greater adventures of their own thus driving down to Seremban all by myself proved to be a long, lonely affair. Meeting our Leader didn't help much either.

By then, I kind of wanted to zoom right back to KL the moment he barked "Today, we will be taking a much more interesting trail" - which caused my ears to prong up 12 inches longer - for it just didn't sound too well to my ears. Answering my query to define "interesting", he simply shrugged and shot back with "I've never done this path before." Oh, mother. Without losing the same breath, he continued to insist that I be the point man, yet again.

By now, I suspected he must have this ulterior motive in sending me ahead of everyone else - for if there was any puddle of quicksand, I would surely be the one to be swallowed up.

By right, he should have offered himself to be the sacrificial lamb being the Honourable Leader. But I suppose he is no virgin after all.

By left, we took to the Ferny Trail of which it was no misnomer. Indeed, the track was swarmed with this impenetrable swath of ferns as tall as Jojo of Shantung. It wouldn't be surprising to see how fast the jungles re-claim back its land. Halfway into the passage had me - more so my legs - all pierced, bruised, cut, scratched and slashed. You would not use much of brain cells to conjure up a pair of heavily butchered and mutilated drumsticks.

By such time who would feel for Mother Nature. Miss Shantung swiftly grabbed a machete from Honourable Leader and flicked it to aim at me, demanding that I clear a path wide enough for her over-sized Shantung sisters to catwalk through with ease. This is sick, but for that very moment I actually wished I had Freddie Kruger's arm so I may slash just any thickest of trunk that stood in the way.

I begun to form the pictures now: being the front man meant being the pathfinder. Tried slashing as much as I wanted but the shortest / smallest machete I've ever seen could only do so much as to only flick the tough ferns away. Some bounced back to stab me as if for poetic justice. Others, I swear, discharged its thorns at me. You didn't know ferns have thorns??? Go check it out then, or come to me and I'll show you my severely perforated legs and other private areas as well.

You go form the other picture of being the front man: with the track hardly used, I had to be contented being ensnared with cobwebs. Had I not frenziedly removed the tonnes of threads, am very certain you would think there was this mummified zombie coming around or that I was being attacked by some giant spiders.

However, being the first person in front does have an advantage or two. If you can keep your panting lower than Beethoven's, you might just able to glimpse some wildlife along the way - like I did. There was this yellowish orangey furry animal up on a branch I thought was way too big to be a squirrel so it might very well be a civet cat - only if civet cats are arboreous, I dunno. But that was just about it. You want to catch wildlife? It would certainly be more interesting, fruitful and rewarding to go look it up in Veron's head for you are bound to encounter louse, roaches, leeches, frogs and perhaps nesting birds too.

The other advantage as a front man is that you get to avoid being bitten by leeches, but you sure will arouse the bloodsuckers to attack the rest of other hikers behind you - which was exactly the case for me, again. I overheard a kid innocently saying "mommy, there's a worm up your leg" which prompted Miss Shantung The 2nd to stop dead in her track. What happened next was a ear-splitting, earth-rumbling scream that can send Tarzan fleeing deeper into the jungles.

Domino effect set it. One after another joined in the cacophony, irregardless whether or not one was indeed attacked by a leech.

We all have heard about the monsters from Ampang preying on young school girls. What I was about to view astounded me to hold my breath. Our Honourable Leader took delights in the name of helping the now-quivering Shantung Ladies (for all they worth and known for their steely, independent streaks) not only in bravely pulling the ubiquitous, pesky animals away but to carefully unlace their shoes and run his hands all over their legs in the most gentle and sensuous of manner. Would they have screamed molest had it been my fingers instead?

With my internal radar heightened, I suspected Honourable Leader has a fetish for he examined the petite shoes (apparently for leeches) with the greatest of pleasures without any qualm whatsoever. I could not make out if he sniffed them but on the other hand, he blatantly brought out the ugly hypocrite in me as I could only stand there to watch till I turned blue for I was still holding my breath. Maybe with all the bare legs in close sight made me forgot to breathe. Or could it be the dreadful Shantung screams. I'll never know.

What I do know is that the skies over Seremban are much kinder lots compared to the unforgiving, scorching ones in big, bad, boring Kuala Lumpur. Noticeably way more kinder and I am ready to swear again.

Unfortunately, I am not ready to dance on a river. You do know Angsi has a clean river with cool, sparkling clear water that meanders a large portion of the trail. I felt privileged being invited by the most graceful lady of all to tango on the river as we criss-crossed. Yes, tangoed as we stepped on those pebbles and rocks that peeked out of the crystal water.

Rosie extended a hand to which I grabbed to pull her toward me, and then we twirled around for many circles. I honestly thought the pebbles which we stepped on emitted a most soothing music that caressed our soaring, entwined spirits. Lifting her body, I tossed her up and she gracefully sailed across the sky in midair. Catching Rosie, to my big surprise, was effortless and I gently planted her back on a rock. Without needing any hint, she lifted a leg to hook my body closer to hers. Don't remember if our noses ever touched, but for certain Rosie's chest glowed in megawatt neon.

Not anymore, though, when I entangled her foot and floooosh.... mea culpa, down she slipped into the water. Rosie should have known better about my notorious two left feet. She did alright making instant friends with the crocodiles and sharks downriver.

All the swirls and twirls and much tangling and untangling shall forever be etched in my heart. I will remember for the rest of my life such attractive lady full of grace, poise and charm who introduced to me this lovely tango on Angsi.

Climbing Gunung Nuang AGAIN!

2010-01-01T23:45:00.006+08:00

Nooooooooo. That's what I smsed to Messner when he sent a text message to my mobile that Ledang was closed on the 1st of January and we had to make do with Nuang instead. I really dislike climbing Nuang.. Why? BECAUSE Nuang is famous for its BLOOD-SUCKING LEECHES.

I had already made up my mind after my first (and supposedly) last climb in Jul 2009, that I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER climb Nuang again. It was in my "been there, done that" list and I shouldn't even consider climbing Nuang. Only crazy people would give up their sleep over Nuang.

So, why did I find myself climbing this almost impossible to climb mountain on.. get this.. NEW YEAR'S DAY? Let me recollect...

8th November... yup, it was that fateful day when someone booked my plane ticket to Kota Kinabalu without MY consent!!! Anyway, that's another story.

So from that day onwards, I was part of the January 2010 Mt Kinabalu team. I don't really mind climbing Kinabalu again but what I really hated was the training part. December and January were my busiest months and I was afraid I couldn't get myself fit enough to climb Kinabalu. And what more, my sisters didn't want to go this time. :(. Again this is another story. Let me get back to Nuang. :P

The night before the climb I was at church from 9PM - 12.25AM. Yup, some of the climbers celebrated the beginning of 2010 in church. By the time I reached home, it was already past 1 AM. I had already packed most of my stuff for Nuang the day before but being a worrier myself, I tend to double check on what I had intended to bring and thought of what other things I SHOULD bring for the hike. By the time I hit the sack, it was close to 2AM!!! Needless to say, I didn't sleep at all, probably because I was worried about the climb.

I was up by 3.30AM and I really thank God that I did not have the lack-of-sleep-headache. I had 1/2 a cup of milo and some biscuits before someone picked me up to meet some of the climbers in the food court at Lobak. (I now know where to find food at an unearthly hour in Seremban :P). There we met DavidY and family. I shared 1/2 a bowl of yummy noodles with RW. We had to eat quickly because we were running late.

6.50am, 1.5 hours later, we arrived at Nuang and met up with the rest of the KL climbers.

Boey was in charge of this climb. First and foremost, he made a roll call. There were 43 of us and some of us met for the first time. (We should have made a colour tag or something for all climbers). The park entrance fee was RM1. I cannot remember paying anything the last time.

7.16AM - After a short briefing and a prayer, we started off. KK and Daniel were the point men. Daniel was also marking the trail by leaving 7cmX7cm papers with a fatman printed on it as he went. Boey and Calvin were the sweepers.

7.20AM - This is the beginning of the NEVER-ENDING-BORING-DIRT ROAD. It's about 5KM and some people say that this is the warm-up session for the REAL climb.

The dirt road is narrow and once in a while, locals riding on their scooters will pass us by.

7.30AM - I spotted the first whatchamacallit man-made-cemented stone. I remembered the last time while we were walking out on this road, Mrs Boey was looking out for this stone.
7.46AM - The first pondok (hut). Some stopped to rest but I didn't because I knew we didn't have time.

7.54AM - I don't know how to describe where this is because the shack (or whatever) is no longer there. What I do know is, this is the place where a pickup truck can make a three point turn. :)

Lots of bamboo trees.
8.07AM- 2nd pondok.

8.10AM - 3rd pondok.

8.36AM - Finally saw the 2 blue pondoks. Yes, we've reached the end of the 5km dirt road. In every climbing trip the organisers emphasized that no one should be alone. Each should have their buddies who would be with them at all times. Most of the time, this rule was broken mainly because of the differences in our fitness levels. Along this road, I was with RW, Francis1, Sirdar and ChooTH. Halfway up this road I had already passed my probably 5-kg bag to someone. I figured, with the lack of sleep, I did not want problems to look for me later. :P

Okay, just after the 2 blue pondoks, I started to head for the river. I almost reached the other side of the bank (with the help of ChooTH) when Mrs Boey called out saying that we were heading the wrong way. We should walk further ahead before crossing the river.

8.48AM - I crossed the 1st river.

9AM - Soon after the first river crossing, we could see the long pipes and then the old dam (and 2nd river crossing) came into view.

The last time I was here (Jul 2009) I didn't remember seeing the waterfall. We were above the falls and it was certainly a beautiful sight. :). If only I could stay here and enjoy the rest of the day listening to the falls... oh well... wishful thinking on my side. :(

9.10AM - Crossing the 3rd river.

9.17AM - Reached Kem Lolo and crossing the 4th river.

9.24AM - This part was a little tricky. If Messner had not shown us the way (turn left instead of going straight) we would have wasted some time looking for the trail. But then, we could have looked for the printed fatman paper.

This is something unique. It is some kind of plant growing on the bark of the tree. I've never seen anything like this before.

You can see lots of fungus or lingzi along the way.

The trail gets trickier after Kem Lolo. One had to be VERY careful walking along the trail. While walking along this path, I keep thinking.. what if I slipped and fell? ( I had this experience in Jul09). What if I fell into the gully? Thank God it didn't rain.. otherwise it would increase the chances of falling. Yup... all these negative thoughts came into my mind. This shows what a worrier I am. It was on this path when Sirdar left our group to try to reach the next checkpoint - Kem Pacat as quickly as possible.

More dangerous trails. Most hikers may not think so, but I was extremely careful walking along this path.

We walked like probably more than an hour on this stretch of orange-ee ground. The youngest of the Boey sons, Brendan came down to meet us. He encouraged the group saying that we were very near Kem Pacat.

We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked... and still had not REACHED Kem Pacat!!!!!!.

11.07AM - Some 10 or 15 minutes later we reached Kem Pacat. (aka. Leech Camp).

Walking further ahead of the Kem Pacat signboard, we stopped to rest. Many of us, including yours truly didn't want to continue. Due to lack of sleep, I was already in an auto pilot mode. I was constantly hungry too. I ate a bun right after Kem Lolo and was again hungry at Kem Pacat. I swallowed a piece of bread here, hoping that my hunger would go away.

Oh... we also met someone who wore 2 different shoes. One of his shoes must have given way and fortunately he had a spare pair of shoes.

Unfortunately for us, we were 'encouraged' to move on to the next check point -Puncak Pengasih. I knew that after Kem Pacat, the trail would get VERY steep. Physically I'm not up to it, but I knew that with some (a lot actually) help, I could reach Puncak Pengasih in one piece.

Look how steep it was. I needed help BADLY along this stretch.

RW spotted a beehive. (I am really amazed by people who see things which I will never notice.). Most of the time my eyes were glued to the ground, looking out for leeches.

It was during this stretch when Sirdar noticed how tired I was and radioed for a Voltaren pill. I didn't want to tke any pills (I don't usually) but I knew I was weak and so I popped one into my mouth. I still felt the same after that.... tired and sluggish.

More leg-stretching exercises and finally, at 1pm, we saw the Puncak Pengasih signboard. Calvin was sitting coolly on a rock as if he were there for quite some time. In my mind I was trying to recall when did Calvin, the SWEEPER overtake us? I gave up and just accepted the fact that he was much fitter than many of us. :P
What a relief, I thought to myself when we were approaching Puncak Pengasih. I was all prepared to turn back at this point. I figured I don't have to summit this time because I've summited before.

Sigh... somehow I got persuaded by Sirdar to head on to the summit. Like I had said earlier, I was on auto pilot mode. But then, I having been there once, I knew that it wasn't as steep anymore. It was much later that I realised that most of the group stopped at Puncak Pengasih and didn't even try to summit.

We didn't stop long at Puncak Pengasih. It was already time to turn back (Boey's instruction on the turnaround time was 1PM) but Sirdar wanted so much to summit. He radioed Messner saying that we are coming up. Poor Messner had to wait an hour for us. My stomach felt hungry again.. but I was told we could reach the peak in 45minutes. I was pretty sure my stomach could wait.

1.12PM - The Pahang/Selangor border stone just after the Puncak Pengasih checkpoint.

We saw a few of our team members descending. Some did not summit because they were conscious of the turnaround time.
I was YUCK-ing all the way to the summit because I had to step on wet muddy ground along this trail.

1.57AM - This is the ONLY nice view at Nuang. Funny, I cannot remember this view at all the last time.

2.01PM - FINALLY... WE HAD ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!

It was quite cooling up here. Messner was wearing his windbreaker. I thought the air was lovely. Fresh and cool. (Probably 24-25C). I had 2 pieces of bread from Messner. Bob, one of our team members had arrived not long before us.

Some 10 minutes later, we shooed Messner off so that he could implement Plan B. (Will explain in the later part of this post).

The Pahang/Selangor border stone at the summit.

A group picture of the last four to leave the summit.

A few pictures taken before we left the peak.

2.29PM - We left the summit. The weather was beautiful.

3.27PM - We arrived at Puncak Pengasih and Sirdar proceeded to make hot coffee for Bob and me. There was another climber not from our group who had a drink with us too. We were here for 20 minutes before packing our stuff again and descending.

5.40PM - We arrived at Kem Pacat. We met up with the same group of 5 climbers descending. Worried that the daylight would fade soon, we asked the other team if they had their flashlights. Apparently, they were as prepared as us to leave Nuang after sunset.

The two groups left together, but because I was slow (don't want to slip and fall due to carelessness right?), the group of 5 went past us and were not to seen till much later at the dirt road.

6.57PM- We arrived at the clearing near Kem Lolo. Here's a picture of a VERY TALL durian tree. We estimated it was about 40 metres tall or so.

7PM - We arrived at Kem Lolo. A few youths were setting up tents and preparing dinner. I really cannot imagine why they want to sleep outdoors donating blood to mosquitoes and LECCHES. Okay, okay, this clearly shows that I am NOT an outdoor person. :P

Crossing the rivers at Kem Lolo. At one point ,we were not sure which way to go. Thank God, we spotted a fatman paper left by Daniel. :).

7.21AM - Back at the old dam. YES!!!!! We are almost out. And oh, you should see the waterfall at this time of the day. The water was falling rapidly, even more than this morning and I must say, my compact camera didn't do any justice at all. :(. Let's see if I can upload a video of this waterfall.

7.41PM - Crossing the last river. It was so dark that I had to use the flash to take this picture. Three minutes later we arrived at the 2 blue pondok which marked the start of the dirt road. Sirdar was so tired out after the long climb. I guessed that this was due to the fact that he helped me a lot in this trip. He just wanted to rest here and wait for Messner to come with his pickup truck. This was Plan B. If any of the climbers needed help, Messner was to drive as far as his pickup truck could go to pick up the stragglers.

At this point of time my strength was renewed.... like as if I slept though the whole day and was recharged by the long rest. Bob and I suggested to walk on and meet Messner half-way. I walked as though I was in Mid Valley (shopping mall)... fast and sure. Sirdar was frantically trying to get through to anyone of our team at the base via the ham radio provided by Francis2. We could hear Francis2 communicating with Boey because he had a higher powered radio in his car but none of them could hear Sirdar. Mobile phone signals were lousy too. Learning from experience, I switched off my mobile phone throughout the climb to conserve the battery. There was no signal at all everytime I switched on to check. Not even at the peak!!!

At 8.20PM, we met up with the team of 5 climbers. They were resting at one of the huts. I guess they were really tired because they asked if they could hitch a ride out when we told them that one of our friends was bringing his pickup truck in. By this time we could get through to Francis2 and Sirdar updated him on our status.

It started to drizzle very lightly and Sirdar called my older sister to update her on what was going on. My older sister was at a family party and soon all my family members were so worried for me. I later had to explain that it wasn't as bad as they had thought.

We were told that Messner was on the way in and we had to look for a spot big enough for him to do a three-point-turn. We walked till we reached the shack which wasn't there anymore. We waited like for ETERNITY for Messner's car headlights and finally.. some ten minutes later we saw them. (YAY!)

9.05PM - We finally reached the base entrance. If it weren't for Messner, we would have walked for another 35 minutes or so.

We showered and were refreshed by the cold water. And guess what? It started raining heavily after I came out from the shower.

Most of the team members went off and as far as I could remember those who were still around when we reached the base were Pat and Doc KK (they car-pooled with Bob and had to wait for him), Francis2, Douglas and Karen.

Francis2, having collected all the ham radios went off on a 4 hour journey back to Kuantan. (Salute!). He reached Kuantan at 6AM, after stopping three times on the way to sleep.

Douglas was so kind to wait till the rest of us were safely down the mountain. (Thanks Douglas!)

The last four to leave the base were Messner, Sirdar, RW and I. We went to Semenyih to look for food.

We had our dinner at 11PM in this restaurant called Happy Restaurant. Messner looked SO tired and he knew he couldn't drive back to Seremban in this condition. In the end, Sirdar drove Messner's car, while Messner took a nap and I accompanied RW in another car. I had trouble keeping awake too.

By the time I reached home, it was probably about 12.30AM. What a LONG day. Comparing with the first Nuang climb, this hike wasn't so bad. The soles of my feet didn't really hurt and my leg muscles didn't ache that much.

I am so glad that this Nuang trip is finally OVER. Thank God there were NO leeches and the ground was relatively dry. Boey actually sent out a mail the day before the climb saying that Cheras had seen rain for the past week and asked us to be prepared for the blood-sucking mistresses!!!! Fortunately I didn't read his email or else I would have clung onto my nice cozy bed. :P

This was my reward for reaching the summit.

Bob, having seen me struggle, was surprised that I actually made it to the summit. He gave me this bar of chocolate when I reached the top. (Thanks Bob).

Later I found out from Messner that out of 43 climbers, only 20 summited. I wonder what happened. Probably because the turn around time was an hour earlier than usual.

Okay, I want to say this... NO MORE NUANG FOR ME.. PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME GO!!!!!!! I was fortunate that I wasn't bitten by leeches on both the Nuang climbs. If I go the 3rd time.. who knows, one may actually force me to give up some of my blood. No way Jose!!!!

Thank you to Boey and family who were pillars in this climb. Every once in a while we could see one of the Boey boys and they indeed were an encouragement to many of us. Thank you Messner who patiently waited for me to summit :P. (You owe me 2 Nuang certs now :)). And lastly, thank you Sirdar for helping me throughout this climb.. and also keeping your cool while I wailed the whole way down from Puncak Pengasih to Pacat.

Bye-bye FOREVER Nuang. I WON'T BE SEEING YOU AGAIN!.

Please click here if you want to read about my 1st Nuang climb.

Homemade Pizza

2009-11-09T23:00:00.000+08:00

Rach and I were about to order our dinner, when an sms from a friend came in saying that she was making pizza. Immediately Rach called her friend asking is she was going to make extra for us. She replied, yeah, and asked us to come over after a certain time.

When we arrived at her house, the pizzas were ready. She made chicken, vegetarian and beef pizza. I never touched the chicken pizza but ate 1 piece of the vegetarian pizza, and 2 pieces of the beef pizza. It was oh-so-delicious. She even made the dough herself.

After a few minutes, the pizzas were almost gone. Ok, I've to admit.. we didn't just have pizzas, she made bread too we had some cut oranges which I thought was a good ending to a very nice meal.
Thanks Jo, for the special home-made pizzas. I truly enjoyed the meal and the fellowship. :)

What Happened to My Turtle??!!

2009-10-29T21:00:00.001+08:00

Anybody who has a farm at Farmville will recognise the pictures below. I do not have a virtual farm.. but I maintain some of my friends/relatives until a certain level. Don't ask me why.. haha.

Recently while at someone's farm, I noticed that one of the turtles was missing.

When I moved my cursor to the spot where the turtle was supposed to be, it showed a green square.

The other animals... like this rabbit, are okay.

I'm not sure if the turtle appeared later, I didn't check. Maybe one of my neighbours stole it and made turtle soup out of it...hmmmm..

Christmas in Autumn

2009-10-24T13:00:00.000+08:00

Yes, my mom started decorating her house for Christmas in October!!! This is just the beginning. The main tree is the first to go up. The last I counted, she has 4 trees. I wonder if there will be a 5th tree this year.

The main tree, an 8 feet one.

My mom loves these small miniatures that depicts a winter wonderland scene during the Christmas month.

Oh, her 2nd tree is up :) This one is placed at the dining area.

Snowmen made of cloth and porcelain.

Other little decorations. I think in 2 weeks time my parents' house would be fully decorated with Christmas stuff. Can't wait.

Broga Hill for the 2nd Time

2009-10-17T14:00:00.001+08:00

Yup, I'm here again for the 2nd time. The last time we went was on the 26th of September 2009. 3 weeks later, I found myself agreeing to go again. Now, you must understand., this is an easy climb, so it's okay to go there every week.... but it takes like 45minutes to get from my place to the foothill. Another set back is, to see the sunrise, I have to get up at 4.30AM. That's too EARLY for a HILL climb.

We agreed to meet at OK Tuck (food court) before heading towards Broga Hill. It was here that we heard the thunder. We hoped it wouldn't rain because Broga's terrain without the rain was also very slippery. The older sister was so late, that we told her we'd meet at the foothill of Broga. For someone who just woke up (and I was reaching the meeting place) she sure was fast. She had to pick 3 other climbers too. She arrived at Broga some 10 minutes after we arrived.

See.. pitch dark when we arrived at 6.04AM.

At 6.19AM, we started walking when Esther and her gang showed up. Can't hear any thunder but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't rain while we were half-way climbing.

Aunt Chris, Madeline and Brian were first timers to Broga. I told Aunt Chris that the climb was slightly tougher than Kepayang Hill, which she thought was no sweat at all. As she climbed, she started to grumble saying that this was 3 times harder than Kepayang Hill. Actually I think she found it tough because this was her first time to Broga Hill and we made her get up so early for this climb.

Beautiful lalangs. (Tall, wild grass).

Picture of the 1st peak. I think we made it in about 35 minutes or so.

The view is simply gorgeous. It looked as if it would rain, but it didn't. Thank you God for holding back the rain. :)

This was taken after the 3rd peak. I decided not go go up to the 4th peak because THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE!!!!!!.

Look at the crowd. It was a public holiday and I think there were like at least 500 people or more on this hill. Good thing there were 4 peaks. Imagine of there was only 1 peak, all of us would fight to get a good view of the sunrise.

I must say, this could be the youngest hiker. He is less than 18 months old!!!!

The sun shone beautifully.

Lalangs again.

So many people started descending when the sun was getting too hot.

People jam!!!! Some were so impatient that they decided to choose another route. That path was steep and slippery and the only way go reach the bottom was to slide down!!!!

Lots of people.

Finally, we saw the oil palm trees.. yes we have arrived at the foothill.

Look at all the cars!!

There were no proper parking lots and what most of us did was to either park in between the oil palm trees or along the roadside.

It was really a walk in the park.. but we didn't but as you can see, there were simply too many people today. We left Broga at about almost 9AM and had our breakfast in Seremban.

When is the next climb? Hmmm.. I don't know yet.

All the way from Switzerland

2009-10-13T18:45:00.004+08:00

Last week I received an unexpected parcel from a Finnish friend. Okay, it was expected, but I forgot all about it. Let me tell you why I said that. You see, this friend sent a message through FB saying that

he is leaving Switzerland behind (if I can find the airport...)

Now I couldn't let him go back to his country without getting me a souvenir from Switzerland could I? So I made a comment asking if he did buy me a fridge magnet. He replied some 5 minutes later :

What, did I promise such!!! Lets see if I can find one...

2 1/2 weeks later I received this -

The packaging looks interesting. :)

I like the postcard too. :)

And the cuckoo clock.. haha.. from the picture it looks like a cuckoo clock. I went as near as possible to take this picture. Now, look closely again and you'll notice that it's not a clock after all but a fridge magnet :). Press the red button on the top left side and you'll hear the cuckoo calling.

I love these kind of surprises. Thank you my Finnish friend. :)

What happened on My Baking Day

2009-10-07T23:00:00.000+08:00

I finally got my portable oven back from my friend. My sister and her husband will be going to Hong Kong tomorrow and they planned to stay with Paul & Hazel. I suddenly thought of baking something for them but I realized that my oven was with Minch. So on Sunday I went over to her house to get it.

But you know, a small portable oven can only do so much (no complains though, the oven was given by Ruth and it's very good). I have to bake one small tray at a time. Feeling generous I decided to make extra for my other friends. This means more time spent on waiting. So what I did was to set up my laptop near the baking area to MSN and FB. :) And hey, I managed to help someone with his openoffice problem (with the help of another person lah) via MSN/Skype.

Half way through baking I had to go and see the dentist. My tooth was aching the night before. It was so bad that I cried. Somehow I managed to have a proper's night rest and thank God the pain was no longer there in the morning. But that doesn't mean that my tooth problem was gone.

So at almost 4pm I went to see my regular dentist. He shook his head and gave me two choices with what I wanted to do with my tooth. Either to extract it (which he strongly recommended) or to do a root canal. Being vain, I told him to try and save it. And so he did.

By 4.40pm, I was out of the clinic and I did some window shopping and then had a drink with Mctc and a close friend. By the time I reached home, it was about 7.30pm. I continued the last of my baking and started cleaning up.

So these are the shortbread cookies I made for my friends. I have some leftovers and hope it will last till my climb to Broga next week. :)

Broga Hill

2009-09-26T19:00:00.003+08:00

It's not a very high hill Almost everyone can make it to the peak. I see young children, teenagers, young adults and older adults made it without problems.

It was an impromptu trip. We were supposed to go hike up this hill on the 17th of October. The day before, Rach called up in the evening and asked if we could do it today. I was flexible, so I called up a few of my friends and one more person from KL. One of my friends then called her colleague to join us. So there were 4 of us girls from Seremban and 2 guys from KL.

My day started at 4.45am. I woke up and quickly got ready. RW came to pick me up while Rach fetched Minch. We met somewhere in town and used only car to get to Broga in Semenyih. We left Seremban at about 5.20am and reached Nottingham University by 6am. LKK from KL told us that he would meet us there since we did not know the way. We were early and said that we would find our way to the foothill. According to the security guard at the entrance of the University, we had to drive about 3km from the Uni and turn left towards the oil palm plantation once you see the Rabbit farm on your right.

It was easy to find the place because there were lots of cars already parked in between the oil palm trees. We waited a quite a bit for LKK and Karim.

At 6.28am ,we started our hike. After more than 2 months of not stretching my leg muscles I found it difficult to walk fast. In a few minutes I was panting away trying to keep up with LKK's long legs. He goes to gym regularly and the hike up to this hill was like a walk in the park.

At 6.54am, LKK pointed out the first peak. It was so near yet so far.

The lalangs (wild plants?) were so beautiful against the skyline.

7.04am - At long last, we reached the 1st peak. It took us about 36 minutes to hike from the foothill to the 1st peak. Yeah, we were slow because we kept stopping to take pictures and haha... also to rest our tired legs. :)

The view is simply spectacular...

Moving up to the 2nd peak. We weren't that tired anymore and didn't mind the walk to the 2nd peak.

From the 2nd peak, we could see the 1st peak.

Sunrise.. How I wished I had a DSLR. Rach brought hers because I told her that LKK would help her carry her bulky camera. In the end she carried it herself and grumbled all the way.. haha.

Moving up to the 3rd peak..

We took a group pic here..

Moving up to the 4th peak...

We had a little challenge here.. it's like a mini Datuk :)

Awesome view.

We met some Malay youngsters who hiked up and changed into their Malay costumes. It was the 7th day of the Muslim celebration and they must have wanted to make this climb memorable.

One last look at the beautiful view before we head back..

Going down the mini Datuk... it wasn't as bad as it looked.. :)

Walking back reminds me of Bukit Panorama in Sg Lembing. The view.. wow.. so breathtaking.. :)

I should have brought a walking stick. It makes it easier to walk. I must say, it would have been very slippery if the ground was wet.

Saw some ferns.. reminds me of Sg Chiling in Kuala Kubu Bahru.. :)

One must be careful walking down the hill..

8.50am.. as usual, I'm the last one to reach the foothill...

See, so many cars parked in between the oil palm trees.. :)

After a stress-free climb we had nasi lemak... it was VERY nice. All of us had nasi lemak. It was one of the best nasi lemak I've ever tasted..

Since it was an easy climb, I told the older sister that she should come here one day. She checked her calendar and said that she would be free on the 17th Oct and yes, we'll be there again that day, but I think the hills would be very packed because it is a also a public holiday.

Bukit Kepayang After a Long While

2009-09-21T15:00:00.000+08:00

Gosh... when was the last time I went up to Bukit Kepayang? I can't remember. Too long ago..

Yesterday my sisters and I were thinking of doing something today. I suggested going to Kunatan, to hike Bukit Panorama (Panorama Hill), but both of them were reluctant because of the long journey. It will take about 5 hours to reach there and it has been raining the past few days and it will be such a waste to drive 5 hours and not climb the hill.

Then Rach suggested going to Genting to lepak (go up just for fun). I was kind of reluctant too because I thought if they didn't want to go to Kuantan, I might as well spend some time with Mctc. Today's his birthday. :)

In the end we decided to go to Bukit Kepayang. A very low hill. It takes about 20-25mins to reach the top. Aunt Chris were with us when we discussed this and she said that she wanted to join.

We started about 7AM. Sze-En and Brian came along. I was surprised that Sze-En was willing to wake up so early. You must understand - she really loves to sleep.

The sky was really magnificent today. We watched it change colours. So beautiful...

Going up this hill was no sweat at all.. It was easy. The kids went up ahead of us, Sze-En had so much energy.

We reached the top in no time at all. This was Brian's first time here and I think he wasn't impressed at all. He said he like hiking at Gunung Datuk better.

We met PeterLai, one of our regular mountain climbers up on this hill. He told us that the lightning striked the roof some time back and showed us where it went after that.

As we were walking down the hill, we saw so many monkeys. They came out from their hiding place because some people brought food along to feed the monkeys.

As usual, after our hill climbing at Bukit Kepayang we went to eat in FS at Oakland. I had my usual Kuey Teow soup, Rach and Brian had char kuey teow, Esther and Aunt Chris had prawn noodles and Sze-En ate Ah-yee loh si fun.

After dropping Aunt Chris and Brian home, Sze-En asked if we wanted to go shopping.. either in Jusco and Tesco. All of us wanted to go back and have or shower, but I suddenly remembered that I had to buy something and it was very urgent and I can only get it in Tesco. Sze-En was so happy to be able to go shopping.

Look at that.. we came out with a trolley full of newly purchased items. This is our impromptu shopping, I wonder how many trolleys we need for a planned shopping spree... :)

Changing Broadbands

2009-09-12T15:00:00.000+08:00

All these while I've been using Celcom internet service provider to get connected to the internet. At first the service was okay, the speed was reasonable for the price that I paid. I was using my phone as a modem so the speed wasn't that great, but at least I could read my mails, chat, blog, facebook, and surf a little.

This phone was used only to connect to the internet.

Lately I was having trouble getting into the net. Sometimes when I was trying to connect, the message came out saying that I was connecting through another service provider - Maxis . Strange isn't it?

And once I got connected, it'd take maybe 10-2o minutes to get to the page I want to visit. Sometimes it would take even longer. It was just so frustrating. Just to make a comment on FB may take me like 40 minutes or so.

Most of the time I will use the phone as a modem and connect it to my laptop. Lately I feel that Celcom service was very poor. Everytime I get connected, I could only chat in MSN for a few minutes before the line went local and I would have to reconnect again. What I usually do is to switch off my phone, remove the battery and sim card for a second and put them back in the phone again, switch on the phone and try to connect. I would do this for at least 10-20 times a day. (FRUSTRATED to the MAX)

Last week I discovered Maxis Broadband :)

This little gadget cost slightly less than RM300 and each month I only have to pay RM68 for the service. The speed is up to 3.6Mbps (although most of the time it's 1.5- 2.5Mbps), but for this package the fair usage is only 2GB a month. (Meaning that I can upload/download up to 2GB before Maxis throttle my bandwidth).

Once I signed up with Maxis, I went to Celcom to cancel my data line. To my horror, they said that I was tied to them for 1.5 years and I still have another 2 more months to go. Alternatively I could pay RM350 to stop the service. I can't remember them telling me about that clause when I signed up for the package. I told them I don't mind paying for the 2 months, just that they will have to give me a good service (as in better internet connection). I thought that was fair...

FB-ing

2009-09-03T23:00:00.001+08:00

4 gals FB-ing in Rach's house. Rach was teaching her niece to farm virtually. This is bad....

Sze-En was sick

2009-08-28T14:00:00.001+08:00

Last week, Sze-En was sick. She had fever and a little bit of cough and running nose. It was the last week of school before her term break and her school was having their mid term exams.

So last Thursday, I went to my mom's house to "lepak" (hang around) and I saw Sze-En with a face mask.

She was told to wear her mask all the time and she could only take it off if she wanted to drink or eat. She has been such an obedient child, wearing the mask and drinking lots of water.. for this reason - she wanted to go to church camp the following week.

She even had all her dolls quarantined too. Hmm... should ask Tusi to make the face masks for all her dolls.

My New Slippers

2009-08-21T15:00:00.000+08:00

Crocs.. never thought I would own one, because theynot only cost the earth, it is also hard to maintain in the sense that I cannot put it under direct sunlight too. The material would harden.. that's what the vendor said.

Anyway, the vendor was selling factory rejects, and the slight discolour on the white um.. band (?) didn't matter much to me as long as it's cheap. :)

Dragon Fruit Farm

2009-08-18T14:00:00.000+08:00

My first taste of the dragon fruit (white) was about 7 0r 8 years back. It looked horrible.. white flesh with black dots, how could anyone eat that ugly looking fruit? The name itself was interesting enough and since I had never eaten one before, I took a slice and.. at this moment I can't recall what I thought about it. All I know was, I am not attracted to the fruit as compared with other fruits.

A few years ago.. I think it was Minch who introduced the red (actual colour is more of reddish-purplish) dragon fruit to me. I took a bite and fell in love with it.

The fruit is expensive.. the good ones cost RM8 per kilo. Averagely it cost RM5-6 per fruit. There are also the cheaper ones.. but it may be sour, so usually I'll try to get the big ones.

Everytime Minch goes to her mom's place she has to pass through some dragon fruit farm. Last weekend I decided to accompany her to visit her mom.

We passed by a farm and stop to get some dragon fruit. The lady in charged allowed us to take pics of her farm. The plant looked scary to me. Just imagine that all the plants were octopuses.... scary right?!

The flower and fruit.

The fruit.

It will end up looking like this. Purplish in colour.

And the flesh looks like this. Not very interesting to look at, but the taste good. The farmers sell cheaper at their farm. We bought 8 fruits for RM25. We also bought some smaller ones for Aunt Christ to make enzyme. Those cost RM15 for about 7pcs.

Long Awaited Evening

2009-08-12T15:00:00.000+08:00

Our trip to PD was postponed twice. See, you must never PLAN to go to PD. It has to be a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision. We were supposed to go 3 Sundays ago, but Brian had guests from America and Sze-En... I'm not sure why. 2 Sundays ago, Wayne was sick. Last Sunday, Matt had a meeting from 2-4pm and Rachel had to bring her aunt for shopping. Yep, we were busy that day, but we made it to the beach.

This time, Om was with us. Sze-En had too much school work to do and she had to forgo this trip.

Rach and I bought 2 floats for Brian and Sze-En while we were in Kuantan a few months ago. Last week, I went to Tesco and bought a smaller float and a beach ball for Wayne. We reached PD at about 5pm. There was no sun and we didn't have to put on the sun block lotion.

We asked Om and Brian to build a moat while Rach and I pump air into the floats. It was a difficult task. Wayne came much later with his dad. He was so happy here, but later the father made him change into a proper swimming costume. That's when he started screaming and tried not to wear the costume. It took 3 of us to put on the costume for him.

Om, she wanted us to bury her body with sand. She was really happy. She has never been to the beach before and you can imagine her letting go of herself. The whole time, she screamed joyfully, till Minch got a little fed-up with her.

Minch brought a kite too, but it wasn't very windy.

Ah.. Brian sitting on the float and feeling relaxed as the waves pushed him to the shore. Om was a little too heavy for the float and she kept falling off it. Hmm... maybe because she was too wiggly.

Brian was scared of the small sea creatures and at one period of time refused to go into the sea. Later, someone suggested swimming in the pool and Brian happily agreed. Sigh what a waste. The sea is much more fun than the swimming pool.

I did not take many pictures because my camera has run out of battery.

We left the beach at about 7pm.

Bought Some Books

2009-08-11T13:30:00.001+08:00

I always try to take advantage of the MPH sales every August. This time I wanted to buy books by Asian authors.

My name is Red is written by Orhan Pamuk from Turkey... well, not Asian but not American or British either.

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is written by Xiaolu Guo.

These books will keep me entertained for 2 weeks. Let's hope they are interesting. :P

Impromptu Shopping Spree

2009-08-10T13:00:00.001+08:00

Two days ago I went for my morning walk with RW. We didn't call Minch this time but she was there with Matt. They came much later and left about the same time as us. We decided to have breakfast at Matt's favourite coffee shop in Rahang. The usual questions were asked by Minch and one of them was what would we be doing after breakfast. I had to do some housework and RW had other plans. Minch suggested going shopping in KL. I was alright with it because I could do my house chores on Tuesday. RW said she doesn't mind going to KL with us too.

So we went back to bathe and met up again in town. Matt had to go to work so he didn't join in our shopping spree. Minch brought Om along too, so the 4 of us headed to the highway not knowing which shopping mall we wanted to invade.

In the end, we went to Mid Valley because it's one place we were so familiar and there were specific things we wanted to check out.

Whenever I shop I always look out for shoes. My shoes last for about 3 months most of the time.

It looks great, but after much walking I get blisters.. sigh.. I wanted this to be my walking shoes. :) Looks like I have to get another pair of proper walking shoes..

We spent more than 6 hours in the mall. It was fun, just to walk around and check out the things there. We saw moon cakes being sold right in front of the Jusco supermarket. This means that the mooncake festival is just around the corner. My, how time flies...

We reached home at about 7pm. I had a lovely time and was so exhausted that I slept as early as 9pm that day.

Nuang Chapter 3 - Almost A Bridge Too Far - An Epic Climb

2009-08-04T19:00:00.008+08:00

Gunung Nuang - 18 July 2009 - From KG's perspective.

Following the excitement generated from the Ledang3 climb in early Feb 2009, an idea was formed, to make a revisit to G Nuang, the famous climber's mountain.

The initial date of July 20th was subsequently changed to 18th, to accommodate the climbers from KL/Selangor, as they did not have a public holiday (Israk/Mikraj) on 20th.

The preliminary list started to add up and at one time, was just under 30 pax. Unfortunately, several people had to withdraw as the date drew near.

As KG spoke to Eunice to consider joining the climb, her conditions to be met: (1) no rain for the preceding 4 days and (2) need to have sufficient time to train; seemed to be even harder than Hang Tuah's mammoth task of sending 7 trays of mosquito hearts (or something like that?) to woo the Puteri Gunung Ledang....sigh....

In all fairness, Eunice was concerned that her lack of fitness would slow down the rest; so KG offered to carry her bag, help her through the difficult stretches, be the leech exterminator and also cook a hot lunch at the summit, complete with freshly made mountaintop coffee. Talk about incentives...

Two days before the climb, as KG met up with Peter at breakfast to iron out some details, he was shocked to see him all bundled up in a jacket, apparently still not fully recovered from a bout of flu. A sobering thought was that among this group of then 15, only these two have had previous summit experience on Nuang. When this point was raised to FC Boey, a fellow climber from KL, he had no hesitation to bring his family to Nuang after their Broga climb, to assist with the descent.

The finally tally was 10 climbers from Seremban and 7 from KL.

The Seremban group comprised KG, Peter 'Messner' Lim, 2 youngsters, Chih Wee Yew and his classmate Sun Kit Fatt (CWY and his parents were at Ledang2 in Feb 2009), David Yap a regular climber who summitted Mt K in March, Jason Wong (fellow Mt K, Ledang and G Yong Belar climber who had a difficult but successful Nuang climb earlier, was a late inclusion on Friday), Jack Loke and his father, Uncle Loke, the father-son duo from the Mt K climb, Christine Yeoh, the gutsy grandma who subsequently morphed into a spring chicken and of course, Eunice, their loyal and life-long climbing member.

From KL, they had KL Chan and wife SK whom they first met through Ledang3; Radzi and Ismail who heard about this climb through Jimbo's blog, KK Ling also from Ledang3 and Brandon Kua and SK Chan, friends of Eunice.

In hindsight, it was a wise decision for KG to leave out his 10-year old boy Shing Jian (which also meant automatically excluding Peter's 12-year old boy, Samuel). The presence of these two young ones would have complicated matters and added the pressure....

No amount of persuasion could help Dr Jimbo overcome his angst and do a repeat of Nuang, so they were bereft of a team doctor.

Friday night was a rush, as KG tried to get his checklist. By the time he got most things done and went to bed, it was already midnight. Just two hours of sleep later, he woke up, well before the alarm on the mobile phone, set for 3am, could go off. Quite a stark contrast with the first Ledang climb, when he overslept and caused panic when Peter could not contact him in the wee hours of the morning.

The 4 am rendezvous at Kemayan Square was smooth, with most of the people arriving early. They moved off in three cars at 0415.

They met up with the KL group at the car park at the base of the Park. In the early morning, it was a bit difficult to distinguish the climbers' features in the semi-darkness. A short briefing and stretching exercise was carried out and the climbers moved off into the pre-dawn darkness with the aid of headlights and torches.

Very soon, the first light filtered through. The air was cooling and a bit misty. The tantalising smell of durians wafted in. Later, they saw a few early durian pickers on motorbikes and were tempted to have a pre-climb durian feast. A different kind of carbo-loading.

After an uneventful walk, they reached the dam. The water level was rather low, probably due to the dry spell earlier. The crossing was made with ease.

They soon arrived at Kem Lolo. There were quite many campers there. The colourful tents painted a pretty picture. The early risers were busy preparing breakfast.

Eunice kept up a steady pace with one eagle eye steadily glued to the ground for leeches. She tried not to stand still in one place, for fear that one of these friendly ones would creep up and latch itself onto her....shudder.... The first leech they saw drew a curious fascinated look from Christine, who had earlier thought it would be the size of a sea cucumber.

They soon came upon Brandon and gang, who had stopped because SC Chan had cramps. It took awhile to strip his tight long pants off him and then change into a pair of shorts, which Brandon happened to have in his pack, in order to administer first aid. KG made a cheeky suggestion for Eunice to record this moment in video to post in YouTube. It would have brought him fame...

Just before Kem Pacat, Christine seemed to run out of energy. It took a lot of effort on Peter's part to get her to continue to Kem Pacat. At Kem Pacat, there was a protracted deliberation, as Christine wanted to stop and not continue further. It took the argument that Peter would need to sacrifice his summit attempt in order to remain behind with her, to make her change her mind and agree to proceed on to Puncak Pengasih, the next check point. KG had this idea that they would reassess the situation at Pengasih and if necessary, then let her turn around with the other returning climbers. The other sneaky and unspoken idea was to help her from Pengasih with a summit push.

In K's mind, this was the best chance for Christine to summit Selangor's highest mountain.

Christine's decision to proceed beyond Kem Pacat was the crossing of the Rubicon. From there, she seemed to have a new vigour and never looked back.

The break at Kem Pacat was fairly lengthy, as they refreshed themselves with hot coffee and also cached some water to lighten their loads.

Just above Kem Pacat, they met Jack and his father, who decided to turn back, as Jack was having a back ache. Peter said a word of prayer for them.

As they approached Pengasih, Daniel, Boey's second boy, overtook them with ease, though he had started out some 3 hours later. At Pengasih, they met up with Jason, who had summited very much earlier and turned around to assist the stragglers. As KG was discussing that Jason descend to help Christine turn around, they heard Peter's and her voices just a little way behind. Will wonders ever cease? Apparently, Christine caught her second wind after Pacat.

The terrain from Pacat to Pengasih was the steepest; many a time, they had to pull themselves up using the protruding roots. Eunice's moans of despair were quite audible; so KG suggested that she should focus only slightly ahead and gain ground meter by meter.

The air was noticeably cooler and misty at Pengasih, with signs of an impending storm. The last stretch from Pengasih to the summit was fairly easy, downhill and fairly level about half the distance. They came across stone markers delineating the Pahang/Selangor border. Finally, after a circuitous route and a bit of steep climb, the summit was in sight.

Radzi & Ismail had summitted much earlier and were already descending. This Nuang climb was part of their training for Mt Kinabalu.

Yes, they finally made it.

It was a great feeling to be on top of Gunung Nuang, the highest point in Selangor, at 1,493M (4,898 ft). The misty view did not detract from the sense of achievement, as the group exchanged congratulatory handshakes and pats on the back.

KL Chan was happy to be able to achieve a higher limit. His wife SK, who seemed to take to the mountain the way a tigress takes to the hills, was waiting for him and smiling away happily. David Yap took a well deserved rest, with a contented look, at having overcome the previous year's failure to summit.

Jason had already opened a 'kopitiam' with the high-power gas burner roaring away. After a round of piping hot coffee, they heated up some beef kurma to go with the pita bread and rice. The hot lunch helped to replenish the energy for the descent.

As they were busy snapping pictures at the summit, another climber brought word that Jack and father were on their way up and were not very far away. It seemed that Jack's condition had improved at Pacat and they decided to try for the summit. Sheer determination. The two youngsters, CWY & SKF, were also enjoying their moments at the summit. How nice to be able to turn back the clock and have the vigour of youth again...

Some of the climbers decided to start the descent, whereas the others lingered on a bit, to savour the mountaintop feeling, rest up and enjoy the cool air. The turnaround time was extended a little bit, to 1430 hours.

The sky did turn ominously dark at one point, as KG & Peter exchanged worried glances, remembering the terrible storm of that June evening, two years ago.

A short distance below Pengasih, as Peter was trying to negotiate a big root by going backwards, both feet slipped at the same time. It was so sudden that he did not have time to use his hands to break the fall. His rib cage took the full brunt of the impact and he toppled backwards. This heavy fall left him winded. Thank God he was not seriously injured and did not roll down the slope. Later, an X-ray showed a small crack on the rib, which would require one month's rest to heal.

Finally, they reached Kem Pacat where Boey and his family had been waiting since noon. They took a short break and retrieved the water bottles cached there earlier during the ascent.

KG then suggested to Boey that his family could proceed down first but Boey decided otherwise, wanting to stay with them till the finish line. Boey's decision to stick with the rest of the team turned out to be a blessing and a wise judgement call, as their services were very much needed at the final stretch.

The descent from Pacat to Lolo was quite easy, downhill most of the way. Progress was good. At one point, Christine's knee troubled her. The ethyl chloride spray gave her a bit of relief.

Crossing the last river at the dam, David took a sudden, heavy fall and twisted his left ankle. Boey was quick to bind it up. After saying a prayer for David, he seemed to make a miraculous recovery and soon overtook the rest, striding along easily with the help of his walking stick.

The remaining group of 11 split into 3, with Jason and young Brandon moving steadily ahead, followed by the second group comprising KG, Eunice, Shirley and David. The last group was Boey, Calvin, Daniel, Christine and Peter.

The many motorcyclists they met on the dirt road were not willing or able to extend their help to ferry out David or Christine.

When they were within range of mobile signals, KG sent a quick sms to EstherT (Eunice's sister, who also acted as 'base manager') to apprise her of the situation that they were at the start of the long trudge on the "Never Ending Road" and making slow, steady progress. Little did he know of the drama about to unfold behind, when Christine's legs refused to carry her any further, as her group lagged further and further behind.

Finally, the gate was in sight. Immediately, David flopped onto his back for a much needed 30-minute snooze. Jason and Brandon had already cleaned up and looked so fresh. The cold shower was certainly refreshing. What a nice feeling to wash off all the sweat and grime.

Shortly afterwards, Calvin radioed that a motorcyclist had agreed to send Christine out. They certainly believed this was God-sent, as their group was getting anxious with Christine's weakening condition and the motorcyclist appeared just after Boey prayed over her. Such is the power of prayer. They were thankful for Doc Wong's generosity in loaning his two units of newly bought ham radios.

With Christine safely back at the base, they all heaved a big sigh of relief. KG radioed Peter to see if he required any assistance. His tired, barely audible "No" reply sounded as if it came from the far side of the moon...

KG then sent a sms update to Esther, "Aunt Chris safely out, evacuated on a motorbike.: He added "all is well, will update you tomorrow", so as not to alarm her unduly.

Finally, just past 10pm, Peter and Boey stumbled past the gate. Boey's family then made their way home, while Peter and David washed up.

On the way back, both Christine & Peter fell into an exhausted sleep. The usual restaurant in Semenyih was closed due to the late hour, so they finally had a very late "dinner" at midnight in Seremban. They certainly made a strange sight, limping into the hawker centre.

To Christine, to say that she "performed well" would be an understatement, more appropriately, we would say that she 'performed magnificently'.

To Boey & family, a big 'thank you' for the help rendered and the Christian love so evident.

To Eunice, the newly-crowned Puteri Gunung Nuang, we say "Bravo", another great accomplishment. :)

Thank you to all climbers who came and added to the fun and camaraderie.

To Peter, another job well done. Planning and executing a climb with him is always a satisfying endeavour.

Now that they have proven they have the 'right stuff' to be overcomers, it is not impossible to consider an attempt on the rest of the G7 peaks.

Many things came together on this climb. Though there were three injuries, they were not life-threatening. The weather was good. If it had rained, it would have complicates matters totally. Christine's transport appeared miraculously at the hour of need. Both Jack & David made miraculous recovery. Many thanks to all who upheld them in prayers.

God's hand was certainly upon the team. Yes, Nuang Chapter 3 was almost a bridge too far and an epic climb but with the good teamwork and by God's grace, they were able to summit successfully and safely.