Broga Hill

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

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

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

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