I

01 01 12

2012-01-01T15:13:00.000+08:00

So comesthe year 2012 which is also the last year on the Mayan’s calendar which Isuspect is mainly because they ran out of space on their round calendar. So asa start to this New Year, I have decided to do a quick recap of what happenduring the last year.

Let us seenow… what happen. Oh yes, NOTHIING.

Well,nothing as far as the standard life plan is concern. For those who do not know,the standard life plan goes something like this in chronological order. Studyhard, get a good job, work hard, get a wife, get kids, retire, and die. I seemto be at the get a job stage for a year now and I hope that the wind of goodfortune would blow my direction this year.

It is notexactly the lack of trying that I have remain jobless so far, I have attendedcountless interviews and gotten pretty good at telling people about myself, Ihave send in more applications then I care to count and I even took up a jobjust so I could have said that I have a job. None of them worked out so far.

Justbriefly about the job’s I picked up, one is direct sales and the other relatedto sales. One I left while the other I was told to leave. Neither had reallysuited me and my calm demure personality well. So therefore, I am back in thejob market still seeking the dream job which hopefully will become more thanjust a dream.

Now, onwardsto more positive stuff. One of the first productive things I did was to signedup for a gym for 6 months, courtesy of my father’s wallet. And although I didnot manage to lower my body till I could see abs, I was pretty satisfied withthe results. Unfortunately since then I have been slacking a little and my fatcells are filling up again.

Next, Imanage to hike Mount KK despite a fever and lack of food. Reaching the peak ofMalaysia’s tallest mountain is something I always wanted to do and I canhappily cross that out of the things to do before I die.

Also, Ivisited Malaysia’s famous Taman Negara. Never knew that it was this famous tillI met several backpackers talking about it as one of the must visit destinationwhile visiting Malaysia.

And finallyI signed myself up for a Japanese class also courtesy of my father’s wallet. Iwill never know when it might come in handy in the future.

And that isa rap for 2011, Bring on 2012 and the tide of change.

Kinabalu Mountain: Epilogue

2011-08-29T16:40:00.005+08:00

Going down turns out to be much easier; thanks mostly to my awesome mountain boots. Two hours later, I met up with Ooi at Laban Rata just as they were about to serve breakfast. However, starving for the past 2 days had cause my stomach to reject large quantities of food so I had to resort to eating fruits while there while the lamb stew and fried chicken sat in their warmers smelling awesome.

At about 11.45, we began our hike down. By now, our 2 days wet spell had finally been banish and we had a clear view of our track. Trekking up the day before, surrounded by clouds and burning a fever, I wasn’t aware on how steep the trail was. And while descending, I was constantly astonishing myself thinking “Did I actually come up here yesterday?”

It took us about 3 and a half hour to reach the bottom and compared to the uphill we did yesterday, this was an easy stroll in a park. However, my legs was starting to feel strange, it wasn’t as bad as 20KM hike of the Tonggariro Crossing, (probably because I was hiking in running shoes then) but it still hurt.

Also, it seems that the wet spell isn’t over yet, but it had remain mercifully dry until we’ve manage to reached shelter at the bottom of the trail. The rest of the journey was relatively easy. We got a cab to take us back to the starting point where there was yet another buffet waiting for us. And as my tortured stomach had began recovering slowly, I decided eating some meat, slowly and in small quantities.

After lunch, we walk up the steps to the reception to collect our luggage that we left behind the day before and awaited the arrival of Madam Wong. (walking up that single flight of stairs was not exactly easy or fun). She arrived eventually in what would be our transport back into the city, which to our surprise, turn out to be a whole bus. We thought it was awesome to have an empty bus just for the 2 of us.

The 2 hours journey back to the city pass uneventfully, we just sat in silence watching the misty mountains going pass our windows and listening to the sound of the rain pattering gently upon the bus.

That night at the airport, we sorted out things out into our individual bags and prepared for our flight back home. And as all journey’s there is the beginning, the middle and now it brings us to the final closure which is the end.

Kinabalu Mountain: Day 2

2011-08-28T12:15:00.004+08:00

A couple of hours later I awoke looking out through the window into blackness. I dimly recalled waking up several times through the course of my troubled sleep, sometimes shivering in the cold. I was again considering giving up on the final league of the hike.

And yet, at 1.30 am when I woke up I decided to just put one leg in front of the other and see how far I could go. I drank tea with sugar hoping that what I lack from solid carbohydrate I could perhaps substitute with sugar and at 2.30am our guide came in with some more bad news.

When we reached Laban Rata the previous day we got a glimpse of what the peak looks like, and it looked like what I expected it to look like, except there were like 20 waterfalls raging down due to the rain. So when the guide told us that the weather does not look promising and it was drizzling slightly, we realize the gravity of it. However, since we’ve already reached this point, we might as well do it, and we plunge into the darkness of the night.

The main source of light came from a borrowed torch however as my hike up Bukit Tabur several years ago, I decided to rely on the pale glow of the moon instead. Although not as clear, it gave me a wider range of visibility.

Although I was ones of the earlier to exit Laban Rata, due to my weakened state, I soon bid Ooi good luck and fell slowly to the back of the pack. The first part of the journey consisted mostly of steps; Hundreds of dreadful torturous steps. My progress was slow, for every 3 steps I took I had to stop for 30 seconds to calm my strenuous breathing.

1 hour into the hike I had a startling surprise, I saw people who had over taken me earlier descending. Weird, the moon was still hanging in the sky and there was no sign of dawn yet. Another 15 minutes later I saw Ooi coming down. He told me then that he has been defeated and I would find out why just around that corner in front. He then bid me good luck and told me that he’ll wait at the Laban Rata for the good news.

During a mountain climb, round the corner isn’t really round the corner. That corner which seems to be only 100 meters in front took me 20 minutes to reach. Upon reaching, I found out the reason why some people were turning back. It seems that the stairs has ended at what appears to be a sheer cliff upwards.

Well this isn’t the first time that I walked up cliffs. At lease it wasn’t the loose sands and rocks of Mt. Doom that I failed so many months ago, and this time, I had proper hiking boots.

So I move on just putting one feet in front of the other and eventually reaching the checkpoint. At that point I was pretty much at the end of the pack and I was given more depressing news.

The guard at the check point told me that I was going really slow and by the looks of it I’ll be reaching the peak only by 12pm and if I were to descend all the way to the bottom he estimated that I’ll reach by 11 at Night. So he said this were my options
i) Go to the peak but spend another night at Laban Rata.
ii) Descend to Laban Rata and try again tomorrow
iii) Just turn around and head back down NOW
They all sounded logical and depressing and so did I chose any of them?

F*CK NO!! I didn’t spend over a thousand Ringgit to turn around half way just because some guard tells me that I won’t make it!!

And so I bid him goodbye and went on ahead shuffling slowly. It was close to 7am and the sky was changing from pitch black to a pale sheet of grayish blue. He estimated that I’ll reach by 12? I’ll make it by 8. Every step up the steep slope was torment, every step I took was only half the length of my feet as anymore and I would risk exhaustion and stopping completely. Which would then making starting up again a real pain.

At one point, I realize the guide was still with me. And while Ooi could not get a grip with his sports sneakers, the guide was walking on vertical surfaces wearing what appeared to be imitation crocs. He was also wearing a ski mask and has an uncanny ability to stay really still. There was this moment where I swear that there were eyes looking at me in a cave between some rocks, and upon closer inspection I realize it was just him taking shelter from the bone chilling wind.

Well I didn’t make it to the top at 8, however I did make it to the top, and it was at a little over 9 a.m. Take that you negative guard!! And I was actually feeling pretty good at that point. The constant pounding of my headache was gone and the first time in 36 hours that I was actually feeling hungry.

I tried opening the bar of overprice Kit Kat I bought from Laban Rata and it proved to be quite the challenge. After taking off my gloves, I found that my hands were frozen stiff and it took immense amount of concentration to even open the zipper of my bag.

There was no sun rise that morning even if I had made it up in time for it. There was just too much cloud swirling around so I guess I didn’t really miss anything by reaching up there late.

So there I was, finally at the peak of Kinabalu Mountain after 2 days of self inflicted mental and physical torture and was it worth it? HELL YEAH

After milling around a bit at the peak and basking in my own awesome achievement and decided to do prepare myself for one last part of the hike. The descend.

Kinabalu Mountain:Day 1

2011-08-26T10:19:00.003+08:00

When morning dawn I was feeling considerably better and thought that I since I’ve travelled so far and paid so much, I might as well give it a shot.

We met our mountain guide the day before and he led us on a short walk from our hostel to the check in point. From there we bid our farewell to Madam Wong and took a cab 5km from the park entrance to the start of the trail. As far as I was concern, every cm less to walk was a moment to be grateful for.

There was a guard house there and after flashing our hike permit at them, I was ready to take on this mountain with a fever and an empty stomach. There was however one other problem, it started to rain. And it was a rain worthy to be called a Malaysian rain with huge water droplets pounding onto the tropical rain forest.

Our mountain guide asked if we would wish to begin our journey now or wait for the rain to let up, we decided that a little rain won’t melt us. After all, we had our plastic bags and the less time we spent down here, the more time we could spend sleeping up there.

And so we plunge onto the trail with the sounds of birds singing and the rain drops drumming onto our thin layer of protective plastic.

I could not remember much of the actual hike. The rain was only part of the reason, the other reason was because there was also a layer of thick fog that clouds our path which as I look back now, actually a blessing.

The fog which hid the scenery from use, also hid the reality of how long the trail actually is. Couple with my dull fever, all I could recall was like walking through a dream just putting one foot in front of the other. However,I do remember pestering the guide every 500m asking “are we there yet?”

After a while, Ooi went on ahead and it was just me the trail and the fog and the guide who was patiently strolling behind me. 6 hours and 10 minutes later, I saw a grinning Ooi at the end of the torturous trail. I have finish part 1, I have arrived at Laban Rata.

We checked into our lodging for the night which was a shared 4 men dorm. I tried eating something at our buffet dinner but it seems that my appetite has yet to return, so I settled with drinking some warm barley, which I then threw up. Since I apparently still can’t eat I then decided the only thing left to do was to call it a night.

Kinabalu Mountain: Prelude

2011-08-25T09:50:00.003+08:00

There is an age old question that goes like this “Why do we climb mountains?” Well, this is the best answer I could come up with.

Just for the heck of it.

So when a friend of mine suggested going to Kota Kinabalu to get a dive license, I had to give this tallest mountain in Malaysia a shot. Some say, that it requires 6 month of training and mental preparation to conquer this mountain. I was all prepared to proof them wrong.

First, a brief overview on the Mountain’s trail. There are 2 trails up Mt KK. A longer less steep overall trail, and the 2km shorter trail. As far as I was concern, the shorter the better and I chose Timpohon gate as our starting point. On our first day, we would hike 6km up to Laban rata where we would spend the evening and waking up at 2am the next morning continuing the rest of our 2.8km hike to the peak where we would catch a sun rise. The descend would be on the same day.

There we were, 4 days after touching down in Kinabalu, sitting at the hotel lobby awaiting somebody called Madam Wong which neither of us have know nor seen before. It was a sunny day as it had been for the past 4 days, and I was just about to give Madam Wong a call when I saw a well aged and joyful lady came bustling through the door and after some talking to the doorman came to us and ask “Are you Ivan?”

We were then ushered into a taxi leaving behind the warm beaches and headed into the cold and misty mountains of Sabah.

Along the way our chatty tour agent checked up on our preparation list and she seem to be horrified that we were lacking some crucial items, namely a pair of gloves and a rain coat. We had lunch and right after that, she brought us to one of those multipurpose stall where they seem to sell everything. We got ourselves a pair of gloves and a poncho which is actually just a big upside down plastic bag with holes cut out for your arm and head to go through.

Eventually, we arrived at our lodging for the night, a cozy backpacker run by a local lady. Our tour guide seem to be a frequent client of hers and after some discussion, it is decided that she would be cooking some awesome home cook fried rice for us. Or it would have been awesome if only I had my appetite, problem was, I was struggling to finish half a bowl of it and decided to just give the rest to Ooi.

I then took a walk, and half way down the steps I decided that emptying the contents of my stomach would be a good idea. As a matter of fact, I thought that it was a brilliant idea and did it several times through the night first it was fried rice, then Milo, then the 100 plus I was saving for the hike and some other bodily fluid that I could not identify in the dark. That night I burn a fever and I was actually considering giving up the hike and asking Ooi to go on alone.

Kota Kinabalu

2011-07-25T13:37:00.003+08:00

As far as week long impromptu adventure is concern, this trip tops my list. Preparation and planning was rushed and completed in a week which involved sending money to an entity that I’ve never met or chatted on the phone and putting faith in the planning skills of one whom I’ve never travel with before.

So, after a week of frantic communication back and forth with different parties, we were on a plane heading towards the land below the winds, or as most would call it, the state of Sabah.

The reason my friend, Ooi, was there is because he wanted to get his diving license. I agreed to come along only if we gave Malaysia’s tallest mountain a shot.

And so, the first 3 days were spend in Sabah’s main city, Kota Kinabalu waiting for Ooi to get his Open water license and since I was there anyway, I decided to get my SSI advance certificate. It was actually pretty easy considering the course is there just to introduce you to some basic diving skills.

One of the first skills involve swimming North counting 12 kicks and then turn around and head back South. And yet as I look around when I was supposedly at my start point, all I saw was sand and the turquoise blue of the ocean. Great, I got lost swimming in a straight line.

We had most of our dinner by the sea at one of those night market style seafood. However we discover at the end that it wasn’t the most hygienic place for a meal.

We finally obtained our license on the fourth day of touching down in Sabah and it was time to put the sparkling sea and the warm breeze behind us. We are heading up through windy roads that lead into the mountain regions of Sabah. It was also when I started feeling really sick

The Transition

2011-06-08T09:56:00.002+08:00

6 month of bumming around happily tapping away at what seem like an unlimited amount of money later I find myself here, 1 day away from my first official job after graduation.

The last few month was not a roller coaster ride, it was more like a very gentle road with rolling meadow hills accompanied by a gentle warm breeze. It involve much of just sitting around doing whatever that fancy me at that point of time. It's actually similar to what I've been doing in Australia so there wasn't much adapting going on.

The job that I've accepted, is by far, not an ideal job. But after countless application, 8 interviews, 4 rejected and 3 rejections later, I've thought that an ideal job is not worth waiting for after all.

They say its not about the money, but from what I understand, your first pay check will determine the next and if I start off at a 1.8k pay, how long will it take me to reach an amount that I am satisfied with? Knowing how business works, the employer would probably delay an increment as long as possible and spread it out as far as possible.

They say don't be picky, just do anything that comes your way. I say if I would wake up 6am every morning dreading the rest of the day doing something I absolutely loath, with no future that I could foresee and look forward too, what is the point of this self inflicted torture?

So, in the end, I've settled for a job that would pay rather well if I'm actually successful. The official title might sound nice but I know what it really is. It's what most would call a salesman. Management trainee? really?

But that does not really matter. What matter is at lease it pays alright and I am actually slightly hype up about it. Well I guess for now, I'll work for a while and see how it goes, if I wake up 3 month from now feeling like the end of the world, I'll know its time for a job change.

Into the Malaysian Tropical Rain Forest (Taman Negara): Pt 3

2011-04-02T15:18:00.004+08:00

It was day 4. The day that I've decided that I had enough of the humid tropical jungle of Malaysia and looked forward to the concrete air-con jungle of Malaysia.

I awoke the earliest and headed on down to the floating shops to soak up the atmosphere of the unique place one final time. Soon my travel mates came by and told me that they decided to stay another night and after breakfast, off they went into the national forest of Malaysia (they spend the whole of yesterday fishing).

I on the other hand had several hours to kill before the bus for Jerantut arrives, so I decided to just wander around the Kuala Tahan and observing the kampung life (kampung = village in english).

Notice how that lorry is pack with kids :)

The bus ride out was the same, in other words, really bumpy. So there I was trying to sleep when I realize every 3 second the bus would bounce so hard that it'll bounce me of the seat and face first into the seat in front. So I decided to anchor myself down by leaning on the window. It was working really well until a couple of minutes later, I felt the whole window moving outwards and I jerk to an instant wake.

I took a stricken look at the window and realize that the whole bottom of the window had given way and it was actually outside of the bus. Trying to keep my cool I examined the window and the next window in front of me and to my horror, I realized that my window was missing screws on the bottom. (the window was dangling on 2 screws on the top of it.) Only reason I could think off was either the screw came out when I was leaning on it, OR there wasn't any screws in the first place.

So playing it cool, I slowly extend my hand out of the window as if just enjoying the wind and discreetly pushed it back in. And hoping it'll stay in for the rest of the journey. Thankfully it did.

The rest of the journey passed without much fuss. I transferred into a much more pleasant bus at Jerantut. At lease this bus was stable some what and even though the air cond was freezing up everything in the bus, the jacket I brought kept me warm and cozy all the back to Titiwangsa where I had to board another 2 trains before I could safely said that I am home.

Into the Malaysian Tropical Rain Forest (Taman Negara): Pt 3

2011-03-29T15:01:00.003+08:00

It was 8.30 in the morning when I woke up the next day. The birds were chipping pierce occasionally by roosters waking up anybody who was still sleeping at this perfect time of the day.

The plan today was simple, since my 2 other travel mates are still sleeping and they probably would want to fish the whole day, I decided to spend the day hiking alone in the jungle.

I had breakfast at the same place we had dinner the previous night. However with morning light around me, I could actually see how unique the place was. So there I was on this shop that was floating on water having my “Nasi Lemak” and coffee while watching with interest the river boats that were busily travelling the river.

I paid a mere Rm1 for a boat to take me to the entrance of the national park, which was on the other side of the river. There I met 2 other fellow travelers and since I was travelling alone, I decided to join their little group and on we headed into the hot and humid rain forest of Malaysia.

Our path took us through a canopy walk where we walked from platform to platform some 40 meters above the forest floor connected via a suspension bridge. After failing to hike Mt. Doom in New Zealand, I decided to get myself some proper hiking boots and although it took a while to get use to it, it proved to be pretty useful on the muddy slopes up Bukit Teresek.

Walking on, it soon became clear that the jungle was infested with leeches. At its worst I was pulling a leech of me every 5 minutes. 2 of them eventually manage to sink their suckers into my flesh without me knowing and I decided they deserve to be fed.

4 hours since the beginning of the track we emerge out at the entrance where I bid goodbye to my new found and then lost friends, where they headed back for a well deserve bath and rest. I decided to remain behind and went into the one and only restaurant for a cup of 100 plus that cost an arm and a leg and some say even an eyeball.

The leech that was stuck to my arm had gotten pretty fat at that point and I decided to name it John. And John was growing really fast and it started to look a little disgusting. He was slimy when stroke and when I tried squeezing it a little, I felt the blood flowing back into my arm. That was when I decided to leave him alone again.
Sitting and doing nothing got bored soon enough and I decided that it was time to go search for my 2 original travelling partners. I found them at a hidden platform that the workers of the resort used as a jetty. I nicked the room key off them and went back for my own soothing bath and a short nap.

However before I cross the river, I decided that John was too greedy, he had been leeching from me for several hours now and I thought enough was enough. I went back to the resort and requested for some salt. I think that was it for John.

One of the joys of backpacking is that you get to meet people of different nationalities and I had just such an opportunity over dinner. After a while, my travel mates turned up and we were chatting when one of those heavy downpours pretty much anchored us to the restaurant.

Eventually enough was enough. It was almost 1am and I decided that sleeping was way more important than getting wet and I headed off under the pouring rain back to the comfort of a bed.

Into the Malaysian Tropical Rain Forest (Taman Negara): Pt 2

2011-03-27T16:54:00.004+08:00

At the office we found out that a guide cost RM180 a day, a sum which Jordan was refusing to pay. So we have an interesting development. What now? We are stuck in a small town in the middle of nowhere with no plans or goals of any kind. So we decided to solve the first immediate problem. We needed to nurse our rumbling stomachs. And so over our second breakfast, we discussed our possible options and eventually settling on going to the bus station and getting a bus ticket to whatever destination was available.

However we encountered another problem at the bus station, the only destination available was Kuala Lumpur, the place we just came from. We decided to walk all the way back to the train station and buy a ticket to a random destination from there.

Upon arriving at the train station we were sitting around doing nothing but playing cards and that when we met an elderly man. After a while of chatting we were join by another 2 wise men and after more chatting one of them suggested that we head down to Taman Negara instead.

So after some inquiries, we headed to the old bus stop for the local bus to take us 60km away to Jerantut where we had more waiting to do for another bus that would take us another 60km into Kuala Tahan, aka the gateway to Taman Negara.

At 7pm our bus drop us of at a three way junction and since we did no prior planning we took a road each and started scouting for an accommodation. Dinner that night was on a floating platform by the side of the river.

The next Morning

Into the Malaysian Tropical Rain Forest (Taman Negara): Pt 1

2011-03-27T15:28:00.003+08:00

It was a plan to tackle the deep primary forest of Kenong Rimba National Park. And according to plan, we met up at KL central at 7pm and boarded a train heading for Kuala Lipis.

Taking a train from the west to the east coast of peninsular Malaysia is not something many would do. Mainly because it heads South towards Gempas before going back up north through what is known as “The Jungle Rail” (How cool is that name??).

And there I was, staying mostly awake observing a part of Malaysia that I do not see too often. The rhythm of the train trudging through Malaysia soon left me in a state of trance. As I stayed in my daze situation, I became aware of other sounds that added to the whole ambience. Among it, the faint sound from a mp3 player, the light snores from dozing passengers and like all other long journeys, the sound of an infant wailing. (And this is one of a travelers greatest unsolved mysteries , all long epic journeys have to come with an infant wail).

After a gruesome 9 hours of travelling, I was lightly shaken awake by my travel mate, letting me know that we’ve arrived at Kuala Lipis. I checked my phone; it was 5am in the morning and the sun has yet to rise.

We were suppose to locate a guide but the office would not be open until 8am, so we wondered around town and found a REAL old town coffee shop. I ordered a cup of coffee and was delighted to find it prepared in the traditional manner. That is to say that it the cup was filled to its bream with coffee spilling over into the saucer with a layer of milk at the bottom, unstirred and accompanied with an aromatic scent that all good coffees have.

However, Jordan eventually could not take all the sitting around and decided to wander around town. Infected by Jordan’s restlessness, Zaif too decided that it was time to make a move as well, I reluctantly gave in. Which turn out to not be the wises of all ideas and Jordan soon located a river and decided to give it a shot. And for the next 2 hours I sat there, stone and watched the sky brighten as Jordan tried his luck on fishing.

Eventually it was time to enter the office to get our guide. And it was there that all our epic plans were shattered. (to be continued).

New Zealand Pt 13 : At the End

2011-01-26T12:47:00.008+08:00

By this point, our journey was almost at the end. We drove from Hahei to Hot water beach where we were just too lazy to dig for the hot water so instead, we decided to head on to Cathedral Cove.

It was about a 20 minutes walk down a path to Cathedral cove and there was a sign under it that warned all visitors that the cove might collapse anytime. However from the looks of it, we didn't let it bother us much.

And then it was just one final place to visit.

Auckland city.

Auckland city was pretty much just another city. The only main characteristic that I've could pick up was that it was build on hills which make walking Auckland a real chore.

We walked on our first night down to the docks where we had this awesome Korean Buffet. The unsalted bacon was so fresh that it came with its natural sweetness and the oysters were just lovely. And since we were doing so well, we decided we might as well open a bottle of white wine to complete the meal.

The next day we visited the Auckland museum. I decided that day that I was old for there on display in the museum was things I use to own as a kid!! One more interesting thing about that museum was the cost on entering, I'll just show it to you in a picture.

Other place we visited before dinner includes the art gallery where it was just a let down. However the library was interesting as the books were cataloged someway similar to a modern book store. However, our hopes for a free internet connection was crush when we realize that the computers were booked well 2 hours in advance and in other to make a booking, one has to be a member. And for those who are into plants, the winter garden was a worth while visit too.

Our last dinner In New Zealand was at a Thai restaurant. That was the first time I've tasted flesh from an Alaskan King crab.

Date: 14th Dec 2010
Day: Tuesday
Time: 0400

Our flight back to Adelaide departs Auckland at 8.15am. This means that we had to be at the airport at 6.15am. The drive there, to be safe we decided to leave at 5 am. Which means we had to wake up at 4 am.

At 4.30am we pressed the bell at YHA reception to wake the poor guy sleeping in the staff room just so I could get back my 10 NZD deposit I paid for the car parking spot. After packing up all the stuff and did one final mental check of the stuff we have, we said good bye to Auckland and drove on a slow easy pace out of the city.

The sky had by that time was already a shade of grayish blue as the sun was prepared to peak at the horizon. We reached the car return at 6.10 am, just in time as the office open. We took a final glance at our friend that has brought us over 3200 KM of New Zealand road before handing over the keys. Our luggage were unceremoniously dumped into the back of a van and off we go on the short distance to the airport.

After all the awesome meals we had, the last meal in New Zealand was terrible to say the lease. But we were desperate, so I had resorted to cold overnight Japanese tempura box set for breakfast.

And after transferring the pictures to one another, we entertain ourself by listening to the PA system calling out for passengers whom I suspect mostly failed to wake up for such an early morning flight.

We sat there in our final minutes at the airport, thinking back on how awesome the past half a month had been. We've seen majestic mountains that put everything below in its humble place; Walk into sparkling rivers that were actually turquoise in colour; Walked on glacier for the first time; Jump of a plane for the first and probably last time at 15,000ft; Drove for 12 hours; and so much more.

And that was it, I boarded the plane for a 4 hours flight and walked for what would be my last time for a long time, into the arrival hall of Adelaide's airport.

New Zealand Pt 12 : Further into the North

2011-01-20T17:30:00.006+08:00

The view could never be beat what I have saw in South Island, but nonetheless, the drive was still pretty pleasant. Our journey that day took up further up North from Rotorua to our destination at Hahei.

Our first stop came when on an impulse, turn into a small road falling a brown sign that said "Looking Glass Garden". The road took us through a couple of farm yards before it started going up hill via an unsealed road and eventually to the entrance of the "Looking Glass Garden".

We had prior to this, no idea what so ever on what this garden is all about and so went in without any expectations. We were greeted at the entrance by an nice old lady and after a 5NZD entrance fee, we were given a map and we began navigating the garden.

I found out as soon as I was given the map, what kind of place this is and even though I wasn't much interested on items on the display, I found the place to be really peaceful and serene.

Halfway through the walk we stumble upon an interesting breed of chicken. You know how most chicken i've seen are at most, calves level? Well these chickens are at waist level. At some point, I suspected that they were the reason why the gardens occupants were missing.

There was one final stop at Mt. Maunganui before reaching our lodging for the night. It was there that we parted ways at the top and were suppose to meet back at the car. Only problem was that I was waited for almost an hour and was about to call the cops before he finally decided to turn up.

The rest of the day pass on in peace as we proceeded to Hahei where we would spend the night at a 6 man dorm.

New Zealand Pt 11 : Geothermal Grounds

2011-01-15T23:16:00.004+08:00

The Tongariro track was the last of the epic thing we did in New Zealand. The rest of the trip was pretty much easy and relax.

I woke up that day feeling the full force of the previous day hike in my legs. My leg looks like it went through a thorn bush and came out the other side barely in one piece and it certainly felt worst on the inside. Suffice to say that I wasn't planning to walk much that day.

Our plan that day was to drive to Rotorua. When compared to the previous drives, todays drive seems like a walk in a park. So after saying farewell to our new Italian and English friend, I took the wheels and was just about to leave Lake Taupo when we saw a sign that pointed towards Huka Falls and I thought, why not.

Huka falls was a power to be reckon with. Just standing on a bridge over the falls, one can feel the raw force it was generating as tons of water plunge down this narrow ravine. It was a sight to behold.

I honestly could have just hung a hammock there and sleep listening to the roar of the falls. But we had to move on so we drove on with no clear idea on where we are going. We then saw a sign that says "Craters of the Moon" this way. How cool is a name like that?

And so without any hesitation, we paid the 7 NZD entrance fee and went for a short stroll. Turns out that it was a geothermal park and from the entrance, one could see tons of steam rising up from the ground. With some photoshop I am sure I could make that place look pretty epic.

Driving on, we soon found a molten glass shop where they were having live demonstration on making molten glass. With a small fee I decided to check it out.

Our final stop for the day before Rotorua was yet another Geothermal park. Looks like my resolution for not walking that day did not hold up. Unlike the previous park, this Orakei Korako walk had quite a heavy entrance fee of 35 NZD. At lease we got a short 10 meters boat ride to the start of the walk.

The rest of the journey to Rotorua pass in peace with me behind the wheels driving as slow as possible trying my best to muffle the sound of the car and listen to the sound of the outside world instead.

That night, we had yet another buffet, this time Mongolian as recommended by our YHA backpackers staff.

New Zealand Pt 10 : Tongariro Crossing

2011-01-11T10:02:00.007+08:00

Being voted the best day hike in New Zealand, this 20km track its something I had to include in my plan.

However first of all, we had a problem. The track does not end at the same place it start so we had to come up with a plan of sort. My original plan was to drop Vincent at one end, drive to the other, we meet half way and later Vincent picks up my car and come and pick me up. However seeing only one of us had a cell phone, that plan was scratch. Instead we decided to book one of those buses that would drop us and pick us up from the end.

The track started off pleasantly enough. It was still within the golden hours and the field was bask in the sun's golden light. The track was easy and the wind was pleasant.

The terrain however started changing slowly with less of vegetation and more of rocks. Eventually we reached a point where it got so steep that it was given the nick "The devil's staircase".

Upon reaching the top of those hellish stairs we had a clear view of Mt. Ngauruhoe. Or more famously known in the movie Lord of the rings as Mt. Doom. And since I was already here, I might as well give it a shot.

I have never, prior to this failed to reach the top of a mountain that I was attempting to climb. This was my first.

My first problem was that there were no trails up Mt. Doom, it was simply looking at the top and trying your best to make your way there. However, he terrain was terrible. The whole mountain seems to be made up by just a pile of loose rocks and sand.

At first I tried walking on sand and it seems that every one step I take up, I slide down 2 steps. Eventually I decided that going backwards was not very productive and decided to try climbing up the rock path.

Which turned out to be worst then walking up on sand. The rocks where so loose that if I tried to just pull my self up holding a rock, it'll just cause a mini avalanche and I would have to start scrambling up until it steadied again.

It was really though going, I realize instead of pulling a rock down to go up, I had to waste most of my energy pushing the rock in and just a fraction of what energy I had exert was used to pull myself up. It all had to do with physics and angles and it was exhausting.

Adding on to that, there were random gust of cold strong wind that would threaten to blow me off the mountain. So every time I feel the wind picking up, I would just press into the rocks and hope for the best. Moreover, when I was about half way up, the clouds started coming in. Never a good sign when you're climbing a mountain like this.

The final straw was when I was about three quarters way up, somebody at the top shouted ROCK!! which luckily I decided to look up for there was a rock the size of a stool hurtling towards me. It was then when finally all those years of honing my reflection and reaction time through playing computer games payed of. I stood there, anticipated the rocks trajectory and dodged just in the nick of time.

It was then I decided that I did not really fancy meeting the grim reaper, so I turned around and headed straight back down. This time taking the sand path which turned out to be so much fun. Every 1 step I took was equivalent to 3 steps. After a while I discovered this awesome fun technique of just putting one food in front of the other and it was kind of like moonwalking down.

Just a note for any readers that it is possible to climb Mt. Doom. The reason I bailed was I think because it was my first time tackling a terrain like this and I was not fully prepared. If I ever come back, I am coming with proper hiking shoes rather then the usual running shoes I normally wear.

After rejoining the main Tongariro track I spotted a helicopter circling Mt. Doom. I later found out that one of the trackers had been hit by a loose boulder and needed medical attention.

Well, putting that mountain behind, I decided to push on with my now wrecked shoes and my equally wrecked leg.

The view was magnificent even after what I've seen in South Island. The main track took us to what use to be an active volcano before starting the journey down. We passed by 2 sulphuric pools that smelled strongly of hydrogen sulfide or if you don't know what that smells like, just throw an egg on the floor and come back 3 days later.

The second half of the track was pretty easy going with just a mild gradient. However it was 10km of mild gradient and from the top it looked as if the track stretch to the left as far as the eye can see and somewhere further down it went right before making another turn somewhere beyond eye sight and it goes on and on.

Even the scenery had changed for the milder, replacing the harsh volcanic landscape with soothing meadows of golden weeds.

The final part of the journey took us through what seems to be a tropical rain forest. Personally I found this part of the track a bore, my leg was aching bad and every step send jolts of pain up to my hip. The final 3km lasted an eternity and walking in a rain forest where you can't see more then 30m ahead, and every bend just leads to another bend.

Eventually we made our way out of the forest and into the awaiting van that took us back to our car. We were by then dead tired but I was still able to drive us to Lake Taupo where we checked in YHA for the night.

That night we had Nothern Indian food that I strongly suspect was the cause of my next day stomach unrest.

New Zealand Pt 9 : Into the North

2011-01-07T08:39:00.011+08:00

It started out with just a single rumble. It soon quieted down. A few minutes later there was another rumble. That too quieted down. Mere seconds later a third rumble was heard and it was join by the fourth.

I decided at that point sleep was pretty much out of question and decided to investigate the source of the noise. As I open my eyes I realize that the quiet alley I found last night was not so quiet after all. It appears that I've parked my car right in front of a gigantic ware house and land trains were busy transiting in and out with their containers.

After waking my travel mate out by giving him a solid punch right in his face, we headed of to the town of Nelson. We soon located a public bathroom where we freshen up for the day.

The sky was a pale shade of blue as we headed back to Picton through the windy roads of Marlborough sounds. And with day light available, we could actually see the sounds as I navigate the road back to Picton.

We got a glimpse of the quiet town of Picton as we drove down one of the hills flanking the town. Since our ferry was not scheduled till 12p.m we had about 4 hours to kill so we decided to have a hearty breakfast and explore Picton a little.

There is really only so much you can see at Picton so after a while we decided to check our car in for the journey up to Wellington on board a very big ship. Well I guess on a a world standard it wouldn't be that big but it was the biggest I have been on so sue me.

First thing I did was the same thing I always do in a new place, get myself lost and walk every inch that was open to the public. So I discovered 3 or 4 levels that includes the bar, cafeteria, game room, cinema (which was NOT free), several lounges and a viewing deck on top.

I didn't spend much time on the outer part of the ship as it was a pretty cold day and it was even drizzling slightly. In stead I decided to take a short nap in one of those room full of chairs and later I went looking for a place where I can see the outside from the inside.

The actual Journey was 3 hours long and soon we were back in the car ready to disembark.

It had been a little more then a week since I last saw a city and Wellington reminded me what traffic jams felt like. It made driving feel bad all over again. Compared to the open almost vehicless roads of South Island, Wellington was much more like Sydney.

We me up with Vincent's friend at Wellington where he was gracious enough to sponsor the nights accommodation as well as buying us dinner; Not to mention our first internet access in a long long time.

The next day we did our laundry at some student laundry service and visited the New Zealand national museum, the Te papa museum. The most interesting item that was on exhibition was the colossal squid they caught back in 2007. After being dissected countless times and submerge in numerous chemicals, it was painstakingly stitched back and it is now on display.

In the evening we started another one of our long drive towards Togariro national park. And for the second time in the journey, the GPS failed us again. So we pulled over the side, took out the map and the hundreds of brochures that was lying around and tried to locate any mention of our lodging somewhere, anywhere.
But try as we might, there was not even an hint, so running on lots of guess work and a weak hunch, we drove on through the evening. I watch the sun slowly going down in the west as the light changed slowly into its golden hue and finally disappearing all together and the only light source was yet again the one coming from my car head lamps.

The road wad dark and I drove on only thing kept me running was optimism and hope. And it paid off finally when I spotted a lone street lamp illuminating a sign. Turns out to be our accommodation of the night.

New Zealand Pt 8 : The Drive

2011-01-03T08:07:00.005+08:00

The next day we did what I considered the most imba drive in my life to date. We started our journey at 8am in the morning and made our way to Nelson which is pretty much the length of New Zealand's south island. Or in Malaysian terms, Singapore to Alor Setar in Kedah. That would make it approximately 800km and that is far.

We started off early in the morning and after my insistence of getting a coffee from Dunedin we headed of on our epic drive. The plan was really simple, just drive and see how far we could go. The reason we were doing this is because we had a ferry to catch at 12pm from Picton the next day that would take us up to North Island.

The accursed boring dull weather had not change from the previous day and soon it took a turn for the worst. It raining so heavily that it could rival a Malaysian rain anytime.

There were only 2 things on the itinary for that day. One was to drive as far as possible and 2, to stop at the Moeraki Boulders.

It was still pouring pretty heavily when we reached the boulders. However I was determine to at lease catch a glimpse of those round rocks and despite the rain, I made my way 1km down the beach towards the rocks. And as I was walking, I realize I wasn't the only idiot out there that day.

The sky cleared up just as evening was approaching. Soon enough everything was bath in the sun's golden rays and New Zealand looked epic all over again.

Remember I paid 240NZD for a cruise was the chance to see some seals? Well, we were driving along an awesome coastal road up north east part of South Islands and there were seals EVERYWHERE. Not only seals, there were also PENGUINS and its FREE.

That was the worst fish and chip I had in my life. The batter was so thick that it felt like eating plain flour and the oil had been reused so many times that even the chips that came out was black. I have since learn to be cautious of Fish & Chips cooked by an asian.

By Evening we manage to make it to Picton and since we had nothing better to do anyway we decided to drive to Nelson through Marlborough Sounds. I realize soon enough that the drive was no easy task. It was by then pitch dark and I my max vision was 3 meters in front of the car.

Not that extending my field of vision would have done any good as at every 5 meters there would be a sharp 90 degrees turn so most of the time all I was seeing was a solid piece of mountain wall.

It was pass mid night when we saw the lights of Nelson. I pulled over in what I thought was a side street, took my sleeping bag out of the boot and called it a night right there in the driver's seat.

New Zealand Pt 7 : Southern Scenic Route

2011-01-01T11:34:00.005+08:00

While driving around New Zealand we encountered numerous road works that were going on and thanks to this, driving on the roads of New Zealand was a pleasure.

However I do suspect that the large amount of road work that was going on was in preparation for the summer crowd, unlike back home where large amount of road work is usually in preparation for election.

The day after the Fiords we drove along what is known as the Southern Scenic Route. The recommended time for this 500km stretch of road was 3 to 5 days. We did it in 1. Which means we did almost no stopping at all mainly because the weather which was perfect until today, finally gave way. Gone were the clear blue sky, replace instead by grey overcast clouds that make everything seem dull and boring.

Our destination that day was the university town of Dunedin. With the help of the GPS we found our accommodation which was this intriguing house converted to backpackers by YHA.

Dunedin was a relatively quiet town when we arrive. It is probably the holidays but the old vandalize buildings scattered throughout Dunedin gives it its eerie old feel. It is awesome.

Yha Dunedin

New Zealand Pt 6: The Fiords

2010-12-30T08:32:00.009+08:00

The story continues from the last post

Right after the skydive we had to wait a couple of hours waiting for our pictures and videos to be develop so in the mean time we went to the local information center to do some research on our next destination "Fiordlands National Park".

There are 2 main parts to this national park, Doubtful sounds and Milford sounds. My own research at home has told me that if I had to choose, just go for Milford sounds. However after inquiring at the informational center we discovered that if we book a cruise on Milford sounds at 8am in the morning we could be back by 4pm and drive up to Milford sounds before we loose all sunlight (It only gets pitch black at 11pm). That cruise cost 245NZD but after paying so much for the sky dive, that does not seem like alot after all.

And so we drove to our lodging at Te Annau Downs which the GPS failed us by directing us to some 30km short of our destination. I had to rely on my superb navigation skills by cross referencing several maps with the help of the gps to pin point our current location to get us there.

I have to say, the accommodation was superb as far as backpackers are concern. They even have room service.

The next day we woke up at 5.30am and had a standard breakfast of bread, cheese and very little sardine which I had to wash it down with water. We then made our way to Manapouri where we boarded a ship for our cruise.

The cruise took us to the end of lake Manapouri where we boarded a bus that would take us to a tour of an underground power station. At the entrance of the 2km tunnel that would take us to the viewing platform underground, the bus driver (who insisted that he was not the same person as the boat driver but in fact was his twin brother) had to call down for security clearance at a hidden phone that was disguised as a power box.

Upon exiting the cave we were then driven to a lookout point where I have to admit, it was a pretty good lookout point.

After another 30min or so of driving we reached the pier at doubtful sounds where we boarded an awesome looking ship that has full length glass windows, an open top and front deck and even a miniature cafeteria downstairs.

The journey took us through doubtful sounds and out into the ocean and then turning back and exploring one of the many arms before finally heading back to the pier.

On the way we saw mountains, water, mountains meeting water, water falling from mountains. The high point would be the seal colony we saw near the sea.

The trip is what would describe as serene, peaceful, quiet, tranquil as well as being absolutely boring. With that kind of money I could have gone for a second tandem sky dive.

After the cruise we headed back onto the bus that took us across rough terrain back to the first lake where another boat took us back to Manapouri. After a quick dinner we headed out on what I would say one of the most epic stretch of road ever from te annau to Milford sounds.

Why did we went to doubtful sounds again?

New Zealand Pt 5 : The Jump

2010-12-29T11:03:00.005+08:00

See that picture there? That picture says "This is it", "GG", "There is no going back now" and so on so forth. That is a picture for a resit for a jump off a perfectly good plane at 15,000 feet. Approximately 4500 meters.

Very little amount of what we call thinking was done in the process deciding to pay the huge sum for the jump. For thinking leads to fear, fear leads to anger and anger leads to one becoming a loser with 1000 excuses why one should not jump of a plane.

So the day of the jump finally arrived, we spend the morning milling about Queenstown thinking of what it feels like accelerating to and then falling at the terminal velocity of 200kmph.

And then it was time to enter the waiting room where I saw faces with different emotions written on it. Some where filled with excitement others fear and yet there was some with faces of stone. Probably too shock with the prospect of free falling for a whole minute.

A small van took us to the dive site where the plane was already busy taking off from its dirt track made runway sending people up. Apparently it was a fine sunny cloudless day for a dive. Or so they told me, not that I was paying much attention to the weather.

However, for a very brief moment, I did notice what a fine day it was. I was waiting for my name to be called under a tree with the warm day breeze gently bending the grass as I looked up at the clear blue sky watching small colored dots of what are parachutes opening some 4500 feet above me.

My name was eventually called and after suiting up and meeting the person who would be in charge of my life we had a briefing of what exactly we have to do in order to survive. That briefing lasted 5 minutes. And then it was time to board the plane which so happen to be in a need of refilling and the truck driver so happen to break the refueling key in its slot. After many attempts to get it out, the plane decided to refuel at Queenstown's airport. Which means my wait just got extended.

And after more staring at the blue sky and enjoying the breeze that was not so warm after all, the plane finally returned.

And onto the plane I went. There were 10 people in the plane and only one seat for the pilot. The rest of u was leaning on each other in the tube part of the plane.

The plane ran down the bumpy dirt trail before taking off into the air and I saw the ground leaving me. And then I saw farms and the small part of what is supposedly Queentown and a big body of water and the part of mountains, and then the top of those mountains and then mountains behind those mountains which were snow capped and then just blue sky.

Next thing I knew, it was getting harder to breath as oxygen is really thin at that altitude. The door opened and I was hanging at the side of the plane with my legs dangling out.

"You ready?!!" shouted the professional strap to my back. All I managed was a nod.

"Three! Two! GO!!"

And I was accelerating to 200km/h something a keen to a roller coaster ride and then the feeling was gone and it just felt like a strong wind blowing at your face.

Thinking was pretty much out of question, only description of what I was feeling would be sensory overload.

A minute later (felt like 5 seconds with the adrenaline pumping) he deployed the parachute. And I can tell you that the trip down was the worst part of the whole thing. When he had to navigate us down to the drop point, he did several stomach turning 360 degrees turn with the parachute that was not what I would call smooth sailing.

And so that was it, after touching down I felt drunk after what I've just experience and it took a full 15 minutes for me to calm down.

And that is it I think. The only other thing I want to mention is that the cost of the jump was a mind blowing 700++ NZD which Includes jumping off a moving plane, pictures and videos.

Of course there were other companies which we could have gone to and paid 200NZD less but Nzone (the company we picked) had an awesome brochure. I mean if you're cutting cost on a brochure what else would you cut? the spare parachute?

And then I thought what happens if I chose to skydive in Malaysia? They'll probably only deploy half the parachute and try to convince you everything is fine while you plummet to the ground at 200kmph.

New Zealand Pt 4 : Driving to Queenstown

2010-12-28T14:19:00.004+08:00

It is 7am in the morning when I woke up the next day. Everything was clouded in a thin layer of mist and the sound of birds chirping filled the air.

Today's plan is basically just driving and stopping at anywhere that seems remotely interesting. The plan kind of fell apart when we realize that everywhere seems to be very interesting.

So we set off that morning on our 450km drive from Fox Glacier to Queens town, the adventure capitol of the world, or so they say.

The drive took us through a valley flanked by majestic mountains, at times the road followed a breathtaking turquoise blue river before breaking out into a panaromic view of a deeply saturated blue lake.

We stop by an awesome little town called Wanaka which was situated right beside a lake called (surprise surprise) Wanaka. My flip flops which was sold to me for 10 bucks finally gave way for the final time and I decided it is high time to get a new pair.

There was a place called puzzle world that we decided to skip when we found an alternative route from Wanaka to Queenstown. Turns out to be a fantastic decision as after several kilometers of windy road through rolling weed hills we ended up with a spectacular view of Queenstown and its surroundings. We also found this windy road that would make any initial D fans jealous.

Queenstown itself is a pretty fine quiet town which is also located beside a lake flanked by mountains. I like Queenstown.

New Zealand Pt 3 : Walking on not so thin ice

2010-12-26T06:45:00.004+08:00

As a Malaysian there are several ways in which one can achieve the goal of walking on ice.

First one can freeze lots of water in your own freezer, taking them out and pouring it all over your living room. However, assuming you're staying with your parents like I would be when I get home,you might find them chasing you with a butcher knife while you skate around the house.

Or you could purchase hundreds of bowls of cendol from your local cendol stall and pour them all you're over the ground. And yet by the time you managed to explain to the cendol man whydumping perfectly good cendol on the floor the ice would have melted and you'll end up with a big ant magnet.

Or if you so happen to be studying a twinning program that took you to Australia and you thought to yourself "Since I am so close to New Zealand, I might as well take a trip there." and if you so happen to find a travelling partner who is willing to throw 10k rm onto that crazy idea of yours and while you're researching for things to do in New Zealand you stumble upon a web site that organize tours up onto real live moving glaciers and you decided paying 160 NZD is worth it. It is I suppose a way for a Malaysian to walk on ice.

I took Option 3.

I decided during the hike that I do not really like tours. At all. They have to cater for everybody's need and they move as fast as the slowest person in it. More then three quarters of the time was spend ideally standing about while the guide cuts an unnecessary stair way up mildly steep slopes in the ice.

But I still got to walk on a glacier and that was cool.

Turquoise colored water is just too cool

Spiked shoes yo

Dinner consist of a fine lamb shank and a malty New Zealand beer.

New Zealand Pt 2 : In the Beginning

2010-12-15T08:58:00.007+08:00

That was not what I described as a perfect night. Since typing out the last post, I decided that by sleeping beside one of the bench we were too expose to traffic moving in and out of the airport. Vincent did not see this as an issue but I nonetheless persuaded him to move to a more defensible location. Thus we moved to a corner near the door where I taking an example from the other group of Asians, barricade myself in with my trolley and attempted to sleep. It did not went too well.

Two things I realized about Christchurch that night. One, the airport does not close, this means traffic goes on flowing between arrival halls and people coming to pick people up from arrival halls. This also means the television does not go off and its commentary on a football game or a t.v advertisement tend to jolt me out from sleep every 3o mins. The other thing I realize is that every hour, a smooth female voice would broadcast through the PA system

“Attention please, for security & safety issues please do not leave your bag unattended, This is a security conscious airport. “

I swear that by the time I got out it was physically impossible for me to say that Christchurch airport is dangerous.

Eventually as it always does, the sun decided to rise in the east. It was morning. It was Day 2.

The first thing we did after getting our car was to got lost. This was where Vincent’s insistence of a GPS came in real handy ( I was against the GPS, thought it would spoil the mood of it all). We took a short drove around Christchurch.

And then it was time to drive through Arthur’s pass, and the epicness began.

At one point we stop at a lookout for me to get some pictures of this awesome bridge and that was went I saw the sign for the first time. Its says “Do Not feed the Kea”.

What is a Kea??

I decided that it was of no importance and went on my photo shooting spree.

15 minutes later I turn back to the car and I saw it. Our car was under attacked by a Kea.

That was actually pretty amusing, however there was one problem. I now could not enter the car. The kea was hopping around the roof of the car following my movements and at time kept on pecking at the window trying to get in.

Eventually I gave the signal for Vincent to speed down the hill. That finally drove off the bird and gave me the opportunity to enter the car.

As we continued along our long drive to fox glacier, we encountered yet another problem. We were running dangerously low on gas. Since the prospect of pushing the car in pitch blackness in the middle of no where did not really appeal to us, we decided to start the hunt for some gas.

And that was when we realize that gas stations on the west coast of NZ's south island tend to close a wee bit early.

The situation was getting desperate and I had to employ all the skills that I've acquired during the Rm2.80 a litter petrol hike in Malaysia. And even so, we were cutting it really close as we pull into the nights accommodation.

New Zealand Pt1 : The Arrival

2010-12-14T16:59:00.004+08:00

The local time is 10.05p.m and the temperature outside is at a chilling 10 Celsius degree. It is day one of what is going to be a pretty awesome trip around New Zealand. Tonight’s accommodation has been graciously sponsored by New Zealand’s government.

Before trying to locate our beds, we raided the local brochure section for any information that might come in handy for our journey.

As I approach our designated sleeping area (international departure hall of Christchurch airport), I looked around is despair as most of the more favourable spots had already been occupied.

On my right there is a group of Asians who barricaded themselves in the corner with their trolleys. To my front there’s already a guy sleeping soundly under a Christmas tree oblivious to the sound emitting from the television and to my left where most of the people are, most watching a local sports channel and some ready calling it a night.

As I sit on this chair typing this post and idlely rubbing my fingernail which I chipped this morning fooling around with the onboard entertainment system I thought to myself, it is time to cue the Lord Of the Rings theme song.

Let the journey begin!!

The Last assignment - Things I've learn throughout my Life.

2010-11-17T11:50:00.010+08:00

Holding several sheets of paper which were all neatly rolled up and looking very much like an artist or an architect I headed off to uni to hand in my final assignment of my degree. And in a flash of temporarily nostalgic mood, I figured out that 16 years of official education is coming to an end.

It all began with the first 6 years of primary school which was spend learning Chinese, math and science along with other Chinese morals that were mostly thought through stories such as discipline, hardworking and a guilt for doing anything fun.

The last 1 I had learn because anything that was considered non productive was strongly frown upon by parents and teachers alike. In studies we studied to best the rest in class and in sports we play to pwn our opponents, everything was taken seriously with a high level of competitiveness.

I can't say its a bad thing really as it did after all build my character. However along the years some such as I would have realize that life is not 1 huge competition and if it is, its too stressful a way to live. Instead I have decided to view it as I do something because I want to and give it my full with positive sportsmanship value and not with the negative kiasuism. However, I am also under no delusion that as much as I hope, life is never fair, and people would be people and not all would live by the same moral standard.

And then we move to Johore for 2 years and by the end of it I've learn that not all things are under your control. Life there was pretty depressing and horrible. My best friend was this short spoiled kiasu child which I actually loath and it was not easy to socialize as I have yet to develop any decent social skills not to mention I was also unaware of how does the social structure of this new place work. And if anyone had already gone through the wall of words above I guess I could say I learn what it felt like being a victim of bully although at that time I did not really knew what it was. Not that I really blame him, I did my own share of teasing and bullying back in primary school and at that time i wondered why this kid which I was having so much fun with changed school bus. I didn't really know what kind of mental torment I was creating for him so I guess life sometimes have an ironic sense of humor. I also learned how to read as I drown myself into storybook after storybook in our families mini book collection. My favorite genre was fantasy and sci-fi and its still is till today as they evoke a sense of adventure into the unknown. It was also a place where I learn to play truant and skept scouts to go CC to play cs. Sometimes I even went tuition slightly earlier just to play that 10mins of games. I wonder now if my mother knew all along. Well she will if she ever read this.

And then in Form 3 my family went back to P.J and I was enrolled into Bukit Bintang Boy School and life was pretty much back on track again. Life was pretty much a standard routine. My father would wake me up at 6 and we would go for breakfast before sending me off to school where I would occasionally pay attention and spend most of my time zoning out or sleeping on the desk. I got pretty efficient actually, I develop several sleeping positions and would adopt them base of the situation available. I would have to balance several factors each sleeping position would provide such as comfortability, amount of light that would hit my iris, the time I have, and the estimate volume of drool.

After school I would return by train back to SS2 or just remain in school for a while just because I had nothing to do. At the end of form 3 I was obsess with RO, the first ever online game I played. I was always intrigue by the possibilities of playing a computer game against a real life human and this game provided just that. And by the end of Form 4 I was pretty much obsess with a w3 map called DOTA which actually thought me quite a few things. Teamwork, sportsmanship and to trust in team mates.

During this time I normally visited CC during year end holidays and in between school and tuition however, there were occasions where I skept tuition for it. Which was just as well as 60% of what I am suppose to learn I learn from tuition, 35% from pure solitary motivation and hard work and final 5% from school. Ok just a note, anybody who is still in high school reading this, do not quote me or use my life as an example to skip tuition. Thank you. Also this was the time where I had to endure one of the most depressing kind of motivation talk. One in which my father would tell me that I can't study, why not just save his money and sweep the floor instead. And other things along those lines. Eventually however, I realize after all, his still my dad and that he thinks thats the most efficient kind of motivation talk, so I just agreed and nod to whatever he said. Does not make it any less depressing though.

And then graduated with a SPM cert, with my result covering almost the full result spectrum ranging from A to B to C all the way to E, all I was missing was a G.

And then... I was lost. So far my education path was pretty fix and suddenly I did not know what to do. So after some scouting and my first official work experience in Coffee Bean that lasted 2 week. I decided I did not really want a break after all and enrolled into a science course in the South Australian Matriculation program 2 days before it began. Which turned out to be an awesome decision. I was thrown into a class with all the late enrollees who turned to be pretty awesome friends that I have kept in touch till today. It was also a time where I had actually got a slight taste of independence and found it to my liking. Some of us had cars at that time and we put them to full use with the numerous activities we had. The most dramatic thing we did at as class would probably be the final end of the year class trip where right after Prom, we strip out of our formal clothing, put on our beach wear and hop onto a bus for a 4 days Langkawi trip.

And then I entered 4 years of Uni which at the time of writing this post, I have yet the chance to do a full analysis of what actually happen. So I would have to come back to this part of the essay some other time in the future or write a whole new post.

Plans for the future as of this moment stops at getting back to Malaysia, anything pass that is clouded in a dense think fog. There are of course several options, some more likely then others. For instance, do I apply straight for a job or do I put in a little more effort and try for an internship in the states? Or if fate allowed it, do I go on and get a Post graduate degree? Decisions decisions decisions. However, whatever I decide to do I realize that first and foremost, I have to get a portfolio up and running. A small path cleared in the fog.

If you have manage to read pass all those and have reached this point in my 1.5k word essay, do take note that this is not all that had happen to me nor all that I've learn. I have written this post pretty much like all the other post in my blog, on a whimp.

However, I would like to conclude this post with the most important skill I have learn throughout my 22 years of life.

Somewhere between my SAM years and my graduation, I have learn that no matter what it is, everything can be learn and its never really too late. Nothing is hard but nothing is easy, learning something new simply requires the right mind set and some effort and dedication. i could write a whole topic just about learning but I will just leave it a this few sentence. And that is it for now, the most important thing I've learn

Learning to learn.

Flowers of Spring

2010-10-27T08:39:00.003+08:00

I was thinking of posting All the pictures on my blog and thought why? Instead I'll just post ONE picture AND the link to my facebook album.

and the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=253059&id=624125685

Tales from North Life: The cup on the towel

2010-10-06T20:02:00.004+08:00

The occupants of North Life or NL as they are so famously known are a bunch of really resourceful people. For those who have been to the top level of the NL residence they would have notice that the NLers have effectively converted the stairs railing into their personal towel hanging area.

Now that is all fine and normal, however recently there seem to be a new addition onto of that railing. An unknown cup had mystically appeared on top of one of our towels.

And there the cup sat, on top of one towel until the owner of that towel comes to claim his towel and he would then move the cup to the towel beside it until the owner of that towel comes along and move it back to the towel beside it.

And so it has gone on for quite a while now, this 1 cup that had appeared out of nowhere and now its travelling from towel to towel. Eventually maybe, one day it might just store up enough energy to move from towel to towel by itself. Making it a reminder to the future dwellers of the legendary NLers who once resides in this great house.

Life Update + Royal Adelaide Show 2010

2010-09-17T22:09:00.005+08:00

Another month of study left to go and I am done. After 16 years of study and through many complains, hurdles and challenges it is finally coming to an end. And I am happy or sad? I don't really feel anything at the moment, it is just another chapter coming to a close in my life. I accept it and am moving on.

Only thing going through my mind is that Australia had been fun, the stuff that had gone on here, the drama, the laughter, the friends. My sole wish is to never forget them and would be stored in my long term memory bank. But its not really there yet, I still have several month to go before I fly off Australia for good and till then I'll continue depositing memories into the bank.

As what is happening at this moment is that for the first time in more then a year, I have a room to myself. I type this post in this awesome clean and tidy room of mine which warm glow comes from 2 lamps. I took the liberty of cleaning it while the other 2 guys are in Sydney. At lease this way it'll stay clean for at lease 6 days.

On the not so bright side, my house-mate's ex is moving out on Monday, this means that my house rent is going to shoot up 33% from 413 to 550 a month. I knew this day would come, I just hope it would be postpone as long as possible. But ah well, I have enough reserve to carry me through the rest of my stay here and with my job at Danny's bistro, I should be fine.

That is about it for now, on wards to the Royal Adelaide show.

________________________________________________

I actually planned not to attend this years Royal Adelaide Show (RAS) because I had work later on in the night. However, I once again succumb to Kien's persuasion and in the end, ended up on the bus heading to RAS. In the end however, it turn out going for it was a good move after all. Seeing this is my last semester in Australia and all.

So, me my house mates and some other guys who were dress as if they were going somewhere to collect protection fees paid 16 dollars and entered RAS 2010. Our first stop was food. It wasn't the worst tasting food I ever had in my life, but it was still pretty horrible and expansive.

Due to me being short of time I decided that walking on my own will be much more effective and time efficient. And so after bidding those gangster farewell, I took off exploring as much of RAS as possible on my own.

Forest of Ewarhyn

2010-08-19T09:06:00.003+08:00

Another picture I came up with using pre made photoshop brush I stoled from the internet. Proof of the amount of free time I actually have.

Sydney Ch 5 (Places I've been)

2010-08-05T09:29:00.004+08:00

This would probably be the last post on my Sydney trip. Unless of course I feel the unexplainable urge to write something. Unlikely but possible.

Anyway for this last post I’ve decided to just write about places I’ve visited in Sydney. I would probably cover most of the places. I’ll try not to miss anything out. So let us begin.

The most frequent place I’ve visited is Circular Quay located north of Sydney’s CBD. It’s smack in between the two most famous Sydney landmark, the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.

Trying to get the pronunciation right was a challenge in itself. At first we thought it way pronounced as “circular kuay”. However Kai told us that the correct pronunciation would be “circular Ki”. And yet when we were asking directions to the place, somebody told us that it was pronounced as ‘Circular Kay”. In the end we just decided to call it “bo”.

It was not that we really wanted to go back there so many times. It’s just that our journey seems to somehow lead us back there.

It was cool the first time we went there, but then we went there the next day because Kai said that there was some good German food there (Lowen Brow).Seeing that we fail to locate it, we went back there again the next day with Kai.

However that was not the end of it as we had to go back there again because the Japanese buffet was located there. Not to mention we went back there yet again for pancakes on the rocks.

After a week in Sydney Kai suggested that we rent a car make out life easier and to visit places too far by public transport. One of our first destinations (after some persuading on my part) was Nan Tien Temple, the biggest temple on the Southern Hemisphere. Honestly speaking it was not much different from the thousands of temple I’ve been too, and it wasn’t that big either. But it was worth the visit just so I can say that I’ve been there.

The main reason we rented a car was so that we could visit Hunter Valley and Port Stephens. An argument broke out the night before we departed. The topic of argument: “Which kind of room to rent.”

On one corner you have me, who is willing to fork out just a few dollars more to get the “Deluxe Room” while on the other corner you have the girls who have yet to adopt my holiday mentality and instead opt for the “Superior room.”

Sadly the girls won and after scouting both rooms when we were there we realize, only if we forked out just a tiny winy more, one of the most important figure that is to say me the driver and the navigator would have an actual bed to sleep on and would probably get some real sleep.

But all in all it went pretty well, we even managed to spot some whales swimming up North. And I wasn’t that sleep deprived anyway, I could even get Jane to work on time. (We were suppose to reached home an hour early for her to prepare but I decided to take Kai’s suggestion and skip the 9 dollars tolled Habour bridge and instead circle round to the other side of the city and take the free Anzac bridge, and then there was the GPS who gave us awesome back alley directions that took us through windy mountain roads and dark back alleys. And finally, after staying in Adelaide for a year, I was reminded sharply on what traffic JAM feels like.)

On the way back, we had time to visit the sand dunes which was similar to the one I was at in Tasmania. It was in short, a very big and long beach.

And finally there was the fishing. It appears that Kai managed to picked up a new hobby of fishing. However despite his claims that we would actually catch something, our fishing trips turned out empty handed. On our last fishing trip, I spotted a Pellington who was floating calmly on the sea with his half open eye lids. I could even see his thoughts forming in a bubble shape above his head.

With a British Accent* “Ah~ Fisherman in winter, ha ha. What a bunch of idiots, I think I shall just float around for a couple of hours entertaining myself by looking at these bunch of noobs.”

And that is basically it really. I’ll see if I can find something to write about between now and my graduation which when I look at it, isn’t really that far off.

Sydney Ch 4 (The Holiday Mentality)

2010-07-24T12:47:00.004+08:00

When I first arrived in Australia about a year ago I had the same financial mentality all newly arrived students have.

"wa, so expansive". "wa 20 bucks for a heater? that is... 60RM??". "Wa, 18aud for a meal?? Isn't that the price of Jagoya Japanese Buffet??". "Wa I think I am just going to graze the grass with the sheep to survive."

After almost starving to death a few times, slowly but surely I managed to overcome this mental obstacle. Getting a job and earning AUD help significantly. However the real breakthrough came when I was in Sydney as I was introduce to one awesome way of living and came up with another to compliment the first.

It all begin with Alan telling me about his road trip north of Perth. According to him, his friends had 1 philosophy "Chut lei Wan, Jou yu Wan Tak Hoi Sum" Which basically translate to "If you decide to go for a holiday, make sure that it'll be a good one".

Well I honestly did not think much of it until the most worthless meal I had in Sydney (refer to end of previous post). I suddenly recall this philosophy and came up with another.

It was actually more of a observation then a philosophy. There was a certain mentality I had to get rid off to enjoy the rest of my Sydney visit. And so I decided that "Cheen mm hai man tai" Which means "Money is not a problem."

Life became much less complicated after that. Especially when it comes to picking a meal. I would look through the menu and when price becomes obsolete, I was surprise how easy it was to just go for what I want. It was as if the price does not even register in my mind anymore.

However there seem to be just 1 small problem. Even though I am now back in Adelaide, that mentality seem to to have died and I am currently spending as if money seems not to be a problem.

Hm... maybe this might not be a bad thing after all.

Sydney Ch 3 (Food)

2010-07-23T08:03:00.007+08:00

Just before I headed out to Sydney I asked Shawn who was there not too long ago about interesting places to visit around Sydney. This was the list he send to me.

Sydney Fish Market
Belgian Beer Garden (1KG Mussels 12AUD)
Zilva? (Dim Sum in the city)
Madang (Korean Food)
Hurricane Ribs
Sydney Fish Market
Deep Fried Mars Bars
Pancakes on the Rocks (not Fantastic but iconic)
Lowenbrau (German, good beer)
Sydney Fish Market
Riviera French Ice Cream
Can't remember the other ice cream place, ask Jane.
Did i mention Sydney Fish Market?
Oh… and Tetsuya, If you're up for it...

Notice the similarities? Yes, after almost 2 weeks in Sydney I am convince that the only thing to do there is eat. And judging from the list Shawn send to me, the Sydney fish market looks like the right place to start.

So on the very first day right after touch-down, I visited the Fish market.

Located near the Sydney casino, the Sydney fish market is filled with people and sea gulls. There seem to be a small hierarchy of who gets to eat first and the fishes always seem to get the short end. It is also a place where one can get fresh seafood that comes right off the boat every morning. However for a tourist such as me, the only thing I could do is eat.

Breakfasts in Sydney are mostly epics. Ranging from simple French toast to Typical Australian’s big breakfast to customary Chinese dim sum I had it all.

If I would have to choose the best among the meals I had I would have chosen these three.

The left most picture is that of hurricane ribs located at Bondi beach. I had so much of it that I decided to give up on meat all together.

However just 2 days later, I had another meat feast in a form of a two man German meat platter shared between 3 of us. And I’m pretty sure they called it something else, but they had one of the best ‘siew yok’ I ever had.

And then there was the 12 bucks for 1 kilo of mussels I had at the Belgian Beer Garden on my last night in Sydney. Do we get mussels as fresh as these in Malaysia?

Not forgetting the Asian meals I had in Sydney.

On the first night I had Chinese a la carte which was nothing much to shout about really. I didn’t even bothered taking any pictures of it and the only reason it tasted fantastic is because of how hungry I was.

An interesting note my friend made is that it seems that almost all Korean restaurants are hidden in alley ways. Anyway I visited Madara which was surprise sruprise!! hidden behind some shops in an alleyway. It took us awhile to locate it. Kai highly recommend their seafood pancake which is pretty good. We also ordered a 50 bucks Korean steamboat that had so much beef in it that we could barely walk after that.

Having covered both Chinese and Korean food it was time to take on the Japanese. And we went for this in the ultimate form; A Japanese steamboat buffet. Al I remembered of this buffet was that we ordered plate after plate of the beef. The beef just kept on coming.

And finally we have the sweet stuff which consists partly of the deserts, the coffee and the chocolate. I thought I liked sweet until I went to Sydney.

It all started by trying out 3 Krispy Kreme doughnut and I was so sweet that its actually sickening. Little did I know that it was but the beginning.

We since then had Max Brenners, Ice creams and a few others that I shudder to even recall. However the mother of all sweet stuff had to be this wine I tasted. The sweet does not register instantaneously probably the sweetness is out of what human can normally taste and it takes a while for the tongue to adjust its sweet sensors. However when the sweetness does kick in 1 second later, it felt like somebody took a sledge hammer to my face.

I think I had enough of sweet stuff for now and its high time I revert back to bali kosong panas.

Just before I conclude this post I would like to vote this meal as the most unworthy meal I had. It was not that it taste horrible but the price was just insane. See the seafood pizza? That was slightly pricey at 26aud but it was still acceptable. See the salt and pepper squid? 24aud for 4 small squid. Right….

And this is basically on the bulk of what happen in Sydney. If someone would to ask me, So what did you do in Sydney? I would answer, eat eat and more eat.

Sydney Ch 2.2 (The house is clean)

2010-07-18T17:22:00.002+08:00

If you have yet to see the place I am living at then I am telling you that it is actually a pretty awesome place to live in. That is it would be a nice place to live in if it were clean and tidy.

However that was not the case for the pass 6 month, the house was terrible. Pots and dishes were in the sink for days, the kitchen floor was covered in oil with some garlic, onions, rice, sugar and some other random stuff. The carpeted stairs that use to be white was black. And at the peak or dip of the house we had brown ferns growing in the toilet bowls similar to those you find in a Malaysian Longkang, I stared at those for a full minute before deciding that I couldn’t see it after all and it was all a dream.

Therefore it was a pleasant surprise when I got back and the carpet was white, the living room and bed room tidied up and the toilet clean. I found out the reason later was because there was a rumored inspection what was coming up.

Anyway there was 1 part of the house that my housemates left for me to clean. I guess it was fair since I was the most frequent user of that part of the house which unfortunately was the most epic part. The kitchen.

Speaking of the kitchen I would just like to make a note on how epic the kitchen was when I got back. Especially the stove; It had so much of burned stuff on it that it seems to be made out of carbon fiber, not to mention the layer of frozen and semi frozen oil floating around. And then there was the sink hat had some sticky gooey stuff stuck to it. Finally there was the fridge that had dried up meat juice all over it. Calling it disgusting was an understatement, my hand nearly disintegrated just by going near it. It took me 2 days and the help of some really strong chemical to clean it.

On the bright side, the house is now in a state it had not been in 6 month and it actually felt good to be living in it again.

Sydney Ch 2.1 (Contrast between lifestyles)

2010-07-18T16:06:00.004+08:00

They call Adelaide a city but it is nothing compared to the big boys. Sydney on the other hand is the real deal. It comes complete with multitudes of sky scrapping buildings, traffic jams so bad that walking seems faster and hordes of people rushing to god knows where. Ah the city life.

It had been slightly more than a year since I last set foot in a real city and boy do I miss that feeling. The constant sound of vehicles rumbling, the sight of endless people walking around and the constant smell of exhaust in the air is just what makes a city a city.

Nearly 2 weeks later

It was coming to the end of my Sydney trip and strangely enough I actually wanted to go back to Adelaide. I had never complained about how bad Adelaide was but I never actually see how good it was.

Even though there is actually only 1 reasonably tall building, the jam in the city does not last longer than 30 minutes and the air here lacks the constant smell of carbon monoxide the life style in this peaceful quiet town sure has its appeal.

After my trip to Sydney I realize time is the one thing I have while living in Adelaide. There are no “plans” no “rushing” no “late”. My schedule basically looks like this; Wake up go down cook breakfast, come up wait for lunch, go down cook lunch, come up wait for dinner, go down cook dinner, come up sleep.

These are the only “plans I have”. In between of course there are other things I’ll do but none of it has the sense of urgency or importance about it. Things I would do includes reading manga, watching a movie, playing Starcraft 2 on a borrowed beta account, starting off my next semester early by following video tutorials or occasionally checking the kitchen to see if it needs more cleaning.

When I told Kai about what life is like in Adelaide, he said that this would seem like a nice place to stay. I disagree; it would be a nice place to come for a holiday if you’ve been up to your nose with deadlines and work. However staying here for a long term has some side effects.

For one I have all but lost track of the days. Saturday and Sunday has long lost its meaning as everyday feels like a weekend. As I said earlier there is no sense of urgency and stress is now almost non-existent.

Don’t get me wrong though, punctuality and urgency are 2 different things. I am still punctual. As a matter of fact it has gotten to the point where I would walk home from work not because there were no alternatives, but because I literally had nothing else better to do.

However knowing myself I suspect this side effect only affects me and more research should be done before drawing a definite conclusion.

Sydney Ch 1

2010-07-16T14:52:00.004+08:00

For the third time in my life I walked onto the tarmac heading towards the arrival halls of Adelaide airport. I headed to the baggage retrieval area collected my bag and waited outside in the chilly fresh air for the bus that would take me home.

As the bus approaches I had a slight nostalgic feeling as I saw the memory of myself just 11 days ago, rushing down the bus and staring in despair at the long que at the front of Tiger airways check in counter.

I was heading to Sydney and there was less than an hour left till my flight departs. However there was nothing I could really do, so I took a deep breath and headed to the end of the line. Fortunately despite the line I made my flight in time and off I was on a budget airline to Sydney.

After touching down I withdrew a piece of paper containing instructions that I got a couple of days ago from Kai in a form of an email on how to get to his place. It has 2 words on it “Bus 400”. I did not seem very helpful.

Nevertheless after asking a few questions, withdrawing some money for the bus (in which the machine charged me an insane 2 bucks surcharge) and answering a long call from nature, I was finally at the bus stop sipping a cup of nice hot latte.

On the bus, I received a mysterious phone call from a guy who was trying to pin point my current location. I felt friendly so I gave it to him and at my stop there was Kai waiting patiently for me like a good friend would (not really, it was more like I had to wait 15 minutes with a 20kg bag on my back while he took his time coming).

Any how he guided me to his house and a place I would call home for the next 11 days.

Forest of Ewarhyn 2

2010-05-06T11:51:00.002+08:00

This time I even brought friends along.

Reminiscing my primary school - Sen Chi

2010-04-07T12:27:00.004+08:00

I was sitting in front of my laptop yesterday just doing nothing and hoping for some god-sent ideas to just magically appear in my head when I suddenly noticed something. Two of my laziest housemates (ok they weren't actually lazy, we are all the same in term of laziness, I just like to say that they are lazy just for the fun of it) were busy scribbling with a PEN!! I mean who still uses a pen in this era? And that is even more amazing that them actually writing on something.

Overcame by my burning curiosity I decided to put my wait for ideas on hold and walked over. To my surprise they were busily copying what they later told me, 80 pages of Japanese home work (It wasn’t the COPYING that was surprising). Looking at them so diligently ‘completing’ their work gave me flash back to my primary school days. They were doing what I used to do, only on a much much smaller scale.

Writing what we use to call “sen chi” (direct translation would be NEW words) was what I used to do every day. After a while I even develop several amusing ways to write it to make the mundane task not so tedious. I would first write 1 stroke of the word throughout the whole page (we had to write one whole page of the same Chinese character, and we had a few pages a day to do) and then the second stroke and so on. I even started making patterns after a while, for example I would write starting a line at the top going to towards the right and then write down from there making a border before filling the inside. I could even draw a Pac Man on the page by just filling in specific squares before finishing the rest up.

After a while even that got boring and I decided to speed things up a bit. After a moment of deep thought I came up with something brilliant. Do you know that Chinese characters are made up of several different strokes called “bi”?

Anyway I decided that writing so many “bi” was a complete waste of my time and I decided to revolutionize the Chinese Characters by writing all the character in just ONE “bi”. That means, I would put my pencil down to write a Chinese character and never raised it up until I wrote the next one.

Brilliant huh?

After a while I thought why stop there? Why just ONE character with one ‘bi’?? Why not TWO characters with ONE ‘bi’? I was feeling really good about myself at that point.

So the next day I walked into class, feeling awesome. I had just created something wondrous and was about to share it with the world. Children of all ages will thank and praise me for this great discovery; I might even get a statue build somewhere. And so I showed it to my class teacher.

You know in life there are times where you have an awesome dream and when you tried to show it to the world, they just didn’t get it? Well for me, this was one of those times. Not only did my teacher did not get it, she gave me one of those looks that could set wet wood on fire.

I got caned so badly that day I doubt I could ever use my right hand again. And on top of that I had to REWRITE the whole thing again!! So that’s like yesterday’s AND today’s ‘senchi’!! And how was I supposed to do it with my right arm limping at my side?

So I bit back my tears of disappointment and went home. And even though my arm hurt every time a gust of strong wind blew; my insides were in pain ten times worse. The only comfort I took was knowing that Galileo was prosecuted for something he thought to be true.

Forest of Ewarhyn

2010-04-02T13:52:00.003+08:00

So there I was doing my assignment when I thought to myself “what is the point?” So instead I decided to take a track through the Forest of Ewarhyn.

Some have asked “Where do you even find the time?” True that I am rather busy in the eyes of a fellow university student, but in reality I actually have lots of free time. I after all only have 2 days of classes and three sometimes two working shift a week. That leaves me plenty of free time for my random adventure trip through the Forest.

Paying the ferryman to get me across the border wasn’t much a problem since I am working now. Back in December I was in debt which I thought it would take me ages to crawl out of have been paid off before Chinese New Year this year.

One of the reasons few people ever track through the Forest of Ewarhyn is because it is populated with creatures human only thought as mystical. You have your standard scary stuff like blood sucking Vampires, Hair raising Werewolves and Mean looking Cyclops. Then you’ll have wonders of nature like Majestic dragons flying through the skies, Gryphon soaring into the setting sun and Unicorns bathing in the moonlights ray. However after facing assignments deadlines and unsatisfied customers nothing would really scare you anymore.

Well, the Forest of Ewarhyn was all fun and all, but it was time to head back to reality and actually finish my assignments. Watch out assignments, you’re going to feel the wrath of my “Fingers of a thousand words.”

My Daily Holiday Life

2010-02-20T13:48:00.003+08:00

The first and probably last 4 month holiday I will ever be having in Australia is finally coming to an end. And I have decided to blog on what retirement feels like before I completely forget.

Because really it kind of feel like retirement. I do not have any commitment to worry about, I do not have to worry about things like job security or anything in general. All I need to think about is whats am I having for my next meal.

After 5 month of talking about getting a part time job in Australia I finally managed to land myself at a restaurant up at Norwood, working as a waiter. So other then working 2 to 4 shift of 3 to 4 hours a week, there is absolutely nothing to do.

There is of course the occasional walk down to China town not because we want too but because our fridge was literally on the verge of being empty. Other then the permanent features found in the fridge such as a few water bottles and a bottle of cough syrup, there was nothing else in it. This was went we had to walk out or die. The situation got even worse when one of our house mate went back to Malaysia for good. That left 2 of us, both unwilling to take the initiative to move anywhere. Actually Javin was 10x worse then me, ask any of my house mates and they'll be able to testify to that.

Being coup up in the house we of course had to look for some source of entertainment. Considering the fact that we do not have a television, the internet became our main source of life. Thus we have successfully manage to not go over our quota ever since October. Things I've downloaded includes 7 pc games, countless movies and some weekly American sit cons. Finally nearing the end of the month February we decided that it was time to upgrade from a 80GB package to a 120GB package.

Of course there was more to life then just sitting infront of the com everyday. What do you think I was? Lifeless? There was of course the visitors to our house that comes 4 times a week or the occasional drinking session we have at Strathmore. We had a small CNY dinner gathering among the few of us Chinese Malaysian and I even attended the Fringe Festival. The reason I did not blog or as a matter of fact not even pictures to show for it is because I did not bring my camera with me.

Which bring us to my camera. It is rather sad really, the camera of mine has been in my camera bag ever since I got back from Tasmania that I actually feel rather guilty. I even borrowed Manfrotto Tripod from my friend and still I have not done any shots of Adelaide yet. I think I should get to it one day.

I also figured out that "one day" is a term used for something that you need or want to do but rarely get around doing. Take a few for example, I shall cycle to the beach one day, I shall get around to washing the couch 1 day, I shall get around to studying one day or I shall get around to updating my blog one day. See what I am getting at?

And I guess that is about it. 4 month of holidays, 1 epic Tasmanian trip, 3 month hanging out with friends, some bumping around and some PC gaming. The new term is staring in a week time not that it would make a HUGE difference in anyway. After all, I only have 2 days of classes a week.

Around Tasmania Pt 5 (finale)

2010-02-02T13:49:00.006+08:00

Day 13
The reason for driving back is just so we could visit the Salamanca markets and we did. We drove to Port Arthur that afternoon and did a short walk around the historic town/prison site.

The Salamanca Market, A busy market that happens every Saturday morning. Probably the day you see the most people in Hobart.

We stayed over at another backpackers at Port Arthur. This was the first time we had so much floor space that we didn't know what to do with it. After all the nights sleeping at places with barely enough space to even walk, it was temping to just fling my arms around or roll around on the floor.

The ship comes home.

Remember during our Kindegarden days when the teacher ask us to draw a house? Most normal kids like me would draw 2 perfect squares and a rectangle as the door and window. I found the real thing.

After unsuccessfully convincing the local authorities that we are not from the Chinese secret agents and we are just here for a visit, they then slap chains on our ankles and tried to execute us.

Brain storming on an escape plan.
So how exactly do we get to our bed again?

Oh its simple, or you need to do is to do a precision jump and land on those metal bars.

Green

Day 14
We did one final 4 hours return hike at Tasman National park. The fine weather finally did not hold up and we had to hike under pouring rain. Well, the clouds and the overcast sky did give the hike a certain feel. It was back to Hobart after the hike.

Cliff

Our final dinner at Hobart. We had Steak and it didn't cost us 60 bucks.

Day 15
I had to wait a full 6 hours for my flight at the airport. Finally it was time to hop on the plane and that bring us to the end of the 2 weeks epic Tasmania trip.

We saw like 3 rainbows that day and no, they weren't the same rainbows.

Final picture of the trip. After that it was on the plane and back to Adelaide.

And that brings us to the end of my Tasmania trip. I came out healthier more experience and close to a thousand dollars in debt. I went into heavy recession after that limiting my spenditure to only what is necessary for survival. Occasionally rewarding myself with rice and soy sauce.

I have since then paid of all my debts and on my way to making a full recovery. Now its time to save up again for another epic adventure.

Around Tasmania Pt 4

2010-01-07T08:11:00.004+08:00

Day 11

We drove down to Freycinet stopping by for some famous Mt. Elephants pan cakes on the way. At Freycinet we did a 4 hour return hike that took us to wineglass bay then to Hazards beach and back. That night We camp out for the second time and it was freaking hot.

Mt. Elephants pancakes. Which i suspect its one big tourist trap.

At lease the pancakes taste good.

The adventures discovered the hidden Freycinet bay.

Hazards beach. It seems that there are really adventures people who are hiking somewhere deep into the forest to camp.

Photography by Shawn Liam. I was too lazy coming out of the camp to do any photography.

Day 12

We drove back to Hobart. That was also the day we drove up Mt. Wellington and it felt like cheating. After all through out the whole trip everytime we wanted to reach the peak of any mountain we had to do an 8 hour return hike. This was a 10min drive.

The city of Hobart

Around Tasmania Pt 3

2009-12-30T07:24:00.005+08:00

Day 8 & 9
We hike back down the next day and drove on toward the second big city in Tasmania, Launceston, which is just another small town. There wasn’t much we did there for the 2 days mostly just bumping around. We did manage to visit the Cataract gorge, settle what we owe each other and watch a movie. However, that was about it.

We decied that after our very expansive meal at Cradle, it was time to start budgeting. Advice number 1, never eat out.

Well after budgeting for breakfast I guess we could spend abit on lunch. Hm... what's available for lunch? Fish & chips? great.

Once a climber always a climber.

Peacocks.

Cataract Gorge

Day 10
We drove east to St.Helens where we took a short walk down to the bay of fires.

Upon reaching St. helens it was pretty much time for lunch. We asked information center on what's good to eat. What? More Fish & Chips? Awsome.

The Bay of Fires.
You rarely get water this clear in Malaysia.

St. Helen Backpackers.
We realize that eating at the dockside wall all cool and awsome. But sometimes reality strikes, especially when you stare at the figure on your bank account rapidly decreasing. Breakfast the next day was self made.

Around Tasmania Pt 2

2009-12-01T06:51:00.009+08:00

Day 5
Breakfast was at this shop by the river overlooking yachts sailing and seaplanes landing. The dryer was broken the previous night so we had to do laundry the old school way. After some shopping at the local supermarket, we headed up north to cradle mountain stopping by at the sand dunes. That night I had what was I think the most expansive self-funded meal to date.

It was night by the time we reach Strahan the previous day.

YHA backpackers, Can't go wrong if you choose them.

Of Beaches and Mountains

The Dunes

Blue sky & Blue lake

Most Expansive meal to date.

Day 6
We woke up at 5am just so we could start hiking Cradle Mountain early. So you think Tabur was hard and dangerous? Try hiking up Cradle Mt when strong wind threatens to blow you off and clouds swirling around limiting your vision. Needles to say it was epic. It took us approximately 3 hours to get to the peak which I thought was pretty fast. Until we met a couple who got up there in 1 and half hours. The trip down the mountain was insanely long (I decided to follow another route back), It torturous hiking under the hot hot sun.

The sun at 6am in the morning.

Half way up through the hike

SNOW!!!

Ah OOooooommmm~

Day 7
We were supposed to leave early until I accidentally lock us out of the room. We had to wait for the office to open at 8 before finally heading out for our next long hike. I find it kind of cool how they name all their hikes and mountains with all these cool names. For example, the hike we did on this day is called “The Walls of Jerusalem”. We walk in with 15kg worth of camping stuff hiking 6km to an altitude of approximately 1200 meters. After 4 and a half hours we made it to the campsite feeling exhausted and releif. We set up camp and proceeded with the rest of the journey without 15kg on our back. That night, we camp on high ground

First Pit stop, I was already pushing it.

Almost at the campsite.... almost.

That cliff there is known as Solomon's Throne.

View from "The Temple"

Working in the midst of nature.

Flower or Orchid?

Hiking back to the Campsite

The camp.

Around Tasmania Pt 1

2009-11-30T14:31:00.005+08:00

The following few post are more of for my own record and less of reading material for others. Nonetheless, feel free to read if you are interested on my Tasmanian trip.

After all, this trip broke several of my personal records and how could I not write something to remind myself about it. Most expansive holiday to date, Best sceneries to date, Most expansive meal to date, most epic hikes to date. Now most in debt to date.

The plan started slightly over a month ago when Shawn send around emails asking which of the S8 were free for a trip down to Tasmania. There were up to 4 positive replies however due to time constrain and financial issues, it was only 2 of us on the trip.

Day 1
I landed in Hobart one day ahead of Shawn as I could not synchronize with his flight date. Arrived sometime in the afternoon and took one of those 10 bucks bus to the Pickled frog backpackers. Spend my night wandering around Hobart a bit and realize that it was actually a rather small town. It reminded me of Ipoh. I decided to have dinner at some random shop and ended up in a Indian café.

Day 2
I waited at the Pickled Frog till noon for Shawn to arrive. In the mean time, I had absolutely nothing to do so I started gaming a bit on my laptop. Soon enough, he touched down and was hungry. So we headed down to the docks for fish n chips. That nights dinner was Indian again. Little did I know that the meal would be one of the few proper meals I would be having throughout the trip.

Day3
We got our car at the car rental company and paid a whooping 800 dollars for it. Before we knew it, we were driving down the highway towards Maydena. That was the first time we were driving around Tasmania and the mountains and lakes look pretty epic at that point.

Upon reaching Maydena, it became apparent that the owner of our accommodation was not in, so we left a message letting him know that we will be back later on and proceeded to South West National park. That was also the first time we driven on gravel roads in Tasmania or “unsealed roads” as they call it. Only later on did I notice that driving on unsealed road is a must if you want to get into those places with epic sceneries.

That was where we first saw the awesome sceneries Tasmania had to offer. It was decided that we would hike up Mt Anne until we saw the sign that says that the track to Mt Anne is a two day return track which take us pass Mt. Eliza. So we agreed to hike as high as time will allow us and turn back before the sun sets. Two hours later we were close to the peak of Mt. Eliza but unfortunately it was time to turn back else we would risk hiking in the dark.

Day 4
As suggested by our last night’s host, we decided to visit the Tarn Shelf at Mt. Field national park. That afternoon we survived on Branch Bars. It was about 4p.m when we got down and started our long drive to Strahan. By the time we arrived at Queen’s town it was already dark. We had our first real food of the day, pizza before switching drivers and driving all the way to Strahan.

SLeepless nights at NOrth streEt

2009-11-05T00:11:00.003+08:00

Its been 3 month since I last move into the place at NOrth Street. One of the great things about this place is that we are rather united in things we do. And this includes sleeping.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a matter of choice. Take last night for example, I was dead to the world by 2am and at 3am I heard my housemates suddenly coming in the room turning on the lights and shouting, "EH IVAN YOU'RE TRYING TO SLEEP AH??"

I remember this goes waaaay back to the first month. As I recall I was on the verge of falling asleep when my housemate suddenly called out, "Eh Ivan!! Chor Dai Di lo!!" I ended up playing a wierd game which combines Chor dai di with dices.

So this bring us back to tonight, I was stressing with my assingmetns when I heard my housemates coming upstairs to sleep. Its time to pay a visit to their room.......

Royal Adelaide Show

2009-09-12T15:47:00.004+08:00

Since the house is quiet for now, I shall take the opportunity to update on the Royal Adelaide show.

We took a train deep into the heart of Australia to a town where all promising travellers gather and gear up for their epic journey to the mythical grounds known as “The Adelaide Show grounds".

Blacksmith and goods vendors were readily available in town to repair equipments or to resupply them with food for their journey.

And of course being so close to the desert of Shar’k Anun, they had the perimeter heavily guarded by state of the art military equipment.

According to the scroll we bought from a beggar for 10 dollars, it was said that one must travel a week through the Desert of Shar’k Anun, cross the “Mountains of Despair” and finally pass the “Valley of the Goddess.”

So with a team of 7 which consist of DPS, tank and healer we headed out on towards our epic journey. After weeks of hardship we were on the verge of a major breakdown mentally and physically. Our water supply had all but ran out. We were conserving water by just drinking a mouthful a day. Finally we saw it, the colours which was thought to be mythical, the colours of the royal Adelaide show.

I am sure by now you would have figure out that the above story is 99% fabricated. Notice the 1% is true. Which is we did went to the Royal Adelaide show via train. The black smiths and farm equipments were all real too. All build behind a solid fence. And you’ll be surprise what kind of insane rides these aussies come up with.

The rest of the post will just be pictures.

Life in Adelaide Thus far

2009-09-12T14:58:00.002+08:00

I am sure most of the readers who still visits my blog are curious on my life in Adelaide. Well, to be honest, it has been pretty interesting. Ok maybe interesting is a rather mild word. Try Roller coaster ride or bungee jumping or maybe a ride to space.

Between assignments, events to attend, daily house guest to entertain and of course not forgetting WoW there is hardly anytime to do anything at all. This is one of the really rare times that the house is actually quiet.

Not that I am complaining really, life is fantastic. So that is it for now, I update this blog the next time there is a quiet moment in my life.

Melbourne Pt 6 - Last few days

2009-08-10T00:55:00.004+08:00

I’ve heard of it, those small little solid rain. But I have never really seen it before, except of course on television. So I was a tiny winy excited when we were going snowboarding on Wednesday.

This time, I woke up to the sound of Shawn cursing at us to get up. “S***, Get UP!! F***, UP Now!!” So it appears that we were running a little late behind schedule, it was 5.58am. We are supposed to get to the city by 6am.

Thus, with record breaking speed, we somehow got our self ready within 2 minutes, while Shawn called a cab. By 6.10 we were at the city, we rushed out of the cab telling him to “keep the change”. Another first in my life.

The journey to the mountain took 4 long tedious boring hours which most of it was spend sleeping and watching the sun light slowly flooding the pastures around us. At about 10am we finally reached the top of Mt. Buller.

As I step out of the bus and onto the snowy land the first thing my body did was shiver. Compared to the warmth of the bus, the outside temperature was below zero and it was FREEZING, literally. It took a while before my body manage to get accustom to the temperature and stop shivering.

After settling our paper work and gathering our equipments it was time to go SNOWBOARDING!!! Snowboarding was awesome. Speeding down the hill with total control of the board is a exhilarating experience. I for one had the speeding down the hill part mastered, all I need now is to figure out the “total control” part. I crash head first, numerous times.

The fun ended all too early as the bus was to leave at 4pm. Nothing much happen on the 4 hours journey back accept maybe Shawn’s epic bladder story but that is up to him to share.

Nothing much happen after Mt Buller, the last few days in Melbourne was spend recovering from all those early mornings. We spend our time playing settlers the board game and other meaningless stuff.

On the last night I was somehow talked into buying desert for everyone. But that’s another story, too long to be told here.

Before I knew it, it was time for me to board my plane where a new chapter of my life is supposed to begin.

Melbourne Pt 5

2009-07-30T19:52:00.002+08:00

Some of you might be asking. “What the hell are you writing so many post on Melbourne? I want to know what is happening to you NOW!!”

The reason is simply because that once I’ve finish writing on Melbourne, there won’t be much left for me to write about. So that’s that.

It was all already plan. The morning right after the great ocean road trip I would sleep the morning away. Sleep was becoming really rare.

However, there was the problem of returning the car at 7am the next day. But then again, that is not my problem as I wasn’t the driver. YET, the driver, in this case, Shawn dared to open his mouth and requested that I accompanied him down to town the next day to return the car.

Well, knowing me being the good loyal friend that I am, I answered with a simple NOooooo. I needed to sleep, period. Unfortunately, he was rather persistent. Therefore, after some negotiating it was decided that I would get his pillow AND the electronic bed warmer and he will get company waking up at 6am the next day.

And thus, we awoke early without much sleep to return the car. We met up with Brian later on and had a breakfast, Australian style which is basically an American breakfast.

Kim Chew met up with me and Shawn later on the day and brought us up to his cool high rise suite located right in the heart of Melbourne city. Even though small, this cosy two-bedroom apartment provides a breathtaking view of Melbourne city.

That night we went to bed knowing that the next morning we would yet again be waking up with insufficient sleep. We needed to be into the city by 6.am for the snow boarding trip. Yes, SNOW!!!

Melbourne Pt 4 - Great Ocean Road

2009-07-29T21:11:00.004+08:00

On Monday, I awoke to the sound of people moving about busily. A thought then fluttered through my mind “Sammy is leaving for Tasmania today, I should say good bye to her.” Unfortunately that was as far as my conscious mind went before it dropped straight back into the dark pit of sleep.

The next thing I felt was a solid kick right into my ribs and another thought went through my mind, “Shawn is kicking me, I think he wants me to wake up.” And I went straight back to sleep after that.

Eventually my conscious mind manage to stay awake long enough for me to actually wake up. Even so, I was still suffering from the lack of sleep.

We met up with the rest of them later at the car rental where we finalize the paper work.

The original plan was that we would rent a classy Camry and cruise down the Great Ocean Road in style, but due to the numerous people coming along in the trip, we got our self a family Sedan instead.

After several minutes of being stuck in Melbourne city, we finally manage to navigate our self out of the city with the help of a GPS.

Our first stop was the coastal town of Geelong where we got a quick breakfast from Mac D for half price, complimentary of Shawn Liam, worker of the month.

The great thing about driving our own car is that we could stop wherever we want, whenever we want. Our next stop: Surf City.

Since none of us was willing to part with our cash, we soon continued along our journey. However, it was not long before we caught site of a spectacular view of the ocean. It was a call for yet another stop.

We drove along the coastal road until we saw a lighthouse. It was an instant unanimous decision that we should stop there.

We had a quick Australian lunch of Fish and Chips at another stop at some random town.

We soon realize that we were running way behind schedule and if we want to make it to the twelve apostates before sunset, we should be really going.

So it was just one more stop for ice cream at Apollo’s Bay because of a brochure we saw before heading straight to our destination.

Shawn took the wheel for the rest of our journey towards the twelve apostates. Let’s just say that he made turns that evening that would make speeding down Genting Highlands looks safe in comparison.

However, we did pass by some really nice views. Too bad, we did not have time to stop for us to take a proper picture.

With that kind of hellish driving, it was no surprise that we manage to reach our destination just as the sun was about to set.

Needless to say, a group picture was call for.

So we drove at nightmarish speed risking our life just to see some stones jutting out from the sea. Totally worth it.

As for the return journey, Kim Chew took the wheels and drove at a speed down a trunk road Australians calls a highway at speeds only a Malaysian will even attempt. I wonder how many tickets we got that day.

And so, it was the end of another epic day only possible with S8 @ Melbourne.

Melbourne Pt 3

2009-07-27T15:24:00.004+08:00

By Sunday morning, I was mostly accustomed to the cold. It is also on that day, the last of the S8-ians will be flying in. At sometimes around 6am, Kai Xian and Jane touched down at Melbourne’s airport.

At around 7am they reached Sam’s house and woke us up from our very short sleep. Soon after the typical long-winded discussion on where to go, we finally decided to visit the Melbourne Victoria Market.

Victoria market, despite being several thousand km away from the last market I have been too, still behaves like a market. Suppliers, vendors and shoppers all work in harmony with each other while goods and cash flows at a constant pace.

That night we had our first-ever official S8 gathering, in AUSTRALIA. Therefore, in the spirit of all S8 gathering, we had the official what I would like to call POI or “Period of Indecisiveness”.

After half an hour of wandering up and down the street, we finally manage to reach a grudging decision on the place to eat.

The food was not fantastic by any standards. But then again, we are here for the company, not the food.

We parted ways after dinner knowing that tomorrow; most of us would be meeting up again for an epic journey down the Great Ocean Road.

gg

2009-07-23T14:03:00.002+08:00

Melbourne Pt 2

2009-07-21T13:22:00.004+08:00

Melbourne was cold. It was so cold that stepping into the bath everyday requires determination and waking up requires discipline. But for someone as strong minded as me, this was easily overcome.

Shawn and I decided on the first day that we should tour the city and the first place we visited was the Melbourne Memorial. The memorial was build to.... erm... remember something. Something about war and people who died in it I think.......

What was interesting was that we stumble upon a crypt. I was actually hoping for coffins and sarcophagus. But sadly All we saw was a PowerPoint presentation going on down there.

That night we walked down the river towards the city submerging into the serenity of the night.

Kim Chew met up with us the next day and we had breakfast at Flinders Lane. Some calls it the Diagon alley of Melbourne, which is a very lively alley just off Flinders road.

We visited the famous Crown Casino. I lost fifty bucks. Casinos suck.

Sam took us on a short tour of Melbourne Uni. I realize much later on that this was Humongous compared to UniSA.

On Saturday night, I had dinner with some of my relatives down at Melbourne harbour.

After dinner, I made my way back to Sam’s place as we planned to throw a surprise party for Samantha. Not much of a surprise really, considering only three of us were there to shout surprise. Two others ditch us at the last possible moment and went for dinner. Another had a apparently important dinner to attend and will be late.

Shawn then came up with a brilliant idea of recording our voices into the computer and then playing it back, so it seems like there were more than three of us.

Unfortunately, the plan had one flaw. The computer’s speaker was not as loud as it should be. So in the end it just sounded like just 3 people.

At lease the rest manage to make it sometime later.

And this bring us to the conclusion of this post. Stay tune for Part 3!!

Melbourne Pt 1

2009-07-20T12:24:00.003+08:00

After one and a half month of waiting, the laptop is finally here and I guess its time to get back to blogging.

For those of you who didn’t know. I spent my first 2 weeks in Australia in the vibrant city of Melbourne. On a cold winter night, I touch down in supposedly one of the heaviest H1N1 infected city and was picked up by my aunt.

The main reason I was there was to meet up with my fellow s8 classmates who are in Australia. So 2 days later, I woke up with the intention of getting down to the city. I walked to the door turn the door knob, and realize that I was locked in.

I decided to not make the same mistake again. So I packed a few things and slept over at Sam’s place which was conveniently located in the city.

Getting around Melbourne is really easy as they have a far superior public transportation system then Malaysia. Moreover the city is literally a rectangle, which can be easily navigated with the help of a map.

Did I mention that Melbourne was really cold? Well ya, Southern part of Australia gets pretty cold during the winter with temperature dropping till 4C at night.

And even though I did bring my sleeping bag over from Malaysia I soon realize that a Malaysian sleeping bag differs hugely from its Australian counterpart. While my sleeping bag is thin and perfectly usable in a moist tropical country, Shawn’s sleeping bag was thick and warm even if outside temperatures drop till 4c.

There were plenty stuff we did while we were at Melbourne such as the journey down the Great Ocean Road or the trip up the snowy mountains of Mt. Buller. Stay tune for more exciting adventures of Ivan in Melbourne.

A temporary update

2009-07-05T10:33:00.002+08:00

I think I've let this Blog simmer long enough. This would be a temporary update of my life so far.

For the pass 2 weeks I was at the vibrant city of Melbourne enjoying life tremendously. However, the cold was terrible. But I managed to adept after a few days and all was well.

I have over a thousand pictures extracted from 3 different DSLR cameras but that would have to wait till I get my laptop and manage to download Photoshop into it. That would probably take a month, maybe more.

That came to an end eventually. Suffice to say that it was fun while it lasted; now I am at my Grand Aunt place in Adelaide writing this post in Ms Words and surviving on a 56k internet.

At lease I have internet.

Almost deparutre time

2009-06-10T01:18:00.002+08:00

As most of you already know, I am about to head to Australia to further my studies.
My departure date is on the 22nd of June.

The problem is that my offer letter just came not 5 minutes ago. Which means only tomorrow can I go apply for my visa. Moreover, my laptop is still on its way from the USA, eta unknown. Things are getting exciting.

Which will arrive first? Visa + laptop? or departure date?

While editing My pictures

2009-05-28T11:42:00.004+08:00

So there I was happily editing my pictures.

An hour later, I was ready to save all my work.

An hour and 1 minutes: My finger pressed the power button on my keyboard.

An hour and 2 minutes: I stared hopelessly at the monitor as Windows shut down.

An hour and 3 minutes: I cursed my itchy finger.

An hour and 4 minutes: I thought to myself, "guess the photo will have to wait".

Adventure at Chilling Pt2

2009-05-25T10:32:00.002+08:00

So there I was thinking of just sitting there and wait for the BOMBA which the nurses from the ambulance assured me, were coming.

But Joash, driven by morality or some other goody goody principles decided that the right course of action would be to go in again.

Eventually I gave in to his request and we entered the jungle AGAIN. And so we walked, until the first river crossing where we saw that what was once clear water has now turn into a Teh Ais kind of color with a very intimidating whirlpool forming in the middle.

So we just sat there, thinking of what to do next when a few minutes later, we heard the BOMBA team jogging up the path towards us. With just a single glance at the river, the chief of the team analyzed the situation and told us get their harness, ropes, and life jackets from their fire engine.

So we tracked out, AGAIN got the help of the group of people who were staying over night there (we really owe those guys) to help carry in the things (the rope was no joke, I estimate it to be 40kg of ropes there). And we tracked in, yes, again.

Another hour later, we were back at the first river crossing where we handed over the equipments. One of the firemen took the rope and swam across to the other bank, tied it there and disappeared further up stream.

Then the waiting started. We sat there, under the drizzling rain, listening to the subsiding roar of the river and trying our best to keep our body warm.

The sun began to set. Soon, evening was upon us. As the light gradually fades away, one of the firemen decided to start a small fire. I was glad for the heat it provided however little it was.

Darkness was all around us when we saw a flash of light from further up stream. The reunion was brief; it seems everybody made it out without much difficulty. Cindy’s leg was still tied to a stick, Jordan and our 2 volunteers were looking good and most importantly, my camera is still in 1 piece. :D

The journey out was slow going, there were only 3 torch lights to light the way for 12 people. 6 of us walk ahead with the leader holding 1 torch. What he did was to take a few steps then turn back and light the way for us.

That was the theory anyway, in reality doing that was actually too slow, so what really happen was more then half the time we track in total darkness. I literally could not see my hand when I placed it right in front of my face. I therefore created a simple theory in order to make my track easier and less tedious. My theory went something like this:

“Whenever I could not see anything, the world is as flat as it can get, there are no bumps or things to trip on.”

With that idea etched into my mind, the track became much smoother. Even so, it was slow going in the dark. The only things I saw as I look up were silhouettes of leaves against the starry sky. Even though it was my fourth time tht day, I recognize nothing. I walked, trusting my instincts.

I could hear the roaring of the river centimeters to my right dimly realizing that 1 wrong step could cause me to be thrown like a rag doll down the river. But I held on to my idea of a flat world and walk on.

Time has lost its meaning during the track, but after I am guessing about an hour or more later we saw the bridge of the first river crossing. A warm wave of relief swam over us. The track was over, we are out.

Cindy was put into an Ambulance where she was send to the KKB hospital for an X-ray. The BOMBA really was a life saver that day, we thanks them profoundly and went to the hospital to check up on my friend.

A doctor bandage her leg and we got into the car and set off home. It was quite a day for us but even as my 3 passengers were snoring soundly in my car, I had 1 final stretch ahead of me.

After realizing that for every two second I am awake, I spend 1 second dozing off, I decided to stop by at McD at Rawang town to get myself a quick dinner, (I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast). That proves to be a life saver. I was running on coke, a Big Mac and a packet of chips all the way back.

Once I manage drop all 3 of my friends off, I headed back home from this long long day. Taking a look at the clock at the dashboard of my car, I realize that I’ve been awake close to 24 hours.

I turn off the engine of my car, entered my house too lazy to even pat my over-enthusiastic dog who greeted me. Touch my head to the bed and was dead to the world for the next 10 hours.

Note: This is a story from just my point of view. Apparently, there is another short story to be written about the group who stayed in the jungle for more than 10 hours. Maybe I'll write about that some other time.

Note 2: pictures soon

Adventure at Chilling Pt1

2009-05-24T00:29:00.005+08:00

Life hasn’t been interesting lately. Or rather, life hasn’t shown me anything interesting enough to stir my blogging desire. ~~Complaining about assignments does not count.~~ That is, until now…..

From the request of another friend, I recently made another round to chilling falls. I woke up that morning expecting a normal boring almost not-worth-noting or blogging at all trip to chilling. Or if I ever decide to blog about it, I’ll have to make something up again.

Well, it went on normally enough. I picked my friend up at the Ridzuan apartments down in Subang and drove up north towards chilling falls, stopping by the dam on the way. It took us the usual 1 hour to track while crossing the river 6 times to reach the waterfall. Once there, we chill around the for a few hours before finally deciding to track out.

However, just as we were about to start our track out, one of my friend, Cindy, managed to injure her ankle. It soon became apparent from the moan of pain that she is not tracking out on her own.

So I went out to get help while Jordan and Joash did what they could to ease her pain. On the way out I met 2 different groups of people tracking in, I told them the situation at the waterfall and requested them to help out. I then continued my 1 hour jog back out.

At the base, I realize that there was no help. There are no stretchers or even a tongkat. I was then seriously deciding to just sleep at the small rest hut there and forget about everything. However, after some internal wrestling with my conscious I decided that tracking in again would be the best course of action.

Upon arriving, I found out that with the help of the initial group I encounter, they manage to tie a wood onto her leg to stop it from moving too much. I also found out that somebody has called the BOMBA so I decided that everything was going to be fine.

Until the sky decided to break open and a pour a huge amount of water on us. We receive a phone call then, apparently the “police” have arrived and they required a guide to take them in.

So it is decided that I would yet again track out this time leading the group of people I met earlier out (it was their first time there). So I and Joash started the track out.

The track out under the rain was again another moment where you see in movies very often but never get to experience. Something like the track down Bukit Tabor few weeks back.

An hour or more later, we broke out of the jungle and onto the base camp where I found out that there was no police, but instead an ambulance. I also found out that they were refusing to enter the jungle, telling us instead to carry her out with the stretcher which they would provide.

At that point, I was really worn out, my body was cut and bruised at places I didn’t know I had. All I wanted to do was to sleep at the hut and let events unfold itself.

So what did I do?

TO BE CONTINUED..........

note: pictures will be posted in a separate post once I have the time to go through them.

The adventures of Ivan, Jordan and Joash, Part 2

2009-04-12T15:09:00.006+08:00

Jordan: Hm… should I bring my pants?

Ivan, Joash: Yes!!

Joash: So are we really going to walk 711km?

Ivan: Don’t worry I know a short cut.

Jordan: Are you sure about this?

Ivan: Of course.

Jordan: Have you consulted a map or something

Ivan: sigh* I tell you what, this trail involves fish.

Jordan: Fish? I’m in.

One week of gruesome battle with nature later.

Joash: I think we are lost

Ivan: No we are not.

Joash: Fine then tell me where we are.

Ivan: we are erm… on the way back to KL.

Another week has come and gone.

Joash: Where are we again

Ivan: yes we just head in erm… *randomly points somewhere* that direction.

Jordan: I am losing my patience, where are the FISH??

Ivan: Soon Soon.

Joash: I thought u said we were going to make it within the month? How long has it been?

Jordan: I lost count after 53 days 32 hours 12 minutes and 3 seconds.

Joash: …….

Ivan: Fine, I’ll admit it, we are lost.

Joash: Oh, Now he tells us.

Joash: I give up walking, I’m going to donate my shoes now to the water god.

Jordan: If I don’t see any fishes soon, somebody is going to get hurt.

Joash: That’s weird, just a moment ago I still remembered that we had our clothes on.

Ivan: It’s the curse of the waterfall, it is said that a horny women died here and now all guys who pass through here loses their tops.

Joash: You just made that up didn’t you?

Ivan: Yes

Joash: So what do we do now?

Jordan: We fish.

Ivan: are you sure that would work?

Jordan: Of course.

3 hours later

Joash, I don’t think that would work either.

Joash: I am getting cold.

Jordan: Ok no choice d, we have to hug for body warmth!!

Ivan: Wth!! Eh wait, where did Joash go?

Jo: HUG YOU GUYS!!?? I rather die!! See you in the afterlife!!!

Ivan: Now that we are 1 man down, what do we do?

Jordan: we still can hug?

Ivan: This is Ivan ~~Who had to resort to cam whoring to get his own pic~~ reporting on a very inaccurate version of what really happen at Chilling falls. Hopefully either Joash or Jordan will post up what REALLY happen and I’ll put a link here after that.

The adventures of Ivan, Jordan and Joash, Part 1

2009-04-10T21:08:00.004+08:00

It was a morning as fine as it could get. The sun has barely woken up. We find our 3 heroes traveling down a calm and peaceful country road completely oblivious to the misfortune that would meet them shortly.

Jordan: I want to fish.

Ivan: Shut up.

Jordan: Have you heard of the secret? If I were to visualize long enough I would get the opportunity to fish.

*Jordan shuts his eyes real tight and pokes the side of his head with his fingers.*

*Joash roles eyes*

30 minutes later

Joash: Isn’t he concentrating a little too hard? I swear that I can see his eyeballs coming out from the back of his head.

Ivan: Leave him alone. At lease his not talking about fish.

Another 20 minutes later.

*BOOM, ching ching, ka, kata, kak, ak,ka psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst* White smoke steaming out from under the hood*

Joash: erm why did the car stop?

Jordan: Does my eyes deceive me? Is that water?

Ivan: I don’t know, let me check.

*Exits the car*

Jordan: Oh My God, It work!!

Ivan: Bad news, I think I drove over some nails, all 4 tires are gone, the radiator over heated and we are out of petrol.

Jordan: I’ll be right back.

Joash: So now what do we do?

Ivan: I guess we’ll have to walk the rest of the way back.

Joash: WHAT? Walk 711KM back? Lets hitch a ride instead.

Ivan: Erm.. you can try I guess.

Joash: Hey there sexy, would you mind letting me hitch a ride?

Joash: I am not beautiful, let me die.

Ivan: hey cheer up, its only 711 KM how bad can it be? We’ll make it within the month. Hey where’s Jordan?

Joash: Who knows~ Probably swimming with the fish and becoming one himself. Wait there he is.

Jordan: The fish are mine ALL mine, my precioussss.. yess we’ll not be separated again no…

Joash: Erm… I think we should just let him fish for a while longer.

Jordan: Hey guys look what I caught!!

Ivan: You know, I vividly remembered that fish was already dead and floating on its side. You just went in and grab it didn’t you?

Jordan: No I didn’t. It was an epic battle between me with my rod and the fish.

Joash: But I saw you walking into the lake and took that fish out.

Jordan: Your eyes are playing tricks on you.

Ivan: Are you saying that both of us are having the same hallucination?

Jordan: Yes

Ivan: ok lets see what we have in the car, we need to start moving if we want to get anywhere by today. What usable items do we have in the car?

Jordan: We have the fish I caught, a fishing rod and my fishing kit.

Ivan: That’s all?

Jordan: The rest are irrelevant.

Joash: Ok we have kerosene, a knife, a chain, a pen knife a stick, 2 hammocks, some fresh water and a bottle of Chivas. What the hell do u keep in your car??

Ivan: Don’t know ask Jordan, those are his stuff. Ok let’s separate the burden and move out.

Maxis Nuffang Music Bash

2009-04-08T00:21:00.002+08:00

Wisdom through nature

2009-04-04T11:09:00.002+08:00

Bukit Tabur: Night hike

2009-03-24T20:41:00.000+08:00

One fine day, I receive a call out of the blue from from Same shirt Guy (SSG aka Jit Hu). He suggested something which at that time sounded very casual and simple. He asked "Are you free on Monday night? Let's hike up Bukit Tabur." Since he used a very relax tone as if it was the most normal thing in the world to do I agreed without much thinking.

And yet as the the date of the climb drew nearer, I was starting to have not only second thoughts but third and fourth as well. So we were going to climb a hill in pitch darkness in the middle of the night. Not just any hill, this is Bukit Tabur. A hill where many climb once and decided that risk of death is to high to try again.

So on that fateful night, 4 hikers got into my car. Sze Thien, Me, Jordan & SSG.

At this point I really thought that this was a crazy idea. So we were going to hike up at night. Not to mention that the itinerary was not really complete for I was the only one with a sleeping bag. Then there is the issue of torch lights. Apparently SSG decided that torch lights would be a waste of effort. So there were only two torch light for four people. At lease we had Kero and matches which is all that raelly matters.

Thus I was fighting a strong urge to change the destination to maybe Genting of Mage cafe. But in the end with the perfect demonstration of discipline and courage I ended up at the base point of Bukit Tabur as previously planed.

One of my friend told me that it was "Ching Ming" and be wary of extra body count when coming out.

8.30pm - Starting of the hike
Time spend in nature = 0 hours
Body count = 4
Physical condition = 10
Mental Energy = 10

30 minutes into the climb my eyes got adjusted to the darkness and I realize that the torch lights was actually slowing me down rather then helping. At lease with the lights off I could see a wider viewing angle which easier for me to navigate as I was the person leading. However, with the lights off resulted in very poor vision. Which also means every step I took was 1/3 confidence, 1/3 guess work and 1/3 skill.

After a while we reached one of the open hills and decided to spend the night there. I got busy to my work while Jordan got busy with his top secretive work.

Part of my work

Part of Jordan's work

We were up there for quite some time and At 5.30am we saw lightning flashing across the sky and decided it was time to head down. at 6.30am we reached the last peak and was about to start descending when the rain hit us at full force.

That was really an epic moment with 2 torch light shining through the heavy rain as we slowly descend. As I look up all i saw was the Ray of light from the torch illuminating the rain like those you see in the movies. Heavy rain, night, all that is visible are the lights from the torches. Very much like Jurassic park.

Half way down the rain let up and the sun broke through the horizon (another epic moment).

Eventually we reached the bottom after a tedious 2 hours of hiking down a muddy and slippery path.

8.30am - Back at starting point
Time spend in nature = 12 hours
Body count = 4
Physical condition = 4
Mental Energy = 1

Panaroma At the top of Tabur (Click on it for a bigger picture)

Note: To view this trip from another point of view you can visit HERE

Tabur again??

2009-03-21T17:18:00.004+08:00

Due to the request of several of my friends, I have decided to visit Bukit Tabur again.

I’m a Musicon Celebrity thanks to Maxis Broadband

2009-03-19T18:02:00.002+08:00

The stage is set. I step out of the classy black limousine and onto the red carpet. The crowd went wild, Lights were flashing hard, screams of my name were heard. Fortunately, I was prepared with a pair of shades which saved me from being stunted. As I gracefully walk down the path, hundreds of hand reached out on either side, with poise I spread both my arm letting them touch me as i walk by. As I approach the end of the road I turn around and gave them a wave, letting them know that they would not be disappointed by the night.

_______________________________________

Ok WTF is this u ask? It seems that nuffang is collaborating with Maxis in organizing a party down at Maison. And all I need for an invitation was to write soemthing related to the title. So here it is

Why hike when you can sleep at home?

2009-03-17T23:09:00.003+08:00

"Why do people climb mountains when they can sleep peacefully at home?" Recently I have been asked a similar question. The conversation went something like this:

(slightly modified)
Kwong Yew | says (10:56 PM):
wat are u busy with on friday?

Ivan says (10:57 PM):
saturday going tabur, do u want to come?

Kwong Yew says (10:57 PM):
again? How many times u wan to visit tat place?

(After some thinking)

Ivanl says (11:00 PM):
What to do, its the only exercise i get.

basketball cannot play

football cannot play

so every week go and risk my life for health

*Note that some of my friend's description of Bukit Tabur would sound like walking on a 2 inch wide ledge with a 100 meters drop on either side.

So it might be entirely true that hiking is the only exercise I get nor do I do it only for health purposes. Taking a walk through nature is a really enjoyable experience. Breathing in fresh air, enjoying a cooling breeze while witnessing the splendors of mother nature.

That is, it is enjoyable if you take it at a pace that suits your current stamina. Other wise, it would be more of gasping like a fish out of water while constantly fighting off the closing black around your visions and nausea all the while having a strong throbbing in your head that feels like a sledge hammer hammering on one of your veins.

Why do I know this? Its because I have been personally been through it so many times that I could recall the feeling even in my sleep. So why push myself to such limits? That's simply because......

I had no other choice as my father was the one who use to take us on hikes when I was younger. Thus I have no choice, other keep up with my parents pace or risk being left behind. You need to understand, those days, I was rather plump with very low stamina and moral. So it was really difficult to keep up.

I believe that this is what true discipline and dedication is all about. Never giving up even if your mind and body tells you so. Your biggest enemy is yourself. Never say die.

Seriously.

A post of Pictures

2009-03-12T13:47:00.005+08:00

A post of pictures just to give myself an excuse to use my camera.

Hi from Bukit Tabur

2009-03-09T14:36:00.004+08:00

A nice day for a hike but a bad day for photography.

Pine tree trail: The Journey

2009-03-01T10:05:00.006+08:00

Traveling to the start of Pine tree trail is will take you pass Chilling Falls. Just add another 40 minutes of very curvy and windy mountain road and you'll about got it right.

Only thing to keep in mind is that the road up Frasier's is a one way street. Either up or down. Therefore they only cars up at odd hours and down on even hours.

Upon arrival we found out that the trail was used sometime ago by military troops to scout the surrounding area. A decade later I lead my brave team down the same treacherous trail in search for danger and adventure. The slightly very long trail runs all the way to Selangor from Pahang.

It started well enough, with a flat path accompanied by a very cooling breeze. 5 minutes later it was still cooling but the trail decided that it has given us enough of a warm up and started going down getting progressively steeper as we go. There were steps at some parts and I swear that every step was almost a meter high.

We will be taking the same trail back therefore every step down is a step up later. That is not a motivating thought.

After a while it started going up. Which is also when the grumbling from one of my low-moral team member started. Although the grumbling was strong, our overall team spirit was stronger and we pushed on.

The journey can only be describe as EPIC, (cue to play epic soundtrack) we faced numerous treacherous obstacles, avoided 100feet deep pit filled with sharp spikes, scaled several snow-caped mountains, threading ledges that were 1 inch wide where falling of means death and all the while battling hungry man eating horse size tigers.

Right...... Anyway, a couple of hours and a few hills later later we manage to reach our pit stop (Did I tell you that the trail takes us up and down not one hill but FIVE hills in total). Alan decided there and then that he was at his limit and decided to wait for our return from the peak.

However, that was also when the wind pick up a whiny tiny bit and the sky got a tiny whiny slightly more shady. Suddenly my brave team members turned into wussies and decided they would chicken out and turn back while trembling with fear from getting wet.

Despite my best effort of persuading them, (the peak was after all, just one slope away) they refuse to carry on. Eventually ONE of them decided to follow me out of what he claim was "Friendship". Regardless, the 2 of us manage to make it to the top within 40mins.

After chilling there for a while, we decided to head back down. To give them credit on the way out it did started to rain. But its actually very peaceful and cooling when it does.

So a few more hours later we made our way slowly out of the forest, stopping here and there to give us a rest and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. We finally emerge at almost 2 hours behind the initial group. Apparently while we were enjoying the cooling breeze of nature at one of the huts, they were stuck in the car.

With the very very slow pace we were walking at, the whole journey was about 7 hours. Ah well, we made it out safe, refresh and healthier.

I drove them down the long windy road to Ulu yam for dinner. And if you'll be surprise at the rate the food disappears from the table. Every plate was clean to the last drop and the fish... What once use to be a fish was left a few sticks that was once bones.

Unfortunately there aren't many pictures because I was just too much a hassle to dig my camera out from the haversack.

Ok so who else wants to take a go and the nice recreational track at pine trail?

Pine tree trail

2009-02-20T15:30:00.007+08:00

There are time when I have been tracking for so long that I felt that my camera was more burden then friend. Recently I've track the pine tree trail up in Fraser's hill twice. Once with a group of very fit older people and one week from that, with a group of my friends. Here are what other websites say about the trail

One Stop Malaysia:Pine Tree tail (5000m): Steep and challenging. Starts near the Admiralty bungalow, a few kilometers west of town. It is a steep climb to the peak of Pine Tree Hill. A guide is recommended.

Wiki Travel: Pine Tree Trail. A challenging 6 kilometer trail up and down hills to the eponymous Pine Tree Hill, and you'll have to return the way you came to boot. This is a full-day hike that will take 7-8 hours at a moderate pace.

Kuantan Hotels:The longest trail is the Pine Tree Trail which requires the assistance of a guide.

Impression:Pine Tree Trail is reckoned to be one of the most physically challenging trails in Fraser’s Hill. The trail is 6km long and it takes four hours at a moderate pace to reach its peak.

Mchwen:as there have been reports of TIGER sightings in the Pine Tree Hill area since early 2003.

So basically its a tough 8 hours hike up and down a couple of mountains on a 12km trail (through and fro) with the of chance that a tiger might eat u up on the way. How much more fun can it get?

Details of the journey NEXT!!

Crab Island

2009-02-11T11:19:00.006+08:00

Also known as "Pulau Ketam" to others. But I prefer calling it crab island because it sounds so much cooler. This trip to crab island is the first trip of the year organize by (~~Tze Pin's~~ Taylor's photography club).

So this basically mean that this was a photography trip and I was suppose to take photograph. However, I just was not in the mood to shoot scenery. Instead I rented a bike and with a couple of friends went exploring the whole island. Eventually I realize that Crab Island is just a fishing village build on a swamp.

We did stumble upon a few interesting things.

For one the fire station is more of a small hut then a station. I am guessing that when a fire breaks out, everybody helps out and does not stand on the sideline giving useless comments while taking pictures with their phone cam.

Maybe it is something to do with being in a small community where everybody knows each other. Or it could be that there are so much wood around that if one house starts burning the whole village will end up in ashes.

Then there is the school which really reminded me of my own primary school before it was renovated back in Ipoh.

After some more exploring, I figure out that the secondary school sits right beside the primary school. So I guess that when one is born on crab island, he or she is will be staying on crab island for a very long time with occasional adventures to port Klang.

One of the great things I've realize about staying in a village such as this is that security seems not to be an issue. The guy who rented the bike to me confidently told me that there is no need to worry about any theft. Which is rather logical really. I mean come on, where could you run to?

As we approach the end of the day, I decided to pick my camera up to shoot something just for the sake of it being a photography trip.

Ivan's blog Version 2.1

2009-02-06T11:50:00.002+08:00

As promise by myself to myself, I've finish designing a new blog layout before my holidays are over.

So maybe its not a new blog layout, I've just work out some bugs and change the color scheme. That is why it is Version 2.1 instead of version 3. But the header is new.

Comments will be appreciated.

Chilling at chilling falls.... Again??

2009-02-03T10:13:00.005+08:00

It was a Monday. The journey to Chilling falls from PJ is not a short easy trip. First I had to pick my cousins who came to Malaysia from Australia. So I had to drive all the way to USJ and got stuck for 20 minutes in the all famous USJ jam. Then of course it was another 20minutes to get back out of USJ. After that it was a 40 minutes drive up the North South expressway. Just to get into another jam when we got into Rawang town. Another 15 minutes later we finally got out of Rawang and was on a smooth and pleasant ride towards Chilling falls passing by Kuala Kubu Bahru in the process. And finally after who knows how long, we arrived at Chilling.

So we walk through the first gate and kept walking towards the first river crossing. 3 minutes into our track we saw this sign.

Which basically translate to:

No admittance without permission. If found guilty, a fine of Rm10,000 or jail time up to 3 years or both.

Ok.....

Another 2 mintues later we saw another sign

However the real problem was revealed after another 2 minutes of walking. Something that was not there the last time I came.

There was a freaking gate in the way!! Now where the hell did that came from? Did I travel this far just to encounter a gate??

So after much pondering, laying out the options and weighting the pros and cons of each of them, we did the only logical thing there is to do.

Langkawi 2

2009-01-20T22:08:00.005+08:00

There is something horribly wrong with the weather. Trying to Walk out the door in the afternoon is like trying to push through hot magma. So the best thing to do is to stay in the oven I call a home and enjoy the mirage created by the heat waves.
_________________________________________________________________

After checking into the hotel we located our room which by the way was a 15 to 20 minutes walk uphill from the reception (yes it was THAT far, fortunately they provided shuttle service). So with that out of the way, there was only one thing left to do in a resort this big.

I got myself hopelessly lost.

Which is a good thing really, else I would not have stumbled upon this bridge.

And then there is of course the all famous cable car ride that takes you 700meters above sea level.

And that is it for Langkawi. Till next time folks!!

Langkawi

2009-01-18T10:36:00.008+08:00

Who said that holidays are time for massive blog updates? I wish to correct that misconception. To write a blog entry, there need to be a reason for it. For example it helps to keep assignment away.

So maybe they don't really go away if you start writing blog entries. But they do quench the guilt feeling. For a while. Maybe 5 seconds. Or it might just make it worse.....

Moving on....

Since the holidays has taken away one of my major blogging motivations, thus the lack of entries. So without further ado, Lets start the post .

After much mental discussion with myself, I have finally manage to tear my self away from... from...... erm.................

Can someone remind me on what have I been doing for the past 3 month?

Ah~ yes, from "Things I do during holidays" and write a blog entry about Langkawi.

I was at Langkawi in the early days of December.

The first night at the chalet brought back memories of camping out in the jungle. First of, there was the cooling breeze coming in from the sea, serene sounds of leaves swaying in the wind and all the peaceful sounds of the jungle itself.

Of course, staying at the chalet means I had not been bothered by insects. I had a nice fluffy bed to sleep on instead of a hard ground. I had four solid walls around me and a roof that does not leak when it rains. A restroom. And if it gets too hot, There is always the air-conditioner.

So it is basically camping minus all the negative aspects.

Look forward to the upcoming post as I will be posting the photos there!!

New Year's Eve and The decision

2009-01-04T21:53:00.006+08:00

So while half of P.J spend their time at the curve I was faced with a question.

Either

a) I could have spend a legendary day with a bunch of friends. I had no idea why they insist on calling it "legendary" but I did spend the day with them eating sandwiches, Bowling and trying the Batting cage. They then proceeded with the rest of the day while at this point I chose option b. However if I had stayed with them I would have gone to the curve, watch lights in the sky, get cramp with half of P.J. Not forgetting the 2 hours jam needed to get out followed closely by another solid 4 hours of cc session where they finally manage to reach home during the wee hours (7am) in the morning.

OR

b)I live to see another day.

The thing is, I was feeling under the weather. That is to say, The world can't seem to stop spinning, I was shivering for no reason, had a blinding headache, and every time I moved what I felt before was multiplied 10 times.

So here I am now alive, breathing and still around because I was smart enough to switch to option B in time.

Defrosting of a blog

2009-01-02T00:09:00.003+08:00

The year is 2009.

I quote this sentence from the famous Jordan Tan from das-connection (he claims to be famous anyway).

"Your blog is not dead, it is just frozen."

And so I thought that it is time to put this blog into a microwave and set it on defrost. Here we go

DDdddnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn..............................

DING!!

Ha, here we go. A nice defrosted blog. What this means my fellow readers is that you can expect more frequent updates, more exciting pieces and more beautifuer pictures (is there such a word as beautifuer?) then ever before.

Thus I welcome 2009 with open arms!!

2 Dogs 1 Bowl

2008-12-09T09:13:00.005+08:00

First thing first. This post has no relation what-so-ever to the 2 girls one cup video.

THAT video was so bad that the last time I watched it, I could feel last year's dinner coming up my throat. Those who have seen it will understand. And for those who haven, trust me, you don't want to know.

Now that we've got that cleared up, lets talk about the dog who is staying over at my house.

Here is the scenario, one of my aunt was going of for holidays and needed someone to look after her dogs. And my sister thought it would be fun to bring one of them home.

Well it was fun playing around with the dog until the first night where it decided to do its business beside the book shelf. Suddenly it wasn't that fun anymore. That is, it wasn't that fun for HER.

Now the thing is, I have another dog. A very calm, lovable, quiet Labrador called Dino. However those who have seen him tend to disagree with me on a few terms saying that my dog is a vicious, scary and noisy and Definitely NOT a Labrador. Let me post a picture and you can judge for yourself.

My Impression

Their Impression

Well if their description is true then when the new dog came, the first thing it would have done is to have it for breakfast.

But that was not the case. In fact, it seems that Dino is avoiding this new dog all together. He even sacrificed his usual sleeping spot and the titled "Door Keeper" to this new dog.

Strange but true.

The Hunt for Treasure

2008-12-05T17:07:00.005+08:00

Just a quick post on why I was in Penang instead of, like I told some of you, Langkawi. So it seems that My mother sign us up for a treasure hunt which started from Kota Damansara and ended all the way up north in Penang.

We were given a stack of paper which appearantly contains detailed instruction of the route to Penang. We were then given another stack of paper with the clues which we had to decipher. In addition to that I found out that we had our own stack of paper which I have yet to find its purpose.

And so loaded with many stacks of paper we entered the car and headed North.

The journey took us into quite a few towns such as Bidor, Kampar, Ipoh and a couple more which names I can't recall.

In the end, we unsuprisingly got disqualified for coming in an late. Not that we were the only team that decided to skip the last town, Taiping all together and still miracously could have turn up at the check point a whole hour late.

At lease we were made it to Penang and had the oppurtunity to get ourself some Penang food.

Getting into Penang and it's road signs.

2008-12-04T08:40:00.005+08:00

These days it’s just not worth driving up to Penang all the way from KL. There is of course, the good food and all but the long drive PLUS the horrible jam once you get to the bridge is just a big energy drainer.

The best alternative therefore, is to fly or take other forms of public transport in. This of course raises problems of it’s own about transportation around the island itself.

So in the end, you will have to weight the pros and cons and decides what is best if you want to get into Penang Island.

But transportation into Penang Island is only half the story. The other half is about navigating around Penang Island without a map. After wandering aimlessly along the complicated roads found in Penang Island I have come to 2 logical conclusions.

1) Penang residents have yet to discover the navigational tool called “sign boards”.
However after more wandering I realize that signboards do exist along the newer major roads so this only left me with my second conclusion.

2) Everybody who tried to erect signboards of the virtually-impossible-to-navigate roads of Penang has died of old age.

No offence to those staying in Penang, this was just something that just occurred to me.

Now for those who were waiting for the pictures I took over there.

Dawn.

What is Penang without food?

Me fooling around with the table lamp.

Watchers of the night

This silhouette of me was shot in the Penang Gurney hotel and I had to sacrifice supper just so I could get the whole room to myself.

Another family dinner

2008-11-17T00:26:00.007+08:00

I’ve recently attended a Chinese 10 course meal dinner where the food seems to keep on coming and it never gets finish. It was meant as a celebration for one of my aunt’s and cousin’s birthday.

Two tables were booked, one for the adults and one for the “children” and as I entered the front door I was shoved unceremoniously by the “adults” to the “children” table. Not that I am complaining, being at the “children” table means more food for me.

So there I was enjoying my tea when I noticed something amusing. Unfortunately I did not bring along my camera so I’ll just do my best to describe the situation.

I looked across to the adult’s table and there they were sitting with their grim faces discussing who knows what; While on the other hand, my table was so full of physical activities that it was overflowing with it.

At one corner, there was one of my cousin teaching my youngest cousin how to waltz, beside me was my sister gossiping with my other cousin about some people in her school and beside her was a battle going on with one of the maids trying to force another cousin to eat her dinner, in the mean time, 2 children were running round and round the table. And then there was me, who was just sitting there peacefully sipping my tea while observing the utter chaos happening around me.

Unfortunately, peace never last. Eventually, one of them took noticed of me and decided it was funny to come over and disturb me. After a while the chaos that was around me decided that it was time to include me in the picture.

It all started of with one of them coming over and gave me a nice solid punch (maybe just too see if I am human). Then there are those who tried to make conversation with me (Regrettably, I do note comprehend their language, I've tried but its not easy picking up their language. Their complicated vocabulary consist of 2 words, goo goos and gah gahs).

Others decided that it was amusing trying to decorate me with those ridiculous flowers from the dishes and doing rabbit ears with their fingers while trying to get a picture (who knows what the pictures are for, maybe to blackmail me later on in life). Then there is this one cousin who keeps on harassing me about getting a gf.

This, my friends just proved how high my tolerance level really is. I didn’t shove them away, stand up, flip the table or turn into an over size over muscular green monster. Seriously though, I don’t really mind them disturbing me like so.

Eventually the "adults" decided that it was time to go and so it comes to an end of yet another family dinner. Goodbyes were said as my cousins’ head back with their respective families.

Fallout 3

2008-11-12T00:56:00.004+08:00

50 odd hours of blowing heads apart later I've decided that enough is enough. As the credits rolled I sat there reflecting on what could be one of the best RPG I've ever played.

Fallout 3 takes place in the years after something similar to world war 3. I emerge from one of the vaults (which was build as a bomb shelter)into a radiated filled waste land in search of my father who left without a reason a day earlier. There are no trees or anything resembling the color green. Thus it was a surprise the first time I found a small populated town.

And that is one the wonderful thing about this game, those small surprises every time I went exploring.

With a rich background story, this game never failed to amaze. Almost every building I venture into has a story to tell. Be it a inhumane experiment gone wrong or an audio log of a poor soul slowly turning into a ghoul.

Every settlement is different with its own unique story such as a city being build around an undetonated atom bomb or a group of survivors who converted a navy vessel into a city.

Additionally, enemies I killed stayed dead and rarely do you revisit an area only to face the daunting task of clearing the same place over and over again. This have kept me hook onto the game for hours on end exploring the wasteland of what use to be Washington D.C

But then again, 50 hours is rather long so I've decided enough. Furthermore, there is still one more assignment to complete before my real holidays starts. Anyway there is still Red alert 3 and farcry 2 waiting to be installed.

On another note it seems that my blog layout felt attention starve and decided to do something stupid like drawing a line right in the middle of my contents. Ah well, I guess its high time I change my template. I will try my best to get it done before my next term starts.

Assignment in a can

2008-11-04T11:25:00.005+08:00

Know what this is? this is the ultimate dream of every university and college student out there.
1) Pour contents into saucer
2) Pour in a can of water (325ml)
3) Slowly stir till boil
4) Best serve while hot
5) Guaranteed satisfaction

I would probably stock my room full of this stuff. What did you say? The young generations will turn into cabbages because they don't study anymore? Unfair to those who can't get access or afford it? The production of it will cause major pollution? Unfortunately, we humans like the easy way out.

ps: That picture (which i have modified) its actually a art piece by Andy Warhol. Its suppose to portray mass production and the industrial revolution or something.

So you think you have balls??

2008-11-02T16:40:00.002+08:00

No you do not have balls till you've slept a night at hotel 626.

ps: its time to turn off the light and turn up the volume.

pps: He wants credit for the discovery of this site. Balistafear.

Early November

2008-11-02T12:38:00.005+08:00

Its the time of the year again.

"I stood on a hill looking over the battlefield"

The time where There is alot of rubbish ahead of me and the only thing I can think of is a looong laborious battle between me and the assignment.

"Dusk cast a flaiming red light over the battle plain as if reflecting the days event, corpse and broken weapons were scattered as far as the eye could see."

But then again I am glad of the assignments. This means I do not have exams, which means I do not have to study. Which is good cause I'll probably will not study. with assignments, there is no such thing as "will not do", there is no such thing as "cannot do". Cannot do still have to do

"I was weary, the sword in my left had was drench in the blood of my enemies. I stood there in my battle worn armor as gentle breeze swept pass me bringing with it the smell of decay. Somewhere in the distant, a drum began to sound."

And the best part is, by the time I am done with my assignments, most of you guys have yet to even begin your final exams!!

"The earth itself began to tremble as a fresh horde of enemies burst out from the horizon, a deep horn sounded behind me summoning my own armies to the front line. The night.......... has yet to begin."