1st outdoor rock climbing at Morialta park 5th June 2010

My 1st outdoor rock climbing experience!!! All I can say is it’s fun, challenging, cool, and DEFINITELY MUCH COOLER than indoor rock climbing, haha. Why?? You are climbing in a natural setting, real rocks, real wall, you can feel the rock surface and the feeling more superb and more surreal!!!! 
You definitely have to have some indoor rock climbing experiences at least how to belay and wear a harness, a bit of the skills to climb. Having said that the gear used outdoor is slightly different to indoor.

This was my first time to this part of Morialta which is specially dedicated to rock climbing, lots of climbers come here to climb during weekends, the climbs here are mostly short, mostly top-rope setting, i think there might be a few thread climbs?? Not too sure, haha.

All in all, it was obvious to me indoor climbing training is REALLY NECESSARY to climb harder routes because you need to constantly stay fit, train your stamina, hone your skills, trained your fingers, palms,shoulders, legs, etc. For someone like me, that have only went to indoor twice, i find it not too bad for the easier ones, but the harder ones beyong rate 12-13 is a NO NO, haha.


Top rope setting site


One of the hard short one to climb (right pic)

农历新年，happy 兔gether!!!

哦，华人新年吗，每个华人最期待的佳节！！！

小时吗， 新年就是最开心的时候啦，除了可以吃喝玩乐，我想最开心就是收红包，哈哈！

到了中学期，跟一班好朋友一起去拜年，大家开开心心，你说我笑，骑着脚踏车， 想去哪里就大家一伙儿， 尽量拜越多越爽！！

再多几年的新年，还是疯疯癫癫，驾车了，开始赌了，可是也开始变了。。。

认识的朋友也随着增加，开始时就还有去拜年，之后呢？？ 哈哈，也越来越懒了，只纯粹拜访比较好的朋友，而且有时候在一间家呆也呆了几粒钟，就这样新年也过了。。。

随着年龄，烦恼也愈多，大家各分西东，见面的机会也愈少，跟的朋友也换了，政府禁鞭炮。。。

新年也变质了，哈哈。

新年等于假期，休息的长假，很多朋友见面话题也少了。

想想下我也有5年没在家乡过年了，两年呆在吉隆坡，3年呆在澳洲。新年现在对我来说也只不过如此，哈哈。

朋友经常问：“为什麽不回？在那里干嘛！！！不想家吗？？”

除此之外

《除此之外》 

词：阿怪 

曲：陈达伟 

唱：范逸臣 

say goodnight 晚安 

谢谢你陪我一整个夜晚 

close your eyes be quiet 

我明白你有自己的不安 

很多来不及我不曾看见 

我只遇见你的现在 

不管你接受或离开 

I hope to stay for a while 

除此之外 要你明白 

你的笑我真是喜欢看 

于是我一次又一次等待 

其实都还算愉快 

除此之外 非常遗憾 

你的心我还是打不开 

and if you need somebody 

我确定我会在 

不会走开 

so goodbye 晚安 

舍不得看你觉得不自在 

it's alright,I'm fine 

看起来这故事会写不完 

很多差一点你没有发现 

你只认识我的现在 

不管你留下或走开 

I'm gonna stay for a while 

除此之外 我要你明白 

你的笑我真是喜欢看 

于是我一次又一次等待 

其实都还算愉快 

除此之外 非常遗憾 

你的心我还是打不开 

and if you need somebody 

我确定我会在 

除此之外 我还在等待 

你的心将为我敞开 

but if you need somebody 

你知道我会 

不会走开

travel thoughts...

看了林悦的部落格其中一篇文章：“一个人旅行” http://myprivatemap.blogspot.com/2011/01/blog-post_17.html 突然也想表达我个人的看法， 所以也在林悦的部落格留下了comment, 想想下也在此把它paste上吧，嘻嘻。

I would like to share some of my thoughts with ya all bout traveling and soloing :)

First of all, I agreed that it's the desire that counts most, however i reckon courage comes second, a desire without the courage to make the move is dreaming, but on the other hand, desire with the determination to "just do it (nike slogan)" is what makes it different and it does take a lot of sacrifice and determination to do it. SO i think they both come hand in hand. 

of course, i'm talking bout traveling solo for a long period of time, doing everything on your own. Not a 1 week kinda Airasia fly in fly out type of solo backpacking which is peanuts.

To me traveling/backpacking solo is a kind of release, towards freedom, towards self-realization, self-confidence,independence, etc.

Traveling solo is more meaningful when you gain and learn something. Ideally, it should be an eye-opener to the world spiritually, intellectually, culturally, not just "i have been here" or just purely to "see" which i think many fall to appreciate. 

Personally, i think conversation of "Wow, you got guts to travel alone!!!" is due to as what Lam Yuet said lack of the worldly sights. Another important factor is our culture is so different. IF you have been traveling around, and actually talk to many foreigners, you'll realize how common it is to travel either alone or with buddies. Especially in Malaysia, the culture has burden our kids with "FUTURE" and exams, and to be the best, to be fast, and the long education system too play a role. Everyone's in a hurry, for uni, for job, for family, etc. A year or even a few months off is such a BIG issue to many!!! Hardly 1 out of 100, you'll find spend a year off to do traveling, hence traveling alone is uncommon which resulted in fear and lack of trust with themselves. Kids in the western countries get a year or few months off to somewhere after high school which are actually encourage by parents. They have the choice of freedom!!! (of course, some country's kids are more fortunate due the currency difference)

Having said above, having a start to travel/backpack alone locally in Malaysia or to neighbouring countries is a good way to kick start!!! From there you get on the bigger trips and further away from home :)

Just some thoughts of mine :) 旅行万岁!!!! haha

Mt.Crawford-Freemans Hut-Whispering walls-rocky paddock 29-30th May 2010

Ever since my last visit to this amazing hut with Jono & Alex in the middle of the night, i have fall in love with this hut, haha. Really long to go back to have a look properly and stay for a night or two. And since Jono was also keen to go back especially since he have never stay overnight there before, so we thought let’s give it a go and here we go, drove all the way up to Mt.Crawford with our simple overnight backpack. According to Jono, of all the times he’s been there before, the hut was always empty and that really tempted us to get a 6-pack beers, unfortunately we couldn’t find any pubs or cellars open along the way.

The night was cold, well it’s late Autumn, of course we were expecting freezing cold nights. Parked our car, walked the 2kms (is that right Jono??) and broke some branch of a dead tree for our fire in the hut. I was really anticipating the coziness and warmth when we got into the hut and get the fire going on, brew our hot drink, snack and zzz, wake up to a brilliant morning!!!

Yet, this time we were wrong, there’s light coming out of the window of the hut. And as to our expectation, there’s someone in there before us which kinda ruined our party, haha. Worse still they were already in bed!!! So we kinda just rocked up and made lots of noise to get ourselves changed and ready to bed as well. Unfortunately, we couldn’t feel the warm coming from the fire because we were in the other 6 bunk room, the 2 that came before us took the good spot!!! haha, the 2 were snoring in a rhythm that sync with each other, omg!!! First time i heard that kind of snoring!!! Pretty annoying of course,  oh well….Tried quite hard to shut my eyes and get some decent sleep.

Woke up to a cold hazy morning!!! Which is pretty amazing, i felt like i’m a shepherd waking to the first light of the day and getting ready to get into the farm to work because the hut is surrounded by greenery, gum trees and small slopes!!!! Unfortunately, there’s no sheep or cows anywhere in sight, haha. They were all busy grazing on some of the faraway slopes.

There’s the toilet at the side of the hut…




The kitchen at the back of the hut which is to my surprise pretty nicely built and sheltered!!!









These little little things brought in and left by people who have stay overnight in the hut really make the place like a hiker/traveler's stopover place, and the burn marks and cracks on the walls really make the hut so pretty!!! Very countryside feel for me!!!! LOVE IT!!!!