PREPARATION:
Going to Sabah and to climb the south east asia's highest mountain - mt kinabalu( though wikipedia said it was 3rd) was one of my small little dream that i had always wanted to archieve .........
THe planning is one of the hard part though, as we are not sabahans....everything have to go thru emails and websites to check on the details of sabah, read blogs.........blah blah........worse still, do u noe that one have to book 6 months in advance for the climb.........tat's how hot is d climb...........well......at the end of the days, if u desperately wanted a climb and willing to pay more(2x-3x of $$ self booking), then u might properly get chance to climb, but still it depends on the number of people going up to mt kinabalu.........( coz a big % of room reservations was allocated to tourist agency according to certain quota )
At 1st, i was dissappointed, as i was told by my cousin staying in sabah that the booking for climb is full from may till june........, i was like damn it.........how unlucky was i, as i thought i was very early, almost 5 months before the climb wo.........n i dun wan a trip to sabah without climb up to the summit...........plus i dun wan a trip to sabah so late in june or july
And the opportunity came......... last jan i managed to get in contact with my cousin's fren called doh, his Phd buddy in UMS (university of sabah) who's part time job is organising trips for frens, relatives, church fellows......., i was lucky enough that there were a bunch of frens of doh who couldn't make it to sabah due to some personal problems........,so i was offered 5 vacancies for climb........ i was so damn happy and i quickly contacted frens who have shown interest b4, and the strange thing was all females of my coursemates wanted to go..........haha, i was like....wat de..........i'm d only guy..........but no choice, it's better than nobody accompany, n i believed that they can climb to the summit, as they were females frens of mine who have done so too..........y not them??
So........after a series of planning, emails.........contacts..........everything was settled and we bought d airasia tickets to KK for zero fare ( we have to buy the ticket to sabah 1 day before our climb, whch meant the next day after we touched down in KKIA, we have to climb which normally crazy ppl wud do that, but we have no choice as we have to prepare for the worse scenario if our VIVA is scheduled to early may).haha, but it turned up our VIVA was in end of march..........we thought of changing our flights........but in d end NO, coz really pokai dy.......
So during our final exams in april.........i was looking forward to sabah so much, tat i barely can concentrate on my studies..........but also because this was final sem........sort of tak apa lah attitude was all over me........can u imagine studying sabah, reading websites n looking at pictures of places of interest in sabah while the next morning is the exam??? wat am i doin.............but tat's really wat i'm doing......
hoping that the exam tommorrow wud not be so difficult.........
and yeah, the exams were over.........another 10 more days to sabah( sort of graduation trip)..........still homeworks of sabah continued..........reading wat to prepare, wat to expect, wat to and wat not to..........., wat not to miss.........and changed the initial plan a few times with doh, whom became our KK tour guide.... we sort of joined the package he quoted for us........cheap and packed travel package..........( it cost only RM750 for the whole 9 days trip including transport, excluding meals and snorkelling equipment+life jacket).
At first,i was worried that the offer was expensive.........asked here n there, frens of sabah, frens studying in UMS.......and in the end , found out that the RM750 was really cheap dy............we will travel in sabah using perodua rusa le.......if u wud like to noe the car rental in sabah especially KK, kancil is of coz d cheapest (rm50-60) duno wat cc, but using tat to go up kundasang, go ranau.....???!!!........definitely NO WAY for 650cc.......the roads were so hilly and curvy........ even the rusa had a hard time.......Proton iswara (rm100-110), and if u read from kennysia.com, kenny rented his proton wira for RM170/day.......tat's how expensive it was, n
PLS dun compare it v west malaysia or langkawi (tat's wat i learnt from this planning), so u can imagine i was lucky enuf to have doh as our tour guide........
Monday, October 22, 2007
Kuala kedah + Langkawi........feb 07
THis was a wonderful trip......went with my coursemates........
Went quite a number of place in Kuala Kedah..........
Haha, it's a small town actually, with a little kampung style, a few blocks of shops......some factories. It's famous for it's one of the gateway to the famous LANGKAWI other than kuala perlis and penang.
It was a long bus ride from KL to kuala kedah, pass thru Alor Setar, have to transit between a few buses before we reached kp's house.
After we reached and settles our things, we went for a stroll to the nearby beach........(so nice, beach jz within minutes).........the sand there is much mixed with mud.........but it was a nice long scretch of beach, we 'lepak' there and waited for the sunset. Fortunately, we were ever to c the sunset, a vy beautiful 1.
Went quite a number of place in Kuala Kedah..........
Haha, it's a small town actually, with a little kampung style, a few blocks of shops......some factories. It's famous for it's one of the gateway to the famous LANGKAWI other than kuala perlis and penang.
It was a long bus ride from KL to kuala kedah, pass thru Alor Setar, have to transit between a few buses before we reached kp's house.
After we reached and settles our things, we went for a stroll to the nearby beach........(so nice, beach jz within minutes).........the sand there is much mixed with mud.........but it was a nice long scretch of beach, we 'lepak' there and waited for the sunset. Fortunately, we were ever to c the sunset, a vy beautiful 1.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Taman Negara Pahang
I went together with my college friends............this was during last december
An intro to promote taman negara :)
Taman Negara straddles the interior border regions of Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu, boasting a continuous evolutionary history that spans 130 million years. Spread out over 4,343 sq. km. of the formidable Titiwangsa Mountain Range is Taman Negara - One of the world's oldest tropical rainforest. A sanctuary to hundreds of species of birds, butterflies, insects, fish and plants. Home to Malaysia's friendly aborigines, the Orang Asli. A shy yet gentle race, they continue to live the nomadic way they've lived for centuries although fully aware of the country's fast-paced progress.
Well........the idea of Taman Negara were from my juniors....henry,fai and sam....henry stay nearby taman negara in Jerantut......he introduced us to his father's fren who is an agent for taman negara package.......
Around 20++ people went, consisting student from UM,1 from UPM,1 from UKM, 1 from UTM, and another 2 fren's fren.........the UPM,UKM, UTM were all yung li's frens.........The package that we took was price at RM275 which was ok, moderate price......for 3day 2nights.
On the 1st day,
We arrived at jerantut bus station around noon time......then we paid up at the travel agency and then we were brought to our hostel which was located somewhere deep.......slept a bit on the way to our stay.....( for your information, you can opt to stay inside the taman negara which cost more and get in through boat ride from kuala tembeling jetty or like us, stay outside of taman negara but nearby. of coz, staying inside is better choice if you have the $$, cause you can experince taman negara more.)
It was raining when we arrived at the place we gona stay, called Tahan Guest House........a small house with rooms........the surrounding were decorated like a child's wonderland.......!!!??? this house was separated from Taman negara by a river........which we needed to cross for the following days in order to enter taman negara.
We checked in our rooms.......unpacked our stuff, went for a stroll around.......down till the river...........then backed. At night, we went to the floating restaurant for dinner........pretty special concept, the enviroment was jz nice but the food was nthg special.
After that, we rested a while and the programme of the night was sort night safari/watch.....we crossed the river........first we went for a show about taman negara.......then walked in silence to a nightwatch hut......to looked at a salt lake.........well, A salt lake is a lake which has high salt and other minerals significantly higer than most lakes. As a result, many animals goes to a salt lake for drink and food too.......why food???coz all animals go there, like deer is a food for tiger....etc..............
So we got to the nightwatch hut, saw deers, musang.........grass.......blah bllah.....y the way the lake was far away.......and it's definitely not a good spot for group watching.......the place cant accomodate so many....(so bare in mind, try not do night safari with so many ppl).........we were lucky that a loris appeared on a tree very near to us.........it really move very slowly.....but only for a while.........we went backed to guesthouse.......then gathered for a while........zzzzzz
Surprisingly, in the middle of the night, my new fren (a guy from UKM) woke up........wondered wat happen......came down from his doubledecker.......went for a shower.......only to know that , his bed was not clean.........there were ticks......!@@! gosh.....luckily mine dun hv........he suffered bites and bites.........killed some according to wat he said......so he barely sleep. Apparently, the fren sleeping below him also got bites but minor.
Day 2............of taman negara
well.....today was more excitement........we climbed bukit(hill) terasek , not a high 1.......but d view on top was ok nia lah......so so only........mayb it's because the clouds block the view of Gunung Tahan........ppl used to c gunung tahan from this viewpoint.......but surely u'll get to see the virgin rainforest here that stretch all the way till the end..........
Then we went for canopy walkway, unfortunately part of the higher walkway was closed for maintainence..........too bad,.......it was the world's longest canopy walkway.........but duno why.......it was no excitement for me at all.........it seems like normal......, nothing much to c from the top........maybe it's because this wasn't my 1st time on a canopy walkway........my 1st time was in FRIM( forest research institute malaysia.
Next, was Gua telinga, ear's cave!!! have to track certain distance to reach tis place........this cave was a small one.....cant accomodate many people....so we have to go in batch by batch.......saw bats inside hanging........some bats flying around......we were trying to avoid touching any bat guano.........haha, hv to go thru little bit of water, bend our body, one part of the cave was tough, we have bend into a ball to crawl pass the narrow entrance, wondered how those big size got thru.....even i have difficulties......still it was a good experince of cave exploration......just a little bit surprise and sad that the trail was a short 1.
Next we had lunch back at floating restuarant........Next was a splashing excitement........haha,
The people there called water festival........we have to travel thru small rapid(but not really rapid, nthg much actually )........to visit the orang asli settlement.......along the boat ride ( we had 2 long boat), we splashed each other with river water.......haha, we even use paddle to do so.........it was really alllll wet wet wet........haha, i guessed this was one of the best part of the whole package......haha, enjoyed to water very much.......2 boats compete against each other...... we turned back at 1 point after they showed us a sort of hideout for people who wanted to be isolated from the world.......( people send in meals to u , then leave u alone there, but here u get to c more animals, even tigers.
WE went to the orang asli settlement around 3-4PM.......well.....it was a good experince. The house they stay in was all made of wood, nipah leaves......., their life are very simple.......catch, eat,.......haha, duno.......no entertainment like tv, radio, karaoke.......wondered how they enjoy......but to them the rainforest is the world to them.......at this place there already orang asli who knows how to speak malay, and they demonstrated how they make fire using dried leaves, and rotans.......REALLY AMAZING.......blow pipe.....the orang asli can blow to the top of a very tall tree and are very accurate, AMAZING huh??.......yeah, we were given the chance to experince making fire, blow pipe.........haha....
After tat, we went for swimming at a nearby stream, cold water indeed.....
then was dinner........and own activities........,
during dinner, we were discussing whether to pay more to go to a place where one get to c a magnificient waterfall called Lata Berkoh.....it will b 2 hour boat ride thru a smaller river per way, the picture one always see in the promotion of taman negara, but all din wanted to go. During this journey, we made some new frens, a family from penang, they taught us how to play "bridge" a card game.....haha, a nice and 'use-head' game.........and we played tat all nite.......haha
LAST day..........
We went to tebrau for a animal watch in another salt lake deeper in the forest.........this trail was a rough 1........., this track was not a common track people would go.........as a result, this trail was grown with semak semun........taller grass.......there wasn't a proper trail like the others........and........"pacats" (small leeches) were abundant here.........., gosh.........we were terribly trying to avoid them, looking down at our legs all the times, trying to stop any from reaching our legs or skins.........spray inseticide lagi.......brought salt.....( salt can help to get rid of leeches that have already sucked ur blood, so that the hole was coved up, if one try to peel off the leech with force, u'll c blood leeking out non-stop), b4 this i have frens suffered from leech bites, inside the legs, thighs....., even inside their shoe.............haha , i was lucky not to get any...........but on this tebrau trail, there were pacats on my legs, but din manage to suck blood off me.......coz i get rid of them b4 they do..........
A little disappointing, .........the point we reached to c tis salt lake for animal sighting had no animals at all........well, daytime most animals were inactive........too bad...........
then we went back.......to guestroom, bathed, get ready to go back to henry's house.......that nite we had steamboat in henry's house, courtesy of henry's parents.....very nice of them.......
thanx, henry..........
All in all, i would say that, Taman negara is a place more suitable for foreingers, and for those who never/seldom go jungle trekking, not for people who had already went to many national parks......all national parks including taman negara are basically the same!!!
An intro to promote taman negara :)
Taman Negara straddles the interior border regions of Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu, boasting a continuous evolutionary history that spans 130 million years. Spread out over 4,343 sq. km. of the formidable Titiwangsa Mountain Range is Taman Negara - One of the world's oldest tropical rainforest. A sanctuary to hundreds of species of birds, butterflies, insects, fish and plants. Home to Malaysia's friendly aborigines, the Orang Asli. A shy yet gentle race, they continue to live the nomadic way they've lived for centuries although fully aware of the country's fast-paced progress.
Well........the idea of Taman Negara were from my juniors....henry,fai and sam....henry stay nearby taman negara in Jerantut......he introduced us to his father's fren who is an agent for taman negara package.......
Around 20++ people went, consisting student from UM,1 from UPM,1 from UKM, 1 from UTM, and another 2 fren's fren.........the UPM,UKM, UTM were all yung li's frens.........The package that we took was price at RM275 which was ok, moderate price......for 3day 2nights.
On the 1st day,
We arrived at jerantut bus station around noon time......then we paid up at the travel agency and then we were brought to our hostel which was located somewhere deep.......slept a bit on the way to our stay.....( for your information, you can opt to stay inside the taman negara which cost more and get in through boat ride from kuala tembeling jetty or like us, stay outside of taman negara but nearby. of coz, staying inside is better choice if you have the $$, cause you can experince taman negara more.)
It was raining when we arrived at the place we gona stay, called Tahan Guest House........a small house with rooms........the surrounding were decorated like a child's wonderland.......!!!??? this house was separated from Taman negara by a river........which we needed to cross for the following days in order to enter taman negara.
We checked in our rooms.......unpacked our stuff, went for a stroll around.......down till the river...........then backed. At night, we went to the floating restaurant for dinner........pretty special concept, the enviroment was jz nice but the food was nthg special.
After that, we rested a while and the programme of the night was sort night safari/watch.....we crossed the river........first we went for a show about taman negara.......then walked in silence to a nightwatch hut......to looked at a salt lake.........well, A salt lake is a lake which has high salt and other minerals significantly higer than most lakes. As a result, many animals goes to a salt lake for drink and food too.......why food???coz all animals go there, like deer is a food for tiger....etc..............
So we got to the nightwatch hut, saw deers, musang.........grass.......blah bllah.....y the way the lake was far away.......and it's definitely not a good spot for group watching.......the place cant accomodate so many....(so bare in mind, try not do night safari with so many ppl).........we were lucky that a loris appeared on a tree very near to us.........it really move very slowly.....but only for a while.........we went backed to guesthouse.......then gathered for a while........zzzzzz
Surprisingly, in the middle of the night, my new fren (a guy from UKM) woke up........wondered wat happen......came down from his doubledecker.......went for a shower.......only to know that , his bed was not clean.........there were ticks......!@@! gosh.....luckily mine dun hv........he suffered bites and bites.........killed some according to wat he said......so he barely sleep. Apparently, the fren sleeping below him also got bites but minor.
Day 2............of taman negara
well.....today was more excitement........we climbed bukit(hill) terasek , not a high 1.......but d view on top was ok nia lah......so so only........mayb it's because the clouds block the view of Gunung Tahan........ppl used to c gunung tahan from this viewpoint.......but surely u'll get to see the virgin rainforest here that stretch all the way till the end..........
Then we went for canopy walkway, unfortunately part of the higher walkway was closed for maintainence..........too bad,.......it was the world's longest canopy walkway.........but duno why.......it was no excitement for me at all.........it seems like normal......, nothing much to c from the top........maybe it's because this wasn't my 1st time on a canopy walkway........my 1st time was in FRIM( forest research institute malaysia.
Next, was Gua telinga, ear's cave!!! have to track certain distance to reach tis place........this cave was a small one.....cant accomodate many people....so we have to go in batch by batch.......saw bats inside hanging........some bats flying around......we were trying to avoid touching any bat guano.........haha, hv to go thru little bit of water, bend our body, one part of the cave was tough, we have bend into a ball to crawl pass the narrow entrance, wondered how those big size got thru.....even i have difficulties......still it was a good experince of cave exploration......just a little bit surprise and sad that the trail was a short 1.
Next we had lunch back at floating restuarant........Next was a splashing excitement........haha,
The people there called water festival........we have to travel thru small rapid(but not really rapid, nthg much actually )........to visit the orang asli settlement.......along the boat ride ( we had 2 long boat), we splashed each other with river water.......haha, we even use paddle to do so.........it was really alllll wet wet wet........haha, i guessed this was one of the best part of the whole package......haha, enjoyed to water very much.......2 boats compete against each other...... we turned back at 1 point after they showed us a sort of hideout for people who wanted to be isolated from the world.......( people send in meals to u , then leave u alone there, but here u get to c more animals, even tigers.WE went to the orang asli settlement around 3-4PM.......well.....it was a good experince. The house they stay in was all made of wood, nipah leaves......., their life are very simple.......catch, eat,.......haha, duno.......no entertainment like tv, radio, karaoke.......wondered how they enjoy......but to them the rainforest is the world to them.......at this place there already orang asli who knows how to speak malay, and they demonstrated how they make fire using dried leaves, and rotans.......REALLY AMAZING.......blow pipe.....the orang asli can blow to the top of a very tall tree and are very accurate, AMAZING huh??.......yeah, we were given the chance to experince making fire, blow pipe.........haha....
After tat, we went for swimming at a nearby stream, cold water indeed.....
then was dinner........and own activities........,
during dinner, we were discussing whether to pay more to go to a place where one get to c a magnificient waterfall called Lata Berkoh.....it will b 2 hour boat ride thru a smaller river per way, the picture one always see in the promotion of taman negara, but all din wanted to go. During this journey, we made some new frens, a family from penang, they taught us how to play "bridge" a card game.....haha, a nice and 'use-head' game.........and we played tat all nite.......haha
LAST day..........
We went to tebrau for a animal watch in another salt lake deeper in the forest.........this trail was a rough 1........., this track was not a common track people would go.........as a result, this trail was grown with semak semun........taller grass.......there wasn't a proper trail like the others........and........"pacats" (small leeches) were abundant here.........., gosh.........we were terribly trying to avoid them, looking down at our legs all the times, trying to stop any from reaching our legs or skins.........spray inseticide lagi.......brought salt.....( salt can help to get rid of leeches that have already sucked ur blood, so that the hole was coved up, if one try to peel off the leech with force, u'll c blood leeking out non-stop), b4 this i have frens suffered from leech bites, inside the legs, thighs....., even inside their shoe.............haha , i was lucky not to get any...........but on this tebrau trail, there were pacats on my legs, but din manage to suck blood off me.......coz i get rid of them b4 they do..........
A little disappointing, .........the point we reached to c tis salt lake for animal sighting had no animals at all........well, daytime most animals were inactive........too bad...........
then we went back.......to guestroom, bathed, get ready to go back to henry's house.......that nite we had steamboat in henry's house, courtesy of henry's parents.....very nice of them.......
thanx, henry..........
All in all, i would say that, Taman negara is a place more suitable for foreingers, and for those who never/seldom go jungle trekking, not for people who had already went to many national parks......all national parks including taman negara are basically the same!!!
Jap Drama: SuMMersnoW 夏之雪
Another japanese drama which i liked very much.....
IT"S ABOUT
A love story between a young man who has been forced to grow up too quickly, and a young woman with an ailment that has placed restrictions on her life. Natsuo (Domoto Tsuyoshi) has been looking after his younger brother and sister since the death of their parents. He has also been running the family bicycle shop. Yuki (Hirosue Ryoko) becomes the only person in the world in whom he can confide. For Yuki, Natsuo becomes the catalyst that has her trying to break out of her cocoon.
Summer Snow covers a variety of areas such as teen pregnancy, taking responsibility for your actions, true love, sacrifice, knowing when to do what's right, choosing to live your life depsite physical limitations and many others. I would readily suggest this to anyone who wants to watch the best of Japanese dramas.
Here's Summersnow song from akira senju..........i just LOVE tis song!!
Jap drama: ORANGE dayS
Another jap. drama watch..........a nice 1 ........concerning luv, frenship and university life.........which kind of suits teenagers life or youth's appetite CALLED Orange days....
here's the synopsis......
Kai Yuuki (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is in his senior year at university studying social welfare psychology. At present, he is in the middle of job-hunting season. He is finding it difficult with no job offers so far.One day, he meets a girl who is playing violin in the campus. She is Sae Hagio (Kou Shibasaki). In marked contrast to her beautiful tone and attractive looks, her personality is somewhat impertinent. And to top it off, she communicates through very vulgar sign language.Four years ago, she lost the most important thing for a violinist - her hearing. As a result Sae closed off her inner self from the outside world.Kai finds himself on a date with Sae, in place of his best friend. Unexpectedly, he comes into contact with Sae's private side.Love, job-hunting, friendship... Setting a campus in spring as a dorama`s backdrop, it's the start of a glittering youth drama.
The writer is the same person who once wrote famous "beautiful Life".
try get it and watch.............
Wonder y it's call orange days not apple days or strawberry days???watch it......dun miss it :)
Here's theme song Mr.Children - Sign (piano version), listen to it !!!
http://guynextdoor84.googlepages.com/signpiano.m3u
& theme song Mr.Children - Sign
http://guynextdoor84.googlepages.com/sign.m3u
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