Serpent Ta(le)
An update of myself...
Last Sunday afternoon i had an unforgettable encounter. Aik, Tien and I were training at Bukit Timah Hill that afternoon. As Tien was not feeling well, aik and I continued training for the last flight of stairs. When i was climbing down the stairs, i felt something brushed past my leg. Thinking that it was probably just leaves, i continued on. However, right at that moment, a guy who was walking up the stairs in opposite direction started to shout at me.
"IT IS CHASING YOU!!!"
I was like....
"Huh?!?"
I continued on... while at the same time looking back at what's the 'phantom' that was chasing me. To my horror, it was a >1m long cobra-lookalike snake with its upper body erected in a ready-to-prance position staring at me. Apparently i have stepped over it without noticing its presence at all. But seriously, i wasn't shocked or what... i seriously think that my countless experiences with snakes in my childhood and during my taiwan stint has more or less dampen the fear factor. However, it was still scary to face this 'pretty big' slithering stuff. Anyway, i started throwing rocks at it and i was thinking of killing it. (sorry to all the animal-rights friends i personally do not have a special liking for snakes) Is it a crime to kill a snake in Bukit Timah Hill?? This old guy came along, took a long branch, waved it over the snake and in a second, the snake slithered into the bushes. Wah... that old guy very zai leh... must be last time always 'jia zhua' that's why so pro. Hahaha.
THe afterthought of what if the snake really bite me at that time... what would i do?... oh gosh...it indeed was a close shave.
Yesterday evening was spent watching aik and his piano teacher's concert at NAFA. It was a splendid performance, except that there were lots of coffers in the studio. I think it is very rude, and i shall say it again... i think it is very PHILISTINE to cough CONTINUOUSLY during a concert. I mean yes i do understand cough cannot be controlled. But i do suppose it is not hard to detect that you have a continuous cough and that it will affect the atmosphere of the performance and thus the right thing you should do is to either get out of the room or eat lozenges, drink water or something. I think this is the most basic kind of respect both to the audience and to the performers. Sigh... sometimes i really do get disappointed at the behaviour of Singaporeans at concerts.
Anyway... i think i have just flunk my English test... Yippee!! =P
Outing Tomorrow
Will be going to Malaysia tomorrow. This time I will be going to Kukup with my fellowship. It is pretty unthinkable that despite my tight schedule (projects and upcoming tests), i still have time to go hiking in Belumut and have fellowship in Kukup... God is gracious. =P
I sure do hope i will be able to take some photos over there.
In the mean time... tata
Gunung Belumut
Tien, Jiahui, aik and I met up at Velocity around 7 plus to wait for the coach to fetch us to Gunung Belumut. I was not in good shape for a hike that day. I have not recovered from flu plus i was super sleep-deprived having only 2 hours sleep the night before. zzZZzzz... but nevertheless, what to do? hahaha...
This was me at the rear of the 'bumpy' minibus.
The 2 sisters along the trip
Halfway along the journey, we stopped at a local police post to register our hike. The toilet at the police post was horrendous... eeeks. When i was peeing, i actually saw a small centipede wriggling up the hole. That was a pretty gross sight... i did intentionally tried to drown it with my pee. =P Oops... i better spare the details for now.
Finally we arrived at the site. I was pretty surprised to see that Gunung Belumut was pretty 'built-up' for a hiking area. I mean there was a playground right smack in the middle of the carpark. I should suppose this could be a weekend getaway for the Malaysians.
That's us (me behind the camera) doing some warm-up before the hike.
I am not exactly a big fan of equatorial tropical rainforest. I mean just look at the pic below. When i took the picture, all i could picture in my mind was creepy-crawlies, pokey plants, muddy trials, gross humidity, snakes...tigers..etc etc. O'well... i supposed we couldn't keep hiking that pathetic Bukit Timah Hill for training could we?
The towering signboard "HUTAN LIPUR GUNUNG BELUMUT". Totally no idea what Hutan Lipur means...
We started off at 1100 and we were supposed to reach the summit by 1400. It was pretty stressful for us as we have to climb to the summit within such tight time limit. At first, i thought that Gunung Belumut was a pretty ok hill to climb, but never did i realise the slopes uphill were pretty challenging and steep.
That's aik and Tien emerging out of the greenies
Halfway, i seemed to have lost aik and Tien. (On hind sight i then realised Tien had a severe backache and both of them did not have enough water with them too) Afraid that they would be lost, the INGENIUS me (YES ME!!!) used some twigs and branches to make an arrow pointing towards the trail. Smart eh? =P
Not that i want to say, but the view was pretty disappointing. The dense vegetation growth blocked out most of the scenery at the summit. At that point of time, i was getting worried myself. Not only was i sick and sleep-deprived, i have finished all my water supply and did not have lunch. Oh no....
A view on the summit
This is a video of the summit on Gunung Belumut
JIAHUI!!! What are you doing?!?!!?
The ROCK! Pretty vandalised...
The cumulonimbus clouds started to loom over us. THe sparrows flew low and i'm sure you know what was going to happen soon.
Want to rain already still smiling so happily.... hahahaha
Ok lah..i join in... WHEEEEEE
Oh ya... there were lots of this kind of orange bugs at the summit which kept sticking onto our shirt, our head, our hair, our hands, our legs, our wateva... everywhere!!! super irritating loh. Regretted not bringing insecticide along... =P
Ok... summit is done... now came the part on going down. How i dreaded going down the hill. Gosh!!
Downslope.................................
MORE downslope........................
ANd even MORE downslope.......................
And steeper downslope...................
Anyway, I was really pushing myself very hard despite having fatigue and lack of water. At that time i was purely forcing myself to go into trance (a skill acquired from years of canoeing experience) so that i could conserve enough energy to make it down to the base. It was pretty funny cos there was this guy who seemed older and fitter than me who kept whining throughout the downhill journey. i was pretty irritated but despite my condition, i did gave him some motivation along the way.
AFter what seemed to be forever, i suddenly saw a familiar sight. It was aik walking towards us with a big mineral water bottle. At that point of time, he was like the angel of light, how when i needed water the most, he appeared. Obviously i wouldn't say such mushy things to him lah... but then at that point of time when it seemed like the whole world has forsaken you (maybe i'm exagerrating too much here), and you see a gleam of light that warms your heart.... yah... something like that. Maybe i should consider writing story plot for some drama serials hor? hahaha. But still, i really did appreciate his action... i knew i could depend on him to save my life in times of danger... =P
Oh well... we did reached the base and guessed what, it started to pour. And it was a torrential downpour... like raining pigs and hippotamus. (i think 'cats and dogs' is not strong enough to describe the intensity) So after we took a bath, we took the minibus to Kluang for our long-awaited dinner.
Along the way, all of us were stretching ourselves in all kinds of weird positions. hahaha.... what a cool-down. The pic of aik below says it best...
Ahhh... dinner was good. Got duck, fish, chicken, veg, soup, fruits, tofu etc etc. I was so famished that i could not be bothered with health issues. I gobbled up all the crispy oily duck skin without any sense of remorse. =P
But seriously, after this trip, it just dawned on me how much i need to train for the upcoming Kilimanjaro. Gosh... better wake up my idea...
A sharing from Jiahui:
Trusting God to sustain each one of us... and I was thinking too, when I was taking one difficult step at a time up the mountain, how I realise that in the same way we depend on God for every step we take when we feel we can't move much more, and each breath we breathe when the air is so rarified (not that it was on Belumut la...trying to mentally prep myself for Kili)... actually that is the same way we depend on God to give us every step and every breath we take while we're at work / school / doing our thing... and I've super taken it for granted till now! Well, so if God who out of His infinite riches & provision & grace can give us the millions of breaths & steps we've taken in our lives....He too is that all abundant source of strength for us to go up Kili! :) Yay!
My New Goretex!!
My $580 Goretex
Well... the shopowner is really nice as he gave me a student discount.
PDF ALERT
I shall never attempt to print out so many pdf files in the CBLC comp lab again. It takes ages to churn out one piece of printed paper. Gosh... Haha. quite paiseh as i think i'm like hogging over the printer. Yah... you're right... i'm currently typing this blog entry because i'm still waiting for my notes to be printed out. Alright.... am now going to see a doctor... need some medicine desperately....
