Gunung Nuang: A Taste of Whats to Come

I think there is something that goes against me sleeping early and having a good rest for my out door trips as of late, last one for Broga I couldn't sleep, and yesterday before I was about to go home to rest, Footstool had to make the decision to run off, leaving frog at a angry and emo state. Tried to look for him for sometime but decided to give up since this is not the first time the dummy ran out and I haven't packed yet plus I need to go to bed for Gunung Nuang trip on the next morning.
The Description of the trip was simple... go to Gunung Nuang, Pangsun, hike up to Lolo Camp and return, the 4 hours hike don't seem that bad.
We had 8 person with us on the trip out of the initial 10 person, 2 decided to become pilots and became non-contactable, so the eight of us left Devi's Corner after having our breakfast in 2 cars, one driven by Eddie and the other was me, I got Eddie to lead us to the place as I'm not sure of the location.
Followed him all the way to Cheras but lost him as traffic was heavy at that time, took me quite some time to figure out the way to Gunung Nuang myself, phone kept ringing asking for my location, ETA and such, telling me that everyone is there already except the people in my car when I manage to arrive there, they were there entertaining themselves with Chris' hunting bow, using garbage as target they play while waiting for my car to arrive. Pity Terrence and gang thou, 4 of them arrived on the location at 7.30AM and waited for us since then.
We started the track at 9am walking on a path that has been properly laid all along the track. before we started I thought that this is gonna be quite easy, but after finishing the first incline I was already panting but I know I can finish this.

The hike usually takes 2 hours one way for someone fit, not really much of an issue for myself however I stopped once in a while to wait for the people who are really far behind. I usually play the herd dog, getting everyone to walk in one big group, but this time it was hopeless. trying to run to the front is insane, I can run for some time and couldn't catch up with the people in front as they are too far away, and I still had maintain visual of the people behind, felt like a dung beetle rolling his ball of dung uphill, literally... should had brought out the walkies.

At one point of the trail I stopped with a few others to wait for the rest who are far behind, while we were there chit chatting. I realized that there was a loud buzzing sound above our heads, I look up and found a huge swarm of bees coming out of a tree right above our heads. "Holy SH!T!! RUN! RUN!! RUN!!!" without thinking that line that came out my mouth and in a blink of an eye I started fleeing with the others following right behind. We manage to catch up with the people in front stopped and tried calling the last 2 person behind to warn them about the bees. Luckily, they couldn't find it along the trail.


About 2 and a half hours later we finally found ourselves at the Dam of Camp Lolo, bad news is that this is only the first check point to reach the peak of Gunung Nuang. Good news is today we are not going to the peak. We are just going to rest and play in the water here until everyone is satisfy and ready to head back for another 2+ hours of torture.
Feels like we are not yet ready for Endau Rompin...

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Slumdog Millionaire

Me: So what movie are we watching this weekend?
HY: donno yet, it's either Valkyrie, Kung Fu Chefs or Looking for Star
Me: Why not watch Slumdog Millionaire or The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons?
HY: HA? Slumdog confirm no way.
Me: but why?
HY: malay movie don't want la

In the end, I didn't go to the cinema over the weekends but I've finally watched Slum dog Millionaire last night. The First time I heard about the film was on the news, Reuters reported that the poor people in the slums of India were on strike because of the name of the film, "Slum dwellers are human beings, not dogs." they argued... I guess we as human beings cannot live without arguing. Click to read news

Slumdog Millionaire is a romantic, rags-to-riches story of a young man who is seeking for his lost love, this film earned 10 Academy Award nominees winning 8 including best picture and best director. To me, I find that there isn't a single dull moment in this film. Highly recommended.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Broga Hill : Endau Rompin Evaluation Trip

Zombie Hikers

Gone up to Broga Hill this morning, I personally wasn't well prepared for this trip reason being that I've not slept for 2 nights already and I didn't have a flashlight, I only got them 3 hours before the hike. As usual we meet up at Linus place, 4am this time but somebody was late so we had no choice but to make a choice and that was to wait for the late comer at Devi's Corner down the road, should make it a custom for late comers to pay for everyone's breakfast next time.
At about 5.20AM (I think), we moved out, meeting 2 more cars while on our way to Broga Hill.
6.15AM, after a long and unexpected wait, we finally arrived at the starting point where we parked our cars and started hiking up. I was surprised at the amount of cars there at that time, it was as if somebody is having a wedding up the hill.
Due to some "unforeseen" circumstances, we were behind schedule and some of us was worried that we might miss seeing the sun rise, Linus who was confident actually said that he want's to go off in front, I thought since he's confident with the trail I'll let him go while I stayed a while for everyone to pass and run back to the front later, making sure that no one is left behind. A few were having trouble catching up but in the end we all managed to make our way to the top, slightly late but just in time to see the sun rise.

The Reward

Being fit enough to run the entire trail is good, however I still cannot figure out how to make an entire group hike with a consistant speed.

Happy World Thinking Day
Dennis

Tarantulas' Day Out

I now have a couple of tarantula tanks missing from my room, they are actually now in Tesco Setia Alam along with a bunch or hamsters and fishes from Pets Family, my friend from Pets family actually called my and offered me a booth/table to have a few of my tarantulas to be left there for display.

At first I was having doubts mainly because I got no clue where is the location, however it is not an excuse since I could actually reach there with the help of my GPS phone, so I agreed to go in with them.


I only have 4 tarantulas there for display, I cannot put much on a table anyway plus I won't be there after this morning so having 4 of them there I think is still manageable for the staff of Pets Family.
For the 4 tarantulas I stayed there till quite late,I was there since 9.30 and I was supposed to meet up with some friends to go buy some camping equipments at 2pm in KL and I only left the place at 1.30pm, even as I leave them there I do worry for their well being all the while.
I think I better worry less and go get some rest for Broga Hill tomorrow.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Between Hammers, Valentine and Tarantulas

Didn't had any sleep last night, I got no explanation to the reason why but I learn that to hike with additional 8kg on your back with no sleep will take a toll on the body later after the hike, I didn't feel any difficulty carrying the extra load, it's just plain inconvenient for me as I'm used to hike with minimal gear, the weight did manage to throw me off balance once in a while but it's not that significant.
Anyway, the group met at the meeting point at 6am leave for Kampung Bukit Tinggi for breakfast, as the lead car's co driver I helped in guiding the cars to the destination with the assistance of the GPS. At first my driver kept questioning my directions saying that we didn't drive that far in the last trip, but I assured him that we are on the right path and we'll find out starting point at a resort further down the road.
At the resort we parked our cars and an overconfident me started to walk towards the river and cross it only to be stopped by the resort staff saying that I'm going the wrong way... Bummer...
He showed us to the actual starting point and we started hiking, the trail was like a walk in the park, not much of a challenge for most of us in the group, about 40 minutes later we found ourselves at Lata Hammers.


Lata Hammers was as beautiful as expected the water is so clear and cooling that I could feel my legs turning numb just by standing in the water, swimming and cam whoring ensures for the next 2 hours there.


By the time I got back to the meeting point from the trip it was already 3 or 4 pm, I couldn't remember what time was it mainly because my lack of sleep was so tired that I couldn't think of any reason to do anything but to sleep.


Managed to find my way back home when I woke up a few hours later, back at home I found myself home alone with nothing to do, at least that's until I found out the 100 containers I ordered for my tarantulas has arrived.

Happy Valentine's Day
Dennis

Valentine Date With Mother Nature

My plans for tomorrow are set, sharpen machete, charged up talkies and clean ropes all set and good to go for valentine's day.
Yes I know I may sound like the killer date in a B grade horror movie checking and preparing his equipment, however I'm no killer and it's a good thing for most of my friends I guess.
My date with mother nature will be in Bentong this time near Genting, at a waterfall call Lata Perting aka Hammer Falls, I've been there once before and have been wanting to go back there for a very long time, very beautiful place to spend time with mother nature.
For this trip I'll be carrying almost 10Kg load to toughen up and hopefully build some strength for my trip to Endau Rompin that's coming early March.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Writing In Chinese

Linus requested that I write something in Chinese for him for a picture he wanted to take so I tried what I could do, took me quite some time to do it thou.
I was able to write much faster when I'm younger, was studying in a Chinese school during my primary school days. However it took me more then an hour to write 5 lines now, forgotten how to write many character now. I'm actually considering practicing writing in Chinese again.

Have a Nice Day
Dennis

The birth of the tarantulas

Had a drink last night with a couple of friends after feeling pathetic for a day, sometimes it does cheer me up to see them, as long as they don't start puffing smoke into anybody's face. Not that I hate them or anything but I just don't see the point of smoking. So anyway, after a drink I got back straight away and was about to go to bed till I found something unusual with one of my tarantula tank.

The egg sac of my curly hair tarantula's egg sac has hatched and there are spiderings all over the substrate of it's tank. I was actually expecting it to hatch but I never got myself to prepare the substrate and containers that I needed to separate them all. I dug out all my old containers and steal some from the kitchen but it didn't look enough so I called up the frog to see if he has any plastic containers. Fortunately for me he's got a whole bunch of film canisters that I could use.


Coexing the tarantula in to the canister is quite a challenge, and to pack the first few is actuallly quite fun or exciting but eventually it becames repetitive and tiring. The entire packing process took hours of packing substrate in the canister, then a spider ling for each canister, and making the ventilation holes. Had to be very careful with making the ventilation holes because the tarantula could escape if the holes are too big.
Good thing is that Linus did help me with the tarantulas or else I'll be spending even more time packing them.


In the end we manage to finish the canisters but there still are some more spider lings that are not packed yet. Had to wait for the sun to rise and the shops' door to be open for additional containers.
After taking care of the left overs, I start counting the number of spiderling packed. In all there are 248 of them, and 50% of them has gone to the owner of the male tarantula.

Dennis
Have a Great Day

That pathetic feeling

Had mold bread this morning and I didn't know until my mom mention about it during dinner, I usually notice these kinda thing but I guess age had caught up to me.
Ran 2 rounds at the park in the evening, well... it's more like walk now, I did manage to jog half the trail but had to walk as I was unable to catch my breath, I'm getting a little bit older.
Stopped by the chinning bar to do some pull up, I used to be able to do 3 sets of 10, 8 and 6. For my first set today I only managed 4, then 3. That's way pathetic... need to do something about this now.

I hope you don't feel the way I do now
Dennis

Have you scanned your face today?

This is what happen when one had too much "bak kua" for Chinese New Year.
No matter how mindless your work is remember one thing, there is always room for fun ;)

Have a nice day
Dennis