No Stranger To Heng

Finding Layla

2011-05-22T09:05:00.004+08:00

I don't usually use curse words, then again it depends on who I am talking to. However the situation yesterday made it perfectly fine to curse all day.
Audrey's dog, a Siberian husky called Layla went missing! When I got the SMS from her brother, my heart just sank and I wanted to just drop whatever I was doing and just go out to find her. This was the second time it happen, I thought we were lucky that someone found her and actually called us up right after seeing the missing posters we put up. This time I am not so sure we could find her again, due to the fact that we don't know how long she has been missing. It is important to have these details because from that we can tell the estimated search range. Unfortunately, no one seems to know the time she when missing and the maid was either too ignorant or too dumb to answer simple question like who when out or came back between 5pm to 8pm.
Prior to the drama, I was out hiking at Bukit Apeh hills which is tiring but not satisfying at all, I got back home to rest a while and waited for Aurelius to pick me up so that we could go buy some stuff from the digital mall and grab dinner at the same time. It was when we were right in front of the mall when I got the bad news.
I told Aurelius about Layla and that I lost the mood to go to the mall, yet he insisted that we continue on with the plan if we could find a parking. And we did find one, quickly run in and get what we needed and rush over to find Layla. It was actually a good thing that we did go on with the plan, not only I get to save time and got the thing I needed, it helps me with the search as I didn't need to worry about shopping again.
We drove around the area, with our windows down shouting out for Layla as loud as we could. Drive by every street and every park near by but we don't see her anywhere.
We then saw a lady walking her dog so we decided to ask if she seen Layla, "Ya, I saw her by the park just now, she was digging and eating rubbish." I immediately knew it was her, that greedy fella! I gave the lady my number and told her to give me a call if she sees her again. We continue our search for another hour and decided to head back to Audrey's place to get something to drink and at the same time get more details from the maid. It was about 10pm at that point, we were getting drinks and was about to continue the search when someone call up my phone.

"Hello Dennis?"
I didn't know who it was, but in my mind I was hoping that his is not some sales person trying to sell something or someone calling up to ask about tarantulas.
"I heard that your dog missing, I saw her in the rain by the park and bring her back home."
I was so relieve at that point, but where did he got my number? The one thing we didn't do after we found Layla the last time was to give her a dog tag with our phone numbers on it.
Apparently, the lady who I gave my number to earlier was a friend of a friend with the person on the phone and he actually called her asking if she knows anyone lose a dog in the area. It was a complete coincidence that the only person I saw and gave my number to while looking for Layla is an acquaintance of the person who found her.
"You are very lucky." he said after telling me where his place is.

Layla is now safely back at home, sleeping soundly in the living room wearing her make shift dog tag with my number on it, lying right next to the couch I am on while typing this.

Have a great weekend
Dennis

Hammer time

2011-04-20T23:38:00.002+08:00

Just got myself an 8 pound sledgehammer and a used 4x4 tire recently, I decided to try that instead of going to the gym not only because it's much cheaper than joining a gym. It is also a much interesting method to build up strength and muscles.
I only spend about one hour beating the crap out of the tire switching to different swinging methods after completing every set. Boy can I feel the burn on my back!
Haven't had this sensation for years now!

I do still workout at home or whenever i can after I stopped going to the gym, but it's mostly simply exercises. Nothing as serious as my gym rat days. At my peak, I was pushing 30+kg bench press. Ask me to do it now, I think I'll just become pancake.

I do feel sad looking at old pictures of myself being buffed up, those muscles really shrink if you don't use them and I kept asking myself why didn't I go all the way and keep training. I most likely be able to reach my targeted body weight of 60kg if I did, but as for now my body weight had fell to below the 55kg mark. And yes, I know most people have trouble reducing their body weight yet I am doing the opposite, I don't know if it is a blessing or a curse, but my body weight is always the same, no matter how much or how little I eat. The only time I manage to increase it was by working out with really heavy weights, that only gave me a extra 5kg to my weight.

Hopefully I can gain back the missing 2kg without going to the gym.

Have s great day
Dennis

Forsaken

2011-04-18T11:14:00.004+08:00

I've not written or posted a new post in my blog for so long that some of my friends wonder if I've already forsaken my blog. For myself, I'm not sure of the answer either, let me explain. Sometimes in life, people get lost, either distracted or not sure of their direction, where to go and what to do. To find their way they often look back at the past, comparing now with then, who died? What changed? What made them laugh? What made them cry? I'm actually not in that situation, but the drama helps make this post a little longer.

I think I spend more time reading my older post than writing new ones, not really sure what's the reason but I find that more enjoyable to do but in a way I am trying to find out who I was. It's not like I've got in to an accident and lost my memory but my memory is starting to get bad as I grow older.

Simple things like forgetting my keys or trying to find my wallet in my messy room often fill me with frustration that always make people around me upset. I never have any intention of hurting anyone but sometimes things just happen subconsciously, but I'm really sorry for that.

I remember I used to be very patience in many things I do, well at least much more patience then I am now at least. I cannot stand people telling me what to do when I'm already doing it, like just when I was about to take out the trash, somebody just jumps in and tell me to take out the trash, I know people cannot read my mind but it's just so very annoying. With all that ranting aside, I think the whole point of writing this post is just to write a post and to clearify that this blog is not forsaken, I'm just too damn lazy to write.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Aku Orang India

2010-10-25T17:04:00.002+08:00

While entering my car today, I saw an Indian man stopping his motorcycle and waving at me. He was waving as he limps towards my direction as I turn my ignition, I'm not sure if he was waving at me the first time I saw him but having him standing by the window of the car clears my doubts.
Since he's limping, I guess he might have fell off his motorcycle or something and is looking for help. I wind down my window to see what help does he need and he started putting his hands together and say.
"Jangan takut, aku orang india juga." he said with a sad tone.
I know I have dark skin but am I really that dark that I could be pass off as an Indian?
"Aku nak minta tolong sikit, saya ada anak tapi tak ada duit nak beli susu bagi dia, lagi tadi saya kena hantam kat kepala" He said it with tears of sorrow flowing from his eyes, I usually don't give money to people who begs because it usually looks like that they make it look like that they have done it a thousand times before, it just doesn't feel authentic at all.
However, this guy is different. In his voice I could feel his sorrow, his expression tells me that this man could use some help, but am I really that dark?
I pulled out 10 Ringgit from my wallet and hand it to the man.
"Thank you bang, saya akan balas balik jika kita jumpa lagi."
I told him not to worry about it, hope that the money does help him.
He then thank me in Cantonese as he walks away, leaving myself confused about my image.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Murphy's law

2010-06-08T16:23:00.002+08:00

There are no problems, only situations

Just when I need to edit my short film, write scripts, ect my PC monitor decides to make things intresting by having dead pixels and magically turn off for no reason. When I try to turn it back on, it turn off again in 5 seconds. OH! All the fun!
This started after I return from Vietnam, at the time I was waiting to see if I get selected by the organisers of Panasonic Digital Film Fiesta to shoot a short film. They called me on the 26th of May and told me that I am selected and I have to pick up the camera on the 31st May.
Planned the shoot on the 5th of June trying to take advantage of the public holiday (King's Birthday) but was later told to pick up camera on the 7th May because they want to provide me with lighting equipment. I told them that I couldn't delay further and don't need the lighting equipment.
Anyway I'm now busy editing and writing another script, been so busy these days that I didn't even have the time to watch Iron Man 2. Sent the monitor in to Samsung service center, it wasn't comforting to see about 5 monitors show up in the center for service during my one hour wait there.
Hope that my monitor comes back from the service center soon, without any issues or I'll be practicing my rage in a certain service senter.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Logorama

2010-02-09T21:29:00.001+08:00

Logorama
Uploaded by siglo3000. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

2010-01-26T18:11:00.002+08:00

Whenever i get caught in a traffic jam or got stuck in a crowded place, the one thing that's is in my mind is "Where did all these people come from?"
The members of the website I'm about to share have a different idea.

www.vhemt.org - The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

No, they are not out bombing or killing people, however these guys seems to have a different idea, That is to convince people to stop breeding. Interesting idea but don't see how it will work without killing people.

“May we live long and die out” - vhemt motto

Have a Great Day,
Dennis

MCA vs KMT

2009-12-02T14:50:00.001+08:00

A note to remember

2009-11-02T11:32:00.006+08:00

James Khor Wan Kai is a 20 year old student from Penang, who wants to be someone extraordinary in the near future.
On the 1st of November James and 4 of his friends traveled to Batu Berangkai Waterfall for to enjoy the great outdoors.
Unfortunately, James life was cut short as he and 2 of his friends, Yew Shy Gin and Yew Ghim Chnieh, drown after they were swept away by strong current at the Batu Berangkai Waterfall located at Kampar. Their bodies were found one kilometer away from the spot where they were swimming and enjoying the waterfall. The only surviving person from the group was lucky that a villager manage to pull him out of the water, he suffered cuts, bruises and most likely is now still in disbelieve that he had lost his friends.

This is the kinda of thing I'm sure most people want to avoid for any outdoor activities, when hiking make sure that the group move in one group so that everyone can look out for each other. Make sure that there are a few people who are experienced for the event, having someone with knowledge of first aid is important too.

wanted to travel all travel point in Malaysia before i finish my bachelor degree program..
but always feel not motivated and didn't move my ass on it..
well..
something happened make me decided to move now..
life is short..
life is unpredictable..
we just dunno what will happen next and what will things become next..

James Khor's blog entry on the 13th of October 2009
http://jameskhor.blogspot.com

R.I.P to the victims of the November 1st 2009 Batu Berangkai Waterfall Incident

And to the rest
Enjoy mother nature, but don't be reckless and always watch out for each other.

Have A Great Day.
Dennis

Let's Forgive

2009-10-25T15:28:00.004+08:00

With this video I beg for forgiveness from my friends and family who used to read my blog. forgive me for I've forsaken this blog. :P

More importantly, do learn to forgive simply because a relationship/friendship is worth more than an apology.

Have A Great Weekend
Dennis

The Strange Peaceful Feeling

2009-08-10T15:53:00.002+08:00

Lost my cellphone ...

Lepok Fall

2009-08-04T11:03:00.002+08:00

It's been a while since my group of friends make our last waterfall trip, everyone's been busy with all sort of things. So a few of us decided to make a trip to one in Hulu Langat, to a waterfall call Lepok falls.
Lepok Falls is located near Kampung Pangsun, or rather very near Gunung Nuang's entry point. this waterfall is frequently visited, it may be because of it's easy accessibility, an hour hike was all thet require if you know the way.
There was 6 of us in this trip and of the 6 only Aurelius had been to the waterfall, still I was appointed to lead the group.

Opening a Durian

The trail can be quite confusing if you are not careful exspecially at the part where a uphill climb is require. There are plenty of side tracks here and there which the durian collectors used, make sure you come across a abandon pipeline at about 30 minutes of the trail.

Lepok Falls

Lepok Fall is a nice place to hang out, the water is clear and clean. However traces of human destruction can be found at the waterfall surroundings.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Biarkan kenangan berbunga di ranting usia...

2009-07-25T23:25:00.001+08:00

I Survived!!!

2009-07-07T09:03:00.004+08:00

My weekend preparations started a week ago, it was phone calls after phone calls in getting things ready, in between that I keep getting annoying ones which keeps coming and asking me irrelevant questions or giving me weird suggestions. It's a waste of time some of these phone calls, a little less talk and more action is what I need.
Woke up early and arrive at Mid Valley at 9AM to setup the MTS booth, I didn't want anything fancy for it because there is no budget in the society and so far I am the one who's paying the price. Plus it's much easier to manage if things are kept simple.

Ron and Ryo arrived at the booth just as I was done planning the booth setup, the booth actually comes with a table, 2 chairs and a waste basket. There is nothing to really secure our precious tarantulas from getting stolen so I forked out some cash from my own pocket to rent a lockable cabinet which I knew was not worth the money but it was much convenient for me to just rent it even with the ridiculous price I paid.

The exhibition was really quiet on the 1st day, even before I can manage myself for lunch, the mind keeps wandering off thinking about work and the "Let's go mamak" concert I'm attending that night.
I left the booth early, leaving Ryo in charge of the booth while I'm away. Gave him some instructions and ground rules of my own which includes "Strictly No Handling of any Tarantula" This is the first time that the Malaysian Tarantula Society is in a event of this size, I cannot afford a screw up by some mindless eager keeper, thinking of the scenarios it is hard to imagine how to settle if someone gets bitten by one of the tarantula. Not only that I have to explain to the organisers which is a small issue. But if the victim is a visitor, he or she will have even bigger fear of tarantulas and MTS would become infamous for sure.
I left Mid valley to attend to some work, sending a copy of the company's latest work to FINAS for a Film Award and attended "Lets go mamak" with Audrey and her friends.

Saturday: Shoot Day For SSDD
Kin Yew's short film which he had ask for my assistance, it's not easy to work on one of the scene which involves a lot of people, it's like an ant controlling a mob. The worst thing is working with the people who don't believe in the project actually frustrates me. It was so bad that it became a pain which I just wanted to just do it quick and get it over it.
Yet there are some good out of it, most of us there learn something and gain some experience in making a film and I got myself a new motto.

Sunday: Spent the whole day at Mid Valley Exhibition Center for the tarantulas, nothing interesting there but it was all right.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

A Maniac's Weekend

2009-07-02T12:30:00.004+08:00

For 2 weeks I've been cracking my head in planning my 1st weekend for the month of July. The list of thing I have this weekend was:

Malaysian Tarantula Society booth at Pets World Exhibition Mid Valley Exhibition Center (3rd, 4th, 5th July)
Lets Go MAMAK Concert (Friday Night)
Art Direct and Shooting the making of Linus' New Short Film (Saturday or Sunday)
Assist Kin Yew in his short film titled "Same Shit Different Day" (Saturday or Sunday)

Before I talk more about this seemingly impossible weekend, I'm gonna talk about my previous week highlights.

Had some issues and wasn't quite happy about certain things in my life, at the same time Audrey had to attend a seminar in Penang so took the chance to retreat and re-think.

As soon as I return, I was told to assist Aaron in a short film called "Life" directed by Parkash. Aaron, as Linus describes, is very serious about his work and have very high expectations from his crew, so due to my limited experience on set getting the chance of working with Aaron was unlikely for me. The opportunity came at a very unlikely time, still a little unsure at first but it make more sense to give it a try and do whatever I can.

Now, how do I split myself and be in 4 locations at once? The Concert is not an issue since it's only held at night I can just pardon myself and leave the exhibition slightly early. Shooting the short film will take a day each, fortunately one of it is postponed to next week so that things can be better organised. For the exhibition, I got enough people to manage the booth for the 3 days, but it is crucial that I be in on the 1st and the last day, the days that I have to setup and pack up. All this can be done.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Delayed May Updates

2009-06-02T19:25:00.007+08:00

10th May: Did a recce trip to Kendondong Falls with Aurelius, Seng Keong and Chris.

17th May: Guide a bunch of friends to Kendondong Falls myself, crash car on the way back, got conned feel like crap after that.

24th May: Paint Ball with friends and strangers at Mud Trekkers, had fun but still feeling shitty about the crash.

30th May: Did the Skytrex Extreme Challenge at Taman Pertanian, Shah Alam, it's extremely challenging and tiring for me since I do have a fear of heights but it was fun.
Someone forgotten their locker key so I cycled from entrance to the SkyTrex place and back. Shot some arrows with Chris for practice and act for the Interns short film with Audrey on the same day.
The shoot planning was horrible and the wait was painful, did't get a scene even after 3 hours after the starting time, shoot continue on the next night with some improvement.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Conquering Strata Falls: Part 2

2009-05-04T23:04:00.008+08:00

Aurelius called me up on Saturday, telling me about his plans to explore Strata falls area on the following day, he asked if I was interested to join him and Chris for this trip. He is limiting the number this time to 4 heads so that the group could explore the whole trail efficiently. At that time I couldn't find any reason not to go, so I agreed to come along.
We left for Tanjung Malim town at 6.30am to have our breakfast and stock up on food supplies, we had the best fried chicken of our lives and packed half a roast duck up for lunch at the waterfall later.

Do you see a trail?

It's 9.10am, we were at the starting point hiking and chatting to a local there. Chris kept asking about the wildlife that can be found there for some reason while Aurelius asked about the trail to Strata Falls. As usual the native gave us a very vague answer "Terus jalan saja", that means we are better off finding the way on our own.
Eventually we found ourselves on the path heading towards Strata Falls, I cannot be sure if this is the right path or is it the wrong path but the GPS indicates that we were getting closer and closer to our objective.
It didn't take us long to realized that we got to clear the trail to move on, the trail was so overgrown that my machete was out of it's sheath most of the time. at one point we stopped and check the maps and our coordinates and realized that we are actually using an old trail that leads all the way to the top of Strata falls. To me it was fine, we could always find our way down from the top.

A small waterfall at a tributary

Cleaning up on the top of Strata Falls

at 11.50am we finally arrived at the end of the trail, where we found ourselves standing gloriously on the top of Strata Falls, we took a break to check our body for leeches, at that point I already had a few coming that got really close to "Private John". A quick check, some rest and a dozen of photographs later, we moved on to our next destination - the bottom pool.

Strata Falls

It was a long way down from the top, and there isn't any proper trail that leads down. At some point it was really dangerous, the cliff that we were walking on was like maybe 4 or 5 stories high, one slip could send a person down and most likely to end one's life. We had to make our own trail and sometimes follow the wild boars' path. It wasn't easy but I was confident with my partners and myself, still it was important to keep checking on each other as this is a way to boost morale and provide the necessary support to each other.
By 1pm, we arrived at the bottom of the falls, feeling the gusting wind produced by the falling water, awe at the beautiful and majestic Strata Falls.
To attempt this waterfall 3 times failing on the first 2 attempts and finally getting here, It was all worth it.

Last picture as we head back using the new trail

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Swine Flu Song

2009-05-02T16:23:00.000+08:00

Conquering Strata Falls: Part 1

2009-05-01T22:10:00.003+08:00

On 17th May 2008, a group consists of Seng Keong, Aurelius, Josen, Henry, Eu Jin, Linus and I made an attempt on Strata Falls. It is an elusive waterfall that is located near Tanjung Malim, and if you read my post a year ago you will know that I did not make it up to the falls and I had an accident which caused me to faint, reason why I didn't continue on to the falls while most of the group was because a friend of mine was too tired to move on, I didn't want to leave him there on his own. If you've actually experienced being left alone in the wild before you'll understand what I mean, that feeling of being left absolutely sucks.

We left from our meeting point at almost 7am, and had our breakfast at Tanjung Malim, not far away from our starting point. We arrive at our starting point at 9am, took us a while to prepare and start trekking. Aurelius was our Navigator this trip, he already put on the effort to understand the map and hook up the coordinates on his GPS for this trip. Aurelius had me in as Group Lead and Scout, giving me the duty of finding possible trail when none can be found and to make sure the group is motivated and sticks together. Ah Ping was our Trail Sweeper who makes sure no one is left behind and Aaron was our group photographer, one who is responsible for snapping the nice pictures.

We hiked on in the oil palm estate, till we reach the open field where we made on crucial mistake, we took the wrong trail that leads us to a river where we started water trekking too soon. We spent 1 and a half hours trekking in the water, sometimes got out to dry land seeking for possible trail; we were indeed getting nearer to Strata Falls however our progress was very slow.

Aurelius and I think that it’ll be wise to head back as it will be too late and too risky to continue on to the falls, so we decided to stop where we were and enjoy the water right there. It wasn’t a tough choice to make at that point; we had too many people at the time and bringing everyone up will consume time and energy, even if we could make it up there I’m sure it’ll be really late when we get back, it was not worth risking it since most of us do not carry a flash light.

As we head back, the voice in my head keeps on nagging to me, telling me that I had to come back again and finish this off once and for all.

Have A Great Day,
Dennis

Morning Blood Bath

2009-04-29T09:33:00.003+08:00

"Dennis! Wake up quick! " my mom yelled while banging at my door and it sounds urgent.
I got out of bed pushing my blanket and pillows to the floor and dash out wondering what's the emergency.
I got downstairs to the garden and found my dogs Eddie and Sandy covered in blood and stuck on to each other, somehow Sandy got her hind leg caught in Eddie's choke chain, Sandy gets panic easily, while I was there she kept on struggling and attacking Eddie and anyone that comes close. At that moment Eddie was struggling to breath and was defending himself from the attacks from Sandy. Eddie was calm the whole time except when Sandy decided to go crazy, knowing that it is clear to me that I had to pin Sandy down in order to get them loose and the only way to do this was to press her head down with my leg so that I could work on the chain with my hands.
It was a very difficult thing to do, they are both wet because my mom thinks that if she spray enough water at the dogs they will eventually be free, I guess she had no idea how Sandy actually reacts to water, giving her a bath is like a wrestling death match.
When I managed to keep the situation under control, mom ran in to fetch something to cut the chain. First she bring a small wire cutter, it was useless because it is made to cut wires. Then she bring a metal sheet cutter which is reasonable in size but equally useless in when it comes to cutting chain. Again Sandy struggled and managed to get herself free from me, right away she attack Eddie and got him hard on his tail. I thought that I could pry her mouth open with my hands but as I was trying to do that she bite down even harder and got one of my finger trapped in her jaws I watch as she put a puncture wound on my fingers, when I manage to free myself I ran in to the house to get a Lineman's pliers and a slip joint pliers. I needed these 2 because the Lineman could actually do the cutting and I could use both to bend the steel ring. At last I got them both loose, Sandy ran right straight under the car with a limping while Eddie being himself was running around the garden playing on the grass... both seems to be doing OK.
Mom convinced me and bring me to the clinic to get a doctor to have a look at my injuries, for me it's just something minor, no need for a doctor but I just do as she says or else there will be no end to it.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Earth Day

2009-04-22T00:29:00.003+08:00

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Hatched Tarantula and a Cheesy Watermark

2009-04-21T01:39:00.005+08:00

About a month ago I noticed one of my Indian ornamental Tarantula (Poecilotheria regalis) was behaving quite unusual, it's been webbing up it's enclosure a lot, but on 15Th march 2009 the mystery is clear as I caught it making an egg sac.
I was trilled but was still skeptical about the success rate of this one since the female actually molted after I mated it a few months back. Yet today I came home with a surprise waiting right in my bedroom.

Just like every other night for the pass few weeks, I did my routine check on the egg sac however I was expecting this one to either fail or get eaten and this is based on my experience. One thing that I should keep in mind is that we, human beings still have not fully understand spiders or how nature works. I manage to find spider lings actively crawling around the egg sac, they were fat and quite large in size, first instar at 1.5 to 2cm.

There were few babies to deal with, at about 50 of them it only took me less then an hour to separate and rehouse them all, don't need a maternity/paternity at this crucial time at work which will be something I'll be happy about very soon.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Talentime

2009-04-18T01:37:00.003+08:00

Finally had the chance to go watch Yasmin Ahmad's Talentime on Wednesday, had to go all the way to KLCC for the show since there isn't much showtime left for this one, yet it's all worth it.
While most film company or directors are making Chinese Films or Malay Films or Indian Films , Yasmin seems to be one of the very few Malaysian Filmmaker to be making Malaysian Films, the saddest part is that her work is recognized and awarded in many other countries except Malaysia, I can't help but to wonder why...
Talentime tells the life stories of a group of inter-school talentime participants, like most of Yasmin's work there are plenty of emotional to be found in this film. The songs featured in the movie are really good to a point that it got stuck in my head, so good that I even bought the Original Sound Track yesterday.
Do watch this, put this on your "things-to-do-before-I-die" list if you have to.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

The Trail Trackers' Guide to Penang

2009-04-13T10:46:00.013+08:00

Cruising on the highway at sure-kena-saman speed, Eddie leads the pack of 9 (or was it 13) of us to the glorious land of Penang Island. With his not-so-trusty GPS and con job speed trap detection device we drove ahead, stopping by Ipoh for some dim sum breakfast at Restaurant Foh San and as usual we gotta wait/compete with other hungry people for a place to seat. For me it's just another place to fill my stomach, been there so many times that the romance of it is gone.

Siew Mai with expiry date

After our dim sum and coffee stop in Ipoh, we continue on north-bound towards Penang, we stopped at a few rest stops to regroup, the others couldn't really cope with Eddie's superb driving skills, one of the cars even overheated and had to be sent to the mechanic in Penang.

So hard to choose

On the Penang Bridge, we were discussing which hotel should we check into, Peking Hotel and Malaysia Hotel were among the suggested place to stay. Both are at about the same rate and they are both on the same street facing each other. It is when we arrived at the street to have a look at the hotel that we knew which one would be a better choice. A 4 stories hotel that look run down on the outside cannot be a better compared to the 10 stories Malaysia Hotel.

Almost RM7 Char Kway Teow

Once we checked in the hotel and refresh ourselves, we continued on foot to Lorong Selamat for some famous Char Kway Teow, I didn't really get to have a taste to tell how good or bad was it but I get so see some drama between Eddie and the Kway Teow seller. seems like there was a fuss about a few of us changing table after making our order which confused the sellers. Eddie is usually calm didn't look too happy about being scolded for switching tables made the decision to cancel the order and go else where, so our next destination was to Lorong Baru for some pig intestine porridge and other stuff like that, the ideal time to be there is about 7 which is dinner time however we were there kinda early to try anything that's really good other then the porriage.

After our eating spree at Lorong Baru, we move on like invading vikings to Lebuh Keng Kwee for cendol. No Penang trip is complete without cendol on Lebuh Keng Kwee, there is no way to describe how good it is, you can only try to know.
No matter what, this chendol is a must for anyone who's visiting Penang.

Eddie agrees

After cendol we made our move back to the hotel to take a break from all that eating, took shower and play cards, we waited for Eddie's friend to take us to dinner at Balik Pulau's Bukit Genting Hill. The restaurant is actually located on top of the hill and it is a great spot to watch the sun set while having dinner, the food there it just average but it is possible that I was too full from the eating spree... nah!
The place has a stunning view and a cooling atmosphere that's for sure, so it's still good and worth it in my book.

Sunset at Bukit Genting Hill

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Chilling at Chilling Falls

2009-04-07T20:33:00.003+08:00

Picture Intentionally stolen from www.thefrogcroaks.blogspot.com

A few of my friends asked me why I don't ask them out for one of my many outdoor "mis-"adventures, so I decided to put up an easy trip for them to give them a taste of what it's like to be out in the wild.
My invitation spread like wild fire and within 2 days I already have more then 20 people confirmed for the activities with an additional 8 person making it a total of 26 person for me to take care of. My days before the trip was flooded with doubts, I wasn't too sure if I could manage that many people and remain calm, the feedback I got from the previous trips got me branded with the nickname "Commando" mainly due to my constant need to yell out at people to keep the group together. It is a Good thing that the "doctor" gave me order not to shout during the trip.

I woke up at 4.30AM and quickly got ready to meet up with the rest at Devi's corner for breakfast, from there we were supposed to leave at 6am but a few people were a bit late, lucky for them that I too had to delay to get the passenger arrangements done.

Soon we were on our way via the NKVE heading towards Rawang, where we'll be exiting to take the old road to get to Kuala Kubu Bharu. The convoy of 6 cars got me quite worried at first, I got my passengers to help me keep an eye out for the other cars so that I can focus on driving with the aid of the GPS. It was a pleasant drive to be passing the Selangor Dam driving on the wide empty road and having the sun rise to greet us with it's warming embrace.

Soon we arrived at the landmark dumpster car park and gate to the fish sanctuary, this is the point were we parked our cars and get in to our gears for the trek. A short 15 minutes walk from the car we arrive at the fishery department building to register ourselves.
I still remember what the place was like about 15 years ago, there was no sign of humanity there back then, it's just one big open area for campers and nature lovers, there was no huts or bridge, the toilet is a hole dug in tall grass. This is the place where I first camp when I was young, the place I first look up the night sky and realized that there are much more stars here compared to the city's night sky.

I got Linus to play a couple of ice breaker games with the group as most of them do not know each other, which did it's job of getting everyone accustom with one another. Soon after we are on our way heading to the falls, I had the novices up in front, smokers and low stamina people in the center and the more experienced at the back, I was to lead the group with the aid of Aaron as sweeper and Linus as photographer and marshal.

So we hiked, passing through a path between the bushes in to the jungle. I've been here many times before however being overconfident had me leading the group to the wrong path, for some reason we are now on a path I don't know of, a path far from the river. Not wanting to waste the group's energy I got them to take a break while I scout for a route back to the river, good thing that we have the GPS handy to let us know how far are we from the actual trail, thanks to that we got back to the river rather quickly.

At one of the river crossing I notice another group catching up behind ours, seems to me that we now have a race to reach the falls first. The first one there will have the honor of having the best spot which is on top of the giant boulder by the waterfall.

Due to certain event I've lost the mood to continue writing, so this post will have to end here.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Death, Birth and Anything in Between

2009-03-28T10:02:00.008+08:00

Woke up to a knock on my door at 7AM on a Saturday, it's today that I've been worried about for a week.
"Dennis! Wake up!"
It's mom with her high pitched voice, asking me and my sister to wake up for Ching Ming (Spring Remembrance), it's the day where the Chinese go visit the graves of their late relatives. For my case, it's time to visit dad's grave.
This is the 10th time I visit my father's grave since his sudden death in 1998, but I think we had it easy this year.
Previous years, my family had to wake up at 5am for Ching Ming, we usually go visit my late grandfather's grave first before going visit my father's. However, this year we had it easy since grandpa has gone back to Penang last year.
It is also the first time in more then 20 years that I didn't light a joss stick for grandpa during Ching Ming.

"What a pity."
I recalled my dad saying during a visit to my grandpa's grave, he was looking at the very old grave that's covered with growth and vegetation right next to grandpa's.
"It's been years since the last time anyone came visit this grave, I guess the family don't remember him anymore."
Dad, always the caring person that he is, clear up the stranger's grave a little, light a joss stick and gave some offerings to the departed stranger.
According to my grandmother my father never failed to go visit my grandpa's grave while he's alive, I intend to do the same.

Having my day started walking among the dead, I return back home for a quick rest and prepare myself for a celebration of a friend's birth. As a matter of fact, I have 4 friends who are having their birthday today, managed to celebrate 3 of their birthday over lunch and dinner. Missed out one, since the birthday girl made a decision to be somewhere else instead.
The one friend who we celebrated her birthday over lunch was done rather quick and easy. We just had lunch over at a shopping mall near by have the usual chit-chat, laughs and cam whore session.

The dinner plan for the other 2 friends however was a brilliant one but turned out to be a disappointment. The plan is to head up to Ampang's Lookout Point for dinner and since the supposed Earth Hour is around that time we will get a good view of the city turning the lights off. Before we even arrive I was having second thought about this whole plan when we saw the number of traffic in the area is. Along the stretch of road we have cars parked on the emergency lane and it's like maybe 700m long.
Reservations were made weeks ago, we already have a spot (at least we think) so we parked the car at the side of the road about 300m away and started walking to the restaurant.
A few of my friends were there already and they have waited for a place for 30 minutes. What happen to our reservations? It's a mystery, UFO came and aliens erased it from the restaurant database was my bet however it's was a management problem that was the cause. I was already tired since lunch, my patience was already at it's limit.
30 minutes later a waiter approached me, offered to take the cake which I was carrying to put in to the fridge. Poor fella approached me at the wrong time, wasn't not too happy with the management at that time and wasn't keen in waiting so long for food, plus I was bored so I decided to pretend that I was pissed for having to wait for a table even after reservations.
"Where's the Hell is my table?! I've been standing here with this cake for an hour now and I have a reservation yet I must wait for an hour to be seated?!" I shouted
I guess being an observer in an acting class does help, all those hours watching people doing what some people consider as nonsense does pay off.
The waiter's expression changed from cheerful to the not-too-happy look, he nodded, said sorry and walk off to the manager, who promised me a table in 10 to 15 minutes.
I wasn't keen to have dinner there after the little stunt I pulled off with the waiter, it's a rule not to mess with the people who serves you food, you have no idea what extra ingredient they have for you. Managed to convince my friends to go somewhere else for dinner, rather be somewhere else then to be stuck in Ah Beng and la-la land with people who pronounce Gasoline as "Gas-online".

"Give me an espresso, and a Tom Yum Noodle."
We are now at Yuan restaurant in Desa Pandan, or was it Pandan Desa. I couldn't remember, but I do remember working there for a couple of months and I quite like the restaurant which is just downstairs from my used-to-be office.
"Tom Yum and espresso? It's that a little too shocking?"
Mei Yoong asked, curious about my weird selection of food. I told her that I needed the shock to wake myself up, was really tired but my day isn't gonna end like this, I got another group of friends to meet up with after all.

"Wolves, wake up." Aurelius said while moderating a game of Werewolf at Linus place.
"Wolves, who do you want to kill?"
With my eyes closed, I tried to listen out for any possible clues like sound of minor body movement, and such.
Werewolf is a party game that my group is now kinda hooked on to. It's a game that involves 2 parties mainly citizens and a pair of wolfs. The goal of the citizen is to kill off the wolfs before they all get killed by the wolf, the wolves can mess around with lies and deception, either to defend themselves or simply use the citizens to kill off each other.
There are other characters in the game like the seer, who can reveal other people's card, witch that can heal and kill once, and cupid, who select 2 persons to become lovers, that have to protect each other for if one dies, the other one dies too.
This game becomes hard to play when you play it with people who knows you really well.
"Wolves, make up your mind... Wolf please make up your mind... " the moderator said.
That's enough for me to suspect one of the wolves.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Endau Rompin Day Four: Going Home

2009-03-18T11:01:00.004+08:00

It's freezing, for some reason the chalet is actually colder then the camp site. I'm guessing that it is because in the chalet we have a fan spinning above our heads. I woke up at 7am because of the chill, I reach for my jacket and decided to go out for a walk, get myself some fresh air. It was a peaceful affair until Timmy and I decided to wake up out friends by throwing stuffs like fallen fruit like things and branches on to the chalet's metal roof which cause a couple of loud noisy sound especially for the occupants. Childish I know, but at least it satisfy the inner child within my soul.

I couldn't remember what we had for breakfast, but I do remember that we are to gather at 9.45AM at the meeting point and I was rushing myself to pack quickly so that I won't be late this time.
While I was still packing, Aaron came by to our chalet looking for his brother.
"Have you guys seen Linus? He's having my slippers".
I did see him when I was heading back to the chalet after my morning walk, he told me that he is going for a walk too and he hasn't been sighted since.
"Not Good..." I said, we have no idea where he gone to or what happen to him.
He could fall off a cliff or in to the river and got washed away or maybe got attacked by a tiger or mobbed by a herd of zombie wild boars or even got lucky with the Bigfoot that was sighted in this reserve 3 years ago. Soon we realized that all our theories are merely replays of scenes we seen in movies. Aaron was reunited with his slippers and Linus who is about to suffer the wrath of Aurelius is now rushing to get his stuff and prepare to head home.

We hiked with our packs, this time it is lighter as we did finish up rid of the food, and dried up some of the stuffs yesterday, I guess we all did get enough rest yesterday too making this hike easy as pie.
The boat wasn't there when we arrived at the "boat docking point", the sandy bank was missing hidden under the raised river water, the water too has changed in color, it's not as clear as it is now. We stood there for about 5 minutes until the boat came so that we could load up and get back.

The boat ride is comfortable for me, that because I don't suffer from motion sickness and I allowed my mind to clear so that I could enjoy the view.
At the jetty we unload the boat and was actually figuring out how to get off the jetty.
The jetty is a floating platform which rise and drop depending on the water level. It is anchored to the river bank using a rope. Uncertain of the depth of the water we didn't dare risk jumping across with our packs, so we pull the rope to get closer to the bank instead.

Once we all gathered up and got our packs in the jeep. We took a 5 minutes walk to Kampung Peta, some of us (including myself) took the easy way by holding on to the side of the jeep.

At Kampung Peta, we were given a demonstration on how the aborigines make use of traps to catch animals for food. We were also given the chance to shoot using a blow pipe, our target was a balloon about 10 meters away and it turns out that non of us in the group could hit a target with a blow pipe, the balloon survived to see another day.

The Jeep ride back seems to take longer this time, 2 hours maybe more. Not very comfortable if you sit at the back seat I tell you, it's the bumpiest part of the 4WD. Maybe it's just me feeling a little unwilling to go home but whatever it is, I know that I have a better understanding and a better relationship about the people who shared their time for this trip.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Endau Rompin Day Three: This is Not My Day

2009-03-17T10:32:00.006+08:00

Woke up in the hammock and I could feel how bad today is going to be already. My back was aching due to the bad sleeping position that I have in the hammock. Things got worst when I tried to speak, I've gotten the trek leader curse, lost my voice for shouting around too much, the lack of drinking water while hiking makes it worst.
While I'm lying in my hammock silently bitching about my pain that I'm suffering, a few of my friends were at the blue lagoon, swimming and washing up for the day.
It is thanks to Audrey for the re hydration salt and Kim for the lozenges that got me feeling better.
"I'm back!" the Heng declared.
Audrey who was enjoying the peace when I was silent, now regrets helping me recover. *grin*

Timmy and I quickly manage our breakfast consist of canned tuna with bread. We cannot afford to complain at that time but most of us had sworn off tuna and baked beans for the next 3 months.

After eating, it is time to pack up our stuff and move in to the chalet. Packing up is quite a pain for me, I have a bad habit of putting things everywhere and I require quite some time to put everything in my pack. Aurelius was already yelling about asking us to quickly pack up and kept asking me to undo my tent. I knew for a fact that I could pack the tent quicker then I could pack my bag. Makes more sense to finish off packing my bag and leave the tent for the finale, still it was my mistake for delaying the group.
As soon as we are done packing and sweeping the camp site for rubbish, we started hiking, we followed the same formation we had while returning yesterday, some of us were complaining that our packs are actually heavier even after clearing most of our food and water. It must be the rain, most of our stuff got wet from the rain yesterday and that gives us extra weight.
The 45 minutes to an hour hike was easier compared to the time we arrived, as a matter of fact I did enjoy the hike to the chalet, right after crossing the last river and helping the others cross it. I jumped right into the cool water for a swim, most of gang followed.
When it was almost time to go and when everyone is out of the water, I was throwing pebbles in to the water, making them skip on the water as many times as I could. While I was putting my focus on that, I heard a loud "Thud!" coming from my chest, there was a sharp pain, I blacked out and fell to the ground. Some of my friends were running after me to see if I'm alright, that's when I learned what actually happen. Seng Keong took the opportunity to throw a stone at me which found it's way to my chest, it hit me so hard that it stunned me for a moment there, good thing is that it didn't do much damage or hit me in certain vital points.

After checking into the chalets, I quickly put down my pack and get the clothes line up so that we could actually dry some of our stuffs. my chalet mates took out all of our remaining food and planned out our lunch, dinner and breakfast. We decided that it was going to be spaghetti for lunch. So with Master Chef Timmy guidance I helped prepare the spaghetti sauce, all I need to do is stir the sauce so that it will mix with the corned beef with a good consistency. It's quite easy and straight forward, until Seng Keong decided that it is not cooking fast enough and turned the heat up a notch. His action leads to a chain reaction which involves hot spaghetti sauce flying all over my hands and legs, I guess I must have developed some kind of heat resistance by now.

We were supposed to go do a 2 hours hike up the hill after lunch, unfortunately I was too scarred and didn't have the mood to go hiking so I choose to pull out and stay back to avoid any further unfortunate events.

I wasn't the only one who stayed back at the chalet, the hike yesterday took a toll on almost everyone, we decided to rest and go down to the river later for a swim.
The river water from the chalet balcony was clear and inviting, we ran down to the river to enjoy the water however within 10 minutes we were forced to get out of the water, the sky was threatening us with light shower and thunder.

Back in the chalet, we all stood there and watch how heavy the rain fall, the clear river water turned brown as the water level rise, we were all thanking ourselves for making a good decision not to go hiking and was laughing at the unfortunate people who actually gone for it, the perfect time to laugh at other people's misery, good thing that they all made it back safely.

Night came quickly, our dinner plan was to make pasta and finish off the remaining food that we have, that includes 4 cans of tuna, 2 cans of sardine, one can of sausages, 2 cans of baked beans and some eggs. We even got some "fried" spaghetti from the other team, we ate till we are all stuffed and was too lazy to move about. All we did was boil water so that we could enjoy a cup of Milo before we sleep, problem was there were gazillions insects flying around and they kept landing in the boiling water, so we came up with this a make shift insect trap to control the number of insects.

The night was interesting for me since most creatures are active at night, I didn't need to go far to see some interesting creatures, most of them came and visit me.

To be continue

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Endau Rompin Day Two: The Hike to Buaya Sangkut

2009-03-13T01:41:00.013+08:00

Legend had it that there was once a family of natives who lives at the foot of the mountain, one night the man of the house had a dream that a giant crocodile is coming to devour his son, seeing it as bad omen he quickly moved his house up hill.
Just like in his dreams, the crocodile came but it got itself stuck while climbing the waterfall. The man took the chance to kill the crocodile, used it's skin to make a big drum and hang it in the house.
However, one day while the child was playing under the drum, it fell and kill the child.

It's morning, everyone is busy either making or having breakfast, all I had was a cereal bar and oat meal.
"Everyone be quick, you got 15 minutes left before we go."
The distinct voice of Aurelius shouting for attention is heard, this means we better move soon or else we'll feel the wrath of the "Fluffy" one.

All of us assembled in to our own teams which Aurelius fairly arranged, my team is the first to go, not sure why but I guess that's because I am given trek leading duties. It's actually quite a simple duty especially when you have guides to lead, the only problem is that you won't be very popular at the end of the day for all the shouting and screaming that had to be done to keep the group together. Not gonna be funny if someone decides to stray ahead and get themselves lost, that will waste quite some time.

The trek to Buaya Sangkut takes 4 hours to complete and another 4 to return, I'm quite sure that I could manage that but I'm not too sure for the rest in the group. Of all 22 people, Henry was the only one to decided to stay at the campsite as he wasn't feeling too well at that time. I thought it'll be a good idea to have him at the camp site so that he could keep an eye and stand guard there.

Our trek started from a suspension bridge that is located right at the camp site, while crossing I yelled to the people behind not to cross with more then 3 at a time, for safety reasons.
The first 45 minutes of the trek came surprisingly easy, we arrived at a rapid where our guides signal us to take a break, some of the people in the group begun to head to the rapids to get themselves clean up, washing away mud and clearing leeches that might have got on them. I was more eager to move on so I asked the guides where is the trail? He pointed at a steep slope next to some sign boards to indicate the trail, I was shocked by what I saw, a very steep incline heading uphill and I wasn't too sure how far up it goes but it sure looks like one hard hike, we pushed on anyway. Crossing streams and rivers, the hike was long I try not to think much about it and kept my focus on the goal.

About 2 hours later, it is clear that almost everyone is stretched to their limits. Still we have an hour or more before we arrive at our destination. While taking a break I was told to allow the faster moving people to move on first. Not sure why I agreed to it but I guess I am also tired. When we continued on some of the faster moving people were going ahead, I stick back for awhile so to maintain visual of the people who's far behind, without realizing that a mistake has been done. The formation is broken, people were scattered along the track. This isn't good at all, we are at the risk of losing people. I pulled out my whistle hoping that it's not too late to signal the people in front to stop, as I was searching I realized that I only have my annoying duck whistle and it's not particularly useful in this situation.
I ran and shout, hoping to get a respond and estimate how far front those guys are, unfortunately I got nothing, no reply to indicate their directions or to estimate their distance, I tried shouting for a few more times, but stopped running entirely, don't wanna be wasting my energy now, got to save some strength to reach the waterfall and for the trip back too.

When I arrived at the falls, some of the group members were already there and about half a dozen were still missing. I asked the guide where were the other, and asked him to go find them while I put down my bag and head in the water to cool off from all they running, that's is all I wanted at that point other then lunch.
When the rest finally arrived, we had a little discussion about the issues we faced earlier. We both agreed that a bad decision was made and we had to do something about it. The solution was rather simple. We just stick to the old formation but have the slower people to the front, this is one of the method I am used to as it is easier for the faster moving people to slow down their pacing then to make the rest move faster.

The hike back was a mind game, it is another 4 hours to reach the base camp and we have dark clouds threatening us above our heads. Instead of telling myself not to think much about it, I kept my focus on keeping the group together, as a matter of fact Kenny who was having trouble previously is now hiking like a tank! Plus he is actually playing the role of trek leader, checking on the people behind him and getting the guide to wait for the rest.
Not even half way down the trail, it started to rain. The leeches will love this, it's wet and the whole group was getting tired, most will barely notice if they got bitten.

The rain stopped, we managed to arrive at the first check point 45 minutes away from base camp, this is when you can see the joy in our faces. Some of us are already seen by the river cleaning up or swimming around, it was an achievement for some of us and it is something to celebrate, not everyone could manage 8 hours of hiking.
As soon as we arrived at the base camp, we all started checking our tents for leaks. Most of the tents were badly flooded due to the lack of rain cover when it was raining earlier. Most of us weren't too happy having most of our things wet, lucky for me, my tent didn't suffer that much even with the rain cover partially opened.

After drying out the tents some of us decided to head to the blue lagoon for a proper swim/clean up. Blue Lagoon is a 10 minutes walk from base camp, it's actually a river but with clear blueish water, dive down and you can see the fishes swimming around you, an excellent swimming spot as the water is really deep.

Back from washing up, we started making diner for ourselves. Timmy and I decided to mix corned beef with pork cooked with some eggs to put in our bread, before we even started cooking Charlene offered me some rice with some of the food they had already prepared, I shared that out with Timmy so that I won't feel guilty eating while cooking. Our corned beef and pork turned out quite well, Charlene said that it looks like dog food, she don't have a clue what she is missing

After dinner we all started doing stupid thing involving a camera and a couple of flash lights. It's quite entertaining to think of what to draw and see the result, at least that didn't lasted the whole night, we did play werewolf too.

I slept out on the hammock that night, it was kinda scary but it is something that I wanted to try.

To be continued

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Endau Rompin Day One: Getting There

2009-03-11T13:25:00.019+08:00

Somewhere in Endau Rompin National Park, a herd of wild boars quench their thirst by drinking the placid brown water, then quickly disappear back into the green as they heard a disturbance. The rising sun illuminates the landscape giving the river a beautiful glitter. The dark green from the mountains far ahead is covered by a thin layer of mist, one could only wonder what mysteries awaits there. Traveling back downriver, the whirring noise from the boat engine may be annoying but the beauty that's in front of me did what most things or people cannot do. Render me speechless with mind clear only to enjoy the beauty that my eyes could see.
3 months ago, Aurelius proposed the plan to go camping and his location is set for Endau Rompin where we could visit the Buaya Sangkut waterfall which involves 8 hours of hiking, or the blue lagoon and such.

Preparing for the trip is a challenge in itself, firstly I had to do lots of shopping because it's been years since my last camping trip, some of my stuff are either unreliable or missing. When it comes to packing, I needed to make sure I packed everything that I need but still maintain a reasonable weight, I for this I've repacked at least 4 or 5 times, I even measure the weight of all the items I'm bringing. In the end, my pack weights about 18kgs, this does not includes the 3kgs from the tent.

Personally I had 2 units of 6 men tents, these are bulky, heavy and a real killer to bring for this trip, so I decided to look around for a 2 men or 4 men tent, however I ended up borrowing one from a friend (Thanks Kak Nadia). I setup the tent before to trip so that it could air out and I could get an understanding of how the tent is set up in case of sticky situations. it's also to make sure that I have everything in place, it won't be funny if I missed out the rain cover and find out only when I need it.

At 3am people were already starting to gather up at the meet up point in Taman Tun. Final checks were made to ensure we didn't missed anything or anyone. Slightly after 3.30am our bus arrived, we started to load our packs and gears in the bus and be on our way to Kahang... the wrong way.

About 2 hours later the bus stopped at a rest stop, a chance for us to take a leak and stretch our legs. Chris decided to ask the bus driver our current location, that's when some of us started to panic, Chris realized that he's back in his home town, Temeloh. That came clear to us that we are now heading the wrong direction, there seems to be a mis-communication between us and the transportation company, they thought we want to go to Pahang while our actual destination is in Kahang.
We spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out the best way to take from that point on, personally I have no clue about the directions, the GPS shows that there is a way to go using an old road but it seems that this is not a popular choice, I have no more suggestions to give so I choose to ignore and gave myself a blindfold so that I could go to sleep.

When I woke up we were in Yong Peng, Johor and it's about time for some food, the bus driver drove us to Yuan Yean Fish Ball Eating House for breakfast. We enjoyed the last bowl of luxury as we are not going to get any meals like this for the next few days.

We finally arrived at the Taman Negara Johor Endau Rompin office in Kahang at 12.40pm, we register ourselves and made the necessary payments before loading our stuffs into the jeeps and from there it's another 2+- hours of mud road and oil palm plantation. The road is fine at first even thou it's just some dirt road but it is well maintained by the oil palm plantations, there weren't many holes but when we reach the edge of the plantation the damn potholes started to appear, the 4 jeeps drove on the bumpy road bring the 22 of us to the jetty where we met our guides, the guides got us up on the boats for an hour and a half boat ride up the river, unlike the 4WD ride the boat ride up stream is relaxing, the water is cool and clear, and the scenery is quite something to enjoy.

The boat stopped at a river bank for us to unload, there were other visitors there on their way back home. They warn us about the leeches but motivate us by telling us how beautiful the place is. It's a good thing that most of us came prepared with leech socks, but even with that we'll still get a few leeches on us.

Carrying our gears and backpacks we hiked on to a trail which leads us to a chalet, however this is not our stop, we are here to camp so this doesn't cut it. As we were walking away in to the forest it started to rain, everyone quickly got their rain cover and ponchos on and continue the trek for another hour or so. That hour was one of the toughest hour I been through, with roughly 20kgs on my back and 3kgs in hand I could feel the fatigue kicking in, but there is no way in hell am I going to stop, I kept telling myself that if a man with no legs can managed to summit Everest and if I can't do this, I gotta be the biggest loser there is.

When we finally arrived at the camp site, the first thing we all did is try drying ourselves to no avail, it's the curse of the jungle, once you got something wet it's very hard to get it to dry. It was getting dark at the same time, the tents had to be put up quick before night, we managed that fairly quick took our dinner which consist of what we could bring, it's mainly dried or canned food but at this point on, any food is good food.

To be continue

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Gunung Nuang: A Taste of Whats to Come

2009-02-28T23:25:00.004+08:00

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

2009-02-26T17:38:00.004+08:00

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

2009-02-22T22:25:00.003+08:00

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

2009-02-21T21:22:00.004+08:00

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

2009-02-14T23:28:00.003+08:00

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

2009-02-13T19:18:00.006+08:00

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

2009-02-09T02:33:00.003+08:00

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

2009-02-05T21:04:00.005+08:00

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

2009-02-04T20:45:00.002+08:00

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?

2009-02-03T17:29:00.004+08:00

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

Gong Xi Fatt Chai 2009

2009-01-26T00:05:00.000+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year

Penang hill solo hike

2009-01-23T23:27:00.006+08:00

Woke up at 9.30am today, was supposed to wake up earlier for my hike up to Penang Hill. Got up and quickly rush out. It took me about 30 minutes walk to reach the starting point, a temple right next to the clinic my aunt brought me for a jab in the bum, thank goodness it doesn't hurts as much now.

I wasn't sure about the trail at first but all I know is that my starting is behind a temple and I must cut through a few farms. Try my luck and took a small trail which I think could be the most likely way.

Only 10 minutes from the starting point I could feel the zen in the place, there were monks walking pass and stuff. After passing the temple path I found myself near a farm house with dogs barking as I go nearer. Not good I thought, time to get a stick.
As I was lookin for my weapon a dog came nearer and nearer, once I manage to find myself a stick. The dog was already next to me, nibbling on the stick I just picked up at the same time it's pulling the stick playfully. Played a little tug-of-war with the fella and for some reason I felt as if it's asking me to follow him, and strangly I did.

For more then an hour I followed the dog, taking every path it took. I was actually asking myself, what the heck is this dalmation doing in this part of the world and where is it leading me to?

It is when we arrive at this rock that I realized where is it taking me. I'm on the right path and there is no question about it. All thanks to this spotted mutt.

We walked on in the sun no shade and it's hot as hell. Since most of the path crosses the farms, the luxury of having tall trees to provide shade is kinda out of the question. The farmers wants the sun for their plants so all trees gotta be out of the way, at least that's the case for the first leg of the trip. The sun really gave me quite a beating, at one point I even considered turning back and try it again another time when it's not that hot but this is Penang, it's always hot here.
The dog lead me all the way to a tree at a split road 2 arrows are nailed on the tree giving directions, and that's where the dog left me, I took the trail and head for Penang Hill as it goes back down.

I continued on and walked for god knows how long, found myself at some bungalows. That when I knew that I'm now very near my destination. The ice kachang stall on Penang hill. Not the best but it will do for a tired hiker like me. (don't try the one at stall number 888, not happening)

My first time hiking up to Penang Hill and I learned an important lesson, the botanical garden have a much shady trail which is nicer and more cooling, don't be a hero and walk across the farms unless you wanna meet the kind spotted mutt.

Have a Great Day,
Dennis

Crazy Bee

2009-01-22T14:10:00.002+08:00

Arrived on Penang Island at 1.30am yet decided to follow my aunt and my mom to Air Hitam dam for a morning walk. I knew that it's going to be too easy for me so I decided to hike up to Penang hill right after that.
The people here are quite anti social I think, I could be wrong but if you've been to Kiara hill for a walk you get greeted by some of the joggers. It does makes the walk more pleasing. Or maybe I'm just crazy, I did greet them all anyway.
I decided to use a route not far away from the dam to start my journey to Penang Hill, still I got to accompany my mom and aunt to the car.
On the way there I felt a sharp pain on my neck. Something was sting or citing me, I flick the thing off without knowing what I'm dealing with.
The pain grew to become more annoying, felt like I've been stung by a bee. I got no idea if the sting is still there or not so I got my mom to check it for me while my aunt go 'Quickly go to the clinic! This one cannot play a fool one ar!' there goes my plan for Penang hill the bee choose a perfect time to ruin my plan, right when my kan chong aunt is around.
Well at least I had fun disturbing my aunt while on the way to the clinic, pretending than my hands are numb and kept asking if my head is falling off. At least until when the doctor said that he's giving me a lab.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

An Expensive Sleep

2009-01-20T21:41:00.002+08:00

Had an expensive sleep yesterday, was so tired that I forgotten to take off my glasses before I sleep and when I woke up I found it broken...
Brought it in to the shop to have it fixed up before I leave for Penang tomorrow, I basically bought a new pair of frame and have the lenses moved over, even this will take a day because the lenses needed to be trimmed in order to fit the new pair of glasses.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

The City of Cats

2009-01-20T11:11:00.003+08:00

Just returned after spending a few days in Kuching, Sarawak. It's my first time visiting that part of the country and I can proudly say that I've visited all thirteen states. A few days before I leave for Kuching I was already warned that it's been raining non stop for days and some parts of the city are already flooding, my mother even told me to forget about the trip but the one thing that my mother know about me is that I hardly listens to her.
I arrive in Kuching at about 11pm, when the plane landed the runway was wet but it wasn't raining however it started to rain when the plane was docking.

3-Days Wet Shoes

On my first day there Linus drove me around town to see stuffs ranging from the Cat monument to Gambir Sarawak (You don't want to know), it was still raining on and off the roads were never dry so my activities were limited to indoor stuff like visiting the Kuching Aquarium and Museum.
Apart from that I did do some souvenir shopping and have a couple of drinks before the end of the day.

Real skulls in the museum exhibit

We started early on the following day, I got dragged to church for morning mass, it's incredible that there are people attending church at 6 A.M. in the morning. The rest of the day was spent shooting Linus' short film, you can read more about it in his blog since he had already written about it and I'm pretty lazy to write more, quite sleepy now actually... Yawn...~!

Sago Grubs washed and ready to be cooked

The highlight of my trip has to be the Sago Worms, I read somewhere that Sarawak is quite well known for these tasty grubs and I personally made it a point that I would try them. Bought a dozen at the Sunday Market to try, thanks to Linus' mom we all had deep fried grubs for dinner that night.

Another highlight of the trip was to see the Orang Utan in Semengoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary, even thou I've seen Orang Utans in the zoo before but its another thing to see them roaming freely in the wild, we arrived at the feeding area and saw an Orang Utan already there waiting for food. The guide then lead us to another feeding area hoping that we'll get to see more Orang Utans there however the Orang Utans had different plans. In all I seen about 2 Orang Utans and about 3 more from far away and I mean really really far up in the trees but it was still worth it I say.
I must say that I did enjoy my trip despite the rain, to be able to see new places, meet new friends and gain new experience, there is nothing better then that.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Tick Tock Tick Tock

2009-01-14T13:49:00.002+08:00

Stumble upon my old watch while doing some cleaning up involving a huge pile of clothes and a lorry full of old furniture, it's amazing how much junk a family can collect. Back to the watch, it's actually not an old watch but it's a birthday gift from my mom 2 years back, I wear it for quite some time but stopped wearing it sometime early last year, never had that habit of wearing a watch anyway so left it at a corner collecting dust.
After dusting and cleaning the watch, I set the time and wind it up and see if it still works, as soon as I push the dial in, the sweeping hand starts to move, it's ALIVE!!!
I stare at it for a while, keeping my eyes on the movement of the minute hand. It's moving for sure but instead of noticing that the watch is working fine, I noticed how fast the minute hand is actually going from 20 it continue towards 25 and before I know it, I just lost 5 minutes... and how much time had I wasted before I realized this? All I can say now is "Damn...".
Time is running out gotta get ready for my flight now.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

The Gaza War on Children

2009-01-07T17:29:00.004+08:00

It's hard to find a place that is truly safe now, the news about the mortar shelling that killed at least 30 people (mostly children) near a U.N. school confirms it.
Who's right or who's wrong , it doesn't matter no more.
To be able to move on without causing anymore suffering and deaths should be the number one priority

contact Mercy Malaysia at 03-2273 3999, or email to info@mercy.org.my and find out how best you can help raise funds for medical aid that can help save the lives of wounded children in Gaza.

Pray for the children
Dennis

Good Bye Pax

2009-01-05T22:54:00.003+08:00

Got a phone call on New Year morning, never expect my 1st phone call recieve for the year 2009 would be one that brings bad news.
I got myself washed up, and left home, picked up Linus and headed for a friend's house.
By the time we reach the place. We were told to go to a vet near by the area. Our friend was there waiting already, with the motionless body of Pax who was once hyper active.
Pax is a Jack russel terrier that was actually bought from a pet shop by a friend. I actually consider it an adoption because Pax was actually already bought by another person who actually paid for him but didn't return to collect and was later bought by our friend at a price I never imagine.
Pax seems to be doing alright but until one point I started to learn that Pax is having some problems, then the phone call came.

Rest in Peace Pax.
Hope that someone will play fetch with you up there.

All dogs go to heaven
Dennis

Perak Trip Part 3: Surfing the Gopeng way

2009-01-05T09:52:00.003+08:00

1 night spent sleeping out in the open, didn't sleep in the tent because there ain't enough room so I choose to sleep outside. I can't remember the last time i did that but I do remember doing it only to find how beautiful the night sky actually is, we humans with our buildings, cars, and pollution made it hard it see in the city.
Well, we all woke up to a morning of fresh and cooling air. Once everyone had their breakfast it was time to pack up, time to leave to meet our next guide.
We found ourselves at a housing estate but we are no where near the Gopeng river. Convoy lead stopped in front of a house signaling us that we've arrived and we should park our cars.
It is after I walked in to the house I only realised that this it the base for our guides the dudes from jungle geckos. We are all going to be geared up here, we are all given a kevlar padded wetsuit, helmet, life jacket, diving boots and flippers. Once we are all geared up, we are all put on to the back of a lorry with the boards that we'll be using later.

So, after some tree branch evading workout we arrived at the destination near MyGopeng resort, there were 14 of us so we'll be going in 2 groups. For some reason I got myself on the first group and I get to go in to the river first, after the guide gave us a briefing it was time to go, holding the board in front of me, I jumped in to the river where the current is the strongest and started as I was told.
I manage to reach the checkpoint the guide mentioned but some of the people in my group find it to be a little too challenging. So before we go on we were given a water kicking lesson.

It looks quite easy but doing it is actually quite tiring. At all time we must hold on to our boards even if it turn upside down, we also got to know the right time to kick specially when we get stuck and going in circles, for the guys we had an additional thing to worry about, we were told to open our legs when the board go above a rock or else we'll suffer intense pain or worst possible become the ending twig on the family tree.

I don't remember how long were we in the river riding the current but I'll tell you that it is both scary and fun when it comes to a rapid drop. There is no way to stop when that comes, all you could do is to hang on close to your board and brace yourself.
I'm definately going back for this one.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Perak Trip Part 2: The Communist Cave

2009-01-03T16:09:00.006+08:00

After visiting the Cathedral cave, we drove to Chemor town for some real good fish noodles, but then that's not really important to me, the journey to Perak actually became a testing ground for my new GPS capable cellphone.
Yes! I had GPS on most of the time while driving and even thou I am not required to lead the convoy but I found the need to familiarized with the capabilities of my cellphone, thou everyone believe that I've become obsess with it.

So after our meal, we drove our way to Ipoh for the famous salted chicken (Yim Kok Kai), traffic at that time was really bad and it's was really hard for me to stick to the convoy as cars kept on cutting in and out of lanes, attempts to keep up with the convoy proved to be futile. I'm not too sure but I think Aurelius was starting to get worried because he knows that I'm very particular when it comes to traveling in a convoy, little did he know that I was happily by the road side setting the GPS to guide me to the destination. It's a miracle that device I tell you, it's like a guiding star for lost sailors... erm... anyway we quickly regroup, got our salted chicken and head to south for the next leg or our trip.
Our destination is actually Gua Kandu located in Gopeng roughly 20km off Ipoh. We meet up with our guide Botak who then lead us to the mouth of the cave, the place where we are all going to be camping for the night.

Botak was real quick in getting us to pitch our tents, it seems that he's got that thing in getting everyone to work together as a team to do various task, it didn't took us long to pitch the tents, assigning tent occupants and get a whole lot of fire wood while Botak prepare the food for us.
After having our "snack" Botak's partner came by to bring us for a tour inside the cave.

The passage in gua Kandu is big enough for a person to walk into, making it quite an easy walk at the start but it does becomes a little more challenging later in to the cave when climbing up steep walks becomes necessary. As we walk, the guide begin to tell us about the history of the cave, it seems that after the second world war the communist used this cave as hideout, I'm not to sure how real it was but one thing was sure to e real to me, the amount of graffiti in the cave...

There were quite some interesting things to see and do in that cave, but I really need to go to bed now and I rather not spoil it for anyone, so I'll just leave you hanging right here.
Good night

Have A Great Day,
Dennis

Happy 2009

2009-01-01T11:35:00.004+08:00

Perak Trip Part 1: Caving in the Cathedral

2008-12-30T21:23:00.012+08:00

I woke up to the annoying sound of a door bell repeatedly pressed, I dash out of the sofa to answer it as that is the one way to stop it that I could think of at that point, was way too tired to think I was tired mainly because I've slept only for 2 hours, was at a birthday party, got home pretty late and I still had to pack when I got home. I opened the door and found Aaron, still got to wait for 2 more guys and wake one up.

Despite the havoc, we managed to get on the road and found ourselves at the first check point in Sungkai, that's where we group up with our other comrades, actually we are late to arrive, we did stop by the road side because Linus saw a tree full of horn bills, all of us find it hard to believe, if someone were to tell me that he saw a tree full of horn bills I'd call him a loony but after seeing it for myself it has rendered me speechless.

So at Sungkai we group up, had our breakfast (Best wanton noodle!) and off we go to Gopeng toll where we are suppose to meet up with our caving guide. A quick chat later and we are off to the location but before arriving the guide decided to show us the local fire station... 3 TIMES!!!

The people in my car are already having second thoughts about this one but we manage to find the place eventually.

Gua Kanthan is located near Chemor, the main town in Kinta District of Perak, the biggest landmark to the place is the Lafarge Malayan Cement Quarry, some where in that area is an unpaved road that leads to an unknown location but you'll see the place on the left across a few ponds dug for farming fishes.

After putting on our boots and some basic gears, we hiked our way into the jungle heading for the cave's entrance. It was quite a short hike not more then 20 minutes till we see the cave, it is after we climb down to the entrance that we know why is it nicknamed the Cathedral cave, it's walls are tall and ceilings are high, we followed the guide deeper in to the cave, at one point we needed to climb our way down with the help of a rope, not much of a deal for me but I was feeling rather uncomfortable after seeing how the ropes were actually being pass as secure by the guide, I decided to give it a little "tweaking" as a precaution.

After climbing down a steep slope and we negotiate our way and found ourselves at a river like pond that is about 6 feet wide, the challenge now is to walk across it on a 4 inches by 2 inches wooden plank, the good thing is that it is next to a wall so you could actually hold on to that to balance while crossing.

Right after the "bridge crossing", we arrived at a point of the cave where at the very top of the ceiling there is a hole that lets in a single ray of light that lights up one small spot in darkness. That point onwards there is nothing worth mentioning, our guide wasn't close to decent in making the trip exciting.

So we turn back after reaching the end of the cave, bored and uninspired, the 2 dumb ass of the group decided to do something fun, on the way back Linus and I decided not to walk on the wooden plank to cross the "river" nor will we jump across.
We decided the best thing to do is to jump in to the water, there I learn a valuable lesson which is never jump in to any form of stagnant water, the mud under the water quickly stir up as soon as my feet touches the gooey bottom, in a cave like that, who knows how much guano is in there.

Have a Great Year,
Dennis

Lock and Load: Gua Kanthan Preparations

2008-12-27T01:28:00.003+08:00

Just finished packing for Gua Kanthan and Perak trip, this is gonna be a combo trip because it involves caving, camping, river boarding, and famous food hunting. While I was packing, I felt as if I missed out something. Well, I'm going to a caving trip and most of my caving trips I'ld prefer wearing my good ol' cargo pants, it took me 30 minutes to find them with a nasty surprise.

The best way to describe my beloved cargo pants is to say it's a soldier with plenty of battle scars, reliable and trusty, however the bottom part of the pants are really torned up yet I loved them as it is, it's material is light and comfortable, perfect for hiking plus it dries up really quick too.
What I didn't know was that my mom who was trying to be kind helped me "fix" my cargo pants by cutting off the entire bottom part off turning it in to a 3 quarter pants... I guess old trusty had lost all it's meaning.
Still I got to find a pair of pants that I could torture really quick so after going through my closet I found an old pair of pants...

Not as much pockets as the ones I like, it's made of a thicker material and I'm not sure if it could dry quickly.
Well, I guess there is only one way to find out.

I'll be back on the 30th to celebrate New Year.

Have A Great New Year
Dennis

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T05:08:00.001+08:00

Food for Thought : My Midnight Dinner

2008-11-24T01:25:00.003+08:00

Dinner

It's 1.30AM, I didn't have my dinner earlier since I was already darn tired from driving around going from one location to another to help escort and deliver necessities to a few orphanages or homes, having a psychotic sister banging on the door while I was already sleeping killed the mood, so to my beloved sister who rudely woke me up from my much needed slumber here's my message to you.
I already told you, don't give me any of your last minute "I-need-you-to-drive-me-somewhere" bullshit, inform me at least a day before, not 5 minutes before you need to leave. Plus, my door is already very old and fragile it cannot take any more of your mindless banging.
IT'S BLOODY COMMON SENSE!!! Knock on my door and if I don't answer that means I'm sleeping and you'll have to find yourself another option to take care of whatever that you want me to handle. I know this should be said in a more personal way but I've already tried many methods countless times and I'm already running out of ideas on how to effectively drill this into her head.
Now that I got that off my chest I must continue with the intended topic.
It was lunch time when I was at one of the home, there's not much for me to do so I helped by serving sup to the kids. When I serve the last bowl of sup, the food on the kids' plate caught my eye.
It's rice cooked with either chili or tomato and long beans, some eggs perhaps, not too sure but it didn't look appealing to me even thou I didn't have much of a lunch, I wondered how it really taste like but I dare not question the chef or housekeeper's cooking, the children seems to enjoy it thou, at least they said that it's nice but honestly I don't think I would eat that unless I really have to. I know... I feel like a real asshole for thinking like that, I do feel bad about it too.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Batu Maloi Revisit

2008-11-16T01:34:00.002+08:00

About a week ago, Timmy called me up and tells me that he wants to bring a group to Batu Maloi coming Saturday and he wants me to help organize the trip, it's a last minute thing but since there are no plans for the weekends, I told him that I'm up for it, so I called up the Guide Leader or the person in charge in Batu Maloi to make the arrangements.
On trip day, 6 person including myself show up at the meeting point near Asia Jaya LRT station. We had our breakfast and head south towards the Malacca and Negeri Sembilan borders for Batu Maloi, even thou I've been there once I still couldn't recall how to get there and that other time my group took a different route so armed only with the directions we braved the highways.
All goes well for the first hour and half but confusion sets in later, not bringing a map or a GPS proves to be a big mistake, for some reason we got ourselves lost in Kampung Tampin but I guess that's what makes it fun in the first place.
After a few U-turns and asking for directions at the petrol station, I've managed to drive to a familiar place in Kampung Tanggai, a 15 minutes drive later we've arrived at Batu Maloi.
The guide leader was already there waiting for us, wasting no time he promptly introduce himself to the rest of the group and gave us all a briefing before we enter. He did warn us about the water level as it was raining the night before, I guess I cannot expect crystal clear river water for this trip.
At about 9.45AM, the guide informs us that it was time to move, we started hiking towards the cave entrance the walk there is a short one, we reached the same entrance where I started the last time but the guide told us that we are not going to take this one. I got confused when he started to walk away from the area and asked us to follow, what I don't know is that there this cave have multiple entrance and the guide lead us to another one just behind the one I used the last time but it still leads to the same place, but it's a little more challenging this time because the water is murky, non of us could see or judge how deep the water is unless we go in the water ourselves. Some part of the cave bares prove of the water level the night before when we saw the marks and we all knew that it is not funny to get stuck in there when it's raining heavily, as a matter of fact, some parts of the cave where I've been to the last time was actually inaccessible even thou the water level was only slightly higher it actually made the water flow stronger and faster, yet for me it was still fun and the rest thinks so too, they even made a request to go there again to camp and finish off all 24 check points.
Personally, I think it's a good idea.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Bloody sunday

2008-11-09T22:00:00.003+08:00

I woke up to a ringing phone and an annoying pain in my throat, I wasn't sure how I got it but the ringing phone tells me that I have matters to attend to, I picked up my cellphone to have a look at the caller's ID, it was from a friend and my guess that this is not going to be an interesting call to answer.
I answered the call and got my guess right, it's a tech support call and I get to play the support center representative.The conversation didn't last more then 3 minutes, I put the phone down and try to go back to sleep but I couldn't seem to sleep any longer.
The ticking sound from my wall clock echos in my head, nagging at me to check the time.
I complied.
It was already 2.15PM, my sleeping time is completely screwed, I gotta fix it but first I have to fix myself up, had to wash up and grab a bite.
Right after I managed that, my mother made me send my sister for cheer leading practice.
I agreed to it as I like driving, I just hate it when it's time to drive home so instead of driving back home, I drove to the highway and spent some time there, driving myself somewhere, thinking about life, death, love, money, the future, I'm driving myself insane, the annoying pain in my throat is not helping at all. I need to do something, I need to distract myself, I need to get a hair cut.

Batu Maloi Caves

2008-11-01T03:50:00.003+08:00

A good breakfast at the Pasar Besar Seremban and about an hour worth of drive later we found ourselves in Gunung Tampin Forest Reserves where our next adventure awaits.

The sign

Batu Maloi Caves is an unique cave that is formed beneath a whole lot of huge boulders, it is about 1 kilometer in length and a stream that runs along the cave, exploring the caves is easy for the fit however for individuals who lacks stamina and have a size issue will have a hell lots of problem trying to navigate in these caves as there are many tight spots and crazy bends.

The entrance

Our guide start us up by giving us a briefing of the do and don't, whats and what's not etc (Clearly I wasn't paying attention at the time).
After the briefing, we followed our guide and hiked into the forest heading towards the cave entrance. Which looks as unimpressive as a gap between 2 very large boulders, I thought that there must be a mistake when the guide says that we are going to crawl in between the gap. Trusting the guide we follow and soon we find ourselves in between more boulders, only difference is that it is getting darker and darker, it became clear that we are going underground.

I don't really know how to describe more about this trip but I will say that it is really impressive to see the formation of this unique cave and the abundance of wildlife in it really makes the trip interesting, it's a cold, wet and dark experience in a fun way, don't expect to stay dry thou.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Road to Lata Kijang

2008-10-31T02:53:00.004+08:00

Convoy at rest

The plans were made, Lata Kijang located off Kampung Chennah within Negeri Sembilan. The group meet up at the meet up point at ~~7am~~ 8am in the morning, a quick breakfast, briefing, petrol and air check later we are off to the place where we are supposed to meet up with the people who are going to drive us in using a pick-up truck and a lorry.

Lorry group picture

Sitting in the back of the lorry gives me a mix experience. At first it seems fun and all as the whole bunch of us were just jumping, shouting and trying to dodge log hanging branch but after a while I begin to realized how uncomfortable it is to be in the back of the lorry,to endure an hour of this is enough to drive me nuts, think about the people who do this to go to their work place to earn a living.
Our destination (Lata Kijang) is 20KM away from the starting point, the issue is that no one says that it's gonna be a smooth ride. I already expected it because I've been there a year earlier and at that time there were no tar or gravel road leading to the place, it was a muddy, bumpy 4x4 ride the last time.
Now it's all changed, there is a tar road there now. It's not really suitable for the conventional sedan, but it's still pretty decent, even the scary bridge which has the potential to trap my group for the previous visit is now repaired... no more fun there.

Lata Kijang

More then an hour later, we found ourselves at Lata Kijang and we can't wait to get into the water. There were a crowd there even before we arrive, seems like a group of 60-80 students from some university's nature club, too bad that I had to tell one of them that the group shouldn't use shampoo at the waterfall as this might cause some environmental damage. Unfortunately, there were more of them there to shampoo their hair, one fat and ugly girl in particular was spotted giving herself a facial by the falls, I should had just shouted to her that even God couldn't help her.
Eventually they left leaving the waterfall for ourselves, I'm not sure if they noticed that they had been washing their face and hair with water stained by my pee thou, but that's not important anymore.

On strike

After spending a few hours enjoying the waterfall and mother nature's offering. We set off to the place where the lorry dropped us, waiting to be picked up and head out to our cars. The driver said that he'll pick us up at 3pm. we waited till 4pm and there is no way we can contact him, so it was decided that we should start trekking.
However, there is no way that any of us could survive the 4 hours track back and be able to attend the next event on the following day so the choice was made that we are to trek to the near by camp site that was occupied by a charitable 4x4 group from Malacca called Puma 4x4 club (http://www.puma4x4club.com) for help.

Saved by the club

With the help of their leader and the PR manager, we were all safely transported back to the starting point.
For me this trip was good but it is sad to see how much damage a road can cause to the environment.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Chilling Falls: She is calling me

2008-10-29T06:41:00.003+08:00

Sacred map to Chilling

Aurelius called me up on Friday to see if I'm interested to pay Chilling Falls a visit on the following day, even thou it's a sudden plan and we have another trip on Sunday and Monday I'm game for it.
Chilling Falls is located about 30KM off Kuala Kubu Baharu, Hulu Selangor heading towards Fraser's hills. I first visited the falls back in the early 90's and it is one of the first waterfalls that I've been to.
When I first visited the place, there was nothing but jungles, river and wild life, today it is a fish sanctuary with toilets, guard house, an odd looking 2 story building, trash cans a suspension bridge all recently build by our beloved Malaysian Government's fishery department.

River Crossing

The trail there is simple, start by registering yourself at the guard house located in the "fishy" Department, there you will see a suspension bridge that you'll can't miss unless you are blind.
After crossing the bridge, we come to this "Cross Junction", this is the only confusing part because it looks as if there is a stream moving across the trail, going straight will lead you to a dead end, take a left turn there and go against the water flow. From there we just follow the trail and cross the river at marked crossing point, a 45 minutes to an hour worth of hiking later, the majestic Chilling falls is in sight, still as beautiful as the first time I see her.

She just makes me want to jump in

Group picture

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Broga Hill Trip

2008-10-06T02:23:00.004+08:00

It was 4AM and I was already out of bed and driving in a convoy, taking on the role of a sweeper who's primary duty is to make sure no cars leaves the convoy and to inform the Trip Leader if there is any thing wrong or if any of the cars in the convoy couldn't catch up. Really not a typical thing to do on a Saturday morning, but somebody has to do it. It was quite a challenge to keep the convoy together yet even God makes it more difficult for me to control the convoy for it was rain quite heavily, I can't help but to smile thinking that the Gods are making it hard for me so that I can become better.
Trip Leader wasn't too sure of the directions so we did take a longer route to the destination,we took a detour in to Kajang to our starting point which is a very run down Rabbit farm somewhere in Broga.

It was still raining, but it was no concern to me because I already knew that my bunch are real nutcases and there is no way a little rain is going to stop us. A few of the new comers had to leave thou, one of them isn't feeling well and there is no point for her to risk it as it might make things worst for her, it's really a pity having to turn back after coming this far.
Off they go leaving the group on their way home, the rest of us got ready and we marched in to the palm oil plantation where the trail begins.
Upon crossing the plantation we meet an open field which has a track which leads us right in to a jungle, to me it was just too easy, moving at my own pace I made one mistake, I forgotten to make sure the group could keep up.
After clearing the jungle I arrived at a field full of tall grass which has a uphill trail leading to the top of the hill. At this point I realized that it had finally stopped raining, I waited a little while for the team to regroup and try to reach my way up as quick as I can, I just wanted to do that not only because I can but I also wanted to make it a little more challenging for myself.

Sun rise, as viewed from the hill

Alone on the hill sitting on a rock

I managed to reach to the top very quickly while the rest are still quite a distance behind, instead of being happy about my achievement of reaching to the peak quicker then the rest, I kept asking myself "Now what?".
Yea, I am first to summit, so what? I'm still alone. What's the point of making it up so quick alone? It'll be lame if I were to celebrate up here alone.
I look down and see the rest of the group still struggling to make their way up, usually on uphill climbs I always assist those who need help, however this time I realized that my selfishness is my downfall, that point on I thought that it would be more meaningful if I were to assisted the group to reach the summit.

Group in the morning sun

A lesson and a new experience was my reward for this trip, the rest is a gift.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Kanching falls: Everybody knows there's something wrong

2008-10-06T01:12:00.005+08:00

Someone being himself

The Kanching Falls are located between Kuala Lumpur and Rawang in Selangor, Malaysia. The waterfalls consist of seven tiers. A well-maintained recreation park gives access to the lower falls, to reach the upper falls some scrambling uphill is required. It is one of the popular tourist destinations of Kuala Lumpur.
- Quote from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanching_Falls

This marks the location

Made a trip to Kanching Falls last Thursday, the fact that it is a seven tier waterfall gets me excited, so I go expecting something spectacular and here are some of the things I found about the Park.

A view of the park, there is electricity in the facility

The park can be reach by bus, a few hypermarket can be found nearby too

Rubbish bins are found all over the facility to keep the place CLEAN

The water is cool and "clean"

So we hiked all he way up to the top of the fall and found the water source we took some pictures , hang out there for a while and then head back home.

Camwhoring as usual

Was it a good trip? I'll just say it's not worth the Ringgit we paid to enter the park.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Road Trip: Penang

2008-10-06T00:46:00.004+08:00

There's nothing like a food hunting trip with a group of friends.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Geruntum Falls

2008-09-30T05:03:00.004+08:00

Part of our plan for Lata Puteh trip was that we would visit a waterfall before we head back home, so Geruntum falls located in Ulu Geroh was our destination. We drove on to a small road in KampunG Geruntum till we found a few small bamboo hut which marks the start of our trail. In less then 30 seconds on to the trail, we saw a waterfall...

Lower tier

What we saw wasn't what we came for, we wanted more, we wanted the waterfall on the upper tier. So we followed a marker thinking that it is the start of the trail, but we soon found out it's not as there is no trail and the climb up was extremely steep. So we tried to find another alternative which was just a few meters away from us, there is a proper trail with nylon rope along it. We took that trail and in about 10 minutes we reach our destination.

The goal

Posers and the prize

I'm feeling lazy to describe further so I'm just gonna leave this to your own imagination. :)

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Conquering Lata Puteh

2008-09-30T01:35:00.006+08:00

it's 3 A.M. and I'm still awake, can't really sleep and there is no point in sleeping anytime soon because the gang (Aurelius, Ai Ling, Chris, Seen and Eagle) will be arriving soon and we'll be leaving for Ipoh anytime soon, I couldn't remember much about the journey but I do remember me swearing and cursing at the driver and waking up for breakfast in Ipoh, that's where we meet up with the Ipoh group for our trip to Lata Puteh.
After breakfast, we drove about an hour (maybe more) to reach our destination even thou we made a few U-turns courtesy of Aurelius.
We parked our cars at the water catchment facility by the road, this is when a crappy looking van which is making it's way in to the water catchment facility suddenly stopped near us, the driver asked us what were we doing there in a very rude tone, I told the driver that we are going to the waterfall and for some reason the driver said that we cannot go in and asked us to go home - Parliament member style. Good (or bad) thing that Aurelius actually had me backed down and have himself reasoning with the moron. It makes no sense to me because the place is known as a tourist destination, there is even a sign there that states that clearly, no way this water bug is gonna stop us .

When we read this...

and see this...

We smile like this.

Eventually, Aurelius got the moron to go away and leave us to our business, everyone got in to their gears, and after a short briefing by Aurelius. We started heading towards the waterfall, visible but quite inaccessible, there was a trail following some water pipes but it didn't really bring us close to the waterfall, only confusion. There is no trail to be spotted so in order not to waste the group energy, our navigator, Aurelius, deploys his scout which happens to be me. I head to a few directions and there were no trail still, so the next logical thing to do is to make my own, so... out comes the 18" machete and it's bush whacking time, it's not easy considering the fact that there is a lot a uphill climbs and there is a large number of people I have to watch over for safety but as long as I know the direction to the waterfall, we can't go wrong.

It's a good thing that Linus didn't follow or else we'll won't have the rope to climb if we tie him up

After about maybe 2 hours of bush whacking, hiking and climbing, we finally managed to reached the waterfall. One so spectacular that it took my breath away literally.

Seen: I think your camera shutter got problem, nice effect thou

Picture doesn't do justice to the waterfall's size and power, still beautiful it is

At the base of the waterfall it is very windy as massive amount of water kept pushing the air as it falls, there was no pool to dip in but there isn't a need for one, you don't really need to be close to the waterfall to get wet, the wind does all the work for you.
I must say that even thou the accessibility was a bit tricky, the team work and the patience of the group was very well rewarded.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

The Search for Batangsi Falls: Part 2

2008-09-24T16:42:00.005+08:00

Right after our doomed attempt to find Batangsi Falls, Aurelius decided right away that we should go for a second attempt to explore and find the waterfall and tag it's coordinates. It is no walk in the park that's for sure, so it is decided that we bring only the fittest, experienced and have as little people as possible in this trip so that we could cover more ground (or water in this case). The participants of this trip consist of the organizer Aurelius (Organizer), Chris(Wild boar curry specialist), Jan (Webmaster of Waterfalls of Malaysia), Ping(Photographer Extraordinaire), and myself (Escaped Zoo Monkey)

(From Left to Right) Ping, Jen, Aurelius and Chris

At about 9am, we started exploring the river from the point where we gave up on our first attempt, it's not that we don't want to trek on land but with the amount of foliage it makes trying to negotiate the obstacles extremely difficult and slow, so we trek in the water all the way upstream, this is very difficult and tiring as well but looking at this in a positive point of view, there is no way we can miss the waterfall (If there is ever one).

This is what's it looks like to trek in river

As we trek, we keep finding fast flowing river rapids which are challenging and dangerous to navigate trough, we never consider them as waterfalls because they are not even 2 stories tall and they are not worthy enough for me at least.

One of the larger river rapids we came across

Jan's Batangsi fall

We trek till about 1pm, with no sight of waterfall we decided to turn back as it was getting late took us about 3 to 4 hours to get back to our starting point, right before we leave, Jan show us what he suspect as the Batangsi fall, just another rapid... I guess we have to come a third time.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

The search for Batangsi Falls

2008-09-09T03:09:00.008+08:00

Where the HELL are we?

August is over and it's now safe to go jungle trekking in search of waterfall once again, this time we try for something that's "there but don't know where", according to the Waterfall of Malaysia website there is a so called Lata Batangsi but the actual location of this place is either unknown or only known by few people who are either shy to reveal the location. So armed with a frigging huge map, 2 GPS and a BIG stick, we head down to look for the mysterious Lata Batangsi.

The group being lost as usual

Right after having our breakfast, we head for the wrong turning point to get lost and to find our way back out again, it's becoming a ritual for the group. Yet we managed to find the correct (perhaps) starting point, everyone got in to their gears and we begin trekking a nicely paved dirt road which made me asked the question "Why didn't I just drive on this damn road."

The start of the trek

Mayo leading Ping and Henry

Half way through the trek we found a small steep path that leads down to the river, fearing death Aurelius deploys his scout for a possible suicide mission, and that happens to be me. We took the path anyway and started trekking up stream, it turn out to be a very pleasant walk until the sky decided that we were not wet enough and it started to rain.
Fearing that Henry might get washed away by the river, we decided to get back on to the road and continue trekking in the rain.

Reach a permanent farm which feels like war torn Vietnam in the movies

The walk was long and the rain makes it discouraging, being the only dumb ass in this trip I had to do something dumb to boost the group morale, I had to do something like...

...pretending to put up a flag.

We continue on in the rain till eventually we met a kind farmer who offered us shelter from the very heavy rain. There we try to kept ourselves warm and discuss about our next course of action, we didn't want to continue on because the rain had made the river murky and even if we made it to the falls, it won't be worth the trip because it's going to look ugly like a big flowing teh tarik.

We did what we came for anyway - Cam Whoring

We'll be back there again.

Have a Great Day,
Dennis

Advice for the Future

2008-08-22T03:54:00.001+08:00

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Away from Home

2008-08-15T14:07:00.007+08:00

MSN Chat Log with Mom
Me: Hi mom
Mom: Wa, you no need to come back home one ar
Me: Actually I'm thinking of staying our for a month or 2 to see what it's like.
Mom: Make sure you behave yourself, remember to bring back allowence

I've been staying at frog's place for about a month now, not that I am in trouble and hiding myself away from home.
I just wanted to see what it's like to live alone and with frog away from the country I couldn't find any better chance then this even thou its not really that far away from home but I've restrict myself from going back for no reasons.
The first 2 weeks was real hell for me, had been working late and everytime I become hungry I either had to go out for food or starve, so right when I managed to free up some time it was grocery shopping for me.

cheezels in frog's house, best way to insult "Super Ring"

Filling up the Fridge

Did a little* cleanup while loading the groceries, that ... well, let's not go to the cleaning part. Anyway, the fridge looks more like a fridge now that there is food, milk and beer that starts with the word "Root".

Maybe they should share with me

In my shopping list I also included a 17 KG big bag of dog food, I bought a smaller 2KG bag previously and the darn thing finished in less then a week, most probabaly because I'm trying to get Foot Stool to put on some weight and there is Eddie to feed too, so it is more economical for me to buy a huge bag for them.

Time to go back to work now

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Journey to the Siong

2008-08-04T15:37:00.006+08:00

One of the 2 monkeys we found, this one's call Linus

A job recently got postponed to a later week so I decided to go on the trip to Siong waterfall along with the gang, Siong is located off the road to Kuala Kelawang, near the borders between Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, it is a relatively short and easy track what makes it fun are the wild boar traps in the area.

We meet up again at the usual meeting point at Damansara Perdana at ~~6.00AM~~ 6.30AM (Sorry "Lah", I over slept) and head towards Ulu Langat for breakfast.

Orang Asli Village with tall durian tree

After satisfying our need for food, we head towards Kampung Rembai to satisfy our need for adventure and to escape the usual garbage we see in our everyday life.

So a short drive later we found ourselves in the starting point which is the orang asli village (A big thanks to Suresh for his navigation skills and the GPS), parked the car under the durian tree (I know, it's insane) and got ourselves geared up, ready for some torture.

The Trail: clear and easy

Unlike the other trails, we got ourselves a guide from the Orang Asli (aboriginal people) village, it makes it even more easier for us especially when it comes to the wild boar traps, they'll know where they place it for sure.

Within an hour later, we've reach a beautiful tall cascading waterfall, close to civilization yet pristine, since it lacks a pool to dip in, everyone did the next best thing that can be done at a waterfall like this, cam whoring.

The goal

The team

I'm not gonna post the cam whoring pictures or pictures of the mountain gorilla due to personal reasons such as shyness and fear of apes. This will be my final outdoor activity for the month of August, got to commit to other things plus the Chinese believe that this is not a good month to be out, there might be hungry things out there [Playing X-files theme].

Have a Great Day

Dennis

Love Got a Bad Name

2008-07-30T23:30:00.007+08:00

"The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death." – Oscar Wilde

Another friend just broke up with his girlfriend... I've been having friends having break up or having relationship problems for the pass few weeks, but what's bad is how some people give bad love advice and make it all unromantic and cheap.
One day at the mamak, a whole group of friends including myself were giving our ears to a friend who recently break up, we tried to comfort him and give him advice.
One of my friends said confidently.
"No need to worry, if you can earn lots of money girls will sure come to you one. They will Line up even!"

Well, I am sure many of us had heard of this remark before, I personally heard it from my parents and my relatives back when I am much younger, but it is only until recently I think about it.
I must say that I really dislike this remark, I mean must money be an item that people use in order to gain love? The statement also makes is sound as if girls are cheap and they are only after the guy's money.

Think about it seriously, if that is really the case then what's the difference between this and paying for love from a number found at a broken phone booth? I really think that our society had screw itself over because of this line, when the words like love and relationship comes in to play money will automatically becomes a concern and that's pretty F***ed up if you ask me.

Another friend of mine just had his 6 years strong relationship ended unwillingly just because some Medium predicts that they will not be happy in future if they continue to be together, things became bad to worst when the parents made sure that the relationship doesn't go on.
It is such a sad thing to hear because I really do see the passion and sincerity of their relationship and I believe if there is really a God, he wouldn't be so cruel as to separate the 2 of them.
As a believer of God, I really don't know what to say to comfort my friend. I can't tell him to screw God and not to believe or just tell him that the words are true and he have to listen to each and every word of God too.
If I was in the same situation, I would had already gone crazy.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

The Tale of Eddie Dilbo

2008-07-28T23:36:00.004+08:00

Eddie Dilbo is a male 16 months old Beagle I recently adopted, lost and found.
His previous owner put him up for adoption because her children were too young and Eddie could get too excited and hurt the children by jumping on them. Eddie was actually bought from a breeder who tried to use him for breeding purposes but given up. Was kept by the owner for a month until I came along and ... (you know the story).

I received a called last week, the caller told me that Eddie is alright and is being kept by her friend, apprently Eddie was at ther place at the day he gone missing and the next day the friend brought Eddie back to her home at Bangsar where he's well taken care of.

Eddie is still quite a menace, he bites and eats just about anything, he even pulled down a metal bar from the sliding door grill at the office and destroyed the art area. I'm still training it so hopefully I will be able to bring him for a trekking trip sometime in September or October.

Eddie taking a nap while I work

Gunung Senyum: Caving with a Smile

2008-07-23T19:37:00.013+08:00

Tried something different over the weekends, instead of the usual waterfall trips my group and I always do, we spent the weekend caving at Gunung Senyum, this trip was planned by Chelsina and co organized by Aurelius, before I move on writing more about the trip, let's go back for a little history.

Between the 15th and 16th century, The Sultan of Pahang was taking a break from visiting his people with his Parliament members at present day Taman Negara. While resting, the Sultan was attracted by a beautiful mountain in a distance; awe by its beauty the Sultan asked his Parliament members."What is the name of that mountain over there?" No one could answer his question so all they did was smile at each other and think of an answer. Amused by his Parliament member's reaction, the Sultan said to them."Tell you what. I shall call this Gunung Senyum (Mount. Smile)."

Gunung Senyum is located within the vicinities of Jenka Forest Reserves at the southwest of Jenka,it's a good 2 hours drive from PJ/KL, as usual we (KL group) meet up at 6.30am and had our breakfast at Devi's corner (TTDI), we then head down to Chenor Toll to group up with the rest of the group which consist of members mainly from Kuantan region.After meeting up with them and begging them to forgive Aurelius for being late, we then head down to Gunung Senyum.

Henry eyes are closing

Long long time ago, there was a warrior called Tok Long who have a Magical Golden Feather. Using the feather, Tok Long is able to capture a mystical Silver Bird which he kept as a pet and was so proud of.

Group Picture with Josen pooping in the toilet

It didn't take long to reach Gunung Senyum from the toll, once there everyone got all geared up and ready to cam whore first then move out to the entrance of the cave. One thing we didn't know is that this mountain have hundreds of caves, only a few of them are accessible for visitors.We got ourselves a guide for this trip, so we don't need to worry about getting lost.The guide lead us in to an oil palm plantation and told us some histories of Gunung Senyum."It used to be a very beautiful and very green mountain..." He said while leading the group across the oil palm estate road covered in dung.
"But in the year 1984, an English man who camp on the peak forgotten to put out his camp fire and burned down all the trees."
Such a pity that we couldn't admire the full beauty that it is back then.

Like in life, the trail to the cave is full of shit

One day, Tok Long's Silver bird managed to escaped, Tok Long chased the bird and stumbles upon a fairy village in side a cave, marveled at his finding he wandered in the village and met a Fairy Princess, they fall in love and married but by doing so Tok Long is no longer allowed to return to the human world, which might risk exposing the Fairy Village, in return for his sacrifice the princess gave Tok Long magical powers one can only dream of.

View from the plantation

After a short walk in the plantation, we reached a jungle trail that leads to the 1st cave but to reach this trail, we are all required to make a little leap before we can start. The Jungle trail got me all excited but I am not needed in the front since we got a guide so I take on the role which I usually avoid like a plague, the sweeper, making sure no one is left behind.
We reach the first cave and we noticed that there are 2 pits dug at the entrance, the guide explains that long ago, this entire landscape is under the sea (in shallow waters), the 2 pits that we see are actually dug by the archaeologists from the museum, and in the pit they found sea shells from long ago.

View in a cave

Times passed and Tok Long starts to miss the human world especially his village. He asked for the princess permission to return to the human world to visit his village, reluctantly she agrees to his request on one condition. Tok Long must not mention anything about the existence of the fairy village and how he got his powers, also he must return on the coming night when the moon is the fullest or he will not be able to return forever.

Vicious Cave Cricket Main Diet : Little Girls

Posing in a cave full of bats

I used to think that caves are place where no life could be found or kinda dead, but that perception I had is now gone. Sign of life could be found all over the place, not only insects but also some animals roots of plants could also be found in the ground of the caves. Bats, frogs, spiders, crickets are among the commonly seen animals, some parts of the cave, crabs or even colony of cockroaches can be found co existing with the bats, and they mainly feed off from the bats dropping.

The huge rock in the middle used to be a huge coral

Tok Long was so excited to be able to see his village and his friends again he quickly return to the human world and meet up with all his friends, in his excitement he told a few of his friend about his magic powers and the fairy village breaking the promise that he made to the princess. On the night when he wants to return to the fairy village, Tok Long realized that he could no longer return to the fairy village no matter what he does even thou he is able to see it. He became sadder when he realized that he could no longer be with the princess even thou he could see her. Heart broken and sad, Tok Long regrets his actions. He dug a hole next to the cave and waited in it, hoping one day he can eventually return to the fairy village and back to his love one. Unfortunately, his wait only brought him to his death.

I can't help but to wonder how long did he wait?

3 archaeologists wanna be

One of the interesting caves to me is Tok Long Burial Cave, there were several pits around the that were also dug by the museum, the guide said that the museum found various sea shells and remains of animals, also found at the site are tools and human remains from the middle stone age.
I jumped in to one of the pits after asking permission from the guide to mess around which I regretted later on because the soil was so fine that it really messed up my boots, had a hard time cleaning it.
I didn't enjoy this trip fully because I missed out on most of the stories told by the guide but overall it is a fun trip. I'm definitely going back there again, hopefully to summit Gunung Senyum with a smile.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

The World is Just Awesome

2008-07-22T04:15:00.006+08:00

Saw this advertisement in the cinema recently and I find it beautifully done, makes me loves the world even more.
Watch it.

Lyrics
I love the mountains,
I love the clear blue skies,
I love big bridges,
I love when great whites fly,
I love the whole world,
And all its sight and sounds,

Boom De Ah Da
Boom De Ah Da
Boom De Ah Da
Boom De Ah Da

I love the ocean,
I love real dirty things,
I love to go fast,
I love Egyptian Kings,
I love the whole world,
and all it's craziness,

Boom De Ah Da
Boom De Ah Da
Boom De Ah Da
Boom De Ah Da

I love tornadoes,
I love arachnids,
I love hot magma,
I love the Giant Squid,
I love the whole world,
Its such a brilliant place

Boom De Ah Da
Boom De Ah Da
Boom De Ah Da
Boom De Ah Da

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Sungai Ampang Disaster?

2008-07-20T22:12:00.007+08:00

Paying everywhere we go

Aurelius and I has made plan to make a 2 man trip to Sungai Ampang Falls earlier and Saturday was the day we choose to execute our plan, left early for Setapak and had our breakfast by the road on the way to the entrance of the trail to the waterfall.
At the guardhouse near the entrance we got in to our gears, not knowing that this time there are people in our way. Usually we need to sign our names and details at the guardhouse before we can proceed, but this time it's not as simple as that. The guard asked us to call a phone number written on a signboard and inform the person that we are going to the falls. We couldn't make the call so we leave it to the guard to do it because some tel co thinks that it is important to have coverage in the jungle for some reason. After the call the guard asked us to wait for a while as somebody is coming to meet us.
Within 15 minutes a Malay man riding on a motorcycle came, he introduced himself (but I didn't want to remember his name) and before he can say anything else I asked him what is going on here?
He explains that he's is from the village near by and the village chief has made it a point for visitors to pay to enter the waterfall saying that it is needed for the trail up keeping cost. He explains that the villagers had took up the responsibility to remove any waste, fallen trees and clear the path so that the visitors will have easier access. I actually think that it's fair so I asked how much are they charging but I got the shock of my life when he asked for RM35 per person. Aurelius and I complained that it is too much however the guy told us that a guide is provided for the price.

"We don't need a guide! We've done this trek before and we have everything we need." I said
"Without guide we charge RM15." He replied
"Still you have no document that states that you can collect money from visitors and this is no private property" Aurelius argued.
"We are waiting for approval for that, it's up to you, if you want to pay a lower price you can go see our village chief." The guy said to us.

At that point, Aurelius and I were already pretty weird out by the situation, having to pay for a waterfall trekking trip is unheard of and the last time we visit the place, the trail don't have much plants to clear and I prefer that they just leave the fallen trees alone.
After a long talk with the fella, Aurelius and I decided not to go because it makes no sense for us to pay for something like that. So instead of trekking, we go hunting for the chief of the village to get more details on this and give him our feedback.
Along the way we asked some of the villagers opinion about the fee that is imposed to go to the waterfall and we found out that only the village committee members knows about the fees while most of the villagers know nothing about it.
"Mahal tu! Mana boleh macam ini?" One of the villager said.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Have You Seen This Dog?

2008-07-17T14:10:00.004+08:00

Dude, can you lock up the gate? I dont want to lose Eddie within a day of adoption.

Those were the exact words I said to Linus before we go out for lunch, fate or jinxed, I now learn that sometimes I got to keep my big mouth shut.
That morning I got a phone call from Eddie's owner who had him put up for adoption, I made an appointment with the owner and gone out to see Eddie right away.
Long story short, I decided to adopt Eddie it was near lunch time so I brought Eddie to the office and allow him to run around and "play" with Foot Stool while waiting for the rest to get ready to go out for lunch.
When we got back from lunch Eddie was already missing, I suspect that he may have squeeze out of the gate. Spent the rest of the day driving around looking for Eddie with no luck.
I am still pissed at myself for taking things for granted and being so reckless.

Call me if you seen Eddie.
Dennis

SkyTrek Adventure @ Bukit Cahaya

2008-07-13T16:17:00.007+08:00

Lazy to flip, tilt your head to view

Lack of sleep, legs with multiple swollen wounds that have blood oozing out off which is also itching madly and starting to hurt in some part. What can I do in a condition that I'm in now?
Normally people would rest, take a break until they are fully recovered but no! I cannot do this as it is against the "Dumb Ass Code of Conduct". the consequences of breaking this code is a punishment so bad that no one can imagine. (Which is nothing, because no one can imagine one.)
That's why I decided to go do Sky trek adventure at Bukit Cahaya, Shah Alam organized by Aurelius (aka Kung Fu Panda).
It is basically a series of elevated obstacle course high up the trees, one must move from 1 check point to another, basically from tree to tree until you reach the end "lah".
At the place we were given harness and a briefing on the basic use, methods, do and don't. While we were at it, we had out hands on a "closer-to-ground" version in order for us to get a better understanding before the real deal.
The obstacles are quite simple but I must say that it's a bit of a challenge for me because I am afraid of heights(that's why I'm short), and I hate the feeling of having my feet off the ground.
I was having second thoughts right after the first obstacle, as I watch the others going from point to point my mind kept playing tricks on me, I kept imagining that something bad might happen.
"Dennis! You can come over now!" A friend yell out to me, signaling that it's clear to take the challenge.
I replied and prepare myself for the challenge, made it clear that whatever that's in my mind isn't real unless it happen, it didn't take me long to clear my mind and make my move.

Nothing can boost my morale more then being with my friends

Pictures by Vit Ping

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Valley of the Leeches

2008-07-12T19:45:00.015+08:00

Both my feet are in pain, some parts are swollen, it's itching badly and spots of blood and liquid are flowing out of my wounds that I got from my trip to Jeram Perlus, or like I prefer to call it "The blood falls".
Despite the restless night, I manage to wake up for the waterfall trip to Jeram Perlus, located in the Hulu Langat region of Selangor. I admit that I was a bit late and because of that the 8 of us group up at about 7am and proceed to have our breakfast in a little stall at Hulu Langat where we had our roti canai and nasi lemak, after satisfying our need for food we made our way to the starting point located near Sungai Gabai Waterfall, where a small native village is found.

Welcoming party for Josen

We had the cars parked at the native village and then proceed to head to the starting point, which can be identified in a form of a spiky rodent called the porcupine, it is actually a pet to the farmer who lives in the house at the starting point and to me, an exotic pet keeper, this has to be one of the coolest thing a person can keep especially for this one because it actually interacts and responds to people.

Seems to be smarter compared to Foot Stool the Basset Hound

We started off in a farm trail which quickly leads to the jungle, it is said that this trail is used mainly by the natives for hunting however trekking on this trail would be challenging to people who have low stamina and patience because this trail is mainly uphill climb and to make things interesting it is slippery, it is a good thing that everyone was in good spirit, the most important thing in every trip.

Like in life, sometimes you gotta really make that climb

Posers in the jungle

from right to left Aurelius, Aries, Ping and myself (Dennis)

"Aurelius, I regret poking fun at how horribly ugly and sissy looking you are when you put on your leech socks will you forgive me?" I said to Aurelius as we trek on the leech infested trail.

I dislike leeches but usually I wouldn't even worry about leeches because I don't get them on me, but this trip was turning out to be different, the leeches were everywhere on this trail it's as if someone bought a million leeches and litter them all over the trail. Linus who is like some sort of lover of all lifeforms and the environment who usually welcome and allow the leeches to drink his blood (Sounds like Jesus), however this time I guess it was unbearable because he too was complaining and pulling out leeches. It was insanity! The leeches never stop coming and there was no way to avoid them, even those with leech socks too have their blood sucked out of them

Leech inspection

Salted leech and pool of blood

It is a good thing that Aurelius had his hand held GPS. Probably the main reason why we no longer get lost for anymore waterfall trips nowadays although sometimes we still wander off course thanks to Aurelius, will take him some time to get used to his new GPS.
The torture last for a good 2 hour and 30 minutes, and finally saw a wall of white hidden by the trees, at that point I was paralyzed with the the view, It was what we came for...

Worth the blood we lost? You decide

The Hardcore posing with the falls
from right Josen, Linus, Aurelius, Chris, Vit Ping, Donny, Dennis and Aries

There it was ,Jeram Perlus waterfall, tall, strong, and beautiful. To me it was worth the blood I lost during the trek, every single drop of it. Right after posing for the group picture, everyone got in the pool to cool off, cam whore and do things people usually do at waterfalls. (You can tell I'm quite lazy to type now)
we spent about an hour and it was about time to leave, the one part I dislike, going back to civilization, we got even more leeches while trekking back since it was raining this time.
I look at my leech ridden legs, instead of pulling leeches off I moved on and quietly say to myself

"The blood I lost this time is not worth losing for the trip back to the Hell called civilization."

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Jakun in the car

2008-07-11T00:32:00.003+08:00

Drop by my aunt's house to have a look at her computer problem just now, nothing much i can do about it since I didn't have an extra network card or a network cable. When I was about to leave my aunt mentioned to me that she needs to go pick up her children, and since I haven't had the chance to check out her new ride I asked if I could come along.
Riding in her new Toyota Estima, I can't help but to look like a "Jakun" who just came out from the forest sitting in a car for the 1st time.
"You all can come down now." my aunt said.
"Okie, coming down" voice of her children came out through the car's sound system and it's so clear that there is hardly any static, I then learned that her cellphone is connected to her car audio system via bluetooth and that enables her to pick up phone calls without touching her phone.
Bewildered with the technology that is in the car, I grew even more curious with what is in the car and what it could do, I know that the technology exist, yet I prefer to experience it myself rather then just knowing.
"Show you something" My aunt said while engaging her gear to reverse, the display comes to life showing a view of the camera located at the back of the vehicle with red, yellow and green lines guiding the car in reversing. She then push a button on the touch screen display and a female Japanese voice is heard. I couldn't understand what it means but my aunt said that it is now in Automatic side parking mode. She explains that the sensors around the car will scan the space and if there is enough room it will then move itself into the parking space.

Rear Camera view: the yellow box actually moves and guides the driver

Auto side parking mode

"There is a Hard Disc in the car, I could record from CDs to my car's Hard Disc and play it later too." My aunt added.
I now know how silly my car CD player is, gonna work really hard for a kick ass car with hardware like that.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Where's Doggie?

2008-07-10T11:14:00.005+08:00

It's a gloomy Thursday morning, I didn't need to get off bed early since work doesn't begin till after lunch time. Suddenly I heard...
"Dennis! I think I saw Doggie!"
My mother yelled with her paranormal high pitch voice, while she look for a picture of Doggie she took on her phone.

Doggie is a Labrador mix who had been with my family for a decade or more, he was brought back home by my father when it's still a puppy. Now it's been 7 months since I last saw Doggie.

"He ran off when I tried catching him but I managed to take his picture" my mom said while showing me a picture of the back of a dog running away.
The sun is shining again, I have 10 minutes before work. I think I'll go try my luck looking for Doggie before checking in.

The attack of the "Banana" Raiders

2008-07-07T10:33:00.015+08:00

I'm gonna come for you Henry!

It's Sunday, I got my usual trekking gears checked and packed, the difference this time. I retired the super heavy duty machete which I usually carry and now carry a shiny new 18" machete perfect for cutting down overgrown bushes that gets in the way. Also I decided that this trip I would go extra light, which means I am not gonna carry a bag like I usually do for my previous trips.
The journey to the location had a few hiccups, for example: I totally forgotten that Wendy is gonna meet us at Linus's place and follow our car and SOMEBODY OVERSLEPT + FFK US!!!

We gathered at Batu Caves for breakfast and ice breaking session (+ a bit of cam whoring), the participants of this trip are:

Mei San
Samantha
Darien
Josen
Wendy
Donovan
William
Suresh
Adila
Timmy
Rebecca
YY
Linus (Photographer + cam whore)
Seng Keong (Sweeper)
Aurelius (Organizer + navigator + cam whore)
and Myself (Lead bush whacker + Scout)

Finishing our roti canai and the half boiled and half wrong eggs we started heading towards Gombak where the waterfall is located. We reached the pump station where the trail is supposed to start and after everyone have their gears on, we started by heading into the jungle crossing the river hoping that the trail is there, fortunately it is. We followed the trail which runs along the river and caught sight of KARAK highway. This is an unusual sight but it is a good sign that says "You are on the right path.".
The trail ended near a drain by the river, I knew that the river crossing isn't going to be easy since the river is about waist deep and especially in a group of 16 people so I told Aurelius that I'll go scout for a possible path by walking up the drain while the rest wait.
Running and following a possible path that runs between the river and KARAK highway on the the right hand side of the drain I found an unmistakable land mark.
"HOOAH!" I shouted to signal the rest to follow, some people asked me why do I shout in the jungle, the purpose is to signal and check everyone in the group in a fun, positive and purposeful way. (You can wikipedia HOOAH to find out more)

The land mark: Tunnels under the KARAK highway

We spent sometime (TRY) taking pictures, shouting and screaming in the tunnel for fun while getting to the other side of the tunnel. Right after we made it pass the tunnel, an eerie scream and laughter is heard coming from across the tunnel, to our horror we saw... OH S***! RUN!!!

We try to make our way to the waterfall as quick as we can as the horror follows behind stalking and following us, the condition of the trail is slowing us down rapidly due to the amount of mud.

Mud is good~~~

The shouting and laughing of the horror behind becomes louder and clearer and it is clearly closing in on us very rapidly, just when we thought it's over for us, we caught sight of the beautiful Sungai Pisang Waterfall. We stood there and admire the power of the beauty for a moment, while "The Horror" close in for it's kill, laughing and shouting to intimate it's prey putting an end to a 30 minutes chase.

"The Horror" with puppies eyes

Aurelius's final moments: He's all right, just cam whoring as usual

Truth is, another group mainly primary school children was brought to the waterfall by some of their teachers. There were at least 70 to 80 of them and I think it's only fair that, we, the smaller group to find another location to chill in the water. So we climbed up a path opposite the waterfall and start to try looking a place of our own, and to our delight we manage to find one right above the waterfall, it's the perfect place to be if you want to have your revenge. (I'm just kidding)

Playing and cam whoring at the top of the falls

We spent the time playing water at the top of the waterfall while waiting for the children to go back so that we can have the bottom pool for ourselves. I spent some time to explore the surroundings too, hoping to find anything interesting didn't manage to find much but a few camping sites littered with garbage, a very sad sight to see indeed.

This is a clear sign that somebdy forgotten his underwear

One with the force

Overall, this trip was very easy (for me at least) but enjoyable. The waterfall itself is beautiful, however its accessability might have been it's downfall, people frequently visits the place and some irresponsible ones do not take care of their waste and there is too much cam whoring, I hope that it won't be like that for the next trip.

The Machete

2008-07-04T23:31:00.005+08:00

Wanted to retire my old machete, it has come to a point that if I were to lose it in the jungle or anything I might just die of heartache. Even thou I have been to many hiking and camping trips with it, the main reason is still because it is a gift from my late uncle.
Without a machete, an outdoor trip would be weird for me especially when I love taking the lead. Taking the lead doesn't just means that the person will merely walk in front of the group, the lead to me is very important role to play, not only he/she has to make sure that the group are on the right path and also clear the path, he/she must also make sure the surroundings is safe and nobody is left out.
So I hunted for a new machete in an uniform and outdoor adventure outlet called Outpost located in One Utama and here's what I got:

18 inches blade of horror

A 23" overall, 18" carbon steel blade Tramontina Machete with hardwood handle. How can one resist getting one of this? Anyone wielding this monster will look intimidating, besides, this baby's sheer size alone is enough to put the others machete freaks in my group to shame.

Yet for me is it still far from perfect, the machete comes with an ugly canvas sheath that couldn't completely hold the blade properly and it looks really bad, I hated it so much that I decided to make my own sheath. But with what? At first I thought leather would make a good material but it would be an ass to find the material and I won't be good at stitching it in to a sheath. Then I remembered during the time I acted in a short film as a communist, one of the prop was a fake sword in a wooden sheath, did a little research on wooden sheath and got a general idea how it's made, I when on to look for the materials I need to construct the sheath for my machete.

Wood cleaned and ready for a new life

Day one of construction, collected the wood of the right size and have them both sawed to the shape I want and grind clean, then I measured the shape and size of the blade, draw the outline of the blade on the wood then more grinding follows, grind/carve out the shape of the blade on both wood. I glued both wood together using glue and had them held together using clamps, I didn't want to use nails because it might damage the wood, creating unwanted splits or cracks.

Watching glue dry

That night I showed my unfinished work to a few friends, and they were laughing their heads off because of the thickness and how crude it looked at that point. They were even teasing me about using it as a chopping board and some other stuff. I tried to convince them that it is not finished and it will be smaller and much nicer when I am done with it, but then we were all still drowned in laughter.

Day 2:
Spent at least an hour grinding the wood to make it thinner and smoother, next I sand it to make it even smoother, filled up the cavities with glue and sawdust mixture and left dry, sand it again and then give it a nice finishing using shoe polish.

Here's the result

Both Machete

I just can't wait to put it to action for my trip to Pisang waterfall this Sunday!

Have A Great Weekend
Dennis

PC Setup

2008-07-02T04:29:00.006+08:00

Hazard Box: Old rig that once served me

Just got a new PC and have been setting it up since evening, had to look through my old Hard Disc Drives, for any documents, pictures, music and other files, I got about 7 HDD of various capacity, 2 had been destroyed by my curiosity so now I only left 5 to check.
Found many old and interesting things, the one that caught my attention the most are some pictures that dates back the time when Henry and I were quite crazy about modding our computers turning the boring cream / white colored casing into something else, here are some pictures of the PCs that I modded.

Before Modding

Planning Stage

Result: CamoPillBox

In the dark

Power supply casing mod + cable sleeve

Sadly these 2 casing are laying around in my room and might end up at the scrap metal yard, I'm still trying to decide their fate.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

My journey so far

2008-06-24T14:59:00.005+08:00

Landed on a different ground,
confusions sparks all around,
people I love couldn't understand,
the choice I made was never planned.

Regret not with my choice,
but grateful that my soul is poise,
knowledge and respect given and earned,
yet success and achievement I still yearn.

Living in this world of drought,
one cannot afford a life of doubts,

a meaningful life I once seek,

at least now I can see the peak.

Have a Great Day

Dennis

Chemperoh falls: The Second trip

2008-06-23T03:53:00.006+08:00

Here we start

Made the second attempt for Cemperoh on Saturday after failing to complete it on February (More Details here). This time we were more prepared, all thanks to Aurelius efforts in getting a better and more detailed description of the trail, yet the chances of getting lost is still high and I must say that this has to be one of the most challenging trail I had ever done.

The first leg of the trail involves walking across a massive vegetable farm and an open field for 45 minutes to an hour, the reason why this is a torture is that there were no cover from the sun and the trail were mostly uphill climbs, the open field (full of bushes) after the farm was even more of a torture all thanks to its thick and thorny overgrowth, trying to cut our way through is a waste of effort because it will be slow and will waste valuable body energy, no complains thou. never expect a walk in the park with this bunch of suckers for pain.

Posing with bamboos
(Linus face was intentionally censored due to cam whore rules violation: Excessive cam whoring)

After walking pass the open field we found "Hope", a real jungle trail which spells the end of the thorns and the hot sun. Yet we have another 2 problems, first is that we are still unsure about the track that we are taking and the next one is leeches, there were unbelievable amount of leeches for this track (according to some of the group members), While most of the group were pulling off and killing the leeches, Linus was the only one who is weird to allow the leeches to cling on to him and suck his blood until it is full, his reason to this is funny thou.

"We are visitors to their home, you don't go to some one's home and kill them." - Linus

Quite true but that's the reason why there were 3 leeches up in his pants, plus we also don't suck our guests blood when they come to our home too.

I don't know why but for some reasons I didn't get any leech bite on me.

After a while I noticed that along the trail that we are taking has a long water pipe, which heads back to the farm, at that point we were still unsure of the path we still can't hear the waterfall and we were no where near a river, but following the water pipe makes a whole lot of sense because it must lead to a water source, even if it leads us to a river it will be safe for us because the river will eventually leads us to the waterfall.

Not long after following the water pipe, we discovered a marker (a red and white ribbon which tells you that you are on the right track). It was such a relief to know that we are on the right track that point on it was looking out and checking for marker after marker and before we know it, we hear the sound of water flowing and there is was...

The Reward: Chemperoh falls

Cool and refreshing crystal clear water

Back massage nature style

The whole group excited with the waterfall walk towards it ~~without waiting~~ after waiting like 10 or 15 minutes trying get everyone together to take a nice group picture.

After resting, chilling, swimming and cam whoring for a little more then an hour someone suggest to head back home, I wanted to stay longer because I still don't feel satisfied, I feel that for the effort of tracking for the past 2 hours, even thou we did stay a bit longer but I still wished the the group spent more time relaxing and enjoying the beauty of the reward.

A video of this trip will be release soon.

Have a Great Day

Dennis

Extra actor for a day

2008-06-18T10:52:00.004+08:00

The director (Kabir) scratching his head wondering what's this lousy extra is doing

A friend's friend needed an extra for a shoot and I was asked if I want to take on the role, it actually sounds like fun and it's one way to escape from editing videos. It's actually a shoot for erm... well... not too sure but I remember it's something to do with The Star and it's called Frontpage or something like that. I play the guy in the office who only appears in the background.

My back is all you'll see from me

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Petrol rebate

2008-06-17T17:17:00.003+08:00

The Form

Spent the whole morning asleep, been up for the pass few days working and editing charity video for a gift-from-the-God-organization. Don't have much to do until later evening so I decided to drop by the post office and get my petrol rebate. I have the forms back at home, fill them up and then rode off to the post office on my scooter.

57 people are waiting before me

1 crowded post office

I walked in the post office unsurprised thanks to the slow service provided by the post office. I took a ticket and waited for my turn. For one hour I hear unhappy people all around me swearing at the government's action to hike up petrol price and have this system where we gotta collect rebate from the post office. I wasn't interested to join in and talk about it, might as well just deal with it for now.
One hour pass and it's finally my turn, the process was pretty quick to my surprise I just hand in the forms, one for my scooter and another for the car, presented my I.C., have my thumb print on the forms and it's done, take money and leave. However, I only manage to get the rebate for my car but not for my scooter because I had my road tax renewed in January, have to wait next year for that one.

If you are going to get your rebate at the post office, just remember to bring your I.C. and your thumb.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Happy father's day

2008-06-16T10:39:00.003+08:00

Drove pass my father's former office yesterday, and I soon realized that I'm trying to hold back my tears, not really safe to drive with wet eyes because was thinking about my father who passed away almost 10 years ago.

Father and me

My father was a carpenter when he was younger, he makes furniture and small structures, he then applied to work as a clerk in Matsushita when the japanese firm started in Malaysia, and for the next 25 years of his life, he worked his way up and stay with the firm even during the time of his death.
I still remember him as "the man who can", because I really don't know what he couldn't do other then quit smoking. (At least he tried)
I regrat because I cannot recall giving my father a hug and tell how much love and respect I have for him, I do envy people who still have the chance to.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Hardest Super Mario Game

2008-06-15T05:31:00.002+08:00

It's a voice over but the things that the guy say is ass funny
i.e. HOLY LEAP OF FU*K!!!

Enjoy and Have a Great Weekend,
Dennis

Illegal Cock Fighting

2008-06-10T00:24:00.004+08:00

Was on an assignment about illegal cock fighting (The chicken type, not the male private part kind), been looking around for weeks until a friend conveniently says "Hey! I know a place", should had ask around more often. Our lead bring us to the location which some god forsaken place in the middle of no where, we were there quite early and there were people setting up shelters and the fighting ring, there weren't much people the time we arrive, but not long after people are starting to pour in and near the ring there is already a group of people gambling in a game of Sic-Bo (A form of dice game).
What's interesting is the people who actually came with their fighting cocks, some of them treats their bird very well and you can actually see that these guys loves their birds (hmm... sounds wrong there...), while waiting for more contenders to come they keep stroking their cock with a wet sponge or cloth to cool it's body temperature down to make the chicken feel comfortable.
Once there are enough contenders, all owners will bring their bird into the ring and find themselves a worthy opponent or pick a fight, bets and agreements are done in the ring and sealed with a handshake, all done like gentlemen.
After the deal is set, the owners will bring their fighting cock outside the ring where his team will assist him with combat preparations, one man will cool the chicken, while another man attach the cock spur (a long curved spike) on the bird's leg, there is also a standby medic for each team in case their fighter gets injured.

Very blur picture of a cock fight

Tried to take some pictures of the match a few times however got several warnings from some of the people there, best not to try pushing my luck especially when I know that Lady Luck ain't with me. So the best thing for me to do is to watch and experience a few fights then get back to the car and rest since my head is starting to hurt more due to dehydration.
One of the exciting match which I managed to watch lasted only 5 seconds, the 2 cock started the fight by trying to jump on to each other, one managed to do so sending it's spur into the chest of the other cock, it fell instantly and stopped moving... I guess that strike manage to puncture a vital organ. The owner quickly picked up his cock and rushes out the ring where the team is to attempt saving the cock,they had a whole toolbox with medical supplies like stitches, bandages, needles, surgical knifes and syringe are among the things I saw, sadly their efforts seem futile and the bird is no more...

Cock that died after a 5 seconds match

This post just sounds wrong... oh well.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Walk into a cyber cafe

2008-06-07T00:09:00.002+08:00

I can't recall when was the last time I walked into a cyber cafe for games, must have been for like ages cause I got no idea what the hell is everyone is playing or yelling about in here. As I am writing, there are a few guys near me playing some form of MMORPG, shouting and screaming commands to their friends for assistance etc.
"Check out my sword!"
"Help me!!!"
"I'm Tanking! Kill em!"

I just find it weird how these people are so into their virtual character which only exist in the form of wireframes and pixels, but then who am I to say? I used to be like them at one point, even thou I don't spend alot of time in the cyber cafe, I used to play a lot of computer games, as a matter of fact I still play em once in a while, there is no better way to vent off anger and stress then to shoot heads off your enemies, blow them up with the biggest weapon or simply cutting them into half with a chainsaw.
Yes I know it's violent but every human being needs to cool down one way or another and you can't expect me to do things like chopping people on the streets in reality, right?
I'll stop here, the gamers here are looking at me with their "WTF is this guy doing blogging in a cyber cafe" look.

Have A Great Weekend
Dennis

R.I.P Laptop

2008-06-05T19:04:00.000+08:00

Zeus has unleash his wrath on the laptop back at home. I'm not sure how badly damage the thing is because I was really tired when I got back home last night, things worsen when my mom show me her wrath, putting the blame of the laptop damage on me which got hit while I was at work.
No time for feeling bad thou.

Have a GREAT Day.
Dennis

Working hard or hardly working?

2008-06-03T11:19:00.001+08:00

Here's something for those who reads blogs at their work place. I hope your boss is not standing behind you while you surf the internet. :p

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Fish spa at home?

2008-05-29T17:55:00.002+08:00

I bought some fishes for my mom on mothers day, those that nibble your feet when you put it in the water. She complained that it wasn't enough and she go order a hundred of them. And the result...

Mom's very own fish spa at home.

Have A Great Day
Dennis

Sleeping Around with Fear

2008-05-28T11:23:00.006+08:00

While most people try to avoid them out of fear, I spend most of my nights around them sleeping soundly without any fear or worries. Most people I know will feel disgusted, shock, surprised when they hear about my unusual interest, some even gave negative comments like "One day they come out and bite/eat you then you know.", I can't really blame and call them retards for their ignorance really, it's not their fault that our education system failed to deliver right?

One of my many tarantulas

Some of my roaches

In case you are wondering why roaches? Here's why, tarantula eats insects, roaches are insects, crickets are smelly and mites ridden. I breed my own roaches to keep my tarantulas safe from mites that might come with the crickets that are sold in most pet shop plus I know for a fact that the roaches I have eats good food. These are not you average roaches you find in the drain by the way.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

p.s.: I know... this post is quite lame, not really in the mood today

The Last Communist

2008-05-25T02:46:00.004+08:00

Spent the last 2 days in the jungle for a shoot, day 1 of the shoot was utter disaster so I rather not talk about it, I wasn't able to do much too thanks to my thumb so instead of "working" I was either taking pictures, walking in to the orang asli village to chat with the people, play with asli children or sleeping.

Skin is starting to fall off, ouch...

Day 2 of the shoot, the director made me put on a communist terrorist costume and run around the jungle and in the end got myself killed and beheaded by an Indonesian military personal, I was the only person there in a communist outfit while the rest are mostly Sarawak Rangers, and it looks as if I am a captured terrorist.
Acting as a communist terrorist caught in the Sarawak Communist Insurgency made me curious about how the communist were back then, and it's amazing how they can survive in the jungle and have their morale high as we were told by an army officer who is training near the shoot.

Well, I had my fun playing as a communist for a day at the shoot, and it's back to being myself now.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

My injured thumb

2008-05-22T03:25:00.003+08:00

In my previous post I did mentioned how I managed to seriously injure my thumb, now I would like to bitch about how inconvenient it is to have a thumb that's injured, allow me elaborate a little on the condition of my thumb first. The burned skin is starting to become dark, it is also starting to break at some part and water is flowing out of the broken skin.
The doctor instructions which was not to wet my wound, so every time I shower my right arm is held high as if I am in class ready to answer a question. I also had to wash my face and brush my teeth using my left arm this at least is not as bad as trying to reach for my wallet which now has become a challenge because of the friction between the wound and my pocket makes paying for anything very painful, literally.
When it comes to eating, I cannot use the chopstick properly, even using a spoon can be quite a pain, but I lost my mood to eat every time I see my injured thumb, I'm still getting enough food thou, don't really like the feeling of being hungry.
Trying to reply SMS om my phone is also starting to piss me off, had to take my time writing using my finger, sometime typing using the keyboard is a painful affair especially when I hit the space bar with the wrong side of my thumb.
Well, it's actually not that painful now and I think it's starting to heal despite the disgusting look, water flowing and all the crap.
Time to sleep.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Strata Falls Aftermath

2008-05-18T19:32:00.006+08:00

Walking on sunshine, crossing the abandon oil palm estate

klown AKA Henry said...
Hehehe,

lemme be the first to post results. We nearly had honey glazed thumb sausage a'la Heng for dinner due to unforseen circumstances that involved a Slurpee cup, a fly, and a lighter..

Thank you Henry for ASKING me to kill the fly... Now I shall continue with the full story, I was in a world of pain yesterday you can practically say that I had pain for dinner but before I move on to writing what happen let me first write about yesterday's hiking trip.
6.30AM, 7 of us gathered at our usual spot, the people that showed up includes Seng Keong, Aurelius, Josen, Henry, Eu Jin, Linus and myself, we started our journey to Proton City (More like Rempit Land) for Nasi Lemak Breakfast, after breakfast we head off to Diamond Creek located in Tanjung Malim where the start of the trail is. We found ourselves in what looks like an abandon oil palm estate, at about 15 minutes we started to find the jungle and as usual we had to get a little lost first. Luckily someone came out with a great idea of following the river, that dude who gave that suggestion is such a genius, anyway we started to walk upstream sometimes we had to climb a few huge rocks the size of a small house at some point even large ones.

Cam whore break: Mid way to the falls

After about an hour and 30 minutes we stopped and decided that some of us cannot move on and make it to the top, I wanted to reach the falls too but I never like the idea of splitting up or leaving anyone behind plus I can come again another day, so I decided to stay back and stay with the dudes who can't go on, even made them a nice fire to keep them warm until the other return.

The Reward: Strata Falls

at about 3pm, we started hiking back to the cars and head down to the nearest 7 11 for some food and Slurpee (Henry had 2 large ones and he manage to finish them faster then us having one), I was starting to feel some movement in the bowels,it must be the Nasi Lemak from Proton City. So I bought some traditional medicine (Poh Chai Yun) to help relief that and I must say it's not much help, we head for dinner near Batang Kali anyway.
At an old restaurant by the road we stopped for dinner, we placed our order and wait for our food and while waiting a fly flew in to somebody's slurpee and it got stuck, then someone asked me to kill the fly using one of my pyrotechnic tricks I usually perform involving a lighter and an aluminum can which involves holding gas from the lighter in to the can then lighting the mouth so that a jet of flame will shoot out from the can. I never tried it using a slurpee cup but in theory it should work the same but the cup might melt since it's plastic and since it's larger then a soft drink can it should be able to hold more gas and should have a longer and bigger jet of flames. I couldn't resist the idea so without much thinking I start filling the cup with gas from the lighter and try to light it, first time fail, second time didn't work but third time "Woosh!" it lights up! Shooting a jet of flames out of the hole but my thumb was in the way...
I watched my thumb get caught in the flame while my friends laugh at the misfortune of the fly (which didn't die from it) not knowing that I am injured, I was calm then and right after they stop laughing I told them that I got myself burn quite badly and my thumb was white. They instruct me to put cream or toothpaste to cool it while some of them said I should put it in ice (I guess I need to find a friend who is good at first aid) I walk to the payment counter and asked the cashier for toothpaste, she however have a better idea which is to apply honey on the inflicted area she opened a bottle and apply before I can agree to it, I thank her after that and go back to my table and took a sit while holding back my pain however very soon after that, I started to feel weak, my friends kept telling me that my lips were white and that I'm starting to look pale, I told them that my visions are fading very rapidly and I cannot see clearly, I told them that I want to rest in the car and forget about dinner for now but they kept trying to pursued me saying that I should eat and that I'll be alright, I was really hungry but I didn't care about food at that time, I wanted to lie down in my car and rest for a moment so I stood up while I still can see and slowly walk towards my car vision still fading, and then I fainted before I enter the car, luckily my friends were assisting me or I would have fallen flat to the ground, that point on the last thing I remembered was telling them which pocket my car keys were. I think I didn't pass out very long cause when I woke up my friend were pulling me into the car while the entire village came over to see what's going on, some of them were kind enough to offer water and medicine but I was feeling fine except for the pain from my thumb so we head for the clinic right after dinner.

Henry holding my wallet (Don't know why), while I'm in pain.

At the clinic, we were fooling around like monkeys as I moan to my pain while my friends were saying all kind of jokes such as "Too bad Amber Chia not here" and "His thumb is charred grilled and ready to eat, he even added honey!"
When the doctor asked me what had happen, I was too lazy and ashame to tell him the whole story so I just give him the short version, "I got burned by a lighter."
The doctor checked my blood pressure and heart beat, and said that it's all good however he's going to give me 2 jabs. "2 JABS!? Why are you giving me jabs?" I asked him to make things clear plus I'm quite afraid of needles (Hey! I'm honest!), he asked me to lie down and then gave me one jab on my left arm which wasn't that bad, he then asked me to turn over to lie down on my back, as I turn I asked the doctor "Is really necessary to jab me on my butt? Can I have a shorter needle? That one looks long and scary... wait please let me try to relax first, Nooooo!!!"

After leaving the clinic I walked as if I was given an anal probe, and the fact that I now have a pain in the butt and the thumb is still giving me a lot of pain, it really gives me a whole new understanding what the pain relief jab is for.

Honey glazed thumb sausage, I told you it's a sausage fest!

Well, I must say that I learned my lesson, never try that again on a large slurpee cup.

Have a Great Day
Dennis

Strata falls preparation

2008-05-16T23:59:00.002+08:00

Packed up for tomorrow Strata falls hike 'N03 45.83' E101 32.97', don't know what to expect but a sausage fest is inevitable.
Should be an interesting trip thou.

Have a Great Weekend
Dennis

Grave of the forest

2008-05-15T22:08:00.004+08:00

How many trees have to fall for us to wipe our ass?

A recent project had brought me to saw mills and wood processing plant, and it's really sad to see the amount of dead trees in the area. Simply imagine that more then a dozen or 2 dozens football fields filled with logs or sawed wood, the amount of wood there is so insane that you have to see it to believe it, everywhere I turn there is wood, even the ground is no longer soil, earth or mud, it's all covered in think layer of saw dust.
The biggest questions that runs in my mind are, where did all these trees come from? Who permits these logging activities? It's just crazy how fast the trees are being cut down and turn in to strips of wood and shipped out at a rate that it gives J.I.T (Just-in-Time) a whole new meaning.
Sad thing is that humans are killing themselves and they don't even realized it.

Have a Great Day,
Dennis