Perak Trip Part 1: Caving in the Cathedral

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

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

Food for Thought : My Midnight Dinner

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

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