Adventurous and Challenging Trip to Taman Negara - Day 3

continue...

Day 3 - 10 August 2006 - Thursday

So this is the final post about my trip to Taman Negara. Again, the first person to wake up is Min Bee. She turned on the light and everybody just woke up lazily around 7am. We washed ourselves, packed our things and brought our luggages to the eating area where we took our final meal there. After our breakfast, we went down to the jetty for our express boat back to Kuala Tembeling. Took some photos and we finally say bye bye to Nusa Campsite at 9am.

Riding the boat back to Kuala Tembeling is much faster than going there because we are following the current of the river. We were finally able to sit together - the 8 of us. The guys played poker and the loser drinks water. After a while, we got bored and started doing something else, chatting, listen to music, take pictures, pretend to sleep... and so on. Hehehe... On the way back, the engine of our boat broke down, so we stopped in the middle of the river waiting for another boat for "rescue". The driver took some time to fix the problem and I can say it's really hot sitting in the boat - without the wind. We reached Kuala Tembeling at around 11.30am and after some "toilet-ing", we got on the bus back to KL. What a rush... We left Kuala Tembeling at 12 something and we finally reached KL at 3pm something. All of us slept in the bus after finishing most of the snacks we bought.

Then, we took monorail to KL Sentral and had our quick lunch there at KFC. We missed the ERL train back to Cyberjaya by one minute and we have to wait another 30minutes for the next train. Aihzz.. So, we waited and the train finally came. This is the first time i took a KLIA express. It's quite comfortable in there. I tried to make some SMS but almost all of our phones are out of battery. [too bad..]

We reached Cyberjaya around 5.30pm. Miss Yoon was rushing to go somewhere and Leong Kee was rushing to go back to Seremban. The rest of us? We went back to clean ourselves up and get ready to go to The Mines to watch "Click". Besides the six of us, Min Hui [Min Bee's sister] and Alfred joined us as well. The comedy was quite nice and the ending is a bit out of what I think it would be. [I wouldn't use a universal remote control the way he used it though] After the show, we had dinner at Hassan's, Cyberjaya. Luckily, Kuan, Min Bee and Yin Yee accompanied me during the night. Or else, I'll be all alone. Thanks, guys. So, I stayed overnight at my apartment with Kuan and went home evening time the next day.

Post-trip feeling

The last time I went to [overnight] trip with a gang of friends was 5 years ago?!! Gosh! That was so long ago... I always enjoyed myself when I'm with a bunch of friends. This is not excluded of course. I always love to go out instead of staying at home and rot. Hahahah... This is a memorable trip and I'll never forget those happy moments we had. I hope we can always organize trips and stuffs in years to come and I'm looking forward to the next trip too. =P Cheers for B&B!! Billy, out.

Adventurous and Challenging Trip to Taman Negara - Day 2

continue...

Day 2 - 9 August 2006 - Wednesday

Day 2 is more interesting that day 1 definitely. I think we were awaken by the voice of Min Bee around 6.30am. Too tired and too relectunt to wake up... yet everybody get out of their bed lazily because we knew that it will be a wonderful day. =P After washing our faces and brushing our teeth, we walked down to the stream to enjoy some morning breeze and cool water. After having our breakfast at 7.30am, we get ourselves ready to trek to the nearest waterfall, "Abai Waterfall" [Abandoned Waterfall?]. Actually visiting the waterfall wasn't in the schedule but we decided to skip the hiking at Bukit Warisan and trek to the waterfall instead. The sign indicated that the waterfall is just 3km from where we stay. And we took off happily....

Abai Waterfall
The trail looks fairly easy at the beginning. Just walk, walk, walk and walk... Finally, we reach the first river and we need to cross it. It was quite easy but the trail was getting tougher. We reached our second river which is tougher but we managed to cross it without any problem. About mid-way to the waterfall, we reached a Orang Asli Village where I can only see one house with signatures on it. [You call that a village?!] There were just 2 guys there, one of them is playing a guitair in the house. [They don't look like natives to me...] So, we rested for a while and continue our journey. We reached the third river and it's much tougher and more slippery than the previous 2. Yet, we were able to cross it smoothly though few guys wet thier shoes. [Poor them.. kekeke..] After crossing the third river, the trail gets much tougher. We have to climb rocks, walk over logs, uphills, downhills.... and we reached our fourth and final river, the toughest one. We spent a lot of time there crossing one stupid river. Min Bee stood on the rock for like, 10 minutes without moving a muscle? I was getting a bit impatient and try to cross the river from another side without using the rope and I got one of my shoes soaking wet, how clever I am.

I was starting to worry whether we were following the right path because it seems to me that we will never reach the waterfall. After walking for some time and climbing over a huge rock, we finally reached the waterfall. But it was a total dissapointment. The waterfall is PATHETIC! We have been trekking for 1hour 45 minutes and this is what we get. Anyway, we stayed a while to check for leeches and some of them went for a swim. Unfortunately, Kuan had a dead leech in his shoe with blood all over his sock and shoe. We spent quite some time there enjoying the cool water and the journey back starts again after they dried themselves. Going back seems to be faster but we got lost once. Luckily I found back the right path and we reach our room safely. Leech check: 3 survivors [not bitten by leech]: Min Bee, Leong Kee and ME!! =P Whoa~ what an adventure I would say.

Canopy Walk
We were late for our lunch but our nice guide, Ajax, waited for us for our next event, Canopy Walk. We took a quick boat ride to the place and we were briefed about the Canopy Walk. It is the longest in the world. Wow! It's about 500++ meters long and 40++ meters high. One of the highest also I think. We were divided into groups of 4 and were told that we should keep a distance of 5 meters from the person in front of you when you go onto the bridge. There are total of 10 bridges and 9 platforms. We were the last one to get on so we waited quite a while before we reached our turn.

The view from the platform was fabulous. We can see a lot of nice scenery from up there. Took a lot of pictures of course but we were only able to take photos for people in group 2 using Yan Hui's camera. Not much to talked about here.. We just enjoyed taking pictures and looking at the beauty of mother nature. Though the bridges are only 500m long, we took more than one hour to complete the walk as there are a lot of waiting and no overtaking. hehehe...

Rapid Shooting
As soon as we reach the shore of our campsite, we were told that we have 5 mintues to change into bathing suits because our final event is Rapid Shooting! [woo-hoo! The one I anticipated most] To my [tiny little] dissapointment again, we basically just sit in the boat and splash water at each other. We had lots of FUN though. The boat we sat in just go forth and back along the river and the people in the boat will put their hands into the water and splashed it to the people at the back. Saddeningly, me and Kuan sat at the last row of the boat and we were the victims for that event. The people in front were having so much fun splashing water at us and all we can do is just cover our face and let the water splash. Aihzzz... After lots of splashing, the boat stopped at one place and let us swim there. The current was quite strong, so I dare not go far from the shore. While I was floating happily, Min Bee threw dirt at me. And so, we had a dirt fight. I got my ears and hair full of sand while she only got it on her clothes. I guess I'm just bad in aiming. Hahaha..

It was only around 4pm something after we bathe and changed. The guys started to gather on the beds and play poker. To add some fun into it, the loser has to pluck a hair from his leg. Kuan was the big "winner" as he lost about 70% of the game. So, we played till around 7.30pm and had dinner. After some rest, we gathered again ourside to play some stupid game. We had 2 bottles of wine [1 red 1 white] and played "Bluff" card game and "Truth or Dare". I was the winner for Bluff but a victim during Truth or Dare. I was always being used even though someone else were daring. Anyway, we had fun and there were lots of laughter as we played. I can't tell much in here as the things we said were supposed to be kept secret. =P We played till 2am and everybody slept soundly after that.

Whoa, another long post eh. I think I missed out some details as I'm trying to cramp everything into one post. Overally, day 2 is the day we enjoyed the most and also the most tiring day. There aren't much left to talked about on day 3 but yet I'm going to leave it for the next post. Cheers! Billy, out.

to be continued...

Adventurous and Challenging Trip to Taman Negara - Day 1

A lot has happened during the past one week of my mid-term break. Seems to be a lot, but actually there's nothing much besides going to Taman Negara with a bunch of friends. Why would I say adventurous and challenging? Because even before we started our journey to the National Park, troubles, problems and obstacles keep pouring to us. However, we manage to get through everything without any problem. *wink* The day before we leave KL, Eddie informed us that he couldn't make it to the trip although he has paid and booked a place for him. At first, I thought that there will be one person less on the trip but luckily, someone managed to find a replacement on that very night. *phew* And at the very same night, Yee Yin's train was delayed for 3 hours and Kuan took a wrong turn at Serdang ended up in Ampang. [Is that true? No one tells me leh..] So you see, the challenge and adventure already started before we take off, no doubt there will be more to come. hehehehe... I think I'll introduce the people who went to the trip here. For easy reference i guess.. =P

Picture taken in front of a shop at the Kuala Tembeling jetty. From leftmost:-
Miss Yoon Sang Mi: Our korean tutor who teached korean language level 1 in MMU.
Min Bee: The leader, the organizer, the planner, the one that invited us to go. [Thanks]
Yee Yin: The only non-MMUian in the group. She's a friend of Min Bee all the way from Segamat, Johor.
Leong Kee: My roommate, a good friend in MMU.
Josh: A quite new friend I would say, knew him from Kuan. Our photographer [how I wish I can have his camera. =P]
Yan Hui: Just knew him on the day we depart. He's the saviour whoreplaces Eddie last minute.
Kuan: A great friend who really helped a lot on this trip.
Me: That's me...

Day 1 - 8 August 2006 - Tuesday

I woke up at 5.30am. Get my luggages ready and I left my house at 6.00am. My dad is suppose to pick up Miss Yoon, Min Bee and Yee Yin from Cyberjaya and send us to KL to catch a bus while the rest of the guys took ERL and taxi to KL. We were suppose to reach Crowne Mutiara Hotel, KL before 8.30am but we were late. All because of the stupid trafiic jam in KL. [How I wish I can stay away from all these congestion and pollution] O'rite, so we're late but the problem wasn't that. The person-in-charge told us that our name was not on the list although we have paid RM640 to the agency for the bus ticket. We are damn lucky or what, there are enough seats for another 8 people but we have to be separated. Me and Kuan in one bus while the other 6 in another bus. Too bad uh.. So, we departed at 9.10am from KL. Woo-hoo!

During the 3 hours ride to Kuala Tembeling wasn't much fun. I listened to some music, napped a while, talked to Kuan a while and stared outside the window most of the time. So, we reached Kuala Tembeling around 12.10pm. Registered ourselves at the agency and we started looking for food like hungry hyenas. We spotted a chinese restaurant and ate something there. After eating, we talked about reading our chinese names in korean. Miss Yoon can't read my name in korean. [saddening] Hehe.. So we bought some batteries, cards, took some photos and ready to leave. Our boat is suppose to leave at 2pm but again, delayed because we are the last in queue. So we gotta wait till everyone gets on their boat and we take the last boat. Again, we were separated. Kuan and Leong Kee sat in front while the rest were at the back of the boat. Poor Kuan keep separated from us. So, the journey of 3 hours boat ride started. We took photos, chat and sleep. Nothing much we can do actually. Not many things we can see besides some trees, water and sand. Oh, and probably some buffalos and cows by the riverside. =P

Finally, we reached the place we're suppose to stay, NUSA Campsite, at 5.30pm. Checked in and walked all over looking for our room. We managed to find it and it was a bit dissapointed when i stepped into the room. It is a small room with 4 double deckers, a small flourescent light, a fan and 2 windows. It was HOT inside there. So we dumped our belongings and came out to get some fresh air. *phew* After settling down for a while, we decided to explore that place a bit. Since there's not much time left till dinner, we only follow a path behind the chalets to get the fell of mother nature. Our first real breath in Taman Negara. Hmm.. it's so refreshing and so different from the polluted city of KL. Hehehe.. So there, we plan about going to the waterfall in the morning the next day, which is not in the schedule.

At 7.30pm, it's time for dinner. Our very first meal there. I wouldn't say that the food is too bad nor very good. It's edible, u know what I mean? After dinner, we stood there talking for a while and something came out from under the table. It's a cute little porcupine!(pic) The staff there feed the cute little creature with some rice and vegetables. It eat them hungrily while the people around were busy admiring and taking photos of it. Well, it's almost time for our first event, the night jungle trekking. We gathered at 9pm and were greeted by a friendly man whom he introduced himself as Ajax. He will be our guide and lead us into the woods. Ajax taught us how to use a torchlight and we mange to spot 2 spiders, some fireflies, 2 toads, a stick insect (pic), a scorpion and some luminous fungus. I was hoping to see something big, like tigers? =P Anyway, it was a fun walk in the jungle and we learnt something from our guide. So, we walked back to our room after the "long" walk. It seems long because it's hard to see where you are walking, and everyone is careful so that they don't slipped and fall. Unfortunately, we discovered that Miss Yoon was the first one to be bitten by a leech. She was so afraid as she has never seen anything like this before. We put some anti-leech oilments around the leech and eventually it dropped off but the blood is still gushing out. [Am I exaggerating?] Well, the bleeding finally stop after some time though.

After bathing and everything should be around after midnight. We got some junk food and a bottle of sparkling juice to a huge balcany where we can see the river to play some games. Almost everyone is sleeping in their cabin and we are like the only people around playing stupid games. Hehehe... So, we used the poker cards to play "Same Number Call Name", "Police and Thief", "Heart Attack" (pic) and "Pick the Turtle". [I don't know whether they are the right name or not] So, we had lotsa fun and go to bed around 2am. C'mon, it's only 2am. Josh and Miss Yoon were sleeping soundly while the rest of us gathered at the girls's beds to talk about ghost stories. I wasn't very interested to listen to ghost stories as those stories will linger in my mind always. However, I bear with it and manage to sit there and listened to some happy ghost stories, funny ghost stories and scary ghost stories. Haha.. luckily I didn't have any nightmare. Too tired I guess.

So, that's the end of my first day in Taman Negara. Travelling takes up most of the time but we manage to spare some time to chit chat and played some games. I really enjoyed the night trekking and the stupid games we played at night. I hope others do too. =D Well well, finally i manage to write a long post here. This thing took me half a day man. Credits: Thanks Kuan for letting me copy the photos and refering to your blog. Hehe.. Stay tune for more posts adn more photos on day 2 and day 3. Billy, out.

To be continued....

The Future, The Dream?

Arrhh... Almost 2 weeks already since my last post!! OMG!! Actually I wanted to blog since last week, but I dragged and dragged and dragged on... until today, which I didn't intend to blog because later got 8am class. Somehow, someone influenced me by writing a comment saying that I'm a lazy blogger. That's the motivation I guess. Hahaha...

Recently, I've read about Kuan's and Leong Kee's blog on their passion and love towards making games. After reading their blogs, and had some serious chatting with some friends, I started to wonder about my future, my desire, my dream. What is my dream? To tell the truth, I don't know actually. When I was in secondary school, I thought that IT would be a good route for me as I have interest in IT. Although many people advised me not to take IT because it's a "dead" route where there are too many graduates already. Of course I managed to do some research and get opinions from experienced people and I believe there are still a lot of vacancy for IT graduates. So, I decided to take ISE in university.

So here I am in MMU, but the road ahead of me is still in a mist. I might have good grades but I think having a goal and vision is more important. I always thought that getting good grades will be my ultimate goal but I was wrong. Getting good grades is only a tiny bitsy short term goal only. What really makes your value goes up are the skills you have. It's not only the technical skills but also interpersonal skills. I think both are equally important. I see a lot of people who can do well in exams but they have poor technical skills, and one of them is me. =P So, I think I have to really brush up my programming skills.. a lot.. hahaha.. "MMU is one of the worst in producing grads" by Brett, CEO of GameBrains. This is just an opinion by someone in the industry when asked about the grads in Malaysia.

Hmmm... I don't know what to say now but I guess everything will come into places when the time comes. I just need to grab the opportunity when it flows by. Maybe I'll not go into the IT industry next time. Who knows? Anything can happen right? I think what I need to do is to continue my short term goal by working harder (I'm damn lazy now) and try to discover the inner me. Hehehe.. =P

Actually wanted to write something about GDC booth but looks weird when previewed it. So, it's taken out. Thanks for the suggestion anywayz, Eliecia. I guess that's all for this post. I don't think I'm able to create any lengthy post with my rate of thinking and typing. But I do hope I can achieve it someday. Haha.. Time to sleep loo... Gosh, I've only got 2 hours to sleep. Billy, out.