It's the last day of 2005...!
And a day more before the start of 2006.
Counting down the hours, 13 more hours to go.
Holidays was SUPER happening, imagine, a month of holidays gone in just a wink of an eye, and I'm barely at home for half the month!
And my energy level just dropped to an all-time low. Maybe. Maybe it's time to cool it off, sit back, relax, not talk so much, and see how things go. Be quiet. Shut up. Rot at home. Things like that.
To top it off, I'm ushering a New Year in a bad condition. Flu, cough, runny nose. Geez. How bad can this week get?
And get my runs back in shape. Geez. It's time to make some personal goals this coming year. 
And this is the time for some reflections...2005 was really such an eventful year, at least for the second half of the year that is.
Army - ORDed after extension of 1 more month to help out in events and taking part in competition. What was the motivation for extension? I din really have one. Money? Nah...I guess I still like the Army in more ways than 1. Was really sad to leave the place, because I felt that it was a place where you get to know more people, handle different types of people, and at the same time learn about new things which you might never have the chance to.
In a way, it was where I opened up and learnt new things. Got to do stuff which would be useful in the civillian workplace (and that depends whether I go into that particular field of job). Still miss the people there, that's for sure.
NUS - Started NUS life with a big bang, tried on a new personality, a more open one. More or less worked, 'cos you get to interact with people who are also so 'high' and 'onz' about orientation camps and outings. It was a sheer cry from what I had experienced in sec sch and JC days, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
But deep inside the personality still remains. Quiet. Require a time to think and ponder.
School seemed okay, with many friends I know of being in the same class as me, in Chemical Engineering. Was unanimously 'voted' to be class rep of 5B (not without much complain!) but I guess it's alright. Just knew that I would not be so free to keep organising outings, 'cos for the first year it's still difficult to keep the class together. Cliques play a part.
ROVERS - Just about the best time I had in my life in NUS. I guess my life in NUS just perked joining the club, as treasurer. Although the job is pretty mundane and require independent working with a dependable nature, I found time for interaction with other members of the committee. I just love ROVERS, and I won't mind 4 years of my life doing trekking in holidays, which just feels shiok.
In the span of 5 months or so, many events happened...
Cyclohunt
Trips
More Trips
Even More Trips.
Haha...I guess if you read earlier posts the trip reflections are pretty much there already.
Run - 2005 is really a great year for running, and I challenged myself by taking part in competitions for the first time. Although not the faster runners, still it was really good to try out the New Balance Real Run, Mizuno Wave Run, AHM 21km and the Standard Chartered Marathon. A bold challenge to myself indeed, for I had planned to have a try at the 42.195km. The ultimate challenge for me.
Phew...time to take a break...realised that the above is just but a summary of main events which had happened this year...time to go out for some K-ing 
And later...the top 100 songs of 2005 countdown! Haha!
Current Mood: 
Pensive
Bowling - $11.00 for 3 games
Dinner - $14.20
Mahjong Session - $9.40
Time spent with friends - Priceless.
For everything else, you just need...friends.
And I just about ended my year with a bowling, dinner and a DMJ session with different groups of friends. Sure is a far cry from the treks I have, and it's back to good 'ol boring Singapore.
Just feeling the mood becoming better. Maybe I should just not think so much of other stuff and other people, let time tell, 'cos...I think that I might have really caused surprise by telling so early.
*sigh*
Another late night...hopefully I recover...Else, I shall usher in the New Year with a sore throat, lotsa phelgm and a bad voice.
Luckily, I've not placed outings on tomorrow...and I doubt I'll get the chance to.
Current Mood: 
Sick
Current Music: Yong Bang - Zhe Me Hai Shi Mei Ren Ai
Gunung Ledang (or better known as Mt Ophir) is definitely a captivating place to be at...a place which has bitter-sweet memories for me.
And to top it off, I had one ultra-bad day, freaked all around me, caused anguish and anger to myself (but I contained it within) and it RAINED.
Yes...RAINED.
Wish to upload pictures for this trip...but...I shall reconsider. 
Current Mood: 
Sad
Was feeling a little sad and depressed yesterday evening, with some bad news and replies which I've already anticipated but never wished it would happen.
Went down to Paradiz Centre at night, the place with the free open-air stage and performance, listening to the slow melodic chinese songs. Really helps. A LOT.
Then met Jiahui and a group of friends for some LAN gaming, taking some stress out. Did it? I'm unsure.
Anyway, fast forward to today.
Sitting in front of the computer.
Wondering what to do with the last 7 days of 2005.
3 days of Ophir trekking, 1 day of washing tents.
4 days down, 3 days to go. Not to mention, a New Year's Eve.
And I din manage to ask people out for that special day. Should I? I'm unsure myself, even.
But anyway, this is the season of jolly (and folly? Haha). So wishing all, a wonderful Christmas! 
Maybe I would end up celebrating Christmas alone too....sigh.
Current Mood: 
Confused
Current Music: Eason Chan - Lonely Christmas
Awesome, captivating...
And I think that some scenes are really damn seh. Especially prior to the last battle, the scenes of drawing of swords. Momentarily, I felt that it was THE scene I've been wanting to see.
Not to mention, the great battle.
I've been a fan of this series, the Chronicles of Narnia. When I learnt of its movie production 2 years back, I was very very excited. A search of my old books only turned up 2 of the 7 books in the series, as I waned to just refresh my memory of the entire story.
I felt sucked into the movie, especially from the time where the Ice Queen started to show Edmund her evil nature, and the "icing" of the Faun, due to Edmund's betrayal.
Many themes stuck in my mind throughout this movie, including that of kinship and trust. It was a great movie, and I enjoyed it very much.
After the movie, we managed to catch Huan Liang in action at his Christmas Caroling session at the Paragon. Slight drizzle did not dampen our spirits, as the whole of Orchard Road seemed transfixed on the Christmas mood.
Went to granny's place to celebrate 冬至, and meet up with my cousins for a while. It's good to be back with family, but somehow or rather, times have changed. I just feel it. Nonetheless, it was great being with them for the littlest of things, including dinner.
Current Mood: 
Happy
Current Music: Fun Factory - I Love You
Not for the faint hearted, but the Datuk-Angsi 3d2n trip certainly was great. Great view, nice non-stop staircase climbing (can prepare for vertical marathon there!) and fabulous company certainly made the trip more interesting.
First day, we met up with the Ophir people at Kranji MRT at the same time. Talk about an illegal gathering, there were 30 over people with gigantic bags sitting together in the MRT station, and making much noise. Well, it can't be helped, all were too excited about their various trips, and meeting new people, and saying "Hi" to old pals once again.
Wai Kei was there when I arrived, and Zhi Han arrived shortly after. Soon, Nasri, Hui Qin, Ang (her bro), Liquan, Heng Jie, Suji, Tianqi and Peiyu arrived. Noel was the last, nearly made us damn scared that he was late, 'cos we were rushing for a train after all.
Soon after, our motley gang of 12 set off! Albeit, with only 11 tickets for the KTM train ride, 'cos Wai Kei last-minute joined in for the trip. We were very relieved to have gotten a ticket for her, else it would mean an early return trip back to Singapore for her.
The train ride was smooth and good, with cool air con in the passenger cabins, but not for the cafe! Argh. We ended up in the cafe cabin due to the ease of having a table in front of us to play bridge, German bridge or "dai-dee".
The train ride felt really fast due to the amount of time we spent playing cards in the sauna-like cafeteria, and despite that, we managed to continue game after game of bridge. Never-ending, monotonous...? Maybe. But definitely fun. Esp. the higher levelled bids.
Soon enough, we reached Tampin at around 2pm, and we got off to have our lunch at the nearby Muslim store just opposite the station. Managed to get the taxis in at 3pm, which was about 1.5 hours later than initially arranged.
Managed to reach Gunung Datuk at around 3.30pm, and the trek started soon after. It was just an endless, mind-numbing, uphill climb. All the way. Talk about "killing fields" x2. Nevertheless, we managed to grit our teeth and chiong to the top in slightly more than 2.5 hr, fast and efficient. And the view up there was simply too great to be described in mere words. As they say, pictures speak a thousand words, so hold on whilst I upload the pics below.
After setting up the tents and climbing to the summit for some photo taking and videoing of the surroundings, we got down to prepare dinner, and it was already dark. Sunset was great, but food certainly warmed our bodies. The cold winds battered our wet t-shirts. Soon enough, we were dry and the piping hot food was a blessing. And talk about good reception up at Datuk, managed to send SMS-es back home, but ended up sending many of the same messages just because I keep receiving the error "Message Not Sent". Geez. I'll get a heart attack when the phone bill arrives, that's for sure.
After the dinner, which started at 7pm and lasted 5.5 hours into the night, with interesting food such as carrotcake, 宫宝鸡丁, pasta (with lotsa sauce) and shark's fin, Noel, Peiyu, Suji, Tianqi, Zhihan and me went up to the summit to see the stars, but the cloudy sky obscured most of the stars.
Nonetheless, me and TQ were extremely fortunate to see a shooting star whizz just above us.
A wishing star = a wish to be made. And hurriedly too.
The cold winds up at the summit forced us to descend, as sleeping unprotected at the summit would definitely cause hypothermia, something which we would not want to happen.
Slept from 1am to around 8.30am, woken up by the sounds of laughter and smell of food. Actually, I did not want to get out of the warm cosy sleeping bag, but soon after, could not resist nature's call of hunger.
We were playing our daily (or is it hourly?) dosage of bridge in the 8-man tent (which is so comfortable, I would consider this tent over the ones we have in our store) when we heard another group coming up. As expected, the ODAC group was up, and I saw Ning Jia together with 2 of my Batu participants, Bevian and Janice.
ODAC came up, and we were already packing up, and ready to go. Downhill was much quicker than before, and we managed to hit less than 2 hours for the downhill with only 1 rest stop. Soon, we were at the base of the mountain, and all went to wash up at the nearby toilets.
The toilets which we arranged did not arrive, but ODAC's 5 cabs did. I asked one of the drivers regarding the 3 cabs which we arranged, and we were allowed use of 3 of the cabs first, at the same price we had paid for our trip to Datuk from the train station at Tampin.
Pizza Hut was our lunch at Tampin, where we walked out from the station to have the magnificent meal. A great climb needs a good meal to keep one's engine going, not to forget that we'll have another one the next day. On return back to the train station, we bade farewell to those returning to Singapore, whilst we played cards, or slept, while waiting for our train ride (1 stop only) to Seremban.
Upon reaching Seremban, we went to the bus interchange to find the bus ride to Gunung Angsi, and then moved on in search of our rest station, an inn or hotel. We finally decided on Angsana Inn, about 5 mins walk away from the bus interchange. And this inn sure is good, with 2 double beds, attached toilet with hot water bath for RM110 only!
Dinner was originally supposed to be at Secret Recipe, but we changed to Bee's, which is more economical. Nonetheless, the food was good, and PY, TQ and I rushed to The Store (yes, a supermarket!) for some supplies for breakfast and mobile lunch.
Then we had a mini-birthday celebration for Ang, Peiyu and Suji. And it seemed more like a candle-like celebration than anything else. And the night was great, comedic and entertaining. Nothing beats having that with friends in a hotel room, surely better than having that on top of the mountain (maybe?).
The next day was our trip to Gunung Angsi, and we took the TransNasional bus to the base of the mountain, and tried to find the ranger, but to no avail. So we just whacked our way up to the water-crossing point and campsite area. After passing the normal trail meant for students and average hikers, we hit the slopes of Angsi, and the "Staircase to Heaven". Or make it limitless. We just went up and up and up and...the signal to HQ was upwards all the way. A relief came when we stopped at a flat area, but after a turn it was uphill again. Definitely not a good place to get motivation. 
When we reached one of our rest stops, it was already closing in on 12 noon. Due to the need to rush for the 4.30pm bus at Seremban, we gave ourselves a time limit, after which we have to rush downhill to catch the buses back to the town. We decided to have a rest, and push on for another 15 more minutes to see where the summit was. By then, we had already climbed for about 2 hours. A slight drizzle greeted us, but we were not to be stopped...not after pushing on so hard uphill.
On pushing further, we managed to reach the gully, which is a sign that we are arriving at the summit of Angsi. Alas, on crossing the gully, it rained heavier, and we had to beat a hasty retreat as the route become too muddy and the ropes slippery. We went back down to the bottom of the gully, where the rain stopped....momentarily.
A sigh of relief, but we quickly had our food and Ferro Roches, and went downhill. En route down, we were greeted with heavier and heavier rain, and drastic measures had to be taken. I quickly wrapped my small pouch in the plastic bag I brought along and everything just went under my tshirt to prevent direct contact from the rain.
The downhill was not easy, as the Angsi dry trek became an Angsi Waterfall trek.
The heavy rain reduced visibility, and suddenly it reminded me of my Bong experience. Both Nasri and I had endured that weather, and this really seemed deja vu. My specs started to fog up, which was quite bad, but I managed to continue moving at a relatively fast pace downhill. The easiest route to take was along the path of the water, which were initially steps we had took uphill. Now, all it became were small waterfalls and rapids.
Luckily, the rain lasted about 30 mins only, but we went on a brisk pace due to the slower speed during the rain. When we reached the first of 2 river crossings, the water level certainly shocked us. It went higher than before, and the rock path was not easily seen.
The 2nd water crossing back to the campsite was pretty dreadful. Fast waterflow (something which I can handle, due to the sandals) and higher than normal levels. Even the rocks which we used to cross cannot be visibly recognised, like the previous river crossing. We crossed in a line, having people stationed at different points, hand-in-hand, to cross safely. Soon, we were back at the base of the mountain. As I was buying the burgers, a TransNasional bus sped past us, but it did not seem to be the one we were waiting for. The actual bus arrived after our burgers (piping hot!) had arrived and distributed. Good food, good trip on bus = Great day! (Minus the rain please).
I must conquer Angsi someday, perhaps today was not meant to be.
So we managed to get onthe 4.30pm bus, met up with Noel, who had gone on a movie-shopping trip in Seremban, and took the Seremban-Tampin-Larkin bus home. Home sweet home....Yea!
Current Mood: 
Exhausted
Man, I really like being at home... Peace and quiet, and spending time with parents and paying a visit to my granny sure is helpful.
Especially for the older folk, it's really great to see them smile when they see you enter their house.
It's been a while since I visited my granny, with all the school and stuff. Not really a great excuse or whatever, but I guess I need to keep up with the visits. Though, she's not my paternal grandparent, but nonetheless, I felt closer to her than my paternal side's granny.
And in many ways more than one.
And guess what? My mother, who had often nagged at me for going to Malaysia so often within this 1 month holiday, was horrified to hear my granny supporting me. Haha. I think I was quite surprised too.
Now preparing for my upcoming Datuk-Angsi trip, which would be pretty cool. A private trek, 12 people, 2 mountains, 3 days 2 nights. Sounds Survivor-ish. Haha. Can't wait for tomorrow to come.
Currently reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, simply impressive, especially the ambigrams. I'm really amazed at the work. Totally awesome.
Current Mood: Happy
King Kong meets T-Rex?
Geez, the trailer made it so interesting, just that...it seems like a scene was chopped off, the scene where the lady does a scene at the sea-side, screaming, and an accompanying roar from the forest is heard.
And if you thought it's a King Kong and T-Rex 1-on-1 fight, you're seriously mistakened.
Lots of action scenes, but the whole movie ended on a sad note. Which was expected, since this is a remake of the original Kong movie, and follows a little along the lines of Mighty Joe Young (or is it the other way round?).
Anyway, today was really an unexpected day in many ways more than one. And a tiring day too. Went out with family for hair-cut and making of spectacles for my brother, as well as eating Katong Laksa, then meeting friends for movie. Geez...my schedule is packed like a sardine!
Not to forget, there were a couple of acquaintances which I met up with all in the same building, Plaza Singapura! All within an hour. That was so...coincidental? Hope everything turns out right too. Haha.
Basically, a nice day, a nice evening, and a nice outing. What more could I ask for?
Maybe, just maybe, the answer I wish for.
Just keeping my fingers crossed for more outings.
Current Mood: Happy
Current Music: Zhou Jie Lun - Mai Ya Tang
Right after a morning of washing tents for the post-Lumbong trip on the 12th of Dec, I prepared my stuff for the upcoming Batu Caves, which was held from the 12th to 15th of Dec. It helped a little that the meeting time with the participants was in the evening, allowing time for rest. Wanling and I were going for this trip, together with Meena, and a last-minute pull-out by Jorin.
Despite the pull-out, I think I was relatively relieved that all went well, and that I had actually brought along WL and Meena for the Batu recce.
Started off very much on time, with all the 8 participants arriving on time and soon we were leaving Kranji MRT at around 9.30pm. (This was despite the on-going Star Awards showing on TV...which I think many would be interested in.)
Everything went on smoothly on the 12th, including the quick clearance of Singapore and Malaysian customs. Soon, we found ourselves at Larkin...a tad too early for the midnight bus. Nevertheless, we settled at the MacDonalds in Larkin Terminal, and bought essential stuff for the overnight bus ride.
And a standard SOP for long-hours of waiting: Card playing.
Nevertheless, the time passed quickly, and soon the TransNasional bus arrived at the berth at around 11:40pm, slightly ahead of schedule. We boarded the bus, and it left Larkin once all passengers arrived, which was around 11:50pm then.
And the bus ride was super fast, even with one ultra-long pit-stop along the N-S Expressway. That was where you could have teh and some makan (in the form of burgers).
Nothing much to say for the bus ride, other than it being smooth, less bumpy than the ones described by the Berke people for their trip on the same bus operator, and it was fast. Really fast. (So if you're looking for a quick ride to KL, you know which company to buy tickets from already.)
Because of the quick ride to KL (we reached at about 3:40am), there was too much time for us to slack around...in the morning streets of Puduraya! No LRT, no public buses, just taxis. I was left scratching my head what to do during this period of about 4 hours. After washing up, we brought the participants to the nearby 24-hrs prata shops to savour some "local" delight, where everything is big...and cheap. 
After the breakfast, it was a night of ton-ing the streets of KL, with us walking along empty roads and a dark Petaling Street. With nothing much to do, we soon settled into another prata shop, nearer to the bus stop which we're going to take bus into Batu.
The wait for the RapidKL bus was pretty long too. 50 mins for 1 bus. Geez! And you can never depend on the local bus system. Even locals aren't sure of the bus routes, what more can I say for the foreigners?
The Long Wait
This building is REALLY old
Safely on the bus
Arrived at Batu without a hitch, considering that Meena, WL and I have already done the recce before (and lost our way, wasted time waiting, wasted time walking around). We arranged to meet Suja, our caving guide, at the prata shop (again!) near Batu Caves. (And someone asked if I had commission for bringing them to 3 prata shops in a single morning. What do you think?
)
3 of us - Me, Meena, Wanling
Anyway, the day was to start with a nice little walk up the stairs leading to Batu Caves, which is a place not only for Indians, but for all races and religions. Definitely a place for visitors, and apparently commercialised. Of course, we're not about to join in the commercialised area...we're entering places never gone before by normal tourists...
Long flight of stairs! To....heaven?
Marcus & Hua Yang in their army ops gear
Before we climb the stairs...we shall do what all Singaporeans do...TAKE PICTURES!
Nasri
Me
ICs, ever-ready!
All ready to go!
Before Caving
Caving was really fun. Despite the lack of pictures from us throughout our entire caving trip, at least we've done something really wild and exciting. Mud is our greatest ally, and what you touch may not be what it seems. Haha.
After caving, we washed up at the toilets to check into our chalet at the other side of Batu, and moved on to KLCC for our dinner at Manhattan Fish Market. They've a similar outlet in PS (and perhaps more?) but the food is definitely priced cheaper here. We had our fill, and shopped around more before going home via Putra Line and cab.
Our Chalet
Nice Food @ Manhattan Fish Market!
Gloria Jean's Coffee! Extinct in Singapore!
And the night was drowned by continuous karaoke singing within the kampung, whilst we guys chatted throughout the night. Being a kampung, the guys stayed together whereas the gals stayed in another room. We talked about anything and everything...life, work, school, army, physics...I think we could've gone on non-stop if not for the fact that we had to wake up at around 8am the next day for our rock-climbing.
The next day, it was time for some serious rock climbing. Natural rock wall climbing is different from the artificial one in the sense that the artificial one has less chances of having lacerations and cuts.
But it was here that I found that training so much of the lower body puts you in a disadvantage. My hands and arms were really pushing hard, trying to deal with small hand-holds and unstable footholds all the time. Man, was it a tough climb. Not to mention a couple of cuts and a big laceration to boot.
Nice rock cliff...with a huge rock boulder there
Zhihan
Bevian & Janice posing before climbing
Wani goes up...
And we made this climb up to a higher cave where we could sit down and have a nice look of the skyline...
Me going up!
Marcus coming up
Hua Yang: "Look! No hands!"
Nasri coming up!
Slowly, more came up...
Zhihan comes up, with a SLR and a bottle of water for us!
Wani makes her way up!
And what do we have here?
Wanling attempts to scale too!
So does Janice...
And Bevian with her bagful of water
Rock Climbing was surely great, too bad we had to end it at around 2pm. But nonetheless, it was a worthwhile experience to undergo. Maybe, someday we'll do a full-day rock-climbing activity, or at least spend more days at Batu doing rock climbing. Definitely worth a try.
Yen (our rock climbing person-in-charge) had arranged for vehicular transportation to the nearest LRT Station, which facilitated our transfer to KLCC for more shopping and food. A&W was our first stop, a once-popular fastfood restaurant which closed in Singapore, but is still hot in Malaysia. They should bring it back to SG, with its famous root beer floats and Coney Dogs.
After that, we went our seperate ways, and arranged to meet at Hard Rock Cafe for dinner/drinks prior to leaving for Puduraya. Went off with Wanling and Joey to Petaling Street for some shopping, which I ended up getting a couple of tshirts and a pair of shorts (for trekking, cheap cheap nia). It's really a place to hone your bargaining skills!
Then, we took a cab back, and managed to hop onto this cab driven by this Chinese uncle, who was damn friendly and the whole taxi ride was filled with racist jokes and laughter. At least, it was better than Suja's jokes.
Hard Rock Cafe was a cool place to chill out, esp. the 50% off for beer. Zhihan was there earlier, studying, with a jug of beer in front of him. I took a pint of beer, and we settled down immediately to...
play cards.
Haha! Seems like cards is the best way to make time pass. (And a Singaporean obsession) Nevertheless, we ordered on super-huge brownie topped with icecream placed in this super huge bowl for sharing...and it was simply yummy-licious!
Soon, it was time to get back to Pudu, meet up with Nasri and Wani, and hop onto the 12:30am Konsortium bus ('cos it arrived late) for the trip back to Larkin. From then on, it was smooth sailing all the way...
Current Mood:
I'm A Happy Boi...Haha!Current Music: