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With much regret I would like to inform you readers that there will be a 2-3 week post hiatus due to looming exams. With the mid-semester exams round the corner I can't afford to sit in front of the addictive 15.6-inch screen for more than 10 minutes a day, denoting a significant shortage of time to put up any posts. Also, I am much left behind in terms of studies as compared to some of my rather intellectually brilliant and efficient classmates due to my lax and content attitude, forcing me even more into subjection of my books.

Sad life.

With much regret and sorrow,
fishdumpling

White Waters ahoy; The Conquest of Tabor!

White water rafting was truly one of the BEST experiences of my entire life. The speedy waters and enormous rocks truly match in sync, creating a perfect aqua environment to put my steely nerves to the test. Fortunately, Unc Eng managed to get hold of a big group of us who's willing to participate in this event. Members from SJ and Klang turned up in big numbers to tryout the rapids. We and a bunch of guys from Oxbold(extreme sports group) were the only ones there at Kuala Kubu Bahru. We started off with a LONG briefing and then went uphill to practise floating downstream. For most it was just another day in the pool, but some had to overcome the fear of water, or drowning. Kevin lost his spectacles and Win Win lost her slipper! So it wasn't as easy as everyone thought it would be!

briefing in session

that's me, rescuing Cheer Cheers from drifting away!

So, when everyone's ready, set and go we got into our respective floats and paddled away! At first the guides brought us to a calm and quiet area to practise the basic strokes like "LEFT FORWARD!", "FORWARD PADDLE!", "BACK PADDLE!" and some other essential techniques.

"wait...what paddle again?"

I was in the same boat as Jonah, Eunice Lee, Penny, and Micah. After the practice session we then proceeded to the REAL thing. The rapids had 2 stages, divided and labeled as cannons. The first cannon had a deep fall known as the "Chicken Drop" mainly because those that passed through this drop don't dare continue but really it was nothing compared to the second cannon! The mother of all drops in the entire course was one known as the "pregnant mother" because not only was it a higher fall, but also there was a good number of rocks enclosing the vicinity!

ready...steadyy...

I was even thrown out of the boat a few times, partly because I wanted to, but still I remembered how difficult it was to get to the top of the water due to the strong currents and rocks. I flew out of the boat headfirst, knocked into the guide, slammed into some rocks and went through a series of rapids and rocks and only after floating for about 100 metres I was rescued. Dang.
We then had a break at a rocky plain and some snack bars and fruits. There was even a mini waterfall to wash up! We then had a few more rapids and floated the rest of the way back. Lunch, followed by some chit chat and it's off to home.
Truly I had an awesomazing time at KKB, and I would definitely like to go for greater heights of water rafting at of course, greater speed and danger!

ARR! ye pirate scoundrels!

THE CONQUEST OF TABOR

Backtracking once more to the 16th of October, a group of 5 congregated at dawn, only to scale yet another mountain. Unc Eng(darn he's tough for a 50 year old man!), Yih Ting, Sis. Ai Lin, Jonah and I had appointed this day to set foot on the peak of Gunung Tabor at Melawati. The mountain wasn't a tall, sky scraping one, but it was wide and the inclines were very steep. Some reaching to a good 85*! Our journey started off by walking towards the entrance of the climb, on some gigantic pipes which channeled water from the Klang Dam.

I wasn't lying about the size

At about 9am we began the hike and met some people descending already! When asked, "was it tough?" they told us about the steep and rocky climb, ropes, dangerous cliffs and other obstacles and made my blood curdle with adrenaline! Jonah and I let the adults lead the way while we wait for our turn. The adults ALWAYS lead the way first.

see? told ya!

We made it a point NOT to look at the camera while posing for the entire climb! Which means we did some..

POSING!

FOREVER FORWARD!


while waiting for the adults...I just had to :D


yaa babeh shades!

About midway through the climb we looked from afar and saw a sight to behold.

Nature.

From the halfpeak we could see the water reservoir and the Klang Gates which housed this huge body of liquid. It supplied this essential resource to the Klang Valley and the regions adjacent to it. The entire KL city was available for our viewing pleasure as well! Thank God for cameras.

I also noticed Wolverine was among us!

see! I wasn't lying!

About an hour and a half into the climb, we started facing the tough obstacles. We had huge rocks to mount, cliffs to hang on to, steep and narrow crevices to squeeze past and other challenges that stood in our way. Yih Ting and Unc Eng decided not to continue the climb but Sis Ai Lin, Jonah and I powered all the way through. We hiked to the peak, or as we thought so, the peak until some Malay uncle came along and we had a little chat.

Me: Bang, sudah sampai puncak ke?
Bang: Belum, lu tengok kat situ, tulah puncak!
Me: ... *jaw drops*




We were faced with a predicament. Whether to climb that bloody rock or not. We were exhausted, thirsty, technology deprived, hungry but yet we continued the journey! When we reached the base of the final peak, we were utterly shocked to see what we saw. A great and steep slope of nearly 85* stood magnificently in front of us.


The ropes did not give us a good sense of security and assurance mind you. They were old and rotten. So yeah, we had to use our hand and feet like Spiderman to get to the peak. It was INSANE! The fear of falling and death was real and with every step you take, who knows if you're going to take another? But as our spirits and strength would not fail us, we conquered the Tabor at the end!

ohh sweet sweet victory!

"cheyy, kecik jer!"

Now with the ascent done, the descent was EVEN WORSE! Going down the steep incline was tougher than we thought but with God's providence we managed to slowly dismount the tall beast. It was so steep that you couldn't see where to put your feet without craning your neck out!

Slowly but surely we managed to return to Yih Ting and Unc Eng who were resting at the 2nd peak. We then had a quick break and descended back to civilization as the sun began it's scorch routine!
What a great experience, feeling the fright of falling to your death especially was an eye opener for me as we weren't prepared for what we faced and scaled. Glory be to God!

The Tabor, conquered.

Catchup! 2

Moving on from the awesome mountain climbing expedition, the 5H class of 2009 organized its first ever official reunion at Le Garden, Melaka! Not so much credit I would give for the food, rather on the average side but it was encouraging to see many of my ex-classmates turning up for this simple but meaningful event. Even Andre Teow(the farter) was technologically with us through Skype while he's flirting with a bunch of chicks in NZ!

AGE QUOD AGIS!

The very next day a daring trio decided to put their rusty legs to the test in a simple biking trip to Hutan Rekreasi, Ayer Keroh. Gin Shen, Jonah and I felt the urge to bring our lovely bikes for a well deserved road blaze as college, studies and other(ehem ehem..) commitments constantly kept us from venturing out on two wheels. Starting off at around 6.30 am we biked until I was once more fed with a surge of discomfort in my guts. Immediately, I rushed to the nearest toilet.

i has an dumbstruck

I was VERY amazed at the cleanliness of the this public toilet, as we all know Malaysia is well known for it's extremely "welcoming" and "appealing" public toilets. A quick cargo unload and we're back on track! We finally reached our destination after a tough series of hills and downward slopes and took a short 1 hour break before adjourning for some..

POSING!

RAWR NAPOLEON!


happy turtle is happy


zzzzZZZZzzzzZzZZZzzz..


no comments..

Our hungry stomachs and sweet teeth beckoned us to return nigh unto Jonker to taste of the epic Ice Kacang! Though long and tiring was the journey, the very thought of Gula Melaka and santan melting in our mouth made us double the effort in the pursuit for candy heaven!

mmmmmm yummeh!


DIG IN! RAWRR!

Now back to the bustling city of KL/Klang, I had the chance to participate in Ern Shern's 17th surprise birthday party! The masterplan was well engineered by bestfriend cum futsal buddy cum dota kaki Jaewen! He singlehandedly tasked the various participants their respective roles in making this a COMPLETE success! Kudos to you! Italian food for the night with chef Joel at the wok and pan and also Aunty Shirley's awesome oreo cheesecake as the birthday cake!

actually the cake was a plate of spaghetti..
and no his head didn't turn into a ball..

happy birthday dear brother in Christ!

Awhile later I was called over to Casa Subang to celebrate the birthday of both Stephenas and Iqwan. It was really a memorable night as we carefully planned the surprise well to catch them off guard. Sue Yinn being the "scout" led the way as we walked out of the elevator with the candle-lighted cake and began Happy Birthday-ing them! She and I also cooked the dinner for the night, cheese-filled chicken nuggets, soup noodles with meatballs, fishballs and crabsticks and Aryl proudly made the drinks. We later tried some "laughing gas" but it only worked on Aryl...I had triple doses of it and all I did was smile haha! Into the night we had a magnificent fireworks display put up for the lucky duo! As time ventured into the wee hours of the morning, Sue Yinn, Pavallam, Aryl and I skipped an early bedtime and did some..

POSING!

pav looks like an evil ant queen!

eeeeww Jumanji!

somehow I'm reminded of hamsters here...

Coming up next is the White Water Rafting post!

Catchup! 1

Now that I'm back it's time to start posting on whatever that's left out that should be in my blog hehe.

Stopping at the UNITE LifeClub committee meeting, we then continued with our very first meeting where we had a dinner and some games plus a brief introduction to the club! Stephen, Hafizul and I had to ferry in 7 huge plastic bags of food and papadam into the class while huffing all the way from Medan! Oh well it all turned out good as well in the end but we had SO much leftover food our charitable president decided to distribute the extras to those in the foyer *insert awwwwwwwwww here*


Moving on, we also had an Intercongregational Futsal Friendly where teams from all over Malaysia kicked in for a good game of futsal and also for the grand prize of a trophy! The epic KL team won in the end with Uncle Chris as their captain!


Also we had a YQD/YCF at the Klang church building right after the competition, serving up some savoury Mexican(?) food and also Jae Wen's special chocolate fudge!



We also had a great birthday party for Esther Chin! A bunch of us ate at Tasty Pot nearby the infamous Yuan Steamboat. Happy 18th!


Not forgetting one of the most epic moments ever in college, was the pre-Merdeka celebration done by a few groups. My group, Group 15 led the dance crew by performing a string of traditional themed dances. The crowd cheered SO loud we had to restart our performance because we couldn't catch the rhythm of the beat! Followed with a speech by Woosnam and ended with a short remark from our lecturer, that marked a glorious moment of my college days.

From left: Pavallam, Qian Wen, Jee An, Myself, Aryl and the model, Harmeet!

Awww, being flanked by a couple of ladies!

Epic sequels coming soon!

RAWRR!

After an absence of close to 3 months I officially declare my blog to be open again, however no guarantees on how often I will post as my exams are creeping up around the corner..somehow they always creep around the corner..
Well in view of my untimely return I will post on stuff I've been up to recently. Unfortunately there's TOO MANY for me to recall as I have the most unreliable memory in the entire world. So, do look out for more posts to come!

Shoutouts to Eunice, Yen Yen and Joan who have been patiently waiting for the sleeping dragon to awaken once more..

RAWR! till we meet =3

Welcome home Houston

Yes we have landed on planet blogspot yet once again. I will be posting here as soon as I figure out when I shall start blogging actively once more, as I've yet to find time to fit into my hectic college life.

Till your eyes meet my words, toodles!