dedicated to you, lyelye~ PART I

writting this blog makes me feel like i am going to publish a book, with deadline ahead, and yet it's still undone. Luckily, i am not hired so i did not get fired even though i PAST THE DEADLINE. hahahah !! okok, stop the crap.

let's start. This will bring us back to March 15 2008...

7.50am>> Departing from KL Central with my turtle friend, zhi min. We wereng to FRRRRIIIIMMMM aka FRIM (Forest Research Institute Malaysia). Taking the slow mo KTM, we sat facing the opposite direction which the train was heading to, making us hmmm...dizzy.
While we were chatting, we notice some familiar group of people. How say, they were dressed in the same way as us, shirt, pants, sneakers (the "holy trinity" for jungle trekking). So, we both are gessing whether they are also heading to KEPONG SENTRAL.

We reached, and we wereight that that group of people, comprised 4 girls. I recalled one of them, her name is Chong Si wei, if not mistaken. We all waited at the entrance of the station.
you see, there were ten of us, include those who reached there before us, we are all waiting for the same vehicle, as told, a very big Kenari. Obviously we cant fit in. But luckily it's not only a kenari there. hahaha !! if not, we all going to make use of every space given in the kenari. You know what i mean......

And so, anxiously, i met them, the Raleigh-ians, for the very first time. And the president, whom i do not know he is a president at first, greeted us a very warmth welcome, said : SAWADIKA !!!

Vrrooomm~~~and so, we headed towards FRIM. It's the thing everyone was anticipating for, the canopy walk.

And they were really good in keeping people in anticipation. Before we started our jungle trekking, we had short time for ice breaking. Self-intro, and then followed up by ZIP ZAP BYOING ~ Though it's an easy, no brain usage is required, it appeared to be fun and "chi-kik" (chinese word, mean exciting). First, we had to be in a circle, so a person need to point to another mentioning, either zip if pointing to left or zap if pointing to right, when you are "zipping", and you needa go zapping, you need to "byoing" (while saying it, you need to electrify yourself and hands up) before you "zap" to your right. There is also KAPOW(for specifying the person you want to point at whose is not on your left or right) and also REFLECT (to shield yourself from kapow). So, it ended with everyone being zipped-zapped or byoing-ed or kapow-ed- or reflected.

After the game, we were being briefed about the trekking and were distributed of "choclairs" and "soda-biscuits", in case of "emergencies". Next, after we were armed with food, we headed towards the woods. Along the trekking, we were also provided information about nature, such as the big giant bamboo and also tree trunks with hollow that was big enough to be a so called emergency loo.

The journey was great, somehow....with mosquitos around me. It took us at least half an hour to reach the post where we need to register ourself before going on the canopy.

The 200m canopy walkway that is suspended 30m above ground on the treee species called Chukrasia tabularis, Intsia palembanica, Artocarpus elasticus and Shorea pauciflora. (extracted from FRIM website)

We neeeda go one by one, each person was gapped around 3meters before another proceed. There were two stops in total. Each stop had a limit for people to stand. First stop only allow 4people to stand while the next stop can only fit 8people.

Basically, everyone was walking at only 5km/h. No jumping, no shAKING were allowed, for safety of course. when you looked down, you would be amazed by the the green lushed forest. High from below, as if you were stepping on the surface of the canopy, flying like the "monkey god". So, as we stopped by the rest stop, we grabbed the chance to take pictures and there went the shutter sound until the canopy walk ended.

We did not get the time for waterfall, but just merely had a look at it. It's not that impressive with the yellowish stream flowing with children playing in it (we do not know what they were doing for sure)... And, the trip ended with a short testomonies from everyone. Packing stuffs, we were all anxious for the next monthly meeting.

PART ii ~ chill in chilling kkb

April 11 2008... a time to be chilled.

Yoohoo~my 2nd monthly meeting with Raleigh !! Once again, meeting up with the Raleigh-ians at KL CENtral. This time, we were going to Kuala Kubu Bharu. Isolated from the urban city of KL, it's located farther away from Rawang and near Batang Kali. Waiting at kl central, i met up with a few new faces i never met before at the last monthly meeting. This time there were more people. We got on adrian's car and vroom-ed towards kkb.

It took us at about 20minutes before we were really out from KL. After a 40minutes drive, we stopped by an amazing place, a big dam, which adrian called it the "damn dam". But, it was really a damn dam with damn beautiful scene, where you could see the long horizon, the reflection of the morning sky in greyish purple, and the warm sun showering us all, it just took your breath away....well. that's my first impression, i wondered if the second visit would still make me feel the same way.

After 20minutes break, we continued and reached KKB in another 10minutes. Registered, packed up, we started our jungle trekking. Which i thought it started.... Walking farther after 5minutes, there was a big space and a hut in front. There was where we stopped by and had a brief and intro. We played a game too. This time we were grouped into four according to our initials. !person from each group was chosen to be introduced by he or her group members. Obviosly, we were all exageratting on the chosen members' features, creating huge jokes on them. hahaha !!

After the rest, the trekking started for real at last. We were told that we needed to cross 6river before we reached our destination, le grande waterfall, haha !!

It just started, and soon we were all required to cross the first river before we really started trekking. We stopped in the river a while, briefed by our "ranger" with the walkie talkie, sir adrian yeo on how to test a river. We must faced the opposite direction of the flow and bend our knees to reduce the impact while crossing river. An important info for everyone.

The trek this time round was much tougher than the last one, Rivers after rivers, climbing steep hills, when i said steep, it was really steep, its like when you were up there and you looked back, your body started to wobble... We reached a spot where we could take a glance at a fast and strong flowed waterfall (not the destination i mentioned, just taking a look on it and took pictures). Then we proceeded to the real waterfall we wanted to go. It took us 10minutes to reach the real destination.

Hurray !!!! chilled by the dampiness of the air once we exited from the forest and saw the waterfall.

No hesitation, everyone became a hungry tiger for the waterfall, roaring and tearing off their shirt (i meant the guys...dont get me wrong), as if the waterfall was their prey they had longed for !! However, they were some hungry tiger eagering for food instead of the waterfall. There were for-lab-use-shaped stoves on a corner, ignited. Then, a big pot was put on top of it. "Maggi's" provided to be cooked. Howver, we must be careful when managing the disposals. Rubbish were collected in plastic bags and the leftover was to throw far away from the water source. Protecting while having fun with the environment were the Raleigh goals, not only Raleigh, it's actually should be everyone's goal....

Water splashing everywhere, "monkeys" jumping from the rocks into the water and climbing on and off the rocks, the commotion might attract some real monkeys else where. hahaha !!

There's a lil surprise for Terry, the birthday boy. We "pakat" and sang burthday song to him. He looked shocked and surprised. Perhaps i saw some shining light from his less than 1cm eyes.

The fun, the food, ended after an hour at the waterfall. Lastly, we took a picture with the flag before we left.

Well, i left in a hurry because adrian needed to catch up with his gf for canoeing.


That's all. Still, anticipating for the next monthly meeting...