Mount KK Trip

I wrote this short report about my KK Trip in my DiveTrek website and decided to put it here as well.

This trip was one with mixed feelings. Well, we enjoyed ourselves in many ways like roaming the town, shopping, eating, staying at nice resorts, trekking through beautiful scenery, conquering the summit etc, but I guess for some of us, the extremely cold weather while going up to the summit was a big MINUS!

Ours was a relaxed trip compared to the other group (Ernest was in the other group). Theirs was a 6 day trip while ours lasted 9 days. So we had a lot of time to relax before and after the trek. We spent the first two days roaming KK Town, doing some window shopping, exploring the corners of the town, finding out accommodation for the remaining of the trip and looking for nice foods to eat. The local hawker centre near to the sea serves lots of barbecued seafood. We nearly tried the BBQed trigger fish!

One interesting thing we did the second night was to "lay an ambush" at the airport for Ernest's group to arrive. Besides Bee Leng and I, the rest of my group did not know that Lip was joining us a day late. Lip made some last minute arrangements and finally managed to get her leave approved, air ticket booked and bag packed in the last minute. We made a simple vanguard sheet to welcome the group coming out of the departure hall. It was a pleasant surprise for most of us.

Ernest's group "chionged" to KK Park to stay the night while my group continue to relax in the town. For them, they trekked up the mountain via the Mesilau trail to the base camp the next morning and stayed the night at Gunting Lagadan Hut. They rested for that evening and conquered the summit early next morning. They then proceeded all the way down the mountain via the Timpohon trail and stayed the night at Poring Hot Springs Resort. They then returned to Singapore the following evening.

After leaving KK town (we had roasted duck, char siew and wanton noodles for breakfast), we proceeded to stay the night at Mesilau Resort (after settling administrative matters at the KK Park HQ). The resort, situated at about 2000m above sea level was nice and the air was cooling. We had some nice meals at the restaurant, including steamboat in the evening. We also had a fruits feast (consisting of mangosteens, langsat, rambutans, jambu, bananas, oranges and tomatoes bought from a roadside fruit market along the way) that night.

After an early breakfast, some warm up and a briefing by our guide, we set off on the Mesilau trail. The Mesilau trail is more scenic but longer than the Timpohon trail. Indeed the trail was quite nice as compared to the other trips I had gone so far. The trail is more open and most of the time, instead of trekking under shady boring trees, we were able to see many nice scenery along the way. There was one part where we stood on a ridge with deep valleys on both sides. It was cooling and sunny at the same time, and the feeling was good. We were hoping to meet Ernest and his gang at the intersection of the Mesilau and Timpohon trail, but guess they were too early for us.

We took our time to complete the trail. By the time we arrived at base camp accommodation for the night(Waras Hut), it was like 9 hours have passed since we started early in the morning. I guess our speed was a little slow but we took a lot of photos and rest along the way, contributing to the long hours. Nevertheless, we were glad to have reached our accommodation, as most of us were hungry, tired and cold by then. We had dinner at the main lodging restaurant (Laban Rata Hut) which served basic food like noodles, rice, bee hoon, soups and spaghetti. We had our fill and retired early for the night.

As we were in no hurry to conquer the summit, we slept in a little bit. After checking out and had our late breakfast, we proceeded to check in at our next accommodation for the night - Gunting Lagadan Hut (where Ernest and gang were the night before and a short stroll from Waras Hut). Some rested in the room while some (including me) laid on the rock outside the hut gazing at the clouds floating by. My face is like Justice Bao now because of that short 2-hour tan! The clouds hovering around the mountain were very beautiful. They looked like candy floss and you wished you could stick your hand out and pull some to your mouth. Those clouds above us kept changing patterns too, due to the strong wind. It is one of the nicest mountain treks for me so far.

We had the usual simple dinner and sat outside the hut to relax for a while. The night scene was beautiful too. Suddenly as we shielded our eyes from the bright lamp that was just in front of the hut, and looked up to the sky, we realised that it was flooded with stars. We took many pictures and then proceeded to rest early, as we had to wake up at 1 am the next morning to begin our ascent to the summit. I guess all of us managed to catch an hour or two of rest before the alarm sounded all too early. We had a quick simple meal of instant noodles and milo. We were all very excited and revving to go, even though I sort of had butterflies in the stomach. After a short warm up, we were the first group to go up the steps towards the summit. The sky was very dark and the stars were smiling down on us. They seemed very near and within our hands' reach. But we had no time to talk to the stars as the summit was on our minds.

Soon many other groups passed us. As usual, we were slow and steady and was trying to enjoy the night trek in the cool morning. We were quite warmly dressed up with long johns, T-shirst, sweaters and jackets. I think most of us had at least 5 layers on. I found out later Lip wore 8 layers! We soon cleared the 700+ steps and came to the part where we had to clear some wall face with the help of the rope. It was easy and fun for me. In fact for most parts, you don't really need the rope. Anyway, clearing the wall face in the dark was not that exciting, as we were not able to see what was beside us. We were told by those who have been there before that coming down was more fun, because we could see the "danger" we were in. Anyway, up and up we went.

Ooops, "Is it raining?" Oh yes, it started to drizzle. We were ascending up into the clouds and the wind was picking up. Wow, it was getting cold and visibility at one point dropped to a mere 5 m! Even with our powerful torchlights, we could only see a few metres ahead. The wind was very strong that there were quite a few instances when we were almost blown off our feet. We were soon soaking wet. Somehow I wonder why we did not don our raincoats. Perhaps we thought it was a passing cloud and that our windbreakers would be able to hold out the rain. But we were wrong. Within the next hour, we were all shivering and teeth were chattering. The climb had begun to be tough. We slowly made our way up, taking more frequent rests due to the cold and the thin air. All we see ahead were distant torchlights of other groups. Soon we could see the final part of the mountain slope that would bring us to the summit. But each step we took was agonising as it was freezing cold.

Nevertheless we pushed on. Some of us contemplated to turn back, but I am glad we did not. We dragged our heavy feet and our weak shivering bodies, and slowly made our way bit by bit up the granite rock face. We saw many people passed by us but they were going in the opposite direction. Yes, they had gone up to the summit and are hurriedly going down to keep themselves out from the cold. We were still struggling. Hey, we are about 100 m from the summit.......jia you....I shouted.....Yes, the summit was in sight. Our objective is just ahead. We could see it clearly. We could even smell it. But we could not touch it. The last 100 m was not easy, but knowing that the summit is nigh pushed us on. We scrambled onto the last rock and finally we hugged and kissed the signboard that says "Taman Kinabalu Low's Peak (4095.2 m)". Yeah, we have finally made it to the summit. We snapped a few quick photos and quickly descended from the summit.

The journey down the hill took much shorter time but no less grueling. While the rain had stopped, the wind was still blowing continuously and we were soaking wet inside. I still remember my teeth were chattering throughout and I nearly went into spasms. But we survived and were finally back in our accommodation! We took a while to defrost, rest and change. We had a quick lunch and were soon ready for our long descent. Our guide, having seen our pace so far, was worried that we would take too long even in the descent. But we prove him wrong and by 5 pm we were already down at the Timpohon gate, 2 hours faster than expected. We have to pat our own backs for that.

We waited for our van to pick us up, went over to the KK Park to collect our certificates and soon we were on our way to Poring Hot Springs Resort. It is situated at a nice quiet place next to a running river. Surprisingly, it was very warm that night, perhaps to compensate for the cold we suffered in the morning. We gave Edwin a surprised birthday celebration at our room after dinner. We originally planned to do it at the summit but there was no way we could light the candles then. HA. So it was a double celebration for Edwin - conquering the summit for the second time, this time on his birthday.

After breakfast at a local coffee shop (nice curry noodles), we took a walk into the woods to check out the world's largest flower - the rafflesia. It was already in its 6th day of bloom and was almost going to wither. As such, the color was not very appealing, but at least we had a chance to catch a glimpse of how it looked like. We then checked out from the resort, but proceeded to check out the canopy walk after leaving our luggage at the resort reception. What?! More climbing? We had to walk upslope for about 30 minutes to reach the canopy walk and some of us were mumbling adn grumbling to ourselves. But the walk was well worth it as the canopy walk turned out to be very nice. It had a length of about 157m and at the highest point, it was about 41 m. The canopy walk is divided into 3 sections, with each end built on the platform on top of giant solid trees called the King of Trees (Raja Kayu). I tested its hardness by banging my head on the tree trunk. It was really hard. I am not called crazyjarjar for nothing. HA. The canopy walk posed a challenge to Lip, but as always, she emerged triumphant and managed to do some "dance" on the walk at the end.

From Poring we proceeded back to KK Town. Edwin left that night while the remaining 6 of us stayed back to explore the town. It was a tiring two days as the town was actually quite small. We contemplated to do a 5-island cruise but scrapped the idea because we wanted more time to rest our tired bodies. We ended up just shopping and eating. Lip was our champion shopper, as usual :p

I believe we were all glad to be back home, after a long and tiring KK trip. We penned down our feelings of the trip in a little blue notebook where all the happenings during the trip were recorded in detail. So if you ask me why I said I have mixed feelings about the trip, I guess the main reason would be that the weather during the ascent to the summit was bad, and that sort of spoilt all the fun as I could not take any pictures at all. We could not celebrate Edwin’s birthday at the summit and take a proper group photo with our banner which we had painstakingly drawn up for ourselves. If the weather had been good, I am sure I would have somersaulted and jumped from rock to rock on the mountain slopes. We would have nice pictures and memories of the mountain. I don’t plan to go back up the mountain again, but it looks like I might have to make another trip, just to take those pictures.

Anyway, overall it was a great trip. The group trained together before the trip and conquered the mountain together. I want to congratulate ourselves for being one of the few millions who have conquered that mountain. While it is not a comparable conquest like those who conquered Everest, I am sure it was a great achievement for us, especially those who have conquered the summit for the very first time. If you have not been there, I would highly recommend you to make a trip there. Oh, just make sure you go in the drier months (Jan to Jun) but no guarantees though.

Everest awaits………hahaha…just kidding.

In-Camp

Started my 2-week in-camp training as part of my yearly national service again this week. Reported to my base yesterday morning and discovered that a few of my fellow national servicemen are sort of completed their training quota. There has been some changes to the number of in-camp trainings we had to do and thus the quota has been reduced. I would told this might be the last in-camp for me. Not sure if I should shout hurray for that or not. A few new guys joined my team, so I had to "orientate" them.

As with previous years, in-camp training is very "xiong" ("tough")........but I still find time to blog :)

Backside Pain Ah ???!!!

Dolphin 1 was *swimming* *jumping* *spiraling* *twisting* and *oooops* clashed into Dolphin 2 who was also *swimming* *jumping* *spiraling* *twisting* from the opposite direction.

Dolphin 2: *rubbing his long nose* Aiyoh, Dolphin 1, why you anyhow jump here and there? Knock me until so painful leh.

Dolphin 1: Sorry Dolphin 2. I wasn't sure where I was heading. I simply *swim* *jump* *spiral* and *twist*. Not exactly going anywhere.

Dolphin 2: Why so listless? What happened? Want to tell me?

Dolphin 1: Tell you also you may not understand. It is about my friend Piggy 2 lor.

Dolphin 2: What's wrong with that moody Piggy 2 again? How come he always got so much trouble?

Dolphin 1: Aiyah, he went to climb Mount KK last week, then come back so *xian xian*. Not sure what exactly happened. I asked him, but he kept mumbling to himself. I only could hear him keep saying "always my fault...."

Dolphin 2: Huh? "Always his fault...." What is he talking about? They all cannot go up the mountain because of him ah? If not then why always his fault?

Dolphin 1: Not sure lah. You ask me I ask who? Let me call him now with my waterproofed satellite phone.

Dolphin 2: OK lor. Since I am quite free now, I will wait for you lah. You talk to him first while I look for some fishes to eat.

Dolphin 1: *talking to Piggy 2* You don't cry lah. What's is there to cry about? Just tell me what happened lah.

Dolphin 1: *still talking to Piggy 2* "Hmmm", "Orrrh", "Errr", "Ooook", "Aiyah" Like that also cry. Pigs like to cry meh? OK, I tell you what. No big deal lah. Just go look for crazyjarjar, and "borrow" a coconut tree for you to lean. You sit under the coconut tree, then think think think.....then think think think some more.....then take one deep breath (don't forget to exhale) and you will be ok liao. Trust me. I kid you not. Oh yah, remember to sms me which coconut tree near the sea hor. I can go and visit you mah.

Dolphin 2: Wah, you talked so long to that Piggy 2. So what's his problem this time?

Dolphin 1: Yah yah yah, and you happily go and eat your tuna. No lah, he went to Mount KK, actually very fun one. Scenery very nice, weather very nice, and they climb climb climb everything also very nice. You don't see that Piggy 2 climbing on 4 legs hor actually can climb quite fast. He quite fit one.

Dolphin 2: Everything nice then still so sad?

Dolphin 1: Aiyah, you don't interrupt lah. Let me continue. Quite long story leh. You be patient can?

Dolphin 2: Eh? How come this sounds so familiar? Orrrh, that Piggy 1 also asked Piggy 2 to be patient right? Ok lah, I will be patient else also become real patient.

Dolphin 1: That's better. OK. Then they climb climb climb. Then not sure what happened hor, Piggy 2 fell ill leh. He had diarrhea, fever, runny nose, cough, headache. He also vomited and his backside also pain leh. Terrible right?

Dolphin2: Waaah....like that how to climb some more?

Dolphin 1: Yah lor....but his friends very good lah. Took very good care of him, nursed him back to health.

Dolphin 2: Wow, his friends very good hor. I think if others, will leave him by the road side to rot ah :p

Dolphin 1: Yah yah yah, you so bad-hearted. His friends all very good one, will surely help.

Dolphin 2: So help already good right, how come still got problem leh?

Dolphin 1: Yah lor, strange right. But then Piggy 2 said difficult to make everyone happy lor. Piggy 2 do something or don't do something other people also not happy. I told him go sit below a coconut tree and relax lah. This Piggy 2 gave a loud *Haiz - Always my fault..." then he hung up. I hope he will sms me which coconut tree near the sea he will be at then I can go visit him.

Dolphin 2: Waaah, very confusing leh. Why pigs got so much problem one?

Dolphin 1: Don't know lah. I thought pigs just eat sleep and be merry, but this pig quite active one, everything also do, so maybe got more headache lah.

Dolphin 2: Why can't pigs be more like dolphins? Swim here and there, got tuna eat tuna, no tuna eat sardines lah. Left brain headache, then switch left brain off, since still can think with right brain. HA....dolphin good right?

Dolphin 1: Yah, yah, yah, keep singing your own praises. If both brains headache you switch both off right? You backside pain then you know.

Dolphin 2: Hee Hee, ok lah, got to go. Don't forget to let me know when Piggy 2 sms you on which coconut tree he is at. Maybe I can go see if his backside still pain or not :p *grin*

Dolphin 1: !!!!!!!

Some KK Pictures

Not in the best mood to come up with a KK Trip report except to say that it was a trip with mixed feelings. While I did manage to reach the summit, the weather on the way up and down was very bad and no pictures were taken at all! The consolation is that in between, before and after the conquest, I managed to snap some interesting pictures.....


A nice shot of a chameleon having lunch


A red indian hiding behind the tree?


Nice silvery tint caused by light reflection


Budding red leaves - young and vibrant


Silver fern - head of a ram?


Moss on the tree - Christmas already?


Ever-flowing waterfall


How good if we could walk on the clouds?


Is that a spaceship? Nope, just a cute piece of cloud!


Catch the twilight rays of the sunset


Can see the stars?


Silver Fern - interlocking rams' horns?


A pretty moth?


I feel so naked


Butterfly hovering on flower

Will write more when I am in the right mood, else it would be more pictures. Standby.

Back from Mount KK Conquest

HA. I am back! :) Yeah, I conquered Mount KK. Stood on top of South East Asia for a few shivering minutes. It was a tiring trip. But I should be well rested now. More reports and photos coming up.....need time to settle in :)

KK here I come!

The day has finally arrived. I would be flying over to Kota Kinabalu later this evening for my Mount KK conquest. Am getting a little excited. Climbing any mountain is like climbing Mount Everest to me. Every mountain conquered is a conquest, no matter how high or difficult. Besides Mount KK is the highest mountain in South East Asia, so that to me is already not too bad an achievement, but HA, let me conquer it first :p

I had this funny dream last night that I was trekking some mountain, and had to bash through jungles and cross raging torrents. Instead of using a rope to help me cross, I was swimming across the level 3 rapids! HA. At some parts the sights were so beautiful and I realised I did not have my camera with me. I had to go back to grab my camera but I never managed to because I woke up! In the dream I was wearing a blue windbreaker, exactly the one I would be wearing for this KK trip, and it was completely waterproof (in the dream, I mean :)) HA, I must be getting very excited.

The plan is for us to relax in the city for 2 days before proceeding to the Park HQ. We would spend the next 2 nights up on the mountain and will likely attempt the summit twice (sounds like Everest conquest eh?). But who knows, we might try the South Peak instead if the first attempt to Low's Peak was successful and the sunrise fantastic :D Weather reports forecast scattered thunderstorms but I hope we will not be at those "scattered" locations. We will pray hard :) We will relax another few days in the city before returning.

I would be away for over a week and am unlikely to update my blog. But I will return with lots of beautiful pictures for sure. So do come and check my pictures out at the end of next week :)

So boring!

Piggy 1 was walking. Piggy 2 also walking. Then Piggy 1 met Piggy 2, then Piggy 2 met Piggy 1, then Piggy 1 and Piggy 2 both met, then Piggy 1 and Piggy 2 talked. So boring!

Piggy 1 - Hey, how's the going?
Piggy 2 - What going? Please speak properly. I don't understand your "chim" english!
Piggy 1 - Aiyah, I am just asking how you are. So how are you piggy 1?
Piggy 2 - Like that lor. Very moody today.
Piggy 1 - Why always moody? Moody your middle name ah?
Piggy 2 - No lah. Getting very pissed off at work with my colleagues. Then they also started the ERP along CTE. I don't drive along CTE in the evening lah, but the ERP diverted many cars to where I travel daily. So now my side also jam and soon they will plonk an ERP gantry there too! *grrrrrr*
Piggy 1 - Aiyah, doesn't matter lah. Patient ok.
Piggy 2 - yah yah yah, always want me to be patient. Soon I will become a real patient!
Piggy 1 - Ok lah, don't say you already. Hey why don't you sell your car and take public transport instead. Our public transport system is world class leh.
Piggy 2 - World class? Sure or not? I have not travelled on a public transport for quite some time so do not know world class or not. All I know is that fares keep going up and these transport companies insist of earning more, when most other people are earning lesser.
Piggy 1 - Yah, cheap world class, LTA say one. It seems that everything is Singapore also world class leh.
Piggy 2 - World class! You have not seen what world class means lah. But then I must admit that setting up the COE and ERP systems are world class indeed! What better ways to milk the cows! *Moooooooooo* (Get your stinking hands off my teats)
Piggy 1 - Aiyoh, why talk about cows again. Wait the cows whack you then you know.
Piggy 2 - OK, OK, OK. That's why I use piggy here mah. But then there is one piggy out there who may be unhappy also. Aiyoh. Cow cannot, maybe pig also cannot. Maybe use dinosaur then no one will complain.
Piggy 1 - Why you always so critical one? Why can't you be a good boy and just do what they tell you to? Get into trouble then you know.
Piggy 2 - The most get deported to Sentosa lor. Eh, in a few years time got IR leh. Not bad to be deported there. Better start polishing up my skills.
Piggy 1 - OK don't talk about this sickening topic. Will make you mad. Hey, you going to climb Mount KK soon right? When hah?
Piggy 2 - This Friday lor.
Piggy 1 - Wow, then you should be very excited right?
Piggy 2 - Not sure leh. I a little apprehensive. Not sure whether can conquer the mountain or not. It will be very cold up there and sekali I get mountain sickness also. Piggy 1 - Never mind lah. So many people have done it. I am sure you can do it. Jia you ok!
Piggy 2 - Hope so lor. Still have not finished packing yet. My back pack now like weigh a tonne!
Piggy 1 - Aiyah, no pain no gain mah. At least you conquer Mount KK liao can claim that you have conquered one of the highest peaks of the world right?
Piggy 2. Guess so lor. Not sure big deal or not. I have already conquered Singapore's highest peak many times liao!
Piggy 1 - KK got things to buy for me or not?
Piggy 2 - Not sure leh. Never been there. Maybe got bird nests. You want bird nests? Those with blood one?
Piggy 1 - Yeee...don't want. Just get me some local goods can liao.
Piggy 2 - OK, OK, OK. Will take some pictures for you to see.
Piggy 1 - Thank you. *Hug Piggy 2*

Piggy 1 hugged Piggy 2, then Piggy 2 hugged Piggy 1, then both Piggy 1 and Piggy 2 hugged, then Piggy 1 puked, then Piggy 2 puked, then Piggy 1 and Piggy 2 puked. Then Piggy 1 walked away, then Piggy 2 walked away, then both Piggy 1 and Piggy 2 walked away.......

Shitty Day

I was out for lunch just now with a few JC classmates at one non-airconditioned food court in Ang Mo Kio. We were happily enjoying our food and chatting when suddenly I felt something dropped on my shoulder. Immediately I knew something "bad" has dropped on me. True enough it was bird shit and the bird (mynah) was still perched proudly on the metal bar above. I went to the toilet to wash up but only managed to clean some of it away. I decided to ignore it and even went to take a quick look at my regular camera shop which was just next to the food court.

When I finally got back to the office, I realised that besides the shit that dropped on my shoulder, there were two other big patches of shit/urine on the back of my white shirt! I believe a lot of people might have been staring at me while I was walking around the place. Arrrrrgh. I have no choice but to return home to have a change of clothes. A shitty day indeed.

More paintings

Enjoyed the stick figures? Here are some more pictures which were drawn and painted.








One of the original stick figures

Stick Figures!

Last weekend was the final weekend just before our KK Trip. However, I did not involve myself in any training at all as I was engaged with work and night classes. I guess it would be a nice break for the body just before the actual trek.

While working on something to encourage ourselves for the trip, a few of us got together and started to have fun drawing and painting some stick figures. Here are some of the masterpieces that resulted from the fun sessions. I won't tell you who these stick figures are. You would have to guess :)


The cool one!


A ladybird? Wonder who this represents?


The playful one?


The mischievous and energetic one?


Sleeping Beauty?


Kawai? Cute Cute one?


The sweet and demure?

Whoever we are, we had a lot of fun!

Did you milk a cow recently?

Imagine you have many cows that produce milk daily. Each day you milk all the cows and earn some money from the milk. Then with the money earned you buy more cows so that you can milk more cows and earn more money. So after a while you have a lot of cows that earn you lots of money from the milk you milk the cows of. Soon some cows grow old and they no longer produce as much milk. Also you ended up with too many cows to milk. So instead of wasting your time to milk these old cows on your own and milk so many other cows, you decided to get someone else to milk the cows for you, in return for some money.

Unfortunately, the someone that milks the cows is not an animal lover (not that you are a animal lover too), and he probably hates teats too (how about you?). So he milked the cow day-in-day-out until the teats of the old cows dried out, and worse still, some of them die from manhandling. Haiz....do you regret letting that someone milk the cow, or do you say "Well, it is ok lah, since the cows are going to die anyway.....afterall they are just cows......and I still earn some money" Ponder Ponder.

5 wolves and 1 sheep

HA. I must be in a "great" mood today.

I just happened to read about a guy called Larry Flynt (presumably a writer of some sort) who commented that "Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper."

I thought about what he said and agree with him to some extent. It is true that the five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper would certainly produce a very biased outcome. But there are a few other possible scenarios I can think of that may be applicable to all of us:

1. 5 wolves and 1 sheep

The sheep could have been brought up by the wolves to think that wolves are nice buddies to have. So the sheep, when voting and following the majority, may not even know that the wolves will eat him up one day.

2. 5 wolves and 1000 sheep

The wolves in this case are outnumbered but the sheep could have been brought up to think that wolves are their leaders, and are stronger and smarter and fiercer and deserve to eat sheep. So these one thousand sheep will "happily" send themselves to the wolves' platters day after day, after all, enough sheep would be born to replace the slaughtered ones.

3. 5 wolves, 995 sheep and 5 smart sheep

The wolves are again outnumbered but as in para 2 above, the 995 sheep have been brought up to think that way and will continue to support the wolves, even though there are 5 smart sheep out there telling them it is not the best thing to do. The wolves will from time to time instil more fear in the 1000 sheep by maiming one of the 5 smart sheep, expelling another smart sheep to Timbuktu to live with the jackals, or put the sheep in a enclosed pen with little food and much torture. This should keep the 1000 sheep at bay.

4. 5 wolves, 900 sheep and 100 smart sheep

Even though para 3 has been prevailing, there arrived a time when more sheep became smarter and the percentage of smarter sheep grow to a more significant number. The wolves are now a little worried, but will continue to use the same tactics to tame the sheep, to some success. Some maimed sheep managed to recover and continue to try influencing the rest of the sheep, to some success too.

5. 5 wolves, 500 sheep and 500 smart sheep

Looks like this scenario will have to take a long time to take effect. With 500 smart sheep and only 5 wolves, the wolves should be shivering in their pants. For sure these wolves would have been trying very hard to prevent the number of smart sheep from growing, but due to the peserverance of the first 5 smart sheep, the number will grow eventually and surely. With odds of 100 to 1, I am sure the smart sheep will be able to trample on the wolves and establish a new sheep farm.

6. 5 wolves and 1 sheep

Eh, why back to one sheep? Oh, it could have been the single sheep is a wolf in sheep's clothing, so there are actually 6 wolves all these while. So what's for supper? I am not too sure.

7. 5 wolves and 1 sheep

Eh, again? Oh, it could have been 5 sheep in wolves clothing and so that makes 6 sheep. Worst still, sheep exploiting own sheep! *Sigh*

8. 5 wolves and 1 sheep

And again? Oh, it could have been 5 sheep in wolves clothing and a wolf in sheep's clothing. 5 sheep against one wolf? A little tough, but then there is no such thing as 5 sheep and 1 wolf???!!! HAHAHA.

Hey, other than laughing, do ponder over this issue. Are you a wolf or a sheep? Are you a smart sheep or a willing sheep waiting to be slaughtered? Or are you a wolf in sheep's clothing and vice versa? Ponder Ponder.

Animal Farm

I was pondering over something and the name George Orwell somehow popped into my mind. Anyone of you out there knows who he is? George Orwell was a famous writer. His actual name is Eric Arthur Blair and he was born in India. But what's so special about him? Well, I am not too sure. He wrote quite a few books, which included Animal Farm (written sometime towards the end of World War II - 1945 when he was working as a literary editor for the BBC). Apparently the book Animal Farm made Orwell prosperous. His other world wide success was "Nineteen Eighty Four", which was a political novel about a omnipresent State enforcing perfect conformity among members of a totalitarian Party through indoctrination, propanganda, fear, and ruthless punishment. The novel introduced the concepts of the ever-present, all-seeing Big Brother, the ubiquitous thought police, and the bureaucrats' and politicians' language Newspeak. The book sounds interesting.

I have not read "Nineteen Eighty Four". Perhaps I should, but I have read the Animal Farm as part of my Literature subject in secondary school. Animal Farm is a satire on Stalinism and the Russian Revolution. After realising their desire for freedom, the animals at the farm chased the farmer off his property and took control of the farm. George Orwell used animals to comment on human society and the events of the Russian Revolution and the years from 1917 to 1943. As a literature book, it was a little confusing for a boy with poor english like me to understand what George Orwell was talking about. What is a satire? Who are the Russians and what is Communism? My teacher took pains to explain what the whole novel was all about and slowly the book made some sense.

The sudden thought of this book Animal Farm brought to my mind a phrase which was written by George Orwell (Actually I think someone else came up with this phrase but he used it in his book). I believe most of you would have heard of this famous political quotation.

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"

I am not sure how well you can relate to this phrase but I somehow have this strange feeling that this is very real. While my teacher taught me that Animal Farm was talking about communism and the people involved in it, I feel that George Orwell was also trying to warn us that with power comes money; money leads to greed and greed leads to corruption and when you have absolute power, you will be corrupt absolutely! In Animal Farm, the animals (the pigs in this case) portrayed the people who managed to get into power and who exploited the power to secure luxurious lives at the expense of the poor and weak. How true???!!! Hmmm.....I wonder if this is already happening or has been happening for a long time? Ponder Ponder.

What flower is this?

I had been feeling lethargic these past few days and even had a terrible headache yesterday. It must have been because I have no time to relax under my coconut trees. But I am feeling better today. I checked out my flowers folder and seeing some of the pictures helped make me feel a little better. Looking at flowers is also a good remedy for me. I hope to go back and take more of these flower pictures when I have the chance.



Can anyone tell me what flower this is? I thought it is a type of daisy but yet it does not really seem quite like it.

Countdown to Mount KK Conquest

My Mount KK trip is coming up soon, 10 more days to be exact! There is a little apprehension in the air as I am feeling physically tired from work, night class and all the physical training. We spent some hours on Sunday morning on Bukit Timah hill in the rain and ended up soaking wet by the time we reached the visitor centre. But I am sure these series of training would do all of us good when we finally trek Mount KK. According to reports and from those who have conquered the mountain before, Mount KK is more easily conquerable as compared to Mount Ophir. We only have to worry more of the altitude and the temperature. It was just confirmed that we would not have heater in our lodging while up on the mountain. So sleeping bags will be one of our must-bring items.

We might not continue with any serious trainings just before the trip. I would prefer to have some light exercises just to keep the body going and to allow our muscles to rest a little before the trip. I am sure all the 6 of us are already physically fit enough but hopefully everyone is mentally and emotionally prepared as well.

To me, each mountain conquest is like little achievements in our lives. The whole process of planning, training and actually conquering the mountain is something that is so applicable in our daily life. We set a target for ourselves to climb a certain mountain. We gather friends to join in. We train and sweat it out together. The training process can be tough and bitter. Many a times we may want to give it up and ask ourselves "Why am I going through this nonsense?" But each time when we overcome that thought it is already a small part of the final victory. We persevere and we push on. When the actual day comes to trek up the actual mountain, this is when we are put to the test. We would have trained up physically and so that should not be too much an issue. But it is when the track uphill gets taunting with our muscles aching and bones breaking, that's when our determination and perseverance are put to the ultimate test. In fact for most cases, whether we make it to the summit or not depends a lot more on our determination and not physical fitness. Fitness plays an important role but I believe determination is the main driving force that will keep us going. This is the same as in our lives.

So to my KK-chiongers, lets compose ourselves for the next 10 days and prepare ourselves mentally to conquer this highest mountain of South East Asia. Thousands of people have done it before and I am sure our names can be added to the conquest list. I believe we will have a great time. When I composed this short poem, I was imagining myself on the summit, hands high up in the air and with spirits lifted up high, thanking God for this great achievement in life.

We came, we saw, we conquered
The mountain of such grandeur
With spirits lifted up high
Oh....a great achievement in life

So I am looking forward for all of us to experience this spirit of triumph on the summit together. Afterall the poem is going to be on our chest. HA. Mount KK awaits.......

Coconut Trees (Part II)

Yeah, the weekend is here again. I started the week with a fever and have been busy the whole week "entertaining" our company guests from Japan and Korea. Now I can go look for another coconut tree to relax myself for the weekend.

I guess it is important for each of us to have at least one "coconut tree" to retreat to so that we can spend some quiet time all by ourselves. While leaning against the coconut tree, we can choose to do anything that we like to relieve ourselves of all the stress and frustration pent-up during the whole week.

My back is aching now after sitting down the whole day for the past few days engaging in numerous heavy-going technical meetings. I believe a short run will help relieve my aches and then after that I can retreat to my coconut tree. Where you might ask? Shhhhh...I am not telling you :p Go choose your own tree!

Marina Bay

HA. I was reading the newspaper about the new name of Marina Bay being .......Marina Bay. Yes, it was kind of funny when I first saw the headlines. I then realised that the national development ministry actually spent $400,000 in a branding exercise which took months of discussion with developers, retailers, restauranteurs and branding experts. In actual fact, they came up with over 400 potential names but in the end still decided that the best name is still Marina Bay. So each potential name cost about $1000? HA. This reminds me of my class last night. We were being lectured on decision making, and that decision making costs money, even if in the end you decided to do nothing. So Mah Bow Tan and gang organised a branding exercise, had many options, spent $400K and finally decided that the name should remain. What do you think?

Well, it seemed quite a logical thing for them to do. Although they went one full circle, I guess the expenditure was justified. But what if the branding exercise cost $4 million instead? Would the sentiments have been different? Ponder Ponder.

Mount Belumut Trek

During our previous Mount KK trainings, one of us suggested that we make a trip to climb one of the lower mountains in Malaysia as part of the training. We finally went for the trip last Sunday. Starting off from Marsiling MRT at about 6.15 am, we boarded our chartered van, cleared customs, which was very smooth and was soon on our way. Breakfast stop was shortly after. We settled for nasi lemak and prata (kosong, egg, banana). Some of them enjoyed the banana prata while most of us preferred the kosong (without egg). After stuffing ourselves, and packing 6 packs of fried noodle/bee hoon, we proceeded towards Kluang. Our destination was Mount Belumut, a mountain standing at about 1004 m tall. We were told that the mountain would be an easy climb, taking us about 3 hours to go up and 2 hours to come down. We found out much later that the estimate was not very correct. HA.We arrived at the foot of Belumut at about 10.10 am, registered ourselves at the HQ, and started our trek. The initial park of the track was up some gentle slopes and well marked path. Apparently there is only one track all the way up and down. The track is quite similar to Bukit Timah Hill and was very wet, presumbaly due to the rain the day before. The weather was not so good too and perhaps that was why we saw armies of ants moving fast to avoid the impending weather too.
We saw many toadstools (or mushrooms?) too in all shapes and sizes. The one that you see here looks very much like a flower. There were even many toadstools smaller than 5-cent coins, and some others as huge as a pizza that looked quite tempting. About an hour and a half into the trek, it started to rain. During such treks, there is no shelter. Some of us kept ourselves dry by donning rain coats while some braved the rain. We met many other trekkers along the way and told us that we should reach the half way point soon. We pushed on and at about 12.15 pm, decided to stop and have some food. Some of us were hungry and starting eating the fried bee hoon while some feasted on the many fruits (apple, jambu, cherries) that Lip brought along. 15 minutes was all we spent resting and we pushed on. The rest of the journey seemed to get tougher, with the track filled with many tree roots closed to each other, making walking a little difficult. We finally reached the midpoint which the locals called it "gigi" meaning teeth, as there is a rock formation there that looks like the lower part of the teeth. Some other people call it a crown. We took many pictures there as we rested.

The clock was ticking. The trek was getting a little more tiring and after almost 4 hours, we were only at the three-quarter mark! HA. Our van was supposed to pick us up at 3 pm but at 2.30 pm we were still on the way up towards the summit. Edwin then called the driver to wait for us at 6 pm instead.

We came to a large rock and whoa, how are we going to clear that? According to one of us who had been there before, they climbed up the rock! I scrutinised the rock and felt that there was no way we could do it. I then spotted a small path leading to the side of the path and decided to check it out. It was an easy way up to the rock, to the relieve of everyone. While on the rock, we turned our backs and looked out to the scenery down below. This was the first time during the trek where we were not covered by the vegetation and could get a clear view of the town below and of many other mountains in the background.

The last part of the trek was the toughest and in fact in the end we only managed to reach the fake summit (an open clearing that was at about 965 m). We stopped there for some food and drinks before proceeding down the mountain. We decided not to go to the summit because it was getting very late.

While going down hill sounds easy, it was almost as difficult as going up due to the numerous tree roots along the track. The path was also slippery due to the rain and we had to be very careful with our every step. A few of us slipped and fell a few times but no one was seriously injured. We finally made it down to the foot of the mountain at about 7.30 pm, making the whole journey a total of over 9 hours! HA. We did a quick wash up and left the place at about 8 pm. By the time we returned to Singapore, it was already 11 plus pm because there was a long queue at the 2nd Link. We had a quick dinner at a coffee shop, and all returned home very very tired.

Personally I think this trek is not as interesting as the one I did recently at Ophir. While the Belumut track is almost equally challenging and gruelling, Ophir provides different terrain and obstacles that make the track more fun. So given a choice, I won't mind trekking Ophir again as compared to Belumut. But who knows.....I might as this time I never made it to the real summit!

Busy

Have been busy for the past few days as my company is hosting some guests from Japan and Korea, and I have been assigned to take care of the overall meeting sessions for the week. I had also been down with fever but I could not go on medical leave because of the meetings. Too bad for me. But I am squeezing out some time to blog now else I will feel very "disconnected" to the world. HA.

Coconut Trees

Finally the weekend is here again. It has been a "while" since a lot of us blog about something light. Lets put aside this NKF saga behind us at least for a while and enjoy the weekend.

Looking out of the window, the scene looks a little discouraging as it is raining. I wonder if I would be able to go for my regular jog at the stadium. Hope the rain will stop soon. But hey, lets cheer up, OK?

Oh yes, did you manage to find a coconut tree to relax? If you have not, I have plenty to share here :p

HA. Why the sudden obsession with coconut trees, you might ask. Well, I think coconut trees make nice photography subjects, just like clouds and railway tracks :)

Come to think of it, there are not many coconut trees left in Singapore. Besides Pu Ubin and some other small clusters here and there on the tiny island, I think most of the coconut trees are gone for good :(
At the place where I was born (yes, I was born at home), I remember there was a very tall coconut tree just right in front of the house. I used to think that must be the tallest thing in the world. I was a kid then so what do you expect? :) One frightful day, there was a thunderstorm and I thought I saw lightning flashed across our house and struck the coconut tree. Oh no, the cococut tree caught fire and became totally "chow tar" (burnt). I think the inner core of the trunk was all burnt up. A few days later the landlord got some contractor to cut it down for fear of the trunk collapsing onto the houses. My tallest thing in the world suddenly became as tall as me. HA.