Trip Index (UnBlogged)
Japan, Wakayama - Apr 2004
Taiwan - Sep 2004
Japan, Hokkaido - Apr 2004
New Zealand - Nov 2002
Korea - Mar 2002
Japan (mainland) - May 2000
Turkey - 1997
Europe - 1996
Even at the start of the trip, we had a little hiccup. nn & I were supposed to meet qh at 7:10am at the check-in counter for JetStar but she didn't reached till 7:30am (& that's barely 10min before the counter close) since she decided to take MRT instead of a cab and had underestimated on the journey time. Mind you, we thought that all electronic items were supposed to be declared in Myanmar so we didn't bring our hp (although nn unconsciously brought her hp into Myanmar in the end) & only nn brought her camera. So while waiting frantically for qh (even more frantically since her passport is with us after we collected it from the Myanmar Embassy for Visa), we did not even have a means to contact her.
After finally checking in, we had a quick breakfast (since we refused to believe the booking ticket that JetStar does indeed serve meals on Myanmar flight) before clearing immigration & it was another mad rush to board the airplane 5min before takeoff. So after successfully taking off, we were surprised to find that food is INDEED served (so much for my $500 for a 2-3h roundtrip flight, humph). Another surprise is that we do not have to declare items worth less than $1K (even electronics) so actually, we CAN bring our hp & camera @_@. Oh well, beta to carry less valuables on us since we are traveling free-&-easy. When we cleared through Myanmar immigration, I was surprised (again) that the immigration just accepted our declaration (that there's nothing to declare) & we walked through. I was even more surprised by the arrival hall. You alight from plane, hop on to bus, reach this hall that's directly linked to outside (with people waiting beyond the glass walls) & you clear immigration in front of them. How Compact. Myanmar's 1.5h behind Singapore time.
When we got outa the airport, taxi
drivers surged forward, trying to try their hand at fleecing the newest
"gong" tourists. We referred to our copy of the handy Lonely Planet
(thereafter proclaimed as our holy bible for the trip) & started cutting
price with them (obviously I kept mute while the 2 cut price. How useful hee).
Finally we settled for a honest-looking chap who offered us 5000kyats
(around USD5) to our lodging in Yangon (note that all prices in Lonely
Planet has inflated 2 times, eg. it was supposed to be 3000kyats to reach
the city centre to our lodging but it increased to 5000 here. While we made
the taxi-driver drive us to exchange money (USD1 = 1200 kyats), buy
Yangon-Mandalay bus tickets and from hotels to hotels before settling on the
Golden Smiles Inn, the cost increased to 6000kyats). Inflation IS
happening every minute :p. Declining his offer to drive us around Yangon
(please don't accept cos if they do, they simply drive you, drop you at
entrance, dun expect a commentary or a tour guide to come with that package
which would cost you at least USD18 per day. They must think that we are
rich fools to be willing to accept), we arranged for him to pick us up at
the hotel at 3pm the following day to send us to the bus station for our
15-16h bus ride to Mandalay.
About Yangon (& probably whole of Myanmar), the electricity (which is provided by the gvt) would be cut off every so often so each household has to have a generator to provide the electricity when this happen. While the more expensive hotels could afford to keep their generator running to provide 24h air-con, this little budget hotel only provide 3 beds + intermittent air con only at night + a private shower (with water that only trickles so imagine how LONG it took us to bathe) + usual breakfast of egg, sweet bread, fruit & tea/coffee for USD5 per pax per night. Don't try arguing that 3 person squeeze into a 2 person room. They count by pax, & size of room. In a way, having 3 people mean that we usually settle for the biggest (& prob best) room in the hotel and there's usually only 1 such room in a budget hotel. Btw, don't expect the taxis in Myanmar to have air-con even in the heat of the summer. It'll use extra gasoline, though I also wonder (looking at the state of the taxis) whether the air-con even work.
After disposing our luggage (one thing about Myanmar, you can check in early in the morning, but you HAVE to check out on time. Nevertheless, you can leave your bags at the counter after checkout so that you can continue shopping after 12nn), we began our tour around Yangon by looking for food (yes, it's lunch time). For restaurants that look relatively clean & safe enough to eat at (with a reasonable lunch-time crowd), there isn't a lot in the vicinity. We settled for Okinawa Restaurant (i observed that there is usually a cleanliness standard for restaurants with Jap names in Myanmar. The next day we had take-away from Tokyo Fried Chicken, Yangon's version of KFC and that's clean plus Halal too). At Okinawa, we rudely discovered that we were fleeced again. Eateries that were featured in Lonely Plant or were commonly frequented by tourists usually have 2 sets of menu, 1 in Myanmar for locals & another in English. Needless to say, the one in English usually do not have the price stated or would have an inflated price to allow the local to fleece us. Imagine a can of coke costing USD1 when it was supposed to be 50% of that. When the waiter quoted us a price & retracted it & quoted a higher price while making eyes with other waiters, we grew suspicious. Especially when the coke cans were produced locally (not imported), there is no reason for the higher price plus we discover that it should cost around half or 2/3 of USD1 at a nearby mini-mart. Nevermind, we learn and subsequently we discover the local drink brand call MAX where all soft drinks are bottled. Its much cheaper than can drinks because they continuously recycle the glass bottles for re-filling and you ARE expected to finish your drinks at the stall so that the stall owners could collect back the bottles. Noted from mum that this was what they did in Singapore in the early 60-70s. In a way, this trip allow us to see what our parents had experienced in the early days of Singapore. We ordered a Myanmar Fried Noodle & a Malaysia Fried Noodle but can't tell which is which. Food's ok but they were still upset about being outrageously fleeced for the drinks. On hind sight, maybe we should have ordered beer since its cheaper over there ehhee.. But it'll place greater burden on your liver, which is already overworking to remove the toxins from the dirty food.
The first itinery was Sule Paya
(paya means pagoda & there are MANY pagoda in Myanmar), the only pagoda
that is located in the middle of a round-about in a city. It doesn't look
great (exterior & interior) & what pissed us off is that when tourists
enter, they'll ask you for a mandatory donation fee. We later learned that
sometimes, by bringing our footwear in our hands (btw, you have to remove
footwear @ ALL temples, no matter how dirty/bird-dropping-covered the floor
may be), we may escape having to pay for leaving our shoes at the counter.
Entering the paya was a sight cos you simply see locals sleeping on the
dust-clad floor under any available shades. I cringed at the thought that
the temple is simply a free place for them to lounge & sleep. There were
donation boxes EVERYWHERE but of cos, we did not make any. We had the first
view to Myanmar architecture and of course, its intricate design never fails
to amaze though I can't fathom their obsession with gold. They like to paint
everything in temple with either gold/white and I can't decide if the gold's
real or not.
We walked to the Bagyoke
Aung San Market, nn armed with her brolly while qh+me walked under the
sun in our caps. It was a mistake for me cos I soon felt sick. Luckily they
noted that my face was ashen & pulled me into a restaurant to cool down. I
didn't realise that my cells are experiencing heat-shock and I'll have
heat-stroke soon if I continue in the sun & dun cool down. To put it simply,
your cells are so overheated that the initial cool off in air-con/drinking
cold water can't dissipate the heat trapped in your body & it's dangerous to
go on like this. After sitting down, I realise that I'm ready to faint any
moment and I'm really grateful to my friends for their wisdom in forcing me
to rest. After this, I'm armed with a brolly whenever I walked under the
sun. The Aung Baygote Market is like Bugis Street, little stalls with
salespersons blaring into their loudspeaker.. nothing to buy and we left.
Thereafter, we took a cab to
Shwedagon Paya, reputed to be THE PLACE that all Myanmar should visit
once in their lifetime. It's the BIGGEST & Most Majestic Paya in Myanmar. At
the counter, we were forced to pay for brochure (1 per pax) and the entrance
fee of USD5 per pax and they could only provide us with 1 brochure despite
forcing us to buy 3. We questioned whether the brochure is mandatory and
they simply wave a sign in our face. Having to pay for something we didn't
need, of coz the ladies were pissed and persistently ran after the chap for
our brochures. He fended us off to remove our shoes and to look at the stupa
first. After we finished the tour, we went back to him & insisted on having
the brochures. Again, they tried to cheat us by trying to offer
complimentary copies of other brochures, which may be free anyway so we
deliberately asked for the original brochure which we were forced to pay
for. Once we reached the temple interior, again, we were constantly
approached by locals who offer to guide us and explain on the statues in the
temple for a certain fee (around USD2-3 per pax). Of course we declined,
preferring to walk around ourselves and refer to lonely planet. After not
being able to make heads/tails with the conflicting landscape/map in
guidebook + map in brochure, we gave up & simply walked around (its in a
circle surrounding the main stupa which supposedly held the hair of Buddha).
It's ultra hot & we had to keep consuming bottled water to keep ourselves
hydrated. The devotees at the Paya are engaged in the never-ending routine
of sweeping the marbled floors. At dusk, there were a procession of monks
and the devotees engaged themselves in mopping the temple together. Shwedagon
is supposedly the best place to view sunset but with the sun setting ever so
slowly, plus we were exhausted & wanted to be back at the hotel before
it gets dark, we left before the sun fully set. You can see the locals
practically living on tourism from the way we were continually fleeced. Cut
price with all taxis. Check the legitimacy of all those who asked you for
entrance fees or other misc fees.
At the hotel, the electricity finally resume & we could turn on our pathetic air-con before having dinner at the nearby Golden Duck Restaurant. We realised later that this chinese restaurant actually have a number of branches in Myanmar. When we passed by the back of the restaurant, we could actually hear ducks quacking so you can be sure that the ducks are served really fresh on your plate (yeeks). Anyway, we ordered fried rice and egg noodles to share. The portions are really big so luckily we shared. The fried rice was great but the egg noodles was SO salty that we can't finish it. A cold bottle of iced-water always make your day in Myanmar (except for when your stomach's queasy from food poisoning).
After dinner, we returned to the hotel, bathed & I concussed first at 9pm. Luckily they had the foresight to ask for a fan in the room cos come 11pm, there was a black-out again. It was REALLY hot and this woke me up since I had slept the earliest and I was the first to feel the impact from the blackout as my bed was furthest from the fan (its a small table fan). I crept over to qh's bed & try to make myself comfortable at the foot of her bed, within the fan's wind parameter. qh finally felt the heat at 3am to wake up & was horrified to see my bed empty. Strangely, I thought that she would be more horrified to find someone sleeping at her feet in an unfamiliar hotel hehehe... Niwae, the generator finally kicked in & she could on the air-con now so when the cool air comes, I went back to my bed to sleep more comfortably (instead of all curled up beneath someone's feet). Kudos to nn for not waking up throughout the nite (despite the heat) except for the moment qh crept on her bed to switch on the air-con.
Day 2
After the night's charade,
I woke up at 5:50am at the break of dawn and started washing up and packing.
This woke up the rest and we forced nn to start bathing soon. At 7am, we
went to the balcony for a breakfast of sweet bread (i really like their
sweet-tasting, crispy toasted bread), aromatic tea/coffee, egg (omelette or
scrambled though you will realise soon that you would always be
short-changed for scrambled cos omelette always look bigger so we always
choose omelette) and local banana. After checking out and leaving our
luggage at the counter, we walked to the ferry harbour to try to take a
ferry to opposite land. However, the cruise look so frightening over-crowded
with locals (there was a lingering thought that we may be pushed into the
rapids of Yangon river with all the over-crowding) so we decided not to go
on the ferry. We tried to look for a sampan but its only for locals (luckily
its only for locals cos its no joke if it overturns).
In the end, we went to the
Mahbandola Garden, which is right next to Sule Paya. It's quite
dilapidated except for the well pruned shrubs. Can't believe we have to pay
to enter this
. The
Independence Monument is also located here. Wonder why monuments always
take the form of a tall white pillar
We decided
to go to an internet cafe where 3 of us shared 1h to drop emails (found a
lot of alternative sites to access yahoo, gmail). Then we went to some of
the recommended eatery, like the teashop (where we had roti prata dripping
with oil and coffee/tea. The teashops here are either chinese or indian.
Chinese tea is free-flow) and Nehru's Ice Drinks (at the recommendation of
Lonely Plant, this eatery is supposed to be clean so we shared a yogurt with
mango which tasted really refreshing in the heat of the day from 9am-4pm).
With nothing else to look at, we went to Sky Lounge at Sakura Towers
for the air-con and paranomic view of Yangon. We ordered 2 ice-lemon-tea & 1
choco milk shake and sat at the lounge for 2.5h, planning our next itinery
at Mandalay and me making a sketch of the view from Sky Lounge. We left at
2pm to walk to Tokyo Fried Chicken for a takeaway lunch-cum-dinner.
qh & nn had the fried chicken set (comes with a fries & a coleslaw that
turned soggy after a few hours so that none of us dare to eat it) while I
ordered a chicken burger (comes with the coleslaw in the burger).
At 3pm, the taxi-driver came and we got to the Bus Station in less than an hour. nn bought a can of the local mascara (less than USD1) and we successfully check-in for the bus (even need our passport to check-in). After identifying the correct bus to board and bidding farewell to our taxi-driver, we settled done to eat our Tokyo Fried Chicken. Unable to resist temptation, I took nn's fries and was surprised to find that its fried from potato whole (like those mum would cut potato strips to fry) instead of the usual Mac or KFC type. We looked anxiously at the bus while they checked the engine. At 5pm, we boarded the bus and was horrified to find it totally overcrowded. Luckily, seats had been designated during the payment so we settle down in our seats but nevertheless, with the overcrowding (even the middle aisle was filled & every time we thought that the bus's packed enough, more people come onboard) so despite the air-con (which was weak to begin with), it was really stuffy. In addition to overcrowding, these long-distanced bus are notorious for showing videos and blaring the speaker so your headphones are rendered useless unless you wanna burst your own eardrum trying to compete with them and drown out the noise. At 7pm, the bus stopped for all passengers to take a leak, as well as for food. nn & I bought a cake each for breakfast (in case we got hungry). Then begin the journey of overcrowding and rocking 15h to Mandalay. At first we were so worried that the bus would tip over with the weight and on the highway, all the vehicles simply LOVE to horn so the bus was horning all the way and looking at the road and how the bus roared through the night, its amazing that we are alive. But the bus operate in syndicates such that there are 2-3 people supporting each other during the journey (I dunno if they change driver as well but as least they have companionship).
Day 3
After the back-breaking
journey, we arrived at Mandalay at 7:15am. Immediately surrounded by
taxi-drivers waiting yet again to fleece us, we finally settled on a young
chap (who turned out to be a middleman and wanted to be our tour guide
instead of taxi-driver) who led us to buy the 9pm Mandalay-Bagan bus tickets
for the next evening. After that, we had the first experience of sitting on
a blue-taxi (small automobile with open seats at the back) and we made them
drove us from hotel to hotel again, comparing prices and checking if there's
air-con. Finally, at the recommendation of the middleman, we settled for
Hotel Bonanza for a big room at a price of USD5 per pax per nite. We
managed to slash the price to this rate based on the argument that due to electricity cutting, there may be no
air-con that night. We bathed and began our excursion around the city.
First, we looked for food and settled for Nepali Food where we each ordered a chapatti set with masala tea and food has never tasted so good! They even provide legumes soup for us so I had a very hearty brunch. Then we journeyed to the Mandalay Palace to buy our combo tickets to visit a number of the tour sites in Mandalay.
Mandalay Palace surrounded by a wide Moat
Locals seemingly harvesting algae from the Moat
Simple but effective - using a rope
as a skimmer to collect fallen leaves
The walk to Mandalay Palace was really long, especially under the sun and the palace is surrounded by a giant moat. After crossing the moat and at the palace entrance, we bought the tickets at USD10 each and it was still a long way to the palace centre. We were told not to veer away from the main road and that photo should only be taken INSIDE the palace centre only. Under the heat, a stop by a food stall for cool bottles of MAX coke is inevitable and we have never relish soft-drinks as much as we did in Myanmar. In Myanmar, we always received weird stares for declaring that we would go on foot to our destination cos its so hot that most foreigners would just take a cab/rickshaw. But we managed to make it and the distance traveled is indeed long. Another thing is that they really love betal so you'll see them spitting all the time, anywhere, any place and red stains all over the floor. Gross. I'm glad Singapore grew outa betal. The bulk of the Mandalay Palace was actually burnt down during WWII so what you see is what's left and re-constructed. While you marveled at the intricacy of the curving again, we are unable to find some of the displays that we should and we could only guessed that a white locked building is the mausoleum of King Mindon.
Weird signboard at the entrance to
the Palace
Watch Towers at the entrance and in
the Palace
Climbing to the top of the watching tower to have a bird's eye view from the castle, the spiral staircase groaned under our weight, put together only by the ancient art of wood blocks logging between each other plus rusting steel connectors which were only haphazardly put in in recent years. Its always a wonder how we managed to survive or how the things how whenever we perceived them to be ready to fall apart, just like the buses, taxis and buildings. Maybe its because we are city dwellers. The wind at the top of the tower is strong and we sat there to take a break & cool off. This time, qh nearly got the heat-shock so I advised her to start her brolly.
<--
Schematic of Original Layout of
Palace before it was burnt down in WWII
--> View of Palace from Top of Watch Towers
Golden Splendor of Myanmar
Architecture
Algae bloom in the previous Royal
Bath/Spa
From the palace, we slowly walked
out towards Mandalay Hill. On the way, we passed by some of the
stupas and went into 1 of them (there were 6/7 but we were too tired to go
into all), the Kuthodow Paya, which is also dubbed as the "world's
biggest book" for its 729 marble slabs bearing scriptures from Tripitaka and
each housed in its own stupa. A rickshaw driver approached us and told us
that it'll be too early to go up Mandalay Hill at 4:30pm if we want to see
the sunset; we should go up at 5:30pm. That was 4pm so we stopped at a drink
store and ordered MAX soft drinks to cool down again. At 4:30pm, with
nothing better to do, we decided to start climbing. Again, you have to
remove your shoes.
As we slowly made our way up the never-ending stairs, we
were constantly duped by the book's description that we'll see a huge Buddha
statue at the top. There were MANY BIG Buddha statues so everytime we
thought we had reached, we'll see more stairs (remind me of my climbing
trip).
According to the book, closed to the top of the hill will be a a huge
standing Buddha image that looks outwards towards the palace with its hands
outstretched. Any traveller who have climbed the entire stretch would have
thought that its the Buddha telling you to go back but the image is
actually
pointing to the location of the then future capital to King Mindon Min.
After this, King Mindon moved the capital from Amarapura to Mandalay.
Anyway, we soon realised that that "close to the top" is not as closed as we
thought. There are plenty of stalls selling snacks and souvenirs on the way
up so you can just stop by and purchased some snacks anytime. Actually I
find it quite sad that they are just leveraging on the fruits of their
ancestry and not doing anything much. Most of the historical sites/temples
are not maintained well, basically they look quite dilapidated and I
seriously wonder if they would stand the next centuries. The place would not
fall apart yet but many of the decoration and wonderful cravings are
white-washed by rain, wind and sun. Nevertheless, as I looked around me at
the barren land covered with sand and scattered houses, with the polluted
grey skies and dusty air, I have no idea where to start if the land is mine.
Then I realised that governance is a really uphill task. Towards the top of
the hill, there are spits on the ground and dog droppings so be careful
where you step.
<--Some nice sights would be local
scenes & people
Nearer to the top would be a flight of ultra-steep stairs so grab on to the
railings if you do not have a sense of balance. You'll then reach a place
with inscription on the ceiling and caged statues. As you
climbed further, you'll finally reach the top and heave a sigh of great
relief. However, you'll be astonished at the number of foreigners that you
find basking in their tall chairs staring at the setting sun when you didn't
even see any/few foreigners during your climb up. We later found that they
could take a cab all the way to near the top of the hill and ride on the
lift to the top without climbing a step. CHEATERBUGS!!
Swollen feet (see the
blue-black greenish veins)??
Nevertheless, they
are unable to savour the sweet victory (which didn't taste so sweet when you
see hazy skies and the sun sinking into greys of haze/smog instead of a
colourful array of lights) of finally reaching the top and catching a
glimpse (or many glimpses since the sun took forever to set) of setting sun
as your reward. As the sky turns dark, we hurried down the stairs and tried
to hijack the cabs near the hill-top. None approached us since they are
already booked by the very guests whom they ferried uphill so we had to
hurried down the hill before it turn totally dark. Going downhill was easier
and I was glad that my knees didn't gave way. We reached the entrance and
tried to hail a blue-taxi.
While it didn't seemed advisable for 3 gals to travel at night, we wanted to visit the famous moustache brothers so we wagered against any possible calamity and took the chance. Again, people tried to fleece us and we managed to bargain a young chap to drive us to the Aya Myit Tar Myanmar Restaurant (near to the Moustache Brothers) where we had our first Myanmar and fastest meal served in Myanmar (usually, all the restaurants take 20min before they serve anything you ordered. This is the first and only restaurant that laid down free side dishes on your table even before you ordered) and decided that indian food suit our palate better. We ordered lotsa cold water and 2 plates of fish. The restaurant was served by many young boys, all who aim to please the customer. There was a plate of raw vegetable on the table and qh only nibbled on the cucumber (cos that's the only raw veg which seemed edible) and the young boy immediately placed a plate of cucumber near her when she finished the cucumber. She had to nibble 2 pieces from that new plate to oblige the young boy (cos when she didn't, the boy pushed the plate closer to her). It was pretty hilarious. And nn did the unbelievable when she looked as though she was gonna to take foto of one of the boys (and i was thinking: OMG, what would her bf say?!!) and the boy actually posed, den she signaled for the boy to help take a foto of us (which was her original intention although her behavior didn't correlate ahhaha and she claimed innocence when we laughed at her later). In any case, the boy was happy enough to have handled a camera.
After finishing our food in record
time, we managed to find a rickshaw driver who agreed to drive the 3 of us
(on his 1 rickshaw) to the Moustache Brothers Troupe (which was
supposed to start at 8:30pm but started at 9pm), and to fetch us back to the
hotel after the performance end at 10pm. He was actually a friend of the
brothers. Snippet on the Moustache Brothers, basically it consist of 2
brothers and a cousin with their wives and sister. The brothers were not
famous for their traditional a-nyeint pwe (local traditional folk opera with
dance, music etc), but rather, for daring to tell political jokes. In fact,
the eldest brother Par Par Lay and cousin Lu Zaw were imprisoned for 5 years
telling political jokes about Myanmar generals in 1996 (in fact, this was
mentioned at the start of the movie "About a Boy". The troupe was
black-listed even after their release so no one could engaged them for
performance. They could only perform at home, claiming that they are only
rehearsing since they didn't don their traditional costumes but nowadays,
their plays are limited to English and they do don traditional costumes but
their jokes are stiffer (probably due to the language limit which only Lu
Maw could speak well) and less political than we thought. The police have
also stopped visiting them. nn actually sat on the seat which Aung San Suu
Kyi had sat when she visited the troupe in 2002, drawing a crowd of
thousands to the vicinity. Each of us were expected to pay 5000kyats (around
S$5) and sadly, the show was quite boring and I tried terribly hard to feign
interest while qh stifled her yawns (guess we can't appreciate folk dancing)
and the jokes were not as sensitive or rioting as we thought it would be
(btw they are in their 50s so it's not a good idea to be jailed again).
Nonetheless, they continued to attract a crowd. There were around 13 of us
(US, France, NZ etc), They tried to sell us cds of their performance and
t-shirts but we dashed on the rickshaw. The rickshaw driver wanted to charge
us the same 1500kyats but have 2 rickshaws to send us. Since it was late at
night, we didn't want to take the risk of losing each other so we adamantly
requested to have 3 of us on the rickshaw, despite the discomfort. I sat on
the seat behind the rider (same as the bicycle seat) so it was the least
comfortable but luckily he placed 2 cushions on it to cushioned the bumpy
ride (so my butt stayed intact) and I stabilized myself by hanging my arms
around qh. It was a very exciting ride in the night (there was hardly any
light and its incredulous on how the rider could navigate in the poor
visibility and also take the 3 of us while going quite fast despite his
apparent age. And he commented that we are pretty light, compared to the
Caucasians hahhah so I guessed he had been trained well) and a nice
experience to hoot of. We returned to the hotel exhausted and pleasantly
surprised to find that the air-con is working (luckily we had paid already
so we had aircon at a discounted rate!!), bathed and slept soundly.
Day 4
We awoke the next morning
to a wonderful breakfast. The hotel has a restaurant and its actually run by
a local Chinese so we were presently surprised to hear the lady boss
speaking to us in Mandarin. They served us hot piping pots of aromatic
coffee (but you have to make your own Lipton tea), crusty sweet bread, a
reasonable portion of egg (we all chose omelettes), a glass of orange soft
drink (cheaper than juice and likely, more hygienic) and the drinks were
free-fold (and they gave us additional bread when requested). We checked out
and left our bags in a closet (which we later found to be termite-infested
but luckily, no harm done).
<-- Surreal Landscape near Teak Monastry
We didn't go to the ancient city of Amarapura
since our next destination is Bagan and it is the acclaimed archaeological
site so we went to a rural area of town (walked for a very very long time)
to the Shwe In Bin Kyaung, a large and elegant wooden monastery
dating from 1895.
<---
Shwe In Bin Kyaung It was committed by a pair of wealthy jade
merchants and
this teak monastery is one of my favorite site with its intricate engravings
(from the doors, to the walls) and the temple exude a sense of calm with the
breeze blowing, the place quiet except for the soothing soft chants of
prayers in the distance. All of us felt really at peace there and sat down
shortly to really relax (your nerves really unwind) before we commence on
our journey to search for food. We were looking for the Minn Thi Ha
Teashop and wasn't sure if we did find it in the end cos the signboard
was not in English. Taking a chance, we ordered buttered nan and nan with
beans, plus plenty of cold water. nn ordered 2 cups of tea to wake up while
I had one. qh couldn't take any hot drink in the heat so she didn't. We
survived the meal and ventured into the deep heat again.
Weird
Signboards - Do not understand the meaning of "Opposes Modernism,
Liberalism, Ecumenism, Formalism and Worldiness" but my Christian colleague
say it make sense in certain aspects.
Our next destination is the
Mahamuni Paya and the stone carvers' workshops near to it. The
Mahamuni Paya was famous for the Mahamuni Buddha image, which is covered in
gold due to the thousands of devout buddhists applying gold leaf to it. They
are pretty sexist here as only guys are allowed to go near the image and
apply the gold pieces. In addition, the paya's also famous for the 6 bronze
Khmer figures which were brought back from Rakhaing together with the buddha
image. Apparently, the figures were from Angkor Wat but they were looted by
the Thais in 1431 and subsequently looted by lotas people before finally
reaching here. According to legend, rubbing any part of the image would cure
the corresponding part of your own body but there's nothing that we need to
cure and it's kinda kinky to rub the tummy or any part of a bronze image so
we didn't (though nn was forced by a local to and to take a foto of it
hahhahah). Apart from the Buddha image and bronze images, what astounded
(and disgusted) me most was how DIRTY the paya was. It is the most
bird-dropping covered paya that I had encountered and inevitably, I stepped
on 1 (Shit!!! they told me not to think about it) yucks... Life would never
be the same again.. We left the paya and I acquired a miniature stone lion
and elephant for 2000kyats (bargained down from USD2 which was 2400 kyats).
Looking at how happy the owner was and how willingly she accepted the kyats,
it appeared that I've been fleeced again. Our conclusion from the trip is
that we should try to reduce the amount that we are fleeced (since it is
impossible NOT to be fleeced).
Anyway, we had walked a
great distance for the day so we took a rickshaw to the Nylon Ice-cream
Bar. Sorry to say, the poor guy had to ride the 3 of us again and this
guy apparently do not have the stamina of the previous older guy. We
immediately reached uphill and we had to get off so that he could push the
rickshaw up with us trailing behind him. Anyway, we managed to reach the
Nylon ice-cream bar without further mishaps and each enjoyed a scoop of
ice-cream and plenty of cold water. I wondered if they did wash the cups
which we used. Again, in such situation, its better not to think. We then
walked over to Wenner for 1h internet. We overshot the time cos it was so
slow and nn was typing a real long email to her beau. Luckily the guy didn't
charged us extra. Finally, we walked across to the famous Chapatti Stand,
which stand near the road and enjoy such a good crowd that they only need to
open from 5pm onwards. Its a family-run business so it was very funny to see
the boys in uniform with different alphabets. While the boys serve or cook
the chapatti, the girls would make the dough. There were so many customers
(many passing
by to have takeaways) that the load of dough and chapatti
looked awesome. And it was truly AWESOME!! The food's really GREAT!!!
Slurp!! It actually tasted better than the Nepali Food (which I already
thought was good) and the beef meena was truly speechless... even qh's fried
rice tasted heavenly. Many thumbs up for this stall (despite it located on
the side of a road and we were breathing in exhaust fumes while we dined).
After a fulfilling dinner, we got lost while trying to go to the shopping
mall Blazon. Went pass a watch tower for fire hazards. Blazon seemed
to be catered for foreigners since few locals walk in. We guessed it's
government-owned since there were armed guards who scrutinized us as we
entered. There were more salespersons than shoppers. Anyway, I bought the
Pearl soaps which I saw advertised all over the place. It's supposed to
contain pearl powder which would whiten your skin. Looking at how cheap it
is (40ct per piece), I seriously doubted it but I bought 2 to try anyway. We
walked back to our hotel at 7:30pm (since the driver was supposed to fetch
us at 8pm) and I managed to go to the restroom before we left. Instead of
the promised blue taxi, the boy got us a van which looked like it was used
for shipping cargoes. With no choice (and I take it as a new experience
again), we journeyed to the bus station for the most HORRIBLE ride of our
life.
At the bus station, we were (or
rather qh was) horrified to find that our bus is a cargo+human bus. I sorta
accepted life. We then realised what the posters meant by the 9pm bus was
for human and cargo. As they stacked the top of the bus higher and higher,
qh was convinced that the bus would topple but it apparently wouldn't cos we
later found out that the interior of the bus was STACKEd with ricesacks. We
didn't have any choice but to literally climb into our designated seats (cos
the aisle were stacked with rice). There was no leg-space as there were rice
sacks underneath our seats as well and we had to put our bags under the
seat. I'm glad I didn't died of DVT but my feet were swollen for the next
few days due to insufficient blood circulation with all the cramping.
Obviously, we were stuck in our seats for the entire night. Again, more and
more people climbed in and they started settling comfortably on top of the
ricesacks in the middle aisle, lying down with their feet out-stretched. We
were so envious of them, only offset is that they smell each others salty
feet, not that I smelled anything better. I kept smelling a foul odor which
I can't discern the origin (either the sack above me or the people
surrounding me) and it made me really nauseous. In the moonlight, you can
see them sleeping soundly while we cramped in our seat, heads rolling from
side-to-side, constantly shuffling throughout the night to seek the best (or
better) position to sleep, unwittingly eating and breathing loads of sand as
the bus dashed down mud paths (not roads). My face, body and bags were
crusted in sand when we reached Bagan the next morning. nn later complained
of claustrophobia from all the surrounding people and qh was so disgusted
with the overcrowding that she wished that the bus would fall apart as more
people crawled into the aisle to demonstrate the fact that the bus is
OVERLOADED. It's the first time I experienced the meaning of "packed like a
sardine" and realised that all those images in NGC were real and I just
lived through them. Though qh felt that we were packed more than pigs for
the abattoir and she was pissed that while she allowed the people lying on
top of the ricesacks in the middleaisle to use her bags as cushion, they
kept pulling it so she had to keep a tight grip on her bag the entire night.
Although she had the better single seat, she had to endure people by-passing
her to spit out of the window next to her (don't even try to think if any
spit got on her face).
Day 5
When we reached Nyaung U (Bagan)
after an agonizing 8h ride (lucky to be alive and luckily its 8h, not 15h),
we were woken up by a local demanding all visitors (foreigners) to pay for
entering the archaeological site. The ultra-AP American with a perpetual
scowl on his face (despite his comfortable front seat which allowed him to
dangle his legs) rudely refused to pay and claimed that he's visiting
friends not sites. He (and us) got away with it after all the hassles he
made. When we reached our hotel, we dutifully bought the USD10 ticket to
visit the site but subsequently realised that we could've got away without
buying since none of the sites checked our tickets and to our further
disgust, we later found the AP guy visiting the sites on a bicycle. So
being rude and obnoxious does serve in some practical situation. I wasn't in
the best of mood either (after the horrible ride and sand in my mouth). When
we reached Bagan at 6:30am, we were surrounded by a group of rickshaw and
taxi drivers waiting to fleece us. We settled for 3 rickshaws (can't squeeze
3 people into 1 rickshaw due to our bags) which eventually reduced to 2 when
1 left and bought the Bagan-Yangon bus tickets (air-con this time and NOT
with cargo. To our utmost horror, qh actually proposed talking the local
cargo bus again but luckily, nn adamantly refused) before proceeding to
New Heaven Hotel when the price is again 5USD per pax per nite but the
room was larger and better. Qh also managed to secure a horsecart for the
day (the driver was actually her rider's cousin).
As the book indicated, your dollar go further when you moved further away from Yangon and our accommodation got better and better as we moved on. It was a real luxury to be able to bathe and wash away the crust of sand. After bathing and resting, we settled for breakfast at 9am at the Myitzima Restaurant, which is just outside our hotel. They took 20min just to serve us 3-in-1 coffee (probably time taken to chop the wood, start the fire and boil the water) and another 30min to serve the food (probably time to go out, buy the flour, start the fire, and start making the crepes). I ordered mushroom crepe which tasted ok, nn was choc crepe while qh ordered chicken toast (which looked the best to me). Flies start flickering around the food (very irritating). The horsecart driver waited while we had our breakfast. He was a local, so for the day, we left our guidebook in our bag (he got pissed everytime we tried to take out the guidebook or ask him whether he would be bringing us to certain location). After a while, we realised that he already had our itinery planned so we took a step back and relaxed. It was nice sitting on the horse-cart, looking at the path shrouded with elegant trees as the horse trudged on in front and I felt myself totally revitalised after the bath and breakfast.
Bagan consists of 3 main
areas, Nyaung U (where we are staying and the cheapest
with most
hotels and restaurants cos its like a mini-tourists district), Old Bagan
(this is the archaeological site) and New Bagan (where all the
locals had been forced to live in after being uprooted from Old Bagan). In
our ride towards Old Bagan, we saw many new and old stupas and the driver
let us climbed up one of the stupa to the top to enjoy a very nice view.
There was a kid in the stupa who helpfully brought us around and helped us
took foto. In the end, we realised that he's peddling his art paintings. As
a fellow artists, I understand the pain, effort and time needed to create a
reasonable artpiece and most people obviously would thought that the sand
painting piece is only worth 5USD. He quoted 15USD and we managed to cut to
USD11. Now its standing in a frame in my living room. There are 3000 stupas
in Bagan and obviously, I can't discern 1 from the other. Our driver only
serve to bring us from location to location and not as a guide so do not
expect him to give you a tour/explanation of the sites you went to.
Eventually, he brought us to Myinkaba to buy the lacquerware that
they are so famous for. The Golden Cuckoo is a family-run workshop
spanning 4 generation and they sell the 7-layered lacquerware (which take
months to make) and the expensive 18-layered pieces (9 months to make,
obviously look much better and cost much more, they export these to
overseas). Sadly, I had to contend myself with the 7-layered wares and spent
USD30 buying 5 cups and a plate for mum. Lacquer is a type of resin and
breathing in the fumes from all the lacquer painting and heating in the
clinker is really makes it a hazardous trade. nn and qh later bought some
fakes at a much cheaper price but those were stick-ons so there is a real
value to the craftsmanship. I have to constantly remind myself that I'm
paying extra for worksmanship.
During the journey, a bus came up behind us and nn and I were suspicious of the monk and another passenger on the bus who were grinning conspiringly at us. We saw them took out a cup and I thought it was for alms when actually, then the bus went past our cart, they splashed us with cold water, which was actually very cooling and welcome in the heat of the day. In fact, nn was soaked. It's advanced party for their water fest. So that's the reason for the evil grins.
By 12nn, the driver could see that we were tired and dragging our feet in and out of the stupas so he brought us to a place for lunch. We enjoyed cool avocado shake and almost down the entire cup before the food came. Not knowing that they offer few side-dishes again, we ordered too much and could not finish. To wake up, nn ordered a cup of tea again and they offered us banana from Mount Popa which we were supposed to visit the next day but the transport to go there is really costly and we could only spend half a day there since we had to rush back for the 3pm bus so after consuming the banana, we decided it meant we have been there so Mt Popa was aborted.
We went to more stupas
and I could only remember the Mahabodhi one and a temple with the Manuha
Guphaya, a giant Big Bowl that can hold 14 rice sacks
We
also went down the river cruise. The boat was steered by 2 kids only.
Myanmar remind me of the olden us, where the adults owe possession and they
just bring you to the market price and kids are suppose to be the one doing
work and selling these possession. When we reach the opposite land to
look at the quaint little fishing village and take a cool dip (feet only) in
the water, we came across this cute pair of sister piggy-backing her
brother. The kids there are really nice to tourists. One of them even help
nn to take her shoes!! 
Throughout, we realised that
the locals love football as well and they kept commenting on qh's Manchester
United t-shirt. Finally, he brought us to the last stupa to watch the
sunset. We climbed up to the top again to see the sunset.
Wth the sun setting ever so slowly again into the fog, I convinced them to leave earlier and the cart brought us back to Nyaung U where we had our dinner at a up-range restaurant. nn ordered a pizza, qh fried rice and mushroom mashpotato for me. Lotsa cold water again. The mash potato grow kinda too much for you after some time and I dunno if its the potato or a bad sweet that I ate, after we went back to the hotel and I had bathed, I felt nauseous. I tried to fight the urge to puke but can't and just when qh closed the toilet door to bath after me, I screamed for her to get out, dashed in, and puked my entire dinner neatly into the toilet bowl. Gross.
nn was half-ready to zz and she was so stunned that it took her a while to finally zz. I'm glad I'm with a group of accommodating friends who certainly behaved more adult than me and they know how to take care of people. Anyway, I had previous cases of food poisoning before and knew not to consume activated carbon or any medication immediately cos I'll puked them immediately. I'm glad its vomiting instead of diarrhea cos it meant that the dirty food had not got to the stomach yet. nn hurriedly searched the extensive medical package that her pharmacist beau had prepared and except for an expired bottle of medicated oil (which became my lifeline for the rest of the trip), there was nothing useful. I zz for 1h, woke up to take the activated carbon and panadol (started to fever liao) and woke up 4 more times throughout the night to puke. After puking each time, I could feel my body being cleansed so that after the 5th and final time, there's absolutely no food left in my stomach and hardly any water left to puke. I tried to drink more water to compensate for the water loss from puking. Considering all the time I woke up, I slept pretty well but was still giddy, nauseous and feverish the next morning.
Day 6
Considering all the time I
woke up, I slept pretty well but was still giddy, nauseous and feverish the
next morning. I view all food with disdain and suspicion and could only eat
plain bread and hot water for breakfast. They even served watermelon which
none of us dare to take after seeing the swarm of flies hovering around us.
I later found that the water they served actually contained sand. Well, as
my colleagues put it, the physical/chemical contaminants can't kill you
immediately in their low dosage but the biological ones can so it's still
alright. :p After breakfast, I spent the entire morning trying to zz w/o the
aircon (electricity cut-off again) while the 2 of them went out for
internet. At 12nn, I finally woke up and felt strong enough to move around
and slowly (really slowly) packed my luggage. By 1pm, they returned and we
checked out and walked out for lunch. We went to this nearby restaurant
which it claimed was the best recommended by our guidebook. We had a
chappati set each and maybe its because I'm sick, the food taste really
floury and not to my liking so I could hardly finished 1/2 the set. Legume
soup somehow doesn't look so good now too. As I said earlier, I now view all
food with disdain and suspicion. I'm so worried I'll start puking again
especially during the impending 16h bus ride to Yangon so I decided to eat
less and heap on loads of medicated oil. The little gals at the restaurant
were so cute that they helped to fan away the flies throughout our entire
meal. I felt sorry to be treated like queens by such young children. After
lunch, we walked to the bus station and at 3plus pm, boarded the bus which
wasn't as cold as the first but is definitely between than the 2nd. Of
course, it's ultra packed to the aisle again and I was sitting next to this
girl who looked utterly sick (more than me) and she was traveling with a
Caucasian. In fact qh was also starting to feel kinda sick in the back so at
the next food stop, she didn't go down the bus. Amazingly, while the rest of
our appetite subsided, nn acquired a ferocious appetite. I consumed a single
milk cake to fill my stomach with something instead of cold water but she
downed 3 bread/cakes. It was amazing. We tried to sleep on the rocky bus,
amidst the blaring of the tv. In fact, they showed a chinese show starring
Chow Yat Fa in his early years as 小马哥. I
remembered the show and his black coat and the scene with the orange. He
looked so young and dashing then, how time flies. haha.
Day 7
After the 16h
back-breaking bus ride, we finally reached Yangon. I'm relieved that we are
finally back at Yangon with
no more busrides and I didn't puke again. At the
bus terminal, taxi driver tried to fleece us by requesting for 10000 kyats
to send us to our hotel when it had costed us only 6000kyats to go from a
further place to the same bus station in day 2. We walked out and finally
found a driver to send us to Winner Hotel for 7000kyats. Unlike the
previous budget hotels that we had, Winner Hotel is a midrange hotel and
thus, call for 10USD per pax per night (that's the lowest they were willing
to go). Nevertheless, you FEEL the difference between a mid-range and a
budget hotel. The air-con are 24h and WORKING and COOL. There's SCV. The
bathroom's larger and the water shower has sufficient water pressure to make
you swoon. The room's larger. And it felt as though we are 1 step closer to
home. The locals are so excited by qh's MU's t-shirt they kept trying to
connect ESPN to our room. Anyway, we bathed and walked out to an elegant
restaurant for a good lunch. It charged in USD so the pricing's similar to
swensons BUT the restaurant is actually a country-
club/villa level type of
restaurant-cum-bar. At night, the place would be filled with foreigners and
there's a garden where you can enjoy bbq and outdoor patio to sit and sip
wine. There's another patio and a bar upstairs. I ordered lime juice and a
lasagna which would have tasted better if they didn't use cheddar. After
lunch, we slowly walked under the blazing sun to Inya Lake and
encountered a scorpion on the way. At Inya Lake, a local simply stationed
herself at one of the entrance and demanded to be paid to enter. Since the
guidebook didn't mention about this, we sought an alternate entrance and
managed to find one. There was a sloppy eatery near the swampy area of the
lake and we sat down for a MAX coke to escape the heat. After that, we went
down the path which many couples enjoyed intimacy and hailed a cab back to
the hotel. Exhausted, we (or rather I) concussed. Although we had planned to
visit Kandawgyi Lake (a natural lake which was suppposed to look
fantastic near sunset while it reflect the Shwedagon Paya's golden stupas)
after our nap, qh's stomach was disagreeable, nn was tired and I didn't feel
that great myself so we decided to spend the rest of our kyats indulging
ourselves and ordering room service. Me and qh had the pork vermicilli while
nn had a plate of grilled fish and fried garlic prawns while we watched
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. While I took forever to finish my
dinner and to watch Pride and Prejudice, the 2 of them went to use
the internet. When qh returned, I was half-watching NGC on mythical lake
monsters and half-reading her trashy romance novel. In fact, i got so
engrossed reading the stupid novel I slept at 3am.
Day 8
Woke up drowsily the next
morning and had a miserable breakfast cos there's bird flu and they do not
serve egg so we had plain bread. The Myanmar tea tasted horrid that even
nn's Lipton tea tasted better. At least there's papaya. The driver came on
time and passed us a letter which we agreed to mail to his wife who's
working in Singapore. Throughout the journey to the airport, he kept
repeating we treat his wife well and he'll likewise host us in Myanmar the
next time we go (not that i'll ever go again). Anyway, we cleared customs
and spent the rest of our kyats at a souvenir shop. I was still reading the
trashy novel and trying to finish it while nn kept trying to divert my
attention. After much waiting in the stuffy, airless gate, we finally were
allowed to go out and board the bus to the airplane. Wonder why they can't
open the door to let the air in. Anyway, I was relieved to find the aircon
in JetStar BLASTING and more relieved to have our lunch (I think mine was
fried rice and it tasted alright). I even managed to have white wine (tasted
quite bad, had to wash it with 3 cups of water). After furiously scrimping
through the novel which seemed that it should have ended long ago but is
never-ending and with nn constantly disturbing me, i decided to skip a few
pages and finished with a gusto just before the plane touched the gate. I
nearly wanted to kiss the floor when I touched down at Changi Airport. Home
has never seemed so great...
For the next couple of weeks, from looking at food with suspicion to embracing expensive food ravenously (eg. Jap food, western, chinese) my appetite slowly returned and so did my weight :( @ least after 2 weeks, my dark circles and eye bags disappeared. My colleague mentioned that I looked worse than the rest of them who were still slogging here while I combed through the sand/dust filled cities of Myanmar. Well, it was an experience and my stories kept many entertained, even my guests from US. Haha.. I went to learn what I have and others don't and what others have but I lack.
Embarked on my first business trip on a dreary sun morning. Barely having slept 4h the night before (was rushing work till the last minute), I was ready to concussed on the plane. From SG to US, we transited at Japan after around 7h of flight & continued the rest of the journey to US. I think I slept barely 3h on the entire 16h flight.. I hated the long journey on the plane, it was unbearable, its like having no place to escape to!!! Now you know what imprisonment means...
Finally we reached US and went directly to our 1st destination. With the afternoon off, we managed to run a little errand and shop around the little town surrounding the varsity. Managed to try Cold Stone (they mixed ice-cream with toppings such as strawberries, cheesecakes, peanuts) on a cold plate. It was pretty nice & somehow, you KNOW that ice-cream always taste better in the bitter cold ("p). At first I didn't felt dat cold but after the cold crept in with the ice-cream, my nose turned red & I HAD to take cover inside the library. Found Paulo Coelho's books in the lib but can't borrow (Drats) but I managed to buy 3 2nd-hand books/articles which were on sale den on the lib so was pretty happy. The journey back to our accommodation was long & tiring cos the effect of the long over-haul + lack of sleep + time difference + weight of items (lucky for me, the guys helped me with my grocery so they were pretty gentlemen, not to mention one of them was kinda cute heheh, nice change) + long walk upslope were beginning to bore an effect on me. When I reached the hostel, I simply had to grab a revitalising 20min nap before I woke up groggily for dinner hosted by our host. It helps that there was a chatty colleague on the trip so he kept me pretty much entertained throughout the trip (^-^)
I wished
that our campus in Singapore is like this: 
But without the cool weather, it
doesn't matter how it looks.
I think they burned off the ends
of these trees so that they never grow leaves.
About Food...
I hated the food there. It's
either Mexican or Italian etc. Anything which they add olive oil/vinegar as
dressing is a no-no for me. I found myself craving for Ba Chup mee etc.. No
appetite for the food there (thankfully) else I would have gained weight.
The coffee's great though! One thing about UA flights, they dun serve meals
on domestic flights, their meals all taste scarily similar, but they do
serve a great cuppa coffee (Starbucks actually).
& the restaurant loves to
end the meals with wine. I would've tried more liquor on the plane & at the
meals if only my stomach had not given way due to the large amount of coffee
I consumed to stay awake (plus they taste great! Without the acrid taste!
Maybe should've bought some home...) & there were coffee makers at EVERY
hotel that we went (think about the last time we went korea & can't even get
a coffee maker? Btw, Hong Thai had not reverted to us at all so I'm pretty
pissed with them) plus they provide coffee sachets!!! At the lobby, there
were even more coffee ready to welcome the guests! Cool huh??!!!
I'm still sore about all the white & red wine I've missed. Stupid stomach.
Day 2 was time for work.
Presentations & meetings & discussions & visits before we were hauled off to
the airport for our next destination. I had plenty of soup meals there cos I
simply have no appetite for their meals. Their huge portion & strong taste
is enough to put me off. Had dinner @ the airport & did some shopping. In
the end, the flight was delayed for 2h & we ended up spending 2h loboing at
a cafe at the airport. By the time we reached the hotel at our next
destination, it was 2+am. By the time I zz, it was 3++am. Luckily they
cancelled the breakfast meeting else it'll be worse. With barely 4h of
sleep, we struggled through the day with the lot of presentation, trying not
to fell asleep at the table. At night, we had our meal at a bar/restaurant.
I would have enjoyed the meal more if I were sitting downstairs at the bartop and enjoying side-dishes instead of the meals served (yucks, salad
with vinegar again EEkss). The guys complained that I obviously didn't go NS
so dat's y I kept complaining about the food. Luckily I didn't, i'll have
ruined my tastebuds (not that they are that great to begin with). By the
time we got back to the hotel, it was around 10pm and I was sored to find
out that all the shops had closed :( Nevertheless, I didn't wanna let
the night/stay go to waste so I jio one of my colleague out while the
other struggle with the presentation slides for the next day.
There were
barely any clouds so you could see the stars at night, which was pretty
nice.
Day 3 - more discussion
+ meeting before we got hauled off to the airport again for our next
destination. The flight wasn't delayed but we reached there at 11+pm. The
fireplace at the hotel lobby in Denver. I loved Denver. Cos I have never
seen such a thick layer of white snow (without all the dirt, not wet snow
but dry snow that's a few inches deep!!)
Feeling hungry, 4 of us snucked off into the icy land for a mid-night supper. It was pretty cool to
walk in a snow-clad land, & pretty funny to walk on roads laden with ice. 3
of us fell down (& we were, in our evil little minds, hoping for the 4th to
fell but he never did) while trying to get to the restaurant from our hotel.
That was the turning point of the trip & I really enjoyed that long arduous
road to food. Supper tasted even better cos of the difficult journey there.
We were served hot choco with whipped cream (free flow) and big breakfast
meals. Mine came in 2 sets, 1 with toast and 1 with 2 sunny-side ups,
sausage, bacon and potato rosti. I managed to finish the set with eggs etc
(which was a feat & the most I ate throughout the entire journey) and
nibbled on the toast. It was a very nice supper cos we talked about mundane
stuff. When we finally left at 1am and make our long way back to the hotel
(trying again, not to fall on the ice), I went around the backyard snapping
more fotos while the rest adjourned to their rooms for the night.
Next morn,
we begin our final lap of the trip & finished off the trip with gusto.
Took more photos opposite Rocky Mountains:
Finally, rushed to airport again for the next flight back to
SFO (met
with some difficulties there, my luggage nearly got shipped to SG without me
on the plane, some confusion over the flight details) & it was pretty
maddening. In any case, we managed to resolve everything & I managed to get
back my luggage at my next flight stop. 
We had a pig-out at my room that
night & watched Discovery (its on clean energy car). There's even an air car
which is very interesting, but pressurized air, hmmm, an accident would be
fatal. I found myself to be a real skeptic at times heheh..
Final day -
What I love more than anything about the place is the blue clear skies. You
can hardly see such here, Plus Snowscape is one of my favorite among natural
scenics.
Hop on the wagon for home (with some last minute shopping at the airport) and spent an agonizing 13h on the plane. I watched 3 movies (The Prestige (dark, bewildering, gross), Night at the Museum (idiotic but entertaining), Marie Antoinette (the costumes are fantastic. Kirsten Dunst gorgeous. That's it)), slept around 2h & somehow, managed to live through the flight.
Stopping over at HK was no fun cos there's nothing to
buy but we managed to catch a glimpse of sunset. Finally bound on the last journey to home on a 3h flight from HK to SG.
My bed never feels beta/warmer. (^-^) But I enjoyed the trip cos of nice
colleagues & bosses. I know it's business but it doesn't hurt to enjoy
yourself while working, rite? "p
* Home * Sweet * Home *
Gifts for the Family
Day 1
Last minute mad rush @ work to finish off lingering stuff & not pose too
much problem on my colleagues... finished @ 7pm & dad gave me a lift home.
Last minute packing (but still missed out on the medicine, luckily Jas
packed hers), bathing, some snoozing & anime before leaving for the
airport. Reached airport @ 11pm, checked in, had a curry puff @ polar
puff, surfed net & waited for the flight. Korean Airlines not spacious nor
grand, but clean enough, no individual flight entertainment (ok for us cos we were
burning midnite oil for the past nites. I slept 5hr plus for the past few days while
Jas
slept only 3h e previous nite rushing a paper).
Day 2
After a neckbreaking nap, woke up to breakfast of hokkien noodles (airline
made a mistake, dun
recall when we had subscribe to special meal)...
Reached Incheon airport and went to Namsagol Traditional Garden at
Namsan Mountain (South Mountain) located at South of Seoul (so-called its
name), 5 traditional houses were designated as Seoul Folk Materials and
furniture were moved in to display the lifestyle of these people.
Village of Traditional Houses in Namsan Valley (belong to relatives
of a queen from the royal family).
Lunch was pork bbq & we waited for inland flight to
Jeju. Succumb to temptation and
bought prawn crackers & tea to while away the waiting time. This is
actually plain tea (not milk tea) and it's clear coloured (and not
strong). They have such nice containers that lure you to spend... errr...
so evilllll..... :p
Konked out again on flight & 1h later, viola, we reached Jeju.
After a dinner of seafood steamboat (little we can eat, except veg, mussels, beancurd, fishcake...), passed by a roadside stall selling red-bean filled fish-shape snack & fried dough ball (nice but oily, 5 for 1000 won or S$1.60) before we adjourned to hotel to rest. Wat an uneventful day.
Day 3
Had an early breakfast and strolled to the
Dragon Head Rock, a lava
formation of a supposed Dragon Head jutting out from the sea but it didn't
look like a Dragon Head & it was drizzling (look at the dark clouds on
the left) so.. err...
It was more interesting to take photo of these octopus in the tanks.
Rain stopped when we reached Moksukwon Park, a place with strange and oddly natural rocks. Looks like an art museum of sort with sculptures made from drift wood but wasn't in the mood to enjoy such artisism. Wonder wat happened to me ha.
They even tried to depict stories but art is so subjectable so I'm
sceptical. Again, the toilet (with bamboo doors) was more interesting than
the main display (they called it the 解忧所). Proceeded to the
Song-up Folk Village, where the indigneous
people lived. They tried to sell us honey but too poor to buy. The house
and previous ways of living were preserved (eg. a black pig was reared
in the latrine to catch snakes, ropes were tied around trees to collect
rainwater, rattan cradle for babies (the baby could do the big biz on the
cradle. They'll leave the cradle in the sun for a while to let the shit
dry so that it's easier to shake it outa the cradle). There were few men
in Jeju so boys were prized den and womenfolk had to do most of the hard
work, eg. carrying the heavy pot to collect water in the mountain, just as
Changjin had done in Jewel in the Palace).
The climb up Songan Sunrise Peaks (an extinct volcanic crater on the eastern tip of Jeju) wasn't dat bad but I figured I was straining my muscles and (i) my knees will probably give way again when going down and (ii) we won't have enough time to shop later (if my knees gave way again) so we gave up climbing to the peak of the mountain and true enuff, my knees were wobbling when we journeyed down. Lousy legs.
Cheonjeyeon, the pond of the heaven's emporor, was coined as Tamna Sipgyeong (10 most scenic site in Jeju). There is a 3 tier waterfall in this evergreen forest. Cheonjeyeon Waterfall wasn't very spectacular but I like the overhead bridge with maiden cravings. The curve of the bridge is great cos when we near the centre, you seem to be going to heaven (too bad I din manage to capture that shot). Legend has it that the 7 nymphs who served the emperor in Heaven (see craving on the bridge) will descend to bathe in the first tier of the Cheonjeyeon Waterfall every nite.
Finally stopped at Teddy Bear Museum and snapped fotos of the numerous bears on display (in different fashions)! Bears emulating Marilyn Manroe, Charles & Diana's wedding etc... It's amazing & funny! hahah... As requested by Pei, I took lotsa photos (yes, lots, quantity but little quality so I'll populate the photos on friendster after I get jas's fotos, hers should be beta).
The Mysterious Road where the bus can move upslope with engine off wasn't that mysterious cos the road's only visually up-slope (though visually, it look more like even ground to me). If you measure by the sea-level, it's down-slope so it's moving with gravity. There are other places where the gradient is visually greater so I wasn't amazed by this road. Lunch was black pork bbq and we finished off the day with a horrible chinese dinner.
Day 4
Went
to Everland and die-die finished all 5 rides (safari, hanging eagle,
rollar coaster, viking, ferris wheel). But the rides really killed me cos
I have bad back and my neck was hurting after all the hurtling in the
rollar coaster. Though we like the excitement, the pressure on the neck
and back was too great so the last ride was devoted to the tamed ferris
wheel. I've never been on one before and it was another kind of torture -
so slow it dun seem like it's moving and you'll be screaming to get out.
Hahaha.. & sadly, the cabin was so barred up it looked like a cage and the
window panes were made of plastic and so scratched that you can hardly see
outside, much less take photos (which is a real pity). The only thing it
did was provide a bird eye's view of the theme park so that we can
navigate our way back to the top.
I'm happy the theme's still on Halloween cos I really love Halloween, with the bright orange and purple (makes you happy) and pumpkins so I snapped lotsa fotos (much to Jas's disgust) on the pumpkins. And the people are all cheery and see Happy Halloween song (though dunno wat they singing). It's always nice to be a kid. Food's really ex, at 10000won (around S$16). Bought a cute, soft neckrest for mum. Dinner's sotong bbq (horrible again) but the YongPyong Resort was really great! It's the filming site for Winter Sonata. Isn't it amazing that even if there initially wasn't that much places of interest to visit, they created such places with their hit korean serials? Niwae, YongPyong Resort is really a nice romantic place to go, if the weather's less cold, you should go for long walks with your beaus down the numerous lanes. Haha.. no wonder the show's a hit
Day 5
Surprise Surprise! We came here for
Autumn but experience
Winter. Snow
started falling while we were having breakfast (at the
place when the two
had their meals). Again, romantic place, one of the few places worth
visiting if you wanna consider for honeymoon. After breakfast, went to Mt Sorak Parks and it was raining. Real cold. Saw the great
Bronze Buddha
Statue but it's too cold with the rain so we didn't go up the cable car
(I wouldn't go if it's not raining niwae. Additional charges). Went Sokcho
Abai Village, the place where 秋天的童话
was filmed. It's a fishing village and we went there just to look at the convenience stall where the lead
actress acted in (see left). How much more stupid can the trip get? Should have taken
a 2nd glance at the itinery before I signed up.. sigh.. Lunch was Mushroom Steamboat
(which was pretty nice) and we journeyed to Hanwah
Waterpia, a hotspring cum watergames resort. It's kinda nice, there's the
indoor and outdoor sections, some watergames and a portion that's like the
japanese hotspring. After soaking for so long, feel very tired and ready
to have a good nite sleep. Dinner's pork bbq with bim bibap. Nice day. Great nite. Resort's great with cooking
stove etc. But too full to cook instant noodles. Watched CSI Miami,
finished the crackers and zzzz....
Day 6
Hopped on a Boat Ride to Nami Island.
Reason why we went all the way here was to look at 2 rows of tree when the
leads of Winter Sonata stroll.
Nami Island
Trees
This is the romantic walkway we
took the boat here for.
The weird things they have on the island are more interesting than the 2 rows of tree (see the rabbit in captive on the left hahaa).
Went back to mainland to
Myeongdong in Chuncheon, where the leads of Winter Sonata met during Christmas. Dunno wat's
all the fascination with this drama serial errr..
Was fascinated by the stationery shops. They have so many different cute
and interesting type of schedulers!!! Lunch was good cos it's the famous
chicken bbq (though I wish Jas hadn't noticed that they
simply scrapped off the charred parts from the hotplate after our meal and
directly (without washing) laid fresh ingredients on the hotplate for the
next customer. I shuddered to think of how many peoples' saliva I have
consumed in that single meal errrr...
)
Went to the Kimchi Museum
and tried our hand at making Kimchi (see my product ehehehhehe) plus dress
up in Korean traditional costume. It's Fun (^-^). Dinner was Ginseng
Chicken, which was a let-down cos it was so diluted. They shouldn't have
used such a big container for the tiny chicken. I poured 3 small glasses
of ginseng wine and still it taste bland. Errr...
Move on to Lotte World and
we only had token for 3 rides. Lotte World is also the filmside for
Stairways to heaven. Though Lotte World has an indoor and
outdoor component (outdoor is more exciting. Seems like they have added
new rides since my last visit), it was nite-time and we din want any
exciting rides so we settled for the boring water ride, a jeep ride called
The Pharoh's Fury (hardly exciting but the maze and display at the long
queueing area is more interesting than the ride) and a balloon ride around
the entire indoor area. There was a parade and a laser display, not
interesting except that there was fireworks at the end of the laser
display. Everland is better than LotteWorld though Everland is in the
outskirts, in the mountains while LotteWorld is in the urban area. I
recall I used to have unlimited rides for both LotteWorld and Everland and
the food were better in my previous trip. Felt kinda ripped off. Maybe
it's due to the stronger korean currency.
Slept overnite at Seoul Lifestyle Hotel which was amazing. The
rooms have pcs, internet access, large plasma tv. We had a nice room and
finished off 500ml of milk and some crackers. However, we were pissed to
realize that the couples enjoyed jacuzzi when we don't. It's just a start
to discovering that there ARE double-standards for our rooms and couples'
rooms.
Day 7
Visited the Blue House (so
called blue because of the blue tiled roof) where the
President host his guests and Ginseng shop (of coz, too poor to buy
anything. The min prize was a few 100s USD).
A sabu sabu lunch was arranged at
our own expense and it wasn't fantastic again. Had a field day shopping
for facial and skin care products at Dongdaemum. Some shops to
recommend will be The Face Shop and Messiah (with outlets in
Singapore and affordable prices). Korea has so many masks you dunno how to
choose and it's exhilarating to see the salesgal piling free gifts into
the bag of your purchase (depending on how much you buy anyway). I bought
the hydrating sleep mask (very interesting, it forms water droplets as you
rub it onto your skin) from The Face Shop. Wonder wat's the price at
Singapore. The Etude House is another place to visit (though not
available in Singapore, heard it's a hit in Taiwan). But the items are
more expensive here. Clothes and food are expensive in Korea though you
will be able to get ice-cream at less than a S$1. Spent the nite at
Sheraton Walker Hill Casino Hotel, the film site for Hotelier.
It's supposedly a very reputable hotel and we managed to get into the
casino without our passports being checked (chey. wat a let-down). We were
happy with our room again until the couple commented that they have coffee
maker in their room and we dun. Again, double-standard. :(
Day 8
Visited Amethyst
Specialty Shop where the salesperson had the audacity to say the purple
crystal stimulates red blood cell formation. Erhmmm... needless to say,
didn't buy anything. Went on to Namdaemum and Myongdong for
last minute shopping. I was down to my last few bucks and too broke for more shopping
so I was quite sianz. But my eyes light up when the tour guide introduce
Myongdong's specialty, a 13cm (or was it 18cm?) tall ice-cream cone for
only S1.60!!! Wow!! I had a green tea and it was so thick and milky,
not watery, and so tall!!!.. Had a
great time demolishing the cone while
Jas look for more skin care products. Luckily we did our shopping at
Dongdemum first cos I think there are more items to buy there. Lunch (at our expense again) was sulphur duck, which tasted and smell HORRIBLE
(see right,
all the piles of veg, a few pieces of duck with lotsa bone & fats, little
meat, cooked till bones disintegrated and grey. YUCKS). My 12500 won (i kept
repeating that cos I was devastated at not being able to buy the roadside
bites while walking at Myongdong earlier. Last shopping for korean
foodstuff at a local convenient store before we bound for the airport to
HOME SWEET HOME. Sadly, I din manage to identify the seaweed which mum
wanted (actually I saw it but I tot it wasn't the
one. IDIOT). In the end,
bought a chili choc (yes, weird combi but I like weird stuff). Only thing
is I din realise it cost S$13 for 8 pieces (see
left). So ripped off. And it
DOES taste weird, with chili powder and choc. Errrr... Flight back to Singapore
was good cos they kept feeding us. First it was roasted peanuts and milk
(their milk's really good), den dinner of chicken and white wine (wine's
good too!!) finished
off with strawberry cheesecake ice-cream. While I finish my novel and Jas
watch the Pirates of Carribean 2, they served us snacks again (prawn
crackers or pizza bar to choose from). Guess the food's to keep us
entertain cos we dun have individual in-flight entertainment. Somehow I
managed to break the headphone into 2 (first time it ever occur :P
dun ask me how) and it
was a soundless flight. Reached Singapore and bought ice-wine + umeshu @
airport. I'm glad 2 b home (^-^)
Friday went to buy tidbits for desaru
trip. Plenty of crackers. Stupid 1+1 does not allow pay-as-u-roam for sub (ie.
ME) so everyone has hp reception in M'sia except me. BAKA! NN refused
to stay overnite @ my house (cos she's also living nearby) so qh got pissed
off that we 2 are the only one (since ivy backed out on the entire trip). In
the end only qh stayed overnite @ my house. We were supposed to have supper
that nite but stupid NN din even tell her mum that she's going desaru &
other stupid excuse of sleepy blahbalh so we din supper. Ended up qh
disgusted @ me GLUED to tv for 1 whole hr (anime on ArtsCentral mah,
couldn't do anything else) den we watched variety show & she fell asleep.
Concludes Day 0.
Day 1 (sat) - went TMFT in the morn. Din managed to get refund for extra
ticket cos booked thru' agency (DAMN!!) even though we only occupied 3
seats. 50min to sebana cove (ferry reeks of spilled oil. kinda nauseating
but luckily there's kids to entertain us hahah). Reached Sebana Cove, passed
thru customs, got resort van to drive us to Desaru Golden Beach Resort. Bcos villa NA we left our bags with the counter & went for late lunch at the
local cafe. Kinda ex but with hotel stay, u get 20% discounts so its not so
bad. Spent less than RM70 in 3D2N. Room's ok. Watched
Bride & Prejudice
(boring). Walked on the beach n let the waves splashed against our feet
(so fun!! Waves kinda bigger than here). Sat on the beach & watch sky turns
dark. The resort offers sat Poolside BBQ (for everyone @ RM52 each) &
private BBQ (only available on weekdays) @ RM60 so we can't have the pte BBQ
& the poolside BBQ din look good so we went back to room for cup noodles
(wise decision cos the BBQ's all cold!!! *tried by sis who kenna conned*) &
watched
Princess Diary 2. Wonderful show! Shd've been beta if it
wasn't for the black & white quality of the incompatibility b/w player & tv.
Lack of colours really spoils the show. Brings out all the amusement. U
think it dun matter? Think again. Went back to cafe @ 9:30pm for ice-cream
(very melted. Should've eaten the ice-kacang instead), listen to music by
the pool, played cards, teh terik (& calamari cooked in haste so the crust
is so flaky & loose n not nice as we ordered in last min when they were
closing).
The most most WONDERFUL thing of this trip is the
night sky.
***S*T*A*R*S****.
**Millions** n ***Millions of*** Stars***.
Just look up n u'll see them easily. It's not like in Pasir Ris or east
coast whereby u strain ur eyes to only find the brighter stars. Look outside
ur window now & prob most of those sparkling night jewels are satellites.
These
**s*t*a*r*s**
are real. Numerous. They simply peppered the sky. U dun have to strain to
see them. Big, small, bright, fading, flickering. It's the best view.
Sitting on the buggey & staring at the
sky is so so romantic!! ahhaha.
Only thing we missed going to lay down on the beach & stare at the
night sky.
Wasted. Shit. Cos tot can do so the nxt nite but nxt day rained so the sky
was cloudy cun see a single star (damN)
Rented & played mahjong the entire day 2 & 3. Snacked so much we din have
any appetite for decent meals. Had a pizza & chicken wings (taste really
good!!). Oh yah, the breakfast wasn't that great (as usual). Mahjong,
watched chU ghost story at 11pm. At 12mn, bathed, den hungry (I ran around
on the spot to churn up an appetite & to keep myself awake) so qh & me ate
cup noodles & tuna with bread while nn slept.
Extreme bad luck. Lose so much that I really condemned myself. I wasn't
losing @ the cards initially but after the streak of continuous bad luck @
mahjong, the aura just followed me into card games. was humiliated
repeatedly. Darn! Watched
My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Old show but kinda nice.
Day 3 - breakfast. Mahjong.
Finding Neverland
(quite boring. especially in
black n white. they were sleeping while I was reading
HerWorld & listening
at the same time. only times it perked me was the Peter Pan's Play). Checked
out. Went Bandar Penawar for the seafood but was terribly disappointed that
few shops were opened n there was really virtually nothing (small town, no
shopping, except food lah & it's not really seafood, more of malay food).
Ate & more cards (losing streak continues). Back to Sebana Cove. Onto the
ferry bound for home. Returned vcd & had the supper we missed on fri. Ate
too much prata I feel sick. 3D of snacks & no
veggies feel kinda
constipated. Teh Terik tasted horrid. Concludes the Desaru Trip & May Day
long weekend. Start work tmw. Ganbatte. Very sleepy now.. not writing
properly.. maybe edit tmw.. nitezzzZzzzzzz.....
Currently recuperating from my mountain climbing trip. Mt Belumut to be exact. It's in Kluang, Johor. & Supposedly the smallest mountain there already & I WAS and AM dying haha.. Pathetic stamina.
Arrived at Tanjong Pagar Train Station at 9:30pm on 26 Mar 05. Boarded the 10pm train bound for Kluang. It was a 2hr trip. We had a brief intro among the 7 of us. It's really a haphazard mixture of pple thrown together. Well, I don't even noe any of them other den my colleague!! But they are reasonably amiable pple who I later discovered to be wonderfully tolerant, understanding and nice.
So this group of 4 guys 3 gals reached Kluang at 12:30am approx, sat down at the stall for teh, kopi & burgers & booked 2 cabs bound for Mt Belumut (RM50/cab). This is a Real experience for me bcoz I noe NUTs abt mountain climbing. We stopped over at the police station to register ourselves. At approx 3am (1/2h later than our schedule) we reached the foot of the mountain. They had actually commented on tales on internet about tigers up there.. shit!! spooked me a little but I prayed silently that we shouldn't be that unlucky & that catching a prey requires monstrous amt of energy so if the tiger gauge that the amount of energy provided by the prey is insufficient to balance that amt of energy used for catching it, they wun go ahead. How they noe this?? Dunno .. But I hope its a natural instinct of the tigers.. hahah..
Still believing that we will actually make it in 5h up & down, we told the cabbies to return the nxt morn at 11am. e Rangers actually told us to be down there by 7am. Niwae, the nite trip was arranged so that we can watch the sunrise on the summit. Armed with a torch each & a lightstick on our bags for identification, we proceed upwards. However, navigating in the dark proved much harder than we bargained for, even with 4 experienced climbers. We actually went on dangerous slopes with no footings except a hose & the slope was like, going down all the way. Nobody made any comments so I kept mum even though I was terrified. With no prior experience, I have no idea if the routes were supposed to be like this. Luckily, after some venturing, they decided to go back to the main route instead of following the water hose. The point about being in the dark is that, in the daytime, the route is so much clearer you won't go the wrong path, but at nite, u can't tell. There were 2 detours but luckily, there were ribbons on the trees to trace the route & the stronger guys went ahead & scouted the areas b4 we went on.
With the weaker stamina & mind, I wanted to give up at 1/4 of the mt or smtg?? or was it 1/3? I've no idea. It was then they decided to take a break & I was upset to be a liability. Was worried that I won't have energy to get down since I have a phobia of height (slight) & weak knees & ankles (get sprains often) & I was exhausted by then. I asked if it was ok they leave me in the dark there. Well.. obviously not. So we took a rest, sipped some water & they told me to go at my own pace (which was incredulously slow). Having no confidence in my balance & wobbly short legs, I couldn't stand upright & climb the steep tall steps like climbing stairs (while all the rest can). I baby-crawled with my back hunched & my hands combing the steps in front of me. So pathetic & slow was I that they decided to help me carry my bag & lent me a head torch (I was carrying one in my hand). After that, it was MUCH beta. I actually began climbing much faster. Climbing a mountain is so different from walking (obviously u'll think). It's like climbing steps up, up up & ur thighs really really ache & if your knee muscles aren't developed, u'll find it difficult to lift up your legs, esp if you need to lift them up a lot for short legs like me (& tall steps like those). Towards the morn 6am or so, the air was much cooler & it became easier to climb. Plus, my wonderful friend found a walking rod of a tree branch for me so it was MUCH easier to climb with additional balance support & using my arms to support my body weight. As the daylight broke, we agreed that it's impossible to reach the summit at this pace (we can't even see the summit!!) & the psychological encouragement was constantly asking: when will we reach; Reply: 5min!! Well... the 5min actually extended to hrs.. hahha..
Den the person helping to carry my bag had a case of leg cramps (I already got back my bag by den) due to over-perspiration & thus, excessive loss of electrolytes. I was very sorry for that. Soon, we came to this stretch of verticals. I have more confidence in my arms with all the swimming and laundries.. Practically rock-climbed up. Plenty of cuts on my hands & was commented as Spiderwoman cos I looked for grips b4 searching for footholds. One of the stupidest thing I did was insisting that a yellow-black striped worm like thing is a viper snake when it's only ard 1" long. They told me its a worm & to move on cos I was blocking the way. haha After clarification with mum that even baby snakes aren't not so short, well.. my mistake :p
Well.. arduous journey went on & mind u, I did regret it in my mind why I had agreed to come. Bcos it was so torturous & I was being a liability with my slow pace. But as you get nearer to the top, with the cool air blowing, you have come so far & you DO NOT want to give up! In fact, overcoming the hurdles with my rockclimbing & their occasional notes of encouragement was so refreshing that like a kid looking forward to rewards/acknowledgement, I forced myself to move on. After sometimes, the leg muscles simply just moved. This group of pple are really Lovely! We reached a flatground at 10:30am & voted. I voted for eating there instead of at the summit cos the summit may still be hrs away.. Though I was outvoted, we set up the cooking there. Eating with mud/moss ridden hands was a First. Water was so precious I couldn't waste it on washing my hands. It's a taboo to grab branches on climbing I think, cos there may be anything on it that may bit u & e flora may be poisonous etc so I was really lucky with all the grabbing that nothing happened (no intoxication watsoever). After a breakfast of eggs, sausages, bread, mushrooms, oranges, cookies, water, we started deciding on the nxt step. To conserve energy for the descent & unsure of the distance to the summit which looked remotely far, I asked them to go ahead themselves & leave their bags in my care. Estimating that tigers wouldn't be so stupid to climb all the way up & we didn't encounter any snakes during the climb. It turned out that they went to & back in 45min. Duh Duh. But there was hardly any view there cos it was so foggy. Plus, with my lousy legs, I bet if I had went, the trip will be much longer. N the 45min let me rested for a while so I was grateful for it. I wasn't regretful cos I climbed not for the summit, but to check out myself & of coz, conclusion is I'm as weak as an old woman. Thoroughly pathetic. Niwae, someone fell into a ditch & cut his leg. Poor chap.
Den we made the descent down. One person sprained his ankle & R's knee worsened. I was HORRIFIED. esp at the Vertical parts. Cos I kept having the fear of slipping & felling all the way down & bcoz, by then, My knees have totally gave way & became wobbly & unstable (e muscles simply refuse to support my weight anymore) & the ankles & feet are not helping either. With the cramped toes in front & my toenails digging into my feet, it was painful with every step. I made it through the verticals & down a stretch b4 they realised that there was smtg wrong with the way I'm going down. My knees were making clicking noises as I bend & unbend them. I can't go down the mountain like going down stairs (unlike others). Though I still wanna try & go on, they advised that it's not good to go beyond physical limits, I could have some lasting damage in my knees with all the stress/strain I'm putting on them. Mind u, we were 1/4 down the mountain. there was still 3km to go on & I've become a cripple! They devised several mtds of descent: piggybacking on the more stable grounds, hooking my arms around 2 pple so it's kinda like a 5legged race, den rod in right hand & friend support on left. I was really really humiliated for being such an asshole & regretting for coming because I brought such a load of troubles on them!! They could have made a faster ascend & descend without me, the liability!! So I was even more adamant to try & manage on my own wherever possible. It was a heartwarming trip u noe, cos they din even blame me! & they stayed & helped me!! There wasn't any black faces or looks of accusation!! Pple stayed behind to help, the fitter faster ones went ahead to get to the waterfall to retrieve water. It was a spontaneous coordinated team effort even though we are all almost strangers that have known each other for barely 2 days!! Real touching. U see the human spirit here. I felt like weeping man.. ahah..
Niwae, finally managed to reach ground at 6:15pm on 27 Mar 05. The trip took approx 8hrs up & 6.5h down. The guys had reached 1hr plus earlier so they've had their bath & food & were looking reasonably clean. I was thinking I must have looked pretty hedious/worn cos the locals were staring me went I trudged towards the toilet. Or maybe it was the duck-like way I walked. Or the mud-soaked pants cos I was using my butt to slide down the mountain on some parts. It actually rained a bit during the descend & that horrifies me cos I do not want others to be trapped there bcoz of me but my legs refuse to heed the brain signals/commands to move! Niwae, reaching ground was a great relief!! Cabbie came & we got to Kluang but couldn't get on the train so we had dinner first & sought for cabbies to get to JB. I was sitting there like a spoiltbrat, not movin cos the others were already on the run. I'm really useless, aren't I? Not much to talk about the rest, except that it cost RM100/cab to get to the causeway & I reached home by 12:30am, concluding this incredible trip.
It was a frightening trip. Esp when I feared that I couldn't get down. But really inspirational: You see the trees, you love them for their roots & branches that support you. You see these pple, you love them for their kindness, It wasn't the best of choices, but it is, a good choice. An enlightening & fulfilling trip. Plus hey, though I din get to the summit, I had conquered a mountain & fought against my disability. It was a feat. =D And the pain post-trip: makes you understand the difficulties of being a cripple. The anger of not being able to move, of feeling tired all over & not having enuff strength. The useless feeling. Yeah.. This is a Very Good Trip. :)
Looking for an avenue of Relaxation? A Place where you can just go OUT of Singapore over the weekend to be in touch with nature without wasting your minute number of leaves?? Look No further, kota-rainforest Resort may be your answer to a close call with nature. With the family size chalets (2 storeys) NO TV (this is what I call an Urban Getaway) Birds all over the place (there's a goose & duck cohabiting Ooo) a Nice view of the mountains Bored at night with nothing to do? Engage yourself in the firefly cruise down the river! See nature's own Christmas shrubs!! (RM20 per pax)
The Next day's activity calls for snoozing at the local cafe with a simple
fare of nasi lemak & authentic coffee. After breakfast, sit down for a sip
with a cupo'kopi & reminisce with peers at the scenic views.. The more
adventurous can sign up for a 13km mountain climb/trek up those mountains
(think RM50per pax). Too bad we din bring trekking shoes + no time so din
join. Niwae, will wait for another mountain trip (kota kinabalu.. if it ever
comes hehhehe)
Advance
to the local Waterfall located 3km away from the resort! Beware: Entrance
fees at RM2.50 per pax & RM4 per car.
Give those tired muscles a great massage under the gushing forces of
nature's waterfall!! Though, beware of the slippery rocks! At your Own
Risk!! After a morning of activity, it's time to bade farewell & head for
home, with lingering memories of sweetness & fear (of the large lizard
incubating with us in our room). Trip's enough to start me planning for
another retreat to nature!! HAHA.. in the meantime, need to find a job
before I have the right to go for a recluse. HumpHumppp///