29.1.08
Bike to Bite
Time to advertise Rovers upcoming night cycling event! Its call Bike to Bite aka B2B. Its going to take place on the 23rd of Feb at ECP. Estimate flag off will be 2100H and we will aim to be back at around 0600H the next day. (Don't need to end at some unholy hours without bus to go home.)
Basically its not like Cyclohunt ( refer to my previous posts ) which is more of a race sort of night cycling. B2B is a friendly for all event ( less those that don't know how to cycle =X ) where we will cycle leisurely around Singapore (mainly North East and East ) to find 24hours food centers that sell wonderful local food! Yummy!
How many time have you went night cycling and mid-way feel your stomach growling? At B2B you will eat and eat and eat so what are you waiting for? Sign up for it this Thursday and Friday!
Click for larger viewSJ blogged at 22:33 1 comments
A Mousey Year Ahead
Chinese New Year is just round the corner! Can almost smell the bak kua already. ( *sigh* my family haven't bought this year supplies of bak kua yet. Craving for them. ) Anyway my house is totally dressed up for the new year with plenty of mousey decorations.
Ok lets try something interesting. Guess the number of mousey decoration I have in my house. Answers will be revealed below but just for the fun of it, key your guess into the tag board ( No scrolling down and peep)! See who will be the first to guess correct!
Here goes all the mice!
No. 1 and 2, "enter and leave the house peacefully"
No. 3 and 4 (kind of Indian looking esp. the female)
No. 5 to 9 "Congratulations and may wealth and fortune befall"
No. 10 and 11, the largest of them lot
Last but not least, no. 12 and 13, the 2 cute chaps on the door.
So did you get your guess correct? If you do so you will be bless with good fortune for the whole up coming year! ( haha sound like some chain mail threat)
So much is happening lately. *Happy*
SJ blogged at 00:40 1 comments
17.1.08
Gunung Datuk 3
Bad habit. Procrastinate and back dating on entries.. tsk tsk.. but nevertheless Gunung Datuk 3 entry!
Third time up Gunung Datuk within a month. Wasn't exactly that enthusiastic as all my previous trek. On top of that its my 4th trek within a month and fatigue is beginning to creep in. But surprise surprise! Had a rather good trek up! Although its the 3rd time up but its a new experience never the less! New sights and sounds and new cooking menu and new happenings.
Participants and comm for Gunung Datuk
The perfect jump shot with the aid of multishot
Mech. Engine haha
HumidityMech. Engine hahaThe most humid ascend of all my 3 Gunung Datuk ascend. Must be the hot weather throughout the day earlier. As a result although the route is dry and leeches free it was a tiring ascend of huffs and puffs. Oh maybe its becasue I bought too much food up ? =)
Midway up the summitThunderstorm
1st thunderstorm for me for the 4 treks I went. A unique experience to ride through a thunderstorm up on the summit of a mountain. Although Datuk 1 was raining but there wasn't lightning and thunder as compare to this time round. Got a bit uncomfortable at the thought of "lighting strike tall things" and how much taller can you get than being at the summit? =X Cooking in the rain and having to do "rescue" for leaking tents in the midst of striking lightning is a one of a kind experience I must say.
Preparing a meal in the midst of a raging thunderstormNicer food
Haha compare to Datuk 2, I was more prepared with food this time round. Brough a lot of happy food up and I'm glad to say my cooking skills have up another level! See pictures for more
Sausage Warp of "thosai skin", egg, cheese, and sausage
Chocolate Fondue with dark choc and strawberries
XR's burger of muffin, lettuce, egg, cheese, luncheon meatCritters
Ohh ohh! Saw a porcupine trying to steal our garbage. Didn't know the summit got them. Quite rat-ty look alike. Although later on GS mention that it got the balding-old-man-head look with all the visible scalp. And as before the pro-cat is there too! She must love us to bits after this trek. Got a lot of excess food for breakfast and hence she got to feast together with us on luncheon meat and 1x full can of satay chicken courtesy of Seng haha.
The garbage stealer
A happy and full cat
Stag BeetleClear Weather
Got to catch the egg-yolk! Datuk 2 was cloudy in the morning and summit was full of locals so we didn't manage to go up and camp for the sunrise to arrive. This time round we have the whole campsite to ourself and by 6 am all of us were up on the summit armed with cameras haha. Took plenty of photos of the clear blue sky and I must say this is the best collection of photos for all my 4 treks so far =)
Waiting for the sunrise on the cold summitShall let my pictures do the rest of the talking. To all Rovers trekker out there, till the next trek again! In the spirit of friendship and adventure!
ROVERS
P.S. Relatively short trek entry due to time constrain and anyway its Datuk3! Dun think many of you want to read more about it for the time being =X
NUS Rovers : Gunung Datuk December 2007SJ blogged at 23:29 0 comments
Pre Datuk 3 Post
School started 4 days but already missing the trekking frenzy =) 4 months more before I can go trek again (sad music plays in the background) but hopefully in between can squeeze in some unofficial trips here and there. As expected nothing much happen in school as yet less boring lectures. So shall back date ! haha very bad habit but must make it a point to blog all my treks anad keep them as archive.
P.S. for those that missed out previous entries on treks can go to the left column links. Cant publish too many on the main page as it lags the whole da*n web page
SJ blogged at 23:16 0 comments
8.1.08
Trek feedbacks
Decided to start a new post. Don't want to litter my Berke entry with this unhappy episode that I'm going to post.
Got varying feedbacks from the participants from the 2 Berkelah trip that we organized this semester break. Whilst most participants gave positive feedback regarding the trek, some express concern regarding the safety and difficulty of the trek. ( I share the same sentiments with them because due to the rain, the difficulty of Berkelah this time round has unexpectedly increase a few levels but then again, while the trek is now more challenging I must emphasizes that in no way safety was compromised.)
At this point though I must express my unhappiness and disappointment with some participants. I happen to chance upon the blog of this particular participant and I was totally disgusted by how HE condemn the trek.
I quote: " one word to describe the trek: treacherous..... waiting for an accident to happen"
He future went on to rant about how he feel there is a need for guide up the trek and comment that why are comm members leading the trek base on memory and why there are so many stoppages along the trek. He even doubt the capability of the comm members to lead the trek. FYI, he is not first time trekker and had went to Ophir previously with Rovers. *Fuming*
If you are reading this. Wake up your idea! You want something safe? Stay home and watch TV or go shopping with your girlfriend in town. All treks carries a certain level of risk and its about taking calculated risk, helping each other over come the challenges and conquering your fears and pushing yourself that makes trekking so fulfilling. A guide is totally uncalled for at Berkelah as it is a simple and define route which follows the path of the river. Yes, we lead by memory and sometimes we take wrong turns here and there but I feel thats its understandable. Weather and forces of nature sometimes makes it hard to recognize certain terrain and furthermore we are students just like you and are not full time trek guides that makes a living out of leading treks. Yes, some parts of the trek are indeed treacherous but did we ever ask our participants to try out the route without first putting ourselves at risk? We at all times ensured that all routes taken are walk-able and even extend a helping hand to participants knowing that if they fall we might fall with them. And the numerous stoppages? Trekking is a group activities and we only go as fast as our slowest participant. This is the basic spirit behind trekking: teamwork and mutual encouragement. If you don't share our empathy for that, I think you don't even deserve to be call a trekker.
Condemn me for this post. Condemn me for my seemingly disregard for safety and blah blah. I can't be bothered. You won't get it. It an Outdoor thing. Ha! =)
SJ blogged at 16:43 0 comments
Berkelah 2
Back from my Rovers com trip to KL! Eh not too bad a trip actually but maybe I have been running around too much this holidays and hence fatigue is finally setting in. Anyway lead my Rovers Berkelah Trip up 2 weeks ago and here is the entry: (A bit lagging behind though)
Went for 4 trek + 1 recce this holidays. Suppose to have another recce to Berkelah but the flood was so bad that the 2 main expressway leading to Kuantan was closed. Luckily for us, one of them was reopened just the day before the actual trek was suppose to take place. A bit of a nail biting episode as we kept calling the terminal to get the green light for the bus.
Nevertheless, it was a successful trip with a lot of fun participants ( can't be help that more then 3/4 was from this year Rovers FOC Juntos haha ) a capable fellow trip IC haha (p.s. you know who you are). Although this is the 2nd time up Berkelah (first time was with geri and friends during August) , I must say its like a totally new trek for me because of the drastic increase in water level due to heavy rainfall.
One portion of the road that fall victim to the rain. Used to be able to take the taxi right up to the base of the trek. Now have to walk about 45mins before reaching the starting point (Pic courtesy of carrotcak)
Homely fried egg with luncheon meat
French Toast
Sausage and pepper
Mee goreng with luncheon meat
Omelet
Choc fondueMet the participants early with the intention to go over to JB for dinner but sort of mis timed the timing. End up had a lot of rubber time hanging around and slacking away. Point noted: Not a good idea to meet for dinner if the bus is 2359. Anyway had dinner at Kenny Rogers. Not spectacular but still not bad and its 1/2 price! haha but then again was a bit stunned when they charged us RM 50sen for a glass of ice water. Point noted no. 2 : Ice water in Malaysia are not free.
Kenny RogersTook the Transnational coach from Larkin and I must say that its looks new and comfortable ~ ( I take back my like for the bus later on). Quite an event night on the bus as I was sitting right behind the driver and manage to catch all the action. Over taking at 130km/h without signalling and tail gating at the same neck breaking speed. The bus ride ended in quite a drama fashion with our "new" bus breaking down about 20 mins from Kuantan. Imagine trapped in the middle of the dark expressway ( there is no such thing call road lights ) and raining cats and dogs outside. To makes things worst, I want to pee! cause throughout the whole night the bus didn't stop for any toilet breaks. At one point was really contemplating whether to go into the bushes to do it. =X
Trap in the middle of the road in total darkness
Trap in the middle of the road in total darknessMet Abu aka the mafia boss of the taxis in after fianlly reaching Kuantan (waited for 1/2 hour for a backup bus. Luckily we are only 20mins away from the main ternimal) and almost couldn't recognise him. Think from the last time I saw him till now he must have gain at least another 10 inches round the waist. Must be earning good money $$. Anyway he later brought us to a coffee shop that serve roti chanai aka roti prata in Singapore terms. Notice a unique way of them taking orders. Say we order say 2 plain 1 egg, and instead of putting them all in the same plate, they are separated into 3 plates and served. Didn't make sense to me till the end when I realise that they billed according to the number of plates on the table. (Sounds similar to Sakae Sushi =P )
I ate all these by myself =) seems a lot right? but its only 2 plain and 1 eggDifferences between by my first and second Berkelah experince.
Same spiderman-ly trek up to the main waterfall. But this time round a bit more scary for the faint hearted cause the what use to be a fast stream beside the route we took become a raging rapid. I hate to imagine anyone dropping into it =X The route is more challenging too cause due to the rain and stuff there hasn't been trekkers up there for sometime and hence there was alot of overgrown that cut us like free.
Doing a whoosh before the start of trekOn top of that, what use to be a simple rock hopping, 2 minutes , wade across stream to our campsite became a challenging river crossing operation that took use about 15 mins to get everyone across. From calf level, the water has now increase to waist level and it didn't help when we totally can't see the bed of the river. In the end the guys formed a human chain to support the ladies across. Totally never expect this out of a 2 star armature Berkelah trek. BUT saying that, I must emphasize that it is still dam* fun haha. Come on~ its in the spirit of friendship and adventure ya?
Some pictures to help in appreciating the sheer size of the river/stream or rapid whatever you call them
River crossing on the first day
River crossing on the first day
River crossing on the second day when the water level has subsided significantly
The view however was much more magnificent this time round. When I was there in August, the first waterfall was hardly in existence due to low water level. But because of the raging water, we couldn't venture to the pool right smack beneath the main waterfall without risking being sweep away by the strong current. We found an alternative site to view the main waterfall and I must say its a better site to photograph the entire fall with its raging beauty. There's also a fast flowing stream there and we manage to try out a revised version of jacuzzi in the icy cold water. Haha not very comfortable though with the bone biting cold water and jagged stone to sit on. But super refreshing and almost got my pants swept away under the strong current =P
Stream beside our campsite back in August
Same spot where the previous photo was taken this time round
The first waterfall
Group shot
Nature's Jacuzzi
Berkelah's main waterfallI got to know my camera better and was able to take a few more better shots compared to previous treks.
A few of the marco shots I took. Beginning to take a bit of interest into photography after all the treks haha =)
两只蝴蝶
Take 2 glowing splint, rub them together and switch on the camera's night mode
Root beer float!
Berkelah is always a fun trek to go due to the the endless water supply and bath/water playing points along the way. Sadly the current campsite which we uses are too littered and is showing signs of soil erosion. Luckily I already have another alternative campsite in mind and I'm not revealing it as yet =P
NUS Rovers: Berkelah Waterfall December 2007
SJ blogged at 14:59 0 comments
