Bali, Agung

The Plan:

Day 1: alight at Denpasar, transfer to Candidasa, slp....
Day 2: transfer to Daduh, start trek to the peak of Gunung Agung
Day 3: End trek in afternoon, proceeds to Sanur (to snore)
Day 4-6: ferry transfer to Nusa Lembongan and nuah....

Candidasa:
the huts we rested in!! juz by the ocean... din slp well coz of the wave slapping the coast... destructive waves...

crazy diwei went try his luck on surfing... din get to stand up even once... i wonder if he passed his module in SanDiego

breakfast below our huts!!

G.Agung, day1
stopping by to pray to the holy mountain b4 setting off is a muz for all the trails on G.Agung... it started raining even b4 we began our trek.... not a gd sign...

everyone still in high spirits huh!!

"ah poke!!"

"Ha Ha hA ha HA ha ha......"

ok enuff fooling ard.... let's carry on....

can u imagine that we only had dinner at 11pm...??? and it's icy cold rice!! but it's the best ice cold rice i ever had!! and yes... 3pm to 9pm... Day 1 of trek, 6 hours...

G.Agung, day2

we got up("out" actually coz i din slp a wink!!) at 2am to prepare to set of at 3am! fell aslp a few times during break on the trek... damn tired!!

the reason for getting up at freaking 2am!

of course haf to take a pretty picture lah!

push on push on!!

"wa ha ha ha ha...."

"lai come come... wa ha ha ha ha ha~...~~"

breakfast at 10am... our motivation to finish the climb... hence we din haf it till we arrived...

aiyer the 2 newbies nv follow the cue to post!! argh... spoilt the photo!

ok let's go down bah... wahkaoz it's damn steep can...and it'll be like tat all the way to the bottom... pray hard for our knees and toes...

"wo~~"

"Wo~~~ wo yay yay~~... i love u more than i can say~~"

everyone was realli very tired already... catching on rest and light nap along the way... still a loooong way down.... we're not even at our campsite yet...

Sanur

ok str8 to Sanur... wad u missed out in the photos were juz gallons and gallons of rain, thunder and lightning, we were soaked to the skin... and hours and hours of walking without food, water rationing and sleep-deprived minds.... glad to be out though...with everyone alright... blisters and sore thighs and painful toenails.... but we're alright!!

oh i wanted to add that the guide mentioned that the river valleys in the mountain are usually dry when it's not raining, i gathered that it shld be because of the porous volcanic material that doesn't retain much moisture like soil do... so the water juz runs off... juz sub-hour after it started to pour, we noticed continuous thundering noise on our right side... then we realised that it's actually water running off in the natural channels down the slopes of the mountain!! gallons and gallons of water!! i was like imagining if we were washed away by the rushing water... i dun think we'll survive all the crashing into the rocks... there's a part of the channel where the water is supposed to steer round.... they juz went right up and over land... washing the trees on that land area.... it's all these thoughts that made me understand why they call this a holy mountain... u cant help but to awe at such phenomenon...

at one point xun asked me "u think we offended the mountain?"

ok now to plan for the proper holiday... we're only left with 3 days.... haha.... sianz...

exploring the streets (with our sore legs... it's funny how we tried to jump to find that we hardly gain any lift) while the rest were catching up on their much needed rest! we had tahu-tek, jugung, macdonald's, icecream, steak pie... ahaha.... indulgence!

the stay at Sanur was a short one... we checked in in the morning.. rested and washed up.. had our lunch... then went explore the streets a little... then rested again... then Dunkin' Donuts... then dinner was at a pasar malam... they've got some nice food.... mie goreng, ayam goreng, nasi goreng (all the goreng's), sayur campur, watermelon juice, teh botol, freshtea, cola..... ooh... food's a bit oily... but it's like that when u wanna have streetfares in countries like that... which i like... =)

oh and it's good to know a bit of the local languages!!

"Cik', itu telur, masuk...then cepat cepat take out!!"

and voala! we got runny egg!! haha.....

sorry no photos... they're with xun and chelsea...

after dinner i could hardly stand and walk str8 already.... seriously lacking of slp.... after a shower i knocked out the moment i touched the bed... reminded me of that mattress advert....

Nusa Lembongan
we took the morning ferry to Lembongan after a quik breakfast near the jetty... had noodle soup and coffee... din take out my camera coz i was in quite a foul mood that morning leh... perhaps from the rush and still lack of slp... xun took quite a bit of photos though! of kittens and "si-kuit" (squid) and food stall.... will post once i get them from him!

checked into a nice laid-back accm managed by a family... friendly and good service...

"one of the best places to stay at Nusa Lembongan" - the Lonely Planet

nice resort-style accm.. completed with beach chairs and all... the beach is right at the doorstep!

sunset by the beach...

dinner was done at Ware-Ware (pronouced "wa-rey")... quite a posh restaurant considering that we were "backpacking"... but the price is reasonable though... singapore foodcourt pricing... we were seated in a nice cosy shelter facing the sea with everyone sitting on the floor having some kid's drinks after that and juz chatting the night away... till they're closing.... it was a nice walk back to our accm....

Kuta

last stop! kuta beach.... it was decided last min to stop by kuta since we've got the whole afternoon of empty slot... so we took the morning ferry at 1030am!! (it's the only ferry anyway)

the ferry was damn overloaded lor... there were worries that it's not safe to take such a loaded boat... we've got passengers on the top deck even! which were not meant for passengers... and to complete the picture, i saw a dog, heard a rooster crowing along the way... it was quite a rough ride.. i witnessed quite a lot of pukings (one was a pregnant lady, sitting right next to us... we tried not to look... the girls were getting affected by the sight and sound...) it's funny how come the locals seemed to be more vulnerable to puking....

after we picked up some laundry from Watering Hole @ Sanur, off we go to kuta! (sorry no pics!)

looked very tired huh... haha.... flying back home le...tmr working!! urgh!!!

juz for the record,
day 1: trek started at 3pm, ended at 9pm (projected 6pm)
day 2: trek started 3am, reached peak at 9am (projected 6am)
reached campsite at 6pm (projected 12pm)
exited trail at 6am (projected 4pm)

did u realise how freaking behind time were we?????
we skipped lunch and dinner coz not provided for... and continuous walking for almost 30 hrs! and making it all the worse... we din slp for 2 nights.... so all in all it was quite a terrible trek experience... nevertheless, i learnt quite a bit of lessons there...

the extended trek forced us to push back all our plans... instead of staying 2 nights over at Lembongan, we left after only 1 night there... but ok la, considering that the island doesn't haf a lot to offer if we din dive... so... *shrugz*

CNY getaway

we were away for a couple of day during the CNY weekend for a mini getaway to Batam

here's the photos!

myself, my ma, my bro...




















yan, her sis, their dad..

on our way to the resort on the ferry transfer (her sis yawning behind!! it was quite a long ferry ride i muz admit...)

on the bus to shopping area... guess tthis is the main reason why my mum is here... we overloaded the bus so due to "security reasons" they brought an extra chair up onto the bus for us!! i think they meant "safety reasons" la... but a chair on bus safe meh...? i sat on floor in the end...

sunset taken from our room..

oops!! forgot to take picture again! we took on a CNY promotion whic includes this CNY menu buffet.. quite a spread...

drink on the house! (mocktail)

kay-kiang wave chicken feet in the air la! kena sabo to sing on stage le!! ahaha!!! oh and i won a voucher for free pizza... i went up to sing too!! haha....

while waiting for the bus that fetched us for Go-Kart! ma took lotsa photos while i was arranging for the transport to go-kart...

the father and the little daughter...

posing for the camera... whhhheeeet~!

now everyone!

behold!! the blue ranger!

listening attentively to the warnings and indemnities... " u dye not my bisness ah!! and don spoy my glass ah!"

the brothers

the lovers!

japanese lunch

one final picture!

baking!!

been over at a friend's place baking goodies over Sunday!

waiting to enter the oven...












bakin'....















ta-da~

ok.... no proof that i made those....



















oh the mum also fried some honeycombs... nice!!

random thoughts..

there're times when i dun mind taking the longer way home.... esp after a day at work, be it tiring or not... sometimes it's juz feels right to be detached from the "routines"... to do some spontaneous... who knows, maybe i'll see some interesting things? mayb i'll meet a friend? mayb i'll see some nice sceneries? of course it's nice to go home str from work... but it sort of became routine...and boring...

was out cycling after work on fri.. managed to get home right b4 7pm... so i sneaked out for a short one... instead of taking the usual route, which is longer and i'll go faster.... i took the park connector near my place which connects to sembawang beach... at the end of the connector is where the sea sports centre used to be... it was there where i took my kayak (novice), board sailing, PPCDL courses.. now they've closed down then converted that place to a chinese restaurant.. it was near evening then, so the sun was setting, it wasn't too hot but there's enough light to see juz the scenery across the beach and blue sky and sparse clouds.... nice view and great to haf the wind on ya face... tried to take a few nice pics of the evening sky... but none of them turned out!! damn phone..... anyone wanna buy me a new phone for vdae? K610i?

was riding home with earphones plugged deep in... then for a moment... i felt like listening to the wind as i ride slowly thru... it felt nice... quite nice.... for a while...then i realised my batteries are running out... i plugged them back in... home for my dinner!!

i lost a fren...

LTT says: eh i was quite fond of him one leh
LTT says: until one day he turned up in front of me in a whilte long sleeved shirt and black pants
LTT says: and white crocs
LTT says: and black socks, can see from the holes in the crocs
LTT says: i wanna faint
LTT says: if mark wears that to meet me, i will leave him lor
LTT says: freaking fugly can
juzride says: not even black color?
juzride: says: those without holes one?
LTT says: WHITE CROCS. WITH HOLES. THE NORMAL STANDARD UGLY CROCS.
LTT says: ANY CROCS = UGLY
juzride: says: haha!! heng i wear fake crocs in the office
LTT says: EEEE
LTT says: y u wanna do such a thing!
LTT says: i dunwanna be ur fren anymore!


and i lost a friend..... =(

week ins, week outs

seems to be noting how times goes by by the weeks these days... the weekdays will juz flow by...and when the weekend finally comes, it passed along juz as fast! i tot it was juz xmas....! but the 1st mth of 2007 is gone!! u get wad i mean??

so.... why r we looking fwd to the weekends huh... i mean u waited 5 days for it... but it juz went by in a glimpse! (it always feel like juz 1 day instead of 2.... i feel cheated....)

Everything over the weekend, But the brain

was back at work this morning and the 1st thing i said to my cubicle mate was "the weekend passed by real fast hor?" usually ppl will reply "yar lor.." but she said "then does that mean u were very bz in the weekend?"

actually ok la... not very bz... but it's not exactly very empty... had an appt with Fairy's Inc. to look at some ideas for our wedding bands... roughly we haf some ideas wad to play ard with with the designs le... but i cant make up my mind if we shld juz stick to simple plain ones... which can be quite "meaningless"... anyway still in progress la... Rose gold... Rhodium plating... engrave/emboss...

as mentioned in earlier post, we had a ceremony over Sunday for my grandma's 1st yr death anniversary... my house was packed!! the kids (us) were all hiding in my room.. 2 cousins, my bro, yb and myself... lotsa food coz my mum over-prepared... we burned a "villa" for my grandma and ancestors... quite shiok hor? villa leh! the best thing is she no need to clean it de... it comes with servants and housekeepers! even trishaw! and we burnt a car with chaffuer to her a yr ago too!

anyway sunday night we were the esplanade watching this local production called "Everything but the brain". It's quite funny at the thought that im doing neuroscience work and the show i watched "didn't wanna talk anything abt the brain" at all... anyway weird title huh...

Physics, Relativity, Train, Malacca, Time, Aging, Father-Daughter, Daughter-Father... u find out the link.

my ah ma

my ahma's death anniversary is juz round the corner going by the lunar calendar.. memories of her is not at all vague.. not yet... i've spent far too much of my lifetime with her ard to forget her so fast... i dare say she was ard for more than 80% of my childhood days... when i was 1st borned... till when i come into secondary sch... been thinking of her more these few days... dunno whether it's becoz her annivesary is coming? or juz that it's coming so i feel that i think abt her more?

anyways... i was imagining how she'd passed on that day a yr ago... i wasn't there actually... only my dad and the maid then were there by her side... my bro was at the foodcourt having lunch... actualli after that bro kinda feel very bad that he's at lunch... was even slightly blaming himself for buying extra big serving... but i told him later that in a way i was glad that we were not ard then... coz i think it'll haf been very diff for us to let her go when she's leaving.. dun think she'll be able to pass on peacefully if we were there holding on... luckily my dad was ard... he was at least composed enough to not hold on.. even speaking softly by her ears sending her off gently and reminding her to go look for my ah gong..

when i was informed of the news i left work str away to the hospital.. was tearing quietly in the cab on the way.. remember it was a rainy day that day... (i left my umbrella in the hospital that day i rem..) when i got there she was gone... i mean she's there physically... but spiritually she's gone... the body is still slightly warm thou...

i feel bad actually... that when she was ard.. she was staying at my place... but she was in bed most of the time coz she got stroke abt 9 yrs back... most of the time i was either in the army.. or sch hostel.. or juz not at home... even when im at home i dun talk to her much.. im not good with chatting... but on and off i'll still go into her room and hang ard for a while.. telling her im home... asking if she's eaten... not so much to chat... being optimistic, i told myself that god/buddha/some more-superior-being up there is being kind to me.. to allow me to take care and be by her side for the last few days when she's still alive...

she was hospitalised for pneumonia... some complications of stroke patients... we were told that she might not be able to make it thru that night.. i remembered her holding on very tightly to our hands.. i was quite surprised with the strength of her grip... i stayed over with my cousin and my bro.. she made it thru... in fact she was showing some progress... thou very weak, she told us that she's hungry! so we were quite eager to get her to be fed... some difficulties met with regards to hospital communications... but that was solved by yb.. so it was gd.. and we managed to get her to haf some milk.. thru a tube passing thru her nose.. she cant feel herself being fed coz it's not thru her mouth... so she was actually tearing/crying... perhaps feeling sad for herself... but we did wad we can... she got more better the 3rd day in hospital... was requesting us to let her sit up on her bed coz she wants to look ard... we gladly did... it looks like she was doing fine... but she left the next day... the only day which we weren't ard on Monday...

these few days we've been at home folding bags and bags of josspapers in preparation for her death anniversary... apparently it's quite a big affair huh... mayb some time this weekend i shld go down to where her remains are kept to pay her a visit....