Sports (Part 1)

(Update: I’m sorry to inform you all that my post for Sabah Trip Day 6 and Day 7 had to be postponed because I am still trying to get the pictures from my friends… just in case you did not notice, I was too busy climbing the mountain to take pictures at that time! Will try to finish the Sabah Trip posts ASAP as it has really stretched too long. As such, I will post one of my 99 pre-prepared post used for emergencies to sate your hunger :P)

First, one must realize that sports and exercise are two different things. I have no bad feelings towards exercising, but I absolutely loathe sports. Needless to say, I am one of those few rare people on Earth who does not touch sports at all. Well, I did take part in sports while I was in primary school, but from my teens onwards, I have not joined in any sports event.

I shall divulge the reasons for my abhorrence towards sports in two posts. One, it’s from personal experience and second, it’s through point by point analysis. I’ll start with my personal experience first.

Just like any other boys in primary school, sports define who we are. Guys play sports like football, basketball and badminton while girls play skipping ropes, throwing stones and box hopping. My first sport was football. It was a good activity. You got 24 guys playing in a mud-filled field with all their attention focused on the sphere shaped thingy. For those who know me, they’ll know that I am a non-confrontational type. Thus, I preferred to be a defender (I was too skinny to be a goalkeeper, they said)… which I liked… let the others run after the black and white rolling thing.

I would have made a good goalkeeper. I think it is one of my hidden special abilities… no matter where I stood, the football would definitely seek me out… and always embraced me by the head. I was not exaggerating when I called myself the ball magnet. No one could have been hit on the head as many times as I do… I might even make it to the Guiness World Record! I was already wearing spectacles that time and after breaking two glasses in three games, I quit football.

Well, I might have better luck with the ball if it is not shot in my direction. So, I turned to basketball. I have a cousin who was quite good in basketball and I asked him to teach me about the rules and stuff. Before that, I tried playing basketball by myself. I did not try any of those impractical moves that those youngsters did in those days. Instead, I focused on putting the ball through the hoop… and I was amazing! 8 out of 10 throws? I would say that it’s more than a beginner’s luck. So, primed with confidence, I took my first practical lesson with my cousin… and I almost lost my two legs… okay, that was exaggerating. However, I sort of stepped on the basketball while happily slamming it to the ground. I slipped and fell and I was bleeding from my knees. Luckily my kneecaps were undamaged or I’ll be riding a wheelchair for the rest of my life!

Okay, so balls are a no-no. So, I took up badminton. I mean, you can’t be hurt by the shuttlecock, can you? So, I told my parents about that and they were very supportive. They bought me a racquet and even ask my uncle (who is a contractor) to draw the lines for a badminton court in my mother’s shop. There is a part of my mother’s shop which has no roof and it was an in-house garden. Thus, they destroyed the garden, cemented the floor and voila, an in-house open air badminton court! At that time, we were in the Rashid Sidek era, and at that time, badminton received more attention than football in Malaysia. Friends and relatives came over to my mother’s shop to play badminton with me. I even invented several smashing methods that were powerful and graceful at the same time!

I could have even joined BAM if the situation continued. However, the badminton era passed by and my friends began to be more inclined to football again. The only one left for me to play with was my sister… which I won against every single time that I was sick of it. Thus, my badminton racquet retired into a dusty shelf and never saw daylight again.

I was in my college years when I started to itch again… itching to be near a ball. Maybe I was clumsy while I was young… and I shouldn’t have given up easily after a few scrapes. However, I wanted to do something different and my college friend came over at that exact time and asked me to join the Bowling Club. I paid RM10 and I will get discounts every time I bowl in the bowling alley. I immediately start off with another college friend. Both of us suck at bowling, but I had a very great time. At last, a ball that would not hurt me!

I think it was my fifth time at the bowling alley when the incident happened. I was bowling alone… and my bowling points finally went into three digit numbers when there was a sharp cracking sensation. I looked down and stared at my left hand (I bowl using left hand)… and blood was pouring out from my thumb!!! Mysteriously, almost whole of my fingernail came off. Up until this day, I did not know what happened. I did not have long fingernails and it really is a mind-boggling incident. Almost crying, I ran to the nearest clinic, with some unfinished games left. Hard staring eyes bore into my skull… and I never went to that particular bowling alley again. I still play bowling with friends… maybe once a year, but my dreams of being a professional bowler were smashed to bits.

After that, I am 100% sure that misfortune would befall me if I’m near any spherical shaped thing. I am quite sure that in my later years, as a joke by God, I would be killed by a wrecking ball.

Well, that is all that I have to say about sports from my personal experience. Coming up next is a point by point analysis about the disadvantages of sports…

Trip to Sabah (Day 5)

Today is the day… weeks of training, thousands of RM spent and the day finally comes. For those who are still in the clouds. My friends and I were attempting to conquer Mount Kinabalu. There are two popular trails (maybe got others too, but not so famous loh) for one to reach Laban Rata and from Laban Rata, to Low’s Peak… the highest point of Mount Kinabalu.

The two trails are Mesilau trail and Timpohon trail. We opted for the Mesilau trail because we were told that the surroundings were more beautiful. So, our plan was to go up using Mesilau trail and go down using Timpohon trail… with that, we would be able to experience both of the trails. Well, we woke up early, packed our things and took it together with us to the main lobby. There we had our breakfast buffet (real buffet this time, yay!). It was a normal type of breakfast buffet, with bread, nasi lemak, porridge, fried beehoon, cereals, orange juice, milk, coffee, tea, etc.

Buffet breakfast...

Sample of my breakfast...

We ate and ate and ate without any regards to the consequences. According to my past experiences, hiking with a full stomach is a disaster waiting to happen. But then again, this is a 6 hour hike, so you’ll need all the energies that you can get. We waited for the food to settle down and went to a shack where the guide and porter were waiting for us. First, we need to weigh our bags that we wanted the porter to help us to take up to Laban Rata. The price was RM10 per kg… for a return trip of course. That settled, we bought a wooden stick for RM3 each. I know that some people would balk at the mention of buying a plain stick for RM3, but trust me; it actually was the most useful tool of all.

After we got our name tags (you can’t go up the mountain if you lose them), we started off on our journey. The guide and porter did not follow us because there is only one path and they are sure to catch up with us soon anyway. The path was muddy because it rained for a little while yesterday. Basically, the path is the same all the way up to Laban Rata. There are steps either made of rocks or mud filled bricks. I was hoping that the path was more like a slight incline all the way upL. So, if you want to train before climbing Mt. Kinabalu, choose a trail that has steps all the way.

There are also signs for each 500 meters that we completed and we took pictures of them at each of the stop. The total length of our trail is around 8km while the Timpohon trail is 2km shorter than the Mesilau trail. I have to admit, albeit grudgingly, that the Mesilau trail’s surrounding was quite nice. It has a constant fog surrounding the trail in the later stages of our climb and the trees although stunted, were quite unique. It was like a gigantic bonsai.

Our first stop...

Second stop...

A small waterfall...

However, if you ask me whether the extra 2km was worth it, I would say NOOOOOO!!! The extra 2km in the mountain is not the same as a 2km walk in shopping complex. If you were to ask me to walk for 10km in a shopping complex, I would have no problem with it at all. By the time I reached the sign that says 2.0km, I was already regretting the choice of Mesilau trail. My greatest fear came alive when I realized that I was trailing behind the group, almost stopping to catch my breath with every step I take! My friends were quite supportive because they wanted to wait for me, but I would rather die than to have them watch me crawl up the steps one at a time. So, I asked them to wait at every 500 meter sign.

As a result, I spend most of my time watching my steps than enjoying the scenery… not to mention that my (super duper) camera lie unused in my backpack. Pretty soon, the guide and the porter caught up with me and I would never forget the look of surprise in his face. According to the progress of a normal person, it should take at most 30 minutes to complete a 500 meter trail and I was 1km behind schedule. I was really under pressure since the guide did not overtake me but he followed me REALLY close! It was like he’s herding a flock of sheep.

Worse, there was no water at the stop stations! I was told again and again that I did not have to bring a lot of water in my backpack because I can refill them at the rest stations. My bottle was already empty when I finally reached the fourth station that has water.

Initially, we planned to have our dinner at 6.0km. This is because at 6.0km, the Mesilau trail would merge with Timpohon trail… however, all thanks to me; we had to stop at 4.5km. I took out my packed lunch, which was given by the Mesilau Resort (included in the total packaged) and was wolfing down everything in no time. There were cheese sandwiches, fried chicken, sausage, egg, an apple and a can of 100 plus. To my dismay, the can ring broke when I tried to open the can and I thus, I have to drink my regular water.

My lunch...

Pitcher plant...

Well, actually, we all put honey into our drinks… and surprisingly, it was refreshing. Of course we did not put too much and so the water was just slightly sweet. The honey, we got from our breakfast buffet, which was supposed to be served with pancakes :P. By the time we were finished, there was not even one packet of honey in the basket back in the resort’s restaurant!

We also bought two packets of raisins each and it was really invigorating, to be eaten when you feel tired or just want something to eat. Chocolates are good also, but some would think that it was too sweet, so stick with the raisins.

Anyway, it was with great pain and effort that we (sorry, I) reached the merging point of the two trails. It was around 2pm. We started off at around 8:30am and thus, we averaged less than one hour per km and we still haven’t omitted the time we used to have our lunch. So, I was thinking since we have only 2.0km left, we should complete the trail within 3 hours at most… and when we confer with our guide, he told us that it would take 4 hours plus for us to reach Laban Rata!!!

Apparently, the trail from 6.0km onwards were quite difficult… also, during our climb for the first 6.0km, we went downhill for around 2.0km, that’s why we averaged for less than an hour per km. Well, I could not give up then… I was almost there and so with grim determination, I continued my journey uphill.

And then, it started to rain! We quickly took out our raincoats and our progress became even slower. My shoes and socks were already wet, but by that time, I did not attempt to avoid any obvious water puddles. My only objective was to complete the trail as soon as possible.

Strange looking tree...

Isn't the fog nice?

Lush green plant...

Dreamy...

A decade past by and some one who was far at the front shouted, “We’re there, we’re there!” and everyone else who was at the front shouted too… they kept on telling me that I’m almost there… it was really embarrassing. My heart lifted when the first building came into my sight… it was the most the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen (I was delirious at that time).

Of course, that building was not our destination, but my spirits were lifted. We walked past several buildings and finally reached Laban Rata, the place where we check-in. There was a big digital sign that shows the temperature of Laban Rata and it was 10 degree C at that time! However, filled with grime and sweat, I did not really feel cold then.

We checked out watches and we finally completed the trail at around 5.30pm… it took us a bloody 9 hours to complete the bloody trail. I think it normally takes 6 to 8 hours to complete the Mesilau trail. On the bright side, we took less than the 4 hours predicted by the guide to complete the final 2.0km. The place that we were supposed to stay is another 300m away but since the restaurant will close at 7pm (I think), we decided to eat first before we go to our dorm.

I was really tired and hungry that I totally forgot to take a picture of what I ate :P. But it was nothing special, although I did have a lot of helpings. It was a buffet too, and there were mushroom soup, red bean dessert, tea, coffee, chicken, beef, sausages, eggs, vegetables, cakes… all the normal stuff lah. The hot stuff like mushroom soup and red bean dessert were the most popular ones.

The cafeteria at Laban Rata...

That's what left when I remembered to take photo

Pretty soon, we were hiking uphill again to our dorm. Well, the good thing is that the next day, we won’t need to climb this 300m! The scenery was a sight to behold. Our dorm was located near the trail up the mountain and we can see water flowing down the mountain, forming an intricate pattern of waterfall… well, it wasn’t really a waterfall, but it looked like a waterfall.

Finally, we reached a dinghy hut made from aluminum roof. A word of advice, never ever stay at any other place other than Laban Rata… I forgot the name of the place that we were staying at, but you should stay at Laban Rata no matter how expensive it is… it’s worth the price. As expected, the room was chilly; there were three double-decker beds and next to our dorm is a kitchen where one can boil water but you’ll need to walk outside to reach it.

The first thing that we all do is of course take a nice, hot water bath. The bathroom and toilet is located outside… around 100m away from our dorm. And the road to the bathroom was muddy. I was told to go and try out the hot water first.

The bathroom was quite clean, although a little bit dusty and there was no place for me to hang my clothes! Anyway, there were two knobs in front of me… one was green in colour and another one was red colour. Needless to say, the hot water was of course the red colour knob… I turned it one and waited several seconds before trying out of water… it was cold water!

The nightmarish room...

Well, it is possible for the hot water to take some time to come out so I waited for a few moments longer and it was still cold water. So, I turned it off and turned on the green knob. It put my hand under the shower and was hit by a blast of freezing water! Apparently, the cold water is the heated water! This water heater is different from the ones we had in Mesilau, you don’t have to wait for the water to boil… the hot water was routed from somewhere far away so I guess it got cold when the water reached the bathroom.

Well, no matter how, I couldn’t have slept without having a bath, so I gritted my teeth and jumped into the shower. This is one of the main reasons that I implore readers to stay only at Laban Rata. At least, by staying at Laban Rata, one would not need to walk all the way back to their rooms in the outside after their baths. I was shivering when I finally finished my quick shower. While I was leaving the bathroom, I noticed a sign in front of the bathroom… and it mentioned that there will be no hot water from 8pm until 4pm next day!

So, I ran back and told the others. The others were in dismay, but one of them thought of boiling the water for bath. It took them a very long time to get enough hot water for everyone… but I did not pay much attention to them. I was really freezing at that time. I even took out my winter jacket, complete with gloves before I jumped into the bed and cover myself with double layers of blanket.

I have never felt that sensation before. My chest was painful, my body was shaking and my fingers were numb. I even wear socks when I started to feel a tingling in my toes. I thought that I was going to die with cold. In conclusion, I was in a really wretched condition. It was at that time that I started to regret my decision to climb Mount Kinabalu (again :P). I felt like those homeless people in winter (except that I am wearing an expensive jacket).

I kept on waking up from my sleep whenever I tossed and the blanket slipped out and a gust of chilled air sneaked into my body. I prayed fervently that this was only a nightmare but my prayers went unanswered as I was consumed by darkness and cold…

Trip to Sabah (Day 4)

Morning came and the room was already bustling with activities at 7 in the morning. By tonight, we would be staying at Mesilau Nature Resort. The owner of the lodge offered the storeroom to us to put all our things that we don’t want to take up Mount Kinabalu. When we joined each other at the lobby, it turned out that my luggage is the largest! Well, it isn’t my fault that others wear the same clothes for several days… yuck :P

Anyway, since the lodge owner promised to bring us to eat afterwards, we did not have any breakfast. We were also joined by a couple from Guangdong, China. The couple was just going to pay a visit to the canopy walk at Poring and was not planning to climb Mount Kinabalu (The couple called it Mountain of Gods... directly translated from Cantonese). Since we did pester the owner to bring us to Poring Hot Spring which was not in the initial plans, he told us to follow the couple before we settle down at Mesilau… free of charge!

A quick snapshot of the "Mountain of Gods" from afar

After about an hour in the van, we reached the place where we would have our breakfast. It’s a tiny and old kopitiam shop called “Wun Chiap” (Gathering Clouds). I must say that the fried noodles, which it is famous for, are better than expected. The rest of the team were “oooh”ing and “aaahhh”ing that other patrons were staring at us wondering if we did not have food for days. You can actually taste the “wok chi” (a Chinese term for something that is cooked using a wok) in the mee. The pork slices were really tantalizing and surprisingly sweet. The chilies that they served were also nicely mixed too. It’s not a normal chili paste… instead, they added lime into it and it was very appetizing even though the chili was extremely hot. It was really a thumbs-up noodle, but if the chef were to use wantan noodles, it would even better!

Restaurant of Gathering Clouds

Mouth-watering fried noodles


Cloud-capped mountain shot...

We were also introduced to the new driver who will be driving us to the Poring Hot Spring. Soon, we were on our way to Poring. We made some stops in between to take some pictures, but it was very sunny outside and I took a few pictures only before scrambling back inside the van. It was noon when we reached our destination. Actually, our main objective was to soak our feet in hot spring water, but since the Chinese nationals were going to take the canopy walk there, we decided to join them… just as a warm-up exercise before our major climb.

We had to pay for the entrance fee ourselves, but foreign tourists have to pay extra (don’t remember how much already.). We forked out the money and then we were told that we have to pay extra if we want to take pictures inside. So, we decided to use my (super-duper, powerful, perfect) camera and paid an extra RM5.

At first, the path was no different from the one that I used for my pre-hike training. There were stone steps that lead us higher and higher. The jungle was quite dense, which is really strange, because a canopy forest should have stunted plants near the ground. A real canopy is where the top of the tall trees would be so close together that it forms a floor of leaves and branches at the top. Thus, there would be very small amount of sunlight that reaches the ground, resulting in stunted plants.

The trailing group...

The demons of a thousand year old tree :P

Anyway, after about 15 minutes or so, we finally reached the top and we started to cross over the top of the trees on a hanging bridge. The bridges looked quite sturdy but it swung and creaked like mad when we walk over it. We took lots of pictures of ourselves crossing the bridge. If I remembered correctly, there were almost ten bridges that we had to cross before reaching the end. One of our team members secretly flipped out his camera and started to take pictures. In just a minute, one of the attendants came over to us and told us to pay another extra RM5 for using an extra camera. That man has eyes of an eagle! As for the scenery, well, as you know, I’m no nature enthusiast but it feels great walking on top of the trees… it would have been much better if the trees form an actual canopy… then it would be walking on another layer of forest floor.

Posing in the bridge... is that wood cracking sound?

End of trail...

Pretty soon, we were on our way down and we finished the track in around one hour. We were told that we had to start our journey to Mesilau by 2pm. It was around 1pm at that time and so we quickly find a secluded pool and opened the tap to fill it up with hot spring water. I had always thought that hot spring water we filled up in a rock pool where people sit inside to enjoy the water and a lion head pouring out the hot spring water (watched too much Japanese TV serials). However, the hot spring in Poring looked very artificial. It looked more like a water tank than a pool :P. Besides, it was scorching that day and thus it was not really a good time to enjoy hot spring water. However, this is the first time I ever been to a hot spring, so I have nothing to compare… but it would be great if I were to immerse myself in the hot spring water in a cold, windy day. Due to the time constraint (and really slow water), we managed to fill the tub up to our ankles before we had to go.

This is nothing like the ones in Japanese series at all :(

This is how a hot spring should look like...

The main reason we had to leave the hot spring early was because the driver told us that somewhere, a rafflesia was found. We were told that a rafflesia would be in full bloom for seven days before it dies and that day was the fifth day! We went to the place and were told that the entrance fee was RM20 per person!!! Well, since it is rare to see a rafflesia in full bloom (isn’t there any rafflesia park anyway?); we decided to choose three people to go… including myself.

The rafflesia was not located in a park. It was actually located in the wilds in some jungle. I guess whoever found it can claim it to be theirs and start to take entrance fees kua. Up close, the rafflesia was not really that majestic… but then again, as I have said, I have never been a nature enthusiast. No matter how I smell, I did not smell any of the famed pungent smell of a rafflesia. The tips of its petals were already beginning to shrivel and had a black tinge in it. We took a lot of pictures from every possible angle. The Chinese nationals who also came with us said that they would flash the camera flashlight at the rafflesia until it died due to exposure :P.

Rafflesia... king of flowers

A dead rafflesia...

It was already 2pm when we decided to finally leave the poor parasite alone. Then, it started to drizzle too! We ran all the way back to the van which was waiting for us outside. Then, one of my friends noticed that the guide who took us to see rafflesia was wearing a pair of “Kampung Adidas” that she had been looking for all over KK. It was said that the shoes were very good for climbing Mt. Kinabalu. So, they went with the guide to a shop that sells those shoes. I think it was RM6~RM7 per pair Sadly, I could not find the right size for my feet… but then again, I have always trusted my super expensive Nike shoes.

I think the driver was already bristling with impatience when we finally were ready to go. It was already 2:30pm at that time… and was raining heavily. Just then, I realized that we did not have lunch yet. Of course, none of us dared to ask the driver to take us to some place to have lunch. Instead, we took out our tit-bits and started munching all the way to Mesilau.

Unfortunately, it was not that smooth. After a 30 minute drive, the traffic became congested! We were wondering if there is an accident in front since there should not be that many cars going uphill. Soon, we found out that all the cars were jammed at petrol stations along the way! We had not read newspapers in days and so we began to speculate whether the government decided that a 40% hike a week ago was not enough… but then again, the government always announces petrol hike news in the evening.

So, we started to sms our friends back in the peninsula. You have no idea how ignorant people are for those who were working in the office :P. I had to message my third friend before managing to get a clear, precise story. According to my friend, there was news that the petrol stations are all going on strike for a week! Wow, that is really a crisis that I have never encountered. The whole economy would come to a standstill if this happens. But then again, it has nothing to do with me :P. I have already filled up my petrol tank before coming to Sabah and by the time I reached Peninsula, the strike would have ended.

However, what concerned me the most is that we might not make it to the Mesilau Resort in time. We were told that the reception closes at certain time, unlike KL hotels which opens 24 hours. After we finally got past the jam, another problem cropped up. We were stop by the tourism police! Never realized that there are such polices. We were flagged down and the person in charge asked the driver if we were friends or tourists. Apparently, if a company is driving tourists around in Sabah, need to use a company van… with logos and all. The van that we were sitting in was just a plain, normal van, while the tourism officer said that the van should have the company logo and also with the words “Van Perlancongan” (Tourism Van) or something like that… I forgot the exact term already because I did not pay much attention :P. Anyway, they talked for a very long time before the driver was let go with a warning. I think he got a ticket too… not sure… didn’t dare to ask.

Anyway, we did reach the place in time and it was beautiful! I have always wished Malaysia to have weather like Genting Highlands and this is like that, except that it was much, much colder and there were less people.

The girls were already shivering when the got down from the car. For me, the temperature is just right. The surroundings were foggy and there were flowers and trees at every nook and corner of the resort. This is what paradise would look like… of course, a little bit more entertainment outlets won’t hurt :P.

Pose by not models... :P

Pose by a model :P

Immediately, we checked ourselves in and register at another counter for tomorrow’s climb. We say our goodbyes to the China couple and the driver and dragged our bags uphill to the far end of the resort. The place that we were staying in was a large dorm. There were four rooms and each room has six to eight double-decker beds. Luckily, we did not have to share the dorm rooms with other people and so we sort of use two beds… one to put our stuff and one to sleep in :P.

We were told that the dinner buffet would start at 7pm and it was only around 5:30pm. Since the girls were already shivering and I actually heard one’s teeth chattering, they immediately unpack their stuff and rushed off to the bathrooms. Apparently, the bathroom used an old type of water heater in which they need to boil the water first before hot water is available. Thus, we had to turn on the switches for water heater for the bathrooms and waited a while before hot water was available.

Luckily, the water was already half-boiled and thus we did not need to wait for long for the water to be completely heated up. If my theory is correct, the hot water will not come out as long as it wasn’t ready. You can’t just boil the water half way and use it… all that will come out is cold water. The resulting hot water was scalding hot. If you did not turn on the cold water first and jump headfirst into the hot water, you would be having third degree burns. Soon, the girls were humming happily in their showers. After 10 minutes or so, we heard a loud piercing scream from the bathrooms and we ran over there thinking that maybe a snake had slithered in (which is possible because the dorm is near the forest) and only then, we found out that the hot water ran out and so, the girls were bathing in ice-cold water! So, next time, please time yourself when bathing there.

Our room...

Our kitchen...

Our living room...

Our bathrooms...

After that, we played cards to wait for our dinner time and when our watches showed 6:45pm, we started to walk to the main building that housed the restaurant. When we reached there, the waitress actually told us that there will be no buffet! Instead, the cook will be serving several dishes to us. We were feeling really moody at that time… cold shower and no buffet!

Since we are all civilized bunch, we just nodded and took our places. One of us did demand that if we were not full after the dinner we would be ordering extra things to eat free of charge. The waitress gave a shrug and left us.

We were expecting the worst when the waitress started to serve the dishes. Surprisingly, there were two dishes for every type! When the waitress came returned with the fourth type of dish, we were already starting to forgive them for not serving buffet. We were shocked when she came back again and again. Finally, when she stopped coming back, there were 6 types of food totaling 12 dishes!

From the beginning, we were each given a bowl of soup. It was a bean curd, salted vegetable soup. It was not too salty and it made us even hungrier than before! Then, the main dishes came. First, came the vegetables. I don’t really know how to identify vegetables, but it was crunchy and sweet. Then, came the spicy sotong. The sotong (squid) were quite fresh, it was also mildly spicy, perking up our appetite. The third dish was beef. I did not try it, but it was said to be very good and the meat was nicely done. Afterwards, came the mixed vegetables. It contains lots of other vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, etc. Then, the waitress served the chicken. It was cooked with dark beans and it was quite tasty as well. The chicken was juicy and tender and the black beans brought an aromatic flavour to the chicken. The final dish that came was another type of vegetables. I really had no idea what it was… look at the picture and identify it yourself. It was not spicy despite the chilis, but it felt like eating grass... the others however enjoyed it. Well, I did mention that my group is filled with strange people, didn't I? :P

After we have finished the main dishes, the waitress came with fruits. Well, it was not anything grand like fruit salad, but the fruits they used were of really high quality. They were sweet (natural sweet, not sweetened by sugar) and juicy. Even the pineapple was sweet enough for me to put in my mouth… I usually avoid pineapples because whenever I eat it, my tongue would start to feel rough due to the salty nature of the pineapples. No one could eat another mouthful when we were done with our dinner.

Waiting for dinner to be served...

Starters...

Plain rice...

Supposed to be very nice beef...

Spicy squids...

Nice, green vege...

Chicken cooked with black beans...

Mixed vege...

No idea what it is...

Poses by gluttons... :P

Really sweet and juicy fruits...

We chatted until around 9pm and started to walk back to our dorm. It was starting to get windy but we were all warmed by the food and thus none complained of getting cold. The girls were very worried because if they find the cold unbearable here, then surely they would be frozen still at a place that is 2km higher than Mesilau! Anyway, back in the dorm, we continued our chats on our bed and soon, lesser and lesser people took part in the conversation and the last thing I remembered was a snoring sound from one of the OTHER beds…

Movie Review 4: The Dark Knight... the return of great movies

Title: The Dark Knight

Running time: 2 hours 32 minutes

Director: Christopher Nolan

Genre: Action, Thriller, Fantasy, Sci-fi

There actually is still hope left in the movie industry. I have never really been a fan of the Batman movies. I prefer heroes with some kind of super powers that no normal human would possess. If a hero has super powers, then their nemesis would most assuredly possess some kind of unnatural power as well.

Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself entertained by this movie. Christian Bale played a fine role as Batman. To be frank, I did not think that his role in Batman Begins was nice enough. However, in this movie, he managed to convince me that he is suitable for the role of Batman where he exudes an aura of a dark and brooding hero whenever he puts his cape on. Without the mask, he is just one rich playboy. One thing that bugs me however, is the voice that he used for Batman. That scratchy, dried wood sound is really out of character... not to mention it would damage his voice box as well.

The maniacal Joker is of course another fine point of the film. Played by the late Heath Ledger, he made a very convincing psychotic Joker. I actually felt scared looking at him and cringed whenever he flipped out that little penknife of his. It is sad that he passed away when he finally made a breakthrough in his career. His roles in A Knight’s Tale, Casanova and Brokeback Mountain were also quite good.

The Dark Knight is about Batman’s attempt to cleanse Gotham City of the Mafia while the Mafia employs the Joker to make Batman disappear once and for all. The movie also tells of a rising new star, Harvey Dent played by Aaron Eckhart who is looked upon as the White Knight by the citizens of Gotham City. Together, Batman and Harvey Dent managed to bring the Mafia to heel until the Joker appears. While the plot is not really anything new, it is the characters which brought the plot alive, making each and every moment filled with emotions of fear, anger, excitement, joy and grief.

I hope that Christian Bale would still reprise the role of Batman in future movies with Christopher Nolan at the helm. Both of them were able to wipe away my skepticism on the movie despite my poor experiences with earlier Batman series movies. Maybe I can finally relive the memory of Penguin and the Riddler in the next movie :P.

Quotes: The Joker: You know, you remind me of my father…
(Takes a knife to Dinner Guest’s neck)
The Joker: … I hated my father!

Bottomline: A must see movie… not for the faint hearted though

Bamboo ranking: 4.0 / 5.0

Trip to Sabah (Day 3)

(A note from the author: I apologize the long overdue updates to my blog. I was having a very hectic week. Also, I had to catch up on my pc games and tv series… now that I have finished all that are available, I’ll be free to continue my writing until the next tv series or new pc game come along :P)

Once again, I had to wake up very early. I swear that I spend less time to sleep during holidays than while working. Isn’t holidays supposed to be like recharging the batteries and make our tiredness to go away?

For breakfast, we walked to a shop nearby and had “pan mee”. It’s sort of a long and flat type of noodles made from flour. Sabah “pan mee” is no different from West Malaysia, except this shop offers a chicken meat “pan mee” as an additional selection which again, is seldom available in West Malaysia (at least I think so). Apart from the “pan mee”, I also ordered an additional meat dumpling. The “pan mee” itself was of acceptable standard, though it’s nothing to shout about. “Pan mee” has always been too light for my taste. I once tasted a “pan mee” which has a lot of meat sauce in the soup, thus making the soup brown coloured and it was the best “pan mee” I ever had, hands down. Unfortunately, the owner of the shop retired and I have avoided “pan mee” ever since. Okay, back to our topic, while the “pan mee” was okay, the dumpling was terrible. If I remembered correctly, I think it was RM1.50 per piece and there were not much meat in it. Just vegetables, carrots and other unidentifiable stuff. And oh, by the way, the “pan mee” costs me a freaking RM4.50 per bowl!!! This is even worse than KL! And no, it’s not this particular shop that’s selling at extremely high prices. The whole of Sabah sells their food at an exaggerated marked-up price.

Meat dumplings...

Fried mee?

Pan mee...

After the breakfast, we began our next activity… island hopping. We took a van to Jesselton Point which was arranged by the lodge owner. In the van, the driver was talking about the trend of Sabah having low wages and high prices of everything in Sabah and I couldn’t agree more. He was talking to himself, asking why would such an abnormality occur and I had to bit back a retort that the prices of everything were at such absurd level was mostly due to us loh… toursists!

Anyway, we reached Jesselton Point shortly and we were attacked by a group of people trying to make us to go to their counters to buy boat tickets from them. Puduraya KL pales in comparison to their level of persuasion. However, since we had already booked our tickets, we practically had to force our way to our counter. Once we got our tickets, we went to a shop next door. Well, it cannot really be called a shop, since it is located outside along the pavements with just a table. This is the place that we rented our snorkeling equipments. I think it was RM15 for a set of snorkeling mask and a life jacket. We were told that this is the only place that one can rent the equipments but we were really skeptical about that.

Don't be snared by them as you walk in...

However, we all agreed that we should not take the risk, and thus we all rented all out equipments there. For me, I had to rent a power goggle which cost an additional RM5 compared to the normal ones which cost me a total of RM20! Pretty soon, we were on onboard a really suspicious looking boat and we were on our way to our first island… Manukan Island. I was told… repeatedly told actually, that the Manukan Island is the most beautiful island of all… and I was pretty disappointed.

This is not to say that the island itself is not beautiful… it is in fact, quite beautiful, but since this is supposedly the most beautiful island of all, then it is not really THAT beautiful. Compared to Redang Island, it is like Summit USJ compared to Mid-Valley Megamall, with Redang Island being the Mid-Valley Megamall. The waters of Redang Island was light, transparent blue while the waters near Manukan Island was deep blue with a slight green tinge. However, as I said, Manukan Island is still considered acceptable… from the outside anyway. When we reached the jetty, there were actually several school of fishes swimming underneath it. There were also a group of China tourists who were feeding the fishes with bread. I still remembered my experience while snorkeling in Redang Island… we were each given a piece of bread so that the fishes would swam near us.

Of course, we were not allowed to snorkel under the jetty… though those with no regards to rules still do so. Being a bunch of lawful and educated people, we continued straight to the beach. Before we can actually reach the beach, we have to pay to enter it… I don’t recall how much because we paid for the whole package and thus we already had the tickets when we entered… at least I think so :P… I never trouble myself with these flimsy stuff.

Leaving civilazation...

Here we are... Manukan Island...

Half naked men and almost naked ladies... everywhere!!!

Apparently, people do not understand the words "Do not snorkel"

Beautiful? That's your call...

Anyway, one of the guides was already waiting for us there. I don’t know how the system works in their ranks, but I think they have some sort of predetermined arrangement to decide who will take on which group. He sort of stuck a huge price list to me and explained to me about the various water activities available… at a price of course. Those activities like diving which requires skill doesn’t interest me at all. From what I see, there are only two activity that does not require any skill at all… banana boat and parasailing. Being someone who is afraid of heights (who doesn’t?), and no, it’s not a phobia thingy, I discarded parasailing right away. So, that only left banana boat. Actually, I wasn’t really sure what it was, but it sounded fun. Oh yeah, a word of advice, don’t trust the price list. We were able to get a way cheaper price for a much longer duration without even haggling. The guide advised us to take on this activity after we change into suitable clothes since the weather might change suddenly… and only then I realized that I was the only one who is already fully geared and ready to go… sigh… why on earth would they not wear those swim wear first? That is just pure waste of time.

After the OTHERS finally changed into their swimwear we waited at the jetty and we board another boat with a large banana on top of it. For those who do not know what is a banana boat, well… it’s a boat that looks like a banana loh :P. It’s long, thin and rounded, shaped like a banana, made from plastic, pvc or those poly stuff lah. When we reached a certain point out in the sea, the boatman dropped the banana boat onto the sea and we were told to sit on the boat. There were coincidentally 5 seats… well, actually there were 5 handles lah. Anyway, each one of us were seated in a straight row, with our hands firmly gripped onto the again, suspiciously looking handles… and it started.

The boat is connected to our banana boat by a long rope. So, basically, the motorboat will be pulling the banana boat along, crashing into the waves created by the motorboat. At first, it was still okay, as with everything… but when the boat started to speed up, it pretty soon became a matter of life and death! Worse, before we started, someone actually told the boatman to topple us! So, I was really dreading the moment, not knowing when we will be overturned… and the motor boat started to run in rounds and that’s when I realized the moment has come. Well, if anything, we really made it our money’s worth. While the boatman was obviously trying to topple the banana boat, we counter his efforts. We were pretty smug ourselves when after a really long while passed by and we were still on the boat. I can see the motorboat itself almost toppled in an attempt to overturn us. However, as time passed by, my muscles soon turned into water, but I dared not release an ounce of energy. I was still worrying about my already tingling arms when I found myself underwater.

One of the hazards of banana boat is, if you grasp the handle tight enough, and your body was suddenly unbalanced, you will pull the whole group down with you… of course I did not do that! Anyhow, being toppled here is at the same time better and worse than yesterday’s event (overturned while water rafting). Better because nothing would prevent you from resurfacing. Worse because if you inadvertently screamed while falling into the water, you would take a big gulp of salt water. Yes, the water while we did our water rafting was unclean, but it was nothing compared to the sea water. Strangely though, I did not remember hearing any screaming… and when we resurfaced, we were a group of pretty calm people floating in the sea. Well, the boatman swung by to pick us up. Once again, I was faced with gender discrimination. I have no problem with letting women to go up first, but they are the only ones who would receive help to reach the boat. I tried to wade, claw, float and splash at the water to guide myself towards the boat, but I just kept on drifting further away from the boat! Noticing this, the boatman drove the boat nearer to me and it kept on coming at me! I was just several inches away from the motor! That guy was trying to kill me!

I still don’t remember how I manage to get back onto the boat, but somehow I did grab onto something and I just guided myself back onto the ladder. Since our time was not up yet, we boarded back onto the banana boat again. This time, the girls instructed… pleaded actually at the boatman to not topple the boat. Well, you should know that customer demands are not entertained here. The girls were practically screaming at the boatman to stop when they realize that the motorboat was running in circles again. Pretty soon, we found ourselves floating in the sea again. A word of advice though, try not to sit at the last seat. It was all pretty noisy and I am pretty sure that if you fall into the water, it would take some time before someone realize you are gone… if they will realize it at all. All the time while I was sitting on the banana boat, I was really worried to be the only one who fall into the water while the others were still on the boat… so, keep your grip onto the boat so that when you fall, the others will definitely fall!!! Muah… hah… hah… hah… of course, once you really hit the water, you must let go of your death grip.

A huge banana...

The Stupendous Five...

After the pretty exciting banana boating, we were back on the beach to do some mild snorkeling. I initially thought that our package would include snorkeling out in the sea, but apparently the only snorkeling that we do is near the beach only. If this were the Marina Bay (Redang Island) then I would have no complaints. But I saw just a few tiny unappetizing fish while snorkeling at the beach. So, next time if you want to snorkel, go out into the middle of the sea. The sands were also very coarse too… filled with dead sea shells… a really huge difference compared to Redang Island. I was able to walk barefooted along the coastline in Redang Island while here, I had to clamp my mouth shut to prevent the unearthly scream from escaping from my throat.

Honey, we are surrounded by floating corpses!!!

Hmmm... is that a piece of log?

The fabled sirens of the sea?... I don't think so...

Rainbow: See? I'm jumping

LK: You're crazy

Next stop, we went to the Sapi Island. After the not really that nice, supposed to be most beautiful island in Sabah, I did not expect much from Sapi Island... and I was right. If I think that the sands of Manukan Island were coarse, it was no match for the rocky beaches of Sapi Island. Apart from that, the waters were a horror. You can actually see hundreds... no... thousands of small jellyfishes floating near the beach!!! The waters were murky and so, I spend my time learning how to swim from my friend. Of course I am still unable to swim, but at least now, I believe I can direct myself in a general direction of where I wanted to be even if it means splashing in the water like I was being dragged by a shark.

Although I was pretty disappointed with the island, at least I could spend some time to learn some skills and sleep on the water and let the waves carry me. I was just getting ready to change my clothes when the lifeguards blew their whistles. No... no one is drowning. As I looked at my surroundings, I saw that the waves were getting bigger and bigger. A sudden gust of wind blew and I find myself being pelted by sand. Yes! Sand! It was even more paiful than if someone were to throw a rock at me. Pretty soon, we found ourselves facing a storm I've never seen before. I think it was some luck that it did not rain, but the wind itself was scary enough. We were standing on the jetty waiting for our boat to come and a child could really be blown into the sea. We called for the boat to take us back to mainland even though we still have an hour left on the island because we were afraind it would rain, thus preventing us to go back to the mainland.

However, the boat arrived at the time it was initially scheduled to come becuase the boats were grounded due to the strong wind. By the time we boarded onto the boat, the wind had died. Just as I thought that the day could not go any worse, we were then told that the van that was supposed to pick us up back to the lodge broke down! So, now we had to walk all the way back to the lodge. Although it was not very far, it is still quite a distance.

Just at that moment, someone suggested that we might as well have our dinner... and another crazy one suggested that we eat near the Filipino market. So, I had to drag my feet all rhe way to the Filipino market which was almost 30 minutes walk away!!!

Run for your lives!!! Tarmon Gai'don is here!!!

We settled down at a Malay stall that was serving very aromatic fried mee. We order beehoon soto, fired rice, fried mee, cendol and ABC. The food were surprisingly good and cheap. However,t he cendol and ABC needed some improvements. I snoop around the market and bought some tid-bits to eat. Unfortunately, I was too enthusiastic in my purchase and I ended up buying so much that we could not even finish half of it. Of course, it would be a different story if the things were actually nice to eat. However, the murtablak, fried bananas and some other stuff that I don't know the names were unappetizing.

Fried bananas...

Cendol...

Fried rice...

ABC...

Beehoon soto...

Fried mee...

Flour made bread with kaya...

No idea what it is... :P

Murtabak...

I was dreaming of the bed when we finished our food (except for the fried bananas) when another fool suggested to have a look around the Filipino market located next to the market we had our food. Supressing a sigh, I followed them into the handicraft market. At this point, I should conffess something. By the time I left Sapi Island, my camera battery went dead... I supposed I really should not have taken so many pictures of women in bikinis. So, the pictures on the food above were supplied by Rainbow.

As such, I was unable to take pictures of the Filipino market. It looked like several big houses joined together and space was really very tight in there. The path is enough only for one person to walk through. So when you encounter someone buying stuff at the shops, you have to squeeze your way through. Although the handicrafts there were quite unique and nice, the prices were a sight to behold. Being someone who is without any guile at all, I am no expert at haggling prices and so I did not buy a single thing at the shops.

After the others finally finished checking out prices at every stall in the market and buy almost every single thing available there another idiot reminded us that since we were leaving to Mount Kinabalu the next day, we should buy water, chocolates, energy bars, etc. I was really going to cry at that point. Also, they wanted to shop for baclavas!!!. So, I ended up exploring the whole shopping complex to look for baclavas... and the girls noticed there were some sale going on in shoe shops and they included shoes in the search list as well. After a century later, I staggered out of the shopping complex with my hands full with food, but the others wore a face with grim disatisfaction. They were unable to find a baclava and buy shoes of the size they wanted.

Thus, I was not really surprised when they declared they want to go to another shopping mall. My feet were already numb and I'm pretty sure that I'll need to cut them off the next day. The others ended up buying a baclava and raincoats in that particular shopping mall and if my leg still worked, I would have jumped with joy when they declared that they were done for the day.

If only there is a masseuse waiting for me in the lodge...