Kilimanjaro Trip: How it Happened...

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

I've yet to pen down my US journey, and then I'm off to another destination :) This one more challenging than any other journey that I've been through, physically and mentally as well.

Flashback few months back, towards end of year, there were loads of parties that was thrown by the expat communities in RA. One birthdays after another. During one of those, I overheard Sophie talking to Richard about their plan to hike Kilimanjaro. Somehow I was not my usual self, I asked to join. Haha.. I never really had a proper conversations with any of them, hence, by right I would not be inclined to jump in any kind of conversation with them. Best case, I would just listened by the side and when nobody realized, I will disappear into thin air..haha. :D But somehow the topic is way too interesting to be passed. I've been thinking about hiking Kili for quite sometime. Pretty sure I mentioned it to Kim sometime back, but he was not into it (though he is now somewhere is South America, hiking the Atacama dessert, Andes mountains).

Back to the hike, upon expressing my interest, Sophie sent me all the required information, dates were being discussed and I did told them, that my plan is conditional. If and only if my boss WK agrees to let me take leave. The plan is to go in Feb 2016. I will be away from final week December until first week Jan. And for me to apply another leave in the span of less than two months, may invite dissatisfaction from my boss point of view. :P Somehow luck is on my side, WK agrees to me taking leave again..hehehe. I clearly mentioned to him about all my leave plans, the short time span in between and also the fact that he will also be away for CNY in Feb. He said OK, he must have been in a very good mood..hehe.

So the rest as they say, is history :)

I will be jumping back and forth (and maybe backdate the entry as well) just so that I can properly capture the chronological sequence of our adventure. We'll see..hehehe.. I may not backdate my post, now that I have come to think of it..hehe.

Machame Gate - where we started the walk

How far to the top?

Point no 4 interests us very much, coming from Nigeria..hehehe

Here are some sneak peaks. Will try hard to write more for the day to day adventure. I gave up doing that in IG as I think it would be too much. Blog is a much more proper avenue for lengthy sharing like this :)

Till next time, wassalam. 

Residential Area 101

Assalamualaikum w.b.t,

I touched down here, Port Harcourt on Monday, the experience from Lagos to PH was horrible (jalan free lagi nak complaint kan..? hampeh) . But seriously, both airport are currently under going renovation, and it was not really much of an airport. The crew was shouting for which flight is departing (no notice board ok) and we the passengers have to go out and identify our bags right at the stairs leading to the plane, only then the luggage gets loaded to the plane. Horror..!! Ok, to cut long story short, I arrived in one piece at the company's residential area (RA).

Logistic crew loading the luggage

I was greeted by the protocol people in airport and sent to the residential area, where I will be staying for the next few nights. At the RA, two people were waiting for me (bangga kejap, nasib baik takde carpet merah..hehehe..) One was Annie, she's a fellow Malaysian, following her husband who started working here ~1 year ago. They have this expat network and they do lookout for one another, so when they heard that I am coming for the visit, they make a point to meet and greet me and put all effort to make me feels welcome.

Another one was my future work buddy, Uche. He was in close contact with the protocol people even as soon as I touched down at Lagos. After the brief introduction, he left me with Annie since he sees me already in good hands. Annie showed me around a bit, such as places to eat, where to buy things and few others. After lunch and short break, I met Annie and her husband and they took me to dinner.

Let me tell you about the residential area, its an area owned by the company, with 3m walls surrounding it, topped with barb wire (and a secondary inner wall that is 1m distance from the main wall). What does that sounds to you? A prison? almost definitely..hehehe.. When I was brought in, I was in a van that was fully curtained, that is why I didn't realize the built of the wall. The expat living inside the RA (or camp) are not allowed to drive out, so both Annie and her hubby had bicycle, the lent their son's bike and we cycled to the next door camp that belongs to another company operating in Port Harcourt. During the short cycle, only then I realize the whole wall etc. The next neighbouring camp also was heavily guarded, but a little bit more relaxed compared to our camp. According to Annie, we are not allowed to go out un-escorted. Any trip are to be planned ahead. They have organized trip to buy groceries..(betul..tak tipu..)

For day to day needs, we can get from few stores inside the camp, but sometimes they need to get it from outside, and since PH is an industrial area, the cost of living is also quite high. Annie was advising me to include groceries inside my shipment as well. The transporter are not liable for food, so we have to bear the risk for any damage, lost, etc.. I am starting my checklist now. I have yet to see my potential house, plan for this Thursday, insyaAllah. The list will grow then. 

Twas the Year 2012

Assalamualaikum wbt (for the benefits on non Muslim, peace be unto you),

I am going to start off with this greetings consistently from now on :)

As the sun sets and as most of the celebration kicks in, here I am again, alone in my rented home with nothing much to do. I am holding the pager, but even if I am in KL, I don't thik I'll weather through the crowds just to say hi to 2013. I am kinda old.. I guess ;) I treasure the quite moments at home, watching sinetron on TV (ya buk..masih lagi deh nontonnya :D)

This year 2012, has been the year with my least entry in this blog. I guess one of the reason was because I started using smart phone and I get online the normal quick touch and go thing, be it to check FB or some other stuffs. And I logged on to the blog even less when Instagram is available on android... (a cheapskate talking here y'all!!!)

So what happened to me this year? A lot actually, see if I can remember all and list it down here (did I mentioned I'm old..?) hehehe...

I can't remember much of what happened in Jan, but one thing for sure I had a blast doing this with my friends..!!

January action

In Feb, I made it to the land of middle earth, story only half told here, and in Sha Allah I will pick up where I left off here later :)

In March, probably one of the start of my physical activity as I joined my colleagues cycling from Seremban to Putrajaya, I took some 3 hours, if I'm not mistaken...(phheewww....)

Now what happened in April..? nothing much, I guess, or have I forgotten it? (Yes, age is catching up.. :P)

In May I managed to unwind with some friends in Janda Baik. It was meant to be a reunion for ROTU UiTM Batch 21, but as fated, only 4 of us made it, nonetheless we had a good time just chilling out.

June probably sees me busy running around (or swimming around!!) . This year the nieces + nephews club has one more member, Hana was born in March and we have the first outing for all the kids in June. They were treated to fun ride at Cosmos Times Square by Mak Teh.

Sometime mid month, I went to Redang with people at work. The snorkelling trip was fun considering I have not been swimming for the last 10 years, and yes, I did have a  panic attack once they let us off in the sea. Well, I'll try to blog about that later.

Did I say I was busy running around? well....fast walking is more like it. I managed to complete the Standard Chartered Marathon : 10KM within 2 hours, and after that sore feet, pain in the joint etc for the next 2 weeks, serve me right, I had it coming I guess ..hehehe...

too tired to stand :)

Now what happened in July..? I was busy working I guess..hahaha..finally work after all play.
Ramadhan was somewhere end July and as usual we have the iftar with local communities. This year its a bit special. Our event was graced by Yamtuan Besar Negeri Sembilan. He, Tuanku Ampuan and his two boys (wink, wink!!) joined us at Masjid Kg Paya and yours truly was asked to be one of the usherer for the day. We all are all given a free baju kurung each (yes!!) by the organizer :)

notice the gents does not have matching outfit :D

After that life pretty much the same with Eid and all. I can't remember where I put my photos, must still be in the camera I guess :P

In October, I reached another milestone by reaching the Low's Peak of Mount Kinabalu. A picture would not do justice to the adventure and I promise you I will write a whole post on it.

In November, we had an open day at work, where the worker are allowed to bring the family and they were given a guided tour around the plant. Yours truly was volunteeered as one of the tourist guide. Again, I thought I have downloaded the picture but can't seem to find it now.

Dr K was approached by some of the locals and asked us to organize a youth program at the local masjid, and as usual, I was pulled into the organizing team. With the help of his usrah and my usrah, we managed to came up with Klinik Remaja Islam Soleh (KRIS) . I was in charged of the ice-breaking game and believe it or not I was referring to some of the Christian sites for the games !! anything good would do, its not like the game involved the kids understanding the concept of trinity or anything like that, its teambuilding type of activities :) More pics are on his webpage .

Since I was on duty during Deepavali, I managed to round up few ROTU gang and had them coming over for a picnic. This time, turn out was a little bit more than during the 'reunion' but still not more than 10. Whatever it is, we still had a good time catching up.

Come December, I joined yet another activities organized by the company's sports club, this time its a trip Beijing. When I enroll for it, it did not occurred to me that we are going in the winter time. I will blog about this, hence a sneak peak would do :)

The year 2012 ended with me attending the 2-days conference, Twins of Faith 2012. And as usual, the sheikhs keeps us entertained and at the same time gave us some very good reminder of the states of our deen. And yes, I will blog about that in detail later...Guess I came out of this with bunch of delayed post for 2012. Its better late than never, they said.

Till we meet again in the next post, pray for good health and great year ahead to all of you, I really hope something can be done to stop Israel oppression against the Palestinian in 2013. Enough of the all talks yet no firm action. I hope Egypt & Syria can be stabilize soon so that they can return to their glory days in 1940-50's of helping the Palestinian. And I also hope that I can join one of the solidarity mission to Gaza, in Sha Allah.. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Day 3 : the day we took the hike

I guess I have tormented you enough on the delay for the middle earth post. I realized the reason  I keep on putting it off was because there were too much photos to share and I was to ambitious to make collage out off all of it. So guess what, I decided to give up that ambition today..hehehe..

6th Feb 2012
So, after a good night sleep, we woke up to the fresh breeze of Frans Josef. The motel was just a single row, with pretty roomy compound. One thing I noticed, there are a lot of hydrangeas around.

View from kitchen, mechanics in action, hydrangea, the compound

 After packing things, we head on to the next destination, its only 30 minutes from where we stayed.

We had a booking for half day walk up to the glacier at Fox Glacier Guiding. We were given the hiking gear and windbreaker to prepare for the walk.

The bus took us to the starting point. There were 2 buses on the same trip, and later we were divided to 3 groups. We've decided to go with a senior guide, plus the group that comes with family. The other groups are all made of youngster, we were scared that we will slow them down :P Our guide's name was Grazer, that was his nick name, I forgot his real name though :D We have to wait a bit as the guides went up on a rescue mission. Apparently one lady that was on previous tour sprained her ankle and need some help to get back to the starting point.

There visitors can only walk up to certain points unsupervised. This is because the glacier itself is not stable, and can posed a significant threat to inexperienced hiker. We were glad that we took the tour, it may cost more but it was worth it.

The initial hiking trail was merely rocky roads, but after some 20 minutes, we finally reached the start of glacier. We were asked to don up the crampons to ensure that we can walk on ice. Now its time for Ice ice baby!!

All guides carry with them heaps of equipment. The road is paved everyday, as and when people are walking on it. There are ladies guides too, you know :D

Grazer hard at work, paving our way up..

Some melted glacier on the way

 

Grazer checking the ablation pole

The ablation pole was used to measure how much the glacier had melted. He did mentioned the melting rate, but I have forgotten by now :P

One slit that we saw

Grazer testing the glacier

Me inside one ;)

 Around the glacier, there was also abundance of mud that fit to be made as face mask. Those that have some plastic handy were allowed to take some back. Since we have a spare bottle, we decided to take some back too... :)

Free mud spa supply!!

kaki ku harus enterframe!!!

the melted glacier makes small streams all around

Cute kan?

After some 3 hours later, we started descending. The little hike up the glacier was tiring but definitely was worth it!!

By the time we got back to the guiding company, it was already 3 pm. I will continue the journey in the next post :) till then ciao!!!

D-1: Series of events that makes me wanna vomit blood...

D-1 (2nd Feb 2012)


0550 : Woke up, took a bath, wait for Suboh. Start packing right away after that.
0700 : Go to work. Reach ~ 0720 start working on monthly report right away.
0830 : Dash into the plant, quick discussion with Ops
0900 : Back to my desk, more emails replied
0950 : Make way to local clinic, gotta replenish my meds stock
1015 : Run some last minute banking business
1030 : Pick up laundry
1040 : Back in office to handover duty
1100: Chair a meeting
1155 : Meeting ends, speed like a mad lady to Seremban
1225 : Got into Immigration office, confirmed my passport was not even close to ready!! There was like a gazillion people in the office. Buat muka nak nangis, ask for their help, I need my passport tomorrow morning, pronto!! An officer promised that they'll try to work on it, have to come back at 5
1300 : Mad lady episode 2 back to PD
1335 : Got into the office, managed to settle some stuffs
1410 : Enter another meeting, (sneak in and out in between to settle some stuffs)
1535 : Meeting ends, finally I can do some work.
1600 : Got a call from Immigration, was told to be there at 5
1630 : Pack things, told my SV I need to leave despite owing him one more thing. Promise to send him tonight
1700 : Dropped by the house, I accidentally left the GPS
1715 : Starts raining on the way to Seremban
1730 : Seremban is flooded, water came out of nowhere, major road flooded.
1740 : Finally made it to the Immigration Office, passport not ready yet, still have to wait.
1800 : Finally, its done. Make my way out, next stop KL
1810 : Took quite a detour, some roads in Seremban was just flooded!!
1830 : Enter PLUS. stopped at R&R Seremban, bought some pau to keeps the hunger pang controlled.
1930 : Reached KL
2030 : Made way to Low Yat
2115 : Frantically search that GPS kiosk!! Where is it?  I thought there were a lot of it!! Found one at the escalator, send to update map.
2200 : Done!! Ija told to meet at her office, follow her back to Bukit Jelutong
2245 : Stop for dinner (waktu ni memang dah nak muntah sangat..!!)
2330 : Reach Ija's house, clean up and start completing the work that I owe my SV 


D (3rd Feb 2012)
0130 : Emailed my SV on the ppt material
0220 : (Now).... update blog..

My life for the past few days has been drama. I sent my passport to be renewed in PD's office on Monday. They promised me 3 days (Wednesday) as they need to send to Seremban. I called on Wednesday morning, asked to call back after 2pm. When I called at 3pm, they told me the system has been down for the past two days, and they could not guarantee when I can get my passport!!! Rasa nak nangis OK, I need that passport Friday early morning, there is no freaking way I can go to any office to collect my passport :( Since they sent it to Seremban, I called Seremban's office, same answer, system down, passport not ready.

I was calling quite a few times since I was disconnected for a few times as well. Finally an officer asked me to go to the office on Thursday and they will try to work something out.
So, as mentioned above, that was how my Thursday goes~~

And today in few hours, I will be flying to the land of the middle earth, Legolas, wait for me!!!

ku sangka 1...rupanya 2...

(kak tek tulih bahasa omputih, ai tulih BM plak..hehehe...)

Well, this is actually something that we (a bunch of colleagues and I) did over last weekend. I signed up for this expedition last 2 months and that is why I missed a wedding. The XPDC was to conquer Gunung Irau (in Brinchang) and Gua Tempurung.

We started from PD on Friday afternoon around 5pm, right from the office. We got stuck at the PLUS highway KL-Damansara stretch during the peak hours and only reached hotel in Brinchang around 12 am. We settled in and grouped back the next day at 8.30 am to start our journey. A bus took us to the 'starting point', and we started walking uphill from there. Some 1.5 hours later we reached the actual 'starting point'. Reason that we were dropped off at the bottom of the hill is because bus could not reach that place. So the flipside of it, we already had our warm up!! And yours truly has already been in and out of breath countless times!! 



me at the back, catching my breath!!

And then, after reaching the real starting point, the guide somehow was explaining a trail that will lead back to the hotel, we were like ??? Aren't we supposed to go all the way up to Gunung Irau? Apparently there has been miscommunication between him and his office about our detail itenary. We decided there and then, that we want to go to Irau, it will be 3 hours climb up and another 3 hours journey back down.

At ~10.00 am we started climbing and stumbled upon few other climbers going down. Around some 30 mins from the peak we were told by the downcoming climbers that Gunung Irau has two peaks!! One is 'baby' Irau and the other one is the real Irau. Both are at the same height. So we got to 'baby' Irau around 12.30pm and took some 30 mins break. We took a vote how many people wanted to proceed to real Irau, and majority were. The catch is we have to go down at certain point and climb up again, for another 40 mins. Some of the guys decided to stay put in 'baby' Irau till we came back and get them. 

muka maintain lagi ni...

all the ladies during the expedition ;)

yeay!!! kami sampai!!



So by 2.30 pm, we reached the real Irau peak!! After having some group photos, we went back to 'baby' Irau to pick up the others and start our journey back. This is when all the leg muscle starts to response, its a bit pain here and there and I was glad that I completed the journey without any drama. My last mountain climbing activites, I have people help me carrying my backpack when we are almost to the peak, or we got lost on the way down. We reached down to starting point at around 5.30pm. This time we were too tired to walk down to the bus pick up point, so we took a ride on local jeep to get down :)

tukang kutip sayur baru nak start shift...

That night, we had a steamboat dinner, walked through Brinchang's night market and retired with very painful muscle joints. The next day, we are up for another adventure, Gua Tempurung.

By bus, we depart from Brinchang at 9.00 am and reached there around 10.00 am. After some briefing, we were guided in at 10.30am. We took the dry and wet route and there were a few points that is quite challenging. 

dengar briefing ke mengendap?? hhmm...



 

Lighting were not so good, but we cavemen manage to look good still :)



There is this one point, they named it 'Top of the World', it a 9m solid rock and we have to slide down. The tricky part is there is certain techniques we have to follow and failing that, you'll risk breaking your leg, scary huh?? but Alhamdulillah , we all managed to go through. Then we are off to the watery part of the cave, we crawl, we slide, we squat, we squeeze in between those wet rocks, we did everything just to get through, and of course, no camera inside. I actually did not brought my camera as in the group, there are lots of pro photographer, we just waited to be shot ;)

At around 1pm we got out and after cleaning ourselves, we head back to PD. Reached PD at 7.00pm with some stops in between. Now my body is still aching, but still bearable, will I go again? Maybe..hehehe...

So in the end we thought we are conquering 1 peak, but turns out we got 2 (yang baby pon kira tau..;p)

Day Trip : Worth It!!

1st July 2010

When we consulted the house admin on how to get to certain places, we found out that we could not go to this one particular place, Cape Point, which I really really really wanted to go. Reason being is that there is no public transport going there and both of us do not have international driving license to hire a car. So she suggested we follow on a day tour. I found out about that in the net but at first I thought it was not worth it. But seeing the difficulties that we faced, I am willing to take the tour.

So we paid R545 for a day tour. The driver pick us up at the house around 0830H and later went on to pick up the rest of the pack. We have with us 2 French ladies, one American guy, 2 Indian guy, 2 more American (a guy with his father..sweet kan? but he's married, - yup, I checked the finger, boleh? hehehe...) 2 German guy, a Korean kid (he's still in uni) and a Columbian lady.

Our tour guide, Alex, is very good, he was willing to answer all kind of question. From him we found out that the train rail to Simons Town are out of order, that is why we could only got to Fish Hoek the other day (even people at the station didn't think to tell us that..)

So off we go to our first destination, Hout Bay with options to go to seal island. Both me and Ija went there already via Blue route yesterday, but we did not go to the seal island. So this time, we did. The boat is big but the waves are more nasty, turbulent waves to get to the island. There were few moments that I thought I would have thrown up. The island is not actually an island. Its just a big rock where most of the seals rested.

We bumped into a group of Indonesian that is being sponsored by Coca Cola to watch the World Cup (they won contest maybe..)

Next to Simons Town to visit the penguins, yay!! But we passed by this cliff with magnificent view and stopped to take some pictures,

Nak amik mcm aida, tapi salah shot..;)

We also passed by this part of the Cape Peninsular, they actually drilled onto the hill to make road. It look pretty scary though..

We finally hit Simons Town, we passed by the stone factory that was once used during Amazin Race Asia (the challenge where they have to find 3 marked stone out of thousands other stones) but we did not stopped there. Simons Town is popular of its Boulder's Beach, that is the place where they keep the African Penguin. The birds on its own will destroy their own food by stamping on it, so the center actually put a fence to new plants and opened parts by parts once the plants are ready to be eaten. (Yes, they ate plants apart from fishes..I just knew it too..) Entrance fee is R35 but included in the tour already.

Last but not least is what I have been waiting for, Cape Point!! We got there around 1330H, just about lunch time. At it is included in the package. We did asked for vege menu, as we are not sure what kind of meat that they have. We combined with another van (same co. tour) and the other driver bought us chicken salami, it was nicely wrapped. I told Ija just take it, sebab orang dah belikan, so just being polite, we took the chicken and later left it at the house pantry.

Entrance fee to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve was R70 but it was paid for (in the package). We were driven to the cable car station going up to the light house. There is also staircase for those who opt to do a 'healthier' way. Me and Ija climbed up with majority of the people. The view from the light house was magnificent!!

Next we cycled from the Cape Point to the Cape of Good Hope. It was around half and hour cycle downhill. On the way we bumped into ostrich and baboon. We were told not to stop as babboon can get really nasty. We took more pictures here, more here.

We got home exhausted, like any other day and crash to a really good nite sleep ;)

Candak Sotong Weh!!!

Always wanted to do this since I watched Majalah 3 back in school days. So when my friend Jija offered me to join she and her ex-classmate, I jumped right in ;)

We depart from KL at 10pm on Friday nite. Believe it or not this is my first time taking bus at Hentian Putra (I don't have that many east coast connection). Reach KT around 5 am and Jija's friend, Baya pick us up and we crashed at her place in Hulu Terengganu. Later that day around 3.30 pm, we made a move to Jeti Lembaga Perikanan at Chendering (some 20 minutes away from KT).

.

There were 8 of us altogether, another 3 girls were Jija's classmate, and the rest were friend of one of the classmate. Simply put, I went on this adventure with total strangers (apart from Jija)

We depart around 5.00 pm. The boat is quite comfortable, handled by 3 men. It has its own pantry, sleeping place, 2nd tier sleeping place, and a place to do 'small business'. I dare not do 'big business' in the open sea ;p

We heard the pakcik were betting how long can we survived without falling sick. According to the non first timers, last time they went, they threw up almost immediately after the boat moves. This time we took the anti-seasick meds. So we were still smiling and laughing till we reach the target area, some 1.5 hours away from the jetty.

.

The pakcik help us all to set up the 'candat' and taught us how to 'candat' sotong (squid fishing). The guys gets the first squid, none of the girls gets any yet, and the skies quickly turned dark.

I was getting seasick, my friend Jija has already vomitted twice. I could not look for fear I will feel sick too.

.

One of the pakcik prepared dinner, it was white rice, with kari ayam and fresh fried squid. I took a taste at the squid, but I could not even finish one small pieces. I can feel that it sort of get stuck in my throat. I know that if I continues eating, high chance that I will throw up. With that I did not eat dinner. The rest was happily digging in (except for 2-3 of us). The fresh squid actually tasted sweet, its a pity I could not digest it.

Happy faces gets to eat!!

At close to 10pm, I finally managed to catch my one and only squid!! I caught the medium sized, the other guy gets the biggest. The length is from his hand to this elbow, that long!!

See how big it is? Compare to the ones that we see in the market..

After around 12pm nobody gets any squid anymore, there were few occasion, the squid was eaten by big fish, hence scared the rest of the squid to come nearby us. One of the pakcik suggested we change venue. We move to another area where he sets baits for fish. We ends up getting two big fish.

Me posed with one of the fishes, a haruan tasik, weighted 35 pounds (~15 kg)

It took the pakcik and his friends almost 30 minutes fighting with the fish before we can actually brought it up. That was around 4 am in the morning.

Come 6 am, we were preparing to get back to Jetty, again one of the pakcik (seriously I don't know their name...sorry..) fried us the squid, and this time I can eat it. The plate was swipped clean by us in no time ;)

Hungry people early in the morning....

Group pics as soon as we made on shore safely ;)

As both Jija and I traveled by bus, we could not bring back any bounty. Plus, we have to rush back to KL. The rest went on to Baya's house, and I think they barbecued the squids and fish.

Baya drop us in KT, Jija and I showered backpackers style, at a surau, before we went to Pasar Payang to buy some keropok lekor to bring back. We also sampled some local delicacies, but most of it are too sweet for my taste buds.

I left Terengganu that day with a new adventure, I plan to make a family trip back here again and maybe go for another 'candak sotong' adventure.

This is my favorite picture, taken at almost sunrise, explains one thing the best, Serenity...