share with you all

just got a photo from a fren... can't wait to share with all of you... hehehe... i brought someone up to the summit that day too... here it is:



it's my beloved teddy bear!!! he accompanied me to go up all the way! :P

i figured if i cannot be the first to be up there, i wanna be the first to bring teddy bear up there... hehehehe... :P

(and someone adds: i look like Digi-yellowman "I will follow you..." all the way up to mount KK! :P)

photo storytelling

2 years ago, i returned to Penang with this black and white cert - which stated the peak is 4095.2m, but i only managed to hike up some 3272m...


i didn't really felt defeated, cause i knew myself, i am just not fit to finish that task.

so 2 years later, last week, i returned to KL with this beautiful full colored, embossed cert, that stated i have made it to the peak...


first, we have to register ourselves at the Kinabalu Park head quarter near Timpohon. and outside its office, we could see our destination quite clearly that day...


above the clouds, there where we wanted to go:

Mount KK summit.

taking the route as illustrated here in this postcard:

I took 3 hours from Laban Rata Resthouse (the brightest spot on the postcard), follow exactly the white dotted line to Low's Peak (the highest peak).

and shortly after the sunrise, on my way down Low's peak, i snapped this photo:

it is magnificent, no? this is the Kinabalu South peak. and i think this is the most beautiful peak of all.

scratch off 1 item from my list of things to do before i die.

~ 3rd May 2007 thursday 5.30am ~

ya, and this time i finally stepped on Low's Peak, the highest summit of Mount Kinabalu.



on 4095.2m above sea level, i was thrilled to tears.

no no, it is definitely nothing tough for physically fit ppl, but it is an achievement, personal achievement for myself.



i was standing on the spot of these 2 ppl in the photo... 5.05am... 0.5km away from the highest peak... my mind was telling me to give up, it was too tiring, your legs would suffer so much, you are out of breath... but my heart was telling me the other things, that your friends are all waiting up there for you, the sun is about to rise, and you will regret if you give up now... so my feet kept on moving, step by step...

the day before this dusk, i have walked some 8.2km of trails through Mesilau route all the way to Laban Rata, where we stayed a night. i was carrying 10.5kg bag, panting ever so heavily every 100m... it was raining the last half of the hike, i was too tired to even rest for a snack or a sip of water. so in about 7 hours and 40 minutes of walking on my sore feet, i reached Laban Rata by 4pm.

when the white resthouse appeared before me, memory caught me - 2 years ago, i WAS here too! that time, my right knee was killing me, as if my knee cap was going to drop any minute... i knew then i could not make it to the summit due to the injury... which was true, the next morning 2 years ago i was watching my other teammates getting ready to conquer and wishing them goodlucks! bad news hit us that morning that due to heavy rain we were all forbid to go up to summit... boo... SO, this was my second attempt!! seeing that white resthouse - LABAN RATA, has so much meanings for me!!

we rest for a night, and by 2.30am, we were again hiking from Laban Rata with our head lamp, 3 layers of jackets, track pant, a bottle of "energy-boosting" plain water and a bar of snicker. it was dark and crowdy. everyone was walking slowly, perhaps haven't recovered from the pain we got from the previous hike... we followed each other's footprints slowly but nonstop, expected a hard climb of 3 hours, or more, to reach the summit before sunrise.

so, after so much hard work, on that spot i was stadning, my heart told my mind... YOU JUST CANNOT QUIT NOW!!!You just has to finish that damn 0.5km!!!!



Here i am, i told myself on the signpost that marked 4095.2m Low's Peak, i felt like i could achieve just anything! the chilling winds were blowing, but my heart was warm. no word can describe my feelings and the stunning views from the peak... no photo can fully depict the grand view of the huge granite rock that i was standing on... i just felt like everyone has to do it once in their lifetime. so, here i scratch out 1 item from the list of things to do before i die - i have no regret!!! :)))



(photos are from http://www.mysabah.com/ and not my own... when i got my photos from others' cameras, i will post them up!!)

WORLD VISION finding sponsors for 5,000 children

Dear friends of World Vision,

Thank you for your help in spreading the word about our mission in finding sponsors for 5,000 children this year.

You may be pleased to know that as at 20 March, 2,190 out of the 5,000 children have been sponsored by kind Malaysians.

However, 2,810 children are still waiting. If we can find sponsors for 15 children each day, beginning today, by the end of 2007, all 2,810 children will be given a chance to break the vicious cycle of poverty.

If you are receiving this email for the first time, we invite you to spread the word by emailing the following e-card to your family & friends.

Every effort helps.
Thank you!

 

Warm regards,
World Vision Malaysia
www.worldvision.com.my
Tel: 03-7880 6414

 

Korea - 2nd day, part 3

The blue trail

it is sorta recreational trail, not much adventure really. tall trees, calm stream runs through valley, maple leaves on rocky routes, crystal clear pond... i guess i'll just let the photos do the talking:

silhouette of maple leaf and hue of maple colours

jade green pond, although the signboard said otherwise (it says the water is supposed to look BLUE). and me posing.

the walkway...

a look at the valley

A maple leaf trapped between rocks at the bottom of the clear pond.

Since it only took us a little less than 45 minutes to complete this trail, we still have some time for the red trail.

The red trail


now, this is how maple leaves turn red.

the bleeding tree. no photoshop here, it was THIS red!

maple leaves that we missed... if only we arrived 2 or 3 days earlier we would be able to catch up with the full red! but i guess nothing is going to be perfect, so i was contented to pose near this tree:

the low angle view of the tree trunk...

colourful patches of colours resembling the pattern of army uniform appear on the trunk... a very close look.

the veiny me posing before leaving this place...

we decided to leave this haven for all the hustle and bustle of city... we didn't complete the red trail due to time constrain. on the way out, we saw this banner:
cute cartoon characters eh... since the information booth has already opened, i jokingly asked the lady there whether the bears really appear. she answered almost impulsively "yes, they sometimes come out for food!" me and sis looky at each other, held our breath for a while... bloody hell, if only i know Korean to be able to read the signboards, we should have been more cautious!! hahahaha.... luckily we didn't become FOOD for the bears... :P then again, judging from the drawing on the banner, the bears look super-friendly to me.... maybe they are vegetarians??? yeah right. haha.

on our way back to the homestay, we came across this tree:
we have seen these trees all over the hills, people's gardens, roadsides along our bus journey here... we figured it should be persimmon, but we were not sure cause some of the fruits were so big and in heart shape.... mmmm.... but this tree here the fruits look like persimmon no doubt... and we were even more sure when we saw the shop kidna hanged these fruit to wind-dry them... later they would process them into biscuit form for sale... tried this round shape one, very sweet and juicy... but the heart/love shape one is big, but not so sweet and a bit hard and dry... hehe.


we went up to our room to pack our bags, at the same time the ajumma helped us call taxi to go to nogodan, another peak in the Jirisan national park. when the taxi arrived, we realized it's just a normal jeep, maybe belongs to the relative of this ajumma.... but nevermind lah, as long as we got the transport to leave this small town. we paid another Won25,000 (RM100) just to hop on this 30 minutes ride to the other hiking spot.... damn... so expensive!!!

it was a very bumpy trip, me and my sis felt almost wanna throw out already... when we arrived, we were so happy to just ran out from the jeep for some fresh air!!!........

(to be continued)

Korea - 2nd day, part 2

After having breakfast, we walked out, the cold breeze was tolerable after a hot bowl of soup and some spicy kimchi. so me and my sister started to look for any signboard that's useful to us.

but of coz, the scenery along the road was so nice, we couldn't stop snapping photos. until we finally saw another signboard at the end of the street, we stopped...

It is of no use to us again, coz there's no english words again except that bloody Jirisan National Park... hell, of coz we know it's Jirisan!! but anyway, at least, we kinda knew where our exact spot was by then... see the close-up:


Then after a few more steps, we arrived at the tourist info booth but maybe because it's still too early (it must be only 6.30am or so)... but from there, we finally saw the entrance to the national park... so protocol, photo must be taken!

And finally this time we saw more English words... haha, and finally get to know the story of this Baemsagol Valley... i'll just let the pictures tell the stories...

and then we got to see this signboard which highlights the 2 routes that we can take and the time needed...

both trails need about 1 hour to complete, but we decided to take the blue trail first because we have very limited time and the blue trail will bring us back to the entrance but the red trail will bring us to the other point, and we probably will need another 1 hour back from there...

so off we go, we walked along the blue trail.... crossed the bridge, and walked towards the camping site...

If you see it from the other side, maple trees of different colors appear before your eyes... it's really great just to be there and the feeling was indescribable... so, again, a photo has to be taken!!

I was a happy boy with all these purple, red, yellow, orange, green maple leaves surrounding me... it felt magical!!
of course it wasn't as "bloody" red as i expected them to be, but the splash of so many colours amazed me a lot! i think it's better than a monotonous full of red. :)

ASEACC

3rd Annual South East Asia Cinema Conference

Have just attended this 4 days conference from last thursday until sunday, so exhausting but definite gain a lot and see a lot. Not only i get more ideas in writing my PhD thesis, also it strengthen my will to shoot my own production soon.

comparing this conference to the previous one i attended in Korea, this one is definitely more focused - it only talked about cinema and film. speakers were allocated more time and interactions. the topics and area of discussion were so diversed - ranged from Filipino to Vietnamese's films, from independent digital filmmaking to queer cinema, from urban identities to sexuality. Not only the topics are diversed, the format of the conference too impressed me - a good combination of academic presentations, panel discussion with festival people, workshop with indie filmmakers...

i truly enjoyed the conference. next year it will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia. hope i can present paper next time.

Korea - 2nd day, part 1

26th October 2006

WOKE UP, for a moment i forgot i was already in Korea... next thing i noticed was my 2 legs were numb... and my whole body was so cold, freezing cold... i tried to touch my legs, they were as cold as ice i can hardly feel the warmth of the blood at all... then i suddenly realized, gosh i AM in Korea, and i remembered very well the night before the room was as hot as an oven!! must be the bloody ajumma and ajoshi switched off the heater already, so damn cold.

checked the clock, it's 4.30am... damn, still a long time to dawn... i quickly took out my long john and put them on, took another blanket and covered myself... still too cold... i took out 2 sets of socks and put them on too... now i felt my bladers were full too... couldn't help i have to make that trip... i quickly put on my jeans (i still have the long john on)... i walked out and felt myself has become so clumsy... i entered the not-so-clean toilet, couldn't help... quickly squat down, GOSH my butt could feel the cold air... but it has to be done...

*here skip 2 paragraphs of details* haha

after about 15 minutes finally i got all my business done coz the day before i have never "done" it, i probably fell sick for that, that's why i have to get it all out... ok, too much details i guess, haha! then i tried to flush... it's a very old-school flush system... once... flaaaaa.... didn't really work... i stood there and wait for another 3 minutes for it to refill... then flushed again.... flaaaaa.... didn't work too... another 3 minutes... flaaaaa.... still not working... i got fed up, so i went to the bathroom next door, took the pile and filled it up with water and manually flushed the **** down... hahaha... finally...

when i got back to the room, it must be about 5.15am already... my sister was sitting up looking at me... i thought she must have felt too cold too... hahaha... i went in our bathroom to check... damn, no hot water too... i quickly washed my face with the icy tap water, changed into my winter clothing, haha, and cursed the bloody ajumma... hahaha... i should not curse... i didn't , i just exaggerating...

after just a short while, the sun come out and it's all shiny and everything, i looked out the window, mmm... there's actually river and brigde just opposite our homestay and it's actually quite pretty... i could see a few maple trees from the room already... me and my sis decided that no point we stayed in the room. it's so cold, we might as well just walk out and look around and perhaps find some breakfast to eat.

so around 6am, we walked down the stair and to the street... here in the photos, the red arrow is pointing to the room we were staying. and this street is the only street in this small town, or so we thought...



and this is the river that i talked about... pretty or not??


then i saw this big signboard which illustrates the whole Jirisan...

when i took a closer look, it is not really helpful at all because... you guess it right again! - NO ENGLISH... sigh... the only 5 English words are "information of Chiri National Park". Don't worry, we were not in the wrong park, Chiri and Jiri are the same... unlike Cheongju and Jeonju they are different!!! so damn confusing!! sometimes "ch" can replace "j", sometimes it can't!!! gosh... hahaha! so since it's not really of any use to us, we walked down the street hoping to find breakfast... i got too hungry and decided we just go back to the ajumma's place for breakfast...

when we walked in the restaurant, the ajumma was still sleeping on the heated floor... reminded me of how i was waken up by the coldness... damn... the ajoshi was smoking with another ajoshi, either a friend or a guest and he quickly woke up the ajumma... we walked up the wooden floor... awwww... so warm... (bloody hell)... we sat down, the ajumma just did her eating gesture, we nodded... and she didn't even bother to ask us what we want to eat and walked straight into the kitchen... haha, i guess she has figured out that we couldn't communicate anyway, so she just made her own decision of what we should eat. hahaha...

and tada, you can all see the picture above... that's our breakfast... the truth is the beansprout soup was super nice because it's hot!! just nice for my empty cold stomach!! but the kimchi... hahaha, again they were too hot for me! i didn't finish all, i don't really eat breakfast... somemore it's 6am so early... and Malaysia time was only 5am!

we took our time to eat, coz it's really cold outside... after we have finished, we paid, if i'm not wrong, won10000 or RM40... and then, we started our first travel itinerary - Baemsagol Valley, Jirisan Park...

just a teaser, so that you stay tune... this is one of the picture we snapped there...

from now on, there will be a lot of photos... so many that you will beg me to stop... hahaha... so, stay tune!!! coming soon...