On the run, On the blob *updated*

Updates: I finished the run. Yay! So proud of myself. I tend to give up midway or an hour in and do a u-turn out. It was the good company that kept me going. That helps a lot. I have lots of events to attend this week. Will up date soonish. This week's skip along will be in conjunction with Singapore's National Day, August 9 , we will be dressed in Red and White on the run or at the On On. Here are more pictures and mind you, we look our worse when hashing...kinda scruffy looking...think I forgotten to shave that day :P. The pictures will sort of depict a guide to the social life of an early man and I threw in a surprise for you readers as well! Hah!

Not-so-old news:In an hour fifteen, I will have to run the hills of Diplo. Not too energetic about it as I am on the blob. Sun, sweat, mud, streams, twigs, bugs, all I have to combat as I storm into the woods. I spotted a chameleon in the woods once but have not seen a komodo or monitor lizard yet and I do hope it will not show itself today as it can sniff blood from miles and hunt me down.










SURPRISE! Ya didn't think I was gonna throw in a picture of my part time job as a track girl at the autoshows, did'cha?

Smack me with a telephone directory

I have three assignments due in…(choose to not remember dates), hence the very appropriate title to my post. Nikki said most of the postings on my blog are ‘too serious'. Thanks for your feedback Nikki and here are some Eskimo Kisses for you, just the way you like it. Now, the little fun post dedicated to my already wide range of audience. I’m going to start with some statistics:

Over half (56%) of women polled said they would be more than happy to propose to their boyfriend, with seven in ten women day-dreaming of getting married at least once a day. (So ladies, to pop or not to pop, that is the big Q!)

Low fat camel's milk chocolate is due to hit shelves.(Yes, you read right, camel it is.)

Now an official line up on how uneventful my day went:

6.00 am: Ti, ti, ti, ti, ti (mobile alarm)
6.15 am: Ti, ti, ti, ti, ti (snooze)
6.30 am: Shower and replace bands on my braces
7.10 am: Drive to work in my 4X4
7.20 am: Temperature scans 35.7 deg cel.
7.30 – 12.30 pm: Work mode + trying to spot the 6 min solar eclipse
12.30 – 2.15pm: Cook instant noodle + NAP
2.30 – 4pm: Back to the office
4.00 – 6pm: REST
7.00 – 11 pm: On air 95.9FM
12. 40 am – now: blog posting + Tim Tam Slam

Done with my very electrifying itinerary above, now time for some pictures of...Yeap you've guessed it!

Nikki did my make up. She gave me the elegant/innocent look. Pic taken by Devin. HEARTS.
Pretending to sleep in the terminal. Aww... look at those cute toes! KISS.(massage pls)
I was an extra in one of the scenes of the Bollywood movie. Pic taken by Rano.

Ngirup tuak - Gawai Festival

The smell of Tuak(s) is/are like perfumes, some you love, others are acceptable and some you loathe them! Does Tuak smell like armpits to you? I can bring to mind the smell of Tuak in my shot glass that night. I made sure I was not hallucinating. It seems to me like Tuak is made from rice, stuffed in the armpits while you do some vigorous exercise for many weeks. Mind you, that is just one of the 5/6 senses to deal with; the taste on the other hand is unbearable (for me). Wiki describes Tuak as ‘an alcoholic beverage made of fermented rice, yeast and sugar and drunk in Borneo and East Malaysia. The beverage is a popular drink among the Ibans of Sarawak during the Gawai festivals. The same word is used for other drinks in Indonesia, for example the palm wine of the Batak people of North Sumatra.’
Somehow my description of tuak has upset many indigeneous people and now knows why my write up has been declined by Wikipedia. That night, the wannabe natives and I did our task in the décor department hanging banana leaves around the premises. Celebrated 1st June, known as the harvest festival,we sang, dance and drank just like New Year and Christmas. It was a truly remarkable experience for me.

Tossing for LOVE

Mom, typical Chinese lady from Ipoh, small town, big family. I spoke to her recently about the hype of this Ba Chang festival. I went to two Chinese restaurants and ba changs were all sold out. She told me ladies who throw ba chang out into the sea are those seeking for love, a husband perhaps. Mom, lady with so many made-up theories, you can never quote her on it. I may not agree with mom but I have to say I like the idea of it. There are a number of theories about the origin of this Ba Chang Festival. But before we get into that, let me describe the perfect ba chang filling that would make my day. It has got to be in a pyramidal shape, I don’t like those in rectangular form. It has to have half a salted egg or duck egg. There must be no peanuts! No chestnuts! Mushroom is a must and pork is mandatory. That’s how I like it. Now back to my very limited knowledge of Chinese folklore, Raymond whom I had lunch with told me tossing ba chang into the sea is to ward off disease or evil. It made perfect sense to me as I tried to sense a collective nostalgia of what my Popo or Kung Kung would have said to me as a form of their folklore. But really after a lot of googling, the reason why we toss ba chang out into the sea is because of this ONE MAN! He must be someone really special innit to have people all over the world do that. Here is one of the many theories of the origin. It is meant to honor Qu Yuan (340-278 BC.), the pioneer poet of ancient China. Qu Yuan was a famous poet who was also concerned about the fate of his government. Unfortunately his stature aroused the jealousy of the king, who banished him to a remote area. The poet despaired of the government and its policies. When the state's capital was captured by enemies, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River (on May 5th according to the Chinese lunar calendar). The Chinese people felt this loss deeply, as he was a much beloved poet. Local folk searched for him in the river, meanwhile dropping dumplings of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves into the river in order to keep the fishes from attacking Qu Yuan's body.

Another story I heard had something to do with the king’s mistress. The King’s interests were in wine, women and songs. And this man who cared for the kingdom delivered his advice to the king but it fell on deaf ears. He drowned himself as a way of proving to the king that the intention of the King’s mistress was not genuine and to create bad blood in the kingdom. There are so many different takes on it but I have to say mom’s story really hit the roof. All my friends laughed as I told my family’s version of the story. It was a good day nonetheless; we had fun, watched the sunset, made a wish and toss our ba chang into the sea. Raymond challenged me in a game of making an egg sit. It is one of the many other traditional activities that are still practiced in this festival.

The future of Sarawak's Penan

Last week’s charity skip along took us past rows of bright, glossy, firm Asian cucumber-like gourd known to me today as Angled Luffas. I met some of the farmers working on their crops and it was sun down. Never have I seen such dedicated farmers in my years of living. The walk along the beach shores had a gorgeous view but it made us clamped our nose. I can bring to mind the smell that drifted through the air. It smelt like salty dead fish, seaweed and Joey’s cologne drenched in sweat. What really hit me hard in that week’s skip along was the slide show projected in the woods of the Rapier Range. The commitment of two expat English teachers in Brunei that I had newly acquainted with spoke to me about the Penan children of Sarawak, part of their Borneo Project. The Penans have one of the lowest rates of education in Malaysia with 40% never attended primary school and 90% never made it to secondary school. L&M had dedicated their off-hours offering assistance to the Penan of Sarawak. The stories made my heart weep and I sponsored a Penan child for a year that night, this would help in his/her medical and educational needs. I was amazed with L’s accomplishments. She has written a set of story books in native Penan language and had distributed them to indigenous preschools. This would help the children to slowly make a transition to public schools taught in English and Malay, languages they are unfamiliar with.
The Penan are the last surviving hunter-gatherer tribe in South-East Asia, they have received more international attention than the other tribes of Sarawak. There are about 10,000 Penan in all, around 350-500 are nomadic but due to the impact of logging on their lands, less than sixty families are now able to continue the traditional way of life . The rest are either semi-nomadic or live in settlements. Life for the Penan is now extremely difficult because of the destruction of their forests.

An escape to AmiriCA

I did an escape to the border today. Drove my way past 30 hectares of burnt land that supposedly happened over the last two weeks. The sight of the post bush fire somewhat looked like it was caused by man. With the vast land, illegal farming activity is suspected and ignition risk is predicted. But really, I like to rewind the story and take you into my border experience. With the AH1N1 at loose, both the Malaysia and Brunei borders stationed health officers at location. The Brunei border carried out verbal Q & A on where did you come from, are you feeling well and were you from the airport check. The Malaysian border however distributed yellow A4 sized paper with two sections, one of which was about identity and the other was a health related check. I did section A easily but just as I got to section B, I tuned out. It was written in the Malay language and no translation were given. Its not because the language used was complex but the real problem is that the questions were lengthy and required a lot more comprehensible input. Essay type questions for a health check? Really it should have been easy straight to the point questions or maybe, just maybe, this virus is deadlier than I thought. I guess the sold out hand sanitizers might have added up to the hype.

So now its 202

Yes, I have not been blogging. I have got 101 + another 101 reasons to why I have been MIA. Its not easy being me that's for sure and I don't just say this because its a line used by most people these days but I genuinely mean it. The issue with my blog and I is that we would like to share so much but an ounce of peace was what we opted for. It seemed to us that the kick start to type was like an enemy we had to gun down. Funny that because I have written numerous essays months before and months to come. Essays? Yes like 1500 word write ups and books as high as Shahbandar Hill to put my nose on. The ICELT is currently what I'm busy waging wars on. Fortunately, the fight will end in September just in time for my natal silver jubilee anniversary. This is however depressing because through my adolescent years, my aim was to get hitched at 25. Time is chasing up on me and suitors are low in supply. How can we overcome my demand? When equilibrium is not met? Let me put this into another context, just as Obama celebrated his first 100th days, swine flu affair sets in and the principal obstacle is the lack of vaccines. Which is equitable to: I am the swine and the lack of vaccines are my suitors. Politically romantic implicated much?! The deprivation bubble I bum in is taking a toll on me. I will stop here for some ounce of peace to charm in again. Till my next post, bless me with some love and disco sticks.

Will Gayana be next?

Manukan Island. This is one of the popular resorts at Kota Kinabalu and is the second largest of the five tropical islands. The island is known for its sandy white beaches and snorkeling. Being the backpacker I am, discovering things on my own, I didn't sign up on the tour packages but instead went on doing what I like to do which is exploring. With that I saved at least a 100 bucks.
What we had to pay for:
RM 50 - Boat ride back and forth per person
RM 20 - For goggles, snorkel and life vest (but you can rent them at the island itself at a cheaper price). You can pay a bit more for flippers if you want to swim faster.
RM 50 - Take away food for 13 people at one of the food stalls. Not bad. Unless you want to dine at one of the restaurants or buy the package tour.

* Note that we had to deal with an agent from Jesselton Point but do make sure you have proper goggles. Otherwise, you might be unlucky to get sea water leaking inside your goggles while snorkeling.

We didn’t try rafting and the banana boat looked tempting. Maybe next time? I, however, tried the parasailing (RM180 for 10 mins —> expensive aye?) but I really enjoyed the 10-minute parasailing. Two thumbs up. A friend of mine had a bad experience with the parasail in Empire. It may be cheaper but I do NOT recommend you to Parasail there after hearing the story, imagine falling high up from the sky crashing into the sea. Because their motor got jammed?! That's just mad. Inexperience. Which was why I rather pay a lot more for my safety.

All in all, it was great fun especially the snorkeling bit. A recommended island to visit if you happen to be in KK.

I have never seen a dozen shades of green!

Although we didn't get a change to get hold of the KNK Passport provided by our friendly neighbourhood officers at the Tourism Department, we felt that the feeling of satisfaction is more than enough to leave a stamp in our heart. It is my second trip to Temburong. First one was strictly work related with some emceeing job I had to do and this second one is a strictly have-fun-go-wild-run-around-naked one. We took the monster truck to Limbang, crossed the ferry to Temburong. I know a lot of people are hoping for a bridge to be built so that it would be easily accessible, saves time as well and that's clearly understandable but its people like me that don't get to ride on ferries and is loving every second of the 2 minute ferry ride. Hey, if they put two ferries together, they don't actually need to build a bridge. I think two ferries connected is about the width of that river. We drove to the Trandie Marina Resort and took a longboat to the National Park, registered and paid $5 (comes with a park ranger). Then we disembarked into the best preserved tropical rainforest of Borneo. We climbed the very high scaffolding of the Canopy Walkway, the structure rises over 50 meters high on top of 850 meters high hill. That's from the ridge top to above the tree tops. Once you get to the top, all you can see is the amazing and panoramic view of the tropical rainforest, the clouds, the sounds of birds (you'll spot a few hornbills) and insects. The primary rainforest carpets about 78 percent of Brunei’s land area, most of which you can see from the Canopy Walk (Don't trust me, I tend to exaggerate).

Here is a video I made...Its really crappy. My first time using the video function in my camera. I didn't even know what to say! Please ignore my I love NY t-shirt. My sis bought it for me when she was living there.

Notes:
1. Please bring the OFF or any form of insect repellent.

2. Do not wear perfumes, bees will love you and you don't what that do you now?

3. 50 meters on a 850 meters hill, not recommended for people who are afraid of heights.

4.Once at the top, don't look down the forest floor, you'll feel dizzy. If its OK for you or you like the dizzying perspective then, look down...its amazing to know how high you've climb.

5. If you've not done any form of exercise, you'll NOT make it! Turn around and dip your feet in the river and wait for your buddies to get back and tell you all about their non-stop stories.

6. Oh yes, wear proper shoes, the track gets a little muddy.

7. If you missed out on it, don't meet your friends for 1 week because that's all they're going to talk about.

8. Have FUN!!!

The treehouse at Trandie Marina Resort. There are a few treehouses there and other abseiling activities.
The boat ride to the National Park, it was a whole lot of fun with the rapids. Recommended for rafting.
The Canopy Walkway above and the KNK logo. Photo by Spacemonkey. He was the first to reach the hilltop.
Sungai Apan waterfall. The water was soooo COLD! I kid you not. Photo again by Spacemonkey.