Saturday, February 23, 2008

Gunung Stong

Well finally only six people including myself were confirmed in going to Gunung Stong. We could not get train tickets so we had no choice but to drive,,.... the drive will take us to Bentong, Gua Musang and finally to Jelawang which is at the fringes of Kelantan.

The drive there was quite interesting..... we left at 10.30pm from Vads Plaza in TTDI where we picked up Azrul and his two pals. We reached the Bentung turnoff pretty quickly but there was a jam getting into Bentung Town. We where stuck like for more then 1 and a half hours…. My clutch leg was really killing me…. The Long Holiday exodus of Chinese New Year was really showing itself… there was a lot of cars on the road and we were averaging about 70 to 80 kph. We stopped at a petrol station for a toilet break only to find the queue so long we were there about half hour…

We took turns driving and thankfully we reached Jelawang town safely about 7.30am. Stopped for breakfast as Azrul called the guide to inform him of our arrival. Judy, Dono and me had coffee while the others had breakfast... the coffee tasted strange so i only had a few sips and thats it...

My odometer was showing slightly more then 400km (My petrol gauge is busted) so i decided that we shld get petrol..... we found out that the next petrol station was about 60km away.... but the shop owner informed us that we could buy petrol from a house nearby that had a small hand pump operated petrol tank.... before that we picked up our guide at a bus stop nearby.... Jani (our guide) then showed us to the house that sold petrol

check out the petrol pump.... very similar to the pumps in the 1920s

Part of the tour is to visit a few caves in that area. This was part of the reason I agreed to join this expedition. Turns out these caves are situated away from Jelawang, nearer to Dabong town. The caves were pretty good but not as nearly as good as Gunung Senyum and Jebak Puyuh….

After we got out to our cars all dirty and muddy we stopped at Dabong Town for lunch....

Thats Dabong Train Station in the background......

You can get a train at KTM and Central Station KL to Dabong station..... we couldn’t get tickets, being Chinese New Year and all everything was fully booked.... Wish we got tickets because driving here has made my legs ache like hell even before we reached Jelawang.... not to mention jumping around at The Police concert in Singapore.... my left (Clutch) leg was painful....... oh dear....


Jelawang Forest Reserve...... you can see most of the peaks which make up Gunung Ayam, Gunung Stong, Gunung Tera, Gunung Saji, Gunung Koh, Gunung Baha, Gunung Beirut and Gunung Che Tahir and Stong Waterfall from the Dabong Station.... you can do a six day hike to cover almost all the peaks but we were only hiking up Gunung Stong.. the most accessible of the bunch.......

After parking our cars and distributing the food among ourselves ..... it was time to start our 2 hour hike to Baha's Camp....... My legs were already giving way..... but i pushed on.... if i were you i wld make sure to come here by train instead of Driving.......

The waterfall was an awesome sight.... stunningly breathtaking.... powerfull......... the pictures dont do it justice.... you have got to be there ........... Halfway there..... i was holding everyone up.... but i think they didnt mind waiting for me to catchup....

my legs were cramping very badly.... i wobbled and jiggled my legs into place... inch by inch.... the guide let the others go ahead and assisted me.... he had those muscle spray thingys which he used on my legs....but that was useless….. about almost 200 meters to the entrance of Baha's camp...my legs just started shivering and cramping and locking stiff..... it took me an added 40 minutes or more, on top of the normal 2 hours to get to the camp..... Interestingly there is a tuck-shop of sorts which had soda up at Baha’s Camp... most importantly 100plus...... it wasnt iced but it was good.......

well I can go on and on but hey why don’t I let the photos do the talking….. Click HERE
to view more photos our trip to Gunung Stong…




The beautiful view as the sun rises on Baha's Camp



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mo






Friday, February 15, 2008

THE POLICE live in Singapore!!!

What a week I have had.... At the last minute we (Donovan, Rose and I) managed to snap up 3 tickets to go watch THE POLICE live in Singapore last 4th of Feb. The concert was pretty much sold out but due to the overwhelming ticket sales, they opened up the seats facing the back of the stage. The sound wasn’t too good and some of the stage lights move into different position throughout the concert, sometimes blocking our view. Luckily they had 2 projectors facing us.

Nevertheless the concert was good but very Stingyfied’ if you know what I mean. It’s supposed to be THE POLICE concert!!!... Anyway the opening act was pretty good. They were called Fiction Plan… but were disappointed when I found out a few days ago that the front man of that band is Sting’s son…. He sounds just like any other rock band… not unique like his father. Oh well…..

Singapore was a little boring…. It rained pretty much all the way there, and it was gloomy and windy… reminded me of Melbourne… well I guess that’s better then hot and sunny. But what was worst is that my camera was giving me problems……. You see… I had dropped it on the floor on new years day and broke the battery latch…. Now its kept shut with a raffia string…. Yup very high tech wan…. So I taught I will just take my SLR… and as I was taking some shots on the bus I noticed a big black scuff on the photos… AARRRRRRRRRRRggggggggHHH… there was dust and this this this big black dot on the processing chip (CMOS)…. And I didn’t bring any camera cleaning equipment stuff with me..

Rained almost all the way to Singapore......
At Pagor rest stop...... hmmmm whats that black smudge to the right of the lights????.....

MRT.... the life line in Singapore........
Look!!.... its a giant tad pole..........

The Science Centre was pretty cool.....

The Giant Tad Pole is attacking Singapore.... where is Ultraman when you need him....
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They didn’t allow any professional cameras into the stadium, and seeing that my compact camera was out of commission, I only snapped a few shots of the concert with Rose’s handphone…

We left for Singapore Saturday evening 2nd of Feb, and reached the apartment at about 11pm.We were bored so we visited the science centre and ofcos Orchard Road. The concert was on Monday the 4th of Feb. We walked to the stadium becos the buses and taxi stands we crowded. It turned out to be quite a walk from the MRT station; and after the concert, it was even worst…. We managed to walk back to the MRT station to catch the last train but we had to ran across to the other train during the interchange at City Hall. We pretty much walked a lot during our stay in Singapore and I was worried because I was leaving for the Gunung Stong expedition the day after we got back from Singapore….. and boy was I tired……

mo








Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Ravin Turns Two 19 Jan 08






Proof that Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes is a real Kid. Hansome little Ravin turned 2 years old last month. For enquiries and bookings to pixelate your special moments, please email me at pixelatedmo@gmail.com or geraldmc8@hotmail.com