I can’t believe it! I climbed Mt. Kinabalu!… :-D

In the month of May, I've went to Sabah to do my elective for my 2nd year. The topic of my group was "Study of Sabah Culture". But actually we went there for vacation, hehe… ;P 1st of all, we went to climb the legendary Mt. Kinabalu.

As soon as we arrived at Kota Kinabalu, we straightaway head towards Kinabalu Park. It's located at the foot of the mountain which actually is on highlands and the weather was quite cold. Man, the water here was already freezing man if u didn’t take the hot shower or your hot water shower is broken like what I went through. & there were some funny-looking bugs that kept me accompanied in the toilet & the shower room as the Kinabalu Park is surrounded by the lush green rainforest. There was something interesting here: the packaged food like Mr. Potato, Tiger Biscuits or Maggi Hot Cup were bulged like they are going to explode in anytime because the atmosphere pressure here is thinner than the air trapped inside those plastic covers. Simple physics theory explained it all.

We had our first dinner here & the food was priced surprisingly high. My group leader said the pricing was set according the level of ground. It sure made me think how astronomical the food they offer at the next rest house above. Sound ok for somebody but not when u forgot to punch card at the ATM machines. & so, the next morning, we continued our quest. After leaving our luggage at the HQ & a ½ hour drive, we reached one of the entrances to start our mount climbing with a guide. There are 2 entrances to climb Mt Kinabalu. One is Mersilau Gate which is shorter & easier route & the other one is Timpohon Gate which is a lot longer & tougher. The adventurous part of us drove us to choose the latter.

the forest plants that catched our attention.

Whew! It was a tiring journey on the slippery route but the view on some part of it was quite breathtaking. Through rains & tough terrain, we managed to get to the Laban Rata Rest House which is located approx. 3050m above sea level (ASL). At there, we’ll spent one short night b4 continue to the top. The food here was ok & the price was also ok, not much differed from the Kinabalu Park, just that it’s freezing over here. The electronic thermometer showed it’s around 10 degree celcius.

Much much cooler than ur house air-con. & we need heater instead of air conditioning inside the rooms. There were many foreigners here, especially Caucasians. They were talkative, fun but pretty annoying when they start making all the noise. The water here was also freezing, cooler & quite painful when u washed ur hand. So do the shower when the heater stopped in the middle of my shower. Oh Man! I can’t possibly take the shower like usual times without jumping & kept moving vigorously when showering! The shower sprays were like gazillions of needles…….

& so we all slept at about 5.30pm when the sky turned dark (oh, forgot to mention that the day & night here starts & ends much earlier than peninsular.) We woke up around 2.30am in the same night to get ready for the adventure to the top. Man, it’s getting colder when it dropped till 7-8oC here. Scared of becoming a frozen tiger up there, I decided to wear 2-3 layers of sweaters & track bottom. The routes at night get tougher when the sight was pretty much limited. But I enjoyed it coz, I dunno, it’s just surprisingly enjoyable. May be I was getting a little excited at the thought of conquering the Mt Kinabalu which is not an easy task to be accomplished without sheer determination & wills. Hehe… In fact, it was dangerous for someone with asthma to climb to the top with low pressure of air but who cares anyway, I don’t.

After all sorts of dangerous route & slippery mountain stones, we managed to get to top but alas, we didn’t make it to catch the sacred moment of the dawn of a new day.

I missed the majestic sunrise….It was because there were some of our mates that got a little self-conflict on whether to climb or not to climb & it had taken quite some time. But never mind, I still managed to catch a glimpse of it by looking at the beautiful sun & the picturesque view on the summit plateau & the summit itself. Man, I was so happy & proud. It gave a special sense of satisfaction in me after the cold & harsh journey along the way. Being on 4095.2m ASL sure gives u the sense of being on top of the world… or should I say world of south East Asia. He he…: D

Man, I looked very cham coz no enuf sleep & so tired...

:-) Friendship (-:

Lately, I found this forward page link from a friendster message & I think it is quite meaningful:-

Many people will walk in and out of your life.
But only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.
To handle yourself, use your head;
To handle others, use your heart.

Friends

Anger is only one letter short of danger
If someone betrays you once, it is his fault;
If he betrays you twice, it is your fault.

Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.

He, who loses money, loses much;
He, who loses a friend, loses much more;
He, who loses faith, loses all.

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,
But beautiful old people are works of art.

Learn from the mistakes of others
You can't live long enough to make them all
yourself.

Friends, you and me...
You brought another friend...
And then there were 3...
We started our group...
Our circle of friends...
And like that circle...
There is no beginning or end...

Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is mystery.
Today is a gift.
That is why it is called the present.

Chinese New Year Night 2007

2-2-07: Tonite, it's gonna be a big event for the whole chinese community of usmkk, as we gonna have the biggest cny celebration event throughout Kelantan! As the time goes by, i got faster & faster heartbeats. Dunno y? May b it's jz bcoz i'm jz too excited! Actually, not really excited as I worried about the response from the audience. R they goin to like it or else... i dunno, many mixed thoughts made me really stress!

About 2 months ago, when the committee came out wif the idea of combining the two streams of sketch that existed since years ago, i, at that particular moment whose assistant was elected as the committee member, thought that i lack of ppl helping me, quickly raise my hands to accept it. It was a rush decision which proved too late to realized it afterwards.

We used to have 2 sketches every year.one is comedy, another one is serious traditional chinese sketch, called main sketch. the ppl from respective sketch always have different idea & not well wif each other one. it's can't be helped coz we're quite opposite to each other(i myself is from main sketch one. i was one of the main actors in the main sketch). Combining both if works will create a new era for the sketch of usmkk; if failed, it'll juz yield disaster.

Hence, i managed to become the main director, the head in charge of the combination for the sketch which known as"the sketch". Honestly, it is pretty challeging & tough along the way. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the board of directors for the sketch is consist of ex-actors & actress from comedy & main sketch, it's bcoz we need to create a balanced sketch. How balanced? a story which is not a comedy throughout the show as it was based on the traditional sketch-"The Legend of Mulan"Headache was the perfect word to describe my works in directing coz it's hard to find materials for the comedy & to build a solid storyline to ensure the stability of the show & its acceptance from the public, seniors & colleagues.

In the 2 months, we had many many practices, rehearsals & QCs. Many mixed comments were given & most of them not very supportive of the show that we had done. So tired, i really hv no idea sometimes coz i'm not a professional in this field, i'm jz a student but my tasks were heavy. To make things worse, I even quarrelled wif some of my coursemates. My relationship wif frens at that time was very bad. Very stress, i've had insomias....Struggled a lot to sleep early, but wake up very early(juz 2-3 hours after i close my eyes)

Plus, in order to control situation which sometimes can be very uncontrollable, i became the least popular director coz i gotta b strict while others can get along, i was in vain, dunno wat to do.How much? Well enough to spark a slight discomfort inside my heart. No, i'm not jealous, it's jz tat i dun like tis kind of situation. But, thank god, i finally truly understand y my father insist on being strict eversince i was small. The more futile i felt, the sadder i became. I understand that my way is not very proper but i really dunno any alternative to chg it. :-(

Okok, back to cny thing. So, i went through thick & thin wif some of my true frens tat so good( God bless them!), changed the script over & over again & continue showing strict. I wish to say sory to them coz they had tired & lethargic days or nights wif us to go through wat we had changed or directed. The most stressful one would be that we gotta changed many tiny parts 3 days prior to the grand night which were crucial in order to present a good show to the audience.

Eventually, the long-waited night had arrived. I was excited yet worried at the same time coz many things were not 100% stable. Plus, due to inconvenience, we had problems wif the technical part( lightings, sounds, curtain, spotlights, follo light, etc.). Looking at the people that rushing in one by one o enter the hall, my uneasyness once again, relapsed. After that, the show began & we all watched the cny from the hall's 1st floor balcony coz the seats was overcrowded wif unexpected overwhelming response from ticket sales. The show went on one by one, I watched it one by one. Judging by the storm of applause from the audience, they were so happy wif the performances. At that moment, I started to think "Will my show also well-accepted by them?"

After about 2hours, it's time for my show. One word to describe it: wonderful! The audience like it very much! They laugh wildly & got quite deep into the story(judging by their expressions & responses). I also laugh wif them, not only bcoz it's funny. It is the laugh of satisfaction. All the stress & sweats that I have gone, in a blink of eye. So happy! Yahoo!

That's all about the sketch that I produced & directed. I am so grateful to have many people help or assist me in the process! Thank you Feng Chin & Ay Ting for their unconditioned hardworking to sew many costumes for my actors & actresses! Thank u for u gals' sleepless nights & spent school holidays, Christmas & New Year to quickly finish the job for me. Thank u to my fellow directors! Thank u seniors for valuable advices! Thank u Win Ling & Kian Ping for spending ur dinner wif my actors & actress to teach them martial arts. Thank u to Han Lim, Daniel, Wendy, Sok Ling, Kok Hee & Wen Hao that helped me wif my props! Thank u Chiat han for tolerating my everchanging demands for the technical issues that sure brought lots of headache to u! Thank u to anyone that had contributed to make the sketch a success!


苦尽甘来，真得很开心！
;-D

The Road Not Taken

I would like to share the poem below which is quite familiar among those former & current fifth formers:-

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

"Similar & familiar",
I've thought about it last time when I was taught by my F4 English teacher.
Because of this feeling, I kinda fond of it as it mentioned about that we have to face in situations when we wanna make choices or decisions that would affect our life in the long run or temporarily.
Choices, are something that u sometimes could not take back when u made it. People that didn't think properly when making decisions will always end up with regretfulness or worse despair.
But, in the reality, the attitude of having the questions like "Why am I doing this or that" will not solve anything, because by the time u realize it's not going like what have u planned, u are already in the midway of doing the thing that proved to be a mistake. Just go forward & focus on correcting whatever that's reversible & bear in mind of the mistake so that one will not repeat doing it.
So, whenever u've made a mistake or wrong decisions, never look back & stop wasting ur time in regretting of what u've already missed.Just set ur eyes, look & march forward---a kind & pleasant reminder for myself & my dear friends.

Hye

This is my 2nd blog, other than the friendster blog that i got oredi.