Happy Tang Yuan Festival

December 22 2008 is The Chinese Tang Yuan Festival.

Tang Yuan is made from glutinous rice flour. This glutinous rice flour is mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and is then cooked and served in sweet broth. Tang Yuan can be either filled or unfilled.

In Melaka, normally it is unfilled and it is roll to form red and white balls.

By eating tang yuan, you will become one year older.

Square Tang Yuan- please look in the middle!

Gunung Datuk

Mountain: Gunung Datuk
Height: 870m/2900ft
Location: Rembau, Negeri Sembilan.
Day/ Date: Saturday, 6th Dec 2008

Since we planned that we shall go for at least one outdoor activities per month, so we decided to climb Gunung Datuk. The idea to climb this Gunung comes from my mountain expert colleague, Shew Mun. According to her, it is not hard to conquer this mountain, and without hesitation, we agreed blindly.

So, early Saturday morning, Shew Mun and her friend waited Joey at KNM Serdang, before Joey car pooled them to pick me up at Nilai. From Nilai, we took the PLUS Highway and exited Pedas/Linggi Toll. We headed towards Rembau and follow the signboard towards Gunung Datuk. The distance from the toll towards Gunung Datuk is approximately 45 minutes (not including the time wasting when we entered the wrong road to a rubber plantation). Luckily, we manage to ask an Ah Pek for direction.

Once we reached Gunung Datuk, we get prepared and start our climbing. At the bottom of the hill, there is a small bridge to cross a stream to the climbing starting point. Since im not a pro in hill climbing, as usual, the starters will climb eagerly. But after for a while, I asked Shew Mun and her friend to go ahead first, while me and Joey followed from behind. This resulting me and Joey reached the top 1 hour later than Shew Mun. This is because we took frequent break and there is no sense of urgentness to get to the top.

Actually, the route to the top is straight forward, but you have to climb it in 45 degree slope. We reached the rest area at the middle of the journey and took a rest for a while before proceed to the top. It took us around 2 hours to reach the top, but we must climb the huge rock to reach the top of the top. According to what I read, if the weather permits, the scenery of The Strait of Malacca will be there for our eyes to view.

The rock climbing with a few metal ladder strap that tied up with old ropes is quite scary. I am not sure since when the ropes and the ladder is there, but I do hope that the authorities replace it ASAP. Anyhow and anyway, Joey and me managed to get to the top and took some breathtaking pictures. The weather was good, but lots of mist, and therefore we can't view the Malacca Straits.

After we re-fill our lungs with some fresh air, we prepared to climb down. As usual, Shew Mun climbed down first, leaving Joey and me at the back taking our sweet time to go down. Half way down, it seems like it is going to rain, and we hurriedly speed up our steps. I feel that my knees almost plug out from the socked, besides feeling tired, exhausted and hungry. After around 1.5 hours, we managed to reach the bottom. I went to the small stream to clean myself and take a cool deep for a while. The water was refreshing and I feel that I want to sleep in the cool clean water.

After cleaning ourselves up, we headed home leaving a good sweet memory of Gunung Datuk. It was a good experience for me in order to achieves another level in Mountain Climbing.
I love outdoors.....

Romantic Lyrics

Nice songs, and good lyrics.....from an Indonesian band called Gigi.

11 Januari

Sebelas Januari bertemu,
menjalani kisah, cinta ini
Naluri berkata,
engkaulah, mi-lik-ku

Bahagia selalu dimiliki,
bertahun menjalani bersama mu
Ku nyatakan bahwa,
engkaulah, ji-wa-ku

Akulah penjaga mu
Akulah pelindung mu
Akulah pendamping mu
Di setiap langkah-langkah mu

Pernah ku menyakiti hati mu,
pernah kau melupakan janji ini
Semua karena, kita ini, ma-nu-sia

Kau bawa, diri ku, ke dalam hidup mu
Kau basuh, diri ku, dengan rasa sayang
Senyum mu juga sedih mu, adalah hidup ku
Kau sentuh, cinta ku,
dengan lembut…
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