Let me tell you how I spent away my Thaipusam holiday - challenged the longest forest trail in Penang and conquered it in 7 hours. No "tohtees" was there to carry my bread, my apple, my chocolate and my water. I, myself and my belongings were one individual entity that swifting the leaves and branches.
Interestingly, the trail was not boring with only one sort of terrain in the process of reaching the destination. The uphill part was exhausting. People basically rest every 5 steps they hike while holding on the rope. The view is resembling to the birds resting on the electric posts.
We reached peak of Laksamana Hill by around 1130am. Before reaching the platform of Laksamana Hill, we passed through a cliff that opening our eyes to civilization again, Teluk Pahang Dam. The covered area of the dam was still quite wide though it was watched from such a far distance.
We took a break at the peak of Laksamana Hill at leisure pace. There was a foreigner sitting in a hanging bed with a Paulo Coelho book, overlooking to the side with mountains. He seemed like searching inspirations or trying to reach peacefulness spiritually. Then, we saw his tempting food stocks and WATER! We started to plan on a robbery to steal his food and beverage in mandarin openly, thinking that he probably understand nothing we were talking about.
As curiosity overrode the shyness, Suan Ching started a conversation with him. Surprisingly, he knew a little bit of mandarin. (This somehow reminded me an accident in university during my first year...there was this malay guy that knew how to speak mandarin and had been listening to my conversation with Sue Cing. He!) He was actually taking a break from his Tai Chi apprenticeship at China to travel a bit. Phew~** Luckily, we were just all-talking-no-action type of people. It would not be fun being threw out of the platform and befriend with any animals hidden in the wood beneath.
As curiosity overrode the shyness, Suan Ching started a conversation with him. Surprisingly, he knew a little bit of mandarin. (This somehow reminded me an accident in university during my first year...there was this malay guy that knew how to speak mandarin and had been listening to my conversation with Sue Cing. He!) He was actually taking a break from his Tai Chi apprenticeship at China to travel a bit. Phew~** Luckily, we were just all-talking-no-action type of people. It would not be fun being threw out of the platform and befriend with any animals hidden in the wood beneath.
After lunch, more uphill and extremely adventurous downhill experiences were there to excite my adrenaline penetration. Slopes at one or two parts of the journey were slant and stretching at a long distance. I always had to depend on the ropes to drag myself moving downward. After hours of proceeding, we were really running out of water and thirsty. When we heard stream flowing sound, we were motivated to find the water source. Finally, we were led by the path to it. We jumped to it and started to take out our water bottle to refill it! The water was totally refreshing!
After the stream, we walked for another one hour before reaching at the Penang Hill food court with hungry and tired body. However, the food there was not very tasty. By the time, we reached downhill. Four of us (Tian Teck, Arby, Suan Ching and I) were hungry again. We went for Air Itam laksa and rehydrate ourselves with sugar cane drink. Syiok! I slept at 9pm that night. However, it was not very tiring on the next day, but just kept feeling thirsty....unlike Penang Bridge Run, which made my muscle aching for a week.
I love this trip (more photo at www.slide.com) and shall organize one more this February before my KK trip. :-)
Did I mention lately? Frequent exercise is making me quite happy. However, I kept reminding myself - frequent, but not too harsh. No particular goal, but just keep it simple and healthy. :-)
I love this trip (more photo at www.slide.com) and shall organize one more this February before my KK trip. :-)
Did I mention lately? Frequent exercise is making me quite happy. However, I kept reminding myself - frequent, but not too harsh. No particular goal, but just keep it simple and healthy. :-)