EngLee's Path

A blog about Eng Lee's life, a freelance programmer in Royal Klang Town (Malaysia).


Monday, April 25, 2005

Gunung Ledang (Mt. Ophir) Trip


Last friday (22.04.2005) night, when I was still painting my house, my brother who was painting together with me suddenly told me that they were planning to climb Gunung Ledang on Saturday morning. It's a little bit too late to tell me, but that was the only time I was with my brother after my Redang trip. I remembered it was 2:00am that night when I finished packing my things.

We began our journey to Tangkak, Johor early in the morning at 6:00am (23.04.2005). With me was my brother, WeeSeng, BoonSeng, KenSeng, WinSeng and ZerPing. My brother was driving that morning until halfway, he started to fall asleep and I continued the journey until we finally reached Tangkak at around 8:30am. We had our breakfast at a chicken rice stall in a hotel. After that we continued our way to Gunung Ledang. Reached the bottom of the hill at around 10:00am after some registration and made some payment. Unexpectedly, the place has became very commercialised where we need to pay so much money to climb the hill. We are required to play RM1 per person and RM2 per car to enter the place. Besides that, we must hire a guide to go with us which costs around RM100. There's charges again for each of us to climb the hill.

We finally started hiking at around 10:00am to get to "check point 4" (a campsite). At around 12:00pm we managed to reach the place and set up our tent. We had our lunch and prepared ourselves to climb the hill at the campsite. After leaving all our haversacks in the tents, we are far more prepare for hiking. Started our hiking at around 2:00pm. The path is quite easy in the beginning until we met some part where we have to use ropes to climb over big rocks. Hand power is rather important in those parts. Other parts will require lots of thigh powers where you need to climb up the slopes. Along the way, we can hear the sound of the water flowing. We need to go across the river few times. Luckily, the water is odourless where we can drink the water along the way until the last check point. We finally reached the peak at around 5:30pm. Our main activity up there was taking photos. We planned to see sun set before heading down as opposed to the normal plan where other climbers of Gunung Ledang will wake up early in the morning (at around 3:00am) to hike and to see sun rise. However, it was not our day. The sky is getting dark and the clouds started to block our views. Too bad! We finally decided to go down at around 7:00pm. The journey got tougher when the sky got darker. The hardest part of the trip for me was to climb down the rope (doing something like abseiling) in the dark. It was not too dangerous if you have enough hand power. Along the way, torch light and extra batteries were the most essential things at that time! I can't remember what time we reached campsite. We bathed, dined and finally slept there until the second day. We were too tired!

Woke up at 8:00am. We ate everything we brought. Fed the fishs with some breads. Then, we took some time to clear the place before leaving the campsite at around 10:30am. We bathed at the public toilet when we reached the bottom of the hill at around 12:00pm. After we left the place, we drove to Muar to meet WeeSeng's friend, Shirley and walk around the place. One of the popular famous food of the place we managed to eat was "otak-otak". Spent quite a lot of time there, but we all were not at the mood the walk that day. We finally reached home at around 10:30pm (24.04.2005). A great unplanned and unprepared trip! (But tiring as well!)

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Redang Island Graduation Trip


Days after graduate has been great. I'd been waiting eagerly for this Redang trip since last year. Actually, I'd planned to go Redang last year but was cancelled because of SARS outbreak at that time. I took this chance to really enjoy Redang Island that I'd been waiting for a long time. For this trip, we took the package provided by Redang Pelangi Resort. They really gave us a very good Redang experience with great price. Together with me were my UTM housemates and few coursemates. We started our journey for this trip in the night of 17.04.2005 and finally reached home in the morning of 21.04.2005. This trip had been a very tight-scheduled and short (3-day-2-night trip), but it gave me a real great beach experience especially during snorkelling. Before this I went to snorkelling once, in Pangkor Island. I was quite afraid to get close to the fishes and not really dare to touch the fishes. However, during this visit to the island, I felt that I began to like the sea and underwater world. The water is so clear that I was able to see the colourful coral clearly from the surface. The marine park has lots of fishs with different colours and we were supplied with breads where we got the chance to feed the fishs with hand. Another great experience during this trip was to swim together with the baby sharks. Yet, I was not brave enough to touch the sharks! The only bad thing for the trip was the long travelling time. Still, for the great views and experiences, I'm looking forward to visit Redang Island again!


Redang beach view Posted by Hello

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Larian Mesra Rakan Cop 2005


After the previous run last week, I went to another run again. This run is organised by Police Department annually and this was the second time I participated but I can't really remember the running route. After the warming up run last week, I was more prepared for this run. Around 6:15am in the morning, we reached Kuala Lumpur Police Headquarter. Together with me were my brother, WeeSeng, BoonSeng, WinSeng and PeiYi. The run started at around 7:30am. The route was not too hot because the skycrapers in KL are already able to cover us from the sun light. However, I was not very comfortable with the polluted air caused be the heavy vehicles. I recorded a better time this time with around 1hr 5mins for this 10KM run. Although I still not able to run very well but still I was able to continue running for the whole path without taking any rest. A great achievement for myself as I rested for so many times last week for the 7KM charity run. I'm now looking forward for more run and better running time.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Hong Leong Charity Run


After resting for months since the previous marathon run, I thought I still be able to run 7km without the need to stop for walking. Hong Leong Charity Run has proved me wrong. I just came back from Hong Leong Charity Run 2005 in Shah Alam. It is an anual activity for me (and my scout troop) since I was in Secondary school. This morning my brother woke me up at 6:45am and we left our house at 7:00am when Boon Seng (brother's friend) fetch us. He have been waiting in front of my house gate for 15 minutes! (Sorry!) When we reached there, the aerobic session has just started. The run actually began at 8:00am. It took me 47 minutes to reach the ending point. A very dissapointing record! I was not mentally strong for run anymore. I need to build it up again! Heard that there's another run next week. Hopefully I will perform better.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Travelling Back Hometown


It took me 7 hours for me to travel from Skudai, Johor to Klang (my hometown). Normally it should take about 4 hours at most to drive back. I started my journey at 4:00pm yesterday after packing everything into my car. Planned to move everything back, but too bad, my chair could not fit in and I still have to ask my friend to move my table back (Thanks to Edison Wong). 3 of us, Robert, Yi Yang and I was driving our own car, but we travel together. It started to rain heavily at around 6:00pm and we are moving around 5km every 30 minutes. We saw many car accidents along the way, a Proton Waja was upside down in the middle of the road. At around 8:00pm, we are getting hungry, so we decided to turn into Seremban to take our dinner before continue back to our own place. We turned out from highway at Senawang toll and travel through town roads to Seremban to have our dinner. After that, we continued our journey at around 9:30pm and finally reached home at 11:00pm. Afterwards, I unpacked my things into my room and setup my computer before bathing. A tired journey, but this would be the last time for me to travel from Skudai to Klang for study. Next, I will plan how to enjoy my 1 month holiday before starting my working life!

Friday, April 01, 2005

Finish My Degree


Just finish my final 3 papers for my final exam in my final semester in UTM. Hopefully I don't get any bad result for my final exams and able to graduate with first class degree. Convocation date will fall somewhere in August 2005. I can't believe that I've actually finished my degree course. I've spent 4 years here in Johor. I still can remember the feeling when my brother and mom sent me here. I was so sad to see them left me alone here without any friend. Everything is still fresh in my mind. However, after spending such a long time here, I've met and get along many good buddies. Without them, I wouldn't be able to have such a great campus life. Still not able to see what I'll be in coming working days. I will probably start working in May 2005. And my plans for whole April would be to enjoy a graduation trip (to Redang Island and possibly Cameron Highlands), a visit to Ipoh and Teluk Intan as well, find jobs, and to prepare myself to move myself to the next phase of my life!