the 09E xperience

my 09E xperience at sepilok, kampung mapam-mapan, long pa'sia and mamutik is the most unforgetable summer ever.

it is impossble to tell the expedition story in just few lines. like many other ex-venturers expedition stories ,it will be "yat pat pou kan cheong.". that is the only period where i can still vividly remember what i did 10 weeks ago,where have i been, what i have seen and whom i talked to. it is so true and like what Mac like to say: YOU WILL HAVE AN AMAZING TIME.

PHASE 1:SEPILOK JUNGLE CAMP FOR BSBCC
-working closely with Borneo Sunbear Conservation Centre to build a jungle camp
-free admission to see baby orang utans which are under quarantine.
-free admission to see the smallest bear in the world,sunbear.
-lucky enough to witness a wild orang utan in sepilok jungle.

One of the very raleigh style photo on Bravo FWD! the jungle camp WE BUILT is just behind the oil palm tree. lots of laughter, rain, sweat, hardwork, sunshine, parang-ing, wood ferrying, hole digging, sawing, nailing , chiselling, mozzie bites, star gazing, singing and games...

it took us few days of hard work and trek before we can actually sit down and lay down like this. such a harsh environment but we made it.

all cleared in just a morning.my parang buddy(the one in grey shirt), has very beautiful blue eyes! maybe it is the most beautiful eyes i have ever seen. and her killing smile..i heard lots of english boys talked abt it one...

not only on parang-ing.we were hole digging buddy too.although she's also very good in digging long drop(a hole for us to pee and poo),sorry lo. i dun wanna be her long drop buddy.

living with whole bunch of angmohs,being the only malaysian in the group, i got lots of culture shock.
eg. angmohs eat kuih with fork and knife. eat rice with fork. they said,spoon is for tea and soup ONLY.
eg.angmohs like to over exaggerate when they tell stories.mayb they wanna make it more interesting.my team mate told me she saw a DINASOUR in the jungle, where it was only a camourflage lizard.

lots of culture shock! you will know if u go expedition.

one thing that i'm very proud of this this papan i made.it is carved on belian wood,one of the hardest wood in the world and it takes a very very long time to reput.i want to get the papan back 2 years later."Rasa sayang" is the name of our camp. i had fun teaching them the song and laughed at them when they cannot pronouce it correctly.

the walkway of OUR jungle camp.took us 5 days to build the whole thing from foundation to zink roof.this is definately AMAZING job with AMAZING people in an AMAZING phase. i spent the last night of my phase sleeping in this jungle camp.that was one of the best nights in jungle.in the morning, the birds woke me up.

sometimes, leng lui got dirty too..hmm..maybe i should say, most of the time,everyone gets very dirty and sweaty.

on our day off!

ps:stay tuned.more storis to come.
wanna join raleigh expedition? check out www.raleighinternational.org.my and email expedition@raleighinternational.org.my

Letter From Sulan!

FYI I'm her sister :D
Sulan wrote us a letter and insisted me to post it here and talkaholichome.

And, if you'd like to write her a letter too, here is the address:-
Raleigh, P.O Box 14182,
88848 Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia.

*She wants to hear from you guys so badly pfft*

Click to enlarge the picture to see clearer!

i'm ready.

[grafitti on shiwei's leg]

yohoo!!
is finally my turn to board on a plane to sabah!! to my expedition site.
9 more hours to go for me to pijak on sabah land.
u cannot understand my feelings now.
i have been waiting this moment for more than a year.

[before packing]

some em dang sai stuff in my rucksack: for example,

[loh hon go.]

[chinese chess.if i got time]

[master mind]

[and my journal. if i have time to write. i think i'll have]

[and after! packed]

today,spent 6 hrs to pack my rucksack.3 hours i guess,if minus off the time i spend laying on my bed,day dreaming.

bye.KL.i'm gonna miss my family,my pillow, HOUSE latest season, CSI NY, CSI.
will be saying "hi" to oat porridge.
see you 3 months later.

after moral studies.before expedition

huh...feel like i never rest after i completed moral subject in mid of june.

-chonghwa gang gathering
-cadet gang gathering
-chonghwa 90 years anniversary
-photography competition during tree party( which i won a buff, a corezone dryfit tee, a gorilla pod)
-MyCJN talk COC
-operasi yumchar
-more raleigh yumchar(s)
-raleigh official yumchar (agm)
-pharmacy placement at alychem pharmacy in selayang baru
-reports
-pre-expedition preparation: vaccination,medical forms,shopping...
-almost every weekday nights and weekend were occupied.

(i gotta write down these as i dun wish to forget them)

phew~ two weeks just gone like tat. packed and busy and meaningful.and not enuff sleep.

[chong hwa 90 years anniversary.the violin society.club once i belonged]

[check out the crowd on that day]

[siaopoh eva and her frens.nice to meet her again]

[ladies nowdays in chong hwa.the smell hasn't changed much]

[another ladies in chonghwa. underwater world.>_<"]
[MyCJN. climate refugee camp]

[3ppl gathering]

[the offical yumchar.agm.@pd]

wanna touch a bit on my pharmacy placement. it was a great opportunity to have my placement at a pharmacy in KAMPUNG selayang baru. it has changed my perspective towards a community pharmacy.used to think that community pharmacist a tedious and monotonous job.but now i find this job quite meaningful,especially when a community pharmacy is located at a kampung area(like my pharmacy). i have learnt a lot.realised i now can recognise the brands of some drugs and dietary supplement. kinda happy. haha.a brand new experience.

[me.mine]

back to my nightmare

my biggest nightmare of trekking--gunung nuang. highest mt. in selangor.

back to 1.25 years ago,we conquered gunung nuang. and i swore i wont come back to this place.never ever.

[a victory pose at nuang peak.1.25years ago]

but 3 days ago...i broke my promise to myself and ended up torturing myself along the trek.mentally and physically.
it took us abt 9 hours up and down, including lunch time and waterfall break. to my surprise, 9 hrs ?! i expected to complete it in 12 hrs.

gunung nuang trek is sth like this:
when u feel you have walked a lot,drenched in sweat,muscle getting sore and asking for how long more you have to walk to reach the peak, the answer will be: "if you really feel u're tired to the max d, you will have to walk/trek 2 more hours to reach kem pacat.kem pacat only.not even the peak.

[victory pose at kem pacat.present.with lots of sweat bees]

i'm not sure whether this happens to everyone,but it happens on me:
whenever i have trekked for a long distance(and it must be a strenuous trek), i could hear "thud thud thud" sound only from my left ear. at first i thought my heart is pumping so vigorously until it bangs my rib bones and causing "thud thud" sound. till that day i finally figured out the real story. it wasn't "heart sound", what i heard was actually the pulses on my vein(neck). the blood is pumping so fast and so forcefully in the arteri/jugular vein and resulting audible pulse-even without sphygmomanometer. can imagine how strenuous the trek is?
the key point to unravel this "mystery" is--i cant hear the sound with my right ear, only the left ear.

although nuang is notorious for it's trek, it do have sth nice as attraction to make it a famous spot for camping. waterfall! nature massage! "swimming pool"! it's so nice to get back to nature.into the jungle and enjoy a moment like this. it was really really nice and very very relaxing. i quickly washed my boots, straight away i laid down letting stream water flow. whenever u feel like s1/sth is fanning you, undoubtedly it will be the wings of sweat bees(the annoying one).

[nth better than enjoying nature music like this.laying down is one of my favourite pose@everywhere,ANYwhere.]

[surrounded by rocks and greeneries.notice the swimming pool behind?]

[we hereby provide a way to avoid the annoying little creature]

after the waterfall break, another 1 hr walk spent on never-ending road back to carpark. and we get this pose.

[here we are again at the entrance.safe and sound before night falls.]

washed up,headed for ikan bakar then hot spring to rendam kaki! reached home late night and rushed for moral studies mid term exam the next day. i'm not iron man.

part of me

sent boss shih chung and xintong off at LCCT two days ago.
huh, not really sad cos they're leaving for only 1 year.to aussie land.the land of kangaroos and koala and also the blacklisted country of wide spreading AH1N1.

shihchung, once our boss who taught me many things and can get quite emo sometimes.
xintong, the one who brought me into raleigh again by organising 168tahan. i basically just disappeared after my aug07 iw and if it wasn't the 168tahan trip, today you wont see me in raleigh.

[farewell party at crystal's]

raleigh ppl has always been so special to me.
raleigh= hiking, outdoors, expedition, crazy stuff, crazy frens, legendary stories,environmental work, community services, last-minute-call-yumchar, mid night waterfall slide,hot spring, work, responsibility... raleigh is much more than all these. without raleigh and raleigh frens, i cannot imagine how life is.

[08/09 comm trip to pangkor island]

and if i wasn't part of the committee, i wouldn't have involved so much in raleigh activities. working with all these young working adults were pretty nice. Compared to working with ppl who are at the same age as myself, working with them is sth very different to me. i will always learn sth new each time i meet them.
eg. "oh, this is the way how i should approach a prob",
"oh, this is how u can reply a harsh criticism email politely",
"oh,rupa-rupanya there's a stall in petaling streets tat sells tasty sang cheong with delicious lou shu fan",
"oh, this is how useful is an ordinary gaffer tape" ,
"oh, this is how ppl protest for stopping global warming in the uk"
.....etc.

anyway, committee 08/09 is gonna dismiss soon at the coming agm.this will be one of my raleigh journey that i treasure a lot.

[comm's water ballet at pangkor island]

[ARC dinner at nagas]

although i am quiet at sometimes, i see i listen and i feel.

new toy

tadaa !!

i have finally bought this--the long awaited papa gorilla is now mine.
the papa gorilla(big one) is for myself and i bought 1 baby gorilla(small) for my sister as well.

i wanted to get a coloured baby gorilla. just as the same day after i bought grey&black baby gorilla at kotaraya, i saw shops selling red color baby gorilla at lowyat!! super pik chek.

at night when i was reading the operation instruction of the papa tripod, i finally managed to spot the main difference of papa and mama gorilla. a bit regret that i bought papa tripod instead of mama.

[photo editing by sister's phone]
[the colors of the clock and wrapping paper looks nice,aren't they?