"My first Arsenal FC jersey!"

al-ikhsan sports shop is having a sales in Queensbay... and I ended up with ....

... my very first Arsenal FC jersey! First *original* one, that is... ;)

Usually this costs RM259 but after discount is RM179, a whopping RM80 savings! Well, being close to the end of the 07/08 EPL season probably has got something to do with it...!

I also tried the white Away jersey as well (and it looked really nice!) but I guess for the first jersey, I'd choose the Home one. There's even the 3rd kit which is Blue and Red striped, but lets save that for another time....... ;)

"KK Expedition Day 2 ~ White Water Rafting"

Woke up early the next day, but for me, the night's rest was very strained. Nope, no snoring room mates but the room was very stuffy! We rented Velvet Lodge, with four a room in double decker beds. The problem was that my room had no windows! Yes, air con is nice, but it's really hard to breathe properly! Luckily the girls got a room with windows and fan.

One thing good about Velvet is the free internet access....


Catching up on the latest news updates... well, we did go to KK immediately after the Tsunami Elections....
Oh shit.. Lim Guan Eng got bashed on the NEP issue... wtf?!

To get to the whitewater rafting, we took a bus. Instead of the supposedly usual 1.5 hours drive, the driver had to take a detour to the mountainous Crocker Range due to the train service breakdown. It takes much much longer, but we do get to see some spectacular sceneries...


The bus has to go uphill....

Valley....

Nice colors, eh................ :)

Our trip organizer... BUSAT... eh, why are we taking pic of this..?!

Heh... I mentioned the trip was longer.. Now it's about to get MUCH longer!!


Tayar pancit!

... as it we weren't late enough! Everything that went wrong did.......... :-S The sun was blazing hot at this time (noon) and we were all hungry........ :'(


Miserable........................

Well, after what seems like hours.. the guy managed to fix the spare tyre... and continue the looong journey................................. fuhh

At last, believe it or not, we arrived! The next stage would be to take a train to the starting point of the water rafting!


Oh, train... where are you.... can we get started already?? I just want to row the damn boat......

Aha!

Yeah............! Water, water, we want water!!

And water we got!! Woo-hoo!

At this point, we had to leave all our stuff (including cameras) behind. We were given a quick meal of fruits and cakes and then the safety instructions blablabla...

It's one thing to view Padas river from afar and totally a different feeling to be ON it... I felt so small in the little raft. There were 10 people in a raft, 2 guides, 6 of us, and our Sabah guide, Mesius with his gf... Me and Pang took the front seats, one on each side. Gf didn't want to row so she sat in between us.

The first 10 minutes was pretty fun, jz rowing slowly, admiring the sceneries... too bad my camera wasn't water-proof; the view was really superb. You feel like in a movie (something like Lord of the Rings!) rowing the small boat in no-man's land with huge hills by the river banks and a very clear blue sky.....

Until we hit the first few whitewater areas! The first and second was fun: sitting in front, you can see the waves coming and pushing the boat up high and then falling a few feets down! There's even stages where we are allowed to jump into the calm water and practice human rafting.. pretty neat!

Then came the Washing Machine.... OMG, did the waves hit us hard! Me and Pang were struggling in front trying to row the boat with the water splashing all over like rain storm! Then in a split-second we were thrown back from a MEGA WAVE!! Fortunately the raft didn't overturn, but we were damn close to being thrown out!! Shit, that was no joke man.. A quick look behind... oh man, the raft behind us weren't so lucky! Quickly like Rescue 911, we held out our rowing oars to the struggling guys in the water... A few were even washed further.... Pulling and holding in everyone, we rowed to the nearby banks to regroup.

The final two whitewater areas were pretty tame and soon we floated to the finish line....

and to calmer waters.......... ahh...you know, I *almost* wished our boat got overturned.. hahaha ;)

Before we have our lunch, we needed to hike a little to have our shower.

More train tracks...

Here it is! Lying down in this nice little river with the crystal clear water rushing past you... and the smooth rocks below with the nice warm sun shining down.... phew~ this is *BLISS*!

Plenty of nice shots to take once we got back our equipment...

Damn hungry by now, everyone changed to the dry clothes and whack the BBQ lunch.....

A short while later, the train arrived to bring us home....

The journey back was relatively quiet... everyone was pretty tired, but definitely this was one unforgettable adventure!

Next: Island Hopping!!

"KK Expedition Day 1 ~ City Tour"

Ok guys, glad to see you are still on board! Been a helluva week(s) and finally sorted out the pics for the first post of the KK expedition! :P

Well, this is the first time I'm taking Air Asia, so it's expected that I'll do this....


(Pls dun try this... it *is* illegal to snap photos once u r outside!)

And compulsory pics of the clouds, etc....


and 2 hours+ later, we've landed in KK!

The first day of our KK trip is to go for city tour of KK itself... but there aren't many attractions to really motivate us.. museums.. clock towers.... oh well, we're pretty hungry after the flight, so off we go, searching for food! :P But at this stage, KK town is new to us, so dun really know where to eat. And maps don't tell you where to eat either ;) So after walking around for awhile (and it was raining, great!) we just popped into an old coffeeshop for this...


I honestly dunno wat this is supposed to be... we ordered 'Kon Lou Mee!'

and Coke....

Look carefully the brand..."Gardenia"....

"GARDENIA COKE???!!!!" wtf.... i tot gardenia sells bread -_-''

And this meal is pretty pricey... the noodles came to about Rm4.50 :S Heh, and the aunty even thought we were from Hong Kong! Hahha...

The rain let off after awhile, so we continued walking around town on foot. There's this Wet Market...


... heh... literally *wet*!

and a souveniour centre..

with some shops selling foodstuff... I tried it, but it wasn't that great though...

A short walk away is the shopping area called CENTREPOINT...


Very different than the rest of the city, this place is pretty posh and high class...

But still, our frens were oddly attracted to this fella....


Orang utan!!






I bet the shopowner sure tension... all play2 but never buy anything! :P

And what to do if there's so many cool souveniours around to choose from??



umm... that's exactly what we did.. no need to buy, jz take pics of the souvenior! hahaha... okok...i admit: that was pretty stingy :P

Phew, getting pretty tired and wanted to sit somewhere... opposite Centrepoint is another posh gallery of cafes and pubs, with a superb view of the sea. It's called Water Front Esplanade...



We just went for Coffee Bean, but this wouldn't be the last time we come here! ;)

And our first group photo.... my bad for not introducing the KK expedition members first!


Gf, Leopard, FoongLin, Ivan, WaiMaie and Pang!

It's time for sunset!

U can trust me to come out with some posing ;) Although gf say look like monkey :S

Silhouette...........

Time to walk home to our lodge, and on the way back stop by for dinner.... everyone was pretty hungry already....


The waiter keep recommending this beer... Stella Artois... and it sure tastes good :D

Tofu (this was ridiculously nice)

Prawn (as was this)

Some vege...

And other vege

and fish (i rate this poor actually... the meat is overcooked or something...)

The reason we ate here was to view these traditional dances!


Don't ask me what race these costumes belonged to: I really dunno! :P and that prompted us to do a search on the racial composition of Sabah the next morning!

Ok, time to shut-eye for the night... tomoro is our first real adventure...

White Water Rafting @ Padas River!!

"Hi, I will be OOO..."

Whoa, it's already Friday! Tomorrow I'll be flying off to Sabah for my week-long vacation. Here's the trip itinerary:

Day1 (15 March 08), Saturday
Departs 1015, Arrives 1305
Meet Mesius at Kota Kinabalu Airport.
We will go to the lodge on our own transport.
Check in at Velvet Lodge. Lunch.
City tour.

Day 2 (16 March 08), Sunday
0800, depart to Padas River for White Water Rafting.
Transportation included in the package.
Over night at Velvet Lodge.

Day 3 (17 March 08), Monday
0915, Island Hopping: Pulau Sapi, Manukan and Mamutik.
Take taxi to jetty, and check out the package there.
Over night at Velvet Lodge.

Day 4 (18 March 08), Tuesday
0830, depart to Kinabalu Park, about 3 hours drive, and stop at local market (Pekan Nabalu) for souvenir.
Check in at Fairy Garden Resort. Lunch (NOT included in package)
Proceeding to Poring Hot Spring, about 1 hour drive to canopy walk and hot spring.
Back to resort. Dinner (included in package)

Day 5 (19 March 08), Wednesday
0715, breakfast.
0800, depart to Mesilau gate trail, about half an hour drive.
Start hiking about 5-7 hours to Laban Rata.
Packed lunch and dinner.
Over night at Gunting Lagadan. * No heater in bedroom, and no shower heater

Day 6 (20 March 08), Thursday
0230, ascend to summit about 3-4 hrs.
Descending to Laban Rata, breakfast and descending to Timpohon gate.
Proceed to Liwagu Restoran for lunch, and to Park HQ for collecting the certificate.
Over night at Borneo BeacHouse.

Day7 (21 March 08), Friday
Departs 0700, Arrives 0950
Back to Penang

So excited! I hope I can make it all the way!

Ok, signing off now. Wish me luck!

"Extremely Demotivated...."

It gets tiring, really, to have to pick yourself up again and again. Every time becomes harder than the last time. Despite a ray of hope yesterday, the day turns incredibly dark after the meeting. As usual, I fought and fought. And as usual, we were bashed down. It amazes me that for a person who has lived as long as he has, delusion clouds his mind as such, twisting his views, forming an ego that becomes as rooted as the oldest of trees. How does one still believe that he can be saved? Forgive me, for my own deluded views cause such angry words to rise. But isn't this the way of the universe? The rise of dark thoughts is a result of our own delusion, and attaching to them stirs our emotions. When you think of happy thoughts, you become happy. When you dwell on a past unhappy incident, you become unhappy.

At this point, I remember something thought-provoking that I read awhile back. Say you are captured and tortured by the enemy. All forms of unimaginable mechanics of torture equipments are applied to you. The pain becomes excruciating. If at this point, you think, "Curse you, why are you doing this to me?!", then you have not understood the teachings of Buddha. If you are thinking,"I hate you!", again you have not understood the teachings. Imagine if Jesus Christ, upon being crucified, said,"Oh, how I hate you for treating me like this!", then he would be no different than any lowly criminal. Curious, isn't it?

Life is suffering, isn't it? Don't we all wish that life was a bed of roses? Everyone would be nice to us, everyone would be considerate to us, no one would say nasty things to one another. But such expectations and idealism are also the roots of suffering! How I wish to say that I have learned more but this incident only serves to remind me that my understanding is shallow and the path to the end of suffering is not so easily accomplished!

"A historic night in Milan!!"

The day turned dramatically better today! Woke up at 5AM to catch AC Milan v Arsenal, Champions League Last 16 Second Leg. 0-0 from the first leg, Arsenal beat Milan, last year's champion, 2-0 this morning, becoming the first ever English team to beat Milan at the San Siro.

Phew.... after all the bad press (and results) we've been getting lately, this historic win is the perfect confidence booster! Go Gunners!


New wallpaper, courtesy of Arsenal.com! ;)