Paw Tales

Gallery: Pulau Sapi

lasto_exile — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:42:00 GMT

Gallery: Barossa

lasto_exile — Sun, 5 Aug 2007 09:50:00 GMT

Barossa,Mclaren Vale

lasto_exile — Thu, 5 Jul 2007 20:56:00 GMT

Its hols nw and I just had a wonderful 3 days goin out wit 1 of my frens who's leavin aus for good....on mon we did lots of crazy stuff...was supposed to go West Beach,but changed it to Grange Beach n gues wat,wen d train door opened at d station,it was raining,we took 1 look at it n decided we're not goin lol....so we hopped off d train,snap a few pics,hopped bk on d train n went to west lakes instead...however we got to d wrong bus stop n waited almost 1 hr in d rain(damn it was cold!!!!!) n then we decided we're not goin as well lol n walked bk to d train station(again!!!) n finaly we went Ikea haha....n d Ikea in Msia was a lot bigger n better,strange eh....

On tues we went Mclaren Vale,its a vineyard and we went with a bigger group of frens....tasted some wine and did lots of walkin around d town...best part was d 2 of us didn look at d timetable properly n turns out dere was no connectin bus in d morn to Mclaren Vale frm d train station...we were like oops,wat r we gona tel d others????? hehe luckily we stopped for lunch at dis shoppin complex at d train station n found another timetable n hooray,dere was another bus goin there in d morn so prob solved...or so we tot,we missed d bus n then got on another bus n d bus driver was super nice,he said he wud chase d other bus driver for us...but d other bus was too fast n we had no idea where d bus we were on was goin,we jus sat there n enjoyed d view lol...n d guy actualy took us to d same place d original bus was suppose to go,can u believe dat???!!!!!!!! Haha wat an adventure man!!!!

Yesterday we went to Barossa Valley,dis famous valley of vineyards in aus...n dat was prob 1 of d best trips ever in adelaide for me...we rented a car n 1 of my frens drove al d way there...n since we had a car we cud jus plan our entire itinerary n go anywhere we wanted...we went to d Whispering Wall which was dis dam(reservoir) dat had walls whereby u cud whisper at 1 end n ppl on d other end cud hear u!!!!!!!!!! it was so cool,standin at 1 end n hearin our frens talk at d other end,we didn even hv to whisper lol,it was damn clear!!!!!!! Went to d lavender farm which was closed so we 'stole' some snapshots hehe then went to Williamstown n Lyndoch....at Lyndoch we wen to dis cafe called Monkey Nut Cafe which was pretty cool n shared dis plate called Monkey Nut Platter....haha we split everything into 4 parts(coz 4 of us) includin a single strawberry!!!!!!!! haha ate soft cheese for d 1st time,it was gud :)

Then we drove down Bethany,some historic heritage 'walk' which we turned into a drive lol coz it was too long a road to walk...wen to dis Sculpture Park on Mengler Hill n it was FREEZING COLD!!!!!!!!!!!! D wind was like some monsoon storm n my fren wanted to take pics wit d sculptures (i cudn't comprehend wat d artists were creatin at all,it was weird stones being dumped here n there) so we were runnin thru d park wit our hair al over d place lol....d view was absolutely breathtaking though ;) We went Tanunda after dat n ate lots of pastries at Tanunda Bakery,oh god d cakes n pastries were damn gud,especially dis cake called Bienenstitch which was full of cream,aah i can stil taste it,its soooooooooooooooooooo gud!!!!!!!!!! We also went dis cute place called Storybook Cottage n Whacky Wood(but x enter) n some Barossa Quilt n Craft Cottage,then went dis town called Angaston n yes,we visited d oldest vineyard in adelaide(i tink) called Yalumba n tasted 6 diff wines!!!!!!!!!! D muscat n another wine(duno how to spell it) was excellent ;)

It was stil early wen we came bk so we went some shoppin centre in d suburbs,then went my fren's house n did lots of crazy stuff there haha...coz she's goin bk soon so we helped her to finish al her food....gues wat we had for dinner...instant noodles wit 3 diff sauces,fish fingers,crabsticks,fishballs,corn,peaches,tuna n she ate pasta wit sardines!!!!!!!!! but it was pretty gud lol interestin combination though n we realy made full use of d car....went Windy's Point at nite to c d nite scenery,it was beautiful!!!!!!!!!! n very cold,cudn reali take any pics coz d wind was blowin so hard i tot i wud b swept away!!!!!! Dat was reli a damn gud trip,1 of d best in adelaide so far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Mount Kinabalu: Conquered!!!!!!!!!!!!

lasto_exile — Fri, 4 Feb 2005 21:12:00 GMT

Its been like 2 and a half weeks since I climbed Mt Kinabalu but as
my frens here wud attest to it,I haven't come down yet!!!!!!! Physically I'm
down here but mentally,emotionally,spiritually.....I'M STILL UP
THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL,ITS AMAZING,ITS
FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL OF U GUYS HAVE TO CLIMB IT ONE DAY,U WUN REGRET IT,TRUST
ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All of us kept on lookin at the photos and grinning like some idiot,I even
decorated the cd with pics of the diff peaks of Mt K.My seniors had digicams
so we compiled all their pics n burned it into a cd.....there's like over
1000 pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wah,I'M IN 7TH HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus
our own pics with non-digicams.....n I'm still talkin bout Mt K even though
its been so long since we 'supposedly' came down,my frens confirmed that I
was a freak!!!!!!!!!! Now all of them want to climb the mountain
too....lol,i deserve a commission for promoting that slab of rock
la!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went on thurs 6/1/05,went to Kundasang(again),Tamparuli(to change
tyres,was gettin worried mind u then i saw all the vans were changing tyres
too),Pekan Nabalu(some kraftangan village) and Mesilau!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
About 70 of us,mainly biotech seniors and just us 4 juniors.....went in 1
minibus and about 5 vans i think....Mesilau was gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!! The road
was soooooooooooo steep,i didnt want the engine to conk out coz i didn
relinquish walkin up man.......n it sounded like the bus was gonna rosak at
any moment,wah wen we finally reach the top,there was this sign that said
'2000m above sea level,u r breathing in 100% pure oxygen from
trees'......cool rite.....and u cud see mount K's majestic peaks so high
above.......ooooohhhh,I so fell in love with dat place!!!!!!!!!! Funnily it
was colder here and at Laban Rata than at the peak,guess I was too excited
wen i reached the peak to feel much cold,hehe!!!!!!!!!! And being the blur
me,i only found out that the trail up the peak started at Mesilau,there's 2
ways,1 is thru Timpohon Gate(at Kinabalu Park) n d other is
Mesilau......recommed Mesilau,the scenery is SUPERB!!!!!!!!!!!! There's this
part high up dat looks like some China-Japanese-made garden,all the flora up
there I've never seen b4 in my whole life.....its all bonzai plants with
hundreds of diff species of flowers dat r soooooooooooo
beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's this cotton-like tree n tons of ferns,damn,kept on thinking bout the
form 6 project,we cud have gotten top marks if we did it here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tons of funny insects too.....Lol.....neway,u cud see the whole trail in
front,its a narrow trail with cliffs yang menjunam on both sides(dun wanna
think bout fallin) n surrounded by mists.......IT LOOKED LIKE THE ROAD TO
HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha,call me a freak but the whole journey was exactly like LOTR to
me......after we reached the fork where both trails meet,it was an uphill
climb all the way....I kept on hearing Gollum's voice saying "The winding
stairs.....CLIMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"......man,dat was eerie.....then,nearing
Laban Rata(d restpoint) it was all sharp n steep rocks uphill,no proper
trail,was thinking of Frodo and Sam at Emyn Muil.....took me forever to go
up those rocks n I was like "bet Frodo has already finished his journey
twice n I'm still here!!!!!!!!!!!". Then,it occured to me,darn,I hv to come
down the same way,at least Frodo got saved by Gwaihir the Eagle,I don't have
an eagle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And those ppl cheated me,kept telling me I was reaching,but every turn I
made I didn't see any damn roof dat told me I reached Laban Rata!!!!!!!!!

Finally,reached it.....been climbing like 8 and 1/2 hours.....most of the
time alone coz all our climbin speeds were diff,all got separated....my fren
took 10-11 hrs!!!!!!!!!She n another senior were still climbin in the
dark,in Sabah ,by 6pm its already like 8.30pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Turns out our
restplace wasn't Laban Rata but Gunting Lagadan which was even
higher!!!!!!!AAARGHHHHHH,more stairs n rocks!!!!!
Slept a few hrs shiverin in the cold,terrible sleep it was......12.45am woke
up,2.45am started climbin again.....IT WAS PITCH DARK MAN!!!!!!!!!!! Cudn
see a damn thing,again all of us got separated.....then we reached the core
stone part of the mountain,oh god,it was sooooooo dangerous,dah lah can't
see,torchlight hanging round neck,pullin on the rope with both hands,didn't
really know how to climb dat stupid rock....no sign of any guides as
well......danger part over,continue climbin like normal......gosh,CHECK OUT
THE STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ITS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU CUD SEE
EVERYTHING,thank god for the moonlight,coz my battery already ran out of
power......still quite dark but not so bad la....got cheated again,saw the
peak,so happy,then.....wait a sec,there's another peak behind it....climb
somemore,eh,got another peak behind there......sheesh,its still very
far!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cud see the final summit,its so near but dis was the
part where u hv to start scrambling up the rocks WITH BOTH HANDS N LEGS so I
miss the sunrise......DARN!!!!!!!!!

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE CONQUERED MOUNT
KINABALU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! reached at around 6.15am,2 of my seniors reach
at 4.30am(gasp!!!!!!!).....I can't describe the feeling up there,u hv to
climb for urself.....the scenery.... WOW.....we were above clouds,felt like
heaven!!!!!!!!! And all the various peaks surroundin the
summit,MAGNIFICIENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!The south china sea was totaly covered
in clouds....got dis peak with a rock dat look like a lady with her baby,its
a legend,she waited for her husband to come back from sea but he nv did so
she turned into a rock waiting for him.....n the Ugly Sister Peak....its
actually a face etched into the rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Woah.....they had Donkey
Ears,South Peak(sideways look like someone's face),St John's Peak(supposedly
look like the bandage)....etc......spent over 40mins at the summit,my hands
were cold n the wind blowing was freezing my face but I didn't feel cold at
all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha,too excited d.....we took forever to get
down,kept stopping to take
pics.....ahhhhh,HEAVENLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Got dis wishing pool too,we made wishes n threw some coins in......jus found
out its actually a sacrifice pool,we were screamin at the expedition captain
who told us its a wishing pool.....lol,my senior was shouting "I cud have
hit the head of a spirit with the coin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Saturday,8/1/05 was the best day of my life!!!!!!! Reached the summit,came
down in record 4 hrs,n we went to Poring(again).....reach around
10pm.....went to the hot springs late at night,waged water battles with the
seniors till 1am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!That was soooooooooooooooo
cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Next day,went to see rafflesia again for 2nd time this semester,went bk uni
on sunday,I was actually wailing in the van,"I dun wanna go back" .....well
folks,hope ure inspired to climb the mountain too.....added bonus;YOU LOSE WEIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I needed 2 safety pins on sunday coz my shorts were DROPPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pulau Sapi

lasto_exile — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 21:25:00 GMT

Last wed,I went to Pulau Sapi with my friends.....damn the camera,it
got stuck so now i have to wait for my roommate to burn the pics my fren
took with her digicam into a cd b4 i can show u guys.....anyway sapi was
great......we went early in the morn(oh yeah,hehe i was suppose to be
studying for maths exam which was last sat....) n met this bunch of
hongkies who were goin pulau too.......they went to pulau manukan which is the biggest of the islands in the tunku abdul rahman park.....the park
consists of 5 islands if i'm not mistaken and sapi is one of them too......haha,my fren said dun call it sapi coz it sounds like cow!!!!!!!! But wat to do...dats the name n i'm too lazy to type pulau sapi instead so bear with me guys.....We went with the hongkies on the same boat though.....wow,sapi was beautiful
man.......the waters were light green n blue.......n u cud see tons of
fish!!!!!!!!!! We went snorkeling for the 1st time n it was so damn
cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We saw lots of 'nemo's and i actually saw my
namesake 'dory' too!!!!!! Or well a dory-lookalike.......hehe.......it
was really cool,we were practically swimming with the fishes n believe
me,there were tons of them and we kept trying to catch them but they were too fast for us n swam away.......millions of corals n anemones too,we swam over this really huge reef n it was so hard to find a footing among the corals n sharp stones....not to mention the fact that when u stop,the fishes actually bite u....yes,they BITE!!!!!!!!! We all got bitten n i have red fang marks in my leg as proof of it......the sun was really hot and the guys who swam in shorts got sunburnt!!!!!!!!! Funny thing was the orang putih on the beach were actually sleeping in the sun n they weren't even tanner but all of us got darker by just a few hours of snorkeling in the sea!!!!!!!!!!!!!The back of the guys were bright red!!!!!!!!!!Haha,we actually had to sapu sunblock on their backs for them n my fren showed me yesterday that his shoulders were still 'burning' from that trip!!!!!

We saw so many types of fish,there was this bright tiny blue florescent
fish n tiny lil bright yellow flourescent fish........i was beginning to
think they were neon lights!!!!!!! There was this group of 6 fish which
looked like sailboats(can't remember their names,was it angel fish????) and they were right at the bottom of the sea on the sand....it looked as if they were 'walking' on the seabed,it was really cool,1 of them was leading like the father fish n the rest were jus well,'walking' behind it......yeah,i remember now,those sailboat-like fishes are the same type of fish as the tank fish leader who helped nemo escape in Finding Nemo,u know the smart fellow who once came from the sea......if u dunno wat i'm talking about well nevermind.....just think sailboats ok......then there was this blue and yellow fish which had really marvelous fins,the edges in circle were yellow and the centre was bright red!!!!!!! There were also these fishes dat had blue,green n yellow lines all over the surface of its body....wow,the coral reef was red n blue....tons of huge ones resembled large rocks n since it was shallow it was really hard to swim over it....actually banged my leg n scraped it on one of these funny things....the seabed at 1 point sloped down
like a hill and the entire 'hillside' was covered with huge
corals!!!!!!!!It was so amazing,never seen a sight like it before......and while swimming with the fishes in the sea,i was actually singing "We belong to the sea" by Aqua.....coudn't help it,it jus came naturally......

We were having so much fun that none of us were hungry can u believe
that.....anyway we had a snack of bread with peanut butter n maggi
snacks and then we were off exploring the island.....sapi is actually a tiny island.....we scrambled over huge rocks and took lots of pics with
funny poses too.....then we saw this trail in the hillside n decided
wat-the-heck we're going jungle trekking.....i wasn't wearing my specs at that time n it was terrible coz the whole trek was green n brown n u never know when it slopes or there's a hidden hole,i was practically scrutinising the whole trek by squinting n it was a really tiring process.....almost slip a couple of times,next time i'm remembering my glasses!!!!!!!!!Anyway the trek was fun,it was winding upwards(quite tiring too) and then downwards n then it looked as if we were lost coz the trek looked unused......we were laughing that we wud have to spend the night there n i said that's good coz then we needn't go sit for our exams.....hehe.....we were winding the path when my fren screamed that there's a biawak n he didn't dare move on,imagine that,he's a guy!!!!!!!!!!Well my fren in front of me didn't have her specs
on either so the both of us jus carried on without er seeing the
so-called biawak.....next thing we knew we were on the other side of the
island!!!!!!!! It was great,the rocks were beautiful and oh gosh,the
waves breaking on the rocks,MAGNIFICENT!!!!!!!!!!And you cud see the long
stretch of deep blue sea against the sky with no land at all......jus flat,sea n sky blending as one.....wow,it looked as if one wud be lost if u sail there coz no land at all,jus the sea,sea and more sea.......we walked back by the beach trail n got tons of tiny seashells which are really beautiful......i now have 2 shell collections,1 from the ODEC beach n now the sapi beach......

It was back to the sea for another round of snorkeling coz last boat
leaves at 4pm.....we had the whole sea to ourselves coz all the
japanese,chinese n hongkong tourists were leaving.....the japanese girls were very beautiful,dey wore really skimpy n sexy bikinis and they were
sooooooooo fair!!!!!!!The cantonese-speaking bunch of tourists were old men n women!!!!!!! It was soooooo funny coz the men
were old n fat n wading in the sea with their shorts.....the old women were more cautious,hanging on to the old men in the sea.....very cute la the scenario.....n there was this filming crew too....but we were too far
to see it coz we were in the sea n they were at the jetty at that
time.....damn,we jus missed Miss HongKong.....the ticketing guy told us that Miss HongKong went to sapi the day b4 and she was still there on the day we went....apparently dey went diving but since we dunno wat she looks like,hmmm,wonder if the filming crew was filming her.....anyway,lots of beautiful tourists were there diving,anyone of them cud have been her....

The bathrooms were terrible(aren't they all...)....running water for
wat 10 seconds n then its trickling out onto the wall n the shower heads are soooooooo high up(are they afraid ppl will steal them???!!!!!) you
can't adjust it.....it was dark n gloomy too n my fren was saying "Dark
Water" which annnoyed us coz it really looked like a scene from Dark Water the japanese movie.....scary man.....i gave up trying to bath,the sea water ruined my hair n completely tangled it.....just washed the sand off myself n spent ages combing the hair!!!!!!!!!My fren was lucky,her's had enough water for her to bath b4 it conked out too.....the guys were simply hopeless,shouting outside the girl's bathrooms for shower foam,shampoo n whatnot.....
We left finally,how sad,wanted to swim somemore.....we sat the same
boat with the hongkie tourists earlier n we got to see manukan island as the boatmen went to fetch them,the water there is deeper n the sand more
beautiful.....oh yea,we invited them to join us for dinner,it was great,i
cudn't speak good cantonese so we were conversing in mandarin while all
my frens were babbling away in perfect cantonese with them.....we belanja
them minum so they belanja us makan....we ate at this seaside gerai....tons of gerai there,like night market only.....jus choose a stall n order wat u want......i once bought ikan bakar there n it was delicious......ate meehun goreng dat nite n it sucked....oh well,win some lose some.....they were telling us all bout hongkong n we were talking bout msia to them....haha,talk about tourist-info-exchange!!!!!!!! Cool man!!!!!!!!