Holiday on Ice

I had this childhood fantasy of "holiday on ice" talcum powder... haha... I laughed when I figured how relevant it was when Mardhiyah asked me if I wanted to join a skiing trip. Though in present i don't fancy the idea of skiing, (I prefer sports that require less equipment handling), I did it for my childhood memories... plus a little bit of 'new' adventure once a while will be good, rite :P

I joined this program organized by muslim student association of NC unis, to the Beech mountain ski resort,  NC. We can choose between Skiing, Snowboarding, and Tubing. Snowboarding sounds too scary, Tubing sounds too cute, so Ski it is! :P senang tak buat decision?... hohoho.

Look at the crowd... since winter is ending soon, I guess ramai berpusu-pusu to njoy as much as they can :D

and they have ski school for beginners (like me). But I kan berlagak terrer, haha... tak aar, amik syarat dpt ski pun cukup, even dengan gaya ayam itik skalipun :P

kaki terkepak kepak

Apparently, I dont have any inborn talent or superficial powers for skiing! Keep falling which is quite common for beginners... so that's what I happily did for most of my time there. Seriously... it was fun falling on snow coz its soft...but of course later u deal with your muscle ache la kan. Then, knowing me, I even felt when I was not skiing. on earthground, not on snow... passing by the cafetaria when out of sudden, a girl gleefully asked me "Did you have great time?!!" Kedeboom, jatuh!  grrrr... And again knowing me, I am good at 'speed recovery' and got up, gave a bimbotic laugh (cover malu), "yeahh, I guess I did, huhhh"  and kontrol macho... dalam hati, huwaaaa..............why whyyy

so lesson learned... to all of u out there: Toksah dok gempak mami laghu tu noh...  haih...adeh... well hidupku tanpa drama adalah tak sah, kan.....

This is the lift, that goes to the highest trail... erk, tiba-tiba acrophobia looking at this. nehi nehi. There are 'less extreme' trails, and separate lifts for that. Unfortunately (for me), when you hop on this lifts, u have to ski/snowboard down... u can't hve the return ride on this lifts. I really wanted to go on it, but since my skiing is bad, (I can't stop while going down slopes), I can't jeopardize my safety as well as others' on my path.

Anyways, I had fun learning how to ski at less steeper areas. When I got tired, I played around with snow (tindakan refleks bagi org khatulistiwa yang jupe snow kan) and went to check out the snowtube side... oh my, looks fun and cute :P tubies tubies teletubbies cute :D but i heard from those who did it, it was kinda rough as well :P

Last but not least, it was a great experience.

A part of it was also coz I met bunch of new friends, all young and energetic!! They are juz so cool... made my day! Thank girlss ;-)

winter's gonna be over soon... its getting warmer these days..yeahhh!



Penang Bridge Marathon 2010.

First time join a real Marathon.... Haha... I never thought of joining this year or anytime soon...Zue invited us to join her mission to run in this Marathon... and tup tap... here we go, with Kak Ilah and Mar.

Since we are all first-timer, we opted for 10km run...

(other categories: Full Marathon (42km),
                           Half Marathon (21km),
                           FunRun (10km but with no qualifying time/medal))

Those who manage to complete their marathon within the given time, they get a medal.
Full Marathon - 7 hours, Half - 3.5 hours, 10km - 1.5 hours.

and when Zue said she wanted to target the medal... I laughed.... and I told her, I will be lucky enough if I can finish the run.

The route map for 10km.... i edited a lil, coz there's a change in the route compared to the map they provided earlier. 

I walked for like 70% of my marathon :P coz

1. my stamina not that superb

2. I happen to have mild muscle strain at my right thigh joint, so i dare not stress out the muscle too much.

10km run started at 6.15 am.

as shown in the map... first part, we ran on the highway that goes straight to the bridge. At the fork towards the bridge, I bumped into Mar, and asked for the time and was told it was 6.30am. I quickly made some calculation, and figured I might be able to make it on time if I maintain the speed. But, my muscle started to sore a lil. Afraid I might end up hurt thus not able to finish... I walked, but in highest speed I could and berlari-lari anak a few times :P On the way, I asked 2 random people for time, just to check whether I was on the right 'track'. I maintained the same walking speed from the bridge towards the end. About 10 metres from finishing line, I ran :)) so that I won't feel like I did walkathon instead of marathon... miahahaha...

Finally, 7.30 am - I reached the finish line, took me 1 hour 19 mins. phewww..... Mar was just behind me in less a minute, then followed by Zue, just 2 minutes away. We bumped into each other a lot on the way... aku potong ko, ko potong aku, dan potong memotong sambil share ayaq :D Kak Ilah was nowhere to be seen, vanish into thin air gitue... haha... No lar, She finished earlier than us, took her 59 minutes oni...tak terkejar beb! :)) 

And all 4 of us managed to get medals.............. shared happiness is the best one ;-)

Thanksss u ollsss.... for various reasons i.e the invitation, lodging, motivations, jokes... etc etc

Hmmm... will I do it again? Hmmmmm...... we'll see... kalau ada kaki-kaki... maybe lah :P

p/s: PErghhhh... KAGUM lah.... those who did Half/Full Marathon.... cannot imagine myself braving thru 3-8 hours of marathon??? oucchhh

p/s/s: Adik-adik sekolah (junior category) sungguh incredible... they started 15minutes after us... but quite a number of them overtook us... ewah2.. mentang2 la metabolisme stamina korang masih tip top kan.... eksen nooh :P ahhahaa... cute nonetheless :D

Last but not least...

Tiring but Heppi!

 

Suasana petang di Tasik Mengkuang

Ini hari, cheq mau buat liputan Mengkuang Dam plak.




Tempat ni sesuai bagi mereka yang suka berjoging2. Bagus utk senaman cardio. Kawasan sekeliling pun indah mata memandang... auwwww ....

Ada dua pilihan... nak joging kt laluan terbuka/terbentang luas, atau, kat laluan yg dikelilingi pohon indah nan menghijau.

Ni laluan terbuka, ni jalan merentasi empangan dan tasik dia.

Jalan dia cam gini dan kita leh nampak penghujung trek dia jauh nun di sana. Lebih kurang 1.5 km gitu lah...

Di kala petang, ramai ber-joging2.. ber-walking2.... ber-sight2-seeing. Di sebelah kanan, adalah Tasik Mengkuang ber-background-kan bukit-bukit. Manakala di sebelah kiri:

Bukit dan jalan raya... akan juga nampak empangan. Opss lupa amik gmbr cekpoint kat hujung nya...

Hari tu masa patah balik... hampir nak Maghrib. Dari kejauhan, dalam suasana senja, terdengar sayup-sayup bacaan ayat-ayat Quran dari sebuah masjid. Rasa damai :-)

On the way balik dr trek di atas, tasik di kiri.

Laluan Kedua: masuk dalam lagi....

ada nampak Bukit Mertajam? :P


Ada juga yang berkayak petang-petang.

Ada yang jadikan lokasi utk wedding outdoor photography:

Jalan masuk ke laluan joging kedua:

Sedikit berbukit but tak curam sgt...

Lepas laluan berpokok-pokok.... then kuar open space balik.

Di tepi tasik .

anyone knows, bangunan apakah itu?

Dan sampai lah ke penghujung trek ini... Sekian... :D

Selain itu, kat sini tempat Penang International Dragon Boat Festivals diadakan tiap-tiap tahun.



Cheq suka tmpt ni sbb dia damai tenang gituw :P

Monkey Beach & Muka Head Lite House

Hiking- Monkey Beach & Muka Head Lite House.

Last year and the year before, we went to Kerachut Beach. As story-moried before, Kerachut Beach has meromitic lake and we were lucky enough to have experienced both the phenomenons.

This time, we chose different track. Our target destination = Monkey Beach but the ultimate goal = Light House. For Canopy Walk, we had to take a different fork but we didn't as were not interested to do canopy walk that day.

Look at the board... Monkey Beach is also known as Teluk Duyung? Monkey is Monyet in bahasa and Duyung is Mermaid in English.... Hmmm.... i still can't figure out how to infer this. maybe there's some logical .. no.. maybe some mythical explanation to this :P

All the way, the sight of the sea can be seen / heard.

After around 20-30 minutes...


What caught our eyes:

We passed this building and the beach.... Continued our hike to monkey beach.

And the track got more challenging. The roots, the rantings... which is which pun tak sure daa..

A bit of stunts here and there:

And finally... Monkey Beach.. see any monkeys or duyung (mermaids) ??
Roughly 45minutes.

Yap..Boat Service is avalaible. But on that day, we decided to hike to and fro...

Rehat kejap.... 15minutes.

Then... Ok.. go on?? Hmmmm... the signboard says 1.2 km.. Well... only 1.2 km left maa..

But... OMG.... so la mencabar!!! curam nyaa.. hukhuk....

I was not prepared mentally for the curam-ness... but.. anyhow... after susah payah.... 3o minutes later.... all of us were up there!!! in the lite house... up and looking down at this:

looking over d horizon

Me in d lite bulp:

hmmm...
if I switch On the lights.. will my shadow be seen in the sky just like batman's?

Going back to Monkey Beach

We had our lunch at monkey beach... (kerusi, bench, meja disediakan)....

Sewaktu aku tgh melahap kepak ayam....

mereka datang untuk membuktikan point: "What? mermaids?? This is MONKEY Beach, ok... our Beach! so now gimmie ur chicken or I shall.......%^^&^%$#"


Agak scary, but pandai-pandai lah ... Finish makan cepat-cepat... they came in a group to get wat's left to be scavenged... diggin in the rubbish bins and all...

We hiked back....and we reached the visitor centre at around 2.30pm...

ERK.... My kasut terkorban otw hiking balik... huhu... Imagine hiking back with one side of the shoes ternganga... of course... by the time sampai balik.. jari2 ku sudah melecet... adeh...


BUT.... summary: MMG besss..... and Puas Hati !! :D

Mother Nature memanggil-manggil

Detoxification after "Keracunan Ubat Gegat"

Destination: Taman Negara Pulau Pinang @ Penang National Park

This is our second group trip to Kerachut, the first in January 2008. This time around, there were 10 of us, 6 from previous trip. We started hiking at 9am from this entry point, with some kuih-muih and roti as our breakfast.

 all happy and bersemangat wajah... can we trust their stamina? jeng jeng jeng...

Some snapshots

There are few different trails, to Monkey Beach, MUKA-head Light House, Pantai Kerachut and some other beaches. We took the furthest trail - Pantai Kerachut... more secluded and has an unique lake... For more info, you may want to read this

Our motivation for this hike was: AYAM (yes, Chicken)...

In each of our bags, we were carrying a box of either Snack Plate or Dinner Plate from KFC, for our lunch. So.... you want chicken, you gotta reach destination first. Ha!
hike and hike, we continued hiking and trekking despite all the obstacles.... chewahh... obstacle konon...

uits but... dun play-play ok... we were stopped by Mr. bonzer monkey, with an intimidating look, provoking to snatch our food. But thanks to our teamwork spirit... we managed to overcome the threat... no worries... we didnt slaugther nor hurt that monkey in any way... haha...

And the challenging trek! the slopes and all... Proud to say, we reached our destination, the Kerachut beach after 1 hour and 45 minutes hike. (compared to last year - 3 hours) Well, this time around, we took less photos and most of us were in good shape and stamina... ehem ehem.... ahakss... (after one year building back stamina :P)

Ladies n gentlemen, what greeted us in Kerachut Beach?

There's this hanging bridge built across the lake+beach (as depicted in this pixxie below) Where the sea connects with the lake.

As written at the signboard:
The Lake that you observe is known as the meromictic lake. In Malaysia, this kind of lake can only be found at Penang National Park. As a matter of fact, the lake is only available at 19 places around the world.

Meromictic refers to the 2 layers of sea and river water which does not mix with each other. Fresh water is relatively lower in density as compared to the hypersaline sea water.

From the website:

Others attractions include visiting the seasonal meromictic lake, visible for only six months of the year. The lake has two layers of water of different temperatures. The bottom layer of sea water is normally warmer than the surface fresh water.

How different can it be after 6 months? Look at the picture above, where I highlighted the rock in red arrow and circle. That was the photo taken last week (May), whereas this photo below was taken last year in January, where i circled the exact same rock. (roughly around 11 am t0 12pm)...

The water levels and flows are different. In January, the water flows out from the river/lake to the sea, it was fresh water.

So dat explains the clarity of the water and how we swam and 'slept' in the water for hours forgetting the sunburn.

This time around, the salt water from the sea flows in (resulting into meromictic lake), water levels very high, and couldn't see how deep it was. As a result, we didnt jumped in the water at that same spot.

After feasting over the kfc chicks... We walked further down the beach, rested on rocks, only to be smashed by waves. Haha.. but that was fun indeed... The guys on the other hand chose to trail back few metres in the park to dip in the fresh water. Zuraini and I went there later to de-salt-ify and de-sand-ify ourselves :P:P~

Mandi-mandi... Lepak-lepak... 4 hours passed by in a flick of a lense...

To get back, we rented a boat. We have ealier placed a booking for a boat at the entry point (jetty), before we hiked.

Bumpy ride di lautan bertingkat tingkat :D

These 2 rocks are famously known for they are in form of some animals. Can u guess what they are?

We ended this trip with teabreak along Feringgi beach (Laksa, Rojak and Ais Kacang)... This trip also served as a farewell gathering for abang azrul who will be back to Lembah Klang. Good Luck and Best Wishes. Do join us, Parlimail bila-bila free wokeh ;-)

I end this post... with bak kata pepatah...

Berakit-rakit ke hulu... naik speedboat je bila balik...

Yeeehaaa..... Sekian, Terima Kasih