Lyngering

Though the sunshine is not always in picture,
there is a lining of it glimmering in the matter.
Though it is true the sunshine is an important factor,
there is still possibility it will change be it or be it not be better.

The silver lining of sunshine linger.

About Caves and A Hill

Last week I went on a holiday trip to Ipoh with Rachael and Saw. Saw was going back to see his parents after his resignation and he invited us to go to Ipoh for a trip. The trip was actually planned by Lydia, she wanted to go on a trip and we thought of going to Gua Tempurung but after Saw planned the dates, Lydia said she can't go, so Saw invited Rachael since the three of us were gonna be free during those dates.

The trip honestly wasn't very well planned. We just knew where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. On the first day, Saw picked Rachael and I up from Centerpoint and we headed straight to Gua Tempurung but first we stopped in Tapah for lunch. After the meal and dessert (Cendol! Yum!) we headed for the cave. After we paid for the entry fee we went into the cave without a guide because the guide said we didn't need an escort. We could only go up till the third part of the cave just before the water part. Only big groups of eight lead by a guide can go further into the cave. Taking pictures in the cave was difficult because it was so dark. At some point of the cave, it smelled of sulphur and guano (and bat piss, is bat piss called guano too?). We exited the cave and we walked a little outside. I later soaked my feet in the cooling river outside the cave. Rachael and Saw didn't want to go in because they didn't bring their slippers. I didn't either but being in scouting, this much is not a hindrance to me.

We got back into the car and headed for home, Saw's parents' home. Saw's parents live in Station 18 and it was kinda like in the middle of everything. Saw's parents welcome Rachael and I and we had dinner not too long after settling down, I settled in Saw's room and Rachael settled in Saw's brother's vacant room. Because it was Gwun Yam Tan (Guanyin's birthday) Saw's mom prepared a vegetarian dinner. I have to say, Saw's mom's cooking is really good. The three nights she cooked dinner, it was delicious. After dinner, Saw, Rachael and I went to the Station 18 Aeon to watch Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation. The movie was good, it was comedic and hell yeah, Simon Pegg was in it, of course it'll be good. After the movie we went back home and slept into the night.

The next morning, we had a light breakfast at home and we headed out together with Saw's parents. Saw's mom wanted to take us to this new attraction in Ipoh called Qing Xin Ling Leisure and Cultural Village. It was a nice place housing various antique styled houses with antique displays in them, a small lake, a memory lane housing various antique goods, some animals namely dogs, ducks and geese. There was also a boat that in the middle of construction. There were bicycles of all kinds (old types like trishaws, wagons, etc) everywhere that were free to use, entrance was free to so this place was great! As it was surrounded by hills and mountains, the place was cooling and it felt very refreshing. We walked around the lake first and then headed into memory lane that goes up into the hills. Saw's dad can't go up the hill so he waited for us by the lake. We got to see a lot of old stuff that we've had or seen before, there were vinyl record players, the old fat televisions, old soda bottles, motorbikes, a telephone booth, old children toys, old food carts and more. There was also a place for hikers behind the memory lane that we went to see but Saw's mom can't climb it so we went back down. After that we headed to some temples around the area. These temples are built into caves so the main attraction were actually the caves. We first stopped at Ling Sen Tong. Saw's parents were tired so they sat at the benches there and read newspapers while they waited for us to explore around. There wasn't a cave we could go into in Ling Sen Tong, so we proceeded to Nam Tin Tong which was right next to Ling Sen Tong. There wasn't much to see in this cave, it was very dark but small. We then exited and went back. Turned out there was another cave next to Nam Tin Tong but we decided not to go, we then got back into the car and went to Gwan Yin Tong. It wasn't much either. There were left over stuff from Chinese New Year. Saw told us that during the Chinese New Year holiday this year, this Astro channel held an event here and apparently they didn't completely clean up. Because there wasn't much to see here, we left. Along the way out, I could see that that wasn't just it. There were really a lot more temples among the foot of the mountain, so many it's probably a norm here.

After visiting those temples/caves, we headed for lunch at this renowned kopitiam. Saw said this kopitiam was very old and Saw's mom said she went to this place as a little girl so that much is very impressive. We had Ipoh's specialy, kai si hor fun and pork satay. Because of the massive crowd in there, we had to wait about half an hour for our food to come. This place was brimming with tourists and locals alike, it was so lively to the point I was glad that the food tasted really good. After lunch, we walked over to Concubine Lane and looked around the place. Saw's parents stopped at this tau fu fa shop while the three of us walked around to see the shops and the wall paintings. Saw pointed out to us the famous Plan B restaurant in Ipoh and after one round, we went back to the shop and ate a bowl of tau fu fa, the traditional way, which is basically eating while sitting on a really low table and stool, to point you were really kinda squatting. After that we headed to see the first ever Oldtown White Coffee restaurant and then we headed home to drop Saw's parents off to rest.

Saw, Rachael and I then continued our journey to Kellie's Castle. Unfortunately for us, as we were approaching the mansion, it started to rain. That didn't stop me however, I convinced Saw and Rachael to stay and take umbrellas with us to see the supposedly haunted mansion. The place looked completely different from how I imagined it. When I was a kid, my parents had told me about Kellie's Castle but we've never went there together before so I've never seen it and because there was the word "castle" in it's name, I imaged it to be like a medieval like actual castle. Turns out the "castle" was just a nickname for the whole place, the actual thing was called the Kellie's House and the Kellie's Mansion. While Kellie's House was bombed during World War II, Kellie's Mansion still stands and while there were no spooky things to be seen (duh), the place had an eerie feeling crawling in it's old dusty atmosphere. I had the chills while walking around, it could have just be my mind playing tricks on me because I know about the tales of it being haunted. We walked around the whole place taking photos. After looking at every nook and cranny of the mansion and house. We lead Saw and Rachael out into it's spacious field where a remain of a gate or something of it's kind stood. There was nothing there but the single old gate and lots of fertilizer sitting around like landmines. It felt really creepy so we quickly left the place and hit the road. We made a stop at the Station 18 Aeon for a drink at Chatime and I saw that Wendy's was having a ten piece nugget promotion so I got twenty and we headed back home for dinner. That night we watched a Thai horror comedy movie titled Pee Mak on Saw's laptop. When we went to sleep, I was kept awake by Saw's loud snoring so I went to sleep in the room Rachael was sleeping in.

The next morning, we got up pretty late. Our objective today was to go to Taiping, see Maxwell Hill, go to the Taiping Zoo and maybe, the Taiping Night Safari and a karaoke after that. The last time I went to Maxwell Hill, I was thirteen and it was a combined scouts camp. The memory is fuzzy but I remember that there was a cafe up there so when we were told that there were no more jeeps going up, I thought, heck, we can still walk up because I remembered that the trip was short, we could also hitch a ride back down if we were too tired on top of the hill, it would be a breeze. So I let my adamant desire to go up the hill rolling and I convinced Rachael and Saw to climb the hill even though they didn't want to. How wrong I was. It was probably because I was younger that I remembered that it was a short walk, time passed much faster back then. The dreadful and tiring walk up the hill took us three and a half hours. We didn't have food and water, Rachael and Saw had "dead tired" written all over their faces. I participate in a lot of runs this year so my endurance was solidified and I could push on and encourage Rachael and Saw to keep going. Really, it was a big mistake. Thankfully we stopped at some rest stops made by some locals and had Chinese tea. When we got to the top, we thought we could get some food and drink and maybe hitch a jeep down. Unfortunately, that hope was crushed by the fact that everything on top of the hill was shut down and the last jeep left as we were at the entrance to the tourist area. There were some people still on the hill and Saw went to talk to them. A friendly uncle told us details about the hill. When the authorities say there are no more jeeps, it's because of the time limit, the jeep services are until 3pm; We reached to the top of the hill at 3:40pm. The cafes around were shut down because the foreigners who ran them left, all that's left are the houses for rent to stay the night. The three of us were devastated. Luckily the uncle offered us a big bottle of water and advised us to go back down before the sun sets. After taking some photos, we quickly went back down, the journey down was faster, we reached the foot of the hill in two hours. We were exhausted and famished. We quickly left the place in search of food and we got to a small food court and ate our late lunch/early dinner. Because of my bad judgement, our plans for the day was thrashed. It was already late and we were too tired to go to the zoo or sing karaoke. We went straight back home and had dinner that Saw's mom had prepared. That night I went out like a light.

The next day is rest day. Saw had some errands to run and he actually planned to drop Rachael and I at a shopping mall for us to chill in while he and his mom did their stuff but Rachael and I decided to just follow them because more than going to a mall, we just wanted to sit down and rest from the fatigue the day before. After going to the Digi Center and TM Center, we went to this Tzu Chi center where Saw's mom works at. The building was an old preserved house and it was getting ready to be serviced. After Saw's mom finished her errands, we went downtown to buy some Ipoh specialty heong peng. We wanted to buy fah sang tong as well but the shop selling it was focused on selling mooncakes for the upcoming Lantern Festival that they didn't make their other specialty confectionery. after that we headed to an Aeon mall that I have a feeling I've been to before (I fell asleep in the car so I don't know where we were). Saw's mom shopped for some groceries for dinner and then we headed back home to rest for a bit before going out again. I was really tired so I nodded off a couple of times in the car. Rachael and I were going back to KL before Saw so we had to go back by train. Before going to the Ipoh railway station, we stopped by at a Oldtown White Coffee restaurant and had tea (toast and coffee actually but you don't call that snack time coffee do you). After buying our train tickets at the station, we proceeded to go back to Concubine Lane to see the Plan B restaurant. We didn't eat there but we went to Bits & Bobs to have their ice snacks. Rachael had an ice-cream potong while Saw and I had the ice ball. After our chilling dessert, we went back to Saw's home where I crashed on my mattress and knocked out until dinner time. Saw's mom cooked this amazing tom yam fish for dinner. It didn't taste like tom yam, rather it tasted like asam when you put it in your mouth and then a bit later the tom yam kicks in. After dinner, Rachael, Saw and I went back out to the renowned SPPK pasar malam. There we walked around to see what to get. Rachael and I also agreed to get Saw's parents a gift as thanks for hosting us at their home. At the pasar malam we also got to see this elderly man perform with his snakes. He talked too much without showing us his snakes (to get people to stay and watch his show of course) so the three of us left after seeing only one snake in the span of almost what felt like half an hour. After buying some jambu air for Saw's parents, we got ourselves some ice-cream (I tried fried ice-cream for the first time!) and I got myself some chau tofu. After that we went back home to bath and then we watched Ted on Saw's laptop before hitting the sack.

We had to wake up early the next morning because our train back home was at 8am. After packing our bags, we went to the Ipoh railway station and had breakfast in the station's cafe. Saw saw us off as Rachael and I got onto the train. After finding out coach and seats, we settled down and I snoozed almost immediately, not before I got to see us leave the station. I love trains after all. The 2008 film, Journey to the Center of the Earth was playing on the train's television but I couldn't stay awake because of how tired I was. I was sleeping through almost the whole ride, waking up only a couple of times when my head was rocking too hard because I was sleeping while sitting straight up, I didn't want to recline the chair as there was an elderly man sitting behind me. We got to KL Sentral after the two and a half hour ride and we stopped by Nu Sentral to have brunch. Rachael wasn't feeling hungry yet so only I ate at Hoagies Houz, a bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwich) restaurant. The staff there were genuine Vietnamese who could speak and understand very little English. They got my order wrong before another who could who had a better command of English came. After brunch Rachael and I headed for the LRT and rode to Kelana Jaya where Rachael's mom picked us up and dropped me at 1Utama where my dad picked me. Hence the end of our Ipoh trip. I'm having holiday hangover now. I don't wanna stay at home...

Red Moon Rising

The time of the month has arrived! After a long time waiting, BloodRunner 2015 had finally come on the 31st of July. A month earlier, I had chased down the RedRyders in my housing area to get free tickets to the run. Thanks again Red.fm. The werewolf themed night obstacle run was located in Putrajaya and I was going with Lydia, Kayal and Ryan, our usual group.

A week earlier, I went down to the TTDI community hall to collect my race pack and participated in the blood donation that was held in conjunction with it. I also bought a Tikkina head torch there. I met with Lydia and Kayla there by coincidence but they were there earlier so I was alone to collect Ryan and my race packs.

A few days before the night of the run, the four of us arranged so that we would meet up before the race in the afternoon, after little debate and discussion, we decided to go in the afternoon to beat the traffic jam that would take place in the early evening. However I had other agendas to attend to.

In the morning I had to go to The Odyssey preschool to have a half day tour of the place for evaluation if the teaching job is right for me. I spent the morning there with the kids and the teachers there to learn about a day in the preschool. It was nerve wrecking and I had to constantly keep my anxiety with the whole lot of new people in check. After the eye opening event, I headed down to my secondary school after dropping my dad and my sister at The Curve because (I almost forgot that) the troop's Skills Camp was happening. I wasn't able to engage fully for the camp this time round because of my other priorities. About twenty minutes after dropping by to see the scouts, I had to leave to pick Ryan up from 1Utama and then head down to Lydia's house to pick her and Kayla up and we were on our way to Putrajaya.

After the long drive, we located the event location and headed to Alamanda to have an early dinner and to spend the time because we were two hours early (just to avoid the traffic jam). After dinner we walked around the quiet mall and I bought myself a pair of sneakers at Bata because I saw that the model I wanted was on sale compared to other places were it's not. Before we leave to go back to the race location we played a round of bowling, Ryan sure has got a good knowledge of a range of sports. He can really spin the ball but his aim isn't good. As for me, I haven't been playing bowling in a really long time so I totally lost it (I beat Kayla by two points earning third place).

I drove back to the race location and we can see that a lot of people has gathered already. After parking my car and getting our race bibs and equipment ready, we walked over to the gathering point. There were food trucks and stand around. We were kinda worried about having to go to the toilet because of our last run, all of us had to use the bathroom, so we didn't get any food besides the bananas I brought beforehand from home.

After dropping off our bags (and a short panic episode when Ryan left his race tag in my car), we headed out to the starting line and got ready for the exciting run. Before we started, I thought maybe I'd just run ahead and we meet up later but Lydia said it's better for us to run as a group, her reason was that it's an obstacle course and we don't know what obstacles we got ahead of us so it'll be better if we run in a group to help each other out, teamwork; Also, Ryan didn't have any torches to aid him so we had to by his side to support him. I reluctantly agreed to that (I wanted to run fast real badly, like I always do) and we headed for the starting line. We were in the second wave so some time after the first wave started, the horn was blown and we jogged out into the race track.

However, things didn't work out the way Lydia planned. Before reaching the first obstacle, we ended up splitting into two groups, the faster ones and the slower ones, that being Lydia and me, and Ryan and Kayla. Later in the run when we wondered how far Ryan and Kayla were behind us, Lydia commented how Ryan and Kayla has a habit of running together slowly in all the runs we've been to. To respect Lydia's wishes, I slowed my pace down to run with her and we went through all the obstacles together. Neither one of us wanted to do the punishment for not making through an obstacle, that was twenty air squats. Lydia kept saying how air squats make your butt bigger. Hahaha.

The first obstacle was carrying those large Chinese tin biscuit containers full of water for some distance, I don't know how long. The girls got to carry lighter ones. To me it was normal, like working at Hamleys, so Lydia and I got through easily. We then continued to jog together while making small chat. Mostly it was Lydia talking about her Broga Outback camping trip, I just listened most of the time and talked a little about related stuff. The second obstacle was a climbing over a wall, we made through that easily, though I had to give Lydia a boost because she just doesn't know how to jump, like really, she flops when she tries to jump, like a flamingo tangled in it's own legs. The third obstacle were tires followed by the fourth, a window wall thing where we had to swing through a small window atop a wall. After that, the sixth obstacle was the hill. The track goes into the hills of Putrajaya like jungle tracking. It was dark and unlit besides some reflector strips and glow sticks, we had to use our head torch to go through the track safely. Lydia and I worked together to help some of the participants who didn't have light to go through the long, winding dark path. After getting out, the seventh obstacle was wall scaling. It was similar to rock climbing combined with climbing a gate so it was really easy for me. Lydia and I continued to keep the pace and we reached the eighth obstacle which was monkey bars, another obstacle which proved easy for me. It was long stretch before the next obstacle and halfway there, I got muscle cramps in both my calves, which was a surprise to me because I've never gotten leg cramps in the previous runs. Luckily there was an ambulance nearby so I stopped to get some ice to help relax my calf muscles. After my legs got better, we thanked the nurses and we continued to jog to the next obstacle, balance beams. I got through it with slightly some difficulty but we did good. The two of us then continued on to the ninth obstacle, a net crawl over a bus, which was damn cool. The final obstacle was a series of pyramids that we had to run or climb over. This one was scary for me because it was pretty high up and my legs were not long enough to help me. I managed to get past it however and the two of us made it to the finishing line. Here we were handed our finisher medals, refreshments and finisher shirts.

After collecting my bag from the counter, Lydia and I waited for Ryan and Kayla to finish. It didn't take long and after taking photos we headed back to my car. Ryan and I ate supper at the mamak near Lydia's house while Lydia and Kayla took out from the mamak because it was late and they wanted to bath and wash their hair. After dropping Ryan home, I went back to the school to bath and sleep. Suppose I was to help out at the camp but I had to work in the morning. I didn't contribute much to the camp (rather I didn't contribute at all) so I'm not gonna write anything about it. I was very tired however, there was the obstacle run, then I went to work and did the mascot twice and then the camp. I was dead tired and it appears that it was very obvious because the others didn't want to wake me up because I literally knocked out from the moment I went to sleep on Saturday night. So there it is.

Times Squared Day Out

Last Wednesday, I went down to KL with Saw and Rachael. It was my first time in Berjaya Times Square and I was blown away by it's structure. There were so many floors and the escalator going up to the mall we took was so many floors up! I've seen pictures of the theme park inside the mall but actually seeing the roller coaster zipping around the insides of a shopping mall was just wack! There were other interesting interactive attractions like the piano staircase and the liquid tiles on the floor. I was like a little kid introduced to a brand new environment (because duh, I was in a mall I've never been in before). The reason we came all the way out here was simple. Saw wanted to look for this Gunpla (Gundam model) and he invited Rachael and I to come along, to which was both a good and bad decision I made.

On one of the highest floors in the mall was a Gundam shop that just sold Gunpla and I was like a kid walking in a candy store. There were so many types of Gunpla stacked along the walls and the shelves of the small, brightly lit, quiet store. The best part? Everything was dirt cheap compared to the ones sold at Hamleys or Toys"R"Us or any other departmental store that retailed Gunpla. I was so overwhelmed by the variety and price that I almost couldn't decide what to take. When Steven saw me admiring the Gundam Origin movie's Guntank Early Type, he recommended it. At first I was to take buy a Hi-Mock but then I ended up buying the Guntank and a Z'Gok.

After my facepalm-worthy purchase, we headed to Sungei Wang Plaza because Saw couldn't find the model he wanted. Sungei Wang Plaza was like the opposite of Berjaya Times Square. The ceiling was low and the place was small and cramped. Saw took the two of us to walk around and then we headed to the Litt Tak Hobby Shop on the top most floor. Once again I was swooped off my feet by the collection of build models of various brands. One that caught my attention was the Evangelion, EVA Unit-13. Rachael and I were fascinated by the four little colored Petit'GGuy. With hesitation, I bought all four colors. Another facepalm for Rachael and Saw.

Saw still couldn't find his Gunpla and our agenda kind ended for the day already. What's left is our board game night with other friends. After lunch at a wanton mee shop in the mall, we headed back to the parking lot in Berjaya Times Square and we headed to Sunway because I brought up the Gundam shop Saw mentioned before and that I wanted to go see it as well as ride the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) before they start charging for riding it.

Saw parked his car at the outdoor parking lot outside Sunway Pyramid and we took the BRT. I was excited as if I was riding a locomotive (I assume I would be excited like that because I've never ridden a locomotive before, also I love trains). The BRT was like an LRT only it was a bus, a really nice and clean bus, a really nice and clean bus that ran like an LRT, only it was a bus. We got off at Mentari and Saw guided us to the Gundam Hobby Shop. It was a quiet shoplot on the top floor also flooded with various Gunpla models, only unlike the one in Berjaya Times Square, this one is in more variety and less quantity. They even have really old models that are hard to find, to which this was where I found probably the last ever Beargguy. I proceeded to buy it along with an Acguy to complete my Beargguy collection. With that purchase, I had amounted a total of nine Gunpla models in one day, which was by far the most insane shopping spree I have ever done. Rachael bought her four Petit'GGuy here which was cheaper than the ones I bought at Sungei Wang Plaza. I mentally gross sobbed over this.

After making my satisfying but financially painful purchase, we took the BRT again and rode it to every stop to see where it goes. Saw and Rachael actually didn't want to but I was adamant about riding it and at the last stop in USJ7, Saw was glad he rode it because we got to see how convenient the BRT proves to be to the public. (Recently the price of riding the BRT was released and it proves to be discouragingly and ridiculously expensive. I'd rather walk than take the BRT.)

After we got back to Saw's car, we headed to 1Utama to pick up our remaining comrades, Ryan and KK to go play board games at a board game cafe in Damansara Jaya called All Aboard. We decided to have dinner first so after walking around Atria and visiting the Hamleys store there, we had chicken rice at this restaurant I recommended. After dinner we walked over to the board game cafe.

KV was joining us later so we went ahead and started playing first. I straight away found Coup. It was a card game I watched on Wil Wheaton's TableTop (by Geek and Sundry on YouTube) and with guidance by the store keeper, we played the game as a warm up. After KV arrived, I picked up Gloom, I've played this card game before because Kar Loke has it. The store keeper got busy so he taught us halfway and I taught the remaining parts to the others and we played a round. KK had a genius idea and he asked if they had Cards Against Humanity. The rest of the night was a series of loud laughs and teary eyes (and questions asking what some of the cards mean). We went home late that night. I'm definitely going there again. (There as in the Gundam shops in Berjaya Times Square, Sunway Mentari and All Aboard)