Trekked out by Mulu...

National Day public holiday saw us trekking 8km with heavy backpacks across the rainforest in East Msia - mom's great idea that she wanted to see the famous Pinnacles and Mulu caves. Getting to Mulu itself was a mini adventure - we had to fly spore to KL, KL to Miri and then hop onto small propeller plane to Mulu. We checked into the rustic Royal Mulu Resort and lunch was at the Royal Mulu National Park (the resort charges RM35 for a bowl of curry noodles..good grief..talk about price exhortion!!) - where we had the Mulu laksa (yummy!) for RM10 a bowl.

Then we joined a group of 20 over tourist and walked to see the world's largest caves. Although I do not particularly like caves cos they are usually wet, smelly and dark - the beautiful formations created by nature makes it worthwhile to endure the cave other not so nice elements :P After 2 hours of cave exploring, we settled at the nearby viewpoint area to view 5 million bats coming out of the caves for their nightly rendevous and makan time. These amazing creatures fly over 100km each night..how exhausting it must be to be a bat..but then again, I hv no idea why they need to fly so far to get insects..there were tons of insects just outside their cave :p..how batty ..lol.

Next day, 6am saw us up and out on a longboat ride to see more caves (and beautiful Raja Brooke butterfly) and the boat will stop at the start of the 8km trek into Camp 5 (our home for 2 days). Unfortunately, what I thought would be a nice boat ride turned up to be extremely strenous as the water levels were low and that required major boat pushing. puff puff puff

The 8km trek in was quite relaxing and slow as we did not want to tire ourselves too much..that is, until it started pouring about 5km into the trek..then we scrambled..and walked really really fast..and reached camp 5 pretty soaked. We were introduced into our "rooms" - house on stilts, raised floors with thin mattress and no windows..so you literally get the wind going through the room along with insects, bats and fireflies..talk about going back to nature...i missed my hot water shower and bed immensely :D

The Pinnacles is NOT, I repeat NOT for beginners..only 2.4km uphill and after 1 km, mom had enuff and I was quite happy to follow her down (though quite bummed out not to see the Pinnacles. Jin was sent as our defacto eyes;). Mom and I took ages to climb the 1km downhill and on top of that, we made a wrong turn from Camp 5 and ended up back to Camp really really late, tired and hungry. Was really happy to see that Jin made it safely up and back - within good record time too!

Next day, with sore muscles and legs, we started the 8km trek back at 630am. Thankfully I had my iPod to help make the journey seem shorter...would hv been an uneventful trek back if not for poor mom falling off while crossing the log..thankfully the ground below her was soft and only about 4 feet high..ouch ouch! The long boat ride back was much more relaxing that the trip up as the water level rose thanks to the rain and we were also following the flow of the river.

Was very very happy to check into the Marriot at Miri..back to civilisation..Jin and I cant imagine being as brave and gung ho as mom is at her age..really salute her! For us, next holiday better be at the beach and spa..no more jungles :D

Gwen Stefani and fireworks

Last week went by in a blur...was stuck at a mktg summit for 3 days at Hilton and coupled with late nights working with the agency to launch two big mktg campaigns, the week seemed like a month long and i guess it shows..my idiot friend told me yesterday I look so haggard..I think he needs a good kick :D



Anyway, in the midst of madness, there must always be fun so tuesday night - we attended the Gwen Stefani concert..that woman is really something..37 yrs old and has a body of a 16 year old and energy of 20 horses..she put on a good show..much better than that boring Westlife concert we attended previously :p

Celebrated the weekend with Jason Bourne..it was a action packed Bourne Ultimatium which Jin and I enjoyed. Saturday was a super packed day with yoga and golf..I am learning that the only way to finish the course is to hit with my fairway wood aka 4th driver :p. Although pretty exhausted, Jin insisted we go see the last round of fireworks - part of National Day celebrations. It was a packed crowd from our viewpoint at the newly constructed One Raffles Quay..have not seen fireworks since New Year's eve in San Francisco 5 years ago and this brought back good memories :)



Also managed to catch the musical - King and I..great stage set but mediocare singing :P..Sunday was a fun relaxing day hanging out with Lin and RY..we played tennis in the hot hot sun and waved the white flag after an hour of being baked. Brunch was at nearby Choupinette (french bakery)..no camera but the burger and cakes were good.

The right way to end the work week..a party!

Friday morning started off badly with a F2F meeting with the "good" folks from the Agency. It was the 3 of us facing the five of them but numbers is not an issue as long as you have A at the table..she gave such a performance that I have never seen a more sorry sight..she had the 2 big guns from the Agency bowing their head in shame at her truthful statements. Felt really bad for the Agency but I have to say they deserve it seeing how much angst they have put me through for the past 3 months and oh no, I have another 3 more months to go with them..save me! sob sob sob.

Thankfully I had Cheryl's party to look forward to..that dear lady decided to splurge her well earned "award" $$ on a les amis catered event. My initial plan was to drop in early to watch the set-up but of course got delayed approving copy (due to Agency sending me the stuff at 5pm and then had to have an hour conversation with them till wayy past 7...and the nerve of the new agency girl - she was giving me such a trying time on the phone..she goes : "but sometimes more is less and less is more but more does not mean more..do you know what I mean?" - Gosh, I really had to practise my yoga breathing techniques to keep my cool!! I just replied - "Look, it's Friday evening, I am so late for my appt that it's not even funny and I don't really appreciate riddles like this after such a long day" - I hope she got the hint :).

Anyway, I arrived to the sound of laughter and wow, a lovely scene of candles and "survivor" torches. Les Amis did up the place really nicely. The menu consisted of duck pate, salmon and prawn mini bruschettas - all done pretty well. And there was a bar set-up with a good range of hard liquer. I quickly forgot about work and immersed myself with good company and dinner. Here's Cheryl and me before I had to make a quick dash home to accompany Jin for his late dinner..poor guy waited till past 10 to have his mutton murtabak from across the street where we live.

Discovering our neighbourhood

It's been a week since we moved from Bukit Panjang to Bukit Timah..and though HDB living was fun, we really love our new place! Work's now a jiffy 15 minutes away (even with morning traffic) and there's a direct bus to work for Jin. We are also quickly finding out just how cool our neighbourhood is (no wonder the previous tenant could not stop promoting this place)..we decided to make it "explore your neighbourhood morning" today by doing a walkabout. Here's what we discovered :

- there's no line at the famous Adam food centre No.1 nasi lemak stall at 9am

- secret garden found at Botanical Garden's Cluny Road entrance (pix above). I had so much fun snapping pictures of the tortoises..i think it's mating season, hence the "positions" (pix below).

- Cold storage opens till 11pm!

- french bakery, german butchery, italian gourmet pastas and coffee and kiwi brunch cafes

- japanese ala carta buffet at $30++ with hamachi on the menu

I have a feeling that we are really going to enjoy our next two years here :)