a catch up

It's been such a long time since i written in this one... but must admit i tend to neglect this one as i procrastinate on the development of the other. got inspired to write here after seeing frerin's post after 3 months...heh

life on the civil service is really not too bad. have met up so many old friends in the sector that it really feels nostalgic at times. And i do feel really on towards meeting them and re-aquainting. probably i feel more attached to frens these days. been meeting with pple from various times in my life and it does feel good keeping up with them. i have to thank dear for showing me how its done. army pals for meetups, uni mates blading in east coast, colleagues for drinks, riders for usual talk cock, bbq and planning for the next BIG one, and even a long time insurance agent. Sometimes, i feel like an insurance agent, but with no hidden agenda of course. hai...wat to do....pple will be suspicious of me especially now that i changed jobs.

been feeling good too cos our rides and club are being recognized by the bike community. watch out for the latest chini ride write up in a local bike publication! my first ever published article....kekek (gotta discount the research paper I 'co-wrote' ...the targetted audience were fuddy duddys academic pple)

a childhood buddy of mine got married recently too and inevitably, the same question volleyed my way.

I smile and say...i haven had enuff fun yet..................

19th of April blues

it's been a farking month! nothin much xcept been crooning to rod stewart and jamie cullum almost very single day. i swore i would not be like my dad....but rod stewart changed that stupid statistic.

til another day when im not so sleepy.....

The Tao of Kenny

this is something i wanna do for some time already...me farking writing a blog during my office hours...muahhahahaa... it's not that i dun have work to do...but it's a freaking saturday for god's sake. and while girls get alternate saturdays off, guys slog for every saturday they can remember since they joined this company. have been so busy that i dun have time to meet pple i wanna meet for some time..esp boo and gang. paiseh paiseh..hoping to go ntu again... so many pple in my cohort have jumped to other industries and jobs that im was really beginning to wonder if our course in NUS was of any use at all. after reflecting, i decided "yeah..it wasn't really useful." im getting so lame in my writing. or is it the little sneaky thrill i get from doing something illegal in the company that makes me write like a descriptive essay? nah, downloading anime after office hours takes the cake over here. im glad no one else in my company reads this junk more than u do. back to the topic. now, wat sort of tao does kenny the wanker has? i dont proclaim to be the next confucius, but im close. afterall, tao's my middle name and it's heaven sent sign for me to play uncle ubi (i cant think i anything close to auntie agony). i have noticed many pple being philosopical lately or at least i am. particularly on the idea of the life that one would like to have. the type of movie that describes ur life , the movies i've watched like V for Vendetta and Munich (which happens to talk abt the lifes they die die want even if it would haunt them), my brother's poster in his bedroom that asks u to choose between 'living in ur coshy little apartment, watching telly, living with brats for kids and dying in an old age home' or 'life' and also stumbling on a blog entry of an old friend in NUS talking abt the sad lifes of pple who think they are happy.

this sort of question, im sure, has been bugging pple our age since the wheel was invented (seriously, i dun know). and im also quite certain many pple got it figured out or at least think they got it figured out. now the hard part comes, doing it.

if u ever thot travel is ur cup of tea and wish to tell ur kids about your travels and perils, simply live ur life ard it.

dont get a job that would hinder u from acheving those goals or sign silly bonds to a job u never liked.

dont get jealous or envious of others because u prob can live a life like theirs if u really wanted to.

if u think that making money is all u ever wanted to do, just do it. dont let negative comments like "eh..u no life la..making this type of money" or "why work so hard? ur money also cannot go to hell with u" get u down. Ur living life as u deem happy to so live by them, and not let other pple's principles of life rule u.

at the same time, some knowingly want to live a poorer man's life and if it makes them happy, dun let ur principles of making money as a way of life disturb them. they can see happiness in ways u prob cant.

last but not least, watever u do, do without regrets. sounds cliche yeah...but many pple i know dont follow it. and they get cynical, they get envious, even putting others down for perceived weaknesses in their lifes...u get my drift.

if ur truly living the life u want and being so damn happy, you would not be probably casting envious glances at friends or acquaintances. u wouldn't also mind if others put u down for the life u choose to live.

think abt it. life is abt ruling yourself and doing it. i cannot agree with nike more....

administrator at work

it's been some time and i've been busy with wat else, work....but i also took some time off to create another blog for the motorcycling touring committee who might wanna read the trips and thrills of my journeys....a motorcycle diary if u will...

i'll link it up on the side bar.. www.vanwarides.blogspot.com

this will enable this blog to remain clutter free from all the trips reports that i do write for the klub. somehow, i can't find inspiration to write on microsoft word whereas it's a totally different expereience over here at the blogger's posting template.

been pretty philosophical lately after reading the forgotten realms trilogy on drizzt do-urden, a dark elf whose society operates on evilness. just bought another trilogy on drizzt and reading the first few pages while taking a dump, i think it will be quite addictive so dun really expect me to write in here for a coupla days..

til then....

about gays

just back from another ride to fraser's..this time..an extremely cold one with heavy rains....thankfully, the skies cleared and the roads dried before we headed back down and had quite a bit of fun and a scare...

oh well, i had just watched the movie abt gay cowboys yesterday and while i cringed at some scenes, it's just a love story of romeo and juliet themes, albeit a pretty controversial one. somehow, i would preferred the theme to remain underground and become a joke instead of it becoming mainstream.

even if the show is for adults above 21, im pretty sure many are of the mentality of 12. take for example, a moron beside me. incidentally, he came with a guy. he speaks in such an irritating know all sort of way, commenting even on the silliest thing like a pink panther ad asking bigger morons to turn off their phones and munching rudely away as if he and his partner are the only occupants in the cinema. really, he seems like the 12 to 16 year kids i see these days with the sort of rude, arrogant attitudes they take with pple in general. smart alecky and attention seeking...

anyway, i deviate..the homosexual thing is becoming so mainstream that i fear the younger set are doing it for the fun of it. take a walk along town and it becomes so apparent....it used to be underground...and i do sympathise with pple with true sexual confusion. but the more exuberant seems to be campaigning it with other intentions...to be accepted.

freedom of rights? more of a pathetic attempt to ride on the major social acceptance of democracy. im not against homosexuality....only against the actions and campaigns to make it legal. a democracy must be guided by morality. to accept homosexuality would mean murdering someone because of perceived injustice can also be moral. i believe in this innate guiding light in everyone of us when we are brought into this world. the guiding light we call morals. although moral education didn't teach us that guys must screw girls so that the country can re-populate, we all know somewhere in us that this is what is natural. i mean..how do monkeys (or other animals for that matter) know which monkeys to fark to procreate and ensure their future existence? surely not the males..

den again, im pretty tolerable abt these things (dear tries to get me irritated with gay themes just to see me uncomfortable) but am totally against it going mainstream. my reason is simple: do not let the young, impressionable and the weak in the heads be confused further. the situation the two cowboys get themselves into is frankly, trying to get out of the loneliness they endured. of course, it doesn't help that one of them is sexually confused.

but wat of impressionable young kids in the cities? everyday, they see examples in their classmates, older siblings and friends....and worse, media examples....den wat?

i fear for the kids in the future. having heard so many stories of rude, yaya kids acting all high and mighty with their malaysian cousins during chinese new year makes me very pissed and worried at the same time. i would have smacked the hell out of the kids if they were mine. the hands would have already been full with teaching proper manners...wat more of kids having homosexual tendencies because it's the rage.

pple should make their own decisions and as jake said "it's only between the two of us and nobody else". the society shd be more tolerable towards it but the line must be drawn when it comes to accepting it.

ennis: "im no queer."
jake: "me neither."

it is sad to see these two victims of circumstances. while romeo and juliet were separated by mafia rivalry, these two are separated by society's refusal for tolerance, let alone acceptance. im treading on touchy stuff indeed and although im uncomfortable with it, i think this is for the sake of future generations that it should remain underground as it is and kept a lid on. the world cannot do without controls.

and although it may seem far fetched, widespread acceptance of it probably leads to one conclusion.

humanity's worst enemy is itself.

Route without Horizons - Titi!!!

Happy Chinese New Year to all!

again, another mind numbing exercise to meet all related to u...if not watching chinese reruns on tv, den it's eating,eating and more eating.... it helps that i have got a good book. a trilogy in fact, and finished in good time too....b4 i go on..i think i better finish my 3rd day...i dun wanna lose the memories to the merciless course of time. on to Route Without Horizons - Titi!!!

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woke up to aches from the past two days but the natural airconditioning of the highlands more than compensated the whining muscles. i had always wanted to get up early at frasers and take a walk in the numerous trails around the hill.. but as always the tiredness ensures a longer time under the blankets.

the name of the hill takes after an european journeyman who apparently either lost his way or decided to lead a hermitic life on this quaint little protrusion north of KL, the capital of malaysia. how selfish he must be to keep this place his own...expectedly, the layout and designs of the cottages and stores in the middle of the hill oozes a rural style of architectural more at home in europe than south east asia. heck, there's even a mini clock tower with a roundabout smack in the centre of town. i wonder if witches were ever burned there..keke..

View from our room (time to invest in a panoramic lens)

dear's company has a corporate bungalow available for booking, so we decided to check the place out as we might even decide to return to the free accomodation, especially if the place proves cosy and scenic enuff. after the hotel breakfast, which was admittedly disappointing compared to what we had b4, we headed back to pack up our belongings and leave the apartments on our way to look for the place. ah siong had just woken up and breakfast was essential, so he headed straight to the town for it while we milled around looking for the bungalow. and boy, it didn't disappoint. there are like 5 to 6 huge rooms and large communal halls for gatherings and longing around. with a garden and private carpark, this place would be high on our future trips here.

with siong full and satisfied, we headed back down fraser's and i thoroughly enjoyed the ride being the lead and an unobscured road ahead. i hadnt ridden far out for a long time and my skills on the bike was rusting in singapore. thankfully, all the twisties slowly brought out the
confidence in tackling those treacherous falls. even dear felt the difference with my riding as the days pass.

after an hour of sweltering heat, i was panting like a dog in the shell station. the cool morning and hot weather played punk with my immune system and nose, making me feel feverish as the unforgiving sun pelted its golden arrows into my eyes. i also blamed my stupidity at taking an extremely cold shower in the morning. half an hour later on the roads, there was a sign which seemed a godsend. 'genting highlands - 26km'

even dear was getting hot and flustered at the beaming sunshine and imagine our absolute delight when isaac signalled his intent to go up the 'hill'. 20 kms of winding roads and the air had noticeably became more cool. suddenly, the sun didn't bite anymore. onward we push until finally, we were approximately 1000m above sea level, if my memory serves me correctly. it is much cooler in genting, given that we had just experienced an unusually warm spell in fraser. (it wasn't as cold as the last few times we've been there.)

we stopped at the starbucks at the first world hotel and munched into our tea. starbucks is famous for standardising their prices all over the region but it just seemed so bloody expensive to spend 25 ringgit just for tea per person! anyway, we were glad of the cool air and the much needed break and i settled into my first step into genting since i was 7 years old.

Starbucks for tea

huge contrast to the heat down below

my parents are habitual visitors to this place and have often told me of the wonderous changes that have taken place. theme parks and the basic developments of infrastructure have indeed transformed the place into a gambling haven. along the way up, it was heartening to see many locals benefitted from the overwhelming number of tourists into the area and the development it brings. however, all these developments can be attributed to a single chinese man who single handedly built up this empire of gambing dens. the rich only get the richer...

the scale of development (only one rich chinese man has such clout to improve the infrastructure)

having fun

down genting

on with the journey back, we headed along the kerak highway and i planned to deviate into the western regions of negri sembilan. if only to extend our riding hours and also to meander through one of the most talked about roads, the Titi range. just as we were about the enter, we headed into a scenic spot with the whole of KL at our feet. 5 min past when the imtimidating rainclouds burst through. the weather had been extremely kind to us, allowing us the opportunity to take excellent pictures and travel in safe weather. the rain in the early hours of evening was indeed well timed.

the smog and one more reason to get a panoramic lens

the sweeps in Titi are large and well banked. control of the bike is easy and the lanes are slightly larger, giving a certain sense of safety in our lane. lining the sweeps and contours are the high trees and huge columns of earth to our right and deadly falls to our left. i had read abt this british traveller who fell off a cliff while travelling in india. amazingly, he survived but with a couple of broken bones. with that in mind, i had no intention of going over.

soaking in the atmosphere in titi

wat a panoramic might do to this pic

i wasn't peeing

as the day darkens and the rainclouds gaining up on us again, we sped off trying to reach the NS highway before the conditions became real bad. As it is, the rain came pouring after last light, and my hellas were put to good use. tired and hungry, we made a detour to malacca for a western meal by the sea. the new year was approaching and i wondered where i would be and what i would be doing when it really comes....


as it is, prove that my new year was spent signing for petrol in pagoh R&R....a weird way to spend the new year but a mighty great way to end the last one....one ride i would certainly look forward to for years to come....

Route without Horizons - Gajah!!!

a combination of unfortunate events conspired to prevent me from putting this long awaited sequel down in the confines of history. in the end, a compromise was reached. now, my freaking computer is in chinese...so yeah...'my documents' became 'wo de wen jian' ... while ' control panel' became 'kong zhi tai'...the rest u figure urself..

speak mandarin campaign is really cool...

before i complain further, i think i better concentrate on getting day 2 out! the maps ain't ready cos i'm trying to figure out if i can install photoshop on this OS, will update it when it's done..so without further adieu...Route without Horizons - Gajah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

morning on banding island

the five bottles of tiger were flat, still it was still potent enuff for all of us to drop dead upon reaching the bed, with reminders to wake up early to catch the sunrise over the mountain range fast disappearing into the numbing brain....

if i weren't so tired, the midnight orchestra might have kept me awake the whole night. but fortune would have it that i had just miss the sun rise. plans to wake up at 6, have breakfast and leave the resort at 9 evaporated as i woke..... at 8. the sun had just managed to pull itself clear over the range but a heavy fog still lingered at the heady altitudes of 1200 feet of Banding Island.

the heavy shroud

by the time we were ready, the prelude to a cloudless day was set with the sun shooting tiny missiles into our skin as we left the island to get some pictures over the exiting bridge.

exit from banding island

exit from banding

picture postcards scenery greets us all round the bridge as we search for sensory delights to prep ourselves for the coming hours.

very postcardy

the route today would be really simple as much of the roads around the northern parts centre around the west-east highway, also known as the gerik highway in certain stretches. and southwards, we would head to gua musang aligning ourselves to the ever present peaks and knolls lining the road.

the wonderful roads

much of the journey would be pretty straightforward and it is a pleasant surprise that the weather isn't too hot to handle. perhaps the altitudes we were travelling on played an important part. the many twisties and winding roads reflect the times when the most economical way to build roads around mountainous regions was to go round them. however, we are in danger of losing these roads altogether, as the push for efficiency in the transport system prompts the local authorities every day to venture out new roads which are boringly as straight as a ruler. perhaps, the best time to enjoy these roads would indeed to be as soon as possible as bulldozers and tractors push down lands to make way for ' development'.

the shit we go thru sometimes...there are worser ones (fist sized rocks about a few inches thk)..but my poor dear was hanging on for dear life instead of whipping out the camera

shark stone

nicely cornering in and out of the twisties with Jocleyne gamely filming us from the front bike, i was stuck in a monotonous trance when suddenly isaac e-braked for no reason! knowing the man and his amazing senses, i instinctly knew he had spotted something and to the right i turned my head. and i saw a freaking huge butt! the butt of a wild elephant just turning around and fleeing into the jungle. my vision became those of documentary films when pandemonium ensues when a cameraman or presenter caught something unawares.... i quickly braked and dear was still cutely unaware of wat was going on even when i shouted 'elephant!' thru my helmet.. i called her to disembarked and off i ran to the site. a wild elephant by the side of the road for god's sake. i've seen monkeys, chickens, goats and even seeing someone colliding into a cow but a wild elephant is totally something else. the excitement of seeing the rafflesia was already enuff for the trip...seeing a wild elephant is once in a lifetime...unless of course, ur in africa...

a ravine. the elephant disappeared from sight but the shaking of trees showed us where it went. gingerly, we climbed over the road rails and peered....lo and behold, a visibly shocked young asian bull elephant was peering back at us from the foot of the ravine. i felt a strange sense of safety since the ravine had a pretty steep slope..so any charge by the elephant would be slow and we're really about 30 to 50 metres away from it. cameras and video cams promptly appeared and captured this amazing moment.

gajah the rajah

after tarrying a little while, the elephant walked off into the dense forest...and then trumpeted its mighty trunk as if to say goodbye. not once or twice but a succession of which we went off satisfied. already, this trip had much more than any i have been to.

excitment gave way to hunger and breakfast or brunch was to be somewhere near the top of a peak where a small malay kampung thrived. the relaxing attitudes of the villagers calms the most nervous of souls as they amble into the food stall and have mini gatherings on a Friday afternoon. I immediately thot of wat i would have been doing had i been in singapore at work. simply nauseous.

dear's fav sort of tree

a few kilometres out of the stall was a nice spot for more phototaking. dat said, it is very tiring to embark and disembark from a motorbike and i must salute my dear for taking every thing in her stride and gamely taking pictures and mementos everywhere. memories are made of these.

the peaks along gerik highway to gua musang

gua musang is another interesting stretch of highway to lead us back southwards and soon we came across the 'famous' (famous among the avid trekkers i guess) Stong waterfall from the jeli- dabong highway intersection. it is a massive sight with water furiously lashing out to the ground with such intensity that is seems almost scary , even when we're about a kilometre away.

stong waterfall with its ferocious waters

away we went again...taking in the sights as i tried my best to spot something out of the ordinary. about 80km from the stong waterfall, a bold sign labelled ' lata kertas' sprang out from the bushes and immediately we made a U turn. i, embarassingly, felled as my handle got locked out. i failed to notice that the road was inclined and with all the weight and excitement rumbling in me, i went in too rashly...

lata kertas means paper waterfall and we can see why. the entry route into the waterfall was steep and heavily potholed and jocelyne advised against going in. forunately, we did as we dipped into the cold waters of the waterfall, barely a few hundred metres in. the hot weather had drained much of our energy and i couldnt wait to get into the cool climate of Fraser's. meanwhile, this would do...

lata kertas

ah siong relaking by the pool

the sign that stopped us all

it would be 6 by the time we got up into fraser hill. the superbly narrow and winding roads leading up to fraser's is most stressful for a newcomer.

waiting at the Gap for the timing to go up..8km more!

every turn is an opportunity to plunge straight down into a seemingly bottomless ravine and the safety barriers are conspiciously absent in certain corners. odd hours are for vehicles heading up while even are for vehicles coming down. after 7, ur on ur own and i seriously doubt anyone in a right frame of mind would try it with the possilbility of another vehicle crashing into u in pitch dark surroundings.

fraser view from the main gate

dinner is just at this quaint and ancient looking chinese restaurant which serves average food. but we were too hungry to bother anyway....

dinner

den another 5 beers from the mama shop plus a bottle of red wine. another end to a very tiring day.....with good company and cool air for company....Day three awaits....

wait up (not too long) for the final installation of : Route Without Horizons -TiTi!!!

Route without Horizons - Bunga!!!

The days leading to the new year was probably one of the best ways i ever ended any year. Knowing full well that my new year was probably going to be spent either nicely tucked in my bed in singapore, tired from the ride or in the worse case, along the north-south highway, i decided to take the chance to go touring for the first time ever since i started work. and it proved one of the best decisions of the year.

Malaysia Route Map

the route we were about to take was punishing. much of the route would be to explore the mountain range roads along northern malaysia which hugs the malaysia-thai border. The gerik highway (west-east highway) is reputed by many singapore and malaysian bikers to be one of the best and most scenic routes u can find in malaysia with an appealing mixture of nice big sweeps to tight twisties. being nature lovers as well, it offers us a relatively unspolit view of the great reserves in northern malaysia from the dizzy heights of mountain roads.

Pushing all the way on the north south highway from 1am in GP esso, we would hopefully reach the kuala kangsar exit around sunrise. after an hour's rest and catching up on some much needed sleep in Tapah R&R, we headed straight for the exit to Kuala Kangsar which would lead us straight to Gerik along highway 76 and the destination for the first night, Banding Island Resort on Pulau Banding (where else...kekeke).

Perak

By the time we were at tapah R&R, i was so deadbeat (not riding for so long has taken its toll...me and xj used to be able do 1200km in a day) that my extreme hunger was ignored. Lenggong (halfway from kuala kangsar to Gerik town) is the place for breakfast as isaac had been there abt 3 years ago and was familiar with that area. indeed, it was such a quaint little place with picturesque sights and having nice piping hot prata al fresco style completes the package. it was said that anna and the king was filmed around the area as the beauty of the place with its calm waterways were mostly untouched.

Lenggong's causeway with water on both sides of the road (the buses and lorries were speeding round the corners like jay in initial D)

Parked along the 'causeway'

the 3 musketeers

taking in the sights (isaac and cysiong)

indulging in some vanity here

a quick trip to the muzium arkeologi lenggong nearby provided us also with the historical background of perak's or even malaysia's first inhabitants, the perak man. (something like the more famous peking man) that was actually quite a fruitful stop as we caught up on some really good air-conditioning in an otherwise hot and humid morning, made worse with our thick jackets.

Off we went again, this time another stop to take pics with something u'll prob wun see much of. a 'wild elephant crossing' sign..........hahah...wat a joke..i really doubt any one would have seen a wild elephant crossing the dang road...though cows are not uncommon.



The route to banding island wasn't really fantastic though it had some nice sweeping bends, though we couldnt lean much with our slower speed in the trunk roads. dear thot that the route up to banding was the gerik highway and wondered wats so great about since there was little to marvel at except a few spots along the way....but she never knew.....

the twisties and scenery along the way

Soon enuff, we reached our destination for the night. having ridden almost 800km to reach here, the end product certainly didn't disappoint. The eagle eyed peeps amongst you would probably be asking. 'A pulau (island) in the mainland?' yup, right smack in the state of perak is tasik (lake) temenggor, which i believe is the largest in malaysia. (circled in the map of perak)

nearing Pulau Banding

1200ft above sea level

the length of the lake is almost the width of singapore! a dam built fairly recently caused much
of the lowlands to be drowned leaving only wat used to be the summits of mountain ranges as islands. Pulau Banding is serviced by two bridges, one in and one out joining 'mainland' malaysia. naturally, the whole area, with its long ranges and excellent wildlife, became a reserve.

the bridge to pulau banding

Home for the night was banding island resort and it seemed that we were the only occupants for the day. a quick chat with the employees revealed that weekends were the only times where they would be filled with more pple, namely from KL and Penang.

View from our room

the resort

having seen the receptionist area, something caught my eye. Eco tours such as boat rides and treks can be organised and guess wat. Rafflesia flowers are sighted in the region!! none other by the natives, the orang asli still living in 'relative' obscurity, hunting and growing their own food in the vast expanse of the reserve.



having decided on the boat ride after much negotiating with the organisers, we were off on a boat ride to possibly see the biggest species of flower in the world.

boat ride (im playing with the gps..next item on my wanted list)

sure enuff, we stopped after half an hour of slicing through the waters and came to an enbankment. a ten minute trek brought us quite a sight. first off, we saw elephant tracks which were hardened, indicating that they were here a few days ago.

young elephant's tracks

den the reason why they were there was revealed. on a steep slope on one of the face of a hill, we saw the rafflesia flower. the only time i saw a rafflesia flower was in primary school textbooks, exclaiming that it is the biggest flower in the world. they were only to be found in the island of borneo in sabah and sarawak, so having seen them in peninsula malaysia is quite a pleasant surprise. They are not as humungous as their borneo counterparts but still huge nonetheless and apparently, elephants love to eat their buds.

the flower up close (the bud is on the top left of the flower)

knowing that there are wild elephants in that island ready to pop out anytime was already an exciting prospect, though the experience of seeing the flower made it perfect. and finally...no...the flower doesnt eat insects or man and it doesnt stink after it has bloomed. it only stinks during blooming.

small flower compared to the man sized ones in borneo

i wondered if i could touch the flower since it looks so puffy, but our guide said it might not cause the buds to bloom. anyway, i think it might just be a way of leaving the flora 'untouched' as they say, and i gladly obliged.

out we went and next stop was an orang asli settlement. my impression of natives would be unkempt and wild pple, naked childen running everywhere and stuff like dat. but no, their settlement show signs of social bonding and camadamerie with homes built in an open concept and a huge elevated hall for, wat i assume, for village gatherings. the men were out hunting but the village headman entertained us with his blowpipe skills.

the settlement

showing off his array of darts, which were numbered and marked, he pointed his crusty finger to the dark blob at the tip of the dart. an anasthetic from a plant was smeared onto the tip and it's potency is so strong it could knock u out in 2 seconds, claimed the headman. and i tended to believe him. the tip of the dart would remain in the victim while the rest of the stick ( thinner and weaker than a satay stick) breaks off, making it very hard to pull out the poisoned tip. the other side is made of some lotus look alike pod with a firm yet soft texture.

the unpoisoned dart (poisoned ones have a dark blue tip)

pointing his blowpipe at a hard tree some 15 metres away, a 'thunk!' reverberated and we were all stunned. some 10cm of a farking weaker than satay stick actually penetrated into the tree! the headman explained further that they have stronger darts for the bigger animals. an invitation to blow was declined as we had tried it before some other place and also, his mouth piece was put everywhere from his feet to the ground.

groovy baby yeah!

hygiene isnt a particularly important issue for these guys as i saw swarms of houseflies hovering around their unused utensils in the main house. well, at least these guys have TV, a hi-fi system and a satellite dish from 'astro' (malaysia's scv)! yup, modernity have crept into their lives, much as we want them to remain obscure. with that we headed back for some much needed rest and dinner

that boat ride took almost 3 hours in total and we greeted the shower with great joy.

the end of the day and a beautiful sunset from our room.....

and there's no better way to unwind after a hard day's work with malaysia's hidden gems. tigers!!




stay tuned for Route without Horizons - Gajah!!(Day two) where a surprise awaits....