Company trip - Bangkok ( 8th - 10th June 06)

I left ACN on 1st June and joined DC on 5th June . I just felt like I am rolling off from one project and going to another but I know I will miss the nice people from ACN. DC company trip was on 8th-10th June. So, since the company was shut down for 2 days, they allowed me to join the trip. On my 4th day in DC( 8th June ), I worked for half day and fly to bangkok on 3.30pm flight. When I checked in the room at Shangri-la hotel, there was a girl already inside the room. She was my roommate - Foong Ping, a sweet girl from Finance department. I met other Finance colleage like Jenny, Wei Boon, Chee Wah and Vanni through Foong Ping and joined the group during my stay at Bangkok.

1st day at Bangkok, we took a ferry from Shangri-la hotel to our dinner place, Supatra Riverhouse. The river cruise was not bad. The lights of the hotels and temples along the Chao Phraya river made up the nice night scene. The 2nd half day was the kick off meeting for FY07. In the afternoon, it's Friday frolic time where there are few activities that we can choose to attend. I went for Thai massage. 1st time trying out the Thai massage, well..... the massage was not as good as I thought but who cares, it’s sponsored by company. We went to MBK center for shopping after the massage session. We didn’t spent much time for shopping at MBK center as we need to go back to hotel for the dinner session.

I didn’t join the crowd to Q-bar after the dinner but chose to stay in the hotel room. This is my 2nd visit for Bangkok. I traveled by flight and stay in hotel that cost USD 110 per night. It's really different from the 1st time . The 1st visit was about 3.5 years ago. I was backpacking at Bangkok and Pattaya with a group of friends. We stayed in budget guesthouse at Khao San Road and traveled by bus and train. Huay Mein, Siew Lin, Quek, Tuck Seng and Su Yan, do you all remember our Bangkok trip? To save money, we walked a lot, until I can’t feel my legs; we shared only 1 tuk-tuk. I think many people wouldn’t be able to imagine how 6 of us can fit in 1 small tuk-tuk. :p To save time for visit more places, we skipped some breakfast and lunch. Siew Lin always complained that she was tired, hungry and only been provided with biscuits. Su Yan will suddenly disappear and when came back, there was food in her hand. The foods at Khao San Road are cheap and good - rice with omelets, banana pancake, BBQ squid etc. There are a lot of memories about the trip that will still make us laugh when we talked about it.

This short trip to Bangkok ended on Saturday. I took the 5.30pm flight back to KLIA.

Gunung Hantu Besar (3rd - 4th June 06)

I heard about Gunung Hantu Besar from the hiking friends long time ago. So, when Hai Poh came out with this hiking plan, I immediately registered myself to join the trip. I also invited Chiern Wern to come with me. We stayed overnight at Kok Yuen's house at Friday night (2nd June). On Saturday morning, we drove to Jelebu after having breakfast. There are altogether 24 ppl joining the trip. Well, it's definitely a big group. So, we hired two 4 wheel drive to take us to the start point.

After 1 hour journey on the rough and bumpy road, we reached the Lata Kijang waterfall. I was amazed by the beautitul waterfall. We rested and took our lunch at the waterfall. The destination for the day is the campsite which located about 900m above the sea level. The climb begins by scalling the 300++ steps at a slope that inclines about 80 degrees, from the Lata Kijang waterfall. It took us around 3.5 hours to reach the campsite. The wild orchird can be easily found at the campsite. It's a nice and wide camp site.

Next morning, we woke up early at 6.30am and started to climb to the top. We took more than 1 hours to reach the top as the slopes are quite steep. It was very cold and misty at the top. So, most of us were very disappointed. We wait until 9.30am, suddenly the clouds which covered up the view was disappeared and the scenic mountain was appeared in front of us. We are so excited, the paranomic view of the mountain is lovely. The peak of Gunung Hantu Kecil can be seen from near, Genting Highlands and KL town can be seen from far. I am not able to describe the scene, you got to be at there to feel it.

Hiking is the tiring activity. The hiking group always teased among ourselves why we still turn up for every hiking trip although it's so tiring and torturing. One of the reason is the scenery. Every mountain offers different view and scenery. It made us forgot about the tiring journey. After came back, we will slowly forget about how difficult is it to hike up, but keep on remember how nice is the waterfall, sunset and sunrise, mountain view etc.. If you like hiking, I think you will agree with me. ;)