Bukit Takun (25th March 07)

7 o’clock in the morning, I reached Foung Yee’s house at Pinggiran Batu Caves. Hai Poh, Kok Ming, Foong Kiew and Man Tack had arrived earlier. Today, we are going to climb Bukit Takun. Peng Meng and Joshua were late. By the time all of us met, had the breakfast and tried to lodge a report at Selayang police station, it’s already 9am. As Bukit Takun is located in the private area, Foung Yee told us that police report is needed to enter the place. Due to some issues, we are not able to get the police report. But we still proceed our way to Bukit Takun which is near Templer Park Golf Course to try our luck. Fortunately, the security guard at the entrance let us entered the area. So, we left our IC there and moved towards Bukit Takun.

We walked uphill, bypassed the luxurious bungalows and came to the end of the road. The journey started with 20 minutes steep jungle hike until we reached a wall. We moved towards the right side of the wall. After 10 minutes, we came to an open area and another wall which is at least 30m high. This is our starting point – climbing up this 30m high wall. Foong Kiew seems very worry when she saw the wall. This is her 1st time for rock climbing. But she was doing quite well. Hai Poh led and set up the safety precaution half way up (at the place where he can stand properly). Peng Meng was the 2nd person that climbed up. Then both of them belayed us from the top. I felt scared and clumsy when moving up. Even need Joshua and Man Tack help to push me up on the first attempt. Anyway, one by one, all of us had successfully climbed up. But we still have half way to go. So, the process repeated. Hai Poh led and made the necessary safety precaution. Finally, at around 12.50pm, all of us had reached the top of the wall.

We continue scramble over a rocky hill. All of us were amazed by the limestone pinnacles up there. The rock formation is unique and beautiful. After hiking for half an hour, we couldn’t find obvious sign of the trek. So, we stopped for snack and admired the stunning view of pinnacles. After some rest, Kok Ming wanted to continue the trek. So, all of us followed. Hai Poh, Kok Ming and Man Tack were in front searching for correct direction. The route was challenging and sometimes scary especially when scramble up the side of a cliff. But the view was getting nicer. The entire Templer Park Golf Course, Anak Takun that located in the golf course and all the luxurious bungalows can be clearly seen.

It’s already 3pm when we started to retrace our way back. Descending is not easy and we have to be very careful. It took us some time to recognize the way down through the massive limestone column. The journey ended with the exciting 30m abseiling. Around 6pm, we left Bukit Takun. We went to Kepong for dinner. It’s Joshua birthday. He treats us for the dinner. We had also bought a cake to celebrate birthday for him.

The trip to Bukit Takun is indeed challenging. If you ask me to describe my feeling, I will say scared but excited, tired but contented. :)

Pulau Ketam (10-11th March 07)

I had been working in KL for several years but I haven’t been to Pulau Ketam which only need 30-40 minutes ferry ride from Port Klang. So, when I knew Huay Mein was organizing the Pulau Ketam trip, I signed up immediately without any hesitation.

The jetty to Pulau Ketam is located opposite Port Klang KTM station. So, some of us took kommuter and some of us drove and parked the car in front of KTM station. We would like to take 2.00pm ferry. However, the ferry only arrived the jetty at 2.20pm. After 35 minutes, we reached Pulau Ketam and checked in Sea Lion Hotel which is just a stone throw away from jetty. The rooms are quite cozy but with no bathroom attached.

The weather was hot. But we did not want to waste the time at hotel. So, we decided to go for a walk and exploring Pulau Ketam village. This is a mangrove island. The houses are built on stilt. Motorcycles are prohibited in this island. Bicycle and boat are the main transportation in this island. Majority population is Chinese and they are mostly fisherman. There are schools in this island. I noticed that there are a lot of temples here. We found out that one of the temple will having some celebration at night. That will be one of our programs at night.

I went back to hotel around 5.30pm. There were a few groups of people checked in the hotel and made the hotel nearly full. Teck Long came back to hotel and told us that a tour guide was offering us a package which includes Pulau Ketam sight-seeing, crab catching and also aborigine’s village visit. Each person cost RM15. All of us agreed to take up that package. A boat took us to one of the end of the island where a fishing chalet is located. From here, we slowly walked back to our hotel (central part of the island) while listening to the tour guide brief us on the attractions, culture and history of the island. This part of the island is very quiet, seldom visit by tourist. We took our time to admire the scenery, taking photos, listening story from the guide. It’s a very relaxing walk.

I think it took us more than 1 hour to reach the central part of the island. Wilson said he had been to Pulau Ketam twice and only now he realized that the island is so big. It’s dinner time. We stopped at one of the restaurant for dinner. We ordered crab, fish, prawn, fishball and squid. We waited for very long and when the dishes served, we felt disappointed. The portion was small and it’s not nice. Only the fried squid was good. The dinner was very expensive mainly due to we are tourist.

We proceed to Nan Tien Temple after dinner to check out their celebration. The place was very crowded. Initially we thought there will be Chinese opera but there were only dancing and singing performance at stage. Huay Mein, Lo, Ah Loo and Ah Son went back to hotel after a while where the rest of us stayed until 10.30pm. We played cards and mahjong until 2am.

The next morning, Kok Yuen woke everybody up at 7.30am. We washed up and went for the breakfast. Tour guide met us at 9.30am and brought us to visit the volunteer fire station, Chia association office, couple bridge and Koperasi Herr Ming Pulau Ketam. After that, we took the boat to go out to the mangrove swamp to set up two crab traps. Then, we visited the aborigine village nearby. Tour guide told us that government had gave this village a boat to fetch the aborigine children to go to school few years ago. But most of them had dropped from school after couple of years. We gave some candy and snacks to the children. We were at the village for half an hour before go to collect the crab trap that we set. Will we able to catch the crab back? Of course……..not, anyway it’s expected. Well, at least we knew the way to set and collect the crab trap now.

We back to Pulau Ketam around 11am. There is a thing that we have planned but haven’t done at this moment – cycling. So, we rented the bicycles from the hotel and cycled to the part of the island that we haven’t explored. 12 persons with 12 bicycles cycled around the island, such a nice experience. I am very cautious when cycling, especially when there are people or other bicycle coming from the other direction. I do not want to fall off from the road which is 5m higher than the ground. The weather is very hot. After cycling, we went for the cold ABC and cendol.

We left Pulau Ketam with 2pm ferry and back to Port Klang. Before going home, we had the Bak Kut Teh at Klang as our late lunch. Yum…Yum…it’s so delicious :D

Trans Titiwangsa Trek 西北北路线 (20th – 24th Feb 2007)

Trans Titiwangsa Trek is known as the tough trek in Malaysia. It crossed 3 of the highest mountains in Peninsular Malaysia – Mt. Yong Belar, Mt Gayong and Mt Korbu. It takes 5 days to complete the trek. There are altogether 12 persons signed up for this trip.

On the 2nd day of the Chinese New Year (19th Feb 07), we drove to Ipoh and took bus to Cameron Highland. It was almost 9pm when we reached Kampung Raja and checked in Lok’s apartment.

20th Feb early in the morning, we packed our things and checked out. We took our breakfast at 牛记 restaurant while waiting for the 4 wheel to pick us up. Picture above is the 4 wheel that took us to the starting point of the trek. It was 9.40pm when we began our trek, climbing up hundreds of steep steps. We crossed the dam and slowly trek into the tropical rainforest. The trail was muddy. The muds stick at my shoes. It made me felt harder to move as my shoes were getting heavier. It’s already 5.15pm when we reached the last water point. There is no water source at Yang Belar summit, thus we have to carry the water from this last water point to summit. It was 7pm when we finally reached Mt. Yang Belar peak. Bad news, the campsite was fully occupied with other groups. All of us had trekked for 10 hours. Nobody wanted to move further to the campsite that is another hour away. Moreover, it was getting dark and cold. So, we set up the tents along the trail, took dinner and slept.

21st Feb, we left campsite about 10.30am and proceed to descend to the valley. Descending to valley doesn’t mean that go down all the way, it still include subtle of ascent and descent. So, it’s still very tiring especially my legs felt pain after long hours descending. At last, we reached our campsite near a stream at 4.30pm. I couldn’t wait to wash up the muddy shoes, socks, clothes and myself. I had Dal-Bhat as my dinner. It’s mixed potatoes, corn and green bean. Hai Poh got the idea from the Nepali food. It’s actually quite good.

22nd Feb, our destination today is summit of Mt Gayong. It’s definitely not an easy trek. The trail is muddy as usual. We left campsite at 10 something and reached junction peak after 3.5 hours. Mt. Gayong still seems far away. We have to cross Mt. 6850 and other peaks before step into Mt. Gayong. However, we felt motivated when the beautiful landscape of Titiwangsa came into sight. You can easily identify all the peaks: Mt Yong Yap, Mt Korbu, Mt Table & chair etc. Slowly, we made our way towards Gayong and reached the waterpoint at 4.30pm. Nobody will miss it as it is marked with a kettle with its spout point to the trail leads to the water. Hai Poh told us summit was only half an hour away. But I took nearly an hour to reach, really exhausted as it’s ascending all the way. As dusk falls, team mates were busy setting up the tents, preparing for dinner and taking pictures. For me, I am sitting inside the tent busy massaging my painful legs. :p

23rd Feb, I woke up at 7am to get the pictures of sunrise. Weather was not bad in the morning as Titiwangsa mountain range can be clearly seen. Mt. Korbu – the 2nd highest mountain in Peninsular Malaysia was surrounded by clouds. It’s our target for the next few hours. We set off to Mt. Korbu peak around 10am. My stamina was getting bad as I really felt exhausted when going up the hill. But the scenery along the way was fascinating. Step by step, I was moving towards Korbu.

Finally, I landed on the Korbu peak, tired and speechless. There are a few campsites at Mt. Korbu peak. It can easily accommodate up to 50 persons. But its popularity has also spoilt its cleanliness. There are trekkers that didn’t bring the garbage down and left it over at campsite. This is really a very bad attitude and should never been practiced. Our journey doesn’t end at Mt. Korbu. After short rest, we continue our trek to descend, from 2183m to 900m. Suddenly, rains started to pour from sky. I put on my raincoat, then proceed the journey. I enjoyed walking in the rain because it was not very cold but refreshed. Before 6pm, we reached the campsite. Ipoh city could be seen from here. Hai Poh called this campsite as “bus stop” which previously had a shelter like bus stop. I went to the water source about 15 minutes away to wash up. Unfortunately it was raining when I reached the water source. So, I ran back to the campsite to take shelter. At night, it was raining again……I couldn’t sleep well as I kept on bitten by the sand flies.

24th Feb, Hai Poh told us that once we go down the mountain, we still have 16km to walk in order to reach the main road. So, we weren’t daring to stop for rest until we came to a big river. The descending trails were infested by leeches. Once we arrived at the river, everyone was busy checking and removing the leeches on our legs and in our shoes. We stopped for half an hour for lunch before proceed the journey. The weather was so hot. I couldn’t stand the heat, decided to walk faster. One hour later, we reached the metal bridge and trekked into the palm oil plantation.
By 4.00pm, I saw the aborigine’s settlement. Kok Yuen successfully contacted Song Ching and he agreed to fetch us at this aborigine settlement. I felt lucky that I can relax at this village instead of trekking on the 16km logging trail. By 5.30pm, Song Ching, Khong Lee and Wei Zhen arrived. To surprise us, they brought us cold drinks – soft drinks and barley. Ohh……..they are so nice. :D With Song Ching’s 4WD and Kok Ming’s van, we all back to Ipoh Khong Lee’s house for shower and dinner.

My Trans Titiwangsa trek had completed at the 7th day of piggy Chinese New Year. The journey ended. The wonderful memories will continually remain….

Chiling Waterfall (1 Feb 2007)

1st Feb is Thaipusam and Federal Territory day. So, those of us that worked at KL and Selangor got a day holiday. I did not apply leave on Friday as I am running out of leave after Nepal trip. Thanks to Huay Mein and Ying that organized the Chiling Waterfall trip that fill up the time for the day. Our group consists of 11 persons and we went by 3 cars. Kok Yuen is our guide as he is the only person that been to this waterfall before.

All of us met at Rawang toll at 9.30am and headed to Kuala Kubu Bahru. After Kuala Kubu Bahru, we followed the road sign of Fraser Hill and by passed a beautiful dam. We stopped for a while at the dam for photos. About half an hour drive after the dam, we crossed a bridge and reached the starting of Chiling Waterfall trek. There is no signboard, but could see many cars parking beside the roads. The parking place is just right after the bridge.

From the parking place, we crossed the road and started to trek to our destination. There are some construction work going on to build a bridge and toilets. We trekked along the river. The trek is easy except need to cross the river for several times. Huay Mein is a good swimmer but she has problem balance herself when crossing the river. Ying need to beware of her slipper as it will easily float away. After almost an hour trekking, we reached the waterfalls. There are altogether 3 falls. We stopped at the 3rd waterfall for swimming. The waterfall is nice. It’s such as good place for relaxing. Surprisingly, there are a lot of fish there. Just throw the bread into the water, all the fish will come over. Fishing is prohibited in this area.

We were there for about 3 hours before retrace our way back. We reached PJ around 7pm and had dinner together at Seapark. Chiling Waterfall is the recommended place to spend for a day or even camp overnight. 3 things that I remembered for this day trip: laughter, shouts and chill ;)

Kuala Rompin (30th Dec 06 - 1st Jan 07)

There are a few day of holidays in conjunction of Hari Raya Haji and New Year. I went to Kuala Rompin with Karen, Liow and some new friends – Ying, Son, Loo, Joshua and Wan Tin. We took off on 30th Dec and reached Sommerset Colonial resort about 1.45pm. The resort is very quiet, most rooms are unoccupied. Because of the flood that just happened 2 weeks ago, the swimming pool was closed for cleaning. The beach and the sea are dirty and not suitable for swimming. The place seems like not very well maintained. Karen describes it as “old folks home” and I think I agree with her. Although there are tennis court, badminton court, ping pong table in the resort, we need to pay if we would like to use it. We went out to Kuala Rompin town to have lunch. But the town is quiet as well, not able to find a good place for lunch. We had lunch at the Malay stalls and went back to the resort. Luckily Karen, Ying and Liow had bought foods for BBQ. At night, we had our BBQ dinner beside the swimming pool. There are a lot of foods – chicken wings, drumsticks, sausages, potatoes, fish, prawn etc. We nearly finished all the foods, only left some drumsticks and chicken wings.

The next day, we went to Endau Rompin. It was about 1 hour journey from Kuala Rompin. We found out that the park was closed. However, we still drove the car into the park. Joshua and Liow claimed that they saw tiger. Actually they only saw the tail of the tiger and it was disappeared into the jungle very soon. We swim at Seri Mahkota Waterfall. As the park was closed, we were the only group at the waterfall. The waterfall is nice and beautiful.

We played cards at night, countdown and then played cards again until 3.30am. Hehe….played cards from 2006 until 2007. We checked out the room at 1st Jan 1pm and back to KL.

Maybe because of the devastating flood, the place seems abandoned. The place is boring and I don’t think I will recommend friends to go there.

Back to Malaysia......(26th Oct 2006)

This is the day that we fly back to Malaysia. After settled the bill with hotel, everyone get refund of 726 Rupees from our common fund. We have 2 hours for shopping before proceed to airport. So, we separated into few groups and do our shopping for the last time. I bought a backpack and used up all the rupees that I left. Hari meet us at hotel at 10.30pm and fetch us to airport.

At the airport, I found out that I lost my spectacles. I called back to Hotel Blue Diamond and asked them to check whether I left it in the room. They found it. So, Kok Yuen, Kok Ming and I decided to take taxi back to hotel to get it. However, the officer doesn’t allow us to go out from the airport as we had checked in. As we called the taxi from the airport counter, the person helped us to negotiate with the office. Finally, we are able to go out and came back on time. Taxi costs 500 Rupees. I had used up all my Rupees. Luckily teammates still have some and I really have to thank all of them for helping me in this matter.

Our journey ended. We had back to reality. I had spent about RM 4300 for the whole trip. It was within the budget. We reached KLIA at 10.30pm. At KLIA, Teck Long lost his bag. Foung Yee’s backpack was opened up and lost several things like handphone, card reader etc. They went for reporting. I met my parents and went home by 11.30pm. It was about 1am when I reached home.

p/s: Teck Long’s bag was found and returned to him after a few days. For Lai, I hope she will be able to claim back her lost by insurance.

Tour around Kathmandu valley (25 Oct 2006)

There are some interesting places to see around Kathmandu. Since most of us are first time to Nepal, we rent a van from hotel to bring us tour around Kathmandu today. We paid 3000 Rupees for visits of 4 places: Swayambhunath, Budhanilkantha, Boudnath Stupa and Pashupatinath. We took off from Hotel at 9am. But soon find out that the road that we were heading was blocked. I have no idea what had happened but I saw the red Maoist flag. All vehicles are forced to turn back. Our driver tried to use another road and it was blocked once again. I saw burning tyres on the road. We started to worry will this happen when we want to go airport tomorrow? The driver seems to know a lot of alternative roads. At the 4th time trying, we managed to reach Swayambhunath.

Each of us paid 100 Rupees for admission. This hilltop temple is also well known as monkey temple because of many monkeys in this area. We can overlook the city of Kathmandu from here. The big stupa at hilltop with lots of prayers flag is quite stunning. But this is not the biggest stupa in Kathmandu. We spent about 1 hour at Swayambhunath before proceed to the 2nd destination.

I had fall asleep on the journey. When I woke up, we had arrived Budhanilkantha temple. The admission is free. A Hindu god Vishnu statue which carved on black stone is lying in the middle of small pond. There are a lot of Hindus queue up to bath it. Only Hindus are allowed to enter that area. We only spent about half an hour in this place.

Next destination is Boudnath Stupa – the largest stupa in Kathmandu valley. 100 Rupees admission fee is needed for each person. I saw it in magazines for many times. To my surprise, it is located at middle of the city. The eyes appeared on the stupa look in four directions. The eyes that look like half open half close with the question mark shape nose has become the special symbol of Nepal.

It’s lunch time. Kok Yuen found a special place for lunch. It is a Chinese restaurant at the small street behind the Boudnath Stupa. We definitely crave for Chinese food now. There is a garden in front of the restaurant. Persimmon fruits hang on the tree. It seems ripe but nobody picks them. Once the permission is given by the restaurant waiter, Kok Ming immediately climbed up the tree, picked the fruits and threw it to Kok Yuen. They worked very well with each other. One person picks and throws, another one hold and put it into plastic bag. ;) The food here was quite nice, big portion and cheap.

The last place to visit is Pashupatinath. I had been told that it is a crematory for Hinduism. It was built beside the Bagmati River. Once the body has been cremated, the ashes will be scattered to the river. Hindus believe that the water of the Bagmati River is holy because it eventually flows into Ganges. There are 2 cremation grounds separated by a bridge. One is used by the royalty and another is used by citizen. There is an orphan house near Pashupatinath. Kok Yuen and Foung Yee had brought some foods and clothes for them. We left this place and back to Hotel around 4pm.

At night, we went to Momotaru Restaurant again for dinner. Then, we went for shopping, bought some snacks back to hotel and played cards as yesterday.

Durbar Square (24 Oct 2006)

24 Oct 2006, we checked out Hotel Hana and moved to Hotel Blue Diamond which is cleaner and nicer. We get better room with the same budget. We took our time to have the breakfast, probably the longest breakfast that we took in 3 weeks. Then, 8 of us proceed our way to Durbar Square. Hai Poh stayed in hotel to write his article. We were attracted to a t-shirt shop not far away from hotel. There are a lot of t-shirts shops in Thamel area. The shop provides a series of pattern. They will sew these patterns to t-shirt according to the customer selection. So, it’s totally handmade and customizable. We spent quite sometime in this shop before walked towards Durbar Square.

On the way to Durbar Square, we passed by the local market. It was crowded with people, cars and motorbikes. There is no traffic rule here. I heard motor-horn everywhere. This place reveals part of the real life of Nepalese. Tourists will have to pay 200 Rupees for admission to Durbar Square. I had entered Durbar Square before on the 2nd day at Nepal. 3 weeks ago, our flight to Lukla had been cancelled. So, we spent the day to leisure around. I didn’t notice I was entering Durbar Square that time as nobody stopped me. But I didn’t visit this place in detail that time as team mates that stopped by the officer were waiting for me at the entrance.

Durbar Square is the important cultural site in Kathmandu valley. There are statues, ancient temples and monuments in this area. The restoration project is carried out at this moment. I went in a big temple for visit. From the brochure, this temple is named as “Kumari-ghar”. It is the home of the “Kumari” or living goddess who is considered to be an incarnation of the goddess Taleju. Kok Yuen and Foung Yee told me that the girl that had been chosen as “Kumari” will be the goddess until she gets her first period, when the goddess takes a new incarnation. “Kumari” never gets married when she returns to human form. This is probably because Nepalese believe that married a “Kumari” will bring unfortunate.

Restaurants were closed because of Deepavali celebration. We were only able to buy some snacks from a bakery shop. Peng Meng decided to go back Thamel while the rest of us would like to explore other area of Kathmandu. By looking at map, there is a tower which is not far away. So, we followed the map to look for the tower but we were lost. Instead of the tower, we reached a soldier camp. We asked for help from locals and finally found the tower. Admission ticket is needed for entering this white color tower. We were not interested to go in, only took photos from outside. It’s only after I went back Malaysia that I found out this is Bhimsen Tower, a landmark for that area. Then, we came across a shopping mall. We were curious but have no chance to go inside as it was closed. On the way back, Kok Yuen and Kok Ming were attracted to a special drink selling by hawker on the street. The drink was stored in glass bottle. We saw the seller used something to open up the glass bottle and pour the water from the bottle to a glass with lime. A lot of locals drink that. So, Kok Yuen and Kok Ming bought one. Dee and I also tried it out. It smells like drain water and taste salty. Well, I don’t think I want to try second time.

At night, it was really hard to find place to have dinner. Most of the restaurants were closed. We went to the Korean restaurant yesterday. The door was opened, so we walked in. We met Mr. Kim – the Korean man that can speak Mandarin again. The restaurant was closed for business. The owner served only a few regular customers today. The owner agreed to serve us with limited choices of dishes. This is because her workers are not working. She has to prepare all dishes herself. We were glad that finally found a place to have dinner. Kim helped out the owner to cook for us. Once the food cooked, we served ourselves with the food. :D

As usual, we were shopping around after dinner. Then, we back to the hotel and played cards until late at night.

Lukla - Kathmandu (23 Oct 2006)

23 Oct 2006, I felt sick, sore throat and couldn’t speak. We slowly walked to airport after breakfast. I saw the landing of an airplane. The airstrip is short and at the edge of cliff. The pilots really need good skills to do the landing. The airport was crowded. We took pictures with our porters and guide before checked in. Dee’s sister and brother in law are coming to Lukla today. They booked the package from the same company as us. Co-incidentally, Man will be their trekking guide. While we were waiting at the departure hall, Dee saw her sister and brother in law got down from the plane. She immediately ran out to them. There are security guards at the door to check the boarding pass. Our flight is not yet arrived. So they wouldn’t allow us to go out. However, Dee managed to by passed the guards and went to her sister. I am not sure how she did that. :p

Our flight boarded around 9am, marked the end of our journey at Sagamartha National Park. By 9.45am, we arrived at Kathmandu. We checked in Hana Hotel at Thamel once again. After settle the payment at Hari office, we went for lunch at Momotaru Restaurant, a Japanese restaurant which recommended by Hari. Kok Ming is very generous. He contributed US 50 for the meal. So, we have higher budget for our celebration meal. We ordered as much as we can. The whole table was full of food. The food is tasty and the price is reasonable. We enjoyed the meal very much.

We shopped around Thamel area. At night, we went in a Korean Restaurant with name “More Than Kimchi” for dinner. When we stepped in the restaurant, a Korean man beckoned us to sit at a table. He speaks Mandarin fluently. He was traveled at China for quite a long period. We thought he is the owner of the restaurant. Later we found out that he is also a guest. But he is regular guest of this restaurant. He is very friendly and nice. He helped to take our orders and served the food. When he knew that I was sick, he changed the glass of cold water of mine to a glass of hot Chinese tea. We felt very comfortable here, a feeling like having dinner at home.

3 weeks ago at Kathmandu, the weather was hot. But now, the weather had changed. We have to wear jacket when walking on the street. When we back to hotel, there is no hot water supply. We had reported to the counter but they didn’t fix it. It was very cold at night. I slept without taking bath.

Namche Bazaar to Lukla (22 Oct 2006)

I woke up in the morning, looking out from the window and admired Mt. Thamserku and other snow-capped mountains for the last time. I stayed in the same room 17 days ago. I had stayed in this region for 18 days ……it’s like a dream, a beautiful dream.

There are shops selling trekking equipment, warm clothing and souvenirs at Namche. We shopped for a while before retrace our steps back to Lukla. 9.30pm, our trekking guide stopped us from shopping and pushed us to start the journey. We walked down quickly the steep hill but often delayed by the slow yak train. We crossed the bridge at the bottom of the hill and reached Jorsale at 11.00am. We lunched at Riverview restaurant. Sui Jing put on the video camera and asked everyone to say something for recording. I remembered a few of it:-

Teck Long : Am I good looking?
Peng Meng: A lot of yaks.
Kok Ming : Too “snake” ( very easy and leisure trip for him )
Jing Yee (myself) : Get cough . Can’t believe I reached Kalapattar.

We continue journey to Phakding after lunch. The weather changed very quickly. It was raining, then stopped and raining again. Nepalese are in festival mood. Porters are singing happily. We came to the Maoist counter after crossing a bridge. We showed them receipt and by passed. A trekker told us that now the Maoist asked for 100 Rupees per day. If you would like to trek for 18 days, which mean you have to pay 1800 Rupees to them. Well, it’s cheaper than what we paid. We paid 2500 Rupees previously. X-(

We reached Phakding at 3pm. Guide told us that there is still another 2 hours to Lukla. At Khumbu valley, the distance is measured by number of hours needed walking from one place to another. If you have doubt on what I am saying, refer to photo on right.

The walk from Phakding to Lukla seems longer than I remembered. I had finished all my drinking water, legs tired but Lukla still hasn’t come into sight. Kok Yuen, Sui Jing and I stopped at Cheffung to have rest and tea break. A cup of hot lemon tea made me warm. Hai Poh, Foung Yee, Kok Ming and Man (trekking guide) arrived after a while. Man didn’t stop for long as he would like to go Lukla to confirm the flight for tomorrow. We rest for about 40 minutes. It’s 4.50pm when we continue our way to Lukla.

I reached Lukla at 5.30pm. There are a lot of people singing and dancing at the street. I think this is the way they celebrate Deepavali. I was very tired, rested at room before going up to restaurant to order dinner. Hai Poh was not feeling well. He went back to room for rest after dinner. Foung Yee and I also got sick. We cough badly. Luckily I only got sick when the journey was going to end. Tonight will be our last night at Khumbu valley.

p/s: Lai, you look cute and pretty in this photo. Nobody can say you are ugly now. ;)