Year-end trekking

Hm, I concluded my IA with a job opportunity after graduation, and a really refreshing trekking. Wanna pen down some good notes about the trekking so can refer to it in the future. Yah!

Since ppl agreed to meet up at Kranji MRT at 6AM, I woke up early to get ready by 5AM and that's what made me a bit drowsy in the morning. My team had 2 other Vietnamese friends from shatec and a Pakistani: Nguyen, Thanh, and Yousuf. Girls are quite talkative, friendly, and Yousuf is a caring man, look like a senior (lol, he really is).

6:30AM at Woodland checkpoint: I realized that Singaporean friends have much advantage at the checkpoint: using their ID to slot into the reader, super fast. I remember the check-in/check-out gates for Vietnamese in Saigon, which are meant for Vietnamese and the Q is always longer than the one for int'l passports.

7AM, I lost my group and just followed some random trekking participants to a McD restaurant. The burger was okay but the black coffee was terrible; it's not Singapore black coffee, it's not as sour and bitter as Vietnam black coffee, it was like soot mixed with plain water. you can imagine!



The group of ppl started heading to the JB Sentral to board the train to Tampin. The ticket was MYR 25.00 per person for a 400km ride, comparable to those in Vietnam. The coach was quite spacious with aircon. It's not too fast but since it was only 4 hrs, no one was really tired. Some took a quick nap, some went to the ends of the coach to have the view of Malaysia urban. Thru the window/door, the view is surprisingly similar to Cambodia and Vietnam but there was no rice field, just palm tree and some jungles.



Strange that we can open the train doors. Quite dangerous, especially when the train did a quick turn.



Arrive at Tampin around noon. We had quick lunch and drink to recharge for the trek. Food was damn cheap, we can get nasi lemak at MYR 1. Ppl here can understand basic English, so we didnt have to struggle. For me, I just shut up and buy.



After 1/2hr lunch, we took taxi to the base of the mountain to prepare to climb up to the summit. There seems to be no traffic rule. The taxi driver was just so friendly that he kept telling us to take photo of mosque, tell the history of the tampin town, where to it, where ppl go jogging in the morning. He spoke Malay, mixed with some broken English, and always with smiles and laughs. 4 of us in the taxi were quite enjoying with such a friendly local man but were really scared when he did not look at his driving. Lesson learnt: never talk much to a friendly taxi driver, or else you will risk your life. The road sign required a maximum of 60km/h but he speed up to 100km/h and even tried to pass some trucks. He opened the radio and swung himself with the music too. The taxi ride took 20 mins.



At the base of the mountain, we needed to drink up, stretch our muscle and apply repellent.



Ascending the Datuk was not as easy as i had imagined. A lot of insects, tree root, rocks... the slope is quite as steep as 45 degree and it's advisable to have your gloves on. No leeches, no snake, no centipede but a lot of huge, really huge, mosquitoes. Trekking up the summit takes 3.5 hours including resting time. When you finish half of the way up, there is a flat land where you can rest. Before you reach the base camp (despite its name, it is near the top of the mountain), you will see a huge rock with wet algae. But don't touch it, it is itchy and may be poisonous.

I used 2 litres of water when I climbed up.

(Feel tired reading? Ok I'm tired writing too. Going to sleep now. Will continue soon!)

An article led me to a decision

I has been considering taking the Minor in Nanoscience recently but I was still unsure whether I will be able to cope with another 4 core modules in year 4. But a recent article has urged me to go for it: Nanoscience!

Being a quite new area in science and technology, nanotech however shows its amazing applications in various areas such as medical, surface coating (which I am working on), biology, pharmacy... and especially ENERGY!



It is anticipated that the most major problem of human in 2050 is Energy. While natural resource is becoming a visible shortage, the increase in population and the need for effective food-manufacturing require a major source of energy. We already see the signal that human is becoming more aware of the energy loss, and electricity is stepping into transportation such as electric cars, H-fuel cars. Solar energy and windmills will definitely replace all the oil refineries in the near future.



Nanotech was introduced as an integral part of solar energy and renewable energy industries. And though currently I know almost nothing about nanoscience in energy industry, it fascinates me by its ability to resolve the energy issue - human's major problem in 2050; and with nanoscience, I will join the Nanoscience Supermen (scientists and engineers) to save the world in 2050.

And even if I can't join the Supermen, I will still be able to earn fast cash with nanoscience. :D

(Inspired when doing research and writing my IA report =P)

Bạn có bồ hết rồi

Vậy là 2 đứa bạn còn lại cũng đã có bồ. Nhanh, hơi bất ngờ =) Vui thì vui, nhưng bây giờ thì không thể lúc nào cũng có thể thoải mái chọc ghẹo, đùa giỡn, vô tư với tụi nó như trước kia được. Vì tụi nó không phải hoàn toàn chỉ là bạn của ta, mà đã là 1 phần của người khác =))

Hôm nay cũng lại tụ tập ăn chơi, nhưng không khí thì không như cách đây một năm.

Bao giờ mình mới có bồ? Chỉ có ông trời mới biết câu trả lời =)) Và giờ thì mình lại tự do lăn tăn với đời, với niềm tin và ước mơ. Ba lô trên vai, tôi không đem theo tất cả, để lại khoảng trống cho những góp nhặt và một mảnh tình con (nếu có :D).

Expensive

Today I went through my favorite online newspaper www.boston.com and confronted a title: France on strike.

In the above photo, the old women with her drawing wanted to say "When I was your age, I was already working", and a girl replies "When I am your age I'll still be working."

While a pitiful feeling spiked up in me when seeing the picture, I found out that it is subjective to favor either the strikes or the policy. Yes, even in Singapore we must admit that the seventies are still collecting cans and plastics to survive and a few of American take the train stations as their houses.

Do you think Australia with a huge welfare package for seniors is a better choice? I bet a no if you are color (either Asian or Black).

What will then the policy-maker think? IMO, they favor the majority, they do things for the entire economy, and not for any specific individuals. And many of individuals are affected by the policy.

"It's my right to stop working" and "It's my responsibility to maintain the economy." It's inevitable.

Since then, when two minds are not going to the same direction, no solution is obtained until one agrees to give way.

People think they are living in democracy when they are going on strike. It is actually not. Democracy is when you have a choice: whether you should go on strike or not.

And thus, the current world-wide claim of democracy is just a way of bullshitting. I'm not interested.

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For long, I'm thinking of patriotism that many have claimed to possess. They are now living overseas and branching their business back to their home country. If the war had to happen, they would rather stop the business and take care of his own properties than enlist with the rifles and go to the front. They goddamnit must be good liars.

I don't care.

As for me, patriotism is not what you shout out loud, not what you write to show, not what you tell people and all that. It must be the love and the care we take for the smallest things around us that can help to appreciate larger and less tangible things: friendship, family, hometown, the school, the people... That's what I care for.