Nevertheless, I’m happy that I’m getting in touch with the spiritual side of me and learning plus discovering a lot about my religion and learning on how to continue living as a better person in this life. Alrighty then, I’m not going to go all preachy about things because I don’t see myself fit or knowledgeable enough for such thing and until then, hoping for better posts to come.

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From what I’ve gathered, these are some of the basic things you need to get from your travel partners before you started planning up your travel. Amongst them are:

1. What is each person’s individual budget?
It is always best to try working around on a budget for everyone unless someone in the groupie is willing enough to sponsor the trip for everybody, hence you can ditch the budgeting question all together. With budgeting, you get to figure out how long your travel will be, activities you can afford to do and the place you get to stay throughout your travel.

2. Figure out what kind of activities everyone is looking forward to.
If you are going to do crazy, outdoor activities – it is best to stick with a bunch of friends. Outdoor activities don’t usually work if you are going with your family not unless if everyone is fit and old enough (not too young or too old) for such outdoor fun.

3. Figure out the type of accommodation everyone is comfortable with.
This eventually comes down to your budget too. Bigger budget means better hotels and the lesser budget means sticking to hostels or 3 stars hotels or below or cheap apartment where you get to cram everybody in (sleeping on the floor inclusive, hehe).

4. Deciding places to eat.
You should at least read up or figure out some good places you can eat up at least for dinner. At least have some vague idea on what you should be trying out during your travel so that you won’t leave everyone hungry and grumpy at the end of the day. If you haven’t done your homework, make full use of the hopefully helpful people behind the hotel’s office desk and ask around for the best place or food to pig out for the day!

5. Deciding your means of transportation during your travel.
For longer stays, sometimes it is best to hire a car so that you get to travel to more places. For shorter stays, try going on the public transport because it is an experience on its own and going on a public transport is the best place for you to mingle and get to know the local.

Researching for your travel transportation is important because you can book ahead before you arrive and it won’t be much of a chaos for you once you arrived at your travel destination. Also it helps to figure out the amount you should be paying for your transport, just to avoid getting ripped off by the locals.

6. Last but not least, choosing your travel partners. Haha. I know this one I should have put at the very top. The reason I have this one at the bottom of the list is, if you haven’t traveled with this one person ever before, how are you going to know he/she is the right travel partner for you? Hence, if you’ve tried traveling with this person this time and you don’t really enjoy the company, then you can make this no. 6 reason at the top of your list. You’ll never know until you try, that’s the concept I’m promoting in choosing your travel partner. Hah. With some risks included of course.

In conclusion, if you love traveling and is going to plan a travel pretty soon, do have all these six major points listed and discussed with your traveling partners. Whatever that you do, never ever miss out on asking about everyone’s budget because hey, without a budget or cash in hand, you can’t travel yeah!

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I’m sure you have one of these tees somewhere in your wardrobe and for you to begin supporting no plastic bags day, let’s turn a t-shirt into a tote bag will ya. At the time of writing, I have put away a couple of old but super cool, bright colors tees to prepare for this tote bag making. I just haven’t the time ( or more like the effort) to make it just yet. So right now, I’m suggesting that you all sit down and take a look at this video on how to turn that old t-shirt of yours into a super cool, home made tote bag.

How to make a t-shirt bag:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6yDxK68OZc

or you can follow this video:

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“Never write a bad review on your blog!”

A bad review on something is as good as you doing people bashing all over the net. I am a firm believer of “What you do is what you get back” or in short yes, I believe in Karma. Since I was having a thought about doing a review on this resort I visited last month, I think I will postpone the post until I can come up with something positive about the place to share with you readers. The last thing you want is to have your own blog being bad named my other bloggers merely because you came up with a pretty awful review on something.

So if you think you want to do a full 300 words write-up on that thing/place/person you hate the most, you might as well skip the idea now.

*on another note, I wouldn’t say I hadn’t written a bad review on anything before, I think I had. True enough karma plays its magic on me right after. That’s one lesson learned for sure!

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Bikram Yoga:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEzznV7LlyA

I would really love to try out on at least a session of Bikram Yoga and endure all those pain, perspire like crazy which is extremely good to detox your body and at the same time being able to relax my mind and body. Nevertheless, for anyone trying out yoga on your own at the comfort of your own home, you can try out this particular Yoga for Quick Energy to give you “a quick burst of energy” and it surely does! I know because I’ve tried it.

Yoga For Quick Energy:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z19RezuAQak

If you caught yourself simply watching the videos I’ve posted here, why don’t you get out from your seat already and have a go at it while watching them. If you haven’t tried yoga before, it is not as easy and delicate as it looks. To experience is to try and do it, so why don’t you have a go at Yoga too now!

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Myself on the right, hanging on to dear life!

Getting to this Putrajaya Challenge Park or locally translated on the signboard as Taman Cabaran is pretty easy. Follow the signboard for Precint 5 and don’t be surprised if you have to go through the Muslim cemetery and see many cars parked around the area. Keep going ahead from that cemetery and the many cars you see are from people attending the burial ceremony and no, they are not visiting the Challenge Park like you are.Haha. You will see the Taman Cabaran signboard and the welcome banner a couple of minutes drive up ahead.

Welcome climbers to Putrajaya Challenge Park

After getting changed (there’s changing room with showers and loo) and paying up the fees (entrance fee: RM 6 + we shared shoes, harness and belayer service, so each person pay a total of  RM11), we were directed to the beginner’s wall. To tell you the truth, the wall is pretty intimidating and out of no where, I feel scared and anxiety take the better of me. The wall is high and it looks tough to climb. I struggled with the harness for a good 5 minutes and up I went making my first attempt at indoor rock climbing. Man, it was tough! I was clueless at most time on where I should put my hands and feet. I kept hearing people from below shouting up to me, to push with  my legs, don’t use my hands to pull myself up. But what the heck right, I was loosing grip and your immediate response is to hold on tight on the rocks with your bare hands. Despite being roped on a harness, it feels a whole lot safer to grip those rocks with your own hands rather than letting go of yourself to the hands of the belayer( the guy holding the rope down from your harness). During this first attempt, I made only inches away from the top and on the second run, this time with shoes on, and after endless shouts of “where to hold on” later to my belayer, I made it to the top. For no reason at all, you begin to perspire like crazy because unknowingly, it takes a whole lot of energy to pull yourself up when you do rock climbing.

Beginner's boulder is easy? So NOT!

Next up, I tried going for the beginner’s boulder – the one with the thick mattress on the ground. I found myself stuck on I think the 45 degrees slant on the wall and I hesitated on whether to jump down from 2 meters below or keep trying to go up or climb down a little bit and then jump. After much struggle, I chose the latter and it can get very intimidating and nerve wrecking to jump that high (although it may probably be less than 2 meter high). After much photo snaps later and only 2 climbs on the beginner’s wall and 2 climbs on the beginner’s boulder, I called it a quit.

Rock climbing takes a lot of energy out of you and yes you gotta be fit to enjoy this game. One thing I really like about it though is the amount of calories you get to burn in a short period of time and let say if I continue working on this rock climbing activity for sometime, I’m sure to have a very fit body. I would highly suggest rock climbing for anyone game enough for adventure and most importantly want to have a full body workout quickly in a short period of time. Most people say, rock climbing can get pretty addictive because you will want to do it again and again after your first climb. Personally, I would like to think, yeah, I’ll do it again next time but I’m not too sure if I’ll get addicted to it. Other than that, if you are given a chance to try out on indoor rock climbing gym or better the real deal on a real, outdoor rock face, do give it a go and don’t be afraid to annoy your belayer or instructor on where to put your hands and feet during your climb.

The indoor rock climbing gym at Putrajaya

*pictures courtesy of Azrul

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Last year, the family and I went for Tour 1 – The Golden Flowstone tour at Gua Tempurung, hence the recent Grand Tour was my second attempt at Gua Tempurung. All in all there are four main tours you can choose from at this cave . There are:

1. Tour 1 – Golden Flowstone ( Level of difficulty (L.O.D) : Easy)

2. Tour 2 – Top of the World ( L.O.D : Moderate)

3. Tour 3 – Top of the World & Short River Adventure (L.O.D : Moderate)

4. Tour 4 – Grand Tour (L.O.D : Moderate to Challenging)

My partner in crime for this Grand Tour is none other than my loyal outdoor partner – FF! Needless to say, this caving activity was just a thought that I have in mind to do when FF decided to come down for a getaway-ad hoc holiday at the family farm. We made it to the counter just in time to join in with about 50 other people for the Grand Tour. Both of us joined in with a group of 30+ Chinese people from Penang and 17+ group of Malay teenagers. If you are coming in a super tiny group like the both of us, it is best to stick near to the guide during the starting point and make yourself noticed to the guide because I can tell you one thing, the guide has no idea on how many people exactly he is going to guide and there are no literal head count going on at the start of the tour. We made our presence pretty loud and clear to the guide by confirming to him that we are a group of two joining amongst the two other bigger groups in the tour.

Throughout the tour, if you are expecting to hear some educational information about history or scientific formations of the stalactite and stalagmite from the guide, you are just going to be disappointed. There are no educational briefings throughout the tour and the only thing you get to hear from the guide is some visual identification from the formations on the wall of the cave that may reflect vivid images of animals or humans. After just about 10 minutes of this type of ‘identification’ , the group were naturally bored of the briefing and the larger part of us decided to push forward quickly so that the guide will catch on with us and proceed much quicker throughout the tour.

Almost everyone in the group is a pretty fit bunch of people and man, we walked real quick up and down those stairs in the cave. The humidity level was high inside the cave and we were drenched in our own sweats by the first 30 minutes or so of the tour. The part I anticipated the most was to go wading through the knee length water level in the cave. It was dark and my headlamp wasn’t beaming so bright because the battery was running dry, so there weren’t much ‘admiring and looking’ going on once you are inside the dark cave. There are some occasional ooh-aahs going about at certain places but that was pretty much it and I noticed that no one amongst the 50+ of us actually  brought along a camera because unless you have a waterproof camera cover, you are good to enter the cave with one.

After around an hour plus of wading through the water and getting wet with small grains of pebbles soaking to the bottom and sides of our socks, FF and I was thinking ,” Is this it?”, obviously not impressed with the supposedly ‘Grand Tour’ of the cave. I must mention that the tour gets better only towards the end of it. Soon after, we found ourselves waiting behind another larger group to go down a pretty steep and high slope. Thanks to the boys from the Penang group, they acted as the ‘catcher’ at the bottom of the slope and going down the slope was pretty nerve wrecking because it was dark and you don’t know how far you are going to fall. Right after that, we had to go down a tiny hole with a good help from some boys again and then back to wading in the water we went again. At some point, you really have to crawl, do some low bending walk on your knees or go sprawling head down just above the water surface to get through the tight corridor in the cave.

What seemed to be an endless, wet crawl in the cave came to an end as you begin to see fixed lights from the wall of the cave. The Grand Tour ended after 4 hours later and I suppose it will end much earlier if the group was not as large as us. Overall, I guess that will be the first and the last Grand Tour for me at Gua Tempurung. You wouldn’t want to go there again since you are  not really gaining any extra educational values from the tour besides merely going for the wet, dark adventure in the cave. With Gua Tempurung, over and done with, I just have an inkling that the gang may be going after Mulu Cave in the  near future. For that, I really can’t wait!

For more info or bookings on Tours at Gua Tempurung, you can contact :

Shahril- +60125549830

Noorzuliana – +60125928952

Abdul Manan – +60195437192

or visit their website at www.guatempurung.com

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You gotta lift the boat first before you can hit the water. Dang the raft is heavy.

The real reason Sg.Kampar seems to be the perfect white water rafting destination for me was because:

1. It’s near to home, thus it is convenient and feasible. Moreover it’s an excellent day trip outdoor adventure for me.

2. After going for my second run of white water rafting at Sg.Kampar, I was asking for friends to go with me for white water rafting (wwr) at Padas, Sabah right after the whole gang came down from Mt.Kinabalu.  I was disappointed to find out that only Bullert was keen enough to go all crazy with me with this wwr and because of other issues, we decided not to go for white water rafting at Padas just yet.

3. I was doing some crazy planning for some fun outdoor holiday and on the itinerary I included white water rafting at Padas but I was let down again when we had to scrapped Sabah out from our holiday destination. Thus, to further not to disappoint myself and to quench my thirst for some kick of awesome adrenaline, I agreed for yet another round of white water rafting at Sg.Kampar with the Riverbug crew. This time around I was going with my sisters and my brother in law.

I can tell you one thing about any outdoor adventure activity which is every single trip is going to be unique, different and new to you regardless on how many times you have gone through the same river or track or jungle path. This time around I was literally praying to have yet another new experience for my white water rafting trip. My prayers were answered and I got this:

At one of the rapids, for no reason at all, I got thrown out from the raft and went straight on into the fast flowing white water. I remembered opening my eyes and saw water bubbles all over me. The next second, I was being tossed up and down like a helpless rubber ball scraping along the way rocks from the front and back. I also began to swallow more water and eventually was gasping for air so bad that I was literally making that deep breathing sound and I kept trying to breath until all the water spurted out from my lungs. In the split seconds, I saw our raft floating by me but I couldn’t get hold of it until I turned and saw the kayak rescue guide on my side telling me not to panic and to hold the little steel at the back of his kayak. It scared me shitless! Haha. After being hauled back on the raft, I was finally breathing properly and it scared me the most not because I got thrown into the rapid. It was primarily because I couldn’t breathe for the few seconds being tossed in the water. Imagine yourself not breathing? That’s like close to dying! Hahaha.

Nevertheless, it was one heck of a ride and I loved it for the adrenaline and for making me close to drowning. A whole new experience altogether although I must say, it wasn’t the first time that I had drowned and being rescued of course. =).

Check out that Mat Salleh. He's expressionless. Haha

Another extra thing that we got to do besides the normal banana boat, body surfing and team body surfing, the Riverbug crew asked if we would like to have a go at kayaking. All the three members in my raft went for it except for me because I was still traumatized and shaken after the fall and the fact that I wasn’t being able to breathe like 15 minutes ago. Haha. All in all, it was a fun day, good to see the crews back again and I’m hoping that soon enough I can get my ass trotting for white water rafting at Padas. Let’s make that happen in this future shall we.

Check out the video below too!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjFFa4l0Oqk

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I’ve yet to have a look at this particular Alpha dog and the fact that he returned back to his pack after such a long time is really amazing. On the other hand, that will mean, there are more mouth to feed these days. I will sure to capture some pictures if I’m lucky enough to spot this Alpha later today. And, Alpha is not a bad of a name to call this male dog. So Alpha he shall be called from now on.

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I’m going to share with you You are  my diamond song from YouTube and also the lyrics. I only started looking for the lyrics and finally come down to really listen to what Kianna is saying only today! Oh, Kianna is the featured artist for You are my diamond.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn9hQ0ltM7c

You are my diamond lyrics- Tiesto featuring Kianna

I don’t need a ring to show me what your loves worth
don’t need fancy things to show me what your loves worth

you are my diamond, when I am with you I shine
I’ll be with you everyday so everyday I’ll shine so bright

I am a rich girl when I am with you I know
you are my whole world and I will never let you go
I cant explain how you light me up inside
I radiate and thats not something you can buy

you are my diamond, when I am with you I shine
I’ll be with you everyday so everyday I’ll shine so bright
you are my diamond, when I am with you I shine
I am with you everyday so everyday I’ll shine so bright

oh oh oh ..
oh oh
oh oh
oh oh oh
oh oh
oh oh

all my life I’ve been looking for love
I thought I’d never find it
all my life I’ve been looking for you
I just didnt know it

you are my diamond, when I am with you I shine
I’ll be with you everyday so everyday I’ll shine so bright
yeah you are my diamond
my diamond
my diamond
yeah
yeah
yeah
yeah

you are my diamond
you are my diamond

you are my diamond
you are my diamond

*note: The only way this song relates to me is that yes, I’ve found my diamond which is the thing that I’m really passionate & love and I am working my way to work it out despite all odds by any means and at any cost. =). Life is essentially not just about pursuing that ultimate love of your life, it is more than that. It is about finding your purpose in this life, the life at the present. If you haven’t figured your purpose in life just yet, why not take a couple of minutes now and think about it.

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