Sungai Pertak Camping Trip

01/08/2020 - 02/08/2020

At first, we planned to visit Sungai Chilling but when we arrived at the Sungai Chilling entrance, it was closed due to the pandemic. So, we searched for a nearby site that we could camp at, and here is it -- Sungai Pertak.

Arriving at Sungai Pertak

We arrived at Sungai Pertak between 5-6pm. You will have to go into a Kampung Orang Asli Pertak (village) to get to the Sungai Pertak. An entrance fee of RM1 is collected for each head. There were quite a number of people. We parked at the designated car park but soon we saw cars driving down the slope road, we decided to follow suit. We went up the slope and parked at the side (limited space).

Looking for a site to build tent 

First, we walked through a bridge made from metal. Then, walk along the path and saw the first campsite. It was maintained by someone, a fee of RM5 per person will be collected if you were to build your tent here. But we decided to continue walking to see if we will find a better place to camp, as we prefer a more private and less crowded space. By the first campsite, we crossed the river with a broken bridge.

First bridge

As we continue our journey, we saw local, and asked for direction. He told us that there were two waterfalls -- Lata Makau and Lata Medang. So, he suggested Lata Medang as it was about 400-500m from where we were. And so we continued. But, a local who can't speak was instructing us to go by a shortcut, which we explored cautiously. About 10-20mins walk (if I'm not mistaken by they way), we arrived at the second campsite. It was a small waterfall of Sungai Pertak. We decided to camp here as the sky is starting to turn dark. There were a group of young people camping there too. So we built our tent beside them. Suppose that we have to pay RM20 for building a tent there but there's no one there to collect the money from us and we didn't know who to pay too, and one of the guy from the group said that it was lucky for us if no one collect the money from us. He also warned us that at the right side of the campsite, there's a "mini beach" (riverside with sand), which is not suitable to build tent there as during the rainfall, the water level rise up and flooded the whole land. They had experienced it the day before as this were their second night here, he said that the water level increase in about 4 minutes, so it's quite dangerous.

Anyway, the site we built our tent is clean, there's no litter on sight. We camped by the river. You will be hearing water splashing the whole time. It is really dark during the night, be sure that you have a torch in hand when you're roaming around at night. 

Camping site by the river

"Mini beach"

Dinner

We brought our own ingredient and equipment to cook. We started a fire but it couldn't sustain as the wood is quite damp. Luckily we brought a portable gas stove. We had a steamboat and barbeque chicken wing. Such a rare experience that we used the fish toaster cage to to grill the chicken wing over the portable gas stove. I highly suggest that you bring along an outdoor foldable table to place your stuff. And most importantly, do bring along sufficient water for hydration and cooking. 

"barbeque chicken wing"

Hike up to Lubuk Mercu Waterfall

The next morning, we packed our stuff and cleaned up the site. We decided to hike up to visit the beauty of the waterfall as my friend heard from a hiker that there's a beautiful waterfall about 45 minutes hike from our place. So we head out. We were told to take the right path as when we meet the junction. After two junction, we took the path that are not blocked. We were really lost because we walked for more than an hour and we still can't see the end, we couldn't even hear the sound of the water splashing. 

When we were about to give up, we saw hikers coming up, so we asked whether they know about the route to the waterfall. They weren't sure either but they said it should take about 2 hours to reach the waterfall. And so, we went on. For about 30 minutes, we were hopeful again when we heard the sound of water waves. And yes, we arrived at the waterfall. 

The scenery along the way is mesmerizing with tall trees forming a canopy and there were a lots of bamboos too. They were some fallen bamboos and trees. However, the path is muddy and there were steep slope, hence it is slippery, be careful where you step on. There were also a few "mini rivers" along the path. 

We enjoy a swim in the waterfall. The water was freezing, but it was clean. You may spot fishes swimming in the waterfall. A group of people built their tent at the higher ground by the waterfall. There were people continued the hike up, but we weren't ready for it as we were exhausted. After a break and snack time, we head back following the path we came up. We took almost two hours to arrived at where we parked our car. 

Ps. Only after we did some research after the trip, we found out that the waterfall we visited is the Lubuk Mercu Waterfall. About 200 metres up from Lubuk Mercu, you will reach Lata Medang Waterfall, if the information I locate is correct. 

Preparation for camping  
- Headlamp / Torchlight (MUST!!)
- Bring sufficient water (bring more if you want to cook) [using the water from river is not recommended, unless you are at the upstream, just to be safe]
- Food/snacks
- Medicine for leech bite
- Cooking equipment/utensils (if you intended to cook and not starting a fire)
- Rubbish bag (to clean your mess when you leave)
- Tent & sleeping bags
- Wear suitable shoes for to hike
- Slippers / sandals are suitable if you do not intend to hike
- Hiking poles (recommended to ease your journey)

Overall, it was a wonderful experience even though it was an impromptu camping at Sungai Pertak, since our plan was disrupted due to the closure of Sungai Chilling. Not my first camping experience but my first entry of such experience, cheers to more! 

ELEMENT NIGHT 12.0: COHESION

Preparation Period: September - November 2019

Actual day: 19 November 2019 

Second time joining this event as a committee and a performer. My position was the same as last year, committee member of Art & Design (A&D) Department and performer of popping team. But both are a complete new team, with new faces. Preparation of 3 months to put up a good show, and I'm proud to part of it. 

To mention, this was my first year in degree, facing tougher and heavier workload. Sacrificed a lot to make a balance between preparing the show, taking care of my studies and work, but it's worth it. 

Starting off with the new A&D team, it was now lead by someone who are experts in this area, they have a great loads of experience in this field. At first, I don't fit in, because I don't really agree with their way of work. But soon, we bonded together quickly, all thanks to my leader. We starting working way before the semester break. And coming to the campus everyday during the semester break to rush for props and stage design, staying till late night, "belakang" was literally like our second home. We ate and slept there. We even celebrated birthdays there. There were arguments, there were hard times but mostly it was laughs and fun. As the new semester started, we were getting busier with our studies and stayed even later in the midnight to rush our work to meet the deadline. I used to be closer with the Dancing Society's members, but now I sided with A&D team more, since we spent most of the times together everyday even during weekend. 

Next, the popping team recruited a lot of new blood, which was great, because everyone has the potential and they're all hardworking. Now that I've experience and has been taking classes, I could catch up quickly and helped the others. The atmosphere of this team was better than last year's, to be frank. And the progress was great. However, majority of them has two performances so they have to attend practice at both sides, and for me, I have to attend to A&D and practices too. But I managed it somehow. This year, I put my focus more on the performances. The dilemma of my everyday was whether to eat with A&D team or performance team, it was always the hardest choice. Running from "belakang" to college hall and back and having to eat two meals so that I could spend time with both sides, those times were precious. 

The downside of these was that I neglected my classmates. I was the one always running off after classes or absent from lecture class, couldn't spend more time to build relationship with my new classmates. 

As the date of the actual show drew closer, all of us are getting more and more stressed and exhausted. I even took leave from work for 1 month to focus on this event, as I do not have time to commit to it. Progress checks, promotional week and rehearsals were coming altogether. Always reaching dorm at 2 or 3 in the midnight. My housemates could never see me despite living in the same house. 

To be honest, I had hard feelings in some parts of the preparation, but those were in past tense. I'm glad that it all worked out, despise me not feeling satisfied with my own performance. I've bonded over with both sides and I'm truly happy that I got to know these bunch of wonderful people. I still remember the night we disbanded A&D officially after dismantling and cleaning up everything, I cried as I saw my leader cried, some cried together too. We had a great dinner together that night and we surprised a member with her birthday too. We still spend the night till midnight somehow. As we bid goodbye, we cried again. Thank you for the good times and memories and companionship. Never thought I could bond so well with them. 

Ps. we actually met up to have dinner almost every night after we disbanded lol 

Click to watch performance: Element Night 12.0: COHESION Performance Playlist

Might be my last event in uni, thank you. 

Art & Design Committe of EN12, 2019 

Dantart Popping Crew of EN12, 2019 

ELEMENT NIGHT 11.0: REVOLUTION

#EN11REVOLUTION

First time being involved in such a big production. I was a committee of Art & Design department (A&D) and a performer of popping team under street dance category. 3 months of effort put in this event, all the sacrifices just to make this event successful. 

While preparing for performances, spent every night training with my crew. I knew I wasn't good enough, but I'm thankful for everyone that trust me in this. The person I most appreciated is my leader, he had truly sacrificed everything for this event. He also taught me a lot during the training and tried his best to take care of all of us. He did not even complain when he was stressed out. A big respect to him. Another person I want to thank is also one of my crewmates. Ever since I first met him, he tried his best to break the ice, because I'm a social-awkward person. He tried to engage a conversation to me every time, and thanks to him I became less awkward in the team. He also taught me a lot. Thanks to these 2 persons, I got to improve myself. 

Meanwhile in A&D, I was back with the same team since D'Dance Vol.5, but with new members. It was truly awkward at first, all the meetings end with silence. But soon as we started preparing for PNP and actual night, we became closer as we worked together till late at night. We joke and had fun every night. And we have to share a car with 8 persons to go back home in the midnight. It makes us closer to each other. Thanks to all of them for making my experience in this event a happy one. 

I was stressed out especially when the actual night is getting nearer, when my assignments are not done and tests going on. My A&D teammates had seen the worse of me, but thankfully, they makes me smile at the time. There were some issues that make me feel less comfortable to stay in my dance crew, so I went to my A&D team most of the time.

The event has ended. It might not as successful, but it's a good experience. Truly wish the audience understand what we are trying to bring out and hope that all our hard work paid off. 

Hoping to work with the same team again next year in EN12, and hope to be able to perform again as a popper. Before I end, I would like to apologize to everyone for any of my wrongdoings or offence that I did not intend to make, thank you for accepting me into this big family, wish that we'll be able to work together again. 

Officially signing off as A&D committee and performer. 

ebay

Avengers: Infinity War

I watched the movie thrice, on 27 and 30 of April and also 1 of May. It's suicidal to watch so many times, I understand how it feels. I'm not a professional nor a critics, neither have I properly review a movie, so below are just my own experience and feelings.

I'm actually having my finals during the week Infinity War came out. I struggled to study and catch up on the film. The movie opened in Malaysia on 25 of April which is one day earlier than scheduled, and on that day I was having my second paper, I thought I should watched it after that paper, but I didn't because my friends convinced me not to as I have one more paper to go on 27. So I ended up watching the movie with my friends on 27 night.

There's a world premiere on LA at 8.30am, 24 of April in Malaysia time. I was watching the livestream while waiting outside the exam hall as the paper starts at 9am, that's crazy I know, because everyone was reading their notes, trying to squeeze everything in their head in that few minutes of time and here I was ears on earphone, smiling and occasionally speaks to myself looking at the small screen of my phone watching the livestream. That's the day where the movie is shown the first time around the world and the Russo's brother trended the hashtag #ThanosDemandsYourSilence, to warned every people who watched the film to keep their mouth shut, because they'd put in so much effort to keep the plot a secret, even the cast doesn't know what's happening in the movie.

I saw that many of my mutual or fans went offline or go low in social media to avoid spoilers, because you can't really believe anyone. Then on Tuesday, I accidentally saw that one of my mutual got spoil by some brat on Twitter, and I got nervous. She was ruined, she couldn't watch the movie on surprise as everyone waited 10 years for the movie. I quickly went offline, literally from every social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. I only used WhatsApp and Snapchat to connect with my friends. Even on Snapchat is sometimes dangerous because I keep seeing my friends snapped about watching Infinity War. Damn. I was offline for at least 3 days till I watch the movie on 27, to avoid spoiler, and my friends said that I was too much.

Now, there's spoiler down there, you might not want to continue reading if you haven't watch the movie yet.







SPOILER ALERT






Read at your own risk








You'd been warned













I was really anxious when I went into the cinema hall. The hall is fully full, from the first row to the last row. I expected that, it's the biggest crossover movie, what do ya expect really. I already felt heartbroken in the first 10 minutes of the movie, just like what the directors have been telling us. Damn. I love Thor and Loki so much, they're the perfect brothers there ever had. No matter what they did to each other, they still address each other as brother. And when Thor met the Guardians of Galaxy, it was funny where Quill tries to imitate Thor and how he get roasted by his own family. Thor is in deep sorrow, he mourns, but he still tries to keep himself up, to smile. He lost his brother again, but he might really be dead this time. He watched his family dies, his home, his people, his friends. And when he said "What more could I lose?" I lost it, the tears betrayed me. That's such a broken thing to say.

Tony's bleeding edge armour is literally some new invention, it's so cool okay. And how Doctor Strange just call him a douchebag. And the science bro finally united and the hug! Peter's new suit too. And the squidward reference is gold. And so they blasted into the space. Thanks to Peter who watched many movies, they saved the supreme sorcerer. I knew it when Tony said Thanos had stuck in his head for 6 years since the battle of New York. He send the nuke into space and saw him, saw death coming, that's why he wanted to create Ultron to save the world. And to think of it Ultron is not all wrong about wiping out the humanity, somehow. Reminder to y'all that when Bruce said to call Steve, Tony literally took out the flip phone that Steve sent to him during the end of Civil War. He brought it all along with him all the freaking time. I'm not okay.

Thanos then took Gamora, threatened her with Nebula's life to tell him where's the soul stone. When Gamora asked Quill to do her a favour of killing her when Thanos gets her, I knew that something's wrong. And the soul stone happened to be guarded by an unexpected person, the Red Skull that appears only in Captain America: The First Avenger. Such plot twist especially when the soul stone demands a sacrifice. I do believe that Thanos loves Gamora out of all his children, he loves her. That's cruelly undeniable.

Next, is where Vision and Wanda met up secretly to spend some time together. I wasn't really fond of this pair at first, but after the movie, it grew on me. Wanda is really powerful. And when Steve Rogers appears on the screen everyone just cheer, me too. Steve with beard is everything you need. Steve said "We go home.", and he means Avengers base. Yes, they never really forget each other. Just that Tony is not there anymore.

"I'm not here to ask for forgiveness and I'm way pass asking for permission" good one Cap, not Cap anymore.

And the awkward moment between Bruce and Nat...

They flew to Wakanda to help to get the Mind Stone out of Vision head. Steve finally reunites with Bucky! The battle of Wakanda is such a huge scene and T'Challa is giving all out to save the world. The fight with Black Widow, Scarlett Witch and Okoye is really the best. And the entrance of Thor with his new axe is really really awesome. Yes, he almost die when building his new Thanos-killing-weapon, and Groot kind of save him by providing him the handle. Groot is always useful at drastic measure.

"New haircut?"
"You'd got my beard?"

Up on space, Tony lead them to fight Thanos. Yes, Quill lost at it when he finds out Thanos killed Gamora. I was mad at him at first, as the others almost got the gauntlet of his hand, and ruined it all, but there's nothing much he could do. Please don't blame him. In the end, it's just a fight between Thanos and Tony. When he stabbed Tony, I gasped, something shattered, I thought he is a goner, I cried, fuck. Everyone gasped and went utterly silent. Then Doctor Strange offered the time stone to save Tony's life. He had saw 14,000,605 different outcomes and only had one way they would win, and I literally thought there will be no way for them to win.

"You're not the only one burdened with knowledge."

10 years of MCU, the only fucking person who respected Tony is Thanos, (probably except Peter, Parker I mean) how irony. Such coincidence that Thanos and Stark knew each other? It's probably the incident that happened 6 years ago in New York.

Thanos arrived at Wakanda and fight the Avengers. Everyone is down. Wanda brokenly successfully destroy the mind stone on Vision's head, but Thanos reversed time to get the stone. How unfair right? Don't blame Wanda, she did her part and have to watch Vision died twice. Thor almost killed him but he snapped his fingers. And everyone started to vanish into thin air.

"Steve...?"

Bucky, Black Panther, Wanda, Falcon, Groot

"I don't feel so good..."

"I'm sorry"

Mantis, Drax, Quill, Doctor Strange, Peter

That's fucking hearbreaking and no one see it coming. That's an unexpected surprise no one ask for. And Tony is left alone again in Space. And we have to wait 1 year to see what happened next. I was like "WHAT THE FUCK" like everyone else in the hall as the screen goes black and showed "Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo"

Everyone is in disbelief. What is that? What happened? I can't believe the ending. As many fans theories I'd read, none of it predicted this to happen. I thought the trailer and the TV spots showed too much, but none of those scenes are critical because it happens the way we didn't expect. Everyone thought it could be the dead of Steve Rogers or Tony Stark or the OG, but it didn't happen, instead all the new characters are dead, such a twist.

The fear of what happen in Avengers 4 is real, because that will be the real death of the OG characters. Captain Marvel will save the world and Hawkeye and Antman and Wasp and Valkyrie didn't even appear in Infinity War, so for sure they will have something to do in Avengers 4. Look forward to watch Antman and the Wasp to get a clue of what happen to Scott Lang.

It's a great experience to watch movie with fans as everyone has the same reaction, we cried and cheered and laughed. But when I watched it the second and third time, mostly are families and such non-fans, they didn't give reaction, and it looks like I'm the maniac who talk to myself, and they left as the credit rolls, they didn't even wait for the post-credit scene. Hate it when I watched it with non-fans.

Plus, the whole cinema is only showing Avengers: Infinity War the whole time as they only have 8 halls. That's really crazy. There's a panel to show the showtime for movies and there's only 1 movie showing, and loads of time slot. That's how Marvel becomes the highest grossing movie all time and breaks all the records.

I have my own theories and read many theories as I finally go online again on social media. I really don't know what to do next. Every morning I woke up to the scene of Infinity War, thinking of it. Maybe that's too much, but it happens.

Thanks to everyone who worked hard on producing this movie and keeping it a secret, appreciate it very much, Thank you. And to those who spoil people intentionally, you're such a douchebag.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure

I'd been a fans ever since. I'd read all the 5 books in the series: 

The Maze Runner
The Scorch Trials
The Death Cure
The Kill Order 
The Fever Code

It's an amazing ride through this series. It could be considered the first novel series I'd finished reading even before Harry Potter. I love the journey with Thomas, Newt, Minho and their fellow Gladers. I'd learned Gladers' slang like shuck, shank, greenie etc. 

And now we have come to an end of the cinematic adaption. I have watched the production of TDC until it finally goes on the big screen. I tried my luck and won fans screening premiere in Malaysia which claimed to be the first screening over Asia. I'm able to watch it like 25 days earlier, I lost count actually. Got merchandise for free during the premiere. Yes, I cried during the movie, I wouldn't be afraid to admit that. And I invited my friend to watch the premiere with me, and I cried so hard it's difficult to stop. 

And can you believe that I watched another 3 times excluding the premiere? I couldn't believe it either but I did. I watched on that day it show up in cinema, another time with my friend after exam, and one last time with another friend who wanted to watch it. Yes, I cried every time. 

The movie adaption is different from the book, obviously, but the director and screenplay did a great job in setting up the story but it doesn't lose track on the book. People who died, sadly still die, just in a different way where the fans can accept it. The story is smooth, thrilled, action-packed, and emotional. Sorry, I wasn't good at reviewing things. I love the cast so much, they portrayed each characters perfectly. And thanks to director Wes Ball and screenplay T.S Nowlin for such amazing adaption with amazing changes from the books which makes it fill with more humanity. Thanks to all behind the scene workers, post-production crew and everyone who makes the movie a success, without each of them, this franchise will not happened.

Just another thing to add on, many review from critics are not as good, they said the movie is made for fans. I believe so, the movie is like 2 hour and 30 minutes long. I don't care what the critics said but I believe this is the best YA novel adaption compared to the others even though there are major changes, and I love that Wes did not care about others and made the movie for fans. A huge thank you for the crew!

2018

Hello world, I'm back. I just realized that I didn't update much in 2017, sorry for that, and hope that there's more update this year. And welcome to the year of 2018.

I just finished my 2nd semester in college last week. Semester 2 is not going as well as Semester 1. I was drown, if I would describe it. First, the assignment team is a shit, my friends did literally nothing at all, and I didn't perform my best. I became a procrastinator. I didn't worked hard in my study. I done badly in my mid-term test. Secondly, Bae's engagement news, that was alright but it came together with Jonghyun's death news, suicide because of depression. Thirdly, CCV's charity project, Games Carnival, I was the Assistant Project Manager, it stressed me out. Fourthly, depression probably. Fifthly, dance confidence problems.

The whole thing just got me like I thought I'll never feel alive again. The news of Bae and Jonghyun came before the Games Carnival, I was shocked, happy and sad the same time, but couldn't really do anything. But right after the Games Carnival, all the feeling hit me at once. All the feeling I had concealed for 10 weeks. I talked with WX, she had the same thoughts, I thought maybe both of us have the same problems. I grieved for days. Those days, I grief so hard, so hard it hurts every freaking time. Every time I read the news, listened to his songs, even though I'm not a fan of his. But it hits hard, because I understand what it feels like to be depressed. I remembered crying every night in my sleep. There were weeks I couldn't eat, I feel like puking every time I forced myself to eat. And all I can consume is Milo. I thought I was hard on myself, but it turns out that I didn't have expectation on myself. That feeling when you are finding a way to kill yourself but the same time you don't want to, that hurts more.

Nearing to final exam, I was constantly not in mood for study. I blamed myself but there's nothing I could do. I'm very negative this time. I was really mad at myself even in the exam hall. Although I want a CGPA4.0 very much, I'm not confident that it will happened this time. I never thought I would be so mad at myself for academic matters. And that's how the semester 2 passed by, nothing good. The only good thing happened was to attend TAEYANG WHITE NIGHT Tour in KL.

I wished that everything in 2018 will be better. Hope that 2018 is the year of healing. And wishing everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

HEA Group

Hello, its been a long time since I'm up, so let me introduce some new people in my phase of life. 

I graduated from a government high school, so I felt really uncomfortable stepping into a so Chinese-based college (because of financial problems you know). The first day there for orientation, everyone seriously do speak in Chinese like wow, because I've never been to a place like that except for Chinese society's event. Eventually I'm not in the same class with my friend.

So I got to meet new friends in my class, everyone's different and different. Its a totally new environment for me. I wasn't as quiet as I used to be, to be more outspoken, yeah it failed somehow ((laughs. 

Anyhow I got to know a bunch of new friends, and that's what the title said "HEA group", it a gang name (lol). HEA is like procrastinating work for play in a dialect of Chinese (I also don't know). There's a total of 8 members including me where 5 are male, and 3 are female. 

The first one is so called "JB". He is tall, huge. Come from a big family and a Chinese High School, funny type but sometimes annoyingly funny, and a "bt" who always makes dirty jokes. Then a "Jhn", a very faithful Christian who doesn't know English at all, couldn't listen to people well, always need to repeat things to him, but he's a caring person. "Nic", a funny narcissist, who claimed to be a puppy, and nicknames are "Maggi", "Lil Flower" etc and always spend more on the beginning of the month then struggles during the end of the month. "Darr" a overly skinny boy who held his pride high even if he's not good, but he loves and is talented in accounting, and also a game-addict. "Zk" the best looking one among the males, overall fit, not really smart in studies because of the lacking of common sense, a funny "bt" and always smiling and laughing and a cat-addict. "Wx" a tall girl with big specs, athletic, claimed to have no talent but is talented af especially in singing and also a "EXO-L" which is the totally opposite of mine, "Feli" a short and pretty girl, very faithful to her boyfriend and loves to spend money somehow, and mature. 

Yess, I always spent time with these 7 people in college, study, rushing assignments, tests, exams, having fun and procrastinating etc. 

Hope to explore more of them and know them more in depth. Years to go with them :)