Tonight, the sky is clear. No clouds and stars. Only the pale moon is visible. The wind is soft. The temperature is very gentle. Everything feels so perfect.

I’m now comfortably seated here on the floor of the Low Cost Carrier Terminal in Kuala Lumpur. Good thing I was able to hook up to the internet. I’m just waiting for my flight which is scheduled at 1:20AM. Boarding time is 12:50AM. I still have to wait for more or less 40 minutes.

Can’t wait to see a lot of people (and places) in the Philippines.

Just lay down
And let your worries sleep
Don’t think now
The water is dark and deep

‘Cause you know that I’ll love you
And never let go
And you know
That I’ll love you forever
I’ll love you and never let go
Yes I’ll love you and never let go

Just cry out
Yeah I’ve cried those tears before
I can feel it now
As your teardrops hit the floor

‘Cause you know
That I’ll love you and never let go
And you know
That I’ll love you forever
I’ll love you and never let go
Yes I love you and never let go

You don’t have to ask me do I love you
As I hold you it says how much I do
I’m yours until forever is through
Anytime I stand for you
I know I’d lay my life down for you

I’ll never let
Not ever let go

just lay down
put your worried thoughts to bed
as slumber pulls you down
on my shoulder rest your head

‘Cause you know
That I love you and never let go
And you know
That I’ll love you forever
I’ll love you and never let go
Yes I love you and never let go

never let go never let go
never let never let go never let go

I had the chance to hear this song today. It’s just so great that I can’t afford not to post it here. Listen to it here.

Don’t rub your eyes baby. You read it right! I need to get a flu shot when I fly back to the Philippines next week. It is one of the major goals I need to achieve during my short vacation. The reason? Well, just to prevent the possibility of getting hit by the terrible influenza virus again. I was actually on sick leave for two days – last Tuesday and Wednesday. It wasn’t fun at all because I just slept the whole time. Talk about being TOO drowsssyyyyyy.

The French Open Men’s Single Finals turned out to be a disappointing match. It’s not because Federer Express was losing and that I’m his fan. It’s actually because I hate Nadal and I didn’t want him to win. It’s also because of Nadal’s very annoying habit of picking at his underwear once every 2 seconds. Verrrry Irritating.

After the fun climb, we headed to the same restaurant/market to have our breakfast. You guessed it right. Noodles again.

Also during that day, a charitable event was going on. The small community has transformed from a sleepy town to a busy marketplace. Everyone was willing to extend help to the victims of the recent earthquake in China. Seeing a sight like this is really amazing.

After having breakfast we went back to the house that we were renting to take some rest. I just took a very very quick shower and immediately hit the sack.

When I already had some 1 or two hours of sleep, I went to the other room to play cards with my teammates. The gambler in us surfaced which made us play until 1PM. Only then that we checked out and hit the road back home.

One thing that I noticed during the trip is that there’s a lot of palm trees in Malaysia. Old and newly planted palm trees. These palm trees are actually the reason why Malaysia looks so green.

Just when I was starting to sleep in the car, it made a U-turn and stopped at Charas cave. I didn’t know that there’s more adventure waiting for me. Or should I say more steps. Yeah, one has to climb hundreds of steps to get to the cave. But I think all the effort is worth it.

To finish off this long series of entries, I will leave you with a picture that says it all.

It’s for you to interpret the picture.

Call time was 5AM. Though I wasn’t able to sleep early, I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning. I was really cold that morning because the aircon was set to some 20 degrees Celsius. I can only tolerate around 25 degrees Celsius for a typical 6-hour sleep. How I wish the aircon in our room was programmable so that the temperature is increasing every hour and when the clock is close to a preset time, it will automatically turn off and will consequently trigger the electric fan to be turned on.

Okay, back to the actual story…

So, when we got to the starting point of the fun climb, we saw a lot of people from different walks of life. From a 3 year-old kid accompanied by his parents to some old couples. From Malay women wearing traditional Muslim attire to some guys wearing no shirts. From some “I don’t wanna go up anymore” girls to “let me help you” guys. From hyperactive grade school students to some old and slow uncles. Name it, Sungai Lembing has it.

A colleague of mine told me that one can complete the fun climb between 30minutes and 1 hour depending on the pace. It thrilled me thinking that it would be great to get to the peak within 30minutes or if I will exceed 30minutes, it should be at most 35minutes. But when I was half-way, I was already panting and my knees were already shaking. I just can’t imagine how bad it would have been had I not started going to the gym before the climb.

Every time there’s an opportunity to take a rest, like when there’s already a long queue, I really took advantage of it. Maybe I should really be serious doing cardiovascular exercises now. To be honest, I usually cheat my gym trainer when it comes to cardio exercises. When I have a schedule in the gym, I would go there 30minutes before the time and start with treadmill. I will only use it for a maximum of 10minutes and then relax at the lounge and watch TV. When the session starts, I will tell my trainer that I have already warmed up. Haha. So, this stupid thing took its toll on me.

But of course, I managed to get to the peak. If not, it will be very embarrassing. Imagine seeing some small kids walking around at the peak. Haha. It would be pathetic if you find yourself only half-way.

We had to wait for more or less 45minutes to witness a magnificent view – the sunrise.

But to everyone’s disappointment, the sun didn’t show up. Blame it to the clouds. But no worries, a 360-degree view of Sungai Lembing is already a bliss.

Our colleagues fetched us at around 7:20AM – slightly behind schedule. We then went straight to Lucky Restaurant in Sri Petaling to have breakfast together with our other teammates. This restaurant is actually a Chinese resto but it also serves western-style food. So, I opted to have an American-style breakfast – toasted bread and butter, ham, hotdog, fried egg, and fresh garden salad.

After having our breakfast, we hit the road and started our 4-hour journey going to Sungai Lembing in Pahang. This rusty village which used to be a mining town is approximately 300Km away from Kuala Lumpur. We reached our destination before noontime. Because we can only check-in at 2PM, we decided to have lunch first in the Pasar Sungai Lembing. The place is a bit in disarray which is typical of a Chinese marketplace. People shout, the floors are wet, the stoves are next to the tables, big cooking pans are visible, cooked meat are hanging everywhere. I just thought to myself that this is probably what they call “authentic” Chinese Restaurant.

It was just a little past 12nn when we finished our lunch, so we walked around and took some pictures. It was a bit disappointing for me to see nothing but old houses and some big trees in the area.

But after some idle moments, we decided to head to Sungai Lembing Museum – probably just 5minutes away from the marketplace. The museum used to be the mining manager’s bungalow. It houses mining tools and equipments, mineral samples that were mined in the area, mining attires, dioramas and a lot others. Just like any other museums, it was erected to preserve its history – for the case of Sungai Lembing, it’s their rich mining history they are preserving.

We then proceeded to some of the mining tunnels. No people are actually allowed to enter these tunnels. We can only check out the entrance and take a few steps inside. And even if people will be allowed to go far inside in the future, I don’t think I will go there. It’s kinda scary. Haha.

Then, when it was almost 2PM, we tried to look for the house we planned to rent. It took us some time before we were able to find it. On our way to the house, we passed by a Chinese cemetery. Some of the tombs there are quite colorful. We also passed by a lot of typical Chinese houses. To me, they just looked like the houses in some provinces in the Philippines. One nice thing about the house is that it is near a cool hanging bridge.

I took a quick shower and tried to get some sleep. But my teammates asked me to play card games with them. Good thing I was able to learn quickly one of the card games they were playing. It’s almost like Pusoy Dos. But some rules are a bit different. Well, I lost just a few times – maybe twice or three times only. Bravo!

We hit the road again to go back to the Pasar Sungai Lembing to have dinner. Man, if you only knew how many different noodle dishes we had, you’ll surely get overwhelmed. We also ordered roasted pork from another shop just a few steps away from where we had dinner. The attendant of the shop told us that it takes more than 2 hours to cook the roasted pork so we decided to stroll around once more. We had our “Meteor Garden” moments near the river. I had a great time fooling around with these great people.

When darkness enveloped the whole village, we were in a soccer field. Again, fooling around.

And the clock ticked 8PM. We headed back to the shop and picked up the roasted pork. We then went to another Chinese restaurant to have the second dinner – yes! Second dinner. We ordered a lot of noodle dishes again plus rice, and some chicken and fish dishes. We also ate all the roasted pork there. While having the second dinner, I drank 2 glasses of beer with two other guys from the group. Haha.

Then, we went back to the house to take a good rest for the next day’s hike.

The details and pictures of the main event will follow shortly.