  [ Rockin' to: "Kryptonite" 3 Doors Down ] Yay! Say a prayer of thanks and do a little dance. I'm baaaaaaaaaackkkkkk! haha. Bet you people missed me. *grins* yeah riggght.
Okay, the people I want to talk to aren't online... so I think I shall blog about my trip before I forget about the details. I was feeling quite well when I got back home, but I went to take a nap and now I'm feeling quite sore. Let's see... where do I start? The expedition was quite awesome. From Dabong train station in Kelantan (which is about 12 hours away by train) we took a sampan across a river and then a van to get to the foot of Gunung Stong. Stong's not the tallest mountain there lah, only stands at 1399m, Gunung Ayam next to it is much taller.
But the waterfall.... *whoa*. Breathtaking, I tell you. We hiked for about an hour plus from the foot up to our first view of the waterfall. And when we saw it, we just stood there and GAPED. I'm serious. It's one of those places which look so good on postcards and magazines and you seriously wonder if you would ever ever go somewhere as beautiful as that.
Yeah. So, we crossed the waterfall (at the shorter and less wider parts) and trekked along the granite rocks up. This part got me really scared because not only were the rocks slippery, I was carrying a 10kg bag on my back and it was STEEP. Thank Allah we made it though, and then we continued back into the forest and carried on our trek up to the first campsite, which took about 2 to 3 hours. Bumped into a lot of local teenagers on holiday, and they kept asking where we were from. lol.
And everytime we said "Singapore", they would go "Wah, jauh tu! " (which means whoa, far!). haha. Quite amusing. Yepp. Reached campsite (Jelawang Jungle) about lunch, where we waded in the waterfall pools, had lunch and stood at the edge of the waterfall drop which had a wonderful view overlooking the forest.
=). Lots of space there to camp too. We were actually supposed to camp further up so that we would have an easier time with the summit push, but a my junior had some problem with her knees, so we set up our tents there instead and pushed for the summit the next day. Spent the rest of the day hiking further upstream so that we could go to this really nice secluded spot and bathe there, but it started to drizzle, and we decided to head back to our campsite to bathe instead. Man, the water is wonderful. Coooolldddd, but very clear and refreshing.
We bathed at this part where there was this huge slab of granite and the water was sliding off it into this deep pool lined with boulders at the side. Me, being a super excited one (my family used to bring me to kota tinggi when I was young and i loved it) was the first one in after mr tan. hehe. Then I naturally climbed up rocks and jumped in and we did funny somersaults. Played for about an hour plus then we went to cook dinner. Yumyum.
haha. Yeah, so next day was the summit push. Took us about 8 hours to go up and come back down. The summit push was really tricky, and the view wasn't that wondrous, but it was good to be up there and eat lunch whilst watching the clouds and mountains play hide and seek. lol. sort of.
=P. Our local guide was really cool. On our way up he taught us how to boil eggs using moss, how to tell and pull out ginger, pulled out rattan fruit and tongkat ali leaves (! ) for us to eat, and plucked off a lemongrass branch to let us smell (apparently it works as a good repellant too). Yep, and then we went swimming again after we returned back to camp. haha.
Next day woke up and packed tents before sunrise and we headed back down. Got down in 2 hours, caught a train to Gua Musang which is an hour or two away, where we went caving and had dinner before taking the overnight train back to Singapore. Yep, so that pretty much sums up my trip, cos I'm too tired to say anything more and I have a lot of homework to do in slightly over one day. haha. =S. Hmm.
Some other random stuff: - the elections in Kelantan is scary. there are banners and posters and fliers and flags EVERYWHERE. - i think i'm getting better at acting as a translator. hehe. was forced to make orders and ended up having conversations with some of the locals. - amusing.
we bumped into bedok ite on their way to pahang on the train, and bumped into them again on the way back. what are the odds, man? lol. - i had ramli burger! woot! was looking for rabbit meat, but couldn't find... so i had plain old special chicken.
haha. - couldn't find the utopia magazine that i bought at KL, maybe it's just a KL mag. =(. - river water tastes really weird after putting puritabs in them. they taste of the river. =P.
- found really amusing yam and sugar cane syrup. haha. - stayed up till 4 playing cards with my junior who was too freaked to go to bed (in the train) because we found tiny cockroaches on it. - never pass me another raisin. 
