Journey of a Million Miles

2007-08-26T15:54:00.000+08:00

Nothing is better than an explosive way to spend the weekend at the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition that is being held at Putrajaya. For this competition, teams from Australia, Italy, Malaysia and Japan will be competing against each other. Thanks to Peggy for fetching us there for the show. For those who wanna get there to watch the show, you better get there as early as you can. Being late will result in you being stuck in a jam or getting a bad spot as the authorities may close up the roads at the event area 1hr before the show starts. We were lucky though, being able to get there, and parked at the wrong place before driving off to another area before the event started. I think we are the last few ones who made it to the closest spot before the roads are closed.

Putrajaya
Golden
Bridge

THE
fUN
Fair

The
Test
Shot

The
Show
Begins

Fireworks
Display
.

A
Star In
The Sky

We double parked at a spot near the fun fair next to the Golden Bridge in Putrajaya. The Golden Bridge is where the event is held. It was fairly a good place to get photo shots of the fireworks but somehow, its too close for me as I wanna get the full view of the light display. The best place to shoot the fireworks is probably at the Putajaya International Convention Centre, which is located directly in front of the bridge. Here, one can get a full view of the fireworks display but you would have to pay at least RM30 to be there. Where we were is fully FOC.

Orange
Explosions
.

Red
Rambutans
?

Heavy
Explosions
.

The
Fan &
Buzz

.
Boom!
.

.
Bing!
.

The event started of at 10pm where the fireworks from Team Italy were let off in sync of the music being played. Wonderful! Besides the view, also loved the smell of burnt sulphur from the fireworks. Noticed one or two planes passing by when the fireworks were lit up. Wondered how the view would have been like from up there in the plane. The amount of fireworks let off was so intense, I doubt any bird would survive if it is stupid enough to fly through it. The event lasted for a mere 20 mins before we had to rush back to the car, join in with the traffic jams and reach home. Overall, GREAT! Hoping to go for another round of this, which would be performed by Team Japan. Heard that the Japanese team are the best, that is why they are set to compete on the last show.

.
Bang!
.

The
Last Few
minutes

The
Grand
Finale

Plants
After
Week 3

Growing
Big
.

water
Droplet
.

2007-08-12T18:50:00.000+08:00

Once again, Im out in the field watching students for the field trips. It’s the 1^st year students who are taking ENV1800 subject this time. Similar to the class last year, the class this year is that big, the field trip had to be carried out on three separate occasions. As usual, we would bring the students to the Kelana Jaya tin mine lake and the Gombak forest. Unlike the previous years, this time we had to take out one location in Gombak to save time showing the students around in the field.

Bird
At
Lake

K. Jaya
Tin Mine
Lake

Dragonfly
& Snail
Eggs

Apple
Snail
Eggs

Dr. Cathy
Sampling with
Students

A
Strangling
Fig Tree

Quite like the students this year as they are rather cooperative and show some interest in what they are doing in the field, unlike previous years where quite a few even would hesitate getting into the water. Brought my new camera around to subject it to the ‘Yong’ test. So far its only satisfactory results. Sometimes would have trouble making it understand what I wanted to focus on, especially in the macro mode. Or is it me having difficulty understanding it. There is still a lot more of each other that we need to get to know of.

Big Trees
in
Gombak

The
Forest
Floor

Dr. Cathy
Giving
Briefing

Trek
Through
Forest

Dragonfly
Cratilla
metallica

Damselfly
Heliocypha
perforata

I was feeling kinda bad as I feel that Im taking photos most of the time instead of really fully attending to the students. But heck! Im the official photographer for the trips and at least I still do attend to the new kids! Luckily, Dr Cathy didn’t mind (or at least I think so) and in fact did asked me to take certain photos for use in lectures.

Wild
Orchid
Leaf

Damselfly
Aristocypha
fenestrella

Sampling
in Gombak
River

The
Gombak
River

Fungus
Outbreak
?

Plantlets
after
Week 2

All the while (the past 2 – 3 years), I have never really realized how long I have been doing this until this trip. It hit me when I felt something was amiss at one of the sites where I later found out that one large tree is missing or fallen rather. It was then when I realized that Ive been around long enough to notice trees gone missing. Even the trails are getting narrower, overgrown with shrubs. I wonder how long will I be still be doing this.

2007-07-31T21:16:00.000+08:00

I am finally employed! However, still on a temporary basis. =( So this makes me more or less still an unemployed person until I get myself a full time job! But it sure beats doing and earning nothing sitting around bumming at home. Currently Im working as an Admin Officer for the school. Most of my work would involve dealing with building defects (since the campus building is still quite new) and ensuring physical resources to be in good condition as well as delivered when they are requested. Other than that, Im also demonstrating for all environmental field trips as well as the agricultural lab, giving me more opportunity to earn more while Im at my first job. Work can sometimes be stressful when it comes to dealing with difficult staff members, but its part of work and Im still learning the curves of it. Ever since starting work, I guess my daily lifestyle had changed a bit, that everyday I return home tired and ended up sleeping quite early every night, around 11pm. Not that I mind, its just tiring!

Also, I finally found some time (and also some cash) for me to get down to Kl to get mysef a new camera! Whoopee! My previous camera now is as good as dead. Its still functioning, but its almost dead. Dead in a sense that ill have to bang it lightly a few times to get it to start up. I guess age is catching up with it, along with the stress of being ‘Yong’s camera’. A blardi good camera I should say, the Canon A80, built like a tank, been through sand, sun, snow, soil, water, impacts, u name it! Lasted me a good 3 years until now. This new camera that I have now is the Canon S5 IS. I sure hope its just as tough as the previous and could live up to the Yong endurance test. *Cross fingers*

Some Photos taken with my new cam!

My
Little
Office

Gallery
In The
Office

Dr. Joe
Briefing
Students

Little
Young
Plants

View of
the Plant
House

Experimental
Seedlings
.

2007-05-28T15:36:00.000+08:00

I feel troubled. I feel lost. I feel like I'm missing something but I don't know what it is. I feel like running away but I don't know what I'm running from. This path of uncertainty is messing up my mind. No, I must get my thoughts straight. Perhaps its time for me to do another soul searching.

2007-05-16T21:30:00.000+08:00

The long anticipated day for the field trip to Ma Daerah Turtle Sanctuary located in Kemaman, Terrenganu, finally came on the May 11^th ‘ 07. With a group size of 30, we departed on a 5 hour long journey to the beach at late noon. Half the group appeared tired, each seemed to be settling down to sleep, even though its been barely an hour since the bus departed from the campus. While half the group people was in each of their own dreams, the rest of the group were actively chatting away and playing pranks on each other. For me, the trip wasn’t a good start since I was down with slight fever, a sore throat and some cold. Have been trying to get well ASAP by taking in an assorted overdose of pills. *Don’t try this kids!*

Camp
On The
Beach

Waiting
For
Sunrise

.
Dawn
.

.
Sunrise
.

Wierd
Turtle
Landing

A
Sand
Bath

The day was already quite late when we arrived, thanks to the bad traffic conditions and being lost for a moment. We were so tired and hungry by the time we arrived, we immediately devoured on the already long prepared food without properly checking into our rooms first. After the late dinner, a briefing on the activities was supposed to be carried out but was cancelled due to an exciting news of a turtle landing. We immediately hurried off the lodge in an attempt to catch the egg laying process of the turtle. We took a long walk along the beach in the darkness to the nesting site. The use of torches was discouraged since it may scare the turtle and cause it to abort its attempt to lay eggs. As of that, we only relied on our night vision capability to navigate in the darkness. Along the beach were little specks of glowing blue light, coming off from bioluminescence organisms. By the time we reached the nest, the turtle was already done with laying the eggs, getting ready to leave the beach. Since flash photography is also discouraged, a few of us attempted to take photos of the turtle with long exposure, only to produce disappointing results. After the turtle had left for sea, we returned to the nesting site to count and collect the eggs to be brought back to the nursery. One of us (Ding Ding) had the golden opportunity of doing so. We got back to the nursery to learn the process of placing the eggs in designated sites within the nursery in an attempt to hatch those fresh turtle eggs. It was already quite late at night by then, so we each retuned to our rooms to have a good nights rest.

.
Geronimo!
.

.
Incoming!
.

Gals
Stealing
Pants

Turtle
Trail
.

Beach
View
.

Return
My
Pants!

The accommodation provided in the lodge was very basic, equipped with only lights fan and twin beds. Most people within the group were lucky to have everything functioning in their rooms. Only us guys were lucky enough to choose a room with a non functioning fan. Since the temperature in the room was so hot, we took the adventurous idea of sleeping on the beach instead. We were joined by 2 adventurous girls for the night, Beatrice and Chien Wen. Off we went to the beach to set up our little camp under the star filled open sky. Darren brought a stove so we had a little cooking going on before settling down. Sleeping on the beach was quite a nice experience if it wasn’t for those irritating sandflies biting on our feet. Had to steal back my sleeping bag from Chis who was using it as his pillow throughout the night. The sleeping bag immediately solved my troubles with the sandflies. Other than that, there wasn’t much trouble besides the gals claiming that the morning was cold even I thought the temperature was just nice.

Mr.
Hermit
Crab

Hey!
A
UFO!

The
Prankster
Attacks!

Beat,
Yvonne
Kim & I

'Sandy Squirrel'
&
'Starfish Patrick'

Group Shot
On The
Rock

We woke up early the next day in an attempt to catch the sunrise. It was a little disappointing since there was cloud cover on the horizon, so it wasn’t much of a sunrise. For the more active group f us (Beatrice, Chris, Darren, Kate, Kim, Yvonne & I) , we spent the rest of the morning hanging around the beach, swimming and playing silly acts and pranks. I wasn’t too sure on what the rest of the other groups did for the whole morning. Returned to the lodge for lunch and rest before heading out to the beach once more for another dip with another group. Entertained ourselves by playing a game of monkey using the pants of one of the guys. We spent quite sometime in the water before returning to the lodge for rest and dinner before we attended the long delayed briefing.

Three
Human
Tower

.
SPLASH!!
.

Hit By
A
Big Wave

Boss
At
Work

The
Lodge
.

The
Exhibition
Hall

After the briefing, we were divided into 2 groups to conduct a beach patrol for turtle landings. While the 1^st group was away, we spent our time trying to sing whatever songs we could come up with and attending a little bday party for one of us (Li hua). It took quite a while for the 1^st group to return and all they gave us was the disappointing news of them spotting a turtle and accidentally scaring it away from landing. Nevertheless, the 2^nd group left for patrol hoping that the scared turtle would return again for another egg laying attempt. We spent quite a while walking along the coastline in the darkness without results. Most of the people in the 2^nd group were already tired by then and I guess were quite eager to get back to the lodge. While on the way back, us few who stayed out the previous night were planning to stay out another time for the night. We were a little disappointed when we got back to find that most people from the 1^st group had already colonized the beach site. Having felling a little disappointed, we were wondering if we should continue with our plan when we decided to give it a go. It wasn’t too long after we started to settle down on our site b4 people from the 1^st group started to return to the lodge due to attack of the sandflies. Only a few tough ones remained. Once again we had a little cooking session before settling in for sleep. While I was settling down, I overheard from the radio of one of the rangers of what sounded to be a possible turtle landing. However no notice was given for the group to catch the landing process. I waited a while for news but accidentally fell asleep.

The
Beach
Site

The
Main
Entrance

Meeting
New
People

How To
Pass
Time

Beat
Photo
Shooting

Dingz
Being
Silly

2am. “Anyone want to watch turtle landing?” Immediatly jumped up from my sleep when I heard that and bugged Beatrice to wake the rest of the group. Word was given out the wake the others and we have to hurry as the turtle was already in the final stages of its egg laying process and the nesting site was really close to where we were sleeping. What really surprised me was that only 4 of us managed to wake up. The rest were either too tired or amazingly lazy to wake up. Since we afford to cant wait any longer, the 4 of us together with the guide rushed off to catch the egg laying process. The walk to the nesting site was only less than 5 mins from where we slept! Those who didn’t tag along sure did missed a lot! We were lucky enough to catch the turtle in the midst of its egg laying. We were even overjoyed when the guide allowed us to take flash photography since the group was really small! Off went the flashes like machine gun fire. Each of us was feeling happy having taken photos with the turtle. Once again, Ding was given the golden task of collecting the eggs. After the job was done, the guide left us in the dark with the turtle. We stayed with the turtle for a while until we felt raindrops and had to rush back. When we got back to the beach site, the rest of the people who were sleeping on the beach had already disappeared. All thats left were our things and we hurriedly gathered them and headed back to the lodge b4 it started pouting. It turned out to be a short drizzle and we were too lazy to set up the camp again so we decided to head back to the lodge instead. We got back with some trouble getting a place to rest so we just slept on the porch.

The
Briefing
.

Karaoke
Session
.

Where
Are The
Turtles?!

Turtle
Laying
Eggs

Fresh
From The
Oven!

The
Green
Turtle

The morning air was filled with disappointment when the rest of the group learnt that they missed a spectacular event. Well, whats gone is gone and theres nothing that can be done. We spent the morning pacing up and having one last beach walk before leaving the sanctuary for home. I was sure glad that I went along for the trip since it took me weeks of indecisive ness if I should go for it as I had to pay as much as RM250 for it! Turns out, that I still haven’t paid anything and my boss Dr Cathy, never asked for it. Lets hope she forgets! =P

The
Lucky
Few

Great
Hornbill
Flying

.
Moments
.

Wei Xin
By The
Beach

A
Group
Photo

GBye
Ma
Daerah!

2007-04-04T22:10:00.000+08:00

Evening
Jetty
View

Preparing
For The
Meeting

On
Going
Meeting

Raining
At
Site!

Damselfly
Copera
vitatta

Top
Of The
Hill!

After a month or so of procrastinating, I finally managed to drag my concrete fingers to start blogging again. So here goes, from the days after my trip to the plantation in Perak.

Landscape
of
Oil Palms!

John &
K. Chye
at work

John
at
work

Small
Pond in
Plantation

The
Mini
Bar!

Bird
Spying
.

The trip to the oil palm estate in Sandakan, Sabah, was a much interesting experience for us all. We had a little change in the team members for this trip. Badri couldn’t make it for this trip and was supposed to be replaced by another guy but he couldn’t make it as well during the last minute. We were also joined by Sze Ning who would be coming along to do social assessments with the social team.

A
Group
Photo

Kat
at
Work

Superstar
at
Work

Jeep
Ride!
.

A
Small
Pond

One
Drop
.

We started our journey on the 26^th Feb with a long flight delay due to a missing co-pilot who called in sick. Bad start. Because of this flight delay, we almost missed the boat which would be taking us across the Sandakan Bay into the plantation. It was already quite late by the time we landed in Sandakan and reach the jetty, with all the managers and drivers waiting for us all.

Dragonfly
Cratilla
metallica

A
Sea of
Oil Palms!

Down
the
Tower

Lotus
Flower
.

A
Lotus
Pond

Lake
In
Plantation

The girls we put up in the plantations club house, which is pretty luxurious I must say. It was equipped with a pool table, home theatre system and even mini bar! No swimming pool around however. The guys on the other hand stayed over in the managers and assistants house. While the birders got to stay with one of the estate managers, I got to stay with a cheerful assistant manager by the name of Alegrandran.

Stairway
to
Lake

Out
Birding
.

Kim
Chye
at Work

We
Got
STUCK!

Webs
in the
Sun

Oil
Palm
Trees

The next day we started off our work with a short opening meeting before surveying the area. The estate in Sandakan covers a huge area and it would take quite a while to get from one end to the other. Terrible road conditions like extremely muddy roads and steep hills made the ride seem even longer. As usual, the group was split into 3 teams, the aquatic, bird and social teams. It didn’t take us long to finish up our sampling work and within 3 days, my partner and I managed to finish the job. I guess its faster this time as we now know what we are after plus getting useful knowledge from the guides provided to us. For the rest of the days, we joined the bird team going out doing bird surveys and night spotting.

Help
From A
Tractor

A
Metallic
Beetle

Hmm..
Whats in
the drain?

Dragonfly
Agrionoptera
insignis

Road
by the
Lawn

A
Mangrove
River

After seeming much of the plantation, I would say this plantation would be a much better plantation compared to the previous one I visited since there are pockets of forest within it which allows some wild animals to dwell. We saw quite a mixed diversity of habitats, ranging from lowland dipterocarp forest to the mangrove forest. Highlights of our spotting would include the endangered or near threatened species such as the storms stork, oriental darter, Chinese egret, proboscis monkeys and some raptors. Although there were reports of orang utan sighting within the plantation, we saw none, but only old nests of these primates.

Discussing
Plans
.

Walkway
On
Water

Experts
in
Action!

.
Legs
.

Sze Ning
in
Action!

John
Photographing
Dragonfly

Our night watches weren’t as exciting however. We encountered several problems during our first few nights of night spotting sessions. On the first night, it was pouring really heavily so we had to call it off. On the second night, the lights on both our spotting lamps blew up no long after we started. On the third night, all went well for a while before the lights on both lamps blew up again. For the whole night survey, we didn’t see much except for the spotting of Samba deer, a family of wild boars and a couple of small owls.

Dragonfly
Cratilla
lineata

And I
saw this
and that..

The
Great White
Egret

The
Closing
Meeting

John
During
Presentation

Hmm..
And you are
saying?

We managed to finish our work fast enough to earn ourselves an extra day off. We used the day off to visit Sukau, a small settlement located next to the Kinabatangan river where there are plenty of proboscis monkeys the ride which would have only lasted 45 mins took us about an hour or so to reach there due to the terrible road conditions because of an on going construction. The road was so bumpy, I could have snapped my neck on my way there. Of course, it was also impossible to get any sleep in the jeep during the ride there.

Group
At
Sukau

Evening
Boat
Ride

The
Mangroves
.

John
&
I

Cat Snake
In The
Tree

Sunset
From
Mangroves

Upon reaching a lodge in Sukau with aching butts, we got ourselves a room to pack for the evening boat ride along the river. After an hour of dilly dallying we left off for the boat safari hoping to spot some animals along the river. We didn’t see much until we entered a small river flowing through a mangrove swamp. It is here where we saw plenty of wildlife; proboscis monkeys, pig tail macaques, cat snakes and even a crocodile.

As darkness approached, we headed back to the lodge for dinner before heading out again for another boat ride in the darkness. It must have been the full moon or something that we didn’t see any big mammals coming out to the river side. However, we still got to see plenty of birds which were roosting in the trees which grow along the river. For some reason, none of us were able to spot the any wildlife here, even with the experience from our night spotting outings. Only the local guides knew where to look for the birds. It seemed that they have marked specific trees where it is known that the bird would go back to roost. Throughout the night, the birds we saw were the buffy fish owl, night heron, a variety of king fishers and even the rhinoceros hornbill! The boatman would get us so close to the roosting bird that you could probably stretch out your hand and grab it while it was sleeping.

Dinner!
.
.

Another
Group
Photo

Big
Snake!
.

The
Crocodile
in Sukau!

Buffy
Fish
Owl posing

Some
Kingfisher
.

We returned back to the estate late at night, tired but contented with our little holiday. Once back, we got our things packed ready for the early morning departure back to the Sandakan airport back to KL. Once back, there would be a lot of work to do before our next assessment trip in a weeks time.

The
Oriental
Darter

The
Proboscis
Monkey

The
Storms
Stork

Some
Hornbill
.

Some
Raptors
At Nest

Cat
Snake
.

2007-01-28T19:40:00.000+08:00

Tuesday : My journey back from the cold front was less tiring than the trip over there. The flight wasn’t really full and that was a good thing. Had no trouble sleeping. I had to stay in Hong Kong over night during my transit back home. Good thing I had a friend residing over in Hong Kong who brought me around for a short tour before I continue my trip back. During my 14 hour transit, I only managed to visit Kowloon and Mong Kok and check out the night life there. Thanks to Katherine for bringing me around!

Goodbye
Canada!
.

My
Tour Guide
Katherine

At
Mong Kok
.

Streets of
Hong Kong
.

Wednesday : And yes Im now back in KL. By now, most people would have learn of my return so I wont mention much about it. A lot of people has been asking me why Im back. Let me say this again, Im back to apply to migrate over to Canada. Since the process for application and approval make take up to a year, I will be hanging around in Malaysia looking for a job meantime. Havent been blogging since the day I got back. Was too busy settling my thing, from paying overdue bills to collecting my pay cheques and searching for jobs to procrastinating in cleaning up my apartment which has collected so much dust during my absence.

John & K. Chye
Scouting

Early
Morning
Watch

Our
Accomodation
.

The
Guest House
.

John
Checking Out
A Drain

Cows in
The Plantation?

Luck must be one my side as I now have a temporary project based job. I was picked for it quite fast I had to say. It happened when I dropped by to see my ex-supervisor who happened to be looking for a replacement person to go for an assessment project since a friend of mine couldn’t make it. The job was to work along with Wildasia to carry out a pilot project in doing a social, economic and biodiversity assessment on Sime Darby's oil palm plantations. Kat, and ex-research student of Dr Cathys, will join me in carrying out the biodiversity assessment along with some guys from Wildasia. Since I only learnt of the job which is to start in a matter of 2 days, I was panicking a little as the Wildasia guys were depending on us to develop a method to use aquatic insects as bioindicators to check on the health of their water ways. Spend the whole 2 nights researching for methods. One exciting thing I found regarding the project is that the person representing SIME is a friend of mine, Sheffy, a senior and one of my camping group members. Havent been in touch with her for quite a while since shes busy with work, so this week over at the plantation, there will be a lot of catching up to do!

A Potential
Sampling
Site

Boat
Ride!
.

Stuck in
The Mud
.

Black Baza
(Photo by:
Sheffy)

Some Snake
(Photo by:
Sheffy)

White
Fungi
.

Sunday : Left for Teluk Intan, Perak after a rendezvous with some of the Wildasia people at the K.J. LRT station. Here I met John and Sheema, who has been corresponding and updating Kat and I on the project outline. John is an ecologist, specializing in birds and dragonflies while Sheema is a research assistant in wildasia, specializing in snakes. It took us about 2 hours to reach the plantation. I was really taken in by surprise with the accommodation at the place where they put us up there. Quite well facilitated with Tv, Dvd player, air conditioning and fridge! Wasn’t like what I was told, especially when Sheffy told us to bring along sleeping bags for just in cases. We left for a short recce in the plantation before heading back to the guest house. Later in the evening, we were joined by a couple more of the other wildasia fellows and Sheffy. The other fellows were Kim Chye, bird specialist and Su Mei and Badri, who both will be working on the social and economic assessing.

Doing
Night
Survey

Fireflies!
.
.

Sampling
Site
.

Kat
Doing
Sampling

Anyone
Out There?
Cookenia sp.

The
Dense
Plantation

Sunday – Monday : We spent the first 2 days surveying sites and looking for potential sites for sampling within 2 plantations of SIME. The road conditions in the plantations were so terrible, our 4x4 truck got stuck in the mud a couple of time, but we eventually managed to get ourselves out of the sticky situation. The plantations covered such a wide area that it is highly possible that one could easily get lost inside it. Thank God for GPS, otherwise, it would have been very hard for us to find our own way out.

More Fungi!
Unknown
Species

Plantation
in
Bidor

Checking It
Out
.

Dragonfly
Crotilla
lineata

Stuck in
Mud
Again!

Damselfly
Prodasineura
humeralis

Each morning, the biodiversity team, which includes me, would go out early to catch the dawn chorus when most birds would be out flying. John and Kim Chye would be out there making a record of the species of birds observed within the plantation. At night, we would leave after dinner into the plantation to conduct a night survey, looking for wild animals within the plantation. The night survey was particularly fun as we managed to spot several different animals from barn owls, brown spotted wood owl, civet and leopard cats.

Dragonfly
Neurothemis
Terminata

Dragonfly
Trithemis
aurora

John
Filming A
Dragonfly

Damselfly
Heliocypha
perforata

Damselfly
Neurobasis
chinensis

Waterfall
Near The
Plantation

Tuesday – Thursday : For the first 2 days, we (Sheffy, Kat and I ) had to go on our ways while the birding team, (John, Kim Chye and Sheema) had to go on their own. This is as the assessment sites for both teams are different. We left to Bidor on Tuesday morning to check out on another plantation of SIME’s . This estate in bidor is rather small compared to the other 2 earlier. The managers were saying that this plantation served as a ‘green lung’ of bidor and we find it rather interesting that they even considered so. True enough, after checking on a satellite map, the plantation is the only green patch in the town of Bidor. While the birders were on their own, we went out into the plantation looking for streams to sample. Unlike the other waterways which I have seen in the other 2 plantations, the plantation in Bidor uses natural streams instead of man made drains, which is very good. Should be expecting better results from this site. Sheffy had joined the birders on Thurday, leaving Kat and I to do sampling work on another plantation. Although this plantation is huge, the trees were planted in blocks which made it easy to navigate, so Kat and I had no troubles. An interesting story during the 3 days were that we were jinxed with the ‘dick head’ vibes, as how John would put it in a jokingly manner, where some of us tend to forget and leave things behind during our outing. On our last night before the presentation of results, the management treated us with a nice BBQ dinner at their clubhouse in the plantation, equipped with snooker table and swimming pool.

John in
Action
Again

Sheffy
Posing
With Phone

Kat
Working
In Rain

Rain
Drops
.

Another
Sampling
Site

Site Next
To Golf
Course

Friday : The final day of our assessment for this week. We presented our findings to the management of the plantations. Results? The water quality, in my own opinion, in the first two plantations are not in a healthy condition while the ones in the Bidor plantation is much better. For the 3 plantations, the biodiversity assessment scored about 55% - 60% while the social and economic assessment scored about 60% - 70%. The week had passed real fast although it did seemed long to me in the beginning. That was how busy we were kept. Left for KL at noon.

Sheffy
At
Work

Dragonfly
Unknown
Species

Dragonfly
Rhyothemis
triangularis

End of
A Day
.

Plantation in
Seri Intan

Meet My
Family!
.

*Thanks to John for helping me identify the dragonflies.
*More pictures will be uploaded on the flash player below sometime later.

Yellow
Fungi
.
.

Predatory Bird
(Photo By:
Sheffy)

Brown
Spotted
Wood Owl
By: John

Leopard Cat
(Photo By:
John
.

Chilling at
The Club
House
.

John With
Operations Manager
Mr Tan
.

A
BBQ
Treat!

The Team
With
Ops.Manager

Preparations
For
Meeting

The
Closing
Meeting

2007-01-13T13:04:00.000+08:00

OK, So this will be my last post from the Cold Front. Not been going out lately so Ill just put up some pics from my short outing to the Christmas Light Display at Confederation Park. Have been procrastinating about putting them up, so its about time. =P So, yeah, its an annual thing for the city council, i think, to put these lights up every christmas. The decorations here are really pretty I should say. Good place for people to drop by and take a few snapshots.

Lights Display at
Confederation Park

Some of
the Display

O Christmas
Tree..

A Stretch
of Lights

A Light
Garden?

Other than that, I've been doing nothing besides waiting for the time to pass by, thinking of home, thinking of what ill be doing, planning..and hopefully, be doing something too! All things are almost packed up and ready to go! Just have to worry about having excess baggage. There was another deep freeze yesterday, the temperature dropped to about -21'c. The presence of the arctic winds made it even worse, felt like -30'c. Good thing the temperatures back to normal again today, otherwise, Ill probably have to struggle downtown to have a little visit to an environmental company. Well Should be all for now. Kind of excited going home and meeting up people. Also excited to get to Hong Kong and meet a friend there. Hopefully the immigration people would let me of for a couple of hours so I could get out and have a taste of Hong Kong during my transit. =D

The
Gingerbread Family

The
Light Train

Not the
Gingerbread Guy

Not Frosty's
Brother..

nor the
Tin Soldier

2007-01-05T02:58:00.000+08:00

10 more days before the long flight back home. It has been quite a while since I reached here on Oct 31st. Do I miss home yet? Yeah, I guess so. Lets se, I miss the food, hanging out with the others and the natural environment. I definitely do not miss the pollution, the haze and the hot humid weather. Looking forward to either a bak kut teh, steamboat or a seafood session.

2 days ago, Jan 1st, I was out again in the national park. Could be my last visit for this trip since my uncle who usually brings me to these places is leaving for Malaysia this weekend. My last chance to enjoy the most out of the Canadian natural environment. I was really lucky to be able to get there as the road conditions were perfect! Usually, they would be pretty slippery and icy under winter conditions. I also found out on the news a day later that the roads were closed due to a heavy snowfall and a high risk of avalanches occurring.

The
Iced Lake

From
the Window

Hotel
Interior

Icicles
.

Frozen
White

Anyway, my 1st stop was at Lake Louise. I was expecting to see a huge lake after going through pictures of it on the net. Upon arrival, much to my disappointment, the lake was all iced up, covered with snow. You can see how different it is compared to summer from the pic I showed below. (Lake Louise :Summer, taken by SUMMERFALL, D.Art) One would probably think its just a flat piece of land in the middle of the mountains if they never knew the existence of the lake. The lake was also not as big as I thought it would be. Nevertheless, it was quite a sight with the cloud covered mountains and the snow covered pine trees. A miniature hockey arena arena and an ice castle were also erected on the iced lake. There were plenty of tourists around the place, most of them probably staying in the nearby classy hotel, the Fairmont hotel.

Lake Louise
Winter

Lake Louise
Summer

Deep
Snow

White
Tree

The
Corridor

I could really spend a whole day wandering around there but due to time restrictions, my relatives and I had to leave for the next stop. Johnsson Canyon. At Johnsson canyon, we had to do a little hiking to 3 miles there and and back to see the waterfalls there, the traols there were certainly not in the best condition for hiking. Had trouble walking and balancing due to the slippery conditions of the trail. Lost count to the number of times I slipped. Good thing I didnt slip right down the steep ravine next to the trail. My relatives were rather excited to show me the falls. They had a good surprised to find that the falls were all frozen up since they have never been there during winter. I was rather amazed by the iced up falls. How could a waterfall that big be frozen? Must've been really cold there.

Dawn over the Rockies

Moose Meadow

We left for banff after the hike. Banff is a real hotspot for tourists. It is a small pretty town located within the Rocky Mountains. Too bad for the foul weather. The view here would have been awesome otherwise. It was extremely windy when we reached there. The wind is so strong that snow could be blown from the ground into your face, which hurts. We visited the hot springs in the area. What amazed me is that tropical fishes can be seen living in the waters there. If it wasnt for the hot springs, they would have been iced up already. Theres also this endemic species of snail at this place and its said that these snails cannot be found anywhere else on earth. One would also noticed the the stench of sulphur gas present at the area, which comes out from the hto springs. H2S gas if Im correct. We later left for another part of banff, the Bow Falls. Once again, my relatives were taken in by surprise as they never thought that the falls, bigger that the ones in Johnsson Canyon, would also freeze up. So much for waterfalls. Haha. Took a short tour around the famous Banff Springs Hotel before going to a spot opposite the hotel to snap a photo of it. Wasnt easy taking the shot then, as it was so windy, my uncle and I had to hold onto the tripod to prevent my camera from being blow over.

At Johnsson
canyon

Ice
Climbing

Mountain on
the Horizon

Another
Mountain

Hot
Springs

The
Resting Point

Left for home in the dark, tired. Was really glad I could visit those places despite the foul weather. Its going to be a matter of time, dont know when, before I get to go there again.

Frozen Waterfall	Banff Springs Hotel	Hot Springss
	Winterland .

2007-01-04T09:32:00.000+08:00

Once again, a year came and went. Its so long for 2006 and hello for 2007! How has 2006 been for you? 2006 has been quite a wonderful year. Most important event in 2006 for me was my graduation, the end of life of rushing reports and cramming info into my head during the dreadful days of exams. Hurrah! Once out of that world, here I am again at the bottom of the ladder , looking for a start in another world, the working world. Sucks huh? So far I've been taking it easy , about half a year of break, enjoying life, doing part time work. Time to get serious.

This new years been different, since I wasnt going through it at home. This time, a a different part of the world. The new year marks the enforcement of a new law here in Calgary. No more smoking in bars or lounges. As usual, I was out with my cousin drinking with a few of her friends at a few bars. Pretty happ, though no fireworks were lit when the time came. Wonder how the new year was like at home. So how has the new year been for you?

2006-12-29T11:59:00.000+08:00

Feeling a little lazy since the 14th. No mood to update. So what has happened since then? Besides having a nasty experience, hmm.. Well, I have been dropping by at 3 different parts of Fish Creek Park photo shooting. Cant really recall the name of the place where I first dropped by. (Pics 1. to 4.) All I know is that is a small section of this huge provincial park. There wasn't much to shoot around there as there wasnt really anything that stands out and worth a photo. Well at least I got to shoot the skies for the sunset. Remembered seeing a couple of deers around the area but my camera aint designed for wildlife shooting, so not worth a shot. Wished I had tele-lens then.

Holding
the Sun

Evening
Skies

Till The
Sun Go Down

Red Breasted
Nuthatch

White Breasted
Nuthatch

My 2nd drop by in Fish Creek Park was at Bebo grove. (Pics 7. to 10.) Weather was really cold then. To make conditions worse, the wind was blowing so it felt even colder. The cold made my ears hurt so much then, I couldve sworn I dropped them on the ground. Had to borrow my aunts white coloured tuque to go around. Bet I looked strange in that tuque. Weather then was perfect! However, the conditions around aint so perfect as Bebo Grove was located in a valley with little sunlight. As of that, most of my shots of the scenery turned out to be rather dark.

A
Slanted Tree

Bebo
Grove

Frosty
Was Here

A Building
Stands

To
The Hills!

The latest drop by in the park was at Glennmore field. The weather was initially bad then with heavy dark clouds overhead. I was just about to give up looking for scenes when the sun began to set and gave me a good photo opportunity. Experimented wiith different white balancing effects on sunset. Was so obsessed with shooting I didnt realise my uncle was trying to call me as the phone I borrowed from him was set to silent mode. It got him and the rest of his family worried thinking that I had gotten lost in the huge park. Well, at least Im back now.

Follow
The Leader

Trails
of Snow

Isolated
.

Sunset Across
the Field

Sunset
(Test 1)

Sunset
(Test 2)

Christmas came and went recently. It was a white but not so white chistmas for me since it wasnt snowing on the day of christmas itself. It only snowed 2 days later. It was a nice and different experience for me here since Christmas was a really big thing back home. Got a couple of presents, a pc game, a bottle of alcohol, a cap and shirt, a camera bad, a photo book and 60CAD. =D

A
Blue Sunset

Skies
of Jupiter

Closing
Time

The Land
Guardian

Presents!
=D

Christmas
Tree

Tall Giants,
Bebo Grove

Line of Trees
Bebo Grove

A little video I took during one of my visits to Fish Creek Park.

2006-12-25T11:32:00.000+08:00

Had my 1st experience of social issues here in Calgary, Canada. Racism. I wasn't expecting any until i learnt, heard, watched and in fact lived it. It was only before the night of christmas eve before I learnt that this has been going on. Heres 2 local news clip uploaded on youtube on how bad the problem is here. Clip 1 Racism Reborn Part 1 Clip 2 Racism Reborn Part 2

Now Im not saying Canada or Canadians or Calgarians are bad. Its just my pure bad luck running into a couple of bad apples. This experience has certainly made me reconsider if I want to stay and work in Canada.

2006-12-14T11:21:00.000+08:00

I've got too much free time on mah hands! Heres wht I did.

Mini
Me!
.

David
vs
Goliath (V.1)

David
vs
Goliath(V.2)

A salad
I made
.

Looks
good?
.

Hungry?
.
.

And heres wht I found out. I suck at food photography! NO more of these. Yes?

2006-12-13T15:00:00.000+08:00

I finally converted to submitted to Firefox! Or at least partially. Earlier, I was wondering why my Deviantart Page wouldn't function properly. Found out that the admins had updated it and the page would require a more up to date browser to run it properly. This means I had to update the current IE6. Now the problem is em smart microsoft fuckers made it necessary to validate Windows before installation. This windows here, I doubt its genuine, meaning no update to IE7! Thus had to start using Firefox.

Having installed firefox, my D.Art page finally worked properly. However, I encountered something which is much to my dismay. My blog is NOT firefox compatible! The whole layout is like... ojipala, crap! Now should I redesign the layout to be firefox friendly or leave it being IE friendly? This is not the end of it..my music box in friendster barely works under firefox..but works fine with IE. Speaking of friendster, dunno wht the admis are up to but they changed the layout again! Now Ill have to alter some tricky codes for it to fit. Jst great! Ill leave it as it is. Couldnt be bothered for now. As for the IE vs Firefox, hmm..use both...depending on wht site im opening.

2006-12-12T06:41:00.000+08:00

Looking at my pictures, it seems and feels like I havent captured much of how Calgary looks like. With the help of being bored and the point I mentioned earlier, I had made myself go out to capture more sights of Calgary city. Shooting cityscapes and scenes are something which I dont think I'm good at, but at least I tried and had kept me busy!

Early
Morning

Late
Morning

Link
to City

At Prince
Island Park

The 1st
Sucker (Blur)

Spent 2 days going around the city snapping here and there. Spent the enire day of both days capturing shots from early morning before sunrise till late evening after sunset. Its a lovely sight overlooking the city during these 'magic hours' from a nearby hill. Wonder if I can get a smilar spot on a hill over looking the city in KL under extremely clear, ie hazeless not cloudless, skies.

The
1st Sucker

The
2nd Sucker

The 2nd
Sucker Again

The
3rd Sucker

The
4th Sucker

Wile E Coyote
in City?

Each day Id be waitng on the hill for the sunrise before heading down to an island next to the city. YES! Its an island alright. The place is a piece of land right in the middle of the river which flows by the city and have been converted into a park. Prince Island Park they call it. Its a nice place to have a walk, a brief moment away from the busy city streets. Theres planty of wildlife too, ducks, squirrels, birds and even coyotes, though I havent seen one. The animals here are really protected and I believe, are so accustomed to the presence of humans around, they arent afraid of you at all. Stretch out your hand and you'll get birds and squirrels approaching you. I believe in Malaysia, these animals would probably in the pot or in the cage for sell by now. Heh heh! Had fun fooling these poor suckers. Since I have no animal food around, I picked up a piece of dried leaf and shred it into small pieces and left them on my palm. A few birds fell for the trick and flew right onto my hand. Later they got smarter so I had to sacrifice a bit of my chocolate bar to get them coming back. The squirrels were suckers too! Found an empty peanut shell and used it as bait. They fell for it too.

Park
Bridge

The
Great Building

Heaevn Behind
the Buildings?

Windmill
(Take 1)

Windmill
(Take 2)

Windmill
(Take 3)

Close by to the Island is the EauClaire market where theres plenty of food stalls in it. Its usually more happening during summer with more stalls outside. Didnt take any pic of it since it..err..has no photographic value? The building is nice but the vehicles parked all around it really spoils the scene so didnt bother. Instead, took pics of the windmill nearby .

The
Tower

Stephen's
Avenue

Hotdog
Stall

City
Rail

Statues
.

Deeper in the city, I wasnt too sure of what to take. So most pics taken are 'main hantam' case. Most of the pics are taken around the Olympic Plaza and Stephen Avenue, thats wheres the most scenic part inside the city. Didnt post much of the pics here. In fact, too lazy to figure out the html codes to arrange the pics. Ill later upload them onto the flash slide player below. Here's a small clip of one of the sucker in action furthur.

Calgary Tower	Sunrise, Calgary	The City Hall
	3/4 Day
	Sunset,Calgary

2006-12-04T16:02:00.000+08:00

After 2 weeks of enclosure (my, I make it sound real bad!) I finally got somewhere again! This time I dropped by the Ghost Dam. My uncle wasnt too sure of where to bring me so we just hit the road and stopped by this place when I saw it. Thought we'd only stopped there for a while. Turned out that I spent half the day there just taking photos. The scenery seemed nice from the top but when I really started shooting, the pics didnt turn out that nice, thx to the presence of power cables aroudn and the dull overcast weather. Had to switch to the macro world for pics.

Ice
Mushroom

Pebbles...
.

or
Ice?

Mushroom
Rocks

Frozen
Ceiling

The area down here was literally covered with ice since it is by the side of the river. Theres these particular group of ice capped rocks by the river that looked like some different kind of mushrooms. There were also huge pieces of ice laying around but they can be easily broken with a kick. Had to take safety measures walking by the side of the river with the ice all over. Going from stone to stone cover with ice aint easy. One could easy twist their ankle here.The weather turned bad so we had to leave the place. Was rather reluctant to leaev since theres the sun setting on the horizon. Hopefuly I could return another day.

Free Ice For Cendol!	More Free Ice!	Clear as Glass	Rocky Side	Pray it Dun Break!	Bigger piece of Ice!
Sunset Above Ghost Dam

2006-12-02T11:41:00.000+08:00

Just went through the coldest days of my life! In fact, according to the news, last weekend was the coldest winte the city experienced since the last 100 years. The lowest of the temperature was recorded at -35'c. That wasnt all, the wind made it felt even worse with a bone chilling cold of -42'c. There were news reports of some homeless people freezing to death even though the city council tried to round them up as much as possible. Pity them. Cant imagine dying like that.

Couldnt do much then during the past week besides hibernating at home. Couldnt even last 5 minutes outdoors. Ice formed on the windows inside, and walking on the wooden floor felt like walking on ice, even with socks on. Was so bored, I did a little experiment to see how cold it really is. On a slightly warmer day of -20'c, I placed half a glass of water outdoors. Found out it took only 2 hours to fully ice up! Thts how cold it is. So now that the weather is a little kinder, cant wait to go out sight seeing.

My uncle was suggesting that I go back early and settle the documents to migrate over fast. Now Im in a little dilemma. Should I go back early? What on earth am I gonna do if I go back early? Got nothing to do, and jobless. Even if I do apply to migrate fast, what am I gonna do meantime? The application process wont be immediate. May have to wait between 6 months to a year before I get an answer. So far, Ive only secured demonstrating job in campus, but thats not good enough! Plus, the finance department in campus pays at a damn late date. Look for other work in KL? Well, its not easy to find environmentally related jobs in kl. Even if I do find one, going to and fro between home and office. Headache. Sigh

2006-11-23T02:52:00.000+08:00

Woke up this morning to find the lawn all white. It snowed last night, marking the beginning of an extremely cold weekend. As usual, I was staring into the computer screen, bored, when I noticed that the snowflakes are falling a little differently today. Found that the flakes are much lighter and prettier today, so took the opportunity to try shoot some flakes again! Check'em out!

2006-11-21T13:03:00.000+08:00

Bored. Not too sure what to do these days. Im done with the city. Only waiting to go to the nature parks. Weather forecasts says the temperature will drop till -20'c with a windchill of -30'c next week. Not good. Time to dig in tight and hang on! Ill only update here with my weekend pics sometime later. Was fooling around with my pics in Black & White mode. Tell me what u think of it! =D

Winter Comes

Far From Home

Broken

2006-11-18T08:44:00.000+08:00

Got 3 days of sunshine this week so thought its a real waste if I didnt get out. Spent one of the mornings at Confederation Park again looking for pics to take. Ventured to the city for the past 2 days. Thats something that I ain't really interested in but sure beats staying at home doing nothing and let the good weather pass by. Checked out their malls. Nothing much, just boutiques, boutiques and more boutiques. I mean, how different can a mall be? The only one difference I noticed is that most of the malls are interconnected by a skybridge so people need not be exposed to the cold, heat, snow or rain when they want to go to the next building.

Shadows
Over Ice

Water
Ducks

Journey to
the End

Evening
Rail

Frames of
the World

The only place of interest I checked out downtown (today) is the Calgary tower which is 525 feet high, located downtown. Theres this glass floor up on top of it. Was feeling a little numb stading right on it. But it was great. Theres thsi crazy China woman whos even jumping and stomping on the glass floor. Geez! Later went to an art exhibition nearby which I heard on Tv last night. Theres a few pieces of artworks thats quite nice, which Id really buy if I've had the cash. Spent quite a while there and I actually did buy something, my first item tht I splurged on!

East
Side

Roof
Labels

West
Side

I'm
Flying!

Calgary Tower
Glass Floor

Followed my uncle down to Bows Park yesterday evening. He had some work to do near the area so he left me his car to drive around the area. Good thing theres no police around, otherwise I'd be really screwed if caught driving without a proper license. Since we reached the park pretty late during the day (5pm is considered late as 5pm sky here is equivalent to our 7pm sky in KL!) I had nothing much to shoot besides the railway next to it. Went real close to a train on idle nearby so I was pretty nervous while taking pics right next to it. Well, tomorrows the weekend once again! hope I would be going out to some nature trails again. Was invited over to my 2nd uncles house to see how chirstmas decorations go about here. Well, I see how things go.

Canadian Pacific Rail

Calgary Tower

2006-11-14T02:47:00.000+08:00

The weather has been miserable for the past one week! Nothing but cloudy misty skies and snow. Result? Crappy dull pics! I want blue skies dammit! Realised I havent updated for the past one week. What was I doing? Mostly staying indoors as theres almost nowhere else to go. The parks here are beginning to lose my interest as they're always white. The weather didnt helped either. Only one day turned out fine which I had a chance to go out tobogganing with my uncles family at Confederation Park.

Cousins Tobogganing	Uncle Tobogganing	Solo Driver	Flipping Over	Me Climbing up
Alone .	White Park	Catching Snow	Catching Snow	008, The Forgotten Agent

Stayed over at another uncles place over the weekend. There I got treated with the fully western meals which I think I may take time to get used to it. First it was the Cheese Fondie with Veggies and next was the spagetti squash. Everything fully vegetarian although they're not vegetarians. Went out with my cousins and friends with their usual acitivity. Clubbing! I guess thats what them people always do when they get out. In a period of 2 weeks, I've already went out clubbing for almost 10 times! Back home, I only do this about once or twice in every two months. Went off to the nature parks again during the weekend. As said earlier, weather was crappy so nothing much to show. Kananaskis is a real nice place to be. Scenic. The other place is Fish Creek, located very near my 2nd uncles place. Its one huge park near the city, about 9km in stretch. Quite nice too..and it was a good thing that the weather lightened up a bit on that day.

Vege Cheese Fondue	Dinner Time!	Heavy Snow over Bridge	River at Fish Creek	Sharp Ice
Icicles .	Frozen .	Sunset .	A River Flows By	Last Bit of Ice

Pine Forest at Kananaskis	Fish Creek
Pine Forests Rocky Mountains
First Light
Pine Forests Rocky Mountains

2006-11-09T06:51:00.000+08:00

Days are getting boring, and its only been a week! Most of the time I spend are indoors staring at the pc. Thank goodness there is a pc, otherwise i'll be bored to death by now! There getting less and less place for me to go check out. There is still a city down the road which I still havent really checked out but I was thinking, no point, Im broke. Felt really pointless going down there, seeing all the things that you wish to get but you're all broke. Rather stay home than find myself drolling over the glass pane on some item. Wanted to get a job but it ain't easy. I need a work permit! And the more I spent, the more I'm furthur from my goal, getting a dSLR cam here. Sigh. Temperature these days are getting awrmer, which is good! I could last longer outside! But bye bye snow. The fields are clearing up, getting green. Amazing to see how the field is once all covered up with snow and now green all over.

After Sunshine	Snowing in the backyard
Before sunshine	Snowflake on my glove

Was out of the house cuz it is snowing! Weather here can change really fast! Was bright and snny this morning and in a matter of hours, the weather changed to a dull cloudy sky before it started snowing. Its a nice experience seeing all these. Tried to look for snowflakes. They're not that easy to catch. Took me a while to even find one perfect snowflake. And it aint as big as what you see in the pictures. Its real tiny. What you see in the pictures are shots of snowflakes shot with a super macro lens. All the while trying to get a picture of it, my fingers got so frozen I had to run into the house to thaw my fingers up.

2006-11-06T13:06:00.000+08:00

Finally got my dose of the natural outdoors sight in Canada! Went to some place called the Elbow creek yesterday and I tell you that the place is breath taking! Wasnt that cold that day, the weather was just nice, the sun is out as there is a chinook going on and the snow is gradually melting. Being at such a place totally downgraded my perception of the parks located nearby where I am staying. could really spend hours just on one small place taking photos. Not too sure if I bore my uncle and cousin to death seeing me taking pics which seemed to be nothing. Anyways, here are the sights of the place.

Road to
the RockiesFrozen
LakeMy cousin, Uncle
& Me

Waterfall at
Elbow Creek

River at
Elbow Creek

My cousin took me out no some wild outing last night. 1st went out to meet up with some of her friends. Later she brought me to a strip bar after one of her friends suggested on where to go. Was kind of exciting before I entered the bar, but it turn out to be nothing much to shout about. Yeah the blonde models did strip totally bare, but some how I wasnt impressed. They not hot, so my glasses didnt craked. Hanged aroud the bar for 4 rounds of shows befre we left for some supper before heading home.

Followed to my uncle to the resevior today. Its called the Glenmore Lake. The water there is really, i mean really clear! I bet if this is like over in our country, I'd probably see floating pieces of rubbish here and there on the murky water. The lake is a lttle frozen. But not safe to walk on it. How do you tell how thick the ice is? Find a big piece of rock by the lake side and throw onto the ice. If the ice doesnt crack, find a bigger one. Heres some views

Frozen Up

Rock On Ice

Waiting For Time

End Of Day

Time Goes

Great Day

GrasslandCalgary City

2006-11-04T17:09:00.000+08:00

For the past 5 days, Ive still havent been travelling much. Only around the neighbourhood. So yesterday i vowed to explore a little furthur despite the cold. Not too sure where i should go, I googled earth-ed the area and spotted what seemed like a park nearby, whcich is about 1km away. It looked like pretty place to check out so off i went after lunch. Weather that day wasnt that peasant though, skies arent clear and the temperature is still below zero.

Came across a drive tru McD along the way so decided to check out what they have here..a McPork perhaps? Their menu here is pretty different that what i can get back home. Plenty variety of McPork to go around but the pork slices are very thin! Probably because its just a breakfast set. Was expecting the burger to be a a lot bigger than those at home. Tunrs out that its just the same size. What a disappointment!

Continued my walk to the park. It actually aint that far, just that the cold makes it feel far. the parks a pretty wide open area for people to jog around. It has a nice view from the top of the hill. Plenty of places to take pictures too! Took me quite a while just to cover a small area. My uncle had to go there searching for me as the weather was getting worse. I probably was to busy shooting around that I didnt realsie the temperature dropping. Well, it was nice though.

Had panned to go there again today, but woke up late. Thought of going there in the afternoon but my uncle had plans for me, helping him going around in his van delivering yellow pages. Turns out I didnt manage to go out exploring today. Later, another ucle of mine dropped by and brought me over to his place. Followed my cousin out to the city and have a taste of the night life there. We actually went clubbing and she and her friend tried to get me hooked up with a girl. they didnt manage to find one though. Tunred out to be them being hooked up by others. Clubing here is more or less siilar to clubbing at home. Nothing different really.

2006-11-02T10:31:00.000+08:00

My canadian experience.

So how's it like over there U ask. I can only reply in a word. COLD! Thats probably also that Im too cold to reply anything more than that! Its so friggin cold here, u'd freeze instantly the moment you step outside the house without winter clothing. Now even with me having the think jackets on, it still doesnt help. My face froze in just minutes, my hands, even with gloves on, also freezes. In a matter of half an hour or so with windchill, my feet turned cold, my mouth and hands felt numb. OPen your mouth and breathe for a few minutes, ur teeth starts to ache. Thats how cold it is here. During the day time, the temperature may be around -4'c. Night time, the temperature may drop till -18'c. So for those of you who easily get cold and plan to come over, make sure u get tons of warm clothing!

Hows the snow like some may ask. Well, at first, its very exicting to be feeling something that u never felt before. Its like the ice you find on the ABC or ais kacang, but much lighter than that. Almost like sand. How does it taste like? Hmm..well,tasteless, but I ceratinly didnt take a mouthfull of it!

Now even with this bitter coldness here, it still cant stop me from whatever I enjoy doing. Taking Pics! Thts the very first thing I did on the very first morning I woke up, suiting up and jumping right out to the backyard shooting away. Of course I couldnt stay outside very long. Only for 2 hours before I had to head back into the house t get some warmth. But sometimes, even being in the house, I'd still feel cold.

Still havet travelled much. For the past few days , Ive only travelled around a two block radius. Thats not very much really. Intend to find my own way to the city once the weather gets warmer. Im more eager to go to some park where everything is more natural. Weather forcast for tmr says the temperature may drop lower, and there'sa possibility of snow. Lets sit and wait.

Heres some of what I took over here for the past 2 days.

Freezing
here

Who wants a Snowball?!

At
The Park

Still At The Park

Note: Finally got my luggage back last night 11.30pm!

2006-10-31T12:26:00.000+08:00

Finally reached Canada! With a total of 18hrs of flight! killer!

The begining:So my journey started on late night of 29th Oct from the Kuching International airport. Reached the airport early thinking that I could check in early to get a nice seat. Thigns didnt go as planned, as the usual AirAsia is delayed. Had to wait for an extra hour for the damn plane to arrive. The delay cause the plane to reach the LCCT terminal late whch results me having taking the midnight taxi to KLIA, whch of course is twice the usual fare for day rides. Screw AirAsia. I wonder if they are collaborating with the taxi companies to gain extra.

KLIA: Tried to get some sleep whch is next to impossible, with people coming in and out and around KLIA. PLus, its rather chilly there at night. Ended up with only 2 hrs of sleep and the rest of the time tossing around. Bah! Checked in at 7 and went strolling around till 9.30 for my flight off to Hong Kong. Flight was uneventful but comfy.

Hong Kong: Had to rush to transit my flight to Canada. Blardi hell, I got rushed for nothing, cuz when I reached the check in counter, I was told the flight got delayed for an hour and half. Buggers! And for this delay, my luggage has to be relableld for collection in Canada. Wandered around the airport while trying to find the gate to my flight off to the other end of the world which leaves at 3.45pm.

Trans pacific flight: Oh God! This has got to be one of my bad memories of flying! Hahaha! A total stretch of 13 hours across the Pacific Ocean. With a full flight and limited entertainment, it would surely take someone with mental stamina to bear with all this. Wanted to get a window seat earlier to take midair sunset and sunrise shots, but as mention, flight was full.Couldnt sleep much, or should i say at all! Flight attendants for Air Canada aint too good too. They can actually skip a person while sending out meals and telling people to throw the rubbish off in the galley themselves! Bad service! Thumbs down for Air Canada. Had to readjust the time upon nearing Canada. Great! my Biological clocks now totally screwed up.

Canada 'Vancouver': Brrr! Its chilly out here. Times 12.45pm 30th Oct. Its 3.45am in Malaysia. Hey I shuld be sleeping right now. Screwed up biological clock. Once agn, I had to rush. Next flight at 1.35pm. Didnt make it for tht flight however. Why? Cuz...WHERE THE HELL IS MY LUGGAGE?!?! Blardi hell! It never apeared. Asked teh personnel there if my luggage may have been flown to calgary. They mentioned I would have to collect it there in Vancouver before transferring it to Calgary. Waited and waited. Never appeared. Tried to call home and my uncle i Calgary and tell about my misfortunate series of events but more misfortunate events occur. Not enough coins to call. Tried my credit card, didnt work either. Screw it. Filed a lost luggage report b4 taking another different flight off to Calgary. Wonder where my luggage is? Still in Hong Kong? In Kathmandu? Or Zimbabwe?

Canada 'Calgary': Finally reached my final stop. At last! No more flights! Already feeling rather annoyed, tired and hungry. Dun raelly cared about whatevers going on except reachign my final stop. Wondering if my uncle knws if i have arrived. Luckily he knw.
Thank goodness! At least Im getting somewhere now. Checked with the airport personnel abt my missing luggage again. Was told tht if they see it, they'll send it right to my unlces doorstep. LEft. Places here is really really cold! Temperature of -13'c! Could really freeze! I already missed a lot here. 1st, the red leaves of the maple trees. They're already gone. 2nd, the process of snowing. Sigh. Had a little tour around the countryside before settling down. Hopefully Ill get my luggage tmr.

*No pics this time agn! My cables and pic processing cd are in the luggage!

Empty Airport
in the Morning

Waiting for
mt flight

Take
Me Away

Rocky Mountains
canada

2006-10-28T20:12:00.000+08:00

Got another 24 more hours before I start off for my long journey. Trying to make the best out of whatever I can do under the tropical sun before getting into winter in a foreign land. Guess Im all set set! I certainly hope so. My family members have stuffed my luggage with all sorts of nonsense to be sent to my uncle residing over there. Nonsense like Maggi noodles, coffee powder and some local cakes. Really, of all things to bring.

Heard that my uncles Pc over in canada is currently broken down. Oh no! Looks like im gonna be kind of deperived frm internet conn over there. Sigh. Guess I wont be posting agn until the Pc over there gets set up.

Thts all for now, the future awaits!

2006-10-25T17:08:00.000+08:00

Jst confirmed my flight out of Kch. Some crazy 9.30pm flight to KLIA on the 29th. Expecting to reach there by 12am and I will have to sit my ass around the airport till the nxt morning's flight off to Hong Kong. I hate doing this. What on earth am I gonna be doing with so much time in between. Hope I could get some sleep.

Had a short chat with a friend over in Canada. I was told to expect temperatures ranging from 0'c to -30'c when i reach there! OMG! My balls are gonna freeze so cold, I think they'd shatter if I dropped'em! Wonder if u'd get instant icicles if u piss outside at such a temperature. =P

Sorry to disappoint picture hungry folks but lately I havent been taking much/any pics until at least when I reach Canada. Hopefully I could get internet connection over where Im staying too. Was informed by another friend that the camera can freeze easily out there in the cold. This is not good!

2006-10-23T22:10:00.000+08:00

Finally Ive managed to find time to meet up with some old friends over here in Kuching. Not many of them are around. Many either working or studying far away from home. So Im left with 4 thats still hanging around home. Well, its still better than none!

Went out for a yumcha session with the guys Mark and Ivan. Took us a while to actually find a place to yumcha, since most shops in Kch dont open till late night hours or early morning. Not very happening eh us kuching folks? Haha. Settled down at some cafe for some cocktail drink. Lychee vodka, tastes like crap! Eventually got hungry so had to go for another round of food hunting. Search high and low and settle down at yet another kopitiam where I can have my dose of the local kolo mee and the ikan bakar here. The ikan bakar here is nothing like what u find over in Kl. RM13 worth of ikan bakar can actually fill you up, compared to those u find in Kl, where u'll probably find yourself scrapping for more meat of the ikan bakar. =P But on the downside, u dont get things like Chillis or TGIFs or Hard Rock cafe here in Kuching.

Woke up this morning with a bad case of indigestion, probably of last nights hearty meal. Diarrhoea the whole morning. Luckily it didnt last that long cuz I have to go off meet the gals Cynthia and Patricia to deliver their 'pre-ordered' goods, Chocolate from KLIA. These gals are really making full use of me!

This is
Patricia

Me and
Cynthia

Cyn
and Pat

Cyn's Rug Dog,
Baby

Its great to meet up once in a while and talk abt old memories and update each other of whats going on, what happened to who and whos changed. Makes me wonder how much Ive changed compared to five years ago before leaving for studies in Kl.

2006-10-22T18:28:00.000+08:00

Tensed
With 8 more days left for me to hang around, Im getting more tensed up as I dont feel very prepared. What have I not done? What am I missing? I guess Ill only find out during the very last minute or when Im already there in Canada. The on-going holidays here in conjuction with the DeepaRaya celebrations aint helping either. Banks are closed so I will have to wait till the 26th before I can settle some transactions. Plus, I still havent determined the dates for flight route A. Shall I go there early on the 27th? (Thats the cheapest flight ticket available till the 29th) Or shall I fly on the 29th itself? No point going to KL tht early with the rest either working or busy with exams. And I still havent prepared all my things to be brought over. Never knew going over to the other end of the world can be such a hassle. Haih

2006-10-21T22:49:00.000+08:00

Ah! Finally got a more or less confirmed plan for my flight to Canada. Its gonna be a travel through time as I will be flying against the time. which means I will be gaining an extra day once I reach Canada. Counted the distance I will be travelling from KLIA to Calgary to and fro. Total distance = 16790 miles to add to my journey of a million miles! =P Heres the rough plan so far.

Date	From	To	Departure	Arrival	Flight time	Total Miles
28/10/06	Kuching	KLIA	9.20	11.00	1.40	???
30/10/06	KLIA	Hong Kong	9.15	12.55	3.40	1586
30/10/06*	Hong Kong*	Vancounver*	14.15*	9.55*	5.00++?*	6382*
30/10/06	Vancouver	Calgary	12.00	14.20	2.20	427
08/02/07**	Calgary**	Vancouver**	11.00**	11.28**	0.28**	427**
08/02/07	Vancouver	Hong Kong	12.45	19.00 (09/02/07)	5.00++?	6382
10/02/07	Hong Kong	KLIA	9.15	12.55	3.40	1586
13/02/07	KLIA	Kuching	17.00	18.45	1.45	????

*Thats where I will be travelling backwards in time.
** What the Hell? 28 minutes of flight?? Must be the the Earths rotation doing.
Note: Flight to and fro for route A has not been confirmed yet. Flight plans for routes B and C has been.

2006-10-20T23:09:00.000+08:00

Looking back at the past 3 weeks of events before leaving KL, it has been very happening. Never have I been called out/booked for so many lunch/dinner gatherings/dates. These are great days. In fact other days are equally great too! Heres some memories of the past few events.

TGIF With Mei Yee, Kavi, ET & Ley Hian	Ley Hian, Eng Tat, Me, Kavi	A whole bunch of us at Talipon steamboat buffet
Bowling with Khai Ming, Sze Chen & Chai Har	Shogun with Peggy & Shing Wei	TGIF with Sze Chen

2006-10-19T18:44:00.000+08:00

Its hardly been 24 hours, Im already missing the life at KL. Not that the life in kuchig here is that bad, jst that there are more events over there in KL with more friends over there. Over here, most of the fellas i hang out with are either still studying over seas, working overseas or busy. In short, life being back here is literally dead. Got 2 weeks here before leaving for Canada, so shouldnt be that bad.

Wonder what i shall do with the future plans over there in Canada. Should i return to work for another extra 6 months in campus? Or will i enjoy it so much over there, earning big bucks in Canada that i wont feel like returning. I'll only find out in 3 months time.

Already missing those guys over there in KL. Thanks a bunch for all ur support and help! U guys are great!

2006-10-16T21:52:00.000+08:00

It is Finally DONE!!
This terribly simple layout for this blog is done!
Kinda satisfied wth it judging by the amount of time I spent and the tremendous mental touture I went through
1. Browsing tons of HTML and CSS codes
2. Modifying Pics jst to suit this page
3. Survinging on a terrible slow connection jst to upload pictures, checking out other blogs, and previwing mine at the same time while constrcuting it.
End of the day, this is enough! I NEED a BREAK!

2006-10-16T02:33:00.000+08:00

damn

Kau

hard

TO

Set

Up

THIS DAmn

BLOG!

2006-10-15T20:17:00.000+08:00

So THERE!