My First Musical Instrument

Yesterday, I played my first 'quarter song' with a guitar!!!

When I was younger, I never thought I'd live to see this day when I actually would play a musical instrument. I looked at all the chords and hand movements and thought that I would never be able to do it... *sniff sniff*

Oh well, it's not much, but what I have learned to play (although quite roughly) is...

"Give me oil in my lamp
Keep me burning burning burning
Give me oil in my lamp I pray
Give me oil in my lamp
Keep me burning burning burning
Keep me burning 'til the break of day"

I'm still not very good at switching from the 'C chord' to the 'G chord' yet, that's why it's rough... but I still love the music it makes.

Oh yes... and then there are the issue about the fingers...

Please take note that these words are written with bruised left finger tips. This is because of holding down the different chords. They are now harder than my right hand's fingers and have turned slightly black. They also are considerably more red.

Perhaps, months or maybe even years from now, I shall look upon this blog post and say "Oh, what a novice I was back then...", just as my brother looks back upon his old artworks.

Alright, have a good week people! And maybe in the future, I shall post about more landmarks in my experiences. As for now, I shall remember... the 16th of November 2009.

Selangor 7's 21st Anniversary!

On the 27th of September 2009, the Selangor 7 Royal Rangers Outpost celebrated their 21st anniversary...

The Anniversary started off with a big 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!' shout from the rangers and commanders.

Then Commander Terence shared about all his experiences with Rangers and how God has been so good to him all these years. After the sharing, he showed us a slide show of this year's event pictures (including the Camporama).

After the slide show came the SKITS!!!

First the Ranger Kids did a skit about the creation story. Lots of costumes, very colourful.

Second the Discovery Rangers did a skit about their compass camp that happened this year.

Third the Adventure Girls did a dance (with Techno music... wasn't expecting that). It was good.

Fourth... the Adventure Boys did their skit. Almost every 10 seconds, the audience would laugh
at us making a fool out of ourselves. Oh well, the Adventure Boys do this kind of skit all the time.

Fifth was the skit made by the Expedition Rangers. It had the most effects and preparation. Flashing lights and all made the skit really dramatic, along with Chris and my brother's 'narrating accents'. It told the story of Samson and Delilah. Short, but very interesting.

Next was the giving and receiving of merits. Ahh, took a lot of work to achieve them, yes sir...

However, before it started, a girl came around passing out party stuff (like whistles and some other noisemakers). These came in handy...

Whenever a person came up to receive his/her merits, the Adventure Boys would blow their whistles as loud as they could (regardless of whether we knew them or not). We comprised of a big percentage of the noise made. And we blared even louder for the people we knew well.

After that, the results for the Adventure Rangers Bible Quiz came out. The girls won...

However for the individual prizes, Ann got third, Sarah got second and... Kok Leong got first!!! Whoo! His prize was RM150 of Canaanland vouchers.

Then... it was time for the Best Ranger results. First they announced the Adventure Ranger Results.

"And the first runner up is... ACKER KWAN!"

Acker walked gloomily to the stage. He wanted to win, and that was it. If he didn't get first, a certain Sarah Chin had a really high chance to. And no girl had gotten first in Best Rangers for a long, long time... Oh well, he got a nice hiking bag...

"And the winner is... SARAH CHIN!"

Sarah jumped up and claimed her shield, along with her prize (good quality camping equipment).

Then they announced the Expedition Rangers winners.

"And the first runner up is... KEDRIC KWAN!"

Kedric came up to redeem his prize.

"And the winner is... LIM WEE YEN!"

Oh well, it was expected. Wee Yen ran to the stage amongst much cheering.

After all the hype, there was a short word by Pastor Simon and then there was the cake cutting.

"Now for the best part of the anniversary!" - Cmdr Debbie
"Yeah! What's a birthday without a Caaaaake!" - Cmdr Rachel

However, the most exciting part of the anniversary (for me) had passed... the best ranger and bible quiz results had already been announced...

It was a good anniversary. I got to know the rangers better and I got my SMA (Silver Medal of Achievement). I thank God that the skit went well (even though we only had about 3 hours of practice). Have a good week!

Preparing for COA (Skit)

This afternoon, I went for Royal Rangers where we practiced the skit we are going to present at the COA (Council of Achievement). We sort of had a meeting yesterday... more like a chat about handphones though, but we DID do something about the skit. Like decide on the topic and a few humorous parts and... and that's about it...

However, today, we had a much more fruitful time. I got myself landed with the job of both narrator (of half of the skit) AND actor... Haha...

We also did watch a few of the other groups do their presentation.

After watching the Expedition Ranger's skit (which has proper light and sound effects), Acker lost all pride and cried out in frustration. Oh well, Commander Wei Sern said that our skit was a 'joke skit' (not BAD, just a different category)...

Alright, that's it for today, have a good week!

Best Ranger Competition

This competition on the 15th August 2009 was tough, stressful and tiring for 3 Adventure Girls, 3 Adventure Boys (including me) and 3 Expedition Rangers. The commanders looked at us sternly, treated us harshly and showed us no mercy. We weren't even allowed to talk to the other rangers throughout the testing. We were on our own for one day...

We met up at Grace Assembly at 7.00 am and left for the campsite where the tests were to be conducted.

We were tested on the following skills:

Firecraft (Cooking your own 'maggi mee' lunch with wood and matches)
Ropecraft (Demonstrate useful knots like the bowline, clove hitch etc.)
Toolcraft (Properly pass a penknife and hand axe, sharpen a penknife and handaxe)
First Aid (Demonstrate proper first aid on a victim (a commander acted as the victim))
Compass (Use a compass to locate things and complete answers on a sheet of paper)
Lashing (Tying sticks together with raffia string to make a signboard which must be sturdy)

I think I did quite well overall...
But I did pretty bad at Compass...

We also had to go through an interview.

The interviewers were Commander Terence and 4 Councilmen; 2 on each side of him. They asked me questions about Christian Service, what I do for my church, my views on politics etc.

I think I did well for my interview. I managed to answer most of the questions they asked me. I said a lot of "Yes sir"s too.

We did a lot of running here and there to collect firewood and get to the different stations for the different tests. I had to do lashing in the miniscule free time that I had which ended my testing.

After dismissal, we returned to Grace Assembly where the boys helped keep some things back in the store room. I then followed Acker and Kedric back to their house. I took a refreshing shower there and then watched Acker play a computer game called 'Sudden Attack'. Something like Counter-Strike. Then, at 7.50 pm, Commander Nat came to pick us up for dinner in a restaurant, Magic Wok.

We had a delicious dinner. Of course, as is the Rangers' 'tradition', the Commanders shared some jokes about the Ranger's flunks during the Competition. I thought one of the funniest was that when James was asked what 'Rapture' is during his interview, he shouted, 'Praise God! I love Rapture!' thinking that Rapture means the casting out of demons.

After dinner, my mum came to pick me up and I went home.

I have learned a lot from this experience. I learned greater independence, coping by myself. Although I studied quite a lot, I still made some flunks. But... oh well, this first time will train me for next year as I now have a better idea on how to prepare for the Competition... if I am chosen again...

On a more humourous note, at the Campsite, there were about 100 other Campers who were so noisy. They were singing songs that I couldn't understand. Their songs were so repetitive that the tension of the Competition was lessened.

Praise the Lord I made it through.

A Not So Ordinary Day In Royal Rangers

Last Sunday, after Sunday Service and Sunday School, I attended Royal Rangers, as usual...

There was a parade, announcements, role calls and a uniform inspection before we dispersed to our respective Outposts.

In my Outpost, the Adventure Boys had the traditional IQ Challenge. We played 'Aunt Mary died last night, did she die?'. We had to observe keenly to discover a pattern or code to decide whether she died or not. The winner gets a 1.5 litre bottle of soft drink. Nobody figured it out.

We did some Ropecraft and had Devotion.

Then, it was games which we always look forward to. This is where the 'Not So' in my post title begins...

We were playing softball... I was pitching to Joshua and Kok Leong was the catcher when some things went awry, very, very awry...

After Joshua hit the ball, he let go the bat... The ball came straight at me. I caught it. Then, I noticed that Joshua wasn't running...

'It's bleeding!' someone exclaimed.

Kok Leong was on the ground saying, 'There's blood! There's blood!'

At first I thought he was semi-joking, but it really freaked me out to see his hands covered in blood. The blood was dripping, forming a small puddle of red liquid.

The commander rushed to Kok Leong, assured him that he was going to be fine, then took him into to the church building where they applied first aid on him.

I asked Joshua what had happened. He suspected that after he swung his bat, had let it go and the bat had hit Kok Leong in the forehead.

After that, everything was fine; it was a small cut. His father took him home. He said he was fine. That was good.

I have never seen so much human blood in one spot before. It was really freaky when I saw his blood stained hands. I just thank God that the bat didn't hit his eye which would have caused more severe injuries...

Cameron Highlands Day 4

I know, I know. It's been 21 days since the 'Cameron Highlands Day 3' post. There seems to be a lot happening recently. Schoolwork, Royal Rangers Merits, Royal Rangers 'Best Ranger' Competition, Royal Rangers Bible Quizzes...

Yep, a lot of Royal Rangers stuff...

Anyway, moving on to the real post...

On Day 4, we woke up, checked out of our lovely apartment and had brunch in Tanah Rata. Then, my mum picked up a dozen scones from T Cafe. She even bought a box of scone mixture so that we can have oven baked fresh scones at home.

After that, we drove home... home... home... HOME...

On the way downhill, my brother and I played some card games. My brother started to feel dizzy. Strangely, I've never got dizzy or carsick. Or maybe I have, mildly, but just didn't notice it...

At Ringlet, we stopped by the lake. It was good to leave the car, inhale fresh air, feel the cool air and enjoy the view.

The serene, calm lake.

A young tree thriving by the side of the lake.

While walking on a boardway by the lake, I found an especially windy spot. I spread out my arms and felt the gale brush against my face. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted my brother running at me with his hands in a position set to 'whomp' me in my belly. However, he had started his run from the other end of the boardway. So, when he reached me, he was too tired to fight properly, hehehehe. He still put up quite a good show however...

After the little tiff, we got into another little quarrel when my brother blamed me for my mum behind-the-scenely buying more vegetables from a shop by the lake... which were loaded onto the already overcrowded back seats of the car where my grandma, brother and I sat...

At the foothills of Cameron Highlands, in Tapah, my dad showed the family the SUFES Campsite where my father & I had been a few months ago for a Father & Son Camp. From there, we continued our journey till we reached home sweet home.

This picture concludes all my four posts of my Camerons trip...

It was taken while I was in the car, on the way to Camerons...

I love this shot.

Cameron Highlands Day 3

I woke up, washed up and then... stayed in bed until my mother and grandmother came back.

Once again they came back with stories about this farmer and about how they got to pull out carrots from the ground etc. etc. etc.

We left for a nice noodle shop to have breakfast. I had a plate of 'Wan Ton Mee' and a cup of 'Milo Ais'.

After the hearty breakfast, we set off for the ever famous Boh Tea Plantation!

My brother, Guama and my mother.

We visited the Restaurant (but I will call it the Glasshouse, which sounds so much better) in the Tea Plantation to let my grandma read and relax there. The rest of my family were going to the 'Mossy Forest'.

We drove to the Mossy Forest. Up, higher and higher we went; it almost seemed like the road had no end... (but it WAS fun winding down the window and sticking my head out). Finally we reached a rest spot where we got out for a while. It was very misty with visibility of about 15 metres. Then, we drove up to the peak of Gunung Brinchang.

There we climbed up a high tower of about 10 metres where we had a very good view of the whole of Camerons. It was also numbingly cold.

Trees shrouded in mist...

However, from there on, my camera ran out of 'juice'; so there won't be pictures until I have charged it. I despise these hiccups...

About 1/2 hour later, my dad drove down the road whereas my mother, brother and I couldn't resist jogging down in the cool air. After a short while, my brother noticed something.

'Stop, I think I've found the trail!' he exclaimed.

It WAS the Mossy Forest trail which we had been searching for. No signboard pointing towards the path whatsoever; just a plain old brown path covered in dried leaves going uphill. Only when my mum and I went to check it out did we find an old, raggedy, white flag marking the start... of the trail.

My dad then parked the car by the side of the road. He started taking pictures while the three other Tans set off to explore the Mossy Forest. We spotted many interesting things like red pitcher plants, WHITE pitcher plants, and tons and tons of moss. Every tree was enveloped by moss. In reflection, this hike was the best part of the trip, for me.

Part of the Mossy Forest

We soon came to the end of the short trail (I can run from the start to the end in about 10 minutes), but the whole trail was beautiful. One of the best trails I have been to.

We headed back to the Glasshouse, had a delicious tea and returned to our apartment to rest.

There... I CHARGED MY CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, moving on... to dinner.

My mum and grandma had a healthy and hearty meal in the same steamboat restaurant (read all about it in 'Cameron Highlands Day 1') while the guys had a delicious meal at KFC nearby!

After dinner we visited the same pasar malam, bought some more kuih kak and went back to the apartment.

Back in the apartment, the guys played more card games before having a good night's rest.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for God is with me.

The next post will be about the 4th (and final) day of my family's trip to Camerons.
Have a good week!

Cameron Highland Day 2

I woke up very late, around 10.00 a.m. or so. After I brushed my teeth, I went out to the balcony to get some fresh air (sounds so country-like eh?) until my mother and grandmother returned.

They enthusiastically shared their stories about how they woke up sooo early, went for a refreshing walk, visited a farmer's house, plucked vegetables which have no pesticides and so on and so forth.

When everybody was ready, we left for brunch at an Indian shop in Brinchang. I had the usual egg bread (roti telur), fried chicken etc. The food was good, except that there were some very stubborn flies which kept trying to attack our food. One even successfully landed on my plate of fried chicken...

After the meal, my family walked to the end of the road with a huge signboard that said:

ORCHID

thinking we would find a variety of delightful orchids. As we got closer and closer, the words in fine print said - Food Court

And so we headed back to our car for our next destination... The Rose Garden!

Pink Rose!

A Bunch of Pink Roses?

Bird of Paradise Flower. "Bite his leg, bird, bite!"

Count the flowers!

The Rose Garden was very windy, cool, and refreshing. There were hundreds of different species of flowers. My family and I had a good time there. I enjoyed taking photos.

After that , we visited a new attraction, a certain Strawberry View which sounded promising as it has 'over 20,000 strawberry plants' and a fancy 'European styled restaurant'. At first, only my mother was taken in by the place. However, after my brother heard about the desserts, he leaned towards going too (It comes as a real surprise to me how he can stay so skinny...). And so we went.

After the long ride of about 1/2 hour, the place turned out to be a disappointment.

A section of the 20,000 strawberry plants...

Also, the desserts were overpriced; so we didn't buy any. *Sigh*

We went back to the apartment to relax and rest.

We had dinner at Strawberry View near the hotel. While waiting for my food, a moth zinged my ear (it used its wings to make a 'zinging' sound and irritate the inside of my ear flap). The food they displayed in their menus looked appetising. What wasn't nice were the things that weren't in the menu...

Before I took a bite of my food, I found a small bug crawling on my coleslaw. I quickly removed it. Then it got worse... after I had stabbed a french fry with my fork, I noticed a tiny moth which was still fluttering under it... I wonder what would have happened if the moth had been stuck to the bottom of the chip and I had eaten it? I don't want to think about it.

After those incidents, I slowly and reluctantly ate my food with great caution, and then went out of the restaurant to get some fresh air (without any stupid moths).

Then we vistied the PASAR MALAM, again.

This time, my brother bought two necklaces for RM4 each and my dad bought some delicious fried carrot cake (kuih kak).

Back in the apartment, we ate the kuih kak and played some card games before we went to sleep.

National Service

My brother is 17 and he was not chosen for it... *Smiles*

Cameron Highlands Day 1

*Whoosh*

A breeze of refreshingly cool air brushed against my face as I stepped out of my dad's car. Hotel Equatorial was in front of me. All around were apartments belonging to the hotel. My family and my grandma would be staying in one of the 2 bedroom apartments.

My dad checked in at the reception counter and then we drove to our apartment to unload our luggage.

While carrying the bags up, my brother attempted to be 'macho' and took 3 huge bags at once. However, as strong as any teenager is, it probably is very painful and thus, my brother dropped a bag. FAIL

Ahem... Moving on...

We checked out our apartment and found that it was nice, comfortable and huge. Large wardrobes, attached bathrooms and living room. I would say that my family was reasonably satisfied. A hotel brochure in our apartment said, "...We're one of the highest hotels in Cameron Highlands and therefore naturally, the coolest." Yeeeaurgh!

We decided who would sleep where, and then left for... the famous T-Cafe (in Tanah Rata)!

My Hot Cocoa

Chicken Pie, half eaten

And saving best for last...

Scone!

Alright, enough pictures! Well, to tell you the truth, I don't think any of the food was especially nice nor even reasonably priced, but we basically wanted to try the scones, and they were good, the best! (My mom even packed back a dozen to Subang Jaya.)

After tea, we went to the nearby park. It wasn't too good, very muddy. We then headed for the ... Pasar Malam!

To tell you the truth, I've never been in a pasar malam before. It was quite noisy, just as I expected. All sorts of things were for sale. Interestingly, some stalls did not have fixed prices for their goods. At one stall, I saw a Rubix cube selling for RM4, and at a nearby stall, I saw the exact same Rubix cube selling for RM1.50.

After the shopping, my family and I returned to our apartment, relaxed for a while, and then went for steamboat dinner. Wow, letting the steam flow through your hands in cool Camerons felt good. The dinner cost RM12 per person and you can ask them to top up whatever you want (except the meats) for FREE!

After the satisfying dinner, we went back to the apartment. When I got out of the car, I noticed there were a lot of stars in the sky. We were quite mesmerised.

When we entered our apartment, we headed for the balcony ...

This is the balcony in the daytime.
Even the balcony is big!

to stargaze. We brought out some chairs and blankets, made ourselves snug and looked for some constellations. The Big Dipper, Scorpio and Libra were all before me swarmed by vast numbers of unnamed stars. It felt pretty cool... ehem, no pun intended.

After about almost an hour, we went back in to wash up and sleep.

COMING SOON: CAMERON HIGHLANDS DAY 2

IY Sleepover

29th of May 2009

This sleepover in my church, PJEFC was organised by the Impact Youth (IY).

I arrived at 8.30 p.m. and proceeded to put my bags in a room for the guys. While waiting for the official programme to begin, I chatted with some of my friends until 9.00 p.m.
There were about 20 youths and 10 university students. We played a few games to 'familiarise' the youths with the university students.
When we were playing the second last game in the Concourse, there was a blackout...

One of the nearby rooms was still lighted and we all entered it. There, some team leaders said that some people were missing. Suddenly, a freaky face was projected onto a wall followed by weird mutterings that we could hardly make out. Observing that all of us didn't get it, the facilitators of the game told us that we had to 'find the warden' to save our missing friends.

For this treasure hunt to find our missing friends, we could only use torch lights/phone lights to light our path – to find the clues which would lead us to our friends. The freakiest part of the hunt was just when we entered the Main Sanctuary...

'Hehehahaha... *Sobbing Sounds*... Hehehahaha... *Sobbing Sounds*... which went on for a while throughout our search in the Sanctuary.

Gah! I was scared at first. But after a while, the sounds got kind of repetitive. Some people said that the sounds were those of a ‘witch’ in ‘Left for Dead’ (a computer game).

After we found all the clues, we were led to the hostages (ehem, I mean, we found them playing Xbox in an air-conditioned room). There was the prize giving ceremony for the winners.
Then we played... Frisbee! At 11.30 p.m. Wow, some of the university students were real pros, but everyone encouraged each other and we all had a good time.

After that, we watched a movie, Mall Cop which was a bit slapstick, but included some good family elements.

After the show, some of the guys (including me) and 2 girls adjourned to one of the rooms to play cho tai tee, talk and play phone games.

I finally slept at 5.30 a.m. and woke up at 6.30 a.m.

After some more talk followed by breakfast, we left church and headed home.

This wasn't a spiritual sleepover; it's main purpose was to help the IY people get to know the university students. I had a fun time there and phew, 1 hour of sleep... that's a new record...

It Is Finished...

Yes, my sleepover, my Camerons trip and my camp are all OVER. And instead of getting more sleep during the school holidays, I think I got less.

Posts will be coming up soon, just returned from camp yesterday evening and was using the pleasures of home rather that the average camp facilities (like the toilets). It's school again and hope ya'll have enjoyed a good holiday.

I better get a good sleep tonight, or I might be a bit drowsy when I resume my studies tomorrow.

Revamped...

There is a boy. 13 of age, full of energy and in search of adventure. He also writes a blog.

One day, as he was scrolling through his blog, looking at the posts he had made, he remarked to himself, 'You know, there are so many more fanciful blogs than mine, why don't I liven up my blog?'

And so he set to work; he loves photography and he has a decent camera; so he added his favourite photos into his blog. He also did a few other things to make his blog brighter and more interesting.

I'm talking about me, I think y'all would have realised that by now... right?

But my blog's background continues to be black. I've been thinking about changing the colour of my blog background, but the same thought always comes back to me - with a black background, the more important things would stand out...

Enjoy! =D

Happy Belated Teacher's Day

3 days ago... it was Teacher's Day.
2 days ago... I found out that a day ago, it was Teacher's Day.

Dear Diary - 17/5/09

Today, I woke up and went to church. I listened to the sermon and then, instead of helping the Children's Sunday School (I am off duty this month), I attended the Teen's Sunday School. There we learned how to manage our money in a godly way.

After class was over, I went back to the Std 1 classroom (the Sunday School class that I help) where I received a few gifts:

A card and a fridge magnet;

A cookie from Famous Amos;

A rose from the Children's Ministry leaders. (Every teacher/helper got one).

The gift of knowledge that Teacher's Day exists.

Kind of weird though, that I'd never took special note of this Day. Oh well, the fridge magnet is now stuck on the fridge (it doesn't get any more creative). I gave the rose to my mom for being my homeschool teacher. I shared the Famous Amos cookie with my brother and I kept the knowledge with myself.

Signing off, dear Diary.

Kevin.

Happy Belated Teacher's Day to any teacher reading this post!

Water Baptism

Yesterday, I got baptised in PJEFC, my church. (I had attended baptism classes on the 17th and 18th of April.)

In church, my family sat in the front seats (something unsual for the Tan family) along with the other baptism candidates.

My mother and my brother were also baptised. Besides that, 6 out of the 10 candidates were from my Cell Group. I found out that 2 'seniors' from my Cell Group were baptised as infants but not confirmed when they were adults. Therefore, their late baptism . One of them is my mum.

When the Sunday Service ended, all the candidates made our way to the back part of the stage in the church hall. Since I was the first one to be baptised, I stood in front, shaking anxiously.

The first baptism candidate is... Kevin Tan Mingyao...

I walked down the steps into the baptismal pool. The water was slightly heated, which felt good. I got to the middle of the baptismal pool. The officiating minister's assistant held my left arm lightly. Then the minister put his arm on my shoulder. But I wasn't to be submerged yet... there is a certain ritual that I believe all churches practise of asking whether you have repented of your sins, and so on and so forth. I was nervous, but it didn't get better. The officiating minister just had to forget his lines...

I now quote the officiating minister.

'Kevin Tan' *Looks at the mike nervously*
'Kevin' *pauses*
'Kevin Tan Mingyao'
'Uhh...' *Chuckles nervously*
'Kevin, do you repent of your sins...'

And it went well from then on... Phew.

After I was baptised, I waited around watching the other members of my Cell Group get baptised. I was freezing cold, but nonetheless, I had to watch their baptism...

After my baptism, I took a quick rinse, changed and was prayed for by a church leader to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

I shall not forget my baptism. The flunks just made it even more memorable.

Still 'alive'. Pastor momentarily forgets his lines...


Into my 'grave'...


And 'resurrected' with Jesus Christ!

The Kayaking Expedition

9.00 am, 4th of April 2009. Approximately 30 adventurers travelled from their meeting point, Grace Assembly, to a place named... Port Dickson Sanctuary Camp.

These people were to use primitive materials such as oars, little orange life jackets, and funny looking boats called kayaks to transport themselves roughly 10 km from their campsite to a deserted island with a few trees and corals scattered along the beach. These people called themselves... the Royal Rangers.

I was one of them...

We did some chores before we left for the PDS campsite. A few boys and I carried boxes containing bottles of mineral water from the basement to load onto the vehicles. It was tiring, but necessary for survival on the island.

I travelled in Commander Wei Sern's car together with Josh, Acker and Daniel. After travelling for about 10 minutes, we stopped at a petrol station where I bought 'Gatorade', some kind of energy drink, for the first time.

Commander Wei Sern has the GPS programme on his phone that Josh loved to play with on the journey. The programme shows you where you are on the map and if you select a designated location, it will calculate how many km away you are and by taking into consideration your speed, it will also show roughly how many minutes it will take to reach. Nice...

The talk along the journey changed like wildfire. From how Commander Wei Sern had a very strange teacher who told them that the sun revolved around the earth, to Acker talking about how he and his brother used to stick chewing gum on their hair and acted like ‘Venom’ and they had to cut their hair to get rid of the gum, to our expectations of the kayaking trip. We also played ‘hangman’ on Commander Wei Sern’s phone.

Lunch was at a decent 'mamak' stall. We ate a lot because it was only 10.30 a.m. and our next meal was going to be at around 7 p.m. We first had a roti canai each. After that we had second helpings. When we wanted some more, the shop had 'run out of dough' and we had to order fried rice. Must have been a strange windfall for the shop owners. Oh, I almost forgot, Acker tortured and killed a fly by dripping curry on it. However, Josh seems very against killing any living organism and stopped Acker from his murderous rampage.

After lunch, we reached PD in quite a short amount of time.

In PD, we changed, loaded some stuff into a van, and headed for the beach for our kayaking. We were assigned a kayaking partner, had a briefing, put on our life jackets, grabbed an oar each, and set off.

At first, I chose a guy, Daniel to be my kayaking partner. I was reassigned to a junior girl which made my work more challenging.

The kayaking in the convoy was repetitive and tiring but actually quite fun. It was like driving a car on a mass of flat ground. You are doing the driving, not your parents; you cannot crash into any obstacle (ehem, except maybe other kayaks) and you can turn and move wherever you please (as long as you stay with the convoy).

About 3/4 way to the island where we rested, the kayak of my friends Jonah and Daniel capsized. Apparently too much water got into their kayak and they started sinking; after sinking to quite a low level, they called for help... and capsized. Tragic, but in the end they were saved by the patrol boat that accompanied our convoy.

We reached the island after paddling for roughly an hour and a half. It felt so good to wade in the water, even if it had a hint of green in it. We rested for about 20 minutes, and then set off again.

After about 30 minutes, we reached our destination - Pulau Pejudi (Gambling Island, don't ask me how it got that name). We rested in the soothing water for a while, and then did Community Service. Most of us set up tents, but Josh, Acker and I volunteered to start the cooking fire. This fire, let me assure you, lasted a very, very long time.

We gathered some rocks and corals which we arranged in a circle and put wood and coal on top. This was to make sure we didn't 'dirty the sand'. After that we started the fire.

Just before we started cooking, Acker saw a strange sight in the horizon. 'Oh no! Rain! And the wind is blowing this way!' he exclaimed. The commanders and rangers feverishly set to work cooking. Acker was being a pessimist and started lamenting that we wouldn't have any food. Meanwhile, Josh was praying that the rain would be diverted away. It didn't...

The winds picked up in strength and as we stood in the open, sand particles flew and pecked our legs. It was as if tiny needles were poking our legs. Later, we moved a kayak to block most of the sand. When the rain came, the commanders had an ingenious idea. We took a ground sheet and those who weren't cooking held up the sheet to protect the fire and most of the cooks. I helped to hold the ground sheet. I was freezing and my blistered hands (from kayaking) felt a biting sensation, one foot away from me, Commander Rosanne, one of the cooks, said that she was burning. This is a strange world we live in.

After cooking, the rain subsided. We ate the burger patties, fish balls and sausages with bread and some vegetables. It was delicious after the cold rain.

After we all ate, we laid out a ground sheet and watched the beautiful sunset. If only I had my camera then...

Soon, darkness filled the sky and all we had were torchlights and the cooking fire. We told some stories and cracked jokes sitting on the ground sheet. As usual, Josh, Acker and I took care of the fire. Occasionally one of us would get up and look around the beach for more wood to burn. This carried on until about midnight, when I dozed off in my sleeping bag, on the sand.

I woke up at around 2.30 a.m. and walked to the fire. Commander Peter was there, still taking care of the fire. I warmed myself, went back to my sleeping bag, and continued sleeping.

The next time I woke up was at about 6.00 a.m. I got up and since it was sooo freezing cold, I sat by the campfire once more.

After a while, we packed our bags, ate a breakfast of tuna sandwich, and put out the fire (yup, it lasted THAT long). Then we got into our kayaks and paddled back to the PDS Camp.

About 15 minutes away from shore, Commander Nat became quite hyper. 'Aaah! I'm so tired! Paddle faster! Paddle faster!' he screamed while frantically trying to go faster.

About 2 minutes away from shore, I started going a bit hyper as well. 'Left! Right! Left! Right!' I ordered myself while making big and fast movements with my oar. My kayak went at about 1.5x its normal speed, and upon reaching, I couldn't move the fingers on my left hand. I had to pry them open with my other fingers.

After calming down, I kept my kayak. We all bathed/changed, loaded our stuff and left the PDS campsite.

We stopped for lunch at a very nice Indian rice shop. Everybody kept on passing the meats that they couldn’t finish to me, Commander Wei Sern, Josh and Acker, seated at one table. Oh well, we didn't finish them anyway.

After lunch, we left for Grace. On the way, Commander Wei Sern lost his way and we were delayed an extra 20 minutes.

But the story doesn't end there; some of us brought home the tents. We are to wash and dry them and bring them back the next week. Pfff...

Kayaking is truly a very good experience and it trains your arms. I enjoyed the trip very much. I also got to know some of the rangers and commanders better. I thank God that I survived the strain, and that He led me through this.

Ascent to the Heavens

(Note: This detailed account of my Gunung Ledang hike was delayed because I was waiting for the photographs which just arrived.)

On the 7th of November 2008, at 6.00 p.m., I said goodbye to my dad as my mom fetched me to Grace Assembly, the meeting point of the camp.

This was to be no ordinary camp where we would have a few fun activities, stay for a night or so, and then leave. The highlight of the camp was a hike. A hike that would stretch our muscles to their limits, leave litres of perspiration behind, and possibly... injure ourselves.

I had trained for this hike by hiking the Gasing Hills 3 times with other rangers and commanders. We also jogged at Bukit Kiara together twice. Besides those training, I also hiked and jogged on my own for about 1 1/2 months. Those hard, leg taxing training were to prepare us for the challenge ahead.

Gunung Ledang was the mountain in which 7 boys and 4 men hiked. Its peak towers over the sea by 1276 meters. We had to hike a total of about 5.8 kilometres. 8-10 hours is the usual time it takes to make it to the mountain's peak and back. Madness, what would they expect of me?

The afternoon before I left for base camp, I felt I was not ready for the hike. I kind of got scared. Oh well, it doesn't matter now.

I reached Grace Assembly at about 7.00 p.m. We only left Grace at about 7.45 p.m. though; Jon and Josh arrived late.

We arrived at base camp about 2 hours later. We passed this rubber plantation before reaching. We registered, got our dorm keys etc. However, there is something about the Gunung Ledang National Park authority that I had not known before. It is very, very, very strict about cleanliness.

Before sleeping, all the boys and the commanders had to fill in a form stating everything that we were going to bring with us on our hike. This includes things like the amount of plastic bags, plastic bottles, energy bars, and even the clothing that we were going to wear. And what's the worst part? After our hike, they sat beside us and started checking. If we had anything missing, they could charge us up to RM100. Freaky...

My two 'chaletmates' and I slept, not peacefully for the first hour... One of them (let's not name names now, OK?) started hammering my stomach. His 'excuse' was that he couldn't sleep. I, on the other hand, was too sleepy to confront him. I believe he was going 'hyper'.

We woke up early the next day, went to the breakfast area to have a light breakfast of canned sardine, bread, and juice. Then we did our warm ups and stretches... And together, we took our first step of a thousand miles (5.8 km).

We first had to climb a 'stairway' of about 600+ steps. And what's worse? It was continually uphill. 10 minutes of stairs. Then we got to checkpoint 1, 'Bukit Semput'.My commander said that some people just climb up this stairway, look at the CP1 sign, turn around, and climb down. Weird people...

We hiked a bit more, this time, on soil. Not too hard however. Most of it was slightly uphill. Then we reached CP2, 'Lagenda Trail'. We decided to take a break there to drink water and stuff like that. Then we hiked on.

The trail became somewhat harder, but still not that challenging. My commander said that he loves uphill but hates downhill. Know why? When you are going uphill, you know that you are getting closer to your destination. When you are going downhill, you know that you are going to face more uphill in the future. Also, going downhill also has a bit of an impact on your feet. Then we reached CP3, 'Batu Orkid'. After that came the boulders.



As we progressed, we didn't see any orchids, but we sure saw boulders. Some were the size of 30 men put together! Not something you usually see by the side of the road huh? However, even those weren't big enough. Soon, we met a boulder that is perhaps 30 meters high. When I saw it, I was amazed. I wonder how much it weighs?

We skipped CP4 (a waterfall) because it is closed. Someone died there. So we took a shortcut to CP5. On arriving at CP5, I could feel the tension in my legs. I was literally shaking. Thankfully we took a break at this point.

After CP5 is KFC. Wow, KFC was sooo tiring. Puh, did you really think that there would be a fast food restaurant high up in a mountain? KFC up in that part of the mountain stands for Killing Fitness Centre. Whee... It seriously kills your stamina. Thank goodness I brought some energy bars with me. Constant uphill were the words I thought of during our tour through KFC. The steps we had to make were huge and sometimes we had to use our hands to give ourselves a boost up. But deep down in my heart, I was happy to know that the peak drew near...

The challenge wasn't over yet! We had to climb up one huge rock (about 2 storeys high!) with only the help of a rope! My hands felt quite painful after climbing this rock.

View from the foot of the big rock.

View from the top of the big rock. Cmdr Nat (left) and Josh Chin (right).

The beautiful scenery is at the back. Can't see clearly because of the camera lighting.

After that long and tiring part of the hike, we reached CP 6. Finally, the peak was only about an hour away! We hiked slightly uphill, which was a relief from KFC. We kept on walking until we reached a water source where we refilled our bottles. The water was quite yellow. The kind of shade you would find in green tea. But it tasted almost the same, so I drank it anyway *sigh*.

Then we started uphill again. The path from there to the peak wasn't that eventful. But there was one thing that I saw which was pretty unusual. 'Wow, clouds move very fast', I remarked to myself. Commander Terence said that when Elijah reaches the peak, he should shout, 'Barack Obama!'... for some reason.

I walked though the shrubbery for about half a minute and then, suddenly, when I stepped out of the greens, I was shocked. There was such a breathtaking scenery before my eyes. The air was cool and refreshing and we could see part of Melaka as well. I looked over the cliff and I assure you, it was quite a long way down.

Blue Shirts: Cmdr Terence (left), Jack (2nd left behind), Elijah (3rd left), Cmdr Peter (right)
Red Shirts: Me (left), Acker (middle), Joshua (right)
Orange Shirts: Cmdr Koo (left behind), Jo Win (middle), Cmdr Nat (right)
White Shirt: Jonathan Chin

HOORAY TO ROYAL RANGERS!!!

Later, we had a scrumptious lunch (what would you expect, I WAS hungry from the hike) of bread, sardines, and 'Brahims' mutton curry. We all took turns dipping our bread in the curry and occasionally popping a chunk of meat into our mouths. The bad part was that there isn't a place to wash your hands... So whatever things we touched during the hike weren't washed off... Oh goodness... Oh well, I guess that's part of the price you have to pay for climbing mountains.

After lunch, we used a faster but more boring route which took us about 3-4 hours to reach the foot of the mountain. When I stepped down from the last of the 600+ steps, I felt great. I had conquered... Gunung Ledang...

We managed to ascend and descend the mountain in about 7-8 hours.

We then went to the cafeteria in which I bought an 'Ais Kosong'. Water never tasted so good.

After resting in the cafeteria, we washed up, and then one of us made an interesting discovery. There are fish in a stream which nip at your feet. We recognized them as doctor fish. Doctor fish are used in 'Fish Spas', if you know what they are. The fish spas, I hear, charge around RM60 per hour. But here, we get it for free. The only downside were the many flies and mosquitoes.

After that, we washed up and had dinner. We ate at a decent Chinese restaurant. Then we went back to our chalets. There we played a game called 'Pass the Bomb'. It's a word game which can really freak you out if you're not good at English. I did quite well thankfully.

After we got bored of the game, we started watching football. Arsenal vs. Manchester United. I decided to root for Arsenal. Mainly because football is more fun if you actually root for a team. In the end, Arsenal won 3-1, I think. Can't remember too well.

Then we went to sleep. Thankfully, the person who hammered my stomach the night before was also sleepy; so, he didn't do it again this time. I slept quite fast that night. I have to say that I was thoroughly tired.

The next morning, we woke up, lingered around the fish spa a little and then left. On the way home, we ate some good pork ball noodles. During the trip back, our van broke down. We managed to get it to a repair shop. And while the commanders were having a hard time talking with the owner of the shop, we rangers were... Buying and eating potato chips from a nearby store... So typical...

After we got the van working again, we hopped inside and headed back to Grace Assembly.

Wow, that was a great trip. I got to know the rangers better. However, this year, most of them have been promoted to Expedition Rangers. The hike was a truly memorable and unforgettable experience. I encourage you all to go for the hike if you're able to.

I want to thank my commanders and God, the master ranger, for helping me to successfully climb Gunung Ledang.