JEMMMM..........

Decided to accompany Bob yesterday to Canon service center situated in Subang. He picked me up at KLCC around 6. At first, the road was normal. Normal means the traffics were crawling (what can you expect from Jln Ampang anyway). It's getting worse as we moved towards Jln Tun Razak. Thankfully I've bought a gaming magazine before I went out of my office, but the magazine content soon wore out, and we were still at Ampang Park. Bob's voices seem to fade away as I slowly dozing off.

I woke-up at about 7.30, we were at NKVE toll plaza and God! look at all those cars. Bob was cursing, the service centre closed at 8 and, based on the situation that we were in, could we make it? I dozed-off again, it's hard for me to open my eyes at that time. We arrived there at exactly 8 o'clock and guess what, the service centre was still open! Why? Because an Indian manager suddenly decided to go upstair for a while to catch a whiff of the traffic jam. We let go a sigh of relief as Bob finished off his deal (we is such a big word right? With me sleeping and all).

Yesterday's traffic was ridiculous. When we make our way back (I didn't fall asleep this time) using the old airport road, many cars decided to have a pitt stop at BP's and Petronas. Both of the stations were packed with people and cars who decided that it pays to wait rather than joining the traffic. I can imagine the grin of both the owner of the pump stations, praying in their heart that this goes on everyday, haha.

On the way, we decided to take a "short-cut" beside the road. The sign said Ara Damansara. According to Bob, he heard one of his friend's said that there's a road that could take you up to Tropicana from the old road. We decided to follow a group of cars that were making their way there.

It was a bumpy ride at first before we came to the new housing area. First, we decided to follow a brand new Nissan right in front of us. It didn't work, he took us to a dead end. When we turn back, a Kancil swoop past us. Hmmmm....very confident indeed. We decided to follow him.

"Jangan die parking sudah", says Bob.

We follow the Kancil for queit a time when we reach an area full of apartment.

"Aku kenal tempat nie, Menara Luxor!, caya la Kancil" exclaimed Bob excitedly.

With renewed strength, we followed the Kancil vigorously. He took us directly to his parking spot.

We turn back again, the Menara was right in front of us, but there's no road that could access there. We took an opposite road from the Kancil's. Again, the road looks very familiar. We didn't follow anymore cars this time, after seeing one or two met up with the same circumstances. It seems more and more people decided to escape from the traffic.

After about 15 minutes of searching for an exit, we encountered many familiar view when I shouted

"Exit sign!!"

The sign showed an exit to the right. We took the right road and there, about 300 metres right in front of us, the exit seems to beckoning us to come near. We did, with curses and swearing, as the exit that we were about to take were the same road when we came in. Happy driving guys, take care :-)

Gunung Tebu Part II

If my memory served me correctly, there were 6 of us in the team, which happened to be the last team in the whole group. We will be in the back of the whole long line during our ascend to the top. 4 of them were from MRSM PC themselves. Mawi, Najib, Munir and God, I couldn’t remember the last person’s name. I’ll called him Man until I recalled. The other member of our team was the only representatives of Balik Pulau, Joe. Actually, his name wasn’t really Joe. Remember 4U2C lead singer, Joe? The real Joe is his big brother, no wonder his face looks familiar. He was a comic lover, my first impression was he was a loner, and there’s something weird about him that I couldn’t lay my finger on. His body was quiet tough, and everything that he brought (from head to toe) was from the army, even his raincoat was from the army, minus the hat and the shirt. But we became close after, and I was glad that he was by my side (although not always) during our descend from the top.

Mawi was our team leader. Of course, being somewhat an outcast (there were 4 of them), Joe and I doesn’t say a word about it, there’s nothing to against anyway. He was a natural leader, one could mistaken him as a lover boy, with his chinese look and rather slender body, but he was a tough guy to beat, and he got this leadership aura that when he makes a decision, we knew that it was for the sake of all of us.

Najib……was really weird. He and Mawi were close, they were both from Kelantan. He was the deputy. He was okay at first, assisting Mawi in everything that he could. However, on the third day (the start of the ascend), I don’t know whether it’s a fault of mine or the mountain itself, but Najib has fallen ill and he was not quiet himself anymore.

Munir and Man were LDP (MRSM’s prefect). Both of them were from Perlis. They were somehow seems out of league with the first two I’ve mentioned earlier (both Mawi & Najib were smokers), but the 4 of them seems to get along quiet fine (they always make jokes among themselves, which I understood little). They both were very fit, and both of them were among the heroes to the event that unfolds later (no one, which I know of and seen by my own eyes, did what they have done).

The fever has took the better of me in the night of the first day. I just got there and there I was, feeling sick out of sudden. I was excused right before Operasi Burung Hantu started. If I remembered correctly, there should be 97 students, but when the counting started, it goes to 100! The counting was made again, and now, the number was correct. That’s when our medics introduce their two brothers to all of us, and it seems that they have included themselves during the first counting. The teacher (lets called him Cikgu Pit) let go a sigh of relief and stated that the mystery has been solved. Deep in my mind, I knew that the numbers didn’t add-up. 97 plus 2 equals to 99, so who’s number 100?

I was excused from the operation due to my fever. I couldn’t sleep well that night. The brothers (the little ones) took a good care of me. They fetch waters from the stream to cool off my fever, though I still woke-up feeling dizzy during the night, but it felt much better. I slept at the gazebo with the rest of the facilitators, saved from the wet tents. I felt bad for the rest of the team, but, hey, who’s the sick man here?

In the morning of the third day, the first sight I saw was my teammates has been given penalty for failing to wake-up during Subuh prayers, and my teammates only! I did’nt quiet actually remembered what the penalty was but it has something to do with standing in the middle of the stream. Did I mentioned that it was raining and the water was very cool? Not only that, but during the night, they have to stay up and be the sentry for the whole camp. Little did I know that they have used my dolphin torch, and they have used all the batteries that I have spared, which will lead to another would be accident during the ascend, Alhamdulillah Allah has forbid for that accident to happen (more will be told later).

I was brought to the Besut hospital during the morning. After taking in the orders from the students (torchlight, batteries), I set of with 2 teachers accompany me. They left me at the hospital and proceed to buy things for the ascend on the fourth day.

I met a woman doctor during the check-up. After she examined me, she asked from where I came from and what the hell am I doing there (after she realised that I’m from outside of Kelantan). I told her about the ascend and from the look on her face, I know she was really worried about the whole thing. Why ascend the mountain during the monsoon season? No one ever done that, with 97 students anyway, was the big main question that she had asked me. I told her that it was a school holiday program and although my answer didn’t satisfied her, she let me go, there’s nothing that she could have done anyway.

As I wait for the teachers to come back, I was approached by a man in his late 60’s. After several minutes of conversation, he asked the same sets of questions that the doctor has asked and expressed his concern about the whole thing. After a pause, he started to advice me about things connected to the mountains. Some of the advice that I remembered were:

1.Gunung Tebu was very “strong” (keras). Please behave, either physically and verbally.
2.Don’t direct your torch upwards during the night.
3.Do not, ever, bring something back from the mountain.
4.Don’t simply destroy or pick any flowers from the mountain to bring home.

I printed all of the advice inside my mind. The teachers were back, and I make my excused. Next:- The start of the ascend. The batteries were dead. Lights!