Breaking of Dawn at Broga

I finally made it to Broga Hill last Friday.  Well spent RM70 that makes me recover fast enough for the hike albeit a little expensive. :p  The medication were so good that it somehow messed up my sleep.  Even though I was already in bed at 11:30pm the night before, was still tossing and turning at 3am.  By 3:30am, got fed up and decided to just get some breakfast and wait for a friend to pick me up at 4:15am.    Or maybe I was just too excited.  :)

To summarize it all, we picked up another two friends along the way, arrived at our destination at 5am and began our hike.  You must be imagining a dark & eerie atmosphere at that hour of the morning, snaking thru path and steep slope.  Believe it or not, it was anything but that.  The crowd were already pouring in and there was even a stall set up selling torchlights (setting up stalls at 4:30am??  Very semangat lor...).

There was already a line formed hiking up.  The atmosphere with myriads of colour light shining out from the many different torchlights were rather festive-fying.  :) 

We were the first few to reach the peak that morning.  It took us less than 45 minutes.  The moon were still shining high when we found a perfect spot to chill and admire the shimmering city lights down below.  It was nice.  Really nice.  A little exhilarating even.  Completing a hike at that hour of the morning, enjoying cool breeze lapping on our faces, absorbing the stillness it has to offer before everything wakes and replaced by nuisance.

Breaking of dawn.  

Brightening up.

The RM8/pair Kampung Adidas versus the RM2XX/pair Reebok.  Tested and proven, the Kampung Adidas is a better hiking shoe.  Better grip.  Reebok just slide & slide.  :p  Oh, apparently RM8/pair is considered expensive already ok....  Some got it for only RM6.50.  RM6.50/pair?!??! o.O

Then we spotted this dude striking a pose, and a pose, and another pose for his friend.  Then another dude took over, borrowed the shade, strike a pose, and a pose, and another pose.... and this went on and on forever... never in my life see, I wont say 'ugly' exactly, but not-so-good-looking guys so vain.   hahahaha....  The four of us just sat on the rock, laughed our hearts out...  no, we are not mean.  We are just honest.  :p

Love this.  Love seeing the different layers of colour from the many hills faraway - green, grey, light grey, blue, bluish grey.... peaceful & calming.

When you see this picture, I bet the first thing that came to your mind is... "Wah... since when hiking became a trend??".  This is the nuisance I meant earlier.  Hope to hike on a weekday sometime soon. Anyway, just check out the layering in the distance.  Beautiful isn't it? 

The view from where we were sitting.  Breathtaking...

Us, the group that started hiking at 5am.  Our group actually consists of approximately 12 heads but divided into two smaller groups, A & B.  Group A, that's us, started at 5am.  And group B, started at 6am.  They were too reluctant to sacrifice another hour of sleep.  But still better than my hubby dearest who totally not willing to sacrifice his beauty sleep... hahaha...

Spotted one with a colourful kite.  Just wonder how one even have the mind to bring a kite all the way up there.  Nevertheless, good prop for my photography. Thanks dude, whoever you are!

A candid of part of our group.  Another part were still up at the highest peak.

The sun rising behind the hill.

Didn't managed to do the jumping shot cause another photographer were still up in the other peak :(.  Did the pointing shot instead...lols

Some of us.

Nice right? Like painted landscape.

Personally, I find the hike up Broga is much much easier than Gasing.  Pretty relaxing too cause a majority part of it was just pathways.  Not much steps.  Unlike in Gasing, mostly are steps which can be rather exhausting.

Love this one too.  Candid of someone else shooting.

Decide to head down hill about 8ish.  The line going down was bad.  Really bad.  Back to back traffic jam kinda bad.  Goodness me.  And I thought people only goes to the mall.  Now they goes to the hill too.  Sigh...

As it was also Wesak Day, we popped by at this famous temple on way to another famous makan place (restaurant).  Till now I still don't know what temple we visited. :p

Did the normal stuff - offering of incense.

A friend of  our's did the 'bamboo sticks' thing.  4D number please.... toto please... 6D please... lols

From the temple, we drove another 5 minutes to the famous restaurant there that served fresh water fish from their own pond.  Name of restaurant, 'Pusat Memancing Ikan Broga'.  Lols..  I think you can go fishing there too...

Didn't take picture of food cause I was observing vegetarian diet that day.  Had only vege.  Have no eyes for other dishes...:p  But I did interview the rest of the group and was told that the fish dishes were nothing to shout about.  Not exactly super yummy but the herbs chicken was ok.  

So you have it.  If you ever went hiking at Broga, don't bother about the famous fresh water fish restaurant.  Better to just makan at some coffee shops there.  At least they serve coffee.  :p  Oh yeah, also, you must at least try once, hiking at 5am.  You wont regret it.  :)  Have fun!

p/s: pssstt.... if any of you planning a weekday hike, ping me ya...!

The Tofu Fallen Sick. Again.

What's new?  Standard la... each time, when I over pushed myself, I fall sick.  But just normal sick la... a bit of flu, a bit of fever.  Am hoping it will all go off by Thursday so that I can go hiking up Broga on Fri (keeping my finger crossed).  But it seems to be only starting now.  Not yet full fledge.  Harrison said I should forget about Broga altogether.  Even if I made it up there on Friday, I will surely fall sick like a dog the next few days.  Oh boy... he knows my 'tofu-ness' so well....still, I hope he is wrong.

Cause I wanna attemp a photo like this one here, which a friend googled from dunno where.  I mean I wanna be the one doing the jump.  Not the one shooting the jumpp.  Lols...

Had a great time last week when two very dear friend came to visit from the land of the Merlion.  It was always nice to have them around, be it they visit us or we visit them.  And each time after they left, the house feel empty and it takes awhile to get used to.

Pretty pearl earrings she got me for my birthday (which is still 3 months more to go... lols).  Her birthday, which is just next week, and I didn't get her a thing *slap*.  What a good friend I am.  Lols... Anyway, I decided to make her this yesterday.  Can't tell what it is, can't show the whole picture too cause I've yet to send it out.  So this will be some sort of a teaser photo... :p

It was basically a non-stop eating spree throughout the 3 days they were here - Haji Samuri Satay, A&W Root Beer Float (Singkapoh tak lak), Kuchai Lama's XO Fish Head Noodle, Yut Kee's Pork Chop + marble cakes, Imbi's Hokkien Mee and dunno what else.  If two weeks ago, people already commented that I look pregnant, now I should look pregnant with twins.  Hahahahahaha...

Stole this photo from T-Cakes which she made as gifts for my guests, also her new friend - lovely yummilicious 'Strawberry Cupcakes'.

I still couldn't quite comprehend why I didn't take any photos.  I basically have zero photos.  No photos of my friends, no photos of the food we had, no photos of the places we went to.  Were they even here?  Or was in all just in my mind???!  Note to self: Remember to take picture of friends next time for old age sake. :p

At some point of our get together, whether it is down South or up here, somehow we always ended up day dreaming what would we buy if we have millions - that dream car, that dream property, that dream lifestyle...  So, talk until shiok shiok how?  Buy Toto lor....

Of course our little investment usually went straight into charity.  One matching number also tak lak...  Oh btw, I tell you, it is so difficult to place bet nowadays.  So many varieties - 6/58 la... 6/55 la... 6/52 la.. dunno what 3D, 4D, 5D, 6D la... somemore, got jackpot la... so confusing ok.  They should consider publishing a book "Toto/4D For Total Idiot".  The four of us were like sitting in there for a good 15 minutes trying to make sense of all the different phrases...  Whatever happen to those good old days where you just run behind your house, shove the list of numbers into the aunty's hand, and tell her 2 sides? *sigh*

Their stay here were exactly like our's when we were at their's last year.  Other than no-stop eating, it was non-stop chatting and laughing too.  It is strange how we always have so much to talk about and we can basically teased, cursed, laughed at each other yet there would not be anything taken in offense.  Already chatted till 4am on the first night itself!  How la not to fall sick.  Like what Terri said... "Sendiri buat punya..." (self made).  My compassionless good friend. -.-

Anyway, Harrison sent them off to the airport on Sunday noon. Didn't manage to send them off myself cause I had a photoshoot assignment that morning and was already out of the house by 6am when they were all still snoozing away in lala land dreamily *envious*.  When I finally got home that afternoon, the house was so quiet with them gone.  Awww... I sure miss their company. 

Of Hiking & Stalled Car

Two most eventful activities of the day...

***

Woke up at 7:15am and went hiking (more like jungle trekking) at Gasing Hill with another bunch of friends. Though me & Harrison took the shortcut out, it was nevertheless, a good exercise. We went on empty stomach, was drained halfway thru. That's why 'poncet'... lols. Long cut or shortcut, quite a good start to a brand new year! Hope we can keep it up.

***

Unable to start up the car after dinner at Imbi. The valets were kind enough to help us jump started it. Went straight to our regular workshop after that. It was already 10:00pm then. Yeah, we got a mad workaholic mechanic that works around the clock. Good for us ;)