A Cheap Place of Sanctuary

The accommodations here are quite cheap and regulated. A room at one of the hotels costs about 200 to 300 Nepalese rupees for a double room which is equivalent US$3 to 4. Set dinner costs similar. One could also take a camping package where a camp tent set up for trekkers would only cost 50 rupees per night. Amazingly a bottle of water costs more, that will set you at 60 rupees, which is three times more compare in Pokhara. That is because it costs a lot to carry the supplies uphill. These supplies are normally carried by porters or donkeys.

One could actually do trekking for weeks or months and not costing a lot. The best trekking period is from October to November which is the dry period. December to February is the colder period. March to June is the other good period but the condition is more humid. June to September is the wet season. Wet season really means wet. It is best to avoid that period.

In the shadow of the Big Mountains

Our trekking is supported by a guide named Budi and two porters. We carried our own daily pack consisting the bare minimum to supplement the walk, about 5 to 7 kilos each. The rest are carried by the porters, each one could carry up to 60 kilos each if required.

Today is the start of the trekking. From Pokhara we drove another half an hour to reach Phedi.

At Phedi, a small village, we set our gears and the porters started to arrange the bags which they will carry. We started the ascent. It was going uphill all the time, quite punishing, intermittently interrupted by gentler climbs passing through numerous paddy fields and small villages. It was hard work. We were sweating all over as we pushed our way. We reached Dhampus, a small village, about 2 hours later. The climb brought us another 500 metres higher into the mountain.

In Dhampus, one could find many good accommodations with reasonable facilities. Our guide managed to find a room in one of those hotels, though probably more like hostels. Because they are many choices, our guide didn’t even bother to book our accommodation in advance. We could just hop from one place to another to find if there are rooms available.

The Sakura Hotel where stayed was beyond our expectation in terms of available facilities considering trekking routes like the one we are taking goes deep into the valleys and mountainous region. We were expecting real basic facilities. In Sakura Hotel, the rooms are nice, toilet and hot shower facilities were amazing considering where we were and there was even a restaurant offering almost everything one could imagine. It was quite refreshing to have a hot shower after a very long day, on the road for 8 hours, followed by 2 hours trekking.

The sights so far were amazing. From Dhampus, we could see a big part of the Annapurna mountain range. The white capped mountains dominated the backdrop. The Fish Tail Mountain is huge and easily recognisable and yet is only some 6900 metres high. The higher mountains in Annapurna are over 8000 metres.

On the Road to Pokhara

We set off at 7 am on the 4^th of October towards Pokhara, a sizable town of two hundred thousand people located in the middle of Nepal. It was supposed to be a 6-hours drive but as expected that could vary a lot. We were already stuck for almost one hour in a traffic jam just as when we were climbing out of the Kathmandu valley. The roads coming out of Kathmandu to other towns are few but heavily used. Travelling along these roads is of course part of the real package of our journey, to see the country and experience the daily challenges face by the people here.

From Kathmandu we drove along the Trishali River downstream to a town called Mogling. The river is holy to the Hindus. The winding road was full of trucks carrying materials and supplies to Kathmandu mainly from India. At Mogling we crossed a bridge that only allowed a vehicle to cross one at a time. This caused a huge traffic jam in both directions.

From Mogling, we drove upstream along another river towards Pokhara. We eventually reached Pokhara 8 hours after starting the trip.

Pokhara is a real amazing place, with the most beautiful backdrop of the Annapurna Mountains behind. These mountains, with peaks of over 8000 metres, are separated from the other main mountains of the Himalayas by deep and amazing valleys, the prime spot of some of the best trekking routes known to mankind. Pokhara is the ideal starting place for these superb trekking routes. The best one is probably the 21-day trekking called the Annapurna circuit trek which involves trekking along one of the main valley to an elevation of more than 5000m. We are not doing that though. Our trekking route is one of the easiest and shortest but is probably the most popular among casual trekkers. We will be trekking for 7 continuous days with an average of 5 to 6 hours walk each day. Each day will bring us to even higher elevations and different views of the Annapurna Mountains. Time will tell how we will cope with that.

Indiana Jones Country

My knowledge of Kathmandu is admittedly very limited. One thing that always stuck in my mind is from the scene in the first Indiana Jones movie where in the middle of a snow storm in Kathmandu came a few strange characters entering an eatery place along a busy street searching for some mysterious stone. That painted a lasting impression in my mind that Kathmandu is always in cold and is a meeting place for some mysterious people from some corners of the world.

But Kathmandu in reality is hot and very dusty. And is actually a spiritual place for Buddha and Hindu devotees.

Today we followed a guided tour of the city to a few temples and places. The history of Buddha is a very long one, suffice to say that we are talking of a few thousand years.

The roads in Kathmandu are small but crowded. The industry is dominated by tourism, mainly trekkers and mountaineers heading to the higher grounds in the Himalayas. Kathmandu is the starting place as it got the international airport and the staging infrastructure for the trekking. Here one can find lots of outdoor shops, tour organisers or agents, sherpas, guides and so on. But competition is very stiff. I was told that there are over 300 outdoor gear shops alone in Kathmandu! So the prices are incredibly cheap.

The trekking season is not all year long, limited by the weather condition. Now is the peak season where thousands would be descending to this place from all over the world. The majorty are from the US, Europe and Japan. For our countrymen, we hope to be amongst the first the set foot here and open the door for others.

Welcome to Kathmandu

The flight trespassed the delta plain of the great Ganges River whose water source is where we are heading to.

The great Himalayan Mountains loomed ever closely as the plane approached north towards Nepal.

Kathmandu is located on the foot of the Himalaya where low rolling hills start to dominate the skyline. But that is not all. Apparently the approach for aircraft to Kathmandu is very difficult as the airport is located in an oval-shaped valley surrounded by mountains which rise on all sides.

The airport is pretty basic, located about 7 km from the city. The city amazingly is ....not really a city.

Kathmandu with a population of almost a million inhabitants is really under developed in all aspects. The roads are often not paved and narrow, and the industry and shops seemed to revolve only around tourism.As we were venturing along the main streets we manage to find a halal restaurant, apparently the only one in Kathmandu, called Anatolia. The food was great, something that we will miss in the next few days when we start our trekking up the mountain.

We stayed at Hotel Vaishali right in the Thamel area at the heart of the tourism area in the city. It’s a very convenient place for walking along the streets which are full of shops selling outdoor stuffs and equipments. We found the prices are amazing quite cheap, up to 3 or 4 times cheaper than back home. It is definitely recommended to buy those stuffs here if one has not got enough outdoor gear to start off with.

Start of an Adventure

The start of a journey to the roof of the world......may be not quite to the roof. Not an ordinary destination though unless you are into adventure or may be going for some soul searching!

Accompanying me are two avid trekkers, also keen photographers. Although setting off a few days after Hari Raya isn’t the best timing, but then this is supposed to be the start of good weather period in these high grounds of Asia. The massive flooding of the low lands down below in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan over the last months are stark reminder of the severe calamity the wet season could cause in these parts of the world.

As usual, it was a last minute packing. Out came my geological boots, back pack, sleeping bag and all sort of gears that I used to be fairly acquainted with during my university days. But those were the good days when one just pack and carry the bare minimum.

During those days when I was out for days or weeks on field-trip to Snowdonia, Spain or Scotland, it was just a matter of packing a few clothing, some notes and of course the geological hammer. Nowadays you would not go without taking a travel insurance, a long list of medicines, spare clothing, plenty of food rations, laptop and charger, mobile and charger, blackberry and charger...and the list just go on and on.

There is no easy flight going to Nepal. One has to go via Singapore or Bangkok and staying overnight in these two places. We opted for the latter and it costs about BND1250 for a return trip. I have only been twice to Bangkok, not a place I am familiar with. The airport is quite large and busy – a sign of how important tourism is to this place.

One thing that I am always impressed about the Thai people is their utter respect and deep obedient to their king. The people themselves are also very respectful to others especially tourists, and importantly it really comes for the heart, something that is getting harder to find in many places in this modern world.

The flight to Kathmandu takes about 3 hours. Surprisingly the wide-bodied Boeing 777 aircraft was used for our flight. The flight was full, packed with trekkers from all over the world, many going for their own adventure and exploration to one of the last place on Earth worth visiting by everyone. Time will tell how our own adventure will develop.

On the Fast Lane

Just back on a short hop for a couple of days in Singapore.

The city was gearing up for Formula 1 race next week. The preparation was quite astonishing especially around the Marina area whose roads are part of the circuit. The roads are starting to be barricaded and spotlights that will brighten up the area during race time seemed to be switched on all the time - this may be to ensure that everything to run smoothly on the race day when it matters.

But for the race itself, taking place next weekend, I could not imagine how the F1 cars could race up to 320km/hr on the road that my taxi could only zoomed no faster than 100 km/hr.

We had dinner by the side of Singapore River around the area where Stamford Raffles’s statue stands. The whole place has been rejuvenated into an interesting touristic and leisure area. The river, used to be liked an open sewer with horrible stench, has now been transformed into a clean and recreational waterway. Indeed the walkways on the river banks were crowded by joggers and early restaurant goers.

Across the river, one could see a significant and old landmark. The OCBC, 52 floors high, used to be the tallest building on the Island and even in the world outside USA when I was here during my study 32 years ago. Now it is dwarfed by many buildings round it. When looking at the whole area, there seemed to be no end to constructing new buildings, roads, subways and so on. The whole city is still on the fast lane.

Gerimis diMalam Raya

What a night! I went early to the mosque last night for the Isya prayer. I was also planning to perform the Terawih prayer, thinking tomorrow would be another day of fasting. As we were performing the Isya prayer, the sky opened up. Within 5 minutes, during the prayer, the whole place was hit by a flash flood. The water level went up by up to a metre almost in an instant. By the time we were able to check outside, our cars were already surrounded by water. We couldn't do anything, only to watch the situation escalating to worst and feeling utterly helpless. The water had entered all the cars or completely submerged a few within the mosque compounds.

As we waited for the water level to recede, even worse things awaited the jemaah. The water level actually continued to go up and started to enter the mosque. By the end of the night, most of mosque's carpetings were wet and nothing much could be done to save them. I got stranded for two hours and by the time I left the mosque, the water level was only starting to recede. My 4-wd car was flooded inside but I still felt very lucky and fortunate as other jemaah faced even worse fate. Some have to abandon their cars for the night and only to retrieve them in the morning.

So what a night, on the eve of Hari Raya, for the jemaah and our mosque to be faced with an unexpected predicament. The morning Hari Raya prayer on the next day had to be done elsewhere. The regular jemaah of 2000 strong had to spread themselves to the various mosques nearby.

A Miracle

Yesterday, thick and dark clouds shrouded the whole sky in our place. Then rains started to pour at around 5 pm, gaining intensity as the day was ending and dawn started to set in much earlier than usual. That was the hour when the moon was supposed to be sighted to see if tomorrow was to be another day of fasting or the start of Hari Raya. We were full of confidence to the point of total certainty that the moon could not be sighted and that we had to perform another day of fasting. But what a miracle........amidst the dark clouds, the religious and surveying officers were able to sight the moon. And of all the places in Bumi Bertuah, it was at our place, at the time when the heaven and sky were shrouded by dark clouds, the moon was sighted. God is most powerful and most merciful.

Setting Own Destiny

The last ten days of Ramadan - a very special period - and yet mostly ignored. It is no doubt a very challenging period to stay on course on increasing our ibadah in this modern world. But a few nights ago was somewhat special. We were joined by a small boy during our tedarus. Barely 5 years old, he recited the surah so well that he made my heart tremble. Indeed it is pleasing to have him in the group.

During this Ramadan, we are proud to say that we have not set foot to any restaurant for breaking of fast. It's just that the whole spirit of Ramadan, abstaining oneself from the normal pleasure of life, to cleanse our spirit and to raise our soul to higher spiritual level, do not jive with lavishing oneselves with excessive eating especially when presented with a sumptuous buffet spread.

Old House and A Year Gone

Not many people live in this type of house anymore. This is our grandparent's dwelling for over 50 years. Our grandpa had long gone. Our grandma has just passed away a few months ago. We normally came visiting to this house in a big group during hari raya to offer greeting . This coming hari raya will be different and somewhat hollow. We will probably just come over to the house regardless, the place where I played and lived when I was small.

We are now already well into the second half of the year. Time really fly. Today is also exactly a year since we came back to Bumi Bertuah after an absence of three years. Things have really settled down and we are into new routines and Holland is already a distant memmory. Workloads have definitely taken much of our minds and attentions this year. We have not done any proper long holiday except for a short hops here and there. Hopefully this year we could see other places which we have not been. In a month time I hope to make a journey that I have always dreamt about. Time will tell.

Fruit Season?

It is supposed to be the fruit season, time of the year when we feast ourselves with durian and all sort of local fruits. But alas there were nothing much on offer except for rambutans and a few offerings of durians here and there.

We even went to Labi and Lamunin but were left dissapointed. Indeed much of Bumi Bertuah and Sarawak are having a poor season this year, most likely due to the wetter than usual drier spell during this time of the year. The rains that has been lashing lately are more reminiscence of the rainfalls in January. There has been flooding and landslide in many places. The world has gone crazy. Blame it on climate change.

The Start of Ramadan

It's the start of Ramaḍān, marking another year has passed in our life. Indeed we should be thankful to Almighty Allah that we have live another year to see yet another Ramaḍān again.

The recital of the surah Al-Baqarah marked the start of reading the entire verses of the holy Quran by Imams for the next 30 nights. For Bumi Bertuah it is even more special this year as 40 more would-be Hafiz or those who could completely memorize the Quran have been assigned to various other mosques. Indeed lets pray that this will give more blessing to our Bumi Bertuah.

As usual, the tedarus or group reading of the Quran after Terawih is still very much alive in our local mosque. The first night saw 26 people altogether, old and new, a good turn-out in today's perplexing world.

Bumi Bertuah Bumi Berkat

It was interesting to hear the old history of Bumi Bertuah being reminded again around a coffee table on a Friday afternoon after what has been a long and busy week in the office. That Sultan Sharif Ali, the third Sultan was a descendant from our Prophet through his grandsons Sayydinia Hassan or Sayydinia Hussin. Not long after he arrived in Brunei from Taif in the Arabian Peninsular, he was married to a daughter of the second Sultan, Sultan Ahmad. He became the third sultan on the death of Sultan Ahmad in 1425.

The 15th century was a period of contrast between the seat of Islamic civilisation i.e. the Middle East and South East Asia. Middle East was in upheaval with competing dynasties such the Ottoman and the Mamluk. South East Asia however saw a rapid propagation of Islam and kingdoms after another became Islamic sultanates. With the arrival of Sharif Ali, Bumi Bertuah also became officially an Islamic sultanate. Sharif Ali was famous for inheriting Pedang si-Bongkok, believe to indicate that he was formerly an Emir of Mecca. Because of his piousness, he was known as Sultan Berkat (meaning 'blessed'). He was the first to call Brunei as Darussalam. He constructed the first mosque. May the Berkat last forever to make this Bumi Bertuah as Bumi Berkat.

Island of Hope

A fly-pass through this island still showed that it is still a piece of barren land. The raised hope, over a decade now, for a mega port is still very much a hope. In those ten years, many other ports have been expanded and countless contracts and partnerships have been signed, honoured and blooming. Here as I was looking out from the plane, a feeling of despair and hopelessness crept in. The diversification drive is not happening fast enough. The country's GDP is shrinking, quoted at -1.9% in 2009, -1.9% in 2008 and 0.2% in 2007. It does not matter whether these are accurate numbers or not, there is no question that we are lagging behind other countries let alone to compete with booming economies the like of China and India. A lot really need to happen if we are to aspire to achieve the Vision 2035.

Entrusted

Exactly two years ago, I was wondering where most of the guys that I shared the same dormitory in Singapore over 30 years ago have gone. Two years ago there were only a handful of them up there. But how things have changed. And just now when looking at the list of medal receipients from His Majesty and also looking at those who are now filling key positions -amazing - there are now ten who are either permanent secretaries or deputy PS, and two are deputy ministers. Indeed these are key positions entrusted upon them and I am sure that they will do their utmost for the good of the nation.

Above the Clouds

It's like deja vu, we were here 3 months ago and here we are going through our paces climbing up the same mountain again. This time I have managed to convince my eldest and Noruen to join. It was also an opportune time to take the mind off from work and made full use of two public holidays during the week. We flew on Monday and came back today.

The 85 km taxi ride from the coast up to the mountain on Monday was accompanied by a torrential rain, roads were flooded and driving uphill under such condition was quite hazardous and not good for the faint heart. It was also enough to make us wary that our foot climb the next day might never happen.

But lo and behold, it was sunshine and clear sky when we reached our hotel - the Kinabalu Pine Resort. The place wasn't something that I had expected, internet could give quite deceiving impression, but overall the location was fantastic with the summit of the mountain in full view.

Fizah was a bit awed looking at the peak and was probably thinking what has she been taken into.

We started off at 8 am in the morning, much earlier than the previous trip. We had a petite lady guide, who

immediately offered to carry my heavy ruck sack that weighed 12kg. I was a bit apprehensive to let her do it but then she told us that she is used to carrying heavy load and that's part of her job to earn a living.

Later we found out that she is actually a very able lady, was overall 6th in the ladies ranking amongst Malaysian in the famous Kinabalu mountain race. She was able to run to the summit in 2 hrs and 22 minutes.

Her best time going up and down and running a further 5 km to the finishing line at the Kinabalu Park headquarter, a total distance of 24 km, was 3 hrs and 45 minutes. I found that

mind boggling. She has climbed the mountain over a thousand times!

Our climb up was slow. We let the two girls made their own paces. We finally reached Laban Rata at 3270 m height in just short of 6 hours. Everyones were tired. Apart from me, the kids didn't take the pre-trip preparation too seriously. Add to the misery were a few burst of cold rains while climbing into the clouds. But overall we were lucky as there were no such torrential rains like the day before.

At around 2.30 am in the morning, we started our final ascend. Faris stayed

back as he was again hit by attitude sickness, but mainly because he had done it before and didn't want to go through the ordeal again. Noruen turned back after 1.5 hours as she too wasn't feeling well. That left me and Fizah to wade our way to the summit.

We were told not to take too many stops and just take small steps to go up. We did that and reached the crowded summit well before 6 am. People seemed to be waiting for the sunrise before heading down. Imagine how it looked like when something like one hundred climbers were just squatting and sitting on the rocks up there. There was nowhere to go apart from just waiting near the top. In the end we managed to take our obligatory photos at the summit.

We made our way down. From Laban Rata it took over four hours to reach the gate. The taxi trip to our hotel in KK was again constantly interrupted by torrential rain. The taxi driver (the same one again) was saying that the rains were a sign of good prosperity!

That was my fourth climbs to the mountain, admittedly still a long way to beat my father who has scaled the Mount Kinabalu seven times before. I hope to accomplish the same feat. But for now I have set my sight to another mountain.

Kids in the Wild

Kids were back. They have been away for 8 days, travelling on foot, bus, boat and AirAsia!

They have been hopping from one place to another. One of the location they stayed overnight was like a long house deep in the wild and onlyreachable by boat. That was the location where they could see Orang Utan, elephants and so on.

Apart from the many walks, they have also been doing lots of physical activities, so much so they were aching and tired when they reached home. But I told them they won't have many days to rest as they will join me to another endurance trip

in a couple of days time!

Dumping Ground

While looking for car tyres, I saw this pile of used tyres being sold at incredibly low prices. They are as low as $15 a piece. Some are clearly worn out, imported from neighbouring countries without any set standard, to fill a growing niche market for people who cannot afford to buy new. Not only do they pose unknown but serious danger to the new users, but also create an unhealthy industry for the country - dumping ground for used material from 1st World countries.

These are not the only things. One could get used car parts, engines and even car body chasis. And then there is another iniquitous industry - the widespread sale of non-genuine car parts which are almost difficult to differentiate from the original parts. Somebody need to stand up on this.

Angelic Beach Spot

Yesterday our niece had a birthday do on a beach spot known as the Angel Beach somewhere along Seri Kenangan beach in Tutong, a place that is gaining popularity amongst the public.

The spot is a bit secluded, available for rental, and for that you get a few sheds, BBQ hut, shower and toilet facilities and so on. And you don't have worry about annoying youngsters or noisy bikers or fighting for space on the beach.

We are not regular beach goers which is a bit sad considering that there are so many gorgeous beaches in the country. I guess that when things are a plenty, we tend not to appreciate and do not make full use of the gifts given to this land.

What is even more sad is that when people go to the beach, they have complete disregard for cleanliness and often left behind plenty of thrash. Nonetheless it is good to know that there are also plenty of Samaritans in the country who go out during every weekend just to pick up those thrash or other people's undoing.

A Group of Friends

The house is a bit quiet this week, Faris and Fizah are on a week long school trip to a place formally known as Jesselton, heading eastwards to Sandakan and so on. They will be spending time going back to nature, seeing Orang Utan, into the mangrove, the national parks, the mountains and the beaches. Will be pretty exciting.

But most of all we will be quite curious to know how they survive a week without laptop, without access to FaceBook or other social cyber network. Kids nowadays are just blessed with so many things in life, every now and then it's good to let them out and appreciate mother nature.