it’s my life

Climbing Mount Ophir a.k.a Gunung Ledang

it's MY life - 1 year ago - Iswandi

Location : Asahan, Melaka

Height   : 1276 metres

Group    : Monkey D Luffy Crew

On 20 March 2009, Friday, my crew decided to go on an adventure to Mount Ophir. We, Monkey D Luffy Crew consisted of the usual four (me, Shajudeen, Khairil, Ariffian) and another 3 ladies, Ariffian’s colleagues. (Why Monkey D Luffy? Well, it’s just so cool to be them…plus I was wearing a straw hat!)

Anyway, why Mount Ophir? Someone suggested to go there and the rest of us being long time adventurers, just blindly agreed. (I found out that 2 of the crew didn’t know what Mount Ophir was…I’m one of the 2…)

We went there by train after meeting up at Chinatown where Sanji (Ariffian the cook) was working. Most of the crew was either working or studying or was in intensive gaming. It was a rush getting there as we needed to buy some last minute equipment like gloves and …gloves. (Which I didn’t use throughout the whole trip cause I bought a pair meant for washing the dishes…)

Getting on the train was easy but later we found out that someone bought a pair of tickets that would land 2 of the crew a station short of the destination, Segamat. It just so happen that me and Tony Tony Chopper (Shajudeen the student) volunteered to be refugees on the train for that one station. We decided to hide at the cafeteria and was lucky enough to have met a nice conductor that let us off for that journey. We were saved.

After arriving at the destined station, we took a cab to Gunung Ledang Resort. Arriving at the resort, the nice receptionist was actually waiting for us eventhough it was late and she wanted to go home. We reached there at around 2230hrs. The plan was for us to pack for the next day’s hike then sleep…Well this and that and a whole lot of nonsense was the night’s activity.

When we got to the mountain the next day, after a whole lot of last minute arrangements and clearing up done by Sanji, we got a guide and went up. The guide was nice and patient enough with the crew. A whole lot of things happened. Having to clear 8 checkpoints to reach the summit, we left the girls at no.5 due to the strenuous remaining journey up. It was a beautiful place where nature lovers would definitely enjoy the atmosphere and appreciate the landscape and untouched nature.

After we left the girls at the stream at no.5, we climbed and almost vertical cliff while questioning ourselves why did we go on… The remaining journey was really tough. It took us about 6 hrs to reach the summit from the bottom. A lot things happened too like a near death situtation for Usopp (Khairil) and leg cramps for Chopper and me. Having to deal with dehydration, exhaustion and hunger, we carried on to the peak and was rewarded with a beautiful scenery. Resting and taking in the view at the summit, Sanji gave Chopper his birthday present there. Chopper was really surprised! It was really worth the suffering once you reach the summit. We thanked God for letting us do this.

Going back down took us about 3-4 hrs. It was geeting dark and something happened along the way. Chopper was too exhausted and having complications of previous knee and foot injuries slowed us down. It was a desperate attempt to reach the safety of the base camp before it gets dark. Everybody pitched in to help. Fighting for survival, we managed to get down before it was completely dark. Why fighting for survival? Well a few sightings and a certain smell got me and Chopper, being the last 2 crew members, down in a rush, hehe.

It was really a good hike! We got back to the resort and had a big celebration with food from almost the whole menu that they provide! We have conquered a mountain!

Now back at home, with aching bodies, the crew is ready for another adventure!             MONKEY D LUFFY!!!!

88 comments

Car Trip in the East!

it's MY life - 1 year ago - Iswandi

Yesterday…We had another fun activity! Khairil, Deen and me went on a car trip around the east side of Singapore.

In the beginning, Khairil asked us to plan something…anything… Well, sitting with Deen at the library, we discussed about what to do that evening. Movies? No. Gaming? No. Then Deen asked if we wanted to get a car cause he has this car coop thingy with NTUC. We agreed. Better then walking aimlessly.

Well we got the car. Deen drove and I was the communications officer. Had Khairil on MSN to ask about the evenings’ plans and the loaction of his office while getting directions on Google map to navigate the car was my duty. (in the end we still had to use Deen’s GPS…)

When we finally picked up Khairil, we head over to the airport’s Terminal 3 for dinner. Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits was the evenings exquisite meal. We had to wait for a while to get seats there. For some reason, Popeye’s seems to be the preferred choice of fine dining for many locals. What can I say, it was a damn good meal.

After that, we took a walk around Terminal 3 and arrived at the Candy Empire. I don’t know why but being there, we were laughing out socks off for reasons that I can’t remember. But it was fun! We spent quite a long time there. Again we don’t know why but that place seems to have quite a hold on us. After we finally were able to decide on what to get our hands on, with the acquired chocolates we left for east coast for some ice cream at McDonalds drive thru. Directions was given by Khairil who had a good sense and knowledge of the east side.

Oh yes. Before we head for east coast, we met Deen’s elder brother at some carpark. The meeting seemed almost like a secret transaction with Khairil on the look out for ‘we don’t what’ and me ready to transfer to money using a connectionless, shut downed Netbook. Well, the brother discussed about family stuff actually. After the ’secret deal’ was deemed successful, we went ahead with operation drive thru…

Buying from an annoyed McDonalds personal, (she was annoyed due to the fact that we ordered ice cream only at a drive thru…we guessed…) we parked the car and went on to sit by the beach and had ice cream and the usual discussion about life, memories and of course…women.

We had a great time! Would have enjoyed it more if Ariffian was around. We’re planning on doing it again someday.

5 comments

Newly Acquired Acer!!

it's MY life - 1 year ago - Iswandi

Whokay people!

The week has been fun for me. Alot of things for me to do. From meeting my friends’ newest addition to his family to a car trip around the east side of Singapore. What made it even better is my newly acquired “Acer Aspire One”!

This 8.9 inch NetBook is small, light and met the requirements of my daily needs from a computer. (Don’t know about you people out there but my needs from a computer are quite minimal. Getting to my favourite sites….ehem…..and doing my projects are all I need.) 

So far I have been testing it out for a few days and…. I love it! Now it is one of my tools of destruction! I keep valuable information like ‘how to block incoming attacks in an arm wrestling competition’ or ‘101 ways of making love to your pillow’.

Now I’m sure nobody wanna hear why I bought it but I’m gonna tell anyway. It’s due to computer hogging by my brothers. I only have one desktop. Another is in the making and due completion by 2020 so, to satisfy my craving for something to do…(I can’t rephrase this sentence so I’m just gonna leave it hanging… I bet you guys know what I’m saying here )

The only drawback to it is the speed which I would very much like to get it to 2GB RAM and the multicard reader….They have one slot for all memory cards. I placed my memory stick PRO duo and it got stuck inside. I had to use two paper clips to get it out. II then realised that I had to use the memory card adapter. Okay, my bad.

All in all, it is a good piece of equipment. Now I’m gonna bring it everywhere I go. (not really… cause if I brought it to go clubs or swimming, that would be stupid…hehe)

16 comments

Fun For Us 3!!

it's MY life - 1 year ago - Iswandi

On Friday night, 27 Feb 2009, I was out with 2 of my posse. If ya know me well enough you would probably guessed who they are. Khairil and Deen…hehe

We met at around 8pm at Beach Road to have dinner… ( Me and Deen were late therefore Khairil walked around aimlessly for about 1 hr, hehe)

When ordered food, (me, I just ate at home…it was a last minute call up) we began talking and joking around. The thing is the jokes were never ending. From Beach Road, we went to ‘Mr. Bean’. Still joking around and laughing at senseless things. This carried on untill about 1 am at some shop that I can’t remember on Arab Street where we have mint tea.

It was a truely crazy night. We laughed till all of us were exhausted, had chest pains and simply stoned. After that, we walked all the way to the Esplanade. A favourite spot for us to chill and play some tunes on my Maestro guitar till early in the morning.

Truly a senseless and enjoyable night. Khairil said that he laughed more that night then in a whole month, hehe.

2 comments