Mount Kinabalu

I've been meaning to write this for quite sometime. But been having connection problems at the office and uploading pictures was a total pain. Not to mention that TM was giving me a hell of a time to just get an account with them.

OK. Here's the plan. Fly to Kota Kinabalu. Make way from airport to Kota Kinabalu Park, 1500m above sea level (asl) and spend the night there. Next morning, hike 6km up to Laban Rata (3272m asl) and spend the night there. Then, wake up at 2am and hike another 2.5km all the way to Low's Peak (4095.2m asl), highest point on Mount Kinabalu. Take photos, take in the scenery and then hike down to Laban Rata for a quick breakfast before hiking back all the way to KK Park. Spend the night at KK town and fly home the next morning. Sounds easy, right?

View of Mt Kinabalu from the plane. Doesn't look that high, right?

No where near easy, my friend. It was a tough and tiring climb. But we made it, all the way to the top!! The view was awesome and it felt great. I would definitely suggest trying it at least once in a lifetime. I'd be tempted to go another time to take more photos and to enjoy the scenery. Of course, I am saying that now, after I have recovered from not being able to feel my legs while descending Mt Kinabalu.

This is where we spent the first night. Our bunks in KK Park were actually quite comfy and the bathroom has heater too. But what surprised me most was a bunch of hikers who had just came from the peak, asking the warden for a hair dryer....hmmmm

Day 2. Sneak peek of the peak. Too bad it was so cloudy. Not a good sign. We were worried if the weather would be good for the final leg of the climb. Was kind of disappointed to not be able to see the whole mountain.

The trail

And it all begins here.

Laban Rata. Our stop ever for the night before the final leg.

And...this is what it's all about. Awesome view. Just wish I had a better camera with me..hehehe At times you just feel like giving up while on the way to the peak. The air is so thin and you don't really know how far is it before you reach the top. But persevere you must, because the view at the top....absolutely breathtaking.

On our way back to Laban Rata

The 2 peaks on the right are called Donkey Ears. Cute, huh? :-)

If you think this looks familiar, take out a RM1 note and look at the back. Also known as South Peak.

Tainted milk. How did this happen?

How on earth can a substance, that is supposed to be used in the making of plastics find its way into milk powder? Who in their right minds would do that? How can anybody do such a thing so that the protein content in the milk powder appears higher than it actually is?

Being a Chinese myself, it is really a disgrace to read of such reports. The Chinese have been branded as unscrupulous and will stop at nothing to make a buck. And this just goes to add weight to that argument. We should never be prejudice and lump them all together. But just thinking of the number of sick babies out there.........Where is the humanity in all of this? Why are innocent children made to suffer???!!!!

Granted that life is tough and everything is very competitive, but knowingly tainting a product to appear as what it is not.....words really fail me. Time and time again, China has proved itself. Nothing changes. And at this point, there are still loads of finger pointing as to why this happened. That the authorities were not notified earlier. Consumers were already making complaints since December!! How much heads up do you need??!!! Want to know the main reason all of this happened? Only one. GREED!!!!

And the government is in full swing now, trying to clear up its mess by firing officials. I do wonder if these officials are fired because the did not do their job, or because these dismissed officers have information that could lead to the fall off people higher up in the food chain.

The Chinese Premier has said that he will mete out stiff penalties if such incidents were to happen again. Stiff? How stiff? Send them to prison? It's just prison time. Slap a hefty fine? They can pay their way out of it. Sending them to the firing squad is more like it.

Cultivating the reading habit

I know what we should cultivate the reading habit when still young. But what I saw on my way to work it utterly ridiculous.

A lady had her newspaper spread across her steering wheel while driving! And you can see her periodically looking down at her papers and then back at the road. I was driving beside her for quite sometime and she seem pretty engrossed. Wonder what juicy gossip she was reading. We are not in a jam where the car remains stationary for a long period of time. Her total disregard for her safety as well as other road users is really frustrating to say the least

Just a bunch of fakes!!!

What the hell's going on? First we had imitation handbags and watches. Then fake eggs. Now, China has done one better. They have fooled not only the thousands of people in the bird's nest, but also the millions of people watching the live telecast of the Olympic opening ceremony into thinking they were watching a little girl in red singing her very best. In actual fact what they were listening to was actually another girl, which they had deemed not pretty enough to appear on stage to sing. How demeaning is that?!

How did the parents of Yang Peiyi convinced her into doing it? What does it mean when the organizing committee said they wanted to portray the correct image? Is this the correct image that China wants to portray to the whole world, a country that will do anything at all cost to paint a false picture? What about the emotional impact you little Peiyi? Aren't her feelings equally as important?

Imagine being told by the whole country that you're just no pretty enough to appear on stage. Imagine how little Peiyi would feel when she watched the live telecast and hear herself singing but it was somebody else on stage.

The fact that the Chinese government is standing behind this decision is even more disgusting. But of course, one might say, what else is there for them to do? What is done is done. There have been many cases of lip sync, but the reason that this was done is totally unacceptable. She's never going to be good enough just because of the way she looks?? One of their own has been ostracised just because she had crooked teeth.

There's reports that Peiyi might be part of the closing ceremony. But what does that mean? Are the organizing committee doing this to be pardoned? To gain sympathy that what they did was in the nation's interest? And, should Peiyi even step on stage during closing? She has already been insulted once and this is just adding salt to the wound.

There were many hopefuls who went to audition for this particular role. And I am just curious, weren't they able to find somebody that they deemed pretty enough and could sing well enough? Rather than get somebody to lip sync. Why was the change last minute? Was there money involved? Somebody got his/her arm twisted?

My heart really goes out to this little girl.

House

Here's some random pictures I took.