Saturday, November 11, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
American Idol - Season Three
Friday, July 28, 2006
Shanghai Summer Camp 2006
Interestingly when we were conducting a survey along the streets, trying to find out community needs, one of my Shanghainese counterpart kept insisting that we shouldn't be approaching people young, trendy or well dressed. He said we should be targeting the elderly, the poor and the needy instead.
When I had the chance, I explained that community service is not limited to just the poor, old and needy. Rich people have needs too. A rich family may have problems discipling their rebellious son or daughter and need social workers to mediate and help. In the same light, when I told people I would be going to Shanghai for community work and raised funds for it, some people wondered aloud, why Shanghai? Why the most developed city in China? Why not the small and poor province, just like the Lijiang and Mingying trip I did 2 years ago? Why not go feed the poor or reconstruct houses? All these are equally important but often deemed to be more noble and self sacrificial compared to city trips.
This Shanghai trip is a 3 year plan that aims to introduce Shanghainese youth to Service Learning (You serve the community, and you take home a learning that you can apply in your own life....knowledge, values that bring about a positive life long change).
This year, we introduced the whole concept to them, brought the awareness and equipped them with the skills. Next year, we train them to be leaders. Year 2008, each one of them will lead a group to go into the various parts of China to do all the "noble" stuff of building houses, teaching etc.
This concept is very powerful because it is, in Eric's words, a Strategic Empowerment. It is one thing for us Singaporeans to serve China. Yet it is another to see Chinese rising up to serve their own people! Due to the one child policy, most youths in Shanghai especially are self centered and do not "pour back" to their community but I believe this will change.
Personally I do not have a great passion or love for China or its people. But as we avail ourselves to be used by the Holy Spirit, He will equip us. Not just the skills, but also the heart of compassion. I won't say it was a fun or a nice trip but I have been blessed through this journey as I see the hands of God move in the difficulties I encountered.
I want to say "Thank you" to those who gave to make this trip possible in one way or another. My colleagues from Reader's Digest and my friends. Thank you!
Here are some pictures and the commentary begins.....
I was part of an advance party who left 2-3 days before the main group so that we could recce the place. This is the China Eastern flight that I took. Must admit that I got into a bit of a culture shock here.
Eric was conducting a structured experience to bring across the importance of reflection.
A typical group discussion. I learnt the importance of being intentional even in setting what questions to ask during facilitation.
A shot of the main auditorium at the Activity Centre where we gathered for most of our group activities.
My team of SG members and another shot of us having a local hotpot/steamboat. rather interesting style.
In Shanghai, you can get small watermelons similar to the size of a bowling ball. We bought like 5 of them for 10 yuan (equivalent to S$2). Chopped them up with a swiss army knife and had this watermelon party in my room...bathroom.
It's hard to run away from Singapore's favourite NTUC. Someone (Eric or Eugene???) pointed out to me that even at the hotel lift lobby, you see NTUC. I couldn't resist but to snap this picture.
City Lights - Ten times more impressive than Orchard Road! That was about half an hour cab ride away from where we stayed in the suburbs.
Finally during the last few days of the camp, we left the hotel to stay at a huge local school. My meal.
Pictures of our dorm plus the super cool bathrooms!!!
Saturday, July 01, 2006
The Three Musketeers
To read more about his touching tribute for us, click here.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Mount Kinabalu 101
I finally found the time to go through tons of photographs, pick out the best and resize them so that I can document a Mt K 101 specially for those keen to try it. I know 10 people will tell you 10 different things, what to prepare, what to bring etc......While I choose to leave all these instructions out in my 101 class, I will share with you my own experience and the photos will sort of paint you the idea.
Day 1 - Mon June 5, 2006
We met at TCT, having packed and left our bags there the night before. Most of us were filled with anticipation and seriously, for the first-timers, we didn't really know what to expect. The bus ride across the checkpoint into Senai airport was a little long and draggy; queues were moving slowly, nevertheless, we got pass that and soon boarded a KK bound MAS flight. It was there that I realised we didn't need a passport to check in as it was a domestic flight! Typical Singaporeans who like to flash the red booklet at every customs queue!
I had borrowed extra memory stick and battery for my Sony Digicam hoping to snap many pictures. But after day 1, I sort of kept my camera and I figured out that there were many more photobugs amongst us and I rather be included and look pretty in their pictures since they seemed better equipped.
See below: Mine versus Joshua's camera which was already considered mediocre when put next to Jeffrey's.
The flight was ok and when it was touching down, I asked Kenneth a silly question, "Can we see Mt K from the plane?" He just shook his head, I think. Anyway, Joshua snapped this picture which I kind of like.
This is the picture which most people say "Wah..so big group ah.." to......
A bus came to pick up our luggage and brought us up to some cooling but freezing at night place, closer to the mountains. We stayed over at Rose Cabin which had no heating facilities but the view of the Mt. Kinabalu was awesome.
Check out the rainbow we saw when we first arrived.
It was like God was telling us He has already gone before us!
Day 2 - Tue 6 June 2006
I didn't really sleep the first night mainly due to the cold. I had to wake up many times in the night to add on more layers, and finally wearing extra socks and putting on the trekking jacket with the hood. Did a bit of packing, filled my water bag, sorted all the stuff and confirmed getting a porter so as to increase my success rate. I was quite affirmed when Kenneth, Ps SL and a few others didn't "laugh" at my insistence to getting a porter. To me, it's no sign of weakness....it's just being smart! Anyway, when I started the trek, my own small haversack that I carried was rather heavy with water, food and things like handphone etc.
We started the day with breakfast at Rose Cabin. I think Rose Cabin is already like 1,800m above sea level. That explains the cool climate.
We were ready to set off and boarded a bus to bring us up to some halfway point when in the past, climbers would have to trek all the way up. But first, a group picture of the 24!
We joked that 10 years from now, cable cars would be bringing people up to at least Laban Rata, the 3/4 point rest house. Just before we stepped right through the Timpohon Gate, we did our very serious warm up, said a prayer and entered the gate. To me, it was like a ritual, entering that gate which somehow would bring me to a different world of adventure, uncertainty.
Here's an overview of where we would be trekking.
Start Point (and also end point) - Timpohon Gate
Lunch - Layang Layang (after passing through a few rest huts)
Laban Rata/Gunting lagadan - Dinner and our rest house for the night
Low's Peak - Our summit destination (which would start at 2.30am the very next morning)
One point worth noting is Sayat Sayat checkpoint which would be the very last checkpoint before we hit the summit. It was compulsory to reach that checkpoint before 4.45am during the summit push attempt. Anything later, we would have to greet the guard there and turn back for it would be too dangerous to later try to descend when the clouds move in shortly after sunrise.
Enough of the orientation.....the actual trek began.....It was like a straight 6-hour trekking up slopes, rocks, steep stairs. We had a few rest and toilet points in between but really, the idea was to stop not more than 5 minutes or else it would be more difficult to catch up on your momentum.
The consolation was the beautiful scenery and admiring God's awesome creation really gave us more strength to move on. Beautiful trees, flowers, pitcher plants and clouds in your face...... Oh yes, I started popping panadol when I first started, so that really helped prevent the dreadful running headache caused by altitude sickness.
When it started getting colder, we started to wear our jackets just to prevent heat loss. Note that slope behind me...........
Porters carrying things up and down the mountain was a common sight. No wonder we had to pay a premium for cup noodles, bottled water and all other snacks up at Laban Rata, our dinner and rest point (6km up).
At this point, I want to mention that the waterbag is one very important and useful thing to have for such a trek. The suction tube from the bag attached to our mouth sort of became a permanent fixture for most of us. Trust me....When you are too tired, you won't even want to bring your arms out of your heavy bag, open the zipper or buckle remove the water bottle, unscrew the cap and hydrate. Get a good waterbag. This picture tells it all. And Naresh my favorite buddy was obviously out of place!
Finally finally at the fifth restpoint called Layang Layang, we were all very happy. It was like the Friday of the week for us and it finally arrived. Here we had lunch..all sorts of trail mix from raisins, to nuts, to Nutella, biscuits, canned tuna, corned beef and so on.......What I had:
-2 Slices of Gardenia California raisin bread
-Hello Panda biscuits
-Raisins
-Pear
-and BAH KWA (with compliments from Peiyi) - this is the killer dish..most desired, most sort after. It was really precious and gave me strength like never before!
My BAH KWA!!!
After lunch we carried on for a while, more slopes, more slopes and more slopes and it was getting colder. We took many pictures along the way, one of which featured me and Batman who was looking quite smug. It's probably the army jacket...
Finally we got to Laban Rata, at 6.5km. This is the place where we would have dinner and those not well would sleep there as it had heated dorms. It was 10.8 degress celsius at about 5pm.
The rest of us had to stay at Gunting Lagadan and had to walk a bit more, we thought. In the end, we had to like trek for another 15-20 minutes UP and finally going on all fours up to this small cabin place perched on a hill! That was killing. But that place reminded me of the typical ski cabins and it was deja vu for me. After putting down our bags, we had to go back down to Laban Rata for dinner, then back up in the dark and in the rain to rest early.
Tried to rest as we had to wake up at about 1.30am the next morning to prepare for summit push. Actually I couldn't sleep again....it was too cold and damp.... (But I still washed my hair anyway and some brave ones showered...with hot water but still..super cold). In bed, I was wearing 2 Tshirts under a 100% lamb wool sweater, and the trekking jacket/windbreaker and hood on, 2 pairs of socks with a heat pack in between each foot, and my ski gloves. And yet, I was shivering all night plus the unfamiliarity of a new place, I just stayed awake and waited for 1.30am.
Day 3 - Wed Jun 7, 2006
1.30am - After a quick breakfast and warm up exercise across the narrow corridor of our dorm, we put on our headlamps and started the trek.
We didn't take many pictures here as it was really dark and we were all very focused on one thing...to head for the summit. So it was a serious climb..no more jokes. There was a part where we had to follow a white rope, and lean our body towards the left side of the rocks and climb. Once in a while, the guide would come especially when I couldn't get my footing. Their hands really represented the hands of God and there was really increased confidence when they came along to help me. And you will end up being ahead of the rest. The guides are all trained. They know when to help you and when to push you to go along.
After I passed Sayat Sayat, I was really struggling. It was the most difficult part as uncertainty set in. It was dark, steep, air was thin, fatigue set in. Thank God for Naresh who held my hands and dragged me for most part after Sayat Sayat and before I met up with the rest. At one point, I was literally stopping to rest and breathe very loudly after every 4-8 steps. He was very patient and willing to even forgo his chance to reach the summit. Really my true brother! When I saw the guide, I asked him if he could carry me. He said NO.
At last, I caught up with the rest and the peak was within sight but trust me, it was really still very far away. Anyhow, here's a good shot of our target, Low's Peak at 4095.2m above sea level (the name is quite an irony isn't it?):
This is a shot of another nearby peak at sunrise.
When attempting to climb up to Low's Peak, the sun was already rising behind me.
When our group finally arrived at the summit, we took a few videos a.k.a travel channel kind and also snapped many pictures which I avoid posting here as I think I look really tired and "worn out".
Soon, we made our way down....terrorist style, some with balaclava covering their faces and abseiling down ropes. Here's a classic not-so-convincing shot of me being kidnapped. 
The way down was worse than the way up. We were more mentally prepared for the ascend and had made that summit our target and let down our guard a little. It was a guelling 4 hours descend from Low's Peak to Laban Rata, our halfway point only!!! Pictures to look at.....
This is the part where we had to lean our body to the left as we climbed.....It was the most scary part for me. Here, God taught me what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. Walking by faith really means to walk in the dark and not be hindered by the mountains (literally). I told the rest that if we had ascended in the day, I would have backed out after seeing the steep slope up.
After lunch at Laban Rata, we trekked all the way down down down down down down to Timpohon Gate. It was the longest downslope ever. I wondered aloud if all the rocks and stones in the world decided to gather there. We walked like 5 hours downslope and it was just so tiring.
Finally, this is the picture of victory! Not quite the typical kind..I had arrived and exited the Timpohon Gate!
Dinner back at Rose Cabin, then took a long ride where I slept through all the way in wet socks and stinking shoes till we reached KK city and checked into this local hotel called Shangrila (not the usual one we know of, but it was quite nice still).
Day 4 - Thur June 8, 2006
Yeah.....no more mountains, back to civilisation but with aching limbs, backs and all.....I felt like a paralytic getting out of bed, dragging myself into the shower. For those few days, I was more afraid of going downstairs then meeting cats!
Anyhow, we went water rafting which was fun.
We tried body rafting where we were supposed to swim out to the river, lie there face up, and the rapids would come and wash you.
It was a funny sight to see so many "bodies" washing down that fierce river. Some of us hit rocks and got souvenirs and this is mine....
I know I look very happy here, flanked by 2 tired bodyguards. I wasn't that happy. I wished I could stay longer in Sabah just enjoying the family. But well, I conquered Mt K...the real mountains will come soon!
In all, this collage really sums up my Mt K experience. It's awesome, it's majestic, it's tiring but definitely worth it.
