Udang galah, anyone?

After the hike, we went back to camp for lunch, mandi and rest. Makan the leftover nasi goreng that morning, some buns which I had planned to bring to the falls for makan-makan.

Later, Tn. H brought some udang galah for us. Seems udang galah from Weston are the most sought after. If you know where to look, a kilo of udang galah will cost you just around RM11- RM13.

cleaned and rinsed

broiled and ready to eat!

Big thank you to Tn. H for the Udangs...

Hikity Hike

I said previously I'd go to Kiulu again, didn't I?
Well, of course I did.
It had rained so heavily yesterday that Putrajaya, Bakut, Telipok and some other unfortunate location were flooded. However, today proved to be a good day. By 8am I was already at Camp. Kiulu river had overflowed its banks oo.. Sad to say the flying fox tower will not be operable for some time (until repaired). Biut the beam atas! Punya la kuat the wind last night.

the bent beam...

the uprooted tree where the 'postal' was anchored to

Anyway, after breakfast which consisted of fried rice and ikan masin, with Chicken Soup Lihing and Kopi Tenom ping (all courtesy of Mona), we started the 'operasi riki air terjun'.

Let's see... we started off about 8.25 am. Walking by padi fields, and later padi bukit fields..

Merenih, Melissa, Me, and Mona

taking a short break..

charlie's angels (kaki jalan)

Teva (me)

Teva (mona)

no brand (apa gia brand slipar ko, mer? heheheh.. )

one of the 3 rivers we had to pass through before reaching the air terjun

We reached the waterfalls around 9.35 am., about an hour and a half later. We passed by paddy hills, hiked up and down ladang getahs, 3 rivers and... look what we found.

Fewitt...

lagi fewitt... the air terjun further up..

close up

sifu...mo pikir apa tu...?

kanak-kanak terlebih umur main air...

the other waterfall on the left hand side.

CQ, CQ victor 5

"Victor 5, victor 5, Victor 3 panggilan, over."

"Victor 3, Victor 5, teruskan, over."

"Ahh... ya.. itu kantungan macam mo diisi suda la ni. QTR brapa kita mau jalan nih? Itu unta Victor 71 suda start suda tuh. over."

"QSL.. iyah... saya pun macam gitu la juga ni. Ada lagu-lagu yang tidak berapa siok didengar dari ni kantungan nih. Mmbah...QSY di tampat ikat unta Victor 71 lah. kejap lagi. over."

"QSL.. bagus la tu. Mmbah... jumpa sana. QRX 73."

Funny ah? Macam buli faham but cannot be easily understood at the same time...unless one knows what the codewords mean la. What's so interesting about Radio Amateur talk ah?
A small buzz of excitement is currently going on about buying 'handy' of brands like the 'santut' (hahahaha...) or Spender, Icom and a few more at my workplace. Some who weren't that interested in RA initially were soon convinced of the fun, certain 'status' and prestige owning and using a handy would promise, and eventually bought one of their own. Moi?...Gatal la hati mo bili.. tapi tunggulah.

Currently, TARTs, or Tuaran Amateur Radio Transmission Society, seems to be the preferred club to belong as it has opened a few branches around Sabah with different callsigns for different districts. Tango, Tango Alpha, Tango Bravo, Tango Charlie and Tango Delta are for KK registrars. I'm sure you can see many cars around town and out of town driving by with recognizable antennas installed on cars. Some are eye-catching- long antennas right on top of the car roof. Some also have their callsign printed on stickers and pasted on their spoilers, windows, or windshield. Some stickers are insconspicuosly but neatly put. You have to really lean close to read what the callsigns are. Some are Very proud of their affiliation and have it done big enough for rabun people to see.

I sat for the RAE last year. (heheh.. failed). I'll be sitting for it again later in June. Harap got improvement la kan?

Swim. swam, swum

Went to Kiulu again yesterday. A few of us helping the trainers on duty for the afternoon activity. I had woken up early just so that I could be there before 8a.m. Said my customary 'hello' to Malangang just as I was about turn into the junction into the camp.
Sekali... kena tukar jadual pulak..pigi petang. So, i hung about for a while. Played "Zuma" on the computer, watched a CD of the 2005 Borneo Safari Challenge. Tuan Z is a great 4 X 4 enthusiast apparently. Then Tuan H had an idea. Let's go check out Tuaran he said. Bah, pigi la kami a few people naik his automatic Toyota Wish.
Sampai Tuaran, we went to the Tuaran fish market. Lama suda tia pigi fish market o. As a seafood nut, I was very keen on the fishies and udangs and the katams. Huih..if can masak all in their freshness... sadap menjilat siku (borrowing my dad's sayings). Tuan H had another idea,

"Why don't we buy some prawns and ikan and we later 'lugu'? "

"On saja!".

So, after we sampai balik camp, we immediately began the bbq preparation. Prepare the api, clean the prawns and fish. Chopped the shallots and garlic, mixed them up with kasturi and chili.
Hihi... And so, we had a bbq session yesterday.

Anyway, the afternoon activity was handling these group of youngsters for the water safety and water confidence in the Kiulu river. Tuan H, as the 'alang', confidently and expertly did the briefings and explanation. Me as the anak sasing, just helped along monitoring the teens. During intermission, I went swimming and body rafted along with the currents. Strong currents jugak o. Can't describe this feeling of sheer fun and exhilaration when swimming, especially there at Kiulu. Next week pigiiiii lagi. Got time, will go swimming again.

Orange is the color

Had another visit to the dentist the other day.
Had the normal checkings. What's normal you might ask? heheh... Normal for me is when the doc makes me bite or open while checking the alignment of the teeth. So far, most of the teeth are progressing really well, in the sense that they're aligning quite ok. What's keeping the brackets/braces on? Well, I have this two upper right premolars that are absolutely stubborn and resolute. These two idjits are taking their sweet time turning and folding into line. Hish... ni la bikin selalu balik pigi dentist ni..
After doing the necessary tweaking and replacing the ligatures and the powerchain (tia tau how to explain, i just hear these terms as spoken by the doc to the nurses), the doc re-pasang the o-rings. Earlier, just as I was about to lounge on the dentist's chair, i asked the nurses what o-ring color was available. He opened the drawer to show me the range of color, woo... banyak juga choice. I had been wearing black o-rings for the past one month, you see. I thought of wearing the blue o-rings but halfway through the checkings i decided on orange, thinking that perhaps i hadn't tried on the color.
Upon reaching Sierra (that's what i call my place of residence), I turned on my computer and clicked open my dental journal. Drat it! How could i have forgotten? It was just early this February pulak i had used the orange o-rings. Tsk tsk tsk... No matter bah.
Let's see... according to my journal, i have used red, blue, green, purple, pink, black, a combination of green and red, a multicombi of yellow, red, blue, green, a combi or red and black,... Hmm.. on my next visit to the dentist, i'll choose some other color then.
So for now, orange is the color.