Sendat 2008 trip thumbs down - by Adzla

Good bye 2007, welcome 2008. Happy new year to all. It's been about 5 months now from our last river trip last July at Chiling river. For a starter this new year 2008, we're going to revisit Sendat river for the third time. The last visit was in 2006. This time we drive Toyota Hilux to get there. This time, not all of us had the luxury of time to get together and raid Sendat River. Jr is busy with some assignments, Ben is going to his cousin's wedding, Ali is to take care his ill granny, Penan? doctor should stay at the hospital, Hamim? for some obvious reasons- we know the answers already. We stop by first at Uniten to pack some road side nasi lemak breakfast and some munchies otherwise Puck would get emo-kenomo. Our wives (except Puck who haven't found his soul mate yet) had their plan of their own. One Utama window shopping.

Ulutopian time arrangement. Like always.

Going for nasi lemak

We had the munchies or kuih in the Hilux and happily headed over to Sendat while laughing our way to those who cannot join us. Recalling back the very first Sendat river trip and that was way back in 2003!. We still remember the dirt and potty road thru aborigine village, the challenging drive up to the river. And camp overnight while eating bread spread with chili sauce because we ran out of food supply.

Ulu Yam road

Ulu Yam Bahru village

Aborigine village

But now, half the road is tarmac half way, especially on entry. No bumpy surface. No pot holes. No muddy road. We were suprise to this 'development'. The last half weren't tarmac. We were guessing that if the road is nicely built -so there will be many people coming to Sendat river and spoilt our trip. We went thru with less effort. And there it was. Couple of cars and van. The bridge is nicely rebuilt and come to our big suprise was, we had to pay the visiting fee!. What the heck? For an adult, the fee is RM1.00 and for children is RM0.50. No proper carpark, no proper facilities and some how the officer from Hulu Selangor Municipal Counsel is working in the new year holiday in a jungle -willingly. We cancelled our Sendat and figuring out to where we going to re-route. We headed for Pinang river -the usual spot. But not up to Mordor. Just below at the our usual camp site.

Buddha statue

Wow! no more muddy road

Now, its a bit rough

Azam is happy maneuvering

"Next time, I'll bring my Airtrek", says Azam

The van, Nissan Venette, overtook us

Uh oh, just like we predicted

What? We have to pay?

The 'Entrance Fee Booth'. Wow, they really work on holiday.

No can do

Suck big time

There's so many people at Pinang spot. But they just dominate the lower portion of the river. We were going up from their bathing frenzy. After about 10 minutes walking to the jungle path and panting unfitly, we decided to stop here and make this spot our place. We unpack our nasi lemak and had breakfast at noon. After that everybody is doing their business, Puck took a leak nearby and we smoke and lay on the rock. Although a bit frustrated about Sendat, but this place is okay. The water is cool, the stream is massaging and environment is relaxing.

Lots of cars

Walking to the river

Jungle trek

Centipede or millipede?

Small leech in Puck's Croc

Relaxing after had meals.

After some few hours in the water and wandering around in the forest, we were getting hungry. A moved out from the river to get something to eat. Puck had a small leech on his finger and Azam poke it out. Azam showed us the route to Gohtong Jaya where a terminal for Genting cable car is located and we head down to Ligamas. Disappointment at the Sepakat Restaurant where we usually pack some nasi campur we had KFC instead.

Suck yer blood giant!

Heading out of Pinang.

The signages at Gohtong Jaya

We head back to Kuala Lumpur and to Bangi via KL-Putrajaya new link. I bet Azam after this will clock out his Airtrek Turbo. We arrive home at Azam's at about 7.00 p.m. By the way, the wives had their fun and they went to Hamim's house to visit newly born Wifey. But, no answer.

Sendat river from now onwards is a no-no place to go. Just remain as a memoir for us.
Maybe next time we gonna do a different kind of trip. Fishing at Kelong Paradise maybe? http://www.kelongparadise.com/

Other pictures:

Celcom Billboard

Bunch of second-hand ZX2r's for sale.

Orange and blue

Brilliant weather

People stop by to pack hill water. Placebo..placebo...placebo

Packed breakfast

Modded Gen2 at Sendat.

Gambo kat Bangkok, Phuket and Guam

by Azam.

Hi y'all,

Here I am in Guam now, got nothing to do, so I'm putting up this post. The first few pics are the ones I took at the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. It was a Sunday and I wasn't working. So I walked from my hotel to the Chao Phraya River (around 1.5km away from my hotel) and I saw a free boat ride I could take.

Okay, so the boat ride was only 15 minutes. Who cares, as long as it's free right ;). Anyway the boat ride that I took was from River City Plaza to something Taksin BTS Station (I forgot the full name of it, so sue me). So here's the pics.

The Hilton Hotel in Bangkok.

At the docks of River City Plaza.

The boat that I took a ride in.

Dunno what building this is, just snapped it cause I was sitting in the boat.

After Bangkok, I went to Phuket. I rented a scooter there as it was cheap and very easy to get around with. The rent was only RM20/day.

The rented scooter.

So I rode around the island with the scooter. I stopped by the beach and took some pictures. It was still early in the morning so the beach was still quite empty with few sunbathers around. Although I must say that the situation changes in the afternoon. I can't post those pics here. Too indecent if you know what I mean (heh heh heh).

Only two 'farangs' (white people) on the beach.

Then I rode to try and find the place where I'm supposed to do my work. I found out that it was close to the Phuket Aquarium. I had to pay RM10 to enter cause I'm not Thai. If only I could speak Thai, I could fool the lady selling the ticket and pay only RM2. Oh well. Here's a pic of a diver giving food to the sting ray.

'Watch out for the hand my man.'

I saw a masjid right across the road from the place where I did my work. So I did my Zohor prayer there. The masjid was just like any masjid in Malaysia. After they prayer, the Tok Imam came to me and spoke to me in Thai, but when he found out I'm Malay, he spoke Malay to me but in Indon dialect. He can speak Indon quite fluently cause he went out for 40 days twice in Indonesia with the Tabligh movement. He invited me to go to his home for a feast cause it turned out he was going for the Haj later that afternoon. The food that he served turned out to be nasi dagang.

Muslim family in Phuket. The tok imam is the one on the right.

The next day I went to the hills to take some scenic views of Phuket. I don't remember the name of the hills and beaches, but here's the pics anyway.

Finally, here's my pics in Guam. The water here is crystal clear and is full of corals. Because of the coral reefs, the waves break far from the shore and the beach is very calm. The only thing I could eat around here is Long John Silver. I'm already sick of it cause I'm eating it everyday. I'm never gonna eat at Long John's in Malaysia again. I wonder how Amar and Nina find halal food here.

Crystal clear waters of Guam.

My feet in the clear waters of the Pacific Ocean.


View point on top of the hill facing the south of Guam.

Here's the car that I rented. It's a Suzuki SX-4 that's just launched in Malaysia. It's a good car and it's one of the smallest car in Guam. Everybody here is driving big american cars. It took me a few days to get used to driving on the right side of the road. Always had to remind myself to keep right.

My rented car in Guam.

Below is the Two Lover's Point in Guam. It sits atop a cliff with a 500 ft. drop. If you wanted to go inside, you'd have to pay USD3, so I decided not to go. Not worth to pay RM10 just to get a nice view of Tumon Bay.

View point in Guam.

View of Tumon Bay from the side of the view point (it's free :) ).

The 500 ft. drop.

Gigantic waves of the Pacific pounding the shore where there is no reef.

Typical beach in Guam. Note the waves crashing far from the beach.

A flock of butterflies doing something. (I didn't have the
chance to ask them what they were doing ;p)

Okay. That was my report of my recent travels. After Christmas, I'd most probably have to go back to Thailand and will be going to Dubai in the first week of 2008. Aaahh, so tired and missing my family and friends. My boss better give me a substantial raise for next year, heh heh.