It never occur to me to ever in my life to attempt rock climbing not until some unknown yet friendly sales guy from Adidas injected the idea of indoor rock climbing to me sometime early this year. I remembered him asking if I am an outdoor junkie and whether I have tried rock climbing before. I said Yes, I am somewhat an outdoor junkie however I have never done rock climbing ever and upon hearing that, he quickly recommended Mad Monkeyz indoor rock climbing gym. I took note of this gym and forgotten all about it until someone in our outdoor gang started asking about this rock climbing gym at Putrajaya. Long story short, a group of 10 of us went for rock climbing some weekends ago and it was really fun!

Myself on the right, hanging on to dear life!

Getting to this Putrajaya Challenge Park or locally translated on the signboard as Taman Cabaran is pretty easy. Follow the signboard for Precint 5 and don’t be surprised if you have to go through the Muslim cemetery and see many cars parked around the area. Keep going ahead from that cemetery and the many cars you see are from people attending the burial ceremony and no, they are not visiting the Challenge Park like you are.Haha. You will see the Taman Cabaran signboard and the welcome banner a couple of minutes drive up ahead.

Welcome climbers to Putrajaya Challenge Park

After getting changed (there’s changing room with showers and loo) and paying up the fees (entrance fee: RM 6 + we shared shoes, harness and belayer service, so each person pay a total of  RM11), we were directed to the beginner’s wall. To tell you the truth, the wall is pretty intimidating and out of no where, I feel scared and anxiety take the better of me. The wall is high and it looks tough to climb. I struggled with the harness for a good 5 minutes and up I went making my first attempt at indoor rock climbing. Man, it was tough! I was clueless at most time on where I should put my hands and feet. I kept hearing people from below shouting up to me, to push with  my legs, don’t use my hands to pull myself up. But what the heck right, I was loosing grip and your immediate response is to hold on tight on the rocks with your bare hands. Despite being roped on a harness, it feels a whole lot safer to grip those rocks with your own hands rather than letting go of yourself to the hands of the belayer( the guy holding the rope down from your harness). During this first attempt, I made only inches away from the top and on the second run, this time with shoes on, and after endless shouts of “where to hold on” later to my belayer, I made it to the top. For no reason at all, you begin to perspire like crazy because unknowingly, it takes a whole lot of energy to pull yourself up when you do rock climbing.

Beginner's boulder is easy? So NOT!

Next up, I tried going for the beginner’s boulder – the one with the thick mattress on the ground. I found myself stuck on I think the 45 degrees slant on the wall and I hesitated on whether to jump down from 2 meters below or keep trying to go up or climb down a little bit and then jump. After much struggle, I chose the latter and it can get very intimidating and nerve wrecking to jump that high (although it may probably be less than 2 meter high). After much photo snaps later and only 2 climbs on the beginner’s wall and 2 climbs on the beginner’s boulder, I called it a quit.

Rock climbing takes a lot of energy out of you and yes you gotta be fit to enjoy this game. One thing I really like about it though is the amount of calories you get to burn in a short period of time and let say if I continue working on this rock climbing activity for sometime, I’m sure to have a very fit body. I would highly suggest rock climbing for anyone game enough for adventure and most importantly want to have a full body workout quickly in a short period of time. Most people say, rock climbing can get pretty addictive because you will want to do it again and again after your first climb. Personally, I would like to think, yeah, I’ll do it again next time but I’m not too sure if I’ll get addicted to it. Other than that, if you are given a chance to try out on indoor rock climbing gym or better the real deal on a real, outdoor rock face, do give it a go and don’t be afraid to annoy your belayer or instructor on where to put your hands and feet during your climb.

The indoor rock climbing gym at Putrajaya

*pictures courtesy of Azrul

It has been one of those back to back outdoor adventure weeks since a couple of weeks ago for me and it couldn’t get any better than that. I’ve finally made it for the Grand Tour at Gua Tempurung, Gopeng last weekend. It is kind of pathetic really because almost all the years living in Perak, I’d never made it to Gua Tempurung not until recently. Oh well, it’s better late than never.

Last year, the family and I went for Tour 1 – The Golden Flowstone tour at Gua Tempurung, hence the recent Grand Tour was my second attempt at Gua Tempurung. All in all there are four main tours you can choose from at this cave . There are:

1. Tour 1 – Golden Flowstone ( Level of difficulty (L.O.D) : Easy)

2. Tour 2 – Top of the World ( L.O.D : Moderate)

3. Tour 3 – Top of the World & Short River Adventure (L.O.D : Moderate)

4. Tour 4 – Grand Tour (L.O.D : Moderate to Challenging)

My partner in crime for this Grand Tour is none other than my loyal outdoor partner – FF! Needless to say, this caving activity was just a thought that I have in mind to do when FF decided to come down for a getaway-ad hoc holiday at the family farm. We made it to the counter just in time to join in with about 50 other people for the Grand Tour. Both of us joined in with a group of 30+ Chinese people from Penang and 17+ group of Malay teenagers. If you are coming in a super tiny group like the both of us, it is best to stick near to the guide during the starting point and make yourself noticed to the guide because I can tell you one thing, the guide has no idea on how many people exactly he is going to guide and there are no literal head count going on at the start of the tour. We made our presence pretty loud and clear to the guide by confirming to him that we are a group of two joining amongst the two other bigger groups in the tour.

…read more about Caving at Gua Tempurung – Grand Tour

You know what, if you are a true adrenaline junkie at heart, you will love to head on and do that crazy pumped up activity over and over again. It can never get old and that’s exactly what I am (an adrenaline junkie at heart ) and  what I’ve done ( doing the things I love to do repetitively, haha). I can’t believe it that I’ve done white water rafting at Sg.Kampar with the Riverbug crew for the 3rd time now! Like OMG!

You gotta lift the boat first before you can hit the water. Dang the raft is heavy.

The real reason Sg.Kampar seems to be the perfect white water rafting destination for me was because:

1. It’s near to home, thus it is convenient and feasible. Moreover it’s an excellent day trip outdoor adventure for me.

2. After going for my second run of white water rafting at Sg.Kampar, I was asking for friends to go with me for white water rafting (wwr) at Padas, Sabah right after the whole gang came down from Mt.Kinabalu.  I was disappointed to find out that only Bullert was keen enough to go all crazy with me with this wwr and because of other issues, we decided not to go for white water rafting at Padas just yet.

3. I was doing some crazy planning for some fun outdoor holiday and on the itinerary I included white water rafting at Padas but I was let down again when we had to scrapped Sabah out from our holiday destination. Thus, to further not to disappoint myself and to quench my thirst for some kick of awesome adrenaline, I agreed for yet another round of white water rafting at Sg.Kampar with the Riverbug crew. This time around I was going with my sisters and my brother in law.

I can tell you one thing about any outdoor adventure activity which is every single trip is going to be unique, different and new to you regardless on how many times you have gone through the same river or track or jungle path. This time around I was literally praying to have yet another new experience for my white water rafting trip. My prayers were answered and I got this:

At one of the rapids, for no reason at all, I got thrown out from the raft and went straight on into the fast flowing white water. I remembered opening my eyes and saw water bubbles all over me. The next second, I was being tossed up and down like a helpless rubber ball scraping along the way rocks from the front and back. I also began to swallow more water and eventually was gasping for air so bad that I was literally making that deep breathing sound and I kept trying to breath until all the water spurted out from my lungs. In the split seconds, I saw our raft floating by me but I couldn’t get hold of it until I turned and saw the kayak rescue guide on my side telling me not to panic and to hold the little steel at the back of his kayak. It scared me shitless! Haha. After being hauled back on the raft, I was finally breathing properly and it scared me the most not because I got thrown into the rapid. It was primarily because I couldn’t breathe for the few seconds being tossed in the water. Imagine yourself not breathing? That’s like close to dying! Hahaha.

Nevertheless, it was one heck of a ride and I loved it for the adrenaline and for making me close to drowning. A whole new experience altogether although I must say, it wasn’t the first time that I had drowned and being rescued of course. =).

Check out that Mat Salleh. He's expressionless. Haha

Another extra thing that we got to do besides the normal banana boat, body surfing and team body surfing, the Riverbug crew asked if we would like to have a go at kayaking. All the three members in my raft went for it except for me because I was still traumatized and shaken after the fall and the fact that I wasn’t being able to breathe like 15 minutes ago. Haha. All in all, it was a fun day, good to see the crews back again and I’m hoping that soon enough I can get my ass trotting for white water rafting at Padas. Let’s make that happen in this future shall we.

Check out the video below too!

I’m pretty excited to check out this new alpha male dog in the pack. Out of the blue, this male dog returned back to his bitches just a couple of weeks back. Someone speculate that he is the rightful father of Brownie ( the brown puppy dog) and is the former mating partner of Maggie. At the moment there seem to be a slight rival and competition to win the heart of this Alpha dog between both Maggie and Silver – the bitches. There is also  a solid evident to believe that currently Alpha is mating with Silver. Haha.

I’ve yet to have a look at this particular Alpha dog and the fact that he returned back to his pack after such a long time is really amazing. On the other hand, that will mean, there are more mouth to feed these days. I will sure to capture some pictures if I’m lucky enough to spot this Alpha later today. And, Alpha is not a bad of a name to call this male dog. So Alpha he shall be called from now on.

If you haven’t already known, I am a big big fan of Tiesto and of late I’ve been spinning songs from his Myspace. I have to admit that I wasn’t really into this song -- You are my diamond, not after having to listen to all the songs in Tiesto’s Myspace list for the gazillion times. Yes, I haven’t been listening to anything else for the past couple of weeks except for Tiesto! Haha!

I’m going to share with you You are  my diamond song from YouTube and also the lyrics. I only started looking for the lyrics and finally come down to really listen to what Kianna is saying only today! Oh, Kianna is the featured artist for You are my diamond.

You are my diamond lyrics- Tiesto featuring Kianna

I don’t need a ring to show me what your loves worth
don’t need fancy things to show me what your loves worth

you are my diamond, when I am with you I shine
I’ll be with you everyday so everyday I’ll shine so bright

I am a rich girl when I am with you I know
you are my whole world and I will never let you go
I cant explain how you light me up inside
I radiate and thats not something you can buy

you are my diamond, when I am with you I shine
I’ll be with you everyday so everyday I’ll shine so bright
you are my diamond, when I am with you I shine
I am with you everyday so everyday I’ll shine so bright

oh oh oh ..
oh oh
oh oh
oh oh oh
oh oh
oh oh

all my life I’ve been looking for love
I thought I’d never find it
all my life I’ve been looking for you
I just didnt know it

you are my diamond, when I am with you I shine
I’ll be with you everyday so everyday I’ll shine so bright
yeah you are my diamond
my diamond
my diamond
yeah
yeah
yeah
yeah

you are my diamond
you are my diamond

you are my diamond
you are my diamond

*note: The only way this song relates to me is that yes, I’ve found my diamond which is the thing that I’m really passionate & love and I am working my way to work it out despite all odds by any means and at any cost. =). Life is essentially not just about pursuing that ultimate love of your life, it is more than that. It is about finding your purpose in this life, the life at the present. If you haven’t figured your purpose in life just yet, why not take a couple of minutes now and think about it.