An Evening With Pak Lah

I was recently given the honour and privilege to attend a dinner function with our Prime Minister, Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Poor guy. 6 hours earlier, he had an emergency meeting with the UMNO guys and was slated to relinquish power in March 2009. But kudos to him for still making an effort to attend a function rather than
canceling it.
It's not easy being a PM. The dinner went on until 11pm. He gave speeches, the rakyat taking personal pictures, asking for autographs. And to think that he just went through his own personal and crushing crisis 6 hours ago. If this happened to me,
I would have handled it differently and it usually involves my 2 friends, Jack and Jose.
I took a lot of pictures of Mr Badawi to show you guys that he's harmless and a nice guy. Don't be too harsh on him. Pak Lah close upPutrajaya Power BabesPutrajaya Power Babes 2Muzaffar Teoh
Don't post pictures of him sleeping while attending functions. If I was his age, I'd definitely feel tired and sleepy at 1052pm after a hectic day. Heck, even at 2pm I'm feeling sleepy already.My ideal 2pm activity

Impressive Lata Kijang

Last week, after a successful trek to Lata Hammers lead by Joe Yap, I was keen on another happening waterfall. This time I planned to mountainbike all the way to Lata Kijang. Since YC bought me a mountain bike 2 months ago, I've only used it on 4 occassions. The christening of the mountain bike was in Kemensah which I failed miserably due to the high slopes. The second one was a short ride along the Semenyih dam. The 3rd and 4th time was to go to the nearby hawker centre to buy Hokkien Char Yee Mee.

I was in Bangkok recently and was in The North Face boutique. In there, I saw posters of trekking expeditions and that got me semangat.Never Stop Exploring4 days before the weekend, I summoned Eric, a biking enthusiast. Jimmy, my regular trekking is out of commission due to the puasa month. The last time, we went to Lata hammers, it was deserted which was amazing. I don't really like waterfalls with a lot of people. Eric was in the Lata Hammers group as well and got quite semangat with my plans.

We headed out to Kg Esok, the start of the 30km journey to the waterfalls.
Eric's RM4000 mountain bike and my RM400 mountain bike
My first 30 minutes was heavenly. The air never felt fresher and cleaner. Just beautiful greenery on both sides.I Want To Ride My Bicycle, I Want To Ride - A Song By Queen Fresh air

It was smooth sailing until I encountered my first (and many more slopes to come)small hills. Being a novice in mountain biking, I was pretty inexperienced in manouvering the gear changes. I ended up using a lot of energy on my thighs and leg muscles. But going down was superb. Going downhill with top speed is every mountain biker's best part. Every downhill will always encounter with another uphill session.
By this time, I was already pushing my bike. I no longer enjoyed the scenery as I was too exhausted to be all poetry in motion. Eric was happily riding up on slopes and performing wheelies. That goes to show his experiences in mountainbiking.
Pushing up on a slope
After an hour or so, we encountered this 70 degree angle slope.
70 degree slope Pushing the bike up this slope is one of the most back breaking activities I've ever done. I collapsed several times due to fatigueCollapsed!!
It was so steep that Eric, the mountain bike expert also had to push his bike up. Along the way, we passed by an Orang Asli village and asked about the duration to reach the waterfall. It was another 15 minutes uphill and then downhill for 10 minutes and the waterfall will be there. Upon hearing that, I chucked the mountain bike to the side and started walking. I wasn't going to drag the hunk of metal for another second.Could not push my bike up any longer
After abandoning my bike, it was great to walk again without any burden. It was 12pm and I finally reached Lata Kijang. I was so impressed with this waterfall that my exhaustion completely dissapeared. The cool refreshing water also helped quell my fatigue. This is purported to be one of the tallest waterfalls in Malaysia. The second should be in Gunung Stong. We had nasi lemak and took some pictures. There was no one at the waterfalls except us. I love the puasa month. Lata Kijang
Eric Stroud & Bear Teoh By 130pm, we started our journey back and I reclaimed my bike where I left it. Overall, it was a satisfying activity as oppose to strolling aimlessly in Mid Valley Megamall.