I think this is so true!
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Mount Kinabalu Day 2
Day 2
The chalet was so comfortable some team mates thought it was fine to just stay there and relax. No way would I allow that… haha…
Don’t you want to stay here…? Romantic morning…
Cosy Living Room
TV (not LCD but on the mountains, this is luxury already). Fireplace (anyone really uses it?)
Dining area
Basic kitchen with mini fridge, coffee, tea, sugar, creamer, kettle, glasses and mugs.
2 bunk beds
2 single beds in another room. Hair dryer provided. Use the hair dryer to warm the blankets at night before sleep, as the weather at the headquarters are reaaaaaaally cold. In total, each room holds 4 pax.
Full range of toiletries are provided so not to worry if you did not bring any.
We took the bus to Balsam Buffet Restaurant for breakfast. It was buffet style, with mains like nasi lemak and fried noodles, toast, bread, fruit, eggs, roti prata, porridge, juices etc. In terms of mountain climbing, this has to be 5 star luxuries. After eating, we collect our packed lunch, which was in a brown paper bag. Some teammates can’t stop complaining about its bulkiness.
We collected our tags. Off we go. Do not lose your tag as it will be checked now and then. It makes a nice souvenir too. I really like the caption. In diving terms, it is “Leave nothing but bubbles.” Taking photographs are ok, but take care of the marine life. Some marine life are too fragile to take the flashes from a camera repeatedly, for example pygmy seahorse. Off topic..
There are two routes to reach the summit from the headquarters at around 1800m: Timpohon or Mesilau. The latter is the tougher and longer route (8km), takes about 1-2hours longer, requires some hiking experience, but promises better flora and fauna along the way.
I was not sure about how my team would fare. For most, it was their first mountain, and I was worried it might be too ambitious for them. But in order not to disappoint people on this probable adventure, I went ahead. I planned a training schedule which some have sparsely participated, so I crossed my fingers. Guessed that they would perhaps be too tired to check out the flowers and insects on Mesilau. Moreover, they opted for the below..
I guess what people want is just an easier path for an adventure of a lifetime, a bucket list to fulfil. But if you are the adventurous kind and would like to do more technical climbing, go for Mesilau. I personally feel Timpohon is pretty easy. It really is climbing stairs (a lot of it though). I run about 3-4 times a week, hike/trek about 1-2 times monthly. Another friend who would also be able to do Mesilau at ease is a seasoned trekker, but she decided to do Timpohon for the reasons I stated. She’s really sweet. U know your body best. So think carefully as it is a path of no return. LOL.
You can also choose to take a different route when u come down, but they were too tired to think by then.
Our guide briefed us through the route, rest stops and our climbing plan. Off we go for today’s 6km climb to Laban Rata guesthouse at 3272m, where we would stay for the night. 2 of us were to climb additional 100-200m to Panar Laban hut due to lack of beds.
All of us were excited to embark on the journey.
Soon after we started, I feel the effects of thin air on the high altitude.
Timpohon is easy enough, as it only required u to keep climbing stairs. The route is well marked and maintained. There is not a lot of climbing skills involved. But still, one has to be fit enough or at least trained for stamina and climbing stairs. Otherwise, it will be hell of a time, as it did for some of my teammates.
In the beginning, we can already see the difference between mates who trained climbing stairs with me and those who didn’t. I will be posting the training schedule for reference for people interested. Those who did not do any training, be prepared to stop every few steps (yes few steps..) and take a breather.
At every hut (pondok), there is a toilet, garbage bin, benches, probably water (but not potable – u may want to bring some filters or chlorine tablets), and a Mt KK trail map. Have your own sanitizer, tissue or wet tissue after using the toilet as the taps might not work.
The distance between each hut is around 500m-1km, and there will be distance markers along the way indicating how far you have travelled.
Layang Layang hut, slightly before 4km, is the “mid-point: mark for lunch.
Mystery solved. In case u were wondering what’s inside our brown bags.
Sandwich was horribly dry, with super thin & tasteless ham, egg, cheese fillings, but an apple is always welcoming. It is my favourite food on any hiking trip. Biodegradable, crunchy, nutritious, thirst-quenching, filling, and it keeps u more awake than caffeine (go read up more on that). I probably would prepare my own meal if I did my surgery before the trip. This looks rubbish to me now! lol.
Some of my teammates were just happy to rid the bulky packed lunch, even though they were not hungry.
The terrains were basically climbing upstairs, downstairs, upstairs… But pretty beautiful flora and fauna, terrain, views..
Saw plants that look like rope, infamous pitcher jugs which trap insects, and many more.. Keep your eyes open for these beautiful things and you will never feel bored. Enjoy the journey so you would not feel tired. 🙂
It helps to know a bit of rock climbing, as this mountain is mainly rock surface.
After much enjoyment (and struggles), breathlessness, we reached today’s destination slightly behind time, around 4pm. This is it! Now I see with my own eyes… Laban Rata guesthouse with Mt KK behind.
We proceeded to the restaurant, buffet style too.While eating, our guide came with the good news that all of us will stay in a single room in Laban Rata.At this point, everybody has some kind of altitude sickness. Only one person managed to not pop any panadols.
Before going on the trip, I had considered taking altitude pills. But then again, I wanted to test my limits too. So I did not go ahead with the idea.
Dining above clouds..
Such was sunset.. (There are more beautiful pictures, but not panoramic. Pardon me for lousy photography skills that does not do the subjects/sceneries justice. I will try to improve on that.)
A few of us went down to the platform before the guesthouse to take pictures of the awesome sunset. In slippers of course… (I wore the paper slippers provided by guesthouse. We had to climb down the same rocky path down, lucky it was short enough. My toes were numbed.) We stayed until we could not bear the decreasing temperature and headed back for shower and rest.
Afterall, we were supposed to wake up around 1am tomorrow. Water was freaking cold. Since a power trip in 2009, the heater function is gone and stayed that way. I only wiped my body in the end, but it was a lot better than braving the ice cold shower. Good night..
Liu Qian’s Magic Show @ Marina Bay Sands
Watched a wonderful magic show by Liu Qian (刘谦, Lu Chen) at MBS today. It was a two hour show, full of laughter, surprises, amazement, excitement, and of course, magic.
Sometimes, MBS invites performers from all around the world and gives out these tickets to its patrons. Sometimes, they also buy good seat tickets of certain shows and gives patrons complimentary tickets. I think it’s a nice gesture and good way to keep in the competitive business. Here, it is certainly not value-for-money but more of a ‘special’/’privileged’ treatment. Yes, I feel that way whenever I come.
Frankly, even if I had to pay for the show, I would do it again.
It was amazing. I was never a fan of magic, though I sometimes find it interesting. As I grow older, I figured magic is all but illusion. Hence the magic is much reduced. Anyway, watching liu qian was fun. He is certainly one of the best performers I have ever seen. His show is well planned, with little to no moments of boredom. Just laughter, enjoyment, amazement.
We were late by about 20 minutes so we missed out the front portion. It was a warm up performance, involving somebody’s money. When we came back, he magically made it reappear for the guy he borrow money from. The show was not a passive one way show. He engages in active interaction now and then with the audience, borrowing items, inviting people up on stage, playing frisbee.. Lol.
The show started with big items like disappearing, cutting people up, floating on air on a plank, shrinking people and making them reappear. The middle part was a long conversational performance. The guy who was invited up was absolutely annoying, trying to irritate the whole world and make things difficult for the host. However, that also displays Liu Qian’s incredibly high EQ. It then moved on to small items like sitting at a table and performing poker, rings magic, balls and coffee cup.
Stories were inter weaved into the performance, coupled with the humorous and confident host, the whole performance was one of the best I have seen. After watching the show, I understood why Liu Qian is one of the most successful magicians in Taiwan, and have performed with many other great magicians in many parts of the world.
To be successful, u not only have to be passionate, relationships are important too. He is a great performer. The stories are exciting, sad, funny, touching.. Especially the coffee cup story. He had a big brother Xu who performed the coffee cup and balls magic for him at 8 years old. He was amazed and decided to become a magician. That’s how long he trained for. Since 8 years old. Passion. How many people can get to know what they want since young? Some never find out. Some never bother to.
I don’t know if he was born with this ability to entertain. But he definitely is a very charismatic person. When u are in sync with yourself, know what u want in life, and pursue your dreams, I guess it just shows externally. U become happier, more confident, brave. Hopefully more charismatic too 🙂
Mount Kinabalu Day 1
Kota Kinabalu.
At 4095m, Mount Kota Kinabalu (Mt KK) is the highest in Borneo. It is located in Sabah, which forms the Borneo with Sarawak, Brunei and parts of Indonesia.
Sabah and Sarawak are also states of Malaysia, and are known as “East Malaysia”.
Geographically, it is separated from the Malaysia (West Malaysia) most people know about, which lies on top of Singapore, by the South China Sea.
It has been one of my bucket list to-do for years. I have been hiking for years, and heard many stories about climbing this famous mountain. After climbing so many mountains and assured that Mt KK is a easy climb, even for the inexperienced, I decided to go for it.However, seems like most people who trekked with me has went before. When you have a dream, u just have to take action.
So, I went ahead to plan my own.
First, I checked out the weather. Mount Kinabalu is infamous for its almost-daily rain. The best season is said to be Mar-Apr. Hence, I started to ask around. I gathered a team who seemed keen on the challenge, without much consideration for their varied fitness levels, thinking naively that it should be an easy mountain for all. It turned out to be a mistake.
Nevertheless, the peeps took back home bittersweet memories which will be with them for life.
Standard climbing itinerary involves a 3D2N package. More on the preparation in future updates.
Day 1
We went by Airasia, which is currently the one cheapest option from Singapore. However, there was only one flight to and fro Singapore and Kota Kinabalu. Arrival time at KK would be 8, 9 pm. I feared that would make my team mates too tired for the long climb the next day. Hence, I opted to book two flights, Singapore via Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu, SG-KL, then KL-KK. There are more timings to chose from KL to KK. That would give me more options in terms of arrival time at Kota Kinabalu. It turns out that the difference was only about an hour. (Also due to long waiting time for transit)
But everyone was nice and said that was a pretty good arrangement. At the airport, we were promptly fetched by a driver with my name on a big white cardboard. Off he drove us to the mid-hills, headquarters around 1800m, where we would stay for the night.
We arrived around 930pm. The chilly cold greeted us the moment the car door was opened. Immediately, one of my friends who only brought a thin sweater regretted. She didn’t realize it would be this cold. We stepped out of the car into pitch dark, and were amazed by the beautiful stars smiling back at us.
It was the most beautiful sky I had seen so far.
Living in Singapore, a brightly lit concrete jungle, I have only seen at most a sparse few stars in the sky. My eyes lingered. Too bad my iphone camera would not be able to capture its beauty.
This is it! Map of the trail we will be taking!
We were supposed to check in to dormitories. But somehow, we got an upgrade. Yeah! Each chalet can hold 4 pax maximum, so we split 3 by 3. At this time, the provided dinner were replaced with packed dinner, fried rice.
Our last meal was 3pm, so we kind of got pretty hungry. So the very plain fried rice worked well for us. I finished everything because I know I would need it for the climb tmr. One of us opted for vegetarian meal and it was merely saltier fried rice.
After late dinner, we showered and head for bed. Tomorrow will be a long day. 🙂
Baking Class at Phoon Huat
I went for my very first baking class (after home econs lessons in secondary school) yesterday!
Have been baking for some time, cookies, cakes, scones, brownies, cheesecake.. Some turned out well, some not so good. I’ve always believed that anyone can bake. With google, it is even easier. Hence, I self-learned instead of going to baking classes. But I just wanted to try. I know some goodies are not meant for the amateur home baker. Let’s see what a baking class can bring. 🙂
Phoon Huat @ Sims Lane is just next to Aljunied MRT station, very convenient.
You will learn two recipes per lesson. Lessons will be taught almost everyday. Heard that the recipes taught will be changed every one to two weeks. Check their schedule & see what interests you. They also have demo workshops if you do not want to get your hands dirty. Booking is available from two weeks to one day before the lesson.
Our instructor was Patrick Pang. He does not smile much, but is knowledgeable, and imparts useful tips which differs slightly to the worksheet handed out. He went through the ingredient list, gives tips, and briefed us through the steps. After that, things will be moving fast. So listen carefully, bring a pen, so to maximise your learning.
I will not be updating the recipes until these two recipes are not taught for infringement of copyrights lol..
Here are the products.
Chocolate lava cake with salted caramel.
Hokkaido Milk Bread.
This was the spinoff of Hokkaido Milk Bread. The recipe taught was a basic soft bread recipe, and can be used for making other varieties – sugar roll, pork floss, otah, hotdog, cheese, whatever. The above was made with fruit pie filling, handmade by the instructor, not me. heh..
The lava cake was so heavenly.. absolutely delicious. Not too sweet as we used dark chocolate with 73% cocoa. The salted caramel pushes the oomph factor up many levels. Hokkaido milk bread was super soft and “bouncy”. It bounce back to its original soft and fluffy state no matter how you press it down. It was made using the Roux (Tang Zhong) method.
It was my first time making bread I think. Interesting. I also learnt how to roll the dough so it is nice & smooth.
Roll the dough like this!
You are expected to wash up your stuffs and clean your own tables. Some of the ingredients like roux, caramel and cocoa mixture were premade by the instructor to save time. But he would demo how to turn plain ingredients into heavenly concoction. Magic.
Overall, the lesson was fun and interesting. I learnt a lot! I love baking! 🙂
CNY post 2 – pineapple tarts
Pineapple tarts have to be one of the most tedious traditional cookie recipes I’ve tried out. Personally I’m not a fan of pineapple tarts, but this recipe from Fresh From The Oven is absolutely melt-in-the-mouth (enclosed version).
To save time and energy, I used store bought pineapple paste from Phoon Huat. Previously read that PH sells different kinds of pineapple paste. I used the premium, which is less sweet, more fibrous.
I reduced the recipe by half as I just wanted to try out and don’t want to spend too much time, knowing the process is tedious. It still took about 3h of my time, including washing up. Sigh I need to speed up.
Pineapple-lookalike tarts. I purposely left the bottom one without scoring to see the difference..
Yields about 50-60pcs
Ingredients
110g butter, room temperature
188g flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
25g icing sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
Pineapple paste, rolled into small balls. (PH sells 1kg package. U need less than a quarter probably…)
1. Sieve flour, icing sugar, salt, cornstarch. Set aside
2. Beat butter till light and fluffy
3. Add yolk till well combined.
4. Slowly beat in flour mixture till JUST combined
5a. Open faced tarts:
-Roll between two greaseproof paper/cling film and use the pineapple tart cutter to cut out shapes.
-Apply egg wash, then add pineapple paste balls on top.
5b. Closed tarts
– Roll pastry into balls, flatten, place a pineapple paste ball on top and enclose it with the dough.
– Roll the tart into a nice ball or elongated shapes to mimic pineapple (personal preference)
6. Bake 180C for 10-15min.
Notes:
– The dough mixture tend to be on the dry side, and i was really tempted to add in some milk or liquid. Instead, I must tried squeezing it together and it seemed to be cohesive enough. Lucky I didn’t add in liquid otherwise it might be too soft to handle.
– The dough is pretty easy to handle, no chilling required.
– Was getting frustrated with the open faced tarts as I was not good with cookie cutting. Therefore, tried some closed tarts.
– Flouring is not needed for open faced tarts. It will affect the shape.
– Original recipe was meant for closed tarts. It was many times nicer than open faced and “melt in the mouth”. I liked it, considering that I’m not pineapple tart lover, imagine how nice it has to be..
– Pineapple paste tend to dry up on open faced tart.
– For first round, applied egg wash on assembled open faced tart and realized it was more difficult. Therefore, suggest to apply before adding pineapple balls.
– Baking time about 13min.
– Egg wash can be omitted. It does not make the cookie more fragrant or look nicer.
Chocolate chip cookies (crunchy & nice!)
I have tried many chocolate chip cookies and they often turned out soft in the middle, or “don’t taste like normal cookie” (as quoted from some colleague who tried😔. I’m glad I finally found one which turns out crunchy, even after days, when stored in airtight container of course.
This is the best chocolate chip cookie I ever baked. Serious. Thanks to Weng who shared it. Enjoy!
Ingredients
340g self rising flour
110g caster sugar (refined)
225g butter
1 1/2tsp baking powder
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate chips
1. Cream butter and sugar till creamy and fluffy.
2. Add in egg and vanilla essence, mix we’ll
3. Fold in sifted flour, baking powder, and chocolate chips
4. Bake in preheated oven 180C for 20min.
Notes:
– most cookie recipes were too sweet for common taste buds. Hence I cut down to 110g from 175g. Reviews were great. People find the sweetness not too overwhelming. Just nice! 🙂
– feared that it might be too sweet, dare not add too many chocolate chips. Instead of Hershey semi sweet mini chocolate chips, I used the “Safeway” brand, mini dark chocolate chips from Phoon Huat.
– although most people cant tell its chocolate chip cookie, they still like it anyway. They thought those were nuts. Success.
– I purposely used butter which is not too soft, hoping to achieve a crunchier cookie
– work quick and avoid over mixing otherwise a tough instead of crunchy cookie will result
– no self rising flour. In a measuring cup, add 1 1/2tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt & fill up the cup with plain flour = self rising flour.
– used double action baking powder hence I reduced amount of baking powder required, assuming regular baking powder was called for in the recipe
– next time, add more chocolate chips. 🙂
CNY 2014 post 1 – traditional almond cookies
Chinese New Year is approaching in 3 weeks+. It’s time to be kiasu and start baking. This recipe is adapted from “my sweet hut”. In fact it’s exactly the same. It tastes fabulous, though personally I prefer it less sweet. It was alright for my family though, as they don’t usually eat baked goods but kept finding excuses to sneak in and steal a piece or two as I was baking (yes.. They prefer the freshly baked. They said it was divine, lol.)
If u are looking for traditional ones, this is it. I did not follow the 7-8g per ball (baking should be therapeutic), just roughly 1tsp. I’m not perfectionist as u can see, the balls are not of same size.. So is the strength of egg wash, heh.. Homemade.
Recipe yields a very small batch. Unexpectedly. Abt 75pcs.
Ingredients
120g ground almonds
95g caster sugar
180g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
122 ml cooking oil
1 egg yolk (for egg wash)
1. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt together
2. Mix well with almonds
3. Add oil & incorporate into dry mixture.
4. Roll into small balls, about the amount of 1 tsp.
5. Bake in a preheated oven 180C for 18min or lightly browned.
Enjoy! 😊
Peanut chocolate truffle cookies
Ingredients
150g chocolate truffles, broken into pieces (recipe from allrecipes – refer below)
7 tbsp/3.5oz/100g soft butter
1/4cup or 50g sugar (used super fine grain)
1/2cup or 100g brown sugar (reduced to abt 25g)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4cup or 130g self-rising flour (used about 150g – leftovers)
1/2 cup or 100g ground peanuts
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line cookie sheet with baking parchment.
2. Cream butter and sugars till light & fluffy.
3. Gradually beat in egg & vanilla extract.
4. Mix in flour, nuts, cocoa powder and baking powder.
5. Fold in chopped chocolate
6. Put teaspoonfuls of mixture on cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches (5cm) between them.
7. Bake for 10-12min. Let cool for 5min, then transfer to cake rack & cool completely.
Chocolate truffles
– 12 ounces (abt 330g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
– 1/3 cup heavy cream (whipping cream used)
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– combine chocolate & cream over medium heat, stir till mixture is smooth. Pour into a small dish and refrigerate till set about 2hours.
Notes:
– adapted from Food Lovers recipe book, Something Sweet, pg 134, chocolate chip cookies
– chocolate truffles adapted from allrecipes
– intended to use up the ingredients hence did the above changes.
– in place of brown sugar I used Demerara. The taste was supposedly nicer but harder to cream as the granules were large.
– double action baking powder were used
– original recipe calls for hazelnut but I have leftover ground peanut
– cookie rises quite a bit more than expected.. Prob due to double action.
– self rising flour was homemade – added a bit too much salt, but overall product was amazing with slight saltiness
– sweetness was just right. Thumbs up.
– absolutely a keeper.
Chocolate cookies (adapted from Nestle’s Toll House recipes)
Ingredients:
10 oz dark chocolate/semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup butter, softened (~1 stick of butter/113g)
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
Method:
- Preheat oven to 325oF (~163oC)
- Line baking tray with baking paper/grease it lightly
- Melt the chocolate in microwave or in a bowl over simmering water (ensure the bowl does not touch the bottom of the pot to prevent burning)
- Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt together.
- In another mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars till creamy. Add 2/3 cup of chocolate, mix well. Add egg, vanilla, mix till well blended, about 1 min.
- Fold in flour mixture.
- Bake for 16-18min.
- Leave it on cooling rack for 5-10min.
Notes:
- I was trying to finish up Hershey’s cocoa powder, and as an experiment, I followed the instructions on package to replace dark chocolate needed in the recipe.
- Mix 10tsp (~50g), 20tsp(~100g) shortening, 35tsp (~175g) sugar together.
- Ran out of fine granulated sugar, used coarse grain but it was too hard to dissolve, resulting in sugar grains in finished product.
- Suggest icing sugar instead.
- Used vegetable without strong flavor (canola) in place of shortening (thought it would be easier to mix), but 100ml was too much. Flavour of canola is still too strong for finished product.
- Added 1-2 tsp extra cocoa powder.
- Well mixing is key.
- 160oC is too low, perhaps 180oC 16min would do good.
- Forgot to add baking soda. Cookies turned out flat as expected, lack texture.
- Best to use fine sugar or icing sugar, soft brown sugar which dissolves well in this recipe, for better texture. It should have a texture similar to brownies.
My Cloudy Journey 