Broga Hill aka 'Bukit Lalang'

As I lay here writing, my legs feel like jello, my head is throbbing and my energy level down to zero ...basically I'm feeling like one of them Street Fighter characters who's just one flying kick away from being K-O-ed by the opponent.

Don't get me wrong, this is NOT from climbing Broga hill. Not meaning to gloat but scaling Broga Hill is just like a walk-in-the park or in my case, a walk up to my condo.

My exhaustion now is cuz I just came back from this other mountain-climb, shall talk about it another day.

Right now, I introduce you Broga Hill or as the locals call it, 'Bukit Lalang' (you'll soon see why).
Location : In between Kg Sri Broga and Univ of Nottingham, Semenyih.
How many (sane) people would actually choose to sweat, suffer and endure cramps and muscle aches from hill-climbing on a Valentine's weekend? Hey, I would!

Above is the panoramic view of Broga Hill in a snapshot. Heck it's so beautiful, couples could even take their wedding photos up here. Just convince the bride to take a 30-45 min hike uphill.

Hoping to catch a spectacular sun-rise from the hill-top, we started way early at 6am.

With our headlights on, the initial walk is about 10 minutes through an oil-palm estate. I was imagining snakes and sorts (including ghosts!) coz it was pitch-BLACK all around me!

The track is an easy one (just 300+m in height), suitable for everyone except for one small wooden bridge for one to cross (I found it easier to just leap over it?).

Walk on and you'll come to this 'bald' section, where it's basically a huge grassland with mountaintops at the background ala The Sound of Music kind.

There is this prominent spot (before the peak) where one can pose and capture the beautiful background of the 3-toned illuminating sky. Just don't fall off.

At last, we're at the peak and just in time to witness the approaching sun from behind the mountains afar. By this time, our watches were already showing 7.30. Let's see how little Ms Sunshine greets us...

Here she comes...

...and the bright glowing egg-yolky sun appears from behind the mountains.

Hard to imagine that at the other side of the sky, it was clear-blue with a plane flying through and a faint moon in sight.

Look, I took Geography in school so I should know the name of this cloud.....
ummm....err................'awan sirus' issit??
And since we're on the subject of Geography, let you in on a little secret...my general knowledge about the world map is so humiliating that i took my SPM paper without being able to differentiate the location of Perak and Kedah on the Malaysian map.
I dunno, some things just won't stick to your head.
Thank God I still managed an 'A' coz they don't ask dumb-ass questions like 'Tandakan lokasi negeri Perak di atas peta Malaysia'.

These are just some members of our >30 troopers on Broga hill that day. So many names to remember and faces to match with, but no doubt a great fun bunch of people to hike with! Me and Yin at the highest peak of Broga. You'd think it was hot with the sun on top of our heads? But noooo...the light breeze gave us this warm fuzzy feeling, we didn't want to go down! :>

We spent like a good hour and a half at the peak. Oh, and it helps that we started off bright and early so the heat from the sun wasn't scorching.

This is the reason this hill is fondly known as Bukit Lalang.
You'll find lalang like this everywhere you go..

See what I mean?

The lalang looks so dry, I sure hope it doesn't catch fire.

And they grow to be as tall as humans,

so much so, you could play hide-and-seek amongst them.

Na na na na naa, you cannot find me...

We were posing like those little purple flowers. Looks kinda stupid I bet the flowers were laughing at us...hahaha

This must be what Fred Flintstone's dream bed looked like.

And me posing like this...

can only be for a profesional photographer like this...hee.

And then, a series of events below happened...

(Don't worry, Moon survived the fall)

Back to ME, I wonder if I can pull off a 'Look, I've been to New Zealand' tale with this photo. I mean, it does look like I'm on a farm with this blue tractor in the background, right?

or does this photo looks more convincing?

What goes up Broga hill must come down Broga hill...and that includes siuV

This was the oil-palm estate we hiked through before reaching the foothills this morning.

And as we headed back to our car, wondering where to go next...

Yin came up with the idea to go to the nearby Sungai Tekala.

And so we (only 3 of us left) were like 'oh-kaay, since you're the orang Semonyet..oops we mean Semenyih'.

Well, it ain't free and we could barely afford it.

Boy, were we excited to see this place has got a hiking trail too! Alas, physical exhaustion was kicking in so we decided to try it out another day. I'm not some kiasu hiker ya know.

But still, we decided to venture as far as our legs could take us. Gotta make our RM 1 worth it!

The front section of this forest reserve wasn't as peaceful or serene as I'd hope it be, as it was flooded with children playing at the waterfalls and the all-too-familiar BBQ smell lingering in the air as hoards of people have their picnics or campsites here.

The poor trees must be choking from all that smoke and noise pollution!

Things felt a lot better as we roamed further into the forest where we found this small stream with cold running water.

We're not playing with the sand la..the waters just too shallow it appears invisible on cam cam.

The waterfalls make a magnificient view too.Calling it a day, it was yet another feather to our cap of mountains conquered! (ok, hill)

Broga Sak Dato Temple, Semenyih

This is some piece of paradise.

We followed the straight road from University of Nottingham down a stretch of some 5km, to find this 'masterpiece' nestled in the quaint little town of Broga. Since expansion of this temple 16 years ago, its been attracting tourists, both local and overseas who come to be mesmerized by the statues and landscaping depicting the many characters from Chinese customs and folklore. Which got me thinking gone were the days when we visit temples with the basic shrine and altar for the sole purpose of praying to the Gods for this and for that - nowadays, modernisation kicks in and temples are vying to be a touristy spot and looking better than ever.

I mean, is this impressive or what?

They got all sorts, like this old man fishing from a pond. There must be some moral of a story related to this guy, probably to teach one about 'patience' like this poor fellow who has grown so old and is still eagerly waiting for a fish to take his bait.

Durians! Now, that's a first in the gardens of a temple.

Fruits...(GIANT ones) are found all around as they represent the different seasons of the year. The temple has formed a foundation known as Orchard of the Fruits of Kindness in 1992 and till today, they aim to channel funds to the poor, up to RM 30K-50K monthly. A noble deed indeed.

Till today, they have donated more than RM 3mil to some 3,000 people. Where do these funds come from? Various generous individuals from the local community and afar.

If this basket of fruits was real, it'll be worth my lifetime supply of Vit C.

This gold nugget is mine!

I love these gigantic peaches! They look like giant 'paos'.

Muahaha... I'm getting my hands on anything that symbolises riches and wealth.

Anything coming from Kuan Yin must be good for me too. tee-hee...

I found a skinny horse in the gardens so I climbed on his back.

This dude found some pigs and chose a petite fragile-looking piglet to sit on instead.

Many other photo opportunities with your zodiac animal could be found behind this arch, known as "The Dragon Gate". Nice eh the tree sculptures behind us...

er, where did these people appear from suddenly...

"Watchmen" Premier

While some lucky punks got to watch Jason Mraz in one of the best gigs ever to make it to our shores, I instead watched "Watchmen". It was a special premier screening at Mid Valley and the best thing about it, it was absolutely free. Apart from not knowing a single actor in this movie, I think what sells is that they share the same director as '300' (remember the name Zack Snyder), another movie I've yet to see. Set in a gritty and alternate 1985 in US, it tells the story of Rorschach, a costumed vigilante who investigates the murder of an ex-superhero. His journey reunites him with his former legion of superheroes, thus unraveling some of the deepest darkest conspiracies and secrets about them.
Adapted from a comic book, I wouldn't say this was a bad watch. Rather, this was a strange strange movie...one that is definitely not easy to direct or even edit!
If you're hoping for a fast-moving, feel-good, no-brainer storyline, then give this one a miss.
There were so many super-heroes hanging loose in the cinema lobby, I felt so safe!
My favourite character was definitely Rorschach himself (the masked guy with the hat on my left). Those black stains-like thingo on his mask were squirming and moving around all over his face the entire show, I couldn't get my eyes off it!
Guys watching will definitely swoon over the hOt hOt femme fatale of the movie, Laurie Jupiter, played by this actress known as Malin Akerman (Facts: she's Swedish, same age as me, ranked #59 on Maxim Hot 100 of 2008, acted in '27 Dresses'). She's the character who dresses up in the black and yellow suit above.

What I hadn't known was the duration of this movie...163 minutes!

So, unless you're up for a challenge, you do NOT want to catch this movie late at night.

And don't bring the kids! This is definitely an R movie with extremely strong graphic violence, sexuality (lots), nudity (aplenty!) and language (sometimes missed by censorship)!!

(Now, did I just make you feel like watching this even more so?)

'I'm Yours' Day

There's just no *Remedy* for missing out on Jason Mraz's concert tonight.

I should be so *Lucky* if someone comes up to me and say "*I'm Yours* and you know what, *You & I Both*, we're gonna see Jason tonight!"

sighh...guess I'll just go on being a *Geek in The Pink* ...

(does this mean I'm to wear pink today?)TONIGHT you'll see me outside Stadium Negara screaming my lungs out like this,

unless it rains then you'll see me like this.