how I spent my birthday....

I was awakened at 6.30 this morning by an sms from Aini telling me to bring a parang to the KRS Camp. As I don't have Tina's number, I decided to go to the camp early instead of waiting for my shift at 1pm.

I sent Lyn to school for choir practice and was horrified to see the KRS girls participating in the March Pass Competiton still around. The competition was to start at 8am. Anyway, Fadilah and Chin were there, so I decided not to worry and leave them to their good hands. But I was worried. (Being the head teacher for KRS makes me worried over every single thing related to them).

Then it was market. By the time I was ready to leave, it was 10am and I was already terribly flustered.

I had a real pleasant drive to Ulu Bendol. The road used to be narrow and winding. So it was a real surprise when I realised I was actually driving on a new road like going up Genting. The scenery was real nice.

Ulu Bendol is a forest reserve before Kuala Pilah. It is uphill with a stream coming down from the mountain. The mountain is known as Gunung Angsi. I have yet to go up this mount but according to many people; it's not that difficult to climb as the path is already clearly cut out. Taken the kids to play in the stream/waterfall a few times. The higher you go, the clearer and cleaner the water.


I got bored after a while so I started taking pictures of greeneries around. The place is nice but simply crowded with people. There were two groups camping around here. On top of it, near the river was the usual weekend crowd playing in the river both upstream and downstream. They were making such a din. Not to mention the open burning.


Everything looks real healthy in the rainforest. The leaves are extra big.


A pond nearby. Nice to look at but as usual rubbish every where. I think Malaysians are not proud of their country; that is why they litter everywhere.

This is further away from the campsite but close enough for me to see the campers. It was definitely quieter here. I took my lunch here and read my book without anybody disturbing me.

Until I saw a few of these butterflies around. So I stopped my reading, got my camera ready and waited quite a while before I could take a picture of it.

Lo and behold!!!! Tarzan dropped by in the afternoon to visit me. It is just 3omin drive away. We walked to the river, had leko and icecream.

I love taking pictures of trees towering to the sky. So magnificent and makes me very reflective of God's creation.

The stream is very shallow. It's quite clear but definitely better upstream. Once we took the kids further upstream and let them soak in the cold water. It was really nice.

There are huge boulders like this along the stream. I think in the dinosaur days this whole place could be a huge river.

Look what we found as we walked around. Eggs in the cleft of a big tree.

A huge mushroom. KC had to put his phone to show how big the mushroom is.

Bird's nest plant? Very smoky because every other family has a fire going. I wonder whatever for. It's already bad enough that the campers are trying to build fire to cook.

Colourful blue berries.

Another shot of trees towering to the sky.

Notice a brown leaf fluttering? There is a web holding the leaf.

So that was how I spent my birthday. I reached home 6.40pm. The family had gone out with MIL for Mother's Day dinner. I told them to go without me as it would be crowded if they are late. Overall, not too bad. It started off stressful but I was able to relax and enjoy solitude for a while at Ulu Bendol.


And.....I saw this face in the Utusan Malaysia today!!