Hokkaido still gives me the exciting feeling of travelling that other places like China and Taiwan can’t. Today I fly from Tokyo Haneda Airport to Memambetsu Eastern Hokkaido.

Haneda Airport

Lunch today is on own expense today and I tapau 2 bentos (lunchbox) to bring onto the domestic flight.

Shop that sells huge varieties of Bentos

I’m so spoilt of choices I wanted to buy a few bentos at once because they all look so tasty.

Many kinds of Bentos in nice packagings

1st Bento I bought. Salmon Sushi Bento

Sealed packaging. Comes with chopsticks and soy sauce

Salmon Sushi

This bento cost me 1050 yen (around RM40) and it don’t taste that good. The fish not very fresh. Can’t ask too much since its pre packed. Had this bento while waiting for time to board plane to Hokkaido.

Beef Bento

Inside the beef bento

Had this bento while on the plane to Hokkaido. This bento didn’t disappoint me, the beef taste very good going with the japanese rice.  Price for this bento is 1000 yen (Around RM38.60). So I spent in total around RM70+ for lunch on 2 lunch boxes…. Could have nice big Salmon in Italianese for that money…. Well, this is Japan… All things are expensive.

Landing in Hokkaido. Full of snows

Thick snow scoped and placed beside of road

1st stop today. Ice breaking cruise

The Ice Breaker Ship

Some floating ice pieces

VIP seating at the front. Pay 400yen extra and you get to sit here

Normal Seating

Thin ice pieces around the ship. Started snowing abit

Was really cold outside when the wind is blowing. Good thing my newly bought North Face Winter Jacket is able to withstand the wind and cold.

Other tourists on the deck

Opening up a trail though the thin ice pack

Seagull following our ship

Sunset and Floating Ice

Floating Ice Pack

After the cruise, we took around an hour bus ride to our Onsen(hot spring) hotel – Shiretoko Hotel. The rooms wasn’t top class but its the onsen here that are famous.

The seafood buffet dinner at this hotel is great too. I took around 10+ big sweet juicy scallops and beef teppanyaki to go with nice japanese pearl rice.

Giant crab legs

BBQ scallops. Yum!

Thick and Sweet Scallops. Took 2 at once. I went like 4-5 rounds

Whats left of the scallops...

We wore Yukata (bath robe) while having dinner.

After dinner, need to rest for at least 30 minutes before going for onsen bath.

Entrance to the mens onsen

The onsen bath I had was really relaxing. Haven’t had such nice bath since end December last year. Gonna wake up early early tomorrow to bath in the onsen again. Will try to snap some pics inside if no one is inside.

Edit: Managed to snap some pics in the hot spring.

The changing area

This is where we strip naked and placed the Yukata in the basket and go in for the hot spring bath.

The hot spring pool

Bath area

The bath area is for people to wash themselves before dipping into the hot spring pool

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The Room

The room is simple and clean with nice soft bed and 32″ LCD TV.

Bathroom washing area

Bath and spa amenities

Steam bath and shower cubicle

Button to start the steam bath

Press on this button outside the cubicle to start the flow of steam. Each press will last for 3 minutes.

Steam Bath

Shortly after pressing the button, the cubicle is filled with steam of herbal scent.

Herbal bag for bath tub

The Jacuzzi bath tub

The water takes around 20-30 minutes to fill up the entire tub. I tossed the herbal bag into the tub.

While waiting for the water to fill up the tub, I followed the spa guide provided by the hotel to 1st take a shower. Then proceed to do the steam bath. The steam bath was quite hot but has nice herbal scent. I cooled myself down by showering myself with cold water.

When the water is full, I went into the tub and turn on the water pumps. As soon as I turned on the jacuzzi, the toilet lights are dimmed to a nice and relaxing ambient lighting. I sat in the hot water and started squeezing the herbal bag to hasten the mixing. I end up bursting the entire bag which immediately spread the herbal powder to the entire tub, which was good. With the lights dimmed and water massaging me, its a perfect end to today’s hectic tour schedule. The ambiance is so nice, I wish I had someone special to share with me at that moment.

I come out 20 minutes later. Was sweating inside the hot water and had to come out twice to shower cold water to cool down. I can feel my body loosen up and mentally relax after I come out and lay on my bed. Too bad I had to get up to pack my bags, and I end up losing the mental relax state after all the shoving and squeezing the stuffs into my luggage.

This round Taiwan tour sure is a relaxing 1. Had 4 consecutive nights of spa treatments in the resorts I stayed. 1st spa hotel was Fengtai Hotel (丰泰大酒店) in Chihpen (知本), followed by Dakeng Leisure Farm (大坑休闲农场), then West Lake Resortopia (西湖度假村). I didn’t post the photos because I cannot take pictures there and the 1 in Dakeng I can take but I forgot…… So just check out their website lar.

Will be flying back later at 8AM. Gonna miss all this spa experience. I will be back for more!

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Introduced them some local delicacies like the famous Hot Star Large Fried Chicken (豪大大鸡排), fried oysters (蚵仔煎) and fried oyster bihun (vermicelli) – 蚵仔面线.

Long queue to buy the large chicken chop

Hotstar Large Fried Chicken 豪大大鸡排

Per piece is NTD50. I queued up to buy a few to treat my customers. After I bought, the guide came and tell me that he can cut queue, no need to line up….. dammit wasted my time.

Chicken chop production line

Their business is really good, non stop frying of chicken chops. It does taste really good. Crispy on outside and juicy inside. I gave away all the chickens I bought because I tried it a few times already. I want to try other foods.

Beef Steak

Cream of corn soup and garlic bread

I end up having my favorite food, beef steak at this big beef streak specialist shop. The name of the shop is 大统一牛排专卖店 Big Consolidation Beef Steak specialist shop (direct translation).

As I walked into the stall/stop, the waiter ushered me into an available seat, it was packed with people. I ordered streak medium well. Shortly the waiter came back with a bowl of cream of corn soup, garlic bread and utensils packed inside a paper bag. 5 minutes later, the steak is served. This is the 1st time I had my steak served up to me in such a short time.

The steak came with a sunny side up egg beside it on a hot plate. The whole set meal of steak with egg, soup, garlic bread and a cup of tea cost only NTD150. Quite value for money and the steak tasted quite all right. Soup very watery and plain. Bun okok only.

Shop that sells Pig Kidney Soup

Then I came across this shop that sells mainly pig internals. I’m don’t eat animal’s internal organ except pig’s kidney. The pig kidney soup signboard caught my attention, I sat down and ordered Pig Kidney Vermicelli (猪腰子面线) to try out the taste.

Full of pig kidneys

The vermicelli

The pig kidney tasted how it should taste. As for the soup, too much of sesame oil in it but the vermicelli taste quite good. Was too full to finish eating all the vermicelli, I just finished all the kidneys. This bowl cost NTD100.

Walkway

Walkway between the shops in Shilin Night Market. The traders will try to persuade you to eat in their shop its very competitive there.

Shop selling friend oysters

I’m not recommending this shop, its just a one of the shop that sells fried oysters. I think Malaysia fried oysters still taste way better, but whoever that never try it before should try it out.

Fruit juice stall

There are also many juice stalls that sells big varieties of juices and bubble teas.

This is just the food area of Shilin Night Market, we only had 1 hour so no time to venture to the actual night market which sells other things.

I have to dig out those old photos that I took from previous trip to show the night market but its quite late already and I need to wake up at 6AM tomorrow to go Kaoshiong, so I will stop here. I might post more stuffs of this Taiwan trip tomorrow if I have time and Internet access.

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There have been rumors going around that touching the wild boars will be able to strike lottery. This has been reported before in NST last year and with the rumors going around, a lot of my aunties customer are very interested to go touch them.

Thanks to Malsingmaps.com and Garmin GPS, I just punch in the temple name and navigate straight from Batu Pahat to Taiping and then to the temple without getting lost. It took me 6 hours to reach Taiping from Batu Pahat including a brief stop at Bidor for duck leg noodles. Will write more about the good food I found throughout my journey in the next post.

I arrived at Taiping and checked in to Panaroma Hotel in Taiping town around 5PM. Went to buy 4D numbers to be blessed by the wild boars and then head straight to the temple in Kamunting. I arrived around 6PM at the temple. It wasn’t hard to find the temple since I am equipped with a GPS. To get there, just get to the Tesco in Kamunting. Facing Tesco, there’s a Taman Zenith to the left, just drive deep into the taman and you will see some Indian guys there selling nasi lemak as food to offer to the boars. They will point you to the path to the temple. I bought 3 packs of nasi lemak from them, each pack cost RM2 and there are 2 portions inside each pack.

People feeding wild boars

When I arrived at the temple, I didn’t expect to see so many wild boars roaming around. I thought they will be hiding in the forest and only come out when its feeding time. And I didn’t expect they would roam around so freely among humans. I guess after so many visitors that visited this place, they are very used to being around humans already. There are many cute little wild piglets running swiftly around  and several fully grown boars. The young ones are still quite shy and won’t let you get close to them unless you temp them with food.

Young boars

Adult Female Wild Boar

Wild Piglet

Think its cuter to call it a piglet than a boar.

Feeding compound

This is to separate the boars and humans. From the previous photos I saw of this place, thousands of people came here pushing and shoving trying to touch the boars. I guess since the boars are now more tamed they are allowed to roam outside of the enclosure.

Jungle where the wild boars come out from

The boars come and go from this forest behind the temple.

The food I bought to lure the wild boars

Getting my luck....

Two of my 4D lottery tickets fell on the floor while I was trying to stroke my ticket on the the boar’s body, luckily didn’t get eaten by it.

Getting my lottery ticket blessed

Sleeping Wild Boars

They even dare to sleep at the temple area where humans are walking around and making noise.

Feeding the boars

When I was trying to feed a bunch of them, they swarmed me to get food from me. 1 bite me on my jeans and its teeth scratch my thighs and bleed a little. Had to throw away the food on my hands to get away from them.

Eating its food without unwrapping

Rain. Humans and pigs running for shelter

The temple

Om Sakthi Sri Jada Muneesvarar Alayam

Lord Muneesvarar is behind the curtain

Joss sticks and lotus candles

For 10 ringgit, you get a bunch of joss sticks, a lotus shaped candle and a bunch of flowers. The lotus candle and flowers can be offered to Lord Muneesvarar. If not just placed them in front of other god statues.

Each lotus candle has a lucky number on it

My lucky number (but didn't strike....)

More crowd coming...

This is the path behind Taman Zenith leading to the temple.

Cooking 10kg of rice each time to feed the boars

3 cans of sardines are cooked together with the rice

The boars are fed 4 times a day. So the temple in total cook 40KGs of rice + 12 cans of sardines each day for the boars.

Lining up to be blessed by Lord Muneesvarar

People started lining up around 6:40PM. We need to take off our shoes around this area. The floor was wet due to the rain, it was quite uncomfortable standing in the puddle of water where many foots had soaked in while waiting for my turn to get blessed.

Getting blessed by Lord Muneesvarar

I am blessed!

I lighted the lotus candle and pass to the priest together with the bunch of flowers to offer to Lord Muneesvarar. In return I get be smoked by the holy fire and some ashes rubbed on my forehead.

Sardine Rice

Feeding time

More wild boars coming out of the jungle to eat

Golden wild boar?

Nah…. this fella just came out from a mud bath. Wonder who dares to stroke it….

A lot of wild boars came out from the jungle

The only male boar I saw with tusks. Check out its red eyes

Plenty of food for everyone

Rubbing my RM50. Had to find a non wet area to rub....

3 legged wild boar. The most lucky boar at the temple according to a keeper there

Everyone were trying to rub him. I tried as well but he was so covered with mud, my lottery ticket end up being muddy and dirty after rubbing off him.

Cute wild piglet

Quite a eye opening experience. It strange and funny that a small temple beside a jungle can get so famous because of the “lucky” wild boars. Not so lucky to me because I didn’t strike lottery. Burned around RM100 on 4Ds -_-…. $%#&*(#

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Jesselton Hotel

Sunday Market

Household Items

Colorful Hats and Caps

Tongkat Ali

Colorful Patterned Cakes. Taste quite good.

Fish for sale

Alot of people

Country prosper, citizens live in peace and I cannot translate the other phrase.

Anyone care to help me translate?

Only on Sundays from 5.30AM to 1PM

The market is full of cheap goodies. I bought 2 wooden bracelet for just RM4 and had alot of snacks along the way. If anyone who is in KK on Sunday should pay a visit.

Then Jimmy drove us to this famous Guo Man restaurant (国民餐室) to have fish paste noodle.

Kedai Restoran Kuo Man 国民餐室

Everyone ordered fish paste noodle

Hand made noodles

Fish Paste

The fish paste was tender to bite, no fishy taste and the hand made noodle was very nice too. (Haha I need to improve my writing skills on describing food. Its really very good lar….)

Menu and Price List

The fish paste noodle cost RM6, quite expensive for plate of noodle but considering the bowl full of fish pastes, I think it was worth it. I just noticed a menu item, “Smooth Beef” Noodle that interest me a lot. I’m a sucker for anything beef, I shall go try that dish next time when I go KK.

Then we head back to Jimmy’s house to pack our things. Before leaving to the airport, we took a group photo together with his mum.

Group photo with Jimmy's Mum

This AGE should be the smallest among all AGEs. Only 2 LTPians, 2 mixed LTPian/DJPian and 2 DJPians but still a very fun trip nonetheless.

Jimmy, thanks for driving us around and putting us up at your house, its better than staying in a hotel.

Mel, thanks for leading the kids activities and teaching me balloon sculpting skills. It won’t be the same without you, don’t worry your car budget can recover back very fast one. (Read Mel’s blog on pukak).

Kelley, thanks for being the pretty face of the group.

John….. You didn’t do much but you being there gives strength and support to all of us. And you cracking jokes in the car makes the journey to and back from Pukak seems shorter (at Mel’s expense).

Sheila, thanks for organizing this AGE. You took up the responsibility despite being far down under, the organization could be better but what the hell, we had a good time and we made the kids at Pukak very happy as well.

Looking forward for AGE7….. Lets make it happen and bigger!

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Steam Garoupa

This picture doesn’t do the fish justice. I should have brought my camera….. The fish was really fresh and its flesh was very very tender. Can feel the flesh texture when I bite on it.

Deep Fried Crabs with Egg Yolk

We had other seafood dishes as well but I didn’t get to eat most of them because of allergy. So I get to eat the grouper more. Thinking of the fish makes me salivates now…. YUM!!

Then, Jimmy brought us for a night tour around KK. We end up having Coffee and Kaya and Butter Toast at the famous Museum Kopitiam.

(Pictures that starts with M are taken by Melissa)

(M) World War II History in Borneo

(M) Taken from 2nd Floor

(M) Kaya and Butter Toast, Half Boiled Eggs. All taste great!

We lepak at the cafe for quite some time chit chatting and looking at John’s photos.

Then we head back to Jimmy’s house. Suppose to go to bed immediately but we all end up crashing Jimmy’s room and carrying on chit chatting. We end up sleeping around 2 or 3AM…..

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The goodies bags and other stuffs

Jimmy and John loaded all the goodies bags into the back of Jimmy’s Fortuner. (Or was it by Jimmy’s maids??? Can’t remember)

We set off around 8AM, it will take us 1 and half hour to reach Pukak, just nice for our appointment with the kids at 9:30AM. Our journey was a smooth one except for some buffalo shit land mines. Jimmy sped through 1 huge pile of buffalo shit and it splash up onto the windscreen.

We were right on track to Pukak until we reach a sign indicating go straight ahead to Pukak, but the straight took us off the path to Pukak. We went up hills and passed several narrow landslide damaged roads until we could see the sea from the hill top. The road is actually going downhill already, then we realize we were way off from the way to Pukak. Sheila made a call and found out that we are suppose to turn and go over the bridge after the sign indicating Pukak go straight. Misleading!

Since already here, we stopped and got down the car to enjoy the scenery and take some pictures. Melissa went to pinjam toilet at the nearby village house.

A gazebo on top of the hill

Can see the sea far away

Nice view

We arrived at Kg. Pukak, Good Shepherd Rural Training Centre around 10AM. We weren’t very late, not many kids are at the centre yet.

Good Shepherd Rural Training Centre

The land was gifted by En. Madais Marsilang and the community of Kg. Pukak to the Good Shepherd Sisters to set up the training centre. The centre was completed on 1 December 2007.

Nice scenery beside the centre

Buffalos

The sound of the river flowing, the cool breeze blowing and the buffalos grazing on the green grass…. The scene makes me feel relaxed and happy.

Rooms

Nice view from the room

There are rooms to let at the centre. It would be quite cool to stay here for the night. Listening to the flowing river while falling asleep would be very nice. We were supposed to stay here for the night but didn’t in the end.

Some kids that arrived early

These kids went straight to the books shelves to get a book to read. So hardworking!

Registering

They have to register themselves when they arrive at the centre.

(J) Reading with the kids

We joined in the reading session while waiting for the other kids to arrive.

Morning exercise

Morning exercise

When most of the kids arrive, we did their morning exercise routine. They played some songs and we followed the instructions according to the song, like run and jump around in circles.

Introducing ourselves to the kids

We are Kakak Mel, Kakak Sheila, Kakak Kelley, Abang John, Abang Jimmy and Abang Terence to the kids. We all wear a sitcker with our name on it and so do the kids.

Playing the superhero game

They enjoyed the game

(J) Superman!

Mel led the kids to play the Superhero game. There are Cicakman, Superman, Spiderman, Batman and what’s the last one already…. Should be kungfu man i think….. My memory is failing…..

Singing

We sang several songs and the kids seems to know the songs as well. Its my 1st time hearing most of the songs though….

We then split the kids to 4 groups with Me, Kelley, Jimmy and Sheila as their leader. Each group sat down together and introduced themselves by saying out their name, age and what is their hobby to the group leader.  Each group have to discuss and come up with a group name. The names are “My Team” (Terence), Cheetah (Jimmy), Smart Kids (Sheila) and Mega Stars (Kelley). Then we taught the kids how to fold paper boats. It’s been a long time since I fold a paper boat. I taught them how to make boats with roof on it. Some kids manage to fold it themselves and I had to help the younger kids to fold for them.

Lined up waiting to release their paper boats into the river

We brought the kids out to the river side to let them release their boats into the river. They all lined up patiently waiting for their turn to release their boats.

My group members with their boats. From bottom left, Kebbon, Ashley, Dodie, John and Tessa. From top left, Benly, Diana, Marzita and Joana

Paper boats, many sank upon releasing into the river

Watching their boats go...

We then head back to the centre and played the poison parcel game. Whoever that got the poison parcel when the music stops will need to perform a punishment. The punishments were Run like an ape, sing song, make animal noise and etc…. At the last layer of the parcel is a box of chocolate which the lucky winner shared with everyone. So caring and loving. We also played the big wind blow game before we had lunch.

Run like an ape

Lunch time

Lunch

The centre prepared lunch for the kids and us. Lunch consist of Chicken cooked with soy sauce, vegetable and rice. The food is simple but tasted good. I had 2 rounds because I had early breakfast and the cold rainy weather made me even hungrier. The kids washed their own plates and cups after they finished their food. I don’t even do that at home :p

Kimberly washing her plate

After lunch, there was a brief chaos in the centre after I taught the boys how to make paper aeroplane. The planes were flying everywhere and got stuck on the ceiling fans. While the boys are playing, the girls read books from the book shelves.

We had to buy some time to prepare the quiz for the kids so Melissa lead the kids to sing more songs. We ask kids to group together and they immediately stop what they are doing and gathered in front of us. Really love their obedient and cooperative character.

Quiz Competition

"My Team"

The Cheetahs

Mega Stars and Smart Kids

Initial Score

The quiz game has questions ranging from maths, general knowledge, language and grammar. Each team will send a representative to answer a question. If a team representative answers wrongly or pass the 5 seconds limit answering time, other team will be able to compete to answer the question by raising their hands the fastest.  The Cheetah won the quiz competition. Although there were questionable judges (mel, kelley, sheila) and some dodgy judging going on, but I think The Cheetah still deserve to win the competition.

There are many funny moments to remember during the quiz that I want to remember:

1. 1st question, “My Team” suppose to answer, I forgot who is the one answering the question but he/she is around 7-8 years old. So, Mel gave a question “suitable” for his/her age. The question was 4+5=???. The kids were laughing that it was too easy. Then 2nd question was a standard 3 question, 2 X 2 = ???…… WHAT??? MEL, TOO EASY LAR!!

2. Then when Kelley was judge….. A Math Question, 22+8×5=??? (Not the exact question but similar format). When she asked the question, she counted 5,4,3,2,1 in less than 5 seconds. The poor kid from “My Team” got pressured by the counting and cannot come up with the answer in time. The Smart Kids got to answer the question instead and no counting of time…. Then when the poor kid from “My Team” finally came up with the answer by shouting it out, Kelley responded: “Aiyar, sudah habis laarrrr…”. The poor kid was like “huh???”. (Anyone remember who was the kid?)

3. There were some favouritism towards the Smart Kids by the judges (Mel, Sheila and Kelley) as well. Each question that a team failed to answer, the opportunity was given to Smart Kids. Mega Stars was like “Saya! Saya! Me! Me!” but was overlooked. They immediately look at the Smart Kids area only. The other teams should lodge a complaint with MACC.

4. Kelley and Jimmy were suppose to ask a question to translate a word from Bahasa to English. They wanted to choose the word “ladder” from the book but both cannot come up with the Bahasa word for it so they choose another word to ask. Jimmy then came and ask me later what is Ladder in Bahasa. It is “Tangga” lar…. haha, I’m sure the kids would know how to answer that.

5. I contributed 1 question on the general knowledge category. The question was how many legs does an insect has? When Kelley read out the question, she read: “How many insects does a leg has?” LOL….!!!

6. Sheila then came up with some insane Math questions that even I find it hard to answer it in 30 seconds not to say in 5. The question was like 23 + 8 X 7 ÷ 3=???. All the kids were stunned and couldn’t answer except Lily from The Cheetah. She’s a Math Genius even Kelley’s quick 5 seconds countdown cannot beat her. She answered all the questions that Sheila came up instantly while I was still thinking the answer for the 1st 1. She took her team above Smart Kids and won the competition.

The kids with their goodies bag

We then gave out the goodies bag to the kids. They were very happy to recieved it and they went through the contents immediately.

Mel folding balloons for the kids

Our last activity was to fold balloons dogs and swords for them. Mel did most of the folding but Jimmy, Kelley, Sheila and I helped  with a few as well.

The kids queued up patiently for their turn

John finally making himself useful

The low quality balloons kept bursting. Each burst balloon triggered screams from all the kids. It goes like “POP!!!”, “AARR!!!”, “POP!!!!!”, “AAAAARRR”, “POP!!!!”, “AAAARRR!!!”.

The long tail dogs are my masterpiece. Somehow my dogs all came out long tailed.

I was really impressed with John, the kid on the bottom right with white t-shirt and green shorts. He looks mischievous but actually he is quite obedient and loving. He gave his friend his balloon sword when his friends balloon burst.

Group Photo

When we wanted to take group photo of the kids with their balloons, we noticed the kids from The Cheetah don’t have their balloons in hand. The poor kids from The Cheetah had to keep their balloons inside the goodies bag while others was playing with their balloons because of instructions by Abang Jimmy. (Jimmy I pity your kids next time).

Its around 3PM the and its time to say goodbye. The centre’s guardians told the kids to say goodbye to each of us. So they shouted, “Goodbye Kakak Mel, Goodbye Kakak Kelley, Goodbye Kakak Sheila, Goodbye Abang Jimmy, Goodbye Abang Terence and Goodbye Abang John”. Mel then folded some sophisticated flower balloons to be given to the lady guardians at the centre.

Another funny moment to remember. While Mel was trying very hard to fold the balloon (which kept popping) into flower shape, Dodie went to her and asked for one as well to be given to Kakak Kelley. Then Sheila went like: “WHAT???!!!” and Mel: “APA???!!!”. Dodie repeated: “Saya nak bagi Kakak Kelley”. Sheila then say: “Tak perlu lar. Kakak Kelley tak suka bunga”. Dodie was like “har….” with the dissapointed face. Kelley was sitting further away looking tired and blur not knowing what was going on. Mel on the other hand was working so hard folding and trying not to burst the balloons and no kids want to give her flower so Dodie got himself into a quite sticky situation there. ROTF LOL!!!

Time to go home

The kids walking home

The kids taking a shortcut back home

The guardians at the centre saw us off when we were leaving. I left the place with a tired body but happy mind knowing that the the kids are in good hands of the Good Shephard Sisters and they are a bunch of smart and obedient kids. I hope they will have a good future ahead of them and hopefully I will be able to come back to visit them again.

This post is too long… The night activities will write in the next post…

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AGE6 this time is suppose to be across the seas. Initially planned to be oversea, out of Malaysia but end up being in Sabah, Kota Kinabalu(KK). Well at least its still over the sea. Our community project this time is to visit and play with the rural kids in Kampung Pukak, around an hour and half from KK.

Sheila, Melissa, Kelley, John and I gathered @ LCCT to catch our flight to KK. Upon arrival, Jimmy picked us up with his spacious Toyota Fortuner and drove us straight to his house. We were very impressed by Jimmy’s 3 storey bungalow house as he brought us for a tour around his house. His room has an attached toilet with jacuzzi bigger than a standard hotel tub. His parents room still under reno but their toilet has covered shower area with lots of water sprinkler outlets. One just need to stand inside to get sprayed everywhere without even turning. (I wonder is there sprinkler on the floor to spray upwards….. to clean hard to reach areas…).

Then the 6 of us drove out to the Giant nearby to buy plastic bags for use as the kid’s goodies bag.

Back at Jimmy’s house, I started the fire for barbeque and we ate and chatted until 10PM. Then suddently realize we haven’t pack the goodies bags yet, so we quickly clean up and went up 3rd floor and started packing.

(Pics that starts with a J are taken by John)

(J) Starting the fire

(J) Arranging the food. Melissa can't wait to eat...

(J) Jimmy House's Living Room

(J) Jimmy's Garden. Very spacious

(J) Jimmy prepared alot of food for us

(J) Finally started BBQing

(J) BBQ

(J) Finally able to eat

(J) At Jimmy's House 3rd Floor Balcony

After we packed the goodies bag, we all sat at the balcony to plan and practice the activities that we are going to do in Pukak the next day.

The goodies bags

Each bag contains talcum powder, soap, shampoo, towel, color pencils, coloring book, chocolate milk (which taste REALLY good), toothpaste and toothbrush.

One of the song that we are going to sing

(J) Melissa teaching us how to make a balloon dog

(J) The dog's head looks like a dick initially :p

(J) Jimmy stressed out

Please don't burst...

I made this! Didn't know I'll be able to do this

Dunno what's Sheila trying to do

Kelley also stressed out

It was quite stressful squeezing and twisting the balloons into shape but we pulled through our fear barrier. See below…

We all mastered the art of making balloon dogs and swords

Nice hangout place. Very cooling at night.

All set and ready for tomorrow’s fun day with the kids in Kampung Pukak. We slept around 1AM+.

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I found that medications that help cope with altitude sickness are Acetazolamide(Diamox) or Tibetan Herb call Hong Jing Tian (红景天). I bought Acetazolamide because I couldn’t find Hong Jing Tian and there are some articles to confirm the effectiveness of Acetazolamide. I bought each pill for RM1.50.

Acetazolamide needs to be taken 1 day before going to high altitude locations. I wanted to test how my body will react to the high altitude, so I decided not to take it. Upon touching down in Tibet, I felt a bit out of breath shortly after getting off the plane. Getting my luggage off the conveyor belt was like jogging for 1-2KM distance.

I didn’t have any altitude sickness symptoms until when I was in my room around 9PM. My head started to feel tight and uncomfortable. In awhile, I started to have migraine around my temples area. The headache became more severe as time past but Ben, my roommate, was snoring away on the other bed. I was like why so much difference lar…. I have headache and worst I can’t fall asleep although I’m tired. I couldn’t take it anymore, I popped 2 panadols and a Acetazolamide to help ease the suffering. Felt a bit disappointed that I need to rely on medication to overcome altitude sickness. The panadols soothes my headache slightly but still have tingly feeling and cannot go to sleep.

Around 2AM in the morning, my headache suddenly subsided and I finally could fall asleep. Felt like I just switch on high altitude mode and it felt normal again. I went to sleep after that. The next day, I woke up fresh and no headache at all ready to explore the the beauty of Tibet. Over the few days in Tibet, I took Acetazolamide pill each morning and night and never felt any recurrence of headache at all. Some of my group members still had some symptoms the next day. They had headache , feeling nautious and vomited.

Somehow our breathing system will be short circuited when in high altitude, our auto breathing system will not function properly, during the day, we can consciously breath ourself but not while sleeping at night. We can actually stop breathing while asleep up until 15 seconds and start breathing again profusely. I felt this symptom as well while sleeping, I stopped breathing for a short while and woke up feeling suffocated.

I tried jogging during the last day before I leave Tibet, and I almost died! I ran for around 200 meters and it felt like I had ran few KMs in full speed.

I really enjoyed the experience there.

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There are 5 main types of burials practice in Tibet.

1. Stupa Burial
2. Sky Burial
3. Water Burial
4. Fire Burial
5. Earth Burial

Stupa Burial

Stupa burial is the holiest type of burial and only reserved for revered lamas like Dalai Lama or Panchen Lama. The body is embalmed or mummified and then placed inside a Stupa. The stupas of Panchen Lamas I saw in Tashilunpo Monastery and Dalai Lamas in Potala Palace are all gilded with gold and decorated with precious stones.

Sky Burial

Sky burial is the most common burial method in Tibet and cheapest as well. My guide explained the ritual of the burial to me and I was deeply disturbed by it. Just by imagining the procedure makes me very uncomfortable.

Simple way to explain the ritual, a corpse is cut into pieces, flesh peeled and separated from bones, bones smashed into powdery form with a sledgehammer and mixed with flour and water, and all are fed to the vultures. Nothing of a body is left uneaten and all must be eaten.

Families of the deceased don’t attend the ritual, they ask friends or neighbor to help bring the deceased to the sky burial site and witness the procedure on behalf. My guide attended her neighbor sky burial funeral and she could not eat meat for a month. She had to use a stick to fend of the huge and fat vultures while the undertaker is “preparing” the body for the vultures to eat. The whole process took 15-20 minutes and the entire body is gone. She said the vultures ate too much and had to walk out of the sky burial site through the door and up to the hill to catch the wind to fly.

Tibetan believes that the vulture will carry the soul of the deceased up to the heaven when they take flight.

My group member, Pui Sun, wants to see the Sky Burial ritual when she goes to Tibet the next time. When I go to Tibet again, will I be able to witness the ritual…. I dunno, see how when the time comes la.

Sky Burial Site on top of the hill

Sky Burial Site

Water Burial

Water burial is similar to Sky Burial just that instead of being eaten by vultures and taken to the sky in their stomach, the deceased body is dump into a river or lake and to be eaten by fishes. The reason why Tibetan don’t eat fish.

Suspected River Burial Site

River Burial Tools?

Came across this site on the way to Shigatse. The guide to me that this is a Water Burial Site. Found an axe and cleaver there….

Fire Burial

Fire burial or cremation is only carried out by the rich because wood is scarce and expensive in Tibet.

Earth Burial

Earth burial is usually carried out by Han Chinese in Tibet or for Tibetan who died of severe illness or disease. They are afraid the disease or illness might infect the vultures.

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