gunung datuk conquered

some time back, i signed up for my 2nd trip with NTU ODAC with shiwei, shanjing, weizheng and qida. this 3D2N trip to gunung datuk costs only $80 haha. as i had fun in my first ODAC trip, i urged them to sign up with me this time. or rather, i helped them sign up then demanded money from them! haha. but well, i am sure all of you hav enjoyed this trip right! a chance to sweat it out, admire nice scenary and nature, and make new friends!

early in e morning on 18th dec, we met at kranji MRT before gg to woodlands checkpoint tgt. and we cleared e new immigration building in JB. i would say it is very nice ha, win singapore liao. after tt, we took a 4 hrs train ride to tampin before heading to lunch at KFC at tt small little town.

pre-trek

after lunch, we did some warming up and it was time to start trekking! as there were a total of 24 ppl, we were divided into 2 grps and all of us were in serene’s grp. trekking up gunung datuk was shagged. e gradient is punishing and throughout our 3 hrs trek, almost 90% was upslope! torturous man.

3-hr upslope trek

haha. after countless “reaching soon!”, we were finally really reaching soon. yea, reached our campsite at abt 5plus and we started pitching our tents, alongside fellow trekkers from NUS.

our campsite!

e summit is another 5 to 10min climb away from our campsite. e summit climb was fun! e summit was made up of boulders and we climbed with e help of ladders which were attached there. and finally, we were treated to very nice scenary! it was crowded on top and very windy too. that was indeed e highlight of e trip and worth e effort climbing up!

e stunning summit of gunung datuk!

after sunset, we made our way back to e campsite and it was dinner time! goodness, i hav nv been to a camping trip with such luxurious food la! we had pasta, nuggets, hotdogs, crabmeat, shrimps omelette, pineapple fried rice, fishballs, cheese tofu, seaweed chicken, maggie mee etc etc for dinner! imagine that! super filling and shiok la haha. and it is nt everytime that we cook in e outdoors, in a chilly weather, and at e same time joke ard and hav fun with frens. great experience.

feasting in "alfresco" setting haha

after dinner, some of us went up to e boulders again to star gaze. goodness, i hav never seen soo many twinkling starts before! hahaa. very nice la. and i saw a shooting star too! and we also had a mini astro crash course conducted by an ODAC guy haha. after we made our way down, we played a few rounds of daidee before resting for e night ha. it wasnt very comfortable for 5 of us to squueze in a tent la (though e gers had it worse as they hav 7 of them squeezing in one tent!) and it didnt help tt e weather gt sooo cold at night! wind was super strong la ha. but okie la since only one nite so nt too bad. after a light breakfast next morn, it was time to trek down. trekking down was nt tt  tiring though it was more straining on our legs.

trekking down

woohoo next on itinarary was malacca trip! so we took their public bus to malacca and checked into our hotel. e hotel looks much nicer fr e outside than it really is haa. but nvm cos e hotel is jus a place to spend e nite. had our dinner at a nearby hawker (very touristy one) then it was shoppin time! nth much though ha. after shopping at e mall, e ODAC guys brought us to a night mkt. on our way there, we thot e whole place kinda resemble singapore la haha. gt e “singapore flyer”,  “sentosa carlsberg tower”, “clarke quay”, “geylang” and “chinatown” haha. anyway, e night mkt was nt bad. esp like e jonkers gallery which sells very nice tees in a very nice peranakan-styled shophouse. but very sian cos no size for me! e night ended with a drink at e jetty-turned-entertainment-place near our hotel. really a nt bad place ha.

another highlight of e trip: malacca!

overall this was a gd trip and i enjoyed myself alot! but it was really abit tiring la and now my whole body aches haha. big thank you to serence, our trip leader, and other ODAC ppl for organising! looking forward to e next trip with them, if gt chance ha. next destination shall b some waterfall trip which is nt tt tiring!