Last few more posts upcoming and this time Tibet is finally gonna rest it’s head. Well, I meant the post though. This time journey is what I am looking forward to show to you people out there. It’s time to head towards the Midui Glacier. If you’ve missed all the travel post about Tibet, the links to the respective places will be at the bottom of this post.

Along the way there, we are met with few animals that would like to greet us whenever they can. For example the Yak, famous animal around Tibet.

Moooooooo…… this is my road and I can do what I like, I am the lone ranger here. Of course there are other animals there, say, the horse.

Snorts….

We see a lot of animals along the way on the road, sometimes on mountain roads where we’re like far from civilizations. Anyway we were given a shock though when we saw Tibetans on the road doing their pilgrimage and will lie on the floor and up after a few steps. I kid you not!!

See… is like something after that we’ve grown accustomed to. Amazed right? Of course the road is so wide, sometimes no vehicle goes along the path at times. So much that we even have someone on the road.

Jeng Jeng Jeng, another Shanghai girl on the road. Yes, imagine posing on the road. Too bad I wasn’t the proper photographer, or I would try to capture the scene against the scenery backdrop.

Well, sitting in the jeep has got it’s use though, we can take scenery shots from inside the jeep as long as the windows are clean though. Imagine how many wipes we’ve done.

The rocky mountains are such a wonder. I suddenly miss these kind of scenery with blue sky.

Of course these are part of what is nice about traveling overseas. Well, it always has been. Though there’s always no place like home but traveling to see the world is also what I would love to do. Even when we hardly get to eat, walked and hiked and near the brink of danger.

So much we have gone through, we would love to travel again as a group, taking photos and showing to people how wide and wonderful is the world out there. Well, as usual the usual 3. Yes, Bae Yong Joon *cough… Ek Wei* is with us again.

It was during that time, we were stalled from continuing our journey due to a fallen tree. So we took the liberty to take a photo against the jeep door. Now and then we would stop by at some restaurant along the road and order our meal. I dare say, I definitely prefer Malaysian food, but sometimes we just have to stomach what we’re given.

Herbal Chicken Soup in Hot Pot. Well, shared amongst 6 people. Well, it looks tasty, and yes, it definitely taste so good, I would love to have another bowl. Well, what are the ingredients for this soup? Wait till you see what they thrown into this soup for the delicate taste.

Amazingly weird. All parts of the chicken were used. Even the head wasn’t spared. Ginger, herbs and some other parts. Well, I guessed not everyone would love to think that a chicken head is in their soup.

Finally the moment to move to what this post is actually all about, The Midui Glacier.

Just look at Ek Wei can’t wait to get his photo taken amongst the lake and the glacier at the back. Hehehe…

Well, the destination is the glacier which takes about 30 to 40 minutes of walking. Yes, we have to walked all the way in. No food, no lunch yet. It’s about 1030am.

Hard to get the right exposure with the yak being all too dark in order to capture the sky and the snow. Of course another way to go to the Midui Glacier is by riding a horse there.

Simple and faster way to the next stop which is about 20 minutes away on foot, but with a horse it’s only 8 – 10 minutes. Of course it all comes with a price though say 40 Yuan?

Of course, one can also travel with style. You can bring along your umbrella to protect from the scorching sun but on a cool weather. Look at how the leaves are turning yellow. Autumn is arriving and definitely a sight to behold. There aren’t 4 seasons in Malaysia, thus having a look at the changing of leaves in another country is fascinating for me.

So with that in mind, I have to get a simple shot of myself in this lovely weather and season.

Now if only there were more trees at the background, the whole thing would have been perfect. So perfect if the color of the background is like the one below.

Yellow, green and the trail to the Midui Glacier. Huh? Wait!!!! Did I meant that I won’t be posting any photos on the Midui Glacier? Well, I kid you not, since this is post is about the journey to the Midui Glacier and not the Midui Glacier.

Well, of course I wouldn’t want to dash the hopes of having a glance of what’s around that area.So I’ll present to you a part of the Midui Glacier.

The whole chunk of ice on which I will stand on it later.

I know that this post has lots of weird photos and not as surreal like the previous posts. I would post more pictures of the Midui Glacier in the upcoming post though. For those that missed other posts, here are the lists below.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest
[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake
[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene
[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains
[Tibet 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy
[Tibet 16] Beginning the Journey to Chengdu in Jeep
[Tibet 17] The Giant Tree and Tibet Tradition Wear

Altogether peace out and till the next post.

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These few weeks, The Weird One (that’s me) has been getting lots and lots of sleep and easily gets tired. Rather he would rather sleep than going online. Either my body had been long deprived of sleep for a very long time that it’s longing for more now, or age is finally telling me, you’re old and you need more sleep. Just these past few days, I’ve even slept through the afternoon on weekends and also on working days, slept right after dinner.

Wonder what is happening. Maybe body is getting all heaty and needs the sleep. Maybe I should just cool down on my activities and have a decent Back Home – Rest – Reading or just do what Scooby would do.

Woof! Woof!, unique way of cooling down. Put all 4 (that’s 2 for me) of your legs in a bucket.

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Time for another running report. Yes, I am a crazy runner for events though am one that hardly trains. I must be crazy. Okay maybe I just have a weird attitude. I seriously need to be serious in training. It was like 3 weeks ago, that I ran the Shape & Men’s Health Magazine Run 12.3km 2010. Well, come to think of it, actually I think I ran more than 12.3km. This time though I won’t be starting the run alone but with my friends who came along in the same car.

Mouse Law, Yee Ling and of course The Weird One. Of course, if you’ve been following my blog, you would have seen them somewhere before. They are the same people that have gone up with me to Mount Kinabalu and it sure bring back memories. Particularly love the vest for this run and definitely worth it as previous day, I couldn’t collect my vest in time and I had to go to the head office to get my vest. Just so happens the head office is located in Subang.

So how did I fare this time?

With a time of 1:22:47 on my Cardio Trainer GPS and a distance of 13.49km (see told you it isn’t 12.3km), it sure is a long run. Well, at least this is the 2nd run that I ran non stop once again. Only this time, I felt I could have run even faster. (need training and of course to cure my laziness).

Here is the latest statistics for this run.

Distance: 13.49 km
Pace: 6.08 min/km
Time: 1.22.47
Total Climb: 600 m

My Split Time: 5:03 | 5.08 | 5.54| 6.16 | 6.25 | 6.31 | 4.56 (fuiyoh!) | 6.34 | 6.51 | 7.05 | 5.15 | 6.25 | 6.48

That’s nice, a new 4.56 min/km time for one of the lap only to be let down by one of the run at 7.05. Darn. Well, overall still an improvement over the race before. One thing about this run is that “cinya” many hills. Imagine that, 600m of hill climb. You can see my “amkan” expression from the photo that I got from pmtey (need to add him before can view the photo).

In Hooha’s official website, this was how I fared.

Gun Time: 1.22.38
Net Time: 1.22.16
Split 1: 0.17.10
Split 2: 0.43.32

Wonder how far is the first split and the 2nd split though? Anyway after this run, I haven’t been training or doing any practice run. Next run will be McDonald’s 7km run. When is it? I will be registering as early as possible.

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All these time, I have gone through articles and notes in the Internet regarding entertainment (concerts and award ceremonies) being held in Malaysia (or those that are gonna be held). Malaysia as we all know is a very diverse culture, seemingly with the mainstreamed Malay, Chinese and Indian community the majority of it.

Note: Anyway these are one of those random thoughts that I have when I was reading about the facts of Malaysian entertainment. So if you think you can’t handle this, please excuse yourself.

Another important reason as to why I was suddenly thinking of reading articles about Malaysian entertainment was due to the fact that I stayed up to watch “Badrul oh Rahul” – a local movie in 2008 with actors Riezman Khuzaimi, Jasmin Hamid and Aida Aris being shown on television last night. Yes, I do watch Malay movies (1Malaysia right? Who says I am Chinese that I must watch only Chinese movies and I can’t watch others?)

Aida Aris – main actress in this movie as Rita

Synopsis of the movie is kinda catchy. Here’s the synopsis in the Malay language considering that it’s a Malay movie.

Badrul bekerja sebagai penjual barangan di syarikat jualan langsung. Wajahnya mirip Rahul, pelakon Hindustan. Beliau sudah berkahwin dan mempunyai dua orang anak. Suatu hari Badrul telah menerima tawaran untuk menjadi model pakaian walaupun ditolak oleh isterinya, Tipah. Kemudian, Badrul telah berkenalan dengan Rita yang juga model di syarikat terbabit. Badrul memberitahu Rita yang beliau merupakan ahli perniagaan dan masih bujang. Lama kelamaan Badrul telah jatuh cinta dengan Rita tetapi takut diketahui oleh Tipah lalu beliau meminta nasihat dari rakan beliau, Damri. Damri menyarankan supaya hubungannya dengan Rita diputuskan dan jangan menjawab panggilannya. Rita berasa sedih lalu meminta nasihat daripada Ika, yang kebetulan pula adik ipar Badrul. Rita mendapat tahu Badrul telah menipunya, sebenarnya Badrul sudah berkahwin dan mempunyai dua orang anak. Walaupun begitu, Rita tetap mahu menjadi isteri kedua Badrul. Sesuatu telah berlaku antara Tipah dan Badrul yang mengakibatkan Tipah lari ke rumah ibu bapanya. Apakah sebenarnya yang berlaku?

Anyway, I still remembered the time when Sharifah Amani (yes, I know about this actress as I watched her act in Sepet) received her award for Best Actress in AIM 2006 and she spoke these words,

“I will feel like stupid if I speak in Malay, so I’ll use English”

Yes, that’s what she said, and a prominent Malay newspaper quoted her in another way (which also angered the fellow yorais) which deliberately said that this was what she said.

“I feel stupid if I speak Malay”

See the difference. When will they ever learn?

Zee Avi

Now, there was another artiste from the local scene that prompted headlines and one that was recently famous due to her Youtube videos which was none other than local celebrity Zee Avi (born Izyan Alirahman). Due to her busy schedule, she had to deny a few interviews from newspaper and the media. Somehow most of them are medias from the Malay language and then it was linked that she didn’t wanted to do interviews in the form of the Malay language. The claims were non-stop that she has forgotten her Malaysian roots.

What a way to welcome home our local artist, don’t you think so.

International Artistes

Now let’s move on to the international artiste scene. Who can ever forget about the Pussycat Dolls making their appearance in Malaysia, dancing and singing to their hit numbers.

Strangely enough, they were caught not wearing underwear (panties) in one of the photos and thus the ‘shooting’ began. Well, after that scene, every international female artiste/s that comes down to Malaysia to perform had to accustomed themselves to the ‘laws’ of the country and dress with less skin. One of the noted one is Gwen Stefani.

Ever since then it has gotten strict and stricter, which explains that most artistes now chose Singapore as their hub in South East Asia to perform rather than the restrictive Malaysia.

Back to the Local Artistes

Anyway, let’s get back to the local artistes.

More importantly Sharifah Amani (one of the artist that I follow from Malaysia)

picture by www.budiey.com

She was critized by some of the netizens that she has forgotten her Malay roots (because of this photo), some even go to the point that ever since she had a ‘Mat Salleh’ boyfriend, she is becoming more and more daring, etc. Just look at what she’s wearing then you’ll know why the criticism is all about?

I wondered what are the roots they’re talking about? Let’s all go back to the time of P.Ramlee then.

P. Ramlee and SalomaP Ramlee and Saloma

I still remembered way back in P.Ramlee’s time (yes I do watched his movie, even though I am not Malay but a Malaysian), the female artiste all looked stunning with their curvaceous body and dressing. Those days Joget was fun thing every race could enjoy.

I wondered why no one ever bothered to say anything during those times but why now only they’ve started talking about what is deemed sexy and not allowed to wear. Political reasons? I guessed we will never know.



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Finally time to continue our journey towards Chengdu. For those that missed the last post, and to recap, we were actually taking photos of the rushing water resulted from melted ice. These are the rest of the chapters if you’ve missed them.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest
[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake
[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene
[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains
[Tibet 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy
[Tibet 16] Beginning the Journey to Chengdu in Jeep

Now it’s time to continue on and to visit the Giant Tree.

Giant Tree? What Giant Tree? By the way, the oldest and highest tree is recorded here. Highest as in a high location. Of course, in order for us to do that, we all need our rest for the night as the sun sets and it’s still like 4000m above sea level. It’s gonna be cold, there’s no fan in our place. Dinner time we ate the local Chinese “Ma Lat” dishes and can tell you, I was starting to miss home and Malaysian food.

Rest for the night and no one bothered to fold their blankets. Of course at the far end, you can still spot Kenny there still sleeping. Ha ha ha..

So onward we go for our next stop.

The World Cypress King Park. Here is the excerpt from the ticket being sold to us. Cost us 10 Yuan.

It is 13kms away from Linzhi county and the altitude is 3040m, there are 10 hecares precious cypress. It is 44m in average height, 1.58m in average diameter. Here you will see a cypress which has a history of 2600 years, it is 57m in height, 5.8m in diameter and was named “The King of Cypress in China“. It was said that the tree is regarded “Life Tree” by the founder of Ben Sect- Xinraomibao.

Now that was very good information about this place. Lucky I still kept the ticket. The stone marking the tree that is 2600 years old.

Man vs Tree. 20+ years old vs 2600 years old. Young vs Old. Look at how wide the tree is compared to me. They barricaded the place so people would not step in.

Now who said I was old? I am not old.

Now see how big is one of the other trees. I used up most of my strength to tear out a hole in the tree. It was so hard to pry it open (yeah right~~~) that soon after that I became totally exhausted.

Exhausted, The Weird One can’t take it anymore. Kenny thought I was posing, so he did something even better.

Whoa~~~Kenny! Nice expression. Priceless.

Finally it was time to go back to our respective jeeps and on the way out, peddlers are selling the specialty here. Ling zhi and mushrooms and other herbs.

Mushrooms?

Ling Zhi? Mushrooms? They both look the same to me.

Anyway, we didn’t buy any as we don’t know what we’re gonna do with it since we have like 8 days journey left. Yes, days passes by so fast and then we were asking how come it’s so fast coming to an end. There were many stories we talked amongst each another, about how the Mt Everest was superb. How the lake was magnificent in one of the days.

Since it’s Autumn, many flowers started to wither but few remained and that’s where my cameras got moving. Going to places is not all about taking scenery, one have to pay to small minor details. Flowers (nature) is an important part of it.

Along the way we came to a place where the stream was so calm and nice. I spot this lonely tree in the middle of such a vibrant and calm place. I just had to take a shot of this. This shot reminded me of how wide the world is, when you’re just a speck or in this case, you’re just a tree. Okay, wrong analogy, it could also meant I was lonely.

This shot is strange. Felt that there’s something missing with it. Maybe the hills are too high and lack of water background. But still a picture I would show nonetheless. Could have been better.

Of course, every picture is not complete without the 3 of us showcasing what we do best. To pose in front of the camera. Well, we’ve reached to another stop for photo shooting and that’s where we all have our own picture being shot at about the same location.

Meet the 3 Handsome Guys (pssst.. best one is the one on the right), Kenny Lim, Ek Wei, Daniel Chew.

Of course, have to thank our jeep driver, for driving us all along the way. Well, there were clothes for rent that day and we have to pay 10 or 20 Yuan for trying on the clothes. Well, our Jeep driver had his photo shot by me then.

A Tibetan and if only I was using a 50mm portrait lens, the bokeh would have been better. Of course, it’s not everytime one would be going back to places that we’ve been to. So what the heck, I also paid 15 yuan (after figuring the price out) to get my whole self in the suit.

Fui yoh!!! Stylish, looks like a Tibetan Cowboy (whatever that is). If I am dark enough, people might have mistaken me for one though. I am sure some of you are dying to try this kind of things. I did, and I am glad I did.

By the way did you know that there are 3 jeeps on the same course and we’re all part of the driving group going towards Chengdu. There are 3 people from Shanghai there (2 girls and 1 guy). I had problem conversing as my Mandarin is totally no good.

Here she is, one of the Shanghai girl in the traditional local costume. Pretty right? Wonders if she actually know about this photo. For guys out there, no… I don’t have her contact, you can stop wasting time asking for her contact.

But will we ever see her again in part of the journey? That depends. So come on and comment some.

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