Adventure at Broga Hill, Semenyih :)

   Invites received by Saturday night and by Sunday morning I found myself awake by dawn trying to talk myself into not backing out from this. It's just a hike, can't be that bad right? Shang wouldn't have asked you to join if you were really that incapable right? A king's scout. Not being able to hike. Isn't that a bit embarrassing? Yes it was. From past experiences, I was positive on how weak I was when it came to hiking. Yes I survived long expeditions and numerous jungle trekking through dense forests but this hike? I'm not so sure. With my self doubt kicking in, I found myself digging through my drawer for my tarot deck desperately seeking for a sign of reassurance. Letting the magic work on its own led to the appearance of the 5 of wands. Perhaps from the illustration alone you could see how tarot gave me a HUGE in-your-face sign. May I present, the 5 of wands. 

The Five of Wands :
 An exciting challenge which raises he adrenaline. Competitions;
A need to prove oneself. Sporting interests could now be stimulated.
(literal translation: suck it up and get your ass up that hill.Its worth it.)

     Since it was such an obvious green light, I went with the flow. Packed my bag and waited for Shang to pick me up at 6am. I did some catching up on sleep while he picked up the others. There were 9 of us, Scouter and scouts. But since it wasn't a scout event despite the usual scout related activities, we went there as a family. Such a shame the other important family members couldn't make it. Like all families, breakfast was important. So we chatted while stuffing ourselves with body fuel for the hike. I decided to come clean (semi-clean?) when Shang asked who never hiked before. (It's not like I never hiked.. just not in continuously steep terrain..haha?) But somehow it seems like he waved it off thinking that I was joking about my incapability to hike. (Oh well, I tried.)

  After breakfast we headed to Semenyih in two separate cars. Along the way we cracked some lame jokes and pleasant small talks while some would nap the instant they got into the car. And the journey starts at the palm oil estate which was the entrance towards the beginning of the hike and the end of my reputation as a king's scout. *sigh*

  I was quite optimistic about it before we started. But the mere hike to the actual start of the trail burnt half of the optimistic thoughts I had. I masked my tiredness quite well at the beginning, but it inevitably came to a point where I started panting like a dog gasping for air. Not long after when the trail started getting steeper and steeper, I stopped altogether and tried to get a hold of myself. My heart was pounding at a rate that gave me the chills and my legs were under loads of strain. There I stood in the middle of the slope while the others got ahead. I regathered myself after a few minutes and continued on, unbeknownst to me that there was a shadow there giving me a nod when I lifted my head up to keep going. I was surprised that Jcen stayed on, but I suppose it was to be expected. He gave a few pointers here and there on hiking and waited patiently each time I took some time to regather my breath. Albeit taking quite a few brief stops , I kept going somehow. It's either because I was stubborn for the sake of my reputation or having Jcen there shadowing me throughout that particular trail where I was suffering. I am deeply grateful that he didn't comment much nor pressured me, he just waited patiently and that was all I needed.

nope nope nope not tired *pants*

    After pushing myself to reach the first resting platform (semi-peak) where everyone else was, I noticed that Shang and another girl was missing. And it occurred to me that I wasn't the only one struggling but nevertheless I couldn't help but think that it was suppose to be my responsibility to take care of the girls and yet here I am struggling as well. Jcen gave me some rehydration salt for my water while we waited for Shang and Amy to come along.  

    Gradually I took less stops but eventually the trail got REAL STEEP. This time Kaicen shadowed me (bless you child, and if you're wondering. Yes, they're brothers) After reaching the first peak (like finally) I couldn't help but stop ad stare at the scenery before  me. Sure it was a huge pain in the ass to climb all the way up here and puke all the remains of breakfast 400m above sea level but the scenery just made it - worth every single bit.
(And of course I'm sorry you guys had to witness me puking -- there goes all the tosai and milo)


  The hike toward the second peak was fast paced and to reach the third peak we had to climb through a boulder. I found myself being way better at climbing than hiking (maybe I ought to take up rock climbing), but then again I couldn't have done it without Wei Zhong pulling at the other end. (Kudos to him :D)  We eventually made it to the top in the end with non of us giving up halfway and I'm grateful. I swear I couldn't have done it without any of them and silently I was proud that I made it to the top.( take that you nasty self doubt)

WZ anchoring

  Heading down I had Roncen beside me happily chattering (Yes, the youngest of the shadow brothers ) The hike down was pleasant till I sprained my leg near the parking lot (hahahahah) But it was all good. We changed and headed out for food before going fishing.
Cendol and Noodles for lunch with durian for dessert :D What more could I ask for? 

CENDOL :D

   One thing I noticed was that the folk there had a queer way of saying things. For example, when we paid. The lady was like..
 :"YEE MEE? RM52. MEE HOON? RM32 "
I swear she scared the crap out of it when I paid. (She actually meant RM5.20 and RM3.20)
And then when we went for durian, the uncle pointed at 101 durian and stated
 :"BOI IOI DURIAN VELI NAISE" 

Durian IOI (lolololololol)

  
Of course maybe IOI mall is referred as 101 mall for them. who knows? But all in all, they were rather friendly folk. A small family kindly shared a table with us as the place was crowded during lunch. We chatted with the family and suddenly the mother caught her baby girl glancing at us in excitement. The mother then told her child 
:" Girl, you see the ones with specs are boys and the ones without are girls." 
   And true to her word, we looked around and had a great laugh bout something so blatantly obvious that had slipped our observations. 

  After lunch, we went fishing. I never fished before and it was rather exciting. But eventually most of us in our late teens got bored of it while the early teens were fully indulged in it. But the place was rather pleasant and I didn't mind doing nothing while the others fished. Doing nothing was basically a luxury for me at that point. (hahahaha) We fished for around 3 hours and departed from semenyih at 6pm or so. 

WZ taught us how to fish :)

   Managed to squeeze out a big thank you to Jcen before he went home (well I had to, Who knows I might not have made it up without a good old shadow)  It was the end of the perfect day and one song came to mind when I thought about this adventure -- Taylor Swift's Today was a fairy tale.

   There was by no means any romantic encounter at all so don't get me wrong.(Who needs prince charming when you have scouts?)
But truly, it was like a fairy tale.
 Absolutely perfect day with my family :) 

3rd peak :)

Deeply grateful for all the moral support

  

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Shadow bros behind me

Off for food :D

And fishing :) 

 Do try and take on a new challenge every now and then. If you're weak at hiking --like yours truly, I suggest going with a group of people who know what they're doing. Never hurts to rely on someone else once in a while. But all in all, If you're a beginner at hiking -- broga is definitely the place to go.