Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, it has been 3 months in South Africa. How time flies. The need to serve and contribute is ever hungry in me. However, to round it all up, it has been a very exciting and interesting journey so far and not too much of regret.



The incredible stumbling blocks are close to impossible to scale. Your hands are trembling cold to the point where it's gone numb and you can't even feel it anymore. Your breathe is sapping each and every single bit of energy out of you. The journey looks endless, and you're thinking, if the way to reach to the top is this crazy, whaddya reckon about the journey down? Life sucks now. Serious sucks.



Still learning to live my life to the fullest. Now, it's going back home. Feeling tired after all the packing, but I feel the need to just state the fact that, there's always a rainbow, the light at the end of the tunnel, the top of the world, at the end of all the difficulties and horrid bleakness.



One step at time. One small step at a time.

Sell out

Overheard in a very expensive, horribly taxed Malaysian car.

Rich man 1: I bet you RM1 million that company is losing money.

Rich man 2: RM1 million? That's not much. What can you buy with RM1 million these days?

Rich man 1: Remember how in those days, you could actually buy a house with RM1 million?

Rich man 2: And finance a hostile takeover of a family business

Rich man 1: You can't buy anything anymore with RM1million noawadays.

Rich man 2: Just Art, I supposed. Painting, music, literature, that kind of rubbish.

Rich man 1: But what for? You can't pet them or have sex with them.

Rich man 2: And they make you feel so sleepy.

Rich man 1: And if you die, when you die, everyone remembers the artist, never the patron.

Rich man 2: Hurm.. Tell me about it.

Rich man 1: Aiyah, it's a good thing lah, we're billionaires now.

Both rich man chuckles.

Give a good support to our very own Malaysian made movie which has yet again won various compliments and awards in other countries, but yet again can't quick make it in our own country. Looking forward to watching it, of all places, in Malaysia.

Latest updates: I should be heading back to home by end of this month of May! Woo Hoo. I love my family and everybody else! :)

Resolve

I have a girlfriend, her name is Charlene. And I loved her very much so.

I'm far away from her now. 8543km far away from her. It makes me sad everytime I listen to her ask me to come back whenever I talk to her.

I've made a resolve in myself to help all the people around me as much as I can. Because I believe there is enough good in this world to sustain our living and keep it radiated all the way. I wish I could treat everybody as good as they should receive it, as best as I can.

One of the main reasons I've wanted to come here to the land of Africa, is to not just make a living and work, but rather, to build a rich life experience and enhance all that I have. For I have a blessed body, a blessed family, great friends, a good love and a wonderful life so far.

And I want to share and let others be able to experience it too. And I've been selfish for the past few months. I know it.

I have to live not only for myself, but for all the people that's around me. I want to contribute to the society and the land. I want to grow a forest on a desert, I want to reach out to the poor and console them with food, warmth and words. I want to enrich other people's life with all that is good and meaningful.

And the last time I talked to her, it reminded me how little precious time I have left to serve.

It'll have to start now.

Rantings

I'm finally back in the room again. Been staying in hotels, moving here and there. Just came back from Swaziland in a not so desirable timing. I reckon it was beautiful place, although I didn't really get to experience the country as a whole.

Have you ever felt very frustrated when things that are supposed to work normally, don't work like normal. Simple things which you take for granted which works well day in and out until one day it just dies on you, and you're pretty damn screwed.

Well, I just hope things will recover by tomorrow. Must retry my bloody ATM card. 3 CARDS!! All doesn't work now after the last hope died, and I have no idea why. Just doesn't make any good sense. Really puts into proposition where you may have many, but if you haven't got it in your hands, you haven't got nothing.

Cheers.

Cradle of Humankind: Maropeng & Sterkfontein

During one of the weekends, I've gone to see some bones. Boring stuffs I reckon. Anyways, It was a visit to look into where we all came from. Homo Sapiens. Makes you wonder what makes you, you!

So here we are, heading into the cavenous and Sterkfontein (Afrikaans for Strong Spring) caves. Welcome!!


Heading downwards into the deep dark blackness. The only lighting available once we were deep in there were the man-made quiet, bluntly lighted high powered lamps.

The temperature dipped as we went down as the deep is shielded from any sunlight and any form of harsh weather. Hence, the fact that the bones were found in good condition after the millions of years of preservation.


It is believed that the fossils found were due to the fall of the very first hominid's into these caves, as they were not accessible by them then. Due to the findings of such bones of distant relatives of our species, and after much digging and research was done, Sterkfontein Caves was declared a World Heritage Site to protect it from being mined of its' limestones and causing any further damage to any possible bones which can be found.


We have to climb through really deep cracks in the walls of the caves, slithering and winding around in cold and the almost lack of the sense of time for which we were thankful for our watches. Furthermore, there was pool deep in the heart of the cave where a diver died due to getting lost in the cave.


After the long walk, we finally got up and were glad to draw in fresh breath of air and the beautiful scenery of endless land where the horizons end as far as your eyes can see.

The 2 bones shown below are Taung child and Mrs Ples which are some of the most completed skulls of Australopithecus africanus species of early humankind/hominid where due to the construction of it's skull and other bones found.



The discoveries made were the proofs of the existence of hominids and pre-Homo Sapiens species. The evolvement of the species finally comes to us as the current dominant species of the Homo type. We are the surviving species left, and now, we become the true kings of Earth with our intellect and our skills.



Next, I moved on to Maropeng which is a Visitor Center of the Cradle of Humankind, which really consists of more than 3 dozen fossil bearing caves where the more popular ones include Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Wonder Cave and several others.


Being a visitor centre, it is generally a show of our origin and our pre-specieses who lived on earth, competed amongst themselves and perished with us, the Homo Sapiens being the winner of the evolutionary race.

There were various exhibits on display and one which was truly hilarious was this one with many, many clattering fake teeths which looks very amusing when you see them in real life!!


The thing is this, at the end of the day, we're all humans, of the same species. Being in fact, the best, smartest species currently on Earth, we have raped, plundered and blundered our way of life. We need to learn to love the people who lives besides us, our neighbours and everybody else and discard inequalities, racism, laziness, greed, stupidity, and all sorts of selfish desires in us.



We need to find ways to fight poverty & sustain the environment.

Over 800 million people know what it feels like to go to bed hungry. (You can afford a computer, and an internet connection, chances are you're going to bed happy and filled. Think about the food you can finish, waste and threw, and then think about the hungry)


"The greatest single challenge facing our globalized world is to combat and eradicate its disparities"

- Nelson Mandela - (Words from an embattled man, who had to fight for the inequality of his homeland in an apartheid striken land)


The amount of humans on earth which now stands at a staggering 6.6billion strong and still growing at an incredibly rapid rate. Imagine the stress we're putting on Mother Earth.


Let's not forget how we came from. They may have been our super great ancestors after all.

Let's strive to not cause the elimination of ourselves. We need to nip inequality, but we need to save the world for the future too.

Lions: the King of the Jungle

Last weekend, I had an adventure in Lion Park which is near Fourways. Picked up Lunga and with Sher as our driver, we went for an extraordinary trip in the Lion Park. This was all after the Maropeng tour and capped a very interesting day indeed.

Once we got there, there were several spotted foxes and striped hyenas greeting our very visit. The growl, the stench and the panting. Very real indeed.


We had a late hearty lunch and then a trip into the park. Zebras and springboks, checked.

Soon after, we were looking at the cheetahs and hyenas prowling up and down in front of its' fence. The cheetahs and hyenas were a sad sight as the fact that they were just strolling up and down the same path clearly indicates that the animal is bored, stressed out due to boredom and frustration. The animal keeps walking up and down, and it really does remind how sad these animals are, trapped in an enclosure of such.

Makes me feel like hacking those fence down and set them upon zebras!! Muahaha *evil laughter



Soon after, we were on our way into the lions den. The lions walked up to us tamely, and I must say, to be so near the animal, caressing it and touching it with our bare hands, was truly memorable!



Look at how close and how many lions there is!!! I'm not sure whether you should feel lucky or not to be working as a park keeper there. I mean, come on, it's as cool as hell keeping and taking care of lions, but the constant danger of this 200-250kg beast which is wholly made to be one of the best predators on earth, with all its brute muscle, sharp fangs and claws, standing just behind you ready to swipe you head off. That's like a death sentence. Crazy cool dudes.


This was however, the last pic I've taken, as soon after i mauled by a li.....


X-P......

X-P......

X-P......






































Just kidding. We were in a car the whole time. Check out the website : http://www.lion-park.com/


This lion was trying to open the freaking door to get to the sweet meat inside!


This is the king of the jungle, meet Mr King!


The sad reality of enclosure. It is very saddening, as much as it had been exhilarating and enthralling to see them around us in the tour round the park.


Finally I had my first kiss ever in SA. No matter how tame it was, it was quite a sight and experience to have such a beautiful, tall and elegant animal come straight, face to face of yours and giving you a beautiful wet kiss. The giraffe's tongue is long, wet and coarse as it is used to eat leaves and pull branches.


According to Leon, I was lucky the giraffe didn't decide to wrap it's tongue around my neck and just give it slight tug and I'd be history and food for the lions.


I felt extremely lucky that we met the tame and friendly giraffe whilst on our way out of the park. It was truly memorable indeed! My giraffe kiss!! :)

Africa. Here I Come!!

I'm in the land of awesome wildlife Africa currently. After a long flight from KLIA with a stopover in Singapore, I've made it to Johannesburg, South Africa safe and sound. It has been a roller coaster of excitingness, sadness, happiness, adventures, lonesome and just plain work so far.

On the day of departure, 22nd of Feb, I had to rush and do some last minute packing to ensure that everything gets brought there, and sad to say, as much as I've tried my best to NOT leave anything important behind, I still left one or two pretty important stuffs behind! DAMN. With lotsa help, I finally got my ass off to try and pack and squeeze about 20kg only worth of stuffs into my 30" baggage.

Come to think about it. That's my life and that's what I'm gonna bring around with me for the next whole year everyday. Says a lot about living off your suitcase. That's my life there, in a suitcase! Can't bring too much. Can't bring too little either.

Firstly, I would like to give thanks for all the wishes that all of the people have given to me, to my girl, friends and family. Without support and help from my good friend, Duncan, I wouldn't have been here as well. Thanks again to all of you who came to send me off at the airport. It was quite an emotional farewell indeed for me.

It will be the first time I truly leave home and will be really far away in a truly foreign land for my first international work. Ek sal die beste propeer - I will try my best!! (in Afrikaans)

It has been an interesting journey to a strange land indeed. It took me a whole approximately 15 hours which was inclusive of the waiting period of the stopover in Changi, Singapore for the entire trip to Joburg.

I got a new laptop on the way courtesy to my spoilt laptop and quick action by my boss, and it was the new EliteBook which was distributed to the staffs in my old company. Nice one!

After touchdown, I had to lunge the 30" baggage and taken to Roodeport. It's jammed as hell in SA as i was caught in a morning office hour jam. Reminds me of KL!! Haha. Everybody drives here, as most people have moved from the city of Johannesburg (more popularly known in short as Joburg, click for a quick view of the map of the city) to the Roodeport which will be where I'm staying and working for the near future.

I'm currently staying in Town Lodge which is a stone's throw away from MTN SA and after taking the taxi a couple of time, I've started to walk to MTN instead. Easier, faster and a good chance for a fresh of breath air and exercise as well. Currently it's end of Feb and the autumn would be coming soon which means soon, the greeneries will turn to a lush orange and yellow colour paving way for the winter. My first 4 season!

Town Lodge is an excellent accomodation which was provided by my company. It has everything I need, water, a roof to shield the cold, a comfy bed and nice bath room as you can see from the pics I've uploaded here. It has been a comfortable abode for my stay here so far.

Food is good here. There's rice! So I can definitely survive. Needlesss to say, the main flavour here is Western food, but with lotsa food of love which was packed, I still very Malaysian indeed. Thanks Mom! :)

Work is totally new to me and I'm studying as hard as I can so that I can cope with whatever stuffs they're gonna throw in my face in the future. The one good thing has been the fact that the people have been very helpful providing me with a lot of materials as well as taking the time to explain everything to me. Very thankful for everything so far.

Generally, a great working atmosphere. There's a sense that you need to do as good as you can and the rest will fall in place. I'm looking forward to the weekend coming soon and will chill out and take the time to travel around as much as possible. Sun City and Joburg City, here I come. Hoping to catch the Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates!

The Kruger National Park is nearby and I'm hoping to learn enough of Zulu and Afrikaans language to make the trips an excellent one! Awesomeness here I come!!

I hope I will post up more pics soon of SA! Till then, Cheers Blicksen (lightning bolt)!!