This entry is only revealed to public on the 1st February 2009.

5 weeks after graduation, much of my plans this year has changed. Was expecting to be starting my working life in April, leaving Australia for good. With that, a high expectations to finally be home and getting on with life in Malaysia. With me taking up my post grad studies, that plan has been put on hold for at least another year, hence feeling a sad lost not being able to come home. 

But I wasn't going to allow that to happen. Right at this moment I am blogging at KL Sentral. I'm home =)

Left Melbourne at 2.15am after a 30 minute delay on this very day. The flight felt like it only lasted an hour. I had a really good sleep. Surprisingly, for the amount of money I've paid flying AirAsia, their service was pretty good. The only difference was the onboard entertainment and the free flow and types of drinks.. and hot towel.. and earphones. I had my Ipod with several movies loaded into it, so no problem with entertainment. They had USB plugs anyway to charge our Ipods. So there was no shortage of electricity. 

I love every moment today. Reaching home at the LCCT, touching the tarmac which is Malaysian soil, feeling the nice humidity (unlike the "hot until can die heat" of Melbourne) .. man.. so sweet! Not to mention the exchange rate, everything is so cheap!!! There also seems to be a change in the culture as well. I expected everyone here to be unfriendly and.. unfriendly la. But not really, in the shops they are actually starting to greet people (though I must mention alot of the Malaysian-Chinese patrons I've seen so far have been a big disgrace). I took a bus ride from the LCCT to KL Sentral for just RM9 (less than AUD$4).

The main objective today was to surprise my parents. None of my family members know of my plans, even my relatives in Melbourne. The problem is, the plane arrived at KLIA LCCT at 7.20am. Traditionally, we need to be back for dinner. That's like a full 12 hours away. So, there's plenty of time to kill. Right at this moment, I've killed 5 hours so far. Another 7 to go!

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Decided to come back early instead, was really bored waiting around. I took a KTM from Sentral headed for home around 1.45pm. Took about 20 minutes to get home. Thankfully the train wasn't really crowded. From Serdang station I decided to walk home. Yes, walk. If Wilsons Prom was possible, carrying 18kg of stuff is no big deal. The hike took me an hour and 10 minutes.

My entry to the house was probably the highlight of the trip. I kept my house keys since I left and was hoping they hadn't changed it. At the gate - the keys still work. My family was at home as I could hear the TV on. I could hear my mom telling my dad who's at the gate. By the time he checked I was already in. My parents were obviously very shocked but happy to see me home.

Ah, chinese traditions. I gotta admit this one was quite special as I felt the significance of this reunion. Previously, we never really leave home for a long period of time. After a couple of years in Melbourne, coming home was really special. It was also great to be re-living the past, doing the same things we used to do for a long time while we're young.

It was great meeting up with family and other relatives. The ang pau's are okay.. but at my age, it feel's kinda weird still looking forward to these red packets. But I can't say no to the food! Malaysian food is waaayyy better than those in Australia.

 

Ah.. the thrills of being back. Nothing beats home.

Last weekend the 17th of January 2009 I've conquered the tallest mountain in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko together with Melvin, James and Isabella. The idea came from Melvin and James who are just hungry to do as much as they can in their short 1 year exchange in Australia. Initially, I wanted to do Ayers Rock in Alice Springs, but that drive would've taken me 27 hours ONE WAY, even needing me to drive through Adelaide (as though just driving to Adelaide wasn't crazy enough). Kosciuszko was no easy feat as well. It's situated 6-7 hours away from Melbourne and in a different state - NSW, but just by a few dozen kilometers.

We left Melbourne at around 3am, needing to wait for James to finish his graveyard shift. Our aim was to get there in time for the climb, just put up the night and head home the next day as both James and I had to work. It was almost the same route as Fall Creek and Mount Buffalo, just that instead of the Great Alpine Road, it was just the Alpine Road. Lol. Not that it's not a great road though. The drive and scenery was stunning,. About an hours worth of none stop mountain ranges and natural beauty.

The Alphine region holds a different feel to it during summer. Quite pleasant.. once you're in the car under the air conditioning. Good thing I had Melvin drive the second half, was falling dead right after Warrangatta.

We arrived at our destination, a town called Thredbo, at 11am. Thredbo is located at the based of Mt. Kosciuszko and is built primarily as a skii resort, very identical to the one in Falls Creek. It was quite funny to see these resorts during summer when it should be filled with snow. The chairlifts are all closed but one, and instead of snowboards and skiis we wee people mountain biking and hiking. There was also a dry bobsled which we tried. Pretty fun!

Our climb of Kociuszko began right after we found a carpark, got some information and had a quick sandwich lunch. One confession - we took a chairlift which minused off about 2-3 hours of our otherwise would've been 5-6 hour hike. Instead the hike became a 2.5 hour march to the summit.

 

The walk was pretty easy, wasn't too steep apart from one or two points. There's a metallic walkway for most of the hike. The plateau was.. charming. Lots of flowers, creeks, ridges and rocks.

One observation I have of Australia - all the nice places are mainly because of rocks. Let's explore that:

- Great Ocean Road  = Rocks
- The Grampians = Rocks
- Ayers Rock =  One Huge Rock
- Mt Kosciuszko = Rocks

No wonder they have a slang here called "Rock on, dude!". Their main attractions are rocks.

Anyway, back to the trip. Along the hike, my curious stare into the odd creeks revealed something interesting. There are fish in the water! Not bad considering we were more than 2.2km above sea level. Instinctively I had to catch one! So I did with my bare hands, but released it right after that. It looked like baby trout, but I can't be sure.

Apart from the rocks, flowers. fish, huge New South Wales summer flies.. the hike there was pretty uneventful. At the peak itself, it didn't really look grand because all the surrounding terrain was pretty high up as well, unlike Mount Kota Kinabalu which was the only tall mountain in the region. I remembered mentioning before somewhere in this blog (can't seem to find it) that to feel on top, you always need something to look down to. In this case, literally it's true. Metaphorically? Go figure =)

Standing on the tallest part of Australia

Despite the lack of a majestic scene, the thought of conquering Mount Kosciuszko is quite satisfying. Even marked the peak location on my GPS (below) just for fun.

 
Left: Tracking to the summit. Right: Feeling the "feel" outside Jindabyne

  

 
Left: Melvin and James did some natural rock climbing. Right: Under the statue of Count Paul Edmund Strzelecki, the first European to reach Mount Kosciuszko whom he named after his Polish hero