Tuesday, July 25, 2006
This post will be about my trip to Bukit Tinggi. Lol, before any of you from ACTSChurch say I'm copying Ps. Alex and his own personal retreat, I actually had this idea way back when I was still preparing for my exams. (warning: long post ahead, with some pictures further down.)
Anyways, I left for Bukit Tinggi last Sunday right after Service. I slept most of the way there, and arrived around 3pm. I was staying at Colmar Tropicale which is styled into a French Settlement. First impressions was good, but I initially felt that the weather was too hot to be on a supposedly cool hill. I later found out that when it was cold, it was REALLY cold.
Checked in, rested abit... and later went out of my room around 7.30pm foraging for food. Not to my surprise, much of the food was WAY to overpriced, although the cakes and pastries were relatively cheap. In my three days here in this place, I ate 5 slices of cakes! One Strawberry cheesecake, blueberry cheescake, Black Forest cake (my favourite cake of all time), and 2 more cheesecakes of unknown origins. At only rm8.60 per slice, it was pretty good. I also had a peach danish at rm4.60. Anyways, back to dinner... I had roast chicken and side orders much like Kenny Rogers style, cost me rm28.50. But hey, there wasn't any other place to eat. After eating my fill, I rested abit more in my room, and then went out to fulfill the reason why I came to this place in the first place: to pray.
I went to the top floor of the clock tower in that place which was facing really nice scenary (although at that time I couldn't see anything, it was around 11.30 pm already) I had a wonderful time with God, thanking Him and praising Him for all the good works that He's done in and with my life... I guess the joy of just having finished my finals last week added to the gratitude in my heart. I declared aloud Psalm 145 at that place, even though I was shivering. (genius forgot to bring his jacket from the room) All in all a God-filled time, as I reflected on the season that is ending before me, and looked forward to the coming of new things. God pointed me to areas of my life that I needed to contemplate on, and make decisions as to where I want to go, and how I can change my life to be more like Him. Some hard truths I had to accept, and difficult decisions I've decided to make in order to continue walking along the plans that He has for me. But I remain as I was: Fully convinced.
Before I retired for the night, I took a walk outside the French Settlement down the long winding mountain road. To the right of the road was a steep drop and pretty much a forest. Pine trees were planted all along the road, and there was thousands of those pine cones littered around the road. I walked for a long time, trying to sing (my throat was quite bad) when something caught my eye. It was a firefly! I never seen one before, and it's really quite beautiful. I never thought that it would look like that. I saw all in all 10 fireflies as I walked further down the road. I never saw a bunch of the congregate together though... but even individually it was quite a sight. I didn't try to catch any of them though, they were far too in the forest. Went back after the walk and slept. End of Day 1.
Day 2 began at 7am in the morning, as I woke up and got ready. Had breakfast at 8. Pretty good but routine Free Complimentary Breakfast stuff as in most hotels. More good pastries, good fried rice, soggy hash browns, maple syrup pancakes (!!!), an omellete, and 2 half boiled eggs (the beginner chef had to try with 6 eggs just to get it right... the first two came up 5/6 boiled... White all solid but yellow still liquidy: rejected, the next 2 came up 1/6 boiled... and the last 2 well... I just ate the last 2.) Having finished breakfast, I geared myself for a day of exploring my domain. Took a tram to the Japanese Garden and Botanical Garden which was about 10 minutes drive from where I stayed. Saw lots of nature in the Botanical Garden... there was a tree called Phoebe Grandis, a poisonous plant called the Angel's trumpet, the largest orchid in the world (which was nowhere in sight, only the plant was there) Strawberry plants with no strawberries. (there were a few shriveled white prunes that could pass as strawberries if you were desperate enough) Took a short nap at the garden in this hut place thingy. I entertained the idea of getting a sleeping bag, hiding from the park authorities until the place closed, then sleep overnight. Nah.
The Japanese Garden was pretty cool. Plenty of Zen architecture complete with Japanese Tea House and 2 kimono-garbed women. Entertained the idea of renting a kimono(?) and taking pictures with them. Nah. There was a sign at the pond where all the Koi were swimming though. It said:
Don't throw stones at me.
- Fish -
That was pretty funny.
To live life in every breath, every cup of tea, every life we take. That is bushido, the way of the warrior. - Katsumoto from The Last Samurai.
Wasn't really ready for this picture. But at least the scenary's nice.
Wanted to have lunch at this Japanese Restaurant at that garden called Ryu Zan Tei. One look at the menu's pricing and I decided that Cup noodles would be a better decision. There was this really sad looking green feathered bird locked up in a cage outside the restaurant which seemed desperate to be free. It was banging its head against the steel cage. Pretty sad. Later though when I passed by the place, the bird was gone! (maybe someone took pity on it and let it go.)
Next stop was the rabbit park. I wanted to see a Giant Angoran Droopy Ear Rabbit! (its as big as a small dog. Or a big hamster.) Instead I saw around 40 small sized bunnies. (Hugh Hefner, eat your heart out!) and one BIG humongous white rabbit. I liked this small cute black one though. I think the feeling's mutual. There were some deer in the park as well, and 3 donkeys. (they were really smelly.) After enough rabbit petting and chasing around (harder than chasing chickens) I took a short hike through the 18 hole golf course to reach the Clubhouse to have dinner. I reached there around 5.10pm so I decided to play abit of snooker till 6. I then had dinner which comprised of Pasta with Grilled Fish Fillet which was fantastic! And it only cost me Rm20. I had a pink guave drink too. After dinner, took the tram back to Colmar and rested abit. Went out for night walk later hoping to see more fireflies. There were none, but this time God rewarded me with a clear sky: revealing thousands upon thousands of stars. Perfect. End of Day 2.
Day 3 began with breakfast... and visiting the 2 black and 2 white swans which have now become close buddies of mine. (I don't think the feeling's mutual) They were in this man made enclosure complete with a lake with more koi swimming inside. I now understand why swans are said to 'honk'. They really honk! Its quite funny, seeing such beautiful creatures making such ugly noises. But after awhile, their honking gets quite cute. Black swans are smaller than their white counterparts and much more friendly. They would swim close to me and when I outstretch my hand to touch it, it would honk indignantly and swim away. One time I got frustrated that it wouldn't let me touch it that I just reached out to grab it anyway. It HONKED loudly, but I still managed to get a touch. Felt... swanny. Now the white swans, thats a different story. Most of the time I visit them, they won't be swimming... Rather, they would be lazily basking in the shade. Its really cool to see a swan sleeping, cos they can tuck in their legs and their heads... and all you could see was a white fluff resembling a pillow. I climbed over the enclosure into their compound, snuck up quietly to one of them to pet the white coat of the nearest swan. (the temptation was too great!) I didn't get anywhere near it though, as it promptly reared up its neck and pecked me... the motion kinda like resembles a snake striking its prey. It wasn't painful though so I put my right knee (protected by my pants) near the fella, and watched in amusement as he repeatedly pecked me on the knee. (sadistic.)
Honk.
Lazy swans.
Anyways, the rest of Day 3 wasn't really very eventful. Most of it was waiting for the shuttle bus to take me back to Times Square. It finally arrived at 3.45pm and I reached home after taking a taxi from Times Square at 6pm. The rest of my week will be packed with worship ministry, of which I'm much looking forward to: Wednesday practise, Thursday CampusCity, Friday Kajang AOG, Saturday Teenacity service, Sunday service and leaders retreat. Awesome!
