Tie a Knot

Good morning.

I hope you slept early last night and ready for the steep challenge this morning. Though short, the slope may hold you back if you ever overestimate yourself.

Both moving ahead and turning back are difficult at current stage. Anyway, most people prefer not to go downhill using the jungle trail. Risk of knee injury is high when it absorbs the impact of the body weight while going through the roughness and gradient.

But Cerok Tokun is kind enough not to deter you away; "when you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on”. A few of you may be strong enough to laugh away this trivial matter, but who knows when you will need this.

I have not so far presented you a gift for accompanying me during my hiking. This simple green beauty is dedicated to every one of you, and our journey will continue. We can only discover new wonders when we keep moving, and "to keep our balance, we must keep moving" as well.

Have a good rest. No alcohol. No cigarette. See you tomorrow morning.

A Respect to Nature

Our hiking today is slightly different.

We have been taught to be humble, and cannot choose not to respect Nature; when coming to the right places, we are required to bow to Her.

Right immediately after the first exit, this is where we are to bow and to bend in appreciation for the simple surprises we receive every now and then.

You should know that I have been feeling so great to see birds, awful spider webs, spiritual sun beams and am delighted by the countless photos and profound experience I have gained. So, no second word. Let's bow.

One is certainly not enough. We need to bow and to bend for the second time not too far away. And we just cannot do it only by lowering our head this time.

Have I ever told you I did have an interesting perspective the moment I made my bow? Yes, I am always enlightened as long as I am ready to lower myself and open up my heart.

You may think this is a very weird hike you have had so far. Somehow these are parts of the journey as we move on.

And the old wisdom says, "The sky and ocean will be very wider if we take a step backward."

Let It Bee

I was searching for birds that chirped behind dense leaves  at Cerok Tokun, but those humming sound was loud and irritated.

I had a big and colourful bee accompanying me! It might be signalling me for its pictures to be shown in the Internet. "If Kingfishers can, why not me?"

It never went away once I started clicking.

"Just keep clicking for your award-winning pictures."

The bee was very talkative and persuasive in order to gain more exposure in the virtual world.

Let it bee.

New Life

It is fascinating to hike after raining days, besides enjoying myself walking in the mist, I could see ants building their new home and I received invitation from the Babbeler.

The story on the nature continues as I move on. In this fresh and wet morning, I can read the energy brought to the forest by the rain, and the tiny green shoots that signify new life; they are supported by the slope today, they will support the slope in the future.

The story on the nature continues as I move on.

Looking at the mud on the caps of mushrooms, the power of new life is fully exhibited. They need not to be a sleeping turtle nor a Monkey King, yet the moment they burst themselves out from the ground, in scientific term, how much force is required? And they make it.

If you ask why I go hiking every week, I need no talking about physical, but I hike on a trail of wisdom. Different insight may be derived from the same thing, different understanding may be perceived from different stages of life, and time.

Network

My wireless network to the outside world had totally been cut off for one and a half day. It was so frustrated and looked crippled until I managed to find time to shop for a replacement for my damaged modem.

Our broadband link to external is advanced and complicated but it is weak and fragile. It just ceased to function after a flash of lightning.

Back to the nature and jungle, the networking between trees is bonded mechanically; I recall what I had studied during high school on the strong bonding between the molecules in organic chemistry.

The network system which made use of these "overhead cables" might be primitive, but I believe it work effectively and rigidly, and it will grow stronger over the years.

Fancy does not always be better than simplicity.

Anyhow, it is beyond my imagination if we are to be connected in such a way illustrated by the picture that was found in the eyes of A Poets View.

Lotus

The lotus flower in the garden has bloomed fully at dawn and the petals starts to fold back again at night. It always, by then, symbolizes spiritual enlightenment in Asian cultures.

Goddess of Mercy or Kuan Yin in Chinese which means One Who Sees and Hears the Cry from the Human World is the most popular of the deity on Chinese altars, trusted and loved by all Chinese people. Image of Kuan Yin is often shown holding a rosary and a white lotus in the other.

The flower grows from the wet soil in the pot and emerges several centimeters from the water. It opens for just three days. The best companions in the pot are the peaceful little peacock fish which at the same time help to get rid of mosquito larvae.

The famous statement in Chinese literature "lotus emerges from the mud, yet it is unstained" has exerted an influence on the Chinese down to the present. But it is hard to relate any politician to this statement of purity.

The lotus leaves demonstrate another kind of beauty by its shape. They float on the water, hold and roll the morning dews and rain drops.

This lotus plant is always my favourite.

Journey

Different people may have different exposure and perspective from which experience and knowledge are gathered. But to the same person, because of different times and places that things have appeared to us, the understanding may vary as well.

I have thought and written about looking from bottom-up. Things were absolutely in the other way from what we use to perceive.

We move along from day to day, we may indulge ourselves in nature occasionally. We smell her breath and listen to her. The trek may be winding, bumpy and slippery but we take up these challenges bravely and persistently. We may not know what is waiting for us upfront but we enjoy the peacefulness along the journey.

mountain trek, Mount Kinabalu, Sabah

We move along from day to day, we may climb from one staircase to another and from one building to another. The higher we go, the more and better we see and the more minute we think we are. We make mistake, we seek for pardon and we correct it.

Kek Lok Si Temple, Penang

These are our journeys. We may start at different points but we shall meet at the same end point finally. Life can be complicated but the end is simple.

Home Sweet Home

I like to witness and enjoy calmness in different perspective. It was late when I reached this estuary. These fishing boats had settled down from a hard day's work. They were now safe from any thunderstorms and roaring waves.

This place is a synonym to our home as to the fishing boats.

Home shelters us from the elements. The tired man will finally return home. No matter how far we have travelled, we shall go home.

Sea Shore

I have abundant of wonders in my neighbourhood. I have mountain, seaside, paddy fields, rivers etc within my easy reach. It may not be too luxurious for me to pick my like of the day for the visit and since I was urged to visit the seaside a few days back after reading some posts, I finally made it this evening.

This seaside is at fifteen minutes driving distance from my work place. It was 6:15pm, the glaring sunlight had not been filtered by any leaves or branches on the shore line. After some warm up on the normal look of beating wave, I pointed my camera to the direction of the evening sun hoping to create a different perspective with some extra exposure.

The waves were not as fierce as what I have seen before which can be as high as two meters, and were not as dangerous as those during the invasion of tsunami many years back.

To see a man in action with his fishing net is an excitement to me. I think the beauty was kind of dynamic at the moment it was wide spreading open.

The man tried his luck at different directions, I followed and captured in all those directions. He failed to get any after all these tries, but I managed to have a few good pictures after him.

There came this Malay man for his turn of luck with his fishing rod, at the same spot, after the Indian man had left.

I might have not captured the action to the best, the man was actually swinging his fishing rod as to get his bait far away from shore.

Both men used different tools but with same objective in mind, the end result was not the most important, it was the process that count.

Cerok Tokun Painted With Extra Colors

Not all the times beauty can be witnessed. This is why we are born with creative and wild imaginations and this is what I was enlightened by Mother Nature while I was having my mountain trek at Cerok Tokun these few weeks.

I found that there were some changes on the trekking trail during these few journeys. Parts of the trail have been adorned with red flowers that made the normally greenish look become more charming and attractive.

The trekking trail was parted simply by the reason of reserving the trees, I would rather think in this way.

Travelled further up I did not observe anymore blossom but I knew there were. They must be on top of the trees but only shied away from me behind the tallness of trees and the luxuriance of leaves. I could see yellow flowers were collected on the ground.

Some others were retained by the spider web.

There is no definite answer to what we have not seen because we are always held back by our limitation, though we are sighted, during the exploration of truth.

Grassroots and top of trees

I love Nature and I shall talk about Nature today again in my post, but I am going to try to write this in a very different way. Then you may think I am crazy to mean "grassroots" when there are no grasses except trees in my pictures. Anyhow I still insist on calling them "grassroots" instead of "treeroots" since "treeroots" are not found in any dictionaries, and this is what you cannot refuse.

The grassroots appear on my jungle trek every time I come near to the rest house. It makes me thinking in depth for a story to record their, as well as others', existence since every creature should have its own unique story in the history book.

So here come the story of grassroots. We can see the grassroots live close to each other harmonically in the first picture, though crowded and less comfortable, but they tolerate. They get to know and care about what happens to each other. The only difficulty is that the list is too long for me to write down.

What then to see in the second picture are top of trees. They keep themselves in distance in order to hide away their ugliness and secret agenda. They are even arrogant enough to show their power in the thunder storm, they wave their arms and they shout in funny voices.

They grow so high until they are too far away from the grassroots. They have forgotten they were grassroots earlier and they are being supported by the grassroots currently. At the time they wave their arms, they have neglected intentionally the grassroots are absorbing the vibrating pressure with great difficulty.

Then come my third picture which has never come into picture initially, not until I discovered an animal which can be identified as a monkey wandering around on top of the tree. Indeed, there may be only one occasionally but sometimes there may be more.

Finally, I need to tell you the truth. When I tried to have a close snap on the grassroots, I encountered some wonders. I saw a beautiful piece of mushroom. I bet no way the top of trees do ever have any opportunities to appreciate and enjoy that.

Raining Days

I was locked by the rain either in my house or in my car these few days. Most of us like raining day as it cools down the temperature, I mean the tropical hot and yet hot climate, at the same time, we also hate it for minimum outdoor activities can be done.

It was a heavy rain on that day, a Sunday which suppose to be a beautiful outdoor day. Instead I spent my time to shoot at the rain and make fun of it before it managed to fail my day.

In my first picture, I make the rain no more invisible. There were thousands lines of rain in every second. This is the type of rain that I always have at my place, seldom be gentle, but trying to show muscle. If it continues for a few hours, the next days newspapers will be flooded with news on floods. Luckily we have yet to see any flood.

I took the second picture in my car when I was on my way back from work. It makes me ponder as where I am. It seems like a picture in winter with snow balls falling down.

The late evening sun almost showed no more effect in the picture. It was pale without seeing the green. I did not pull over for the pictures, I took them in the middle of traffic with trial after another. Isn't too funny having my sweet times for the best picture though I have been late to fetch my son from class? Traffic jam is always a subset of heavy rain. A 20 minutes jam created a good "wintery" picture, but it must not be in a direct propositional manner.

"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, And today? Today is a gift, That’s why we call it the present." I think today is still too vague to be mentioned, living in the now is a gift. And I have to keep reminding myself in this traffic jam.

Waterfall, the path of time

It is always a surprise to encounter something that is not expected or planned for. The only response I can have is just a O shape "Wow".

The waterfall is located not right in front of Bujang Valley Archaeological Museum, but it will not be missed out no matter how because of its size. By the time I arrived, the hot afternoon sun might have driven people away and that helped me to capture some "silent" pictures.

It is not dangerous to go up to the top if walk with precaution on the wet slippery surface. Top of the fall was nothing but a slow moving little stream by the time. It was gentle enough to be a mirror for the daily make up of the flower and gentle enough to make people losing imagination on her tremendous look later.

Further then I could see water had gathered some momentum, started to turn from gentle to a little bit furious. I meant a little since the fall must be drumming down loudly during monsoon season. The water flow marks would never have chances to hide any secrets but to show us how and what the falls have done onto the rocky surface.

It has done the most when the falls keep rushing and drumming down repeatedly in day and night. The traces of dark unrecoverable carving proved to be the most memorable parts of past ages.

Anyhow, the final fall before water returns to ground and converts into a creek provides a good natural massage to those who have chosen the right location. It is located at the bottom right corner in the next picture.

The power of time and nature can never be underestimated which you must agree with me. The gorgeous artistic look on the last picture should have given us the answer. At the same time has registered down the path of time.