One Night at Trader's

Mei Ying sms'ed me a few days ago telling me that she has got a room at Trader's Hotel and if we girls want to have dinner and then do sleepover.

Yee Ker later called me and said that she will be picking up Li May and then we'll meet up at the hotel/KLCC to have dinner around 8:30pm. So after work, I went to the gym and ran for 20 minutes then did some weight workout and by 8:30 I was ready for dinner. Knowing my girls and their punctuality, I bought a pretzel from Auntie Anne's while making my way towards Trader's.

It was a good thing I had something to eat then because Yee Ker only called at 9:30 to announce their arrival and Mei Ying only reached at 10:15 or so (after going into the wrong hotel, wrong floor and costing her $8 lol).

So, close to 11 and in desperate of food, we made our way to San Francisco Steakhouse. Thank goodness it was 15 to 11, because kitchen closes at 11! Imagine how temper would flare if no more food is served, well, we could still go over to mamak's nearby but that would be cruel cos we are celebrating Yee Ker's birthday hahahha

Bread and salted butter to ease the hunger a wee bit.

Tiba-tiba in the middle of photo-taking, Grace pops out of nowhere and jumped into the shot... that's what you call camera sensitive!

Lamb rack with mint sauce. That green-ish round thing with mint sauce is actually an apple, caramelised. Lamb a bit dry and mint sauce is too oily and not enough mint it seems.

Grilled chicken with butter rice I think? Tastes average.

Cod-fish, grilled I think? With soy sauce. I don't fancy it much...

And cake for the bday gurl! Chocolate fondant with blueberry sauce and ice cream on side. Chocolatey goodness. Gone in a few minutes.

Crappy picture taken by staff who looks shifty as though cannot wait to close shop.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel because Li May didn't want to go club, she has a plane to catch at 7 the next morning. Anyways the rest of us headed for Quattro and had a blast! :)

Next day had brunch @ Dome:

My scrambled eggs and sausages on toast :D

With Flat White to wake me up a bit.

Grace got herself the Mushroom Soup Pie or something like that.

Yee Ker had to leave early cos she still has to go in to work (She works like, 7 days a week. Jesus). Whereas Mei Ying has to attend her event at the Convention Centre.

Observe picture I took.

and compare with the one Grace took.

This also I already edited. Grace, you suck at taking photos -.-

It was one of those really relaxing Saturdays I've had in a while. Okla, to be fair most of my Saturdays are pretty relaxing. We took our own sweet time taking our brunch. I missed taking time with my food because I like to enjoy them. And it's so hard to do so when you only have an hour lunch break or your meal companions all just gobble their food down and wait impatiently and you try unsuccessfully to copy their steps and gobble too. What's worse with eating fast is I normally feel bloated afterwards.

Afterwards, we watched the 3D of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was the first 3D movie experience I've had. The only other time wasn't really a movie, but it was at Disneyland and it's more like a thrill ride but it was fun nevertheless! I'll blog on a review on the movie some time or other.

Then later meet up with Mei Ying again for tea @ Chinoz At the Park. I know it's been high expenses all day and night but I believe that we should all pamper ourselves one time or another :p

I can't remember what this is called, but it's something like chocolate cake with strawberries.

Observe another failed attempt of her photography -.-

Juice of the day called Eye Opener, blend of carrots, strawberries and orange.

I'm feeling bored and lazy.. plan to nap a bit on this warm Sunday...

Bukit Apek Hike

After our very heavy dinner, it was planned that we shall attempt to burn the excess fat through hiking of the hills around Cheras. Bukit Apek also known as Bukit Datuk, Bukit Batu Putih and Bukit Sri Hartamas - is apparently a good training hike spot for those wanting to climb up Mount Kinabalu.

There were two trails leading upwards, one towards the summit and the other leads to a waterfall. At 7am, Stanley picked me up from my place and we went over to Lam's. Jocelyn didn't join us this time around because she had some other plans (TG). However, we had a bit of a difficulty finding our way to Bukit Apek even though we had the road maps and directions. In the end we stopped by at a small little dimsum shop where Stanley had his breakfast of chee cheong fun while I tapao-ed 3 char siew paus which they packed in a styrofoam box.

At 8:40am we finally found ourselves at the foot of the hill. I took out my char siew paus from the styrofoam box and dumped all 3 paus into a plastic bag, just in case I get hungry when I reach the top. Damn stomach always complaining for food at the most unexpected moments.

At the foot of the hill are a few stalls selling thong sui, nasi lemak, refreshing drinks and miscellaneous stuff but that will be a good stopping point on our way down, not up! One of the best things about hiking up Bukit Apek is that the trails are lined with tall trees so even though you were to hike in the afternoon, chances are that you won't be feeling much of the scorching heat. But that's probably more due to the fact that it was a cloudy day lol. However, in the afternoon also I did see some hikers only about to make their way up. Another fact is that the trail up Bukit Apek is mostly untouched even with all the popularity it has. When I say untouched I mean that there aren't tarred roads and such, like what happened to Penang Hill. Of course there is the occasional trash here and there tainting the hill.

Partly covered with rubber trees.

Random kulat.

The hike up is definitely not an easy one. There were some really steep trails (60 degrees). There are six stations throughout the hill and before we got to the Station 2, I could hear from a distance an eerie sort of singing reverberating through the forest. Damn scary ok! Some more very distant like that and the forest was unusually still except for the chirping of birds and the crawl of small animals.

Later found our that this uncle is the culprit. This fella climbs up the hill every day and is part of the committee that cares/manages the hill. A very darn good tenor! Can you imagine while hiking and you're already huffing and puffing away some more trying to maintain a reverberating sort of singing. Respect betoi.

Trying to figure out which path to take.

This would have been a very good shot indeed if the tall tree were to overlay with bright clear sky ... I think this shot was taken somewhere halfway up the hill where dark clouds are already starting to gather.

Station 4. At this stage Stanley was already on the verge of his physical limit. He initially planned to stick around this station, eat something first and catch up with us later on. But in the end, his will got the better of him and 3 of us went right on. That was about 10am.

Number 2 is so true.

A quick group photo.

Of all things to happen, right, it started raining. Not just a small drizzle, but rain rain. I got my Bubbles towel and wrapped that around my head so as not to have the toxic rain of KL absorbed into my brain. The trails started getting muddy with rain and at times very slippery. At that point, we reached Station 5 and were heading towards the waterfalls, which unfortunately consists of many downhill trails and that has greatly slowed our progress because of the rain. It is much easier to head up instead of down in the downpour.

2 hours from the time we started out
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.
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We finally reach the waterfall!

Such serenity! We were able to enjoy the view and take pictures around it because there weren't anybody else there. For a hill in KL, I'd say that the water is pretty clean. Not exactly crystal clear, but it's good enough. Too bad I did not bring along my swim stuff otherwise I'd be very happy to soak in the cool springs!

Bukit Apek conqueror :p

I took a seat under this tent set up there and took out my char siew paus. To my horror, all 3 char siew paus have evolved into one single large char siew pau after being squashed together for so long hahahhahah.

Managed to tear them apart afterwards.
Lam later commented that I am one tough girl after managing the climb up in those conditions. He said that normally girls wouldn't want to do so *.*

After that it was time to face the harsh reality of hiking back up to Station 5 and then make our way down.

The trail back up was really steep and soggy. Notice Stanley's shins were badly scratched because he slipped on one of the rocks at the waterfall. Poor guy later got a cramp on his hamstrings and had to limp his way down. Lam and I tried to motivate him with motions of roast duck rice waiting for him once we get out of the place but for once, he said he has no appetite for food!

Rain finally stopped.

Cute umbrella-shaped leaf I found.

Gnarly roots!

The very large Station 3. Oh, we made our way down a different trail from the one we came up because Stanley didn't want to go down the way we came up as there's one really steep path. We came across this Station which we didn't come across on our way up.

Stumbled upon a creek.

At one point of the hike, we found ourselves at a path separated into a fork. After much consideration we decided to take the trail that seems to be more beaten. It was already an hour and half we trekked but still no signs that we were close to the foot of the hill. It seems as though the trail we are taking down is further! 200m down the chosen 'beaten path' we met a bunch of uncle hikers whom we did bumped into on our way down earlier. The uncles were like hey, aren't you people going down already? Turns out that the trail we were on is actually leading deeper into the forest to a pond. Thank god we stumbled into these people or else we would be famished and half dead by the time we find out way out!

Completely exhausted, we finally reach the car close to 2pm. Imagine taking 2 hours going up the hill but almost 2 hours down! Stanley was completely falling apart with the injury and cramps. He seemed to be completely blur and didn't know what to do. I think he's traumatized lol.

We wanted to get roast duck rice which is famous in Taman Connaught but a glimpse at the length of the line there, we changed our minds and went to this chicken rice shop called Kim Kee instead.

A refreshing drink after a very long hike.

Roast duck and sio bak rice *.*

I'm very encouraged by the hike up Bukit Apek and the view of the waterfall is simply good. Vow to bring some friends from Penang up this place when I have the chance.