Whistle untuk survival

Tidak semua kita tahu bahawa wisel adalah satu alat yang boleh menyelamatkan kita sewaktu detik cemas ketika berada di dalam hutan dan sebagainya. Di dalam pesawat misalnya, wisel akan diletakkan bersama dengan jaket keselamatan. Ini adalah salah satu cara untuk menarik perhatian orang ketika kita dalam kecemasan. 
Adalah dinasihatkan jika anda bercadang untuk melakukan pengembaraan seperti mendaki gunung, masuki hutan dan belukar, dicadangkan untuk membawa sekali wisel sebagai peralatan untuk kecemasan. 

gambar hiasan

Mount Santubong the Legend

Mount Santubong the Legend.

It has always been the best mountain to climb when you are in Sarawak. For those hikers that plan for a trip in Kuching , spare a day to conquer the highest mountain in Kuching, that is the Mount Santubong or Gunung Santubong (local say).
How to get there.
Gunung Santubong ( GS) is located about 25 kilometres from Kuching city. It is located in Santubong near Pantai  Damai (Damai Beach ). Hikers can take a public transport, bus, van, renting a scooter/motor bike  or for more adventures you can cycling to Santubong. For a bus ride, it may take about 30- 45 minutes to reach. It depend to the average driver as there are not so much traffic congestion going there. Well , along the way you can enjoy the beautiful scenary when approaching to the mountain. Santubong is a fishing village years ago. When the resort was open decades ago ( not sure the exact years) it become the tourist product. Many tourists come to Santubong for a beach treat , cultural village ( one of the attraction ) and food (seafood).  

Mount view from the beach

As soon as you reach at the foot of Santubong, you have two locations of starting point. One is where it starts from Bukit Puteri hill side, and the other one with a little more distance is at the cafe. You may choose as both are worth to try. 

Rules to abide

The climbing would take two hours to three hours to reach the top. Be patient to climb as the track may slippery and obstacles. The difficulty from the minute you start to one hour later may reach 4-5 difficult ( easy (1) -moderate - difficult - extreme (10) difficult) ). Along the way enjoy the scenary  plus flora fauna. You may see birds, flowers, wild cat if you are lucky enough.

Hornbill or Burung Kenyalang spotted

Before that, make sure you take sufficient drinks and some food for you to consume.  Maybe some packed food for lunch when you reach a top.  Medication, ointment, deep heat may helpful along the way up and down.  Also don't forget camera, and yeah cellphone able to use as some cellphone provider's coverage are available.  

Second hour of climbing may requires you to flex your hand muscle as there are a few wooden ladder as in the picture. For me this is the best part and expect you to conquer the obstacle before you reach the top. Be careful with the slippery ladder and not stable structures. 

Footwear is not necessary a hiking gear as some climber just wear a rubber shoes and some only wear slippers, rarely. ( they are local pro). So don't feel intimidated when you meet one.

Stairway (wooden +rope )  to the top

What do you have at the top? , do not expect there are a kiosk selling drinks or cigarette as the is only one old wood hut waiting for you. It is to be shared with other climber. Sometime you may see many climbers in group of ten or more (college student). Keep your rubbish and do not litter.  Enjoy the view of Kuching and fresh air of gunung Santubong. 

View from the top

It is up to you to enjoy at the top and hours to do it. My advice is keep it as short as possible. As long as you have refresh yourself and continue to descend because you required another two hours time to go down. Your timing is very important as you do not want to climb down in the dark or late afternoon. My advice is the max you finish and arrive is at four o'clock. 

Enjoy your descend and enjoy your day.  

Oh toilet !!!!

Guess what, i got a flight in the morning and suddenly i need to rush to the toilet just like anybody else. In fact i have more important things to do than just that. The stomach keeps swirling just like the washing machine and wants to be realeased. So i run to the public toilet at Kuching International Airport. The first one, there was a sign "rosak harap maaf" means sorry breakdown. Secondly, the urinal was covered with plastic sheet indicating that you cannot pee there because it is also break down. So i ran to the other toilet alittle bit down the walkway which is near the smoking room. Again to my surprise the other toilet for the disable also put up with the same sign " rosak harap maaf." It was not that toilet that i wanted to go, then i proceed to the other toilet just next to it and again the same thing happen . Three toilet were all closed. 2 were occupied and the other one is rosak or breakdown so i cannot use it. The urinal which are 3, only can be used one. Two of them were breakdown due to water blockage.
I decided not to keep looking for other toilet and upset myself. I hold on to myself and get on the board heading to my destination. My journey took me 1 hour and once i reach my destination i quickly find the toilet and  of course finish the things.
I was thinking to myself that those incident happen at the international airport where traveller and tourist especially the first timer who come to Kuching experience the toilet woos!.
Is this how we keep our toilet at the first gateway to Sarawak and give the first impresion to the visitors? The airport management should act and rectify the problem and get the toilet to be fixed and keep them clean. We are not bother to look at those sign or keeep yourself busy tagging the sign "rosak harap maaf" to all the doors in the toilet at the airport.