Family Get Together Series: Raffles Hotel Singapore

Date: 23rd November 2009
Location: East Coast Chalet, Singapore
Event Category: Family Get Together

Food and drink event of the year is back! and this time was held at Goldkist Chalet, East Coast.

The objectives of this event are;

1. To farewell our lovely Ms Sophia Teh, ex-Resident Service Manager of Raffles;

2. To welcome aboard Mr Gabor L Vida, our new Director of Room to Raffles;

3. To congratulate a number of staff who were recently get promoted and among them are Bong, Sherlyn, Jeremy, Davis, Joo Heng, Elliot and Dave;

4. To celebrate birthday for those staff who were born in November and among them are Jimmy, Lydia and Farris.

As early as 4:00pm, Bong was among the first to arrive at the chalet. Since he is on rest day, it is a 'task' for him to come early and of course, to get everything prepared before the bulk group arrive.

And I believe from 6:00pm onward, more and more people arrived, including Jimmy Ong (one of the November birthday 'baby'). He was lucky as there was a Surprise waiting for him actually, at the chalet.

Next to arrive is our new Director of Room, Mr Gabor L Vida for his first ever chalet gathering since he start work at Raffles. Welcome aboard and welcome to the club!

For me, Faizal, Alvaro and Adie, we were among the late comers. =). As I need to get my car out from the workshop first, and next is to fetch Faizal and Alvaro from the hotel, and Adie from her house, that is pretty much explain why we were late. We reached the chalet at around 8:30pm.

It doesn't called 'Chalet' without food and drinks. Without missed, Shahrin is always there, preparing the food for that night, in fact for every gathering. Room Division chalet won't be perfect without him around. Simply, if there is Shahrin, there is more food. Shahrin = Food!

Adding to that, BBQ has been organized as well. Variety of food like chicken, sotong, otak-otak, and satay were there.

2 or 3 people who are good in BBQ-ing technique take charge of the BBQ. Among them are Faizal, Mark, Shah and see picture below, that is Jeremy, preparing food for his girlfriend, Gina. Gina is so lucky to have him around!

While the people drowned in the flood of food and drinks, there come the 'guest of honour' Ms Sophia Teh together with her 'scandal', Marisa and Tiffany.

After spending hours with the food and drinks, chit-chatting, magical 'hand-burning' trick, there comes a climax part.

Started with slides show presentation, followed by token giving session,

...handing over a giant farewell card for Sophia, and next is Sophia's farewell speech session. It was a 'controversial' speech and check out my FB page for her 'controversial' speech. =)

Yup, that was her last chalet as a Raffles after 10 years of services with the hotel. Started with a waitress, she ended up her career at Raffles as a Resident Service Manager.

That is it! With full of fun, laughter, food and drinks, I am sure each and everyone enjoyed very much that night, including to those who were 'Missing In Action' controversially, for a few hours!

Mountain Climbing Series: Gunung Ledang the Legend

Date: 14th November 2009
Location: Gunung Ledang, Johor
Event Category: Mountain Climbing

Another Mamenez's Mountain Climbing Series of the year took place at this Legendary Gunung Ledang, also known as Mount Ophir. Located in the Ledang District (Northwestern of Johore), Malaysia.

The summit is located between the border of Muar and Malacca. Standing at 1,276m (4,186ft), with a clear trail leading to the peak, the mountain is a popular destination among amateur climbers. Gunung Ledang is also the 64th highest mountain in Malaysia and arguably the most climbed mountain in the country. It is also ranked as 6th most difficult mountain.

Altogether, 28 of us, 16 climbers from Kuala Lumpur, which is Elmi and her group, 6 from Johore Bahru and together with my best friend, Adi and his group from Klang, 6 of them.

Everyone of us started the journey to Tangkak as early as 1:30am. This is due to the instruction from the Gunung Ledang office that require all of us to be there by 7:00am for some registration and administration purposes.

Im not really sure how is it look like the journey from Kuala Lumpur and Klang, but ours (from JB) was 'washed' by heavy rain, especially along the highway.

Although the weather was not really good, it does not down us from the excitement of the trip.

Yup, we arrived at the Entrance B around 4:00am and surprisingly, Elmi and her group from KL reached earlier. I guess their drivers are really good and keep on speeding. =)

Upon arrival at the Entrance B, there comes the funny part and a bit embarrassing moment I guess. By keeping on communication via 'sms' with Elmi and the last update we received was, "Elmi and the rest are already here at the Entrance B". And right after 15 minutes, we arrived at Entrance B as well. So, there was a group of people with 3 cars waiting at the Entrance, and I guess, that should be Elmi and her group, because the last 'message' I received was only 15 minutes ago.

Anyway, confidently we stopped and approached them and in fact, they told us that there were from KL, (what a coincident). So its high chance that this is Elmi and her group. Shortly after, there was a security guard came and opened up the entrance bar, and without further delay we all drive in. *This embarrassing story to be continued later in Part 2*

Crossing the darkness night and unstable road, all of us passing through the palm oil, which is about 2 - 3 kilometres to reach the office. Along this way, here comes the part that I broke my car front bumper. Argghh.. I should have been driving a 4x4 Jeep rather than a Perdana V6!

After struggling with the darkness, broken bumper and unstable road condition, we finally arrived! Park the car at the public car park and proceed with the campsite.

Embarrassing Story: Part 2!
Shortly, while removing camping equipments from the car, I finally saw Elmi..but... she was not with the group that we approached at the Entrance B just now... and now I know that group is actually not Elmi's group. Coincidentally they are from KL! Anyway....

Move on next, is camping! More on this at our Outdoor Camping Series: Gunung Ledang the Legend post.

After settling with the camping stuff and registration, all of us start the day with of course, Breakfast!

Followed by briefing at around 8:00am, it was conducted by Muazzam Syah, one of the officer at the Gunung Ledang office. Some people say he is cute! HUH! By the way, the briefing is more or less telling us the Do's and Dont's while climbing, trek condition, filling up declaration form and etc.

Without further due, here we go! Moving to Check Point 1, it started with climbing up the stairs and light hiking trek to the first check point.

Check Point 1: Bukit Semput

Check Point 2: Lagenda Trail

Moving up further, there is no more stairs, but the trek was a bit slippery due to raining season.

Check Point 3: Batu Orkid

Check Point 4: Kolam Gajah

Check Point 5: Gua Kambing

Here starts the challenging part, whereby the rain is freely showering us and it absolutely freezing cold!

Check Point 6: Taman Bonsai

Moving further uphill, some of us started to feel the pain of cold, muscle ache and knee as well. The trek, equipped with 'KFC', Killing Fitness Centre is really adding on the 'fun' of climbing this mountain. By using ropes, it really help and most of us managed to pass through it. Altogether there are 8 check points including the summit, I managed to get all Check Point photos but missed out the Check Point 7: Bukit Botak as it was raining heavily that time.

For those who were caught in the cold rain, fighting with muscle ache and etc, it slowing down their journey to the top. And for those who are well-fit, reach the top much earlier than the rest.

But after all, no matter how late and pain it is, most of us managed to reach the top and snap 2-3 photos over there.

As it still raining with no mercy, we decided to start out journey downhill earlier, and by using another route down, it is not as challenging as the route to the top.

We arrived at the campsite approximately 6:00pm - 7:00pm.

Overall, by ranked as 6th most difficult mountain in Malaysia, it is a worth climbing here and in fact, you may get a certificate for RM10 per cert, to acknowledge that you have reached the top.

We all, did enjoyed climbing it very much. and will definitely come back. And next time, we will choose to camping on the mountain itself, video-ing the sunset and enjoying the sunrise, and of course not in the raining season.

Waterfall Hunting Series: Sungai Ayer Puteh Waterfall

Date: 15th November 2009
Location: Sungai Ayer Putih Waterfall, Johor
Event Category: Waterfall Hunting

It is unplanned! But Zahidan and his friends found this waterfall on the day that we arrived, on the day that we all (the climbers) climbing up the mountain.

Zahidan, together with Suziela, Fiardaues, Abdellah and Bobo discovered this waterfall right after they finished setting up the campsite.

It is a worth discovery, as it is nice and refreshing, easily accessible and not that far from our campsite.

I dont have chance to find out is there any history about this waterfall in the past, as we were all 'busy' enjoying the waterfall.

Basically all the visitors to this park are allowed to go to this waterfall and from the Gunung Ledang office itself, it just take around 10 minutes to reach here, by walking and continued with climbing up the stairs.

Yup, not so much I can write about it, as I rather enjoying it while I have time for it!

For those who feel like visiting this place, let me know so that I can arrange for a proper group visit. As usual, text me on my Facebook.com/mamenez

Outdoor Camping Series: Gunung Ledang the Legend

Date: 14th - 15th November 2009
Location: Gunung Ledang, Johor
Event Category: Outdoor Camping
Batch: 01/Nov 09

In conjunction with the Mountain Climbing Series: Gunung Ledang the Legend, Mamenez took the opportunity to experience on how does it 'feel' to camping at this legendary Gunung Ledang.

The park, which is now under the care of Johor National Park is absolutely clean and well managed. It has several camping sites for the visitor and the camping fee is RM5 per head for a night. The camping site is well occupied with basic facilities like public toilet, praying room, cooking area and etc. Besides camping on the ground level, visitors who are planning to climb the mountain may choose to camping on the mountain itself. Located at the middle of the climbing trek, the camping site is perfectly safe and can accommodate up to 150 climbers at one time.

If you decided to camping on the ground level, try to come as early as you can to 'book' your desired camping site. Don't be surprise to see a lot of people at this park as early as 4.00am, especially during weekend.

For this series, we were among the last group to arrive, but we were lucky indeed. Actually, our original plan is to camping on the mountain itself, but at a very last minute, we have changed our plan. We decided to camping on the ground level due to the raining season and we are dare enough to take high risk by camping on the mountain. For that reason, we have been given the last camping site that still available, it named as "Kolam Mahligai" camping site.

Why is it called as "Kolam Mahligai" is simply because it is named after a small pond nearby. "Kolam" is Malay word for pond.
So, by having this pond near to our camping site, we are perfectly 'blessed' with its beauty!

Me and the rest of the climbers started our journey to the peak of the mountain while Zahidan and his technical assistant, Bobo take charge of the camping site, operation, food and beverage, etc. By relying on their expertise, it shouldn't be a problem for them to get all the tents, equipment, food and drinks ready before all of us get back from the climbing later. In fact, Zahidan and the crew managed to get everything ready earlier than expected, and with that they enjoyed the "Kolam Mahligai" first.

There are several incidents of heavy rain, lost phone and otak-otak, but it does not spoilt the whole camping experience.

Around 6:00pm, one by one climbers return to the campsite, and the first thing that we look for is FOOD! and they are all ready. Awesome.

Followed with hot drinks and chit-chatting, it is absolutely awesome. By the way, due to the tiredness of climbing the mountain, most of us fall asleep as early as 8:00pm.

The next day (Sunday), everyone woke up fresh. The tiredness has gone but the pain of climbing is still there. It really 'attacked' our muscle, especially on the leg.

But it does not stop us from enjoying our second day to the fullest, with the pond and of course the heavenly waterfall nearby our campsite. *More on the Waterfall later*

After all, at around 12:00pm, we done with the camping, Kolam Mahligai and the waterfall. Closing up with cleaning up the campsite, we leave the campsite as what it is when we first arrived.


Personally, I feel sad to leave but Mamenez will definitely come back here again to fully enjoying the camping experience, for the waterfall and its beauty!

Waterfall Hunting Series: Puteri Waterfall

Date: 26th August 2009
Location: Puteri Waterfall, Johor
Event Category: Waterfall Hunting

Mamenez's Waterfall Hunting series in Johor has chosen this Puteri Waterfall as one of the collections. Puteri Waterfall is ranked as one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Malaysia. The waterfall alone is not the only main attraction, it is attached to the Legendary 1276m high Gunung Ledang (or Mount Ophir).

Gunung Ledang is very famous among mountain climbers in Malaysia. The mountain ranked 6th most difficult mountains in Malaysia, has been the most climbed mountain as well. More on the mountain soon, as Mamenez is planning to climb up to the peak of Gunung Ledang soon.

Located in Sagil, (District of Muar) it is pretty easy to find this waterfall. By using the mountain itself (as it is tall enough that you can see while you are driving), and lots of road signboards, anyone can get to the Puteri Waterfall without getting lost.

From Kuala Lumpur or Johore Bahru (Singapore), you can use the Malaysian North-South Highway (PLUS) and exit Tangkak. By the time you pass by the toll counter, at about 200 metres ahead, you will find this very big signboard "Welcoming you to Ledang District". Smile, because you are exactly on the right track. Next, turn right and just follow the way to Gunung Ledang, and from here, you can actually see the peak of Gunung Ledang clearly.

Next, you will find this small town area and that is Sagil. From here, you will start to see more and more road signboards showing you the direction to Gunung Ledang. Roughly, from the highway exit to Gunung Ledang, it will take around 1 - 2 hours drive depending on the traffic and weather. Talking about Puteri Waterfall, there is a legend behind it. The story line is like this;

"There is a popular Malaysian folklore which told of a Princess with magical powers who resided on the mountain. She was wooed to be the wife of the then Sultan of Malacca. Sultan Mahmud Shah. However, she set impossible conditions for him as a means to reject his proposal.
The first condition was to build two bridges . . . one of silver and one of gold. For which he switly constructed, having all the nation to participate.
The second was to fill a tempayan (large earthen water-barrel) full of blood from mosquitoes. For a second time, the nation participated in this seemingly impossible task and succeeded.
The third and final condition, was for him to gather a bowl of his sons blood. The Sultan was put into a state of dilemma; and after long days and restless nights of consideration, he stepped into his sons room in the night, with a dagger in one hand - and a bowl in the other.
He approached his sons sleeping body, and as he drew close, the image of the Princess appeared before the Sultan and said to him that she could not possibly marry a man willing to wound his own son. And then she vanished, never to be seen again.
Folklore has it that the gold and silver supposedly found on the mountain are attributed to; and a testament to this story."

And another further legend;

"Further legend has it that the princess eventually married one Nakhoda Ragam, a hero whose name unfailingly struck terror into the hearts of those who had dared to oppose him. However, this hero was later to die at the hands of his princess-wife. Ragam was fond of tickling the Princess’s ribs. One day, in an uncontrollable burst of anger, the Princess stabbed her husband in the breast with a needle she was handling. Thereafter, the Princess returned to Mount Ophir and vowed never to set her eyes on another man."

That is why this waterfall is named as Puteri Waterfall (Puteri is Malay word for Princess).

For its beauty, this waterfall is now under the care of Johor National Park, and off course the state government has spend some money to upgrade the facilities here. Carpark, toilet, restaurants, shops, muslim praying hall, chalet and even a resort has been equipped here.

The waterfall receives visitors almost everyday. Weekend and public holiday is where you can see hundreds of people visiting this waterfall.

There are 2 entrance to Gunung Ledang from the main road. If you here to visit the waterfall, you need to enter via Entrance A and if you here to climb the mountain, you need to enter via Entrance B and that is where you will find a ranger office for you to register and proceed with mountain climbing.

Yup, once you park you car, make a little walk, climb the hundreds of stairs and the waterfall is just beside you. If you are lucky, when the water is heavy, you will definitely amazed by its beauty.

If you are thinking for a swim, there are several ponds that you may stop over and swim. The water is purely cold, crystal clear and refreshing.

That is it.

Mamenez is likely to make his return to Puteri Waterfall for its cold water, if anyone interested to join, message me on www.facebook.com/mamenez

See you there.