Malaysia Trip- Day 1



I am on a 3h boat ride to Taman Negara and i get a distinct feeling that i am in LoTR... i'm travelling down the river and sudenly i catch a glimpse of misty mountains through a bend in the river. Man! i can almost hear the theme music playing in my ears! i fear to leave the camera on though, in case the batteries go flat. =S i really should have used better batteries. the batteries for my toothbrush died this morning.

the river is truly beautiful. it is a perfect day for a boat ride. the weather is nice and cool, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable. 35min into the boat rid, my nose is starting to get cold, but its nothing too uncomfortable. it's not going to fall off or anything.

i just saw the misty mountains again, but not from such a beautiful angle this time so i didnt snap a photo. just now's view was awesome, but i was too slow to catch it on film. =S



the sun is comming up now behind the cloud, and if not for the wind, the weather would be uncomfortably humid. the long boat stopped for awhile, just now to talk with the driver of a boat comming in the opposite direction, and while we stopped, man it was humid! the air was still, and the sun was reflecting off the water making it so uncomfortably hot!



a beautiful bird flies overhead. i wish i had a digi so i can carelessly take photos, but my digi is spoilt so i'm using a film camera, and it costs a bomb to develop.

rapids! or rather, the stone type things sticking out of the water. the boatman knows the place well, but still he needs to keep a sharp lookout for the rocks.


i wonder how old this river is. there is so much meandering and sand build-up on the banks. and whole sand islands have formed. not huge or anything, but they're there, and they are pretty impressive anyhow.



the sun has disappeared, and it's lovely once more. one thing odd tho. just now i thought i saw a place from a dream i had a few years ago. its starting to scare me, the sort of deja vu i get from my nightmares. i tend to have normal dreams set in familliar places, and nightmares set in unfamilliar places. and ever so often, i come across the places that i saw in my nightmares a few years later.

the place i saw was a place on the riverbank, sloped down, and there were two tracks down to the water. hailway down there was a tree and the two roads converged at the front of the tree and made it's way down to the river. and i remember it was from my 2nd latest nightmare when i was a kampong girl running away from a man who wanted to kill me. come to think of it, most of my nightmares are about running away from a man trying to kill me, and who has convinced others into wanting me dead too.

the sands that have built up on the riverbanks, and sand dunes look so soft and white and inviting. i wish the boat could stop as far as to wade up and play in the white sand. the sun lights up the green so prettily. i almost feel like i'm in England again, with such lush, GREEN greenery and such a bright yellow sun.



we passed through a shaded patch of river, followed by a patch of lorien-type trees. howsit spelled? mellorn? mellyrn? all i remember is the Ms and Ls and Ns. the yellow sun makes it surreal. i wish i had been quick enough to snap that too, but my brain is too sleepy to work fast. its past noon, and i have been travelling since seven last night. some bridge somewhere collapsed, so we had to have out train ride disrupted and have a bus transfer to the next train station to resume the ride. needless to say, did not get much sleep. =S


Other Taman Negara Photos

the Orang Asli village we visited. you'd be surprised, most of the native aborigines speak malay fluently. this is the group outside the hut meeant for young unmarried men. the young unmarried women sleep together in a seperate hut. apparently, you sleep in a community hut until you are married, and only then do you get a house of your own. (talk about mendirikan rumantangga... hmmm... but malays)



the canopy walk. valar, it was terrifying i cried!

Which Queer as Folk character are you?

YES!

YESYESYESYESYES!!!

Finally! FINALLY i take a character test, and i land myself as a character that i actually LIKE! Yes! you read right! i'm finally a character whom i love and adore and approve of! usually when i take on a character test i'm stuck with the MOST ANNOYING/ PATHETIC character on the entire SHOW!

like, there was this one time, i took a HELLSING character test, and i wound up as Ceres Victoria. CERES VICTORIA!!! oh, there's no real problem with that, she's just THE MOST ANNOYING and unimpressive character on the show. my brother was nuts about Ceres at one time, and apparently Ceres is popular enough to have little bitty figurines of her fly off the shelves in Comics Connection but i just think she's annoying. i've always admired the other main characters like Integra and Alucard and Walter.... especially Integra, she's one awesome bitch.

but nooooooooo.... instead i get stuck with neko-chan Ceres, the "betty boop" bimbo of the operation.

and i remember taking a YGO character test. i would have liked to be bakura. EITHER of the bakuras, Ryu or otherwise. both are awesome in their own way. i wouldnt even have minded getting Tea. yeah, sure, she's weak and irritating, but she's got her qualities. instead, who do i get? Yugi. yes, yugi. not yami yugi. yugimoto yugi. YUGI!?! how boring can it get? he's such an extra on his own show, how sad can you get man!

i cant remember any other charrie tests i've done. but i do remember i always get the character i least want to be. but NOW! jeng Jeng JENG! i... am... Daphne!

*breaks out the snacks and the party lights*

awright!! and i answered *truthfully*! weeeeee! yeah, i know, i know, it's just a silly little quiz by some fella or other.. but heh, i LIKE daphne. she's awesome. it's a priveledge to be linked to her. she's so pretty, and so sweet, and such a great personality... wow. i thought i'd be dumped with mel or linzie... i cant stand mel (she reminds me of a bitch i know in real life) and i feel linzie is mildly annoying. she's lovley, but mildly annoying for being the Tea of the group. *sigh* every show needs a Linzie-Madison-Gardiner. and Linzie M. Gardiner is always a woman.

anyways. i finally land myself a cool character in a character test. a character i actually like and approve of. and in Daphne's case, *adore*. go me!


You are Daphne! Your sweet, fun nature leaves no
doubt as to why you are justin's best friend.
Although you tend to follow the crowd and let
your mouth run away with you sometimes, your
smile makes everyone forget your shortcomings.
You are in awe of the world and tend to get
giggly when something new arises.


Which Queer as Folk character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Kingdom of Heaven
(with spoilers cut off. the original one is below.)

oh! i just came home from KoH!!
*squee*
i LOVE the leper king!!!
*collective awwwwwwwwwwww.....*
he is AWESOME!!!!!! Oh!
*faints*

question: what race is the leper king? he looks white under the mask, but his sis looks arab.

about the portrayal of the knights templars, templars were shown to be led by a corrupt guy (i think they wisely stopped short of saying all templars were awful, just this particular leader was extreme).

about religion, they showed two different attitudes of "god wills it", so that some people used it as an excuse to do bad stuff, while some people said "god wills it" only when they have already tried their best to prevent unavoidabe shit.

about the christian vs muslim thing, its odd, cos i personally feel the muslims were portrayed as more honourable and with more integrety than the christians. the muslims were portrayed as cleverer, more advanced, and less spiritually corrupt. its pretty unnerving actually.

for me it's a very spiritual movie. they had a few (truncated)islamic prayer sequences-- i actually ended up saying prayers during a hollywood movie!! *gasp*!! never EVER thought that would happen!!-- and the most powerful scenes were during the storming of the castle. it reminded me of the storming of Gondor, except it's not so simple as man against enemy. it's men who just have finished their prayers kill other men who may or may not have just said theirs.

i mean, just *think* about it. a man who just a few minutes ago was talking to god, and now in cold blood taking the living life of god's creation, just like that, without regard for the state of the other's soul.

usually it's man against man (sans god), or man (with divine 'blessing') against 'monster', but for me KoH drummed it in that it's sons of god killing other sons of god... and for the life of me i cannot imagine *how*.

KoH makes me question the cry of "god wills it" (when and how is the appropriate use). Orli's character makes me question what exactly it means to protect the people (is it fair to sacrifice the men to save the women and children? how is the best way to protect the people without compromising oneself?) and best of all it reminds me that there is grace within everyone regardless of whether we (or they) recognise it. and it reminds me that everybody, i mean, EVERYBODY is great.

it didnt leave me floored the way LoTR or Alexander did, but it was a very thinkie type movie. will probably need to rewatch it for fullest effect. about the actual plot/ storyline, it kinda sucked.

Kingdom of Heaven
(with spoilers.)

oh! i just came home from KoH!!
*squee*
i LOVE the leper king!!!
*collective awwwwwwwwwwww.....*
he is AWESOME!!!!!! Oh!
*faints*

question: what race is the leper king? he looks white under the mask, but his sis looks arab.

about the portrayal of the knights templars, templars were shown to be led by a corrupt guy. i think they wisely stopped short of saying all templars were awful, just this particular leader was extreme. its like, there was this scene where a couple of templars were trialed and hanged for rape i think. but then later on we see the politics behind closed doors... that the rapes were very probably ordered by some other nobleman...

and then later this group of guys wanted to have their little killing spree.. and they used "god wills it" for their own selfish and very human purposes. so about religion, they showed two different attitudes of "god wills it", so that some people used it as an excuse to do bad stuff, while some people said "god wills it" only when they have already tried their best to prevent unavoidabe shit.

like the arabs when picked a fight with balian over the horse in the desert. they confronted balin, the flashy guy fought bailin, the lord tried to stop it, flashy guy died, and then the lord said that it was the other's time and that it was God's will. its like, he tried to stop it when he realised the two men were out for blood. but the men wont listen. so yeah. shit happens. he accepts that shit happens. so that's what "god wills it" means. that sometimes shit happens. and there's nothing we can do to stop it. sometimes we see it comming and try to stop it, other times we're blind to the shit until it slaps us in the face. but whatever happens, shit or no, it's god's will and i shall not rant aganist what has already happened. whatever happens, it is my job to accpet it willingly.

even later there was this priest who wanted to flee jerusalem as it was going to be attacked, and adviced balian to flee as well. and then balian went "and leave the people here to die?" and the priest said something like "it is regrettable that they, must die, but it is god's will" and wanted to run off and abandon the others. its like, there are those like the priest who go "this is god's will" to justify themselves. and there are those like Guy and Reynald who go "this is god's will" to manipulate others. and there are those like the arab lord.

about the christian vs muslim thing, its odd, cos i personally feel the muslims were portrayed as more honourable and with more integrety than the christians. the muslims were portrayed as cleverer (battle tactics... but then again it was just Gu who was a complete ass and brought the army out even after Balian told him not to), more advanced (they buried their dead to prevent disease while bailin had to get into a fight with the priest about cremation... the earth has neutralizing properties or so i'm told, but even so it's only a personal opinion so *shrug*. opinion is not fact.), and less spiritually corrupt.

its pretty unnerving actually. i'm starting to see coetzee's point about the racial guilt. i mean, after being the subaltern, and suddenly the subaltern is elevated above the level of the others... it feels so odd, like, wrong, you know. i feel like apologising that the director portrayed muslims in such a culturally sensitive light.

for me it's a very spiritual movie. they had a few (albeit truncated)islamic prayer sequences-- i actually ended up saying prayers during a hollywood movie!! *gasp*!! never EVER thought that would happen!!-- and the most powerful scenes were during the storming of the castle. it reminded me of the storming of Gondor, except it's not so simple as man against enemy. it's men who just have finished their prayers kill other men who may or may not have just said theirs.

its like they actually said their subuh prayers. like, honestly, no joking. the director had all the madness of battle stop, and cut to the next day suboh when the entire army just stopped and did their subuh prayers with the Ang Mohs watching. and then the sun came up and everyone got ready for battle. and as they were comming i just sat there horrified... that these guys who prayed... *prayed*.. to God... and now they're wielding battle knives and everything ready to slay anything in their path?! within that few minutes, they go from men who just a few minutes ago were talking to god, to men who in cold blood, take the living life of god's creation, just like that. they have said their prayers. they've asked forgiveness of their sins. and now they're ready to... kill?

and what of the ang mohs? the arabs have said their prayers. they have made peace with God and with themselves. but what of the people they kill? have *they* made peace with God? have they made peace with themselves? the killer doesnt care. the killer doesnt *care*. i mean, just *think* about it. a man who just a few minutes ago was talking to god, and now in cold blood taking the living life of god's creation, just like that, without regard for the state of the other's soul. they have prepared for death. and they dont give a shit if you have not.

KoH really brought that bit out. usually in movies it's man against man (sans god), or man against monster, but for me KoH drummed it in that it's Creation killing Creation... and for the life of me i cannot imagine **how**. the moment you see a person as a Creation of the Almighty, how can you ever raise your hand up against him? how can you? its just not possible. its like raising a hand against God. that's what KoH brought out for me. it brought out God's creation in us.

its a very didactic movie. KoH makes me question the cry of "god wills it" (when and how is the appropriate use). Orli's character makes me question what exactly it means to protect the people (is it fair to sacrifice the men to save the women and children? how is the best way to protect the people without compromising oneself? should he have fled jerusalem with the people, or immediately ceeded jerusalem over to the arabs to spare the lives of the men? is that advisable? is that wise? what if he ceeded it away to it's doom? how was he to know? how do you really *know* anything? would it have been most right for him to simply allow Guy's death? in the end it was many more deaths.. could there have been a different way?).

but best of all it reminds me that there is grace within everyone regardless of whether we (or they) recognise it. and it reminds me that everybody, i mean, EVERYBODY is great. remember how Balian goes around saying "god has forsaken me"... and then at the end the arab lord turns to him and says something like no, god has always been with him, or how else could he have achieved that much. and Balian smiles and he looks peaceful when the arab tells him that. there is god inside every one of us, and there is grace. and it's there. in everyone. whether or not we see it. and it took an infidel to help us see. someone of a different religion, telling someone of a different relition that God has never forsaken balian. whoa, that was powerful. that was heart and soul.

on the whole it didnt leave me floored the way LoTR or Alexander did, but it was a very thinkie type movie. will probably need to rewatch it for fullest effect. about the actual plot/ storyline, it kinda sucked. great didectic movie, but plotwise it's pretty sucky and lame. and there's like... no chemistry between the romantic leads, which just makes the ending even stupider. like... ^_^****