Taman Negara, Pulau Pinang

i am keeping my promise. so i am posting what i did on sunday, the 4th of January 2009.

it was something that we didn't actually planned. more like an invitation from solai to jo-ee. but when i heard the conversation that took place between them (because i was there), i immediately invited myself to the excursion. yes, at that point, i was shameless. anything for an outdoor activity, eh?



i kept on asking where were we heading to. and the answer that i kept on getting was "the end of the world". hmmm... is there such thing as 'the end of the earth'? i mean, yeah, my geography knowledge is close to nothing, but i am pretty sure that the earth is round, and according to the maths that somehow stuck in my head all these years, a sphere does not have a beginning or an end. so, how can we go somewhere that does not exist?

the journey was mostly weaving our way through batu ferringhi. lucky for me, motion sickness and myself do not come in one sentence. although, solai did give some advice of how to prevent it from occuring. i was prepared if my carmates were to barf at any point of the journey. but i was also confident that their stomachs were made of steel.

as soon as we reached, the scent of the sea hits me straight in the face. we registered ourselves, did some warm-up and started the journey. i was still wondering: 'what the end of the earth?. i saw the paved pathway and the journey started slow. but the pathway was too inviting, i started jogging, jo-ee joined me, the rest of the gang still continued to walk. although the terrain part of the hike has started, we kept on running through the forest. i felt like i was in the TWILIGHT movie, where Edward Cullen ran through the forest with Bella Swan on his back. it got me imagining that if i were to join the immortal lives of vampires, i would change my name to ALIANA CULLEN. yeah, yeah, dream on.

we reached KERACHUT BEACH. jo-EE and i were like 20mins faster than the rest. who could blame them. we were practically flying through. we waited there as we weren't sure which pathway to take. when i looked out at the open sea, i started to agree: "this does look like the end of the earth". the water is crystal clear, the beach is clean, there weren't many people there except for some USM students, the calm that i felt was indiscribable.

the hike continued as we were supposed to end the journey at MONKEY BEACH. i kept on running and climbing. the only thing that was in my head was not the fact that i have FORENSIC MEDICINE & CLINICAL LAB SCIENCES exam the next day, but being thankful was what i could think of. and there it was, right infront of me, MONKEY BEACH. sweat was dripping off like tap water, heart was pumping fast, muscles were still contracting, mind was....calm....

i wished that my family was there to enjoy that moment with me. but hiking or outdoor extremes is something that we don't share in common. i sat there waiting, while jo-ee was putting our names on the sand. God, thank you for giving me this opportunity.

the 3.3km journey through the forest hill was supposed to take us 90mins. but jo-ee and i did it in 40mins. sugoi!!!

now i know, there is actually such place as the end of the earth. and God! it's beautiful.....