Volleyball - My Favourite Sports

One of my favourite sports is volleyball. For today, i will just share about how volleyball punishes selfishness. 

How does it do that? In volleyball, a team loses a point if the ball hits the ground on their side of the court. Each side of the court is roughly thirty feet by thirty feet and each team consists of six people. This is a reasonably small area for that many players to be at the same time. Compared to soccer or even basketball, it’s very crowded. Keeping the ball in the air is hard enough but if a selfish teammate tries to wander into someone else’s area to hit the ball, it almost always ends badly. The first problem is that there usually isn’t enough time or space for the person being encroached upon to get out of the way. Even if they are able to skedaddle and the poacher hits the ball, he or she is usually out of position to respond to the next hit for the other team. 

In this way, volleyball teaches great lessons about teamwork and… revenge. All in all, you just need to respect other team mates regardless of how the skill, ability, experience and just embrace the game. Mutual trust very important to keep the volleyball spirit alive throughout the game. You just do your thing, trust others and embrace the game. 

#BunBunChin #AllianzCrazyGames2016

Project Visayas - Day 2 (Boracay)

For those who might not be familiar with Boracay, it is an island situated in the Central Visayas and it is actually one of the top tourist destinations in the Philippines. Boracay is a small island of the Philippines located approximately 315 km (196 mi) south of Manila and 2 km off the northwest tip of Panay Island in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. Boracay Island and its beaches have received awards for their world-class attractiveness to visitors. OK, enough of Geography lesson for now. Here's how the real part of our trip breathed into life. 

Our day started in Manila as early as 3.30am as we have a flight to catch to Boracay at 5.30am. Since the hostel owner had advised us on the traffic condition which can be terrible even in the early morning, we decided to leave 2 hours earlier. And yes, at that time, i swore i really had wished that we actually left earlier instead. The traffic was extremely bad, i have no idea, when actually do Filipinos sleep?. According to the taxi driver, it was due to the previous night's celebration (i forgot what did they celebrate, a festival here and there with stages everywhere, karaoke competition, people parading on the streets.) and it happened at that time in the morning, they're having a run (marathon event). So a few roads were closed which contributed to the traffic congestion. We arrived at 5.00am and straight away checked in the luggage and board on the Cebu Pacific flight without further ado.

As usual, as soon as I got seated and made myself comfortable, I fell asleep (its always like that). When i woke up afterwards, I saw Boracay with its welcoming hands waving at us. (fine... i was on drugs, island doesnt have hands). We touched down in Caticlan airport after 1-hour flight. It was a very small airport and has nothing much. The building was just like a big bungalow. From the airport, we need to get to the ferry terminal. Outside the airport, there were a lot of trikes waiting to transport us to the ferry terminal for 25p per head. This was my 1st trike ride ever, so I was quite excited. We got into the back together with the backpack and vrooom!! It was obviously not a comfy ride, i did get properly seated and grabbed any part of the back carrier of the trike so that i can balance. There was no door that i have to really grab tight so that my luggage and I dont fall out of it.

It turned out that my joy ride lasted only for 5 minutes. The ferry terminal was actually quite near, an extreme (or damn stingy, hihi) backpacker can easily take the 15-20 easy walk to get there. Arriving at the ferry terminal, I spotted the ticket counter outside, the terminal fee counter on the left, and another counter for environmental bla bla bla stuff. Its a norm in the Philippines to find the first 2 counters located side by side at almost any bus/ferry terminals. The terminal fee and ticket needs to be payed separately. Thus, you need to have a lot of small changes as the terminal fee is usually not that expensive. If you do not pay the terminal fee, you cant get through to the boarding hall. After we passed through the luggage check, we boarded on the 'banka' (boat in Philippines) to Boracay. The banka can accommodate around 30 people at a time. There is no specific banka that you should take with the ticket, any one will do, once fully occupied, it will leave the jetty. It took around 20 minutes to get to Boracay jetty.

Important note:
There are 2 airports that serve as the gateway to Boracay, Caticlan Airport and Kalibo Airport. It is very important to note that both airports are not located on the island but on the mainland (in the Aklan province), so a transfer by 'banka' is necessary in order to get to Boracay (unless you are damn rich you can afford to rent a private boat of your own, but i think nobody that rich would come to Boracay though, they must prefer go to the Carribean or Mauritius instead haha.) Caticlan Airport is situated just nearby the ferry terminal, while from Kalibo Airport, you need to get on either a bus/jeepney/van to get to Caticlan. The trip by bus would take around 1.5 hours. So please be very careful with the arrangement (esp. for the return flight). You sure wanna stay longer in Boracay but to accidentally miss a flight back home is not much of a pleasing reason for it to happen, unless you do it on purpose. :)

From Boracay jetty, we, as usual were greeted by a bunch of trike-rs, offering to send us to the places we want to go. We took a trike together with another 2 passengers and headed to Bulabog beach where we will stay for the whole duration in Boracay, Surfer's Home. Situated on Bulabog beach, the surrounding here is different than the White beach that is situated on the opposite site of the island. I can say that the Bulabog beach is a bit of a hard-core version of a beach can be, with the not so clean beach (not with rubbish but with debris, coconut leaves, drifted woods, algae, sea weed etc). It is also quite windy sometimes you have to shout to be heard. It is obviously not the perfect beach that we can simply go for sunbathing, picnicking or even bathing but it is famous for the kite-surfing activities due to the strong wind. Bulabog beach is a heaven for those Kite-Surfers, there are even a few resorts that offers rental and even surfing lessons to the visitors.

We had our breakfast on the house with a complementary welcome juice. We managed to get some useful information from the girl who prepared our meals. After settling down with the room, we decided to go to the White Beach on the other side of island (it is actually just 1km away, the island is quite 'skinny' i can say, hihihi). We walked to the White Beach and the beach view was stunning under the scorching sun. The sand is white as the name and the sea water is very clear, greenish blue. We took a stroll along the beach just to find a lot of eateries, souvenir shop which most of it still not operated for the day as it was 11.30am, which is still early. There are a pizzeria, a lot of seafood eateries and a Starbucks! All in all, it's a beach, and its hot at noon. So not many people dared to get themselves burnt. After that afternoon stroll, we decided to get back to our room to have our lunch and prayer. 

Around 12pm (since 5pm is dusk, so 12pm is around 2pm in Malaysia). We walked to Puka Beach on foot, it was not actually planned to be like that. We were actually looking for a place to rent ATV to get there. So we walked towards Puka Beach with the hope to find a place to rent an ATV but eventually we did not so we ended up walking for about 7km to the beach. Crazy huh?! Since we're traveling light n fast, we managed to get there in 1 1/2 hours. We did enjoy the scenery of the local village through the 'Barangay' ( means something like small district), the lifestyle of the local residents of Boracay and had a nice chat with a local grocer who we stopped by her shop to have a couple of sips of buko (coconut) drinks. We encountered a few ATVs passing by (hurmm I wonder where are they got the ATV from) and a lot of trikes offering us a ride but with a willed heart of steel, we continued our pace towards the desired destination. Hey! its just a 7km walk anyway. Teehee.*sweat*

Arriving at Puka Beach, at the entrance, we saw a line of shops selling a lot of cute, beautiful and cheap souvenirs. There were bangles, beads, necklaces, seashells, keychain, fridge magnet, purse, t-shirts and the list goes on. Most of it can be found in any beach's souvenir shop but there is one thing that is unique to Puka Beach, the Puka shells. Usually made into Puka bangles, it is said tha the Puka shells are rare and hard to be found in the Philippines itself. The beach itself does not really cover a large area, the strong blowing wind at that time hindered some water activities to take place. We bought some souvenirs and took some photos there before we took a trike in order to get to Mount Luho, the highest point in Boracay.  By the way, in order to get to Puka Beach, it is economical to take a trike, but if you are willing to spend more money and have more adventure and fun, you can rent ATV to tour around the island. Boracay is small enough you can go round with an ATV in 1-2 hours. If your feet are gentle and fragile, please do not walk, it is just another beach, not heaven nor anything close to it that you wished to enjoy every single steps to get there, so trike would be the best pick.

Mt. Luho, Boracay's highest peak, is a small mountain where a viewing tower and walkway was built.  From here you have a fanstatic view of Bolabog Beach, the Fairways and Bluewaters Golf Course and the ocean.  It is possible to walk up here from Bolabog Beach (north end), but the road is steep so good body condition and legs are needed.  By mountain bike, its nice to ride up from the back side.  Follow the main road up to where the golf course starts, there is a little sign painted on the first wall of the golf course.  Do not hesitate to ask people around there.  From d'Mall and up to Mt. Luho, it is about 30 min with mountain bike. It is possible to rent a trike to go there, but be aware that they will ask you for about 150p  to go up there, because its a bit hard for their motors. From Puka beach, we took a ride on a trike for about 20 minutes. Then we need to climb up the hill a bit to get to the view tower where we can actually see the whole island. 
It was breezy and sunny and the view was very nice but there's nothing much to do up there apart from enjoying the scenery and photo-shoot sessions. There were also a mini zoo which is not very entertaining due to lack of care and hygiene. A small amount of entrance fee is charged to the visitor in order to go up. Since there is nothing to be done while waiting downstairs, it is better to go up and enjoy the scenic view of Boracay from the top. After finished, we asked the trike to send us back to Bulabog which is just 10 minutes away (seriously we had no idea).

Project Visayas - Day 1 (Manila)

My fren and I planned for this trip half a year before it started. We managed to get cheap air tickets which cost us around RM750 (for 2 international flights, 3 domestic flights and 1 ferry ride - so I considered it cheap enough as it might take years to get to the Philipines on raft, kiddin). I was very excited back then as this is my 1st real out-of-Malaysia travel trip. 

Christmas trees at the airport

Our Cebu Pacific flight to Manila was scheduled at 1.20 am. It was a sound and safe night flight I fell asleep despite the discomforts from sitting in a low-cost carrier seats (yeah yeah... i didnt expect it to be a business class suite with personal LCD screen and free spa treatment on board with handsome flight attendant serving each of the passenger with delicacies from all around the world... i'm just grateful enough to get the chance to go and see the outside world). We arrived in NAIA Airport, Manila around 5am (its like 7am in Malaysia). We took a shuttle bus from the airport to EDSA LRT (20 peso). From EDSA station, we took the LRT to Central station (15 peso if I'm not mistaken) which is the nearest station to get to our very 1st destination, the 'Intramuros'.

One of the jeepneys

Tricycle that can be chartered in Manila

FYI, the exchange rate at that time is around RM7.5 for 100 peso. Even after conversion the price of goods and services are almost the same (esp. in the cities area). In a bit rural area, you might find the food are very cheap compared to the ones in the cities. The main public transportation is the bus, jeepney and tricycle (trike). Jeepney is like a small bus and it has its own specific route unlike the trike that serves like a trishaw that u can charter to go any nearby places that you like.

One incident I cant forget is when we walked to the LRT ticket counter, there was a roadblock by the police officer. They checked everybody's bag for security reason and all these filipinos obediently queue ((I can see that they are already used to this) to be checked (if not, they cant get through). Since we were still with our backpack, it also needed to be checked which hold the others long in the queue for for quite some times. Can u imagined that our backpacks had created a bit of ruckus early in the morning? 

Part of the Intramuros wall

And then another incident happened, I got separated from my fren as he cant manage to get into the crammed train (where a lot of ppl are pushing to get inside). I got pushed inside and then the door closed. I quickly gave my friend a sign to meet up at the station where we're supposed to stop. At the same time, I was also quite worried because my passport was with my fren. The train ride was not a favorable ones but it clearly gave a glimpse of how busy and populated Manila is. Once arrived to Central station, we walked to the Intramuros which is just 5-10 minutes distance.

One of the entrance to Intramuros

  Intramuros is the oldest district in the present day city of Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines. Nicknamed the "Walled City", Intramuros is the historic fortified city of Manila, the seat ot the government during the Spanish Colonial Period. Its name in Latin, intramuros, literally means "within the walls".Districts beyond the walls of Manila were referred to as extramuros, literally "outside the walls."

 

St. Agustin Church
from the back

St. Agustin Church

From the Central LRT station, we walked into the Intramuros high-spiritedly. Since we are not checked in yet, we had to carry around our heavy backpack (mine was like 13kgs weight). To save cost, we walked within the walled city to the interesting tourist spots such as St. Agustin Church (the oldest building in Manila), Manila Cathedral, Fort Santiago and many more. 

  

Inside Intramuros, there are also small residential areas, educational center, churches, governmental building, fast food outlets (such as Starbucks, Jollibee - like McD etc). Next, we walked our way to the Rizal Shrine, Rizal Park and Lapu-lapu Monument. Its more like a historical visit on the 1st day - just to know the origin of the Philippines. Then around 12pm, we checked in into Friendly Guest House somewhere in Ermita, Manila. We got an A/C twin-sharing without bathroom there (PHP 900/night = around RM70) when we're expecting to get a cheaper one that we had googled before (rate at PHP 675/night). The 675 Peso room was not available because it was the only room that comes with that rate and was currently occupied. But then, this Friendly Guest House provided us with a very 'friendly' public pantry for us to serve our own food as it is hard to find halal eateries or food outlet somewhere near the tourism spots in Manila. We learned to eat bread, fruits and not to forget Maggi mee for our trip this time. Ngeee....

 

Makati Shopping area

In the evening around 3pm, we went to Makati to have a look at the bunch of supermalls (Green Belt, Glorietta, SM Mall) over there (which is recommended by a few frens as they claimed that's the best spot to 'cuci mata'). It happened to be quite a nightmarish experience with the very crowded LRT/MRT trip (and its just an understatement - its super duper crowded actually you dun have to walk to get into the train as ppl at the back will voluntarily push you so that they can get inside the train - scary huh?). A lot of ppl is crowding the mall area as well. 1 thing needs to be really considered when having a walk in  Makati malls is to avoid bringing along a lot of bags (dun even bother to bring any if u can) as u will need to open each time u walk pass EVERY mall security-guarded entrance. Tedious, but to us tourists, we tried to give our very best perception esp. when dealing with the police officers. But we do enjoyed our walk in Makati as its one of the places you can skip the very dusty air of Manila.

After a lot of walking done in the 1st day, we decided to call it off and go back to the hostel and rest as we have a very early flight to Boracay the next day.

Broga Revisited - Malaysia Day Trip

 "Inilah barisan kitaaa....yang ikhlas mendaki... ". Haha so much of a patriotic entry soundtrack. Whatever. The Broga plan which supposed to sound like:

 "We will wake up at 4.30am and prepare our fried mee hoon and sandwiches, depart from home around 5.15am and expected to reach by 5.45am. To reach the 1st peak around 6.30am and still can enjoy the post-sunrise beauty while it is still a tad dark. Then we will enjoy our breakfast on the 1st peak while scanning for eye-candy that might possibly passing by."

Turned out to be like:

We woke up at 6am (so looong sunrise *waving with white handkerchief*). Rushed ourselves to bath n dress accordingly. We didnt even have time to prepare our so-called sandwiches, let alone to cook fried mee hoon. *LOL. Departed from home at around 6.20pm, arrived at 6.50pm, its already bright we dun even need the headlamp anymore. As we started to climb up, there were few who already going down from Broga but that did not demotivate the four of us who happily chat all the way up.

The climb up doesnt take long, around 30 minutes as we dun have to queue since by this time, most of the visitor already reached the 1st peak. We had a few pit stops just to take picture and took a fresh breathe. Approaching the 1st peak (where the climb can be quite mentally challenged for a few with acrophobia, one of us insisted not to continue as the slope seems too steep for him to handle. After several attempts to persuade him to continue to the top resulted in failure, the rest of us decided to leave him there and continue to the top. There were a lot of people going up and down at the slope, via 4 routes for both going up and down. The routes are not dedicated exclusively for either way so it can be very crowded at peak time that sometimes we need to move aside to give way to the others who come from the opposite way. If the day before was raining, the slope can be quite slippery and hikers need to be extra careful.

I continued hiking to the highest peak of Broga leaving the other two behind. There were a lot of people having fun and enjoying their moment on Broga that day. Upon reacing the highest peak, I had to wait for about 15 minutes before i can climb on the 'only' way up to the top as there was a group of school children accompanied by their teachers are occupying the way. I didnt spend much time on top. I asked one girl to take my picture with the 'Welcome to Bukit Broga 400m' signboard and straight away went down to catch back with my frens as I left our breakfast with them. 

 

I did took a few photograph and after reunited with the other two, we did a few jump shots plus a few controversial shots as well. The plan to have breakfast on Broga have to be cancelled as my acrophobic frens earlier texted us that he's goin back to the car. So we quickly go down not wanting him to have a long wait for us downhill. Unluckily for one of my friends, he fell and sprained his ankle (while scanning on a few random guys walking by! serves u right hahaha... ). But with that, we had to move down very slowly to accomodate him. After 30 minutes, we arrived at the car just to be greeted by a small wild flower wraith hand-made by my acrophobic friend. 

It was a quick trip but all of us are very satisfied as we did improve our time going up and we surely took a lot of nice pics too. Surely we'll come again and again to the Fascinating Broga :)

Being responsive is to readily reacting or replying to people or events or stimuli. To be responsive is good when it is practiced and implemented in TIMELY and CORRECT manner. If it is incorrectly addressed, it might produce bad consequences based on the 'lousiness' of the feedback given. If it does addressed correctly but not timely, it might be just a waste of effort that change nothing  in the end.

However, at times, being responsive is just not enough. When this happens, to be initiative comes in handy. To be initiative is to act or strategize in advance in expecting something or to improve a situation. It also can be said as an effort shown by one party in approaching another in any kind of relationship (towards each other - as in approaching someone for a relationship or against each other - as in to be the 1st to strike in a fight/war).

In a relationship that involves two parties, both responsiveness and initiative are needed in communication but to be applied interchangeably depending on the situation. If one party just sit idle and only being responsive when triggered, that doesnt really sounds like a good relationship, it is more like a human-computer interaction where the computer do things only when triggered by human using it. Both parties need to be initiative and at the same time responsive to each other to create a very effective and harmony communication medium.

And here i am talking about these responsive and initiative craps... What am I thinking? Well, sorry peeps, u guys surely see me 'meroyan' a lot these days. LOL.

Meet My New Riki

Last Thursday my frens (Fakry and Jalil) and I went to a downtown bazaar located in front the Mines (they feel bored cuz their TV broke down so they're goin out - its highly unlikely to see them going out for leisure at night.. :P). Mines downtown, is just another downtown but with quite a few eye-candies (*wink wink*) , an Outdoor Gear Shop (like!) and surprisingly a few booth selling pets.

I never adopted any pet before and I dun really have any intention to do so even though I do love animals like cats and dogs (cuz i find them cute). As we were passing by a pet booth, there is 1 container that attracted my attention. It was fulled of sea shell so I had a peek and it turns out to be hermit crab! (i dunno hermit can be made pet, i thought they are just ignored by the seashore or worse case, be collected to be eaten.. hahaha). I saw the 'kakak' managing the booth is holding 1 hermit on her palm and rubbing its leg. Wow, that's real cool! At first, I was afraid to hold it on my hand as its still a crab and it does has pincher. The lady said it wont pinch and encourage me to hold it, and so i did! When I hold the shell to lift it up onto my hand, the hermit hide inside the shell, but once I put it on my palm, it did come out and its not shy at all, mebe a bit cautious. (well of course, imagine urself on a giant's hand, i guess u will be running away or at least hide urself too rite?).

Then we went back and i cant keep my mind out of the cuteness of a hermit crab (honestly i wud prefer a dog in term of cuteness - which is prohibited - but this hermit crab is inviting enough for me to even consider myself to adopt a pet). So on Saturday nite, Jalil and I went back to the downtown. This time, I got myself one hermit crab (i cant believe i already have the name before i even bought it! *faint*). This time, I only bought him a small mobile pet container without anything else.

On Sunday, Jalil and I went to Jalan Pasar to buy the pebbles and driftwood for its crabitat (crabbers call the place they put the hermit 'crabitat'). I bought a 2-feet sized aquarium as the container. So I officially got myself a pet now. I hope that i can take care of him very well and have been doing a lot of research towards that. I need to get water container for him (1 fresh water and 1 salted water), a few more drift wood (as hermits love to climb on them), sand or coral sand (for them to bury themselves in).

Oh btw, my hermit's name is Riki. So far I only give him green apple, but from what i've read, hermit can eat various stuff such as banana, papaya, peanut butter, bread, sponge cake (wahh really this thing can eat cake?) , chicken breast ('steamed' one, not fried one). There's even pet shops that sell pellet specially made for hermit crab. So I cant wait to go and shop new stuffs for Riki and try to feed Riki with other kind of food. :D Here is Riki's pic.

From what I've read as well, hermit is a social creature and lives in a large group, so since Riki's currently living alone, I plan to buy another one to be his friend (actually I dont really know whether Riki is a male or otherwise :P). What shud I name the future friend of Riki eh? Hehehe.

Btw, to keep a hermit crab. You will need the following items.

1. 2ft glass tank (can also use plastic tank) with covered tank lid
2. Beach sand / crushed coral sand
3. 1 feeding dish (can use sea shells)
4. 2 small bowl (1 for freshwater & 1 for saltwater) - can use sea shells as well
5. Red Sea brand sea salt.
6. Some sea shells of various sizes
(preferably same size or slightly larger than what the hermit crab is currently using)
7. Driftwood (for hermit crab to climb or hide)
8. Aquarium lighting
9. Aquarium fan with on/off switch. (optional)
10. Thermometer, humidity reader (optional)