Sing Me A Lullaby

Jitters..

10th June 2008: Machame Gate to Machame Camp
Elevation (m): 1830m to 3100m
Distance: 18km
Hiking Time: 5-7 hours
Habitat: Montane Forest
The drive from Arusha to the Mount Kilimanjaro National Park Gate takes about one and half hours. The journey passes through the village of Machame which is located on the lower slopes of the mountain. We now leave the park gate and walk through the rain forest on a winding trail up a ridge. Lower down, the trail can be muddy and slippery. Gaiters and trekking poles are a good idea here. We continue a short distance until we reach the Machame Camp.
11th June 2008: Machame Camp to Shira Camp
Elevation (m): 3100m to 3840m
Distance: 9km
Walking Time: 4-6 hours
Habitat: Moorland
After breakfast, we leave the glades of the rain forest and continue on an ascending path, crossing the little valley walking along a steep rocky ridge, covered with heather, until the ridge ends. The route now turns west onto a river gorge. Time for rest, dinner, and overnight at the Shira campsite.
12th June 2008: Shira Camp to Lava Tower to Barranco Camp
Elevation (m): 3840m to 4630m to 3860m
Distance: 15 km
Walking Time: 5-7 hours
Habitat: Semi-desert
From the Shira Plateau, we continue to the east up a ridge, passing the junction towards the peak of Kibo . As we continue, our direction changes to the South East towards the Lava Tower , called the "Shark's Tooth." Shortly after the tower, we come to the second junction which brings us up to the Arrow Glacier at an altitude of 4,876 meters. We now continue down to the Barranco Hut at an altitude of 3,860 meters. Here we rest, enjoy dinner, and overnight. Although you end the day at the same elevation as when you started, this day is very important for acclimatization and will help your body prepare for summit day.
13th June 2008: Barranco Camp to Barafu Camp
Elevation (m): 3860m to 4600m
Distance: 13km
Hiking Time: 8 hours
Habitat: Alpine Desert
After breakfast, we leave Barranco and continue on a steep ridge up the Barranco Wall, through the Karanga Valley (lunch at 4200m), and the junction which connects with the Mweka Trail. We continue up to the Barafu Hut. You have completed the South Circuit, which offers views of the summit from many different angles. Here we make camp, rest, enjoy dinner, and prepare for the summit day. The two peaks of Mawenzi and Kibo are to be seen from this position.
14th June 2008: Barafu Camp to Summit to Mweka Hut
Elevation (m): 4600m to 5895m (and down to 3100m)
Distance: 7km ascent / 23km descent
Hiking Time:6- 8 hours ascent / 7-8 hours descent
Habitat: Stone scree and ice-capped summit
Very early in the morning (midnight to 2am), we continue our way to the summit between the Rebmann and Ratzel glaciers. You head in a northwesterly direction and ascend through heavy scree towards Stella Point on the crater rim. This is the most mentally and physically challenging portion of the trek. At Stella Point (5685m), you will stop for a short rest and will be rewarded with the most magnificent sunrise you are ever likely to see (weather permitting).From Stella Point, you may encounter snow all they way on your 1-hour ascent to the summit. At Uhuru Peak , you have reached the highest point on Mount Kilimanjaro and the continent of Africa . Faster hikers will see the sunrise from the summit. From the summit, we now make our descent continuing straight down to the Mweka Hut camp site, stopping at Barafu for lunch. Later in the evening, we enjoy our last dinner on the mountain and a well-earned sleep.
15th June 2008: Mweka Camp to Arusha
Elevation (m): 3100m to 1830m
Distance: 15 km
Hiking Time: 3-4 hours
Habitat: Forest
After breakfast, we continue the descent down to the Mweka Park Gate to receive your summit certificates. At lower elevations, it can be wet and muddy. Gaiters and trekking poles will help. Shorts and t-shirts will probably be plenty to wear (keep rain gear and warmer clothing handy). From the gate, continue another hour to Mweka Village . A vehicle will meet you at Mweka village to drive you to the Hotel in Arusha for dinner and overnight.

i might or might not reach the summit, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, or perhaps the starting of one! damn scared, but damn excited..

Y Lulled to Sleep @ 10:34 PMY

The Succulence of Warmth

nothing beats spending quality time with the family. especially so for bdays where i started the ball rolling of eating out. since i've started working, thought it'd be nice to treat the family some good food that i also wanna try. heh.. we'd usually just blow the bday cake baked by mum at home, but we're now trying out new places, and relatively more expensive too. uh-oh..

for mum dearest, since the plan was to bring her to the Singapore Flyer, we ate at one of the restaurants called Jalapeno's Peppers. it's a blend of American , Mexican, Italian and Latino-inflenced dishes. the colourful interior was the most attractive and there was a wide variety of food choices but didnt really like the service there. they also didnt serve ice water there which added to my expenses and joy for family members to order drinks. bah! haha, but it's not often that their dear sister pays, so it's alright. the great thing was that mummy was happy with her surprise bday cake and Sg Flyer experience. Wheee~ success!

for sis dearest, my parents asked her to pick her restaurant of choice, and i happily gave a few suggestions, of those which i wanted to try out. unfortunately for dad, and fortunately for us, our destination was My Humble House! It is the only Chinese eatery out of 3 restaurants in Singapore to be voted as one of the top 100 restaurants in the world by Restaurant, a prestigious British magazine. given so much publicity, i really wanted to try for myself and mummy was really excited too cos dad had said that he wanted to bring her there some time but had yet to do so. heh.. and so she also happily extended the invitation to our expanded family.

the interior design itself was fascinating, giving a blend of the modern chinese artistic look with a tinge of the traditional past. the presentation of the food was immaculately designed, and your taste buds really come alive which each bite. the 7 course set dinner was named The Delicate Snow Fell At Midnight, with equally delectable names for each dish such as A Heavenly Match for glutinous rice with minced meat and The Waves Beckon for atlantic cod with garlic in superior soya sauce. ooh-la-la.. the chinese food here is undeniably the best that i've ever tasted, but i guess the prices are abit exorbitant.

but the last display was even more wow. although the cake was real small with ice cream on a huge plate, with the smoky effect of dry ice, it looked really amazing!

hope you had fun sis! oh, and she has an online shop. pls visit ALYSSA FAINCHE ! personally i think the items she's selling is really fab cos i love most of the items. i've bought quite a few items from her already like the off shoulder top for mummy's bday celebration and necklaces like the one below. oh and the bracelets are lovely too!

and yup, i bought the red straw bag too! hee..

go check it out now!

Y Lulled to Sleep @ 1:51 PMY

Colourful Notes

have been a bit lazy to blog recently. mind just seems to go blank and i'd just turn to surfing the net or msn-ing frenz. past few weeks have been caught up with meeting frenz, planning bdays and also with training for the upcoming trip. the most anticipated trip ever in my life: climbing up Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. At a height of 5895m above sea level, the highest peak in South Africa, it sure freaks the hell outta me. undoubtedly, i'm damn excited to go on this holiday / expedition, but also having jitters on what dangeres might possibly lurk ahead. these dangers largely involves my personal health. thinking of the altitude sickness, of my lung capacity, of the cold up there, is all so foreign to me.. *shivers*

the least i can do is to train up , buy the necessary equipment and get vaccinations. so there, my money is not only disappearing due to e gatherings, but also a whole big chunk in preparation for this trip. but very fortunately, i've got a few very lovely ppl who eases this burden for me *smiles widely* whew! in any case, even if i am unsuccessful in reaching the summit, i know this will be a whole new experience for me and just hope to be able to enjoy exploring the Safari thereafter, and come home safely.

so in between the trainings, there's always time to eat good food and have a good time!

chalet with colleagues as we played Wii, MJ ( excluding me), talked a lot and night cycled. has been a really long time since i stayed over in a chalet! and though i dont like to eat BBQ-ed food, kudos to Huimin for preparing an amazing assortment of food! she personally created skewers with golden mushroom wrapped in bacon, pineapple with pork, tiger prawns; bought chicken wings & drumlets, satay, sausages, beef and fish slices. Ren was in charge of entertainment while i brought more food. oh, and i'm so proud of myself for starting the fire! as in, last time i'd assist to start, but this time i built it from scratch and kept it going! haha.. just a small feat =]

then there was a dinner with my dept peeps @ Clarke Quay. a whole lot of spicy Indonesian food which was pretty affordable. damnit.. couldn't count it on the company's tab. haha..

and then the cooler ppl hung out after for drinks since we weren't working the next day =p, which was Labour Day. so weird, my 2nd time drinking in the middle of the week, the 1st of which was just the previous day with Rach @ Timbre. oops.. been drinking a bit more recently. but i left more than half the glass unfinished, so i was pretty ok. initially wanted to drink tea and eat desserts, but Jin was craving for a drink so off we went to Cuba Libre. finally a chill out session after work! we should do this more often!