Hiking Bukit Tabur

A few weeks ago, my mother came up with a thrilling suggestion on how to kill my boredom of staying at home doing nothing.

"We'll hike up Bukit Tabur with your older sister at 4 a.m and watch the sunrise"

With a bit of hesitation and reluctant, I said, "okay," knowing that I don't really have any option other than to go on with whatever she planned for me. Our days after that gone by with some physical training.

On 18 dec, me and my mother went off to KL, picked up my sister, stayed for awhile at our grandmother's house, and at 10 p.m we drove to a McD nearest to Bukit Tabur. There, we slept in the car while waiting for other hikers as the briefing started at 3 a.m.

Most people might think that the hike wouldn't be tough because the name itself is called 'bukit', so it must be a short hike up the hill. In fact, The East Bukit Tabur which was the place we were about to hike was just 217 metre from sea level. However, during the briefing, we were reminded that there had been some tragic death cases that happened among other climbers who tend to be careless.

Moments after that passed by swiftly and only then I realized that I was holding on some tiny rocks, trying to push myself upwards with the guide of the light coming from my headlamps. None of the route was plane.

Bukit Tabur has it's east ( the easiest), fareast(extreme) and west ( the hardest and the impossible). Like I said, we climbed up the east and there were 22 of us on which I was the youngest. There are numbers of challenges along the climb which required some extreme measures such as maximum extending of leg, great hand force to push yourself forward (you'll be needing gloves) and the capacity to face your fear of darkness, height and insects. 

After 50 minutes, we reached the steepest cliff which was the last obstacle before getting to the peak. It was very very steep like literally 90 degree to the ground and there was a huge cliff right beside it.

The mental breakdown began with my mother, who claimed that her journey ended there so she instructed my sister and the others to go on with the climb as she will stay down there until it's time to go home. On the other hand, I myself was in such dilemma, not beacause the climbing up would be scary but I was thinking on how the heck am I going to climb down afterwards.

My mother caught the expression on my face and knew exactly that I would stay with her.

We find a place to rest and performed our subuh prayer. I felt a bit like a slap on my face for not finishing the climb and I know my mother felt that way too. She contemplated for awhile and as if she'd gathered some strength after the prayer, she decided that both of us should continue with the climb.

Soon after that, we found ourselves climbing up the cliff and reached the peak right on time the sun rose.

This was the first picture we got as soon as we reached the top. It was breezy and there was a wide view of nature with ecstatic hills and valley. The colour was magnificent too.

We tend to spend hours up there taking pictures with some crazy poses

Hahaha.

After that, we climbed down using a route which seemed to be much shorter and easier before finding ourselves heading towards the place we parked our car. Here's our last selfie with much kerek expression because we got to do something challenging together with Allah's helps.

Alma Mater

           It was on 5th January 2011 when I was officially a MOZAC student and being a little bit naive, I imagined myself having good times with cool people at that place. I probably got the ideas from the stories that my sister, Sarah, who is older by 2 years shared when we were dining at home. And yeah, I chose MOZAC  out of any other boarding schools because I'm overly attached to my sister. Ok get over it😝              

                                    

Here's a picture of me and my papa. Please don't judge me from my look. My size changes over years ok.😁

I was (not in a narcissist way) famous for the first few years in MOZAC because everyone knew my sister including teachers and seniors so instead of calling me with my real name, they called me sarah. Honestly, I enjoyed it at first because I got to talk to cool seniors which includes good-looking guy seniors🙊 and being teachers' attention but after a while, it became annoying. Haha.

So throughout the years, my life was all about heavy books and struggling for top ranks. I was a struggler, I must admit. Staying up every single night just to cover chapters that haven't been taught so I could stay steps ahead was my routine. But in the end, I'm always the second best😅 

        

                                 I received an Ipad during MAC 😁

To me, entering MOZAC wasn't a mistake after all. It was a life-changing experience. I made friends with funny and witty people who makes me look through my life in a totally different perspective. To give and take, and to appreciate by being grateful.   

                             

I did mention that I was a smartass, right? Haha. Not really tho😂 I was placed in Alpha class (which is the first class) from form 2 until form 5. And I also did mention that I was always the second best, right? I wasn't lying on that. In fact, I've ranked second in the batch for 4 consecutive years. Haha. How bout that, ha? I only got first during mid-year form 5. That was the time my eye-bag was surreal.😭😭

Form 5 was the toughest year. Being the school's target, I was constantly put on pressure by my teachers and parents. Like I said, instead of stressing out over it, I always look at the bright side so the whole time, I keep reminding myself to study and be successful so I can lead the ummah one day. It made me feel different, actually. My trial result was 3A+ 5A and 1B+ (and it was biology) demyu bio, I lost khazanah scholarship. Ugh 

Ok so let's put the books aside and get to the next stories. Friends.

To be straight up, I'm constantly in a love-hate relationship with them. They're like the wifi signal. Sometimes, it was strong and they make you happy and proud to be their friends. They give you soothing advice and listen to your stories. But sometimes, the signal turned so bad that it made you mad and sad. There were times when they just decided to leave you hanging and telling you things that made you feel bad about yourself or only being nice to you when they needed something. But after all, I learned that no one was perfect and you can't expect people to treat you the way you want to be treated. They're only human, right? 

I've always wanted to end these days telling them that they meant so much to me but days had passed, and still, I didn't have any guts to do it 😔 I am so going to miss the days when we pulled lame jokes in class, all the weird sounds bored kids did when the teachers weren’t around, making weird faces and calling each other with names(that is not offensive) because that's just the way that brought us together😄 

'All hail to the memories we created on this hill and kudos to these awesome people who've always been there through my ups and downs' - Nur Syahirah Ain Omar (class of 2015)