So there I was, last Friday night, calling up the telecommunication company and asking if the broadband service around my neighborhood had been DOWN ?

The technical support person instruct me restart my modem and try the dialing again after 10 seconds ..... I cannot agree with this "dumb" solution, but hv to follow it somehow . And as we all know, it DOESN"T WORKS .

So back to square 1, redial the company again, and another technical support serving me, and we conclude that I might hv a cabling problem. I keep switching between my personal laptop and my company laptop, and starting feeling blur which one is actually having a faulty network port .

I hang up the phone, again tested the old cable, it WORKS . And none of the laptop has a faulty network port too .......... so now all fingers point to the wireless router . Oh boy ..... this is a really serious problem for me .

I hv been using the wireless connection since I hv subsribed the broadband services, carrying my laptop around the house .... if it's small enough, I can even bring it into the washroom .

And now ..... I hv to sit still, bonded to the modem and wondering when is the next PC Fair . Oh gosh, can I survive without the wireless .

So what is awaiting there for me in 2008 ????

Well, we have managed to secure the air tickets + accomodation (almost) for the Mt Kinabalu climbing trip in May 2008 ...... left is the physical training.

And working hard to do research on the Australia trip, hopefully .... yeah, hopefully can make it in Sept. At last, after so many years keep telling a frenz who is a PR there that I'm coming, I'm coming. Well, after travelling to some exotic places, I hope to expose myself to some relax and picturesque places on planet Earth .... Australia match my choices pretty well.

Aha, someone is expressing to me her interest to visit the Rafflesia too ..... I'm working on that. I wouldn't mind to go into the jungle again, as I miss to hv fun in the river in the previous round .

So ..... it's all abt fun awaiting for me in 2008 that I can see. Of coz I will still play my part in being a "good" world citizen, "good" employee, "good" frenz, "good" daughter .... etc. And of coz, keep on the faith in my "plan" ..... and hv to start get ready for it .

Finally the long awaited holidays had came. After settled both my working and personal problem, off I go for the Cameron Highland trip .... this round to look for the Rafflesia, the largest flower in the world .

It was slightly raining when we park our car at the Gua Musang highway, and headed to the village, and get an aborigine guide to lead us to the Rafflesia. As we're entering their territory, thus there's a rule that we must get "service" from them in order to track down the Rafflesia.

The started journey is already seems tough, as it's raining, the road is slippery ...... and Juin had already got her shoes separated into few pieces , never wear the old shoes where you hv abandoned them for ages .

We noticed that the whole compound is grow with bamboo, and according to Jackie, once the primary forest is being chopped down, the bamboo will grow as the secondary forest. They keep asking me to collect some of the bamboo leaves as it's big enough for my mum to make the dumpling .

We took our time to explore the forest with our naked eyes and of coz the camera lens ...... I recall my Mulu jungle trekking experience, and vow to slow down a bit this round, else I would just told ppl I saw only bushes and the soil under my feets .

And our fellow guide too took his time, plucking the wild fruits and let us to taste it, we hv totally tasted 3 kind of fruits, I don't know the name of the 1st 2, but for sure I'm not fancy abt it coz they're pretty sour ..... the last one, the wild ginger fruit, pretty good though it had big seeds .

The journey is quite amazing, nevertheless a bit tiring. But I wouldn't mind to do it all over again, crossing the quite primitive bamboo bridge, seeing some unexplore waterfall, crossing the rapid current (of coz with the helps of the 2 gentlemen), going down some slopes ........ things are different with the Mulu trek to the Pinnacles base camp, as everything is so primitive in the Cameron mountain . So I would hv said, much more challenging, and equal to much more fun .

We encountered 2 rotten Rafflesia flower along the journey, and some which are still waiting for blossom. So we hv to keep going and hoping to get to see the one which is just blossom. After 3++ hours of walking, finally the guide told me that we hv one which just blossom 1 day ago, and we shall see it in 5 more minutes. Kim, who had never did any jungle trekking before .... was exhausted and decided not to continue the journey, as many false alarm had been given that we will see the flower soon, this round she doesn't buy it anymore .

Juin left her with a wisel, and the 3 of us continue with the journey .... the guide didn't give us the false hope this round, we hv finally saw the giant flower, growing at the slope, which give us some difficulty to take the shots. Surrounding it, it's 3 more Rafflesia which is waiting to blossom ...... believe me, any of you who is interested to see it, will be able to do so just in time .

I place my palm on 1 of the pedal, it's rough and hard, it had to be since it need to support the heavy weight ..... can't resist it though, even I don't know if it's a wise thing to do. But tonight I am still able to write my blog with both hands, so what the hell .

For so long we hv heard abt this flower from the text book, it's pretty extraordinary to see it and to feel it too. And I hope it wouldn't be my last encounter with this amazing creation of nature.

And in the middle of the journey, I hv finally saw my favourite bird, the HornBill, flying to it's nest on the high tree where's miles from us. I can only see it spread the wings and hardly hv enough time to take the shots ...... but still I hv the image in my mind vividly now .

Till next time again, for the dashing HornBill, and many more special moments with the nature.