Yesterday I decided to push my limits when I went for a hike at Broga with my friends. It's been a while since I've hiked, and the last hill I probably wandered through was the one at Dusun Eco, which was a three times less challenging. Standing at 400m high, this 1.6km vertical hike definitely gave me a kick with all that climbing, slithering, swinging, and rolling (downhill) through nooks and crannies. Before the hike, we slept at about 3am and awoke an hour later to our dismay for oversleeping. We got to the foot of the hill by 5am, and started out tedious climb for about less than an hour before we reached first base. The stars were gleaming and the subtle wind was refreshing. The first base was a much needed rest for everyone cause our hearts were pumping twice as hard to get the adrenalin going. The night sky was truly so beautiful and at that moment I wished my loved ones were there to share the wonder with me, and as I looked around I realized that they were :) Kinda reminded me of the time at redang where 2 of my best friends just laid with me till 5 am to take in the view of the star-embezzled sky from the comfortable and warm sandy grounds of the beach. How I miss em' waves.
After a while we took off for the second, third, and finally fourth peak. There were other students there as well, and I couldn't help but beam with pride at our very own Malaysian hospitality when some of them instantaneously offered me a hand/ hoisted me up at some rocky areas. The willpower which didn't allow us to cave in or give up, finally paid off at the peak albeit the need to scream out for deep heat spray cause our muscles were beyond sore and sourish. The view was breathtaking, and the nutty jokes we cracked all the way up made everything worth while :)
I thought we had conquered Broga the moment we arrived at the peak, but we all dreaded the downhill journey as well. It was taxing, and more straining than venturing uphill. We had to rush against time as the cloudy skies begin to indicate rain. Sliding down was fun but our hands got sore from stabilizing ourselves on the boulders by the side. The feeling was all too familiar, it definitely brought me back to the time I was at YDC 17's dhamma camp. When we finally reached the bottom we all heaved a sigh of relief and headed straight for dimsum cause we've worked up an insatiable appetite : all of this by 9am. Celebrated a friend's birthday at the dimmy restaurant despite all the weird stares (cake in the morning too? hehe). When I got home, I took a shower and dragged my light-cum-heavy body (pardon the oxymoron) to bed. In less than two hours I headed out again for lunch with my sweeties, and dinner at that too. Finally got to dine at Alexis again since my birthday, and blundering succotash they could tell that I was hungrily craving some al frutti de mare, potato leek, and pavlova since I'm all juiced out. It was the best omnomnom treat of the week so thank you girls *big wet sloppy kiss* but most importantly I felt touched at the message I learned from the day with my pm4-ians : no journey is ever easy, but it's more than worth while when you finally get to the top and see the bigger picture (or view in this matter) of life.
