Don't Irritate Me Further Sammy

Dear diary,

Ever since I am with eternity, I am really going active with mountain climbing. It is something that I have a big interest. You know that I have started climbing since I was 19 and had to stop because of some inevitable reason. I have climbed kinabalu, tahan, panti, belumut, ledang and now I can add a few more names to my already existing list of mountains. Mount datuk, berembun and siku are the new collection that I have added and not forgetting, bekelah waterfall. The list will grow in a few weeks time but I know I have to watch my budget as well.You know, I wonder at times if I hadn’t met eternity would I be active again. I knew I should be thankful that I have met her because she is responsible for rekindling my passion for mountain climbing.

I hope to do this for as long as I could with her because it is good to have someone you are very comfortable with doing the things you like together. I am so used to doing things with her nowadays that I find it odd and incomplete when she is not around. I really do treasure her diary, and I wish she knows although I always snap easily with her.I climbed the new collections of mountain with a friend of eternity’s brother whose name I shall call sammy to protect his identity. Sammy is a big guy with big tummy and chest. My first impression of him was that he must be some guy who’s tough and rugged with a good stamina. He seemed like the guy who will be the last man to reach every campsite and the summit of a mountain not because his slow or weak but because he’s just the kind that would make sure anyone didn’t left behind or got lost. In other words, he would always be the last man in a group.

However, my good impression of him slowly deterioriates after trekking with him three times. His attitude turned me off and I did not think highly of him anymore. I didn’t notice it the first time I trekked with him but after awhile, I realised that he was actually just trying to show off when he hasn’t really got anything to show off. The first time I trekked with him, he talked about mount stong non-stop. I figured that he must be quite an experienced climber and has about more than five mountains in his list of mountains he climbed before. I was wrong and it turned out that he had less than my expected figure. That explains why he only talked about mount stong to us. I am not trying to underestimate neither am I trying to belittle him. It is just that, he acts and talks like a very experienced mountain climber when he is not and that really annoys me.

He always wants people to listen to his suggestions and ideas when they are not at all practical. Worse of all, even though he does not say it officially to us, he seems to want to form his own team or club and sadly, he thinks that eternity and I are willing to be his pioneer team or club members. He suggested that any balance of money collected from every trip will not be refunded as the money will be used to buy equipments. I really do not know for whom the equipments are for as I already have enough equipments of my own. The idea is fine if every one of us agreed to form a club or team of our own. But since none of us agreed except for him, I just find that the idea is not right. Any balance of money must be refunded accordingly and if he feels like buying anything, he should be using his own money instead. Then again, this explains why he hasn’t had any basic equipments. I rest my case about the equipments now.

When we were planning to climbed mount datuk, he suggested for us not to bring anything except for out water bottles. In my mind, we were going to climb the mountain in the wee hour in the morning and from what I have heard, it usually takes about one to two hours of climbing depending on your speed. We were to leave for mount datuk at eleven at night. With one to one and a half hour of travelling, our estimated time to reach the base of the mountain was one to two in the morning and we were going to climb once we got there. It doesn’t take a professional climber to know that he will reach the summit before the sun is up. Surely any average person would be able to tell if it is going to be cold or not up in the mountain in the wee hour in the morning. Unfortunately, sammy couldn’t tell and he brought nothing at all with him except his water bottle hanging from his belt. He thought that I brought too many things and commented on my heavy backpack. He made a couple unpleasant remarks about eternity’s and my decision to carry stuffs up in the mountain.

His remarks and comments made me wondered before the climb if he really knew what he brought with him. I remained silent and waited till the end of the climb. We reached the summit at half past four in the morning. The wind was happily blowing at our direction. While I was unpacking my bag, he asked for a ground sheet, I gave it to him and continued to set up my air mat to sleep. Eternity and I slept quite comfortably as we had our sweaters and windbreakers on. In the middle of our sleep, what I had expected turned out to be true. Sammy complaint of how cold it was to another of our friend.

Eternity and I pretended not to hear and continued sleeping. I didn’t want to offer him a layer of my sweater because I felt he didn’t deserve it. I wasn’t trying to be selfish but he was proud with me before and that annoyed me. It was so silly of him to suggest to us not to bring anything and how I was glad we didn’t listen to him. I am so glad that from the few mountains I have climbed, I have gained a couple of experiences and I managed to put it into good use. Most of all, I am thankful that eternity and I did not become victims to sammy’s silly and impractical ideas.

Bringing It To Life Again...

Dear diary,

It seems to me that I have to do this every time I start writing to you nowadays. Forgive me for not writing for such a long time. I haven’t been busy but I always think that I am busy until the extent I ignore you. I didn’t mean to ignore you but with life over here, no fixed income and no internet connection at home, I am just lazy to write even though I have so much more stories to share with you than living in Singapore. I really do have so many stories to tell you but I have been holding them back far too long until I forgot most of the stories. Perhaps we can start from the latest to the not so latest one. How about that diary?

I have been climbing mountains and I can see myself being active again like how I was ten years ago. It was different back then and now. I was young and probably I was stronger then than now. Climbing mountains nowadays is easy with all the equipments I have in store but money is not that easy to come by. I have to finance myself and it can be tough when I am a student waiting for my pocket money from my parents. It’s just so sad isn’t it? I am looking for ways to boost my financial status and I know I can do that even though I am a student.

The only drawback I have is, I am a foreigner here. It’s not that easy as it may seem but I know I will get by. I am thankful and grateful for the number of friends and relatives I have over here. They can be useful when I really need their help. Oh, I forgot to mention that, they are the most reliable and trustworthy friends and relatives. In another word, they are friends and relatives with quality. Anybody can have an abundant supply of friends and relatives but not anybody can have friends and relatives that can offer you help with just one phone call.

Ok, let us not sway from what I wanted to write to you. Now, what is it that I wanted to write to you? Oh yeah…it’s about me going active again with mountain climbing. I have climbed mount ophir seven times and I did it twice within the past six months. Can you believe that diary? I brought eternity along in that two trips and I think she already is my climbing buddy officially. Of course, we did not make any ceremony to acknowledge that we are each other’s climbing buddy but I think both of us know it.

Eternity has improved on her personality during the second trip. Although she was a little slower than the first trip, in terms of teamwork, she has improved tremendously. She helped me cook, clean and set up the tent this time round. She knew what she had to do and I didn’t have to tell her what to do. I really appreciate her company this time and I knew then, her company is essential when I go mountain climbing. The second trip was longer than the first one. We spent two nights up in the mountain, so we had plenty of time to relax and unwind. I brought along cross word puzzle but eternity devoted much of her free time to it so I didn’t spend my time with it. I had diarrhoea on the second day and it really surprised me because I have climbed a couple of mountains and never had diarrhoea before. It was quite an experience without the basic facilities. I even had to squat on a piece of rock at the waterfall with running stream water underneath my buttock so that it will wash away my waste. Oh gee, I can’t imagine telling it to you. The best part about it all was, while I was squatting, came three other campers from another campsite sitting by the waterfall directly opposite of me. It was dark at night and all of us had only our torchlights and headlights. I just had to switch on my headlights while I was throwing my waste. It is to avoid them from being able to see clearly in my direction.

What really bothered me was, I had to squat there for as long as they were there because, I had my pants down and even if I didn’t feel like throwing anymore, I simply couldn’t get up and pull up my pants while they were like twenty meters away from me with a good view of me. My knees got numb a bit and I was greatly relieved when they left. With eternity acting as my guards, I got up and quickly pulled up my pants. It was quite annoying but comical.The group that we joined consist mostly of people who are thirty-five years old and above. They are matured people and it was easy for us to blend in with them. There were not many of them anyway, so we did not feel left out at all. Eternity acted as the bridge of communication between the group and us.

That is the reasons why I have always admire eternity for her communication skills. Perhaps it is not so much on her communication skills but it is more on her outgoing personality that she always manages to accept people easily, regardless of their personality and attitude. I am not like that; I always have difficulty mingling with people because I am a very reserved person naturally and it makes me very selective with whom I want to talk with. I get along with most of them but I find that one of them actually annoyed me a little with his boastful talks. Maybe he wasn’t boastful but that was how he speaks. He talked about all the mountains he had climbed leaving no room for the rest of us to talk. Moreover, when he talked about them, it was as if he was the god of the mountains and that really made me puke. He was ok but I couldn’t stand his boastful manner and so I kept to my own group whenever I can. He asked me about the mountains that I have climbed before and I knew it then that he was actually trying to see how capable I am in mountain climbing. He was actually trying to compare my list of mountains I have climbed with his own and that really irritate me. Oh gee, you boastful old man, and that moment on, I felt like kicking him in the bud when we were going down the mountain and watch him roll down the mountain like an old gunny sack.

Talking about the mountains was not enough, he had to talk about the cooking equipments, the tent he uses and the shoes he wears, I was in my tent trying to enjoy my privacy and it was so frustrating having my privacy invaded at the time I needed it the most. If it was invaded due to some event beyond my control, I wouldn’t mind at all but not because I had to listen to this old moronic mountain freak man. What made it worse was, I had to pee and since he was there sitting talking non stop, I had to hold it feeling very miserable inside. Only God knows how I felt at the time. I wish Puteri Gunung Ledang would have came and saved me but she didn’t. I was looking at him talking and I was imagining shoving a banana in his mouth to shut him up. How I really could have enjoyed that. Anyway, he got tired of talking and joined the rest of his friends by the waterfall lying on the big rock to watch the stars. Eternity and I didn’t joined them as we were more interested to spend time with our air mat and enjoy the natural pleasure of answering nature call in a tent up in a mountain.