Up Penang Hill...

This was yesterday.. we took our Church Community Tuition Outreach Programme students and MYF'ers up Penang Hill. There were around 40 of us... youths and adults. Other Half, Son and I went. I ended up the sweeper... Sweeper punya kerja - sweep everyone up! Make sure nobody sesat or strays. Last 2 hikers made it up in 3 hours. Yours truly was one of them! 8)

We started our hike at almost 9. It was raining but the youths were keen to give it a go in the rain. For many I guess that was one of the rare times they actually got to walk in the rain. 8) For safety reasons and also because many of these 'city' kids have not gone hiking before, we took the tar road up, though the jungle trail would have been more fun. But when we came home, read in the papers that 2 men were lost there for about 12 hours before being found.

The gradient was actually quite steep in certain stretches... As in any group, some were really fast and others, really slow. But whatever it is, once you start, you'll have to plod on to the top of the hill; guess it's very much like life. Once we begin, we have to plod on; high or low moments, life goes on. I always feel that hiking is a good activity... apart from the good workout that it gives, there are also many lessons of life one can get out of it.

View of Penang from the top! That's Komtar sticking out in the middle. The rain sort of washed the haze that covered the island the day before. The view and cool air up there were actually quite nice.

This was a surreal scenery captured by Other Half from up there...

And these 2 were caught trying out the tandem bike... they didn't get far on it. Found it difficult going and returned the bike for normal ones. Half an hour on the tandem is RM10, normal bikes go for half of that two.

Touristy behaviour... these kids were gathering around the cap stalls... The caps had all these hebat brands printed on them.... and Son bought one as well.

Going down was via the other alternative, the funicular train. But I feel they should not jam so many people into the train. There was hardly enough standing room. You've the change trains at the halfway mark. The trip down via the train would be a pleasant one minus the sardine packed conditions. The air became more humid after the halfway mark. Good thing it had been an overcast afternoon.

We saw this at the exit of the train station. We were half tourists, half hikers... so got the sequence of welcome and goodbye terbalik also. LOL! But it was a good outing for many of us. And for some, it was an achievement of sorts, being able to make it up to the top. That, I supposed is also another lesson about life... sometimes we think we are not cut out for certain things. But if we adopt an open mind about it, and prepare yourself mentally for the challenges, be determined and adopt a certain stoicism to the task ahead you might surprise yourself... and along the way, God will send people to encourage, remind, nudge you along too.