Viva el Peru 2

Happy 21st Birthday to my brother! 

Yesterday was crazy. I had my thesis presentation and I was the last person to go cause they messed up my last name as Zaffa. Dannng! So I sat there waiting "patiently" and "anxiously" for 14 people to present before it's my turn to go. Gahh! Luckily it was a lil dark in the room, so you don't really see anybody. I kinda messed up a lil bit on my last sentence! Can you imagine that! On the last sentence!!! I was a lil freak out about that, but then there are some people that walked up to me and said that was a great talk. So, I shouldn't worry too much I guess. Hehe Oh, later that day I went out for dinner, bowling and dessert with a bunch of friends. I enjoyed myself last night! 

As the title suggests, ni post pasal trip to Peru. I wrote story last time. Read it here

OK, that was Cusco. 

Just because we had 2 weeks to spend in Peru, which is not enough if I may add, I initially thought of skipping the 4 day Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu. Tapi I sure glad we didn't  make that decision and still went on that hike. 

It was $290, but we forgot to ask if there is a student price. It would have been cheaper. One thing I noticed is most of the "pay to enter" or tour package in Peru has student price, which is awesome for us!! If you google 4 day Inca Trail hike, you will see that the price would be about $400. OMG right? So, we found our deal from the hostel we stayed in Cusco, The Walkon Inn. Even some would just walk around Cusco and they might find some other good deals, but I'm not taking that chance and $290 for me is a reasonable and affordable price.

Day 1 

We left Cusco very early in the morning. The bus picked us up at our hostel. The drive to KM 82, which is the starting point of Inca Trail was very scenic. Before arriving there, we stopped at Ollaytaytambo for breakfast and quick last minute beli2 barang. 

Valleys and mountains along the way.

Good Morning y'all. See the people at the back? They were our porters and cooks! Zar tgh tidor time ni hehehe.

Ollaytaytambo. A beautiful Inca Town with lots of ruins all around us.

A farmer's house and his crops. 

This is in a valley. 

Grr! Lawa kot bangun pagi2 to the view of the mountains!

A lil girl playing all by herself?

At KM 82. I told myself, shit is this really happening? that I will be walking for 45km for the next 4 days? I can only hope for the best. Huh.

This is how hectic it was at KM82. 

Mbn and Zar borak2. Nampak pakcik in the middle tuh? 

We talked for a bit during the hike (he doesn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish, pakai common sense jer) and sy banyak kali mencapub dalam video camera die without him noticing it. Paling tak tahan, buat gaya ikat tali kasut. HAHAHA

So that is my detailed story of what happened in the first few hours. Apehall!! 

Ok Ok. Sorry. Ni belom hike pon lagi. Anyways, for the hike, bring a small backpack and leave your other stuff at the hostel (secured laah). Zar and I switched backpacks :P I forgot why. Maybe cause my bag is big. Ntah. I had 4 helai baju jer. So I don't need a big bag, but the sleeping bag is taking half the spaces in the bag already! I was so dumb, I didn't bring a sleeping bag from Canada. The thing is I don't even have one! I don't know what I was thinking but seriously folks, bring a sleeping bag, you will need it for sure cause it will be effing COLD in the mountains (which kinda makes sense). In this case, Zar gave me his sleeping bag. HOHO Thanks Zar, pengorbanan ini saye ingat smpai bile2. Pastu Zar guna his brand new Alpaca blanket yang according to him, sangat bagus and tak sejuk pon. OK. For other needs, basic je kot. I could easily end up bringing more stuff than I should, but these boys made me not to. Haha. Even so, I brought a towel and toiletries with the intention to take shower, but duhhhh there is no shower place and even when there is one, it was tooo cold for me to take a shower. So, what I'm saying here, I didn't take a shower for 4 days. Haha. But if you ever go here, pls bring paper towel :( I forgot about it altogether. Huh

So, let the hike begins!

Locals getting on board on a local train. The starting point is at some railway "station"

All 8 of us. 2 Americans, 2 Swedish, 1 Korean and 3 Malaysians. Wooot!

Walking towards the first check point. Zar, Mbn and Juan Carlos (tour guide) leading the pack. 

Crossing the bridge after the checkpoint. 

I'm wondering if I have a picture crossing this bridge in the boys' camera. Hummff

From the bridge HOHO

Well, the hike on day 1 was ok. No crazy climb uphill or steep downhill. I had a good "walk" that day cause it wasn't too physical, but this is just a personal opinion. Some might find Day 1 was tough. Idk that. But essentially, anybody can do it :) with a lil bit of work out prior to this. But the even dangerous part is altitude sickness. I was ok with altitude (Thank God!) but I still brought some pills for that, just in case.

Photos along the trail:

Houses are mostly made of clay.

Laluan...

US at the lunch place on Day 1

My hiking boots and pakai stokin pink. LOL

(apekejadah letak gamba ni pon tak tahu)

Everybody is taking a break while watching the locals playing football (or soccer)

Cooks are preparing our food.

Spaghetti on Day 1. Delicious!

Continuing the hike. 

Some random flora shot

Llactapata. Used to be a "town" back in Inca time.

Sometimes, me and Mbn talked geology. Geek! 

:)

End of Day 1. At our campsite in Wayllabamba

GRRR This is really long! And it's only day 1. I will continue the rest soon :( 

Have a nice weekend yo.

TTYL Gators

FZ

Joyride of 2009

Hello, you fool, I love you

C'mon join the joyride!

What the hell. I just feel like writing out some of the best (or worst) things of 2009!

The best LOL moment: 

"OKRA tu BENDI ahh!!!!!!" (Ariff Shazwan, August 2009)

JUNK food of the year:

Cheetos Puff. Big bag pleasssse!

Best CAFE discovered:

Cafe Cambio, Chicoutimi, QC

Cafe Cambio! Cheap food with great ambience 

Colour of the year:

YELLOW that makes my heart goes mellow!

Best purchase of the year:

H&M Black Blazer

Favourite new TV show:

Glee!! Give me more of McKinley High students!

Best movie: 

UP! Blew me AWAYY!

Best "karaoke" moment:

Singing "Dancing Queen" out loud with Linda & Sarah while dancing around the table at Linda's crib!! 

Best bus ride: 

At SIFT. During the 4 day field trip to the Rockies!

Everybody else is sleeping, I didn't. I wrote in my journal, "I determine not to sleep 'cause I want to enjoy this view for the longest time!" 

I fell asleep on the way back to Calgary :P 

Best "Into the Wild" moment: 

My traveling journal.

Remember he kept a diary? So I took that idea from him. 

The Beatles "Abbey Road" Journal. It has all my traveling details from last winter break to my most recent trip to Peru.

Best new food:

Ceviche. I can eat this everyday

Most (and the best!) physical activity:

Hiking the Inca Trail for 4 days, 45km! and the highest point I had to climb was 4215m a.s.l

Farisa and Marissa. On day 2! See the U valley afar? 

That's 4215m a.s.l

The best thing I heard from my parents:

Tandas awak kaler pink. Dan sgt lawa! With the light etc

(fyi, I didn't choose the tiles, they did!!!!) 

Best ice-cream flavour:

London Ice Cream's Moose Track!

Only in London, baby!

and only in summertime!

$2.50 (I think!) Cheap and sedap!

Vanilla with peanut butter bits, caramel ++ more things. 

I can't remember them all from the top of my head.

Highest mark(s):

Sedimentary Petrology, Catastrophic Events on Earth and Invertebrate Paleontology

I got the same mark for all three.

Lowest mark:

The Search for Life in the Universe. Danggggg!

Longest traveled time:

YYZ-ORD-LAX-LIM

17 hours.

Best "LIVE" performance:

Dave singing in the bus during SIFT fieldtrip! Boy, that was fun! 

The most "I'm a die-hard fan" moment:

Spent $150 on Britney Spear's Circus Tour ticket!

The best new recipe created: (by me)

ALL MY WRAPS recipes! They are totally original and I don't remember their ingredient already cause I always just campak any leftovers on a piece of tortilla and gulung-gulung....

The most elegant event:

Aidiladha at Hilton Hotel, London

I went all out that, and it's okay to be overdressed ;)

A lil more makeup than usual :)

And....I had my bling-bling clutch with me that night.

And....my 4" stilettos! 

Frankly, I can't think of anything more of BEST or WORST of anything. Brain freeze! 

Any suggestion?

I submitted my Report 2 (for thesis) just now. 25 pages yo on Theory, Concept and Methods. Oh dear. Brain is freezing laa nih. The presentation is going to be on this Friday. After that, I'm a lil free and I will continue writing my Peru stories!

TTYL

FZ

The graph that makes sense

So, if you are waiting to read my part 2 Peru story, that is not gonna happen until next week. Take a look at this "graph" and you will understand. 

OK. My prof put this on his office door. So, this idea wasn't originally mine :P

My thesis report 2 is due next week and I have a presentation too. All next week! Maka, that means, other "menulis" activity has to wait. I hope you had a good break and do no suffer from "vacation stress" syndrome. (I was reading and doing work in Peru!)

TTYL gators

- FZ

Picture: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1231

Viva el Peru!

Happy New Year y'all.

Probably you are thinking this wish comes 5 days too late and it doesn't matter anymore. Sorry ;) I was caught up with school and all the things around it.

OK, I'm not here to write bout school just yet. More like I want to tell you about my trip to Peru. If I can summarize the trip in one word, I would. But, obviously I can't. If you see to your left, it says Peru is one of the countries I want to visit and I sure glad I made this decision (a costly one too). I was interested to visit Peru when I watched a travel documentary about it on a flight from KL - NY. Then when I was at SIFT, Harun "stole" a very colourful glove from Meghan, she said "No Harun, you can't have it because Debbie bought me that Alpaca gloves from Peru" (Harun, do you remember this???). Then another friend, also Megan (LOL just different spelling) went to Peru last summer and spent 1 month there; just by looking at her photos, I got jealous!. At that instance I know I have to go to Peru. Luckily, Mbn had the same idea as well and the next thing you know, I just closed my eyes and press "BUY" to that $1400 ticket to Peru. I could get somewhat get the same price for a ticket to Malaysia, fyi. At that point, I was so determined not to feel "I'm broke". (Mainly cause I just spent somewhat the same amount for my Macbook Pro and I didn't get the money back just yet). Huh. So, we managed to get another person to join, Abu Zar. I don't know him at all. LOL. I take it from Mbn, he is nice, kind bla bla bla (which he is, btw)

tres amigos!

That's us on the first day.

Although I paid a lot for my plane ticket, it wasn't the best route ever! Toronto-Chicago-LA-Lima. And the connection time between those transits are about 51 - 90 minutes; thus, my bag was delayed along the way! GRRR! I had to borrow Zar's shirt yang besar giler. Mbn cakap: haaa, macam ni laa baru travel, trying to compliment my baju besar. In my heart I can only say WTF! LOL. Seriously, it wasn't that big pon, (I exaggerated, sorry!) since Zar suke pakai baju ketat2 hahaha.

My bag arrived just in time before the Inca Trail. They had it sent straight to our hostel in Cusco.

Oh, a lil info for you, Cusco is located in the mountains above 3000m elevation. So, some of you might suffer from altitude sickness. Lucky enough I didn't get any. If you do, Coca Tea is for you :) You can also chew the leaves, but I didn't try it. The leaves are miracle, if I can put it that way. You chew them and pooh! you are no longer hungry, thirsty or anything of that sort. We drank the tea in the morning and ate only once a day, and guess what? I don't feel hungry at all. Humfff!

Coca leaves + hot water = Coca Tea

Coca leaves are the main ingredient to make cocaine. LOL.

I was a vegetarian during this trip so I can't comment much on the food. If you are a carnivore (hehe), then you should try the alpaca meat and guinea pig. Those two are the pride of the Andeans, especially guinea pig (cuy in spanish). As much as I am curious about the taste, I didn't dare to eat them. LOL. The veggies: mostly potatoes, corn and beans, at least that's what I had most of the time. The corn has bigger kernels than your average corn seen in North America (or even in Malaysia) supermarket. And they taste OK. I love corn, but this is not so much my type of corn. Potatoes? Tons of different kinds! I'd say some are like the ones you have in Malaysia - cassava (ubi kayu), sweet potato (keledek) and the regular potato. They all taste the same. Oh, cheese. They taste different for sure. I like it in my lasagna :)

Cusco:

- We spend 3 days here. 2 days before the trail and 1 day after. Most of the places we went were around the main plaza, mainly 'cause all the "tourist's must see" are here. I regret we didn't go to downtown. I bet I'll see more things there.

- The town is very heavily based on tourism, you'll see everything to cater for tourist i.e travel agencies, restaurants, McD, hotel/hostel, The North Face boutique (oh my!) etc. They even have "Tourist Lunch Package" something like that. Nevertheless, things are cheap in Cusco. I bought a sling bag (a cute, red bag) for only s/10 (about $3). Scarf and gloves, both handmade from alpaca fur, for s/23. Well, sometimes you can bargain for a cheaper price. I wasn't good at bargaining at all, and now I'm somewhat comfortable to ask for a lower price ;) And if you ever go to Peru and want to buy souvenirs, get all your stuff in Cusco or Puno! Cause Lima doesn't have as much variety as Cusco :(

Some photos around Cusco:

The Cathedral. We went in. Ticket is s/12.50 (estudente price).

We can't take photos, but rest assured it is really really pretty in there.

The university, I think.

The view from the Main Square

Papa a la Huancaina. The typical Peruvian dish.

Potato with spicy sauce (taste like kuah kacang) topped with a hard boiled egg.

Shopping time. Since I love bright colours, most of the things in Peru really caught my eyes!

Kids playing around :)

An old Peruvian lady dressed in her traditional clothes.

Mbn plak blocked, well this is the only photo I have of her.

OK, this is Part One of my story.

I don't know how many "parts" I will have, but maybe the next part will be shorter and will sound less like a travel agent!

Oh, I bet you know by now about my old letter. I will comment on that later when the time comes. But what's even better is I wrote another letter for me to read in 10 years. This time it's a lil different cause Zar and Mubeen are involved as well (including their conversation!) So, they specifically asked me to call them in 10 yrs time. And so time will tell where we will be in 10 years.

(I feel like terlalu semangat plak dgn mende alah nihhhh. sebenarnye, mmg agak semangat heh)

Gotta go back to work booooo!!!

Ciao

....tak proofread pon nihh

Sayonara :)

The view of my falling apart "LOVE" wall is not the thing I want to show you! My backpack, all the way from Malaysia. 

Well...

Toodles my noodle gators!

I will see you in January. I'm off for a little adventure where I will be hiking my way up, sandboard my way down and lie down on the beach while enjoying the sea breeze. I hope you won't miss me too much :) 

Oh, remember this? 

I will read my 10 year old letter here: 

It's an oasis alright. 

Till then, I wish you all the best for your remaining exams. And of course, Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it and a Happy Happy New Year to all :)

FZ

ps: My long awaited message doesn't come. I should have seen it coming. 

 

the element of surprise

lalalalalalala. i have a feeling for the rest of this week, i'll wake up feeling excited to check my inbox. im waiting for a message, a rather important one. so, any unrelated messages will make my day go bad. darn! stop sending me anymore messages, not until i get the one i want :) so im waiting for that surprise every morning. and if it doesn't come, i guess i'll have my answer.

fz

Normal People.

As much as I like to keep in touch with ALL my friends, I find that impossible. The ones I talk to often are those in Canada. It feels as though distance is the reason for being so lost from one another and that I am only living a present life; without even paying my past a visit. Where do I even begin to tell you how bad I feel? or simply how much I miss them now? I do have their facebook and when I look at their new photos, Oh Boy how people have changed over the years and the fact that I don't even get to "be there" in their lives when exciting/good things happen make me sad even more. Sometimes, I get jealousy struck when I saw pictures of their new friends and their new life, but somewhere between the two, I am not included. I'm not supposed to comment on that though, 'cause life is now and you ultimately made those choices to end where it ends so far. But a lil remorse doesn't hurt, no? You know, that small, silly voices at the back of everybody's head that ask all the "what if" questions? Haha. I laugh at my own stupidity at times. Like seriously, how do these "keep in touch" things work anyways? Like comment on a friend's picture once in awhile? or leave a wall? a message? or simply flooding somebody notification with ridiculous application invites?? I don't know my best way yet. I tried commenting on their pictures or send them a message, but the conversation was typical and in all honesty, I hate it. All because it is too all of a sudden to message someone "How are you?". Imagine that after not hearing from a friend for 4 years. Awkward? YES! I want to talk like we used to talk, is that so hard to ask for? It will never be the same again; I feel that already. And along that line, I want to ask, what happened? But it is a question for both sides to answer; so, I'll skipped that. 

Huh, so can I safely conclude that things will never be the same again? No matter how much you care for a person before, it can only go so far. In the end, people changed. I changed. For better or for worst, he/she is still my friend and I want to remember that forever. 

But, I want to restate my first claim. It is not impossible to keep in touch, it is just a two-way thing. I need you, you need me kinda swing. Ahh! Life can be simplerrr right. 

FZ

ps: title yang slightly menyimpang dari ape sepatutnye

I prefer RED

I am blue da be di da be da

If I'm green

I would die

Huh. On that note, GOOD LUCK gators!!

- fz

Estrogen

I cannot remember how we ended up talking about pollution while studying for Metallogeny, but we did and it was ... erm, somewhat informative and hilarious.

It began when I said something about the pollution in Sudbury and that some animals are mutant in Sudbury Lake (don't quote me on this!!). And my friend went, Oh really? 

Then I got rather confused and tried to sway what I said previously because I wasn't too sure myself. Instead, we started to talk about how high level of toxicity in lake can cause some male fish to have eggs and some frogs to have 5 legs (I saw this picture in my Sed Petrology class)! I was laughing so hard already. My friend continued by saying it was the breakdown of bla bla bla bla (I forgot, but I think it's plastic) that release some chemical into the water that somewhat mimic estrogen; thus, the male fish in that water became "female". Weird? It happened yo! And while I think that's hilarious (geez!! so insensitive!), there is a bigger outcome to that. I heard Sudbury has more girls than boys, I said (again, I can't verify this). Then she said, don't you know the ratio of men:women in the world is actually really really low and somehow this "estrogen" pollution has something to do with that. Actually, I do know there are more women to men these days, I knew it since sekolah rendah when I learned about signs of dunia dah nak khiamat. But, of course I didn't tell her that. LOL. Humff, terlupa pula hakikat itu. I guess I have to remember all the poor fish and frogs to remind myself Dunia is about to end. Wallahualam.

So I guess this is the way science explains why there is more women to men? and to me, I do believe science can explain some of the things Allah had outlined in the Quran. Cause they all should tie in. I'm not too sure about this can explain why we have more women today than men, but hey, it is a good reminder, nevertheless.

Well, lets try to control our pollution yer folks! <--- Gosh I have so many things to say bout this issue. If you read March 2009 issue of National Geographic, you will see why I have a lot to comment on! Now no time maaa.....

OK, mari bekerja semula.

Oh wait, it's 2.44am now, I would rather go to bed.

Toodles gators ;)

FZ

Skeleton

Today, I can tell you I feel disconnected. I admit this today for something that has been going on for quite awhile. My mind and heart are not in-sync and somehow, they decided to overrule one another. My conscience is way off, far away I can't tell you where it went. Am I doing fine? You may ask. I'd say YES. I am fine. I believe I am. However, there are these small voices in my head that is pushing me away from myself, stripping my entire "self" and leave only, humff my skeleton? Do I feel vulnerable? Absolutely. So vulnerable that I feel people misjudge me for some expectations they have in me. I feel their trust in me, but at times to live up to that expectation can lead to an agonizing defeat. But maybe, just maybe, that painstaking path is rewarding in the end.  

Maybe I don't sound to well, but hey, I am not here to write about some effing negativity. I don't spread sh*t. People can have expectation in you, but what is your expectation of yourself? What is my expectation for myself? I remember telling people about MISI & VISI when I presented a talk to some form 5 students, one boy told me he doesn't get it. I explained it to him and I wished him good luck after that. Now, I want to ask myself. What is my MISI & VISI? It doesn't seem like that long ago that I "invented" my MISI & VISI. When some of my VISI is deviating off course, my MISI is still the same. 

I'd say I want to live up to the expectations given to me. Why? Cause I know these painstaking journey is rewarding. I want to see the light at the end. Somehow I know, I will regret if I didn't endure this pain and make it work, not for anybody else but for myself. You see, this is an opportunity created for me, I don't see why I should be complaining. So I am not. But, along the way I need to reconnect myself. My brain and my heart has to be in-sync to make it work. Well, that has to be soon. This opportunity will not be great if I do not make it great! Agree? LOL. Hopefully my Xmas will make me excited again. I'm somewhat pumped right now, but I could use some more. Hah!

I took this picture with my daddy's camera. 

Dear Moon, you are too cute!! Please stay like this forever.

(haha, tak Raya laaa macam tuhh)

Later all my gators.

U guys rock!

FZ

Sad SIDENOTE: So, my sister cannot make it to my graduation next year because she has exams during that period. Sad eh? So, most likely it will just be Mama at my graduation. Tengah plan with Ariff for some getaway to Vancouver end of May. The plan is, our parents fly to Vancouver together and we meet them there :) And then, kami jalan2 in Vancouver before my mom and I catch a flight back to London. Aww! So folks, korang tak nak datang my graduation ker? Tak kesian ke dekat Farisa yang glam-rock-the-boat ni?? Humff. (Maybe ayat last tu sedikit gedixxx haha!)