struggling week..

After 2 weeks of struggling with the preparation of medical relief trip, I am finally on my way...
The trip was not simple as I think; just present myself and volla, I am seeing patient at the other end of the world. I had become the tour lead member and the part that trouble me most was the medical supply.
I had tried any possible way to secure the drug locally but was a frustration wild goose chase. Finally, BCH had replied me and they had gladly offered us help with a heavy price. The quoting was 5 times over our budget and I had to chop and two leg and an arm to get the figure closed but yet still 0.5x over. The struggle was not over as we had difficultly obtained the drug from BKK. I had tried to pull string but came out zero. As the day are closing, We had decided to ferry over the medication...
A challenging task as it would be a great problem should we are stopped by the custom. My sleep was disturbed so was my appetite. 
At the moment, the box of medication (>thousand tab ) passed the xray scanning machine( yeah, this is the  only airport where baggage need to clear xray machine after you claimed it from the baggage claim) and we are not stopped. I almost knee down and thank the great one...
We had passed the most heart sinking challenge and finally the mark the beginning of the mission.
Here I am, sitting at the foundation office writing down the beyond imaging nightmare the haunted my night for the past 2 week....it is a learning process; for me to adjust my way of thinking process and task completing..
Praise the Great one....

Sri Lanka food...

The Sri Lanka streets view has given me a nostalgia about my childhood. The streets almost look alike the old klang road about 30 years ago...
The foods are my favorite - spicy food: sambal, samboi and curry...but the meat was stony hard. I become almost vegetarian since D4...yet, the Basmati steam rice is still a fatal attraction for me. 
I finally got a taste of Farloda on the last day, acceptable but not surprising. 
The final surprise was on the last day when we visited a chinese restaurant - one of the highly recommended over the net. During the food ordering process, I noticed that the owner have a cantonese accent and I approached and asked him if he is a Malaysian...and He said he came from Ipoh...We had a short chat and found out that he had been in Sri Lanka for over 20 years...
The food was a satisfying one....Yi Min, Gou Lou Yok....

the Lord is fair full of grace; we had chosen to go for this mission trip instead of going back to Malaysia and at the end of the the tour, I was still rewarded with this graceful feast...

lost...

I was a little bit confuse when I came back from Sri Lanka. I had the feeling that part of me was in the limbo (definitely not in Sri Lanka). The straight night shift has further crumbled my sensation. I felt numb, not physically but emotionally. I was unable to tell the feeling and later on I was bothered by the medical relief trip.
It was like 4 weeks before the green light but yet everything was not finalized yet. The Satun trip I intended to go was cancelled as I was the sole volunteer. The pastor asked me if I would like to join the Dhaaka group and I complied. But Later, the Dhaaka group was packed up and the group has to be splitted into 2. 4 were redirected to the Satun group and one of them pulled out with another kiv to join....
The pastor asked me if I could lead the team if there is only 2 persons...and I gladly complied.
The kiv person later agreed to join and now it is a team of 3.
The worst part was the application to the local medical council was still pending as we need to be covered by a local hospital, which was still n/a....
Well, I think everything is in the hand of GOD, and all I need to do is prayed..

honorable face

Seri muka has been one of my favorite kuih since my childhood... I never miss it if I ever visit the night market. The best one I had tried was from my  neighbour - auntie ahmad. My mom would buy some durian and asked her to do the seri muka durain for us... the smoothness of the upper layer was splendid...
After missing the bengawan solo trip few weeks ago, I am a bit loss and eager to seek the taste of it..
I glanced thru the net and found out that I might be able to make some in the house...
I finally acted today...I bought some nasi pulut on my way back and soaked. After I woke up at 7 pm in the night, I proceeded with my plan..

the pandan I planted last year had been growing well...key ingredient!

I didn't bother about the appearance and I use the rice cooker to steam it...

this is the final verdict... not the best I have ever tasted but it should be the only one I could get at that moment in this foreign land...yummy but I dare not wallop the whole bowl, those santan in it would cost me a heart attack tonight....

I shared some with my neighbors and this is the left over...

The hike

I woke up at 4:00am, do my routine and woke up the kiddo. We were at the lobby by 5:20am and the driver came on time.

Horton’s plain was 33 km away from Nuwaraeliya and it would be a 1 hrs drive. There was only a handful of information over the net regarding the pricing of hiring a vehicle to the plain. Most of the price quoted over the net was around LKR 8000 for 4 persons. However during the search I had come across an ad over FB with contact no and email. I contacted the person and he had quoted me the price of LKR 4000 for the chartered. Frankly I was a little bit worried about the quotation but yet he was the only one that I could contact.

The driver DK was a nice young chap and the vehicle (Nissan Homy) was well maintained with good pickup. We managed to get to the entrance at 0645H. It was 13C and freezing cold when we started the hike.

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I had decided to take the left route which leading to the world’s end instead of the right route which leads to Baker’s fall first.

The pros -> we would enjoy a good view at world’s end (mist would be up after 10)

The cons -> should be very hot on the return path.

I reached the world’s end before 9pm and enjoyed our breakfast along with the great scenery.

The returned path was quite stressful as the trail covered various kind of terrain, from plain to muddy mountain route.

While walking along the stream with my family, I could feel the loneliness; leading my family walking the path of salvation.

We had made it to the entrance at 11am and back to Nuwaraeliya at 12+noon. We had our lunch at the famous De Silva Food centre. The kids had burger(too much spicy food and they had tend to loss appetite) and I ordered a plate of fried rice.

As noted by Tripadviser:

1. The service is darn slow ->waiting time >45min

2. The burger is nice and up to standard

3. The milk shake taste superb

My personal experience:

1. The fried rice is darn big-> enough for 3 person

2. pre-cooked meal is fast

Well, I joined the group later in the afternoon and the day was uneventful, however I had slept through the meeting as the 9km hiking above 2000m was a stressful one for me.

Pre-trekking day....

We had arrived in Nuwaraeliya late in the evening as one of the members had suffered from severe nausea and vomiting during the trip. We were brought to a local food store and had our dinner upon our arrival.

I have contacted our driver during the dinner and reconfirmed about the pickup time…

I was worried about the trip tomorrow as the price was too cheap compare to what I had known from the net…

The hotel looked nice but the yet the bathroom was quite out of shape. The hot water supply was in-consistence; it was either too hot or too cold…

I had arranged the hotel to provide us with the breakfast box early in the morning before we go to sleep as suggested by other traveler to the Horton’s plain. We had to leave the hotel at 5:30am to get a good view at the world’s end.

It was a tiring day as we had been travelling most of the time for the past 2 days, I begun to question my decision for the trip but yet it was the only time that we could plan for private trip.

sluggish winding trip...

We pushed off at about eleven, at 4 pm, we could manage to cover 110km...the ascending route was filled with vehicle, tuk tuk and truck snaking around...well, 68km till our destination, reminding me about the our honeymoon trip to Cameron Highlands, it took me 3 hours to drove to Equitorial hotel from tapah...I was new to driving then, with the good old kembara I dare not negotiate the curve like I do now...