THE YOUNG ONES ALL REVVED UP TO GO

THE YOUNG ONES,

   Come on my friends, we are the young ones

   And young ones, shouldn’t be afraid.

   To live, love and HIKE

   While our stamina is strong

   Cause' we may not be the young ones very long. 

   TOOMOOROWWW,

   Why wait till tomorrow,

   Cause' tomorrow, sometimes may not come

   So EAT, LAUGH and HIKE

   And the best time to do it is

  TOOOO DAAYYY, when we are still YOUNG.

   Adapted from Cliff Richard & The Shadows, The Young Ones, 1961.

   There IS NO STOPPING THESE YOUNG’ UNs! AGE DOES NOT EXIST in their vocabulary. After all, isn't 60s the NEW 30s?

    It appears for these 10 gentlemen and 1 lady, 60s is their new 20s! They drove 228km

 from Kuala Lumpur to Lumut. Hiked a steep ascent  (331 metre, 1,087 ft) and descent

on the Bukit Engku Busu trial, 1hr 20 mins. "Trek Merentas Hutan" translates to the trek that cuts across the forest. The terrain was very steep and rocky. 

Going uphill required hanging on to ropes and being as sure-footed as a deer.

One careless slip and it's a sprained or worse, broken ankle.

Remember folks, with average daily temperatures of 32.2 C (90 F) 

   and humidity close to 100% in September here in Malaysia, it is

 a sizzling and sweaty step every inch of the trek. 

With T-shirts soaking wet and hydrating all the way, this sprightly group scaled to the top 

 for a view of the naval base in Lumut.

As if the first day was not excruciating enough, these young' uns covered another 2 1/2 hour trek up Bukit Pangkor the following day. Although this second arduous trek was more gradual, it was not so well maintained. Surprise, the trek was populated with leeches! 

YIKES, nothing more disgusting than these blood suckers latching on, cause' they look real revolting when they are FAT with your blood. 

On this trek, Ong had 12 leeches clinging onto his hands and legs. The others who did not see any of these blood suckers on their legs got a NICE surprise when they took off their shoes and socks. Oh Lord, forgive them, the leeches I mean. They were only trying to survive. After all, with the pandemic and a dearth of hikers, they must have been starving for at least six months.  

Well, the young' uns were starving too. 

Dinner was ordered and served. Six dishes were not enough as young' uns have healthy appetites. So another omlette and clay pot of pork and salted fish were ordered. They  "dumped" the rice directly into the pot, mixed it all up and shared.

 Typical Chinese "fan tongs," (rice buckets, refer to folks who love rice). 

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING.

 SALUTE!