Wednesday, July 29, 2009

This time... I really felt death is upon me.

I dunno how to describe this feeling ... that you feel that you are so close to death .

I've experienced yet another scary experience in new zealand... less than 2 months since last accident.

I was in Queenstown for ski. ( tho I'm not going to elaborate more of the ski-ing experience, but I gotta tell you ski is hell lots of fun ! I took 2 beginner's lessons and i daresay I can ski quite abit already ! haha ) . Whatever , I took a coach bus that's suppose to deliver us to the ski field from the town and fetch us back at the end of the day. The accident happened on the way back from the ski field.

It was about 4.30pm . Temperature about freezing or below freezing point. Our coach was leaving the mountain and we are actually going downhill . It would normally take 40 minutes to descend from the top of the mountain where the ski field is, to the bottom of the mountain thru quite a steep road , with lots of sharp turnings. ( actually the speed limit for the corners are all about 25 to 35 km/h , imagine how sharp the turning is ) .

Since the way down is only one-lane with no passing, vehicles practically have to queue and follow the front car slowly. What happenned was , the car infront of us was braking continously for no reason. Our driver has been trying to slow down the bus by slowly braking. However, there's one instance where the car infront of us slowed down too much, our bus nearly hit it. In an effort to try to avoid crashing to the front car, our driver stepped on the brake as much as he could. As the road is frozen with ice ( i guess it's called black ice ) , our bus's rear wheels lost control and started to slide on the road's icy surface. Our driver counter-steered the bus and it slid to the right side of the road , towards the mountain ...

Right before that moment , I was actually dozing off on the bus. I was a bit tired after the whole day's fun at the ski field. I heard screamings from the other passengers on the bus. The next thing I know, I raised my head, I saw our bus missed the front car by inch, then our bus started sliding sideways ( not the fast sort, it happenned slowly ) . More screamings , and to our horror, , we actually realised that we are going to fall down the mountain. The bus sort of stopped and halted by the steel wires fence at the side , with the front tyre almost out of the road.

The front passenger stood up, shouted to the back of the bus so that everyone dont panic and stay still. At the moment, we dont know how long of the bus is actually hanging on the mountain. So all our concern was if the passengers at the back of the bus all rush to the front exit , the bus might fall . ( I was right at the middle of the bus ) . After a few seconds where the bus seems to have no more movement, the driver told us it is save to get down the bus.

The fence of steel wire has saved us all. We went down the bus, and the driver explained to us what had happened. Our bus blocked the whole road and whole mountain's ski-ers have to wait behind our bus. The driver called the ski-field and they came to tow the bus. We waited at the roadside for about one hour before the tow-er came. They accessed the damage of the bus and they confirmed that it is safe for us to board the bus again. ( well, frankly, I'm not very convinced at that time ). The driver reassured us and he drove extremely slow and got us down the mountain.

The moment when the bus is slidding towards the mountain, all I thought was how can I survive . I was thinking of holding onto something so that when the bus is turning, I wont be falling here and there. In addition, I was thinking of covering my head with my jacket so that I wont get hit by sharp things. Survivor instinct ! And , the thought of .. " Is this the end of my life " really occured to me.

Well, I hope the saying " da nan bu si, bi you hou fu" is true. Then I'll have 2 times of hou fu !

Let's see the photos that I took while waiting for the tow truck


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Saved by the fence. NOT all of the parts of the road has fence ... luckily there are fences at the place the accident took place.

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Blocking the whole road


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View from further away

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I'll never forget how these have save my life.

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very very strong steel... it stopped the whole bus from sliding further

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just how steep it is ... and it is a very very long way down ...

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all of the passengers

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the truck ... fitted with ice-chain ( to gain more grip on the icy road surface , fancy our bus didnt have that one !! )

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well , since I'm not dead.. I should be feeling happy and take a photo down , right ? LOL



that's about all . the next day we actually drove to milford sound ... risking avalanche and driving on the icy roads with our own car. Thanks see hon for driving carefully ( it is very very very tiring to concentrate so much on driving on that road conditions )and got us in and out of the place safely !

sign off ,

Xu Shen , 0
Atlantiz.

P/S : Going back soon !!

Friday, July 24, 2009

BaNanA OnG reaCh sOme PlaCe naME kuRsK

Hello atlantiz and all... i just back from my trip to Russia and Finland...hm... I am lucky to have such nice chance to be there... Ivan said i snatch my parents' chance to go there *&^%$#@! grrhhhhh... But i really thanks them for the chance... i love u pa ma... cos u all give me wat i love~~~TrAvEL...

Haha... got a sudden thought that ur blogsite is like kind of travel blog site... hmhm... why not why not...

Ok... basically my travel plan is something like this : Kursk-->Moscow-->St.peterburg-->Finland-->then St.peterburg again-->home sweet home(not really)...

ok... i will start my blog from where i start...my room!!!... lol...
as my mum call me boylele from childhood... i am also blur blur till now...hm... repeated count all the things in my MUST list for 3 times before pack...lolx... 2 am in the morning...

KLIA express... the ticket seller tell me the train will reach KLIA from KL Sentral in DUA Puluh LAPAN minit!!! hmhm... not a bad one... this is 5 am in the morning...

Mask on my handsome face...keep H1N1 away~~ lol... but i dun find anyone wear it accept me!!! KLIA airport custom.

Thai airway dish rocks!!! but i dint shoot it nicely la... lol... the sausage is so juicy!!! wiuuuuuuuwit...

lalala... my screen~~ i watch 17 again and cinderella man in the 9 hours flight from bangkok to moscow... cinderella man is so touching.... woohohohooo~~~


from moscow 8 hour train to Kursk... Kypck... lol... sis told me that p pronouce as r... r as n... c as s... N inverse as I...b as v, quite interesting...Kursk is where my sis and 18 study...quite a peaceful village...
Every way sell cheese... it is so cheap compare to malaysia... this is my first time see this kind of gaint cheese... mouse here must be damn fat...
after gaint cheese... i saw gaint sausage pulak... the sausage is something size like my leg...
snickers Ice crEam~~~ my sis favourite... hmhm.. something cant found in malaysia... it is nice... but expensive....
this is how they sell cheese... look like taufu... those which not fans of cheese will vomit cos of the smell there i bet....

market in kursk... unfortunately i dun know russian... so i cant buy anything by myself...
1=adin.2=duva=3=trii.4=chit tey ray.5=pieat.6=shes... ...
hmhm... my sis campus cafeteria... is very cheap... very high carbo lunch huh... all potato nia~~~
wow.... hsiauma... or trauma... forgot its name de... is pork!!! hmhm... this is quite nice... taste like shao rou plus their BBQ sause...
me like kampung gia... it took me some time to look at how the bus link with the cable... like bom bom car...lolx
my sis bought me some Russian traditional food... this is Pelmini... is actually a meat ball dumbling...hmhm... it taste okok...


tiring afternoon... sis and i decided cook Big Bon~ kind of instant noodles(but it is big!) + some cheery + apricot + and peach~~~ steal bite 2 mouth of the nugget before photo... to0o0o0o hungry...
this is also some of russian traditional food... the dark bread taste bit sour sour... the soup name saauliangkka(mixture of pig organ)... it taste good out of my expectation... lol... the other two i forgot their name de la....
yayaya... this is the soup i mean nice taste one... hmhm... the white thingy just mayonise...
ooohooo... this is something much more expensive and taste really good... squid ink pasta... the combination of cheese and lemon...kupang and squid... shhshshrrururpppp...
this is another cheezy chickenchop rice... it taste really nice at the first mouth... but for me who dun like cheese tat much...more than half plate i will feel bit geli geli~~

hmhm... sis + sis friend and i walk about a 1km disance to reach a very peaceful lake... this flower attract me much~~~ look like bird nest~~ haha..
this flowers back ground got bit fake... lol... hmhm... look at the 10.00pm skyline.... i love that place more whenever i breath...is cold...relax...peaceful...
lady bird... In Russia, a ladybird is called Божья-Коровка (God's cow)...
this is the peaceful lake i mean... hmhm...
10.30pm skyline with Triumph arch (built, in honor of Russian victory in Kursk battle in 1943, in 1999)

ps: more to go... stay tune...next blog of banana Ong... moscow trip... then st.petersburg... lastly Finland~~

From atlantiz for atlantiz... ... ...

Banana Ong aka AtlantiZ

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

29 Climbed Mt Kinabalu

Since like Form 3, after we climbed Gunung Ledang, and after a speech by our dear Mr. Paul Juby, in the kindergarten at Holy Light Church, we've set our target to conquer:

Mount Kinabalu, Sabah

Man, I waited quite long...

4095 meters from sea level

Some friends from USM in my group (They have good stamina too)

Managed to catch sunrise at the peak - Amazing view

With Yi Chun and Li Chiat

It's hot up the peak!

At mid-point - Laban Rata

I was in Sabah for around 6 days. Went to a few islands for snorkeling - Pulau Manukan (bigger and more tourist), Pulau Sapi (my favourite one, as it's smaller, but very beautiful), and Pulau Mamutik.

Jetty

Warning (DON'T STAND ON THE CORALS, which I actually did... Sorry)

You don't find much clear deep blue sea water like that in Peninsular Malaysia

We went to a place called Poring, where they had this hot spring

And had white water rafting (beginer level though... Next time I'll go for the challenging one)

Overall, Sabah is a really good place to tour. It's nature so well preserved, never again in Malaysia. Check it out guys!

And take care.

Signing off
Crusader @ 29