Climbing in Putrajaya

Definitely the gesture of the trip: Oh yeah!! [As seen here in Vector's performance in Despicable Me - haven't seen despicable me? it's cute and funny, go see it if you need something like this in your life]


We rented a car from JB. The car was ok, i.e. it didn't fail or go awry on us. But other than that, i would have traded it instantly for anything not malaysian made. We almost lost plastic parts of it at least twice. Sandra opened the door and the plastic cover for the door just fell out. I dislodged some plastic cube which was covering something or other right next to my brake. I know for sure that some button to the right of the steering wheel was there when we started but was missing by the end of the trip (could see the wires). Moreover, if I stood straight while driving I could not see half of my board due to the non-ergonomical position of the steering wheel. Speaking of ergonomics, the car was a BOAT. It was big like a boat, slow like a boat, it had poor sealing all around (like a boat). There. I've said it. And the color! URGH! (I am finally happy that I can speak nasty about it because before I was afraid I would jinx it).

The drive to KL and back was uneventful. BUT KL!!~!!@#!!@! ZOMG! The street signs were too low. The signs were all in malay (you would think that considering the gigantic amount of tourist the populated streets get, they would at least put the signs in english, or using internationally-known signs). Like the sign for the one-way streets. It SAYS Jalan Selantaran (or similar). WTF>?!@ The streets were crowded but I didn't care much about it - with an automatic car there really isn't any effort in driving. But for directions?! And the poor person giving them!?... Marian and I ended up almost having a row in the first day out in KL; his GPS (ahem iPhone) was not working well and we were like the circling the same block for like the zillionth time and then I was like "Your gps sucks" and he was "NO, you can't give directions!!" So yeah! We switched and I moved to the driver's seat. And then afterwards I was emigrated to the back while sandra gave Marian directions. Growl!

Climbing in Putra was fantastic. Well, at least compared to whatever it is that we have here in singapore. The tiles felt much better than those at yishun, and the routes were much much longer. Sandra was my personal slave-driver during this trip. She would not allow me to rest and chicken out until I had at least tried SOMETHING. My usual approach as we all now is to rest on the rope, bestill my beating heart, work out a possible sequence, and then go again. Stop and repeat. Kinda lame, but this once I could not do it in full cause Sandra was watching yay! THANKS! I climbed a very inclined overhang!! Rested at EVERY quickdraw but at least i did not come down (yes this paragraph is a loser's lament so if you skipped it, good for you!)

Marian almost finished a 6c! The dodo bird as usual climbed harder routes but not by much harder cause she had to stay with us, at the intermediate lead wall, ahem. Better luck next time ...

We tested our span! I win, but not by much. Sandra is very close to me although she is at least half a meter (hahahhahaa 13 cm) shorter than me (Sandra is one cm taller than the bird, by the way)


The trip was all about funny faces:



And durians and food (when i got back i could not see my abs! - they are back now, but more about this in another post)


And visiting; we visited the Petronas Towers - Can you believe it that Doris had never been!@?; and Melaka






And relaxing [Sandra is afraid of these!]


And goofing off




And queueing (for the petronas towers, to get back in singapore - more about that later)
Than it was about climbing.