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I think it is a lil bit late for me to sum up all the major events which had taken place throughout the year 2009 since today is already 6th of January. Well, my final posting at Pediatrics Department is kinda busy tho’.

January:

The year begun when I attended my faculty’s annual dinner (Gosh! I’ve forgotten what’s the name of the club). Good food, nice dresses and entertaining performances. One thing to be proud of was our beloved Dean (of Faculty of Medicine) never fails to attend every dinner organized by my batch.

February:

Post-end of Year 4 exam. Rewarded self with lots of good food. That was the first time I went to Look Out Point at Hulu Langat and Tenji Japanese Buffet at Solaris Mont Kiara. I remembered I made myself the most expensive floats by mixing 3 scoops of Haagen-Dazs ice cream into my coke at Tenji. Hah!

Thereafter, I started my 2-week humanitarian elective posting at Medical Social Work Department. All I need to say is, medical social worker rocks! Their contribution in patient care is significant too.

March:

Holiday! Revisited Cameron Highlands and all thanks to Auntie Bee Hiong for the treat. Besides, both Chuong Hock and I went backpacking for 13 days in Thailand. We started from North Thailand (Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Sai), traveling down to Ayutthaya, Bangkok and Pattaya. Faced some “panicking” moments in Bangkok but Chuong Hock, make it a secret of us two ya?

April:

Started my research work officially. Thankful that I had a team who worked with the same school of thoughts as mine. Things went on smoothly as planned although we faced some challenges in between. Definite appreciation is still dedicated to our beloved supervisor, Associate Professor Dr. Farihah Haji Suhaimi, who had shown us what true spirit of research is!

May:

A busy month. Finalizing the manuscript and our group was chosen to participate in oral presentation during the Scientific Meeting. Even though we did not win the grand prize, we were satisfied as in our supervisors’ eyes, we were already a winner! Thanks to Prof Farihah and Prof Faizah for the post-conference lunch at Grand Seasons Hotel too. To date, my research manuscript has been accepted by the International Medical Journal (IMJ) and it will be published by September this year. Yippie! That will be my first medical article.

Jun:

Started my final year medical student life officially with its first activity i.e. 3rd Personal and Professional Development (PPD) Camp at BTN Kuala Besut, Terengganu. I believe this is the longest bus journey I’d ever taken. Overall, the camp was a fun and informative (minusing the BTN part). At here, we formed our very first “Killer Gang”. Cool!

July:

July was a gathering month. Firstly was our “Killer Gang” grand reunion where it was a food and games night before starting our new posting! While another one was with my best buddies from secondary school. Especially Anwar, I had not met him for almost 3 years till this reunion was held.

August:

While August was an outing month. 2 major outings in a row i.e. to Sungai Gabai Waterfall with fellow CF members and the most heart pumping hiking at Bukit Tabur, Melawati KL. Definitely there will be no more TCA for me until I overcome my acrophobia. Fuh!

September:

The only holiday for final years fell in this month and it was the most anticipated one! I had booked flight tickets to fly me back home very early for this reason. Home sweet home! Upon coming back, I followed my godbrother to Pesta Tanglung UKM at Kajang (The first visit in my entire 5 years of studies in UKM). I got the chance to write a calligraphy painting at one of the exhibition counters. Well, my writing has deteriorate much. Lacking time to practice I believe. Sigh.

October:

The most historical moment in my medical school life! Where I finally owned a complete buddy line members from first year up to final year (me). A book of generations had been passed down and is to be filled by the new members joining into my “family” every academic year.

November:

Busiest month ever. Filled with lots of activities and programs. Posting at Teluk Intan Hospital, went back home impulsively to celebrate Deepavali with Mak Oi, celebrated buddy Jia Hui’s birthday and got to know 2 new friends, Chee Beng and Alex.

December:

Most awaited month every year. Why? It is my birthday on 22nd! This year is rather special since I spent almost the whole month at Teluk Intan for my Surgery posting under 2 great teachers’ supervision i.e. Mr Pani and Mr Rizal. I was touched by my buddies act to celebrate my birthday at Fullhouse. The venue was specially chosen suiting my fondness in white English cottage style of interior designing. Thank you!

This year 2010 is gonna be TOTALLY DIFERRENT! In 10 weeks time, I’ll graduate. I believe I will spread my wings and fly confidently in the sky of medicine. God bless me and everyone!

I should have blogged about this last week while my memory is still fresh. However, due to the busyness of Emergency Medicine posting (lame excuse), it has been postponed till today. Well, tonight I feel a little bit relief since the exam is over for the time being.

In conjunction with the Merdeka day-off last week, Jane planned an activity outdoor inviting all the final year members of A510. It was rather impulsive as I just got to know a night before. I have heard about Bukit Tabur in Melawati during my freshman year and again from Uncle Cheong, a friend of Auntie Bee Hiong, early this year describing how beautiful and challenging it is.

Without any exact idea where Bukit Tabur is, all of us left UKMMC as early as 4.30am the next day.  The adventure started when we lost our way while finding for the entrance to hiking. We were indeed very lucky to meet a helpful resident at that time (5.15am if I’m not mistaken) who were more than willing to show us the way up. Sorry if we did interrupt your ’sahur’ time.

Provided with a few pen-torches, we started off. Frankly saying, it is quite scary to walk up the steep hill without being able to see anything beyond 1 meters ahead. The sense of insecurity tempted me to give up a few times but with the spirit of perseverance from other team members, I continue on. Partly it is because I had no other choices too. Haha~

The sun rays of the dawn had motivated us to walk faster as we wouldn’t like to miss the scenic sunrise on the hill top. As expected, the cool breeze and the eye soothing scenery on the peak were very rewarding. Time was just 7am.

I was so naive to think that we had already reached the top of Bukit Tabur. But Julian questioned how can we miss the “legendary” cliff, where many careless hikers fall and some died of multiple injuries. I was wondering on the same thing as well but more on how to avoid it in spite of facing it. I think all acrophobic will try to avoid too.

Julian was later proven right. The cliff is just some way ahead. The local hikers (mainly uncles and aunties. Gosh!) reminded the first timers like us to be extra careful when going down the cliff which is estimated to be 100 meters high. Acrophobia in me started to persuade them stopping but somehow, it loses. I need to resume walking.

After this landmark, the “legendary” cliff is just not far away.

Finally reaching the dreadful cliff and as you can see from the photo, I couldn’t even smile naturally now. I would just want to go through it fast and this was the only thing lingering in my mind that moment.

After being prepared mentally (if it wasn’t the long queue, I think I would take much longer time. Fuh!), and with Jane’s encouragement as well as Bernard’s and Julian’s two-handed seat carry, I made it through! Minus the panic attack, dyspnea, palpitation and major assistance, I think I did quite okay. Haha~

However, I never knew that there is a second cliff following that. Panic attack attacked once more but it was comparatively better after the “flooding behavioral psychotherapy” just now. Again, I am unable to make it alone. All thanks to Bernard, the psychiatrist wanna be, for his F.O.C “psychotherapy”. But I would prefer you to prescribe me a benzodiazepines before hand next time. Haha~

No more cliffs in Bukit Tabur. What we ought to do thereafter basically was more like rock climbing. It was quite good initially but I ran into exhaustion at the fourth or fifth top (I could only barely remember). Make sure you bring adequate drinking water to replenish as you wouldn’t want to lose too much water through sweating and leading to electrolytes loss and muscles fatigue like I did, right?

I was very joyful after going across the fifth top. As it is the last one before seeing the path which will be leading us back to the car park. It took us almost 90 minutes to go downhill and this has shown how tall Bukit Tabur actually is.

We took only one group photo and it is a privilege to have Miss Anna Rina helping us for this matter. We were just so coincident to get to know her. Thank you!

We spent almost 5 hours up there. Definitely it includes time we spent to rest and photo taking. After all, Bukit Tabur gives me a great sense of achievement since I have partially conquered the phobia in me. Or else, I wouldn’t complete the whole journey.

Thanks to Jane, Julian and Bernard again! It’s great to make it through with you guys.

P.S. After looking at Miss Anna’s work, she is now one of the photographers who ranked the highest in my list to consider in helping me shooting on my convocation August next year.