Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Mount Ophir

Las Montanas' mention of Mount Ophir in his comment in the previous article reminds me of my own excursion there in April 1980. At that time, I was working as an industrial engineer at Philips Singapore. The trip was organised by our recreation club and we had a great time climbing up by the tough route.

It was a tiring climb. At some points, the slope was so steep, we needed to use rope to haul ourselves up. Sigh .... sure miss being young and fit.

We were rewarded for our efforts by the wonderful view from the top. I remember that it was very windy and cold at the peak where we spent the night. I built a basha (simple tent) and shared it with my good friend Roger Lee. He was quite tall and thus his feet stuck out of the basha. I could actually feel him shivering beside me the whole night. Being 'katek' (short) has its advantages too, yeah?

Mt Ophir1 (5 Apr1980)

Mt Ophir2 (5 Apr1980)
The lanky guy in red T-shirt with his hand on my shoulders is my friend Roger Lee.

Mt Ophir3 (5 Apr1980)
Me and Roger and another colleague from Accounts Dept (centre) next to our basha.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wah ! You look like you have more than 6 fellow bloogers stranded with you, leh. :)

Lam Chun See said...

You right Kenny. Those are my fellow 'bloogers'. In April 1980, I believe even Apple II and Tandy Radio Shack not available yet. So cannot do blogging.

Victor said...

I believe that you still can climb Mt Ophir now. Maybe use the easy route, take twice as long and shiver twice as much only what, haha.

I am sure that Chris will agree with your statement that "being tall has its disadvantages" or something to that effect. Hehe.

Anonymous said...

Some old folks said that they regretted not doing things they liked when they were still young. Now that they are old trying to do things they missed before seem to be like uphill tasks. I think Chun See certainly enjoyed his climb and would have said: "Lucky I went for that excursion otherwise I would have missed something".

Anonymous said...

Being 'katek' (short) has its advantages too.

Victor, eat you heart out man.... see who had the last laugh? wahahahah...

Anonymous said...

Zen
Chun See also "banged" his head for having missed a popiah party organised by a famous blogger. Really, time is juz too precious for regrets. Juz like yourself too. We could have met up for lunch once. But you too, chickened out. Sigh.

Victor said...

Pleeeze Chris, can you stop harping on it? Both about your height (or rather, lack of it) and the lunch which Zen missed? Hahaha.

Anonymous said...

Chris: Ah ya, what was lunch to an old man with weak digestive system. Lunch is an everyday thing, but I do agree that its social pulling power is indeed great, why? simply because everybody needs to lunch. Sometime back, when I was an active member of our association, I was trying to call a gathering to discuss some matters, with everybody trying to find an excuse not to attend. I got fed up and thought up a simple idea, suggesting to all of them, old and young, that we were holding a lunch buffet on pro-rata payment basis, on a Saturday afternoon at a certain hotel. Guess what - all turned up except one. Lunch has indeed great magnetic power among Singaporeans who love eating.

Victor said...

So when Zen? Hehe.

Lam Chun See said...

That's why I invited him to join me for the book launch of Wee Kiat's book on 2 Apr.

Anonymous said...

Victor & Chris - Chun See would seek invitation for me. I am not the gate-crashing type, and a very thin-skinned chap. Now I decide to let the cat out of the bag. It was because I was not invited in your so-called first lunch gathering, with Chun See being quite muted about the lunch date, I decided not to intrude. It was a very rude way of meeting people when not invited. So let us meet on 2 Apr 2007 for the book launch in line with proper etiquette.