TRAVEL DIARY : BROGA HILL ✈

♥

Hey Zengarmy,

PS : That's not me in the picture btw, just some random hiker lol.
Believe it or not, I was too stressful to even manage a selfie.

▲ CLICK THE PICTURE FOR GOOGLE MAP DIRECTORY ▲

Okay first of all let me just start off with a little confession :
I hated sports and I'll always hate sports in any kind of forms.
If you're one of my very close friends or family members reading this,
I assume you'll be very surprised to know that I've hiked a hill last Sunday.
What? Zeng Teck?? Morning hiking??? Is he dead yet when is the funeral????
Yes I'm alive. I'm surprised I didn't die.
When my friends asked me if I would like to join them for a morning hiking,
I thought it was finally the time to test if I would survive a zombie apocalypse.
(Every types of intense sports are similar to zombie apocalypse in my opinion)

To be honest, it was an overwhelming first experience for me.
Hiking a hill wasn't as easy as I thought. (I'm being polite here,
I should've said that 90% of the time I thought I was going to die)
If you were to ask me five years ago whether I would envision myself
going for a morning hiking, my answer would be: "HELL NO. FUCK OFF."
My ideal kind of sports is watching Netflix with a mouthful of pizzas,
but I guess there's a first time for everything, including hiking a hill.

Nevertheless, in today's blog post I'm going to share with you
some hiking tips for beginners (can you believe I'm giving tips?)
as well as some beautiful pictures that my friend & I have taken!

1. Check weather forecast beforehand

Unlucky for me, it was a drizzling cold morning when I went for the hiking.
The ground was slippery and muddy AF, making it super difficult for me to
not think of falling off the hill the entire time while I was hiking the hill.
I was so tense and stressful for the entire journey as if I'm in a war zone!
Apparently my idea of hiking a hill is JUST PLAIN WALKING, but the reality
turns out to be the complete opposite to my pretty figment of imagination:

Would you look at HOW SLANTED
the hills are?? Please tell me you are
NOT shaking at the sight of this picture!
I literally have to climb up the hill like a
dog because I was too scared I'm going to
fall off the hill & bid goodbye to the world.

And if you think there are ropes EVERYWHERE, you're wrong my friend.
At certain parts of the hill you have to just proceed without any ropes,
& all you can hold your dear life onto are the lalang-lalang (weed) around
you. Not going to lie, at some point of the hiking I legit thought I was going
to DIE because one foot slip is enough to make me fall off the hill to death.

2. Please please please wear sport shoes

Okay lah this one is pretty damn self-explanatory.
Sport shoes are invented FOR A REASON. Wear it.
I can't tell you how GLAD I am for wearing sport shoes
instead of a pair of converse like I originally planned to.
If you're very new to hiking (aka me), wearing sport shoes does
provide a little assurance in making you feeling safe & grounded.

PS : Be mentally prepared that your sport shoes are going to be RUINED
by lots of mud sticking to it. I had to throw mine away after the hiking :'(

3. Bring baby wipes / wet wipes
(you'll thank me later!)

What about towels? You might ask.

To be honest, I forgot to bring my towels & I wasn't even bothered by it.
Hiking with a bajillion of things in your bag is the LAST thing you want.
Wet wipes are pretty useful in the sense that they can either clean the
mud off your hands or clean your wounds when you got scratched by the
rocks & branches along the way. Wet wipes are essentially your saviour!
The only and ONLY 5 things you'll probably need to bring along with you
are water, extra clean clothes, wet wipes, plasters & camera/phone.

Other items are probably just extra.

Can we all just take a silent moment to look at how ROUGH I was??
(I'm the one in the white hoodie, if you're unsure about who I am)
I literally gave zero fucks and no shits about how I looked because
I was constantly worrying that I was going to fall off the hill, hahah.

Look at HOW AWKWARD I smiled. Look at it. Take it all in.

4. Make sure you're hydrated & energized

Please do not skip breakfast before you go for a hiking, thinking that it's fine.
If only I could tell you how DANGEROUS it is to go hiking with an empty belly!
Hiking involves quite a lot of grabbing (ropes, weeds, branches etc) & climbing,
which requires you to be agile and able to carry out physical movements swiftly.
Having said that, eating too full before hiking is not a good idea either.
It might make you drowsy, less agile, and possibly feeling nauseous.

5. Do not wear anything white & expensive

Things are going to get VERY muddy and messy during the hiking.
If you decided to wear your white hoodie (aka me), make sure that
you wouldn't cry when they turn from white to brown after the hiking.
( Note : don't worry, I cleaned my hoodie pretty good with toothpaste )
Yes. Some toothpaste with an unwanted toothbrush has proved to be quite
useful in cleaning white garments along with the help of washing powder!

When you couldn't care less about what your fringe looked like in the wind.

#FringeGoals #HairstyleGoals #IDGAF

▲ Doesn't this just straight up look

like a scene from Game of Thrones?

Even though it was not a pleasant first experience for me,
I would still take this as an unforgettable memory for me.
Will there be a second time for me? NO. Probably never.
However, it's good to know that I CAN ACTUALLY hike a hill
hahahahah even though I'm a coward who's afraid of height!
Outdoor activities are probably incompatible with me ;)