14th march, 9.30pm
I reached New Park Hotel and took my attendance and filled in the white malaysia card and got back my passport and then hopped on to the bus after putting my bags in a compartment in the bus. Yup, this is going to be an overnight travelling and I am going to sit on the bus the whole night. The bus set off and soon we found ourselves in the immigration area and then in malaysia. I could not sleep the whole night, but I did saw some amazing things. First of all the bus was travelling along a dark road so when i looked out of the window, something made me gasp in awe. It was the number of stars in the sky. There were lots of them. It was a beautiful sight. Imagine a darkened cinema with only small little lights at the ceiling. Yup, thats how it was like. The next big thing was a rocky area the bus drove past. There were lights shining on the rocks which made it so attractive and beautiful.
15th march
A little after 12am the bus stopped at a shopping center and we went in to have a break. I bought a plate of nasi ayam which cost me 5 Ringgit (T_T). Then we set off with a few toilet breaks along the way. S
oon, before seven o'clock, we reached GOPENG to have breakfast. And then I think we stood on the back of a truck to head towards GOPENG NATURE RESORT where our base camp is. After we had settled in, an instructor called us and briefed us on the rules and safety and bla during white water rafting. Then we climbed onto the back of the truck to the place where we do the rafting.
oon, before seven o'clock, we reached GOPENG to have breakfast. And then I think we stood on the back of a truck to head towards GOPENG NATURE RESORT where our base camp is. After we had settled in, an instructor called us and briefed us on the rules and safety and bla during white water rafting. Then we climbed onto the back of the truck to the place where we do the rafting.To start the white water rafting we devided into groups of five. I am grouped with three malay girls Siti, Dapreet and Fitri. Then Kiat Hong the sir joined us to make up five people in the group. Everyone puts on sunblock except for me. The reason? I hate sunblocks. They stink and they don't work. (The fact that I did not put on my sunblock lotion resulted in the sunburn which you read about earlier). First we did body rafting in which you lie down on the water and the current carry you to the place where our rafts are kept. Then we got onto the rafts and off we go!!! Our instructor is called Mickey. Not mickey mouse. Just mickey i guess. He looked to be about twenty over years old but he told us he was nineteen years old. That shocked us. Whenever we passed the rapids we "high-fived" which means putting our paddles together in the sky. On the way Siti fell down many times and sir had to pull her up. Then we made and agreement to capsize and so Mickey told us to find a place deep enough to capsize. We did. Then we capsized. WOAH!! I swallowed a lot of water!!! It was soo fun! I enjoyed it and climbed up the raft to prepare to capsize again. We capsized many times till we got bored of it. Then we took a break. Meanwhile we took a lot of photos. And then we climbed back to the raft and continued our way to the finishing point of the rafting.
After that we headed to GOPENG NATURE RESORT by the truck and halfway through the trip two NCOs got bitten by leeches. NCOs Joshua and Lina. I did not see the leeches but i only saw a pool of blood. I do not know who squashed the leeches but somehow i felt that they are sort of pitiful. Imagine getting a death sentence after drinking water from a spring. Haha. i know it was lame but i cant help thinking about that.
When we reached that resort we headed to the canteen area and had lunch. Okay, I admit that the food was very unappetising and that NCOs gave us too much veggies but I gobbled them down anyway. I still needed the energy to do the next activity- waterfall abseiling. Then we pitched up our tents and took our stuff (actually there was not much stuff to take)and trekked to ULU GERUNTUN WATERFALLS. We reached the foot of the waterfall and had our briefing. Then the instructor called 12 people out to test out the waterfall abseiling first (actually they volunteered). I did not want to do it first so those who weren't abseiling first climbed halfway up the waterfall to take a look at how those "volunteers" do the abseiling. As I watched the first two people abseiling down the waterfall i felt a rush of andrenaline and suddenly very badly wanted to do the waterfall abseiling. So when some people came back to where we were after abseiling i grabbed the helmet and harness and made a dash for it. The top of the waterfall, to be exact. The hard part was climbing up the slope on the side of the waterfall to (duh) the waterfall. It was so steep and when I grabbed an old rotten tree branch it just crumbled under my hands. Serious. It is not that i am strong like superman or what. Its just that the tree branch is OLD. BLACK. ROTTEN. YUCK. Thanks tree branch, of all the rotten luck I had to grab a rotten tree branch. Anyway, the good news was that the tree branch did not affect my ascend towards the waterfall. The bad news is, what was left on my palm were big pieces of black colour wood and a bit of black goo. urgh. When I reached the top *relieved sigh* the instructor hooked a carabinna onto my harness and told me how to do the abseiling. I was scared and went down super sssslllloooowwwwllllyyyy........ so slowly that i guess by the time i was halfway down the person who started later than me have already reached the bottom...reminds me of a snail.
After that we sat back onto the back of the truck I have grown to love and headed back to GOPENG RESORT where we had our bathtime of more than an hour and dinner and campfire after that. Fortunately for me (but not for others) it started to rain and the campfire was called off. Everyone was tired out and we went back to our tents.Then since our tents are wet we then went to the hut to sleep. It was just then when Lina called us out and we had our games that build up our teamwork and share lame jokes and stuff. Then since we were too tired we retired back to our hut and fell asleep immediately.
-_- z z z . . . .
16th March
Rise and Shine!!! I woke up at about 6 and changed from the camp clothes that i was given to my Sec 1B class tee. Then i slept some more till before 7 then i woke up and packed my bags. I was sitting next to Hui Shan packing my bags when there was an itchy sensation on my hand. I pulled back my jacket sleeve and saw a big ant. I quickly brushed it off and it disappeared. Then I was about to move towards Hui Shan when I felt a stinging pain on my leg. I quicky pulled up my track pants and saw the big ant! I quickly brushed it and made sure it was on the floor before stamping it WITH MY BARE FEET. heck, what was i thinking??? Goo all over my leg.YUCK. Then I went out from my hut and took some last minute p
hotos.Yeah, this was the hut we slept in. The outer part and the inner part.
hotos.Yeah, this was the hut we slept in. The outer part and the inner part.
The inside of the hut...and the outside.
Then I went out and took some pictures of the mountains. Since it was morning the clouds are very noticable.
Three views taken from different angles...but if you were there you could really see how beautiful it is.
Then other photos taken from around the campsite......
errr...the toilet is on the left and on the right are well...i dont really know.
Then we boarded the bus. Snapshots...
these are taken from my seat :)
these are taken from my seat :)
remember that rocky thingy i mentioned in paragraph2? There it is(day view). When we were at the customs i put chewing gum in my pocket and the sensor beeped but when the officer checked me i took out my wallet and told her that this may be the cause of the beeping. She believed me and let me go.whew. Then we reached School and Mr Santokh gave us a debriefing and we went home. This was so fun!! Even as I am writing this blog I already miss Perak. I am definitely going again next year.
With a sunblock.
(PS.sorry i did not put in any photos during the rafting and waterfall activities because i did not bring my handphone to take photos during that time. :(... )
