Temptations & Ambitions

LOST..

Ouch, been quite tired today, although it's Tuesday. Back from Taman Negara on Sunday 2 days ago. Yes, ran out of steam, but that practically was an enjoyable trip, since I'm the one co-organising it. So, let's start with the experience?

5th May

10.00am: I went to fetch Wei Ann and Hun Jiat. When we reached my house, Hun Jiat realised that she left the junk food she wanted to bring outside of her house. She left it there when she wanted to lock the door. Oops, so I guess we gotta leave it there.

10.45am: Then, my parents fetched us to the Pekeliling Bus station. Tiong Leh, Mervyn and Xin Ying were there already. I went to collect the tickets that I booked from Perwira bus station. Hashvina arrived not long after, and as usual, Kok Sin, Pooi Ling and Jia Wan arrived late, around 11.15am, when we were supposed to meet at 11am. reason? Jia Wan was late, so the other two had to wait for her. Haha..Just a typical Jia Wan, I guess. And then, Ronald came 5 minutes later. I can't blame him, cause he's travelling alone, and I'm just glad he arrived. Haha..

11.45am: The Perwira bus which was supposed to be departing at 11.30am had just arrived. It's on time, by Malaysia standard of time, however. So we board the bus, and had our 'joyful' experience on it. We got free sauna in it. It's so hot that most of us were sweating in it.

12.00pm: The bus depart. It's so old that it moved so slow up the slope at Karak Highway, that I can run faster than that. Haha.. And on the journey, Mervyn kept asking, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" He was just so excited bout the trip, and the quote reminded me of the donkey in Shrek 2 on their journey to see Shrek's in-laws. Lolz..

3.30pm: Guess we arrived at Jerantut by now. Just an estimation of time, and not the accurate one. We proceed to Greenleaf Travel Agency and I received the payment from them, and paid the sum to the agency. We went to a nearby Malay restaurant to have some refreshments. Most of us didn't order anything to eat, cause the food doesn't seen appetising. Anyway, Tiong Leh and me ordered Mee Goreng pedas while Xin Ying oredered Mee Goreng tanpa pedas. Man, it makes a lot of difference. The noodles were so hot, not the normal type of hot, it was extreme hot! I don't mind hot stuff, but it just don't have the appetising aroma on it. Tasteless hot is nothing. And the tanpa pedas Mee Goreng wasn't that good too. It's just so sweet. The rest of us were absorbed by the Thomas Cup match aired live on the TV in the restaurant. Lee Chong Wei was losing, it seems. We did not finish watching it, as we continued our journey to Kuala Tahan.

4.10pm: We depart on van. We chatted happily on our way. The van was better than the bus, as the air-cond works! The sight of nature along the way was beautiful, along with the rubber tree and palm tree plantation as well. We saw a lot of cows and goats at the sides of the roads too. The presence of trees had made the surrounding area cooling, so we could breathe some fresh air outside, along with some occasional reminder of 'natural fertiliser'. Haha.. The magnificient view we spotted was a group of cows bathing in mud. their whole body is in the greyish mud, and u can see the heads covered in greyish mud as well.

5.30pm: We reached Kuala Tahan. Kak Noor, our tour guide, brought us to our hostel. I thought it will be a brick house with rooms that has 4 beds in it. And guess what? we got much better than that! It's a rumah attap that looks a bit like 'rumah panjang', with 2 double deckers in it. The surrounding was nature. The bathroom and toilets were separated from the houses, and no hot water. Some of us were not used to it, but for us who had underwent NS, it's just something normal. Mervyn was the most ecstatic about the rooms, with the rumah attap designs, and the riverview just opposite of our rooms. So we unpacked some stuff and got some rest. I took a bath and got all refreshed.


7.30pm: We had our dinner at the one of the floating restaurants, the 'Family Restaurant'. Basically, these restaurants are built floating on the river,(that gives it the name, afterall) and the gentle current of the river could be felt. The food was edible, much better than NS, and we had meat, vegetables, fried eggs, and drinks, while watching the 4th match of Thomas Cup between Malaysia and Denmark. we heard that Lee Chong Wei and Hafiz have lost their matches, while the 1st doubles won their match. There were a group of foreigners from Denmark cheering for their team, and we cheered for ours too. And so it is, we watched till the end, how Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah beat the second doubles pair of Denmark. the score is tied at 2-2. So it all rolls down to the deciding match by Kuan Beng Hong. Deep inside, I knew all is lost. Kuan Beng Hong might have the potential, but he is still young and raw, and would not be able to stand the immense pressure too.

8.30pm: We travel to the opposite side of river into Taman Negara to watch the Intepretive Video Show. So, We missed the Thomas Cup final match of Malaysia-Denmark. Before-hand, Wei Ann had his camera licensed by paying RM5 to the registartion counter. Then, we went to have a look at thye miniature museum in Taman Negara, describing the history and facts of Taman Negara itself. The show was projected in a room using a projector like those in TARC, but of course, with better visual graphic and audio. It is really amazing looking at those animals and plants that we might not be able to see in the forest ourselves. The cameraman was truly amazing at shooting the video. It's so heartwarmng looking at some of the cuddly looking animals, like the monkey-like creature with a koala face, and lazing on the tree branch just like an ordinary 5-year old kid.

9.30pm:We were walking out of the video room when Jia Wan recognised Ming Yan's friend. Yes, I heard of them coming on the same day, but I don't know who they are, anyway. Haha..So we had a night walk along Bukit Teresek path for a short stretch. It was drizzling, so we turn back, and head for the Kuala Tahan Hide. There was a salt lake nearby, Kak Noor explained, so some animals would come to had their salt lick. It was night time, and we had to torch around the bushes from the observatory tower. And my, were indeed lucky. We saw two deers there, an adult and a baby. How cute.. The deers acted as if nothing happened, and we look at them with amazement in the nature, where they belong. On our way back, we saw a wild boar (rather tame, actually) roaming around Mutiara Resort. Slurp!! Curry!! Haha..

11pm: Got back to our rumah attap. Some took their bath, and we played cards till late at night. While a number of us had slept around 1am, Tiong Leh, me, Kok Sin, Jia Wan and Hun Jiat stayed up to play cards. We were asked not to make too much noise by the foreigner who stayed next room. Guess we were too noisy..So, we slept around 2am, that I could say.

6th May
6.30am: Woke up to prepare ourselves for the next activity. And the worst thing? My room had no blankets, and 3 of us, Tiong Leh, Kok Sin and me was kept IN the cold. The girls' room? Jia Wan who slept on the mattress on the floor was an attraction spot for mosquitoes. And so does Pooi Ling, whose mosquito net which were provided in the room, had a hole in it. Guess they couldn't have much sleep, though.

8am: After breakfast, we went jungle trekking the Bukit Teresek path the full stretch. Along the way, we saw a gigantic tree, dead but the structure remains were there. Since it is a 'bukit', it is mosty uphill. Most of us sweat and wet out clothes on the way to the top, at aorund 340meters high. It seems as we were bathing. So we took a view of Gunung Tahan from there, and sat at the pondok there while the breeze cool our body and dried up the sweat on our bodies. Whew, it's really tiring, but was worth the fun.

11am: Heading towards one of the longest canopy walkway in the world, which is in Taman Negara. We had to stay 5 metres apart on the walkway, just as a precaution to avoid the bridge collapsing due to enormous strain. I pull out courage to walk it, 40 metres above the ground, looking at tress, trees and trees. When I looked down, my legs were shaking a bit. haha..But overall, I survived the scare, and I finished the walk of faith.



1.30pm: Had our lunch after a tiring trekking. The food seem delicious as I gobbled them down. Guess I'm kind of hungry. Had a rest, before we had rapid shooting around 3pm. The girls took a nap, while the guys sat outside the rumah attap and chatted, except for Ronald and Mervyn, who took a nap too.

3.00pm: So here we come. Rapid shooting is basically a boat ride, but the boat has an elongated shape, reminding me of a type of cells, which we studied in Biology. I'd forgotten though. So we ride it through the rapids upstream. It's a bit hard to get very wet, but with Tiong Leh heading the fun of playing with water, all of us got wet inside out, except him. The boat ride is kind of relaxing, enjoying nature and the cool wind blowing on my face makes me relaxed. Then, we had fun playing water around one of the spot, where th

e water stream met the river. It's quite clean, comparatively to the river water. And I help to cut the watermelon and serve my freinds, when I really seldom do such task, especially with such a small fruit knife. Some of the classmates had their faces painted with the rocks color, and they certainly have fun with the natural 'makeup'.

6.30pm: The boatman forgot us. he was supposed to be fetching us around 5pm, and here he is, more than an hour late. We're all soaked wet. Ugh..It's kind of easy to catch a cold like that.
When we got back, there was no water to bathe!! The whole Taman Negara at this side is being deprived of water supply. The water only start running around 9pm, after our dinner. And therest, most of us slept early because we had been too tired for the day.

7th May

6.30am: Woke up and got ready for breakfast at 7.15am. I didn't get enugh sleep, so it's kind of drowsy. Anyway, it doesn't matter since it's the last day.

9am: Mr Ngan, the other tour guide were late from jerantut. he brought us by boat to the Gua Telinga exploration. It took an hour to reach Gua Telinga after walking for about 2km. Man, there were many leeches, since it was raining on the first day we came here, the soil got all wet. So here goes the blood donation campaign before we reached Gua Telinga. The path was quite hard, crossing streams and climbing up and down. It just brings back fond memories of NS.

10.30am: In front of the entrance of Gua Telinga, preparing to enter it. Befroe taht, we took a picture of us BEFORE entering the cave.


10.45am: We entered the cave. OPEN SESAME! Haha.. It seems it's a cave with many rocks, cos we need to climb up and down the rocks, even to the extent of squeezing between the rocks thru the hole over the other side. what a surprise that Mervyn could squeeze thru, cos we thought we had to push him thru! And he was happy that he manage to get thru all by himself too! Haha.. Anyway, the cave ceiling was quite low, so we could see the bats hanging quite low.
As I was the last one, some of the bats that we had somehow disturbed, maybe by our movements or slight noise, began flying arounf the cave. I got slapped on the face once, although not hard, but I coud feel the wing of the bat. Then, there was this AIRSTRIKE!! The drippings of the bat fell as they flew, dropping as if there is no tomorrow!! We of course, thought it was drizzling, but as the realisation struck that we are enclosed in the cave, we knew it was what it is. Ewgh.. Luckily those were fruit bats, and those AIRSTRIKES are not that smelly.

11.30am: Got out of the cave. We all agreed that it was an adventurous one, and viw that we should have a cave exploration trip next time, since this was kinda short, about 100 metres, I guess. And we travelled out to our next destination, the Orang Asli settlement. We went to the Batek people settlement, which was nearby the cave, about 200-300 metres walk. There, we were introduced on how to make a blow pipe and the materials used. It was fascinating, as we look, especially at the softwood that was so light, and the sandpaper leaf that feels like the sandpaper we see in hardware shop. They even use sap from a tree(I forgot what tree) to as glue!! Then, another Orang Asli demonstarted how to start a fire. Softwood and dry rattan, to produse hot softwood ash, which were put into a nicely wrapped palm leaves, blowing it to lit. Amazing, isn't it? Nothing beats the experience of looking it with your own eyes. Then, we were given chances to try the blowpipe. Tiong Leh and Mervyn shot on the board with the blowpipe, while the ones blown by Pooi Ling and Jia Wan fell on the floor effortlessly. Haha.. At last, we made our sincere donations to the Orang Asli's Tok Batin. So we took photos with them, a remarkable experience indeed.

1.00pm: We rush back for lunch and packed as quick as possible. We manage to get on time to catch the bus heading home to KL at 2.45pm. Otherwise, we'll be sitting the Perwira bus again at 4pm. Luckily, this time, the bus is SE Express, which is much better and hey, the air-cond works!! Haha.. This bus moves faster than the Perwira, and most of us slept in the bus due to exhaustion.

6.10pm: We reached Pekeliling bus station. from there, we bade farewell to each other, not knowing when will we meet again. Some of them do keep in contact, in French Class, or working in the same school. Fro me, I don' know when I will be able to see any of them. Most of us will be going separate ways in pursuit of our own dreams. But, one thing I can say, the trip is a truly unforgettable experience with you guys. Thank You.