12 November 2006
Chronicles of the Sabah Trip - Day 1
 

Hi guys! I'm finally back in Brunei after 4 long endearing but very enjoyable days in Sabah. The trip was pretty exhilarating and fun! So without further ado, let me begin with Day 1.

It all started with a telephone ring. Cikgu Amelly called me to say that we are only to be at the ferry terminal at about 7.40 am, not 7 am. I was kind of annoyed since she told me and the others only last minute and I could have woke up later. But at least she called before I left the house. So I spent the time using my PC and going online for a while.

I met up with the rest of the people in the ferry terminal at about 7.45 am and we waited for Cikgu Amelly and Cikgu Bronie to come before departing Brunei. 13 students joined the excursion and they are: me, Alex, Tze Yan (sp?), Daniel, Nai Kiat, Edwin, Kheng Aik, Jia Hui, Eileen, Chia Chia, Lilian, Jia Yi and Maria. Most are Form 4, the last 3 girls are Form 1 and Tze Yan's in Primary 5. We set off for Labuan at 8-something am. The boat ride was pretty uneventful, sort of. I stared at the scenery outside for the first part of the trip and then read The Historian while talking to new friends who are in the excursion.

[EDIT] Removed angry musings, added more story.

After we arrived at the renovated international ferry terminal in Labuan (big improvement lar!), we went to get some refreshments before heading to Labuan Airport. And my goodness, the airport was really stuffy and hot! It was undergoing renovation, so there wasn't any air-con at the check-in area. It was made worse when we had to wait for so long for the security officer to come and scan our luggage. Must he have his coffee break at that time and make us suffer in a hot furnace.

After that, we checked in the 23 baggages (most of them were donations for the orphanage). Jia Hui did something funny at that time. She stood behind a super tall white guy and asked Cikgu Amelly to take a picture of her without the guy's knowledge. Jia Hui said she wanted to remember how short she is compared to that really tall dude. I think he was about 2-3 heads taller than her! So funny la! And after she took the picture, Jia Hui was about to walk away when the guy turned around. Hahaha! Close one!

I seriously wonder how they managed to stretch a 15-minute long flight to more or less 1 hour. Here's what happened. We're supposed to catch a train but then since the train's schedule was not 'ngam', the plans for the train has been changed, or rather terbalik-ted.

So because of that, Cikgu Amelly decided that we should fly from Labuan to KK. Our flight was supposed to be at 11.30 am but we only got in like...10 minutes later? We tried to squeeze ourselves through the narrow aisle and sat in our respective seats. Guess what? The plane didn't budge for 15 minutes.

So, the plane took off much later and before we're flying properly, the seatbelt lights switched off and the announcement said the refreshments will be served shortly. Before I even got my hands on the peanuts, the plane was already starting to descend. Daniel who was sitting next to me was like, "So fast?"

Before I even finished my peanuts and juice, the seatbelt lights came back on, and the announcement said we were about to land soon. After that, we soon landed at Kota Kinabalu rather bumpily. I forgot to tell you that the take off was more or less similar. In other words, the pilot was bad. Lol!

All this happened within the span of 15 minutes. The check-in and check-out took about nearly 1 hour. This is how they stretch the aeroplane's time.

And for the first time, I actually used the stairs to get out from the plane instead of the aerobridge. It's really cool but it's sad that there wasn't any read carpet. I want the red carpet! Hahaha... And the stairs is the aluminium flooring thingy. Definitely wasn't the stairs I have envisioned!

So after that, the taxi took us to Asia City Hotel (I hope the name's correct). It sounds fancy and I expected a 5-star hotel, but my anticipation turned into a disappointment when I saw the small hotel in a block on shops - something like the Brunei Hotel, except much smaller. The lobby was really small, but thank goodness the hotel rooms were really okay. At least it wasn't that dirty or smelly or poor in quality. Like your average 3 star hotel if I'm not mistaken.

So my room-mates were Alex and Tze Yan and they were pretty much my roomies for the rest of the trip. So we kicked off and relaxed there. And then prank-calling the girls for fun. It was funny really. So stupid, I can't believe I actually did it with Alex and Tze Yan! Just like how the other councillors trip during the KK trip last June. Loads of fun! Oh yeah, we also moved around rooms to 'disturb' them. Just like what Mable and Jordine did, except we didn't talk dirty =).

We went down later to have a late lunch and after that did our shopping in a shopping complex (the same place we went to shop during the KK trip; we used taxi to go there, not the one near the hotel). So yea, we walked and shopped around. But we went to the arcade first before doing our shopping (naturally). I didn't buy much there, except that I bought a novel called The Life of Pi which according to Amazon.com rankings is pretty high up. So thinking it was good, I bought it. The shopping was pretty boring. Nothing much to buy. The things sold there aren't appaling (except for books!).

Sometime later at night (I think), we were about to disturb the Form 1 girls when we met a ROFL Jia Hui, a giggling Eileen and Chia Chia. The two men who were standing at the elevator door were shocked when they saw them and slowly backed away. So funny la, they thought they were crazy! Tze Yan and I asked them what happened and it seems like they lost their keys to their room. Well, not actually lost, but here's what happened.

Eileen took out the key with a big key-chain which was a big plastic key from a switch and left the room. I don't exactly know what happened (ask Eileen for clarification) but she decided to go back to the room. Then a funny thing happened. She used the big key chain and tried to open to the door and was surprised that she couldn't open to door! Hahahaha! Then she realised it was the key chain she was holding and then tried to use the key but she couldn't find it!

Finally, it dawned on her that the key must have somehow dropped in their room when she took it out from the switch. And so they cannot go in and they decided to look for Cikgu Amelly, who wasn't in at that time. We then told them to look for the receptionist. (They were still laughing very hard! Aiya, you can imagine la!) The receptionist was very amused to hear their story and she helped them to open the door la. And they were still laughing about it! Hahahahahahah, funnny larrr!!!

Later, my roomies and I went to the Form 1 girls' room and watch CSI: Miami. WOW, the show was so cool man! I cannot believe that I actually enjoyed it. I thought it was one of those boring mystery shows that are too pedantic. I was wrong! Thank goodness Alex persuaded and recommended the show to me. After the show, we went back to our rooms to watch another episode of CSI: Las Vegas.

I was banished to the floor when I slept later. I definitely cannot and don't want to squeeze myself in between Alex and the little tyke Tze Yan. It was a double bed. So I volunteered to sleep on the floor. Bad idea. Not surprisingly, the floor was really hard, harder than my bed (which is considered quite hard) and way uncomfortable. In fact, it didn't felt like bed at all! Duh! I have to bear the rough carpeting. I even resorted to using the hotel towel as a "bedsheet" and steal one pillow from Cikgu Amelly who slept alone, but then she invited her niece over to sleep with her. Hehehehe! I wonder where her niece gets her pillow from. Whoops!

I didn't got a good night's sleep though. I was basically waking up at almost every hour, due to the cold air-con and also the uncomfortable state I was in. It was really really cold (to most of you, it was not really). Sigh~ I woke up pretty early at 5 and decided to take a shower at 6. I didn't get quality sleep. And can you believe the Form 1 girls prank called us so early in the morning at 7? So jobless and hyper la they all so early in the morning.

That is basically Day 1. I will tell more stories on this trip very soon tomorrow. Let's hope I've got the mood to do it. Pictures will also be up soon. That's all for today, I'll blog more tomorrow!

P.S. Can anyone suggest new tagboards or some other form of "chatboxes"? I HAVE loads of difficulty in loading people's Cboxes, including mine and I can always tag not more than 3 or 4. So sad la.

---

freshrimp put thoughts into writing at 12:59.
Comments? Whisper 'em! (4 whispered.)

Comments by them:-

Shim you know what.. you sound like me! LOL. I get stressed like that too. But I don't erm use the f word. YES SHIM! CBOX = STUPID. =p I agreeee.

Hi Shim. Haha. I'm feeling random..

I'll check back for your Sabah Trip blog! Hopefully, you've cooled down already. =)

 JiaYean whispered at 12 November, 2006 18:18.  

Calm down lol. Don't need to get so worked up. And yes your tagboard is messed up, i couldn't tag for a few days already, but can still see the tags. Either board problem or my connection problem, but i think its both. Relax man haha.

 Steven whispered at 12 November, 2006 21:18.  

Hi Jia Yean! Everything's okay now, and I edited the blog. It's only Day 1 though =).

Steven, hi! I know, I over-reacted again, but my tiredness is getting on to me. I shall sleep early tonight. Hopefully I'll function properly tomorrow. And yea, the tagboard sucks. And so does Espeed too, it isn't working that hot nowadays. And I'm okay now thanks =).

 freshrimp whispered at 12 November, 2006 21:55.  

Cbox is fucked up. dont worry. let it be. the server is fucking up almost now and then thanks to server floods. dude i want to see the angry part. i want to see the man part. you unmanly man

 Unknown? whispered at 13 November, 2006 03:35.  

<-- Return to main blog