13 November 2006
Chronicles of the Sabah Trip - Day 2
 

Hi guys! We're now in Day 2 of the trip and basically, this whole day was mainly on rafting on the upper course of a river, somewhere near Kota Kinabalu. This place's roughly about an hour plus from the city. It's very good! I recommend everyone to go there when they go KK. I forgot the company name (so embarrassing!). I think it's Riverbug. And look for Ah Ming, one of the guides there. He was our rafting guide, and he's a funny guy. Hehehe =).

The scenery on the way was absolutely amazing. The interlocking spurs, the green mountains full of equatorial vegetation and the river with quite high velocity and dotted with rapids; it's absolutely breathtaking I tell you! I was like "Whoah!" and "Ooh!". Too bad I was feeling rather tired as I didn't got enough sleep the last night, so I was half drifting off and half admiring the view. Man, I should have taken out my camera and snapped some snapshots. Words alone cannot do the scenery justice.

The bus stopped near a primary 'kampung' school, which was weird. Then we realised we have to walked to the place which was on another turn. The road was not suitable for the bus to travel. So we walked to there on foot and I saw buffaloes for the first time in my entire life! I became less and less sakai as I saw more buffaloes during the trip.

Before we got into our respective rafts, we were briefed on the dos and don'ts: how to save oneself when falling into the water, how to position oneself on the raft, how to hold an oar, how to row the boat, what to do in the event of capsize etc. I just nod and nod my head while trying to regurgitate and store these information in my little head. I was too excited to begin our journey down the river. Then we put on a lifejacket and a helmet and I headed to a boat together with Cikgu Bronie, Eileen, Chia Chia, Jia Hui and our guide Ah Ming. As my bare feet stepped on the water, I couldn't help but shudder a little. Although it was cool, it was definitely refreshing, and I got used to it pretty quickly.

Before we set off, Ah Ming splashed us with water for reasons I don't know. Maybe it helps us to get used to the water? After that, he shouted the word "Forward!" and off we row the raft down the river. Waheyyy! My heart was beating really hard now and adrenaline rushed around my body.

Okay, so we encountered our first rapids where the river velocity is higher than usual. In layman's term, it means that the river is fast flowing here. This is because the river bed drops a bit due to erosion by the river and blah blah blah. So yea, as the waves hit us, the boat went up and we screamed in happiness (LOL)! It was exhilarating for sure! It was scary at first, and I nearly lost my grip on my oar but everything was okay after that as we encounter more rapids along the way.

These pictures show what happens when we were cruising along the river. They were taken by other photographers stationed at various parts of the river bed. These pictures cost RM 50, I've bought it and showed it to you all for free. So you better appreciate it! HAHAHAHA!



Unfortunately, Cikgu Amelly borrowed one from me so I can only show you guys 3. The last group photo was taken by Cikgu Amelly herself and it was distributed to us before we headed back to Brunei.

Let's see, we mainly rowed the oar and thank goodness we took quite a lot of breaks as well. It strains the muscle (okay, so I'm weak, NOT!) when one rows a lot. We relaxed at some parts when the water is calm and at rapids when the current pushes the raft forward without us rowing it. We rowed when the water is too calm and when the water currents are strong. The scenery along the river was absolutely majestic with high narrow bridges, mangrove trees, rainforest trees and more trees, and beautiful mountains filled with trees. You can say the greenery improved my eyesight!

Along the way, our raft nearly capsized when it hit the rocks and I was really scared because I wasn't too sure what to do when it did. Eileen was very funny - she wanted the guide to purposely capsize the boat, while Jia Hui was quivering, saying "NO!". The guide was so funny too, he was trying to push Jia Hui to the river and she was like "NO! Don't!" In the end, he did, and Jia Hui fell and she cried (she really did!). Boy, the guide was so confused and he didn't know what to do. But he and Eileen lifted her up anyway and she cried for a few minutes before returning to normal. And Alex and the guys whose raft was behind us laughed at her! Lol! Funny lar!

In one of the pictures above, you could see me leaning backwards a lot. I cannot believe the photographer was there and took a picture of us when I somehow was slipping back into the raft thanks to the water current. So stupid, I look so out! (In fact, I look very OUT in all of the photos =\) And it was embarrassing because I fell backwards into the raft instead of the water. Of all the places to fall. Hahahaha!

At a stretch of slow flowing river water, the guide ushered all of us to jump into the water and experience body rafting. Wow, it was simply amazing. I swam and stayed afloat. It was really a load of fun! Too bad we have to get in soon as there were rapids in front of us. I swam and climbed back to the boat with difficulty. The current pushed me further away from the boat when I actually wanted to swim back to the boat. Lol...

At one point of the river, it was 'raining'. There was a narrow bridge above us which was also carrying a pipe. We thought what that was and the guide told us it was toilet water. "EEEeeeeeee" was the sound I heard. Then the guys behind us were coming and they were like "Wooooo!" and "Yahayyy!". Then the guide told them it was toilet water. Well, I don't need to describe their response. But it was definitely funny! Thank goodness it was just a joke; it was actually clean piped water that burst out from the broken pipe. So sayang the water.

Oh yes, there were also naval wars and battles. Not. We all took the opportunity of splashing each other with water with the oars and it was loads of fun! Everyone got really really wet and drenched. It was a funny sight =).

I saw so much geography from this trip though. Classes on 'Upper Course of a River' flashed back before my very eyes as I remembered the different river terms and features. I saw rapids and even saw eddies! Wow! It was so cool! And tons of other stuffs which I forgot now.

So basically, the journey down river was mostly rowing, relaxing and enjoying the scenery and talking with the guide a. The girls were mostly speaking to the guide in Chinese and poor Cikgu Bronie who couldn't really understand what they were bambling about. Poor him!

After journeying down the river for 14 km, we stopped and we had a group photo. We then showered and then ate a scrumptious lunch buffet. After that we went back to our hotel, packed our stuffs and vamoose to Gunung Emas Treetop Cabin. 2 un-air-con buses took us there and we saw beautiful mountains with lush forest. Yes, I know it's boring to hear forest here, forest there. Then we went up so high we actually drove through low clouds (I didn't bother with their names). It was amazing. Alex wanted to catch clouds but he couldn't, because it's just air with water vapour. Boo! But he did so anyway.

So we arrived at a very cold Gunung Emas and we were flabbergasted when we saw our cabins high up in the mountain. Okay, it wasn't "so high up the mountains" but it's not very nice to climb up so many flights of stairs just to get to your freaking room. And so sad, I forgot to take a picture of the cabin but I try to describe them.

Inside our cabin were bunk beds and a double bed. I opted for a double bed because I wanted comfort that time when I sleep. =P In the middle of the room was part of a live tree trunk which was alive and has insects crawling on it as well as carvings on the trunk. I admit, it was pretty scary at first but I got used to it and didn't have much problems at all.

Then, we climbed all the way down just to have dinner. There wasn't much variety of food served there though, it's like a kopitiam. It was cool, yes. And the waiters are sort of blur blur one. Hahaha...

Then we climbed all the way up and bummed at Eileen, Jia Hui and Chia Chia's cabin where we played 'Big 2' and I lost more than 5 times. Yes, Alex and Eileen, I still owe you guys a duck dance. Hahahaha! Let's forget about it, hmmm? They very smart, they took advantage of my losing streak and said that those who lost 5 times in a row (a.k.a. me) must do what the winners say.

So after that, we went to the Lilian, Jia Yi and Maria's cabin which was more dilapidated than the rest. Their toilet was in a sorry state as it was not only dirty, but infested with insects as well. Ill! Poor Jia Yi who cried because she was scared of the cabin as someone told her stories of the woods (Well, you know la). We talked to them about random stuffs and left their room against their will. They actually wanted me to sleep over there for security's sake and they were afraid of the insects but I rejected because I thought Cikgu Amelly wouldn't approve of it. I was scared too to sleep there =P.

Later at night, I heard that she saw a bee in a toilet (EEee!) and she went to the other guys toilet to use. Then somehow, they complicated things and thought she saw apparitions so they told Cikgu Amelly about it. Then she told Nai Kiat and Aston to sleep over their cabin but then Jia Yi said she wasn't scared anymore and yea, they left their cabin. Ask Lilian for more information.

That was Day 2. Day 3 coming tomorrow, so keep watch. If you guys (nudges Lilian) are interested to see all the pictures I took in the trip and want to save them, you can go here.


P.S. While I was typing this half-way, my computer restarted unexpectedly. I was really in anguish because I thought I've lost them all. Thank goodness Firefox can restore my session, and everything I typed was still there. Thank you Firefox. I wouldn't know what to do if I used Internet Explorer instead. I would cuss and swear again =\.

P.S.S. I provided more space to see your typed out tags and provided a link to the site's Cbox itself in case the tagboard fails to load (which usually does).

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freshrimp put thoughts into writing at 14:52.
Comments? Whisper 'em! (9 whispered.)

Comments by them:-

psst, mention that maria, jia YEE and lilian where terrified of mr brownie :!: LOL

 Unknown? whispered at 13 November, 2006 17:08.  

HAHAHA! No need =P. And it's Mr. Bronie, not Brownie; he's not a cookie!

 freshrimp whispered at 13 November, 2006 17:57.  

Lol, brownie. You went rafting! Amg, and you never told me. Shim is all grown up. He's a man now. You have done well. Its good you enjoyed it.

 Steven whispered at 13 November, 2006 22:28.  

Aww thank you Steven =). Yea, I really enjoyed it, can't believe I survived! Mwahahhaa! See, I'm one step closer to manhood!!!

 freshrimp whispered at 13 November, 2006 22:35.  

dude, he's not man enough yet. steven you fail :!:

 Unknown? whispered at 14 November, 2006 13:15.  

I should think he IS man enough. Shim, your writing style sure has changed a lot. From the typical gay (no offence) to a darker, more aggressive style. Seems the Gary + Alex treatment really worked after all. But careful not to go too far into the territory of too manly. ;)

 Anonymous whispered at 14 November, 2006 20:33.  

No, you FAIL Alex! :P Harhar!

Hi anonymous! Thanks for the nice compliment =). And I'm not sure whether it's due to Alex and Gary (okay, maybe a bit la!) but there are also a lot of things also that happen in my life that aided in this "process" lol! And I will definitely be careful of where I'm venturing to!

You know what, I wish I you told me who you were but that would ruin the whole anonymity, wouldn't it? ;)

 freshrimp whispered at 14 November, 2006 21:52.  

that's jim you noob

 Unknown? whispered at 14 November, 2006 22:36.  

LoLoLz

 Anonymous whispered at 19 November, 2006 13:35.  

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