fix that damaged tape.

Monday, 26 May 2008 18:41

Sarawak Humanitarian Trip

Hello!

I'm feeling energized now after a really long nap. So BEWARE for a really long and detailed post about what I did in Sarawak. You don't have to read it because it's just for memory's sake.

By the way, I love my roommates truckloads!
Roommates
-Sitira
-Sitifa
-Gauhrie
-Ruth
-Yimin

Day 1- 20 May
Papa sent me off to the airport and I hung out with my roommates when he had to leave for work. Called mummy, sent out smses ( and I don't know if Masque received it or not): ) replied Qistina's smses and before I knew it I was on the plane.
Plane seating partners- Sarah Bennett and Ammani (: Sorry I kept dropping my things onto your seat, ammani. Didn't mean to):
Reached Sarawak airport and was welcomed by the first batch of people who came in the earlier flight (omg Pearly was so hyper jumping around. haha) and our guides. My bus ride partner Sitira was taking so many unglam shots on the bus while we were off to the Fairy Caves.
It was really interesting learning about the structure of the caves. Stalactites, stalagmites, column etc. SAVE THE CAVES!
Checked-in into our five-star hotel room at Merdeka Palace. Every group stayed in a suite. Gosh it was hugeeeeee!
Plus we watched the final episode of gossip girl! (:

Day 2- 21 May
Woke up and had breakfast at the hotel.
3-hour long bus ride to a Hydro-electronic Dam. ( of course there were stops in between ) The place was wow! Very electronic? HAHA.
Then went to our modernised longhouse hotel in which we had to travel by boat to get there since there's no road leading to it. Eco-Tourism! (: The size of the lake we used to get to the hotel was the size of Singapore! Yes, it was that big.
Learnt to weave mats at night. Sitifa is so good at it! It was really neat compared to mine. Hahaha. Then we practiced our item that we were going to do at the Primary school that we were going to go to 2 days after that.
Walking back to the room was so scary. If Jia Wei wasn't there to accompany Sitifa, Yimin and I back I'm sure we would have ran all the way back since our room was right at the end.

Day 3- 22 May
Left the longhouse to go to a REAL LONGHOUSE.
After the long bus ride, we took a longboat to the Longhouse by going along the Lamanak River. It's simply amazing and admirable how the 40+++ people who live together in one longhouse can live in peace and harmony despite sharing a common verandah.
We had lunch in the middle of the forest! How cool is that? We ate food cooked the traditional Iban way. Using a bamboo! :D
Made friends with a 15 year-old Iban girl named, Ella Tasiah. Really nice name! She spoke to us like as if she was already 30+ or something; very wise. She's going to teach me how to play the guitar if I visit her oneee dayyyy. Yay! Her sister looks so adorable, Osawa Tasiah! :D
Apparently we went somewhere after that but I can't seem to remember =O Nevermind moving on.
Went back to the five-star hotel, Merdeka Palace. Another suite(: Sarah, Michelle, Gloria and urm, another girl (sorry!) bunk in with us. 10 people yo! HAHA. But nevertheless, it was possible due to the arrangement of how we all slept. Awesome eh?

Day 4- 23 May
Left the hotel for the Primary School Visit! We went to Santubong Primary School and everyone was just going goo-goo-gaa-gaa over the little kids. Even the primary six students look really young (and hot) ROFL.
Our performance wasn't screwed. Yay us! Then we had interaction with the kids. We were singing songs and playing mainly Edelwise.
Rafidah and Elfaizah were two very sweet primary three kids. The boys were naturally cheeky! Especially this boy who went around saying "You are very beautiful" to get chocolates and sweets from us. hahahaha!!
Leaving them gave the whole lot of us crescentians a serious heartache. To see the kids smile getting their tidbits from us made me contented. Rafidah waved and high-fived me so many times before I boarded the bus. Ohmann. The students were all outside our bus waving and when the bus move they actually ran behind and kept waving at us.
That was what touched me a lot. I was holding back my tears. If I could, I want to go back and perhaps, help them build a proper school hall? Yeah. I'm sure I'm not the only one (:
Sighs.
Anyway, then we went to the Sarawak Cultural Village. Miss Fair Lady! hahaha. Okay sorry, inside joke. Learnt about the Ibans, Orang Ulu, Bidayuh and Penan culture. Very very interesting! I went down a very steep and high stairs. You should have seen how mr seow was trying very hard to motivate me to go down because apparently, I was too scared. Thank you Mr seow! :D
Checked-in into our Santubong Golf Resort room. It was initially 3 per room but being really bonded roommates, Sitira, Ruth and Gauhrie bunked in with Sitifa, Yimin and I! Whoo!
That night, my group had the BEST dinner bonding session EVER! Sorry Yimin but I couldn't help it. How come your fork can end up in the cup?? HAHA.
Sitira became Mata Kucing and Yimin became Longan. Both of them ahhh. Omg. ROFL. (I'm laughing now thinking about it) Really! hahahaha.
Oh yes. We dared Ruth not to laugh until midnight so that she could get two lollipops from each of us but 2 minutes later she started laughing. My whole group had laughing fits! HAHAHA.
When I woke up, I saw Sitifa staring I almost screamed. Which reminds me, I hope you're getting better now!

Day 5- 24 May
Roommates and I were late for breakfast. Typical! But we weren't the last group to assemble! Cool huh? Heee. :DD
Left for Bako National Park. M-A-G-N-I-F-I-C-E-N-T experience!
Although there were monkeys everywhere and knowing wild boars were lurking around in the jungles (yes, we were in a jungle) it didn't stop my groupmates and I from having fun! :D
Learnt about mangroves. High tide and low tide. Interesting(:
Sat down by the sea for lunch. KFC yknow! Hahaha. Really cool. Then, went for trekking to the Plateu! Whooo! It looked like the moon with all the "holes" which was formed by water. Yay yay! I was so happy and felt superbly accomplished because we were singing, laughing and talking so much while trekking. Heeee. We were said to be very fit people. Then people were mumbling "yes, mass run mass run". Haha!
Then watched the sunset. So pretty! Almost everyone was camwhoring because it was just breathtaking. Ruth and I tried taking a picture of our legs in a deformed heart shape but we failed. Awww... haha!
BBQ for dinner :D Yimin was suddenly so hyper because she was so FRESH. yeahyeah. Haha!
The hostel was really hot and stuffy but we were freezing at night. Someone fell off the bed. Hilarious because they were "arguing" about who took up more space. hahaha!
Oh and that night was so freaky. Gauhrie sleep so cute eh! HAHA. Ruth couldn't help but be saddistic. Grrr. (haha)

Day 6- 25 May
Woke up at 5. The only group which went out to breathe in fresh air so early in the morning. Whoo! Watched sunrise from afar.
Then went to Matang Wildlife Park.
Those who were in Bus 2 didRiver Studies first. We went to find out about the River Discharge of the stream. Everyone was asked to go into the water and try out the experiment. I was afraid of the little fishes swimming around at first but after a while, it was nothing. (yeah right!) HAHA.
After lunch we swap with Bus 1 and then we painted the enclosure/feeding platform of the orang utans there.
Oh ya, I was "flirting" with one of the orang utans named George and then right after I said "...hot" he pee-d! Le-yi started laughing at me. Ohmann. Why George why? ROFL. Ok nonsense aside, I hope George gets well soon! Recover quick and then you can get back in the wild okay? Be careful next time! (i am not weird. but really, it was sad knowing that he was blind for ten years because he bit on an electric cable. he's recovering from surgery now)
After leaving the park, we went to learn about Bird's Nest Drink and Tongkat Ali.
Thennn...
s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g! Bought mummy's present too(: My group, as usual because of how bonded we are (hehe), went shopping together. Yay!
Steamboat and grill for dinner. Sat with roommates, Sherry and Qiao Yi. EH! Which reminds me, someone owes me 50 ringgit!! HAHA. Kidding kidding! It's over anyway): Oh then when we were on our way back to our five-star hotel (heeeheee) Abang (our guide) was reminding us about how it was our last day yada-yada-yada. & mann, I felt like crying. But nope, I didn't.
& yknow, there were 12 people living in one suite that day! HAHA. Yesyes, two groups in one suite, only for our case. It was due to certain reasons but who cares, it was cool mann! :DDD
Gauhrie was laughing like mad at 1 am. I didn't do anything funny okay! AHH): Hehe.

Day 7- 26 May
This time, another person fell off the bed. EHEM. I wonder whooooo. Heeee.
Left ): then went to a Pottery Factory before heading to the airport.
Famous Amos at the airport with roommates(: Had personal reflections with Sitifa and Sitira after we checked in.
Ruth was so cute when she was contemplating about which lollipop she wanted to buy. In the end, she didn't. Haha. Gauhrie was on the phone.
Plane sitting partners- Sarah Bennett and urm, a 2c2 girl. Sorry sorry! I didn't manage to catch your name.
Sarah and I kept reminsicing about our trip especially about the Primary School trip. That one was definitely HARD to forget.
Upon landing, I quickly switched on my phone and THANK YOU to those who asked if I already reached or if I was okay. THANK YOU! :DD
Before checking out, Ruth an I were reminiscing about all the good times we had. Mr seow was behind us and he was right "there's so many happy memories to bring back home".

Acap, Martin and Papa was there to fetch me. Apparently, acap sleptover my house since Saturday. Alahhh): Oh and he's going to perform in crescent in July! YAY!

Now, safely back home.

The experience was priceless. It was definitely worth the $750. C'mon mann, everything's included in the price; five-star hotel for three nights (a suite!), airplane tickets, meals etc. Thank you mummy and papa for letting me go for this trip. I'm really thankful to be fortunate enough to be able to go. Oh and thank you to Sarah Swee too! :D

The trip also made me LOVE GEOG a hell lot. I became so interested in whatever our guides had to say. Learning the Iban culture was also wow! Amazing! I've no regrets signing up for the trip. Especially knowing that I'm going there to help put smiles on the little kids faces and helping the endangered monkeys and the orang utans. I simply enjoyed myself.

I'm going to have a dedication post + tag reply post coming up. (not so soon perhaps) Okay. I shall get moving from here.

I think the other batch who are still in Sarawak are heading towards the Sarawak airport soon. Have a safe trip back home guys! :D

GET WELL SOON, SITIFA!
YOU OWE ME A STORY, SITIRA!
DON'T LAUGH TOO MUCH BY YOURSELF, GAUHRIE!
MUST REMEMBER HOW TO PRONOUNCE MATA KUCING, YIMIN!(okay? hahaha)
YOU MUST CHILL, RUTH!
Thank you guys! I love you!

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY! I LOVE YOU LOADS AND LOADS AND LOADS! ;DDDD
surprise party soon. where's papa?

-wired up