Last Friday night, a group of Hall 12-ers, better known during the trip as Paddlephiles, took a bus all the way into Malaysia for an unforgettable paddling experience.
We reached the our starting point at about 4AM or so and took a nap for awhile before having breakfast. Then we commenced with our paddling!
I teamed up with Wei Fang and together we conquered a couple of rapids.
Along the way, I was snapping photos madly of the people around me. Most of them came out rather good, save for a few! I am damn glad that my camera is still working despite having to face the elements that I've exposed it to! I actually put it in a Ziploc bag and then into a tupperware but it didn't really help and it got wet anyway! Peeing was an interesting sight as people had to voluntarily jump out from the safety of their kayaks and into the river! It was a really enjoyable experience as we made our way down to our first check point for lunch. Along the way there were water fights, frisbee games and stealing of paddles. Mad.
We reached our first check point for lunch which happened to be a nice clearing. I played a bit of frisbee, before taking more photographs, (daringly bringing my precious camera with me into the river) and doing fish therapy. The fish did bite away at the dead skin on our feet. At the same time, we were trying to catch them!
We took some ANTM-ish photos. My photography skills have really improved and I'm beginning to look at pictures differently already! This one was taken by Siting who took a couple of tries to get it right but it turned out terrific at the end! Love it!
Another one taken by me. I should've turned it into black-and-white but yeah, I think it's good enough! Haha! I requested an emo look and got it! This was basically the bunch of people I hung out with during the entire trip, with the exception of Jai, from L-R, Bernice, Wei Fang, Siting, Liqi and Kelvin. We caught more fish, played more frisbee in the water and joked around before moving on to our final campsite.
We made our way through a couple more rapids consecutively where the currents were damn bloody strong. I felt like I almost crashed into rocks and my life would end as I know it.
There was a limit to the number of photos that I could take because I only had a single battery to last me 3 days! Boo.
Anyway, we got to our campsite, set up our tents for the night and bathed in the river. I've done it a couple of times, in Thailand, in Brunei and they were all really memorable. The river was cool and we chose a place where the water was fast-flowing just so we could get all the dirt away! Haha! I enjoyed it tremendously. It's probably one of the perks of having to live outdoors. We waited quite awhile for dinner before it was served. The chilli was bloody spicy! The chicken tasted rather good.
While washing up for the night we were met with really huge ants crawling in the cubicles. It was quite a sight.
We went to sleep straight after that!
The next day we prepared for an entire day of trekking.
I was reminded of the times when I travelled through various forests on my various trips, crossing rivers, grabbing on the branches on either side for balance and climbing up steep slopes. Compared to the routes that I've walked in Brunei, it was relatively relaxing. Oh, and the only things that I carried were boxes of lunch!
We stopped at a rest point where we saw the skin left behind by an insect. I can't remember the name of that process. Anyway, looking downwards we saw plenty of huge fishes that look like they could possibly be sold at Qian Hu! Haha...
After another 10 minutes, we reached a small waterfall where we had lunch. We also discovered and played with leeches, tadpoles and a bubble egg nest.
We had a crazy time taking photos. Getting to this rock was slightly tricky and required ropes and assistance. The rocks in the water were damn slippery. Still, despite a couple of falls, all of us got there in the end!
Next up we made our way to the Blue Lagoon. There was this part that was as deep as a diving pool, so we made full use of it by performing a couple of jumps from some rocks. I tried very hard to do a nice dive, but all I did was really half-fucked ones and ended up landing feet first! Haha...
The three of us went to the a flip but I didn't manage to. Damn sad. Bleargh.
We trekked back, bathed in the river with the girls, played Heart Attack and had campfire for the night. Our group won quite a lot of food and I er, had the chance to dress up with a made-up bra and acted as Britney Spears. It's my first time in drag so... what the hell! It won me Mr Sexy (thanks for nominating me Weifang.. haha!) but before I could get my certificate, we were attacked by a whole lot of flies.
Almost a swarm.
Our campfire ended as we tried to put out as many lights as possible and they gave out the lucky draw prizes for the Top 3, which happened to be World of Sports vouchers. I think. I didn't win that, but I won some food instead. My first lucky draw prize!
After a good night's rest we got ready to say goodbye to our campsite, took our belongings and trekked to a place where we got picked up by boats to a small village. We were introduced to a lot of animal traps, some of which I've seen before, but was impressed all the same!
After lunch, we picked up a couple of puzzles to play with. This photo is one of Bernice and Jie Ming enjoying the simple life, which also happens to be just the thing I need for my COM206 assignment! I've 3 out of the 6. I need one more of a female putting on make-up in a dressing room. Anyone wants to help out?
We took a 3 hour boat ride (that was really too damn long) to our bus which brought us shopping for a short 30 minutes. We bought a few foodstuffs and made our way to a seafood restaurant where we had a great dinner.
I had a lot of fun and would definitely go on another overseas trip like this one! It makes me realise that I do enjoy the great outdoors for a couple of days despite the inconveniences like the lack of electricity!
More photos can be found at the
Hall 12 Unofficial Photo Collection. Check it out!
