Thursday, May 11, 2006

Man I REALLY suck.
After I get back from Tennessee I am seriously gonna try and start posting everyday. I was browsing through my archives and remembered all th fun I used to have being here. Lol not that I don’t have fun anymore, but I used to have something serious going on here
and now its kinda half-assed. Oh well.

Oki-doki, its time to put up part 2 (of 3) of my Malaysian adventures. This time we have PHASE 2: ADVENTURE PHASE.

Phase 2 basically saw me with a new, bigger group and me with a hella load of trepidation, cuz I sooooooo did not wanna do trekking. But to get on to the SCUBA and mountaineering I had to trek first. So…



This is my group for phase 2: ALPHA 7. powered by Tofi-Luk. (one of the few bits of chocolate we had rationed ourselves with. Damn, it was nice after a hard days slog)

Anyway, we have:
Back Row: Katie, Loz, Charlie, Isaac, Tom, Becky, Myself, Sian, Rob and ANOTHER PHIL (trust me, it got confusing)
Front row: Serena (medic), Jane, Zoe, Lucy, Wench…uhm, I mean Bindi…yeah…, Ruth, Ems and Dave (Project leaders).

Missing from that photo is John, another Malaysian venturer who, BTW was a GUNDAM FREAK! It made my time there worthwhile. You shoulda heard me and him go on for hours about Gundam. ^^
I got on really well with Katie, Loz, Rob and the other Phil too. And of course, I was with Zoe, Jane and Becky on the first phase. ^^

Ok, first off we had to do some tril maintenance near this awesome waterfall:



(btw, I am quite enjoying the thought of all of you tilting your head to one side in order to look at the picture…these were mostly off the photo cd so I havnt been able to flip em the right way up)

We also washed under that waterfall, but the water was FREEEEEZZZIN’!!!

Essentially trail maintenance was creating these steps.:



and we spent four days doing that. I also managed to complete the challenge set out by best friend Nic and

SWUNG.

ON.

A.

VINE.


(HEALTH WARNING: careful when swinging your head the other way. dont damage your neck.)

w00t!

after we did that we set of trekking (but on the way to the start point we stopped off at Fook Hing Long Supermarket. Say it aloud and quickly. And no, I aint kidding.)

the first coupla nights we stayed under bashas, which is essentially tarpaulin over a hammock. Its REALLY uncomfortable.
The second night we had to put up our own personal bashas IN THE RAIN! >.< there were times during the first coupla nights where my motivation was at an all time low.

But most of the time we stayed in places like this:



which kept us out the elements and away from the bugs and leeches. Yuk.

Trekking was essentially a lot of crossing rivers, getting wet and going up and down large hills, or “undulating” as we liked to call it. ^^

It essentially, sucked. But strangely enough, as I looked back on all of it at the end, I kinda enjoyed it.



this was on one of the last days of trekking. Me in my trek hat. Lol

BUT we had made it to the end of the trail and were eager to meet the next part: SCUBA diving on Mamutik Island!!!

How do I describe this: IT WAS PARDISE! It was almost always hot and sunny, and Scuba was sooo much fun. I loved being there so much (although the mozzies, as always, were a serious pain in the arse. The cicadas were a bit mental too. Lol)

Here are some piccies from Scuba:



that’s John and Jane, my dive buddies. ^^ (btw, every malaysian venturer i got to know had a name that began with a "J". theres gotta be a hefty research grant in there somewhere...)



this is Tom, who was also in our small group for diving. Here he is doing a mask retrieval exercise.



on the left we have Jane and on the right is Amanda, our instructor who was really cool (and really short! Lol) giving me the “Victory!” sign. ^^



this is John doing press ups WITHOUT USING HIS HANDS!!!! Figure that one out. ^^



OMD thats a scary sight to behold! yours truly (you will notice the lack of bandanna LMAO )

and here is a selection of amazing sights in the reefs around Mamutik Island.













(what rain looks like from under water)



seriously, I think these images speak for themselves.

When not diving we had the island pratically to ourselves and we just chilled hardcore.



and enjoyed spectacular views. But, alas, we were only there for a week, Soon, it would be time. The upcoming challenge awaited us:



Mount Kinabalu. Highest peak in South East Asia.

We met up with group alpha 6 and climbed up until we got two thirds of the way, where we were due to stop for the night. This trek involved going through the cloud layer.



oblivion anyone?



a triumphant me at the rest stop.

The lodge at the 2/3rd point also had a resteraunt where we pigged out after the hard climb.



the first lil peak on the left…that’s how far we had left to go!

We were awoken at 2:15 AM to complete the ascent before sunrise. IT WAS FREEZIN COLD! And of course, the air is quite thin up there, so we got out of breath quite easily. But it was worth it.

















I particularly like the shadow cast by the mountain in that last pic.

After the sunrise we descended back to the lodge, had a hearty buffet breakfast (we were eating the food quicker than the kitchen could replenish it) then went the rest of the way back down to the bottom and returned to changeover,
which is essentially two days recovery and getting into our new groups.
We had lil “skits” that we had to do, little comedy routines and by some bizarre twist of fate, our group, who put absolutely no preparation into our skit managed to win that round.
Strange but true. Still. Those kit kat krunchies were nice.

And that’s the end of phase 2. just phase 3 left to go. I got the piccies back today, so hopefully I will try to upload them and post before I leave for America on Monday, but don’t hold your collective breath folks. ^^;
oh, and I will also try to post some piccies up from the changeovers and end of ex party.

Well that’s it from me and the guys of alpha 7 would like to ask you a question:



Is this the way back down?

(yes, they are wearing nothing but their boxers at the top of the highest mountain in south east asia. Mad, the lot of them.)

Ciao for now!!!



PS: Happy Birthday yesterday to Katy Onee-sama! hope it was a good one! ^^
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