Philosophy of Life: Adventurous and Challenging Trip to Taman Negara

A lot has happened during the past one week of my mid-term break. Seems to be a lot, but actually there's nothing much besides going to Taman Negara with a bunch of friends. Why would I say adventurous and challenging? Because even before we started our journey to the National Park, troubles, problems and obstacles keep pouring to us. However, we manage to get through everything without any problem. *wink* The day before we leave KL, Eddie informed us that he couldn't make it to the trip although he has paid and booked a place for him. At first, I thought that there will be one person less on the trip but luckily, someone managed to find a replacement on that very night. *phew* And at the very same night, Yee Yin's train was delayed for 3 hours and Kuan took a wrong turn at Serdang ended up in Ampang. [Is that true? No one tells me leh..] So you see, the challenge and adventure already started before we take off, no doubt there will be more to come. hehehehe... I think I'll introduce the people who went to the trip here. For easy reference i guess.. =P

Picture taken in front of a shop at the Kuala Tembeling jetty. From leftmost:-
Miss Yoon Sang Mi: Our korean tutor who teached korean language level 1 in MMU.
Min Bee: The leader, the organizer, the planner, the one that invited us to go. [Thanks]
Yee Yin: The only non-MMUian in the group. She's a friend of Min Bee all the way from Segamat, Johor.
Leong Kee: My roommate, a good friend in MMU.
Josh: A quite new friend I would say, knew him from Kuan. Our photographer [how I wish I can have his camera. =P]
Yan Hui: Just knew him on the day we depart. He's the saviour whoreplaces Eddie last minute.
Kuan: A great friend who really helped a lot on this trip.
Me: That's me...

Day 1 - 8 August 2006 - Tuesday

I woke up at 5.30am. Get my luggages ready and I left my house at 6.00am. My dad is suppose to pick up Miss Yoon, Min Bee and Yee Yin from Cyberjaya and send us to KL to catch a bus while the rest of the guys took ERL and taxi to KL. We were suppose to reach Crowne Mutiara Hotel, KL before 8.30am but we were late. All because of the stupid trafiic jam in KL. [How I wish I can stay away from all these congestion and pollution] O'rite, so we're late but the problem wasn't that. The person-in-charge told us that our name was not on the list although we have paid RM640 to the agency for the bus ticket. We are damn lucky or what, there are enough seats for another 8 people but we have to be separated. Me and Kuan in one bus while the other 6 in another bus. Too bad uh.. So, we departed at 9.10am from KL. Woo-hoo!

During the 3 hours ride to Kuala Tembeling wasn't much fun. I listened to some music, napped a while, talked to Kuan a while and stared outside the window most of the time. So, we reached Kuala Tembeling around 12.10pm. Registered ourselves at the agency and we started looking for food like hungry hyenas. We spotted a chinese restaurant and ate something there. After eating, we talked about reading our chinese names in korean. Miss Yoon can't read my name in korean. [saddening] Hehe.. So we bought some batteries, cards, took some photos and ready to leave. Our boat is suppose to leave at 2pm but again, delayed because we are the last in queue. So we gotta wait till everyone gets on their boat and we take the last boat. Again, we were separated. Kuan and Leong Kee sat in front while the rest were at the back of the boat. Poor Kuan keep separated from us. So, the journey of 3 hours boat ride started. We took photos, chat and sleep. Nothing much we can do actually. Not many things we can see besides some trees, water and sand. Oh, and probably some buffalos and cows by the riverside. =P

Finally, we reached the place we're suppose to stay, NUSA Campsite, at 5.30pm. Checked in and walked all over looking for our room. We managed to find it and it was a bit dissapointed when i stepped into the room. It is a small room with 4 double deckers, a small flourescent light, a fan and 2 windows. It was HOT inside there. So we dumped our belongings and came out to get some fresh air. *phew* After settling down for a while, we decided to explore that place a bit. Since there's not much time left till dinner, we only follow a path behind the chalets to get the fell of mother nature. Our first real breath in Taman Negara. Hmm.. it's so refreshing and so different from the polluted city of KL. Hehehe.. So there, we plan about going to the waterfall in the morning the next day, which is not in the schedule.

At 7.30pm, it's time for dinner. Our very first meal there. I wouldn't say that the food is too bad nor very good. It's edible, u know what I mean? After dinner, we stood there talking for a while and something came out from under the table. It's a cute little porcupine!(pic) The staff there feed the cute little creature with some rice and vegetables. It eat them hungrily while the people around were busy admiring and taking photos of it. Well, it's almost time for our first event, the night jungle trekking. We gathered at 9pm and were greeted by a friendly man whom he introduced himself as Ajax. He will be our guide and lead us into the woods. Ajax taught us how to use a torchlight and we mange to spot 2 spiders, some fireflies, 2 toads, a stick insect (pic), a scorpion and some luminous fungus. I was hoping to see something big, like tigers? =P Anyway, it was a fun walk in the jungle and we learnt something from our guide. So, we walked back to our room after the "long" walk. It seems long because it's hard to see where you are walking, and everyone is careful so that they don't slipped and fall. Unfortunately, we discovered that Miss Yoon was the first one to be bitten by a leech. She was so afraid as she has never seen anything like this before. We put some anti-leech oilments around the leech and eventually it dropped off but the blood is still gushing out. [Am I exaggerating?] Well, the bleeding finally stop after some time though.

After bathing and everything should be around after midnight. We got some junk food and a bottle of sparkling juice to a huge balcany where we can see the river to play some games. Almost everyone is sleeping in their cabin and we are like the only people around playing stupid games. Hehehe... So, we used the poker cards to play "Same Number Call Name", "Police and Thief", "Heart Attack" (pic) and "Pick the Turtle". [I don't know whether they are the right name or not] So, we had lotsa fun and go to bed around 2am. C'mon, it's only 2am. Josh and Miss Yoon were sleeping soundly while the rest of us gathered at the girls's beds to talk about ghost stories. I wasn't very interested to listen to ghost stories as those stories will linger in my mind always. However, I bear with it and manage to sit there and listened to some happy ghost stories, funny ghost stories and scary ghost stories. Haha.. luckily I didn't have any nightmare. Too tired I guess.

So, that's the end of my first day in Taman Negara. Travelling takes up most of the time but we manage to spare some time to chit chat and played some games. I really enjoyed the night trekking and the stupid games we played at night. I hope others do too. =D Well well, finally i manage to write a long post here. This thing took me half a day man. Credits: Thanks Kuan for letting me copy the photos and refering to your blog. Hehe.. Stay tune for more posts adn more photos on day 2 and day 3. Billy, out.