Didn't have much time to blog yesterday. Going for dinner at 7, fishing at 8. Will update more if there's time but have to see how. Need to wake up early too. Hope I can squeeze in some stuff first.

Morning we left the hotel to board a van to go to the whitewater rafting place. Took about...40 mins? We waited for our safety brief and drew our equipment before getting ready to set off. The first activity of my Civilian Conversion Course! This is how civilians cross a river.

We lifted the raft up ("Civilian Raft up!") and carried it about 200m down to the bank. There was a little metal bridge there and our photographer took a kayak down. The guide pushed the raft into the river and then we got in. It was quite a fun experience, but they also made us get wet first. Which is good I guess. At first everyone is dry and still (for some inexplicable reason) trying to avoid the water, myself included.

Then the guide splashed us with water and told us to get off in the river. Everyone was soaked and ready to be more liberal with the water. Got back in and pushed off. We paddled forward and back, shifted to the back when we got stuck and went through the rapids. It was great splashing fun. You just go down, BOOM and the spray just engulfs you.

There's a command: "Boom boom" in which everyone will get in the raft, hug their legs and hold on tight as we cross the rapids. Well after the first few relaitvely fun rapids we came on the biggest drop of them all, something called Easy Drop. Well this baby was the hardest of them all here, and could be considered normal on other courses.

We paddled onward, steering our giant pointy blue bag of air towards the jutting rocks and the frothy white water, and into nothingness. Just earlier, we had seen the other raft go over the edge and disappear form our sight as though someone had installed an express elevator in the middle of the river.

[To be continued...]
[Gosh it's really late...need to wake up early tomorrow. Don't think I can complete by tonight.]

1...2...1...2...we paddled toward the drop. "Boom boom!" Slid into the raft, tucked our feet up, and held on to the line, a cable running round the edge of the boat. We approached at an angle and my corner went first. Bumped over some rapids and downnnn we went. Hit the water, and a huge amount of it rushed over the bow and into our raft. We literally went into the river. As the raft thrust up again, I got yanked out bodily,somehow maintaining my grip on the line above all things.

Water everywhere. In my face, my eye, my nose. The spray of the rapids was still all around me and I kept my tenacious hold on the cable as the forward motion of the boat threatened to suck me under. Hanging on with one hand and my body dragging behind, kept afloat by my lifejacket, I thrust my other hand up over the edge, and sebas tried to pull me in.

The guide came forward and grabbed me in, and they managed to get me over the edge. I came aboard slightly shaken but relieved to be out of the water, albeit shot 1 paddle and two sandals. They were yanked away by the current. One of my first thoughts was of sadness because I wouldn't have sandals for the rest of the trip.

But by some miracle, these free sandals which my mum's friend gave her actually could float. They happily bobbed up to the surface, two white and blue rubber flaps, where they were picked up by the other boat. They and the paddles were returned to me after. The whole journey was about 7km, so we went through a few more rapids.

Soon we came to this place where we had to get out. =( Yes. To body raft, which is to lean back, and kick with our legs, using your life jacket to stay afloat. Well, we had to do that for about 15 metres, but the problem is, as the end of that section, we had to somehow get to the other side of the river, where the boats have been moved. And that's when they had to break out one of their rescue equipment.

[TBC]
[WHY NO ONE WANNA COMMENT? =[ Anyway ytd hotel no internet, so I'll continue.]

Yup, so I body rafted down the river...down down down...and reach the end point. I was still going down but had no idea how to get to the other side. They used the safey rope and tossed it to me. Yay. At least I got my money's worth. But man, someone like me who can't swim properly going on a trip like this...especially whitewater rafting. It was fun but still, feels crappy compared to everyone.

Next, we went back to the hotel to wash up, and then headed for dinner! Travelled to this stretch of street with seafood restaurants and the prawns as promised by val, were HUGE. Like bigger than your fork HUGE. The food was quite nice.

THIRD DAY. Went caving. Cave was huge. Lots of funny rocks. Tour was crappy. Guide spoke Malay. So we were like uhh, let's just look at the funnny rocks. Actually it wasn't much different from much of the other caves I've been in. A rock is a rock. a funny rock is still a funny rock. No Batcave here, no severet labs, no secret evil villain missile silo. Ok the last one is probably under a dormant volcano. BUT. Yeah, after the first few funny rocks and the first 200 stairs, we were like PANT PANT wah...shag OHH cool rock! Oh. More stairs.

And we took the grand tour which was the FULL package and included wet parts. It's ok just that I felt it's a little too long. At least we got value for our manoy. Afterthe dry tour, we splashed through what felt like 37 underground rivers, and squeezed under, in between and over rocks. Certain areas required you to like lean back onto all fours and turtle walk/slide down the steeply sloping rock.

One area, you really had to slide down like WHOOSH. The guide told us one by one, no pushing, and slide. it was like a 2 storey drop. I pity the first few guys. They had to slide down into nothing with noone to support. THUMP. for us, we slid down till we hit a ridge, shifted a little, WHOOSH all the wya till someone supported our feet, grabed our hands and slowly slid us down the rock.

Then everyone crowded round this little hole in the ground. It looked like the most viable way forward. Ever play Pokemon? Remember in those caves when you saw this little black hole that led to the darkness? This hole was just like that. We really had to pass through that hole. Fortunately, the bottom was quite near. So through it, a short drop and into a river.

We finally came to a hold out into the open where you saw tree and jungle and stuff. I thought finally it's over. Now If they'll just lead up back to the buildings...but NO. It was only the halfway rest point. Kenneth slipped, fell off a ridge and into the river here. Ouch.

We went back in after, back down a similar path, and struck the tour path with railings and concrete. We went beyond the railings onto rocks and hit the above mentioned "rock slide" and hold in the ground. We crawled under rocks and into rivers. Finally we got really wet. Some areas, there was just a HUGE rock on top and a tiny crawlspace AND a river underneath. So down onto all fours, crouch lower, and in you go. Front got soaked, but cos I folded my berms into FBTs, my pants were mostly dry.

By now we were simply following the guide one and just seeing stuff. I felt the tour was too lnog because instead of being interesting, all you see is rock and now you're just following the guy ahead of you out. Was nearly out already when I stepped on a slanted rock, whoops, down, partly on my side. Continued. Finally reached the exit. Daylight. I stopped to wahs the sand out of my shoes. Bent to put one show back on, slipped, THUMP on my butt. Great. Cos the rock was wet.

Next, back to the van and then to waterfall abseiling. Anyway we were late cos the tourtook very long. =\ Had lunch then went over. The waterfall was really nice. Too bad I had no one to take a photo with. Or for me even. So took one by myself, for myself. Did flying fox. It was not very far, nor very fast. See because the waterfall's water is not clear, but brown, and the heavy rains raised the water level dangerously.

WJ says you can go for it if you have a deathwish. Well, sometimes I'm in the mood but nah, not today. After flying fox, rappeled down a rock face. Well. I didn't do the jumpy thing because we didn't have gloves. PRETTY MUCH forgot until he reminded me. Yeah. You need gloves. Thank God I didn't do it. Walked down the rock face. =.= Not that fun cos I did the jumpy thing in primary school. Did it once only. Fell to the side once, grazed my elbow. We all got a few cuts.

Went back to hotel for dinner then took vn to go fishing. It was a rip off. As in, you throw the line into the water and you just rip off some seaweed. =.= The guys got really excited about fishing. WJ sounded like the Fishing Guru in Pokemon: I LOOOVE FISHING! DO YOU LIKE FISHING? YES NO? lol. They went to buy bait and the 'fake fish' too.

Well, got there, took some nice photos but they decided to give up cos the water surface will covered all over with seaweed. =.= Strangely, I'm not into a lot of common guy stuff like fishing. Or soccer. =\ We went to this roadside durian stall and we had durian! Well, THEY had durian. I took pictures. Not a fan of it. Lol.

FOURTH DAY. Supposed to go beach. But our transport screw up. Apparently the van broke down. We woke up early and waited for 2 hours for nothing.=( Went to this mall instead, cos no one felt like going to the beach anymore.

Ate at Secret Recipe. And...this year we sorta cheated at Xmas presents. it was kinda hard to expect the success of last year to be repeated, particularly when I had so little time and less luck. =X So bought our stuff and decided to leave. Our repleacement transport was 2 cars. 6 of us wanted to go hotel, 2 (Val and YH) wanted to go beach. And well...1 car can't go beach then hotel/vice versa because it's REALLY FAR. Like 1 hour away.

So I decided to sacrifice and go with them. Then seb too. On the 1hour drive there, it rained. we got there to find a replica of East Coast Park. But with a pasar malam selling truckloads of cheap t-shirts, keychains, and sea-related souvenirs. (Think shells, lots of them.) Tacky tourist heaven! I got sand in my sandals. I know the word 'sand' is in them but still...

Went back to the seafood place, tried a new restaurant. Had the same big prawns again. Yup. Got back to the hotel to find out some things went wrong. Tak went to hospital because of food poisoning. They didn't have travel insurance. (actually none of us did.)

XW fell into the pool, and got a rather big scratch on her leg. =X We should have claimed compensation for that. Haha. Then when we were in the corridor discussing these event, val turned around and banged her leg on the wall. I was like: WHY IS ALL OF THIS HAPPENING? WHAT'S WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU??? TAK GOES HOSPITAL AND XW GETS CUT AND NOW THIS...WHY ARE ALL OF YOU GETTING INJURED! Hahaha.

XW came over to play the ARR game =P and then we watched Liar Game. Told you it was nice. =D Could sleep in today morning, so we did. Our last day here also involved a few activities.

LAST DAY. Went to Kellies Castle in the morning. It was a magnificent strucutre left unfinished because the owner died. =( It was a nice place to practice all my Assassin's Creed moves. Haha! No wonder people in the past were assassinated so easily if they had hand- and foot-holds all over their walls. Anyone with balls enough could do it.

Still, I took a lot of nice pics at the castle which was a nice looking place still, and quite interesting to visit. Pity the weather was so hot. Next visited a Chinese temple. Wasn't really interested. Lots of statues and stuff. Took a few pics. Saw a winged horse and WJ climbed on it to take photos. Haha.

Since I figured that the winged horse is not a Chinese mythology figure,(probably) it should be alright to clamber atop it and take photos. And so I did just that. Oh BTW the horse has balls. I took a picture of them. Ahem. After the temple, went to Oldtown White Coffee for lunch and then the airport.

Well...Val, Yh, Seb and I were inside the restaurant. The other four, for some unfathomable reason were sitting outside in the afternoon sun on the kerb. And someone (As in really someone, cos I dunno who) wanted to go to the airport. So we did. We reached there early. It was hot. =( If we'd stayed at the cafe, we would have had aircon, drinks, and a sofa. And not had to wait for close to an hour(?) to check in.

Anyway, the departure lounge had aircon, thankfully. Flight back, we couldn't buy duty-free alcohol. WHATTT? Highly disappointed. Was looking forward to getting another bottle of vodka. zz. Well...took cab home unpack. and that's the end of my journey. Off to tag photos. =)