Sarawak

I'm finally back.

Yesterday that is..

Was so tired after touchdown at 5+pm and the panic over my baggy that got stuck in KL transit. Apparently my underwears attempted to go on a tour without me but they were caught by the airline people b4 they could board any other flights out.

But WHY m I on MH flight when my underwears came back in SQ!?!

Not fair not fair.

I made a call to the Lost & Found at 7pm, waited until 8 which they said they'll check the SQ flight arriving. Fell asleep at 9 after 3ep of Naruto. Concussed till 12am when my mum was practically dragging me out of dreamland. The airline people had delivered my baggy back and knocked the door at 12.07am!!

Hello.. Its kinda scary to have people knocking at ur door at 12 midnight. And the panicky mum that I had was still thinking what happened, maybe police or something. Ahahhaha.

Anyway, they din asked me to verify the contents of the bag. Maybe I'm the only one with misplaced bag. I noe.. its kinda inconspicuous. I'll paste my name big big next time. Its only a convertible bag/pouch. Not my Mambo backpack.

Slipped back into coma again, nvr wanting to wake up for work, but still have to drag my butt from my bed and crawled to start working on my statements. 4 days for that. Hopefully its not that complicated for last mth.

Abt the trip, hmm.. kinda fun but VERY TIRING. 4 nights away from my cosy bed. 5 days away from internet/communication (Not really, jus that gotta pay overseas charge).

Its my 1st time taking plane. Was OK. Jus that the plane is damn cramped. A 737 or something. Flight food was only edible standard. 2 times I forgot to take the camera outta the bag for pictures. Nvm, shall do it when I'm off to TW next mth.


Saw this ManU plane when I touched down at Kuching

Transport from airport to Crowne Plaza hotel takes roughly 20min. Hotel room was quite big, definitely bigger than my room. King size bed which I only utilized the right side. Lighting was a bit dim, even after switching all the lights on.

I still like my own room at home.


View from my hotel room 907

Went jalan-ing at the bazaar/wet market/sunday market, watever they call it. Its like the wet markets in SG. Floors were wet, stalls mostly selling veggies, all over.


The bazaar


The horrendous parking lot traffic


And of cos, the "Free" shop. (100% discount IS free what..)

Sunday was spent adventurously. The advance party, us, went cave climbing while our chairman stayed back at the hotel to get a nice in-room massage and welcome the folks.


Outside of Fairy Cave


Entrance


Inside the cave


Look at the minute stairs

Had a ranger to bring us ard, but half the time, he's speaking in Malay, which only the Malay folks understand and din bother to translate, or translate incorrectly. 3/4 of the time, they went so fast I got fed up, bcos I've got night blindness, its pitch dark in the cave, there's only one light behind for 4 person, the 2 ppl + ranger was already 5-10m away with 2 lights. Many a times I'll jus stand still, when I cant see the floor in front of me, bcos I dun wanna step on wat I'm not supposed to step on, or take a wrong step and fall/slide all the way to darkness. Irritating! Should have gotten my own torchlight but the ranger says dun need. *Growl*

*Note: We took the unbeaten route in Fairy Cave. Mostly no stairs and in pitch darkness. We spent nearly 3 and a half hrs inside the cave. 700++ feet above sea level we climbed.

Luckily the scenery makes up for all the unpleasantness inside the cave.


Wind Cave


River outside Wind Cave

Wind Cave was not as tough, but its even darker than Fairy Cave. Even though there's pathed route for visitors, we have to look out for snakes as warned by the ranger. Nothing much to see inside, only bats and bird's nest. Pitch darkness, cant take pics.

Got to this beautiful, breath-taking, now on my lappy wallpaper lake. Took tonnes of photos of its serenity and calmness. All these on Lumix DMC-LC50. Not bad for a 3.2mp camera. Jus some problems with the exposure parts on the forest.


Looks kinda like China


Can I have a house with this kinda view?


How peaceful it looks under the clouds..

Monday was the start of the agenda that we went Sarawak for. Full day meeting, I was responsible for clicking the powerpoints. "Thankfully" for that responsibility, I din nod off that much, only during one presentation where the presenter went off-track and I din have to click that much.


View from meeting room suite


Area ard Crowne Plaza

The whole bunch of us went Cultural Village after our morning meeting on Tuesday for teambuilding. Its a cool place. Dun ever miss it if u're in Sarawak!

Its a bit outta place though. An hour's journey from the hotel. I was so tired I slept in the bus. A very educational tour, not to mention the breath-taking sights yet again. The serenity lake, the long houses, the mountain background.


Cultural Village


Green, Green, Loads of Greens


Got that bamboo-like plant in the pic to create the China/Japan feel

Went ard the village in teams for "Treasure Hunt", trying to get answers for the questions. As the village is not very big, we're literally moving in one BIG group instead. Nevertheless, loads of fun, colluding with other teams, split and merge with members of other teams, climbing the steep stairs, trying out blowpipes, etc etc. We finished our questions with time to spare and proceeded to finish looking through the whole village and the different tribes. Din really get to visit the Chinese and Malay community thou as its time for the games.

Played basketball, coconut bowling, bottle fishing, blow pipe shooting and darts. The basket for the basketball is lower than the normal height. And being out of touch for like 2 yrs, I only managed 1 outta 5 tries, penalty-styled. The rest of my group oso got 1 each except for my big boss, who had none in, for a national bball player. Heehee. So 3 pts for that. And only after the games I found out, my boss, who aint any bball player, scored 4 outta 5. WAH KAOOOOOO He one person win my whole team.

Had a spare of abt 7 pins for the coconut bowling, and no hits for the next attempt. The nail flew outta the bottle in bottle fishing TWICE (its already hard enuff to get the nail in the bottle with the wind blowing). Out of range for blowpipe and darts. Ahhaahaha. Conclusion, the last team that arrived at the games station won the whole telematch.

Proceeded for cultural show. They had a blowpipe performance and were looking for victims. I think I was victimized cos the fella was shining his mirror at me. I continued shooting him with my camera while he went to attack another poor lady. Maybe he thought a weaker lady would be more entertaining than choosing this bochup girl. Ahahahha.

Went shopping after that, I bought quite a few bracelets. Crystals lah, Tiger Eyes lah. I haven demagnetized them yet thou. Total shopped items: Extendable Back Scratcher, keychains for souvenirs, loads of pepper, one box of bird's nest, bracelets, earrings blah blah blah.

Yest was the last day at Sarawak. Finally got to pray at Dua Peh Gong (forgot the name of the temple) after planning to do it on Sunday. Its a simple affair, 8 joss-sticks (the one near my house had 24 joss-sticks and 9 deities lor). Made a bit of contribution and prayed for my safety. Aint a good yr for me (Note: my touring underwear is one of the eg.).

Took the flight at 1+, transit at KL for abt an hr, then back SG. At least the KL-SG plane is bigger, smoother taking off and landing.

That's abt it. And I definitely dun like answering questions like How's ur trip? I got that question more than 3 times today. How m I supposed to describe the scary cave with natural stone sculptures that look human-like?? Hmm..

Yeah. Off to concussion again. Nvr enuff sleep for me.