The week of Nov. 11-14, I got the privilege to go to Malaysia! This was just one of the many trips that were happening this week- some in Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand! I chose Malaysia because it was recalled as a "fun trip" not a service one. Not that I don't want to serve, just spacing out the 2 service trips that I have to do in middle school (6th and 8th grade). I thought that since 7th grade was the "fun year", considering I'm not leaving the next year, nor arriving this year either. So Malaysia was the trip to go on:)
When I was packing my bags for the trip (which was like a week before, due to excitement!), I thought about my friends in the U.S, and how their parents would never in a million years let their child go to Malaysia by themselves. But fortunately, living in Hong Kong, Malaysia's pretty close, and being the oldest, I think I can manage it:) But I also thought about being able to not loose anything- like my passport and HK ID card. I'm known to loose things sooooo I was promising to my parents that I would pay EXTRA attention to those;) Finally, Monday morning approached us. I was sleeping over at my friend, Caroline's house, because she has a car, and she's one of my closest friends in HK. I was waking up at 4:30am to catch our flight, feeling a mixture of sleepy, anxious, and super excited!
Caroline's car approached the airport, and I grabbed my big duffel bag, and carry on. Before we arrived to the airport, we stopped at an MTR stop and picked up my mom. Of course, we had to do this because she hadn't of said enough goodbyes already:) We found our group of about 40 students, and the adventure began. Well, actually the adventure doesn't start until your parents leave ;) , so we had to wait until our bags were checked in, and we were headed to security check. I said goodbye, and we were off. WE, being the whole group, but specifically my 2 friends: Caroline and Dawn.
Finally we were on the airplane (Cathay Pacific), and 3 and 1/2 hours later were in Malaysia!!
Yayy! My 3rd out of 5 countries I would be going to before Christmas! We started out by going to a Chinese restaurant, eating spicy food (#yum). Since their were only six 7th graders, we all just hung out together. They all cracked me up! After lunch, we took about a 30min bus ride to the amusement park! This was the largest indoor amusement park in the world (literally)! I had an AWESOME time going on the rides, eating lots of snacks, and hanging out with the 6 of us! My 2 favorite things was the DNA mixer, where your basically sitting normally, and then it twists you backwards, forwards, all for about 7 minutes. It was awesome! The second one was the Haunted House. Even if it WAS scary, it was hilarious to watch everybody's reaction after. Even in it was awesome (especially when the 3 boys screamed like girls!). After the 3 hr. experience in the amusement park, we headed out for dinner. We had seafood. Mr. Jacus, my science teacher is an HILLARIOUS guy from Michigan (BOO0o) , and loved the shrimp. He had 7 SHRIMP on his plate, and it looked like he was reaching for more. Funny moments that day, but their was way more that I was going to be able to experience throughout the day.
Day #2! Waking up at 7am with Caroline as my roommate, I was tired, but not exhausted. We had breakfast, and was on the road to Taman Negara, about a 2-3 hr. road trip, depending on traffic. We arrived to the place where we would be four wheel driving to the water fall!!! I was SUPER excited, cause I had never actually done 4WDriving before. When we arrived, me, Caroline and Dawn and this 8th grader hopped on to the 4WD. We had no idea how bumpy the ride was, but I found that out when I let go for a second and almost fell off. After the drive, we walked to the waterfall, and swam into it. Well, actually it wasn't a very long swim due to it being EXTREMELY COLD! :0
We had spicy chicken for lunch (Mr. Jacus said it was better then the shrimp so you can imagine how much he ate ;), and of course: A bottle of water. Its very important to stay hydrated in 90F+ degrees!
After the waterfall, we rode back, and went back to the bus where we drove another 1-2 hours to the place where we would be zip lining and white water rafting! :) I was thrilled, cause once again, I have never been white water rafting! ( I have been zip lining). When we FINALLY arrived, we unpacked because fortunately the place happened to be a hotel as well (lodges), so we dropped our bags off at the room. Then we took a tutorial "class" on how to zip line and white water raft down the river. After listening to instructions we did it:) It was amaaazzziinnngg. After that, we cleaned up, had some free time, and had dinner. Before I knew it, I was sleeping...a lot. I was tired. But it didn't feel very long before...
I woke up to Day #3! Day # 2 was known as "Wet Day", well today was known as "Wet Wet day!"
We had spaghetti breakfast (#random?), then were off to Taman Negara, to the next hotel. We got there, found our hotel room, and headed down to the floating restaurant to eat lunch. After that, we took a "water taxi" to the Longest Hanging Canopy Walkway Bridge in the World. I was anxious to go:) We went, and after that, we got back on to the water taxi. The teachers gave us a lovely surprise of splashing us throughout the ride. But, it was fun, I enjoyed it:) We rode to the Asilly people who were a tribe that lived on a tiny island. We learned the way they live, and how they managed to live life by cooking and feeding themselves because after all, they were in extreme poverty. We left the place, and decided to play in the river for about 20 minutes. Then, we headed back to the hotel, and washed up for the night walk. Ahhh yes the moment I've been waiting for. When we headed to the trail. I was amazed but slightly creeped out about the things I saw. We was an aardvark, a tarantula sized spider, elephant (wild) watching, a goat, pigs, termites (if they bite your skin, then their teeth get stuck in your skin), and of course, the mosquitos came for a visit as well. Finally, when it was over we went back to the hotel and "zzzzzzz" I was asleep. Today, was probably the most action-filled day.
The last full day! :( Noooo! When I woke up, I knew we were doing three main things: Cave exploring, chocolate shopping, and going to a fancy banquet! But of course we had to drive there first. It was back to Kuala Lumpur. 3 hours. We arrived at the cave, and had a wild adventure. Bats, rock structures, and cave crickets. Beautiful sites too, because the caves were in the middle of the jungle. After the caves, we went to a restaurant that had a shower, so we showered in it because we were covered in mud and bat poo! I have to say, I don't think I've ever smelled worse then that day haha!:) We showered and rode the bus to chocolate shopping! We got there and right away started to shop. I got mint chocolate, and Hot Spicy chocolate (that I would later trick my dad with ;). Right after the shopping, we headed to the banquet. It was amazing! There was singing, dancing, and most of all, the food was excellent. We watched the show for about 1 hour, and headed out back to take pics of the Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. It was a great sight that I will never forget. We went back to the hotel that we stayed the first night, and didn't go to bed at first actually...we played the card game: "Cheat", until 1am. It was SO fun! Then we went to bed, and all of a sudden I regret playing till that late.
I was tired! We had breakfeast, and sadly had to go to the airport to catch our flight :'( As much as I wanted to stay, I knew that my family missed me, and I missed them. As the plane landed in HK, I still felt like I was Malaysia, but sadly we weren't:(
Even today, I miss Malaysia and all its wonderful memories. It is a place that I will never forget.
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