INTRODUCTION OF THE PAKA RIVER EXPEDITION THAT I EMBARKED ON
It all began with me poking my head over to see what one of my volunteer (Chor Ming) was doing one fine day. He was surfing the net and was looking through this website about a trekking & kayaking expedition and asking Yinghui (another volunteer) if she was aware of it and it caught my attention. EXPEDITION... I had my share of expeditions in
- 2000 to Mount Kinabalu (Ok, I didn’t conquered the peak and got the black and white cert)
- 2002 Mount K again (making sure that I get the colored cert, this time I reached the peak. Adding to my collection of Mount K certs.)
- 2004 Cycling expedition to Kuntang
- 2006 Cycling expedition to Cheranting
After that my exercise routine just died down….no motivation and a goal to move on. So when I saw that Chor Ming is organizing an expedition to Malaysia and the cost was affordable, I decided to join him.
Instead of a group of 12 people, only 6 confirmed in the end. As our group became too small, we had to crash in with Dunman High Sch Sec 5 ODAC group – 25 of them with 3 teachers which we had no idea who they are at all. But we had a pretty good deal, so none of us minded that. The 6 of us decided to meet up a few days before the trip in TCC Bugis. There were me, Chor Ming, Hui Jing (Y Volunteer), Alan (Y Volunteer), Shawn and Yi Hung. And I cannot believe that Chor Ming think there was no need to meet up initially, it’s like, we did not know one another and he thought it’s all right to go for an expedition together without knowing one another…hmm… that’s my volunteer…never mind, we still love him.
I don’t really know what to expect for the trip. My previous trips with TOUCH group usually have prior trainings half a year before and we were usually well prepared physically and mentally. This trip is entirelly different from the ones I’d went. A few concerns
a) I just crash in with someone whom I don't really know very well without thinking of the consequences about what will happen to me if something happens (my condition).
b) I havent excerise for a year plus
c) I am not fully aware of the intensity of the expedition.
However, I had 1 star canoeing experience (1000 years ago) and Mount K experiece twice…thus I thought that would have prep me for what I was going to face next…
HISTORY OF PAKA RIVER CAMP
Before I move on, let me share about the background of the camp that we embarked on. Paka River campsite exploration started in 1994. The land was originally a 27 acre rubber plantation, it has remained as a family possession despite the WW2 and Communist Insurgency of the early 1950's .
Khee Wei fell in love with the natural setting when he first visited this area in 94. He spent most of his family time with his 2 sons Marcius and Marvin there and they trek the jungle as well as kayaking in the many rivers surrounding the area many times through the years.
With the love of the place, he bought the land in 1996, cleared and transformed into a tropical fruit orchard. The camp facilities came later in 2002. Eventually there consist of natural obstacle courses, a longhouse, dining area, field kitchen and such.
The name of this campsite came from a river situated at the edge of the campsite (Paka River). Thus Paka River Camp became the start and end point of kayaking expeditions as well as a base camp to facilitate activities into the wild hinterland.
DAY 1 (8 AUG 07)
Woke up in the late morning to catch up with a few eps of One Tree Hill Season 3. Then starting packing around 12pm and ended around 4pm. My normal packing for church camps were usually an hour long, so I was quite surprised by this time round. Anyway after that, started to made my way to Holland V to meet the rest of the gang and we proceded to meet the rest in Dunman High Sch Sec 5. Met up with the guides and Khee Wei, but we were not introduced to DHS people. So there was a barrier between us as we board the bus together. When we reached Johor, we switched to another coach to take us all the way to the camp site. The journey was super long (8.30pm – 6.30am), 10 hours! Our initial plan of chatting and playing card on the bus was discarded when everybody decided to sleep the minute they boarded the bus.
Anyway, this is my 1st long bus ride…had never have to sleep on buses that long and the experience was new and intersting.
DAY 2 (9 AUG 07)
Finally after 10 hours on the bus, we reached the campsite. The sun was not fully out yet but we saw several structures around in the campsite and the 2 main ones were the headquarters where the guides live and the long house where the campers are staying. Thank God that at least we have sheltered area instead of sleeping in tents for 3 days. There is also a structure - the communal bath for guys. And I heard that it’s actually quite exposed. Hmm…I shall not elborate on that.
We were told to change into out kayaking clothes after breakfast, we will head down for our 1st challenge. I thought it was a bit too fast pace for me as maybe I’m used to TOUCH way of doingthings…that they would usally give prep talks to prepare us, bonding session so that we can get to know each other and thus the group dynamics will be there – act as a support to one another and such.
We (6 of us) and DHS group were sorta together in this and yet seperated from each other in terms of sitting area as well as the rest of the activities as we dunno how to fit in and we dun wanna interrup their agenda. Anyway, they were friendly people. By the way, there were 3 distinct group: persist persevere and prevail. The DHS group were seperated into persist and persevere. We were called the prevail group. And weird enough, we were not informed till late morning and thus during some moment, we did not respond to their group calls. But we thought of various 'P' names to make ourself sound intersting like preserve, pai seh, pan seh, peng sung...
After breakfast, we boarded the bus again, had an hour ride before we reached the start of the Paka river where the kayaks were launched. The students took doubles and we had 1 double and 4 singles. All the ODAC students had 3 stars. I had 1 star. Hui Jing and Alan had no experience at all. Thus Huijing and Chor Ming took double and the confident me as well as the rest took the single. It was a totally new and interesting experience for me and a few others as none of us kayak in a river before. We packed our sleeping bags and barang barangs into Shawn’s mega big plastic bag and dump it at the fishing boat. The rest of the DHS seemed to be quite well prepared with long sleeve shirt as well as long tracks. One of the guy actually wore a shirt (formal) because he doesn’t have a long sleeve tshirt I think. Quite furnie. Later he intro himself as the Fashion Icon. Haha. I didn’t remember his name.
Back to the river, it was quite shallow when we started out and the river was moving quite smoothly down stream. Thus we had no difficulties in moving through the initial phrase. The process was the most intersting part. We had to overcome fallen trees, go under the logs (like cha cha'ing in the kayaks), move in single lines to move inbetween the branches and such. And at some parts, the river were moving at a fast pace that one has to row harder to get into the direction that you want. Some of our kayaks capsized once and others a few times. Mine capsized once and it was quite a challenging incident.
As we were kayaking together, one juction, there was an obstacle and suddenly all kayaks crowded at that area and couldn’t move out. With the help of the rushing river and the kayaks crashing into mine, it capsized and I fell into the rushing river. I struggled for a while as my leg couldn’t touch the ground and I CANNOT SWIM! There were a few underlying sharp branches that cut my legs when I struggled but I couldn’t care much more, just thought of getting up into the kayak. The rushing water pushed me towards a blocking trunk and the kayaks were crashing into me, thus there was no way I could get out. Thus imaging underneath I was struggling with the sharp branches and finding something to step on and above, I got banged by oncoming kayaks and thinking of ways to get up of my kayak. After that, someone finally managed to pushed the other kayaks away and I climbed over the trunk to the other side. Yihung came to my rescue and helped me to get up to my kayak again. Thank God for him! Along the way, I will be speaking more about him and his kind & furnie deeds.
We had more of this kind of experiences but I was determined to stay at the back of the team so that I won’t have to be strucked again if the same thing happens. I call it the obstacles of my lives as to parallel to the problems that I faced. Despite that, I had my fair share of laughter too during the trip. Chor Ming started it first. As he likes to venture to new areas to avoid the obstacles, thus he’ll try to take different route from the others. It can be both good and bad. Some of them are what we call unneccessary risks but it’s what he calls challenges and excitement. Huijing was completely at his mercy and I had a good laugh when the rest made funny comments about Chor Ming.
Halfway through, I changed to a double and Yihung offered to do it with me. I was glad. Throughout, he was quite sweet and would ask me to stop if I was tired and he could go on. It was nice. The scenery, nature, people, river…arggg….i missed it!
We started to kayak from 10am till 4pm I think and we camp the rest our night on a sandy beach in Tenggol island. Basically it's in front of "Tenggol Resort" which is essentially this brown hut-like structure with an open balcony in front and a kitchen behind. We had to pitch the tents in the beachfront where we had a forest view just opposite the river and behind. Before we knew it, the DHS guys set up the clothes lines that made the drying of clothes possible. Thank you peeps!Before the night falls, besides pitching tents, we had to set up fire, try to prepare the vegetables and changed into our dry clothes (yupz, no bathing!). I had a surprised when we were asked to wash our vegetables in the river (which we kayaked and jump right into it after that and do whatever we want in). Anyway I thought they must have done it before and since history has proved everyone to be all right, this would be ok too. It was an eye opener and quite cool I thought. Very native and a raw experience. Dinner was rice, fried vege (the ones we washed in the river) and deep fried fish. The piece of fish practically covered my whole mass tin and I have to fiddle with the rice underneath. After that, we washed the mass tin in the same river… with sand. Hmm… something new again!
During night fall, we gathered around (6 of us) and the rest of the DHS had their own debrief session. Our session was great! Had a good laugh over everything and I totally enjoyed their presence! And the stars…they were countless and so bright. It was simply amazing! The only stupid thing about the gathering were the sand flies and insects flying around us while we were talking. We shared about ourselves, but loved experiences and the teasing of each other in the midst of nature. I haven’t had that kind of fun since poly days, during my canoing days.
Then at about 9.30pm, we crept into out tents to sleep. I wanted to chat more but my eyelids and body asked me to take out my sleeping bag and go rest.
DAY 3 (10 AUG 07)
Woke up 3 times in a row by people chatting outside, silence, silence again. I dreamt, that I was home taking something, intending to go back to camp, but I decided not to go back so to indulge in the comfort of my bed. But then good things must come to an end and eventually I woke up.
It's another day of kayaking, but I heard that the distance was shorter and obstacles were lesser. So had more confidence that morning but decided to go ahead with a double. This time round, Shawn offered to partner me and Yihung with Hui Jing. Alan and Chor Ming took back the singles. I think Alan is very brave, the day before he capsized 3 times and he still willing to take the single.
Had good fun chatting with Shawn, he seemed to be quite knowledgable about a lot of stuff, but maybe due to age, still need to gain more wisdom. And I feel safe kayaking with him…coz he’s quite good, so he would guide and I would just follow. Halfway through, we were told that Huijing had an accident and I was quite worried. Later when I saw her and Yihung emerging from a distance, I was gald. She told me that she got hooked unto a fishing hook by the neck and it was RUSTY. I was quite distrubed and really prayed for her…but along the trip, she didn’t develop fever, thus I reckon that there was no infection and thank God for that. But it showed that this was very dangerous and could cost lives.
During a break, Shawn changed into single with Chor Ming, when asked later he said that coz he thought Chor Ming was struggling in the single, so he changed with him. Thought that was quite considerate. Anyway, many times in the trip, he kept emphasing that he’s the kind of person that works hard to keep his friends coz he don’t wanna take them for granted.
Anyway, kayaking with Chor Ming nearly bust my lungs out laughing non stop. Yea, he would guide too, like venturing to areas that the group would steer away from and I like that. Though I laughed at Huijing and him the day before about ‘taking unneccessary risks’ but when I was doing it, it was not really the case. It was quite adventurous and fun! Maybe I would not have done it alone…but with another, I would go for ‘risker’ stuff. Hmm… something that I’d discovered about myself. Along the way, saw a leech stucked unto Alan’s side of the kayak, wanted to shove it away but failed. It was there for a few hours, bobbing in and out of water. But after that, it was gone and we thought it dropped into the water.
There were 2 breaks along the way while kayaking with Chor Ming. And actually that day’s scenery is like ‘paradise’ - the formation of the trees, it’s like going through the Lord of the Rings scene. You know what I mean? Simply amazing! I still can picture it in my mind as I was typing…anyway, during the first break we had some banana pancake and local malay snacks. It was quite cool, something for a change I thought (from Singapore). Durnig the 2nd break, the guide told us that we were near to the destination, so DHS teacher challenged the students to race back. Chor Ming was so excited! I was totally against the idea and call him CRAZY! Both of my legs were totally burnt with pain coupled with no strength to row and he wanna do that? But he did not gave up that idea. Anyway, when we started rowing I thought, “what the heck, just do it for the thrill, since he wanted so much, just go along.” So and yea, when the green light goes on, we paddled like we have never done before. BUT, I was LAUGHING so much that I couldn’t concentrate. Chor Ming was practically behind shouting like there’s war coming and he’s chion-ing for it. It was SUPER amusing! Kept laughing non stop and finally, we reached the camp site. So that was the end of the kayaking session for this trip BUT not for the day.
While bathing halfway, I heard Alan and Yihung’s voices. Apprantely I heard something like Alan has ganna a leech on his body and Yihung is helping him. So after showering during dinner time, I asked where was the leech and Yihung looked super amused. He took 2 mangosteen, joined it side by side to illustarte that as Alan’s buttocks, and with legs slightly apart (as he said), he saw blood there and the leech was already on the floor when he arrived. He added that there were two things that shocked him that moment. 1stly is how fat the leech is on the floor and 2ndly, where the leech sucked. It was SUPER HILAROUS lah!!! So he had to put a plaster on Alan’s asses to stop the blood from flowing. Wah seh!!! I had the laugh of my life! “Maybe he had menses?” I added and the laughter just rocked the whole place even more. Alan was so cool about it and throughout the rest of the trip, that became the core joke.
So after dinner, it was the night walk. There were 2 parts to it, group and single. So 6 of us we were the 1st to go. We were to move as a group and to look out for orange cloth tied to trees. When we reach a beam of fire, then we have to move seperatly in darkness. So with only 2 torch lights to one group, we started out. We went uphill to an enclosed area where wild trees and leaves were everywhere. So with Shawn as the front guy and me the 2nd followed by Huijing, Alan, Yihung, Chor Ming and a guide, we managed to find every clue. When we reached the beam, we pass our torchlights to the guide and started to walk alone. Chor Ming was the first brave soul, followed by me, then I cannot remember who else was next.
I remember that it was super dark. Imagine the sky was covered by a canopy of trees, there was a straight path but we cannot see all that when we walked. I wasn’t afriad because God was there and I don’t know if my eyes were playing tricks on me, I could actually see the path. So I just walked, concentaring on the path ahead. Suddenly, the path was gone and I was surprised. But when I looked up, I saw the sky filled with starry starry stars. I had passed the canopy trees and now is open area and I just followed the stars as I walked. It was totally a awesome experience. So the walk led me back to the camp. As I was slowly walking back to the camp site, from a distance I saw someone and I knew it was Chor Ming coz he was wearing white. So I spoke to him and he was surprised that I knew it was him. Haha…fun!
The whole place was PITCH DARK. Yea, the guides switched off ALL the lights and we cannot on them unless the whole night walk was done. Me and Chor Ming were the 1st 2 to get back. So we spent 15 mins looking at the stars and chatting. It was nice and I really enjoyed it. After a while, the rest of our members came back together. Apprantely Huijing and Alan got lost along the way and the pass the main gate without knowing, so the guide has to chase them back. As the rest of the DHS were not back yet, we had potato chips in the dark with a light stick. It was weird but fun again.
Eventally when everyone was back, the lights were on and a few DHS students got leeches on them. I assumed that perhaps they stopped along the way, that’s why the leeches have opportunity to climb unto them. By the way, in this trip, I realised that there are 2 main kinds of leech – the river leech and the forest leech. River one is bigger and meaner look and forest leech is much much smaller. So back to the students, a nunmber of them ganna the leeches and one of them even had it on his stomach. Gross! I checked my legs and arms and did not feel anything. So I felt quite safe. But then, as the number of students with leeches started to increase, I checked again. Rolled up my pants on the right, nothing. Rolled up pants on the left and I saw something on my socks. SCREAMED, i tried to shoo the leech away. After a few attempts, it was was on the bench and was aggressively crawling away. Apprantely it was on my sock and had partially touched my skin and sucked my blood. I wondered if it enjoyed it coz it is sweeter. But there was no pain at all, weird. After that, I began to feel uneasy the whole night…thinking that there must be a leech someone on my body that I don’t know. Hehe…quite an interesting experience!
By the time it ended, it was around 12.30am. Had a good sleep that night…
DAY 4 (11 AUG 07)
The DHS group woke up at 6am and were ready at 6.30am for a short walk in the forest where we had the night walk. The guide told us that our group could rest more and do not have to join them and I was elited! Yea, more sleep. Anyway, we were so awake by the students that I didn’t manage to catch more rest. But we did not join the group out.
After breakfast, we started packing and somehow I was sorta confident of conquering the cemerong waterfall climb as I went up to Mount K before. TWICE some more. But the experience was more than expected.
The route was all right at first, with concrete routes, steps and such. The initial scene was beautiful. But shortly, we reached the challenging part and it was literally UP, UP and UP. The steps were unlike anything like Mount K, this was more raw an undefined. Mount K at least there were well defined steps, for this it was climbing over fallen trees, stepping on thick roots, pulling on dead and rotting roots to get myself to the other side of the landing. And for a moment, I wondered why was I there. Finally when we reached the first checkpoint which we can see the whole of the waterfall, it wasn’t that fantastic to me any more. I wonder why. Anyway, I dipped myself into the cold water and it was good. Shortly we moved off and my leg started to ache. But I sorta ignored it and apply some deep heat to move on.
The climb seemed never ending and it was touger than before. We practically have to squezze through branches, duck under trees, step on roots and the worse thing is the up factor. But halfway through, DHS sang songs (whatever, from national day songs to camp fire songs) and that helped me not to concentarte on the strain on my leg. If they can do it, I can do it too! So we went all the way up until we reached a clear landing. The whole distance was 750m and the mountain was around 5000m high (I think). We had our lunch and snakcs there. Refilled our waterbottles with the waterfall water. Nobody minded as we were all so tired and the water looks super clear.
After lunch, we tried the water and were warned to dip ourself slowly first as the water was icy cold. I didn’t know how cold it would be until I dipped my legs into it. It was really ICY cold. Haha, but we all enjoyed it, had to hold on to a rope to swim towards the waterfall, and just park myself on a rock and stopped moving. It was great fun…but along the way, cut myself against the rocks and had abrasion on my sunburnt legs. Ignored that at that point. Just wanna enjoy that moment of experience.
After 30 mins be splashed by the icy cold water, we have to head back down, otherwise it’ll turn dark soon. Thus we head back down at around 4pm and 1/6 way through, my leg started to gave away and started to tremble badly. A few times I slipped and fell so in the end, I had to use a walking stick to help me move down the mountain. But that didn’t helped as well coz I still kept missing my steps or tripped over roots. Then my prince came..haha…no lah…Chor Ming offered to hold me hand along the way. That was kinda good coz I concentarted on the steps he went on and I had 2 support. This time round, we went on faster (I think). Along the way, the stupid guide kept asking me to walk faster, making me guilty about it. But I knew I couldn’t help it and ignored him. So our group became the last and we were moving quite slowly because of me. The guide even asked how heavy am I so that he could try to carry me down. CRAZY! I will never give up….i just need time….but time is not on my side as well as it was nearly 5pm and we have not reach half yet. Along the way, Huijing, Hui Yun (facilitator), Yihung, Alan and Shawn also encouraged me to take my time and ignore that stupid guide. Halfway through Yihung assured me again to take my time and said that his passport expires only in 2012 (or something) and the rest started to talk about their passport expiry date too. That moment really touched me and i teared. I felt really loved and protected by this group of people that I hardly know. And I know that if something were to happen to me, I would be in safe hands. So I was more determined to move on, not giving up. But the climb down was really a tedious one. Each step I made, I had to limp as I cannot control my legs anymore. It was shaking uncontrollable non stop. No muscle cramp, just pain now.
The walk down was endless. Just down and down and down. Finally after hours, we managed to cross 2 rivers and we were near to the end. That wasn’t bad. At least Chor Ming’s hand was always there. It was really ALWAYS there coz when let go to grab on to the branches or roots, the next moment, his hands would be there to offer again. I guess this is how God works isn’t it. “He will never leave you nor forsake you even in your deepest moment or trials.” God had used Chor Ming and the rest to demostrate His love for me. After the whole climb down, as I sat at the bottom alone (when others are bathing), tears just rolled. I was touched, very touched.
The one thing I really thank God, besides my friends were the weather. It drizzled a bit on the way up but it stopped all the way until we came down. Then it rained heavily when we were all on the bus on the way back. Amazing isn’t it. It must be HIM!
We had dinner at the caterer’s restaurant and the food was not really fantastic. Just had 2 pieces of boiled chicken, curry on rice and bandung drink. During the ride back, we just chat throughout the 1 hour. By the time, it was around 8 something when we reached back. The 6 of us decided not to bath and packed our bags. During evaluation time, we sat around the long house and played stupid games. Haha, had a good laugh over Yihung and Ismail (one of the guide) when they made funny expressions. It was really fun!
Then we were invited to go over to the guide house for some durian before we leave for the night. Yummy!!! Had a few seeds and 2 mangosteens.
And so that was the last we saw of Paka River Camp Site.
DAY 4 (11 AUG 07)
Slept throughout the bus ride back to Singapore. We left around 12.30am the night before and had breakfast around 7am and reached DHS around 9am. After bidding our goodbyes, we made our way back home. And that was the end of the whole expedition. Came back with all the physical injuries and itchness but totally filled with gratitude.
Cheers to my Abba Father!
ting
