Couldnt really sleep tt night due to e anticipation and excitement. =.=
DAY 2 (12th March)
Woke up quite early (everyone did too.) at 7am to get ready for the 6 hour bus ride to the village (Kampung Batu Lunguyan). I never rode a bus ride SO long, with 2 hours worth of rocky, sandy AND very bumpy roads inclusive! Reached e village at 3+pm.
We were very welcomed by the villagers, they took out their gongs n played them to welcome us! They only play their gongs on very special occasions yea.

It's very nice music, although the different gongs have their own rythmn to play with, they blend in so well with one another! This reminds me of the church, everyone of us are of different personalities, but we get along so well with each other too! =)
The children there are much more innocent than those in Singapore. They are very friendly and they brought us around their village. We went to their school n church. Oh, the community there is mainly catholic. So they dont work on Sundays too.
Oh ya, the kids are very adventurous. they can just run up a cliff barefooted. On e 1st day we all were shocked and told them to come down, but later realised tt they grew up like that and must have done that thousands of times.
Oh, i have to mention. Due to the large number of cows there, there were a lot, and i say A LOT of 'landmines' on the roads. We were very conscious NOT to step on them but.. u noe, people get careless sometimes. =p
We were introduced to our newly built toilet (the villagers built it specially for us! how nice!) and our bunks. Our bunks were big, but once we are done with the mosquito nets, there were very little space to walk. I din take a photo of the whole bunk. There were pink mosquito nets, blue ones, green ones. The whole bunk looked like an obstacle course lah. My mosquito net is at the back of the bunk so i've to bend down and walk thru e strings of the other mosquito nets, tied to the window of the bunk. Hard to imagine w/o photos eh. Paiseh. =X
I forgot to mention, we bought our own mattresses n pillows. and they were literally STUFFED into our bus when we set off from KK. And this was how e bus looked like.
Okay enough of day 2.
DAY 3 (13th March)
We thought construction works would start but the in-charge gave us the day off. day off w/o working 1st! That's why i say ppl there are very nice! =p
We interacted with the villagers there, played with the kids, eeked at the cows, hid from the dogs, shouted at the chickens there to shut up (heh.) and played in the river! The river there is not very clean (expected.) but it wasnt as dirty as wad we expected. The water was yellowish, but when it's clear, u can see the stones underneath. It wasnt very deep lah, or i wont even step in at all. The kids, as usual, jumped into e river and did stuff tt our parents will never allow us to do (like go into the current of the water to the big rock downstream to play, jump down from a very high bridge into the river where the current is VERY strong).
It gets dark over there at 6pm. 7pm there looked like 8pm in Singapore. The electricity there is very unstable. The lights may just go 'poof!' anytime. So there werent any stuff to do at night. Some ppl go to sleep at 8.30pm even. But in the girls' bunk, other than sleeping we had other stuff to do.
Screaming at insects/flies/how big there mosquitoes are.................................... (haha)
After all those 'eeks' and 'ahhs' we still went to sleep.
It was an eye-opener already on the 1st full day in Batu Lunguyan. There were more eye popping stuff after that.
DAY 4 (14th March)
1st day of constructions! In case u were thinking wad i'm doing in Sabah, i'm there to lay water pipes for the villagers.
We trekked 1hour in the forest to the source of the water. 1hour of trekking even before the start! All of us were quite whiny abt e fact at the start.
Because it's e 1st day, we were very slow in our movement, scared of our shoes getting dirty and wet, scared of losing our balance, scared of this and that..... But aft seeing the villagers stepping into mud w/o any hesitation, we thought we were gonna get dirty anyway, so we just did wad they did.
when we (finally) reached the part of the river which is the source of the pipes, we made a gravity dam so that the water level upstream is increased to let more water go into the pipes. A little bit of hydraulics here, so ya. we built a dam.
so 20+ ppl stood in one line, passing rocks n stones of different sizes into the wire cage that the
And so this was day 1 of constructions.
DAY 5 (15th March)
Day 2 of constructions! We were more comfortable about the trekking part already, so it din take as long as the 1st day. This time we divided into 2 groups. One group will go downstream and move the water pipes back to the route, because some of them rolled into the river when it rained very heavily a few days ago. It is very hard work cos one pipe is quite heavy, and there were many pipes waiting for us to move them back to where they belong.
The other group stays upstream and move more rocks n stones into the dam.
As usual, i wanted to do something more physically demanding so i joined e 1st group. We walked downstream in the river till we see the 1st pipe. den we moved it back. then the second one, then third, fourth.............
And we went back to the village with aching backs n arms. =p
DAY 6 (16th March)
It's Sunday! So we din have to work. So we went to the nearest town to buy stuff + get handphone reception. Er, e latter is mostly wad we went to town for. But for a good reason! Our results were released on friday. The school will sms us our results. So... ya. Received my msg and it sorta made me emo e whole day cos my results werent good. But well, i thought i should enjoy my time in Sabah 1st, and worry abt my results when i come back. So i became back to normal v fast.
DAY 7 (17th March)
My rest day. The others have to go work though. everyone has a day when they can rest lah, i'm not slacking. =p
Its a rest day but i'm SO bored! aft sending the others off to the jungle, i washed my clothes in the river (another once in a lifetime experience), played with the kids there, played the guitar (lousily), stoned, chatted with the other ppl who were having their rest day too.........
And finally e others came back and proceeded to our daily activity, THE RIVER!!!!!! hehe. i din really play inside lah, just sat inside, feeling the current going into my back. a very soothing feeling. Better than a spa some more, cos it's free. =p
DAY 8 (18th March)
Same as day 2 of constructions. Except that everyone were to move pipes. Starting to get boring i know. =p oh, i broke my glasses that night.
DAY 9 (19th March)
Ahh. Finally the last day of constructions. Joined the pipes together using this flat circular thing with a handle (called the hot plate). The villagers are very pro eh. They carried a gas cylinder into the jungle and a stove to heat the hot plate up. Then we had to push the two pipes together towards the hot plate, for the hot plate to melt the sides of the two pipes, then pull the pipes away from the hotplate, then quickly push them together again.
So we were like 'PUUUUUUUSSSSHHHHH!!!!!!' 'PUUULLLLLLLLL!!!!!' 'PUUUSSSSHHHH!!!!' e whole day. as if we were giving birth. =p
then the villagers made use of the gas cylinder and the stove, and bbq-ed some pupa (i dunno wad it will become, moth or butterfly) for us. of cos we freaked out, but some of us ate it still. not bad, tastes exactly like bbq-ed chicken wing skin. heheh. another once in a lifetime experience.
DAY 10 (20th March)
No construction to be done cos we completed wad we had to complete! we divided into two groups again, one to visit their padi field, and the other to rubber tapping. i thought rubber tapping was lame so i went for the padi fields one. its high up on a hill next to e village, n the way up is very steep. i was panting halfway up, but the scenery at the top of the field in breathtaking. no photos again. now i'm regretting not bringing my phone up to take photos. =.=
DAY 11 (21st March)
Good friday! the villagers brought us to a picnic! they caught fishes and prawns n crabs to cook there. oh, no more gas cylinders lah. they used a huge bonfire (like those u see in a campfire), i've no idea how they managed to start a huge fire. =p the way there was like our normal trekking, but fun-er. there were bridges, broken ones. we gals screamed and walked (as usual)
after that all of us splt into 3 groups to prepare our item for the farewell party. my group sang. others acted or danced.
once e farewell party started, all went very high. the villagers presented us their rice wine. i din really dare to drink it, cos i dunno if i've got allergies or not. but still drank a bit. it was...... bitter. then we and all e youngsters there took photos. lots of them. then it was all the speeches and items by us and the villager kids. i've to say, the kids really can dance. =)
See that carlsberg can in my friend's hand?? all e way at e left!
then aft that dance, all went crazy, the villager played karaoke songs, then we youngsters danced and played. we were constantly offered rice wine, but after that bitter sensation i din wanna try again. so i just.. danced. =p but my frens got drunk n was blabbering and walking zigzag. yeah. so some of us brought them to the nearby provision shop/coffeeshop for a milo. oh, that uncle who runs the coffeeshop can speak chinese!
aft all the fun n milo we bathed for the 2nd time of the day, at 12am. slept at 1am.
DAY 12 (21st March)
Woke up at 5.30am to get ready to leave the village. ahh. 10 days go by so fast. my very emotional best friend teared as the kids sang a song for us.
okay, then we left the village, sadly.
then we went to Poring Hot Springs and got conned. Poring Hot Springs are oni for soaking of legs and are always full. i paid RM3 to enter this place which looked v fun, but it's cold water inside. =.= Service there quite bad some more. =(
then we went to this Long House to stay for the night. Let me say this, Long House is REALLY long. the whole structure is made of bamboo. floors, walls, everything. sorta felt unsecure walking on it but luckily it went okay. and i broke my shades.
DAY 13 (23rd March)
went to see the sunrise and visit their tea plantation. then went for snorkelling in Manukan Island. honestly there wasn't anything to see in such shallow waters, but the view is nice enough. clear waters, white sands and.. pollution. =/ Okay lah, there are rainbow fishes, corals and some small small random fishes lor.
then went for banana boat. capsized twice. not bad. lost my left contact lens in the middle of nowhere. =/ i became cyclops fr then on.
walked back to the backpackers' inn where we stayed for the 1st night (remember??) and went out for dinner at KFC. ahh, civilisation. went shopping at the mall. some frens asked me if i wanna watch Manchester united VS liverpool that night, venue to be confirmed. knowing tt my bro couldnt watch it, i decided to watch it for him.
BUT! aft dinner my frens told me tt they're watching the match in a pub, i backed out. not that i'm a wet blanket or sth, but i dun plan to go to that kind of place even in Singapore. i can opt out about the alcohol but.. i've nv been there b4, and who noes wad'll happen there? even till now i still feel v happy tt i din step into that place, because some of my frens came back to the inn drunk. i felt i've glorified God in a way or another in this case. =)
DAY 14 (24th March)
LAST DAY.
we headed to the sabah airport in e morn. reached Senai airport at around 1+pm. reached johor customs at 3 something and go home at 5.30pm.
THINGS I WANNA THANK GOD FOR:
~ letting me experience things that i've never experienced before
~ letting me give thanks for things that i've been taking for granted for (electricity, for example)
~ strengthening me up mentally and physically thruout this trip
~ bonding everyone of us together, although not very closely, but i came to know more people and maybe i could bring one or two to Christ! =)
~ constantly reminding me that i should BE a christian, not only ACT like one
~ helping me discipline myself when i was there
~ helping me appreciate nature
~ the hospitality we recieved from the villagers
~ bringing me back to singapore safe and sound
~ everything! =D
yep that's it gals. sorry if i was boring u yah. =p will share more if u ask me! =D