Day 2 - Rafflesia Trek

Woke up at 6 today despite the official wake up time at 6.30. Wanted to get a head start, besides, didn't really manage to sleep that well in the tent which had a leaking ground sheet. Ironically, we chose the tent ourselves and we were the first group to do so, but well, u noe 塞翁失马 yes? really 焉知非福. More details on that later. Well anyway, didn't sleep well cause I woke up nearly every hour on the dot cause my feet were freezing off.

Can't remember what we had for breakfast but it wasn't too bad, actually all the meals were good save for one or two which weren't that fantastic. I think it's more of a preference thing though.

After breakfast it was time for the Rafflesia trek which was utterly boring. The trek, lol, cannot call it a trek, more like stroll to the reserve itself was longer than the trek to find the flower. The trek within the reserve was actually quite exciting thanks to the leeches which we were constantly trying to spot and avoid. But it was quite anticlimatic, I think just after 1km we "found" the flower. It was really damn classic eco tourism case study la.. the Rafflesia looked like it was placed there lorh, and it was just ONE flower. Still got chains to guide you around after you reach the flower, so its like some loop, walk there, see flower, round about head back, yay.

Oh but it was quite interesting that we kinda got to see the life cycle of it, cause the very first one we saw was a bud that looked like a rotting coconut. Then was the flowering plant, followed by a dead one:

After heading back, and successfully avoiding all the leeches, lol.. not bad lah, at least now I know that leeches live in forests too and aren't just those fat black slug like thingy you see in the movies. They're quite small and fast, pretty freaky when they like chiong toward you. It's not that fast but still... Fine, fine, I some mountain tortoise lah, first time see leech, what to do? <>.<>

Ah so sit inside some classroom thingy and snack a bit while they ask us if we wanna buy the shirts... lol.. Marianne Chong can seriously consider using this place as case study if she need new material, then can pwn Nagle cause the example closer to home, easier to relate too. heh.. I think I'm going from (slightly) bitchy to crazy, hmm.. who cares.

So we strolled back to the camp, very 吃饱没事做(eat finish nothing to do) so talk abt scandals. Lol.. The scouts can fight with our class to see who's pro-er at this kind of nonsense and wh.... lolololol.. Hope he don't see this. heh. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention the 2 (nearly non-existent) guides we had. One irritating one and another who not that bad lah, just that look like guy and since the 2 of them just dao us throughout the whole thing and walk ahead without us, end up got talk that they les. Lol.. I shan't pass judgement

Next up, 5 hours of bridge/asshole dai dee till campfire. Campfire got some charades thingy guys vs girls. Guys won, girls forefeit to do more charades to imitate celebrities. Then somehow somehow Nadiah go sabo me and Yin Xing (er.. dunno correct or not, some scout lah). And stupid royston go gimme Johnny Depp. Bah.. but ok lah, wasn't that bad.

Spent that night in the main area cause we told the teachers our tent leaky and they were trying to either get it fixed or get us a hut. Not too bad lah, no bugs after we turned off the lights and needless to say, the air was fresh and there was plenty of space, but it was colder than the tent though. Woke up at 3am to get track pants before I managed to sleep properly...

Eugene remembered @ 3:35 PM