~Sarawak Trip -- Miri & Mulu~ {Updated}

We've been planning this trip since the last day of our exam, but we kept delaying and delaying. I nearly gave up... but due to Jin-Yu determination... we finally succeeded going...Hooray!!!

2 Sept 2005 (Day 1) -- Friday

Our flight was on 7.25am. Yi Ning and Poh Tian came to my house yesterday night. We have a long chat and slept on 2 o' clock. Then we woke up on 4.30am... Oh! God! I was so sleepy...juz got 2 and a half hours sleep. We took off from my house around 5.00am and reached KLIA in half an hour!!! This was too early for the flight... After we checked in, we just hang around at the airport. Surprisingly, we met Kun Leng, one of our batchmate... She was going to Taiwan...

In the plane, I couldn't really sleep well... The seat was uncomfortable and it was really cold... so I kept looking out from the window, trying to appreciate the beauty of the cloud ocean...hehe... When I nearly fell asleep, it was time for landing.... so unlucky!!!

Reached Sarawak around 9.40am. But we took some time before coming out from the airport, maybe girls are always like that... I just went to the toilet, but when we come out, it was already 10 something... Baxter, who was waiting for us, thought that we were not coming... haha...

During our way to Baxter's house, he introduced the Miri city to us. Frankly speaking, I totally have no idea about Miri before the trip. What I know was..... Miri is located in Sarawak!! I didn't even know Miri is located in which part of Sarawak... 'sat bai'!! Arriving at Baxter's house, we were greeted warmly by Baxter's mother and grandma. Can't believe it! They look so young. When his mother was joking that she is Bax's sister, I really believed it! (I was wondering when calling her Auntie).

We have some rest before having the lunch at about 11.30am. After lunch, we sat in the living room and Baxter switched on some songs for us. There were few of my favourite songs include Kenji's 'Wu Ke Qun', Kelly's 'Xi Wang' and Leo Ku's 'Medley'. (Quote from Poh Tian: "Wow! This is the 2nd time I listen to Leo Ku's Medley for today!"...haha...coz I played the cd in the car on the way to airport.) I always wonder why Bax can sing really well...and now I know why... his grandma likes to sing, even his 2 little cousins aged 6 and 7 years old know how to sing 'tong hua'. It's 'tong hua'! Not 'Mary had a little lamb' or 'London Bridge is falling down'! When I was 6/7 years old, I don't even know what is karaoke... no doubt, children nowadays are getting smarter and smarter...

Then Bax brought us to the Crocodile Farm. The entrance fee is RM8 (just for information for those who wanna visit next time..haha!!). In the Crocodile Farm, there were different types of crocodiles and also other wild animals such as bear, ostrich, monkeys....bla bla bla... The whole farm looked deadly maybe it was because that day was a weekday. Bax said we could request for a crocodile feeding show if there were more than 20 visitors.

After that, we went to a shopping complex (forgot the name!). We shopped around but none of us bought anything. You could find all kinds of VCDs and DVDs here. It was about 4.30pm when we came back from the shopping mall. And the dinner was ready for us! Erk.. 4.30pm for lunch? Grandma said in Miri, people used to have meal quite early. Btw, we didn't have dinner first, but walked to Miri Handicraft Centre, which is located opposite Bax's house. Then we walked to City Fan Park and a library near to it. We could find some medical books there...erm....not bad!!

After dinner, we were watching "Guess" in our room. Nicholas and Douglas, 2 little cousins of Bax, came to our room. They are so cute!!!! They kept jumping here and there on the bed, kinda 'shock sendiri' (learn this new phrase during this trip~~not sure how to spell it!). They were shy at first but gradually they 'revealed' their real character... until Bax cannot tahan them, chased them out from the room...

Around 9 something, Bax's grandma, mother, sister, 5 of us and also 2 little cute boy boy went to Tanjong Lobang to have supper (Gosh! I've just finished my dinner!!). We ordered chicken satay, clamps and fish(not sure what fish is it...). I liked the fish...

Felt so sleepy after whole day journey... Actually we wanted to go Bax's uncle's club to watch the miniskirt competition and go cinema to watch "Dark Water"... Never try to go club or watch horror movie in cinema before in KL but I was really sleepy..ZZzzzzz.....

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3 Sept 2005 (Day 2)-- Saturday

Woke up around 8 o' clock. Oh..ya!! Today Leo Ku is coming to M'sia to deliver his first solo concert in M'sia.... :'( .... I didn't get to watch it because I was stuck in Miri...

Today we have Bax's sister, Elizabeth (if I'm not mistaken), to accompany us. Our first destination was Soon Hup Villa. The road there was narrow and steep... At first I was so afraid, because I really doubted Bax's driving skill... but it proved me wrong later. There were a pond and a 'small waterfall'. We have some fun there, playing with water... But I couldn't swim... *sob*...I could only 'rendam' my legs... Feel like throwing stone into the water, but there's no stone in the pond, only sands...

After that, we went to Luak Esplanade, which is a beach. The water there was really clean and clear, unlike in West M'sia. Erm... now only I realise how much I love sea... Couldn't describe my feeling there, but I could feel all my troubles have gone. We couldn't stay there for too long as it was exactly 12 noon. Then we went to Marine Bay. That's the place where the ships 'park'. I think everyone of us have been watching too much series... everywhere we went we could relate it to any drama... We went to the beach..we thought of 'Min Zheng Hao' and 'Chang Jin' playing at the beach there... We also thought of 'Winter Sonata'... And we kept saying "Go Go Jia You!"...influenced by Lee Young Jae in "Full House"...

After our lunch, we went to the biggest temple in Miri city --'Dua Bek Gong' Temple. There is a fish market located beside the temple, so you can imagine how terrible the smell was... I saw Yi Ning praying sincerely... wondering what was she praying for... I just simply 'bai bai' here and there....

We went back home to have shower, and then we went out again. We walked to the nearest shopping mall, Boulevard and Imperial Mall. We were so lucky because there were 70% sales in Imperial Mall. I bought some hair bands..and others bought shirts which cost less than RM10!! After having dinner in Sugar Bun, Bax, Poh Tian and I walked back home while Jin-Yu and Yi Ning continue shopping there.

Our programme at night was karaoke. Bax's grandma always ask us to sing karaoke... Again I sang Leo Ku's Medley... He was singing in Genting while I was singing here...haha.... After the karaoke, we watched "Dark Water" which Baxter has bought. The quality was really bad and I felt so sleepy as I've watched the Japanese version and I could predict the story. We watched that halfway and everybody became so sleepy... so we change to watch another Korean movie, "My wife 16"... Muahahaha... It's a funny movie!!! I really enjoyed watching it but there's only disc 1 without disc 2...too bad!!! Slept quite late tonight... around 2.30am...

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4 Sept 2005 (Day 3) -- Sunday {Mulu}

Woke up quite early today morning..coz I have to get money from ATM.. I gonna bankrupt!! Need to spend RM468 to Mulu and I just brought RM250. So I asked Jin-Yu accompany me to have a stroll in the morning. Instead of the Park, we walked to the other garden nearby it. There were different kinds of flower...erm...they looked beautiful but I am not interested..hehe..'pai se'!!

We walked back to Bax's house and saw everybody was in a hurry. Oh..ya!! Our flight was on 10.05am and it was 8.30am now as we have to arrive airport 1 hour earlier. I haven't taken my bath and packed my luggage yet! Bax's mum kept urging us...but all of us just 'selamba' only. Btw, we weren't late for our flight.

In the terminal, while we were waiting for the plane, Yi Ning spotted 3 guys who were speaking Japanese, 1 was botak wearing a hat, 1 just looked normal and 1 look like ‘Lee Zhong Sheng’ with beard and mustache on his face…haha…Then we kept talking things about them since they couldn’t understand us..haha... I also kept 'ejeking' Poh Tian who was so interested in them…and taught Poh Tian some Japanese so that she could approach them… I think we were talking so loud and attracted their attention. Suddenly they used their video camera to record us…haha..maybe I was thinking too much…maybe they just wanted to record the shops behind us. Jin-Yu wanted to take a group photo of us..and I kept asking Poh Tian to ask for their help. When Jin-Yu was trying to fix the camera, they really looked interested to help us (maybe I've been thinking too much?) …but nobody dared to ask…at last we used the autoshot and it actually turned out great…erm….better to depend on ourselves…

Finally the plane arrived and every1 lined up quickly..left 5 of us who were really slow…Btw I spotted another 2 Japanese guys who were more good looking. It was a 30 minutes journey from Miri to Mulu. I like to sit beside the window in the plane. It’s actually a small plane so it couldn’t fly too high. Thus I could see the land and not all clouds….ya!! I read Sarawak newspaper…got a lot of jokes…haha…having fun during the flight…but it’s too small…ppl who were big size like me felt uncomforatable..

Arrived safely in Mulu… We were greeted warmly by the guide, Ah Hong. He shook my hand and treated us as adult…This reminded me something…this was the first time I travelled with my friends without any teachers or parents' company..YEAH!!! Finally, I have become a real adult!! From the airport, we took a truck to our resort, Royal Mulu Resort.. the tour guide apologized because there was no enough van for us..but actually we prefer taking truck!! More romantic..haha...And somemore, the 2 Japanese guys were sitting beside me...

After checking in, we had our lunch in the resort restaurant. OHH!! This was the most expensive meal I ever had in my life. 1 set lunch costs us RM32 per person. Actually the guide introduced some stalls for our lunch, but it was Sunday and they were closed!! Too bad!! Luckily the fish & chips didn't taste bad.

Finally we began our journey in Mulu Caves. First day, we were going to Deer Cave (the largest cave) and Lang Cave (the smallest cave). We had to walk 3.8km in the National Park before reaching the caves. On the way we saw a lot of caterpillars and plants... It's like having a National Geographic class...All the caves were amazing!!! The guide kept telling us try to be imaginative, imagine all the stones to be some other objects...Thus, I kept singing 'Colourful Days' by Pu Shu...coz the chorus of the song is 'Imagination...' And now, I know how were those caves name after. Deer cave...long long time ago deers liked to go to the cave to drink water from that river because the river was salty, containing bats' urine and faeces. Lang cave...named after Master Lang who discovered that cave. B4 that, Bax's parents kept saying it was dangerous and asked us to be careful.. but I think it's still ok...Not as dangerous as I expected... this was even safer that the jungle trekking I went with my SAM friends...I nearly fell from a tree...still feel scary thinking of that...

It was a long long way to walk to the caves, so...on our journey, we kept talking lame jokes. I was trying to recall the jokes which I read earlier in the plane...and also some other lame IQ questions...to make our journey more interesting and funny...Erm..next time have to read more jokes and try to remember them..The guide said we had walked for more that 10km after the whole journey, but I didn't feel tire at all...I thought I might be having muscle ache after all, but I didn't!! Btw, we kept meeting the 2 and 3 Japanese guys...and I kept 'ejeking' Poh Tian...We were too imaginative...We even try to make our own story, saying that the 2 J-guys were gay partner...haha...because I change target, instead of ejeking Poh Tian, I ejek Bax to approach that guys...muahaha....

And also, we watched the bats coming out from the caves to feast for fruits. They exit the cave in snake-like formation, 1 group at a time. It was amazing...'Sugoi ne' (those J-guys kept saying this!)...The guide said there were more than 10,000 bats but I think there were more than that...around millions of bats.... I said this out and my friends all laughing at me...Eh, I wasn't trying to make a joke la...Btw, they agreed with me later...

Later after dinner, we walked around the resort. There were a lot of foreigners, especially Mat Salleh...So we have to take up the responsibility to welcome them...we (Bax, Poh Tian and me) sat at the port there, and kept saying...."Welcome to Mulu!!" Damn idiot....

In our room later, we were playing card games. Losers had to be punished!! And everyone of us had to think a punishment b4 the games start. Luckily for me, I didn't lose any game and Poh Tian lost twice. So...I didn't get any punishment!! I think the funniest punishment was Bax's. I thought to punish him to do some of the yoga poses, I posted some difficult pose but he couldn't do it...Then he did cobra pose but he actually manipulated it...damn FUNNY!! Jin-Yu got the simplest, which all of us just signed on her hand. Ning got to do hip hop pose and Poh Tian had to put toothpaste on her face and and pose herself as statue of liberty.

All of us slept at 12.00am after watching Apprentice...because we had to wake up early tomorrow to continue our journey....ZZzzzz.....

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5 Sept 2005 (Day 4) -- Monday {Mulu}

Finally, I've been writing day 4...2 more days to go... I woke up around 6.30am.. After a very full breakfast, we started our journey. (Keep using 'journey' 'journey', coz I dunno what other words to use...I'm not searching a ring or something...just to clarify..) Today, instead of walking, we took the long boat. We were lucky because it's raining recently so the water level was quite high and we didn't have to push the boat ourselves.

Before going to the caves, the guide dropped us at a native village where we could buy some souvenirs. We couldn't communicate with them coz they were talking their native language. They couldn't even speak in Malay or English. Actually Yi Ning and I wanted to buy 'sumpit' which costs RM30. We chose and chose but none of them looked perfect to me. The natives were very enthusiastic, but Ning decided not to buy and I didn't know where can I display it, so I decided not to buy too. So after hanging around the stall for quite a long time and kept touching their stuff, I went back with my empty hands. I felt so sorry for them when the guide said that I was trying to fool them....but I didn't meant to....So SORRY!!

Today we were going to Clear Water Cave and Wind Cave. How these caves were named after is just very simple. Clear Water Cave...there is a river in the cave which is clear and cool. The guide said if we use the water to wash ourselves, we would look younger. I never believe this...And Wind Cave... there is cool wind blowing to you in certain spots in the cave...UN?

Trying to be imaginative again. The guide kept asking us what this stone look like, what that stone look like. And whenever our answers weren't same as his..he would say..."Erm...u can think like that oso..." So there weren't any right or wrong. All depends on your IMAGINATION.

I couldn't remember what I had seen in the caves....I could remember only the King's Palace and the statue of a maiden....But what I remember the most was the river where we could swim and play around. Finally I could swim!!! The water was cool but not clear..haha... We were having a good time there, making too much noise there. We noticed that we were the only group making so much noise in the river. There was another group of students too, around 20 of them...but they were not as noisy as us. Maybe we are closer friends....haha...

We went back to the resort and heading towards the swimming pool. It's been a long time since I last swam. And also there was a jacuzzi besides the swimming pool...

After having our good time in Mulu, we had to say bye bye. We took a photo with Ah Hong before leaving Mulu. Our flight supposed to be on 3.10pm and we reached the airport around 2 something. Btw, the plane arrived late... It was so boring waiting in the terminal....

{Miri}

Reached Miri...(Forgot the time :P) It's Bax's brother who came to fetch us. According to Bax, tonight they would hold a dinner for Grandma's friends and his uncle's friends..so his house would be crowded by a lot of people..

After taking bath, we got nothing to do. We didn't dare to go out from the room because there were many strangers in the house, so we played cards in the room. But I was really hungry... It was really embarassing when grandma opened the door to ask us for dinner as we were playing cards there... I went to toilet first b4 going up for dinner. So after finishing my business, I went upstair (the dining hall was on 2nd floor) and I found nobody I know...all were strangers... I was frightened because I thought Jin-Yu they all should already be there... Actually they were hiding somewhere in the corner because they were too shy to go into the dining hall...What a shock!! Finally we had a really good dinner...all the dishes were delicious!!! Nice cooking from Bax's grandma...

After dinner, we went back to our room with an excuse of sunburn?! I didn't know this could be a reason to excuse ourselves....haha..btw, bax made this reason, not us!! We went into Bax's room to watch tv..as his 3 little cousins were having tuition outside our room. The teacher was quite sarcastic when they were not paying attention...She said sarcastically to them, asking them to go and join the karaoke session instead of having tuition here... When we were passing by, Nicholas and Douglas were so excited and again the teacher asked them sarcastically to join us if they really wanted to. Then I didn't dare to pass by there again as they would get really excited as they liked us so much...haha...

Finally we got a chance to go to Bax's uncle's club. I think we were going to become bad boy and girls tonight... We drank alcohol, pooling, gambling.... This was the 1st time I doing all these stuff....Woo!!! Bax's brother was totally different from Bax. Bax is those obedient type, but his brother is those outgoing type...he knows clubbing and all stuff about gambling... erm... learn a lot of new things today!!! I didn't continue my good luck from yesterday because I lost a few games... :'(

Slept at 2.00am after all our activities.... ZZzzzz.....

6 Sept 2005 {Day5} -- Tuesday

Today was the last day we were staying in Miri... Today morning I woke up about 8.30am...got around 6 hours sleep...Bax hasn't woken up yet...so Bax's grandma brought us around to buy some souvenirs... We went to the pasar there and bought rice and pepper... Bax's grandma bought some superbig bananas, which I've never seen b4. We were curious about it and she bought it to make 'pisang goreng' for us.

Then we went to the Miri Handicraft Centre again...It looked so different from the 1st day we went...They actually renovated it.. and there were more stalls outside the centre... Things here were actually cheaper than the things sold at the native village and the resort in Mulu...The 'sumpit' I saw in Mulu was only sold RM25 here. And things getting cheaper and cheaper as you move around. It only costs around RM20 in some stalls. Luckily I didn't buy it in Mulu....I bought some bracelets and key chains...

We went back and Bax has woken up. We went out for tea time and we had Sarawak's Rojak! After having lunch, we went out again. We didn't buy a lot of souvenirs so Bax's mum recommended a shop for us. She said she knows the owner and we could get discount... The shop's name is hereditary store (or sumthing, can't really remember). The things here were even cheaper and we got discount somemore... Finally we finished buying all the things we wanted... Grandma has made the 'pisang goreng', waiting for us to taste it...yummy yummy...I couldn't forget the taste...It was really tasty and we finished the whole plate...'paise paise'...

Our flight was on 5.50pm...Bax sent us to the airport... It was a memorable and enjoyable trip... All of us going back with happiness...But something happened in the airport and it actually spoilt our mood!! There were 2 guys had exceed their quota for the luggage, so they requested to borrow some of our quota since we were all having hand luggage... I didn't consider much so I just said ok...But I was lining at the different queue from them, so I just asked Jin-Yu and Poh Tian to lend them. I didn't consider that much, but actually Poh Tian had considered the consequences of it as their luggages were under our names...This was quite dangerous as if there's anything goes wrong, we had to take responsibilities on it. Poh Tian rejected them and Jin-Yu actually quite angry about me coz I promised them but I didn't lend them... But what I thought was just helping them as they had to pay RM200 more for 5kg luggage. None of us lend the quota to them finally because I think what Poh Tian and Ning said was true... Poh Tian was so upset about it and she nearly cried...

What do you think? I know it's quite dangerous but why we have to consider so much for helping others... The world has changed... If we are all simple and innocent, I think we do not need to consider to help them, but things getting worse and worse nowadays... We have to think the worst consequences.... To think positively, you might get cheated in this life but I believe there is karma, you will get good 'balasan' in next life...haha....

So after 1 month and a week....I finally finished writing all the craps in Sarawak trip..if you still reading this, I think you are quite free as this is long and full of nonsense....

For photos taken during the trip, please click here... I didn't post all of them coz some were quite blur and insignificant...

Lastly, I would like to thank a lot of ppl...

1) Baxter and his parents: for treating us and providing us accoomodation... his grandma and grandpa: thanks for all the delicious dishes... his brother and sister: driving us around and accompanying us... his uncles, aunts and 3 little cute cousins...

2) Jin-Yu, Poh Tian and Yi Ning: for accompanying me during the whole trip...

3) My father: who allowed me to join the trip... my mother: gave me RM100 for the trip... my sister: sponsoring me RM100 for the airfare...