My head hurts...

Day 2


Woke up bright and, erm, not so early. All thanks to three things:


1) The wake-up call the hotel provided to my room, of which Alex picked up,
2) The wake-up call the hotel provided to Ben's room, of which Ben answered, only to be greeted with the folowing:

"Good morning, Sir. Oh, I mean Mdm! Sorry for the mistake, Ma'am. This is your wake-up call. Goodbye."

3) The wake-up call Alex provided, of which involved him walking around both rooms, exclaiming, "Wake up, [Random name]!"



The third item was the most effective, I must say. And I must also admit that the second one was really funny, but no matter. We made our way to the Conference Hall to report attendance, do a Temperature Check and head down to the Dining Area to eat breakfast. And besides God, the breakfast was the most GLORIOUS thing I saw at that point of time! There was almost no sign of a chilli-infected tray item in sight, and I was enjoying every minute/plate of it! The bread. The cakes. The punch. And much more! It was literally paradise at that momment!





We were then sent back to our rooms to change up and prepare for the next activity - Beach Ecology! We got onboard our buses, and were sent off .....


... and alighted off at...





...what appeared at first to be a deserted plot of Tropical Africa miles away from the sea. But after hiking into a minute's-length of track covered in earth and ash, we saw the Lost look-alike just steps in front of us. We were told to pluck out plants along the beach that matched with the ones in the Activity File the teachers gave us. But we spent more time enjoying the view and playing around with stuffon the beach...

'In days of yore, from rocky shores...'

" 'Search for survivors!' Apparently, we've crash-landed on this island through that fishing boat about 25 meters away from shore!"

"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Clam-A-Shaker! Where you pay a bet to see how many barnicles you can shake of from this piece of bamboo! Bets are starting at a dollah! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!"

After spending a great amount of time wondering around the beach, we were told to report back to a certain area of the beach, and we were then told to do a presentation per group about the plants we collected. With our senc\se of arcitecture, we ganged up to collect chuncks of logs and lined then up into the form of a lecture seating plan.

Don't worry: my group was also busy collecting speciments while slacking with the sands at the same time, so we came prepared. But half-way during another groups presentation, a troop of monkeys appeared in the background, which was basically the border between the Forest and the Beach. Can you spot the monkey?


After all the presentations, we gathered at a near-by abandoned fishing village to wait for the instructions on how to be dismissed. The village, by the way, was abandoned because of the heavy monsoon this January (The one that cancelled our original trip), which ripped apart a few huts and so on. Here's the remains:

If you didn't know, Ting Wei collected the samples of plants wherever he went, determined to brew his own tea when we got back to the hotel. So while some of us were usy socialising in my room, Ting Wei was busy in his Ting Tea process. Roll 'em...

(Rolling film sound)
[In enthusiastic cemercial accent]

Hello! I'm Miggy, and I'm here to show you the processes involved in the brewing of Ting Tea! Now the first step is... ... The Harvesting Step. In this step, thTing Weis go to different harvesting grounds to harvest freshly grown plants and herbs for the Tea. Approved by Desaru Guides, these plants would be collected in a special storing device, known as the Hat. Also known as the Cap, this is where the Ting Wei Workers bring the plants to the next stage.

The Boiling Step is where Ting Wei Workers toss the herbs into a heating device known here as a Boiler after thoroughly rinsing the plants for a few seconds. Boiling alone may take 4-5 hours and the end product should smell like chemicals from your school laboratory. After boiling, comes the last step before serving:

The Cooling Process. By now, the teas are steaming hot and just a touch of any cup the tea gets served in at this stage can give 2nd Degree Burns. Thus this step is very important for the safety of all employees and customers. The Tea would be poured into recycled Water Bottles and carefully transferred to a cooling station known as the Sink. Basically, the bottles are placed into the Sink, and water would be turned on to run over the bottles for 5-10 minutes, with intervals of a few seconds to stop the flowing and save water.

Here at Ting Tea Co., we ensure that our customers get the benifits of our tea! For a good example, we actually DO serve teas straight from the Boiling Step, which we label as 'Xtremely Hot Tings', and this tea has the facinating feature of helping you to loose weight! Look at our models and compare their original shapes with their new slendor look!

And look at these twins in their new hourglass shape!

So now you know how Ting Tea can help you in this area! And it can do more! Just remember:

Ting Tea

Ting Tea Owns You!

Back to where we left, we had another SPICY lunch (So much for the breakfast...) And then went to the Lobby to wait for the command to board the buses and travel to Kota Tinggi. While waiting, a great portion of the class, including me, decided to play a round of Werewolf. I was one of the werewolves, and somehow was not able to put up an innocent front. So when the 'townsfolk' suspected me, I responded with a yes, only to start shaking myself violently to immitate being shot down by a mafia gang.

And then it happened.

I shook myself so violently, it rocked my brain around my skull, and in the end a headache so vicious sparked off. I had to endure the pain for the rest of the day, and it was no Pleasure Island, I can tell you. We soon took off for the greens of Kota Tinggi. Oh dear.

After searching in the humid forests for different types of mushrooms in jeans, I was starting to get real heaty. And the heat makes the headache worse. The guide was showing us millipedes,
leeches,
and remedies for leech bites (ferns). While I was busy sweating away with the pain still locked up in my head. Urgh. By now, we also found out that Zheng-Wei was suffering with high fever, soI wasn't suffering alone. But I didn't report my case, and thusonly he has taken care of for now. We then drove into the heart of the town, where we stopped at a shopping centre to do whatever shopping we may want to do. And do you think a guy with a painful headache that involved mis-adventure with his brain would go search for souveniers? But I just decided to go around and take photos, like this photo of me in a carpentry shop:

I was sitting on a throne with a walking stick, of which Ting Wei later posed with:

After some tiem with temptation, though, he decided to buy the walking stickas a souvenier for the RM 40. Ah, well.

Later, I bought a waffle pancake (peanut flavoured) and made my way downstairs to a fastfood joint to meet with the rest of the class. But just as I was about to have a chat with the others, a blackout occoured. And in just seconds, most of the place was in darkness. Not pure darkness, good thing about that, but nevertheless too dark for a few shops to opperate. But for the other remaining shops, they simply took out candles and lit then up, continuing buisness as ussual! Here's a shot of a phone shop which did just that:

Well, it may not be clear here as I left the flash on, but the room was literally black, and all you could see were the flames of candles and the florecent screens of handphones. It was interesting to watch how the shopkeepers addapted so well to these kind of emergencies, and soon the group had to leave again, this time for dinner at a Chinese restaraunt. I dare not say yippe, as 1) the chefs aren't wearing aprons. How safe is that? 2) I still have the headache. And I was still sweating in my jeans. But I still had to endure in order to survive till the trip back to the hotel, so for the time being, I just joined in to the "Teck Seng!" cheers and boney fish meals and so forth. Here's a few photos:
First Shil uses this 'illusion' on me at the original trip, then Tim uses it during dinner, who's next?...
"Come on, guys! Start eating! Kirby, you need vegetables! Understand me?"

The second table. Looked rather fun over there.

Once we were done, we (finally) got on to our return trip to our shalets! I forced myself to sleep on the bus to slow down my body's water ussage, and in the end I drooled onto my right cheek and onto my seat. Reported to the Conference Room with the others, and by now I looked rather 'drunk' asquoting from Tim. In the end, I was sent back to my room with ZW to rest and recover, Alex also coming along to nurse us.

It felt so much like as if we were on our death beds. I was just lying there, hands placed on top of each other, me smiling away to the ceiling. Then, my eyes start to narrow, my hands loose their grip. And in a matter of time,

My arms danggled off the edge of the blankets.

I laid there. Motionless.