F1 proof: Malaysian GP 2008

Colours of Malaysia (PART THREE)

Ni hao!;)

The message got the name ''Colours of Malaysia'' because of the special event that Malaysia has every year.

When? 24 May 2008
Where? Putrajaya – administrative capital of Malaysia (20 min distance from Kuala Lumpur by train)
Topic? Flora and fauna
Why? To promote Malaysia as a tourist destination
WHAT? COLOURS OF MALAYSIA or Citrawarna


This was a really unique opportunity to see thousands (not exaggerating) of performers displaying the uniqueness of their cultures, traditions and arts in the form of dance and music. And the diversity of the country was truly expressed in the variety of colours.

Lots of faces of Putrajaya's Palace of Justice (the projection was provoking ‘wows’ every time it changed).

The dance of rikshaws – typical bicycles from the old capital of Malaysia – Melacca.

And now let’s dive into colours and the cultural diversity!!!!!!

Mini Olympic games opening ceremony - this is how we named it:)

With the best greeting from sometimes colourful Malaysia!

Colours of Malaysia - from the islands to the jungles (PART 2)

Ola!

What doesn't kill you - makes you stronger! Trip to Taman Negara – National Park of Malaysia was one of those.

This trip did not provide us with comfortable rest, with soft bed, with hot shower. We did have to sweat a lot, had to challenge our limits and at some points to decide if we really wanna continue.

REMARK. Do not try to repeat the story below without the supervision of experienced people:P
The ssstory begins...

Trip to and in Taman Negara could be divided into 2 parts: easy and hard.

The easy part

Started by taking a bus to a village called Jerantut, having delicious Malaysian dinner and spending the night there to take ferry at 9am.


Offtopic.

The food that you can see in the picture is called Satay. It’s small peaces of chicken cooked on wooden sticks on fire and usually eaten with cucumbers and peanut sauce. Yami, yami...

The ferry to the jungle place (Kuala Tahan) took 3 hours – 3 hours of sleep, chating, looking around and seeing the life of the river.

Malaysia is the right place for all types of logistical misunderstandings. So, when we arrived and found out that the hostel we booked was actually not booked, it was not that surprising. The interesting thing is that there is always a solutions and the way out even from the most messy situation:) So, finnaly half of us got a room for 5 in the same hostel and other half – in the hostel nearby.

After solving this byyyg problem, the next stop was canopy walkway where you can go for a walk above trees of the rainforest. One of the thoughts during conquering the distance was – why people are so trustful creatures? Without any fear we were walking on some rope and wood structure. By the way this canopi walkway is the longest in Malaysia.
The hard part from during the easy day was climbing up the Teresik mountain – 300 metres high MOUNTAIN but tough one in Malaysian climate:)

The hard part

The hard part of the trip lasted for 2 days. And of course started with logistical misunderstanding:) the day before we booked the package with the guide, and observation hide-sleeping place. When we arrived to the starting point to the jungles it turned out that our sleeping place in the jungles is not booked and we need to choose another route. Well, what to do? Very spontaneous, fast and interesting replanning – 6 hours of trecking in front.
What we remember the most from the treck that day is leeches; leeches... very innocent creatures when u see for the first time - even smaller then earthwarm (sliekas) but after sucking the blood transformation into a big fat warm happens:) the BAD thing is that you can hardly escape because they can sneek into the socks, they can climb up your shoe and leg, you cannot feel when they suck the blood. The GOOD thing is thqt even if you got 12 of them stuck to the leg – it’s not dangerous (unless you get infection through the wound).

And we had the winner – donour of the trip. Drums and applauses go to Povilas!!!
The second challenge of the day - crossing the river. Just waist high – told the guide!:)
After all these challenges, forcing our way through the jungles, following footprints of the elephants, we reached the point where we had to make the decision. Back to the village, to the cold beer, to warm beds
OR
3 more kilometres and sleeping in the middle of the jungle in the observation hide in the sleeping bag.

Hard decision: half of us chose one way, half - another. No wrong or right decision – it’s called MY DECISION.

Sleeping in the jungles is an experience, unfortunately, no tigers, bears, elephants sleeping together. We were listening to insects, birds, watching fire flies flying around, chating about biology and medicine as if someone of us had a clue about this:) And then – hard wooden two-storeyed bed was waiting for us.

But sleeping in the jungles was just the cream of the cake. From there we left to the Limestone cave – Gua Telinga (Ear’s cave). The way to the cave was really easy, no leeches – we felt like at home, Tarzans of jungles. The cave from the outside did not look anything special as well. The real adventure started when the guide told us to leave our bags outside, take only torchlights and cameras. First steps were nice, we thought: OK, cave visit is done, however, our guide told to follow him.
And we followed...
I think there were at least 3-4 times when we were about to turn around but then we were seeing our guide dissapearing in the darkness.
And we followed...
Crawling in the bat shit, watching bats flying into us but never hitting our faces, passing a mini lake (this place was really hard) and leaving cave smelling like shit but happy about experience got.


It’s like life – the deeper in the shit you are, the more you value the things afterwards, the more you increase your comfort zone, and have memories of life. TO BE CONTINUED…