July 20, 2011

I promised myself last night,

that I would have fun today - since yesterday was mentally disastrous for me no one needs to read about it.

Now I'm at this Creative Writing Workshop which is held in Penang. I'm currently staying at Hydro Hotel which almost kicked ass but one of the tables in the dining hall was wobbly so it didn't. But it's badass enough. At least the food is. And the room.

OK. Field trip. Today. I brought a pen (borrowed from Hanizah from MRSM Terendak because I had stupidly forgotten mine) and sheets to write on but I guess pictures say more than I ever could with a hundred pens. So here they are!

The English teachers on their way up the bus. That's MRSM Balik Pulau's
bus, if anyone's wondering. I got to sit at the back. Because I like it.

These are the two speakers. The person on the left is Mr Jayakaran
Mukundan, next to him is Mr Alan Maley. These guys are great.

Here's the Teluk Bahang jetty. The smell of the sea - priceless.


This is the crazy cool time capsule at the Pusat
Interpretasi. We get to write notes to the people in 2071.
I wrote mine which sounded like this, 'This is Nani
Othman from year 2011. I hope you guys still have
lush forests and running rivers. I hope there's no
more war, too.'

This is the red bark tree. I don't know what the real
name for it is. The guide guy said it's just called that.
The red bark is used to make dye for batik
painting, which is awesome. And it can be
soaked with fishing nets to make them last
longer, which is also awesome.

I'd call this the Wishing Stairs. I had so badly wished
that they would end soon. I'm really bad at trekking.

Now this, according to the guide, is the most dangerous
tree in the forest. It's called Rengas Kerbau Jalang. The
sap can cause extreme itch and you'll need to be rushed
to the hospital immediately. But you can delay the
damage with mud - which reminds me of the poison
oak in the movie Coraline.

Fish. OMG. Fish.

THIS, PEOPLE, IS THE REASON I put up with the insane jungle trekking
trail. These little packages of miracles just stole my heart away. I even get to
pet one OMG it felt like heaven! They're so fragile yet so strong like -
the moment they leave their eggs they just started living on their own,
so unlike many other animals. They're my heroes.

This is the guide I'm talking about. Name's Aidrul and
he said I look 23. Which makes him one of the most
awesome persons on earth. 'I've been in here many times,
but this is the first time I saw so many butterflies along
the way. That black and blue one you found. saw it today
for the first time. You brought luck.'

And this, is the boat we took the ride back on. The boat I went diCaprio-I'm-
the-King-of-the-World on. THE RIDE WAS RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME!
The greyish green waves were great. Around the rocks they were
pleasantly greener. I didn't get seasick, which was wonderful.
Come to think of it, I never did, so I guess it really was
wonderful.

Man. I really did go diCaprio on it.
 


So did I have fun? I definitely did. I made a new friend, Aidrul. I learnt really neat stuff about the jungle. I got to know another side of me I rarely get connected with. I got to appreciate baby turtles OMG, they are just amazing beyond reason! And I got be really close with nature for several hours which was really, really magical. Really, I've had a great time. An incredibly great time. Thank you, God.

Phew. I need to get rested. My eyes are crazy heavy. I'll see you guys around.

Oh.

One day I might return here. 

For the baby turtles, of course.

15 scribbleback (s):

Saffa said...

Tempted to comment because of the time capsule! Great notes! LOL.

Anonymous said...

saffa - thanks! haha.

Anonymous said...

OMG NANI. wait. sorry, nice post, interesting pictures :). i like turtles too.

Anyway, oh gosh what the heck?! I saw someone used my name (in the previous post) and said yasmin doesn't like reading and she wished she liked reading as much as you do (?) what the- LOLOL. now that's funny. just so you know Nani, that wasn't ME! haha. I don't contradict myself too often:/

p/s: i will always use my profile alright ;) that one didn't.

NOR said...

dear nani...this is nor...nice entry.love it!
im nor from mrsm kt...hihi

Anonymous said...

Can you please give me your Formspring link, teacher? :)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,
scroll to the bottom on the page. there's a formspring button. =)

Anonymous said...

yasmin,
thanks for liking the turtles. they're awesome. oh about the anon who used your name, maybe she really does have a name similar to yours. and yeah, i dont think you'd sound as crazy as that. no worries. =)


nor,
hi nor. thanks for commenting. =)

IronMom said...

Mr Jayakaran..or is has he become Prof. Dr. Jayakaran Mukundan? He was one of my lecturers back in UPM..truly a great lecturer. We never want to miss his class!

BTW, great experience u have there. I also went to Penang an stayed in the same hotel, for upper level marking scheme program. And we enjoyed the program as well as the stay!

Ultraman Terror said...

do you want to return for the baby turtle, or for that good looking aidrul?? i can see you like him much. hihi. good luck to both of you teacher! XD XD XD

ps: i like turtle too. :D

pss: turtle and tortoise is the same in us english right? :/

psss: teacher. your note on the comment section is a bit scary. but i love your post though. :)

Terra Shield said...

Aww... turtles! Lovely pics, btw. Wish I could go hiking more often!

Anonymous said...

mrs black cat,
cool. =) i bet he inspires you a lot. hehe. ah. i did enjoy the room. and the baby turtles!

ultraman terror,
hello there seriously your name made me laugh! and yes i wanna go back for the turtles, not for aidrul, although it'd be great to see him again! hehe. but how can you see that i like him? there's not even a picture of me in the post! btw, turtles are penyu. tortoises are kura-kura. so they're different.

terra shield,
hehe. i seriously am bad at hiking!

Unknown said...

oh woww! entri yg best dbaca coz ada byk pictures yg mnarik phatian :) keep it up nani!

Anonymous said...

ni pergi kursus ke pergi bercuti. anyway, nice penyus pics. saya dah biasa tgk so taklah excited sgt bila tgk gambar tu.

nama aidrul tu sedikit pelik. dia org melayu ka?

Anonymous said...

nana liyana,
haha. thanks. =) come again.

anonymous,
dalam kursus tu ada slot field trip. kan saya dah mention at the beginning of the post? aidrul? melayulah.

Nasiruddin bin Mohd Fazali said...

Oh, how I wish I could join!!!

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