20 July Friday
While everyone was sleeping soundly and sweetly in bed, SeT travelled all the way from Kovan to fetch me in Clementi as it was then an 'unearthly' hour of 3am @_@. Afterwhich he travelled down to fetch YT at Lakeside and SK at TP before travelling back to Kovan to board the 10 seaters mini bus chartered from JB.
Upon meeting up with the other 4 who were already waiting at the Woodlands Checkpoint, we went into the immigration centre. We had never been so early at the centre before and so were quite surprised when we saw neither officers nor lights at the counters. Instead we were led to the immigration office by the side of the centre. The officers might be surprised to see so many of us at this 'unearthly' hour. But we were all decent-looking ppl and so they dun seems too worried :P
The journey to Mersing was rather scary to me. I 'slept' with eye half-opened cos keeping a 'watch out' of the road as it was basically in pitch dark.
The driver had to shine on his headlight to the fullest in order for the road path to be visible. I seriously hope M'sia government
will do something to their road. At least have proper street lights installed. It concerns road safety leh.
It took us almost 2 hrs to finally reached the Mersing jetty. The morning air was refreshing. We could see travellers like us having breakfast at the food centre near the jetty, elderlys having their morning exercise while others enjoying the sunrise ...
rarely seen merry-go-round in spore liao
The ferry was actually scheduled to set off at 7.30am, but it was delayed by nearly half an hour as it wasn't fully occupied yet.
The ferry travelling on the south china sea took almost 1 hrs+ before we reached the first jetty of Tioman, Lanting.
When we finally reached Salang Jetty, we were greeted by 'Alex' (actually he is called 阿力 ... which we happily assumed and called him Alex during the 3D2N stay :P) and our resort, Juara Beach Resort, speedboat awaiting us.
After travelling on the speedboat for 20mins, we finally reached Juara Beach Resort, Juara, the only village where sunrise can be seen as it is a very quiet beach at the east coast.
Room keys were distributed to us upon reaching the resort. After settling our luggages, we proceeded to have our first lunch there which wasn't included in the package.
this resort had a good cook ... simply yummy
dishes ... good 1st impression : )
Immediately after our lunch, we quickly changed into our 'armor' and with 'Alex' leading the way, we finally headed off for an 'adventurous' jungle trekking at the Kajang mountain ... my 1st jungle trekking and probably the last in my life :P
We took every step with extra caution as the paths were very slippery and muddy caused by the rain 2 days ago.
There were times when we had to climb up and down big rocks, or go under some falling trunks. Basically most of the paths were very rocky and steep. At this point of time, there was simply no strangers. Everyone of us helped one another on the way, holding hands, giving a hand to cross over, giving a push up high rocks, simply 患难见真情.
It took us almost 2hrs+ to reach the waterfall at the top of the mountain, which seems years to me cos it was the toughest route of my life @_@
After the natural spa rest and tasting of the spring water, we began our journey back down the mountain before the sky get dark.
Honestly speaking, the route down was supposed to be easier than climbing up the mountain. But the route being slippery and steep, we had to be in extra caution. Unfortunately, I fell back flat at the most dangerous 'hole' and even dragged 'Alex' down who was helping to pull me up from the top. We could have fell into the trappy hole if not for the many strong and unbreakable branches below which were actually the rattan tree branches. I was in a total shock then and couldn't control my fear, I broke into tears when I'm finally up to the safe spot after many helping hands. Being in tears and shock, I wasn't aware that KF fell the same way behind me too.
Everyone was watching out for me every now and then, with 'Alex' helping me at few rocky climbing points, and YT holding my hands all the way. 极为感动 though my hands and legs were simply shaky along the way.
It took us merely 1hr to return to the 'ground'. However we did not head back straight to resort, instead we went to the turtle hatchery nearby, afterwhich we strolled along the sandy south beach back to the resort.
As all of us seems exhausted and were dragging our way back, upon seeing this, 'Alex' hitched on a villager's bike back to the resort and returned to pick 'the scattered' us up with the resort car.
Upon reaching the resort and realised that most of us do not know how to swim, and since it was still early for dinner, 'Alex' instructed us to get into the snorkelling attire and taught us the basic in preparation for next day's snorkelling trip.
About 1hr later, everyone started returning to their room for washing up before settling down at the dinner table for a sumptuous dinner. Maybe after the 'ordeal' in the afternoon, this dinner seems exceptionally fabulous to us cos soon the plates were emptied "P
equally yummy ... especially the flower crabs
... mmm ... yum yum ...
Everyone was still high in spirit after dinner, and so we decided to play a famous taiwan variety show game '终极密码'. Whoever was the loser will have the powder 'painted' on their face. 'Alex' joined us in the game and had fun with us till midnite.
