My second visit to Kota Kinabalu in a 3 months period. This time, no Mt Kinabalu as it was a company trip. We would be following a package tour...how exciting! Had not been to a package tour for ages, guessed I would probably switch off and relax during the trip.
The trip started with a 0700Hr assemble at Changi Airport. All of us were complaining on why we need to assemble so early as the flight was at 0850Hr. The explaination given was that this would give us enough time to cater for late comers, or people who forgot their passport. Oh well, all of us obediently complied and went for McDonald breakfast, hoping to win a big prize in the Mcdonald Monopoly contest. No big prizes, though we won an ice cream cone, and a one for one Singapore flyer ride.
I have never knew that the process of discovering who were the people sitting with you in the plane was so exciting. A group of us were worried that we might get to sit with one of the colleague, (herein called N) so when i boarded the plane and saw that it was not N, i had a sense of relief.
Upon arrival to KKIA, i rushed to buy Old Town White Coffee, tucked at the corner of Terminal 1. Ah....yummy reminded me of my last trip here...deja vu
Saw Landslide on my way to the destination
We finally set off to our first destination - The starting point for the river rafting (Note: It was not white river rafting) It was a 1.5 hours journey, and we finally reached to our destination, famished and was yearning for our BBQ lunch. Lunch was disappointing, the only BBQ stuff was the BBQ chicken wings. It was yummy, but the rest of the dishes were disappointing - Hotdog in tomato sauce, fried brinjal, fried tiny fishes. I was hungry, so i did not have much complain, at least the wings were good.
We had an activity to do before we depart for our river rafting. We were given a piece of flip chart paper, and were asked to pair up with someone, to draw the vision that you had when you joined the company, on why you joined the company. I was artistically challenged, and the best thing that I could draw was a stick man..
We made our way to the starting point of the river rafting, another 30 mins journey, and it started to rain on our way there. We slipped into a panic mode, thank God that the rain stopped when we finally reached.
Before the trip, I was quite decided that I would skip the rafting. However, I changed my mind, mainly because of these 2 reasons:
a) I thought I had to run down to the ending point as it was a 9km journey.
b) The more important reason, was N was not rafting, and the idea of being stucked with her for an hour was a beyond imagination, I rather tried to conquer my fear and went for the rafting. So i decided, i rather risk to go into the water, than to face N!
I went to pick up my life jacket gingerly, choosing one that looked better than the other (in case there were holes!?!) Then I chose my helmet, and my paddle. After gearing up, we went for the safety instructions, which i thought frightened you more than anything else. In fact, two of my colleagues backed out after listening to the safety instructions.
There were 7 people to a raft, including the guide. Adrian & Tim sat in front as we needed strong men in front. The middle of the raft were reserved for non swimmer like me, so Dino & I saw in the middle, while Maya & Wendy sat at the end. It went fine in the beginning, then the water started to get faster. It did not help that it just rained, and the water level according to the guide, has rose 1cm. I obediently listened to the instruction of the guide "FORWARD" and kept paddling forward as hard as I could, and praying at the same time. "Dear God, pls keep me safe in the raft, Amen" When the guide shouted "STOP", we had to place the paddle on our lap, held it tight. Our raft managed to stay afloat, and the guide did not purposely capsized the raft. I figured that the current was too fast for him to take the risk. Our MD's raft capsized and he and another colleague fell into the water. While the MD was struggling to get back to the raft, the another colleague happily stepped on him and got back to the raft first. Certainly it looked like a career ending move, but i thought when it was about life and death, ranking did not matter!
After shower
I was so happy when I finally reached the destination..I did it! I survived!! YEAH!! I did not regret going down, it was fun, though the brown water did not taste good. Tasted like wheat. Lesson learnt: Next time if you raft, do not shout as you will drink the water! The only accident that happened in our raft was Tim losing his paddle.
We made our way back to hotel after rafting, and the first thing I wanted to do was to shower. Rac & I went for a quick bite before dinner and I was so thrilled to see Old Town White Coffee in 1 Borneo. Dinner was disappointing. After an hour drive to some seafood place with cultural show. Before the trip, Adrian and I speculated that the dinner would not be good since it would be a touristy place, we just did not expected it to be so bad. The fish was stale, the vegetables were overcooked, the meat was tough. The only dish that could make it was the fruits and of course the beer.
We had wanted to go for Ba Gu Teh in Jalan Gaya as I missed it in the last trip. However, the guide said that it closed at 2200Hr, and we had to abort plan as it will take another 20 mins to get to the town. In the end, we went for a head, shoulders, neck massage, and we joined the boys at Ice Bar for a drink.
It was interesting to see my colleague in a different light after a few drinks..
