[Delayed Post]

Just came back from Endau Rompin!

Finished my exam last week, and this trip followed almost immediately!

Huhu… I haven’t blogged much for a while and that’s because of my exams – AND – my laptop betrayed me and went totally black in the middle of my exam week..

Got it fixed in on Friday, and then I was off to the forests in Pahang on Saturday night… So here we are!

We all thought that Endau Rompin was supposed to be a national park - Taman Negara – but it turned out that it was a Taman Negeri - state park!

The Taman Negara Endau Rompin, though, was not too far away from here, in the same stretch of forest as this park that we were in… But nevertheless, the trip was uniquely fun in its own way!

The Endau Rompin trip is not really that different from the Jerantut Taman Negara trip that I went a couple of years ago… with a few notable differences:

There were three different places that you can choose to stay in – longhouses, chalets and bungalows, each with its own respective price tag, of course.

Longhouses look culturally delightful from the outside, but are essentially very uncomfortable to sleep in.

The interior walls are made of wood, naturally, and we’ve got 8-10 people staying in 2 rooms on each of the longhouses that you can see in the picture.

They say that while it was burning hot in the afternoon, it was freezing at night sleeping in one of those!

One of the more interesting things of the longhouses is that they don’t have their own toilets, and guests would have to use a common toilet nearby.

While the toilets themselves have serious hygienic problems, the bathing area puts everyone in awe!

It’s a common ‘bathing’ pool, probably the kind that you guys stand naked along the side and get water from it using shower buckets. Like the ones that the people who have gone through National Service would have seen and used before…

Only that… this bathing area was unisex – there was no guys or ladies room – the area was NOT enclosed (meaning everyone could see you bathing), and not to mention that the water was extremely dirty…

… and got cat bathing with you…

… and upon further inspection, we found something deep within the murky waters that you’re supposed to wash your hair, face and body with…

… a fish!

I don’t think anyone used that area to bathe at all throughout the entire trip and instead went to use the bathrooms in the chalets and bungalows!

Chalets, on the other hand, are upgraded versions of longhouses with built-in bathrooms and a queen-sized bed. It also has slightly more space.

But one of the chalets was emptied and the people moved to other rooms because apparently someone saw a giant lizard inside! Not joking!

Finally, Bungalows are made of bricks and concrete and have their own living rooms with TVs. Their rooms are also air-conditioned.

Before I got too happy that I had chosen a bungalow during my registration for the trip – so I could escape the intense tropical afternoon heat with the air-conds – I realized in great annoyance that there was… no electricity!

In fact, there was no electricity in any of the living areas – longhouses, chalets and bungalows alike! Endau Rompin had an irritatingly interesting regulation of supplying electricity to rooms only after 7PM, and only until 7AM in the morning daily! LOL!

We had already been told about this during the meetings that we had had leading up to the trip. But it was still very unbelievable to try switching on the fan during the hot afternoon and hearing nothing more than ‘clicks’.

Anyway, the activities were just as interesting! Just like Jerantut Taman Negara, we had jungle trekking on the first day.

It was a very pleasant trek until the leeches started coming out and joining our tour!

Then everyone had no more eyes for the green nature around but the wriggling leeches on the floor desperately trying to suck everyone’s blood throughout almost the entire way.

Here is proof that everyone’s forgotten that we’re supposed to be looking at trees and nature in this trip:

There was a beautiful waterfall at the end of the trek!

We threw a surprise birthday celebration for our Director for this trip – Xiang Hue, at night! She cried… and Crystal kena pukul! Awww…

… and the other October babies!

Also in the activities were river crossing:

… and water tubing:

The tubes were sat on and then went through rocks and rapids, and everyone was supposed to waddle back to the river bank after they had finished, but in the end… because it was very difficult to move in the water while on the tube – many had to be dragged back!

Not to be forgotten was kayak-ing! Kayaking was not actually a scheduled activity but since the good people at Endau Rompin allowed us to freely terrorize their kayaks, some of us played them whenever we had time!

However, kayak-ing here almost always ends up with you in the water, and very seldom can you reach the river bank dry!

Because one second you might be on the boat, and the next you’d suddenly see two pairs of hands on both sides of your kayak, and then you’d be in the water!

We had a small competition among three people:

… before we even got started:

… tried again! All three kayaks started off the race:

and with people watching…

That night we had a night walk in the forest, with no lights and a few torch lights only… It was pitch black when the torches were off, but the experience being in the forest at night was special!

Also saw many jungle bugs and night plants!

Some of us had our (of course) ‘unofficial’ casino after we came back…

The next morning we had team games at a nearby tennis court!

Very hot and tiring… but fun!

Got all sorts of faces and expressions! Let’s see…

Some were just enjoying the games… like a couple…

Some look like punggung kena gigit…

… and some were too serious in winning…

And then we went to the river bank with tubes and bamboo sticks to make our own rafts!

The trip ended with everyone happy and taking group photos around the entrance area…

As committee members, the trip was unavoidably tiring, but everyone had great fun and it was nothing short of a spectacular and very successful trip!

Thanks to the comms of this trip who brought the event to existence:

… great people such as these!

Cheers to Tourism Club! 

***********

P.S. Did I mention? The MMU officers played, of all movies – You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, at 3AM while everyone was trying to sleep on the bus, on our way to Endau Rompin!

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