You what?

I've finally settled in and have sort of caught up on stuff so I now sort of have free time again. For starters, the 5 week expedition was really good. I mean, it had its ups and downs like everything else, and I won't lie - I was counting down the days from the beginning - but it really was good.

The breakdown:

• About 5 days in Likas doing team-building and preparation stuff.
• 3 weeks in Kg Tungou, Ranau building a water feed system and hanging with the truly awesome locals.
• 1 week Adventure Phase, which consisted of actual camping next to Sg Kiulu, 3 days of hardcore hiking with no water sources nearby, and white-water rafting down to TAC.
• 1 day at Traverse Adventure Centre (TAC) next to Sg Kiulu, which was a truly lovely place where we slept in hammocks that were already set up.
• 1 day at Borneo Paradise Hotel, which is a crappy little 0-star hotel but is a great place to be after over a week of no proper showering or clothes-washing.

I learned:

• German numbers, days, and head, shoulders, knees and toes.
• How to cook meals with tinned stuff.
• How to make goreng pisang.
• How to set up my own hammock and basher.
• That the Brits call it "porridge" while the Americans call it "oatmeal".
• That I can survive about a week in super smelly clothes.
• That kampung people are the loveliest people there are.
• "Type 2 Fun" - The kind of fun where you don't realise you're having fun while you're doing it. In fact, at the time, you may think it's not fun at all. The realisation only hits you later when it's over.

So now I'm back, and I've started at the department that I would like to confirm in (they've given me an actual office with windows, there's free parking, there's a game room complete with foosball table and Wii, and there's a small walled garden where we can hang out), and more importantly, I'm clean and can shower at least twice a day if I like.

It really was good, and I made loads of friends from England whom I miss already.

FYI, the blog for my expedition can be found at http://malaysia-summer08.blogspot.com. Read all about it.

The Return

I have returned from the midst of the Borneo jungles (Expedition 08G). Basically, I

1. arrived at my parents' place and found that they were asleep,
   
2. made a mad dash for food, munching on the drive back home,
   
3. dumped my skanky, manky, ridiculously smelly clothes in the washer,
   
4. munched on the way to the spa,
   
5. had a scrub to scrub away the dirt of not properly washing and wearing the same clothes for a week,
6. had a facial for much of the same reasons,
7. had my hair washed at the salon for much of the same reasons.

More to come.

Raleigh Expedition Sabah Summer 08 - Day 0

28 July 2008 - Day 0

• Arrived at 11.00 a.m., 1 day early for the expedition.
• Checked into hostel. It's a shared dormitory. New experiences.
• Went walking around. Found a shopping centre. Found a Charles & Keith. Found a Times Bookstore. Found a juice bar. Found a Bed on a nice boardwalk with white people restaurants.
• Got a flu.
• Went to eat seafood. Tried a sea snail for the first time ever. New experiences.
• Got taken on a whirlwind tour of KK that seemed to consist only of views of KK by a tour guide that seemed to have no regard for his visitors' fatigue.
• Slept in my first shared dormitory ever. New experiences.