impact lives!: Bako Exploration 08'

I have been hearing about Bako all these years and out of sudden many from the Working Adult group went last year while I was away in Cape Town. I've seen many great inspiring pictures taken by Hwei & of coz KK too and this time it's my turn to see the real stuff! We had a total of 42 people joining us; many of them are still studying, except 3 of us and you know who we are. 11 Indonesian students joined us (1 was supposed to come, but he overslept!), 3 Aussies exchanged-students from Melbourne and we were so glad that many of the 1st year Swinburne students joined the trip! 6 cars & 1 van gathered @ the church @ 0630 yesterday morning. Hehe...for the 1st time, we had the opportunity to skip the Sunday Service and since we were early, we could see who came early and late for the worship team practice! Ahaaaaa...

The Journey begins...

At Kampung Bako where the entrance of the park is.

Why is everybody looking up???

Our breakie...

I was so much refreshed by the cool morning air. That made the 30-mins boat ride so much enjoyable. People, especially ladies (not that i'm sexist), please be assured that the boat is safe and DO NOT worry, the boats don't sink that easily, doesn't matter how heavy you are :)

Do you agree that Asians are more concern about the beauty more than the ang moh? Isn't it interesting to see how we Asians love to PROTECT our skin??? This picture is the proof!

I know some of you will definitely tease me being one of them. Well, surprisingly this time round I didn't use much sun block hehehe...

Interestingly, when we arrived, we were welcomed by 2 welcoming teams. Here are the teams;

The homosapiens!

the monkeys!!!

This is no play-play. I've seen monkeys before and that's not a big deal. But these ones, I mean the ones in Bako are no-joke! Gosh, they are indeed very agressive!!!

They even brought along the young ones..

Away from the monkeys, on the way to the Info Center.

We were supposed to trek our 1st trail but ended up at another one called Sapi trail. It was a much shorter one. In the way it was good coz through this short 30 mins walk, we discovered who were the princess, queen and mother queen (if you know what I mean)

This is NOT an Indonesian flag nor Polish flag. It's the mark to lead us to the right trail. And we still got it wrong..

Who do you think this is? The princess, queen or mother queen?

Well, not bad huh. A wrong trail led us to this view!

I managed to capture the green snake. It was just right at the back of the Info Center. I also met a few tourists from Hong Kong. One of them spoke Cantonese and found out that I understood the language. They didn't know most Malaysian Chinese know the language though. After coming down from Sapi, we decided to have early lunch at the canteen. We saw the wild boar and again, some monkeys; this time they were on the tree!

She looks really annoying!

This one was looking for food!

The canteen is rather spacious I must say. It can contain at least 60 ppl and above; not a bad gathering place hey!

So off we went afater having our lunch to the 2nd trail; Paku. We were told that there was a beach there. Hoping to see something more interesting besides the walking and looking at few animals. Paku trail only took us abt 45 mins and yes, there was a beach indeed. Somehow it has quite a nice little pocket space with much shades from the huge rocks. The Captain, Mr Johnson managed to gather all of us into 4 groups. They were named after 4 types of fruits; the Banana, Apple, Wwater Melon & Orange. Each group had design a war-cryand believe me it was quite hillarious! After that we had a soccer competition with a beach ball, NOT a soccer ball. That made the job so much harder and yes, it was an eye opening to see our girls playing soccer!!! This is No Joke!!

Watermelon Group!

Orange Group!

Banana Group!

Apple Group!

Not bad huh, one of the Aussie students, Hally learnt new way of getting people into groups. It's called 'O Peng' in Foochow. After a few rounds of O Peng, we finally had a deal of who's against who for the soccer game. See, I told ya, girls can kick!

Jangan bully aku ya!

Aku jugak!

Lina li ka kang na qiu ahhh!

Eh sian nor Ah Yieng, kan no miang kan oh!

The sun was quite friendly to the Aussies, but definitely not to us. Few while waiting had an innovative idea how to protect their feet. Few were hiding in the shades, while the rest were in the water.

This is a counterfeit mermaid! The real one was there too... (see picture below)

(Don't slaugther me, Melvin!)

Sun-bathing is a good idea!

We are really blessed to be given a free complimentary boat ride to see the rocks! After practising my Foochow-nego skill, we managed to get for extra RM1. Is this the famous rock??? I saw it everytime people show how Bako looks like!

On our way back to Kampung Bako, it was about 3pm then, the sun was really hot. Rita gave me a good idea how to cover yourself. I improvised it and make it my own. Wahlah...talking our M-Country; S.A, wow...do I look like one of the Arabian? Hehe...