the fun-ness of malaysia week.

A few weeks ago I went to Merapoh, a Malaysia Week site in Taman Negara National Park. I spent a whole week with these wonderful people from different grades and countries…

Angela Agustinus
Shaz Seatter
Mehza Memon
Liam Callan
Mason Chew
Nathan Sanders
Vandana Sudhir
Ibrahim Tahoun
Emily Thorne
Emelie Linder
Jasmine Singleton
Paul Im
Arya Marsono
Aizuddin Azlan
Fabian Erikkson
Melissa Lee
Dakshina Chetti
Zijia Kee
Rio Rosano
Tanya Deol
Edward Kim
YiKhai Lee
Jose Febres-Cordero
Casper Pasha.

And our awesome sponsors, who put the whole trip together…
Lynne Smith
Mark Walsh
Marie-France Blais
Everette Burke.

These were the people that made this trip such an unforgettable experience that I’ll always remember when I’m older and I think back to my most cherished memories of ISKL.

Merapoh was a new site this year, and everyone was looking forward to it. The plan for the first day was to get on a bus at 5:00 am, arrive at Taman Negara National Park, take an extremely windy bus ride to the base of the mountain, and from there, begin our hike up Gunung Tahan, the highest mountain in peninsular Malaysia.

The hike was a painful, tiring and muddy experience, filled with many blisters, scrapes, bruises, leeches, painful falls, sweat, tears and just general discomfort, but thankfully - with a lot of determination and hard work - we all reached Kamp Kor, the camping site halfway up the mountain, alive. We put up the tents, unpacked our bags and finally took off our soaking hiking shoes. We had done four river crossings that day, and for the previous six hours of the hike our feet had been marinating in the filthy river water trapped inside our shoes. And so, when we pulled off our grimy socks, stained with blood from the leeches that had attached themselves to our ankles, the sight of our feet was not a pretty one. They looked like prunes- like pale white, wrinkly prunes with dead skin peeling off them. But after our long, traumatizing hiking experience, such slight botherations were easily ignored.

There were a few hours before dinner, and everyone was starving. After yanking off our shoes and socks and throwing our backpacks down onto the tent floor, Angela, Shaz and I unpacked our energy bars and gobbled them up. For the next couple hours we talked and joked around to distract ourselves from the hunger.
“Would you rather have a condition that made you snore 24-7, or have to climb the rest of the way up this mountain and down again?”
“I’d definitely take the snoring thing.”
“The snoring.”
“Hah, same here.”

Dinner was fried noodles, chicken, vegetables and a glass of Milo. It may have been simple, but to our empty stomachs it tasted great.

Fortunately, the rest of Malaysia Week was a lot more fun. Although we had to leave the mountain a day earlier than expected, (thanks to the enormous landslides) Djungle People, the group of people that organized our hike, had lots of great activities planned for us back at Merapoh. We trekked, did an orienteering activity, visited a Chinese temple and village, drove through the rainforest at night, played soccer with a local school, painted an anti-drug mural, acted out skits and a lot more. The meals got better and better each day, although I think I had so much Milo that I’ll never drink any again.

Malaysia week was a week of pain and suffering, but it was also a week filled with laughter, fun and friends. Everyone learned so much about this beautiful country we live in and the culture of its people. I’ll always treasure the memories I have of this special week of March and the people I spent it with. I can’t wait till next year!