My First Water Rafting Experience

I had the oppurtunity to conduct a 4 days training at Kota Kinabalu from 17th - 21st Dec. Luckily, 20th Dec was a public Holiday (Hari Raya Qorban) and I took the oppurtunity to try out white water rafting at Sg Padas.

I went to Borneo Ultimate Sports Adventure Tour (BUSAT) somewhere near Gaya Centre to book my reservation on water rafting. Apparently there are 2 popular place where one can water raft; one in Kiulu River which is approximately 1.5 hour drive up North East while the other one at Padas River which is about 2 hours drive to Beaufort and 1 hour train ride to Tenom. According to the staff, Padas River offers much more excitement and thrill than Kiulu. I took up the offer. It costs me RM160 (later I found out that you can get for RM120 at other agency) and the package includes the following:

1. Pick up at the hotel to Beaufort train station
2. Train transportation from Beaufort to Rayoh Station at Tenom
3. BBQ lunch (yummy!!!)
4. Water rafting of course

We headed South West of Kota Kinabalu to a small town called Beaufort.



In order to go to Sg Padas, the only transportation is via train and it took about 1 hour 15 minutes. The place is kind of remote and there is only 1 train per day going and coming back from Sg Padas.



Above: Beaufort Post Office



Above: Beaufort Train Station







Train ride on an open platform is certainly a thrill experience for a city boy like me. Apparently, it is norm for the locals here. The view was certainly breath-taking.

The train stops at Rayoh station where we got off.







Before we start rafting, we were given a safety briefing on how to paddle and of course what to do just in case you fell into the water (which I did!!)



The rafting experience took us about 2 hours and for first 30 minutes of paddling, I started to feel bored since the water ain't that challenging as the one in the movie 'The River Wild' starred Merryl Streep.

There were 4 groups that joined this rafting and my group consists of a family of 3 (Chinese from Kepong) and their family's friend, Dr. Puspa whom from KL but worked in KK and it was Dr. Puspa's second time while the rest are first timers in water rafting.

Close to halfway of the journey, the water started to get rough and this is where the excitement and adrenaline rushes in like nobody's business.

Throughout the journey, the current was very strong and there were couple of times that our raft spun around and go over rocks.

Facilitator Workshop

I always amazed when someone stand on stage or in public doing presentations, talks and seminars where they had presented themselves flawlessly. Although I had some experiences of doing public speakings and presentations since my school days, I always fascinate if I could have been a better speaker.

Therefore, I had joined a program called Train-the-Facilitator program in hope that I will be a better facilitator or coach in my future endeavours. Some are gifted that they were born to speak in public without fear. Although I must say that I may not be that afraid or scared like most people when being called up stage to give a speech, as long as I am ready to deliver one.

The workshop I attended is a 4 days workshop and I am certainly grateful that I had met new friends from Singapore whom had joined this workshop as well.
Here we are listening to Bill, one of our facilitator for this workshop.

On our 2nd day, it is a trial run and we were asked to do a 5 minutes presentation.

We were given toys to destress ourselves when we are doind our role plays, planning and presentation.


Here I am with Chin from Singapore trying to figure out the puzzles given without being made known what is the real picture looks like.

On our final day, we were given 15 minutes to do our final presentation. Here is Janson from Singapore doing his presentation on the subject, Wellness with Traditional Chinese Medicine.

I was doing a presentation on How To Be A Responsible Pet Owners

I was then being assessed by the facilitator, Jeffery after my 15 minutes presentation.

Here is the whole group for the Train-the-Facilitator Workshop.
Left: Akiko, Angel, Irene, Yin, Jeffery, me, Bill, Janson, Jason and Chin


I 'graduated' from the workshop.

After the workshop, it had helped me open my eyes and thoughts about the role of facilitator. There are many things one must do before, during and after the presentation or training or seminar for a facilitator and coach. I had seen myself where I should stand in my career and I hope that this training is a leap stone to my great future career.

Company Annual Dinner

My new company (4 months with the company) had an annual dinner at the brand new One World Hotel which is next to 1 Utama shopping complex. The theme for this year is 'Down To Memory Lane'.

Yeah, that is the time where you go back to your wardrobe and take out those 70's and 80's clothes that you thought that you had throw it off. Anyway, since this would be my first appearance, I try not to be too stylish (and I had to tell you some had even dressed up as Egyptian King accompany with 2 gorgeous looking-belly exposed girls...... Hello!! Down to Memory Lane theme and not Ancient time!!!)


While waiting for my colleagues to turn up, I tool the liberty to get myself potraited.



Here is mua with a Portugese girl, Candy and my Tai See Heng (Big Brother), Darren

And some pictures taken during the event.

(From the left: Ng, mua, Cherley, Celine, Fred, Candy and Stephen)


Left: Me and Angel
Right: Me with Su Fee (hot uchy mama isn't she??)


OK... Ballroom door open. Let's dash in!!

Here am I sitting with my colleagues. Sitting at the left was Teng, Sook Kuan, Jonathan, Derrick, Boo and Philip.


An annual dinner would not be complete if there is no games right. My colleagues pulled me out for an 'unknown' game and all of us on stage were in big surprise when we were revealed what we need to do.


Yeap..... let's lambada man!!!


Our Best Male Dress Theme and Best Female Dress Theme


Our Hang-hang from Melaka

Team Building Program

Time flies when you having fun. I had started my new job and my new company had organised a Team Building Program for my department at Bukit Tinggi. There were 2 coaches that brought us up here and Bukit Tinggi had not changed a bit ever since I visited this place 4 years ago (with additional new buildings)


Here we are standing in line excited waiting for what coming up next. Anyway, we were divided into 4 groups and my group is called 3 Luv, which means love for the company, love for our colleagues and love for our customers.... (ceh....)


Giving a short speech on my expectation on this program (newbie mah)

After we had checked in to our room (I had a nice view of the mountain), we gathered at the volleyball court for our 1st agenda. In this event which is called TeamWork, we need to complete 3 tasks. The 1st task is to Walk-on-clogs. Our group was the 2nd fastest in this challenge.

The 2nd task was Catch-it where each group was broken into a pair and we had a game of balloon (filled with water) volleyball where we need to catch the balloon using the cloth given. Not an easy task since you (or the pair) needed to be fast and gentle at the same time. For this task, my group got 2nd place again. (Not bad, 3 Luv!!)


Next and final task is Hula-Hoopers. We were given 2 rattan hula hoops and need to transfer both hula hoops from 1 end of the line to the other end. Of course the advantage to the group which having a lot of 'dwarfs' in it. It is certainly not easy for me to go into 2 hula hoops (acknowledging the giant body size I have and so is my other 2 team mates) but we had certainly had great fun. We got 3rd place for this task.


OK.... leisure time. We had a fun of real volleyball game but alas, the game was halted shortly when the ball fell into the ravine and we got lost sight of it. (Darn!!)


Next, it is makan time (my favourite). Before that, the committee asked 1 representative from each group to tell others what we had learnt from the task that we had done. I happened to be the chosen one from 3 Luv.


This is a group picture taken outside the Japanese Tea House


We had 2 more challenges before we called it a day; Rescue the victim and Paintball Challenge where we got 1st place and 2nd place respectively. Overall, we got 2nd place

Nokia N95 Wireless Adventure Challenge

Being a reality adventure freak (yes, I watch all series of Amazing Races, our local Exploraces etc) and had joined the 7 days race around Malaysia (click here to find out more), I registered mua and my race buddy, Agus (nickname Rowdy Rough Boyz) in the Nokia N95 Wireless Adventure Challenge.


Above: This is mua and Agus

Actually I would like to thank Izad for announcing this challenge in his blog or else I would had no idea at all.

It had been 2 weeks after I submitted our entry online via Nokia Nseries website and on Wednesday, May 9th when I was having dinner at Chilies, Mid Valley with some cat owners and breeders celebrating their cats' winnings for the last show season, I received a call and here this gentleman congratulating me for being chosen as one of the team for audition which will be held on Saturday, May 12th at Westin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. I was dumb-founded and overjoy!!



Saturday came and Agus and I turned up at Westin, Level 1, Malaya Room 1 at 1.45pm as requested. We registered ourselves at the Reception Area while a photographer snap a couple of our photos. We were given a ticket number 27 and asked to head to Malaya 1 for a photo shooting.



A nice lady attended to us and we were asked to give an impressive post and we did, standing back to back and gave the photographer our mean look!! Then we were seated and waited patiently for our turn. Thank god, there was a coffee dispenser machine and I just have to have a cup of coffee to perk me up. While waiting and chatting with Agus, we were interrupted by another team, Richard (i think) and his race partner, Ifa (a sexy malay gal). They introduced ourselves and so did we and from there, the whole Malaya 1 filled with our laughters. They are such cool dudes and I hope they will be chosen (as well as us!!)

"27!!"

Well, that is our number lucky number and we were escorted to Malaya 2 and upon entry, I feel like I was in American Idol audition. The room was full of posters and there are 2 chairs (high possibility for us) and there is a table sat by 2 man and a lady (whom she had the sweetest smile I ever seen and ooo... she is from 8TV). Besides the judges, there were 1 photographer and 1 cameraman (are we going to be on TV or something??). Of course, we do have some other 'spectators' sitting at one corner which I had no clue of their purpose being there.

"A very good afternoon lady and gentlemen", I said with a loud stunning voice and gave them a big smile.

We were asked to be seated in front of them and this malay man (I just can't see the card that shows where is he from!!) asked us to introduce ourselves. Then the lady from 8TV asked us how do we know about the Nokia challenge in which I replied that I was the one who got to know it from a blog that I frequently visit.

"Are you a blogger yourself?", asked the chinese man from Nokia.

"Oh yes, definitely.", I answered

"What do you blog about and what is the name of your blog?"

"The name of my blog is New Cats on the Blog and I blogged about cats"

"CATS???", the malay man and 8TV lady shout out loud simultaneously

I gave them the "Kenapa?? Tak Percaya kah?" kinda look and I said yes.

Cut story short, we talked about cats for about 5 minutes or more while Agus sitting beside me looked kinda bored (sorry to steal all the limelight ok!!) and the 8TV lady seemed very very surprised that I had 7 cats under my care. I gave her that "Kenapa? Tak percaya kah?" look again.

"If you were born as a cat, what cat that you want to be?", asked the Nokia guy.

"I would choose to be a Maine Coon.", I answered confidently

"And why?"

"Maine Coon is the largest cat breed in the world and like me, Maine Coon is known as The Gentle Giant.", I chuckled.

The whole room was full of laughter for a while.

Then we were asked with tough questions (which we had already fully prepared for these kind of auditions) such as what makes your team unique, what makes your team to win this race etc. Our audition, i can say would be one of the longest seeing other teams went into the room on average 10minutes.

We were told that 8 lucky teams will be selected out of 40 60 teams that had been auditioned and these 16 lucky people will received a brand new Nokia N95 phone EACH as the initial prize and will be using the phone during the course of the race which will be held on May 26th-27th in Kuala Lumpur. 8 lucky teams will be contacted the next day (Sunday) or latest Monday by the organizer and a hands-in training on using the Nokia N95 phone will be conducted a week before the race!

1/5 or 20%13.33% chances that we, the Rowdy Rough Boyz may be selected. Pray for us that we are going to be one of the lucky 8!