geog trip to kuching

when rab asked me if i was free to go to sarawak, i thought i'd just go and see if it'll be a good break. afterall, it's non-stop since school term ended - sem, strategic planning, icet, ... and i have not done up the budget for 2008 plus of cos most of the programmes are not finalised yet.

so kuching, here i come!

the kids are generally nice, since rab assured me that she has had a "stringent selection process". and they turned out pretty okay too. the hotel room was nice and huge (could have comfortably slept 3 persons) and food wasn't too bad. we visited kuching city, went on a sunset cruise from the waterfront jetty, went to mayang tea estate, sarawak pepper marketing board, a pottery factory and bako national park.



2 incidents left a deep impression:
(a) this girl was really quite clueless about walking on dirt. it was a very "mild" type of trekking and there were stones, pot holes and branches/roots along the way. she kept screaming everytime she saw a spider, fly, mosquito... it got a little annoying. then she, of cos, fell. after she got up, i was just about to go forward and ask if she was ok when she started patting her pants and "oh my god! oh my god!", shocked that her pants got dirty. i eventually left her with rab and carried on walking with the others. rab later said that the girl asked a few times if she had dirt on her face and if her face was sunburnt.



(b) we were eating at the "local kfc" and the agency boss was kind enough to buy extra fries for all the kids. but our pupils did not finish them and rab insisted that they packed the fries and ate them along the way later while they shopped at the night market. rab managed to ask for plastic bags for the kids to carry but did not have enough. so when this other girl came up to the bus holding her fries, rab asked her to go and ask for a plastic bag from the counter. this girl very innocently asked, "in what language?" i stared at rab, speechless. rab said "in Japanese." i told rab that her humour was wasted on our kids.

the speedboat ride to bako national park was fun. in fact, the whole trip was quite fun. 3 days out of school and out of work (sort of).

thanks rab for asking me.