Survived the Sumatra expedition, and came back completely unscathed with a sense of accomplishment.
Day 1 was pretty uneventful, waited at the airport to check in for quite a while (two hours, was it?). Flight only took like, 50 minutes (meh).
When we reached, me and my partner for the trip, Perry, were sent to Group B (Group A consisted of only boys, while all the girls were in Group B, along with 9 boys, not counting one male teacher). The teachers who followed our group were Miss Lawrence, Miss Kitchener, and to the relief of many, Mr.Toh. One of our guides looked so familiar, and I soon found out why. It was Dodi, from Loola!
Stayed at a small resort, which in my opinion, is tied for the 2nd best place we stayed at during the trip.
Day 2, was when things started getting "rough" (not at all, compared to everything else)
Played a soccer match with the locals in the morning (I didn't participate) and trekked through rather flat ground to our first campsite.
We (the boys) had to squeeze into one large tent (8 men tent, was it?), but in my opinion, it was still rather comfortable.
One big waterfall near our campsite. But we also had to trek into the jungle to reach another, smaller waterfall, which I think was rather pointless and a waste of both energy and time. Wet our shoes, which was not fun at all and very uncomfortable. Showering in the big waterfall was fun.
We were all woken up in the middle of the night and were told to move somewhere else to sleep because the tents were leaking.
Day 3, in my opinion, was the 2nd hardest day. Lots thought the trek the day before was hard. But this just proved them all absolutely and utterly wrong.
Unlike the day before, we had to carry our own bags (all of them) and trek UP, a mountain (volcano is more like it), Mount Merapi.
Stopped halfway and had snacks. The sugar crackers and chocolate biscuits were the exact same ones I used to eat, so very nostalgic. Got rather high afterwards (SUGAR RUSH!!) and we managed to reach our campsite quite peacefully.
Set up tents and waited for dinner (which was like, more then 3 hours away) which consisted of instant noodles (YAY!). Very quickly realized that we were not being well fed up here.
Day 4, got up at 3:30 in the morning. The plan was to hike up the mountain, reach the very top of it in total darkness, with our torchlights or headlights, and catch the sunrise.
Ultimately failed to do so, but most of us pressed on, climbing all the way up. This was the hardest part of the trip for me, because of my poor physical abilities. The air was so thin, that it took quite alot out of me to get to the top. We did this without breakfast.
I personally climbed a freaking mountain, reaching the peak, with my own hands and legs.
So while I was looking down and wondering how we, without food and therefore energy, were going to get down the mountain, the guides started boiling water, and took out food. Quickly became one of the best breakfast I've had in my life (starving makes food taste that much better) even if it was only two slices of bread with chocolate peanut butter, three crackers and a cup of cereal drink.
The way down was harder (though less tiring) and me helping Kristine soon became something well known and remembered by the group >_>
Reached our campsite, packed our things and started on our way down the mountain itself. Took quite a long time and everyone was glad when we reached the lodge beside the lake.
In my opinion, this was the hardest day. There was little food, limited amounts of water, and lots of hard work.
Day 5, me and Donavan woke up in the morning, walked to the lake, looked around, and saw Mr.Z at a distance. Looking closer, we saw the other group's tents and ran across. Got shooed away by Mr.Z, and were told not to let anyone from the other group to know where we were staying.
They suffered more then we did, hah!
Morning activities consisted of building a raft, and paddling to their campsite. And after that, short visit to the paddy field to learn about the processes and whatnot.
Bus ride, and SUPRISE! (not really, since quite a few of us already knew from Day 1) we got an excellent resort to stay in.
Some of us went out to buy food without permission from the teachers, and were scolded (that includes me).
Dinner was an excellent buffet meal, and we had to perform skits about the trip after that.
Day 6, we were to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, pack, get ready, have breakfast, and set out for the airport by 7. I woke up at like, 4, and sat there waiting for the morning call. But it never came.
Another excellent buffet breakfast later, we were on the bus, heading for the airport (long bus rides are not very fun).
Reached Singapore, and all of us were naturally, very very glad.
There, that concludes the trip in a nutshell. Tiring, but fun and exciting. Wouldn't wanna do it again though.
It's awesome to be back, no shit.
