Malaysian Hot Springs?

Preview;
Last weekend on a fine Saturday morning, my classmates of Group 4 of English & Communications Skills Part 1 went to a hot spring. I'm not very clear on the exact location but it was pretty far off, requiring an hour drive from the Kuching airport to reach the location. To my knowledge, it is somewhere far away from Serian about 27th Mile. The place was rather secluded and lots of fine greenery can be seen. Natural surroundings were nice to see and feel. ^^

Notes: Within this blog post, I'll give out the first names of some of the people in our group. This is so that it is much easier for me to highlight some events of interest and the important stuff. =)

This post will be rather long, especially with the tonnes of pictures I will be showing, so those with a slow connection, beware!

The reason why this trip was held is because the English & Communication Skills Part 1 subject requires each group to make a class magazine. Each class magazine needs a group outing that will be the highlight of the magazine besides the other articles each member have to write.

The leader appointed for our class magazine is Morgan. The person who decided the place(hot springs) was one of our appointed editors, Jia Qi(or Veronica as Morgan & Joel likes to call her). XD

We decided the meeting place to be the Kuching airport as it would be the ideal intersection point for us to begin our journey. The time to meet was "before 7.45am". Pfft, M'sian time says no to that. Most of us arrived at the place by 8.10am. Talk about being on time. >_>

The Vehicles
For this trip, some of our driving capable students brought their rides, well kinda. Morgan used his family Naza Ria, Winny brought the Mitsubishi Pajero(drove by Teck Fu) and Leon used his Kia Spectra. We were chaperoned by Jia Qi's mother who drove her own car, the New Proton Saga.

Journey; Start!
The journey to the hot springs began at about 8.15am with Jia Qi's mother in the lead.
I sat in Morgan's Naza Ria along with 5 other people of our group at the rear left. Morgan's driving was quite smooth and enjoyable for the passenger to sit in. ^^ I'm not too sure about the other two "P" drivers though, but Leon was driving on the dangerous side, cutting here and there. >.>

Journey; CD Dilemma, Part 1
Joel - Morgan's cousin and person sitting besides him, thought it would be a great day to pop a CD into the CD Player of the Naza Ria. He thought wrong. The CD Player simply rejected his CDs, almost all but a CD by Britney Spears. Weird CD Player there, especially when most of the CDs were original. o.O

Journey; The Lorry
During the drive, we met up with the lorry you see in front here... TWICE. Slow lorry in front, TWICE. The reason why it "returned" is because we took a wrong turn, causing us to lose some precious time.

Journey; Almost There!
The drive was really long as it took slightly more than an hour. Luckily, the MPV was nicely air-conditioned and confortable, it really didn't matter. The photos above shows some part of the kampung of the longhouse we visited after the hot springs.

The stretch of road from the kampung onwards was not a pretty sight and feel. Looking at it will tell you; "Only one vehicle shall pass this route at one time". Left and right you will see lots of greenery, telling me that this place is very far off from the city and rural.

Journey; We Are Finally There!
We finally arrived at the entrance of the hot springs by 9.35am! Yes, finally we are here, oh wait... looks like we have to pay the entrance fee! I though we were going to take the easy way and sneak our way in! ><

Hot Springs; Entrance Fee

"Tauke, how much was it?"
"RM2 per head."
"Okay."

No, that conversation did not happen, but the cost of entry was RM2 per head for students while RM3 per head for normal people.

The place where you pay the entrance fee is also a cafeteria. You can grab some food here also, but not now. Onwards to the hot springs!

Hot Springs; We ARE Not There YET!? WALKING REQUIRED ><
Lots and lots of walking. It is not tiring but the uneven ground can make a city folk legs feel uneasy. Fortunate, there were lots of... greens to see, left and right. ME, being me, took some photos of the fine greenery that was surrounding us. ^^

I wonder what Morgan saw that time? Was it that red thing on the tree?

More walking, more greens... then...

We are finally there!

Hot Springs; Enjoying The Water?
As you can see, I did not join them at first, but decided to sit back and relax. Because of that...

...I was asked to take care of our belongings. Though, this was totally unecessary.

Some more overview before I come down as suddenly, they went out of my field of view. As I am a curious person, I sometimes get easily lured to things that are beyond my normal knowledge and view. XP

They went quite far and it was painful to walk there. This is because of the small rocks at the bottom of the waters, poking at our feets. >< So hot, you can see bubbles bubbling up!

Trudging back to the hut, where our belongings are left at, was quite the painful one. The rocks at the bottom of the water are not helpful, AT ALL. >< Hot Springs; End
Yes, that's it. That's all. You can stop reading already. Okay, fine, it was not over yet. We still have the longhouse to visit. =P

Some of us were hungry and decided to eat some bamboo chicken. Mmm, bamboo chicken. I didn't get one for myself though, as it wasn't the proper lunch time yet.

Journey; Hitting The Road Once More
This was just a short drive though as the kampung was not far off. ^^

Longhouse; Getting There...
And... we are in! Personally, this was not much for me as well, I have been to many longhouses throughout my life. But ah well, I just tag along and see around. The last photo shows the front part of the "sample house" that we will be exploring first, though really not much.

Longhouse; Look See
Before I entered the "sample house", I took some pictures of the surroundings. Sorry that it is a bit blurry as I guess I moved my hands a bit too fast. ^^

Longhouse; Sample House
The sample house was really... small, smaller than most or any longhouse houses I have ever been into in my whole entire life. This size and furniture layout pretty much covers most of the house inard over there. >_> Just add the fact that the inhabitate houses have slightly more furnishings.

Longhouse; Going Back Out and More Exploring


CAT! An uber cute sleeping cat! Nya~~ >w< Anyone wants some bracelets made of rotan? =3

We're going there, yes, walking under the sun, just looking around a kampung. Sounds fun, yes? >_>;

I wonder if the water is free for the villagers? O.o

Took so many pictures while just passing through a bridge. =P Looks like there is a passage under the bridge to the river down below. <.<

Walk into the light~ It's calling for you~~

More walking... but...

Looks like we go no further. Ah well, back to the sample house, or to be exact...


...Jia Qi's aunt house, which was beside the sample house and in front of the guy selling the rotan bracelets.

Jia Qi's aunt and family treated us to some delicious fried chicken wings, nuggets, bihun(I think) and curry mee. For some odd reason, the nuggets were really delicious. X3

After we are done eating, we donated a little to Jia Qi and left quickly. XD

Now, onwards to 7th Mile for Teh C Peng!

Journey; More CD Dillemas
We left the kampung at about 1.30pm. As someone decided not to ride with us for this part, I was lucky enough to finally get the right middle seat. =3

"Why Taylor, WHY WON'T YOU WORK!?"

"Please work, please work, please... DAMNIT! ><"

"Yes! Britney works! XD"

Journey; It Starts Raining?

7th Mile: Teh C Peng!
Everyone ordering drinks and 16 Teh C Pengs were ordered. Some of us ordered something else though. I thought everyone agreed to Teh C Peng earlier, maybe it was just not everyone. XP

That's a lot of Teh C Pengs! o.o

Everyone enjoying their respective drinks, chit-chatting away. What a nice way to end the day.

"Why are you putting the phone on your head?"

Journey; End
After the trip to 7th Mile, we went back to the airport. I waited for a while before I was picked up by my parents and was back at home by late evening. >_>

Overall, the trip was rather sociable and great. However, I'm not too sure how we can make it look epic in the class magazine as I felt that there was not much things to make it seem great. But then again, I guess that's up to how the final article on it will be writen out. =D

Well, that's all for now. Wow, this post is really long. =o