I’ve managed to escape one particular activity that causes your life to flash before your very eyes for all my life.

Until today.

I happily signed up for this outstation trip assignment and assured my superiors that my toes were perfectly healed and since there was no mountain climbing nor strenuous walking involved, I should be fine. My legs still do hurt when I climb up and down the stairs but that shouldn’t deter me from observing, interacting with people I meet and taking note of my travel experiences.

What I didn’t realise was, by signing up, I also agreed to participate in all the activities in the itinerary including the very much dreaded activity I mentioned in my first sentence …. PAINTBALL.

That is one word that strikes a chord of fear in my heart. An equally scary word to me would be bungee jumping. If bungee jumping to me is like wanting to commit suicide but not quite, then paintball is enlisting in the army to be in the thick of warfare but also, not quite there lar.

I don’t like strategy games like Risk and such. Heck, I don’t even like watching Rambo with his brawns and mindless shooting sprees. I never had a secret fantasy of joining the army or the SWAT team. And most of all, I don’t like getting shot at and having paint splattered all over me.

In short, there is nothing in paintball that I like. So I never bothered.

There are times in life when you think you detest something until you try it and discover that it’s not as bad as you think it was. As I don my camouflage shirt, vest and face mask and went into the fighting arena with my team members, I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, I was wrong about paintball. And I would discover that it would be somewhat enjoyable or bearable at the very least.

I hoped in vain.

The duration of suffering was short – a mere 5 minutes per game due to the large crowd that we had. Or even lesser if a team manages to seize the opponent team’s flag – a bright orange T-shirt draped languidly on a tree in this case.

I walked into the fighting field holding the heavy gun called the ‘Marker’ with sandaled feet that felt like jello. I felt like a lamb being led to the slaughter house.

“10 seconds count!” shouts the marshal.

And then the 10 seconds were up and we were running on the forest grounds made slippery by heavy rainfall earlier that morning. Our guns shot at the ‘enemy’ rampantly. I hid behind a big barrier and just shot at anyone I saw from the opposing team. I must have shot 20 to 30 pellets and caused at least 1 casualty when suddenly I felt something hit my cheek and a splash of bright pink paint stained my left ear and cheek. My mouth tasted the metallic taste of paint. Yucks.

I raised my hand to indicate that I was dead and walked over to the side.

The marshal was barking orders at me for safety reasons, “Sheath your gun! Don’t open your face mask until the game is over and you are out of the arena!”

It was good that he constantly shouted these reminders as an unlocked gun can cause a lot of damage to someone who had no face mask to protect their eyes and face. And it’s not uncommon to want to rip that darn face mask off your face – it’s that uncomfortable! It fogs up after a while and when you can’t see a thing in front of you, it freaks you out even more being out there in the battle field. There is a way to prevent fogging by breathing in through the nose and exhaling through your mouth. But that takes practice. Something I don’t plan on doing after this.

Soon the game was over when our enemy managed to grab our flag and I staggered out to freedom, took off my face mask and took in big gulps of fresh air.

“Can I skip the next two games? I don’t want to risk injuring my toes as I didn’t bring proper sport shoes,” I told the person in charge. Which was all very true. I just didn’t add that paintball just plain freaked me out.

She took one look at my scabby toes and quickly agreed. Another girl tried her luck but since her toes were in perfect condition and she had no other injuries to boast of, she didn’t get let off the hook.

So yeah, I was saved by my toes – literally.

Enjoy the pics but do not be deceived by my smiley face. They were taken before the game began when I was still harboring hope that I’d find paintball palatable.

My Sungai Tengi team

While they were strategising, I was photo shooting

Me in camouflage and sandals!

The torture equipment

Photo credits: My pic taken by Alex

In the similar vein of Carrie Bradshaw who said something to the effect of the above statement about her swanky up-market pent house, I’m gonna try to make all of you jealous about the unexpected gift I got today from a very hospitable and thoughtful PR person I met yesterday for a sumptuous lunch. Over the course of lunch, we found out that we both love coffee, cookies and cakes. The measly bite-sized cherry cheesecake left us yearning for more. It was, to be honest, one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever tasted in my life.

My colleagues went to meet her today and came back bearing this box of goodies just for me:

That was a real sweet surprise! Initially I thought that she sent a larger version of that cheesecake we both enjoyed so. My eager hands opened the box to unveil its delectable secrets. Instead of one, I found five slices of cakes!

They say variety is the spice of life and I couldn’t agree more. After snapping a couple of quick shots of these darlings, I brought the box to the pantry for them to be chopped up and shared out amongst everyone in the office. For the next few minutes, we were in absolute ecstasy – eyes rolling helplessly upwards towards cheesecake heaven.

Thanks, RD for the sweet sweet gift!

Yes, Kah Lai – we saw Abe Lincoln’s profile in Deer Cave. Here it is:

My body and feet are healing very nicely and soon I hope to be out traipsing in sun again. That’s the thing about being bitten hard by the travel bug, you just forget all the aches and pains and only remember the thrill of exploring a new place.

My work pile’s getting bigger now that I’m made web editor. So if I don’t blog as much, it’s either because I’m out of town or attending meetings/events/wine and dine sessions or planning, editing and chasing deadlines.

Herewith I welcome myself back to the lifestyle of the urban jungle. Tell me why I missed it so much whilst in the real jungle :P

Lips asked for pics, so here they are. These were all taken by Edward as I didn’t bring my baby along – when you hike with a backpack, every gram counts! So baby stayed at home like the good boy that he is.

Almost every evening, there’s a bat show near the show caves (Deer and Lang caves) at the Park HQ. The black line is actually a group of bats flying off from the cave towards the jungle to look for grubs (insects) to eat. This was taken the day before we began our hike (Sarawak Chambers – Camp 1 – Camp 2 – Camp 3 – Camp 4 – Summit). Exploring the beautiful show caves was easy peasy, even a kid could do it.

Mossy Forest – it was sheer pleasure trekking from Camp 3 to freezing cold Camp 4 when you have this forest to go through. It’s like stepping on soft green carpet. I almost expected to see a hobbit peeking out from behind the trees. Surreal.

More of Mossy Forest

While climbing the summit we get snatches of breathtaking views such as this and the one below

View from the Mulu summit (2376 m)

After the descent, we looked back and heaved a huge sigh of relief and satisfaction for having conquered that mountain.

After such a long time, I’m back here on the blog. I just came back from one of the five toughest mountains to conquer in Malaysia – the Mulu Summit and also the very scary cave chambers there. And collected a lot of passport stamps on my body and lost two big toe nails along the way.

It was my toughest trip ever and tested my endurance – body, soul and spirit – beyond anything I’ve ever known or can possibly imagine. Never had I pushed my body so hard before and to train my mind to take just that one step further. Never had I prayed so fervently for God’s strength and protection.

We hiked for about 10 hours everyday – lugging our backpacks behind us from one camp to another. I scrambled up the mountain panting and breathing hard all the way. And when it comes to descend, my pain-ridden toes protested all the way, marching through slippery stones and icky slush. I had to toss my fear of heights out to the winds as I climbed up the 90 degree summit. At one dangerous point where I dangled with just two hands, I felt my strength slipping and panicked. I was this close to falling down to my death before the guide gave me a helping hand.

I felt like giving up so many times. There were days where I thought that Mulu would be my final resting place. But then something within me snaps me back to God’s reality (the faith one, not the one by sight) and I know that He will bring us safely through.

Leeches were the least of my worries, I can tell ya that.

But man, it was worth it. All 5 days of it.

The view from the summit, the scenic trails, the fresh fresh air, the lush greenery, the amazing secrets of the Sarawak Chambers – these are treasures that cannot be found at anywhere else. Amidst all that ’suffering’, my eyes gulped in delight at the ethereal beauty that Mulu has to offer.

And the camaraderie forged amongst the 8 of us is a unique one. I couldn’t have made it without the guys. Yes, I was the only girl in the team but they took care of me well and didn’t make me feel out of place at all. Together we travailed the challenges, dreamed of icy cool Cokes, pizzas and roti canais as we trudged on in the depths of the jungle. Together we spurred each other on, fed the exhausted ones with power bars, bandaged injuries, kept each other warm and did leech checks on each other. And there are countless funny stories about our trip. I bet not many of you can say that they showed their asses to their boss and lived to tell the tale :P

We all looked at the brochures after coming safely back from the summit and realised that only those who are Super-Fit could make it all the way there. So there you have it, I’m officially a super fit cat. Hee!!!

There is one thing though. I don’t think I can bear to look at another power bar or water purifying tablet for a long, long while.

As a sign that he’s thinking of me, bigbro Josh sent me this for my Coolcat sightings collection.

Thanks, man. Made my day!

Any of you who want to show me your love, you know what to do ;)

In reverence to the Malaysian Mega Sale, my love for gadget shopping and parody. Sung to the tune of My Fair Lady’s I Could Have Danced All Night.

I want to shop all night
I want to spend all night
And live to shop some more
I want to spread my wings
And buy a thousand things
I never bought before

I never know
What makes it so exciting
When all at once
My eyes took sight

That P1i is sleek and black
It’ll look good with my laptop bag
I want to shop, shop, shop
All night!