Adventures - venturing nature ( part 3)

11.45pm, Monday - I reached Changi International Airport after 13 + 6 hours of journey and I have to wait  for 8 hours before boarding my connecting flight to Penang. I shall be a ‘platform paradesi’ (homeless ) till then. Hmm…. but I will utilize this so called ‘free time’ to write the final part of Adventures – venturing nature!

The final day at Hawaii was painfully memorable :(

We went sailing with the Polynesian Voyaging Society, they don't use compass or computers to navigate in the ocean. They practice the ancient traditional technology of using the starts at night and waves at day time to look for direction and navigate. Many of us got the hands on experience on navigating the Hokule'a ship- using the stars as guide!

Prior to sailing, we had some light refreshment. Milk, cookies and strawberries. Unlike Malaysian strawberries which taste sour, the strawberries here taste sweet. And the greedy pig named KUMERAIN had 5 glasses of milk ,10 pieces of strawberries and infinite amount of cookies  for the reason it was  nice and free.

We started to sail, within 20 minutes I could sense something wrong with me. Oh NO, I got sea sick!Now I know how it feels to have sea sick. I come from an island (the great Penang Island), but I got sea sick, how embarrassing. Despite the warning not to eat too much- I did, serve me right.

For the next 2 hours I was seating at the corner of canoe throwing up all the milk and sweet strawberries. Buekk… buekkk…. buekk! If you think I’m polluting the ocean, not to worry because dilution is the solution to pollution in this situation.

Hokule'a ship, isn't she gorgeous?

After 2 hours of sailing ( and throwing up).

Take home lesson from Sailing

• Follow instructions! Don’t try to be smart and greedy. *slapping myself*
• Nature communicates with us – but we hardly listen to her.
• Life is full of surprises, just like the sea and it's weather. 

Next, let’s move on to one of the greenest city in the world, Denver, Colorado. To be more specific, we were at Boulder. Boulder is well known for two adventures activity which is Rock Climbing and Rafting. This was an optional activity in our program. Rock climbing was US$ 55 and Rafting was US$85, the 1^st time I heard of it, my eyes popped out- jaw dropped just like yours; But the experience is truly worth the money I paid. Boulder, Colorado is indeed one of the world’s best places for rock climbing and rafting.

Rocky Mountains!

That's me with a 330 million years old sedimentary rock!

For a 1st timer, this is not too bad to give a try!

That's me, orange helmet on top-right.

Great view from there, sadly no camera.

Rapid Rivers!

Don't expect the rivers to  be calm always.

This is called rapid- it's paddle for life moment!

The river flow is massive that it only takes a few second to fill Olympic size pool. That's a rapid that we went through at the background.

Take home lesson from Rock Climbing & Rafting

• Self confidence and trust- always believe in yourself and your teammate’s capability
• Use of recourses efficiently- You don’t have much choices, use any small cracks to climb up
• Quick decision required- You might sink and found dead if you take too long.
• When everyone paddle in unison- the strength is tremendous.  Same goes when we stay united.
• Stay calm- getting panicked or tensed will not help.
• Life is like a river, each second in life is only once.

These 35 days in SUSI 2011 would be the most adventures days in my life, from canoe surfing, hiking, snorkeling, kayaking, sailing, rock climbing and rafting. J Everything was done is such a short period of time -back to back but it was fun and exciting though. Most importantly, the take home lessons, will always remain close to my heart!

So,whats next for me? What about Mount Everest? or Sahara Desert ?