(I was asked to write this article for my company's magazine. It most probably has tons of errors in it as its just a draft, so all you Journo students and English professors go easy alright? eNjOY!)
Pricewaterhousecoopers (Penang)
Annual Trip
The Never Ending Journey
Taman Negara, a place of serenity, peace and calm. Being a preserved jungle, Taman Negara has remained a place of solitude to its various inhabitants for many years…………..until September 2007! For 3 days in early September, the PwC invasion had begun.
The invasion started off with a 11 hour bus ride journey from the small lil tortoise shaped island known as Penang. With 4 express buses, we slowly made our way to the serenity of Taman Negara. Little did the monkeys of Taman Negara know, trouble was slowly brewing in the air!
After what it seemed like forever (with
way TOO many toilet breaks), we finally reached the Rainforest Hotel which would be the home to 90 plus PwCians for the next few days. Although groggy and hungry, nothing could dampen our spirits as we noisily made our grand entrance to Taman Negara.
Shooting the Rapids, Meeting Orang Asli and BBQ
When you are traveling on the bus for 11 hours while munching Twisties and Rota Rota, anything you eat after that tastes like a 5 star Shangri-la dinner. That was how lunch was to us. Lunch was edible at best, but one could never tell by the way we swarmed the food.
After a short break after lunch, we headed off to the Tembeling River (which is the main tributary of the Pahang River) for our first activity which was shooting the rapids. We left in around 10 boats up the river as our guide slowly navigated through a couple of slow rapids and finally came to a stop after a 10 minute journey.
Our individual guides had to explain to us that due to the number of us and safety reasons, going for stronger rapids would be risky and dangerous. However they could would show us how they create their own “rapids.” And then they did. With 10 boats racing through the river, each boat started a HUGE water fight by sticking out their oar every time we passed another boat which got everyone of us soaking wet.
The fight ended temporarily when we reached an orang asli settlement by the river. Many of our Pwcians were very well amazed on how these people could live without electricity and water. The “ketua kampung” graciously showed us how to start a fire with just rocks and stones as well as using their blow pipes (which they were selling at RM 25 by the way, not so “ULU” huh) to hunt animals.
We ended the day with a lovely BBQ dinner back in the hotel which was followed by a mid night hike before we went to bed.
George of the Jungle and Telematch
The morning started off with a quick breakfast and then we headed of to the highest canopy walk in the world. Our endurance was tested as we had to hike 45 minutes into the jungle to reach our destination point. After a lot of sweat, panting and tears, we managed to overcome the treacherous hike (okay…it wasn’t that bad) and finally reached the canopy walkway.
The canopy walkway is a walk across a 400 meter man-made bridge, suspended 25 to 40 meters above the ground which is the longest in the world of its kind.
Next up on the schedule, was a group tele-match. We were separated into different teams and competed in games where our intelligence, team-work and physical abilities were tested. Unfortunately, our last game which was with water balloons was called off due to heavy rain. However this did not stop us from throwing water balloons at each other in the rain. Many used this opportunity to try and soak their seniors or managers! With dinner coming up, we all went back to the hotel to prepare for the big event coming up.
I Like to DISCOOOOO! – Annual Dinner
Our theme for the night was Disco with a catch. Those born in the 80s had to dress up old school style while the oldies were forced to dress up like young ones – HIP HOP STYLE. With the hall all nicely decorated, many people started coming in. There were rumoured spottings of 50 cent (Eng Cheng), Snoop Dogg (Mr Cho) and Britney Spears (Kelly Khoo) in the crowd. There was also a bouncer who was brought from the 70s who was spotting an afro and a goatee.
As the night progressed, many games were played by newly promotes during the year. Many laughs and moments were shared by all our PwCians. The night ended with a group photo shoot and a dance floor where we danced till the wee hours of the morning!
The last Hike
Early the next morning, many sleepy/drunk/tired PwCians slowly crawled out of bed (with some kicking and screaming). We took a short boat ride to Lata Berkoh where we could see view the strong rapids caused by a nearby waterfall.
The trip ended with lunch at the hotel and yet another photo shoot. We boarded the bus tired and sleepy but yet we all knew that the past 3 days will always remain in our memories.
