A holiday for a day.

I did not manage to write this on the exact day it happened because I was away from the computer. This is it !

On 31st of October, most of students of Year 6 in SJK(C) Kuen Cheng (2) ( including me) went to a small field trip. ( I will be using the term "we" sometimes in this blog because it is not just myself who went to the small field trip).

Early in the morning, Beatrix and I took off from her house to the school where all the students were supposed to meet up.

When we reached the school, I noticed that the school was awfully quiet because the only people there were most of the Year 6 students and some teachers.

After the teachers did a head count, we took off to our first destination in an air-conditioned bus. Our first destination was in Pahang. It was an one and a half hour trip from our school to our destination.

Our first destination was actually supposed to be the elephant sanctuary but plans had changed because there were to many people at the elephant sanctuary. So, instead of the elephant sanctuary, we walked uphill to the Orang Asli ( Malaysian term for Aborigines or Natives) Village.

The first part of the trip to the Orang Asli Village was a visit to the school that the Orang Asli study in. Apparently, there is no electricity and the school is just made out of rattan. All the "air-conditioning" is the wind. They showed us how to use a blowpipe. I even got a chance to try it out. I missed the targets and hit the picture of the elephant :(

The second part of the trip to the Orang Asli Village was to take a look around the village to see the houses through the ages. One or two of the houses was made out of twigs and leaves and people are still living in those huts. Later, the Orang Asli became a bit more civilized and started to build wooden houses on stilts. Later, the government funded the Orang Asli and they became even more civilized and built houses with cement and bricks.

That was the end of our trip to the Orang Asli Village.

After that, we went towards to the elephant sanctuary.

After we walked downhill, we went through the gates of the elephant sanctuary and over a very big metal bridge that seemed as if it were to collapse any second.

We had to wait outside so the teachers could do a head count. While we were waiting, we managed to see two elephants passing by.

We were originally going to see a short film about the life of an elephant first but things changed. Instead, we got to see the elephants first.

After walking awhile, we arrived at the forest where they keep the elephants. There were some chained up elephants. The smallest and youngest one seemed to be very happy to meet us because it was waving its trunk round and round and it also raised its trunk and I thought that it was smiling. Now I will tell you a bit about elephants :

1. Many people think that elephants are scared of mice but as the people who work at the elephant sanctuary said : " Elephants are scared of bees ".

2. The elephant shows are actually torture towards the elephants.

3. Elephant's poop can weigh up to 65 kg and 50% of that is not digested.

and many others.

Later, we fed the elephants sugar canes and after that we went to ride on the elephants. The elephants hair was very sharp and spiky.

After that we went to visit the elephant museum. It had elephant bones and a lot of text about the elephants. We were originally going to see the short clip about elephants now but other students were using the theatre and if we were to wait till they leave, it would ruin the schedule. So we left for our third destination.

Our third stop was the Deer Park. It was a 5 minute bus ride from the elephant sanctuary.

At the Deer Park, we were given some potatoes to feed the deer. When I was about to collect some potatoes, one of the deer started chewing on my T-shirt and I think one was chewing on the backside of my pants. While feeding the deer, one of them stood up and he was taller than me and tried to get my food but "accidentally" stepped on my foot.

After feeding the deer, we went to see the other animals. The people there seemed to imprison house cats too because they think they are zoo animals. The main attractions included the sun bear cub and the Papa sun bear.

Our fourth stop was outside of the jungle of Pahang and into the small towns of Pahang. Our fourth stop was : LUNCH!!!!!!! We had fish, chicken, vegetables, egg and tofu :)

Our fifth stop was the peanut factory. The peanut factory was a small family business. I will show the peanut making process by text:

1. Take the imported peanuts( from around the world) and mix with salt

2. Take the salted peanuts and put them out at the sun.

3. Later, cook the peanuts in some sort of machine. ( History lesson : the first and second generation of this family of peanut factory workers actually cooked the peanuts by hand whereas currently they use machines but still use firewood to make fire. )

4. Pick the good peanuts from the bad ones.

5. seal them up in cans or packets

6. And SELL!!!!!

At the end of the tour, I bought some peanuts home as souvenirs.

The sixth stop is the Tau Fu Factory. There is not much to say here but I bought some Tau Fu Pok back home.

The seventh and supposed to be final stop was the mushroom factory. There seriously is nothing to be said here except that I bought some mushrooms meant for making butter-fried mushrooms home.

The bonus stop that was not included in our payments is the ice cream factory. The ice cream factory that we visited was just a little coffee shop but one of the sultans of Malaysia loves it and sometimes will close it down for a few days to have some ice cream. Unfortunately, the ice cream factory was not open but the coffee shop was! So, I bought a chocolate ice cream.

After that, we happily went back to school. The End.

And I would like thank Beatrix and her family for letting me stay with them during the weekend while my mother was not home as she had to go to her cousins funeral.

Hope you like my blog !!!! :)