Monday, April 16, 2007

Betong Longhouses

Monday, April 16, 2007
I'm back! Miss my family so so much! Miss miss miss my bed too *kisses bed* I'm so glad I'm home cuz any longer and I don't think I can take it anymore. I shall be writing 3 different versions about this trip as requested by various people. If you want the churchlitically correct version where all the good points are like super maximized please read our church's newsletter. If you want to know more about the spiritual aspects of this trip in a short, lighthearted way please read our MFY's newsletter. Now, if you want to know exactly what goes on during these trips with ALL keh liao details included and my personal opinion then read on...




The whole ride from Kuching to Betong took like 6 long hours. I was always under the impression that it was only like an hour drive when I agreed to this trip. If I knew SIX HOURS hor I probably wouldn't go. Was in a very terrible mood later.









Stopped at Lachau (yes, if you say it faster it sounds like *ahem*) for tea. The cha mee here is yummy! My pictures are nicer now hor? More vibrant? Did something to it in Photoshop =P




Can you see the rainbow? Kirei ne.





Look! Twin bananas! So cool! Mrs. T said that if I eat it I will have twins in the future. Anyway, even if I do have twins hor, I want them both to be identical handsome boys. On second thought, I think I rather have a yandao twin as my boyfriend instead of a son =P



Nearly died of a heart attack when I saw it. They told me it was suppose to be modern and I was thinking concrete floors with Hi-Fi's and Astro (eh, people tell me one). Took me 10 minutes to get over my shock. But the inside quite ok la. Can tahan.




Sorry if the sky looks a little fake. The original was a piece of grayish white so I decided to recolor it. The house looks like it's gonna fall apart any moment. This is supposed to be a temporary longhouse only as they are currently building a better one nearby.






According to one of our leaders, this is our bathing place... Fat chance I'm going in. This is ridiculous. The whole point of bathing is getting clean ok?! Plus, it looks like it's infested with crocodiles or something. Seriously regretting joining this trip until.....


Ahhh~ much better! This is the REAL bathing place. The water here is so clean and cool. All it lack is a waterfall. Yes, it's still a river but at least it's clean right? No crocodiles too!!! =D



I didn't go in though because it got dark suddenly and no way was I gonna bathe in the dark. I do not want to find a water-snake as my bathing partner. Plus, how to bath? Use sarong? Pah! Don't listen to them. Sarong is a completely useless thing when it comes to bathing especially for us city girls. We have no idea how to tie a sarong correctly plus how to wash when your entire body is swathe in clothes? Clothes get heavy when they are wet so the chances of it slipping off when you stand up is great (remember that you do not know the correct way of tying it in the first place). My advice to you is ditch the sarong and bring a BIKINI. It's light and the chances of it slipping off is practically nil plus you can lather your entire body with soap easily without any hindrances like the stupid sarong. More benefits if there is a hot guy in your group as you can seduce him hahaha. Seriously, I am so gonna bring a bikini the next time I go for a mission trip.




Looks familiar? All it needs is a ghostly figure in the middle and there you have it --- the infamous scene in horror movies.
I wanted to search for a ghost pic to photoshop into this pic but was too chicken out by what I might see in Google.



They use wood to cook rice. Does it taste any different you ask? The answer is no. For those who said that mission trips have nothing to eat are liars. I spent the whole trip eating non-stop. I swear I've gotten obese. By the way, I got my babi hutan! *smiles* It tastes like chicken gizzard for some weird reason.





Dinner...Siao...











Cool black and white shot. Never knew my cam could do that.






*groans* More food again! How I hate you, you delicious kuih. It was so tempting that my hands couldn't stop snatching them one after the other. You haven't even seen breakfast yet. I am now corpulent (just trying to haolian all the cheem cheem words I learnt it SAT to fool you into thinking that I am a genius)







I am so tall. Hahaha. Lazy to edit my face hence the flower. I didn't bring my makeup, conditioner, hair mousse
whatever (what you think? Kampung mar) so I look like a mess. By the way, you know how big the spiders there are or not?! It's as big as your freakin palm ok! Was sitting down on the floor doing our morning devotional when this huge spider came scurrying towards me. Naturally, I freaked and started screaming my head off before running crazily towards my mom thus disrupting the entire devotional group. But it's HUGE!!!! Really really HUGE! The bees also! Like...like...like...an onion with wings! *shivers in fright* Another tip on survival for you: Bring a giant fly swatter preferably with an extremely long handle. Either that or buy the deadliest insect poison money can buy where one spray will kill it off.



The Ibans are really GREAT people! A freakin hilarious lot. Love my time there with them. They are so nice lar and their sense of humour is the best =) By the way, 3 accepted Christ. Kinda sad to leave but I was missing my dad and Ariel like crazy. Thank goodness got my mom with me or else I wouldn't have any fun. My mom can be extremely crazy at times and that's when I love her best hehe. Wished I could be as open as her. All she did was step in a room and say a few words before the entire Iban womenfolk adore her. Darn, I want her skills.














In spite of everything, I'll admit that this was quite an interesting experience for me and I did manage to enjoy myself at times so you might consider joining one in the future if you feel that you are up to it. K, have to write 2 more articles about this trip so I've gotta go.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like...whoa..........

First things first. Thats some awfully 1337 photoshop n photography skills there. T_T I still think photoshop should be used to edit photos rather than colour anime pics...:( damn youve really gotten good a contrast and such. Teach me!!!! Sensei!!!! *chases hana to the US* :P

And also it was real superb of you to actually go out. I wouldnt have had the guts/bothered. You know all those lectures about getting out of your comfort zone? Well it still applies to a lot of people.

I don't really have a clue who Tofu and Korean are, and I don't want to be quick to judge, but jz hang in there ya? Maybe God put them there to test your patience or something. :)

So sounds like you had a great and enlightening time in Ulu...err...*scrolls up*..oh nvm. -_- Thats great. God bless you, man. And I want to go US too~~~~ T_T *steals hana's air ticket* :P

Hana said...

Thanks. But my photography skills are practically nil. I just simply shoot then crop and edit them all in Photoshop to get the picture I want. Hey, colouring anime in Photoshop is awesome too. Ariel always colour hers in Photoshop. It's so nice that I'm jealous. Maybe 1 day I'll post some of her works up haha.


Tofu and Korean are really trying people. I don't normally judge ppl simply for the fact tht I know no one's perfect but some ppl just drives you up the wall.


All in all, the mission trip was still great. The people there are great. I might join again in the future but this time I'll make sure that there are plenty of youths around hehe.

Anonymous said...

hm... i'm damn curious, hope this does not make me sound perv or anything but how DID you bath in the end? or did u not bath throughout the whole trip? >_<

Hana said...

-_- of all ques to ask...apparently the longhse got a small bathroom cum toilet inside where the water is pumped frm the river u jz saw. the setback is the door is like so LOW!!! so 4 tall ppl lyk me....u get the drift. i had to bend dwn so low d whole time and seriously u just feel so exposed. hahaha. tht i just hurriedly splash water on myself b4 dressing lyk mad. 3rd tip: bring a door wif u =P

Anonymous said...

haha, i dun need to, i'm a guy? i can bath in my underwear... XP hm... i think the doors are built for the iban's height