The River Valley High School NPCC Secondary Three Squad embarked on an adventure trip to Stong Hills, Kelantan in the June Holidays. The trip which lasted for five days from 12th to 16th of June was definitely a beneficial one for we learnt a lot of new things.
We boarded a train from Singapore towards Kelantan on 12th of June and spent the rest of the tiring journey playing cards and resting. After alighting from the train at about seven in the next morning we had a quick breakfast. We reached the village of Dabong before leaving for a cave expedition. During the trip, we had to balance ourselves while walking along the tight and narrow paths. After crawling through a tunnel, we emerged in a gigantic cave where the only source of light was a crack in the ceiling. The local guides who told us about the various features of the cave gave us a mini geographic lesson. However, we were only concerned with looking for creepy and crawly animals. It was indeed a great experience since we saw plenty of creatures such as bats and irritating leeches. It was clearly not easy at all to avoid the bats' droppings and the frustrating leeches at the same time! After the three hour long exploration of the caves, we made our way back to the village and then traveled to the Perdana Stong Hills Resort.
The next day was even better as we spent the whole day trekking up Stong Hills. It was never going to be easy from the start, as we had to overcome a steep slope immediately. Next we crossed the upper part of the waterfalls by stepping on slippery rocks. The goings got even tougher as we approached the base camp where we planned to have our lunch. Stumbling and slipping became a routine as we clung to rocks and branches while making the ascent up the hills. What an inviting sight the base camp was! We did not dare to step further than the edge of the rocks since we would probably "walk in the air" if we carried on. It was a remarkable sight. Greenery hid most of the scenery but the sheer drop down the waterfall was stunning and delightful. It was certainly worthwhile to make it that far.
Encouraged by this, we unbelievably forgot our lunch for the first time and followed the guides further upwards where two waterfalls met instead of thinking about the mouth-watering food. The goings was much the same yet the threat of the water forced us to concentrate on keeping our feet firmly planted. The guide had a lot to teach us about the natural surroundings and how to prevent ourselves from falling, so we listened while climbing up. Taking a photograph in the waterfall pool was certainly more difficult than we thought as we tried to balance ourselves in the moving water. It probably took us longer than the time we took to climb the hills! After that, we made our way back down and that ended our third day.
Everybody was in a sleepy mood by the fourth day and we simply walked down to a field where we enjoyed a horrible game of soccer where the ball hit the cows instead of the net while the cows were attempting to join in. There was time for all of us to stand on a makeshift bridge to look at the waterfalls. It quickly turned into a competition as all of us started shaking the bridge with tremendous force. Scenery had lost out to the desperate find for a support!
This trip was certainly challenging to us and the memories will surely be wonderful. The program was exciting and we learnt a lot of new things that are unlikely to appear in textbooks. While benefiting from the trip, the teachers should be thanked for their hard work in organizing this trip to Kelantan.
