Oh my, yesterday was intense. Well on Saturday night, we met up with Jade and Madlen, which was ab fab. We all went to a Vietnamese restaurant (have to say I wasn't a fan of the cold noodles and greenery floating in an odd cold broth but the others loved it!). We then went on to "Beach Street" and met up with some of the guys we saw the previous night (Tom, the Hungarian and German dudes, then a guy from Iran who was actually the cutest person- looked like he could genuinely be related to some little animal). Luckily the freakish guy born on a boat and belonging to the British Empire wasn't there. We soon found out from the Hungarian guy, that after I told this freaky guy that I didn't think the Empire existed anymore, he decided he wanted to take his own life, so we don't really know what happened to him in the end. I gota pizza hut (after my unfortunate lack of food consumption at the Vietnamese restaurant- tragic I know). We then all headed to "Q Bar". Highly amused to discover that it's a gay bar- always thought the bar men were a little camp. We met more girls from North Borneo Cabin there (the girls that have been working at Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary for the past 5 months). It just so happened that the owner of Q bar also worked with the girls in Sepilok and they introduced us to him, resulting in us getting cheaper drinks-woo. Even with the discount- I've begun to majorly budget so I apologized to the others profusely and they agreed to leave early as well. We headed to the "7/11" where we bought a nice big bar of fruit and nut chocolate. Unfortunately discovered soon after that there were little to no fruit or nuts- tragic. Stayed up chatting for ages- resulting in very little sleep, as we had to meet everyone for the white water rafting at 7am on Sunday- nasty!! Was well worth it tho! Georgie and I went to the Sunday market to get fresh pancakes, which were pretty good, then we all met up with the guide and rafting group. There were 8 of us, some Malaysian people, a Canadian guy and a few Germans. They were all really friendly and the rafter dudes (sexy as- sorry Darren) filled us in on what we were gona do. They said that due to the heavy rain recently, there was a 100% chance of capsizing- we were like- wooo!! So we got told loads about what to do if the boat tips. We first had a 1+1/2 hr bus ride to the train station. Oober comfy chairs so we all slept on the way there. The train we were to catch is renound for breaking down or not working. All of the teachers either advised against it or said it would be an "interesting journey" and many said we would be quicker walking. So was quite an amusing experience. It started off ok but there had been a landslide half way along the track. It was seriously like a rollercoaster- not exactly high speed- but friggin scary!! The track was soo rickety! And literally dropped on one side to the river and the other was just rocks. I began to feel pretty dodgie in the stomach, which wasn't helped by the serious heat and no air con. When we reached the landslide, we stopped for ages and were told we had the option of walking the rest of the way. I was like- haha! Cos I felt pretty sun stroked and had finished my bottle of water. Luckily another train came to the other side of the mud slide so the passengers outa each train got out and we swapped trains (if that makes sense). So that we could continue to the starting point of the rapids. The people out the other train piled into ours before we could even get out- they were passing bags of fruit and veg through the windows and people were climbing all over the place- I was like "ahh" for a wee bit. Managed to squeeze myself off the bus and clamber over rocks to get to the next train. Passed absolutely stunning scenery when we got started on the move again- like dense rainforest over the river and beautiful flowering trees. We were all so frustrated we didn't have a camera. Tis def been the most impressive scenery I've seen yet in Sabah. Had an oober philosophical discussion with Edward about how I really need to try and see the positive aspects of everything instead of rooting out all of the negative stuff. He seems to be having the time of his life non stop- even when he's friggin food poisoned! So that's something I need to work on. We were all given a bottle of water, which was greatly needed. We passed really old rickety wooden houses along the track and the train often had to hoot its horn repetitively to get people off the track. Everyone seems to use the track to walk between the rural villages. Finally we arrived at a couple of wooden houses, where the rafts were kept. The train journey had taken about 2 hours (although we had covered a very short distance). We were given watermelon, which I scoffed a little too quickly and were visited by an oober cute kitten but I knew, as always in Sabah, I couldn't pick it up and give it a cuddle even though I reeeally wanted to. I started to feel really quite ill- didn't know if it was the heat or the watermelon but I didn't feel too fab and was praying I wasn't gona hurl in the boat. The rafter guides split us into groups. Mine included the 6 of us girl Gappers plus Eddie, who is a Sabah guide but was just there for the banter- as well as 2 pro rafter dudes to keep us right). We had helmets and life jackets and luckily I got to be the designated "holder onner". Meaning I got the easy job of sitting at the very front, in the middle (between Madlen and Eddie) and had to hold on to them tight- since they were most likely to fall in. So I didn't have to paddle- I just went along for the ride- woo!! Thankfully, as soon as we hit the water, there was a cool breeze so I started feeling better straight away. Was mental when instantly we hit a mahoosive wave and I bent right forward and was underwater for like 5 seconds- was crazy! We started with "Warm up" rapids- which were blatantly not an easy warm up! We then hit the "Head Hunter" rapids, "Cobra", "Scooby doo", "Washing Machine" and "Merry-go-round"- was immense! Me and Madlen christened our team "Team Paddle Spank" and sang songs like "Row row row your boat" full blast and somehow found ourselves singing Shania Twain and "It's raining men" and many more. Was highly amusing at the time.. Eddie decided to fill us in on the fact that river is inhabited by the Borneo crocodile but that luckily, they only live upstream. We were like "whaat?!". So we were really not up for falling in! There were some very dubious logs floating about, which I wasn't too keen on at first. We decided that the river was the exact colour of milo- but trust me- it certainly didn't taste like it when you hit a huge wave and swallowed a mouthful. We stopped after every couple of rapids to hava lil splash about with the other groups and there was a crazy guy that was totally the Borneo equivalent of Tarzan. He just took off his top (these rafters have majorly muscly arms) and just went swimming in the rapids- mental! He rode a log and was eating bark and stuff- yummy. The last rapid was just too cool. We were sure the team ahead of us were gona tip- they went flying in the air after they hit a culmination of about 5 waved at once. We were holding on for dear life. Was banter though. We pulled into the side of the rapids and all climbed out a pretty rocky bit to get to the train track and headed for one of the houses to dry off. We were told that the rapids are even better when the water level is lower cos we went when the water level was so high that all of the big rocks were covered. So we didn't have to steer much to miss them - so its supposedly a lot more fun when there are rocks in the water to dodge. Debbie (the woman that arranged it for us), said she could arrange for us to go again when the water level is not so high. So that'll be oober cool. We got some yummy bbq food, rice and fruit, then headed back on the train. Unfortunately I felt ill on the train back again so was a relief to get on the comfy bus and head back to KK. Eddie filled us all in on what is good to do in Sabah but he stressed that for the East coast, we need to book in the next few days cos things are already almost fully booked- especially turtle island, since it is the Turtle's breeding season at the mo. So we are hopefully gona get some things sussed and booked soon. Aman and I are a little worried about getting things done in a big group so we might separate off for a few things during the holiday. Can't wait to meet up with the other Gappers that are coming over from West Malaysia. Once back in KK, we got showers@ the cabin then had to go to Penelope's house to pick up our passports with our visas (got them at last). Aman and I headed back to the school and got an early night so that we could start today on a bit more of a positive note. The class this morning went quite well since I held it in an available classroom instead of the hall, so it was a bit quieter. The deaf camp has been brought forward to the end of March so I need to go find Aman since we need to come up with a timetable and activities ASAP.