Honestly saying, the pass few days have been amazingly wonderful – as if they were especially designed for my fifteenth birthday – March 4th. This trip to Cat Tien not only allowed me to be closer to nature, but it also taught me how to live independently and take care of myself when “Mommy” wasn’t around. I’ve learnt so much from this extraordinary trip, and it was simply cool for me to apply what I’ve studied at school in real life. And above all, I suppose I’ve grown a bit more mature after this trip.
Day 1 – March 1st 2011
This might or might not surprise you, but I seriously spent about five to six hours packing my things the other night before the trip. Well, I extremely got overwhelmed over the fact that I was going away from home – far from Ho Chi Minh City for the first time without my family’s supervision. I woke up real early that day and prepared myself to be presentable, and as soon as I got to school time passed real fast until the time we started for our journey. The three-hour ride didn’t turn out to be long and boring as I expected, but rather sort of relaxing and enjoyable. I killed time by listening to music, eating snacks, chatting with friends, and planning for what I’d do when I arrived there. Well, after arriving there, we received our room and immediately after opening the door and skimming the room, Susan, Tien and I shockingly spotted a cockroach happened to be stuck in the mosquito net of the middle bed – the bed I was supposed to sleep in. Anyway, after that we quickly changed for the next activity – which was visiting the bear stations. Fortunately, well if you don’t call it weird, we all ended up seeing two bears fighting. I felt sorry for feeling excited for that, because I hardly saw animals fighting each other like that in real life. Probably getting the sense of what nature really is was kind of cool. After eating dinner, later at night we were invited to a conference room – a big one that made me feel somehow important – and we spent about thirty minutes listening to Cat Tien’s guide introducing briefly about the national park. Sorry but for most of the parts, I thought they were for the birds, still he gave a pretty nice presentation. Last but not least, we ended a superior starting day by joining the fire camp and grilling marshmallow. After eating like six pieces of marshmallow, I seriously wanted to throw up. All that sugar was sucked up in my stomach, and I felt a little bit fatter than usual. Oh yeah, I was also totally into Jared and Johnny’s talents of telling ghost stories, they were so all creepy and gave me that chilly feelings on my neck. I thought it was a good start; probably it would get better the next day.
P/S: Despite having many happy feelings and a pretty good mood inside today, honestly I was extremely upset over two incidents. One was with my best friend, and one was with another friend of me. I truly hoped it would be okay for us to handle the friendship peacefully…
Day 2 – March 2nd 2011
Probably day 2, which was Wednesday, was my most favorite day because a lot of things happened the way I didn’t expect it to, but they turned out awfully awesome. I’ve learnt a lot today either, by walking through the forest for five kilometers. I’ve seen a lot of wild life creatures, well mostly plants and old trees, and for the first time ever, yes ever, I enjoyed messing around a bit with things that are rooted with dust/soil. In fact, I never liked flowers, plants, nor trees because every once in a while I feel creepy imagining them being with the dirty insects. Therefore, surprisingly enough, even though the sun was high above and its rays were burning right through me, I didn’t really complain walking the whole way but tried enjoying the moment by singing out loud with Mia. I also goofed around with Jerry and John, until we finally reached the destination without realizing we’ve been walking a quite long distance. After that, we proceeded to see the Waterfalls, but I was shocked to hear just the day before we arrived here, a few people fell down and were drowned to death. A bit dangerous I guess, but still, we had a great time hanging around and chatting while just enjoying the open space where there are no buildings, no noises of motors instead of birds singing and leaves whistling in the wind. Nicely green, that was what I got from that day. On the way back to the reception, my legs and feet hurt so much I had to take my boots off and walked with bare feet. Obviously felt so much better after doing so. After eating lunch, taking my medicine and going for a nice shower to cool off, Mia and I went to the D section to play cards with the boys. In between, I also hired a bicycle to ride around, until group 1 eventually came back from their activity. After that, we all got dressed again to go to the minority village. I truly enjoyed the ride on the vehicle without the roof – whatever it was called, despite being scratched by branches of trees and breathing dust when it was all stirred up when we passed by. Once we arrived at the village, the kids greeted us with their brilliant hospitality, and I think that they were also happy to see guests arriving every now and then. First we visited the cultural museum of the village to study about their history and culture, and then after that the teachers called upon us to pick up the trashes on the field. Felt like we’ve done something real good for the environment, well it wasn’t that much of a deal but we tried our best, right? Later, we played soccer, and Mr. Black was the goalie and I think it was totally unfair!!!! But in brief, we had a remarkable time, walking the dusty path where weeds grew everywhere. Just like the other night, we also had camp fire but this time we played goose and duck. I thought no one would pick me, until Mr. Tim tricked me by saying goose and then saying duck, and then I mistook. When I finally got what he was trying to do, I chased him off to the tree far away from the fire near the riff of the river, and I totally got him.
P/S: Today I was exceptionally happy due to someone pretty special to me.
Day 3 – March 3rd 2011
The other group already warned me of the long distance to Bau Sau – a lake where crocodiles live, wasn’t worth it because they couldn’t see any at all. Still, I looked pretty presentable for a new day and sure after the daily running, I was ready for walking five kilometers without whining and giving up. During the whole way, Linda, Mia and I had a blissful time together singing all songs like Where is the love, Uptown girl, etc Along with us Mr. Tim harmonized to the beats that made the whole line speed up their spirits and energy. Walking a bit faster and nearly arriving at our destination, we passed a bridge whereas under was a chasm. Jenny was so scared she even cried, but there was more to it. Anyway, we arrived and with no surprise, we didn’t see any crocodiles. I think Mr. Tim is a pretty nice and energetic person, even though he usually gets mad at school – I guess because of all the tensions of being teacher, but he quite enjoyed the trip to the extreme. On his own, Mr. Tim took a boat and drove farther into the middle of the lack to find crocodiles, and all of us, yes all of us, were standing in the wooden house looking after him. He was freaking brave, man! Anyway, he got back safely and later he even got really hyper by creating sort of an anthem for our journey. Well I guess it helped a bit, even with the silly singings and all, we laughed our lungs out but still proceeded fast. Now then I felt my feet aching and walked slower, until Ms. Sarah sighted me and walked along with me. We then chatted attentively about lots of matters, and it was sure fun. Walking a few more kilometers and eventually spotting the sight of the exit, I thought it was the best moment of my life. I eventually saw my future! Phew… We arrived back and then ate lunch, continued by some sport activities. Just then something extremely sad happened to me, and I just quit playing and started having a stroll in the forest alone. Today actually turned out to be my worst day of the trip despite I have learnt a lot of new things.
P/S: For the rest of the day nothing seemed fun happened to me, because I spent the whole time crying and staying in my room. I even missed the fire camp, until Jenny came back and told me what Ms. B has told her. I guess that kind of made my day brighter a bit. LOL. Come on, puh-lease, people get down and cheesy sometimes, and I’m not any exception.
Day 4 – Wish me happy birthday!
Yesterday night all of my friends, including the sad ones, came to my room and all of us decided to let go of all the sad things. They were thoughtful of me, and I’m extremely grateful for having such wonderful friends. They encouraged me to let out all of my depressions, madness and words that upset me so that I could feel better for today – which was my birthday. Waking up without jogging under that fantasy-like path, I slowly strolled to the wooden house near the river but right before that I spotted Annie and Anna. Two big smiles brightened up my day already, and then they started singing me the happy birthday song. I was truthfully happy for that, and then later when I entered the dining room, everyone also sang me the happy birthday song. I felt touched. Mr. Greg and Ms. B also came over to greet me a happy birthday, and even though not happen to spend my birthday at home, I felt it was the best birthday present ever just being present in this trip. After eating breakfast, we came to the Monkey Island, and there the guide outstandingly offered an excellent presentation. She actually made us want to learn more about gibbons and apes. About two hours visiting the island and eye-sighting the gibbons, we returned to prepare for our returning. With our stomachs full, we carried our luggage/bags/suitcases to the reception and gathered to take pictures. It was awesome, man! Our bus, bus one, was broken on the way coming to get us so we ended up squeezing into the other buses. Well, I guess everything happened for a reason, and yes I’m being religious here, – I think God plans everything and so I shouldn’t be sad about him setting up my path. Therefore, I enjoyed every moment of the trip, and I truly appreciated the friendships as well as a tighter relationship we had made with the environment. I seriously hope we will have another trip like this again, or even better. Who knows???
