Learning trip to Kuala Selangor 18-19 June 2007

07 Jun 07

This will be a post about the learning trip that's gonna happen on 18-19 Jun 07 to Malaysia. 10 teachers, 40+ students from my school. Joy.

Will continue to update this post till the trip is over. However, what I want to show is that http://www.streetdirectory.com/ actually covers part of JB, Melaka and KL! Hence you guys can actually check out the location of the hotel we're staying in.

Which brings me to the next point.... Somehow, I've gotten the impression that this is a trip to KL - Kuala Lumpur. Well, it isn't unfortunately. Click on the link to find out the location of the hotel we're staying at. It's at least 25 km away from KL! Not too sure if you can even see the twin towers... http://www.streetdirectory.com/malaysia/kl/travel.php?travel_id=1369&travel_site=67215&x=780390.9300&y=340085.9300&star=1&viewmode=&level=3#map

18 Jun 07

Time flies and it's now the day of the trip itself! There was an itinerary change, and so instead of the visit to the rice plantations and other 'educational' highlights, we were scheduled for Sunway Lagoon on the first day! Not that the students were complaining of course.

The 4 hr journey was spent on a 30 seater coach. Quite comfy by my standards.

The tour guide trying his best to manage the students. Teachers was slacking somewhere. "It's school holidays wat!"

Finally, Sunway Lagoon!

The students weren't allowed to go into the wet theme park, hence they could only help themselves to the thrill rides at the amusement park. Unfortunately, there were only 5-6 different rides. Most of them went to have a go or 2, before diving back into the cool embrace of the air-conditioned mall that's attached to Sunway Lagoon and began their shopping spree.

The challenge: 360 degrees viking ride

All smiles before the ride....

...and no fear in the eyes.

Not much smiles now though...

Upside down, insides coming out?

4 useless guys posing front of the ride they dare not take. Eventually 3 of them grew enough..er...guts to try it.

"Hands up those that feel sick please?"

The girls from their class showed much more finesse though!

"Go lah...."
"Dowan lah you go with her lah!
"Siao!"

Finding that thrill rides are not their cup of tea, they succumb to Singaporeans' favorite past time - makan!

Happy faces.

Meanwhile, what do science teachers do in a theme park? Evaluate the weight mass of the underweight Ms Fu!

Getting a earful and a valuable lesson on punctuality.

In the mall, a lot of the students were hoarding loads of titbits and drinks for the 'late-night party' in the hotel. Well, I guess they got slightly carried away and in the end a handfull turned up late at the appointed meeting place. This obviously did not go well with the organiser of the trip, the VP.

Despite the little lesson on punctuality, their spirits were hardly dampened. Next stop is a 2 hour journey to a riverside restaurant, where we had seafood dinner by the river. I find it quite ok although most of the students (and some teachers) said the food was not appetising. And after dinner, they packed MORE food and drinks from the conveniece shop across the restaurant,

We then visited the Belimbing Firefly park (which was just 10 minutes away) for a boat ride along Sungei Selangor. Here, we see thousands of fireflies lighting up the berembang trees with their luminous tailights. Unfortunately, none of us have a camera that's able to capture the very interesting natural spectacle. So you have to use your imagination, and visualise a tree filled with hundreds of 2mm green LEDs almost blinking in unison...

Reached the hotel in Shah Alam around 11 pm. Despite the long day, the kids could still chat in their room, gorge on the snacks they bought and some even ordered ice-cream and pizza from the room service. I do know all the teachers fell soundly asleep once we hit the mattresses.

19 Jun 2007

After checking out of the hotel (yes, they were late again...), we were taken for a city ride in Kuala Lumpur. But prior to that, I noticed that the buildings and city layout of Shah Alam is very different from the Malaysia that I know. Instead of looking like JB or Melaka, the roads and houses here resembles Singapore. And the cleaniless is comparable to our green city. There are even street signs that worked!

So what do we do when we were brought to national monuments and places of interest? Take photos lor...

Some students from my Physics/Maths class.

The inevitable pose-like-the-statues pose.

Teaching staff. Last smile before school reopens....

Acting cute version 1

Acting cute version 2

Vice-principle, OM and the boys under the shadow of the Twin Towers.

Wah, finally some students ask for a photo with me...

Last stop for the trip was 2 'educational insights into consumerism and tourism of modern Malaysia' aka shopping stops. First we visited the Chocolate Boutique, which showcased the process of making chocolate and that Malaysia, having vast plantations of cocoa, should logically have the best chocolate (anybody heard of Belgian chocolates? Swiss chocs? Heck, Cadbury is from Australia btw...). Of course, they waste no time in showing off their wide variety of unique chocolate concoctions, such as the infamous Durian chocolate (with real durians!), Tiramisu, Espresso beans (which I bought one pack. It was good.). Being the silly and swakoo Singaporeans that we are, almost everyone bought something from the exhorbitantly priced shop.

And to round it off, we were given 1 hr in Sungei Wang plaza, which really resembled the shopping malls in Thailand (small shops space, low ceilings, IT section on the top level, many many handphones outlets...). I only managed to secure myself a copy of Top Gear Malaysia magazine. Is there a Top Gear Singapore?

To sum it all, the trip was pretty enjoyable, though frankly I was hoping to see rice plantations. I'm not sure much learning has happened during this "learning trip" but I'm quite sure they all had fun. And perhaps the trip was more memorable because they were all Sec 4 students and this could very well be their last class outing with the teachers.

Dragon sculpture..made of chocolate at the Chocolate Butiq.

This is why you need to buy 5mp and above camera...for the unavoidable big group photos!

See you guys when the school reopens!