Birthdays to me have
always been a dread. My birthday that is. And this year, I faced the same
problem of having to decide how to spend this most dreadful day of the year. My
fellow toastmasters, a very good evening. Today, allow me to share with you how
I actually spend my birthday this year.
Now I have to confess I hate birthdays. Oh don't get me wrong, i love celebrating other people's birthdays, with cakes and songs and parties and presents! But I simply hate mine. It is just ladened with too much emotions and memories and unaccomplished birthday resolutions that I just feel like running away! And so I did just that this year! I ran away to the woods, like snow white running away from the wicked queen. So where did i go? I went and climbed a mountain.
Gunung Arong is situated in Mersing, Johor, about 2 hours of bus ride from the woodlands checkpoint. It is a recreational forest area with a mountain peak of 225 metres high. Yep, only 225 metres high. The hike has a rating of 1.5 out of 5, by the adventure club that organized this; it is beginner's level . I thought, I am fit, I work out very regularly, and therefore this would be a walk in the park! So I signed up. Truly, ignorance is the best motivation! I simply under-estimated the mountain.
At 6 am in the morning I dutifully waited at the gathering point with a lot of anticipation for an unusual day. As I knew no one there, I had great opportunity to make friends! See, I get a party on my birthday too, just that they did not realize they were invited. I sat with an Indian lady and both of us became fast friends even after the hike.
With me being all geared up for my hike, I was very eager to get to my first stop after entering Malaysia. But even before we reach the destination,I got just a little bit worried. The organizer for the hiking group started describing the various mountains and their challenges, and one of them was leeches! Yeeekks! I have never seen a real leech in my life, and I really do not want to have any of those blood suckers on me! So I listened very attentively... Fire is the only way to kill them if you meet one. My lighter was never very far from me during the whole trip. Thank goodness, even with the wet and humid weather that day, there were no sightings of these suckers and I did not get the chance to burn anything. Oh well, there will be next time...
The second hurdle I need to overcome was the river crossing. The description of this hike at the website stated a short river crossing of around the height of less than 1 metre. Alright, I tell myself. Easy enough, I just need to waterproof my back pack and wad through the river. But haha! God saw to it that I certainly will have enough excitement on my birthday. Due to the intermediate rain that hardly stopped during the week leading up to my hike, the water from the South China Sea swelled the river that led inwards, and lo and behold, the water level had rose to close to 2 metres! You can imagine the swearing that my organizer did when she reached the river banks! She is afterall standing tall at a great height of 150cms.
After we swam across the river, with the guys carrying the backpacks over their heads, we finally reached the bottom of the mountain. The time then was around 11 am, and by the organizer’s standard, we are truly very very far behind our intended timing. And so we started our 2 hrs ascend immediately, wet clothes and all! Plodding through the rainforest was an unusual experience for me. The air was humid and dense with the smell of rotten leaves on the ground, and the tall trees spread out their canopy to provide us the shade, which also caused our clothes to remain stubbornly wet and sticky on our skin. As the path led on, our group of 28 hikers formed a single file and gradually those who are truly fitter will lead the way ahead. Needless to say I led to way too, counting from behind that is. However I really did not mind being the last as it gave me time to truly experience nature and be part of it, even for a while. It was then that it dawned on me, while we think we were conquering the mountain, was it actually the other way around? The mountain and nature conquered us instead. We could have left our footprints along the muddy road, but rain and other natural forces saw to it that they were erased in no time. Man had thought he is capable of everything, but he did not realized that nature does not really care what he does at all. That really put me in perspective of me, my life, and what i thought are my great achievements in life. With these self-cleansing thoughts running through my head as I plodded along following the long trial, I gained so much, not just physically, but also mentally and to a certain extend spiritually as well. That, to me, was the best birthday gift I can ever get.
As we climbed higher, we were able to glimpse through the thinning tree tops and saw the magnificent view beyond the mountain. That motivated each of us tremendously and our anticipation for the full view at the summit rose with each step we take. After 2 hours of throttling and plodding and hurling ourselves up the slippery slopes of Gunung Arong, we finally made it! The peak was everything that was promised to us, with panoramic views of the South China Sea and it's neighbouring islands. God knows I deserve an even better reward... Pulau Tioman! I can see Pulau Tioman, because God saw it fit to part the clouds and allow the sun to shine through just as we were resting at the peak. Breathtakingly beautiful, the island looks as though it beckons us to go there to enjoy its deep blue sea. God knows we all need a good bath!
So, my dear fellow toastmasters, did I lose out by running away during my birthday? Of cause not! In fact there was so much I gained out of this experience. I will gladly run away again even on other days, for the rewards and treasures in nature were more than beyond expected. It was indeed a very memorable birthday for me, one which i had no regrets and will gladly experience it again.
Thank you.
Now I have to confess I hate birthdays. Oh don't get me wrong, i love celebrating other people's birthdays, with cakes and songs and parties and presents! But I simply hate mine. It is just ladened with too much emotions and memories and unaccomplished birthday resolutions that I just feel like running away! And so I did just that this year! I ran away to the woods, like snow white running away from the wicked queen. So where did i go? I went and climbed a mountain.
Gunung Arong is situated in Mersing, Johor, about 2 hours of bus ride from the woodlands checkpoint. It is a recreational forest area with a mountain peak of 225 metres high. Yep, only 225 metres high. The hike has a rating of 1.5 out of 5, by the adventure club that organized this; it is beginner's level . I thought, I am fit, I work out very regularly, and therefore this would be a walk in the park! So I signed up. Truly, ignorance is the best motivation! I simply under-estimated the mountain.
At 6 am in the morning I dutifully waited at the gathering point with a lot of anticipation for an unusual day. As I knew no one there, I had great opportunity to make friends! See, I get a party on my birthday too, just that they did not realize they were invited. I sat with an Indian lady and both of us became fast friends even after the hike.
With me being all geared up for my hike, I was very eager to get to my first stop after entering Malaysia. But even before we reach the destination,I got just a little bit worried. The organizer for the hiking group started describing the various mountains and their challenges, and one of them was leeches! Yeeekks! I have never seen a real leech in my life, and I really do not want to have any of those blood suckers on me! So I listened very attentively... Fire is the only way to kill them if you meet one. My lighter was never very far from me during the whole trip. Thank goodness, even with the wet and humid weather that day, there were no sightings of these suckers and I did not get the chance to burn anything. Oh well, there will be next time...
The second hurdle I need to overcome was the river crossing. The description of this hike at the website stated a short river crossing of around the height of less than 1 metre. Alright, I tell myself. Easy enough, I just need to waterproof my back pack and wad through the river. But haha! God saw to it that I certainly will have enough excitement on my birthday. Due to the intermediate rain that hardly stopped during the week leading up to my hike, the water from the South China Sea swelled the river that led inwards, and lo and behold, the water level had rose to close to 2 metres! You can imagine the swearing that my organizer did when she reached the river banks! She is afterall standing tall at a great height of 150cms.
After we swam across the river, with the guys carrying the backpacks over their heads, we finally reached the bottom of the mountain. The time then was around 11 am, and by the organizer’s standard, we are truly very very far behind our intended timing. And so we started our 2 hrs ascend immediately, wet clothes and all! Plodding through the rainforest was an unusual experience for me. The air was humid and dense with the smell of rotten leaves on the ground, and the tall trees spread out their canopy to provide us the shade, which also caused our clothes to remain stubbornly wet and sticky on our skin. As the path led on, our group of 28 hikers formed a single file and gradually those who are truly fitter will lead the way ahead. Needless to say I led to way too, counting from behind that is. However I really did not mind being the last as it gave me time to truly experience nature and be part of it, even for a while. It was then that it dawned on me, while we think we were conquering the mountain, was it actually the other way around? The mountain and nature conquered us instead. We could have left our footprints along the muddy road, but rain and other natural forces saw to it that they were erased in no time. Man had thought he is capable of everything, but he did not realized that nature does not really care what he does at all. That really put me in perspective of me, my life, and what i thought are my great achievements in life. With these self-cleansing thoughts running through my head as I plodded along following the long trial, I gained so much, not just physically, but also mentally and to a certain extend spiritually as well. That, to me, was the best birthday gift I can ever get.
As we climbed higher, we were able to glimpse through the thinning tree tops and saw the magnificent view beyond the mountain. That motivated each of us tremendously and our anticipation for the full view at the summit rose with each step we take. After 2 hours of throttling and plodding and hurling ourselves up the slippery slopes of Gunung Arong, we finally made it! The peak was everything that was promised to us, with panoramic views of the South China Sea and it's neighbouring islands. God knows I deserve an even better reward... Pulau Tioman! I can see Pulau Tioman, because God saw it fit to part the clouds and allow the sun to shine through just as we were resting at the peak. Breathtakingly beautiful, the island looks as though it beckons us to go there to enjoy its deep blue sea. God knows we all need a good bath!
So, my dear fellow toastmasters, did I lose out by running away during my birthday? Of cause not! In fact there was so much I gained out of this experience. I will gladly run away again even on other days, for the rewards and treasures in nature were more than beyond expected. It was indeed a very memorable birthday for me, one which i had no regrets and will gladly experience it again.
Thank you.
P6 Delivered on the occasion of the project clinic. Total 7 mins with a few sections being cut as this is too long. Achieved the objectives of pauses, tonal variable, body language etc. Still need to work on grammar. Also the paragraph on reaching the mountain peak gave a false conclusion, so need to work on the organization. Ah counter? Uncountable...
PS: people and references are all mine.
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