This was my first time I joined VMY Go Green Eco Challenge race series although I heard about this previously but never thought I would join this until one day my old friend, Hazel call me asking a favor to be her team-mate for this event. As usual, I asked, how much it will cost, and astonishingly she said, FREE tambang,hotel etc..fully paid ! terkezut den.. It was fully sponsored as this is one of the event promoted by tourism board of Malaysia. So apa lagi… although I had to sacrifice my annual leave for 3 days, as the event was 5 days including the weekend, but I thought, why not, as it is one in a life time experience, especially when she told me it will held in Bau Sarawak, the place I never been before, especially at Long House Kampung Pueh, Long House at Kg Belimbing, Long House Annah Rais and various other places, which very seldom you can visit if you travel by your own. Not to mention various traditional events, cultural shows, etc, which I felt very lucky to be part of this event. Originally, I told our team-mate, no worries so much about winning, as we came for fun, to learn about the indigenous culture of Sarawak and to know people’s around us.Winning, was really a secondary for us at that time. During the race we did really had fun, meeting with various people with various background plus the format of the race was really enjoyable although it could be quite tough at certain time especially if I can single-out the one which was the toughest, was when we required to carry tandan kelapa sawit yg berat gila tu….!!! About 40kg each bawak turun lereng bukit yg becak….Hampes… Although we failed to complete this task, but proudly done with 9 out of 10 tandan kelapa sawit in 30 minutes. The other tasks which quite tough was rock climbing for the middle wall (the toughest one.) Although I’m no new to rock climbing, indeed had been teaching in rock climbing classes for more than 100 students if my mind served me correctly, but now I felt how difficult when you need to do it on your own, and teaching would be more easier perhaps ha..ha… yes, now I realized, when age catching-up, you might not be as competitive as you has been especially when it comes to the task that really required strength and stamina although I managed to get 7 out of 10 marks for this task. (For record only one participant got 10 out of 10 for this task) while the second highest was 7. But overall, I like the most for this event was, on the cultural side of the event, as we were given opportunities to learn more about unique culture of Sarawak, especially traditional dance…yes we need to dance for almost single night, from traditional, poco-poco up to the gala night of Bollywood dance on the last day !. We had also a ‘keluarga angkat’ at Kampong Belimbing, although we only spent one night over there, but it was really a meaningful night, indeed, as our father En.Shamsuddin, fortunately is really political savvy man and so I am,…… and I really had a high respect for his hands-on analysis on Sarawak political scenario, which telling why we can’t stop talking, debating and discussing about various political issues till 3.00 am especially doing so call ‘expert’ analysis about the recent election results..ha..ha….

Having said much about this event, what was the final result ???? I until now still can’t believe this..we surprisingly managed to WIN THE RACE AT 2ND SPOT !!!!!!!! Something we never expected, as this was our first time and we are quite an average team, compare to the others, but what make us winning, I guess we had a great teamwork, with different personalities. Hazel as a captain, was always cakap banyak, but really focus on her task, and highly motivated, Fatma, looks very cool, but always be good follower and always given ideas especially in how to complete the task creatively, while Arai, no doubt, always on the move especially on task required physical challenge, and always managed to mesmerize other team with his gila-gila…. And myself tukang sibuk jer…. Ha..ha… so we up for the final leg…and coming back to KL in smiling face with monetary prize !!!!dah la pi free…dapat duit lagi…. nyum…nyummmm