Janvier Soldat And The Skytrex Extreme

Being an OC is not an easy job when it comes to planning for a big group, as lad tried to get everyone to confirm attendance and agree on venue and dates for ethancya's and Lemon's birthday celebrations. Still, he did a great job pulling off not only a yellow-themed porky dinner at Karl's Beisl for the August boys, but the same gang headed for the Skytrex Extreme Challenge in Shah Alam the following morning!

From suggestions of going for a quick trip to Serendah, to caving in Seremban, a quick suggestion at paintballing, finally to Skytrex which was first suggested in April...

Lad: I called Skytrex Lady and she says we have to book online and PAY online at the same time. So we have to confirm who's coming asap. There are 3 courses, Big Thrill would be our target but it seems to be almost fully booked with 6 slots left.
We could probably go for Little Adventure, then rent some bicycles (we can teach esteban and Puddy) to relax the rest of the day with nature. I'll bet all the ex-Scouts will be looking forward to sitting on the grass relaxing under a shady tree with the birds, ants, snails, slugs... :P
Puddy: EXTREME CHALLENGE :)
Janvier: EXTREME CHALLENGE even if we will regret it later.

So yes, we admit it was us who'd got everyone going through a slight gauntlet of pain, but when we thought about it, it was better to have done it now while we're still able to! And yes if Big Thrill had enough slots for our group we would have opted for that for our first Skytrex experience.

Everyone was enthusiastic about Skytrex, even after Puddy had sent us all a link of someone else's experience at the Extreme Challenge to help mentally prepare us for what we were about to face. And as there was a picnic area set up at Skytrex, Puddy started planning for our picnic! She'd prepared sandwiches, and others prepared pasta salad, egg mayo, drinks and ice!

Leaving TTDI early in the morning at 7ish and arriving at Taman Pertanian Malaysia in Shah Alam with nary a problem, well at least no problem for those of us coming via the Federal Highway as there were road signs in addition to the map we'd printed out. Those who came via the NKVE had a bit of navigating to do as Skytrex didn't give directions from the NKVE.

Everyone met up at the car park, and Puddy fed everyone else (who wasn't in the same car as her) breakfast sandwiches, much to everybody's joy. Skytrex on an empty stomach, especially when we've opted to go for the circuit that demanded a lot, is a very daunting task. When it was time to board the bus to head up from the Taman Pertanian Malaysia's entrance to Skytrex, we were the only group who had brought along not one but TWO ice boxes!

At Skytrex, we'd bought our RM3 gloves, shared for two lockers to dump all our valuables, had our harness strapped on, and were ready!

After a quick introduction to the what-to-dos and the our-record-is-still-clean-let's-keep-it-that-way (when enquired if anyone died haha), a demonstration and a practise run, off we went to start the Extreme Challenge.

Which involved us all climbing up a ladder more than halfway up a tree, about 17m high? Looks easy, but we learnt to dislike the ladder being made from half of a PVC pipe - it makes good footholds, but if it wasn't for our gloves we would have found ourself slipping from the ladder with sweaty palms after a while! Halfway up and we felt that gravity has some sort of grudge against us.

Once up on the platform, it was time for our first flying fox! While waiting or climbing up the tree to the platform, we could hear far-off shrieks as people zipped past on said flying fox, adding to the excitement. And once atop on the platform there's the initial jellylegs we slowly got used to being high up.

Not that we're afraid of heights. We're ok with heights, but our body tends to remind us to be a bit respectful when we're rather high up in the air. It's the heights we should be afraid of, our body'll go. It's not so much falling that we also should be afraid of. It's the landing smack into the ground that must not happen.

After zipping through a couple of flying foxes, we got used to the safety routine of locking our carabiner and pulley onto the safety cables. The flying foxes helped take the height off our minds too. Then came the other obstacles that tested our upper body strength.

Our first (non-flying fox) challenge involved suspended logs to walk across, with a cable above to steady ourself. That was easy, and we traipsed easily enough until we reached the middle, where the whole thing started swerving about. Caught off-guard we had to stop to steady ourself before continuing at a slightly more cautious pace, and slowing down a tad at the end as the logs tilted to the right.

This obstacle itself made it clear that there were no extra advantages for being tall or short...if you were short, ladder climbing might be a tad longer and you'll feel the stretch in your arms reaching for certain cables, but someone as tall as ethancya was almost squatting as he went across!

Monkey bars came next, and then a short rope swing, before the (to our opinion) toughest challenge of the entire circuit. We're not sure what it's called but it consisted of horizontal tubes suspended by ropes to look like swings.

This was one effing challenge as we were swinging back and forth trying to get our balance when moving from one tube swing to another. We were shouting profanities throughtout that obstacle that we forgot children might be cycling some 22m below. That bit really needed balance, upper body strength and patience.

We wish we'd brought our iXus along, but with the battery flat from photo-taking the night before during the birthday dinner, and us worrying that we might just drop our iXus while up in the trees, we'll just have to depend on others for photos this time around.

After the tubes, there was the V-ropes, more flying foxes, tightrope walking (with supporting cable heh), more ropes, more cables, more ladders...but all of them comparatively easier than the tubes bit where we cussed nonstop.

We reached a point where there was an instructor idling by on a platform where the circuit split into two again. We casually mentioned, "We're not gonna ask you how many more obstacles are there..." when he replied, "This is the last one. Do you need a demo?"

Consisting of ropes and tube platforms we were suppose to swing our way to freedom. Easy to say but took a bit of figuring out how, as some basically jumped across while holding on to the ropes. That done with, we reach the exit!

Somewhere midway through the Extreme Challenge we'd completely burned off breakfast and was thinking of glucose tablets and a nice icy-cold 100 Plus. Coming down the exit Germ quickly warned us not to slide down as she took photos of everyone. Seems like someone actually slid down the exit and Germ scurried away before she was barrelled into.

After the Extreme Challenge, our picnic was a very welcome sight! Icy cold cans of 100 Plus and mineral water, kept chilled in iceboxes filled with water and four bags of ice from 7-Eleven, sandwiches with tuna and ham and tomatoes and the likes, pasta, fishballs...Everyone was indeed happy campers.

Will we be doing this again? Probably for the Big Thrill! Once more, a big thank-you to our OC for organizing this and to all who contributed to food!