wild, wild fun

8/10/2019 Wild, wild fun

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Wednesday28 APRIL

2010thestar.com.my/lifestyle

R.AGE

Blogger Bryanboyfinds online fame >4

R.AGE

Parkingfor fitness >10

Join these youths on a South

African adventure. >2-3

A month of laughs >20THEATRE

Wild,wildfunWild,wildfun


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T2 R.AGE STARTWO, WEDNESDAY 28 APRIL 2010

HEALTH

Smart drugsStudents are turningto drugs to fight fatigue andhelp them concentrate. >13

M IN D O UR E NG LI SH

A major shiftGraphic novels have beenincluded in the literaturecomponent of the new Englishlanguage curriculum. >14

CHILDWISE

Sibling rivalryChildren need to work outtheir relationships with theirsiblings. >16

MUSIC

Strange yetsublimeAs far as world musicsuperstars go, Sa Dingding isemerging as Chinas brightestprospect. >21

ON THE AIR

A misfireHuman Targetmakes a ratherbland transition from comics tothe small screen. >23

EDITOR: LIM CHENG HOECONTACTe-mail: [email protected]: 03-7967 1388fax: 03-7955 4039ADVERTISING:Peter [email protected](03) 7966-8236Pearly [email protected](03) 7966-8272

StarTwo

EDITOR: IVY SOONCONTACTe-mail: [email protected]: 03-7967 1693fax: 03-7955 4039ADVERTISING:James [email protected](03) 7966-8226

By NIKI CHEONG

[email protected]

I

F YOURE looking for adventure, all youreally need to is make a trip to South

Africa, and youre bound to be in for atreat. After all, adventure seems to be inthe countrys DNA, if its history is anything togo by.

Lets not even talk about the adventurethat is the migration of hominids to the areamillions of years ago. More recently letssay the 1400s one of the biggest adven-tures in the world happened in South Africa,most specifically at The Cape of Good Hope,the most southwestern tip of the country.

Then, Portuguese explorer BartolomeuDias became the first European to reach thecape, making him also the first person todiscover a route to India which allowedEuropean travellers to bypass the MiddleEast.

These days, however, a South African

adventure is mostly associated with the wild,and it is for this reason that last month, agroup of over 20 Malaysians made a journeytogether across the continent.

This group was made up mostly of winners

for the Holiday for the Brave competitionorganised by Nestle Drumstick. The trip ispart of an on-going campaign for the brand,aimed at bringing out the spirit of adventureamong its customers.

First up was the week-long trip to visitSouth Africa, home to the 2010 World Cup,which gave the contest winners a chance toget up close with the wonderful inhabitantsof the wild great white sharks, lions,rhinoceros and more.

I could not believe that I had won thiscontest until Nestle actually called me. I wasso excited, said one of the contest winners,Siti Nor Azlin, 23.

Azlin and the rest of the group had a hostof activities lined up for them. Immediately

after arriving at Cape Town InternationalAirport, they were bussed to a nearby ostrichfarm where they learned about the bird, gotto try its meat, and were even treated toostrich rides!

The ride may sound pretty harmless, but itwas quite a scary venture for Iza SyafinazSuhin, who was on the trip as the guest ofher sister Nurulsuhada, who won the compe-tition.

Better to seehantu(a ghost) than to go onthat, said Iza, jumping off the ostrich barelyafter she sat on it.

While the rest were not as spooked as Izawas with the ostrich, the same could not besaid when they encountered the first realdangerous activity of the trip diving withthe great white sharks.

Even though divers were kept safe withinthe confines of a cage, the thought of comingwithin inches of the sharks were enough tokeep some of those on the trip nervous.

Add to this fact that the divers were jump-ing into 9C waters, and it was enough to

send some people like Iza into a panicfrenzy.Still, it was an exciting and thrilling day for

most even those of us who got sea sick tocome close with such a beauty of nature.

Diving up close with the great whiteshark is unforgettable, not to mention unfor-

Diversgettingreadyto

enteracagetoviewthe

greatwhitesharkup

close.DARRANTAN/

TheStar

Africanadventures

Breathtaking: The view of Cape Townfrom Table Mountain.


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STARTWO, WEDNESDAY 28 APRIL 2010 R.AGE T3

ettably cold, exclaimed 26-year-old travellogger Nicole Tan (nicolekiss.com).The highlight of the trip, however, would

have to be the three-day, two-night visit toKruger National Park, the world famous

ame reserve.The reserve, which covers almost 19,000

q km of land, is home to the renowned Big the lion, rhinoceros, buffalo, cheetah and

lephant. Visitors to the reserve go on gamerives, usually on huge four wheel driveehicles, and look out into the mass of greenooking for these, and more animals.

Because the reserve is generallyuntouched (aside from some basic accomo-

ation and rest areas) one would nevernow which animal might cross ones pathr walk casually beside the vehicle.For the group, the first and the last day

roved most fruitful. They encountered aon and its lioness barely half an hour intoheir first game drive. The two creatures ofhe jungle were walking nonchantlantly passhe vehicle as the contest winners snappedictures and looked in awe.

I will never forget when I came eye-on-ye with the lion. I was so scared but at theame time so excited. It was real! Azlin said.

Nurulsuhada, too, was really excited, ashis was the one thing she wanted to do inouth Africa.

The thing that I was most looking forward to iso be at the safari, experiencing the wild. I wasooking forward to see all the wild animals espe-ially the gajina (African elephant), phumba (wildoar), jumba (the great lion), hyena, giraffe, zebrand rhinoceros, she said.

She went on to talk about her most memorablexperience in the reserve.

A cheetah appeared right in front of us rightfter we said we wanted to see it on the last day ofur visit. There it was jumping on the block oftone, while all of us watched in the truck justbout 1.5m away, she shared.

It was exciting but scary.All ofus, who weresonoisy before that, went so quietand froze like atone.

Besides getting a tase of the wild, the group werealso treated to visits to a variety of look out pointsto experience the beautiful landscape of SouthAfrica that it is known for.

I was most looking forward to the panoramaand scenery of South Africa, said engineeringstudent Mohd Khairul Naziri, 23.

Among the spots they visited was The Cape ofGood Hope as well as a cable car ride to the top ofTable Mountain which provided them with a spec-tacular view of Cape Town.

For the contest winners, the trip ended way toosoon. They had spent a week exploring a new

country, learning about new cultures and collecting

memories of a beautiful country to take home withthem.

And as cliched as it may sound, a few went witha new understanding of themselves.

In the words of Iza, talking about her sharkdiving adventure: Now I know that nothing canstop me from doing crazy things.

You can bet that this is one adventure that theywill never forget.

Nestle Drumstick is now giving you the chance tohave a Maori adventure in New Zealand. Log on towww.drumstick.com.my fordetails.

THEtermadventurecan

meansomanydifferent

thingstodifferentpeople.It

isnotjustabouttravelling,

norisitonlyaboutgoing

intothewild.

R.AGEgotsomeofthe

contestwinnerstoshare

theirthoughtswithus.

Daringtoexperience

somethingnewandsome-

thingdifferent.Itdoesnot

necessarilyneedtobe

dangerous,buttherehasto

beariskindoingit!

NurulsuhudaSuhin

Adventureiswhenyou

challengeyourselftodo

somethingyouhavenever

donebefore.SitiNor

Azlin

Thewordadventureto

memeansdoingsomething

withoutanyexpectations

TangWaiYan

Adventuretomemeans

todothingsoutofyour

dailynormalroutines,outof

yourwildestimagination,

exploringtheunknown,

experiencingtheexcitement

anddaringtodream.

NicoleTan

Adventureissomething

youmaynotwanttodo

becauseitsdangerousand

maybehazardous.

Butwhenyoudoit,

youwillaskyourself,

Ohmygoodness,why

haveInevertriedthis

before?.MohdKhairul

Naziri

Funinthewild

Easy does it: IzaSyafinaz Suhinjumping off an ostrichin fear.

Log on to www.rage.com.my towatch a video clip from the trip.

wild, wild fun

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