Year End Trip To Sungai Buloh and Kuala Selangor

The long awaited update has finally arrived! :D

To keep it brief and simple, i would just include the important details and let the pictures that Leo Brian has very kindly provided in the slide show, do most of the talking. :)

As most of you would know, the year end trip - organised in collaboration between PAWS and Humanity group, was planned as a two day one night trip from the 16th of November to the 17th of November 2008 to Sungai Buloh and Kuala Selangor. Purpose of the trip was to visit the Furry Friends Farm (FFF), to visit the children from Rumah Tunas Harapan and for a night's tour to view the fireflies.

First day (16th November 2008)
All 14 of us: Leo An Dee, Sheen Sern, Melissa, Yi Peng, Yi Mei, Carolyn, Sook Yan, Tze Yuen, Dun Hong, Wen Jhe, Chee Fei, Brian, Willie and I, met up in front of the Monash University entrance and stuffed ourselves into 4 cars driven by Leo Melissa, Wen Jhe, Sheen Sern and An Dee and in no time, we were on our way for our road trip!

But first, a group picture in front of Monash University entrance:

The first place on the itinerary was to visit the FFF but before that, we needed to fill our tummies with FOOD!

Sorry! It doesn't quite allow me to tilt the image...so, you would have to tilt your head instead. xD

Soon after, we headed off to FFF.


We met with the person who headed the place - Ms. Yeap. After giving us a short briefing, we were soon divided into groups whereby some raked the leaves, some cleaned the compounds, fed the dogs, washed the bowls, cleared the surroundings and etc.

It may sound easy to some, but believe me, it was no simple job.

An appreciation award from Monash University Leo Club given by Organizing Chairperson - Leo An Dee to Ms. Yeap

Snap shot of the group at FFF

Once done with all the hard work, we decided to award ourselves to some snack and we decided KFC.

Unfortunately, queue happened to be long and it didn’t help that we were still stinking from dog poo and sweat – a combination I trust is not appealing. Thus, off we went to the mamak stall further down. Which turn out not too attractive with the number house flies circulating the tables and around us. Nonetheless, we satisfied our appetite. :)


Not long after, we were back on the road on our way to Kuala Selangor towards the Firefly Park Resort at Bukit Belimbing where we would be staying for the night.



We settled in our respective chalets and got ready for the night tour to see the fireflies!

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures of the fireflies or be fined RM500. Apparently none wanted to take the risk, so the closest picture you can get of a firefly is this:

Hahahaha! I KNOW...lame....but i just had to. LOL!

The tour lasted for around 1/2 hour and soon, it was time for dinner – BBQ! (Pictures in slides)

Followed by preparations for the next day, such as goodie bags as well as brushing up our geography of the South East Asia and Asia map; which saw everyone participating with enthusiasm and full of spirit.

Later in the night, we awarded ourselves with a few rounds of Mafia until we called it a night. :D

Second day (17th November 2008)
Next morning, we had simple breakfast that consisted of:

Not the most healthiest meal but we make do. :D

We checked out from the chalet and was back on the road towards Rumah Tunas Harapan.


There, we were again divided into 6 groups and were put in charge of 6 groups of children - whose ages ranges between teenagers to 5 year olds.

To provide you a brief description about Rumah Tunas Harapan, it is a little different compared to other orphanages.

The conventional orphanages that we mostly hear about basically takes in orphans and several teachers or guardians would be in charge of the home. But in Rumah Tunas Harapan, they instil a family oriented concept whereby the children are placed into houses and in each house, there is a "father" and "mother" to take care of them as their own. There are altogether one Chinese family, one Indian family and 4 other Malay families.

In each house, the couple would take care of around six children and bring them up according to the culture of each ethnic. For example, the children in the Chinese house would be brought up to celebrate Chinese New Year, allowed to eat Bak Kut Teh and so on. Same goes for the other houses too.

The children are taken care of until they are 18 years old and some, until they graduate and learn to take care of themselves. Hence the difference with Rumah Tunas Harapan.

The initial plan that we had for the children included a series of games and activities that was both educational and fun. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances - in that the children were caught up playing all the balloons instead, we improvised by allowing the younger children to play the ping pong ball on the spoon game and allowed the rest to continue having fun with the balloons. Then later, we grouped them together and proceeded to teach them geography! :D After that was completed, it was raining so instead of outdoors, we were separated into 6 groups and were invited into the homes of the children to teach them ways to avoid pollution and to save the environment.

Here are some of the pictures taken:

Teaching them geography

Talking about ways to save the environment

With some of the children at their house

An appreciation award from Monash University Leo Club given by Organizing Chairperson - Leo Sheen Sern to Mr. Ong (the father to the Chinese family in Rumah Tunas Harapan)

Group picture with Mr. Ong and some of the children

After we said our goodbyes (albeit reluctantly), we were then on our way back towards KL.

But again, we needed food! So we stopped by One Utama on our way back for some lunch at Wong Kok!

Group pic at Wong Kok

All in all, it was definitely a fun and educational trip. :) It was, i am sure, a great experience for all those involved with this year end trip. Everyone contributed, participated wholeheartedly and most importantly, worked together as a team in providing our services to the society and those in need whilst still enjoying every moment of it. :)

To mark the end of it, on behalf of all, i would like to say a big thank you to Leo Sheen Sern and Leo An Dee for making this trip possible and to everyone else who came, thank you for the warm and friendly company and for all the laughs we shared throughout the journey. Not forgetting Leo Melissa, Wen Jhe, Sheen Sern and An Dee for bringing us safely to and from Kuala Selangor and Sungai Buloh! Thank you! :D

- END -

Below is the slide show that Brian had very kindly done for us. Enjoy! :D