Team Building at Penang

It's almost been a week since I last drop by my blogs. I was rather busy for the past week, but with lots of fun. I went for a team building's trip to Penang, which was organised by my company. The trip was rather unexpected. We were told almost a few days before to get prepared for the trip. It was more on learning the objective's of the company, targets and sorts like that, but I'm getting lots of fun out of it but minus the long journey in the bus. There were almost 180 staffs going at one time. We were provided with bus transport rather than taking planes =( Well, can't expect more than that since there were so many staffs going at one time.

Went there for 3 days 2 nights. Took off early in the morning at 7am, having breakfast at 6am (can you imagine having such an early breakfast? Have to, otherwise nothing to eat!) woke up at 5am! It took almost 6.5hrs to reach our destination. Finally, after arriving at Bayview Resort, we got off the bus and immediately went for our lunch. We were damn hungry! After an hour of lunch, we went to the Grand Ballroom to attend for the big forum by our company's director. Well, it was rather a boring and sleepy session. I really fell asleep for 5mins!

After the forum, we were ready to be posted to our rooms. Me and my other close colleague were placed on the ninth floor. The view from the balcony was fascinating! We can the swimming pool from our room =)

We were given sufficient time to rest and get ready for Gala dinner! We were sorted to groups which consist of staffs from other departments of whom I've rarely seen and known, although we are all under one big company. The food was fine. What was greatest were performances on the stage! Groups were called up by the DJs to sing, dance and perform on stage with a given specific task to do. Some were to grab wild and crazy wigs, then dance on the stage. It was really a funny and humorous sight! All department's managers were called up too to dance on the stage floor. I was lucky as my group escaped from the stage fright thing... haha...

Later into the night, it almost got each and every staffs on the go go for floor dancing. Well, after a long journey, we finally got back to our own rooms and rest, getting ready for tomorrow activities.

The second day was rather hard for me. Morning call started at 5.45am! Whoa, that was too early. I felt like I haven't gotten to rest at all. Nonetheless, we still need to get off for our first activity. We were bused to a conservation forest. From there, we were greeted by a group of team building from other company, known as "Hashers". All the staffs were divided to about 18 groups, each consist of 9 to 10 people. Each group were to go through 3 activities. My group was to go hiking in the forest for 2hrs. Each group were to carry a big watermelon and 3 eggs. The watermelon was supposed to represent our company, and the eggs were our customers. Therefore, none of those must be broken. Finally, after going through the ups and downs of the forest, we were to move on to the second activity. And that was to create a pontoon out of 6 big buckets, 6 planks and a few long, strong strings to tie up everything. After almost struggling for 1hr to get build the pontoon, we were ready to set off to the sea with our own-made pontoon! 3 persons were chosen to sit on it (I was one of them!) to get it stable and ship off for about 300meters off and back to the shore. Luckily, we got it balance and manage to get it on the shore, safely!

After that, we went off for our lunch. It was raining at that moment, and there were no shades to cover the rain while having lunch. So, basically, our meals were covered with raindrops, haha! That was really a first experience! Well, after almost half hour break, we were ready for the third activity. The third one, was to find spices and cook a curry meal ala caucasian style! Well, guess what, I was the cook! Almost everyone tasted the curry and said it was really good! Yikes, I never believe I was a good cook... hahaha...

And so, the most adventurous day was over. We were all wet, dry and wet again. After getting some rest in our rooms, it was time to go for dinner. We were bused to Gurney Drive for a good meal. There I had assam laksa, rojaks, fried eggs with oyster, etc. What a full, great meal we had! The rest of the time we spent chatting away with colleagues in the rooms. After that, we went back to our rooms for a good night sleep.

The next morning was a tiring one due to the forest hiking. My thighs really ache out of the results of not getting enough exercise on normal days... hehe... After breakfast, we get a quick stroll along the beach and chatted away with a few colleagues. Then, we went to another forum at the Grand Ballroom. This time, it is the closing forum. Then, it was time to get on the bus and have a safe journey back to KL (and another 6.5hrs to go!)

All in all, the trip was a wonderful one. Never had I thought that such a small trip to Penang would bring such enjoyment...