By Raja Umi Nurshahirah Raja Izzuddin
As I longed to go out from the house and travel far away from my nest for a moment while still on my vacation, my big sister suddenly suggested that we go for holiday in Pulau Pinang or Penang as it is known. I thought that before I get myself really busy with lectures and assignments in the coming semester to fulfil my role and commitment as a student, I might as well go and get some forms of relaxation.
The three days and two nights that we spent in Penang really made my mind blown up again with freshness.
My trip to Penang was planned one month before it happened and we had to overcome a number of obstacles to make sure the trip is worth the time and money spent. After getting the consent of my parents, we prepared diligently and planned a lot of things before we depart for the island.
The journey was quite long as Penang is far away from Kuala Lumpur. However, our preparations had made the journey swift filled with much more fun as we had a chance for bonding towards each other. It also made us understand each other’s needs and boundaries.
We stayed at my grandmother’s house after we received an ‘okay’ from her the day before we started travelling.
ESCAPE
On a second day in Penang, our destination was the Escape Theme Park or ESCAPE where we stayed there. This theme park tested our courage and limit to the fullest. ESCAPE, with a concept of family theme park was filled with fun, excitement, thrilling and challenging activities. It could also be a distress while attending to activities prepared by ESCAPE.
ESCAPE consists of outdoor activities which really tested our mental endurance, and the fun fact about this theme park was that everyone was not too old or too young to enjoy and have fun.
There were a bunch of games and activities during our stay. However, your stamina could get immediately drained out after you played one or two games as some of these activities were really tough and challenging. But the park was perfectly for outdoor lovers like me.
The workers were also very friendly and we never felt out of place. They attended to our needs professionally and some people were even teased by the workers. There was an occasion where one of the workers teased my big sister and called her to the stage using a microphone. Naturally, the crowd started to look around to find out who the person was. My sister skilfully turned him down and walked away hiding her shy face. That showed that those workers were really friendly.
Even though the activities were quite tough and testing one’s ability, despite all that, we tried almost all the games but there were some games that we did not touch as our energy was already drained out. We couldn’t even drink water properly because of the numbness felt in our hands. The activities over there really required almost all of our stamina without mercy, nevertheless, that’s where the fun began.
The first activity we tried right after our feet touched the entrance of the ESCAPE was Gecko Tower. Gecko Tower is the set of climbing tower where you can test your stamina, at the same time, compete with other contenders to haul yourself to the top of the tower as soon as possible by choosing your own path to the top. Each path offered different obstacles that one must go through. Frankly speaking, this activity was much better than playing video games at home alone. Aside from making new friends, we could also feel the competitive side in our body running instantly through our vein as we hate to lose to others.
The second activity after that was called Atan’s Leap where this activity absolutely made us release everything in the split of seconds. This free fall activity really tested our courage to the fullest where one must jump in between 13m to 30m which was safely and repeatedly controlled by the descend workers from the tower structure. However, even though you will fall hard but you need not worry because you will land softly and safely at the bottom.
The most memorable activity that I remembered is the Kite Flyer. The Kite Flyer is the non-motorised feature where two people sit side by side and requires you to hold tightly to two hanging ropes onto your head before you release some other ropes and fall into mid-air. Also, there will be two people pulling you high up at a certain place until reaching a certain point before one of the members hanging above releases the rope into the mid-air on a kite-like structure.
During the fall, I instantly shouted loudly as if ESCAPE was my own theme park without care of others. Thanks to that, all my left-over stress that had been built up until then, was released in an instant.
Yet, those activities were still the best for me. I will not hesitate to come back again to this place in case my stress is piled up inside me again. After all, this is the perfect place to build your courage and strength and also to release all your stress at the same time.***
