8 GAMMA FIELD TRIP

Batik Factory And Aquaria KLCC

On the 22nd of June, my classmates and I went on a field trip in Kuala Lumpur. This trip was organised by two of my classmates, Sheryl and Bridget. This trip was held after our exams and was sort of a reward for going through the tests.

At 7.30 in the morning, we all gathered in the secondary school canteen for breakfast and to collect our snacks for the day. We were very excited and happy seeing all the other students going for assembly, which we were glad to miss. Heehee. We headed off from school at around 7.45am and reached the batik factory much earlier than we had expected to. To kill some time, we dropped by a chocolate gallery which was around the corner from the batik factory.

The lady there gave us a brief explanation about the chocolates in the gallery. She also showed us cocoa plants and told us the process in which the chocolates are produced. 

That shop was merely a display centre and there wasn't actually any chocolate being produced there. This meant that we didn't get to see the chocolates being produced but we still had fun looking at the displays. We were given some samples to try and we definitely made the most out of that offer. All I can say is, the majority of us walked out empty-handed but with our sweet-teeth satisfied. We then proceeded to the batik factory for our batik painting session. 

We were still too early for our session so we decided to take a look around the souvenir store. There were lots of different batik-themed items, ranging from Baju Kurung-s to plush toys with batik designs sold there. We bought a few plush toys and headed over to the batik painting section.

The staff there showed us the batik painting process and we all gave it a try. When the staff did it, it looked so easy and simple, so we went in confident and thinking, 'Oh, how hard can it be?' The answer to that question is 'pretty hard'. We first picked out the templates we wanted to use for our batik design. Using the templates, we traced the image onto the cloth provided. 

After drawing the designs on the cloth, we used 'cantings' to apply the melted wax. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, it's not. The cloth was a large piece of fabric that was to be shared by around sixteen people. Therefore, if one person pressed down on the cloth or shook the table, it would affect the outcome of everyone's work. Using fabric dyes, we then painted our designs carefully with the assistance of the staff. They were extremely helpful and friendly. Due to the lack of patience and experience we had, it's safe to say that the staff were our saviors in savaging what was left of our messes.

Saviors~~~

At 11.45 am, we left the factory and headed to KLCC. We were allowed to go eat wherever we wanted as long as we were back at the designated time. We chose to walk over to the Suria KLCC mall to grab our lunch. We ate at Wendy's and had a great time chit-chatting and enjoying our delicious burgers and fries. After lunch, we entered Aquaria and got to see all the pretty fishes. There were many different sections in the aquarium with tons of marine life waiting for us. 

There were loads of tanks full of colourful fishes and we were blown away. Some were small and cute but some just looked scary and deadly. However, there was one special fish that caught our eye. This fish constantly opened and closed it's mouth which made it look like it was talking. Inspired by one of my friend, Jodee's video, we decided to film the fish while making background noises to make it look like the fish was making the noise.

Jodee's video :)

Our video :)

Never have we seen such big stingrays and sharks in our lives! We managed to watch the divers feed the sharks in the Aquatheatre. The sharks were huge and scary but the divers seemed completely unfazed despite the sharks being face to face with them. The sharks were fed pieces of meat and they were definitely happy to get their meal!

After buying souvenirs at the gift store, we got back onto the bus and went back to school. I bought whale toy as I am Whale-ing. Huehuehuehue. We all had so much fun on the trip and would love to go on more outings in the near future. That's all for today. This has been Wei Ling and Adios, Wonderers!