07-June-07:
Team KK-12 took up residence in groups of two; Mounier & Mahmoud, Dany & Rana, Nick & Souheil, Ali & Hussein, Jackie & Nirmala, Rama & Iva.
The team proceeded to the dining hall for an awesome feast; deep down, even Rana wished for a McDonald’s happy meal to replace the half cooked, tasteless, unidentifiable meat that was being served, oh so graciously. by not so happy Malay women. Our hosts rapidly swapped the main entry with the desert plates, provided some yellowish liquid they tried to pass for tea and ushered us out of the “Dinning Hall”.
Looking lost and fearing separation, the team bonded together and found themselves at the doors of a Karaoke bar. Since the team KK-12 had been in search for a theme song for a month and failed to find a single tune because all members are musically challenged!, the Karaoke bar was the last chance of having something to hum for added embarrassment as the KK-12 climbed the mountain.
The pictures on the walls were concerning, photos of James Dean, alongside brain teaser optical illusion images of old men and naked young women. To put it mildly, the art was as insane as the karaoke video content! Both suited for a psycho middle aged gender confused person. PERFECT!
With the equivalent of a bear keg set up for the “Sports” team consumed in half an hour, the KK-12 shuffled through an array of 60’s, 70’s and 80’s music in search of a theme song, or just anything their weak musical sense could recognize!
Assisted by another jolt of Shevaz and Smirnoff, the team practiced singing for the first time since kindergarten to the tunes of the B-Gees, The Village Boys and Cool and the Gang. The most nominated song was “Who the #$^ is Alice”, but that was only because Royal Marines turned Slave Driver Sputnick was the loudest member of the group and what he said, went!
While the European couple that occupied the Karaoke bar when the team arrived seemed delighted to see a lively team of seemingly young talent, they politely took their leave after the first song. And the night went on until the last song was song.. and everyone silently hoped their teammates’ climbing performance exceeded their singing talent!
Excitement in the Shower – Early next morning, as Ticker prepared to shower, she was greeted by a fist size tarantula. Now having been phobic since childhood of being attacked by a fist sized anything, in the shower, she wanted to scream! However, she knew well that the band of 11 sarcastic KK’ers would remind her of it up and down the mountain. So she opted for a graceful exit after trying to wash the tarantula down the needle pin sized drain with hot water! She asked Diva to photograph the critter for show and tell!
After a delightful breakfast of food that smelled far stronger than it tasted! The team proceeded to perform a final check on the back-packs, lead by the slave-driver Sputnick. Oblivious to the challenge that lied ahead, the team packed, and packed, and packed some more into their bursting backpacks.
The KK-12 posed for an award winning photo wearing their solar power generation-black Reaching-U shirts.