APEX Survival Challenge at Tadom Base

Photo Courtesy of tadombase.com

"A refugee is a person who has to flee their home country due to WELL-FOUNDED FEAR of being PERSECUTED for reasons of religion, race or political belief they hold. Therefore, they have to seek protection in other countries"

Did you know that there are more than 20,000 refugee children (below 18 years old) in Malaysia? And what's more disheartening is they do not have any access to formal education in this country where they seek asylum in. This happens because there is no legal frameworks in effect to help out or even grant refugees in this nation an official status. Worst still, often than not, they are regarded as illegal immigrants in the society; thus being discriminated against.

For this reason, APEX Survival Challenge, an obstacle course event, was held to raise funds to provide a formal education for refugee children in Malaysia.

The Venue : Tadom Base, Banting, Selangor 

Photo Courtesy of tadombase.com

Located around 10 minutes from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Tadom Base has extremely stunning scenery.

Photo Courtesy of tadombase.com

The place is surrounded by crystal clear lakes..

Photo Courtesy of tadombase.com

and limestone hills.

Photo Courtesy of tadombase.com

APEX Survival Challenge (18th October 2015)

APEX Challenge was priced at RM 80 for early birds while RM 90 for those who registered late. The event was kicked start with a warm-up Zumba session.

The whole event comprised of a 3 Km race on rough terrains and some 30 physical-challenging as well as adrenaline-surging obstacles. 

So the 3 km race was finally flagged off after the warm-up session...

  The participants had to run through terrains like this...

Photo Courtesy of tadombase.com

 and like this...

like a maze runner! We were all dry at first but we started to get wet by the time we trod into the muddy terrain. The swampy land made our progression harder as you could get stuck or even slip in the mud.  

Now this was where the essence of teamwork was enacted.

The participants were required to scramble their way under the rows of closely packed tyres. 

And then, clambering from one end of the monkey bars to the other end. 

What could be really menacing was if you lost your grip in the middle way....

you would end up slumping into a swath of poops. REAL POOPS! Fortunately, I did not drop into the "nasty land of shit" because I managed to clamber across the bars took a detour to the next obstacle. 

This is Ernest...

who had a courageous spirit to pull through the "Land-of-Shit" ordeal.

The next obstacle...

Well, nothing to remark about.

Then, there was this very steep slope...

where participants had to clamber their way up with a rugged rope.

Some photos of the other obstacles...

The participants were asked to pull on a life vessel provided by the event helpers at one of the obstacles...

Here. This was when we got utterly drenched.

Men Yew, the seasoned climber who I had already introduced in this blogpost, happened to be a great swimmer as well..

He even explored around and fumbled about under the water only to make a great discovery --- there was nothing but merely mud down there!

 So he had to rub his hands to remove the mud once he got out of the water.

The last obstacle was the highlight of the whole course!

Participants had to first clamber up to the top of the double-stack huge shipping containers...

And then from high up there..

we slid down at full speed.

Well, look at my left hand. It was awkward. Prior to sliding down the canvas-like slope, I was told to hold my spec tight. However, I misunderstood the instruction; instead of holding it firm in my grasp, I literally just "held" it on my face. When it turned out, my spec was jolted away by the momentum when I splashed into the water.

The feeling of the adrenaline rush while sliding down was more than just thrilling, and all I could feel throughout the few fleeting seconds was solely winds gusting against my body.

You girls rock! Ops, it was so fortunate that I could get my spec back after a long period of painstaking search carried out by some diligent divers there.