With the one-hour time difference from Singapore, I woke early at 0630. How cool is that while on holiday. I could go back to sleep for another hour till 0730. We had breakfast as a family around 0800.
I was keen to do or try out as many activities as possible during my only full day. I started with another yoga class at 0915 at the Panorama and then tried archery.
I had a bad start wit the bow and arrow but after polishing my technique, I got three consecutive hits on the board rather than the back fence. After that, my left started to get shakey and my aim deteriorated. The relieving archery instructor, Ange, is from Palmerston North in New Zealand but wears and Australian nationality badge!
We had another fabulous spread for lunch, with cuisines ranging from Chinese, Korean, Japanese, European, Indonesian, cheeses, salads, fruit and dessert. I needed a rest afterwards as I felt extremely tired.
After my rest, I was able to make myself go to the pool to do a few laps. Once out of the pool and properly dry, I plucked up my courage to try the flying trapeze.
Clayton briefed me on what to do. I had to hold on to the bar and then curl up to hook the back of my knees on the bar, then hang upside down. And after that, I would have to revert back to holding the bar. My attempt to do this on the practice area didn’t work but once I was literally in full swing, I completed the entire cycle successfully. A bit of momentum helps make it easier. On a high from my achievement, I gave it a second go and was successful again! I believe the manoeuvre is called a backflip.
In terms of safety equipment, I was wearing a harness attached to cables. I could still fall but I guess it is in a controlled single plane? And there was a net to catch my fall. For a beginner like me, I would finish by falling on to the net rather than swinging back on to the starting platform.
The flying trapeze at Club Med Bintan.
After a soak in the sea, I realised that two guests had been chosen to perform in the trapeze act after dinner tonight. One has had one day training and another two days (two hours per day). They will get passed from one trapeze artiste to another who will be catching. I was very envious of their opportunity to experience the next step, not so much to be performing. Damn! If only I had one more day here.
The show went smoothly. The audience were wow’ed and entertained. But I learnt from Ange, the archery instructor from this morning, says that it is quite easy to be passed from one artiste to another on the trapeze. The skill is in the catcher.