Day 2
Woke up hearing the annoying sound of people talking ever so loudly in the cave when they know there is echo. Woke everyone up and made our long descent down the cave and to the assembly point. Keith is having a hard time because (well, if you read my previous post you should know) his butt hurts and this is his umpteenth time climbing down this cave. He doesn’t look too happy.
We had our breakfast, which included fried rice and bread, with a selection of kaya or butter. Both were good, and the meal was kinda filling for me. Quite good considered this was a camp
Rafting was the first activity of the day. Although my team are not an all UG team, we still managed to make a good and sturdy raft. It was great seeing all of the other non-UG teammates learning new knots and lashings and being a great help during this activity. Our hard work did (kind of) pay off since our raft surprisingly float in the water, although we were just seconds from sinking after everyone got out of it. The moment we wanted to carry the raft back to assembly point, the whole thing just broke apart. How lucky are we?
We returned to campsite and had our lunch there, which was kind of okay, once again much better than expected. We brought down our bags from the cave, which was good news, since we do not have to climb a small hill and 63 steps just to get a torchlight or something like that. Abseiling was next. Had a little lecture on the harness, and it was the same lecture just like the one me and some of my friends had a few days back in Ubin when we had our high ropes challenge. After nearly breaking my neck after seeing so many people abseil down from that giant rock, i felt that it was time and I put on my harness and helmet and made my way up. And let me tell you, going up is definitely harder than coming down. There was no road to guide you, and only the ropes to show you the way. By the time I went up, I was sweating from head to toe (exaggerated) because I lost my way. Saw Su Ian there, also waiting for her turn. Went down the rock without any problem, except for one: the trainer did not want to let go of the rope! So i was like climbing down at 1cm every 10 seconds? That was how slow it is.
The third activity of the day was caving. Once again, I put on my dirty, grassy, muddy and disgustingly wet booties and began our little trek to the cave. We had to traverse in mud which sank almost 5 to 10 cm when we stepped on it, walking through muddy streams of water, and climb through a tiny hole that is so small, you need someone at the other side to pull you up, and what do you get in the end? A great supply of natural air-con. It’s worth it you know, where else can you get the feeling of air-con without having the worries of having anyone paying for it? And guess what, we had to go back the same way we came! So everyone was obviously kind of annoyed and giving each other the “what-am-I-doing-here-in-the-first-place” kind of expression. One thing is for sure, not everyone is too happy. Especially Keith, coz he only had one pair of shoes! Which means that he has to wear that same pair of shoes through thick and thin or 4 consecutive days (yuck!). Not enough money to buy second hand shoes i guess?
Finally we made our way back, and packed our staff stuff and welcomed the other buses before setting off to Tekam. We exchanged some tips along the way to make our activities the next day much “cleaner”. Arrived at Tekam and got our room S5, a 16 man dorm (just nice for 16 guys in 3E) with a amazingly big walking space, which means more place more chess (again). Had our dinner soon after, and finally, some good food!
After dinner was this traditional performance which I felt was simple, entertaining(kind of) and of course, traditional. We cheered sabotaged some of our friends up to join in the dance while some were hand-picked by the trainers (i was so damn lucky, I was almost picked out). The trainers used extreme ways to pull out our friends, which includes dragging, pulling, carrying and pushing. In the end, those on stage were giving the “I’ll-make-sure-you-die-after-I-finish-this-performance-since-you-sabo-ed-me” kind of expression. Shawn’s dance was quite, well, “awkward”.
Went back to our amazingly huge dorm and continued our Chinese chess marathon. Slept on top of Yujian (don’t make false impressions! read till the end of the sentence!) on the double-decker bed.
Blooper: Vincent inadvertently slammed his head against the wall on my bed. I was on the ground after hearing countless rants from Vincent before I heard a thud and some silence from Vincent (which is quite rare, no offence). Turned around and saw Vincent cupping his hands and placing it behind his head. It’s apparent he slammed his head against the wall, hard. Ouch!
Congrats everyone! Today is World Hello Day (and yes, this day exists). This day happens every 21st November, and you are supposed to say hello to 10 people today. So…
Hello!!!
After 4 days of grueling camping, expeditions, Chinese chess marathons and near sleepless nights, I am back from Taman Negara in Pahang, Malaysia and finally, I get some 15 hours of sleep before writing this post. This will be long post, so be prepared. There were no pictures though, I didn’t bring my camera. Take note, I do not have a watch with my during the camp, so some of the times might not be right
DAY 1
Reached school at 6am and assembled at the parade square. Had attendance taking and some admin work followed by daily devotion before boarding the bus at 7am plus. Filled in the white card and got through the Tuas checkpoint quickly and swiftly. Passed through fast Singapore checkpoints before reaching the not-so-fast Malaysian customs where we waited for about 15 minutes before clearing it before boarding another bus. We travelled for 1 and a half hours before reaching Yong Peng for our lunch. We had a few stops along the way to stock up on food and take a pee. The bus ride was… long, literally. From PHS to Gua Kota Gelanggi(our destination) is about 10 hours, inclusive of passing through customs, having lunch and stops. It was quite noisy too. After every bus ride, you can hear lots of noise before it dies down a while later and eventually, everyone is asleep. It repeats itself after every bus stop.
We eventually reached Gua Kota Gelanggi campsite at 5.10pm. Waited for the other buses to come before making our way up into a cave, and let me tell you, travelling up a cave was already a huge problem. We have to climb a steep hill, followed by 13 stone steps and then 49 steep metal steps, and yes, I did count the number of steps. The 4 men tents were already there when we climbed our way up the cave. We placed our bags in our respective tents. And guess what? My tent is the deepest in the cave and to make our way there, we must traverse rocky ground, avoid huge holes and cross narrow walkways. Shared a tent with Yujian, Keith and Shawn.
We made our way down back to base (or whatever you call it) to start with field cooking, and let me tell you, the experience was horrible. We were unfortunate that it rained so heavily it totally drenched not only us, but also some of our food, causing some major aftereffects(this will be explained later in the post). We did have our fill though, and the next activity was carried out after being delayed by 1 hour – the night confidence walk. Basically, what happened was that we made our way, on foot, all the way to the start point, which is the cave about a 15 minutes walk away, before leaving the place in fours, but this time without any torch-lights on. So Keith, Yujian, Vincent and I went together and it was so dark that we can’t see our 5 fingers even when we put it in front of our faces. Along the way, we sang songs (you won’t want to know which ones) and at one point, Yujian almost fell into the river. Thankfully, there were trainers there so he was back on the path, unharmed.
Was briefed on what to do tomorrow before going back to the tents to sort out our sleeping bags and stuff, before we had our chess marathon till midnight, and had a chat before sleeping. Thankfully we were not interrupted in the middle of the night.
Blooper! : Keith had to wake up in the middle of the name more than 10 times to take a sh!t since his messtin of noodles had an “added ingredient”, which is none other than uncooked rainwater. Poor Shawn and Keith had to go down and up the cave just to use the toilet about 10 times between the period of 3am to about 6am.