Friday, February 01, 2008
whew!
i've come back from OBS~!
ok here's an update:
day 1
went by ferry across the straits to Pulau Ubin!
boat ride was fun...we reached camp 2 at about 11am
i was placed in a watch( a group) called ''AMUNDSEN''.
with half the classmates in my class of 3hum 08
met the instructor, name was Kia Hong, but we could call him Kiah
he was kind of stern and strict, but he does crack some funny jokes and has a good sense of humour, the second instructor was named Chin Yong, we met him on the second day. chin yong is a real joker and he makes some really funny debuts in the 3rd and 4th day of camp.
we unpacked our items from our store today( place to put items thus called store)
tents, jerry cans, backpacks....everything
tiring work, managed to pack tents into tent bags.
we did belaying that day, then we learnt how to pitch a tent! the cooking was done by our classmates, rice was sticky, and the rest was canned food. could not sleep well....duh, it was the first day of camp.
day 2
we woke up early, went to toilet, was damn filthy, brushed teeth...
today we did kayaking. was quite fun actually =D, as no one took the solo canoe, i took it, coz it was fast and more manoueverable. later we did a rescue task, to help empty the seawater out of an overturned canoe while our friends helped. unlucky for me, the wind and waves were too strong, thus drifted us into the water channel where the large cargo ships travel. we had to paddle all the way back.
ate lunch, rations again....
we did a sea expedition after that. wow, i thought, the sea is so enormous! and its so beautiful and calm. i fought my own personal battle with the sea. whew... we went in a large group. 4 watches were in the group. that dumb Shi Ze was the leader lead us out to sea to the new campsite. he later kenna sunburn like siao. HAHA
new campsite was worst... we landed on the beach and towed our canoe ashore. sandflies everywhere. i made sure to spray lots of repellent! i hate bugs!! im their source of food u noe?
pitched tent, pegs could not be pegged into ground, we had to use rocks to hold our tents down.
lots of dogs down there in Pulau Ubin! and OMG toilet was 300 to 400 metres away!!!
we could not shower there, water was not clean enough. we had to powder ourselves.
had noodles for dinner. but we added all the noodles in at once, so noodles looked like mi fen...so dry....
needed to do sentry duty at 2.30 am, somehow we overslept. btw, noel, brandon, clifford and i shared the tent. we overslept till about 2.50am!! we quickly got up and did duty. dogs were howling the whole night. we finished duty and called the next grup up. went to sleep.
day 3
woke up early, had to walk to the toilet, so far away...
we unpitched tents. eeww the ground sheet was so dirty... had to pack it too.
we were to do hiking today. we carried the dumb heavy haversacks. each of us had one to store 2 days worth of clothing and food. i carried the tent bag. it was so heavy. we walked 500metres b4 finding out Valerian lost his life vest! went back to campsite, so tiring. could not find it, i wanted to put all my things down and scream, but kept mum...
later found out another watch had taken his by mistake. we continued the hike, i was somehow made the assistant navigator... now had to carry a compass as well!
noel was the navigator, well i thik i did much of the work as well....oh noel....
we were originally going to chek jawa because it was our check point, but we met another watch along the way. one of their member had to be taken back for some reason, our instructor had to babysit them. ate luch with them. rations again... due to time constrain, our checkpoint was changed, instead near another hiking trail to the west. we were in the east of Pulau Ubin which means we had to hike 6km to reach there! we hiked, i did much of the navigation. i felt the immense responsibiltity, what if i fail to lead the way, what if i got lost, what if....
we manged to reach there, not b4 we met Shi Ze's watch, their checkpoint was atop a hill, whew!
we continued, but almost got lost at a junction. that was because our map was outdated...our instructor luckily showed us our mistakes in time... we had taken a wrong left turn. we went back and found the checkpoint. each checkpoint was a metal plate hung on a tree. inscribed were words of wisdom. our next chckpoint was now the camp 1. camp 1!! i will tell you how camp 1 is like a paradise compared to camp 2. we hiked along, my moral greatly boosted by my team's encouragement? actually, we were just making jokes along the way... throughout the whole camp. MaSai, kept disturbing Valerian, because Valerian kept acting retarded... wth...it was the first time i ever heard someone proclaim himself a god!! even masai says so... it was so funny, they kept bickering the entire camp... both masai and valerian were the jokers! valerian was so obsessed with being a god and his shaking act was so ridiculous..haha . masai kept making jokes about valerian and kept calling him a gay! or god of gays.....
we reached the camp in time. last part of journey had roads littered with broken bricks... it was torture, had large blisters on feet after the hike...agony...pitched camp at a field nearby the compound. had reached paradise, camp 1 was so ( indescribable)!!! it even had a swimming pool for instructors!! its dining hall was better then my school's!! its toilet had blow dryers for the floors, had a hall for climbing element, even had a replica of a ship near the coast! it had 2 halls
it looked like a resort!!! pitching tents, same problem, followed day 2 method of pitching tent. then had a fresh dinner followed by supper. and slept, yent was way uncomfortable just like the other nights, so stuffy.
day 4
wow, u wont believe how we slept last night! like pigs! speaking of pigs, i heard the guard dog chasing a wild boar . so noisy... did not get to see wild boar...aww. had a fresh breakfast. we did climbing elements in the morning. we wore the harness and went to climb the outdoor climbing elements. we had to climb the inverse tower, called that way because the base is smaller than the top. we took turns climbing it. there were different parts of the tower to climb, we had to try only 1. noel chose the one where there was a climbing frame made of ropes, then a pole studded with climbing support, then slanting wooden logs. he says its challenging...haizzz. it makes me afraid..
look at the sheer height..must be about 4 stories tall.
we had to do it in pairs, when it was my turn, halfway up, my partner, amanda, requested to go down, i kept encouraging her, the rest too, but she wanted to go down. i felt really disappointed after that, not because she did not have the courage, but because i did not encourage her enough as a partner... i managed to solo it up alone somehow, by crawling like a worm. lol
we did raft building after eating a fresh lunch. raft-building was not as challenging because we did it as a team. we had to pull the ropes super tight. we managed to make one that floats.
well, our other half of class, in waqtch ''ARMSTRONG'' also made one, but half way in sea, their raft really tilted at the back, managed to float though. we chanted cheers and taunted other watches. then Shi Ze's group, armstrong had a great boost from the instructor's motorboat. they had to tow the raft becuase it was too slow. my arms were so aching and us 6 paddlers had to paddle and paddle like mad. we too had to get towed by the motorboat so we could catch up with armstrong. then both watches teamed up and we rowed ourselves ashore, btw the place we paddled to was camp 2 again.... i want camp 1....TT
i volunteered to go get the items from camp 1 because i could ride on a motorboat. clifford and brandon came too. it was magnificent! so fun although loading and unloading the bags were of no fun whatsoever. we still managed to get 2 rides in a motorboat. feeling the sea breeze around me was ecstacy.
after that, pitched tent. i did the cooking this time, i cooked a total of 2 meals and on other days pitched tents. pei shan claimed that she did all the cooking, grr..haha. it was such a joke..
at night valerian snored like a pig and although our tents were about 6 metres apart. i was able to hear him, was kept awake by the snores but eventually fell asleep.
day 5
haha, masai kept making the gay jokes on valerian's expense. masai even poked him in the privates witha a torchlight and he did not even respond beacuse he slept and snored so loudly. wen kai who also slept in their tent said that valerian's arms and legs went over to him when they slept, ultimately proving valerian is a gay.!!
last day is the most solemn. we had to pack and wash everything, unpack all . i did not know why i had so many food rations left over, same for the rest of us. the washing part was fun, we kept playing with the water. haha
!wantian could not lift the jerry can filled with water without help haha!
we packed everything back into the store and there was nothing missing ..yay!
we then did the ring the bell thing? where we try to make a resolution and jump, hitting a bell and landing on a support held by the rest of us, all of us had to do it.
we wrote our last words in the journal after we gathered. it was heart-warming to know we had bonded so much in 5 days. how much fun we had.
we got back all our personal stuff like wallets and phones we surrended during the first day. i got to know more about each and everyone in our group, including the instructor.
we said our goodbyes. i was so excited about going home!
we boarded the boat and reached Punggol jetty, welcome back to mainland Singapore!
Call Of The Wild at 9:17 PM