WAAAAAIIT.
Before you continue reading, i shall warn you that after you have finished reading this post, you shall suffer Word Overload Syndrome. You have been warned and i blog in peace okay?
Okay, you can continue reading now. :)
First of all, OBS is very very brilliant and fun. Don’t be afraid to go out there and do those rock climbing and rappelling stuff that you don’t know normally do and you know you will be afraid to do it because its the first time. Just do it because once you’ve done it, its like you have overcome your fear. And it just feels GREAT.
The impact of OBS is really really big. When i came on the first day itself, they took away not only my phone, but my book AND my junk food. (the junk food is so that if there is any food poisoning, they know where it came from.) Anyway, they took away anything that is used as entertainment because once they take away things that can distract us, it brings out the very best in us. Oh, and they don’t give us a schedule of what we are going to do for the next few days because they want us to expect the unexpected, like Life.
So that was basically the first day. You know first days la, everyone is still shy and reserved, ice breakers, and games to get to know each other more. You know it.
4th December, the SECOND day.
So. We did rope climbing. Its just a replacement of rock climbing for beginners. because the artificial rock climbing sucks.
That’s what we did in the morning. Okay, this rope climbing thing right, there are 3 people: the climber, the belayer and the anchor. Everyone does each of those roles at least once.
Oh yea, we had a knot and setting up tents lesson too.
Then in the afternoon, we had a kayaking lesson. We had the capsize drill (in case anyone’s kayak capsizes), and how to paddle. Oh and at night we had a briefing of our first expedition.
5th December, the THIRD day.
We went on our FIRST expedition. We kayaked for about 3 hours to Pangkor Island.
OH, and my kayaking partner was this really crazy dude called Zhi Yuan. Kayaking there was reeeeally tiring especially since the current was pushing us back to Lumut. When we got to Pangkor, we set up our tents in the jungle and stuff. Then in the afternoon, we went RAPPELLING. Basically you just walk down backwards, with a rope and harness of course, down an at least 200 meter cliff. Damn fun.
At night, we had to cook our own dinner with a stove made out of firewood. And guess what? The rice turned out all sandy and inedible. For dinner that night, i only had one spoon of omelet. :(
6th December, the FOURTH day.
We packed up and kayaked back to Pangkor. This time, Zhi Yuan and me only had a few sugar crackers for breakfast. So we were like dying la, when we kayaked back. At one point, ZY (Zhi Yuan) actually suggested capsizing our kayak to save some energy. WTH, right?
Oh yea, one of the guys kayak capsized, so a few of us did a raft tub and the capsize drill. Reached back at Lumut safely.
WOOHOO! Successful first expedition! Then in the afternoon, we had a lesson on some geography and bearings. We were then given a compass and a map and were sent to the jungle for jungle trekking. Me and ZY (again) were the navigators. And i swear, it wasn’t my fault that we got lost. I didn’t get my group lost, it was the map’s fault. This jungle trekking is just easy, only about an hour or so and its just as training. That night, we got a briefing on our second expedition the next day.
OH OH OH. When i came back from the jungle trekking in the afternoon right, there were rumours that a pregnant cat from the campsite had given birth in someone’s closet in the girls dorm. I very kepoh mah, and i was asking Gayathri about the cat and who’s closet it was.
Gayathri. Me.
Eh, who’s closet did the cat give birth in?
Don’t know la, but don’t worry, its not yours.
*uh oh* What was the closet like?
The door cannot close properly one.
Shit, that sounds like mine.
OMG, yours got the fisherman hat at the bottom one ah?
Double shit, yes it IS my closet.
So yea, no choice, i had no heart to halau the cat family out, so I had to move my stuff out. Pfffft. But the kittens damn cute, got like 3 of them and their eyes are still closed. Daaaaamn kawaii.
But still, pfffffft.
7th December, the FIFTH day.
We went jungle trekking today. Oh, and i was the navigator again. We didn’t get lost this time, and my navigator partner was Chye. So. We jungle trekked for 7+ hours, went up 5 peaks and i sprained some muscle near my knee. Damn pain, i couldn’t bend that knee for the whole day after that. I walked around the whole campsite with a walking stick from the jungle. (which i brought home, btw)
That night, i was freaking pissed. You know before this, whenever we entered a jungle i didn’t think about ghosts. At all. I wasn’t even thinking about them when i signed up for this course.
Until that night by the campfire.
Stupid la, Gou Unn got kinda scared because he said he was seeing a lot of things and then they started telling ghost stories. And the whole reason i was stuck around that campfire was because of my stupid leg injury.
Anyway, that night, a lot of things happened in the jungle. Like someone was sleep walking, and then quite a few people saw these 3 boys sitting on the tip of the tent. And the boys were not human because the tent wasn’t moving down due to weight like normal humans. But i didn’t see anything, i was so tired, i just slept. :D
8th December, the SIXTH day.
*Phooh* Tired already la and i’m ONLY AT THE 6TH DAY?!! =.=
*You can do it Izzy. Don’t give up.*
We left that haunted campsite early the next morning. You know the strangest thing about all these expeditions is that when we’re leaving, we don’t leave anything behind. But somehow i have a feeling i’ve just left a part of me behind. I DON’T KNOW LA. Anyway, we took a shorter and faster route this time, and it took about 2 hours+. OH, i wasn’t the navigator anymore because of my leg. :(
Once we were out of the jungle, we rested for about an hour++ in this shady field and then we went rock climbing. Real rock climbing. Despite the damned injury, i had to do the rock climbing anyway. And it was very fun and rocky and hard. But the view is really nice at the top. After that, we walked back to OBS.
That night, we had the briefing on the most dreaded activity : Solo Camp.
I tell you right, when i heard about OBS, everyone told me the solo camping was only a few minutes or at least an hour wan. No one told me it will be one night alone in the jungle. =.=
Basically the solo camp right, you can’t talk at all to anybody except the instructors and you cannot visit or go to another persons tent. If you’re not found near your tent, your tent shall be cut.
9th December, the SEVENTH day.
Panting already. As ironic as it sounds, typing out the whole camp is much more torturous then the activities. 10 days is a freaking loooooong time.
Okay, back to the topic. We started trekking to the solo campsite. It was near the place where we rock climbed. Quite la. Anyway, today was the worst day, because it was a serious case of Murphy’s Law. Anything that could have gone wrong, DID go wrong.
Lets see, after i was put at my solo campsite, i started collecting firewood. (You know in those Pokemon shows, the way they put camping in the jungle, it was so much nicer and easier.) Each person was only given 10 matches and we were not allowed to bring solid fuel or a knife or a match box or a lighter. So after i collected the firewood and set up the tent, i was hungry la. But every time i tried to start the fire, either the wind would come and the fire on the match stick wouldn’t even last a second, or the match stick broke, or the fire wouldn’t start. And this went on, until i only had 3 match sticks left. And it was only 3 o’clock at that time. By 3, i still hadn’t had lunch because i couldn’t start a bloody fire so i had sugar crackers instead. Then at about 4 like that, i was tired and bored and hungry. So i took my sardine can and tried to open it.
GUESS WHAT HAD TO HAPPEN?
I broke my can opener.
I was damn pissed i tell you. I got a hole in the sardine can la, but it was really small. So all i could get was the sauce. I was going to try and start a fire again because i had no torchlight. (Which is really dangerous and scary, especially at night.)
Then, thank God at about 5, things started to work. Alex (an instructor) came and saw me la, and he pointed at my firewood (i had so much firewood and dead leaves but no fire) and was like “Do you need help?”
Then he helped and everything and thankfully the fire lasted 3 hours. So i had maggi mee and sardine sauce for dinner. Then when night fell and i was getting more and more scared, my groups instructor – David came and guess what?
He had bought me a torchlight!!! YES! That meant i could leave the campfire!
Actually that night, i was planning to write a letter to some people and that letter of Reflections or whatever. But again, due to those stupid ghost stories, i was scared and i slept instead. All night i woke up every hour and could hear leaves dropping or footsteps. Creepy shit. Oh, at one point i woke up and found my torchlight very hot because i had accidentally left it on.
1oth December, the EIGHTH day
WOOOOHOO. Woke up and found i was still alive and still in the human world.
I SURVIVED SOLO CAMPING!!!
Anyway, packed up everything and quickly left the jungle la.
That afternoon, we did some community service work. I should have used that for my EIP. We went to some Orphanage and just did weeding the whole day IN THE HOT SUN. So sucky. It was like not ending okay. There are just so many weeds in the garden.
11th December, the NINTH Day.
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH. I’m officially 16 years old. I’m getting old.
On that morning itself, when i went down, the Camah-ians sang me a birthday song. And when David passed me a letter, i thought it was just a birthday card, but inside were all these letters my sister had asked some of my really really good friends to write to me. Those letters really made my day. Especially a very special someone’s with a big red heart on it. ♥
It was an awesome birthday because we went for a cultural visit on Pangkor Island. And this time, we didn’t have to kayak there. Thank God, if not i would have capsized the instructors kayak’s. x)
Anyway, we went shopping for souvenirs and i did half of my Christmas shopping. Then we visited one chinese temple, an indian temple and a fish factory. Oh, and we walked quite a distance too. Oh and we took all those Singaporeans to eat Roti Canai because they’ve never heard of Roti Canai before.
Oh, and it was also Gou Unn’s fault, every time Gou Unn or Shu Wen or Dickie saw ikan bilis (which was like in every shop we went to), they would go “OMG, Isabelle! They’re selling you! 100g for RM1.70! So expensive wan!”
Don’t ask me what the connection between my name and ikan bilis is because i have no idea. Anyway, i have cursed ikan bilis for life and if any of them value their lives, they WILL NOT EAT IKAN BILIS.
(Heard that Rui Yu?)
Anyway, got back and practiced for the presentation that night and i swear i was half dead. I even forgot it was my birthday. I think a birthday song was sang at least twice. One in the morning and one at night.
The presentation that night was so funny. Half way through everyone forgot the steps and it was like i was doing a solo.
Oh, and actually i didn’t want to sleep, LAST night mah. But at about 1am, i was so tired, i just passed out.
12th December, the LAST day. T.T
Today was really sad. A lot of people cried. Even after the Singaporeans left. I was very random. Even on the last day, i was going around going “Hi, i’m isabelle. And you are?” I mean, isn’t that for the first day?
I’m going to miss everyone. Especially the Ulu Sepat and Camah people.
You guys are one awesome crowd to hang out with.
Gayathri followed me home. I mean, my mom dropped her home and yea. That was the Outward Bound Camp – OYP 12.
Even though it has ended that whole camp will live on in our memories. :)
Okay, credits!
I’m going to miss & thank:
David and Charlie (Camah’s instructors) – thank you for guiding and teaching us all sorts of things throughout the whole camp.
all the Camah-ians : Dina, Felicia, Thila, Syafiq, Chye, Daryl, Bryan, Kevin, Naqi, ZY, Jia De. You guys were Awesome. This camp wouldn’t have been awesome if you guys weren’t there as a team.
all the Ulu Sepat people: Shu Wen, Dickie, Gou Unn, Ying Jie, Andrew, all of you la. Sorry lor, i don’t know all of your names.
all the girls: Ayu, Limin, Rachel, Gayathri, Wee Kii, Hong Ping, Theenish, Jocelyn, Geok Chan, all of you la. You girls rocked the dorm. Like literally.
all the other guys: Yang, Kelvin, Kim Yew, Guan Kee, Anesh, both Irfan’s all the guys la. Cannot remember all the names.
all the other insructors: Azmi, James, Alex (thank you for the walking stick and helping me with my fire), Yusuf, all the instructors la.
You guys were & are AWESOME PEOPLE.
ROCK ON, YO!
Be better than you were yesterday.
