We were both very bad at paddling..were like the last kayak since we forgot how to steer and all that.
Cindy was very funny. Poor Sam (Ho) who partnered with her. ;p We were supposed to raft together and they came in the other direction...
It was raining before The Expedition came. Originally we were supposed to go around some island (which we thought had been Singapore and wanted to paddle there and escape) . There were supposed to be dogs with very short tails and can swim and attack the kayaks!! But anyway, we didn't do The Expedition since Raffles hadn't completed their capsize drill before the rain and had to continue.
So while Raffles did their drill, we kayaked to somewhere near the jetty at Camp2 and rafted there. And then slowly this huge yellow thing came towards us.
Me: Eh..Ha. The yellow thing's coming.
*after a while*
Me: Eh..actually..I think that yellow thing doesn't move...
Yang Hwee: Huuuhh....
Me: That means....
Yang Hwee: We drifted all the way from the jetty there to the yellow thing...
*silence*
Me: Aha. You're joking right?
Yang Hwee: Aha.
Me: Aha.
*quiet*
Me and Yang Hwee: ...Okay....that'll be funny.... ... AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!
The distance from the jetty to the yellow thing was reallllly large...And then we paddled all the way back there..to be drifted to the yellow thing..again.. -____-
By the time Raffles finished their capsize drill...it was already too late for The Expedition. And then Cindy, Sam, Nadrah and Evelyn wanted to do a rescue and capsize drill..respectively...
The see-saw thing was very unsuccessful..They did so many times...until finally they succeeded! And just as one of them were getting onto the kayak...
Cindy and Sam's kayak capsized!!
Lol. The rescue team's kayak capsized! And everyone (including me and Alyssa) kayaked there to help them. Total about 5 kayaks. And Cindy was screaming (and holding her paddle) in the middle of 4 kayaks and the two (still) capsized ones. Poor Sam was at the other side of the kayak with her "Cindy, where are yooooooou?" Finally after a while both kayaks were back to normal position. Everyone was treating that as entertainment and laughing away. HAHAHAHA.
Oh, did I mention? Alyssa and I saw a dead fish floating on the sea as we paddled.
Kayaked to Camp1 later. Stupid Boon was using his boat to create waves.. Almost capsized in the middle of nowhere thanks to him.. =(
Ahhhhhh..Camp1. The place where those leadership people go and stay in dormitories and sleep on beds..and have talks in air-conditioned rooms. ARGHHH. Unfair. And they get to eat readily cooked meals. Just for them. Hur Hur Hur. But we ate fresh dinner that night.
Showering was soo much better. But it was stupid that there were only three cubicles meant for showering. When there were like..10 of us wauiting to shower. But..no overflowing and flooding waters. HA! Camp1 was the best place to shower. Maaaaan.... The lucky leadership people!
Pitched our tents at some stupid campsite where there were stones everywhere. The pegs were all sticking out.. And someone stole two of our pegs! HMPH.
After dinner, Boon showed us this map and told us to do some map work to find the checkpoints for the trekking the next day.
One of us: How long is the trek?
Boon: Ehhh..not very long
*pause*
Boon: Only about 10-15km.
*silence*
Everyone: WHAAAAAT??!
And he still told us not to discount the activity because we signed The Commitment Book. Spent the rest of the time mapping before we went for supper. It was green bean soup. Passed it. Did I mention? Because of the waves during kayaking, I had these visions of the drifting or 'piao' movements throughout the rest of the night. How stupid. The tables and floor were moving when I ate my dinner... ;___; Yes, my mind perceived them as moving... Had to keep reminding myself that I was on still and perfectly stable ground which will not be affected by movements caused by the waves of the sea. To no avail. T_T
Went to sleep that night..kinda okay..but we were dreading the trek for the next day...dum dum dum...
Day 3
Woke up at 5am and tried to get the pegs in an orderly manner. (was really disorganised the previous day..which is why we lost one peg in the first place) Unsuccessful. Since we forgot and just tried to remove the nearest peg from us without uhh...planning carefully.
Fresh breakfast! With hot Milo as well!!
Set off for our trek at about 9 or so. Just 10mins into the so called trek with the stupid bagpack and carrying the two 2litres waterbottles and I was already tired. And I just happened to have to carry the groundsheet with me. Which was super heavy since it was 'double-layered in order to protect the tent'. Not to mention the jam. Yes, the jam. So yeah..was already tired and we haven't even stepped out of Camp 1 yet. How to last for the whole rumoured 10-15km trip?
Oh yes, the checkpoints. Nice places with a table and someone seated at a chair placed there, waiting for us with a smile and to check if anyone was unwell. It was a great place to rest as well.
Yeah right. The so called checkpoint was a small approx A5 sized paper with words and numbers stuck onto some random hidden tree in the forest/jungle. We kept overlooking them and had to turn back. And Boon set a rule that we have to leave our bags at least 100m away. Or that we can see them at where we were at the checkpoints. It was horrible. I needed help carrying the bag. I think my spinal cord took some real damage at the end...
The trek was only approx 4.8km. During one of our breaks:
Me: *sees that some cheapskate-paper-like-stuff from the side of my pants were dropping and peeling off* Yuck... *peels more off*
Alyssa: EEEEeee..what is this?? So lousy..
Me: Yahhh..
*pause*
Me: Eh..wait...
Alyssa: ??
Me: This pants doesn't belong to me..... ...OMG..
*silence*
Alyssa: (a bit panicked) Eh you better stop it...!
Ahaha...I borrowed most of the stuff from my aunt..so...yah....haha...
Reached the campsite at around 3+. Raffles won us. (Thanks to Boon, who made us go the long way..by some 'Sensory Trail'.) Anyway, the place..was some 'ulu' village. Yes, I bet you've already guessed. There were no toilets there. ARGH. One day without shower..Could you believe it?? ARGH. So very traumatising.
The scenery was nice though. Ahh..the really cooling sea breeze blowing towards us; the fresh feeling of nature, the sea. Massaged each other's shoulders immediately after the trek. I was sure Alyssa was trying to break my neck and shoulder with the force she exerted. The next person she did for screamed. Lol.
Pitched our tents there. The sand. How soft. Too bad there were large rocks all over the place. Spent most of my time plucking the rocks instead of helping to pitch the tent. AHA. Thanks to the softness of the sand, the pegs were easily uhh..uprooted..and so....we....placed all the huge rocks on the pegs! xD It was kinda stable in the end.
Alert! Alert! Whilst we were pitching our tents...this man in a purple shirt, with a bicycle, stood at the trail leading to the campsite and looked at us. Just looked and stood there for hours. At first I thought he was just politely waiting for us to finish pitching our tents and then leave so he wouldn't interrupt. He disappeared later. But he appeared again! Just without that ridiculous bandanna. And just stood there. And stood. And stood. We were discreetly talking about him. I mean...WHAT IS HIS PROBLEM?? That creep. How much more suspicious could someone get??
There were two guys fishing there as well. We started cooking at about..6pm. And the sky had already started getting dark! WAH. Instant noodles! In the end..we were eating the the dark. Had to force ourselves to fat fast and I ended up not eating much and wanting to puke. Buried the leftovers(really a lot) in the beach(they're biodegradable anyway).
Had to pee behind some large tree. Creepy. But we each had three other people standing guard. Ha! ;p
Were told that there will be wild boars at night and they would cause mass destruction to our bagpacks if they were left around. And food not buried properly would attract sandflies. And thus we had to squish our bagpacks together with us in the tents. And we didn't dust the sand of. Oh Sandy. Oh Sandy. Oh sandy tent~ Had to take shifts to keep a lookout for any suspicious people around and scream for help if needed. And it just so happened that my torch couldn't work. Ha. Nice shift timing we had as well. 1-2am. Bah. It's not like we could really sleep anyway, with all that sand in the tent. Speaking of which, there was no sunset. =( But Petrina and I jumped like little kids, clapping and cheering away at the prospect of seeing a sunrise the next morning.
So yea..1-2am. Spent our time filling up our waterbottles with the jerrycan. Raechelle was up as well. Sat near the beach, occasionally shining the torches around. (was afraid that crazy person would be there) There were flights to and fro Singapore even at the early/late hours. Soon, the one hour was up and we returned to the hot tents. Gah. The land breeze was so light..we couldn't really feel them. Geez.
Hot and stuffy tents. And I found the stupid peeling things from my pants all over the place where I had slept on.
Me: Ehh..the things from my pants dropped..
Petrina: What?? Your pants dropped?
*shocked silence*
Me: NOOOOO~
*snigger snigger giggle giggle*
Me: Yea..after one hour outside and I just found out now that my pants dropped right?
Everyone in tent: *laughs like lunatics*
People outside: SHHHHHHH~!
*wierd sound outside*
Alyssa: What is that?
Me: Wild boar maybe?
Petrina: Yah..eh..what if when we're sleeping got this *makes snorting sound* sound?
Alyssa: Aha. Pig family..
*weird sound again*
Amanda: Maybe it's from a psycho killer!
Everyone else: -___-
Amanda: Yah...maybe he's sharpening his knife then come to our tents.
Me and Alyssa: ...stop it, Amanda..
Amanda: Okay..I'm crapping.... ...but maybe he's planning to kill all of us when we slee-
Me and Alyssa: AMANDA~!!
Poor Amanda. There was a protruding rock near her head under the tent which was really uncomfortable. And yet she was the first to sleep. =|
Sometime later:
People outside: *making a whole lot of noise*
Me and Alyssa: *shifting and grumbling* So noisy..
Alyssa: Ehhh...ask them to keep quiet... *shouts* Can you all lower your volume?
People outside: Shhh..*mumble*
*not a while later*
People outside: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! hdglhfluhlfrdhrflohioglhofghkjflhv!!
Me and Alyssa: *TWITCH* Ergghhhhhh~
Person outside1: Let's sing!
Person outside2: I sing...Silent Night! Silent night~ Holy night~ [blahblahblah]
*laughter outside*
Person outside1: Okay. I shall sing...The Silent Song.
Person outside2: Okay.
*silence for a moment*
Person outside2: Ehh..nothing..no sound at all..
Person outside1: Yeah. That's why it's The Silent Song.
Person outside2: ERM..
*a lot of noise later*
Alyssa: Eh CAN YOU ALL KEEP QUIET?????
And thus we suffered till the next day..(they never stopped making..noises...only did we get sleep when their shift was over?!)
Day 4
No sunrise!! ;___; Felt so cheated.
I refused to get up and tried to steal some sleep back. Petrina as well. So the both of us remained in the tent while Amanda and Alyssa tried to get the bagpacks out.
Alyssa: Ehh..are we done yet? ...They're still sleeping..
*mumble mumble*
Alyssa: *grabs and pulls ...something*
Me: O__O !!!
Alyssa: OMG I'm sorry~! *shriek* I'm so sorry~!
Lol. She grabbed my foot. x_x
And as usual..Amanda removed the peg which was responsible for holding the pole. I decided to get up when the front pole dropped and the front collapsed.
Me: Eh..Petrina? Wanna get up?
Petrina: Hmmm? *slowly gets up* *looks around* !!!
Me: OMG how to get out? *struggles to find the tent's opening*
And thus the both of us got out, together with the waterbottles. My sandals were filled with sand......
As we unpitched our tent (strangely, our tent was always the first to fall and yet we were the last to pack..), I waited for the sunrise..but of course there wasn't. I told you just now.. Got Sam to take some photos of the scenery. XD
By about 8 we had set off again. This time our trek was slightly shorter. 3.6km only since we were going to Camp2. We had to be there by lunch.. Serene Yar(Raffles' instructor) said so.. Had lesser breaks (Raffles people are so strong..unlike us..who took so many breaks) And thus Raffles and Cheng Ho trekked back together. This time round, I refused to carry the groundsheet. And caused Alyssa to suffer..since I switched with her.
Halfway through the trek the pole bag dropped. Thanks to Su Hong for helping me carry and warning about the hole in the bag! And thanks for keeping the spacers for me! Thanks Sam for helping my to carry the pole bag later on! *hugs* Feel really bad for having you all having more to carry. =(
And..we reached Camp2 at...dum dum dum.. 11am. Geez. And to think the instructors were rushing us. Spent a long time showering. Aha. Of course. Had to. Right? Although Boon had us digging everything out of the bagpack and placing them all over the place..cleaning the bagpacks of sand..washing the waterbottles and jerrycans before allowing us to shower.
Cheng Ho: Eh Boon. We know the reason why you don't have any mosquito bites and Serene has so many.
Boon: Why?
Cheng Ho: Because Serene is sweet and...
*pause*
Boon: So you're trying to say I'm not sweet?
Cheng Ho: *whispers among ourselves *yah you're bitter.
Boon: Actually, mosquitoes don't go for the sweetest.
Cheng Ho: Then?
Boon: They go for this heat given off-
Cheng Ho: Then you're cold.
Boon: -and they also go for this scent-
Cheng Ho: So that means you have BO.
Boon: ...
Everyone(including Serene): *laughs* HAHAHAHAHAHA
In the afternoon..did uhh..Double something Duo. Ahaha..I forgot the name..happy?? Anyway, it's this logs hanging, with a wide distance between each other, and we need two members to go up. I did belaying and anchoring. Didn't get to climb up since we were informed that a Cat1 lightning was nearing. Honestly I would prefer rock climbing to this..
Whooo.. We cooked almost all that we had left. That includes..chicken curry..and some mushrooms. Seems like no one wanted to fry the tuna chunks..
Boon left for some stuff and a relief person came for that night. By the name of Kim Chuan..or something.. And he told us to wash the mess tins and pots by the sea. -__- He could just given us detergent like Boon did. But noooooo~ he didn't. Bah. Too bad. We refused to listen to him. Had enough of sand the previous day. And thus we suffered his boring nag-speech about 'back to basics' and the food are 'biodegradable and the fish can eat them'. Yeah yeah. How lucky..the fishes would get to eat chicken skin and the canned curry. Hmm..wasn't that how pollution started?? HMM?? Geeez~!
Kim Chuan: Let's spent the night together.
Everyone: *thinks* What the hell??? *mumbles among ourselves loudly*
During tent pitching:
Someone: Ehh..where's the cotton twine?
Malikka: Oh I got it. It's in my butt.
*stunned silence*
Everyone: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Me: *still laughing* OMG that sounded so wrong~
Malikka: Eh..no..I mean.. my pocket...uh..the-
Everyone: *still laughing* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
At night..we went with Raffles into the forest..without any lights. Were given whistles though..for emergency... Anyway, it was so dark. Sam and I held onto each other's hand. It wasn't that bad(yeah right). Stopped at some field place where there are supposed to be fireflies. Apparently I must be blind because I couldn't see or spot any. ;__;
Continued until the beginning of some dark tunnel. The walk there was creepy. Something croaked when I just happened to pass the tree. And everyone just started to panic and shriek, running in front. e__e
Turned and headed back to the field place. Guess what? The instructors issued us a challenge(shoulda known one was coming): to do a solo walk back to the gates. And so I walked, clutching onto the light and whistle in case. It was so dark!!! I thought that the plant had been someone crouching down.. I had this feeling that something would grab me by my shoulder. Started to panic when I almost tripped..and when I thought there was a fork path.. And then..I heard footsteps behind.. I really didn't dare to turn and look back..and just kept walking.. Till when they were really near..I turned and, it was the person who went after me. She had been wondering why I didn't turn back since she had deliberately walked noisily. Lol. She overtook me near the end of the walk. What a relief to be in the light again!
Went back to the tent and slept quite easily. Ahaha. Although everyone was talking about it being the last night there at OBS.
Day 5
Finally!
Woke up reallly late today. About 6+. Lol. Ahaha...I dunno. Maybe the ground was comfortable? I didn't even take my 'alarm' seriously. Just switched it off and went back to sleep. zzzzZzZZ
We just unpitched our tents and..that's it. Just needed to wash the groundsheet and flysheet later on.
Boon came back.
Did some commitment activity. Called 'Stumbling Block Removal'. Just grab a stone, think about your stumbling block and share it with the watch..and well, when you feel that 'the time is ripe', just tossed it into the sea as far as possible. Let it sink onto the seabed and never to return back to you again. Ever. It was quite meaningful and yet saddening to me. =(
Boon passed us a cert. facing down. And we had to give it to the person in which the cert. belongs to. I got Petrina's and Cindy got mine.
Bought a Polo tee! and a keychain..spent 20 bucks on them... Keychain was bought together with Petrina since she was just short of 1 buck to get the free OBS poster. Ha.
Our class was the last to board the boat back to Singapore.. -___- What's more..our bus didn't have any air-conditioning! HUR.
Anyway, finally baaaack!! I kept wanting to go home, especially on the first day. But now I sort of miss the time our watch spent together. Shall always remember Cheng Ho~!
The word 'last'
Everyone kept hearing this word. Just that it was used wrongly in some cases.
Course director: Does anybody want to call her parents and say her last words?
Some unknown instructor when we were getting out of the boat: This is your last trip.
Some other instructor: This is your last day. (Apparently he didn't finish and thus another meaning was present..)
I'm sure my hearing has problems..
What Petrina said:
It expires on the 21st of May.
What I heard:
There are spiders on the 21st of May.
Another time during Math lesson:
Me: I'm gonna draw a diagram.
Sonia: You're gonna draw a guy-girl??
Me: Why would I want to draw a tiger??!