A 5 day course (19 - 23 June 2006) , 5 days in tents, 5 days of Puala Ubin water! This had been the longest camp I've been so far and it's great to be out of home for more than half a week but I DID missed home. Tip to my readers, when you are homesick, think of homework and it'll erase your thoughts. Haha. Moving on, I was assigned to Raffle Group - Lynette, Sabrina, Xin Di, , Ming Fang, Jun Pei , Audrey, Daniel, Yang Zhi, , Stozer, Izwan, Faizal, Shafiq, Azlan, Kalis and Illya.

First Day

We took an OBS boat from the Getty to our new campsite (Camp 2). It was raining at that time. We settled down and broke into our groups. Everything was moving so slowly at that time. Angela did a welcome speech and we met our Facilitator - Daphne. We surrendered our stuff and did those introduction. Blah blah blah. Everyone was given a post and I was the Medic! Haha. It's like why not? We checked out our storeroom and packed the stuff. We learned how to pitch a tent and basic belaying skills. Still boring so I'm going to zoom into our dinner time. Had to cook rice, red beans and peanuts in a short time while the guys pitched tents for us. First meal only, so we weren't expert in it. Our fire was apparently too small and the rice could not cook in time! When everyone gathered and took their share. There was still quite a lot of rice left so Ming Fang actually forced Stozer and Yangzhi to take the remaining serving. HEHE. So funny, the 2 guys choking on the uncooked rice. Afterwhich, we had to pack our stuff to bring to our new campsite the next day. 1 of the instructor (rather nice looking but SHORT) rang the fire alarm and all of us had to assemble. Light off at 11pm.

Second Day

Woke up rather early after transporting all the bags to the safe boat and kayaks to the beach. My kayaking partner was Izwan. The weather initially wasn't very favourable so Angela and Daphne taught us the paddling basics, capsized drills etc. When we got into the water we had to do a life vest checked and it was hot! I mean the water was warmer than when you are out of the water. Then got into kayak and paddle, paddle, paddle. I did had problem coordinating with Izwan for he was not from UG and had difficulty with the timing. WAKAKA. Nevermind, I was patient. Ate my snacks on the kayak. I was glad that we were always catching up with Audrey and Daniel (the navigators). Reached our new campsite at HDB at lunch time. Pitched tent (with stones and twines connected with other tents). Ate lunch and proceeded to the Quarry. We had to build a raft with some poles, ropes and barrels. Initially I wasn't very keen to build it because it means killing my brain cells. HEHE. Luckily Daniel suggested something and we went on improving his idea. Then we tie and we build. Our raft was named, "Stamford...Comfort". This is by far the first time I felt like Raffles watch had worked together which is why we won the Raft contest! Stozer was our pilot and he was so funny! Remember to tighten your seat belt! On the other hand Raleigh's raft was kinda unsafe after they failed our SHAKE test (The 1st unofficial shake test was like we bent down and pretend to lift their raft up and then drop it and shake our bodies!) so they weren't allowed to enter the Quarry with it. The fun just kept going on. We sat on our raft and paddled forward. Then Daphne or some other guys started to push everyone down. I saw Daphne attempted to push me down but HAHA I caught her doing that first. However, the next thing I knew, Yang Zhi went to push the other end of the barrel I was siting on and I fell off! IT WAS SO SHIOK! The water was so clean and refreshing!!! Was swimming and paddling in the water. WEEE! Afterwards, we went to put back all the raft materials and Raleigh joined in. I got to dived into the water once more! FUN! Mei Qiao and I were trying to swim with our liftvest on. Audrey dodged me into the water! WoA. That was shocking man. I managed to dodge a few more people. Pardon my wildness! After that, we went back to the campsite. Lynette, Audrey and I went into the sea and *AHEM AHEM*. Sheesh. So much for my bath. Lemme just zoomed into dinner time. Cooked curry chicken maggie mee and lots of sardine. Stozer along with all the It's Showtime participants were really sad and stuff, because they missed their chance to watch their performance at home with their family members on TV and the results were unknown to them until the end of the camp. I'm quite sure that the feeling ain't nice. Turned in at 10pm. Woke up at 11pm for scentry. My arm muscles were all aching from the kayaking and I could barely move! So uncomfortable. Just patrol a little and look around. Afterwhich I laid on the blue tarb and napped. HEHE. Went back to my tent at 12mn after calling the guys' to wake up for the next shift...

Third Day

Set off really early (around 5.50am). Everywhere was rather dark for the sun had not rise. We carried and tranposted all the necessary stuff and took off. It's going to be a long day I guess. Izwan and I kayak and kayak and kayak. We came across some mangrove and it was DIRTY as compared to the day before at the open sea. Oh well. We had to race against time as the water level was decrease by the minute. Once the water level drops to mud level, we are going to have a very very hard time carrying our kayaks over the waist level mud. Luckily, we made it on time! We just had to climb over some mud, but it was alright. Something bad also happened at this point of time. I finally realised something...(WAKAKA. I know Mei Qiao is laughing now!) We continued our sea expedition and blah blah blah. We came to this particular place where there's a stall selling coconut (however the owner wasn't there at that time). Izwan and I were the traffic controllers. A few bicycles came on the road and I had to blow my whistle and made sure the road is clear. =) Blah blah blah. We returned to the open sea! The current was rather strong. FINALLY we reached camp 2 again! Washed the paddles and ourselves. LOVED IT. Then I washed the life vests and so on. Need to pack for the next day's trip immediately. SO CHIONG right? About 1 hour later, we assembled again and procedured to our new campsite - Camp 1. It was like a palace when we reached there, very pretty. There's even a 24hrs nurse in the "clinic" there. We did Rock Climbing today! Although I've been to High Element a couple of times, I haven't done rock climbing before! Initially I wasn't very enthusiastic, was just slacking around after being "scolded" or lectured by Daphne for using the roller bandage for nothing and it could have been useful for any emergency. It's totally my fault but I simply missed SJAB too much! I was like wrapping my fingers and thinking of ANCO. AWWWW. Anyways, initially I thought my rock climbing partner was Izwan but in the end Medic and My Dick partnered each other and I ended up partnering Ellya. I wasn't very particular about this though so I successfully climbed up! YIPEE! Wakaka. Throughout this rock climbling activity I only got more active towars the end. The funniest one was Xin Di and Yangzhi's climb. Yangzhi was like having big time difficulty with him shoes and height. Poor thing, kena scolded by Daphne. Moving on, we went for a decent dinner and pitched our tent. Bathed and stuff. Met up with Daphne to write our journal by the small shack-like place before heading for supper. Afterwards all the land expedition leaders had to stay back to discuss which route to take and stuff. I accompanied Lynette (which I didn't regret) and helped up in the map reading and stuff. I was awfully shocked when I saw the long long long route that we had to take. We overshot our planning time which was 11pm so we decided to wake up at 5am in the morning and continue our planning. It was all worthed it.

Fourth Day

Treking for the whole day with all our stuff. I wasn't sure if i could make it though this day because the journey really looked long on the map! It could take us 8hrs of hiking to cover 15km++ I'm like OMG. We reached our 1st checkpoint rather fast and had to do an activity which was to sing a series of at least 5 songs from the 90s. We did "I believe I can fly" (classic among our watch), our school song, "Shape of my Heart", "1 Love" and 1 more song which I forgot already. We did took some breaks during interval so the intial part was alright. Suddenly missed BSB a lot! Audrey, Lynette and I were like singing "The Call". Totally rocks! Had lunch at some part of Puala Ubin where they sell great seafood and coconuts. Tralala. When we reached our 2nd checkpoint which was by the beach, we couldn't find the checkpoint! So our forfeit was to play Human Entangle without talking! Our first attempt failed and we took 1hour to complete the 2nd attempt! LOL! IMAGINE! Smelling each other's sweat for 1 whole hour! SHIOK MAN! HAHAHA. Audrey and my hand were tied like a dead knot and soon we realised that there were actually 2 circles. HAAHA. I loved this game.We continued hiking and encouraging each other, doing all the cheers we could think of for the next 4 hours or so. `Weeeee. The 4th checkpoint was the "Traffic Jam" game. Quite nice and we managed to complete the task within 10 minutes! Reached Camp 1 after doing a Raffles Cheer. Although we were later than Raleigh, I'm certain that we had more fun than them! Na ne na ne boo boo! Cleaned the storeroom and when to bathe. I was smelling so nice and yet I had to go up the flight of stairs and cooked. I wasn't very willing to go near the fire at first because I was simply smelling too good! Hai. Looks like it was inevitable. Ate curry maggie mee with mushrooms. Blah blah blah. Slept after that.

Last Day

Woa. So fast. It's the last day of the camp. Felt really sad man. Because it means it's time for homework and the fun is over! Haha. We did all the packing necessary and brought it to the kayak shack. Daphne wanted to meet us but it was raining so we took shelter at the opposite of the trainer's bunks. We played some "Shoo! Shee!" game. It's something like "Pin Pong Pian" game actually. Those who kena sabotage would be drawn on by a black marker! Haha. Sharfiq's one was the funniest. The guys was "raping" him and drew him a moutache and a side burn. Totally Hiltler! -Does the Germany Salute- I "gabra" once and had my arm drawn on the word, "KICK ME". I loved it, thanks to Sab! After that Daphne read us a story called, "The Missing Piece". It's a kiddy book with a lot of meanings. I wonder how young kids can understand that. Well, it's time to say goodbye soon. Kranji did many cheers for the trainers, ourselves as well as for others. It was so touching when Ellya cried! Omg. Although he was the only Macpherson guy within the 30 odd people, we took care of him and he took care of us. Took one last photo and we are off! Mei Qiao and I were so "kiasu". First one to jump out of the boat and boarded onto the bus. Had Sakae Sushi Buffet with Mei Qiao! SIMPLY SHIOK MAN! First time I ate at Sakae. SHIOK SHIOK. Spent about $18 in total. Expensive but worth it. =)