.Wednesday, December 10, 2008 ' 4:34 PM Y
RAFFLES! XD
Stepped back into civilisation for 5 days already and the first time I'm back here touching he com. Long post today to cover the 5 days lost in Pulau Ubin.
OBS DAY 1:Met Si Ying and Jo Ann for breakfast at macs. Our 'last good meal' before we are sent back to basics. SY's trip to Japan was filled with fun and laughter, just wish I was there too.
OBS grouping with 7 other Andersonians and joined people from Chua Chu Kang Sec. Started the week simple with introductions and 1 ground rule: to respect others. Did little that day, store checking and had an introduction on kayaking. Than, we packed our bags, prepared for land expedition. In the evening, we pitched our tents and had rice and beans for dinner before lights out. Couldn't sleep that night due to the cold winds.
OBS DAY 2:Waken up by the boys who flashed their touches into our tents. Tied up the loose ends and went for a lesson on belaying. For practice, I belayed Jia Lun and Ariz had to anchor me down. Thanks man. If not I think I would be flying to I don't know where. After the lesson, we grabbed our bags and started our 1.5km walk to camp 2. The walk was horrible, with the heavy bags filled with canned food and all. Thank God for sensitive guys who helped us carry the tents:] Arrived at camp 2 with a surprise. The canteen uncle cooked our food:D We all filled our stomachs with the piping hot food grateful for the wonderful surprised. Went on to another activity, the Indiana Rope Climbing Challenge. Great heights that require great courage to overcome. Dinner at the canteen again. We than pitch our tents and went to bed in the wilderness after a hot shower.
OBS DAY 3:The news of us being attacked by dogs woke us all from sleep. We all thought that someone was attacked by the dogs and were relived to see that no one was hurt. Turned out that the dogs did not attacked us but instead had their eyes on the food we left in the open. After we had breakfast, we set off and started our land expedition. Leading in groups of four, I was together with Arvind, SY and Jia Lun. After a few obstacles here and there, (Arvind had a spider crawling up his leg and SY had met a spider right in her face) we managed to led the group to the second checkpoint. After that, the four of us were super high and started telling stupid jokes that kept the group alive. When we finally reached the road to our campsite for the night, we managed to over take the group before us, reaching the campsite way before they did. Even our instructor Naf was shocked. The heavy loads were thrown of our shoulders and we gave each other a wonderful massage that no money can buy. Keep the first watch at night at Jelutong to make sure no stray dogs what-so-ever came to disturb the tents and food. The night was followed by a powder bath in the tent and undisturbed rest to get ready for a whole day of kayaking.
OBS DAY 4:Finished our breakfast in the dark and loaded our bags on the instructors' boat. Apply lots of sunblock in name of sun protection. We than set off under Chii Meng's lead into the mangrove. the journey in the mangrove was sure enjoyable. got lost here and there but we managed to reach the sea safely. We had a couple of mud fights here and there, saw the mudskippers coming out into the sun and rolled ourselves in the mud. We all had a great deal of fun. It was when we reached the sea when things started to look less bright. The current was against us and we had a hard time heading back to camp 1. When we eventually arrived, we held a mass capsize session and life was brought back into us. The best part has yet to come. We were washing all the kayaks when the rain came. After washing, we danced in the rain with the instructors and had a debrief, paying tribute to the four sea expedition leaders and us-WE, complete the circle. Later at night, we had buffet for dinner. All the canned foods were cooked and a scrumptious meal was prepared. We cleared the store and prepared the tents for bed.
OBS DAY 5:All good things come to an end. The ferry would be there to fetch us back sooner than we expect. We exchanged our contacts and sealed our commitments, graduated each other and bade farewell. We promised to meet each other soon enough, just the 17 of us, from watch Raffles 1-5 Dec 2008.
In Short:At Pulau Ubin, I forged new friendships that will never be broken, learnt lessons the textbooks never teach and also had a great deal of fun with 'strangers' who turned out to be friends who know me inside out.
