mitc's entries
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Yo! Yo! I’m now catching up on past happenings… Hee… Been very busy for the past weeks that I have no time to start writing…
Anyway, let me start with my trip to Panti. As you guys would have known, I participated in this course named B.O.A.T. (Basic Outdoor Adventure Training). It’s a 3-month long course that orientates the participants to the various components of Outdoor and Adventure Sports. Okie… Now let me get back to what I want to say. Straight after work on 29 April (Friday), I rushed home to grab my 20kg backpack and dashed over to Toa Payoh Central Community Club to meet up with the rest of my coursemates and got ready for our first ever overseas trek for this course.
I freaked out on my way as I carried my backpack. I was like “Gosh… it’s so heavy… I’m already having difficulty walking on flat ground with the backpack… how am I to scale a mountain with it?”
Anyway, we boarded the bus at about 10.30pm and got stuck in a traffic jam because many others were also going to Malaysia for the long weekend. Finally made our way to the campsite… and guess what time that was? 3am!!! Haha… though we were really tired, we still had to walk a little distance and then pitch our tents… Thank God we finally got to sleep at about 4am… Hee…
After a pathetic few hours of sleep, we had to wake up for our morning exercise (urghhh…) and guess what was that? We had to run a total distance of 5km to the entrance of Kota Tinggi Waterfall Park and back. And guess how long an allowance we were allowed to complete the task? 30 minutes!!! Sadist, right? But anyway we did it… because the punishment of doing push ups on a VERY rough surface was waiting for us… So, all of us did it… Aren’t we glad!!! Shortly after that, we had our breakfast and then all the teambuilding games. Not too bad, we had fun after all. And the surprise awaits us… Hee… In the late afternoon, we were told that we are going to Pelepah Waterfalls… Wow!!! Took a long leisure trek to the place and had some fun at the not so wonderful waterfall (was rather disappointed when I saw the waterfall because I thought it was the other more spectacular one). Just as we were going back… Red alert sounded. Albert and Justin fell and got injured. We had to evacuate them… Stretcher was made for Albert (who injured his right ankle) using a ground sheet and Justin had to limp (because his injury involved the knee). Gosh… We really had to work together as a team, some of us carried the stretcher, some to support Justin as he limped along, some to clear the path and some simply to stay by the side and cheer Justin and Albert up. I was helping out with the stretcher until I took a short break and then ended up as the “link”… haha… People carrying the stretcher were moving too fast and Justin’s group couldn’t catch up. So Hanyan and a few of us became the link, to stand at intervals so that the second group won’t get lost in the forest as the first group sped ahead. We finally got out of the forest at about 10pm despite having gotten lost (Leslie and Annie, the leaders , lost their bearings). At the end of everything… guess what? IT WAS JUST A SCENARIO TRAINING!!! Pengz… Haha… Anyway, dinner was waiting for us at the campsite when we finally got back. We took a quick dinner, had a debrief (during which I was snoozing… haha…) and proceed to sleep. Hee… Just when we thought everything was over, we were woken at 4AM!!! This time it was a SCENARIO TRAINING FOR FLASH FLOOD!!! Urghh… Really pengz… no proper sleep! My tent-mates and I were like “Let the flash flood come… Let us sleep”… Haha… Anyway, we got another lecture for not packing all our things properly and for not being ready for emergencies and stuffz. Sigh…
Second day, most of us were half-dead because we were all suffering from deprivation of sleep. We trekked some distance to the foot of the hill, Panti (about 500+m). I was actually helping this lady called Daphne, giving encouragement, etc as she trekked. But she just kept whining and whining… Oh my gosh! I’ve never seen a woman such as her. She was like “Why all these slopes? Why must we climb up all these slopes?” I couldn’t take it and I just told her “You’re scaling a mountain. How else do you expect to reach the top except to go up? You have been training and you know you have the ability to make it up to the top! So, stop complaining and start moving!” With that, she erupted. She shouted at me, saying “Fine lor! Then I’ll go and die here lor! I’ll just jump down from here! Happy?” And with that, she wanted to run in some weird direction. I’m like… “What did I do? I didn’t ask her to go and die!” Where’s the connection? So, I grabbed her bag and left her to someone else to talk to her. I can’t stand people who whine and try to kill herself all because someone reprimanded her. Sigh… I don’t like dealing with people like this because I know I won’t be all nice and gentle. Anyway, halfway through our journey, it rained very heavily. It made our trek even tougher. Anyway, we finally got to the final part of our trek. A cliff!!! While waiting for the safety officers to set up safety ropes and stuffs, and also for the people in front to clear, we sat down and rest. Haha… when I stood up and got ready to scale the mountain, I found this leech on my arm! Hee… freaked out a little but I still observed it getting fat through sucking my blood. Haha… sadist, right? So, I got to the summit (after many heart-stopping moments… I’ve got a fear of heights) and it started raining (again…). I helped to babysit Annie’s 7-year-old daughter as she got everyone settled down. Suddenly, we heard this loud BOOM! Lightning struck! Had to run all the way to my tent, put my backpack down and squat on top of it… My 3 other tent-mates and I were stuck in our own tents and in that position (on our respective backpacks of course). Hee.. and we entertained ourselves with lots of food (our luxury foods… hee…). Only much later did we know that Kok Fai almost fell off the cliff while trying to assist one of the coursemates and that some of the others were hit by lightning which passed through the ground… Evening, we had our debrief and we spoke of our sentiments in regard to the trek. Sigh… All of us had the shock of our life when Daphne said she didn’t enjoy the trek and that she was angry with Leslie, the facilitator who stayed by her side and encouraged her to move on. My gosh! I was totally shocked that she said that! I mean, the least one can do is to say that the effort is appreciated, etc. All of us genuinely felt that through the two days, the team bonded and really grew closer. But she actually said that “I’m glad for all of you but I’m not part of your team. So I don’t feel the joy.” Everyone helped and encouraged her and she didn’t bother to appreciate them! Everyone treated her as a part of the team but she chose to isolate herself from everyone else! And then she says all these! I mean… she’s such a @#$%%^!!!!!
Okie, finally, the last day! We trekked down and I got stung by a bee! Yihui saw and tried to rush me forward to the first aid person and in the process, she bummed into a bee and was stung too. Just as we thought that was the last of the bees we saw, the group who was walking at the back were attacked by a swarm of ferocious bees!!! Albert, the guy who acted as the casualty just days before, was stung multiple times. He was in a bad state and when he saw us, guess what he said? He said “This time, it’s real! I really was stung! It’s not a scenario training!” Poor guy… He was rushed to a doctor for a jab the moment we got out of the forest.
Exciting. Eventful. Lovely. Wonderful. Cool. Enjoyable. Great. Wow. These are just some of the adjectives I can use to describe our 12th BOAT Camp 2! Hee… Trip to Mt Ophir coming up!
michelle
6:06 AM
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'