Outdoor Adventure Camp! ~Shiok ah~

Hey hey... I'm back from my Sec 3 Outdoor Adventure Camp at MOE Jalan Bahtera Adventure Centre! It's quite far in some deserted place in Lim Chu Kang, and arrgh! I couldn't get any signal from the local network! Darn... Those of us who subscribe to Singtel faced this problem, but other local networks seem ok... wonder how come like that lor. Was quite annoyed cos could only contact Hubby with a couple of SMSes using Sophia's hp.. sigh. But overall it's been a great camp and I had several great memorable experiences there... but missed Hubby, so am still very happy to be back home finally. The only spoiler's that I am now down with a very bad sore throat... so painful! Dunno why... maybe it's the weather these days, sometimes so sunny and bright, then suddenly thunderstorm and all, so feel 'funny' lor. Just hoping I don't really come down with anything terrible to ruin my weekend.

Anyway, back to my wonderful experiences at the camp. Actually it's sort of like a resort (not high-class one, of course, but quite ok) and not the jungle survival sort of campsite that I'd imagined it to be. I got to sleep in a small room with 8 bunk beds with my female colleagues... most of us already got along well before the camp so bunking together for two nights in a row wasn't a problem at all. In fact, we had great conversations in the room, and for both nights, some of us would be talking until we fall asleep one by one. In fact, I was the first to conk out last night... heh.

THE FACILITIES @ THE CAMPSITE

A little view of what the facilities look like... there's the dining hall (canteen) where we had our meals and also had to wash our own plates and cutlery with our bare hands (no clean sponge!) after each meal, the mattress I slept on (took the lower bunk, of course... scared fall off the top bunk :p) before I covered it with some clean bedsheets, the small corridor leading to the staff toilets where we wash up and shower as well as the camp commandant's office. There's a nice balcony there that I used to dry my wet shoes too. Oh and then there's the nice little 'huts' that the kids sleep in at night in the open... no doors... but I think it's fun to sleep in if not for the mosquitoes! ;P

DAY #1:

• Final camp briefing @ school hall
• Reached camp later in the morning! :D (But that was when I also got annoyed cos really no network)
• Checked in
• Went about taking photos of kids settling down in their groups and making new friends
• Lunch (erm, it was catered food, buffet style, but could have been better in terms of taste)
• Went out in really scorching afternoon sun (thank God for sunblock and mosquito repellant!) to take more pics of kids trying out various stuff like high elements and ooohhh... kayaking
• Took a motorboat out with some colleagues, got tempted to go kayaking despite not having any experience at it or being able to swim even (cos saw the kids and then saw Sophia and Siow Ling paddle so hilariously... haha)
• YEAH! Really plucked up my courage and just went out to the waters with Hui Yuen... we make quite a good pair cos we were able to synchronise our strokes and move pretty fast in the waters...no prob changing directions too... hee... basically quite successful at our attempt to kayak until.. ahem.. we wanted to head back and kinda 'crashed' into a part of the mangrove near the shore. :p But it's really so fun! Was out there for quite a long time... Heh.
• Dinner (slightly better than lunch :p)
• Stayed indoors hanging out with colleagues cos nightwalk got cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances ; kids stayed indoors to play some kidnap game instead
• Wash up, shower
• Stayed up past midnight talking to Sophia after most of the rest conked out cos we weren't quite sleepy yet
• Zzzz... (but got disturbed by this ridiculous alarm set at 4am plus by a student on his/her mobile phone which was confiscated and kept in our room...sigh. Rang for so long lor. Blea.)
  

Yeah, that's the motorboat some of us went out to the waters in at first before we got so tempted to go kayaking on our own that we asked the uncle to get us back to land so we could go get ourselves the equipment to move out there on our own :) Oh and some of the kelongs and mangrove swamps we saw on the waters... so many of them! Quite relaxing just seeing all these instead of the urban landscape for a change... :)

DAY #2:

• Woke up at 6am plus
• Breakfast (quite good)
• Went out in hot morning sun again to check out what the kids are doing; took more wonderful pics
• Lunch
• Left camp to go home and freshen up before attending an MOE event
• Went home, changed and managed to get a mercedes cab to get back to camp (cost me $22.40 for that single trip!!! @_@) but at least had a comfortable long ride back to camp
• Dinner
• Nua in room with colleagues again
• Campfire time! The kids were really great... put up some wonderful performances and also showed how united they were when they chanted cheers non-stop... the instructors from High Achievers did a fantastic job turning these kids into such enthusiastic and disciplined campers; I was really impressed!
• Wash up and shower
• Back in room talking and yep, that was the night when I was the first to conk out in the middle of all the conversation
• Woke up from time to time during the night cos of unwanted disturbances again of a different sort... aiyo. :S

DAY #3:

• Slept till 7am plus
• Breakfast (not bad also)
• Kids do area clean-up -- they were such great helpers! :)
• Packed and nua with colleagues in room again
• Prize Presentation
• Back to school (sigh... reality check for all of us, teachers and students :p)
• Mass debrief and dismissal, with tired but happy faces... so nice!
  

SPECIAL MENTION: A FELINE FRIEND @ CAMP

*Meow* Hello, I am Sebastian... The humans call me 'Sebas' sometimes. *Meow* The lady whom this blog belongs to fell in love with me at first sight and seemed crazy over me... *Meow* She met me on the first day of her camp and decided to befriend me. Actually, she met my cat dish and my mini cat plush toy first, and she started looking around to see if there was a real cat around. Of course there must have been lah, else the cat food and all for what one?! Anyway, I decided to accept her as a friend too cos she was really good at scratching behind my ears, rubbing beneath my jaw and stroking my back and all. And she constantly coos to me (I also dunno why... not as if I can really reply her) so ok lah, I just TRY to reply in my own tongue lor, so all she could hear was *Meow... Meow... Mew mew... Meeeeooowww*

On the second day, in the day time, I lazed around her and her friends outside the camp commandments office corridor. I listened to them talking animatedly. They also had this funny conversation about me -- think they couldn't decide if I'm male or female. So difficult meh?! Then she also helped me 'chase away' this person who started poking me (she did it the day before too ok! Think her name is Sophia... *Meow*). But later, that Sophia-person came back and started stroking my back, so ok lah, I just guai guai lie there. Then all the human females there started cooing affectionately at me, saying I'm so cute. *Meow Meow* I think I really DO look great, with my glossy black fur and cool small patches of white fur on the underside of my body, oh and of course, I have ultra-beautiful eyes lor. *Meeeeeeowwww* Then this blog owner came and squatted next to me, and treated me so nicely again. At night, I went to visit her room... stayed outside the door and meowed. Ok lah, I didn't go looking for her intentionally... Her colleague fed me with this KFC chicken outside and I wanted more so I just followed her back to the room, but the door was closed on me, no more chicken! Hmmph. So stayed outside waiting until this blog-owner came out and led me away to play with me some more. K lah, no chicken, but got comforted quite well, so ended up following her around. *Meow*

Then sigh. This morning, she came to look for me to say bye bye cos she's going back already. So sad. I followed her around, even attempted to go into the ladies with her, and even meowed to her so many times. I think she was also a bit sad to say bye bye to me, but cannot help it lah, she's not a permanent camp resident like me mah. *Meowwww* But whatever it is, I think she is a nice human and I hope she'll remember the good times we shared. *Meow*