OBS was like a dream away from reality. Like you're secluded from everything else in the modern world. And all you see is the bright lights of the island of Singapore at night. ghee.Basically, i would say the camp is something different from the other camps i've been to. It's a good experience i guess and i feel lucky to be in the watch group called "battuta". heh, i got it right. I used to call it, "battata, batitu, batibata, berbatov, batibus," and many more ._.Read at your own risk for it is long. Persevere on once you start.
< . < Day1
Day 1 was kinda bummed. I didn't like the feeling of going to camp all over again after march camp. It wasn't a nice feeling to finish packing my camp bag at 2am and feeling so unprepared lol. So when i came to school, i was kinda home-sick already. Like thinking of 1 week without family, school, my guitar and my phone lol. So i started crapping again. Act happy act cheery in the end become happy and cheery, ROFL. sat around outside SJAB room and Dave was there. Than i kept singing "when i'm gone" by simple plan lol. Than say hi to everyone that pass by me. @_@
Bus came and shipped us over to punggol end, which is actually not very far from my house. We settled down and than came along other schools, one after another. After that, boarded the ship. Than, a slip of paper of groupings was passed around. I was with Darren rofl! my bully-lester ally partner during chi class! Finally we reached OBS camp site 2, i think. There we waited at an old multi purpose hall in our new formed groups. There we waited for hours(i'm not sure how long but it seemed like hours), finally all 9 schools were present. than they splitted up the instructors and our group moved to another place and formed a circle. There, introduction and stuff like that. Out instructor was Haizu, and we're lucky to have him as our instructor. Next was the splitting of the roles, me and another guy got the role of Admin IC which i think is the toughest job there. So me and Zaki went off to the storeroom to check up on the stocks. First impression was very bad, cause everything there seemed old, dusty and dirty, and i like didn't there to touch anything lol. Yeah, but i ended up doing it ofcourse. So finally checked stocks after i dunno how long. Lunch was butter bread and biscuits from our "happy meal" (Happy meal : ziplock bags with 3milo powder, 2 ovaltines powder, biscuits bicuits, energy bar, etc" Next, me and zakki took the harness and passed it to our watch than we proceeded on to billaying practice.
After that, we were taught how to pitch a tent. Everyone's tent was almost perfect then haha =D little did we know how our tent conditions would be in the following days, LOL. After that we played a few orientation games i think, did we? and following up was dinner. Had rice with sardines, cooked by witch and my food ic. wahh, rocks i tell you. After dinner, we cleaned up and my group started to pack for our 3 day 2 night expedition. Our group managed to finish packing the earliest while the other groups packed it the next day. After that, was sleeping time in the tent. It was 5 in a tent, so it was really squeezy. I couldn't turn left or right, haha at least i was taking the window spot in the tent and Darren was beside me lol.
Day2
Woke up at around 0530? i'm not sure, for PT or something. There we played games that were kinda hilariously funny lol. "mingle, mingle, i want to mingle." ~.~ i shall not describe it because it'll take too many words. After PT was breakfast and a hike to the next camp site, which is camp site 1 i think.(could've been the other way round, not too sure.) The journey there was i-dunno-how many kilometres. Me and Zakki took turns to carry the poncho bag. A bag filled with a whole lot of ponchos which weighs around 25kg+. Tired lol, but was self-motivated by patapon drum beat rofl! Finally reach there. Took a break, the toilet was real sweeeet there. Than went on to high elements. The only part of the camp which i felt i feared most. It turned out not to be too scary, cause it wasn't really high, and it wasn't really as challenging. I didn't feel the thrill i guess, but it was kinda fun. LOL, i was shuffling while doing billay, but i was alert as well =D. Fell asleep on the ground halfway, so instructor woke me up and told me to climb since i was sleepy. i was the 7th last person to climb, i think. Succeeded in the three challenges at the first go, like most of the ppl there.
After that, was lunch. Had apples. And i took some biscuits from happy meal. Once everyone was ready, everyone dressed in wet attire. Shirt, long pants was enough. I wore my swim shirt and my swimmings trunks was under my track pants. I brought my cap along. There, we waited quite a long time before finally moving all our bags into the boat,(including the poncho bag and the 3 filled jerry cans) than waited for the briefing of our sea expedition with watch groups : columbus and cheng ho, forming BAHOMBUS. ~.~ . the briefing took quite a long time, finally got splitted up into groups and into the water. i was kinda fed up with my kyak mates(btw, we were using a tri-yak) cause they didn't really paddle much and they had bad sense of direction. I was the only one at the bag paddling like crazy which helped the kyak move. After awhile it got better i guess, but didn't really compormise well.
Finally, we reached a place called the shopping centre via triyak.Like 1/8 the island? not sure how long, not very long i guess. There's a story behind why the place is called the shopping centre, the instructor told us the next day. Once there, we started to pass the bags from the boat forming a human chain. I was in the water supporting the boat so that it'll not move. Just then, a vessel came by. Swoooom, waves started coming like noboday business. While in the water at around waist level i was shouting to everyone there, Come support the boat! pull! than nobody listen, just stop and stare at the waves splashing with mouth wide open. so end result is that half of the bag that was still not taken out was soaked in water. Went into the boat to balance the boat so that it won't capsize and sink. With other battuta mates, we were inside splashing the water out and finally all the bags were gone. The intructor than drove the boat out to see, as it moves, it floats higher so the boat doesn't actually go so low into the water unlike at the shore. we started using our shoes to take the water out of the boat. ghee, took like maybe half an hour+/- ? my estimate lol. Finally the water that was filling up like 1/24 of the boat was gone. quite fun, enjoyed the sea breeze.
Once done, battuta ppl (4 actually) helping out with the boat was back at shopping centre already. ghee. There, the Kyaks were already nicely arranged at the side. My other watch mates briefed me about what we were supposed to do. That was to pitch the tent and cook dinner. And the toilets were left side of the forest for male toilet and right side of the forest for female toilet, haha didn't get to see ppl's reaction when they got the news. I was ok with it cause i wouldn't need the toilet. Oh and for today, we had 5 tent bags instead of 4 cause the other two ppl that slept with me darren and jefferson complained about squeezinees and snoring XD the way they describe abit abit funny haha. Something like we take turns to snore, after darren snore stop than my turn snore, than finally jefferson do the power snore like crazy than so squeezy cannot sleep. Lol. ~.~ . But in the end, while the girls were cooking, the rest didn't bother helpign to pitch the tents up for them. Me Darren and jeffry(fish) attempted to, but the ground was so hard and by the time it was already so dark. The place was like surrounded with trees and everything so it was really really dark and there was no lightings or buildings anywhere around. In the end, 5 of us squeeze again cause 4 tents were set up in total. Dinner was alright, Maggi i think. Was so touched when the cook saved up quite alot of food for me and darren cause we were attempting their tent while sacrificing our eating a lil. "because we love you, joel." hahahahahaha, touched lol.
Next day, setting off time was 0630 i think. Cause we were supposed to triyak thru a swamp which also involves climbing a mud hill and bringing the triyak over to the other side and also crossing a road. If we did not manage to get out of the swamp by 2pm, we would all be stuck in mud cause of the low tide conditions. So we were advised to get ready fast by tomorrow. There was santuary duty that night, cause since it was like a forest area and because of the mas selamat threat, we had to stay on guard. You never know when mas selemat may pop in and "haha, you are all my hostage" or when a wild dog comes in and bites into our food supplies or when a wild board comes charging in for no reason. Ha. Did duty with Darren, tsernting, charmaine and adeline. Had to walk here and there and check on the boat that was floating in the sea as well to make sure it wasn't stolen or drifting away. Our shift was the second shift of the first shift that was allocated to our group. 1130 to 1215, though i must say time flew real fast. Stared up at the the bright cold siler moon and started thinking before going to sleep. The tent was realy stuffy that night.
Day3
Woke up at the correct ideal time i guess, though we didn't manage to prepare in time by 0630 to set off. It was hilarious when i came to find out that one person from the group after our shift could not wake up, despite his santuary group members punching him and slapping him. LOL. That's what's called a KNOCK OUT. Everything was ready, bags back up in the boat, triyaks all in the water, everyone on the triyak, by around 0730. 1 hour later than suggested timing. Our navigators were worried i think so i think we practically went quite a fast pace thru the sea before reaching the swamp. There was a heavy downpour that lasted a shortwhile, followed by the sun rising from the horizon. A big rainbow stretching half the sky,(a quarter) appeared. It was really beautiful. Finally reached the swamp. Me and my triyak mates were working well, haha i could see them putting in the effort and it was fun kyaking with them. Once we entered the swamp there were a few turn left or right junctions and the navigator had to make the decision. Though they took quite a logn time to make the decision, we still managed to make the right turn, only two wrong ones which they figured out fast enough. It went quite smooth, though i constantly placed my paddle thru the water to check the receding depth. The mud below was real sticky soft and quick-sand mud. The first obstacle was a mud hill. Not really that high but real slippery. That one took quite a long time. Next obstacle was a road with the silver metal barriers, had to pass the kyak over it to continue. After that, we were almost out already. So i guess the instructor allowed us to play a game again. We were supposed to go row by row and arrange according to our birthdate from youngest right to younger at the left. So we move and move the boat shake and shake. Last row completed in 4min plus, second row completed in 1min plus and first row completed in 3min plus plus cause alot of ppl fall into the water. The first row did their forfeit by doing a Dozo Dance ," Dozo! Dozo! Dozo, Dozo, Dozo!!"" After that everyone sang a song, twinkle x 2 little stars, and we were out of the swamp at our next camp site.
We reached the campsite around 2 hours earlier than the proposed time. The instructors than let us swim for awhile and we played the washing machine game. Than some sharp green needle like thing pierced my shoe into my big toe, abit abit pain, but not so deep.. phew. Once washing machine was done, we went back up for briefing. set up tent, cook food. Simple. Than guess what. Heavy ubin downpour. rain and rain and rain. Not just any kind of rain, the raindrops were like crystals dropping from the sky, so white, so fast and so sharp. Like arrows shooting down from heaven lol. Me,darrens and fish's tent wasn't done yet. And our rocks by the side were still loose. So we continue to do the best we can, i think i didn't help much, but thank odac! they're so adept lol. I was shivering by the time the tent was going to be abit less than ok. The winds blew so strongly(sea breeze) and i was still wearing my wet swimshirt that stuck onto my skin. Finally, instructors told everyone to get into their tents, rushing everybody there as though something bad was going to happen. It was nice and warm inside the tent. Though there were pools of water, everything felt so nice and snug. Later we saw one of our members ashvin(if i'm not wrong) was still outside so we pulled him into the tent as well, and he was really greatful. The instructors brought the poncho in for everyone and it felt abit more warmer. This was really memorable experience i must say. Being in a warm dirty tent with watchmates while there was rain outside pouring dDarren fell asleep, so i also tried to sleep lol. So i think i slept, and when i woke up, there was sun shining from above. the rain lasted around 45min after we were in the tent. We came out, adjusted our tents and had dinner. We had tuna and vegatable soup i think. It was good.
Packed for the next day, we were suppose to hike/trek pulau ubin. From the present campsite(jelutong) which is the btm middle of the island, to chek jawa, which was extreme right of the island, than to camp site 2? which was was the extreme left of the island. Around 15km.
Next there was a night walk. Instructor told us that shopping centre was shopping centre because ppl used to sell alot of things there. there was also this old lady in a dilapidated house there selling homecooked food, but she was old and frail, somewhat ghostly. everyone there moved out of that area once the government had reclaimed the land and they are now staying afloat on their house floating on water. (What's that called again?) Once the story was said, he tried to scare us by saying the last word of what the old woman said to a man, which was "5 DOLLARS". haha, funny lol. Night walk was fine, paired up with this guy who always raised his hands up high saying "YES!! ...(followed by something like: i cannot do it! or i am tired." the night walk route wasn't that scary. But it was suppose to challenge our senses. Yeah, there were many stray black dogs throughout the path and there was suppose to be portholes on the ground as well. Bright cold silver moon was our light, still managed to see a lil.
Nightwalk was done, went into tent. Fish dried up the tent, he used his mickey mouse tissue paper. Was happy for him. Than went to sleep. Santuary duty the same. But we only did it for ten minutes cause the previous group help us do our time ROFL! i think they didn't sleep lol, cause they wanted to have fun >.> that's all for the day. own.
Day40555, reporting time as usual. Woke up at 5? kept the tent. It wasn't as scueezy cause there was only 3, they managed to pitch up the 5th tent yesterday. But than the labour is more. Kept the tent and packed the bags. Briefing on route and stuff. Played the twisting game, the one with the hands dangled up in the middle and we were suppose to untangle to form one circle. Ended up with TWO circles! two of it combined cause the one special circle was my hand to darrens to adelina to back to me. So it was quite hilarious. Picked up the tent bag and a long stick of water bottles(bottles with handles hooked on a long walking stick) ok ok, abit heavy on the shoulder but shared the stick's load with another person. Though sometimes i took the whole stick myself ._. We set off, took many breaks and everyoen got tired really fast. After warming up, things went more smoothly. Used patapon to motivate group and myself, worked mostly on myself. LOL, than we finally reached chek jawa. There we rested, ate milo powder, oreo and other stuff in our happy meal. After that, we set off in two different groups looking for a fiddler crab, nippah palm and a mudskipper. We were suppose to draw it out and form a poem. I only remember two of the poems cause it was crapped out by me.
Nippah palm oh nippah palm
you're as strong as my papa
you call yourself a nippah palm
yet i dont see a palm.
Fiddler crab oh fiddler crab
get caught in my trap
you call yourself a fiddler crab
yet you're just a piece of crap
Lame, i know. Notice the same technique is used in this context. LOL, i don't even take literature, see i'm a potential literature student! =P
Ok, once that was done, we were supposed to walk across the island and back to camp site 2? yeah around 12km from there. I took the bag shared by me and darren and someone took my tent bag and the stick. The tent bag and stick i would say would weigh around 8kg +/- ? And the camp bag i was taking would weight around 15kg + . Yeah, it was exhausting, but everyone must work together. Throughout the journey, many complains were shot, criticisms were given to one another. (xinmin ppl were all fine except fish ._.).We stopped constantly and we had cold chicken curry fresh from the can for lunch, it gave us fat oil and energy! so things carried on and we walked around 10km before finally reaching our checkpoint which was the quarry. The quarry was a spot where it is like a dome surrounded by granite rocks, water is collected because of rain and the water is maybe around300,400 m deep? dunno, can be deeper. the water there is fresh and the whole place is circled up by fencing cause ppl actually drowned there before. The water there is a calm dark shade of jade. Looking at it gives you serenity ._. and the granite rocks around look magnificently huge with cliffs on top. I would estimate that the place is like around the size of half of the football field? maybe bigger or smaller, should be bigger though.
So this special privillege was given to battuta by our instructor. he had the key, and we were the only group that could swim here. Everyone was happy ofcourse, the place was like heaven, cause after 10km with at least 10kg worth of things being carried by you, you'll definately feel tired. We placed our bags down, girls went to a corner to change to their swim wear, and boys changed there on the spot. We used our shirts to cover while changing lol. Finally, everyone was ready with life vest, instructor led us to the cliff. Around two storeys high above the water. we were suppose to jump from there into the water. Yeah, wheeeeee and splash. One by one. Than one of them took quite a long time, but in the end she did it. everyone was happy for her haha. Last was the instructor haizu. He wanted to sommersaut in at first, but he decided to do a nose dive in the end. we swam to the shore which was maybe around 50 m away. Was tired already lol ~.~. finally at shore, i started picking up granite pebbles to skip. Max i did was 5 i think. One really nice one was a stone that skipped once and flew really high up and hitting a tree branch. coolio. Had quarry wrestling there, kept attempting to keep darren on my shoulder. keep falling backwards or forward, quite hilarious haha cause there was so many attempts. had a great time there, around 1hour in the water i think. the breeze was really nice and refreshing as well. And everybody felt so clean cause the water was fresh. Did i mention? you could see your legs from the surface clearly? and if u look under water thinks are just a wee bit blurred. Simple, the experience there was shiok. Another memoreable point in camp.
Had to leave that place. Was really sad and disappointed. But ahwells, changed back into trekking outfit, and said goodbye to the quarry. Couldn't take any stones there cause instructor said it would imbalance nature and surroundings spiritually and like people actually prayed to the place and stuff like that. Well, the souvenier is my memory.
Continued the last 2km or so. Around the last 1km, my legs started to fail me lol. It's something that happened to my spine before and i actually went to the chiropactor lastime because of this. My right knee bent once and stumbled. I managed not to fall. My right knee did it again, i managed not to fall. My left knee did it once, i didn't fall. My left knee did it again and i fell to the ground. Left knee scraped along the down slope rock and my track pants i had since sec1(for SJAB) tore on the left knee area. Teammates help me take my load. (tsern ting) she was like Wah! why so heavy lol, cause she couldn't even lift the bag up at first. Haha, the whole trek ended up so ungloriously for me cause i walked back to the camp site without any load but a walking stick in my hand. ROFL.
Everyone rejoiced when we were back. Apparently, we were the second team out of the three teams to reach the camp site. Logistic ICs back into position to clear up everything ._. food was good that night. Haizu cooked for us apple crumble/apple turnover, very very sumptiously great. Other than that had maggi as well. Than nothing much already. Had to settle 3 jerry cans and 3 sets of mess tins that were with cheng Ho(the other watch group, they found our tent bag earlier and passed it to us at chek jawa) That night while logistic IC were settling stocks, the rest of the boys went to pitch tent at the hill there, (take's 102 steps, i counted.) no tents were selected yet. Everyone later gathered for reflection by instructor.(there's one every night) told fish to reserve the better tent before that. "the one on the extreme right facing the forest" his reply was,"yeah, i know i know" he came back later with a smile, " i chope already" i was like damn happy lah. Thinking that at least tonight we'll have a nicer tent to sleep in. Reflections was done, i changed shirt and track pants. Realised both were backwards half an hour later. Change back. Went back to tent.
After climbing the 102 flight of steps. we were going to reach our tent. Lol, i forgot to say. I was settling the logistics stuff with darren before going up. so Fish was already in the tent sleeping when we reached there.
Finally, we open the tent cover at the entrance. was blasted with a wave of sourness with fish greeting us at the entrance half asleep. We went in, phew, it stinked. Apparently he selected the wrong tent, darren told me. My heart seriously sank at that point lol. when we touched the ground, it was all sandy and dirty. We brushed it all to the corner. I spent 10 mins going out of the tent look for de-oderant but i failed to obtained any. sad. Slept in the sour tent for the night. Was the last time i slept in the tent.
Day5Last day. woot. reporting time. 0555 as usual. Woke up earlier as pernormal to pack tent. breakfast was any packet bread we wanted in the food box. had morning PT. played a game like scissors paper stone, and than giant, dwarve and wizard. haha, my rank in the game was immortal. LOL. lowest there was egg. it was egg>chicken>eagle>human>superhuman>immortal. Haha, later played captains ball, immortals versus the rest.(there were 7 immortals and 7 non-immortals) immortals vs non-immortals score was: 19:5. LOL.
after PT, we packed up checked stocks and washed the tents and stuff like that. There were many missing pegs so went around looking for peg peg. ROFL. than darren and me went around looking for the stuff. Than act like playing RPG game. Walk around with the same the usual action u see in Final fantasy and stuff like that. than act as though got BGM. walk around than say aloud, " you examine the grass, Obtained 1 Pegpeg!" rofl. ~.~ my group lost around 10 pegs the previous day i think during the expedition. we realise we were missing another 9 after getting the previous one replaced. i found a total of 6 i think. we managed to find around 12 in total if i'm not wrong.
haha, and it's like me and darren went two rounds of searching. after the first search we like walk to the storeroom. "begin quest?" "quest started". LOL. than went down to search again. And darren found a spacer lol! but he couldn't find any peg peg. His like almost blind without his spects HAHAHAHA. i remember taking it away the previous day and he was like chasing around half blind, mistaking a fork for his spects. ROFL!
After that had goals pledge and after that, jump reach out and jump for the bell. Abit abit fun. i didn't manage to say out everything cause i know everyone will die pulling the sheet and finally when i jump i'll hit hard on the ground haha. My overall goal: do my parents proud."
After that, had group discussion and reflection. Got back my crazy blurr face i drew on the first day. I chose the wavernig hand for my reflection among the heart beat and the smiley face. Throughout the camp, i learnt that support is the most important thing. I know i have done my best to achieve it and i did =D i complained less, helped my other watch mates carry the heavy stick of bottles when he was tired. Pulled another watchmate who was out in the rain into the tent. Sacrifice my dinner to attempt to pitch a tent. Give away my apple crisp to another of my watchmate who wanted it. Still, i cant thank less to those who have supported me throughout the camp. Darren especially. That small little guy who's joined the allied forces against lester helped me most. And also the rest of Battuta as well. Not to forget instructor haisu. i've also seen many ppl i disliked during the camp as well, i shall not elaborate much. People who take charge of everything and instructing everybody on what to do just because they whole a high position or rank in their school. All instruct and complain alot when they have to do things themselves. And most of the time they don't do anything other than talk lol.
After group reflection, went to buy a collar shirt. Nice and sleek, rofl. Instructor also managed to get a OBS band for us, mine is black haha. alright, other than that, wait very long outside the shop for the boat. Siewbee describe his camp mates very funny. Lol, and ppl there call me a shuffler even though i was just merely copying siewbee. Other than that nothing much, discussed about what to eat once we reach singapore.
Boat finally arrived. Darren, cplmichell, tsern ting and belverlin were left behind for the next boat. Wanted to go there and wait with Darren but already halfway up the boat lol. when reach singapore, saw the uncle that sold ice-cream outside xinmin. we went there and i went to eat "swirl"? with bread.(the strawberry one) wahh shiok, but i was craving for coke. haha than there was a coca cola can in the car. than i was like saying, "imagine we break the car window just to take the coke, the whole world will receive the news" ROFL.
Finally darren came, went up the bus, into punggol. Everything felt so weird. Cars, air-conditioning, cushioned seats, buildings. ahhhhh, than think of school. > . > Reached hougang plaza. Seat and ate mac with justin, siewbee and terrence. The rest went KFC. Couldn't eat meat and alot of food cause it was good friday and i was supposed to fast. Terrence suggested going for a movie and in the end never go, LOL.(as expected.)
Reached home, took shower, played guitar took a nap, go to church, come back home, play guitar, relax, Thinking, sleep.
I missed thursday tuition class for the second time already ._. feeling sry lol.
That's all, did you actually read the whole thing?Post number 80, the longest post for my blog so far.
Perserverance prevails when all other things fail.I've OBS'ed, Have you?
Soul.
