I just came back from Kota Tinggi (We had our camp there!!) yesterday. Have been taking countless long naps ever since I came back. I'm missing the camp already! The people there, our sleeping area, the small bridge we had to cross everyday, the toilets which are full of flying ants, the flies around our food, the fun we had... *sob sob* :(


Day 1 - 1st June 2004 (Tuesday)
Attire: Srjc pe t-shirt and track pants (Was actually wearing pe shorts, but decided to change when I saw everyone in pants. Haha...)

I had to drag myself out of bed at 6.15 am. Was actually supposed to meet Brenda and Yvonne at 6.30 am at the bus stop outside Aljunied MRT station but they were nowhere to be seen even though I got there at 6.42 am. So I spent $5.50 on a cab to school. Managed to reach there on time, at 7 am! Haha...

We had a briefing at school before setting off for Kota Tinggi. Jason, the camp chief, briefed us on the customs procedures and introduced the 4 instructors (Rudy, Natalie, Eunice and Yong Xiang to us.

First impressions:
Rudy: Looked very cool with the funky hairstyle he got.
Natalie: Another cool one. Seems fun to be with too.
Eunice: Looked crooked to me with her "spiky" hair. Boring.
Yong Xiang: Nerdy. Don't look fun at all!

I was hoping so hard that Rudy and Natalie would be our instructors. But it was not meant to be. Eunice and Yong Xiang were. Boring was all I could think of.

Anyway, we set off for Kota Tinggi at about 8.30 am. I slept throughout the journey, except for the part between the Singapore and Malaysia customs (Cos Yvonne and Brenda tricked me - they hid my white card!) and the part from the Malaysia immigration to the place where we had to change bus. Haha... We arrived at Kota Rainforest Resort around noon. Had to cross this really shaky bridge (those Indiana Jones type!) to get to our campsite. Someone was grabbing my arm so tightly. I think it's Brenda. Haha... Lunch was ok. We used our mesh tins (wrapped with brown paper) to eat. But I must say the food (Stir fried cucumber, fries with onion, rice, barley drink) was alittle.. erm.. awful? Lol. The nicest dish was the fries, which were only ok to me. And we practically had a vegetarian meal! Flies were also attacking our food throughout the meal. It kinda put me off alittle.

We had a little introduction under a shelter with 5 benches (2 from the open tentage) after lunch. Came up with a group name - Slackers. Haha... It was a really hot day. Gotta pitch the tents after that. The girls' sleeping area was pretty far from the open tentage. We had to cross a small bridge to get there. And there were only 8 cubicles for us when we had like about 30 girls including the councillors. And some of them can't be used for bathing cos there was no water!

We had some ice breakers after tent pitching. Can't really remember what games we played except for the one where the group was divided into 2 smaller groups and we had to say the names of the people who stood up when the canvas was down. Anyway, we changed our group name to 'Yandao Chiobu' cos 'Slackers' was unapproved. Haha... Learnt 2 action songs - Frog Song and the Banana Song.

Frog Song
Mmmm, mmmm, goes the little green/macho/sexy/gu niang frog one day
Mmmm, mmmm, goes the little green/macho/sexy/gu niang frog
Mmmm, mmmm, goes the little green/macho/sexy/gu niang frog one day
And they all go mmmm, mmmm ah!
And all the frogs go
Sha la la la x3
And all the frogs go
Sha la la la
And they all go mmmm, mmmm ah!

The Banana Song
Peeping through the window, what will people see
If you want to jiak kim cio (eat banana), do the proper way
Meet me tonight by the moonlight
Meet me tonight all alone
I've got something to show you
Something that's yellow and long, hey!
1 banana, 2 banana, 3 banana, 4, hey!
5 banana, 6 banana, many many more, hey!
1 banana, 2 banana, 3 banana, 4, hey!
5 banana, 6 banana, many many more, hey!
Many many more, hey! x3

We had the Leadership 101 talk after ice breakers. The instructor was a 66 year old man, who was an ex-director of Outward Bound Singapore. Brenda thought he looked like a tortoise, but I thought he looked like Goh Chok Tong! Haha... I still think he looks like Goh Chok Tong! Hehe... The talk was boring, but the activities were fun. We had to do some self-tests. I think it made me know myself better. We also had to come up with a concept plan - to build something making use of the natural environment as far as possible. My group came up with the idea of an amusement park. I thought it was a really lousy one!

It started to rain after that. We ran to the sleeping areas to close our tents. Heard that 2 out of 3 Council tents were down while all the LTC tents were still up! Haha... Had a little fun running from the open tentage to the tents, but it got really cold as we continued with the talk at the open tentage cos everyone was drenched.

Dinner was next. I can't remember what we had for dinner except that it was another vegetarian meal. Haha... And the barley drink was totally diluted. The only good thing was that there were no flies around. Hehe..

Had another talk - Project Management 101 - after dinner. This was super boring cos everyone was getting kinda tired and sleepy. My group had to plan an outing for the welfare home kids.

project management 101
sleep

*To be continued...

**P.S After pondering over whether I should continue this entry for a long long time (It's been for months!), I've decided to leave it as that. Kinda sad right? But it's way too time-consuming to continue. Maybe I'll change my mind in the future, if you're lucky.