i'm back from ob singapore! now covered in mosquito bites & i have ugly arms & legs now ): can't stop scratching but i have to if not they'll end up with scars, now i definitely don't want that all over my tanned arms & legs. it's okay if you don't want to read the following cause it's just going to be a recount of my obs journey in case if i ever forget :D
day one
gathered in school & boy! did the school make us WAIT! from like 7.30am all the way to 9am. piss off~ we were then slotted into groups & like i practically knew everyone in the group except for 5. the people i knew first were me, atiqah, weicheng, yongyuan, norris, adriel, edwin, carmen, jiehan. there are like advantages & disadvantages to having people you know already in an obs group. the PLUS is that you will already be able to talk & there will not be any awkward moments, however the disadvantage is that you'll just make lesser new friends.
we boarded the bus that brought us to puggol jetty & when we arrived there, we saw people from meridian jc, national jc, catholic jc, anderson jc, nus high. there were just sooo many people. when we boarded the boat & reached the island of mosquito/bug-infested pulau ubin, i was amazed at the sheer area of the camp 1. it was huge. i know i have been cycling around pulau ubin like tons of times but camp 1 was seriously huge that most of the time being set aside had to be for walking time. we were then told we were in a group MUNSHI. & our instructor for the course was Bibiana. omg, she looks like a malay, but i swear she's chinese.
bibi brought us around & boy, were we just so exhuasted from just climbing from the hall to out dorms which was all the way at the other end of the camp. we were sharing dorms with MARSHALL. after lunch, we did some trust-fall activities & belaying activities. everything got to a slow start. at this point of time, most of us were already being annoyed with mosquito bites.
dinner was outdoor cooking & i love setting up fires. from that day onwards, for every cookout, i did the setting up of fire & maintaining it. yayy me! since i touched solid fuel, i couldn't handle food :D next, we were told that we were sleeping in tent that night. i was like, huh? i thought i saw beds in the hut? we aren't sleeping there? but i was okay with sleeping out. i mean, cause after all this years of my life, i've become accustomed to living the rugged way of life. it was nothing to me. but the only thing that make things all the more shitter was the billions of mosquitoes. seriously, you just wanna eff them all up. they are like seriously pissing off. i hate mosquitoes. pulau ubin is just infested with mozzies. we did packing for the expeditions ahead & like, there was just so much to pack in so little time.
slept in the tent with carmen & atiqah. thank God we didn't have to do sentry duty. just half an hour outside the tent will lead us all into food for the mosquitoes. did manage to get some sleep. at the end of day one, i managed to make new friends, yixin, leting, cherlyn, john & cailing.
day two
day 2 began with 5 BX & flagraising. the guys were like, fiona, are you going to do the guys pushups or girls style? i went, what do you think? hello? next was breakfast then yayy, some high elements :D there were like 2 sections to do. 1 was a ladder then a some green bars then a rockwall. in between these different parts were 2 great big breaks. 2 was vertical logs. first up to go was me & john was 1 & yixin & edwin for the vertical logs. when edwin said he was afraid of heights, i thought he was joking. but, he was not. after i went up & came down, he was still up there. you could seriously see his legs shaking & face totally shmazzled up. for mine, john was like seriously a good partner cause he didn't force me & he was really being patient. there were tons of parts where i quit scared but my arm power just make up for it. i was the only girl that managed to reach all the way to the top. i think you seriously need arm power for this section. as for the vertical logs section, all of them that did it managed to reach all the way up to the top, if not nearly. cailing & yongyuan was the closest to reaching the top for 1, but because cailing lacked in the arm power, they had to come down as time was up. cailing was seriously fast in the first 2 parts. atiqah partnered adriel & i could tell adriel really wanted to go all the way to the top but atiqah couldn't. but atiqah's spirit of perseverance of obvious. she didn't want to come down, she wanted to try over & over again. jiehan partnered cherlyn. at the end of this activity, my neck simply ached from all the looking-ups. as for vertical logs, carmen partnered norris, yixin partnered edwin, yongyuan partnered cailing & leting with weicheng. it was really admirable as nearly all of them went to the top. as i was doing belaying & stuff, i could see that another group had this girl step on this guy's throat to reach for a handhold. the throat! can you believe it?! as for our group, it was really obvious that nobody really wanted to let anybody down. you could see everyone's resilence in this activity. even though some disappointing, but it was just brushed away, no grudges, no nothing. only friendships forged through trust.
next was lunch & then more packing. we took watch photos & then it was the beginning of our kayaking expedition. we were going off with MARSHALL. first of all, was briefing & all that. testing for water buoyancy was fun. the seawater was so icky & cold but we all held hands & treaded deeper waters. bibi made us submerge our wholeselves in the saltwater. i then saw a monitor lizard. then off we went, for our campsite for the night. because we were soooo fast, the instructors, bibi & ahmad made us go round the ketam island before going to our campsite for the night -_- my boat was carmen me & john. i sat in the middle. i was super slack compared to what i do for training. i couldn't really row properly cause i was sitting in the middle, but being the one with the most experience & the lighest among us three, i sat in the middle. hey, i pulled my weight too okay, our boat was like seriously fast.
we reached out campsite & it was too, infested with mosquitoes & sandflies. there was this dead 'crocodile', i still think it's a monitor lizard. i only brought 1 long pants on this obs & i had to rewear them for like 3 days. had to kayak & trek in it. sheesh. it caused dots on my thighs. so i wore shorts every night & seriously 'bathed' in mosquito repellant. they bite, but i didn't scratch. there was like seriously no breeze, the whole night i was like perspiring. shazwan from MARSHALL was like seriously awesome, he mangaged to built a campfire. like everybody waited for the sea expedition ics to return & then we had sentry duty of which me atiq & carmen's times were 12 - 1am. we encountered mosquito-infestation & dogs. after which, i just fell asleep quickly.
day three
it began with breakfast & dividing lunch, loading up of bags & bringing out the boats. we had to kayak down the island a little & then turn into the swampy area. in the beginning, we got lost like numerous times but nobody blamed anybody or really complained. everyone was just having fun & splashing muddy water. there was this point of time whereby like samuel ow became a hero because he got out of his boat & push/pull all the other boats that were stuck on this muddy spot. hurray for him! there were 4 pottages to cross. pottages are like when you get up from water cross the land & back into the water. it is always very tiring & requires everybody's effort. the trikayaks are all so heavy. at one of the pottages we had a break & took lunch. at the last pottage, it was the most exciting for me as i was the first to reach land & like the instructor, ahmad told us to check the depth of the water. watching everyone being so hesitant, i decided to volunteer myself. i mean, like i didn't want to do it too cause like you'll never know what's down there & how deep it'll be. i'm just afraid there'll be crocs & there was quite a strong current. so with just a trusty paddle, i proceeded down & poked around. i treaded further & was like immediately consumed by the mud below. the water level went up to my neck! iwas sooo scared, my friends on the bank were like, grab my hand, use your paddle. luckily my foot could come out easily of the mud. they slowly lowered boat by boat into the water & i was like in the water helping everyone into the boats. i thank God for that volleyballer in MARSHALL, as he was tall, he could hold onto the boats better. & being taller means he can go further while i should just stay near the bank.
this whole sea expedition, i saw lots of mudskippers, birds & crabs. but most importantly, i saw the never-say-die spirit in all of us. to see my fellow friends be all-so-willing to grab my hand to cross from the bank to the boat, that their leap of faith was entrusted into me, made it all so fufilling for me. teamwork was seriously very important in this part.
we reached the campsite, at mamam beach, ahead of time. we were the first pioneer batch to do this new route. haha, pioneers from pioneer, get it? as a reward, we got like free time to have a swim in the sea. the 'washing machine' thing, OMG, being tossed in it was NOOOOO JOKE. all the canoeing guys ganged up & tossed me. but it was fun (: next was pitching of tents & cooking for dinner. dinner was tomyum maggi & curry chicken. like OMG OMG OMG. it just simply killed me man. too spicy too spicy. my groupmates were like laughing at me. i wanted to go to the toilet, so carmen followed. i wanted to use the handicapped toilet & whatever that happens next, it's an inside joke :D
more group discussions at the back of the toilets & laughing about the fact that both norris & yongyuan talk in their sleep. HAHA. more organization for the land expedition the next day & it was sleep. damn cold.
day four
breakfast & then atiqah had to leave. bibi didn't want her to stay on because of her shoulder injury. for this land expedition we had to not only make it back to the main campsite but also find the twelve checkpoints given. the 1st checkpoint was like seriously hard to find, that both groups abandoned it. we went on to chek jawa for our next checkpoint. the 3rd checkpoint had us walking back & forth & back & forth but still nobody complained. during this whole land expedition, MUNSHI saw wild boars, jungle fowls, dogs, monkeys & a snake. the snake has a orange stripe running down it's body. bibi said we were like the luckiest group cause it's like the first time she had a group seeing so many animals in one land expedition.
the weird thing, but good, about MUNSHI is that we fight/quarrel/argue about carrying stuff. SERIOUSLY. everyone's just sooo helpful :D we all want to help each other, lighten the load. when bibi said to offload cailing's load, everyone just wanted something to carry. all of us took turns carrying everything. i loved to carry the jerrycan cause everytime there was like a stop, i could sit on it. another weird thing was like i was lagging at the back of the group. i know i'm strong but like i was still lagging behind. & like my backpack was seriously heavy. seriously, all the girls were strong in their own way, like yixin leting & carmen. we found like 5 checkpoints & were out of time already & we weren't even halfway thru the island. next plan was to abandon finding the rest of the checkpoints & head straight back.
on this mountain bike trail, we saw this badly bitten dog walking away. poor thing ): for this land expedition, i was really pushed to my max. everyone could see the position i was walking in, i was hunchback-tress of notre dame. my backpack was seriously darn heavy. the last part of the land journey was most enriching as it taught many of us value that were valuable & to be kept forever. we finally reached & everybody just collapsed giving each other massages. MARSHALL only came back like an hour later when we were having debrief. next was pitching of tents & dinner.
dinner was good, in the sense that we all were really able to connect with each other, talking/gossiping/bitching :D the rice took so bloody long time to cook & that was like part of our reason we were like an hour late ): by the time we were like done with dinner, it was like time to gather already. but i told the rest, if one of us are late, then everybody late together. who doesn't want to bathe?! somewhere before this, leting told me she was my primary school friend & like we were in the same class in primary 2. i just went OMG OMG OMG OMG all the way. & adriel & jiehan just had to make fun of us. but really, to find back a friend after like a decade, is really awesome (: i still cannot recognise her but, i just feel like we had this connection. PRIMARY 2, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? i just wished she had told me earlier, instead on day four of the camp.
we were late & bibi sort of reprimanded us & sent those with abrasions to the medical centre. as MARSHALL was late too, they couldn't bathe & their instructor didn't allow them & like they were quite angry with ahmad. as atiqah was gone, cherlyn came over to carmen's & my tent to sleep. so there were like 6 girls left. 3 per tent. let me tell you, we all agreed to like wake up at 3, in the end, we woke up late at 5.30am & had to rush to meet bibi at 5.55am.
day five (LAST DAY)
the unpitching of tents for this day was like the fastest out of all the days. first up was flagraising & then 5BX again, which of course i did the guys pushups. had muscle aches on like my shoulders & hips. then breakfast. after which was the last debrief before camp ended & certificates were given out. bought this great shirt instead of like the obs dryfit collared shirt & a notebook. while waiting, we started this game but throwing raisins into each other mouth & jiehan & adriel kept aiming at the wrong places. yixin was the best, she covered her eyes & we threw the raisins into her mouth.
then we played zhongjimima whereby the loser had to eat up the MUCH MUCH leftover food. i koped all the tea & coffee. then it was the closing ceremony speech by iskandar & off to the boat we went & more photos taken. the day ended for me with lunch with munshi at pizza hut. it was great talking to yixin & carmen on the bus & the long trudge back home with my ultra super heavy backpack
what i learnt?
a group only bonds tightly during suffering & it's by teamwork & good communication skills, can we work well. i have to be more patient & understanding of the people around me as we're all different & we all work differently. i can use others strengths to cover up my flaws & vice versa as well. bibi made us write on each other's a4 paper about our pluses & deltas (negatives). i learnt that i must know my limits & not push myself to the extremes that i may just collapse. i must not be stubborn & let others care for me too :D
thankyous :D
weicheng
thank you so much for being such a great motivator. you're funny, especially during the land expedition. when everyone was like tired & still trekking, you lighten up the mood with your songs & jokes. you're all so helpful. i was really surprised that you really ran all the way to the beach to get sand to clean the pots & meshtins. thanks so much!
carmen
yayy, i was glad to have a classmate in the same group. you're really awesome. you're always like there for me. like when i needed to go to the ulu ulu toilet, when i asked, i was really surprised that you agreed to go with me without & hesitation. i were great to have on the boat on in the watch.
cherlyni was soo proud of you, despite your skinny frame, you always managed to be ahead of me & i admire your spirit of perseverance. it was great talking to you in tent & like once you opened up with the group, everybody found out we all had something in common with you. thank you for being soo excellent in the tent pitching/unpitching. you're like super efficient in this area. thank you!
atiqahit was saddeneing to have you to leave on like the 2nd last day & not being able to complete your obs journey because of your shoulder injury. i'm just glad you were like there for the days before you left. you're really helpful too (: you never fail to brighten up people's days especially during obs. thank you.
letingomg, long lost childhood friend. i wish you had told me sooner! thank you for being like sooo amazing, cause you carried like the tents & i didn't. your resilience is admirable & being in the same watch as you is just awesome. thank you for your company & cheerfulness :D
yixinyou're amazing! your ever so bright mood is infectious & it keeps everyone's moods & morales up at every point of the day. thank you for that. talking to you is great. you're strong like every other guy in the watch. you're always so cheerful, & that's great! at the last parts of the land expedition, i thank you so much for just stopping to walk beside me & encouraging me.
yongyuanyou really shone when you carried cailing's backpack as well as your own. you ignored the pain & did it for the group, that's really awesome & i thank you for that. some of your jokes are like really funny & it cheers people up. you never fail to encourage the people around you.
cailingnever worry girl, you were not pulling us down. your spirit of endurance is worth to be mentioned. you're great & really hardworking & dilligent in the things that you do. thank you for also just being in the group. you're a good person to talk to.
norrisyou're like the best navigator. you're strong & i thank you for pulling through this whole journey. i thank you for not only being a watchmate, not only being a teammate, but also my friend as well (: you're ever so helpful & taking the initiative.
johnyou're like the best cook in the group. you're so patient & it was great to see you taking up a leadership role. i thank you for never complaining & being so understanding with the whole group. you have the most patience in the whole group.
jiehani thank you for your infectious laughter & jokes. you're like the funny man in the group, always cheering everyone up. despite your small frame, you have the strength of a bear, the spirit of an eagle. your determination is really admirable & i thank you for just walking beside me during the land expedition.
adrielthank you soooo much. you really carried alot on your shoulders for the land expedition & you never gave up. i thank you for having this really great never-say-die spirit, & being ever so helpful. you never stop volunteering yourself to help others. you're great at opening can food with a jackknife, you know that? that's a skill you have accquired within this short period of time.
edwinseeing your face just brightens up my day. you always try to smile no matter in what situation, assuring others that you're fine. i thank you for pulling through your toughest times, such as the vertical logs, whereby i thought you were just joking when you said you were afraid of heights. to see you trembling up there but keep on pressing on, climbing higher, is really awesome. keep it up :D
I LOVE YOU MUNSHI!♥
