Ee.. Outward Bound School Camp

Ya~ya~ Everyone says i'm very dark now. That's the result from attending this camp. For your information, this camp is supposed to be attended by all Petronas scholars. Thanks to our rich sponsor, this is the second holiday camp that we attended. Different from the first camp (well actually it is considered as a camp, but a course perhaps), Outward Bound School (OBS) is not under Petronas' organization. It's an external organization that provides physical and mental training to us.

our dear sponsor 'invitation' letter to go OBS

And yes, despite my poor physical fitness and basically zero understanding on camping stuffs, I still choose to go to this OBS (there are ways to 'escape' this camp). I know somehow I must try something like this, or else i will never have experience like this at all (coz i wont go for such camp by my own will). I barely made any preparation for this camp as I was just finished my exam a few days ago and was busy preparing and attending my cousin's wedding. Anyway, cut off the crap, u probably wanna know what we did there, right?

I hope i could fully narrate this as this camp only lasts for 7 days (unlike my 36-days Indochina trip). Well, on the first day, we gather at UTP (i hope i dun nid to explain wat is UTP...) and later our UTP' Mercedes Benz Buses (lol) fetch us to the OBS base which is located at Lumut. There arent many exciting activities during the first day. It is just about 'confiscating' our wallet, money, IC, handphones, books and stuffs like tat. Basically what left in your bag are just daily stuffs like clothing, shower gel, toothbrush, etc... We had a early sleep that night (ten something pm) to prepare for the next day's challenge. Hmmm.. briefly talk about the accomodation, it's wooden but luckily got fans and beds (not so ulu la). We stayed in a dome which can fit 18 persons. The beds are double decker beds. And i think there were only 2 fans (or maybe an invisible fan nearby which makes it 3). So, to me, who slept at the bottom part of a double decker bed, it wassssssssssssss sooooooooooooooooo super hot! I barely feel the wind coming. But anyway, that was considered as quite fortunate place to be slept in.

 

first day, while we still having happy smiles.. jz kidding 

2nd day was an exciting one. It was kayaking day! It should be fun right? Not at all, at least to me. Kayak-ing for 30 mins to 1 hour might be fun. But kayaking for continuous 4 hours plus with super sea wave and winds definitely made my hands broken into pieces (ya~ya~ i'm exaggerating). Well, i was always planned to get a strong person as my kayak-ing partner. But, you know, always, things do not follow the plan. I was (and chose to) partner with Karen, and yea, i admitted this is kinda racial unity. (not sensitive issue la) It's just that you tend to mix with people of same race especially when u are the minority right? Like i said, the wind and the wave and perhaps our techniques used made us suffered in the sea. We were supposed to kayak to Pulau Pangkor, but due to the undefeatable strong wind and wave, we failed to achieve our target and turn back to a nearby campsite for camp. It was crazily tiring but we couldnt stop paddling. If we stopped paddling, the wave and wind will just push us to a more distant places. There was a time when i had mental breakdown, thinking that we might not be able to turn back. Haha you know la, me... partnered with a girl while both of us arent Hercules (not even 1% of Him), having such worries is definitely normal. 

Miracle happened, we able to reach the campsite with our turtle speed and broken hands. When we reached the beach (the campsite at beach), basically i cant feel my hands already. So, i'm grateful that people help us to carry our boat inside although they only did that after 10 minutes. (we've no strength to carry the boat and therefore we were sitting and resting whilte waiting for help for 10 mins). Besides the pain muscles and tired arms, my hand 'grow' a little bubble that its painfulness cannot be underestimated. More discouraging things occured to make me very down that day. The darkness (there's no light there, except moonlight), the mosquitoes (my must-kill-enemy), the dirtyness (dun dream to bathe with clean water there, sea water got la) made me very emo. I was wondering "why would anyone from a city come to these places to suffer?" Oh ya, regarding to 'releasing unwanted stuffs from ur body' issue, it can be done naturally.. ya, naturally... with the nature. That's the way to answer the nature's call. 

 

some food from other group (pic grab from Haris), look delicious o? sure got sands inside.

 

tis is where we camp.. not from our group also (grab from Haris)

The third day plan was about kayaking a circle of the whole Pulau Pangkor. I was like "c how i die le" mood and started our kayaking. I discussed with Karen on changing partners (coz we know we two stick together wont have good ending... not about love, i mean kayaking) and she agreed. But the funny thing was... my new partner was Cheah Hui. Lol... if my previous thought is "c how i die le" mood, then after knowing who's my new partner, my mood is "sure die until cant die" mood. We both know each other's "potential' and we both requested another partner. But, unfortunately, dunno due to what reason, no one wants to change with us. We begged the sea captain, and the sea captain kindly ignores us. (yea, kindly.. and politely, i didnt use the wrong word). So.. with the "sure die" mood, we sure die. lol. We were like the last kayak of 22 kayaks. And paddling like crazy to catch up. Finally after one or 2 hours, the sea captain finally 'realized' our 'potential' and we finally have a switch on partners. My partner later was my groupmate, and we too struggled a bit to reach the rest point. We managed to reach, but again, as the last kayak or second last. This was much better, partnering with a guy is no doubt better to a girl (no sex discrimination, it's just that I'm not 'qualified' yet to partner with a girl). We were only kayak'ed' 50% or 40% of our full journey by the time we rest. I even slept there.. it was just so tired, and honestly i adi nyawa nyawa ikan (if i stil have nyawa).  Miracle really happened! because of the super wave ahead of us, our instructors give us a life path (translate from mandarin). They fetched us back with their mother boats. Oh.. i was almost cried at that time, tears of joy mixed with the seawater.. and created new kind of chemicals.. Oopss. i am obviously crapping just now. I was so happy that my hands can rest. My poor hands, i cant even raise up my hand that time due to the muscle pain. I almost kissed the instructor and OK.. stop crapping! lol. 

The fourth day was just plain practice on how to use whaler. Ah.. i getting lazier on typing.. so i will make this short. We learned how to tied the sail, how to row, how to do this do that and bla bla bla and tat's all for that day. (short enough?)

The fifth day was another day of camping. Whaling + camping just like the second day kayaking + camping. The camping i mean here is slping under the tent with darkness, mosquitoes and dirtyness. Fyi (for ur infomation), we only have 2 nights slp under the tent, 4 nights slp at the OBS base wooden dome.  Honestly, whaling is much more easier to me compared to kayaking although some other people say differently. Whaling is to manage a mini-sized kind of pirate boat, 15 ppl in one boat and only 8 ppl row the boats and other 7 people set up the sails, give out commands or simply become the backups to row the boat (when they got tired). We had to row the boat unless there were strong wind with right direction, then we could set up the sails and start sailing (instead of rowing, let the wind move the boat). Things are easier in whaling compared to kayaking, bcoz the loneliness feel was gone. We did these things together as a team. Team power, i would say, made things really easy. With backups to substitute ur rowing job, it is not as tired as kayaking.

whaling.. well not from our group, we didnt bring camera. U cant find me there. lol

The sixth day, we(everyone) had to do a little 5 mins presentation to entertain the crowd.  Well, without well preparation and not even a single rehearse. We sang two songs. One was a malay song that its name I do not know and another song is Barney Song. What is Barney song? "i love u, u love me, we are happy family, ..." with edited lyrics for both songs. We had to present it during the BBQ night (the last event before the closing ceremony). We had lots of fun there. 

The seventh day, we attended the closing ceremony and successfully received the certificate from OBS. Yay!, finally go home! With the efficient UTP bus services, we waited 2 hours for the bus to come and that's the time we took many many pictures. It was great to go home and actually I learned many things there. Did i regret going OBS? nope, not at all. If given the chance, would i participate again? NO WAY! LOL.

PS: i not yet received many photos from our group, so.. lol. entertain urself from other group picture first la. :P 

a picture of our non-muslim gang. (no racial discrimination)

Behind us was the kayaks that gave me nightmare

my tri-colours hand after going to OBS, :P