Okay, I just got back from Outward Bound School Malaysia just a coupla days ago. For those who don't know, OBS is a school that organizes camps and stuff all year long. The one I was at was OYP/ACC 05, short for Overseas Youth Program, Adventure Challenge Course Number 5, anotherwords it's the 5th one they've organized, quite new.
Morning, 19th November 2006. I arrived at Guo Yaw's house around 9, and tumpang his car aaaall the way to OBS, in Lumut (right across from Pangkor), along with Yet Han from 4s2. Aiks. Butt cramps ;p 4 hours, not THAT bad. We came across some shop called KLG -____-" no idea what it stands for, same design and colours as good ol' Colonel Sanders' franchise.
Anyway, reached there around 2.30 (the designated time) and registered. Made new friend, Joanne, Guo Yaw's organ class friend for 10 years or so lol.
Now, in OBS, like most camps, everyone's split into groups, but here the groups are called "watches", and most watches are named after mountains for some odd reason. I got Mulu.. Memang Ulu, Banyak Berbulu? Itulah Mulu.
And guess which dorm i bunked in? guuuuueeeeess.
Hint: Kinab_lu. Fill in the blank.
Hint 2: It's named after the highest mountain in Malaysia.
Now guess why that dorm's given that name.
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.... 191 fucking stairs. Not including the inclined flat pathways. Holy shiiiiiit. I swear, if i ever have to lug a 15 kg bag of clothes, toiletries and water up those steps again, i'm going to donate enough for them to install a chairlift.
Here's a piccy:
How did I know 191 stairs? There's a little sign at the bottom which says how many for each dorm. Convenient huh.
After dragging my big-ass backpack up, I took a good look around.. Same as before~! DIIIRTY double beds (since we were pretty early, we grabbed the top bunks close to the 2 pitiful fans), ice-cold water system and monkey/bat/animal shit all over the place.
-Cleaning up in progress-
Tada! .. No pic, sorry. Shock and awe, shock and awe.
Anyway, the Singaporeans were a bit late, a bit, meaning, 5 hours. When they reached around 7.30, everyone had given up waiting and started on our dinner. Oh, the dinner system's interesting. Everyone in the dining hall, sit by watch. Each watch has a locker with cutlery and metal food trays in them, 15 each (15 people per dorm mah.)
Logistics Manager for the day (fancy name for the sad fella who holds the watch keys all day) opens locker --> grab utensils --> grab food --> serve food --> moment of silence --> eat --> clean up eeeeveeerythiiiiiing --> do daily group duty (chuck out trash, sweep floors etc.)
4 Meals a day, including a supper.
The trash is amazing. Once, it was my watch's turn for trash duty, and we forgot about breakfast, so by dinner there was a full bag of trash in every bin. Full, not of paper, drink packs and other lightweight stuff, but of RICE, CHICKEN, VEGETABLES and other heavy shit. took 4 people to get the bag outta the bin, cause it was so full it was stuck. Took 4 people to carry it to the dumpster, musta been say 60 kg -____-" wtfbbq.
Moral: throw out the trash every meal or cry.
Moral 2: if you see anyone throwing liquids into the bin, go marah gau them, cause the juicy goodness leaks outta the (already superthick) bags.
Piccy of the dining hall (up there)
Back to the subject. The Singies all came, funny thing really, 90% 15 year old girls xD
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My girl better >_>
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Anywaaays my watch got some pretty awesome girls, they could actually do stuff, not like a lot of princesses and xiao jies in other groups. Domesticated ;p
And here's a pic of my watch (near the end of the camp, everyone's all cozy and ice-broken.)
Top row, left to right: Emilia, Crystal, Amilia, Samantha, (forgot), Chereen, (forgot), (forgot), Yet Han, Zhong Yuen2nd row: Han, Christy, Ezaty, Grace
3rd row: Leong (CA), Me (Bryan), Mior (instructor)
bottom fella: Bai (CA)
CA = course assistant, which i'll be next year.
Every watch has 2 CAs and 1 instructor
Day 1
First Activity: Belay Intro
Real meaning: Cargo net-climbing.
Climb vertical cargo nets!
Beat my time, 9 secs /gg
To belay is to help the climber dude by standing on the ground with the rope through a holder thingy on your waist.
Malaysians on day 1, Singaporeans day 2, since they were late.
So everyone's climbing and some random girl start screaming her head off, which we got used to by the end of the camp; she screams in everything.
Some interesting history, OBS was a training place for sea-men, so everything's very sea-oriented. Ropes, water, sea-ish names like "watch", and stuff.
Then we had some ice-breaking games.. Mulu vs. Beremban (another watch, guo yaw's watch) whom we pwned hehe.
Day 3
Second Activity: Rock Climbing
Woooo real rocks! Mossy, wet and slippery but fun anyway. My nail became bendable after this thing. Hang from middle fingernail -__-" owwwowowoww. Took the hardest route thanks to my undying ego, in the end instructor had to yank me once so i could reach a hold. Was stuck at some stupid place for 8 mins.
AT LEAST I COULD REACH THE ROUTE >_> STFU GUO YAW. You ****Y. ****Y ROUTE. (incidentally mine's the STD route.)
After me, GY and YH finished, we just sat there waiting and chatting with a CA from Beremban, Pri. Pri's one unique girl.
Guo Yaw: "A guy with boobs."
Can talk about anything with her lawl. Anything, as in, *#%@$^@#, @(*(@* stuff and @$(*@, yknow.
Me n Pri
Gehehe. Henceforth my ego was known campus-wide.
Third Activity: Sea Expedition
Real Meaning: Kayak to Pangkor Island, Camp a Night and Kayak Back.
A day before, had some kayak training.
Then... 1 and a half hours of nonstop kayaking to Pangkor Island! Me and my partner (Yet Han) pwned people. We were the Right Flank, had to jaga right side of the formation. Screaming Girl and Christine kept going past right, so we had to fly all over the place to keep formation. Guo Yaw almost passed out, seasick fella. His partner couldn't kayak much so they were kinda floating lol.
Reached there at night, thanks to the late start, thanks to some slowpoke rockclimbers (had to wait for everyone.)
Turns out we do every activity with Beremban.
A Pic of Beremban
So the 3 of us, Shaun from the form 3 scouts and new friend Zhong Yuen, a form 3 fella from Methodist, went around doing all sortsa camp-y things; collecting firewood, pitching tents, starting fire to cook our crappy dry rations (think infinite mounds of ramly burgers, gardenia, canned sardines and chicken curry). Plus sugar crackers.
Night time, 5 guys on the way to the supercool stream to shower and brush up. Some people were there so we just stood further away n waiting. 2 genius scouts (shaun and YH) started telling scout jungle ghost stories, the shittards. Scared shitless till the next morning. Rained while sleeping.. annoying n cold.
Next morning, pack up everything, pots and pans and all, kayak back. Swapped partners with Seasick Cheong, still managed to clinch 4th. Partner: "you kayak faster, i don't need to use so much energy.."
*fire burning grrr*
Got back, dead tired, still had to WASH KAYAKS AND PUT THEM BACK DAMNIT GYARARARARARARRARARARRRR STUPID BOATHOUSE THINGY SO MAFAN.
Instructor: Tomorrow's a holiday.. relax.
Us: Whoop-dee-doo. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Deep sleep.
Day 5
Fourth Activity: Holiday~! (coined a term.)
Real Meaning: SOLO CAMPING!
Walked half an hour to reach the campsite, each site about 50 metres from each other, but surrounded by bushes n trees. Pitched mah tent (after cleaning the place for an hour.. ever tried cleaning dirt off.. dirt?) and gathered wood. Made some lovely.... sardines and chicken curry ;p
Good thing me and Yet Han stole 5 currypuffs each from breakfast.
Had a nice fire, till Pri and Bai helped out.. Kidding. It was dying when they got here, died after they poked around abit. Used ember to heat food, could actually boil the sardines @_@ Half-cooked maggi, sardines and chicken curry for dinner.. REALLY filling. Plus 2 packs of sugar crackers.
Some poor fellas who couldn't start the fire just had COLD sardines, chicken curry (yuck, cold oil!) and just sprinkled the maggi seasoning onto the uncooked noodles n ate it like mamee.
The worst part of the camping: some bloody NAVY was camping beside us, singing their gay songs and doing hundreds of push-ups at the top of their voices even before the sun rose. Freaking loud. Midnight: PIIIUUUUUUUU.... BOHM! CRAKA CRAKA FIZZLE POOF~!
THE FUCKTARDS WERE FIRING FLARES AT MIDNIGHT!
GRRR i wan go slap gau the troop leader or something /an /an /an
Cheong Guo Yaw super champion, got bitten by some funkadelic caterpillar and developed some strange rashes all over his body, hospital, 2 jabs and one good night's sleep in the ward Lawl.
All in all, that was a great night. It rained every single night except that one. Well lucky, if it DID rain, i'd be pretty screwed cause my campsite's inclined -__-"
Somehow no mosquitos, natural air-con. Great place. Lotsa time to relax n think (hence holiday). Missed my gf :(
Got back the next day... then more deep sleep (plus sugar crackers; i'm starting to love that stuff, no need to cook, clean, wash up after, and tastes consistent and good)
Had some training on map-reading and how to use a compass.. they chucked us into a mini-forest with some markers here n there. We got lost thanks to rain.
Night-time briefing brings bad news again.. jungle trekking next.
Chatted with Joanne, Yuen, Pri, GY, YH, shaun for ages.
Oh, there's a buncha interesting fellas in my dorm, played lotsa Cho Dai Dee (illegally). This dude called Thongs (somehow pronounced Tongs/Tonks) had lotsa funny stories and shit, and we were awake every night till about 1am. Lights out at 11 hehe.
Left to Right: Leong, Thongs and Me
Day 7
Fifth Activity: Land Expedition
Real Meaning: Shitloads of walking through a jungle.
The 4 peaks. First one's Peak 300. Next few names are even more creative, Peak 2, Peak 3 and Peak 4.
Soooo this time our watch was alone (sorta, 5 watches went, all took different routes) and we were first to reach the evil Peak 300! 300 metres above sea level, by the way. No help from CAs nor instrutor! Just a compass, map and a well-travelled path.
CA's and Mior took shortcuts and had a habit of suddenly disappearing from our line and reappearing at our destination before we got there.
8 hours of trekking.. carrying a 1 gallon bottle (4 litres), 1.5 litre bottle, big tent sheet and some rations. gyaaazzz.............
Formation
-->--Sweeper, People, Pacer, Navigator, Parang Man (that's the real name.. in Malaysia, at least) -->--
I was the 2nd Parang Man, 2nd Navigator and Map-holder, between Pacer and Navigator. Nav checks routes, Parang Man chops obstructing stuff, Pacer COUNTS THE STEPS LOL ROFL ROFL WAHA SAD.
We were first to reach Peak 300 anyway, and... last to reach Peak 2, since we got conveniently lost.
CAMPSITE! HALLELUJAH!
Btw, ever tried Counterpain? the muscle-balm stuff. Seriously feels like fire when you apply it. Makes the muscles not-sore though xD
FIRE as in FREAKING HOT FIRE. Yknow, kuchiki byakuya's bankai-kinda feeling. Owwww. Pri chased Yet Han (now affectionately called Pinky by everyone) and smeared the stuff all over his body.. sad sad. Who ask you to take off sweaty shirt, Pinky? He was crouching, hugging his knees for 3 mins hahahaa... she had to give him a massage and some oreos to make up for it : D
Btw, they called me Brain.
Pinky and the Brain,
Pinky and the Brain,
One has an Ego,
The other is so Diam,
One misses his girlfriend,
The other still so Diam,
Pinky, Pinky and the
Brain Brain Brain Brain
Brain Brain Brain Brain
Braaaaiiiin!
(Zhong Yuen known as Mr. Bean for god knows what reason. Guo Yaw was called Raccoon, which everyone spelled as racoon, kuey tiao, blahblah.)
Well at night, we REALLY got to know each other, since it was near the end of the course.
Sat around a campfire and chatted for a few hours.
Morning, packed up again, took a shorcut (only 1 1/2 hours~!) back to the campus.
Afternoon.. played captainball! My watch WON! Well, the girls were pretty amazing. Scary shit, me and Pinky totally tak guna over there lol.
Chatted with the guys, Joanne and Pri again lol.
Supper: Sugar Crackers! lotsa these. Not EVERY supper. But lots.
Miss me gf ='(
Day 9
Final Activity: Barbeque Night
Real Meaning: Barbeque Night ZOMG!
Okie-dokie, every watch was busy prepping for the long-awaited BBQ NIGHT where we dress formally and whatnot. OYP/ACC5 was held at the same time as CAC## (dunno what number), so lotsa people n parents.
Guo Yaw was voted Master of Ceremony, he was so shaky but overcame it anyway xD You shoulda heard the screams when he said "Hello, i'm you're MC for the night. My name is Raccoon." xD
Each group did a presentation, and Mior suggested something to do with drums. Big Blue Rafting Drums. Tongs actually.
Me and Yet Han spend an hour thinking about what to do, then Mior gave us a pair of sticks made from a broken broomstick, sawed in half. Niiiice. First thought: Chinese Drums. Woooot~!
Shaun gave us the starting few beats to refresh our memory and we composed away..
After every Mulu-Member was ready, we moved 15 drums to some secluded area, and began training them on our presentation. 1 hour of solid training. I used the sticks, everyone else used their hands (sorry, not enough sticks >_<) We even did the swap-drums thingy! so yeng! Every other performance was say, 5-7 mins? More? Ours' was just 1 min and 50 secs.. but we got a standing ovation and shouts for encore! We Pwn. Pwn. PWWWWWNNNN. Pity the VIPs sitting next to where i was drumming.
.O O O O O O
...O O O O O
.......O O O
VIPV O IPVIP
OTHERPEOPLE
MOREPEOPLE
AUDIENCEBLAH
Formation xD Me the single sad guy in front. Some kids were yelling "DO IT AGAIN!" "ONE MORE TIME TOMORROW!" and stuff xD Ego x5 liao. Wish you guys were there to see it. People were congratulating us until the end of the course wahahaha i'm so proud of Mulu sniff.
Mulu at barbeque
Kay sing school songs and auld lang syne, barbeque night over.
Whole watch sitting in circle past 1am playing games.. so fun.
Day 10
Balik Rumah
Ceremony, blah blah,
My hand at the left side, going off after recieving cert.Anyway after that leave n go home blah sad CA next year sleepy liao blah here some pics
Miss everyone very much n whatnot n whatnot, sleepy.See you guys next year in Singapore : D
I can see gf n friends back home liao~!
Okie the end~!
Now I can finally sleep!
