i guess i really do;

woke up by sms-es today=X went grandma's house.. no comments at all luhs.. back home! draft of english done.. lots of sending photos to ms chin..lots of updates on gg blog..
finally, typing out english, and i'll be done with school homework!
decided not to go grandma's house tmr... will go down to study with sumitra sweetheart(: -
i hope i do

LALALA

btw, my kt hike reflection.. still wanna make edits but .. for now:

It feels so great to be back in Singapore after being “out from civilisation” for about three days! However I must say this has really been an eye opening experience of being out of doors was nature was everywhere. This fun, thrilling, exciting experience has really gained me more knowledge and I’m thankful for this opportunity. Words can only give you half the excitement, but being there experiencing everything itself is a different feeling.

Day 1
Everyone met up in school with all our heavy bags. Soon, we left school heading towards Malaysia! Everyone was simply filled with excitement. We had lots of chattings that accompanied us till we reached the Mawai Eco Camp, in Mawai Lama which was about a half an hour drive from Kota Tinggi. We took a boat across a short river and reached the campsite. There, we were brought to a house-like sheltered area which was built on stilts and had no walls. We were briefed on camp programme, environment, and camp safety by uncle Sultari. Then we had lunch and after that went to another long house-like sheltered area which was also built on stilts. Here, we fitted our canvas bed on poles on blew up the inflatable pillows given to us. Then, most of us bought the rubber shoes that was supposedly good for all the walking. Soon, we set off for the Asli animal trap demonstration and Freshwater Swamp walk. There, we were shown how the different animal traps worked. As we walked on, into the ‘jungle’, we learnt about different plants and even tried some of them. The place was really muddy and leaches scared me the most.
After we got back from the walk, we were divided into various groups and did outdoor cooking. This indeed was a good time for bonding for us, as we mingled with other school guides. My group cooked chicken soup(: After all the groups were ready with their food, we went to the dining hall and sat in our groups. As the campsite had no electricity, every table had a candle and a kerosene lamp. All the dishes by the various patrols were tested. My group was announced to have the best chicken soup. After dinner, we had fireflies watching. We went in a boat, out in the Sedili River for about an hour. However, due to the gibbous moon’s moonlight, not many fireflies could be seen. Still, we managed to see many. We were able to hear the nightlife of nature too. We were also told how to see constellations and we saw the planets Jupiter and Saturn that looked just like any other stars. I was so amazed when uncle Sultari was telling and showing us.
Back in the campsite, we had supper. As we were chatting after all the quest guides had gone for their shower, uncle leong came to sit at a table with a guitar and some songbooks. He asked if we wanted to sing some songs and so we did. (My heart wil go on.. if we hold on together.. country road.. go west.. waltzing mathilda.. stand by me.. some guides songs.. ans more more more i cant rmbr!)We sang many songs till late night and we just wanted more. Some songs we already knew, and some were new. However, just hearing the first two lines of every song, I could continue singing, and this amazed me. Every song sang made me feel so peaceful at that moment that I just wanted to sing more and more then. Later, we all decided that it was running late and decided to take a shower then get back to the dining hall for more singing. As we walked we noticed many kerosene lamps hung to illuminate the place. This was because the later it got, the colder the water would get. Thus, we went to get our things and went for shower. The toilets were so dark that we took turns to hold torchlight for each other. Chatting all the way kept us calm and not worry about the insect and small creatures around. After shower, we didn’t go for singing but went to sleep instead.
I had a pleasant night’s rest.

Day 2
Woke up, just by the morning calls of the birds and roosters. Washed up and got ready my bag for the mountain climbing. We had breakfast and then set off from Mawai to Gunung Arong, a mountain about twice high of our very own Bukit Timah Hill. We were led the way by uncle Safri. Henderson guides were at the front. At first it was a little difficult communicating with him. He either just smiled or didn’t respond. Then uncle john helped us with some translation. We did simple communication in malay such as walk, stop, slower and drink water. We also encouraged each other to carry on and ensure every one was well. Climbing up the mountain was tiring at some parts. Every spot of sunlight that shone through the trees was an encouragement for me to move on as I told myself, we are reaching! Soon, we reached the top of the mountain. The scenery there was simply breathtaking. We were so high up. There, we sat and ate the packed lunch that we brought from the campsite. Soon, we left and headed towards the bottom of the mountain. This was far more challenging then climbing up. There were times where the ground was so slippery or the passage way was very narrow. However holding each other’s hands and encouraging each other to go on, we safely reached the bottom of the mountain in about 2 hours. We sat along the beach to take a rest and enjoy the breeze. Pariza and I built a sandcastle(: Later we went to play along the shallow part of the waters. Then we walked on and on till we reached another part of the beach where tiny crabs could be seen scurrying everywhere. We played with the waters as we walked along the coast. Finally, we reached the bus where in just a 5 minutes distance, we stopped to get changed to a dry set of clothes, where we also had tea break. There was goreng pisang and fishcake. At first I didn’t want to eat because I thought I wouldn’t like it. However, later I decided to try and I found the food not bad.
From there, we headed back towards the campsite and it was shower time. However, we were setting up and preparing for the campfire. Then we went to the dining hall for dinner. After dinner, we went over to the campfire ring, where we had our campfire. Uncle Leong was the guest of honour for the campfire and he declared the campfire open. The campfire we had was rather different then the usual ones we had in school. We usually followed the programme planned and sang all guiding songs. However in the campfire we had, it was much more free type where we just sang any song out of the planned programme and tried to fit in girl guides songs where possible. Henderson Guides performed to the song of Kids in America for 1 minute. During the campfire, wealso revealed our manitos and my angel was jieru, and my mortal was Rachel. Both of them were quest guides. After campfire, we had shower and then we went to the dining hall for supper. After supper, we played 2 games of UNO. Then, some quest guides came and we took some photos. Afterwhich, we played a little while and then went to sleep.

Day 3
The morning calls of the nature woke me up. I got washed up and we reported to the dining hall for breakfast where we were singing songs as uncle Leong played the guitar. Then we had breakfast. After that, we went to get a life vest each and were given a short briefing on the water obstacles. That was one of the most long awaited. We, Henderson guides, split into two groups. Mang Teng, Malathi, Monarekha and I formed one group. We went as a group and tried various obstacles, everything except the monkey bar. We had faith in ourselves as we went through each obstacle, cheering and supporting each other. Finally we came to the team obstacle. This was meant to be done by four people only. However, we wanted all Henderson guides to do it together. We attempted many times and fell in a few times. Finally we changed side and just went in random order. I was first, then Monarekha, then Meiqin and the rest. Through the way up, some fell and we just linked up with the rest as those who fell climbed back up to the platform. Soon we got too far for the left to reach us and there was only three of us left- Monarekha, Meiqin and myself. With confidence and courage we slowly managed to make it to the end. To me, it truly is the effort of not just 3, but all 7 because everyone played a part in allowing us to make it to the centre and completing it. Later we had shower. This time, we followed Ms Chin, and went to shower at the trainers’ toilets as there were no queues and it was my cleaner. We had a shower and then reposted back to our sleeping area. There, we packed up our things and dismantled our beds. Then , we split up to do some area cleaning. Later, we went to the dining hall to have our last meal at the campsite, lunch. We carried our bags, took some group photos and set off from the campsite.
From the Mawai Eco Camp, we were going to Foon Yew High School in Johor Bahru. The bus aircon had broke down and everyone was feeling hot. We were all fanning ourselves with whatever we could get. I was perspiring so much that my teeshirt was all wet. We were feeling so hot that almost everyone fell asleep. Then, we stopped at a petrol kiosk to change bus. While waiting for the bus, we went to the shop. Everyone was glad to be off that bus. Entering the shop, the first thing I needed was a drink! So bought drink and sweets and then ice cream. We boarded the bus with aircon which looked much nicer and reached the Foon Yew High School. I was totally amazed there. They had a total of 100 classes with about 50 students each. The school was a combination of a secondary and jc school. They had 2 school halls, a huge field- where PE lessons and trainings were going on, 2 canteens- where many students were studying, 5 classroom blocks, 1 indoor stadium- where students were actively playing, a block just for library and even a hostel. It was simply WOW! The Malaysia guides taught us on stalking- something that was practiced among singpore guides only long ago and firelighlighting. Their method of firelighting was much more different than ours and I could see that everyone of them knew hoe to do it well. Then, we went for a short tour around the school as we saw some of the signs for stalking. The lessons were still going on and their lessons only ended around 6. They also had school buses to fetch them and most buses were fully sardine packed. We hurriedly left the school because their school closes at 6.15pm sharp and the students had to go. Soon, our bus came and we headed towards the Malaysia checkpoint. We had lots of chattings on the way there. The queues there were long but we managed to clear off as soon as another counter opened. We then boarded the same bus and headed towards the Singapore checkpoint. There in the queue, we took some photos too. I was the third amongst us to get through. However, when the person at the counter opened my passport, I was like puzzled why in my photo I was in red because I knew I was in purple. Then I realized that the passport got mixed up with Monarekha when ms chin returned us because we both had the same passport cover. I walked on a little and tried to signal to her. Then walked out with Pariza. I kept looking back hoping to make sure she could get through because it was a one –way once walked, cannot turn back. Luckily she managed to pass through too. I left Malaysia as Lakshmi and reached Singapore as Monarekha. It seemed that the person only saw both our baby photos. I couldn’t believe how this could happen in Singapore where security is supposedly to be tight. We took the bus back and reached Henderson in no time. Henderson guides took a group photo with the instructors and we dispersed in our own ways.
^Home sweet home ^


my heart will go on and on;