i've just come back from ck camp. it is the last camp i have for december, it was enjoyable and i got to know the ck youths better. they are quite okay actually, but i still stuck with nat most of the time.
day 1
took taxi with nat noelene and bernice to cranwell bungalow 2. met the ck youths outside the bungalow. they were waiting for the camp master, boaz, to deliver the key. after waiting for some time, bozzie came together with dorcas n kong wee in kong wee's car, we went in and starting unloading the stuff from kong wee's car. then everyone checked into their rooms. i was roomed with nat, noelene, bernice, cheryl, joanna and aunty suet yin. there were 2 girls and 2 guys dorms. in our dorm, there were only 2 beds, so cheryl and bernice got them bcos they did not have sleeping bags. i had to sleep in my sleeping bag on the floor. then we went out to have the camp briefing. we got to know the camp theme was 'the walking corpse' and the theme song, a heart of stone, and all the rest of the details. we also played some icebreakers, which involved shoes and lots of shoes. then we played a blindfold game. later on, hui shi introduced the angel and mortal game. (happened in ks camp too). this time i got aunty suet yin as my mortal.
then we had the 1st message of the camp. the camp speaker was kong wee. he talked about us being already dead spiritually when adam fell into sin and how God has the power to raise us from our death. then we had discussion in our groups. my group was chairo, the greek word for joy and consprised of ezra, issac chan, michael, bernice, noelene, hui qi, daniel and claudia. the other 2 groups were eirene(peace) and agape(love).
after that came dinner, we had meat burgers, but i chose to have the 'vegetarian' one which had the filling of lettuce, nuts, cranberry and mango. it was supposed to be the salad but i couldnt stand the meat filling. yeah and bcos of that i got dubbed by aunty suet yin and dorcas(the camp cook) as healthy. lol. after eating, i played bridge with bernice and some friends(i cant remember who). then there was a workshop and how do you know God's will. i learnt about the 4 different channels of God's guidance. 1st, the holy bible, 2nd, the holy spirit, 3rd, circumstances and lastly, the counsel of other godly believers.
we had supper and then it was lights out. i couldnt sleep at all that night, maybe bcos i wasnt tired, but the hard floor made it impossible for my to sleep well at all. nat, who was sleeping on the floor too beside me was also tossing and turning the whole night.
day 2
after the bad night rest, i woke up at 6. waited in bed for 1h30mins and then i got up to brush teeth. nat joined me soon. i played abit of the muted piano and did some morning stretches and exercises with claudia and tze yan. did the crouching dragon pose which evokes strain in almost every muscle in ur limbs and stomach. it was to go on your elbows and toes as the only support on the floor. i could maintain the position for the longest amongst the 3 of us and they were really envious. i suggested that i had great mental power to push myself on eventhough i was really shaking.
after some time, we started the day with breakfast. it was hot milo and pancakes. very delicious pancakes i must say! then we had singspiration followed by message 2. we learnt about the different parts of the body, how worldly they were. an example is the mind, its failure to meditate on God's word, the heart, it is full of the love and concerns of this world and finally the muscles, it is flabby from lack of exercise(fighting against sin).had discussion in my group again and then we had lunch. aunty suet yin and dorcas had prepared my favourite food! which is seasoned chicken wings and kai lan. i ate 7 chicken wings!
then we got ready for games time. we played the games outside the chalet, on the grass patch. we played many competitive games which would garner points for our group. the first was to wear a pair of socks and a shirt which had be frozen in bag of ice. so we had to break the ice first, it was a hugh chunk and my group members took turns to hit the ice on the ground with all our might. soon the ice broke up in to smaller pieces, thanks to our very fit and strong NS man michael, and we had to get rid of the ice in the socks and shirt. my group managed to get rid of the ice first and then michael put them on. he was screaming about the cold. lol and my group came in first for that game. the sec game we played was an improvised version of touch rugby. this time we played with water bombs. i had played touch rugby in school before so i knew the game well, but with the water bombs, i wasnt sure. i should say that the improvisation wasnt successful as the water bomb kept landing on the grass and bursting. so no group could score points. then we changed the ball to a volleyball. the game was much smoother and again my team beat the other 2! yay! then it started raining a little. and everyone got into a mayhem, throwing water bombs everywhere, i got soaked and so did everyone. i played flying frisbee for a while and then we got into our groups to play captain's ball. my team only managed a second as we were seriously deprived in the area of height. our tallest player was claudia, who is about 163cm. the other teams had much taller players. after that, the games time was over and we had free time. i was wondering if i should have a shower as i was so dirty but i decided against the idea as i was thinking that since i am so dirty, i should play a while more. many of the youths were playing soccer. so i played volleyball with another few youths. i mean not the real game but just juggling the ball. it was really fun, then some of the youths wanted to go shower already, so i wanted to play soccer but someone was a little unhappy that i wanted to join in so late. so i left for the shower.
after that was message, the last message of the camp. it talked about the injection life into the dead person to make him alive in God. followed up was discussion. then we had dinner. it was spaghetti, except without cheese. :(
then next up was camp fire preparation. we went into our groups and discussed about what we should do of the camp fire the next day. my group decided to have a skit followed by a song item and then our reflections from the camp. the skit would depict a christian entering a state of a walking corpse. isaac drove us into fits of laughter when he acted as baby which had just come out from its mother's womb. bernice called him a cry baby and he said it was an ugly baby instead. lol! we laughed too when he acted as a walking corpse. giving an ugly, lopsided face and walking with an superfluously exaggerated limb. we could not hold our laughter. soon all the girls, including me had high tide and had to visit the toilet. we rehearsed for our song item too.
it was then night games time! we played the game human and zombie. that was, the zombies would hide a rubik cube somewhere in the living room or in the kitchen. the kitchen was the jail. the zombies then would be blindfolded with a thin black sheet and they would have to catch the humans in their blindfold and bring them to jail before the humans find the cube. however, the humans could save their counterparts in jail, also, the cube could be in the jail too. so it was a chance game and a game of strategy. btw, the humans were given light sticks to wear round the neck so that it would be more fair to the zombies. we played many round of which i was human in all of them, but the humans always failed to find the treasure. so in the end, the game ended with the zombies winning.
we had a quick supper and then it was lights out. this time i was smarter, i slept with the removable sofa cushion under me, this way, it was much more comfortable. had a good sleep!
day 3
woke up at 8. slept throughout this time. we had breakfast which was bread with different fillings, such as peanut butter and fruit jam, butter and sugar, nutella and of course hot milo. :) then we had a workshop on divorce and remarriage. a past top controversy that divided my previous and present churches. and also the reason why i had to transfer church... elder leong who conducted the workshop drew a line very clearly on the different stands and explained to us many on the things. he also answered many of the burning questions from the youths.
then it was lunch time. we had rice with omelette and veg and other ingredients. then we prepared ourselves to go out for the outing at east coast park. we were going to cycling there while participating in a treasure hunt contest. again, we did this in groups. yeah so we went off to east cost park. it was a long journey there. then we rented the bikes for and hour, getting 2 additional hours free. so we started the contest. my group had started off in the wrong direction in the beginning but soon we manage to recover and we got last for the first round and first in the second round! i cycled like crazy. i can bet that i had cycled at least 30km. and that's a lot for me! i was pushing myself on, telling myself to go at a constant pace and it paid off! my group won! at the end, i was really hungry, i could gobble up a whole bag of chips. but isaac chan told me to save my stomach for dinner, a hugh feast. so i listened to him.
on the bus back, i watched claudia solve the rubik cube with cheryl teaching her, disturbing nat a little while she was trying to sleep and smiled at myself for no reason(maybe i was thinking of things pleasant).
we finally reached the chalet! and guess what! it was steam boat dinner for us! i seldom take steamboat, so i guess i was quite excited. i sat in a table with the usual people plus hui shi, elias. the food was delicious, the only problem was that i couldn't finish everything. in the middle of dinner, since all of us had small stomachs, the adults came in stealing bits of food from our table. after i finished my food, i left for the shower. i wanted to be clean and cool and knew when was the best time to avoid competition for the bath rooms(there were only 3 bathrooms available for a good number of 30 campers). yup, i struck when the iron was hot and i showered. so i came out much more refreshed and ready for the rest of the activities.
some leisure time followed dinner, it was when the groups did last minute preparation for the special item, and then the much awaited campfire commenced. we started of with singspiration and then it was time for my group to perform our skit. we made the audience laugh when we acted like walking corpse, because we all looked really retarded. but i feel that our skit reflected all of what kong wee had taught us. then we presented our reflections and lastly, we sang the song i've got the joy, since we were the joy group.
the second group was eirene, the did very well they gave their version of the 12 days of chrsitmas in the the ck camp form and when it came to the second day, they threw some water bombs at us, singing: on the 2nd day of camp, we played with water bomb! and suddenly all the water bombs came flying at the audience. poor ivan, he got hit on the head and went into a sneezing and coughing fit for the rest of the night. poor guy, he should have ducked but he was too blur(matthew had warned him). some of the judges got wet and isaac chan went screaming, saying that the performing group need not perform already, they would get bad results for 'offending' the judges. lol! then they gave their reflection and played a small game between my team and agape. it was a memory game. and i felt that that wasnt really a performance, more of like organising a game. so i though they would be marked down on that.
the last group, agape performed a skit too and sang a song and gave the reflections too. they sang the camp theme song with actions and their skit was about the new man vs the old man. (i felt that it was only relevant to the first message and not all) and the memebers of the group gave their individual reflections. the final result for the performance was agape was first, eirene second and chairo last. but good news was instore for us! we had won the overall, after 3 days of competition, we had won! so we got the top prize and we were very happy.
then after the camp fire, some campers roasted marshmallows by the campfire. i roasted 2 and did not go for more as i wanted to preserve my health. :) then we entered the house and started to play mafia. we played for a while and then we went into playing a very cute game, which is the diu diu game! it was realyl interesting and it was very childish. (i do not wish to explain the game here as it is quite complicated) furthermore, the forfeiters who had made 3 mistakes, would have to become a human jackpot. 3 of them would have to close their eyes and perform an action of of 4 given to them, when someone said kaching! they would have to change action and if they showed the same action, jackpot was hit and their forfeit was over. yeah, so the whole chalet roared with laught whenever some one made a mistake as the mistakes were hilarious. we played all the way to 2am, then it was lights out. again i collected the cushion for me to sleep on and i had a good sleep.
day 4
rise and shine at 9.30. woke up, had instant noodle for breakfast as dorcas wasnt around anymore. i ate tom yam flavour of nissin brand, it isnt as tasty as the myojo one. and later ate ice cream with bread. good life huh. then packed up, i had actually done my packing last night and was doing the last minute packing in that time so i was done with it very soon.
then everyone gathered to reveal their mortal,my angel was noelene. and i could guess! i realised that in ks camp and in this camp, my angels are very close to me, but i always never guess! :( then we sat in a circle and played more of the diu diu game. now it was full force as the whole camp was participating. and more laughter came.
then we played more mafia and it was time to break camp.
dad mom and er jie came to pick me up, went to eat at changi village then went home. :)
byebye and see ya!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Thailand - the thai land
whee! im back! (obviously, "-_-) had a very good time in thailand. :) will miss it! i took a lot of photos and visited many many places. u could say that it wasnt much of a holiday because of the tight schedule because of limited time. i was there for a total of 82 hours which is equivalent to 3.41(to 3 sf) days! whoo hoo! i shall blab everything here right now, but of course, i will spare u the unnecessary details like how much the taxi fare was or how i brushed my teeth. :)
Day 1 - monday, 10th dec
woke up at an unearthly hour of 4 in the morning. i had slept at about 12 plus that very same morning, thus i was rather sleepy. my parents did the last minute packing and then we went down to board the taxi which my father had booked. when we reached the airport, we checked and then ate breakfast at the staff canteen.
at 7, the gate was opened, whilst waiting for the plane, i blogged a little and viewed a little of the ks camp photos. (man! im too detailed) afterwhich it was time to board the plane. so we flew to thailand.
reached Suvarnabhumi Bangkok Airport at around 9.30. then we met uncle william who then brought aunty sally and phoebe to meet us. we were very happy because we had a family for company, btw uncle william's family is in the same bs group as my family, so we are quite close. :) then we were not sure of what to do, to sign up for a tour or just follow the itinerary which my father had come up with. but in the end, the men of the group decided to have a guide to bring us through some place of thailand. so they signed up. at the counter, we were informed that our guide was called nancy. and that she could speak english. then uncle william asked the receptionist whether nancy was a man or woman. lol! what a thng to ask. then the receptionist said in a very affable tone, " it's ms nancy, not mr nancy!" lol! all of us laughed like mad. so it was settled that we would go to our hotels to leave our luggage with the concierge and then nancy would meet us at our hotels at 11, bangkok time. (btw bangkok time is 1 hour behind singapore's) my famiily's hotel was baiyoke boutique and uncle william's was first hotel. both in the prat tu nam area, so it was rather convinient to meet up.
so nancy came at 11, she's a little plumb and is a wee bit shorter than me. and she's absolutely cute when she starts talking! :) haha. then we hopped into a minivan and we were going to the grand palace first. nancy told us of we came to bangkok but not the grand palace, it was as good as not coming to bangkok, i guess it's because of how significant the grand palace is in bangkok. i actually had some hicup with my 3 quater pants because to enter the palace, visitors had to wear very modest clothes. u must know that i dont owned a pair of fitting pants so i was wear a 3 quart that was a little big for me, but it was still not sufficient. but in the end i manged to enter without any problems.
the first place that we visited was the temple of emerald buddha(if im not wrong about the name.). it was quite interesting becuase the buddha had different outfits for the different thai seasons: summer, rainy and winter. im not sure about the winter part but maybe it's when thailand is at its coldest. then we walked around in the vicinty, with nancy telling us a lot about the thai culture and folklores. learnt about king chulalongkorn being the first thai king to go to europe and how he brought back some of the western architesture which is evident in some of the buildings he built. so we toured the area, to be frank, i didnt quite appreciate this tour, apart from the educational values, there was the hot sun pouring down on us and there was lots of walking to do.
after that we went to three places, namely 2 jewelry factories and a textile shop. in the first jewelry factory, i realised that carving the shapes for the diamonds and the precious stone were no easy task, furthermore, it really reminded of dnt, only that the workers used really complexed machines and tools this time. then we went to the shop which is conjoined to the factory. there the salespeople kept bugging us to purchase some jewelry. the cheapest a saw was a ring which cost 14,000 baht and the most expensive, was a delicate bangle with an intricate design which was full of precious stones. it's worth a whooping 914,600 baht, i mean just for a bangle... that's eqiuvalent to S$45, 730. crap!
the second jewelry factory was about the same. lastly, we went to a textile shop. i was looking around in the souvenir shop and wasnt bothered about the textiles. then we bade nancy goodbye and then we headed for platinum fashion mall to shop and have dinner. i ate a very nice tom yum seafood soup with rice there, though it was quite spicy, it tasted like an instant noodle soup, however more authentic. julia(my sec sis) requested for the mango sticky rice. it was very delicious because the mango was so sweet! then i ordered a corn and raisin crepe and julia ordered a banana and chocolate flavoured one. it was very shiok. thai's are really creative and they have amazing food. after dinner, uncle william's family decided to return to their hotel to retire, it was still quite early, about 7 pm. so my family shopped for around 2 hs. then we went back to our hotel.
------------------------------------------ end of day 1! ----------------------------------------------
Day 2 - tuesday, 11th dec
rise n shine at 6.30. went to the hotel restaurant for buffet breakfast. the meatball beehoon were fabulous. i think could have survive on that only for breakfast. the soup has a really unique taste which i add in condiments lemon juice and light soya sauce. and the beehoon is really special, it has this very very chewy texture, not like the normal beehoon. im sure we dont have it here in singapore so i will miss it!
after breakfast, went down to the lobby to meet nancy and uncle william family and then we went by minivan to the floating market which was around an hour and a half from bangkok. there, the prices of items were exorbitant, so bargaining was a must. and there were a lot of stall selling repetitive items so it was very tricky when it came to buying items, as we did not noe when another stall would offer a lower price. bought some stuff for friends yeah and i was holding the cam so i took alot of pics, but i shall put up only selected pics cos there are too many. after the cruising down the river for a hour, we had bought quite a number of things and were quite satisfied. i learnt some bargaining skills by observing aunty sally and i have come to a conclusion after this trip to floating market : that women are good at bargaining, men are too ready to offer a high price for something not worth that much, because they think that the price they offered is very low but it is not the case! so men should leave women to do the bargaining and the paying! mom bought 3 kg worth of cikus. and they cost S$5 altogether, so unbelievable!!!!!!
next,we headed to the teak museum, there we were enchanted by the great pieces of work done by the thai workers there. u should see the photos later. especially the table top which had convoluted designs. uncle william jokingly said that if he bought the table for bible study, people would be studying the carvings instead. it was truly amazing! there we also took many photos and marveled at the crafts.
next we went to the rose garden. this place is not as its name suggest, instead it offers a cultural show and an elephant show enough to last u for at least 2.5hs. first, we went for the elephant ride. i paired up with julia, mom with dad, and christine with phoebe. the ride was very shaky and wobbly. the elephants passed motion anywhere. lol so it was also an almost stinky ride. and er jie was so scared that she was clinging onto me for almost the whole journey! and i was calm! :) but to be frank i was afriad that the seat wasnt fastened securely enough.then we went to watch the cultural show. we learnt more about the everyday lives of thai villagers. and about the famous muay thai and the planting of their rice seed. it was thoroughly enjoyable.
on the way back, we were deciding where to go the next day. and nancy recommended the safari world, she said that according to another singaporean customer of hers, this safari is better than singapore's. after a moment of discussion, our group decided to go to the safari world, and that nancy would bring us there too. so one more day with nancy! :) lol.
then nancy dropped us off at chinatown for us to tour. as we walked around, there were many chestnut stalls! and i bought a box of 500g, it was super uber delicious, so sad that singapore doesnt have chestnut stalls along the streets anymore. :( later on, we ate our dinner, i ate chicken rice and some seafood. the food was fab and it was really cool to watch the cook fry the food in a wok. the flames would go up to a metre's high. and because i was sitting very near, i could feel the heat every time there was a burst of flames. the parents were mentioning that this place reminded them so much of the past singapore, where there were street hawkers and just nearby there was an open air cinema which was even more befitting the past of singapore. i could watch the show from where i was. the place was very vibrant, eventhough there were ocassions when a kid or two would come up to us to stand next to us, they were beggars and where hoping that we would give them some money. however no one from my group gave them money, i saw a kind hearted lady on the next table giving a boy some money, probably out of pity.
after dinner, we walked around to shop for some chinese goodies as the prices there were quite low. after everyone was tired, we stopped by a bird nest shop and savoured some of the authentic bird nest desserts. then we were wondering what to do, and someone suggested that we could go for a foot massage. so everyone said okay! it was exciting as it was the first time I was going for feet massage. :) yup so we settled down in one shop and there we had feet massage and at the same time we could watch the singapore vs thailand football match. when I came into the shop, the score was quite depressing, it was 1-0 to thailand’s favour. as u noe im a team singapore enthusiast. yeah. then will they were soaking our feet in water as part of the preparation, thailand scored again and I was very unhappy! then aunty sally started to bargain with the shop keeper, the price of the massage was 150 baht, she talked in a very cute tone, “boss, thailand 3(shows 3 fingers) singapore 0, 100 baht! 100 baht!” she said in such a way that everyone started to guffaw, even the masseuse who were foreign to english giggled too. and the boss went no la, no la! (not the same as the singlish ‘lah’) lol. yeah so we watched on and the third goal really came on, it was as though we could foretell the future, but the boss was still reluctant to reduce the price so we stuck to the original. but S$7.50 is worth it for the massage actually. :) after that my feet were no longer that tired and I was rather refreshed. then we parted ways to return to our hotels to have a good night’s sleep before the long day the next day.
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day 3 – wednesday,12th dec
woke up at 7.15am. ate breakfast, the same food, u noe.. yep then met nancy at the hotel lobby, she was early as usual and was talking to my mom, probably adults talk. i was mopping around in the lobby with jules. then the minivan came at 8 and we hopped in. the safari world was about 1h from bangkok. when we reached, nancy got us out prepaid tickets and then the minivan drove into the vehicle-accessible safari. it was really cool because we could come really close to the savannian(my adj of the animals in the savannah, it isn’t in the dictionary though) animals, but we couldn’t get out of the van if not it would be dangerous. the first animal to greet us was the ostriches, one ostrich, im not sure whether to describe it as friendly or otherwise because it came pecking at our glass window on my side some more, maybe it was saying hello or maybe it was saying, “ welcome to the wild! but actually u are not welcomed into my territory! so im here to peck u off!” (i’ve just realized that is actually a pun!)
then we drove on, taking many pictures of the animal up closed. it was a very beautiful sight to see the animals in their candid moments. after making one round, we went to the wild cats area. there were where the tigers and lions were situated. we we not permitted to wind our windows down for safety’s sake. the tigers were very beautiful although most of them were resting under a tree. next we viewed the lions, they were extremely majestic and carried an air of mightiness. even as we approached, the lioness stared the roar, so loudly that the van shook a little. little did we know it was lunch time for them, so there were hungry and were wondering where their food was. soon the ranger came up from behind us and fed them food. i shall not go into detail how the lions so eagerly ate the food but see the picture below. it was scary!
after the seeing the wild cats, we went into the park itself. there, we had 5 shows to watch. the first was the orong utan boxing show. my group was a little late for the show so we missed quite a bit. but it was really hilarious. the orang utans were depicting how humans thai boxed. and they really succeeded in making all the spectators laugh.
after that was the sea lion show. it was very enjoyable watching the sea lions balance the ball. this show is quite similar to singapore's but i felt this one had a great impact.
the following show was the cowboy stunt show. the props were very real and the actors were very good. though i would have give it an m18 for all the violence displayed, it was very enjoyable to watch the actors immerse in their roles. they did extremely well in making us laugh too.
after the show, we went to eat buffet lunch, thanks nancy for reserving the table, or rather it came with the packaging. there was quite a variety of the dishes offered. and the chicken curry was ichiban! the nicest i have tried, though it accumulatively spicy towards the end. the also provided grass jelly for dessert, which was very colling and essential for tourist who would be walking under the sun for a few hours.
the third show we watched was the dolphin and beluga whale. the mammals were extremely intelligent when it came to performing tricks, they could jump out of the water to touch a ball suspending about 5 metres above the water. very strong animals i must say. they also could swing the hula hoop around their snout. they are truly very talented!
then it was time for the spy war show. which is the thai version of james bond acted out. i didnt quite enjoy this as there was quite a number of thai dialogue and of course the ear threatening explosions.
last of all, there was the elephant show. the elephant showed off their talents, one of which was performance as an ensemble. there was also the last pary of two elephant taken part in a penalty shootout. it was a very interesting show. my conclusion for the showa: the thais are very creative when it comes to entertaining people!
after the show, all of us headed for the giraffe feeding area. there, we purchased a basket of fruits for 40 baht to feed the giraffes. it was a very good experience! i thoroughly enjoyed myself by feeding those gentle and lovable creatures. i tried touching their heads but they were rather shy and backed off.
finally, it was time to bade the park goodbye, we took a few last photos with nancy as it would be her last time with us. i will miss her quite. :)
for dinner, nancy dropped us at sum lum night market. she had said earlier that it had over 3000 shops, i hope i heard correctly. i ate chicken(again) with rice. it is not that im an avid fan of chicken but to me, the other food werent very appealing. after dinner, we went to walk around the shops. the was great variety, i bought some things and so did my sisters. soon we were tired and went back to our hotel to rest.
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day 4 - thursday, 13th dec.
woke up at later then usaul at 9 since there was no official schedule. ate the same thing for breakfast, which is… (say it together!) meatball beehoon. u’re so smart, u knew! was sad that i wouldn't be able to have it anymore in singapore. when we went down, we met uncle william, aunty sally and pheobe. while the adults were discussing on where to go, i played solitaire on the com in the lobby, no internet service was provided free of charge. then to my surprise, they were broadcasting my fav epl team, manchester united on the tv. so i watched a little then it was time to go. we were going to walk down the street market. there were many apparel shops, but the quality of the clothes were a question. my sisters bought some clothes nevertheless.
then we went to platinum fachion mall again as the previous time we went wasn't enough to cover the whole mall. but before shopping, we ate lunch first. i ate tom yum kung, which is slightly different from the tom yum seafood i ate on the first day. u can tell from the name anyway. again it was very delicious! then ate crepe again cos i love it! then shopped. i bought a very nice pair of 3/4 pants which i love alot. i will wear it quite often in the future. so shopped and shopped.
soon it was time to leave for the hotel to check our luggage out and then head for the airport. uncle william's family n my parted ways (we take different airlines) but wew met again outside the airport. then inside the aiport, we parted ways to check in our flights. then my family went ot eat our last meal in thailand. we ate 90 baht worth of mango sticky rice! it was mouthwatering. then we queued at the immigration counter and got out passports checked. after passing the immigration counters, we met uncle william and co again, they were buying chocs. then we parted ways again, my mom want to buy rum for baking cakes and then we headed for the gate. at the hand carry luggage checking area, we met them again, and then we parted ways. so my family got into the plane. and we flew to singapore.
yup that's about it. im so tired after typing all this down. view the pics for some eye comfort after the boring black and white(pink actually!). :)
in the plane on the way there
three siblings, from left: julia, christine and me. we were waiting for the plane from the singaporean terminal.
in the airport at bangkok, three of us plus phoebe, all smiles
the hall of the emerald buddha
photo of us leaning on one of the golden pillars. btw they are painted in gold, not 100% gold
the outfits for the buddha during the different thai seasons
some gold structure, not sure what exactly it is
photo taken at the guard house outside the royal guest house. no visitors permitted in there. according to nancy, our president ever resided there when he visited the king.
julia and the rosemaries
second day, i in the minivan on the way to the floating market
the thai love their king a lot, so everywhere u go, there is a photo of him, like in singapore, it's the trees u see everywhere, in thailand, it's him. yeah so the 'entrance' to the floating market
my family in the forground, background's the floating market
floating market, it was rather crowded with mostly foreigners. it is during the weekend when the thais visit this place
this is my sisters and my mom taken by my dad. i took the other boat, with phoebe, uncle william, aunty sally and nancy
picture of the 2 boats. not sitting properly, haiz
sis n her delight! mango sticky rice!
family shot i should have sat properly. lol but no space
teak museum and factory. very intricate carvings. jules and i in front of a very nice piece of work
mom and nancy beside a worker in the midst of his work. :)
family shot again, we blocked the carvings. lol
very nice pic of the girls. i just realised that i've been wearing my guitar shirt, i must say that it's comfy for me.
erjie and i on an elephant for a ride, it was very bumpy and the seat always felt like it was going to fall backwards, very scary but i calmed myself. :)
in chinatown, the food's very shiok. the white box beside me is my fav food! chestnutssssssssss! it was so delicious! for dinner i ate
at a massage parlour. feet massage anyone?
watching sea games singapore vs thailand. singapore lost... lol aunty sally was bargaining with the boss to give us further discount if thailand won 3 to nil. true enough the final result was as that. her way of bargaining drove all of us into laughing fits.
a pair of loving white rhinos
a zebra close up.
tigers! very majestic and very big. :)
a very evil looking lion, reminds me of scar from lion king
a pride of lions, the males have a mane shave, dunno why, so u have to look closely to differentiate them. and the lion's roar is extremely bassy, so scary, so much like a growl, as if they want to devour u up.
feeding time! observe the hungry lions, to the extend they go up to the top of the rangers vehicle.
at the cowboy stunt show. all the shows had a very nice setting.
all of us at the dolphin and beluga whale show.
second sis with a snake around her neck. i was too freaked out with snakes that i dont have a pic with a snake in my photo collection.
pheobe and a tiger cub. it's only 1.5 monthsbut at the rate of the way it drinks milk, it's going to shoot up in no time.
jules with the same cub
chris with the same cub
and i with the same cub, when it was at its cutest! no lah, it was struggling with me, as if it doesnt like me :(
da jie erjie and i, notice the giraffes behinds, they are so cute
me feeding a giraffe, i was so brave that i started to go nearer and nearer until i touched their tongues, it's very hairy.i even touched their heads! very fun!
this shot taken by me! very cute giraffe!
outside the safari world, group shot taken with nancy in too.
me and the quite conjested road outside platinum fashion mall
wooh! posting this recount is FREAKING TEDIOUS! argh, took at least 5-6 hours! be glad that u read it, it’s my hard work after enjoyment. :(
feel free to look into my sis's blog for a different style of recount - the link http://christravels.livejournal.com/
yep so see ya and have a great weekend!
for ur info this post is more than 3,000 words long! i would like to thank God for the energy to write this post and making this trip a success! and i would like to thank the music which kept me awake while i typed this entry. lol i tok like i just wrote a book.. shut up and go off!
Day 1 - monday, 10th dec
woke up at an unearthly hour of 4 in the morning. i had slept at about 12 plus that very same morning, thus i was rather sleepy. my parents did the last minute packing and then we went down to board the taxi which my father had booked. when we reached the airport, we checked and then ate breakfast at the staff canteen.
at 7, the gate was opened, whilst waiting for the plane, i blogged a little and viewed a little of the ks camp photos. (man! im too detailed) afterwhich it was time to board the plane. so we flew to thailand.
reached Suvarnabhumi Bangkok Airport at around 9.30. then we met uncle william who then brought aunty sally and phoebe to meet us. we were very happy because we had a family for company, btw uncle william's family is in the same bs group as my family, so we are quite close. :) then we were not sure of what to do, to sign up for a tour or just follow the itinerary which my father had come up with. but in the end, the men of the group decided to have a guide to bring us through some place of thailand. so they signed up. at the counter, we were informed that our guide was called nancy. and that she could speak english. then uncle william asked the receptionist whether nancy was a man or woman. lol! what a thng to ask. then the receptionist said in a very affable tone, " it's ms nancy, not mr nancy!" lol! all of us laughed like mad. so it was settled that we would go to our hotels to leave our luggage with the concierge and then nancy would meet us at our hotels at 11, bangkok time. (btw bangkok time is 1 hour behind singapore's) my famiily's hotel was baiyoke boutique and uncle william's was first hotel. both in the prat tu nam area, so it was rather convinient to meet up.
so nancy came at 11, she's a little plumb and is a wee bit shorter than me. and she's absolutely cute when she starts talking! :) haha. then we hopped into a minivan and we were going to the grand palace first. nancy told us of we came to bangkok but not the grand palace, it was as good as not coming to bangkok, i guess it's because of how significant the grand palace is in bangkok. i actually had some hicup with my 3 quater pants because to enter the palace, visitors had to wear very modest clothes. u must know that i dont owned a pair of fitting pants so i was wear a 3 quart that was a little big for me, but it was still not sufficient. but in the end i manged to enter without any problems.
the first place that we visited was the temple of emerald buddha(if im not wrong about the name.). it was quite interesting becuase the buddha had different outfits for the different thai seasons: summer, rainy and winter. im not sure about the winter part but maybe it's when thailand is at its coldest. then we walked around in the vicinty, with nancy telling us a lot about the thai culture and folklores. learnt about king chulalongkorn being the first thai king to go to europe and how he brought back some of the western architesture which is evident in some of the buildings he built. so we toured the area, to be frank, i didnt quite appreciate this tour, apart from the educational values, there was the hot sun pouring down on us and there was lots of walking to do.
after that we went to three places, namely 2 jewelry factories and a textile shop. in the first jewelry factory, i realised that carving the shapes for the diamonds and the precious stone were no easy task, furthermore, it really reminded of dnt, only that the workers used really complexed machines and tools this time. then we went to the shop which is conjoined to the factory. there the salespeople kept bugging us to purchase some jewelry. the cheapest a saw was a ring which cost 14,000 baht and the most expensive, was a delicate bangle with an intricate design which was full of precious stones. it's worth a whooping 914,600 baht, i mean just for a bangle... that's eqiuvalent to S$45, 730. crap!
the second jewelry factory was about the same. lastly, we went to a textile shop. i was looking around in the souvenir shop and wasnt bothered about the textiles. then we bade nancy goodbye and then we headed for platinum fashion mall to shop and have dinner. i ate a very nice tom yum seafood soup with rice there, though it was quite spicy, it tasted like an instant noodle soup, however more authentic. julia(my sec sis) requested for the mango sticky rice. it was very delicious because the mango was so sweet! then i ordered a corn and raisin crepe and julia ordered a banana and chocolate flavoured one. it was very shiok. thai's are really creative and they have amazing food. after dinner, uncle william's family decided to return to their hotel to retire, it was still quite early, about 7 pm. so my family shopped for around 2 hs. then we went back to our hotel.
------------------------------------------ end of day 1! ----------------------------------------------
Day 2 - tuesday, 11th dec
rise n shine at 6.30. went to the hotel restaurant for buffet breakfast. the meatball beehoon were fabulous. i think could have survive on that only for breakfast. the soup has a really unique taste which i add in condiments lemon juice and light soya sauce. and the beehoon is really special, it has this very very chewy texture, not like the normal beehoon. im sure we dont have it here in singapore so i will miss it!
after breakfast, went down to the lobby to meet nancy and uncle william family and then we went by minivan to the floating market which was around an hour and a half from bangkok. there, the prices of items were exorbitant, so bargaining was a must. and there were a lot of stall selling repetitive items so it was very tricky when it came to buying items, as we did not noe when another stall would offer a lower price. bought some stuff for friends yeah and i was holding the cam so i took alot of pics, but i shall put up only selected pics cos there are too many. after the cruising down the river for a hour, we had bought quite a number of things and were quite satisfied. i learnt some bargaining skills by observing aunty sally and i have come to a conclusion after this trip to floating market : that women are good at bargaining, men are too ready to offer a high price for something not worth that much, because they think that the price they offered is very low but it is not the case! so men should leave women to do the bargaining and the paying! mom bought 3 kg worth of cikus. and they cost S$5 altogether, so unbelievable!!!!!!
next,we headed to the teak museum, there we were enchanted by the great pieces of work done by the thai workers there. u should see the photos later. especially the table top which had convoluted designs. uncle william jokingly said that if he bought the table for bible study, people would be studying the carvings instead. it was truly amazing! there we also took many photos and marveled at the crafts.
next we went to the rose garden. this place is not as its name suggest, instead it offers a cultural show and an elephant show enough to last u for at least 2.5hs. first, we went for the elephant ride. i paired up with julia, mom with dad, and christine with phoebe. the ride was very shaky and wobbly. the elephants passed motion anywhere. lol so it was also an almost stinky ride. and er jie was so scared that she was clinging onto me for almost the whole journey! and i was calm! :) but to be frank i was afriad that the seat wasnt fastened securely enough.then we went to watch the cultural show. we learnt more about the everyday lives of thai villagers. and about the famous muay thai and the planting of their rice seed. it was thoroughly enjoyable.
on the way back, we were deciding where to go the next day. and nancy recommended the safari world, she said that according to another singaporean customer of hers, this safari is better than singapore's. after a moment of discussion, our group decided to go to the safari world, and that nancy would bring us there too. so one more day with nancy! :) lol.
then nancy dropped us off at chinatown for us to tour. as we walked around, there were many chestnut stalls! and i bought a box of 500g, it was super uber delicious, so sad that singapore doesnt have chestnut stalls along the streets anymore. :( later on, we ate our dinner, i ate chicken rice and some seafood. the food was fab and it was really cool to watch the cook fry the food in a wok. the flames would go up to a metre's high. and because i was sitting very near, i could feel the heat every time there was a burst of flames. the parents were mentioning that this place reminded them so much of the past singapore, where there were street hawkers and just nearby there was an open air cinema which was even more befitting the past of singapore. i could watch the show from where i was. the place was very vibrant, eventhough there were ocassions when a kid or two would come up to us to stand next to us, they were beggars and where hoping that we would give them some money. however no one from my group gave them money, i saw a kind hearted lady on the next table giving a boy some money, probably out of pity.
after dinner, we walked around to shop for some chinese goodies as the prices there were quite low. after everyone was tired, we stopped by a bird nest shop and savoured some of the authentic bird nest desserts. then we were wondering what to do, and someone suggested that we could go for a foot massage. so everyone said okay! it was exciting as it was the first time I was going for feet massage. :) yup so we settled down in one shop and there we had feet massage and at the same time we could watch the singapore vs thailand football match. when I came into the shop, the score was quite depressing, it was 1-0 to thailand’s favour. as u noe im a team singapore enthusiast. yeah. then will they were soaking our feet in water as part of the preparation, thailand scored again and I was very unhappy! then aunty sally started to bargain with the shop keeper, the price of the massage was 150 baht, she talked in a very cute tone, “boss, thailand 3(shows 3 fingers) singapore 0, 100 baht! 100 baht!” she said in such a way that everyone started to guffaw, even the masseuse who were foreign to english giggled too. and the boss went no la, no la! (not the same as the singlish ‘lah’) lol. yeah so we watched on and the third goal really came on, it was as though we could foretell the future, but the boss was still reluctant to reduce the price so we stuck to the original. but S$7.50 is worth it for the massage actually. :) after that my feet were no longer that tired and I was rather refreshed. then we parted ways to return to our hotels to have a good night’s sleep before the long day the next day.
------------------------------------------------ end of day 2 -------------------------------------------
day 3 – wednesday,12th dec
woke up at 7.15am. ate breakfast, the same food, u noe.. yep then met nancy at the hotel lobby, she was early as usual and was talking to my mom, probably adults talk. i was mopping around in the lobby with jules. then the minivan came at 8 and we hopped in. the safari world was about 1h from bangkok. when we reached, nancy got us out prepaid tickets and then the minivan drove into the vehicle-accessible safari. it was really cool because we could come really close to the savannian(my adj of the animals in the savannah, it isn’t in the dictionary though) animals, but we couldn’t get out of the van if not it would be dangerous. the first animal to greet us was the ostriches, one ostrich, im not sure whether to describe it as friendly or otherwise because it came pecking at our glass window on my side some more, maybe it was saying hello or maybe it was saying, “ welcome to the wild! but actually u are not welcomed into my territory! so im here to peck u off!” (i’ve just realized that is actually a pun!)
then we drove on, taking many pictures of the animal up closed. it was a very beautiful sight to see the animals in their candid moments. after making one round, we went to the wild cats area. there were where the tigers and lions were situated. we we not permitted to wind our windows down for safety’s sake. the tigers were very beautiful although most of them were resting under a tree. next we viewed the lions, they were extremely majestic and carried an air of mightiness. even as we approached, the lioness stared the roar, so loudly that the van shook a little. little did we know it was lunch time for them, so there were hungry and were wondering where their food was. soon the ranger came up from behind us and fed them food. i shall not go into detail how the lions so eagerly ate the food but see the picture below. it was scary!
after the seeing the wild cats, we went into the park itself. there, we had 5 shows to watch. the first was the orong utan boxing show. my group was a little late for the show so we missed quite a bit. but it was really hilarious. the orang utans were depicting how humans thai boxed. and they really succeeded in making all the spectators laugh.
after that was the sea lion show. it was very enjoyable watching the sea lions balance the ball. this show is quite similar to singapore's but i felt this one had a great impact.
the following show was the cowboy stunt show. the props were very real and the actors were very good. though i would have give it an m18 for all the violence displayed, it was very enjoyable to watch the actors immerse in their roles. they did extremely well in making us laugh too.
after the show, we went to eat buffet lunch, thanks nancy for reserving the table, or rather it came with the packaging. there was quite a variety of the dishes offered. and the chicken curry was ichiban! the nicest i have tried, though it accumulatively spicy towards the end. the also provided grass jelly for dessert, which was very colling and essential for tourist who would be walking under the sun for a few hours.
the third show we watched was the dolphin and beluga whale. the mammals were extremely intelligent when it came to performing tricks, they could jump out of the water to touch a ball suspending about 5 metres above the water. very strong animals i must say. they also could swing the hula hoop around their snout. they are truly very talented!
then it was time for the spy war show. which is the thai version of james bond acted out. i didnt quite enjoy this as there was quite a number of thai dialogue and of course the ear threatening explosions.
last of all, there was the elephant show. the elephant showed off their talents, one of which was performance as an ensemble. there was also the last pary of two elephant taken part in a penalty shootout. it was a very interesting show. my conclusion for the showa: the thais are very creative when it comes to entertaining people!
after the show, all of us headed for the giraffe feeding area. there, we purchased a basket of fruits for 40 baht to feed the giraffes. it was a very good experience! i thoroughly enjoyed myself by feeding those gentle and lovable creatures. i tried touching their heads but they were rather shy and backed off.
finally, it was time to bade the park goodbye, we took a few last photos with nancy as it would be her last time with us. i will miss her quite. :)
for dinner, nancy dropped us at sum lum night market. she had said earlier that it had over 3000 shops, i hope i heard correctly. i ate chicken(again) with rice. it is not that im an avid fan of chicken but to me, the other food werent very appealing. after dinner, we went to walk around the shops. the was great variety, i bought some things and so did my sisters. soon we were tired and went back to our hotel to rest.
------------------------------------------end of day 3 ----------------------------------------------------------
day 4 - thursday, 13th dec.
woke up at later then usaul at 9 since there was no official schedule. ate the same thing for breakfast, which is… (say it together!) meatball beehoon. u’re so smart, u knew! was sad that i wouldn't be able to have it anymore in singapore. when we went down, we met uncle william, aunty sally and pheobe. while the adults were discussing on where to go, i played solitaire on the com in the lobby, no internet service was provided free of charge. then to my surprise, they were broadcasting my fav epl team, manchester united on the tv. so i watched a little then it was time to go. we were going to walk down the street market. there were many apparel shops, but the quality of the clothes were a question. my sisters bought some clothes nevertheless.
then we went to platinum fachion mall again as the previous time we went wasn't enough to cover the whole mall. but before shopping, we ate lunch first. i ate tom yum kung, which is slightly different from the tom yum seafood i ate on the first day. u can tell from the name anyway. again it was very delicious! then ate crepe again cos i love it! then shopped. i bought a very nice pair of 3/4 pants which i love alot. i will wear it quite often in the future. so shopped and shopped.
soon it was time to leave for the hotel to check our luggage out and then head for the airport. uncle william's family n my parted ways (we take different airlines) but wew met again outside the airport. then inside the aiport, we parted ways to check in our flights. then my family went ot eat our last meal in thailand. we ate 90 baht worth of mango sticky rice! it was mouthwatering. then we queued at the immigration counter and got out passports checked. after passing the immigration counters, we met uncle william and co again, they were buying chocs. then we parted ways again, my mom want to buy rum for baking cakes and then we headed for the gate. at the hand carry luggage checking area, we met them again, and then we parted ways. so my family got into the plane. and we flew to singapore.
yup that's about it. im so tired after typing all this down. view the pics for some eye comfort after the boring black and white(pink actually!). :)
in the plane on the way there
three siblings, from left: julia, christine and me. we were waiting for the plane from the singaporean terminal.
in the airport at bangkok, three of us plus phoebe, all smiles
the hall of the emerald buddha
photo of us leaning on one of the golden pillars. btw they are painted in gold, not 100% gold
the outfits for the buddha during the different thai seasons
some gold structure, not sure what exactly it is
photo taken at the guard house outside the royal guest house. no visitors permitted in there. according to nancy, our president ever resided there when he visited the king.
julia and the rosemaries
second day, i in the minivan on the way to the floating market
the thai love their king a lot, so everywhere u go, there is a photo of him, like in singapore, it's the trees u see everywhere, in thailand, it's him. yeah so the 'entrance' to the floating market
my family in the forground, background's the floating market
floating market, it was rather crowded with mostly foreigners. it is during the weekend when the thais visit this place
this is my sisters and my mom taken by my dad. i took the other boat, with phoebe, uncle william, aunty sally and nancy
picture of the 2 boats. not sitting properly, haiz
sis n her delight! mango sticky rice!
family shot i should have sat properly. lol but no space
teak museum and factory. very intricate carvings. jules and i in front of a very nice piece of work
mom and nancy beside a worker in the midst of his work. :)
family shot again, we blocked the carvings. lol
very nice pic of the girls. i just realised that i've been wearing my guitar shirt, i must say that it's comfy for me.
erjie and i on an elephant for a ride, it was very bumpy and the seat always felt like it was going to fall backwards, very scary but i calmed myself. :)
in chinatown, the food's very shiok. the white box beside me is my fav food! chestnutssssssssss! it was so delicious! for dinner i ate
at a massage parlour. feet massage anyone?
watching sea games singapore vs thailand. singapore lost... lol aunty sally was bargaining with the boss to give us further discount if thailand won 3 to nil. true enough the final result was as that. her way of bargaining drove all of us into laughing fits.
a pair of loving white rhinos
a zebra close up.
tigers! very majestic and very big. :)
a very evil looking lion, reminds me of scar from lion king
a pride of lions, the males have a mane shave, dunno why, so u have to look closely to differentiate them. and the lion's roar is extremely bassy, so scary, so much like a growl, as if they want to devour u up.
feeding time! observe the hungry lions, to the extend they go up to the top of the rangers vehicle.
at the cowboy stunt show. all the shows had a very nice setting.
all of us at the dolphin and beluga whale show.
second sis with a snake around her neck. i was too freaked out with snakes that i dont have a pic with a snake in my photo collection.
pheobe and a tiger cub. it's only 1.5 monthsbut at the rate of the way it drinks milk, it's going to shoot up in no time.
jules with the same cub
chris with the same cub
and i with the same cub, when it was at its cutest! no lah, it was struggling with me, as if it doesnt like me :(
da jie erjie and i, notice the giraffes behinds, they are so cute
me feeding a giraffe, i was so brave that i started to go nearer and nearer until i touched their tongues, it's very hairy.i even touched their heads! very fun!
this shot taken by me! very cute giraffe!
outside the safari world, group shot taken with nancy in too.
me and the quite conjested road outside platinum fashion mall
wooh! posting this recount is FREAKING TEDIOUS! argh, took at least 5-6 hours! be glad that u read it, it’s my hard work after enjoyment. :(
feel free to look into my sis's blog for a different style of recount - the link http://christravels.livejournal.com/
yep so see ya and have a great weekend!
for ur info this post is more than 3,000 words long! i would like to thank God for the energy to write this post and making this trip a success! and i would like to thank the music which kept me awake while i typed this entry. lol i tok like i just wrote a book.. shut up and go off!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Team Singapore!
of yeah, just a thing to add to my previous post, this KS camp was also the first time i had sat (or more accurately, squeezed) into a saloon with eight other people including the driver who was bak wei. it was really cool and fun! on the second day, outside lot 1 after shopping for the food, it was still rainning as heavily as when we had gone there. so we waited for bak wei at the exit of the carpark. then when he came out, noah sat in the front and the rest of the 7 of us hopped into the rear like it was nobody's business! according to jema, the security guard nearby watched us with jaws dropped, lol, jema said that we were like bunnies hopping into a hole! LOL. furthermore, there was a car behind us so matthias who was the last person into the car tried to shut the door, but there was no space and he could not shut it and bak wei was driving off already, lol! then we squeezed like crap and matthias managed to shut it, and i who am very cautious locked it for him. :) had so much fun together! and the camp was great!!!!!!!!! me misses it already. :(
i am waiting for the photos! but the earliest i can see them is after my thailand trip which is thurs, they should be uploaded by the camp photography already. i shall upload some of them in this blog! :):):):):) i shall patiently wait for them bcos there are over 300 pics, or maybe even more! yay!
i have realised something in my this weekend! i have been crazy about singapore. i guess it's the sea games fever. i thnk not many people in singapore bother about the sea games but i'm very patriotic! somehow i have been listening to community songs. somehow.. i dunno why i suddenly like the songs. and singapore BETTER do well in the sea games if not she will be letting me down. so sad that i will not be able to follow the games so well as in bangkok, they will sure telecast but their focus werent be singapore. :( and the only game held in bangkok is bowling, im not so interested in that, i would rather have table tennis, badminton or even swimming! GO SINGAPORE! haha i dunno why but, go sun beibei! i think she's good, eventhough li jia wei's good, sun beibei's cuter!
okay im going to watch the sea games on channel 5 now! singapore must do well!!!!!!!! yay! more gold medals!!!!! yay! :D
see ya!
i am waiting for the photos! but the earliest i can see them is after my thailand trip which is thurs, they should be uploaded by the camp photography already. i shall upload some of them in this blog! :):):):):) i shall patiently wait for them bcos there are over 300 pics, or maybe even more! yay!
i have realised something in my this weekend! i have been crazy about singapore. i guess it's the sea games fever. i thnk not many people in singapore bother about the sea games but i'm very patriotic! somehow i have been listening to community songs. somehow.. i dunno why i suddenly like the songs. and singapore BETTER do well in the sea games if not she will be letting me down. so sad that i will not be able to follow the games so well as in bangkok, they will sure telecast but their focus werent be singapore. :( and the only game held in bangkok is bowling, im not so interested in that, i would rather have table tennis, badminton or even swimming! GO SINGAPORE! haha i dunno why but, go sun beibei! i think she's good, eventhough li jia wei's good, sun beibei's cuter!
okay im going to watch the sea games on channel 5 now! singapore must do well!!!!!!!! yay! more gold medals!!!!! yay! :D
see ya!
Friday, December 7, 2007
KS camp 2007!
whoo! i'm just back from ks camp! im a little exhausted but i've decided to blog it down while the memory's fresh, for memories sake!
this camp has many firsts for me.
1. it was the first time i seriously tried to memorised a chapter of the bible.
2. it was the first time i trailed a jungle in the night, in total darkness.
3. it was the first time i was a group leader. (WANDERERS!)
4. it was the first time i enjoyed listening to messages and discussions from the bottom of my heart.
5. it was the first time i acted in a video, i usually HATE acting, but for the sake of my group i did it.
6. it was the first time i was an 'official' guitarist in the camp. really enjoyed it! :D
7. it was the first time i laughed especially much when im with my youth friends, bcos my great group members, all them were so funny.
8. it was the first time i caught the 'bone' in the dog and bone, i'm horrid in this game.
9. it was the first time i ate peanut butter and marshmallows together, the combi's not bad. actually, i was playing a game with the food. :)
10. it was the first time i played bridge! joanne taught me how, i'd been taught twice but never really got it, eureka!
alright let me recount the activities
day 1 - tuesday 4th dec
bernice's dad came to my house to fetch me, then reached the camp at about 10.45am. the camp site was the singapore vision farm, rather unknown but it is very near qian hu fish farm which is in chua chu kang. very ulu place, i am quite familiar with it cos it was last year's camp site too.
soon more people came in and then the camp master aka 老爷 justus started the ball rolling. briefed us on the camp rules, camp comm, the angel and mortal activity, and groupings. the theme of this camp was 'faith or fame, you decide'. my mortal was timothy tan, a guy from penang. :) there were 4 groups, namely pilgrims, strangers. wanderers and sojourners. and my group was the Wanderers which consisted of (from oldest to youngest): bak wei aka bw, jemima aka jema, matthias, noah, emelyn, annabel, me, timothy tan, song jia and benjamin yeo. however, there were only 4 of us in the group then, we had to design a flag. we did it and did it well! :) then more of our group members came. btw there was a challenge for the groups, which is to memories the whole of hebrews 11, which is 40 verses, in three days.
then we dispersed into our rooms to unpack stuff. lunch was next, we had food prepared by the church aunties! so very nice of them. lunch spanned an hour, had more than enough time to eat, so i played table tennis. i really enjoyed myself, i would say that im an intermediate. next up was singspiration, message and group discussion. the message was what faith is. it was very edifying. learnt about saving faith, dead faith and that faith is the wholehearted acceptance of a proposition or person. :) then it was discussion, i was quite nervous as i was the first time being a leader. however everything went on very smoothly and i found myself enjoying the session. we started on the memory verse, learnt 5 verses.
break time was next followed by dinner, played more ping pong. then we had an hour of endless singing. the meeting hall shook because of the strong voices and rhythmic guitar. very shiok! and then we had night walk. before that we played hide seek around the camp site. there was absolutely NO light so it was reather scary, emelyn n i hid together. we hid behind a bush and guess what, we weren't found despite 2 very narrow escapes, we were the last standers in the game and thus got the choice of whether we wanted to be the first group to go for the night trail. i was game so were my members. so went to jungle and had only some light sticks on the gound to guide us, no torches were allowed and there was absolutely no light. as the group leader, i was first in the line(we had to walk in single file). i was instructed to use the group flag to clear off spider webs, well i dunno if i cleared them though, i couldnt see a thing so i just waved my flag like some lunatic, even so, i guess that there were many thread of spider web stuck to my face after the trail but i didnt mind, it was too fun to bother. also there were some low hanging branches so i had to forewarn my group members. during the trail, there were some stations by which we had to fulfill something. one of them i remember especailly is the one that we had to scare the next group that came along that path. we screamed and screamed when they came by but failed to scare them. lol. so much for a dry throat. the purpose of this games was to make us walk by faith, not by sight. :)
when we were back to the camp site, when the lights were turned on, my eyes took a while to adjust. lights off was at 11.30, before turning in i played table tennis then went to shower.
day 2 - wednesday 5th dec
this day rained throughout!
rise and shine was at 7. had morning exercise and then had breakfast and next up was singspiration, message and discussion. this time i learnt about enoch, the first man who didn't die. he walked ith God, witnessed and went to God. one interesting fact shared by brother linus was that he was the 7th man from adam and thus God had planned that he would be translated that he should not see death, as 7 is the number of perfection and that God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. discussion again went on very well. :)
after that we had a short break then we resumed activities with a food hunt. we were to go out to buy 5 different types of food which names spell the word 'faith', and preferably from different countries. then we had to perform a skit based on the theme faith and video it down. my group did on sera giving birth to issac and abraham offering issac up to the Lord. we went to lot 1 and ate lunch there. then we shopped for the food. my group decided on french loaves, apples, instant mee, tomato ketchup and ham. we went to super market to buy them. the french loaves served the purpose of wood for the altar, the apples were a silly prop, like a trademark for my group, everyone held an apple while we did the acting. instant mee were the 'white' hair of sera because she was past age, the tomato sauce was the blood of the ram and the ham was for abraham to eat. LOL.
then we went back to the camp site to do the filming. it seemed that we were the only group which did that. bak wei was really tired, he had to shuffle from work to camp, so he rested instead. matthias was the narrator, noah was abraham, jemima was sera, emelyn was baby isaac and the donkey, annabel was the midwife, i was the ram, tim tan was the older isaac and ben yeo was the camera man. so we started the filming, laughed like crap! cos jema had to pretend that she was in labour and we were pondering of how to make the birth look natural. and a lot of things had to be taken into consideration. i had a very good time laughing my head off! btw i was the ram, i had to tie 2 really high ponytails and my hair could stand, so they loked like real horns :). then i had to cover the top of my head with cotton wool. though time was tight, we managed to finish the filming.
later on we watched the videos, i only enjoyed them a little cos of the bad sound quality. but overall i had a good time. dinner was next and the singspirtaion, message and discussion followed. learnt about moses who saw the invisible. he had faith in God, willing to renounce his priveleged status , willing to choose suffering rather than pleasure, willing to deny one's self and look beyond temporal things and willing to face the wrath of the pharoah. during discussion i learnt that there are things which we have to sacrifice in order to pursue faith. even if it is very hard to do so, it is important to do so.
following that, we went to have supper. and there was a surprise for ben yeo whose birthday fell on the day. bak wei had bought a very nice choc cake when we were at lot 1 without his knowledge. i played more ping pong then went to sleep.
day 3 - thursday 6th dec
woke up at 7 again. had morning exercise, breakfast, played ping pong, then singspiration,message, discussion. it was the last message for the camp. i found that brother linus' messages were very relevant and very good. :) this time, it was about rahab and abraham. the people from 2 extremes who passed the test of faith. abraham was a male, a noble person, materially rich, whilst rahab was a female, harlot, one who did immoral. she believed in God just because she had heard of God's sorvereignty when the red sea parted. this was how God made use of these 2 very different people and how they were capable of professing faith.
during discussion time a hot topic was discussed, was it right for rahab to lie in order to protect the spies? we came up with many answers. brother linus later explained to us that she was right because she was in a very difficult situation and it was said that God would not put us in a trial too hard for us to bear. so if lying was the only way of escape for her, she had to do it, while some youths argued that she shouldn't have lied, instead God would have protected her if she told the truth. im still divided on this. :( poor rahab.
after that, we had lunch and then indoor games. played 4 very interesting games. the first was an obstacle course by which we had to do blind folded and then we had fall back from a chair while our group members had t o receive us while we fell back midway. :) i was one of the lightest in the group so i did it, it was fun!
the next game was the dog and bone. this time we had to grab eggs. furthermore some were boiled and some were not boiled, so it would create a mess if u grabbed the wrong egg. and it the first time i grab the bone! yay congrats for me! :)
the third game was the sharleen and eunice(names of the organisers) game. it was to spread peanut butter on a the black bag a group member is wearing. then we had to throw marsh mallows on them, and then at the end of this, the no. of marsh mallows still stuck would be counted. at the end of the game, i ate some peanut butter coated marsh mallows:)
the last game was the blanket game. this was really fun. we had a huge canvas sheet dividing two groups from the other two. we had to send a no. of people and then they will have to play a game which is drawn of of lots by sharleen. some games favoured the group with less people while the other favoured the group with more people.
next up was dinner, i played more table tennis and blah blah. then it was camp fire night! we had a whale of time. it was also the night we had to recite all the verse that we had memorised as a group. we started with singspiration and then played a game which involved throwing a ball at a target after spinning 8 times. my group was second. then the strangers recited their memory verse. they did well considering that many of their members came during the later part of the camp. then we play a very funny game. it was the 冲啊 game, by which we had to come up with our attack and defence actions instead of the usual babarians, red indaians, chinese and cowboys. hahhah, my group had a very funny attack and a cute defense. attack was to move in circles and mumble huh.... as in we were wandering then we could get into postions and do a munnaeru vaalibaa! lol it was so funny! and then our defense was swinging the arms and skipping to the right then to the left and shouting wonder poko pants wonder poko pants! haha dont ask why it was related to mummy poko pants, but it was something to do with our discussion, jema said that her friends would come up with their own expletive of no meaning of one was 'mummy poko pants!' LOL! it was a very fun time! then pilgrims recited their verses, they had learnt more then the strangers. next up were the sojourners, they did relatively better and last up was my group. we did very well! though i could only memories to verse 24, matthias, jema and emelyn pushed us on to 30! :) good job people!
after which we discussed the angel mortal thing, and i was so stupid, i didn't guess that my very good friend lin yan was my angel! :( her handwritting was slightly different, guessed it got nicer since the last time i saw her hand writing. :) thanks lin yan for ur note. :)
after that, it was time to announe which group was the winner. it was my group! we tied with sojouners! we actually we placed 3rd, but thanks to our performance during campfire, we were pushed up the rungs. :)
free time till lights out at 1am. i played a little of ping pong, couldn't play much cos many people wanted to play. then i learnt bridge from joanne and i've finally gotten the hang of it! yeah! :D
day 4 - friday 7th dec
woke up at 8, very sad that camp was coming to an end but at the same time i was glad to be able to go home to rest, very exhausted! had breakfast and then devotion. played more bridge. :) and then we had camp debrief. we were given the camp souvenir, a report camp :) very funny! then we had clean up cleared the rooms. and then camp was closed. oooh how i wished the photos could come out soon! :)
dad and mom came to pick er jie and i. we went to drop er jie at west mall for her to watch enchanted with her friend. then i pestered my parents to watch also with me. then they agreed!!!!!!!!!! so i got the tickets, watch the show. it was freaking hilarious and my mom was laughing so madly. giselle is a very lovable character! i like her cheerfulness and the story was very interesting. very fairytale-ish, so much so that at the point when robert was to kiss giselle to wake her up, some very cute kid in the theatre shouted out, "how can like this one!" lol! the show is really worth watching if u want something light and happy. :)
okay i really should go, spent 2.5 hours typing this all out. it's worse than waiting for a video on youtube to load and it's finally done! okay i shall go now! :)
byebye and see ya!
this camp has many firsts for me.
1. it was the first time i seriously tried to memorised a chapter of the bible.
2. it was the first time i trailed a jungle in the night, in total darkness.
3. it was the first time i was a group leader. (WANDERERS!)
4. it was the first time i enjoyed listening to messages and discussions from the bottom of my heart.
5. it was the first time i acted in a video, i usually HATE acting, but for the sake of my group i did it.
6. it was the first time i was an 'official' guitarist in the camp. really enjoyed it! :D
7. it was the first time i laughed especially much when im with my youth friends, bcos my great group members, all them were so funny.
8. it was the first time i caught the 'bone' in the dog and bone, i'm horrid in this game.
9. it was the first time i ate peanut butter and marshmallows together, the combi's not bad. actually, i was playing a game with the food. :)
10. it was the first time i played bridge! joanne taught me how, i'd been taught twice but never really got it, eureka!
alright let me recount the activities
day 1 - tuesday 4th dec
bernice's dad came to my house to fetch me, then reached the camp at about 10.45am. the camp site was the singapore vision farm, rather unknown but it is very near qian hu fish farm which is in chua chu kang. very ulu place, i am quite familiar with it cos it was last year's camp site too.
soon more people came in and then the camp master aka 老爷 justus started the ball rolling. briefed us on the camp rules, camp comm, the angel and mortal activity, and groupings. the theme of this camp was 'faith or fame, you decide'. my mortal was timothy tan, a guy from penang. :) there were 4 groups, namely pilgrims, strangers. wanderers and sojourners. and my group was the Wanderers which consisted of (from oldest to youngest): bak wei aka bw, jemima aka jema, matthias, noah, emelyn, annabel, me, timothy tan, song jia and benjamin yeo. however, there were only 4 of us in the group then, we had to design a flag. we did it and did it well! :) then more of our group members came. btw there was a challenge for the groups, which is to memories the whole of hebrews 11, which is 40 verses, in three days.
then we dispersed into our rooms to unpack stuff. lunch was next, we had food prepared by the church aunties! so very nice of them. lunch spanned an hour, had more than enough time to eat, so i played table tennis. i really enjoyed myself, i would say that im an intermediate. next up was singspiration, message and group discussion. the message was what faith is. it was very edifying. learnt about saving faith, dead faith and that faith is the wholehearted acceptance of a proposition or person. :) then it was discussion, i was quite nervous as i was the first time being a leader. however everything went on very smoothly and i found myself enjoying the session. we started on the memory verse, learnt 5 verses.
break time was next followed by dinner, played more ping pong. then we had an hour of endless singing. the meeting hall shook because of the strong voices and rhythmic guitar. very shiok! and then we had night walk. before that we played hide seek around the camp site. there was absolutely NO light so it was reather scary, emelyn n i hid together. we hid behind a bush and guess what, we weren't found despite 2 very narrow escapes, we were the last standers in the game and thus got the choice of whether we wanted to be the first group to go for the night trail. i was game so were my members. so went to jungle and had only some light sticks on the gound to guide us, no torches were allowed and there was absolutely no light. as the group leader, i was first in the line(we had to walk in single file). i was instructed to use the group flag to clear off spider webs, well i dunno if i cleared them though, i couldnt see a thing so i just waved my flag like some lunatic, even so, i guess that there were many thread of spider web stuck to my face after the trail but i didnt mind, it was too fun to bother. also there were some low hanging branches so i had to forewarn my group members. during the trail, there were some stations by which we had to fulfill something. one of them i remember especailly is the one that we had to scare the next group that came along that path. we screamed and screamed when they came by but failed to scare them. lol. so much for a dry throat. the purpose of this games was to make us walk by faith, not by sight. :)
when we were back to the camp site, when the lights were turned on, my eyes took a while to adjust. lights off was at 11.30, before turning in i played table tennis then went to shower.
day 2 - wednesday 5th dec
this day rained throughout!
rise and shine was at 7. had morning exercise and then had breakfast and next up was singspiration, message and discussion. this time i learnt about enoch, the first man who didn't die. he walked ith God, witnessed and went to God. one interesting fact shared by brother linus was that he was the 7th man from adam and thus God had planned that he would be translated that he should not see death, as 7 is the number of perfection and that God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. discussion again went on very well. :)
after that we had a short break then we resumed activities with a food hunt. we were to go out to buy 5 different types of food which names spell the word 'faith', and preferably from different countries. then we had to perform a skit based on the theme faith and video it down. my group did on sera giving birth to issac and abraham offering issac up to the Lord. we went to lot 1 and ate lunch there. then we shopped for the food. my group decided on french loaves, apples, instant mee, tomato ketchup and ham. we went to super market to buy them. the french loaves served the purpose of wood for the altar, the apples were a silly prop, like a trademark for my group, everyone held an apple while we did the acting. instant mee were the 'white' hair of sera because she was past age, the tomato sauce was the blood of the ram and the ham was for abraham to eat. LOL.
then we went back to the camp site to do the filming. it seemed that we were the only group which did that. bak wei was really tired, he had to shuffle from work to camp, so he rested instead. matthias was the narrator, noah was abraham, jemima was sera, emelyn was baby isaac and the donkey, annabel was the midwife, i was the ram, tim tan was the older isaac and ben yeo was the camera man. so we started the filming, laughed like crap! cos jema had to pretend that she was in labour and we were pondering of how to make the birth look natural. and a lot of things had to be taken into consideration. i had a very good time laughing my head off! btw i was the ram, i had to tie 2 really high ponytails and my hair could stand, so they loked like real horns :). then i had to cover the top of my head with cotton wool. though time was tight, we managed to finish the filming.
later on we watched the videos, i only enjoyed them a little cos of the bad sound quality. but overall i had a good time. dinner was next and the singspirtaion, message and discussion followed. learnt about moses who saw the invisible. he had faith in God, willing to renounce his priveleged status , willing to choose suffering rather than pleasure, willing to deny one's self and look beyond temporal things and willing to face the wrath of the pharoah. during discussion i learnt that there are things which we have to sacrifice in order to pursue faith. even if it is very hard to do so, it is important to do so.
following that, we went to have supper. and there was a surprise for ben yeo whose birthday fell on the day. bak wei had bought a very nice choc cake when we were at lot 1 without his knowledge. i played more ping pong then went to sleep.
day 3 - thursday 6th dec
woke up at 7 again. had morning exercise, breakfast, played ping pong, then singspiration,message, discussion. it was the last message for the camp. i found that brother linus' messages were very relevant and very good. :) this time, it was about rahab and abraham. the people from 2 extremes who passed the test of faith. abraham was a male, a noble person, materially rich, whilst rahab was a female, harlot, one who did immoral. she believed in God just because she had heard of God's sorvereignty when the red sea parted. this was how God made use of these 2 very different people and how they were capable of professing faith.
during discussion time a hot topic was discussed, was it right for rahab to lie in order to protect the spies? we came up with many answers. brother linus later explained to us that she was right because she was in a very difficult situation and it was said that God would not put us in a trial too hard for us to bear. so if lying was the only way of escape for her, she had to do it, while some youths argued that she shouldn't have lied, instead God would have protected her if she told the truth. im still divided on this. :( poor rahab.
after that, we had lunch and then indoor games. played 4 very interesting games. the first was an obstacle course by which we had to do blind folded and then we had fall back from a chair while our group members had t o receive us while we fell back midway. :) i was one of the lightest in the group so i did it, it was fun!
the next game was the dog and bone. this time we had to grab eggs. furthermore some were boiled and some were not boiled, so it would create a mess if u grabbed the wrong egg. and it the first time i grab the bone! yay congrats for me! :)
the third game was the sharleen and eunice(names of the organisers) game. it was to spread peanut butter on a the black bag a group member is wearing. then we had to throw marsh mallows on them, and then at the end of this, the no. of marsh mallows still stuck would be counted. at the end of the game, i ate some peanut butter coated marsh mallows:)
the last game was the blanket game. this was really fun. we had a huge canvas sheet dividing two groups from the other two. we had to send a no. of people and then they will have to play a game which is drawn of of lots by sharleen. some games favoured the group with less people while the other favoured the group with more people.
next up was dinner, i played more table tennis and blah blah. then it was camp fire night! we had a whale of time. it was also the night we had to recite all the verse that we had memorised as a group. we started with singspiration and then played a game which involved throwing a ball at a target after spinning 8 times. my group was second. then the strangers recited their memory verse. they did well considering that many of their members came during the later part of the camp. then we play a very funny game. it was the 冲啊 game, by which we had to come up with our attack and defence actions instead of the usual babarians, red indaians, chinese and cowboys. hahhah, my group had a very funny attack and a cute defense. attack was to move in circles and mumble huh.... as in we were wandering then we could get into postions and do a munnaeru vaalibaa! lol it was so funny! and then our defense was swinging the arms and skipping to the right then to the left and shouting wonder poko pants wonder poko pants! haha dont ask why it was related to mummy poko pants, but it was something to do with our discussion, jema said that her friends would come up with their own expletive of no meaning of one was 'mummy poko pants!' LOL! it was a very fun time! then pilgrims recited their verses, they had learnt more then the strangers. next up were the sojourners, they did relatively better and last up was my group. we did very well! though i could only memories to verse 24, matthias, jema and emelyn pushed us on to 30! :) good job people!
after which we discussed the angel mortal thing, and i was so stupid, i didn't guess that my very good friend lin yan was my angel! :( her handwritting was slightly different, guessed it got nicer since the last time i saw her hand writing. :) thanks lin yan for ur note. :)
after that, it was time to announe which group was the winner. it was my group! we tied with sojouners! we actually we placed 3rd, but thanks to our performance during campfire, we were pushed up the rungs. :)
free time till lights out at 1am. i played a little of ping pong, couldn't play much cos many people wanted to play. then i learnt bridge from joanne and i've finally gotten the hang of it! yeah! :D
day 4 - friday 7th dec
woke up at 8, very sad that camp was coming to an end but at the same time i was glad to be able to go home to rest, very exhausted! had breakfast and then devotion. played more bridge. :) and then we had camp debrief. we were given the camp souvenir, a report camp :) very funny! then we had clean up cleared the rooms. and then camp was closed. oooh how i wished the photos could come out soon! :)
dad and mom came to pick er jie and i. we went to drop er jie at west mall for her to watch enchanted with her friend. then i pestered my parents to watch also with me. then they agreed!!!!!!!!!! so i got the tickets, watch the show. it was freaking hilarious and my mom was laughing so madly. giselle is a very lovable character! i like her cheerfulness and the story was very interesting. very fairytale-ish, so much so that at the point when robert was to kiss giselle to wake her up, some very cute kid in the theatre shouted out, "how can like this one!" lol! the show is really worth watching if u want something light and happy. :)
okay i really should go, spent 2.5 hours typing this all out. it's worse than waiting for a video on youtube to load and it's finally done! okay i shall go now! :)
byebye and see ya!
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