day 1 (monday 9 june 2008)
i woke up at around 6. i wasn't really excited, if not i would have gotten up at 5. lol. my family was to set off at 7am. at about 7.30, we met uncle yoon chuan's family and pastor goh's. then we travelled to causeway and pass it, we met up with pastor lau's family and uncle meng hsien's family. we then travelled up to johor, gunung ledang. in the car, er jie and i mainly napped, played set and rush hour. we were trying rush hour level 40 and we took so darn long to figure out anything, we couldnt solve it in the end, even with two minds, so we gave up and turned to the answer behind. the solution was about 80+ steps. but at the end, it all seemed to easy! when we reached gunung ledang, uncle meng hsien, pastor lau and my dad decided that they want to try out some of the food in the area for late breakfast as we were quite hungry, the other families decided to continue their route to the campsite. so we turned up at some bak kut teh shop which was really crowded. eventhough we had to wait for our food, uncle meng hsien said that it was better to come here than to go where nobody treads. quite smart, haha, cos there were other shops which had no customers and paul (pastor lau's son) wanted to go there. since it was a light meal, each family went for one common bowl of soup and 2 bowls of rice. it was also a coincidence that all families had 4 ppl each. and the bak kut teh was awesome! so unlike the bak kut teh in sinagpore, this bak kut teh had fragrance, taste, steam and herbal presence. it was really shiok and no one regretted stopping by. pastor lau's family went for second round of soup! er jie and i were keen to buy some pao sold outside. the pao was huge! nevertheless, the lin yong pao was very nice. the pao was very fluffy and lotus paste was added sufficiently, not being too sweet nor too little.
by the time we finshed our meal, it was about 11.30. we continued the journey to the campsite and reached there by 12+. when i reached, nat and noelene were there to receive me. haha, it was so nice of them. then i went to the gift shop to take the camp souvenir, the gunung ledang tourist shirt. then i wanted to see nat's room, she roomed with noelene, their grandmother and youngest sister nichelle. their room was much nicer than i had expected, eventhough nat warned me that my room wasn't as nice as theirs, i was optimistic that the rooms werent that horrendous. soon the coach camp and more campers arrived. the campers started eating lunch and my first impression was good as there was richard clayderman's tinkling of the piano in the backgroung. so i was half eating and half deciphering what song it was on the system. after lunch, when the keys werent ready, nat n noelene showed me around the place a bit and then we went to the meeting hall and played with the mics. we played crazy and it was really funny and we laughed a lot. afterwhich, nat was in charge of the keys distribution, so nat and i 'issued' the keys to the campers and i got to see my room. it was decent, with kettle, shower heater and a small tv (that means i could catch the euro 2008!). the only bad thing was that there was no fridge. but i didnt really need one. i was sleeping with er jie. so accomodation was +++ out of five.
at 2, all the campers gathered at the meeting hall where uncle meng hsien cracked some silly but funny jokes that served as an impetus for the whole camp spirit. then uncle chee choong, the camp commandant, who is also nat's father, gave his welcome speech. at that time, pastor den hartog arrived with sherry, his wife. he was the camp speaker, and i really loved his messages. uncle chee choong then introduce the first official activity of the camp, which was survival activities. this was organised by the rangers at the camp itself. then we went to the jungle entrance to start the activity. the ranger introduced to us a plant that produced a miracle fruit which after eating, made water sweet when u drank it. it was really cool! then he introduced to us other plants which could provide us ropes and food. then the campers were split into children and teenagers and another group adults. the children and teenagers were to do survival cooking while the adults folded keuh tu put. i was doing survival cooking and formed a group with nat and noelene n nichelle. we had to cook a potato and 2 eggs with a box of match sticks, solid fuel and a cooking tin. during this, we were spending time looking for dry leaves and wood to start up the fire, but somehow the fire either couldnt start or died off after a while. so we spent a lot of time trying to get the fire, but in the end, we succeeded in the cooking the potato n the 2 eggs. me dad even tried the food and they were cooked!
after this activity, nat, noelene and i went to play water polo with the campers. water polo was so darn fun! i wanna play it again! haha, we invited any and everyone the play and even the aunties. aunty yoke mui provided lots of comedy when she had the ball as she had really funny actions. we played till 6. then i went to shower and then have dinner. this dinner was shiok i say! cos it had chicken wings, tomato prawns and very nice egg! oooh! it was the best meal i had ever had in malaysia!
finally at 8pm, we had singspiration and then message. pastor den hartog gave a very interesting entrance to his message. he said after attending our church camps for 10 years, that he thought being 60+, he would the oldest camper, but he was wrong, he congratulated mdm lo who is 90 for being the oldest camp and charis for being the youngest! haha. then he began his message about our pursuit towards Godliness involves determined effort. although i was very tired from the water polo, his message kept me awake. i had learnt that Godliness is being God-centred and every christian must depend on God for Godliness. i really had learnt a lot. after the message, pastor lau did a small presentation of his puzzle. and its significance to the gospel.
after that, it was free and easy. i nat, noelene and bernice went to my room. then i went to iva's room to play. haha, we play chaki, and i was quite funny playing with them. after that, i went to sleep.
(sorry, no pics)
day 2 (tuesday 10 june 2008)
rise and shine for me was at 7.30. i ate breakfast of chiefly bread and jam and cereal. then i played the keyboard for 2 songs during singspiration. i made a lot of mistakes. lol, but it was my first time playing for the church. sort of lah, cos not the whole church went. after singspiration, we had message no.2. the theme was our pursuit requires strict training. pastor den hartog gave us an example of an olympic trainer, that he had to have the determination and the effort, but what is also important is the training, and he said that christians are not only training for Godliness, we are in a battle towards Godliness as it will not come easy. after the message, i had message discussion with my group meekness and temperence. my group combined with temperence as isaac chan, the leader of temperence was having a bad headache, so isaac tan, my group's leader took over to lead 2 groups. the discussion was rather fruitful. then we had lunch, again, it was chicken wings, and the food was very good!
after lunch, we were going for a real hike up mount ophir to puteri fall, it was up 900 ft to see the waterfall. u must noe that 900 feet is a feat to accomplish for me. haha, but i guess i am still quite fit lah, i wasnt like dying... on the way up, i took a flying fox! it was fun and exciting as i am afraid of heights. the ranger briefed us on how to wear the harness etc, and he also told us to hold onto the metal bar while flying as it would stable our bodies as we flew down. i am very daring, so i was the first few to try it. i got up onto the platform and stood on a chair awaiting for the metal bar to be retrieved. i still remembering how darn scared i was as i looked down. the metal bar came and the ranger asked, 'are you ready?' i gave and unsure, 'ready', and he asked me again. this time i made sure that i said louder. the ranger gave a push. so i flew down in about 8 secs. it was really fun and i wanted to scream, but im not those type to scream, so i was half screaming and half not. on touch down, daniel the camara man took my unglam! lolz, but it was really shiok! i was so near nature for the rest of the time.
(some pics at the flying fox)
(my mom's in the front) the way up to the flying fox and the water fall was darn tedious as we were climbing flights of stairs one after another. this is just one flight of stair, we had to climb much more!
me! all harnessed for the flying fox. the harness was a little disgusting for the guys, hope you noe what i mean, so that i dont have to say it out, but it was all for safety..
getting ready to zip down. the funny thing is that the ride wasnt the scariest, it was standing here, cos this station was positioned very high from the ground, and i was stationary so i couldnt help but look down (im afraid of heights), but while flying, i looked straight, so it wasnt much of a problem.
after finshing our turn, nat, noelene, nichelle and i were all impatient to get to the waterfall. nat had come on the recce and she had been telling me all her tales about how great this waterfall is. on the way out of the flying fox passage, uncle chee choong forbade us to go, so we were very disappointed. then dorcas and claudia were sitting outside and they said that pastor den hartog and quite some people had gone up, so we told uncle chee choong that and he gave us the green light. yay. so we marched up, i say we almost jogged. and according to what chris of megacamp said, during hiking, u should go at ur comfortable pace with small steps, if not u will get tired very fast. and true enough, by the time we got the last lap of stairs, we were lugging up. i was dragging nat up. lolz, but all the fatigue vanished when we reached the destination. mom says that ophir is hebrew for glistening. and that so described the waterfall. when we reached, the 3 Ns and i chucked our stuff aside and took no second thought before descending into the water. as i have expected, the water was cold as i had experience from megacamp. but it was not as cold, so i could tahan. pastor and sherry were on the bridge with uncle gim theng, not game enough to get into the water. haha, nat was being our guide and she immediately brought us to the slide of slippery rocks. the slide i say would have been better if the current was stronger as i could hardly move. but it was really enjoyable nevertheless. then danciel chew came along sitting cooly on the rocks as the dry guy among the waters. haha, then the 3 Ns and i splashed him wet with water and he splashed us, but what's the point? we were wet already and he getting from dry to wet! loser! lol! after that, he surrendered to the more dominant element and jumped into the water. after that, the 3 Ns and i wanted to move up further. on the way up, i slipped and fell side ways after stepping on some slippery rock, but i was alright, not one scratch. but maybe i was once bitten twice shy, from then i went slowly and tested every rock of its slipperiness before entrusting it with my weight. after that, we sat in the shallow part of the water, dipping our legs into the gushing water. it was very shiok! i guess the surging water scrubbed off all the grime on my legs! yay! the nat directed us to the whirlpool. i just relaxed myself and went along with the current. it was really fun! about 20 mins later, more campers came and started dipping in the water and it was getting crowded.
(pics at the waterfall)
da waterfall! it is much higher then what is seen here cos the lower part is below us, i mean we had climbed till this part, so this is the upper part of the waterfall. the water is less cold than the water in megacamp, but the waterfall here is tonnes nicer than the one in mega camp. mega camp's was just one wall of water gushing down, at least this waterfall looked more picturesque. here are some of the campers making their way higher to the really upper part of the upper part of the waterfall. really daring huh! lol, but i went there too, where the whirlpool was. im as daring!
see the whirlpool in the background? nvm if u dont. it's quite a small one, but a really fun one. i just lifted my feet and i went in circles.. okay, the focus of the pic is actually the 3 of us. lol and yang zi is extra!
er jie and i. the whirlpool's clearer here, u see the white water? that's the whirlpool.
nat n i, we wanted to go down to play water polo. so we got out and it was really cold. haha, but never impossible to pose for a pic or so
campers enjoying the waterfall
another photo to commorate the 3 friends of the camp!
can you see er jie? she's sitting on the 'slide' the waterfall had provided for us. it has some really smooth and slippery rock for us to slide down. the rocks so rawk! haha
after spending about in total 1h 30 mins at the waterfall, nat, noelene and i had enough, so we wanted to play water polo. so we got up and out of the water and went back the same way we came in. at the foot of the mountain where our resort was, nat bought a ball for us to play water polo. then we headed straight to the pool and jumped in. kar bin joined us soon after, i think i have made a friend in kar bin, she's really nice too. :) after playing for a while, more youths came along and played with us, so it was really really fun!!!!
after water polo, i went to shower, then dinner was great again and then it was singspiration and message time. the third message was on our pursuit entails a renunciation of ungodliness. i feel that pastor den hartog was the most straightforward in this message, talking about sexual immorality in the present world, and how we must abort all worldly living in us. his messages were just great!
after the message, nat, noelene, bernice and i went to my room. we taught the N sisters bridge and played for a while. then we were a little sien and wanted to join the ce people, namely iva, claudia, hui shi and the gang as their laughter could be heard from far. so we were very tempted to join them, but were afraid of being outsiders. it was then i found out something i think is very embarrassing for someone. haha, but too bad to that person. sad love i must say... never mind if you dont understand. then all of us very pathetically went outside of the iva's chalet. bernice asked me to knock on the door, i told her to do it instead. and none of us dared. so we just stood outside. then bernice n i started toking rubbish and all of us started laughing madly and very loudly. uncle fai chong came out of his room and told us to keep quiet, we then put the blame on the other group and claimed that we were outside to breathe fresh air. (remember they were making a lot of noise too) and asked uncle fai chong to open their door and ask them to shut up, then we could grab the chance to sneak into the room. but he didnt bulge, instead all he did was to ask us to lower our voices. haiz, so our plan failed. so we thought of another wacky plan. we would just laugh out loud as much as possible so that they would take notice and come out to see happened, and then they would see us and then invite us in, then we wouldnt have to invite ourselves in. coming with the idea already made us laugh tonnes loads as it was so hilarious. but they didnt come out, when they finally came out, it was to witness tze yan perform a dare as a penalty. then the four of us felt that they were so lame and retarded, so we decided to go to the meeting hall to see if there was any activity there. and we were rewarded! i say, it was the most fun night of the camp here. isaac chan, paul, anthea, er jie and the four of us played mrt. it was very very very very very very very very fun!!!! lolz. for the fist game, it was the theme of mrt stations. i was buangkok and for that, we all laughed a lot. then we played body parts. i was haemoglobin, anthea was ear drum, paul didnt play, isaac, as the only guy was hair-fallen-girl(LOL!), bernice was oesophagus, noelene was avolus, nat was rectum and er jie was gluteus maximus (aka backside)! so we started the game and i had the most number of laughs in my whole life! isaac chan who is dubbed among us as the new hossan leong was the source of the comedy! lol! he made great fun of nat whose rectum name w as very easy to say, so he whenever he had a draw with someone, he said, 'aiyah, i take the pile lah, later it will all go to rectum!' after the games, i had regained all the energy i lost from water polo and was very fresh, but unfortunately, it was time to sleep. it was 12am.
day 3 (wednesday 11 june 2008)
i woke up at 8. ate breakfast, the usual bread and jam and cereal too. after breakfast singspiration and message followed. the 4th message of the camp was about our pursuit should have a zeal for good works. i learnt that we must have the knowledge of God and the love for Him , thus with these, we must show our thankfulness and obedience to Him and glorify Him by doing good works. after the message we had message discussion. at 12, we were to board a bus which would bring us to where we were eating our lunch. we came to a beef noodle shop. the campers occupied the whole shop and started ordering their preference of noodles. i oredered bee hoon and oooh, it was shiok! the beef noodles was really nice than i thought it would be. maybe i can say it is like bak kut teh, only difference is that beef noodles is to beef and bak kut teh is to pork.
after lunch, the bus ferried us to an oil plantation. there we watched a real life demonstration on how a worker would chop down a cluster of oil palm fruit. the worker was really deft with his hands as the tool to chop the fruit was 10m long thereabout. (the fruit is located high up in the tree). so imagine the amount of skill needed to position the tool, great amount of strength is need and his aiming must be very sharp.
(some pics at the oil palm plantation)
the oil palm cluster of fruits
the oily oil palm fruit when split into half. the fruit is really oily! disgusting, but it was really interesting to find out that oil palms actually have fruits!
after the oilpalm plantation, we went in further to discover the fruit plantation, they grew many tropical fruits, like durian, guava, pineapple, starfruit, chiku, banana etc. there, the backdrop scenery was a range of mountains. mount ophir was probably one of them, nat, noelene and i took some junpshots (i will have to rely on nat for the pics). the land was really vast that i felt so tiny. the total land of all the plantations was a whooping 6000 ha, and i was only standing in the fruit plantation, the oil palm and etc, how darn big the place was, only if singapore had such land...
premature (read: unripe) pineapple
next up was a mini soo, we went there and saw deers, goats, birds eg ostrich and rabbits. the fun thing about this place was that the animals were allowed to roam about and were not kept in enclosures. so we could get up front with them. when the goats were released from their enclosure, there were these virile young male and female goats which could not stop humping. haha, what a sight! and imagine if one of the younger campers asked, 'mummy, what are they doing?' lol, how hard to answer that question! (i noe atticus finch would have answered directly! haha, but why is he brought into subject here?) during the experience, i had the oportunity to touch a goat, it was a friend goat that came to us, while the deers were timid and were terribly fast runners, so we had no chance coming close to them.
here are some pics, i didnt take any pics with the animals, but my sis did.
da yang, xiao yang, all the different colours of goats, all here...
er jie with a bird, i dunno what it is.
er jie with a rabbit, she looks like a doctor here doesnt she?
er jie testing the strength of 2 ostrich eggs, they really could withstand great weight. uncle meng hsien whom everyone teased who would break the record of breaking the eggs stood on one single egg and it did not break! amazing!
after the mini zoo, the camp went to a small hut to eat the home grown fruits and relax. some of the fruits served were DURIANS, GUAVAS, MANGOES, etc and even the delicacy coconut was served. it was darn darn darn shiok! the durian was so creamy... so bitter... so delicious! aha! yupz, there was supposed to be some guy doing a presentation on the plantation, but i wasnt interested, so i didnt listen.
soon it was time to bid farewell to the fruit plantation. but since we were all so full with fruits, we were not ready for dinner at tangkak. so uncle chee choong came up impromptu for us to visit a local bakery and try out the snacks there, haha, but it was again food.. lolz. in the end, we went to the restaurant to eat dinner. the food above average lah! :)
at the restaurant at tangkak. ate what uncle chee choong said was wild boar's meat and it turned out to be ostrich, nat felt like vomiting when she heard that, but too late, all the food was in our stomachs. lol
last night at camp! it was campfire, thank you God for making the weather fine the whole day! campfire was a blast! we had singspiration with some songs, er jie and i and auntie ee foong played the guitar. then after singspiration, we split into our groups and played games. the first game was relay charade. it was really fun and my team got second. for the next activity, we had to re-anact a particular activity during the camp that we liked most using the order of alphabets starting for the letter k. it was really hilarious watching the other groups' presentations. i still remember that my fahter's group was really funny, with all the china-brand swimming costume and stuff. haha. the last game was song chase. each group had to continue singing songs based on different citerias.
campfire! the rangers did us a great favour by helping us set up the fire! i guess this has been the first campfire in many years!
er jie and i playing guitar at campfire.
when campfire was over, the youths stayed behind to play captains ball. it was thoroughly enjoyable as the games were very active and fast. we played till 12 plus. after that, i stayed up to 1 to watch euro cup portugal vs czech rep. my star cristiano ronaldo scored once and assisted 1! :) i really hope he doesnt move to real madrid! okay, im diverging. after soccer, i went to sleep.
day 4 (thursday 12 june 2008)
woke up at 8.30. ate the usual stuff for breakfast. then we had singspiration and message 5. the last message of the camp was about our pursuit has an ultimate goal, that is when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again. then we took the camp photos and had lunch. lunch was marvelous as i had my favourite food, chicken rice. it was really nice cos i grabbed all the wings and drumsticks! lol, so greedy.... after lunch, we did the last minute packing and then it was home sweet home singapore.
er jie and i in the car on the way back to singapore. im wearing the souvenir shirt!
i've finally come to the end of this post. FINALLY! but i've had fun writing the memories again, i've found myself laughing as i write. church camp 2008 was really the best! :)
