When I saw my other teammates trudging up the slope to the foyer with their bags, I got out of my father’s car, bade him goodbye and joined my friends. The foyer was filled with students from across the level, from different classes that studied different subjects. I met up with my friends and greeted them enthusiastically. They greeted me back with equal eagerness. I really felt that we were all very excited about this trip.
If I’m allowed to digress a little, here is a short introduction about my group. Group 16 consisted of Rishikesh (we call him Rishi), Lindy, Milu, Yahui and me. Rishi was our group leader and our group task during the trip to Kahang was to study the different types of insects that can be found in the forest there.
Rishi then settled some administrative matters, such as handing out the rubber shoes and inflatable pillows for those who did not go for the previous adventure camp held in Mawai. I belonged to that category hence I happily chose a pair of rubber shoes which fitted my small feet. It was unfortunate that I committed the fatal mistake of not placing the shoes in my bag upon collecting it. Perhaps I would have done so if the two bottles of Ethyl Acetate had not been placed in such a precarious position in my bag.
My team was chosen to board bus 3. It was also the bus with the all the equipments needed for the different groups to carry out their experiments. We were the last bus to leave as we had to pack in the different luggage into the luggage compartment. We finally left CJC at 8.15am. Besides my group, group 5, the 7 students from Bukit Panjang Government High (BPGHS) and Mr Tan Hoe Teck, the overall teacher-in-charged of this expedition joined us aboard bus 3. There were many empty seats in the bus but many did not sit alone. Yahui sat beside me and we spent our time talking till we reached the customs.
I passed through the automated counter on the
The bus that was bound for
When we reached the
Before the bus proceeded to Kahang, it made a detour to a cafeteria near the Malaysian Checkpoint. We were given a half hour to have our breakfast there. The food there was cheap but I did not buy anything as I had a heavy breakfast that morning before I went to school. Meanwhile, the rest of my group tucked into their plates of Nasi Lemak. I munched on the apple I brought with me from
After eating, many students flocked to the small mart located beside the food stall. Many stocked up on their supply of sweets and snacks. The most popular item that many purchased were chewing gums. It was a very logical choice.
Once we boarded bus 3 again, it was full steam to the Kahang Organic Eco Rice Farm (KOREF). I initially planned to sleep during the trip there but I found it impossible to do so as Mr Tan was sitting diagonally across me. He was telling my other group members about his previous experience and learning points from different camps that he had led before. It was interesting hearing him talk and it was evident that he had a strong passion for education.
The trip was fairly short as I was used to taking longer trips to Malacca with my family for vacations. It was 2.5 hour long. During the trip, I managed to catch some sleep amidst the talking in the bus. Still, I felt sleepy when we finally arrived at KOREF.
Upon reaching the place, what struck me was the beauty and simplicity of the area. The padi fields would make a perfect backdrop for the beautiful sunset in the evening, surrounded with coconut trees swaying in the breeze. The path leading up to the main hall was not too pleasant though. I had trouble carrying the luggage up to the hall due to its weight and my small frame. I was glad when help came in the form of Wei Siong from BPGHS. It was later that I got to know him better as he was assigned to my group to aid us in our project.
Bus 3 was the last to arrive there. The other students from the other buses had already begun to pitch their tents. Milu, Yahui, Lindy and me hurried to the hall placed our bags in a pile and proceeded to pitch our tent, which would become our abode for 4 nights. Since we were late on the campsite, ideal places where we would have liked to pitch our tents had already been taken up. We initially wanted to pitch our tent right in front of the recreational waters but we were discouraged from doing so due to the possibility of flooding in the light of the monsoon period. We ended up pitching our tent in a rather awkward position since the rest of the tents were neatly aligned. Looking on the brighter side, it would make our tent distinguishable, allowing us less confusion when it comes to identifying our tent at night.
Pitching a tent was more fun than tiring. It was my first time pitching a real tent and it was a great experience. Yahui, who had once been in the Outdoor Activities Club (ODAC) was the only one in our group with the knowledge of pitching tents. Following her instructions closely, we managed to pitch our tent properly with a little help from a few ODAC-ers who were walking around helping anyone who seemed to be struggling with pitching their tents. I do not know about my other group members but I felt a sense of accomplishment then.
After we moved our belongings to our tents, Mr Frank Tan began his talk about safety and discipline in the camp. It was a little scary at first to hear him talk about all the different types of dangers that could happen to those who stray from the boundaries of safety but I knew that it was so that we could enjoy our stay in Kahang without anything unbecoming happening to us.
Lunch was after the briefing and I realized to my horror that everything was organic. I did not really mind the taste of the brown rice or the vegetables but what bothered me most was the taste of the fish. I was not used to freshwater fish as I only ate seawater fish at home. It was a new taste to me and honestly I did not like it. I found it weird that others really liked the fish. It was perhaps a case of “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”. The rice milk provided as beverage was also a new taste altogether.
Mr Tan Hoe Teck made sure we were all fed and happy before he gave his briefing. Once again, his emphasis was on safety. One of the activities that we did was the tetra mapping exercise. It was like a personality test and I enjoyed doing it. My elements were in this order: Earth, Fire, Air and lastly Water. The basis of this personality test is that one cannot live without even one of these elements. Hence, we have “dominant” elements which determine our character and how we do things in life. Yahui’s dominant element is Air, Lindy’s is Fire while Rishi and Milu both had water as their main element. This made our group fairly balanced and this made me more convinced that we would do well as a group since we could bank on each other’s strength to make the project a success.
We also found out that we could approach different groups for information that we could use. For example, we could ask the group researching on the forest for possible locations to place our pitfall traps to trap insects. As a camp, all of us had to be interdependent to carry out our projects.
Since our group consisted of 4 girls and a guy, the teachers decided to allocate a male student from BPGHS to join group 16. At first glance Wei Siong seemed to me like a black bear but when I got to know him better over the course of the next few days, I found out that his tanned skin was a result of being under the sun too often. He was in his school’s canoe team.
After the second briefing, everyone in the camp was divided into 2 groups. The groups who had to carry out their research in the padi fields and farms would follow a camp instructor while those carrying out their research in the forest had to follow another camp instructor named Han Cheong. He was really insightful and knowledgeable when it came to the different aspects of the forest. I never had such a good nature walk before.