living the life that I want to

Friday, November 30, 2007

EOY Canoeing Trip 2007
Gopeng, Perak
26th November 2007- 29th November 2007

Day 1--- Singapore to Gopeng, Perak

Slept at 2am the night before, must have been the butterflies in my tummy at the excitement of going up to malaysia with my Canoeing team. So I said my goodbyes to mummy and daddy and lugged my freaking heavy backpack all the way from the front porch to the specs gall to meet up with the rest (: (: note to self: I shall not seek advice from people like nathantan next time on how many sets of clothes to bring, or I'll overpack once again. My bag was some monster compared to the other girls la -_-" After waiting for everyone to arrive, we boarded the bus and we SET OFF! :D slept throughout most of the trip, yes, in the most unglam positions cos the back row didn't have a nice foot rest. deborah tan was the "glammest" of all. ahahahha! During the second half of the trip, we did really dumb things i.e. play "I have never....", daidee, bridge (I reckon someone rigged the cards cos' somehow I got telephone nos.) + forfeits HAHAHA! deborah tan will have a nice memory of lap-dancing on uPapa for a long time :D

After enduring approximately 8 hours of travelling, we were told that we had another mode of transport to go through before reaching My Gopeng Resort. Turned out to be a lorry. Looked quite similar to the one I took in Myanmar (2002), but this time, no seats, no shelter. So they whizzed us off like goats to the slaughter house -_-" It was like playing some game la, the guys at the front yelled occasional "DUCK!", "DOWN!", "WATCH THE SIDE!". If not, there were the grunts of "OUCH" or "WAHPIANG!" when the low-lying branches smack into our face. mmhmmm. I can safely say that that was a really good icebreaker for the team, cos it promoted team-bonding. Literally. People were pulling on to t-shirts, pants and God knows what.

Arrived at around 6pm (in one piece, thankfully), ate dinner. The first night's dinner was pretty good actually, though a tad too salty for me. And then reflections! My group: cheryl, priya, shenghao, victor, winnie, michael, jerome and mr.koh! Enjoyed leading the reflections actually. Some things the others said, really made me reconsider my personal thoughts. Initially, I thought that people would be too shy to speak up, or worse, give PC answers. But instead, I was impressed with how open every one was, with each other :D Talked about the objectives of the trip: self-discovery, learning more about our teammates, closing the guy-girl divide......

I really respect michael you know, haven't really spoken to him before but he said: "I want to be the pillar of support for the team. To be hardcore and to lead by example." The topic of new J1s coming in next year and us being the seniors was brought up quite occasionally. In response to the prospect of SJI boys coming in to threaten the position of the guys' team, Mr Koh said: "This is a fact that all of you have to grapple with. In the end, only the best will represent the college. But whatever it is, you all have to stay strong as a team of Raffles Canoeists..."

Day 2--- Caving + White water rafting

EXHILARATING. That was the one word I used to describe my experience on day 2.

First up was Caving. As we donned our helmets, I thought of all the stories that yunhui described to me before the trip. About bat droppings, dirty caves etc.. So we were loaded onto the lorry once again (it was our primary mode of transport for the following days), we made our way to Gua Tempurung. The branches grew overnight I tell you, cos' I kena whacked countless times in the face on the way out -_- Anyway, after we cleared the undergrowth and emerged into open space, the sight was beautiful. The picturesque view of the sunlight shining through the mist on the mountaintop was simply breathtaking. Pity that we couldn't bring along our cameras cos' of the expedition that lay ahead of us.

Entering the cave was such a humbling experience to me. This might sound really stupid, but I was really awed by the vast expanse of the cave. The rock formations of sea horses, fishes, human beings, and the patterns created by the combination of bat droppings plus water was simply stunning. According to the guide, Gua Tempurung, probably the largest limestone cave in Malaysia, is over 40 million years old! amazing ain't it. Walked up and down 1050 steps (some IMBA quads trng) before we were led to this "slide". Okay, if you didn't know, bernice heng has an innate fear of--- HEIGHTS. Put me up in any HDB flat, I'll freeze. Must have been my stupid experience of falling over a railing in my house when I was really young -_-" yepp, so basically we had to slide down on our hands and butts into a 3m high drop. Not too high, but yet, my legs were just shivering on their own. rawrrrrr. But I made it with no broken bones whatsoever, thanks to liangjie and winnie for being our reliable brakes at the bottom of the slide :D yay thanks guys

Thought that the slide was the climax of our trip into the cave? I was so wrong. The guide introduced us to the entrance of the river adventure. It was this really tiny hole that we had to clamber through. ahhhh the water was super super shiok!!! :D Apparently, it has healing properties, for example if you soak in it, it's supposed to strengthen your bones because of the high calcium content of the water! so yeahhh, whenever I had the opportunity, I soaked my knees and ankles! yayy! Hope there was some bone regrowth or something.

Well, initially the water level was ankle deep, however, as we went deeper in......... the fun began. Imagine your bed. mmmhm, the ceiling was probably as high as the top of your bed. and the gravel floor, yep, the floor of your room. So we were forced to lie prone and wiggle our way across or slide on our backs and somehow get through. Wet. FREAKING COLD. Painful. mmmhm, basically sums up everything. And being klutzy me, I tripped over rocks and bruised myself countless times. I shall not go there. But yeah, caving was my favourite experience this trip! :D I really don't mind going again! hahaha!

Lunched

White water rafting! :D split up into groups of 5/6. Selene, marcus, jerome, mr koh and our guide (I can't remember his name. ooops) were in my blue dingy! :D zomg, had to take a short swim along the river to our launching positions. Loved the flowing water, water's my element! :D yeayyy. Thank goodness I managed to swim against the current to shore, or I'd just be washed down :/ super funnnnnnn! hahahha! it's like some mini rollercoaster! Just that it's super wet, and kinda scary at some parts. Poor Mr. Koh fell out of the dingy when we reached this part with 3 slopes :/ :/ was just shocked to see him flung out and floating down the river *faints. errr.... I think the guide must have thought that selene and I were some clumsy dudus cos we kept falling off our seats and sliding here and there. hahahahaha! It was freaking hilarious to see each other sliding across the dingy and struggling to get up :D hahaa!

Took a short break after 1 hour? mmhmm, and yes. I finally got retribution for all the times I threw birthday people onto the field -_-" and got thrown into the water instead. At least it wasn't that dirty. hahaha :D Priya joined me afterward. hahha!

The second part of the journey wasn't as violent as compared to the upper portion of the river. Well, that excludes the water fights that is -_-" the stupid grey dingy which consisted of liangjie, aaron, victor, MEERA and misswong kept picking water fights with us. Okay, maybe not just us, they had something against every other boat. hahahaha! Tried forming alliances with other dingys, BUT, our plan kinda backfired and our peace treaties were a complete failure. Seriously, its during these kind of experiences that you realise how playful the teachers can be. GGM looked like a little boy whilst splashing water at mrkoh la. hahahaha! darn it, should have taken a video. haha!

So that was it, the water activities were over :( :( pretty tiring I must say. Must have been all the laughing and "oh my goodness"-ing haha. Unforgettable experience.

Night reflections as usual and talked about the team contract etc. Got some really cute responses when I asked my group "what's one thing that you've learnt about someone else in the team?" From what I can remember:

victor: siti will make a really good malaysian guide. she told me a lot about the rubber trees
winnie: soolin's quite violent. (HAHAHA! WINNIE! I AGREE WITH YOU)
michael: I learnt that the canoeing girls aren't like other girls. They eat alot unlike those who are ano etc.
jerome: _____ snores really loudly.

hahaha! yeppp
Guess everyone was pretty bonked out by the day's activities, cos' the dorm was all silent once the lights went out. But I just kept talking to my angel MEERA all the way till 1am :D feels good just talking to someone. and.... she was the first person to wish me happy 17th! YAYY love you MEERA!

Day 3--- High Ropes Course/ Rock climbing & Natural Rock Climbing AND.... MY BDAY! :D

yayyy! Was in a super good mood cos it was the 28th of November! :D hahahah! ohyeahhhh. Took the lorry off to the high ropes course place--- help. Although I've gone through this so many thousand times in RGS, I still have this feeling of dread whenever I see that stupid challenge pole. nvm, I shall leave that to later.

After a short warmup session with dai(sukae), where I had to carry deb and deb had to piggyback me... (sorry deb, I think I almost broke your back) we split into 2 groups and my group started with abseiling! well, who does such cool stuff on her bday man (: haha! Never tried abseiling down a natural rock wall before, so it was a nice change. malu-ed myself 3 times up there. hahaha! slammed into the side blahblahblah -_-" thanks girls for singing my bday song :D kinda took the fear of height away. Rock climbing was pretty fun too! though I got scraped by the sharp edges -.-, but yeah, overall a pleasant experience.

lunch was kinda :( :( that was the root of the food poisonings that occured :( poor guys. Some of them were hit pretty badly. rawrrr. Imagine your food swarmed with flies -_-

Second section was the actual high ropes course. FLYING FOX WAS DA BOMB (: Had to go through all the traumatizing stations just to get to that finale :D I'm so glad that I garnered enough courage to jump off that platform. Seriously, I don't know what got into me that day. Somehow, my fear of heights wasn't that overpowering as with previous experiences. Guess it must have been the group of people you're with. People who keeps encouraging, not for the sake of showing your teachers that you're being "encouraging" (back in rg) but because they really care and mean well. I think the guide up there must have thought that I was some deranged girl, cos I was laughing like some mad woman. hahah! Thanks MEERA for catching me at the other end, and marcus for getting the chair for me, for without that, I would have just been dangling mid-air.

that's deb and me before the challenge pole

Leap of Faith aka Challenge Pole up next. omgggg as I mentioned earlier, the challenge pole is the bane of my life. I've never leaped off that platform before spending 10mins up there. I'm not kidding. But yeah, the girls sang my bday song (again) haha! and held at the berniceeeeeeeee....... so I just told myself "freak, there are people down there waiting for me. just jump" and so I did (: yay, in a way, I'm pretty proud of myself. That means I broke my record hahahaha :D thanks everyone, for being there.

Since the lorry didn't come, we split up to fit into two mini trucks. ZOMG PRIYA.... the spongebob man is sooooo cute right? :D hahahha! loved his accent (: (: hahaah! He told us of this really funny story about how a durian bounced off this indian man's head onto his wife's and nothing really happened to him. his wife got hospitalized btw. (I reckon that he was wearing a turban)

washed up. full-team talk :D then BBQ! hahaha! The food was pretty good! I enjoyed the beehoon the most though. hahaha. I conclude that the guys can actually bbq food! (: (: the sambal stingray was really well done :D

my favourite girls (;

and then.... all of a sudden the lights went off, thought there was a power failure again, but instead eugene came out carrying this huge black chocolate cake. SO TOUCHED (: (: I'm still wondering where they got the cake from, but anyway.... it was really huge. hahaha! THANKS EVERYONEEEE. Nothing better than spending my 17th birthday with the bestest group of friends. LOVE ALL OF YOU <3>rest, talked rubbish and learnt about jerome's tendency to bring screwdrivers around in his bag for "protection" hahahah! :D After that, we pulled out the benches onto the courtyard and star-gazed. Sorry aaron! I really mistook you for cheryl -_-" yep, so anw, we lay on the benches to look at the stars..... did 2 leg raises haha! Although it was freaking cold, the mozzies came out to play so I had to zipp myself into my windbreaker. According to aaron and nathan, I blended well into the surroundings and hence I was in "stealth mode" thanks guys o.o" failed attempts to tip me off the bench. And so we just sat there under the moonlight crapping and the guys told us about some amusing stuff about RI boys and the teachers. hahaha (: I'll remember that night for a really long time...... thanks for the company.

Day 4--- Home sweet home

Didn't go to bed till about 4am? hahah! siti, soo, cheryl and deb woke up at like 6am for sunrise. Refused to get up cos' I was having the rashing spells again and yeahhh... the feeling just sucked. Woke up at 7am and started packing up. hahaha! MEERA can tell you how untidy I am -_-" We all made the decision to skip the summit gym rat race thing and return to Singapore cos' many people were hit quite badly by the food poisoning. Eugene looked like he was going to collapse any time :( :( marcus, shenghao, victor, minqi also kena :( :(

so yeah, took our last lorry ride out of My Gopeng Resort and took the long bus ride home...

This trip made me realize how much I'll miss this bunch of people after our season ends. Some how although this expedition didn't require actual teambuilding such as crashing through thick jungles, I felt that we were united in spirit and the reflections made me realize the gravity of my responsibility to lead this bunch of strong individuals towards Nationals 2008 next year.

The stakes are high at next year's Nationals, we've vowed to fight back for our seniors and to row for ourselves. To carry ourselves with pride, to win with humility and lose with grace. Now I can safely say that we've bonded as ONE team. The barriers have been lowered (although there are still some odd ones out) and we'll complete this race as the batch of 0708 Raffles Canoeists. As we're forced to face reality once again, I hope that we'll be able to translate all that we've experienced in the 4days and 3 nights to keep us going till the very end.

RAFFLES ROW.

10:31 pm