Saturday, September 24, 2005

Overnight camp at Ubin

Got to Changi Jetty at almost 5pm...after a super long walk...was super hungry then...last meal I had was bfast at abt 8am!!! Wah...

Bought myself some snacks and a drink...then went to the carpark outside PA seasports club to look for Ryal, Jacqueline and Merey...my hands were already full...hehe...so din help them carry stuff :P
From there we went to meet up with the rest of the team members at the Changi Village market...met Ranmali...our Sri Lankan fren!!

Oh ya..did I mentioned we are having a Sri Lankan immersion weekend camp...hehe...that's how Merey put it...'cos we are there to learn some Singhala words from Ranmali and also get to know more about their culture...the "do"s and "don't"s :D

We took the bumboat over to Ubin...my second time...or rather third time in the sea on Sat...if I include the swimming part...hehe...it was a pretty quick ride...


Group photo on the bumboat...Hang Chong looks damn cute in that huge shirt...haha


When we reached there, we splitted into 2 groups...one grp when to buy dinner for the rest...err...dunno wat the other grp did leh...guess u know which grp I'm in lah...I was hungry lah :P

Wah...they took damn long to cook man!!! Thought we can save time by packing our dinner...in the end we spent so much time waiting in the coffee shop...both grps were there by the time the food was ready...no time to walk to our camp site liao...so we got the van to come pick us up...

It would have been a pretty long but nice walk to our camp site...oh well...take van faster lah...me hungry liao...hehe :P
At the camp site, we put down our stuff and immediately pitch the tents...Jasmine and I went to tie our hammock first...under the coconut trees...dangerous or not, huh? There was actually a coconut that dropped from one of the trees when we were having dinner...hehe...well...I'm still alive and well to tell my story...so nothing happened...haha ;D



Learnt some things while pitching the tents...lesson no. 1 of that day....logo always face the front...haha...
We had 3 tents...looks pretty hot in the tent...I shall sleep in the hammock...hehe

After that, we had our dinner...me had salted fish fried rice...told aunty not to put taugeh liao...she still put...nvm...not a lot...shall pick them out ;P
During dinner, our discussion some how ended up with how many time we actually say the word "actually"...haha...from America's Next Top Model...I din watch that episode though...fell asleep rather early that day...

After dinner, we decided to put up our lanterns...er...or did we put up the lantern before dinner? Can't rem liao...hunger makes me forget everything...
Anyway, we then proceed to our nicely laid out ground sheets for our Singhala language class with Ranmali...



The first word we learnt was "Ayubowan"...hehe...pronounced like.."are u bowan"..."No, I'm Penguin"...we are really naughty hor...
Anyway, we had a lot of fun learning from Ranmali...hehe...I'm sure she had a lot of fun with us too :D
Ranmali even helped us write our names in Singhalese characters...I shall try to reproduce it and put it up on the blog...one fine day...hehe

After our language lesson, we took a break...eating mooncake...some exotic flavors...hehe...got chocolate, durian etc...


We also moonwatched during the break...Hang Chong brought the telescope...it's his fren's


Then we split into 2 groups for some role play...Merey is our victim...then each group is supposed to..err..sort of..counsel her...my group was supposed to be the negative demo...haha...damn funny...we kept talking abt money can do everything...we can provide money etc...dman jialat...

Anyway, after that, we discussed abt our trip...the main things we'll be doing there are for turtle conservation purposes...to help them with alternative means of earning a living as they r currently selling turtle eggs for a living!!!

A summary of wat we plan to do there...
(1) help them with nature guiding training,
(2) help refurbish the community library e.g. exhibits on conservation work
(3) introduce coastal clean ups a lot of the "rubbish" there such as unwanted fishing nets, plastic bags, styrofoams can kill the marine life including the turtles...besides...it also help the turtles to find a suitable spot to lay their eggs...the turtles might just leave the beach if they can't find any suitable spot
(4) IDP camp/school visits...we'll have activities mainly targetted at the children

Of course...not everything we planned will definitely be carried out there...there'll always be hiccups...minor or major...we won't know until we reach there...so wish us luck!!! ;)

By the time we finished our discussion...it was past midnight...everyone went to wash up...then San San and I slept in our hammock...while the rest slept in the tents...at least in the beginning...apparently most of them came out after a while 'cos it's too hot in there!! I slept like a pig...till 4.45am...when everyone seem to be up liao...hehe

Took turns to wash up...had bfast...then packed up and proceeded for our nature walk...
Wah...luck was not on our side...it started raining not long after...luckily we decided to take shelter rather than continuing with the walk...when we reached the shelter...it started pouring damn heavily...I was damn cold man...and all our stuff were not with us...
We ended up chatting under the shelter until the van came back to pick us up...
We had bfast...again...at one of the coffee shops...
By the time we are finishied, the rain seem to have stopped!! We decided to go check out the sensory trail...specially designed for the visually disabled...it's really interesting...but there were a lot of mosquitoes there...hehe...so we had to make or own insect repellent...from the citronella plant...hehe...so fun!!!

After the sensory trail, we went to the visitor center...as usual...


One last group photo before we left...since it rained while we were at Chek Jawa...had to take photo in front of the Check Jawa mural...hehe


From the visitor center we saw 3 hornbills that were feeding on figs...according to Hang Chong, our bird lover...he has never seen the hornbills so closed up before...wow...so cool...we got to see it!!!


Check out the closed up photo of the hornbill eating figs!!


After that, it's time to leave...I'm rather stoned by then...but we decided to go visit the Changi Prison as it's part of the World War II specials...can go collect commerative pins...

Hmm...but when we arrived...found out that gotta pay to take their guided tour to be able to collect the pin...aiya...forget it lah...
In the end, one of the nice lady working there gave us one of her own as they are given a few for free ;D

Then, it's time for me to go home and sleep...but first...gotta give Soon Tat a call...hehe...asked him to give me wake up call b4 he leave TPY2...scared I oversleep...then no one cover the pharmacy at night...hee...yup...I was supposed to work that night...630-10pm ;P

That night at the pharmacy...I saw this ang mo lady wearing the desaru tri t-shirt into the pharmacy...hehe...she was looking for bonjela...apparently she bit her own tongue when someone kicked her while she was swimming....hmmm...did I kick her? oops...well...it's business strategy...injure ur customer when they can't identify u...then later they'll come to ur pharmacy to buy something for their injury?? haha...starting to talk rubbish...it's time to sleep...zzzzzz

8 comments:

kops21 said...

another taugeh "lover" like my sweetheart. ;)

Fd said...

haiyohhh.. wats that sia..

penguin said...

Fd: u asking wat? taugeh? or the weird comment someone posted and i have deleted?

penguin said...

kops21: i also have other taugeh "lover" frens...hehe...maybe we can form an "interest" group...haha

Fd said...

yeah i was refering to the weird one on cheating spouse dunno wat. heh.

u ah. once an islander, always an islander. hehehe i heard chek jawa is nice. shud go one day. maybe Sgrunners trip hor!

penguin said...

Fd: Chek Jawa...if i'm not mistaken...cannot anyhow enter one...need to sign up for the guided reef walk...free one...but very long queue...and probably next reef walk is next year liao...

Fd said...

serious ah? how come last time my geog teacher like suka2 oni want to bring us there?
seems to him like we can go there anytime we want leh.. maybe it's changed now.

kops21 said...

word verification is on? Haha...i know y....i kena also...;(

taugeh club ? gonna cause a riot...