This is what has happened to me for the last few days.
1 Sep (Fri)
Reached school at 4pm. Set off from school to Tanjong Pagar Railway station, where we boarded a train to Jerantut. In all, 62 year 4 students, as well as 7 teachers (Ms Loh, Ms Chua, Ms Tan, Mr Png, Mr Sukandar, Mr Ho, and me) went with them. The students were arranged into 7 groups, each group attached to a teacher. Mine was Group 3 (with Aiwei, Yuheng, Leslie, Yunzhi, Lilian, Vivian, Alex and Eugene)
2 Sep (Sat)
We reached Jerantut Railway Station around 3am. We were then transferred to a super nice and beautiful plantation resort (The air is fresh) called Tekam plantation resort where the students spend a few hours in a shed trying to catch a quick nap, before proceeding for the day’s activities.
In the morning, my group tried Flying Fox, where we, with the aid of some special equipment, were to glide down a rope to another side of the river. Back from the other side of the river, the students were supposed to swim back with the aid of a rope. The students mentioned that the Flying Fox is not as fun as that they had for the level camp in previous year. But the most dreadful part was that we all have to get wet swimming back. Anyway I am glad that many students (and also some teachers) could overcome their fear of heights and try the activity. So cool!
Lunch time was great, with buffet lunch for the students. I never know that card games were so rampant in my school (Daidi, Bridge, Hearts, Gin Rummy etc…) The students were very well behaved, even for waiting times, they would not run about and create a din. They just sat down in groups of 4 and play the whole day long!
In the afternoon, my group tried building their own raft to sail across the river. It was great fun, using barrels and long plastic pipes to build a raft. In the end, my group used up the most number of barrels and pipes, took one of the longest time to build the raft, but our raft was the most intact after the competition (most other rafts were less recognizable after the competition) with some students not even getting wet! Well done Group 3.
In the late afternoon, we proceeded on to Gelanggi, where the students went to the campsite for the night. The campsite was indeed so special. The students have to climb some ladder to this huge cave, where tents are already set up for them inside the cave. It was really cool, sleeping inside this cave (which protects them from rain too). The teachers slept in a small hut some 100m below the entrance of the cave. There was a small toilet with flushing facilities nearby. Haha. Quite cool rite? Anyway in the end, I chose to a tent inside the cave with the students. The students are to sleep 4 people inside a tent, while I have one whole tent by myself. Haha.
At night, the students were to do a night walk along a path in the forest. In was almost pitch dark, and they were only given a candle to light their path. I was to accompany a group of 4 girls walking in that path. Could feel that some of them quite scared, especially when their candles were sniffed out along the way. Interesting experience, nevertheless. After that, we slept in the caves. Warm and stuffy around 11 pm, but siper cold at 4am the next morning.
3 Sep (Sun)Woke up for breakfast (nasi lemak and mee goreng) around 7am. At 8 am, my group was supposed to try abseiling and rock climbing in the morning. I did not try rock climbing but was on top of a 4 storey cliff for the abseiling group. In the end super funny to see how some students descended from the cliff. One boy shouted: “my butt! my butt! my butt! while descending coz his body was knocked onto the cliff to and fro. I could see some seemingly gung ho boys churning in fear while descending, while some quiet petite girls just descend steadily when it was their turn. I was very happy because I could see some students overcoming their fear of heights (one student took 15 min before she could pluck out enough courage to descend down, but in the end, she could overcome her fears) Tried abseiling myself, first time too, but super fun.
Lunch, the students were to cook their own food. Hmmm ... smells nice, surprisingly.
After that, we went caving. 4 of our groups went, so there were 4 teachers as well. It was really the most interesting event for this trip, where we had to walk and crawl inside the cave. The cave was really slippery, with bat droppings and mud all over the place. Some of the gaps where we went through were only as big as the size of one person! Some slopes were steep, but in the end, we were well rewarded by seeing formation of lime stones and the magnificent beauty of nature.
Towards the end of the journey, the students got split up, with the guide and some of the students in one group, the teachers and the rest of the students in another group. It was another mini adventure for us in trying to find our way out of the caves and out of the forest.
Night time was campfire, while the students were allowed to do their own activities beside the campfire. An eventful way to end the night!
4 Sep (Mon)The next morning, we set of to Kuala Tahan (Gateway to Taman Negara). We trekked up Bukit Teresek (344m height) while we caught a scenic view of the rainforest, before we visited Canopy Walkway (something like the HSBC tree top walk in Macritchie, except that it was much longer (450m in length, longest in Asia) and the scenery much nicer. Due to rain in the morning, the students came across many leeches along the way. In fact, I felt that this was the number 1 fear for most students. LEEEEECHHHH!!!!
After that, we went to a beach at Lubok Simpon for a tasty packed lunch (cooked by a restaurant boss himself), before boarding some ten-seater boats for a time of rapid shooting! The rapids were not as fun as splashing water to the people of other boats! In the end, all of us got soaked wet! This was the most enjoyable activity for most students. It might have been, if not for the fact that my spectacles flew out into the river in the midst of all the splashing!
Late afternoon, we checked into Woodland Resort, where the students stay inside a hostel (some rooms with even air con!) They had buffet dinner. Their time were free and easy, but I could see many of them being tired out after so many days of activities.
5 Sep (Tue)
Took a coach back to Singapore, with happy memories. As usual, the students were playing cards and some polar bear game throughout the journey, as well as ate KFC and Pizza Hut during lunch time. All in all, we could feel that many were happy with the experiences, new experiences throughout the trip, physically and mentally stretching, old friendships strengthened and new friendships formed, overcoming obstacles, and last of all, enjoying nature at its best.
P.S. Hopefully some photos could be uploaded in this blog in future. Need to catch hold of my photographer when school reopens!
