Secondary 3 Camp 2000

03 June 2005

Secondary 3 Camp 2000 at MOE Punggol 24th Ave Adventure Centre
As part of our school's policy to promote character development, all Secondary 3 students who have not been exposed to outdoor residential camping in their secondary school life would need to attend a Residential Camp. Planned by PE HOD Ms Lim, the camp will be held at MOE Punggol 24th Ave Adventure Centre from 1.6.00 to 3.6.00. The camp fee is $60 per pupil, which the school will subsidise $50. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper will be provided and there will be transport from the school to the campsite and back...

The main objectives of the camp includes providing an opportunity for interaction with other schoolmates; experience outdoor life and group living; exchange of ideas; promote teamwork, co-operation and camaraderie; and to bring out leadership qualities... Treasure hunts with Science themes, orienteering, outdoor painting and sculpture building are some of the activities that will be conducted during the camp...

Packing for the camp
Upon obtaining the packing list, I notice that I do not have many of the items listed. Thankfully it is only a suggested pack list, which only requires a few compulsory items like House T-shirts, long pants and painting set... As such, I only bring T-shirts, sports shorts, undergarments, long pants, towels, socks, running shoes, plasters, medications, torchlight, fork, spoon, mug, scissors, nail clippers, notebook (my school's colloquial for exercise book), pen and painting set. Being a huge fan of SPEED, I printed the cover of "my greatest memories", "Red Beat of My Life", "Bright Daylight" and "INORI" and pasted them in the notebook...

Without any outdoor camping experience and this being my first time staying out alone, I really had no idea on what to bring. As a result, I left out numerous outdoor camping essentials...

Being afraid of insomnia, I bring jim jim along, a decision I would regret later...

Day 1 (1 June 2000)
On 1.6.00, I reported to school at 9.30am sharp in home clothes as instructed. After completing the administrative procedures, we boarded the bus at 10am for MOE Punggol 24th Ave Adventure Centre. The bus drove along Punggol Road and Ponggol 17th Ave, bypassing the upcoming Punggol town and a vast expanse of abandoned fruit plantation. The bus reached Punggol Marina at 10.30am, which is the wrong destination further down the rural track. The bus headed back towards MOE Punggol 24th Ave Adventure Centre, which we drove passed earlier. Finally, we reached MOE Punggol 24th Ave Adventure Centre at 10.40am...

MOE Punggol 24th Ave Adventure Centre
Although named after Ponggol 24th Ave, MOE Punggol 24th Ave Adventure Centre is actually more accessible from Ponggol 17th Ave, where its main gate is located. MOE Punggol 24th Ave Adventure Centre comprises the adventure centre, field, rear beach for watersports, toilet and bathroom in containers, air-conditioned container rooms for staff, a big tent and several yellow tents below the slope and on top the slope for boys...

I have a very bad impression on the campsite upon arrival. Contradictory to my imagination, the campsite is considerably shabby... The worst place in the campsite is the container toilet and bathroom, which are the dirtiest I ever visited in my life. It is so disgusting that I have difficulty describing the toilet and bathroom in words. Rust, algae and dirt are basically everywhere, highly concentrated below the shower, on the pipes and on the metal floor. Just by looking at this horrible and disgusting container toilet and bathroom is enough to make my stomach upset...

Passionate Blue Panther
It was already 11am after everyone unloaded from the buses and gathered at the big tent for briefing by Ms Lim. We are divided into 8 teams according to the respective houses. I am under "Passionate Blue Panther", with my PE Teacher Mr Ali as our teacher in-charge. Furthermore, I am lucky enough to have fellow band-mates Xue Han in my team. After the briefing, Ice-Breaking Games started at 11.30am to familiarize us with team members...

Lunch is on 12pm and for every meal, we need to cheer up to Mr Ali's standard in order to receive our meal. At the same time, we are being allocated a tent. Eight boys are allocated to a tent and boys of Passionate Blue Panther are allocated to the tent nearest to the road, just beside the fence...

Activities of the camp officially starts after lunch and each team follow a different schedule. My team change into long pants for our first activity Rope Climbing / Flying Fox, which started at 1pm. This is later followed by Team Work at 3pm. Both activities are being supervised by Mr Ali, who would select candidates to complete a certain challenge with the main objectives of promoting teamwork...

There is a mandatory free time at 5pm before all teams gather at the rear beach for a tug of war Telematch at 6pm. It was a beautiful experience of pulling the ropes with rising tide level and picturesque sunset. This moment reminds me of the tranquil PV of "ALIVE", in which SPEED is filmed singing and walking along the beautiful beach...

Dinner is served at 7pm. At 8pm, four of the teams set off for their night walk, whereas the remaining 4 teams, including Passionate Blue Panther, remained at the big tent for Talent Time Discussion.

While discussing, members in my team take turn to take a shower... Although extremely disgusted with the bathroom, I managed to conquered my fear and take a quick shower there. However, it is really a terrifying experience and horror is further enhanced with the frequent short and abrupt blackout. It simply makes me want to vomit by just looking at the high concentration of rust, algae and dirt. To overcome this, I simply closed my eyes while showering and minimized contact inside the cubicle. This is the worst shower I ever took in my life. Severely terrified, I only took 1 bath in the container bathroom for the 3 days. Except for brushing teeth and peeing, I did not step into the container toilet unnecessarily...

Night Walk at Punggol Forest
After much anticipation, our Night Walk into Punggol Forest (via Ponggol 17th Ave & Punggol Road) finally kicked off at 10pm. Bus #82, then operated by TIBS and terminates at Punggol Road End Bus Terminal, is the only bus route that ply on Punggol Road, connecting Punggol Point to the City Centre. As Punggol is relatively ulu and undeveloped, most of bus #82 were empty. While walking along Punggol Road, countless bus #82 would speed past us, providing an alternate thrill...

Inside the forest, it is totally dark and we can't see what is beneath our feet or where we are heading to. We were not allowed to switch on our torch, so as not to disturb the wildlife or spoil the ambience. Therefore, the issued light stick becomes our only source of light. It was a cool walk that rely completely on teamwork and verbal communication among teammates. I enjoyed the night walk, but due to time limit, we did not reached the beach, where teams in the 1st batch managed to reached there... Again, this night walk reminds me on the PV of "ALIVE" in which SPEED trekked through a forest...

Insomnia at MOE Punggol 24th Ave Adventure Centre
It is already 12am when we return from the night walk. After consuming supper, I brushed my teeth at 12.30am and tried to get some sleep at 12.45am...

I cannot sleep on the first night because of home sick, the noisy Pasir Gudang port across the Johor Strait and the ultra-irritating mosquito. Besides biting, the mosquito also enjoys flying in and out of my ears. This causing me to develop entomophobia, a fear to small flying insect. The phobia becomes greater especially when small insects fly near to my ears. Luckily, I discovered that Mopiko also function as an insect repellent and I apply generously to uncovered parts of my body, especially around my ears...

Hearing conversation outside the tents, I gave up trying to sleep and joined the conversation with the boys. Tian An, Brandon and I (+ some others) talked for the whole night on the steps, staying awake till 2.6.00...

Day 2 (2 June 2000)
Day 2 starts off with breakfast at 7am. This is followed by Outdoor Painting, our first activity of the day, at 8am...

Canoeing to Pulau Punggol Timor
Canoeing commenced at 10am and it is the best activities in this camp, because canoeing is very fun. I also get to learn a new sport (how to paddle a canoe). Watersports was very rare then...

Split into a pair, I'm teamed with an unknown shy schoolmate from Normal Academic. My partner was super quiet and it was awkward silent throughout the entire activity, which affected our coordination.

We started paddling from the rear beach. We paddled across the mouth of Sungei Punggol to Pulau Punggol Timor, passing by Punggol Marina. As it was about to rain, Ms Lim and Mr Ali decided to paddle back to our campsite. Else, I think we would be able to canoe to Pulau Punggol Barat, or even Pulau Seletar.

As we paddled, sea water keeps flooding into our canoe, making us really wet. After returning our canoe, I took the 2nd and last shower in the camp at the outdoor shower together with my team members...

Canoeing is another beautiful experience under the grey overcast sky. Canoeing simply strengthens the association of my camping experience with the PV of "ALIVE"...

It is at this point of time that I regret bringing jim jim along as being so far away from my tent, I am afraid that jim jim might be stolen or get wet from the rain. But luckily nothing happened to my beloved jim jim throughout this camping trip...

Rainy Afternoon
After canoeing, we had lunch at 12pm. Thanks to Muslim Friday Prayer, we had a long Free Time. However, heavy rain in the afternoon caused flooding in our tent area. Thankfully, our tent is not badly affected. The tents situated down the slope, were badly flooded by mud and earthworms... In the end, we spent the afternoon protecting our belongings from the water and clearing the mess.

Rafting
Sculpture building started at 3pm. It is followed by the Science-themed Treasure hunt at 4pm...

Rafting take place on 5pm at the rear beach. We are required to build a raft using recycled materials provided. After the raft was constructed, 2 team members must sail on the raft into the sea. However, the raft built by Passionate Blue Panther simply split into pieces shortly after it set sail...

The dusk scenery is marvellous. A few families were fishing and having a picnic on the coast off Ponggol 17th Ave. Almost every activity at the rear beach will remind me on the PV of "ALIVE" and rafting is no exception...

Held on 6pm at the field, Day 2 Telematch is an inter-team relay race very similar to those played during primary school sports day... Although not as great as the tug of war telematch on day 1, the telematch on day 2 is still quite enjoyable...

"P.A.N.T.H.E.R."
Dinner is on 7pm. Several T-Shirts, including the Camp T-Shirt and an additional white-series House T-Shirt were distributed at 8pm.

Teams have their final Talent Time Discussion at 8.30pm before the actual Talent Time starts at 9.30pm. For Talent Time, Passionate Blue Panther presented a recital cheer "P.A.N.T.H.E.R.", which is obviously inspired on the word "Panther". Each of us recite a line, in which I recited the line "T - Tug of war is the needness of our strength"...

With 2 watersports lined up among the activities, Day 2 is a tiring day. Taking into consideration that I did not sleep yesterday, I was so tired during Talent Time that I actually fell asleep while sitting on a chair...

Supper was provided to us at 12am. After brushing my teeth at 12.30am, I returned to my tent for a good night sleep at 12.45am after applying huge amount of Mopiko. I woke up in the middle of the night due to mosquito bites and while touching up on Mopiko, Ms Lim happened to check on my tent and told me to sleep early...

Day 3 (3 June 2000)
Finally, 3.6.00 is the last day of this camp. On 6.45am I woke up to the morning call from Tian An. As it was still early with little people around and I'm really sick of the disgusting ambience of the toilet, I brushed my teeth using water from the Water Cooler and split into the drain. After breakfast at 7am, we packed up all our belongings at 8am and returned the tents at 9am. Due to lack of time, Orientation, which was originally planned as the final activity for Passionate Blue Panther was cancelled. It was replaced with Campsite Clean-up at 9.10am.

At 9.40am, everyone waited anxiously for the bus. Boarding the bus at 10am, we bypassed the abandoned fruit plantation and Punggol town that was under construction again. We arrived school at 10.30am.

I reached home at 11am. I was so tired that I slept for hours on the sofa... It was already late afternoon when I wake up. I went shopping with my family, buying Eriko with Crunch's "Red Beat of My Life" and the OP dragon T-Shirts...

As Secondary 3 Camp is a memorable experience, I wrote diary entry in the notebook... Activities of this camp were really very fun, but the accommodation and basic facilities are just too lousy...

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