On the 31st may 2014, I got the opportunity to visit an island that I was totally unfamiliar with (probably read about it only during my secondary school life). These activities have been organized by Bukit Batok RC zone 3. I decided to take part, so that I could take a glimpse on the unknown island, probably can learn some experience in organizing such big group of tour trip, make some new friends and hope a few nice girls could come along the way (this is what I though to be).
I reached the gathering point (at Bukit batok RC) around 0740 hours. I could see quite a big crowd of people (well mix of Chinese, Malay and Indians). Most of them come in a family group (some elderly and some kids. On the other hand, there are fewer young volunteers around my age or even lesser for those in the 20s. according to what I overheard, I think there are around 110 people taking part. At least for the people I know, ying di / rui ye / yanling / enling and jiachi do take part.
Jinmei tried to introduce a RC people Choon Beng (hope I don’t get his name wrong) to me, but either because he is too busy or some other reason, we don’t talk well. Around 0800 hours, we took a one of a few buses to marina south pier. we (me and Gouliang) meet up with Tianwei at the pier harbor. Previously a day ago, Sigmund wants to come, and just less than 8hours, he changes his mind.
We started the tour with a visit to marina exhibition at marina pier; the talk was nice and took around 45 minutes. Around 10am, we took one of the front boats (total of 10 boats as each boat can only take 12 people) to the island. There is so many barang barang to be bought, so we have to help carry them on the boat (job of a volunteer).
The boat trip took around 20 minutes, but we stay in the harbor for nearly 90 minutes (for the rest of the people to arrive, and the later stage took lunch. After lunch, we were tasked to help up in carrying the items into the chalet. There is totally no car transport, and we need to carry by foot (for over 1 km, I think). This is definitely one of the toughest job as only less that 10 volunteers to hand carry / push trolley for goods of around 100 people, and further more , we have to climb a small hill to reach the destination. In the end, the entire volunteer was exhausted.
After lunch, we had around 2 hours of free time to settle down. We were being allocated to Room 9 (Bunk 9 maybe). To me, It really looks like an army bunk, with only fans. There are moths flying in and out at times. The room was meant to house all the volunteers, it has total of 12 beds, but we have only 10 people (8 guys plus 2 gals). The rest of the people was housed in different locations, and seem very far away.
Around 1430 hours, the group gathered to have the first game, but Choon beng was running around the place and did not actually brief us what is happening, so we can only watch from behind. its seems to me that not all people join in the activities, and the organizer didn’t try to do any ice breaking games to get us closer or know each other ( probably most of them knew each other from the previous activities they gone thru , thus ice breaking not necessary.
But for me, almost all of the people were virtually unknown to me and the people I knew didn’t turn up for the game as well , so I might just stay at the sideline seeing them breaking into 5 groups ( Pulau UBin/ Pulua Tekong / Kusu island / jurong island and sentosa). Tianwei managed to join one of the group (Pulau Tekong) which also include one (and probably the only) pretty volunteer, hui ling. blessing from tianwei, I managed to get take a photo with the pretty lady.
the activities lasted around an hour, which free time followed afterwards. Its was only very late that I was make known that there are activities initally planned , but the volunteers was too tired to carry them out , so it was substituted with free time.
During the free times, we were mostly kept to ourselves, and we don’t really mingle well, the other group of volunteers with choon beng (and the 2 gals) talked to themselves. We spent an hour or so touring on the island. There are only one shop seen but not open (its looks like closed shop already). We managed to get a group photo with the 3 gals near the harbor.
At night, we had dinner provided by the RC. Jin Mei make up some delicious vegetarian food (around 10 plus people took vegetarian that night). After that we had some night activities, camp fire and costume contest. We were informed in the last minute, and tianwei agreed to be the model. Due to insufficient time, we didn’t really do a good job dressing tianwei to be superman (all the newspaper dropped out after a while). We also carried some lanterns and took a tour around the island.
The activities ended around 1030 hours. Since there are very few things we can do, we played some card games before turning in to sleep.
Should stop for now
Continue later
Huitai
After a group photo , 20odd of us is being split into 2 groups to take a boat (10 mins ) to Pulau ubin. After reaching , we took our barang barang ( much less than the things we need to carry during the st John trip ) to the nearby chalet ( not as far as well).
After we settled down , we were being split into 3 groups ( initially from 4 groups), but some cant make it in the last minute, so we cut down on 1 group. I was with one of the group led by Zhi Hui, and with there are ruixiang, deming, maoru, shengliang and yanling.
After a simple breakfast, we started walking to the bicycle shop to rent a bicycle to cycle to Chek Jawa. The trip wasn’t too difficult as it took us around 45 minutes, except some up-slopes were pretty difficult to cycle and we need to come down from the bicycle, and push thru it. Down-slopes were more easy but more dangerous, and we got one casualty falling down (Li min), fortunately, it’s wasn’t too bad as there are only some scratches.
At Chek Jawa, we had a game of Treasure Hunt. We supposed to see some pre-taken photos of scenery, and find them to take the photos again (total of 20odds photos). Most of them relatively easy except the photo of 2 stones (we took some time to realize the place). For my thought, Chek jawa had improved a lot since the last time (11 years ago)
After the game, we cycle back to the chalet to have lunch and some outdoor games.
For lunch wise, we were given some raw ingredients to cook (suppose to cook 4 dishes) and judges will compare which groups have the best food. We managed to think thru and come out with 5 dishes instead. With Ruixiang cooking most of the time, I guess he should be cooking for a quite a well at home
After lunch, we have some games in the canteen area for 2 hours (using some beans or ping pong ball)
After the games, some of us went for kayaking. The boat rowing wasn’t as scary as I thought and the waves were pretty so non of us actually capsize in the sea. I managed to join Gouliang in a 2 man kayak. Controlling the kayak prove to be very difficult as we cannot turn left or right freely, and traveling in a straight line prove to be as tough and we turn left or right most of the time , totally out of our control
After a one hour kayak, we had a bath, and settle down for BBQ. The food was pretty ok but amount wise a little too much in so every one have to (tabao) some back home
Finally around 2045 hours, we pack up and left the island
Looking backwards, the trip was very good thanks to the effort of the organizers (guiping) and those who organize the games (Ruixiang / Gouliang / Jin quan / deming)
Lastly, some minor thoughts. World cup 2014 is finally here, I managed to watch the Brazil vs. Croatia match on channel 5. I unable to watch the other games as I cant find any effective live streaming on the net and the coffee shop below my house didn’t telecast any live matches. Fortunately, one of friend managed to find me a hand phone app, so I can watch one tonight (Germany Vs Portugal)
Looking forward for this world cup, I still hopping that Asia teams could shine and any of the 4 teams to progress into the next round. It’s quite disappointing for Japan and Australia to lose in the first match, hope that they could bounce back in the second one.
God bless every time, all the time
