Hey there fellow people! How have all of you been lately? So, as you all already can guess by my title, I will be sharing with all of you my 3D 2N experience at Mawai Eco Camp. It happened back at 2Feb 2015 to 4Feb 2015. It is part of the golden opportunity given to me during the DPA in Singapore Polytechnic.
I would like to start off by saying that I am grateful to be in Group C, as all of you guys are friendly and amazing:)
Unlike most travelling, I was not going to stay at a hotel this time. I was going to stay at "kampong like" homes and learn to survive like in the pasts. Oh yes, I totally recommend you to buy the kampong Adidas shoes there, it helped me survive the swarm forest walk! And talking about the swarm forest walk, it is where we had to walk through a lane of thick and sticky mud, with the help of your friends and tree branches to maintain your balance.
So basically, on the very first day, when I arrived at the destination, the place was full of mosquitoes and the crimson sun was scorching hot, beating down on all of our tired souls. Then, we had to board a boat to reach to our sleeping areas, I will never forget how bumpy and scary it was to alight and board the boat. However, it was still a really great experience as we seldom get to board on boats around Singapore, it is our famous MRT that does the job for us.
In addition, as there were too many girls this time, the girls had to sleep in the main hall, where there are no safari beds build for us. So at night, it was really hard to sleep with the unbalanced wood flooring, but again, it is another experience for us- complacent teenagers.
Ohh, not to forget, the scary and challenging Asli water ocstacles! It was so difficult to balance on the skinny wooden rod and those wobbly ropes. However, it did taught me to be more confident. And, yes, Erica lost her shoe too! About the Drum water rafting, all I have to say is teamwork, timing and the uneven distribution of ropes! ;D
My most memorable part of the very first day is the breathtaking firefly cruise- where we get to board on boats when the brightly lit moon is hanging up in the night sky. The facilitator then told us that that night was a full moon, thus all of the fireflies are not willing to appear, but we can still manage to see them, all we need is patience and be as quiet as possible. The captivating sky was dotted with so many shimmering precious jewels. Everything was so beautiful, how I hope I could entrapped that whole moment in a jar and bring it back home to share with my family :)
Alright, lets move on to the second day. It was the day where we get to trek at the mawai stone hill and explore and observe the site where WWII occurred. It was so sunny and humid, the air was thick but the occasional breeze made us feel better. Plenty of water was needed to hydrate our restless bodies and of course we did games called "happy" to occupy us throughout the endless trek. I would also like to thank my friends, Kanghui, Lynn and Jun for helping me through those scary steeps and slopes. However, we got to taste the fruits of our labour- it was the beautiful and breathtaking view of the mountains and hills- after sweating and trekking those rough and unbalanced pavements.
And at last, it was the cold shower that all of us yearned badly, and guess what? I went in to a seemingly clean toilet and took off all of my clothes, then I saw a huge spider... so I have no choice but to continue my bath. :0
During the night, we had our long awaited grand campfire. I really have to thank Jeremy, Dominic, Erica, Zul, Lynn, Sebastian, Jazlyn and all of the leaders that made our a cappella and cheer worked :) And of course the campfire would have been impossible without each of us working together:) We Champions Burn!!
Finally, the night ended where we sing songs that bring us fond memories, nostalgic songs that bring us back to the good old days. That night, our girls dorm was filled with snores and our tired souls had a restless night :)
Last but not least, the final day! Honestly, how many of you have been yearning for that day to come? Honestly, I had. I really missed my family. So, all of us got up early just to prepare for the last trek of the camp, we packed all of our bags and made sure that everything is ready to go. Oh and another funny thing is that we had several cages for us to place our bags so as to prevent any curious monkeys from "exploring our bags""
However, guess what? The last day was raining, thus we were unable to do the trek, I totally remembered hearing a sigh of relief washed through the crowd!
So, the head of the mawai eco camp, took out his guitar once again and we soaked ourselves in the nostalgic old melodies and songs like YMCA, Beat it, Somewhere over the rainbow and many more good old songs. With the soft beating of raindrops on the shelter and all three amazing groups singing, it was just perfect.
And then it was time for us to say our good byes and depart for Singapore.
Overall, I did miss the teamwork, the bonding and the fun memories we created there. It was a really good experience for all of us, as we are living in the affluent society in the cosmopolitan Singapore, to stretch ourselves out of our comfort zones. We also reaped countless benefits and get to instill a plethora of values from this amazing camp.
To conclude my reflection, I want to say a big thank you to Singapore polytechnic for giving me this invaluable opportunity to explore mawai. And a big thank you to the leaders and facilitator for making this camp possible.
Finally, to the three amazing groups, Alpha, Bravo, Champions, thanks for making this camp so complete and FUN!!!
Thanks for reading this Reflection, have a great week ahead!! :D
Sincerely, Daphne.
