ACE Camp Kluang, Johor, Malaysia
ACE stands for Adventure Camps and Expeditions for those who don’t know, and its the one run by my school, not by some company (well, PROTEGE INC. helped out…)
Sec 208 was code named SD, or Silvery Dome, named after the silvery dome in our old school at Bras Basah. I was grouped by register number into SD 3, and slept in Tent C, coz of lack of space in Tent E, my original tent.
Anyway, the general outcome of the camp was fun, but the living conditions sucked… The bus journey there was fun, sat next to Matthew, and although I didn’t manage to sleep like I planned to, Lennon was busy telling jokes (you can guess what type) to the whole bus while the tour guide was talking to himself over the mike… haha =P
The first day there was okay, when I first got there, it was quite nice, to see my campsite and to see the pictures of previous ACE Camps in real life, of the hill and the longhouse… But setting up the tent was not very enjoyable, coz of the scorching heat and the dirt inside the tent… The food was good, and I liked the flavoured rice (coloured too)… After that, we had jungle survival, in the oil palm plantation nearby. Although it wasn’t very interesting or eventful, it was fun to me because I never got to do this type of thing beofre… This taught me that I would die if I was stranded in the jungle, coz our group couldn’t make fire, couldn’t get pure water, couldn’t MAKE (not find) a good shelter, and couldn’t find food too (but Mr Chua didn’t plant any on the first day, only on the second day…) They had a powder bath (more like war) after Jungle Survival (with Prickly Heat), pouring it everywhere (face, torso, arms, behind, *down there* too…), going mad with powder (especially people like Edgar and Jun Jia). Anyway, we took photos of whatever we found or made (or tried to make) during Jungle Survival, and made a nice report to hand up, partially in my handwriting too, signed it and pasted our group photo there (SD 3)… And we did that hurriedly after dinner during reflection time… That night, sleeping early was impossible, with Chris and Jun Jia talking the loudest and letting no one sleep earlier than them… I couldn’t sleep until 1+, and scared everyone by talking not very often but out of the blue with my eyes closed… haha =P. It rained that night, but not very heavy, and I had not bad a sleep before the next day…
Anyway, the next day, I woke up at 5.45, washed up and the activities for the day was “combat mission” (river activities) and mountain climbing. River rafting was not that great, coz of our failure to build a competent raft to cross the river, and also because there was not enough time for anything else (the river crossing and casualty rescue, involving pulling yourself across the river and carrying someone around it on a throne of four interlocking arms respectively)… The river bed was so muddy, it felt like quicksand and I had to swim instead of stand to get from one place to another… Anyway, my shoes after that were waterlogged and brown (instead of white), and they were kept for canoeing (which wasn’t as bad). I didn’t go for Gunung Lambak coz of my CONVENIENT foot injury (also saving me from morning PT), and as a result, I had a chance to become a temporary ACE leader for SOL (205), who did Jungle Survival. I went around, laughing at their feeble and unsuccessful attempts to make fire and build shelter (like my leaders did for mine), and actually tried to help a bit too… So that wasn’t TOO bad, and the others had fun at Lambak too, and they asked me what I did so I told them secretively that I had fun being an ACE leader =P… That night, I slept a bit earlier than the day before, coz I was tired, but had to wake up at 3 or 4 to close the door of the tent, due to the storm that leaked into our tent, and caused me to be sleeping in a pool of water… So then I woke up again at 5 and couldn’t sleep, so I washed up and went to the canteen area to sleep (which is forbidden, by the way)… So that night was the worst, coz I didn’t get enough sleep due to the storm that gave me a “nice” bath in the middle of the night…
The third day was more fun, because of the activities, orienteering in the morning (and I became a temporary ACE leader again, due to my foot), while they ran (more like walked…) around looking for coloured keychains at map co-ordinates and plotted landmarks on maps, which I knew the locations of, due to my privileged position. I also had some intelligent conversation with Mrs Ho, teacher-in-charge of SD and the instructor-in-charge of that station, making friends and connections for next year =P… After they were finished guessing the colours of the keychains instead of actually looking for them, I helped to mark the answers, while they played some weird goggle game… After lunch, we had canoeing in the lake, led by Mr Nathan, accompanied by Mrs J, Mrs Ho, Bro Jason, and Mr Lai… That was fun, because me and Matthew were quite a good pair, working together (most of the time), and always one of the first few in front… After dinner, we had a nice campfire, which was fun, but a bit boring, since we were VERY tired, and dying to go home…
208 or SD, powder crazy people, also almost always first for meals… I will miss you all next year with all your craziness and may our friendships never part…
FRENZ 4EVA,
Gabriel
