Yes, I went to OBS.
We were but strangers on the first day. The four of us, Eugene, Wei Jian, Yoon and I, were placed with twelve other completely new faces which we had never seen before. The first thing that came into my mind - Mr Goh Kee Yong is a liar. Out of the 16 people in our watch, only 5 people were guys. Which was, very unexpected. I had it in mind that this was going to be a slack camp, but I was wrong. It wasn't.
The first thing I disliked about OBS.
The belay method. It was stupid, inefficient, slow and wastes a hell lot of energy. What's more, it looks damn weird. Why can't we use the 5-step belay method, as it's called? The rope manager holds the rope around his/her waist, supposedly for the safety of the climber, and leaves the rest of the rope on the ground. I was taught that the rope is never supposed to touch the ground, as the rope will gradually spoil due to the friction of the rope on the ground. I really wonder how the climber will be safer with a spoilt rope. Unless OBS changes their ropes once in a while, which is unlikely since everything there is reused by watches every week, for many years I presume.
We cooked rice on the first night. We were taught to smear toothpaste on the base and the sides of the pots and mess tins so that it'll be easier to wash. That was probably the first thing I learnt from OBS. During my NCC (Land) Annual Camps in 2007 and 2008, we were never taught to smear toothpaste on our mess tins. Therefore, our mess tins all became black! Hahaha. And they're still black, mind you. :P I could hardly sleep that night. 5 Guys sleeping in one tent is not alright. It was damn crammed, hot and humid. Wei Jian's legs appeared atop my chest in the middle of the night, and I couldn't move. He's one violent guy when sleeping. I got kicked like twice. Ouch, seriously. Haha.
High elements on the 2nd day. Loved the Indiana. Beautiful picture above, huh. I ripped it somewhere from the internet. We don't have a picture of it yet, Chung Tai has yet to send it to us. He just added us on Facebook. Haha. The scenery on top of the Indiana was awesome. Took my breath away. I was so fortunate to have so much time to enjoy the view up there. Haha. Then I became the belayer. Did the 5-step belay method when he wasn't looking. XD
Kayaking was easy on the second day. Demonstrated the Rafted TX Rescue with Wei Jian. Almost forgot sia! :X Paired up with Wei Jian, totally owned. Haha! Imba-ness. Basically we just kayaked from Camp 1 to Camp 55. Our campsite, well, was just an empty piece of land overlooking the sea, with a tractor in the middle. So we beached up there and pitched our tents, before cooking our instant noodle dinner. Sea Expedition briefing was super boring, almost fell asleep. After that, slept in tents again. We were like damn suay. Our tent couldn't be closed properly, zips spoilt. Sandflies jumping on my face, mosquitoes buzzing around my ears, ants crawling around, biting me.
Sentry duty at 2AM. Me, Ruzaini, Eugene, Wei Jian, Yoon, Shuxin and Alicia "patrolled" the area. Actually we were just having late night supper on the groundsheet :X C'mon, we were hungry! Hahaha. So much for sentry duty. After that we woke Kurt up and it started to rain. Lucky us. :P I guess its back to trying to sleep with my dear sandflies, mosquitoes and ants. Used the ball of twine as a pillow ._.
Day Three - SEA EXPEDITION! :D
We launched out at about 7+. Weijian and I were the last two kayaks to go. So we had to pick up the rubbish, extra bottles that the rest left behind. Ugh! In the end we had like 8 bottles of water and two bags full of rubbish in our kayaks. So yeah, we basically spent the entire day out at sea. We had our lunch on the kayak, I kept eating! :X Hahaha. Well, I realised that if I don't eat I will fall asleep. As in really, I did fall asleep on the kayak. Then Marcus and I were "hugging" on the kayaks, in the middle of the sea. HAHA. We almost made both kayaks capsize! But sadly, we didn't capsize at all. Shuxin capsized like twice lah. Damn pro! :P Kay at the end its like all the cat high people were chionging in front. We beached up at Campsite 2 and went to place the kayaks back. TANKERS! Hahaha. My feet were hurting. :/ Then we went to pitch our tents and started cooking our instant noodles, when suddenly, woosh! it started raining. So we went up to the sheltered area to finish eating and slept there. Shiok! Haha :D
**I can't believe how long I took to type this whole blogpost out. I started on the Saturday after we came back ._.
The next morning we had the Mingle, Captains on Deck game. Oh, the Dodo dance! OH, Eugene and I ate 9 slices of bread each. The soggy bread with peanut butter. LOL. Then we cleared the area, CLEANED THE TOILETS! Walau, some guy shit there and then the flush spoil. And it was ALOT OF SHIT. So we brought out our Jerry Cans and like, flushed the shit down. LOL. HAHA, after that we had Land Expedition Briefing. It was good to have the Orienteering knowledge and stuff. Hahaha. Refreshed my memory. ^^ We didn't have to use the intersection, resection and all that stuff though.
Well, I think this was the killer lah. The bags were damn heavy. It was raining, my poncho was ant-infested. AND THEY WERE BITING MY SUNBURN. Hurt like hell. Drank a hell lot of water, trying to lighten the load. The jerry cans were...super abcdefgheavy lorh. But the rain was refreshing. My shoes were dirty, I threw them away anyway. At the last part, Wei Jian and I were singing songs! LOL. Trying to push them, boost their morale abit :P Then when we stepped into Camp 1, we were like echoing BO SENG! Damn fun! HAHAHA. At the last part we sprinted up to the store, put down our bags. The sensation was damn nice, it's like we're flying! LOL. Then we went down to help the others. :D Had an awesome bath man. The girls used our toilet!
We had a feast that night. The fried rice was awesome! :D Best thing I'd eaten in those 4 days. LOL. But no vegetables though. We ate the leftover rice from the pot. Haha, we practically spammed all the canned food into the pot. Sardines, luncheon, mushroom, peanuts, everything we could find! Slept at the MPH that night. Sweet! Woke up in the middle of the night and everyone was sleeping. So I went to change my shirt. LOL. Dont think anyone saw me anyway. :P
I'm gonna rush through the last day cause it's already like, a month past OBS.
So we had breakfast, morning PT, games, pack stuff, pay for lost/missing items, bought t-shirt, debrief, the jump and touch the bell thingy, mass debrief, dismissal, taupok, pictures, dares, then balik kampung!
Woohoo yay im done! Time to start on Ophir ._.
