The Return of The King

Hey guys! I'm back again, and i'm truly sorry for the long delay for the last post. First of all, as some of you might already know, i was sent to one of the Singapore's most remote island (okay, i exaggerated a bit) without any means of access to the outside world. My handphone, wallet, and even my passport was confiscated just in case i tried to escape from the 'jail' during the next 21 days period.

However, for those who even believed that for a split second, i must say that i was joking, i have actually underwent a 3 weeks (from 1st Oct-21st Oct) worth of leadership building/team building/survival camp/torture course in Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) and honestly, it had been a nightmare experience for me most of the time during this course although there were time that it was really fun, although it was really rare and far in between.

And why does it takes additional 2 weeks for me before i could update my blog and not right after the OBS course? Simple, 4 reasons :

1. We were scheduled to come back on Sunday, yes....SUNDAY. The very next day, we were required to report to the Singapore Flying College (SFC). The first 2 days was quite a mess, a lot of administrative stuff needed to be done, and i need to sort out my travel documents as well.

2. It takes time to settle down here, unpack my bags, clean my room, buy toiletries and essential stuff, not to mention that the classes started from the third day onwards from 8-5PM daily. Yes, studying but for a normal office hour duration, nothing like secondary school or university.

3. Even if i was really free, i have not obtained the OBS photos yet. That's because there were like 5 different cameras owned by different people, and each with like 500-700 photos in their respective memory cards. So i had to wait for a single person to compile everything into 2 DVDs of approximately 5Gb in size and that took me another 1 week to get it.

4. No internet connection.

And now that i am back in one piece, i would like to share as much as i could of my experience and you guys be the judge, what say you?! Be prepared because there would be loads of photos coming up as promised, and because the whole experience is too dam long to be described in a single post, i thought it would be the best if i just split it into 15 different post, each describing each maybe 1-3 days worth of experience depending on the length of each day. So, do expect an update every 2-3 days from today onwards :) if i am not too busy!

Okay, not wanting to keep you guys waiting any longer, i will begin today with my Day 1 flashback. Take note that there was nothing much interesting for the first few days but i can assure you that the intensity/'fun' is building up as the time pass and it really climaxed during the final few days. We were given a journal each in which we can jot down our daily experience and i will just extract it exactly from what i have written back then. It was really my sincere thoughts and feelings everyday and i whined a lot, especially for the first week, so please tahan with me :P Ready? Well, here goes nothing!

Day 1

Excited, Pulau Ubin is within range. Not as far as i had expected, only 15 goddam minutes ferry ride from the Punggol Jetty. As i drew closer, i found out that the Outward Bound Singapore logo is in sight. It says something like "To serve, to Strive and not to Yield". I have no idea of what it means.

Two very friendly instructors greeted us at the OBS Jetty, Kenny and Hiap Luh. Half of the island basically belonged to OBS. Still in our formal shirt, we were lead to the dining hall right away where we feasted like nobody business not knowing what's awaiting us ahead.

After lunch, we were then brought to a replica of an actual ship called Indiana. We were told about the Blue Peter Flag and one of us was called to raise the flag as the sign of the beginning of our 21 days journey. That is to say, we can only leave this island officially after this very same flag is lowered on the last day of the course.

Thereafter, we went for a short opening ceremony consisting a short speech coupled with slides show. Many types of people meeting up, different personality, different nationality, different cultures, etc. Freaking hard to remember their names, but i guess it'll come slowly. After the opening ceremony, our belongings was confiscated and we were left with nothing except for our shoes and clothing. Bleh.

2 CROATIANS! Cool! Would be interesting to observe how different nationalities adapt to the local foods.

Our first activity is belaying practice, something that you will need to do when one of your friend climbed onto something high and you need to keep him safe by using a rope with proper equipment to hold him tight and lower him down slowly in case he accidentally fell down. Boring eh?

And why are we doing this? Guessss! YEAH ROCK CLIMBING, artificial one of course. When it comes to the actual thing however, it was a little different as in..we were to climb with the blindfold on! Meaning that you can only rely on your mates who screamed from below to direct you and you did not know whom instruction should you follow because everyone was trying to give their own instruction. Personally i heard a lot of, "Right a bit", "No No, your left your left", "Ok! Now left leg to your 9 o'clock, Nono, too much! Lower a bit", "Swap your leg! You will need right leg to step up to your knee level", "Aiya...not like that lah!", "YEAH! THATS THE WAY!", and so on.. And what happened to me? I prefer not to mentioned it but anyway, i sorta 'pancit' half way, gave up too quickly, coz it's so dam tough, my hand and my legs simply gave away :/ Should have put more effort into it.. sigh..

After rock climbing, it's almost dinner time, everyone washed up and went for dinner and that night we had another briefing from instructor, mainly about ice breaking, and sneak peek of our tomorrow's activities. We also shared our personal strength and weaknesses about ourselves, and what each of us afraid the most. Me? I told everyone that my biggest fear was to run! Mwahaha, and guess what? The instructor laughed and told me not to worry because we would be doing loads of running for the next 20 days. Uh oh... I'm doomed. Oh and there's this team journal in addition to individual's journal which everyone's thought is summarized for the day. Enjoy!

Mood : Excited!
Days Left : 20