Its tuesday. I actually had a wonderful and amazing weekend 4 days ago.
Day 1: Friday, 12/1/2007
Raleigh International Kuala Lumpur IntroWeekend was my chance to embark on an expedition. scheduled pharmacology class earlier to 10am but then we had to go back for another 1 in the afternoon. so i had to rushed back home during lunch hour to pack my stuff. reached international youth center at about 5.15pm. wandered around that area for a while before heading into the building. i was one of the early bird and the registration for the introweekend (IW) starts about 6. we had to surrender our valuables and was kept in a brown envelope. when the registration for all the participants were done, we had some games (ice breaking games, monster games and the chair game). we then had packed food for dinner after the games. sat and chatted with lali, michelle, chantzer, lili and a few more. we were then brought into an air-conditioned room. Alan briefed us about Raleigh International and showed us a presentation of photos from previous expedition. that really attracts me.
we were then divided into four groups namely alpha, bravo, charlie and delta. Im placed in team delta comprised of me, bryan, ze xin, tau min, may, michelle, sara, roya, lian shiang, eu win, naveen and our coordinator shih chung. we had a little game to remember names and we got out stuff for the weekend. 2 canvas sheets and a box of army ration (food) which looks not appealing at all at 1st. we helped to carry equipments into the bus and it was dark. nobody knows the time except the staffs la.
i sat beside bryan and the 1 and a half hour (approx) journey took us to the secret camp site. it was pitch dark when we arrived. the bus stopped by the road and we were instructed to remove the equips and our luggages and heads to our campsite. we chose our territory and we start building our ‘hotel’ with rafia strings and the 2 canvas sheets to keep us from shine and rain. after much hardwork and discussion we started ketuk sini ikat sana and got our hotel done for 11 person. i volunteered to be the toilet builder for our weekend. so each rep from each team equipped with a cangkul, we dug a 2 feet deep hole a.k.a international business center at a secluded area not so near and not so far from our camp site. then we slept…..
Day 2: Saturday, 13/1/2007
WAKE UP! i din shout that. we were woken up by the staffs. the dawn was just about to break and it was cooling. everybody gets busy cooking breakfast and so were we. but we were the last team to get prepared as the other teams had left the camp site for activities. we walked like about 300m or so to our 1st activity site. we reached a lake and our 1st task is to build a raft using a few pvc pipes, floats and ropes in 20 minutes to fit in 11 people. so everyone starts working out plans and we manage to get a raft done in time. we set off into the water and start rowing to get some stuff somewhere away from the shore. we manage to complete the task by keeping our ‘lauya’ raft in shape. then we moved on to the 2nd task where we had to cross from a point to the other using planks. we did not complete the task because we only came up with the solution when the time was almost up and i falled acrobatically. haha
then we headed to a river near our campsite for the 3rd activity i.e. to fill up a ‘lubang-ed’ pvc pipe with water to get a ping pong ball out of it. yet again we fail to complete the task. cis..we then headed to our final activity which is to remove a jerry can which were placed in the center of a big square and we were not suppose to cross the square or to touch the area in the square. and you know what, we manage to solve the quest the fastest and eveyone was like YES!. every games is logic and each of it ended with discussion, comments and feedback from the coordinators, team members and the staff. we headed back to the campsite, changed into a dry clothes and cooked lunch. i had black pepper rice for lunch. no doubt, malaysia army eats black pepper rice.
the morning session ended like in the afternoon and we were told that we are going to hike for the noon session. each of us, equipped with 1.5lt of water and we go hiking. the journey from the campsite to the target sites is about a km. the real stuff starts with red mud road, rivers, steep slopes, trails and stones. we had to climb up steep slopes, cross rivers above knee level and of course endure the accumulation of lactic acid especially in the leg. it suddenly rains but after a while we reached a very big stone where the staffs were waiting for us there. we were the 1st team to arrive and we rested there. on the way up, i fed 2 leeches, uncountable mosquitoes and insects with blood. shivering is sweat and rain, we make our journey back to the campsite and its a tough 1. on the way down, eveyone slipped. at some point we had to slide down the slope. then at some point of time we had to pull on to a root to ‘abseil’ down the steep and slippery slopes. the sky gets darker and things were getting tough. night in the jungle is pitch dark. real dark. we make our way down using torchlight, and we reached somewhere near the kaki bukit. because of the rising water level of the river we had to use ropes to cross the river with the help of the staffs. we were out from there sometime after midnight. the stars on the sky was a spectacular one. i’ve never seen stars as beautiful as that. we make our way back, changed into dry clothes, dried my feet around the camp fire and slept. (dead battery)
Day 3, Sunday, 14/1/2007
woken up by ‘tong tong chang’ alarm, result from spoon knocking on mess tin. had corn porridge for breakfast and there were more activities. the 1st one is story listening and i love it. ex-venturers shared their experience going on expedition for 10 weeks to sabah doing community, adventure and environmental phase and thats raleigh international is about. introweekend is the intro. after that, we had our 2nd activity, crossing the ’spider web’ and we failed again. sigh..we then moved on to the last 1 which is commando. we had to move a jerry can a.k.a. general jerry across river, muds, sands and obstacles. we complete the task and we had ‘cappuchino ice cream with chocolate chips’ (wet mud + pebbles and sand) smeared on our face, and body. took pictures and had lots of fun with our coordinator and staff at the river. that was COOL!
headed back wet from head to toe. met 2 friendly dogs on our way back. changed into dry clothes and had our last briefing before we set of back to IYC. we talked bout our experiences throughout the weekend and of course the post-introweekend project which is a community service project. we had our team last cheer and we belted out for that cheer. gathered with other groups and staff. last word from the staff, sang birthday song for 3 participants and a staff and photo taking session. went on the bus. slept in the bus for the whole journey back.
went for the camp alone. strangers became friends. learnt precious lessons not available in books, get to know great people, had fun and i really enjoyed it. The staffs did great job giving us chance of a lifetime and i really appreciate it.
Looking forward for the post-IW project and expedition (hopefully it falls during my sem break)
thats it. tough yet enriching and fun weekend. 
. Sometimes, you had all the answers in you mind but it somehows doesnt go to ur pen tip, instead its trying to escape out of your brain. Sometimes, its just an easy task . Sometimes, handing up blank answer sheets is out of your control. 
g. It could be mentally resting, physically studying. It commonly happens if you study on the bed. 