Saturday, June 9, 2007
In just two days I have managed to climb up to the peak of this mountain called Batu Putih with a bunch of JC students whom I hardly know.
When I first stepped into VJC on that Sunday night, 3rd of June 2007, I saw a bunch of JC students all eager and overly prepared for the climb. Looking at their big bags, I felt rather out of place to be actually carrying a much smaller bag then theirs. I overheard from the teachers that the students actually trained for this climb. I didn’t. I got a little anxious and starting wondering if I am able to keep up with these young and strong able youth. As if to make it looked even easier, they wanted to bring their Guitar along!! I thought to myself “I am so going die, I am not going to be able to keep up with them”.
At the start of the climb (so glad they didn’t bring the guitar along), everyone moved up in the most orderly fashion. It was like back at the time when I was serving my National Service as I watched my platoon walking quietly through the forest keeping a tactical distance of 3 meters away from each other. These soldiers kept their distance of about 3-5 meters away from each other through out the walk. These JC students on the other hand kept their distance of about 50cm away from each other at the start and then 20 meters at the end. Walking behind Mr Seet, I could tell how annoyed he was as the gap between two groups of students gets bigger and bigger. I don’t blame him; those kids were really slow on the first day. Then comes the river… I actually believed that the students didn’t think that we were going to cross it. We crossed it anyway.
To makes things worst, it started raining. Then I saw another sight that reminded me of my NS days. These JC students took out their Green Ponchos! They actually looked cute in them. I never thought it looked cute during my NS days.
Oh oh… I actually heard the students singing a song that my room mate and myself would sing together rather often in Australia during winter and the song goes like this;
All the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California dreaming
On such a winter's day
Stopped into a church
I passed along the way
Well, I got down on my knees
And I pretend to pray
You know the preacher likes the cold
He knows I'm gonna stay
California dreaming
On such a winter's day
All the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day
If I didn't tell her
I could leave today
California dreaming
On such a winter's day
On such a winter's day
On such a winter's day
The second day, the students were moving a lot faster then I expected. Even the local guides were complaining that they can’t keep up with the students. I guess it had to be the speech that Mr Seet gave to them that morning. Suddenly they were moving like a team. Suddenly they were encouraging each other and helping each other with great effort. Girls helping boys, boys helping girls… impressive. (Oh by the way, guys… next time when you climb up a mountain, always place the girls in front of you, if she falls, it’s your duty to ensure she doesn’t fall right down. When you are climbing down, you should be in front of the girl, so that if she falls, she falls on you and you fall right down to the bottom and die… the girl stays alive, yes Sufiyan, I am a sexist). Anyway, thank God that no one got seriously injured on the second day and all managed to get up to the peak. Of coz there were some partying at the peak by the students. They were making enough noise to keep me awake in my tent.
On the third day, going down. I seriously couldn’t believe the speed that these students were doing. I felt like I was in a snail race. At that speed, I thought to myself, we were so going to be doing a night walk. A few hours later, I was holding a torch in my hand which was running out of battery, shouting at this guy behind me to keep moving. Anyway, the spirit was still there, the students were still encouraging each other like nuts. Shouting and singing at each other to keep moving on. On a few occasion, I would stand there and watch a girl who has knee injuries due to netball activities turning around and cheering her friends to move on. I was like thinking to myself, she was suffering herself and she’s still cheering others. Wow… what great example she was. Sorry but I can’t remember her name (Kai Li, you were wrong, I still forget some names here and there). There was this guy by the name of Ben, he had a fever but he still pushed forward and didn’t slow the group down. A guy by the name of Josiah had the saddest duty and that was to carry the Indian pot filled with mess tins. And those mess tins didn’t belong to him. Some of his inconsiderate friends left it in there dirty and yucky. :P Well, he didn’t complaint at all, at least to me. Oh oh, I have to write this part whereby he did something really STUPID! Basically, he was running down this slope a little too fast and at the end of the bend, he couldn’t stop in time and he just went straight ahead crashing into the vegetations. One has to actually see it happening to actually find it amusing. Some of his friends said that it was like a scene in a cartoon film. To make things more amusing, his partner, Denise, could only say these few words: “That’s easy for you to say, my vocabulary is very limited”. I think those two are a very disturbed pair.
Anyway, these crazy bunch of VJCians, got out of the forest at around 8pm. Once out of the forest, these students looked like the happiest kids in the world. All they want to do is just sit there and watch the stars. Big smiles on their faces. I still recall the huge smile on this girl’s face, Ivie.
On the fourth day… Caving… some of the girls didn’t believe me when I told them that they will need to crawl and get wet in there. When they entered in and they saw the stairs, they thought that was it. No crawling, no water… They called me and Mr Seet a liar. Ahhaahhaha, we had the last laugh. Those silly students crawling on their sour knees and getting totally wet. I felt good. :P At the end of the caving trip, Mr Seet and some of his boy students decided to do some really gayish stuffs. I was rather distrubed by the act. Just look at the photo below and you know what i mean.
Then we had the white water rafting. The water that day was pretty rough. I haven’t seen so many people thrown out of the raft before. On my raft alone, I was thrown out of the raft with Miss Ng. Another occasion, all three teachers were thrown out of the raft, and we guides were desperately trying to save them. It was kinda funny in fact, I was half laughing as I pulled MR Goh back into the raft.
I think I have written way too long. I guess I am going to stop here. But lastly, let me give my honor to these three who in my own opinion were the most badly injured. Look at them… don’t you think they look really sad? Yeah, the guy on the far right, he was the one I shouted at in the night to move faster. I felt so bad after realizing how badly injured he was.
One more thing… some guy gave me a Quaker Chewy Bar (low fat baked apple)… Am I to eat it or to keep it as a rememberance?
From,
Chewy
YYY
itsjustus-
10:05 PM