3 Days in Tekam

Went to the Tekam Plantation Resort in Pahang for some leadership camp for 3 days, which is actually for prefects but there weren't enough, so after being undecided for 2 weeks, I finally decided to go. If you don't have anything interesting to do, here was my experience there.

I sat next to Pei on the bus, with Su Zhen and Sue Ann behind us and Hannah and May in front of us. On the left side was Pn Betty's son, Joey who came along, and Noraini. It took us less than 4 hours to get there, and it was a pretty quick ride there actually. We busied ourselves playing Cho Tai Ti (which I'm now pretty good at, lol) and listened to Sue's mp3 player. We had a tour guide/host with us who was a German guy called Tilman. We arrived at 11 or 12-something and was given our chalets. I was rooming with May, Hannah and Sharon but they told us only 3 people per room so Sharon went with another group. Our chalet was 33c and it was quite far away. Plus, I had to carry my extremely heavy bag. Our chalet ended up being the furthest away and our next-door neighbours were the last room. The chalet was not bad. It was clean and tidy. We had 2 beds and 2 extra mattresses, one small tv which only had channel 1, 2 and 3. No 8tv!! Sad. The bathroom was also clean.

The first day there, we were supposed to do rafting. But for some reason, they told us we weren't going to do that, but going to the oil palm nursery instead. It was pretty boring since they were talking about oil palms and teaching us how to identify the males and females. I was busy trying not to doze off. Anyway, it was all just oil palm stuff. I don't even remember what they were talking about. Afterwards, we had treasure hunt. We had to divide ourselves into 4 groups with an equal number of race, height and weight. My group was group 2, with Hannah, May, Sharon, Su Zhen, Sue Ann, Pei Xuan, Chai Yan, Chien Hwei, Zalifah, Laura, Tharshana, Aqilah, Sofia, Umamah, Hasliza and Mimi. We had to run around the place, looking for clues. And ended up being super tired afterwards. At night, we were supposed to have night walk but then it started raining and thundering so we had our own activities instead. First we had the untangle game, where we hold hands and try to untwist ourselves without letting go of the hands. Yea, it's the rangers game. We had no strategy so we just held whoever's hands we saw. It took us a while to untwist ourselves but we were the first group who managed to make one full circle. 2 groups were faster but they made 2 circles while we made one full circle! After that, each group had to create a cheer which included all our names and also about the school. We were blank, but then Laura and all started crapping and we managed to come up with something cool. One group recycled the rangers cheer. Our group did the best! Our cheer went like this:

We don't know what you've been told
But you should know we're icy cold
Zalifah: Who are we?
Stone Cold! Brrr! (lol) x2

Go shorty! It's your birthday! We're gonna party, with the shorty! ( to the tune of 50 cent's song)
(And then Laura and Zalifah introduce themselves)

(to the tune of Powerpuff Girls,
Has, Sofia and Umamah introduce themselves)

(Then Sue Ann, May, Aqilah and Chai Yan introduce themselves with the tune of YMCA, but using the letters SMKA..lol...Sue Ann, May, Kikilala and Aileen...and also SMK Assunta...get it?..lol)

(Then the rest of us used the tune to Addam's family and introduced ourselves)

(finally...)
We will, we will, rock you
Stone cold, stone cold, rock you
Assunta, Assunta, rock you

(insert applause)
End.

Yea, it does sound ridiculous, but it would've been pretty funny if you saw it. We won! And had to repeat the entire thing again. It was late already so we ended there. When May, Hannah and I went back to the chalet, we discovered that the electricity was out due to the lightning. But it was only our chalet and a few others at the end who were out. We were kinda freaked and scared cos it was all dark and our neighbours were very scared, which ended up scaring me. It was raining and we went to the reception area to inform them. Later we found out all we had to do was push the plug up. We hadn't even bathed yet! Later when we got the electricity back, we went to bathe but the electricity went out again and that was when May was in the bathroom. Luckily she was only brushing her teeth. It was so annoying cos I just had my bath and my hair was drying, and I had to go out into the rain again. We went out to investigate again, with May's poncho as cover. Everybody's chalet was out but there was nothing we could do except wait for the electricity to come back. Our neighbours were seriously freaking out which was making me mad cos I was feeling scared too. So we went back to our chalet with Sharon and Su Mein with us. Luckily, we only had to wait a while before the electric came back again. Sharon and Su Mein decided to bunk in with us cos it was already late. We talked and watched tv awhile before we went to sleep. May, Sharon and I stayed up awhile chatting, waiting for our hair to dry. It was around 2 before we got to sleep. It was a frightening night that'll certainly be memorable.

Next day, I didn't even hear my alarm ring. May woke us up at 6 and we got ready. First we went caving at Gua Kota Gelanggi. And it wasn't those kind of easy caving, where you just walk up some steps and get to the top. It was the messy, hands on kind. It was a bad time for me cos the sole of my shoes was coming out. May put some super glue on it which was working, until I got into the water. Then the dumb thing was coming out again. We walked through the forest stepping on the leaves and mud and water. Our shoes were soaked. When we got to the cave, we slowed down cos the entry into the cave was quite small, and everyone had to climb into this small hole to get into it. I slipped but managed to hold on. Thank God for flashlights! It was pretty scary in the cave, cos it was muddy and lots of holes everywhere so you needed to walk carefully otherwise you'd fall and slip into don't-know-where. But it was also fun and exhilarating. And we survived it! We got in and looked around a bit. There was some stones that looked like an elephant. And also one that looked like someone sitting on a throne. It was pretty cool. Afterwards, we had to go back the way we came in. We could go out another way, but it was pretty dangerous cos there was a way but the water would reach over our necks and also because the entry was very steep. So we went back out the way we came in. When we got out, my whole back was a mess, and the sole of my shoes was half coming out already. Hannah was laughing at me walking back cos I was taking huge steps. Half of it was coming out so it kept flopping back and forth. Quite hilarious if you had seen it. Moral of the story is, you should get new shoes for occasions like these. The whole thing finally came out anyway. I had to wear sandals after that.

Later, half of us had to do flying fox and the other half had to do rafting cos there were too many people. My group and Group 1 did flying fox. I was quite scared cos it was pretty high up and I had this whole fear of dropping in the middle of swinging down or the thing getting stuck halfway. But I did it anyway. Even Sharon did it and she was really scared. We had the option of going into the river after swinging or walking back. I wanted to walk back at first but then at the last minute, I decided to go into the river. It was pretty secure since you would be hooked to the string so you won't drift off to who-knows-where. We had to climb up the ladder which was a bit scary but I was more terrified of the going-down part. My heart was pounding waiting for the moment to go down. Suze and all were giving me encouragement from the bottom, telling me to scream Hyun Bin and all the Korean guy's names when swinging down...lol. I just wanted to get it over with. Anyway, I was too terrified to say anything. It was nice swinging down, very breezy. But it ended so quickly. Then going into the river was scary cos I was paranoid of all sorts of things being in the river, so I swam really quickly. Lol. Afterwards, some of them wanted to go rafting but some of us who were tired went back, including me. Took a very nice bath. It was quite funny after that cos we were all aching and tired. May, Hannah and I were pretty unbalanced when we walked around the chalet. Sometimes had to hold onto the wall or sometimes we'd just drop on the bed and roll around. And we went Ow! Ow! Ow! when we walked down the stairs. Lol. You would have been laughing your head off if you saw us.

At night, we had night walk in the plantation. We were only allowed to bring 2 torchlights and they told us not to 'talk nonsense' and ignore anything 'weird' we saw. We also had code names for each of us so we can avoid saying our real names. They brought us into the plantation and it was really dark so we held on to each other's hand tight, one in front of the other. They told us to remember the route and we went in. After that, they told us we were supposed to go back by ourselves and they took our torchlights and gave us 2 candles instead. We were supposed to keep it safe and not let it go out. I was damn terrified but just tried to chill. Just kept on looking straight or on the ground the whole way back. It wasn't that scary actually cos the instructor was following us anyway, and he was making it pretty obvious cos we could all see him. So I was more relaxed cos no way would we get lost with him around. Anyway, my group was the only group who managed to keep the candle lighted! O yea! Afterwards, we played a game called Queen of the Jungle. We sat in a circle and we had to say the numbers and substitute all ganda 3 with the word 'hutan'. 'Satu, Dua, Hutan, Empat, Lima, Hutan…' Somehow, we couldn't managed to get past 20. Very little people got past 10. I think it's a psychological thing. Or maybe the word's too hard to pronounce. A lot of people got out until there was only me, Sue Ann, Hannah and Mei Ling left. Then Mei Ling was out and we 3 were the winners!

That night, Hannah and I played speed and Sharon bunked in with us again. We were all chatting and talking about school life. We went to sleep around 1.

The next day, we woke up at 7 with May being our alarm clock again. Sharon's phone alarm was ringing but we all ignored it cos we didn't know where it was coming from. It was right next to her ear, and she was still sleeping. Unbelievable. Every part of my body was aching. We went to visit the orchards and plantations that day. And ate lots of fruits. Saw the oil palms, rubber trees and cocoa trees. After that, they gave us a lot of fruits to eat. Then we had to go back and pack. Went back around 1.30. On the bus, we chatted and played Cho Tai Ti and Cheat until we came back.

Overall, I had loads of fun there and lots of memorable experiences. Absolutely loved the caving! And so did not regret going. But too bad didn't get to do abseiling. I was really looking forward to that. Woke up at 11.15 today and had to rush to tuition. Lol.