Updated 24 April 2006
a dOor cLose & thousands moRe wiLL opEn....
by Christal Loh
Raleigh International Kuala Lumpur's Introduction Week was my chance to go for an expedition....
DAY 1 (24th March 06)
the day that started to change my point of view in life. All my life, i've been through countless camps (include those 'sleeping over in CLS'). but this one, RALEIGH INTERNATIONAL KL, Introduction Week really brought me to a new world. Before this, camp is always fun & feed us with countless delicious food....
we, Introduction Weekend (IW) participants meet at Rakan Muda Club House at 6pm. I reach a few minutes late. It started of with the normal ice breakers where each get a piece of paper filled with boxes and list of things that had been done or owned. We were suppose to get others to sign. Me as usual, was lazy & started sms chat with Eve. huahahaha... Till the horrified part, we are all suppose to hand-in all our valueable stuff. I gave in all my valuebles & staple them in a BIG brown envolope.
We later have packed dinner & the weekend brief begin. I have no idea what time is was as all of us "kuai kuai" gave them all our watches & mobile phones. actually the brief was really about the weekend but Raleigh as an organisation in whole.
After the brief, we were divided to into 4 groups. My group's name is Delta (other 3 are Alpha, Bravo,& Charlie). Each group was given 2 plastic bags which contains food. 6 packets of Macaroni, 2 cans of Sardin, 2 cans of bake beans, 1 loaf of High 5 bread, 1 packet of "ham pang" /salted biscuits & a jar of Strawberry Jam. At first, i thought that was our snack, but only i realise it was my group's food for the weekend. Erm... at that moment, i was wishing, i should have brought my dozen packets of Tiger biscuits that i've juz brought & left it in my car instead. Haih...
Around an hour later, we loaded all our belongings & other equipments into the bus. It was really dark, but we've no idea what time is was. We juz follow the orders by our coordinators. I was sitting next to Aishah in the bus, a lovely Malay girl in my group. We chatted a bit & both slept to charge up our energy in case there are more surprises at the campsite.
Around one and a half hour on the bus, we finally reach the campsite. The bus drove through Rawang before reaching the campsite, some said, the road is heading towards Fraser Hill.
The place was pitch dark.The front light of the bus was the only light we got to unload all our stuff from the bus. Moments later, we were lead into the jungle/campsite. Each group can chose their own cornet to built their so called-tents. My group was given 3 flysheets. That was all given to keep us from shine & rain. After quite a long time planning & discussing, we agreed on our group leader's decision. Which is to built it like the "A" roof. With supporting reason: it is able to block rain from coming in. Which was really true...
My smartie group leader (the one in yellow)- vinCent is his name
A pic of Aishah (right)
Gackt, the one with peace, one of my group member...
Thank God for i learned knots before. We ended up with a good flysheet roof. But some of us still prefer to stay the nite under stars than under the flysheet. For me, ofcourse i prefer under the stars. It was a stary night, although there were snorring from my group mates. The first night had made me too excited to think what's plan for the next day.
(for your information, i was still in the same sets clothes i wore in the morning to class on Friday when i went under my sleeping bag)
DAY 2 (25 March 06)
We woke up at God know what time is was. The sky was juz about to break into dawn. There was barely enough light to wake me up. The campsite was still dark & cold, which makes me fall back to sleep, some moment later, some coordinator woke me up. "WAKE UP!", my eyes was closed, so dunno who's that. I wrap myself up in my warm comfy green sleeping bag. I was so comfy in it. Due to the "dunno wat time it is", i drag my self up.
Still thinking, should i brush my teeth or not. This is my first camp which does not come with a "toilet", nor clean water running out from pipes. After saw a few of my group members did, i decided, i should brush my teeth. I packed up my sleeping bag & we gather around on an early morning & did some warm up. Adrian e, the camp chief thought us the "Penquin", & i think i like it. The real weekend will be starting very soon.
After the penquin, we started with games. All games were new to me. I've never ever played all four games before. After some thinking, i think those situations given in the games were logic. It had really made me understand & learn how to act if that were to happened to me. I played logic games... lol...
It's lunch time... we cook Macaroni with Sardins & Baked Beans for lunch... need to count the food for our meals later on. First time for me to cook with a mess tin & stove. I remember my first combined Guides camp, we brought pots & pans... lol... all us were hungry after the games.
It's time to hike, our first plan was to hike up the hill to see a huge ROCK, but because we got sesat on our way up hill, all of us patah balik. Friendship was made although the journey was not completed... I manage to chat abit with Jolene & Li Jia the two after-SPMers.... and also EiLyn, the other Penangites in my group... she was from CPT... yeah... another convent girls...
{back row from Left: Li Jia, Ei Lyn, Jolene & Vincent~gr. leader (in Yeallow)}
{front row from Left: Aishah & Gackt} (did i mention: the above all are juz all camwhore... lol, ya, all of juz come crowd together when its time to sNap that momeNt)
I dont have much sad feelings that we must head back to campsite because of the ke-sesat-an, this might be because of the rivers. This is my first time hiking up hill which i need to pass through rivers above knee level & they were all almost icy cool water. I enjoy all those rivers we walk pass. I think i dip in the river the most.... lol... Okay, i dip in all the river we walk pass... lol... There's rarely chance for us, the city people to see clean & cold river water flowing... All we could see in the cities are, "teh peng" look-a-like river...
Back at the campsite after the sesat trip, we rested & refilled all our water bottles. Because, we're now heading for the BIG HUGE WATERFALL... waHH.... im starting to like this more... lol... waterfall... i lurv them... we need to hike pass 5 rivers to reach to this huge waterfall. All those 5 rivers are one, they snake through the hill... lol... We were told, it's around an hour hiking journey to reach to the waterfall.
After hiking pass the 4th water fall, 2 groups had already decided to stop heading towards the huge waterfall. 1 group is almost reaching & left us to decided, to go, or not to go. To continue walking to the huge waterfall le... & yes, all of us were so semangat & sepakat hati to continue our journey... Right after we decided to continue, there was a loud thunder. but we did not change our decision. so we continue to hike.... juz after pass through the 5th river, I felt a drop of rain on my hand. I stopped & feel it, it was really rain from the sky. A second later, Joe (our group coordinator) ask us all to gather around. We need to head back to campsite. Alpha, the group who had already reach the huge waterfall are now heading back because of the rain. So, we need to turn back. For me, I juz felt bad for less than a minute. We juz miss the fall for about hiking 15 minutes more. Cis...
(evang in white & Joe in yellow, both our group Delta coordinators)
[Would also like to take this opportunity to thank them for all their hard work & patients with us... We know, our faces dunt show our semangat but, all of us were sehati sejiwa in our hearts... both of them had shared with us their experiences in life with us, this gave us lots of pointers in life other than juz expeditions... keep up your good work & continue to guide the juniors of RIKL... ]
On our walk back to campsite, we did have fun hiking under the rain. The sky was getting dark too... But most importantly, we enjoy the hike & the journey... We might miss the waterfall but our semangat masih membara... juz a light "wind" can light us up again... & the journey back was the "wind"... Throughout the hiking, we, the members walk too fast till left out our coordinators... sorry ya.. hehehe...
Back at our campsite make us all safe but not warm. Because we were all soaking wet & cold. We know we need to change to dry clothes but how? It's still raining... Some try drying themselves at the campfire when the rains get smaller... While it was still raining, our group decided to open the salted biscuits & jam for dinner. Obviously, we were to hungry, the biscuits wont fill our empty stomachs... we ended up cooking the rest of the food in the plastic bag. leaving nothing for tmrw.. lol...
After filling up our stomachs & settling down, we had our hiking de-brief. Till that time & after the hike, I've learn teamwork which also leads to communications. When we are in a team, we need to work in a team & share our thoughs & ideas to move on. Communication is the tool to teamwork.
The campnite finally happens after everyone was sitting around the campfire. Our group, Delta was the last to perform, as we started to walk to the middle, it started to drizzle... we started our first scene... the whole Sketch was about.... "BREAST CANCER"... lol... no exact conversation was plan, its up to our imagination & coordination (teamwork again)....lol... the rain broke out juz minutes after we started our sketch... Everyone ran lintang-pukang to our campsite...
Supporting to the above Vincent, Delta group leader, thank for the LONGKANG idea.. it did save us from getting all wet with the huge & mighty rain... the longkang really works... we were the dries compare to the other groups. Although 11 people under a rectangular flysheet was impossible to us at first, it did made us believe it's possible. Because of the heavy rain, we've got no other choice but to seat on our bags under the flysheet. That's our only roof.
Under the flysheet, anything could happen... EiLyn teach us a song without lyrics... juz "dum" with tunes all the way... that's the base part... the "dum" did make us all closer with each other in the team, although we were really close to each other physically... the rest of us behind, continue digging the drain to keep the water from comming in...
because of the rain was too heavy, all of the campers need to go under proper shades. which was the committees' dining table. we ended up standing there for two hours, without really knowing it was two hours... the committes was so nice, they gave up their almost dry comfy tents & sleeping bags to us... really a big hug of thanks to them ALL....
I was sleeping the bigger tent, where they put 10 of us in it. I've no idea how we sleep in it but we were all exhausted.
DAY 3 (26th March 2006)
The next morning, i hear someone shouted something like this, "BANGUN! BANGUN!.... BANGUN KALAU TIDAK MAHU DIBANGUNKAN". I was damn blur... so juz woke up, kept my sleeping bag & crawl out from the tent.I was sleeping the furthest from the door.
We again played the "Penquin" game to start of the day... later on with more games... because of ystd's activites, all of our brains seem not working as great as the day before. But we did enjoy them... minus the brain-not-working-well part...
After the games, we cook lunch.. yea.. we won more food from ystd's activities or games, im not really sure but... we all of us were happy for there's more food for us. Something less to worry bout... we cook happily whilh packing our stuff.
We ate & have our group camp de-brief together... we share stories about our experiences in this camp. Mine was, I join this because I was alreally interested in an expedition. It was after watching a Hong Kong TVB series which made me wanted to go. So this is the chance... Overally, we all gain friendship from this camp. In less than 48 hours, we made friends. We play, cook, eat, walk, hike, run, joke, sesat, soak in river, sleep & do everything together had made our short-process-of-friendship-making a good one. Thanks lots to RIKL for such a short but memorable weekend.
Before it was time to go up the bus, everyone of us played the "Giant", "Wizard" & "Dwarfs" game... & the our group, Delta won... even won the committees... lol...
the bus journey back to Rakan Muda Club house was... im not sure... coz i slept the whole journey back... lol... we were all tired...
Overally, RIKL committees had bring lots of effords for this Intro Weekend. It had gave us a chance in a life time to know more about ourselves & not to take things for granted.
from the bottom of my heart ~ a BIG HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE OF THEM!!!!!
(i've uploaded the pics i took on the last day at RIKL Y! groups, so check it out. email me if u need largerfile size of it)
a few drops of hunny & a sweet cup of knowledge,
signing off,
christalloh ~ p0ohz
p0ohz@yahoo.co.uk
Updated 21 April 2006
Of Long Drops & Kampung Adidas…
By Jessica Ch’ng
Three days and two nights with no communication with the outside world. No access to clocks and time. Roughing it out. Thrown into a river and a ‘longdrop’ masquerading as a bathroom, hour-long hikes through rivers and vegetation and you will get a Raleigh Introduction Weekend.
Initially, I realized I had over-packed and as usual, arrived too early. I was welcomed by overenthusiastic mosquitoes, hyperactive staff and ‘slowly drifting in’ participants who helped to ease the initial awkwardness. However, the staff of the Introduction Weekend continued to keep us in the dark about the location of the camp. And since they took such pains to keep it a secret, I am not going to disclose it here either!
After being divided into groups and given our provisions for the weekend, we set off for our campsite. Once we arrived, our team coordinators pointed to our two fly sheets and told us that we had to select a camping area and to start building our tents- in the dark. There was a fair amount of grumbling about that. So how does one make an A-tent with a flysheet that wasn’t even wide enough to house eight tired team members and their possessions? Aisalli told us to make do with what we had. My team ended up using the most raffia string to build ours. Then we took a tour of our substitute toilet or ‘longdrop’. Representatives of each team had to help dig a two feet deep hole in a small clearing away from the campsite.
With a tree root biting into my back, trying to keep still, feet stuck out in the open as we slept shoulder to shoulder, I’ve no idea how we managed to get any sleep that night. Mercifully, it did not rain. We were not so lucky the next night though….
Decision-making was a consistent thread throughout the entire weekend. We had to plan how to stretch our resources, play the team-building games, make that painful decision of not completing the hike to the waterfall because of foul weather, and improve the ‘sad thing’ we called our tent. Our planning was so good that we ended up with surplus food (Hey, we were not dieting!)
I had an enriching weekend. True, I lost my shoes, got sore feet, picked up leeches, but then, I also got acquainted with longdrops and Kampung Adidas, bathed and washed in the river and even spent a ‘one-night stand’ in the rain after our tents were destroyed by the heavy downpour on the second night. Most importantly, games like the tiring “electric fence” taught us never to underestimate our abilities or strengths.
Updated 13 March 2006
Intro Weekend March had brought us many unforgettable memories. It was indeed a very 'wet' one. The rain had brought out the best out of everybody. Staffs and participants alike.
Participants are challenged to a community project each. Do click on the team photo below to learn more about the status of their projects.
Updated 24 Feb 2006
It is finally the time of the year to announce the dates for introweek for the end of
this coming year.
March 24, 25 and 26 March 2006 !!
Introduction Weekend
Coming 24-26 March 2006, we will be organising a Raleigh International Introduction Weekend. Why Introduction Weekend? As the name suggests, we are introducing the "idea-Of-Raleigh" to potentials expedition venturers. We are running a concise 48 hours program to get the "feel" of an expedition. This is the FIRST of the FOUR challenges. Come to find out the other 3 challenges!
1. This camp is open for youths between the age of 17-25 years of age, preferably school leavers. We are in-line with our HQ in London that the entry requirement for any expeditions is age between 17-25. However, we have had conditional acceptance, which we accepted those whom they are out of the age group.
2. The camp is starting on Friday at 6pm in Rakan Muda Clubhouse (see-attached map & direction). We will start with the briefing before proceeding to the rest of the program. All are invited to this briefing. Parents, friends, interested but not available for this weekend. We shall provide a clearer picture of who and what we do. The camp will be ending back at the same place around 3pm on Sunday.
3. Due to the constrain of time and the complexity of our application form, we stress that all forms must be returned to me by 10 March 2006, either by snail mail or email.
4. Ability to swim 200 metres unaided. This is the second requirement of the camp. Both expedition and Introduction Weekend alike, contains water-based activities. For example, river crossing, canoeing, rafting, sailing and even diving. We are not saying that you must swim like an Olympic champion, but participants must be comfortable and confident in a water-body. Eventually, prior to the expedition, you will be tested on the swimming of 200 metres unaided.
Please treat the application form with due respect and complete it with honesty and honour. It reflects heavily on the observation during the camp itself. Please fill in all the forms and details required. Do feel free to photostat or pass the map and forms around your friends and family.
Contact Details
I can be easily contacted via email and h/p +6 012 323 2297.
Last but not least, RIKL meets every 1st Monday of the month, and the next is 6rd March 2005. It will be at the same place, Rakan Muda Clubhouse.
Looking forward to receive your application form. The registration fee is RM 30
**To anyone who is an ex-participant and you would also want to be able to play a part in making this introweek fun and interesting,you can volunteer by becoming a staff member. All you have to do is email to me your particulars ( name, contact no.,IC no, and your address ) by 10 March and make yourself available on those dates.
For more information, please go to raleighinternational.org (UK)
James Wong - Introduction Weekend Officer
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