So the few morning sleep hours passed... and I slept like a baby... until sometime around noon I think... [my memory is getting fuzzy... XP]

Marc and I cooked up some food for lunch, me doing most of the egg cracking and preparation and him most of the cooking. We used some of the leftover patties from the first day... and some eggs... ferng did mix up a pancake mix... which we cooked of course... this time we used ONE waxe cube at a time, learning from experience the previous day... yet it was still too hot for eggs when it started combusting... yea.. it was like an engine combustion.... We decided to move into one of the tents for shade from the sun... they had mosquito nets anyway... so we can keep the ever persistant flies away from our food... which turned out to be the worse possible idea at the time...

We got all our foodstuff in... seasoning and stuff... it was still a little cool... with the clouds over us... we started munching down our food, thinking that if the sun were to ever come out, we'll be cool under the shelter of camp... Well, it was only a few seconds after we settled ourselves in the tent and indulge the campfood prepared... Then the sun decided to sneak out of the clouds... the tent did provide shade and cool to us...

For 2 seconds that is... The shelter was made of steel and nylon sheets... NYLON sheets... If you have never walked into an overheated sauna, THIS tent is the answer to all your curiousities...

Almost immediately after the sun hit the tent's surface... the tent became an instant human toaster... and the air was not exactly circulating well with a tent stuffed with 6 guys and an entrance veiled by a mosquito net... we bailed out... willing to take on the bugs than the idea of barbeque boys... so we 'feasted' outside... where we battled the annoying flies with one hand... and shove our food down our throats with another...

Well, now its sunny... and the soil with its undergrowth have more or less dried up... Good thing for us... firewood collecting would be easier this time... Yoonsing and Ferng headed out to find some bamboo to make bAmBoO-seats [more like fireside beds] and the rest of us went off to gather firewood as well as salvaged leftover firewood from the firepit last night, then chop up and debark them a little... And oh... this time my fingers were still aching... and swinging that parang and taking the impact when the blade hits the wood... WAHHH.... PAINNNN....

And yet for some unknown reason, I continued to debark and chop wood... only this time I was swearing as I did it... [ps: I'm still wondering why I didn't excuse myself from that work... and yes I did swear a lot throughout the camp... YOU try taking the "excitement"!!!] We also set up another 6 man tent for the newcomers too... expecting 2 of them... at least that is..

A while after they left, YoonSing and Ferng did come back with some bamboo... 2 logs of them... each about 6 metres long, 6~8cm diameter... I don't know whether they found it lying around... or got evil and chopped some juicy plant growing innocently by the trail... but we were quite happy with the find...

I did hear some chopping a while ago though...

About 2 metres of that bamboo was dedicated to making barbeque skewers... Ferng and his cousin started to chop on the bamboo in a frenzy... apparently we got a little tired for they got Aik to assist them later on... who later dragged me along too... We split the bamboo using a parang shoved across the axis of the bamboo... then hammering the blade down using a rock... as I did it... I wondered if we look like stone age people... Well, it did feel primitive...

Well, all we did there was to split the bamboo to managable segments, then let the ferng duo carve out the skewers... Ferng was just making them pointed enough to be able to pierce raw meat... his cousin was... well... he looked as if he was going to kill us with those skewers... sharpening them into arrow like bodies... he was sniggering while at it too... O.O"""""

After supplying the would-be serial killer and his cousin materials to work with, we continued to chop at the bamboo, spiltting them up to even length segments to be made as bamboo benches... nothing complicated about this feat of contruction... we just put the bamboo segments parallel, side by side to each other and sit on them... we don't even tie them up... This idea came about from our first night out here... the wooden bench logs available at the campsite literally flattened our butts... and it hurts when you sit on them for a few minutes... The bamboo seats would provide more surface area for butt-resting so that we dont flatten our asses or make our buttbones ache when seated.

We stopped collecting firewood after making a small stockpile... thinking that we'll make the newcomers go through wat we went through the first day... leeches and wet wood to deal with... we were expecting 2 others to come today, hopefully with yet another 2 more to count a 4... so headed off to the river to bathe... and it started raining... well this time we didn't care less... we were planning to get wet anyway...

We wanted to trek higher to get a better spot to dip... but there were already some people hogging the higher grounds... or rather... waters... So we had to settle fot the waterfall near camp... which is not really that bad... it lacked space and depth to really dip... but at least we get a good lookout view over our camp...

There were a few spots on the fall where you can sit and let the freezing water shower you... so I decided to climb a little for the freezer... Ferng, his cousin and yoonsing were ahead... and well, they took  all the spots... there was this one more spot... but the rocks seem a little dangerous... not the height... its only 1 meter up... but the sharp rocks... Marc and I had to settle at the base of the waterfall, which due to the puny size of the waterfall, produced almost no splash... Ferng's cousin settled with the midway up the good-spots... I'd go there too, but that'll block their way down...

When those hoggers finally got down, the rocks were completely wet due to the rain and splashing... and I don't trust my aching fingers that much to be able to holster me up... so I just splashed around like an idiot at the 30cm deep base of the waterfall... Come to think of it... I still don't get it why they call that puny thing a waterfall... it does splash... but... ITS SO SMALL.... top to base, its like maybe 4 metres?!

We dipped briefly, only for 15 minutes, then filled our waterbottles in the fear of the incoming muddy water, then dried ourselves and got into dry clothes...

hmm... the newcomers are not here yet... something is not right here...

A senseless discussion arose in the group, suggestions that its likely that they have decided to ditch us... they were supposed to be here by 1pm, but its already 4pm and there's no sign of them coming...

We now have 2 options... just forget about them and start preparing the maggie mee and dry food we had brought along for dinner... or have someone hike downhill for a cellphone reception, call them and ask them whats going on... and hopefully get our meat for barbeque... We decided on the latter... Marc and yoonsing hiked down a little, and got a reception not too far from camp... so they got back fast after they left, carrying the news... They could not find Templer's Park... where we are... According to them, the locals told them that there was TWO templer's park, one old, and one new... the one we were in, was refered as the new one... They said they tried looking for us at the old templer's park but found no one...

The news was rather curious to us... because none of us had ever heard of any other Templer's Park... there was only one...

Eventually... Ferng's craving for meat [chicken and MUTTON] pushed him to take the hike too... dragging poor o'Yoonsing along with him... they later came back, with the news of the newcomers on their way... then left to get them downhill...

The rest of us stayed at camp chatting as we waited... with the occasional random debarking... We waited a while... Then I remembered that we had problem starting a fire last night... It was done in a way ferng claimed 'scout's way' a jumble of twigs piled up, then kerosine and fire starters over them, then a lighter... So I decided to start building the firewood to a easily burnt structure... Something I learnt from my Red Cross days... Collected puny twigs, built a tripod base, with increasing twig sizes as the layers grew...

It was done, and all that was left is for the food to arrive...

We waited for a rather long while... worrying that the newcomers would lose their way AGAIN... It was getting dark, and we started to worry about the 2 who hiked down... Hiking in the dark is NO FUN... NEVER hike in the dark unless its an emergency... Luckily it was not raining... Finally, when moonlight begun to become the primary source of light, a ray of torchlight signaled their return...

What's this? only 2 guys? Where's the newcomers??

Well, I don't know what really happened... but this is what I know: They met up downhill, and the 'newcomers flamed at them, shoved them with the supplies, then went back home...

We looked at each other... puzzled... and kinda frustrated.... we lugged up 10 people's worth of supplies, bpught equipment for 10 people... and now we had 6 of us... which also means that the 70bucks, strength and time spent on the second tent was a waste... sigh.... what luck...

Then Ferng caught eyes on the structure we built for burning... and without asking properly... he went... "whats this? I don't like it." And tore or work apart... Ferng's cousin and I went jaws wide opened... staring at Ferng... as he ripped the structure apart... he then threw in a pile of twigs, wood shaving we gathered from debarking, and succesive thickening of twigs over that...

Again... its scout's way.... starters everywhere, kerosine lighter.... I wondered at that moment... aint scouts supposed to be able to survive outdoors with very little tools? What happens when they run out of fire starters and kerosine!?!?!??!

Anyways we got a fire started... got the FROZEN meat defrosted in the flame, wrapped in aluminium foil... We later got them out, seasoned them, then got them onto the bamboo skewers. The flame was rather too strong for a barbeque.. so we had to contantly manipulate the meat to keep them from overcooking and turning into potential fuel for our fire...

I'll stop here for now... this night was rather eventful compared to the previous... Laterzz...

[Day 2]

The sun was going to rise high enough to give us some good'ol sunlight... The whole gang was awake and gathered around the dying ambers of the DEAD camp fire...

Judging by the darkness of the surroundings we really should have keep at least a small fire going... but the darn flame kept dying, and firewood was kinda... short... as in... 1 chunk of log left... about 6cm raduis... charred... So, we decided to 'screw' the flame... and just rely on the kerosine lamps... Hey, they give more light then the flame anyways... the cold was also fading... so just huddle...

Well, the huddling was definitely unneccesary... and no, we did not huddle... thank goodness...

During this time I finally realised my fingers were aching at all joints... I had spent the ENTIRE night [well, technically half the morning too] debarking wood using a small parang... It felt like I was an elderly with aching joints... [can't remember the darn name of the aging fatigue...] We chatted about the stupid fire for a few minutes... then I decided to check the condition of the river water... The water did show signs of clearing up the last few times I checked, but it was really too dark to tell whether it was potable... I had to use the kerosine lamp, which really didn't manage to light up the river much...

Anyway, it was relatively bright now, with our eyes' pupa tuned to night-vision and I could see well under the now dim light...

The water was... CLEAR!!!!

WOOHOO... drinking water...!!!! Good thing Ferng brought along his TINY bottle of hydrogen peroxide... Just about 2~3 drops of it into a 1.5L bottle of river water.... shaky shaky~~ and viola!!! potable water...

Minute debris in the water!?

Believe me guys... when you've been through a day of sweating... blood draining(stupid leech)... evaporation due to proximity to a fire.... You'll be dehydrated enough to say "I DON'T CARE ABOUT NO $&#@$(*@# DEBRIS!!!!" and just gulp down the juice from heaven... *Aaaahhhhh...~~~~~*

Since we had EXTRA water now, we decided to have some campbell's cream of mushroom... We had 1 can of the soup, and 2 packets of it in powder form... we decided on 1 can, and 1 packet... Aik tried to open it with his swissknife... but apparently had problems with it... so I showed off my skills with MY swiss...

I popped through the metal cover with the knife skillfully... ahh.... such ellegance... when I finished trailing the sides... I started to yank the cover open... [why such detail... you'll see next...]

I looked at Aik with a grin as I yanked it...

Eh?

It won't budge... I re-examined the cover... AHA!!! a small gap which had not been cut.... I'll just cut it and the cover will doodily doo come right off....

Aik was histerically laughing beside saying... "next thing you know... theres still another gap uncut...." "No way thats gonna happen...!!" I replied...

And I yanked it...

Wurt da...

Yup the darn amatuer swiss-user's curse was right on... and he started laughing even more histerically as I finally got the cap off the can...

Ah... the mushBOOM soup was refreshing...

The sun finally got up... and my finger's joints were still killing me... the cream from the soup kicked on my sleep button... so for the duration of the daylight morning... I was asleep in a tent... hence no news about that time...

Know what... this post is gonna be cut short coz some insomiac wants to discuss art pieces with me...

Well yea... nothing else to do while waiting for simpsons and southpark downloads to finish... so what the hey... lets blog a little... darn downloads... hurry up!!! Oh well... this is going to be a long post anyway... The post turned out longer than I expected... so I'm plitting them to sections... well, if you'd like a shorter, brief narration, go to s4ians.blogspot.com

Had a camping trip last weekend... Marc, FerngYi & his cousin, Aik Hoong, and YoonSing and I.... Quite enjoyable I must say... For those curious about camping, heres a TINY glimpse of it...

First day of camp... We gathered at my place where THEY had decided to dump equipment and some food... shoved the stuff into Aik Hoong's car... and we were off... A brief discussion stirred up on what to do first... eat lunch or hike straight up... well, we decided on lunch anyways...

That was kind of a good thing coz we did 'discover' a pretty good stall... the fish and vegetables were good... didn't try their chicken... the prices were reasonable... but nothing to say about the hygeine though...

So we had lunch and head to the camp site... we drove past the entry to the site once... and had to make a U-turn at a bypass which is about 6km away... so its 12km thru and flow... Eventually we reached the site base at around 1.30pm i think... We started to get the stuff out of the car... then we started unloading the car... and while we were at it... it begun to rain... again... Yea it rained a little a moment ago... just a teasing drizzle I'd say... but this time it really poured... So we decided to not take the risk of carrying our heavy loads up on a wet slippery trail... and waited out the rain under the shelter near the car.

Then there was this guy napping there. He told us that there is a place higher up in the hill where we can shove the car while we are camping... we looked at each other... and unanimously vote to move to higher grounds. By this time the rain had hushed down to a heavy drizzle... so its ALL the stuff back into the car again... and up we go... We drove up a narrow pass up... hoping that there would be NO cars coming from the opposing direction... because that pass was REALLY narrow... strictly only for ONE car... Anyway we were lucky, and no cars came downhill... we finally reached a so-called swimming pool (looked like a treatment reservoir to me...) and snuggled our car at a corner... we got the stuff out... and started strapping on the equipment and food to our body...

Mind you we were 5 people, lugging up equipment and food for 10 people... so thats a lot to strap on... With a little distributing and rearranging, we somehow managed to allow everyone to carry the stuff without seriously putting anyone in danger due to weight when hiking up... Then our car's owner got worried about car theives... and opened the engine hull, holding a cloth toolkit... he opened it and whoa... the tools were so rusty... I doubt that the screwdriver will be able to twist a screw without snapping... CHANGE THAT TOOLKIT DUDE!!!

Anyway, we pulled out a couple of things, disconnected a wire, locked the car, and we were off! The hike up was quite stressful... some of us had our backs aching, some fingers turned blue holding plastic bags (you know, try holding something with the weight of say... a small watermelon in a plastic bag, holding the THIN strap of the bag for a while, then look at your fingernails... you'll get the picture)... Due to the rain the trail had become wet, slippery sometimes, and with the help of wildboars' digging and burrowing, muddy ground. The enviroment was wet, so the leeches were all out for some juice... I had no problem spotting them wiggling around from under the leaves for creatures(us too) passing by... I warned the others behind me about their whereabouts... but Aik Hoong up front seem to be unable to spot any... I wonder why... Its either they got to him, or he just woke them up from their hiding, telling them: "dinner's here!!!" Well, apparently WE were dinner... There were several tight and steep spots to navigate, but we somehow managed...

Eventually we arrived at our campsite, somehow managing to carry the weight of the equipment... A round of applause to the gang please~ =3 We set up camp, and started franktically searching for firewood.

One problem. It rained. All the wood was wet, and hard to burn. After collecting a small amount of wood, barely enough to last the night, we started debarking(removing the bark, to rid the wet mossy bark) the wood... This is when the group suddenly got paranoid of the leeches leeching on to us... Yes we did encounter a few up the trail, but it didn't really trigger off the paranoid mode... Yoon Sing initially had the most leeches, but most of them just started juicing him... just pluck them off and be done with them... Aik Hoong evetually took the lead with leech count I think...

Well, I hold a leech record of the group myself...

I had a total of 3 sucking away at my left ankle, which left small puncture wounds which seemed to continue to bleed after I pulled them off... My socks were apparently soaked with my blood... Good thing it was black!!! XP Anyway that was not my record... I was debarking wood when I felt an itch right above my strap line... (underwear strap... >.<""") So I lifted up my shirt and asked Ferng and Aik who were sitting down to chill a while whether there was anything there on my back... they look a quick look, and said nothing... So I let my shirt drop back. Then as it fell, they spotted something that looked like a leech mark... so I lifted my shirt again... This time, a black thing fell out... and I noticed a puncture wound streaming with blood at the itch area.... At this time Ferng and Aik were looking at the black thingy and swearing away at it... I bent down to get a closer look... and there it was... the record holder... a BIG FAT BLACK LEECH... stuffed with my blood... ( a leech there is about 3~4 cm in length, originally about say 2 mm in diameter) This leech had the diameter of about maybe 6mm... at this time I started swearing at the leech myself... (oh, the puncture wound eventually left a patch of blood on my shirt, about 5cm in diameter.. maybe a little more than that) Usually we would let the leeches climb onto a tiny twig, and then use a lighter and burn it dead...

However, this leech was soooooo fat that we had to give it SPECIAL treatment... Ferng then exclaimed that he brought along some firecrackers...

The devils in us surfaced... especially mine... Marc says he was a little freaked out looking at me going " YESSSSS...... DIE YOU @%^%@!#&%@!*$#*@!!@$ LEECH!!! DIE!!!! BWAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!!!!!!" We dug a little hole and placed the fat monstrosity in it, then shoved a firecracker beside it, then buried them together. Obvouisly we lit the fuse, and it went *fzzzzzzzztttzzzzttt......* (it was a flare firecracker). Some dark fluid leaked out of the ground.... we used some sticks to dig out the remains of the leech... and we found black red pulp oozing around the hole... Everyone was going like "whoa.... shit.... disgusting..." and I was like "BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHA....!!!! PADAN MUKA YOU $(*&$(^%&#@%)*(#@$&)@% LEECH!!!!!! suck MY blood!?!?!??! HAH!!! BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!!" We would have taken a picture of it... but we forgot about a camera... we were like... oh dang it...

Ferng's cousin joined us later in the day, he had a few leeches on his feet giving bloody feet to walk around with... Good for him (and us) he brought along his first aid kit (which SOMEBODY else forgot to bring). He wrapped the puncture wound with surgical tape, so did a few of us... I for one didn't really bother to wrap any...

The rest of day light was chop chop chop, and debarking... we cooked chicken burger patties using a flame produced by cubes of wax... can't remeber its actual name... The cubes were like 4cm x 4cm x 1cm dimensions... we used 2... but it seems that 1 of that thing was enough... more than enough actually... @.@" We layered the patties between normal bread, shove a few slices of cucumber in, dump some ketchup, and gobble them down...

As daylight faded, we were frantically trying to get a fire going... for light and heat at night... mind you its extremely dark at night as well as cold... I was busy debarking, Marc and YoonSing I can't remember what they were doing, Ferng and cousin were busy shoving our WET twigs into the dying flame... Aik was lighting up the kerosine lamp we had. It soon got dark and the camp fire was not up yet... we did everything, pouring kerosine, throwing in extra firestarters, swearing at the flame, fanning using used paper plates... evetually the fire was up... thankfully... It didn't give much light... only like a radius of 30cm around the flame as lit up... most of the light we got was from the 2 kerosine lamps, which seem to have frequent PMS.... We called it that because it periodically dies out... we had to constanly re-light the lamps, which proved very troublesome... they were hot, and it was dark... We also had to pray that the other lamp does not die out when one does... however we managed to keep it lit up later at night... One did die out once later at night, but it was due to the lack of fuel...

Well, it's dark at camp and there are wild animals at night... so sentries are needed to keep watch for animals and keep the fire going... I took the first shift with Aik and Ferng's cousin, where we quite successfully kept the fire going... unfortunately we were running low on wood, and had to ration them to small amounts... a little wood was placed in the fire... which was hard to maintain flaming... Usually people would think: Its at night, around a campfire with friends... people would talk about personal stuff since nobody else is around to eavesdrop... However, our first shift was relatively quiet, except for the occasional short arguements about DOTA strategies, hero builds.... and heck, we were all guys... what do you really expect outta guy talk?

Here's a potential sample:

"yo."

"sup man? How you've been?"

"fine man... you?"

Yea same here i guess..."

Well, thats about it... if anything add on from here, its either something like what you are doing now, lasting for 1~2 minutes, or something about the latest computer games...

So first sentry was kind like "DON'T DIE ON ME YOU &*#@%^*$#@(^%&@* FIRE!!!!"

The time for 2nd sentry eventually come, but we were so busy with the fire that we forgot to go wake them up... so they ended up 45 minutes late... Marc and YoonSing were next... Ferng's cousin and Aik retired to sleep, but I felt rather energetic and so decided to stay up... this sentry did get a short conversation going, contents: "CONFIDENTIAL" However, I did find myself doing most of the campfire work instead of them... =.=" Third shift was late again.... supposed to start at 4am, ended up at 5.30am.... Yea I was still awake... The night was quite peaceful, nothing much happened... However, we did not have enough water... We wanted to get river water, but the rain carried mud for upstream and the river was muddy... We had to ration the water...

[This section ends here... I'll continue when I'm awake enough and in the mood... XP]

[Stay tuned for more camping glimpses!!]

ps: I'm typing on a computer which has a faulty 'F' key... so pls excuse my missing 'F's...

Yea, I'm back on blogging, perhaps just once in another long break, after 1 month from my finals... I'm waiting on my results and I'm not sure that I am confident with my results... I know the questions, and I think that I know the answers, but really, I'm just uncertain of it all....

I had organized a lunch gathering or my class a while ago, which I would say went pretty well for our class's standard o commitment and participation... well, that is, 13 out of the 45 classmates attending... Nevertheless, I throughout the work of organizing this event, I have been reminded about how much people actually listen to others...

You could lay out something, and ask for approval or comment, but only a few would respond... yea... a few as in maybe around 4 ppl...

Very few people actually listen nowadays. They usually do only when they have something to gain fron you...

Let alone vocally, people need to be heard without speaking too. Its something a friend would detect through the tone o speech, or facial expressions... but till date I have only but met a few, a single hand's fingers are more than enough to count them...

Really, we have had classes and lessons to listen to FACTs, but we never had any lessons about listening to PEOPLE... their body language and stuff...

Thses kinda thing do effect a person's life... a subtle tone may mean an issue, the need of a helping hand, but the lack of the courage to speak up... some just just see it, some just can't be bothered....

Everyone,

Shouldn't we all start listening?