Photos taken from the blog of Lim Wen Chean L6K
Kem Perdana 2007
Everyone was excited, myself included. It’s been ages since my last camp, and being passed from the selection to go for PLKN, I was practically bouncing of my seat for Kem Perdana. The whole of Lower 6 Kensett signed up for it along with a couple of students from Mori and the other classes, the majority were form 4 boys.
DAY 1
Malaysians do earn their reputation of being thirty minutes late for any event, but in this case make it; one hour and thirty minutes late. I guess waiting endlessly under the sun wasn’t as bad as it sounds mainly because of what the boys were up to. Despite the wait, as soon as the bus arrived everyone was up on their feet again hopping into the busses. I didn’t manage to get a decent nap, the bus was too noisy and the trip was too short.
The place wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. Another few hours of waiting and we had our first ‘makan’ at noon. Delicious. I guess as soon as I sunk my teeth into the ayam masak merah, I had a feeling this trip is going to worth every last cent of that RM50 I paid.
The rest of the day was spent on settling down. We were introduced to our camp commandants and later set of the build our tents.
Then, came the time for night tracking.
Ever tracked in a jungle infested with leaches, bugs and plants? Try doing that at night. Lets say, 12am under a dim moonlight, extremely damp weather and minimal torch lights. We walked in a single line through the Orang Asli village and into the jungle. Among the 105 people, every 6th person was allowed to carry a torch light. I was lucky number six. Abang Azwan; the ‘it’ man of camp, warned us not to offend the jungle as we were only pasing visitors. He specifically told us not to shine up into the trees and paid full attention to the ground we were walking. Adding a myth or two along the way, his creep intensity reached maximum level. Honestly, ghost stories aren’t of our best interest at the moment.
However, in the forest, ghosts and evil ‘penungu’s were the least of our problems as soon as vamipiric non mammals that roamed the forest floors come out of their hibernation. They were hungry, awaken from their long slumber, they were out to get us, like sitting ducks the humans stood there defenseless. Many fell prey to the bloodthirsty creature’s evil conquest. It was the manifestation of the our worst nightmare. Unlike the Hollywood blockbuster in the movie Attack of the Giant Leeches aired in 1957, these parasites were more miniature. We survived the gruesome, horrendous, torturing 4 hours in the wilderness and thank God everyone came out alive. It was an experience everyone wished they could forget.
DAY 2
We woke up with anticipation for what’s ahead despite the back aches. Aside from the damp weather, we had another yummy breakfast. Everyone looked zombiefied. Their faces showed signs of ageing and the stress of overload of stress piling up under their eyes. I’m not kidding, they really look like the walking dead. Mainly because of the extremely minimal sleep that we got due to the poor tent conditions. Can you imagine six grown women cramping into a tent made for four people? Well, we made use of our left brains and came up with a brilliant idea, we take turns sleeping. I did manage to get some sleep and reminded myself to do some facial when I get home.
After lunch’s when all the real fun begun. We made use of the facilities there, and took part in activities in the extreme category like wall climbing, the flying fox, and the obstacle course. I held a grudge on Abang Azwan for being a bully, and got my vendetta when we were allowed to splash around in the nearby river. Later at night, we presented the rehearsed performance in groups. We had a lot of laughter and some even rolled on the floor. The spirit of MBS and our fluent control of the language and presentation skills were taken note by the outsiders. The camp commandant praised MBS for being the first school with the most interesting and creative presentation. Go Forward MBS!
DAY 3
We were up early and packed for the day time tracking. To everyone’s amazement, despite the hike being planed out for two and a half hours, we did it in half the time. Personally I think the day tracking was more fun despite being less challenging. On top of that, everyone had already gone immune to the leeches. Self accomplishment and atonement filled our hearts as we were able to make up for the poor performance during the first night. And again, we received praise form the outsiders.
As soon as we left the forest we detoured from the original path to head for the waterfall. Almost everyone got themselves submerged in the not so shallow, not so clean water. I wasn’t pleased with the idea of having the boys upstream and camping on top of the waterfall, with their poor attempt to block all water flow while the girls were at the bottom basked in the remaining water that seeped through them. I almost felt discriminated but the fun washed away all unsatisfaction. When the time came everyone reluctantly left the waterfall and headed back to camp to clean and pack up. Mr. Chin Nam Keong was already at camp when we were packed and ready. The official closing ceremony was held and generous gifts were given to all camp commandants and to the winning teams. Aleric a.k.a the Penghulu was given the Most Popular Award by the commandants for being sporting and having a very unique way in doing push-ups. As soon as the event ended, everyone walked in single lines to shake hands with all the camp commandants.
It was a short 3 days affair, and despite being so brief, I caught a glimpse into the hearts of those who commit their lives into helping the new generation understand and enjoy nature. I thank Abang Azwan for those precious lessons on how important it is to respect nature.
Participants of Kem Perdana 2007
Happy Faces from Lower 6
Meal time
Waiting for the bus
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