I was wearing my long-sleeved T-shirt and pants. The ground was soft for ground, yet harder than what I usually sleep on. The only thing I had with me was my torch and a towel, being used as a pillow by me.
In the night, I woke up at least 5 times, each time in wonder of the time. How late into the night was it? How long have I slept for? How much longer do I get to sleep?
Each time I woke up, I worried that I might not get enough sleep for the next day. In fact, somewhere in the corner of my mind felt that I have not slept, on the next day when I woke up.
We had bread for breakfast. After packing the essential items to bring along, we met at the kayaking shed for some sort of kayaking tutorial. Woan Chyi offered to pair up with me for the kayaking, and due to my poor kayaking skills, I was not sure whether she regretted that afterwhich.
We learnt basic kayaking techniques, and did a few capsizing drills and rescues. As I did not really know Woan Chyi, it felt awkward talking to her on the kayak at first. However, she pointed out my mistakes which was helpful, but at the same time made me feel pretty lousy because I was such a lousy kayaking partner, but the feeling soon passed. And talking to her no longer felt so weird.
The salty water, always dripping onto my hair, made it super uncomfortable when the salt crystallised and hardened my hair. Launching and getting off the kayak felt uneasy too, as rocks and sand tend to enter my horrible track shoes. I could not wait to run off to the water point and wash the sand off my shoes and feet each time. Furthurmore, I was not wearing any socks, which made my feet hurt at the same time.
After a short lunch, during which I realised that my personal food store was running out, we started our sea expedition with Bryan, Shao Hao, Jun Rui, Jiayi, Yan Sheng and Lester as our leaders. We had to kayak to our campsite for the night, which was none other than Punggol Jetty! That felt rather dumb, because we have just left that place one day before.
***
The waves were against us. Our checkpoints seemed so close, yet took such a long time to reach. In fact, when I pedalled fast, it looked like the kayak was moving fast, but it was merely the waves moving fast and pushing us backwards.
The sun was not a big problem that day. Being late afternoon and as evening peeked around the corner, the air turned cool and much more comfortable. However, my arms were getting very tired. It felt a bit like having done that assisted pull-up machine near my home for 4 hours straight. Nevertheless, we had to keep on moving, or the waves would push us back to where we started.
It was also about time to pee, but since the destination seemed so near, and it would be rather awkward to do it in the presence of so many people, I tried to hold back the urge. I told myself that I had to stop drinking water at resting points.
Punggol could be seen in the distance, but the rate at which we were heading towards it was crazily slow. Mentally tired, I just "programmed" my hands to keep on moving while I became sleepy in the physical world. Unconciously, the red buoy which indicated Punggol increased by a whole lot of size, and that meant good news. It could not be too far away now. On our left,
Kayaks rafted up to the speed boat, and one by one, they moved up for shore around the rocks. On our left, there was the busy port of malaysia, ships travelling along in the beautiful sunset. On the wait to quickly get to shore to relieve myself, time tip-toed pass.
***
Yet, we still had to move our kayaks up the rocky incline full of foot-sized gaps. The kayaks were heavy, and moving them up took quite a long time, during which I kept on wishing that there were kayaks. However they kept on appearing from the beach. By the time we were done with them, sky was black, and all I could see in the direction of the OBS reception centre were a bunch of tall grasses obstructing the already dim view. I wondered where the toilet was.
But work was not done yet. There were still stores and supplies to be moved off the speedboat. Several people "told me off" for being the only one who wants to "run off" while the others work hard. However, at this point of time, it was so urgent that any physical exertion would cause me to release.
Some people said that they had to pee just like me, but there was work to be done. I told them go pee then. It is not as if peeing was a form of entertainment and leisure for me, that should only be done after essential work was completed.
One of the instructors was not being too helpful either. When I even bothered to tell her that I would be going to the washroom, she just told me to go pee in the sea, in a go-die tone of voice.
This was getting irritating. Everyone seemed to be putting getting work done fast above the importance of healthy sanitation and waste disposal when there was actually a proper toilet in the vicinity. I mean how long could it take just to relieve myself? Fortunately, cmc wanted to use the toilet as well, and thus I found good company to help me in search of a toilet.
***
We were doubtful about the path. Although lights illuminated the reception center, we could not see what was in front of us. We walked around the tall grasses and treaded over unsure ground which was soft, so each step we took, we were weary. Finally, our feet hit the assurance of a solid dirt track, which eventually led to the proper entrance of the OBS reception centre.
Two staff were about to lock the entrance but they were nice enough to let us in when we told them that we had to use the toilet.
We were bound to get scolded when we went back, but that beats injuring our bladders. We did not get scolded however, but the instructor was not too pleased when they saw (Quoted) "Two guys over there walking happily here".
However, the sandy shoe problem was not yet solved. By then, my feet was hurting like crap from the grains of rocks and sands poking into my flesh. I did not feel like doing anything but just quickly get those shoes off me. However, tents had yet to be set up.
Setting up tents in the dark proved troublesome. An additional role, the torch manager, had to be introduced into the team. After hard work for some, and silent complaints from my feet, we went for dinner.
Ananya and I had instant noodles with corn from the same container. In order to maintain maximum hygiene in this not-so-hygienic area, we tried to not let our eating utensil touch the noodles. I tried twirling the noodles like spaghetti into the fork, and put it onto the spoon, but it turned out slow and messy.
***
The worst rule of the day was - no washing of anything in the toilets, only filling up. Their reasoning was that there were so many of us, yet only a few cubicles. However, why not allow us to take turns for those who desperately needed a shower was my question. This reminds me of the story of the man walking along the seashore throwing the starfish back into the ocean. It might not make a difference to all of us, but to that one starfish, it would make all the difference in the world.
My feet could no longer take it. They were screaming for help. I put down my utensils and headed for the water cans to relieve my feet. After my shoes and feet were rinsed through several trips to the toilet with the water cans. After that was done with, I drenched myself and clothes with water. I was thinking about why I have ever came for this course. At that time, the thing I hated the most in the world was where I was then.
The container of instant noodles were still lying on the sandy mats beside the drain. I was hungry, but no longer had appetite. I was wondering what I should do if I woke up hungry in the middle of night, but the pissed and angry side of me told myself that I won't die from one day without eating. So I left it there.
I would like to apologise to meifang and to whoever else cooked that food and yet I did not finish it, despite the fact that I really appreciate it. However, I could not eat in the mess and discomfort I was in then. So I am really sorry. :)
Another problem which added to the many problems I, or even we had, was that we were told to move our tents after we have finished pitching them. According the the instructors, it was the monsoon season and trees might fall in the night, so we had to go to somewhere without trees.
Thus we ended up in a field of tall plants and prickly plants. Putting on socks did not help much. Even as I stepped high up, the thorns entered through the sides of my socks, making me recoil in shock and pain. Pushing down the tent pegs was dangerous. The one possible way to reduce the risk was to step on the pegs to sink it into the ground.
As moving tents took quite sometime. The same instructor got rather impatient, and told a group of people to skip putting the flysheet on, because the sky is clear and it was not going to rain that night.
Then why did we even move the tents?
We gathered after the moving of tents and cleaning up was over. De-brief took rather long, because of the many untied knots the instructor kept on pointing out. Finally, time for sleep, and a chance for me to change out of wet clothes.
Ananya and I took turns to help guard the tent while we were changing in it. That night, I used the bag of wet clothes for a pillow. This day had made me truly appreciate something that many of us take for granted - the comfort of sleep.
***
The next day, we had to move supplies and the kayaks down the rocky incline once again. Before we even started on our way back to Pulau Ubin, I was already sweating profusely and arms covered in sand.
This time, we kayaked in the hot sun, but in much calmer waters. Soon, my face was covered in a mixture of sweat, sea water and sunscreen, and hot and cold do not go well together at all.
Our kayak kept on turning, because as Woan Chyi pointed out, I was not holding the paddle at the center. However hard I tried to re-adjust my grip, it kept on sliding to one side after time. Fortunately she was behind to patiently turn the kayak each time we went off course.
Just when I was wearing out in the heat, we reached the Pulau Ubin Jetty. That was shocking. I had thought that it would have taken at least another 2 hours. But no, we have reached three times faster than the previous day.
I did not feel like getting off the kayak at shore, because that means I have to get sand into my shoes once again. We would be allowed to shower soon, fortunately, but not before we have moved, cleaned and kept all of the kayaks into the shed, and move the stores up.
We formed a long human chain from the speedboat all the way along the jetty to transport our supplies to land. Knowing that it would be going to be over pretty soon, confidence soared, and this time I managed to work without a single thought of complain.
Sea expedition was finally over.
To be continued...
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