back frm bintan

PreU 3 Retreat

shall keep things short as i have to pack my bag for Ophir. shall add some interesting pics when i return.

reached bartley campus, gathered there and departed off for Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal for our journey towards Bintan. the ferry was crowded and toh tuck was noisy. distrubing the peace on deck. the sea was simply mesmerising, with the wind in your hair, the smell in your nose. i just love being out on deck whenever i have the opportunity to sit a ferry. to me, it's a time for reflection and for scenery watching. it gives me the feeling of freedom which i can never enjoy coz of rules, obligations and responsibilities.

before we knew it, we were enroute to Bintan. wooden buildings greeted us. the people from the resort were friendly and very service orientated. haha. and we had a personal driver to the resort. lol. along the way, the scenery that i see from the car gives one that kampung feeling. trees, wooden houses, developing city. seems like how singapore was like in the past.

we arrived at the resort in time for lunch and it was seafood and some opening address from the camp facilitator who seem to be pretty lame. after that marks the start of our retreat. i was pretty much put to sleep by the facilitators. it was lectures, lectures and more lectures. the weather was also very humid. we were sweating buckets even though the aircon was on.

after much tolerance, we were finally issued our rooms. mark, shi hong, eric, dom, teranz, sara and i shared a villa and began unpacking and chilling there. dinner was next on the agenda, which was followed by MI Idol Night. some of the performances were lame while some were really nice like the bollywood performance put up by Navin's class, 04A2 and the dance to the music of "Billie Jean".

well, as expected i ran away towards the end of the performance and went back to the villa myself to chill. after the guys return, we started on a game of RISK, dom was dominant throughout the game......and had booze all night long. we ordered room service too and the servings were pretty big, too much for us to handle.

the next morning, we started our day with a glass of Vodka each. and throughout the day we felt energised. haha. and when the others were sleeping, we were wide awake. the Vodka really helped man. it did not help too that the weather was hot and the aircon was not working. it was like sitting in a suana. mark and i were like singing throughout the entire jounrney. such fun time we had. the places that we visited though were not comparable with Niagara Falls, King's Park etc but it left a mark on me. it shows the difference in standard of living between us and them and how lucky i was to be born in Singapore. it was by a stroke of luck that i was born here, imagine if i was born there. things would have been different.

the highlight of that day and the entire retreat was the Spa that dom, mark, sara, inez, elly, renfeng, jibby and myself had. it was relaxing and throughout the entire massage i can hear my tendons cracking. haha. my massuer was also not bad looking so overall it was a darn nice massage. we soak in the jacuzzi too. after the massage, i felt more refreshed and ready to take on anybody.

but that lecture after dinner threw me back to square 1. i was darn tired and sleepy after that. and we called it an early night not long after we return. and poor mark, being the gentleman that he is went off to keep inez company.

the next day, we had outdoor activities. and the river crossing and fear factor was really fun. we were made to eat "worms" during fear factor and interestingly to say, i wasn't a bit at all scared. or rather i would say i have a nonchalent attitude towards it. i have my own fears, but such things are definitely not one of them. it was all in the mind. if you keep telling yourself that you cant do it, you sure cant. i think that explains why i am so confident in myself and that i believe in life nothing is impossible. that word do not exist in my dictionary. river crossing exposes some of the weaknesses of all of us and it was laid bare for all to see.

whatever was left for the entire day was left packing and preparing to go home. and we were delayed on the way back. and it was nearly 10pm that we reached singapore. came back home with Sam and her classmate onboard the bus was just the 3 of us. haha. talking cock and catching up on old times all the way. and finally it was home sweet home.

haha. one of the highlight of the trip was the booze that we had everyday. it was so cheap man that we drank like water. our entire fridge was stock up with bottles of Barcardi.

Beverage for the Day

Breakfast: Vodka
Lunch: Vodka
Dinner: Vodka

haha. life is simply great man.