Amateur went Camping
A CAMP OF ONE THOUSAND OVER TENTS
Written on 16 April 1995
From 29 March to 2 April 1995, together with Lee Lye Im, I represented YMCA and the Penang contingent to participate in the launching of Rakan Muda Rekreasi and Rakan Cinta Alam at the Malaysian Agriculture Park in Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam, Shah Alam, Selangor .
The Rakan Muda Rekreasi and Rakan Cinta Alam were two of the 10 lifestyle programmes under the Rakan Muda which were initiated by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad. As it was a national event, all states sent their contingents which was made up of people of various backgrounds, professions and races. The event was another harmony scene that Malaysia is proud of. All together there were about 5,000 participants.
We arrived at the Agriculture Park at about 2.30 pm and our contingent leader registered for us all. We were rationed to one bottle 500 ml mineral water, 2 cans sardines, 2 cans spicy anchovies, a can of tomato beans, a can of 'kaya'(Malaysian's jam for bread), four packets biscuits (4 pieces per packet), a can of beef curry, about one kilogram rice and lastly, one packet loose coffee powder and 3 tea bags to 'perk' us up for 5 days. Then we walked to the campsite that is about 1.5 km from the park main entrance. We set up tents in our zone. One tent had to be shared by four persons. Lye Im and me shared our tent with two other girls, Odayah (from HYO) and Swee Ai (from GBBM). Fortunately, all of us are not fat because after putting in our belongings, the tent was just enough for the four of us. That night, it rained and we were so worried that our tent might leak but luckily it didn't. I didn't sleep well because I couldn't stretch my hands and when I turned left I bumped into Swee Ai, and right, I bumped into Lye Im. As I didn't want to wake them up, I had to turn slowly and carefully. Poor Lye Im was worse off because there was a tree trunk under her sleeping place and made her very uncomfortable throughout the night.
Next morning, everybody rushed for water. There was a limited supply of
water. The water truck came at certain times to provide us with water and
refill the toilet water tanks. There was always a long queue waiting to
bath whenever there was water. The interesting part was, half way through
your bath, you may run out of water. It has happened, but not to me, ha!
At 9 am, all participants gathered at the amphitheatre up at a slope. We
were divided into groups made up of participants from different states
for Cinta Alam sessions. The sessions were held workshop-style under the
trees. My group consisted of 25 people and we were split again into 5 persons
per team. The names for the teams were: Cengal, Keruing, Meranti, Tualang
and Bakau. I was in the Keruing team. Through these workshops we
learnt about :
i) The issue
of world attitudes towards the pollution of nature,
ii) Identifying
the five natural resources which are needed by human beings, i.e.
air, water, plants, soil and minerals
iii) The importance
of these resources in our daily life.
A break for lunch saw us back at the Penang's campsite where Lye Im and
me made fire and started cooking rice. Being used to electric rice cooker,
we were quite uncertain as to know if the rice was cooked. Anyway our rice
tasted yummy with sardines and made our two other tent-mates' mouth water
and they regretted having bought burgers for lunch.
After lunch, I had to walk up the slope again to meet my discussion group to continue with the fourth session. Five things: aluminium tin, golf field, plastic bag or wrapper, tourism and car were given to each team. We had to draw the effect of these things to the five resources before, during and after the process of the selected things. Each team took turns to present their opinion to the group. For the fifth session, each team was given a topic to discuss, namely air pollution, water pollution, extinction of wild life, the depletion of ozone layer and the increasing domestic wastage. Each team came out with solutions to reduce the problem. I was chosen by my teammates to present our solutions. Presenting in Bahasa Melayu(Malay language) made me stiff as I haven't spoken Bahasa Melayu for so long and I sounded funny when I spoke. Anyway, I managed to get our solutions delivered and understood by the group. For the last session, each team had to come out with a one-year plan of actions to be taken based on discussions held in the previous sessions.
Our dinner that evening consisted of rice, sardines and tomato beans. At night, all of us gathered at the amphitheatre again to watch three films shows on astronomy. Most of the participants were too tired or the show was not stimulating enough for many of them left early but I managed to stay on until the end.
On the third day, we had free time in the morning to get to know our contingent mates and neighbouring camp participants from Perak. One of the guys took a plastic snake and went around teasing girls by throwing it into the their tents or in front of them, making them shriek. We went to visit the other state campsites. I was amazed to see so many tents surrounding the whole hill. I have never seen so many tents before. From far they looked like a bed of mushrooms. After lunch, the Malay guys went to the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque in Shah Alam for prayers. Meanwhile I reserved my energy for the Larobik 10 km run. At 3 pm, we went to the starting point and did some aerobics exercise to warm up. At 4 pm, we started our run. Most of us walked as we were not used to the exercise. I had bad luck on that day; my rubber soles came off and I had to use chewing gum and rubber bands to fix it so that I could finish the Larobik. Both Lye Im and I finished 1440th out of 5000, not bad eh? After the Larobik, I was too tired to cook and had biscuits for dinner and went straight into the tent to sleep.
On the fourth day, 1 April, all of us got up as early as 6.30 am for the launching by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Unfortunately, it rained, but it did not dampen the spirits of the Penang participants. We reached the amphitheatre early and got a view just behind the VIP seating. One by one, the other contingents took their seats in the rain. There was a live telecast of the launching, did you saw us? The rain stopped just before the arrival of the Prime Minister! The VIPs gave their speeches followed by the participants taking their oath and then the Prime Minister launched the event. Everybody joined in to sing the Rakan Muda song. The atmosphere was very merry and jovial, I can't express my feelings at that time in words here, but I can say that I was happy and proud to be there.
After that the Prime Minister left the amphitheatre to launch other activities all over the Agriculture Park. We all went back to our tents to have our lunch. We were supposed to leave the next day, but our contingent leader said we could go back early. We were happy to go home earlier, so we started packing and struck down tents. Before leaving we went to cheer for our Penang team in the canoe competition. One of our boys got seventh placing in the canoe competition. After witnessing the other on-going activities such as mountain bike challenge, 10 meters wall climb challenge, stamp exhibition and etc. We left the park around 7.30 pm. After four hectic days, I was worn out and SLEPT ALL THE WAY HOME.