"Mawai Eco Camp is situated by the Sedeli River, at Mawai Lama, north of Kota Tinggi town. It is designed by "
"Tay Kheng Soon, can be viewed as a pro-active participant in the above"
"The Sedili River is the camp's life-line; bird watching"
So, the company that i am working for is Edu Outdoor Activities which deals with outdoor tours and camps. It was my first trip to Mawai even though i have heard about it some times ago. Hence when Lisa was asking around whether anybody wants to go to Mawai for an instructors' gathering i immediately replied. As it has been slightly more than a year since i have met the rest of the instructors especially Pei, Yuan, Sophia and Sunny who worked with me for my 1st camp Over at farmland camp. The participants were from Woodlands Ring Primary and it was really great experience with the kids and the instructors. But unfortunately, all except for Sunny were all busy and didn't go. From what i heard, they had not lead camps for a long time due to their commitments. Haiz...
All along, i had thought that this trip is going to be a relax one ; Lisa has mention that times and times again. So i really really really thought it is a relax one. All until the night before departure, she sent the namelist of the participants to me and Jac. Suddenly, i realised myself and her will be the bus I/C for the trip, and that the participants are not solely EOA staffs but members of the Nature Society. It has turn into a "Sai kang" thing. So all of a sudden, we have to be in charge and take care of the participants, how to relax ??
The stress level begins to bulid up on the actual day, 8th Dec. When me and Jac reached Newton Food Centre, Liz started to give instructions as if it was a standard trip. And i slowly, yes slowly, realised it was not exactly a relaxing one. Coz she began to get stressed up and she will transfer her stress to the rest by screaming and frowning her face. This is normal as she has high standard in things and demanded people to reach her standard. But having experienced her demand for "high standard" before, it was okay. Just that, i couldn't changed from a relaxing mode to a working mode. It takes some time.
When we reached the campsite, my first time there, she was expecting me to know this and that. When A was suppose to be A, and i was doing B, she would blah blah blah. But there are times when she said it nicely probably because as she mentioned herself, this will be a relaxing trip, for her. On the whole, it was really okay dealing with the unexpected mood changes. As a friend, she is definitely a good one. As a boss, she is unpredictable.
Even with the sudden surprise with the load of sai kang, the trip is still a very good one. The mangrove forest trip was cool and fun. I would not have gotten dirty if not for the VS boys and Jac. Some of their shoes got struck and i have to pull them and Jac some how got herself trapped in the mud. There were leeches and an auntie or two were screaming and screaming. But seriously, it is just leeches... Probably they have gotten too used to a comfortable life or they are just not used to mother nature. A year without trekking has also resulted in me missing hot water for shower. I think i should go trekking more often.
Gunung Arong was an interesting one. The journey up is very very easy but going down can be rather tricky. But at the of the foot of the mountain, what welcomed us was the south china sea... wooooo... Nice !!!!! But after that is a long walk back to the chalet where we stopped to wash up and makan makan. That same night, Kok Peng, the big big boss came. And he sure is a good guitarist. That night, after dinner, we had a great session of singing and fun. It sure beats going to KBox or any where else.
On the last day, it was the time for the water obstacles !! Quite fun. Although it wasn't really that easy . I am really darm bad with my balancing. Tsk tsk... By right we were supposed to go back on a 1.30pm bus, but that bus met with an accident and so we were without a bus. The next bus can only reach at 5pm. So we do nothing and waited and played Dai dee. At about 4.30pm, Jac and i walked around to settle the stores and checked that everybody has returned their stuffs. Then came another "good" news, the bus will only reach at 7pm and we can have one more dinner. So we settled down again and waited and waited. Had our dinner but the bus was still far far away, it didn't reach at 7pm. Instead, it reached at about 8.15pm. By then, many people were rather tired and sianz...
To make the thing worse, there was a jam at the Secondlink. Jia lat, so we were trapped in the jam for 45min. Strange leh, we took less than 10min to clear the malaysian custom and yet we have to wait so long for the Spore one. Strange strange strange.
On thw whole, i would say, it was a great trip. [M]awai eco camp is really a nice place. It is peaceful, quiet and the food cooked by Ana was bagus !! I would really want to lead trips to here. So that more people can experienced what i enjoyed. Especially if Sutemi is around, the trip will be even better, bringing joys and laughters to everyone and sharing his knowledge of the nature. Su, you da man !!!
More photos coming up after i get them from Jac !!
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