Seletar Island Kayaking Expedition

Day 0 - 5th December 2003

We were supposed to stay at Changi Sea Sports Club that night, as no one would be late the next morning and delay the entire team. I had dinner n played a game of pool with Eddy at Parkway Parade before we made our way to Changi. We were like, SUPER-late (2 hours), and Richard kept calling us while we were on our way, saying that the gate of the club was going to close n stuff.

When we finally reached the club, it looked like most of the good sleeping spots were already taken, so we took the benches between the equipment store and the office. Eddy chatted wif his fren while I tried to get some sleep, only to find it difficult, if not impossible, as we were literally hosting a buffet supper for the mosquitoes, especially since I was sleeping under the bench. In the end, we switched to the benches in front of the equipment store instead. Managed to get an hour of sleep, then somehow woke up. I happened to looked around and realized that Jackson n Yankai were sleeping on the row of benches beside mine.

Day 1 - 6th December 2003

I unwillingly woke up the next morning, disturbed by the noise from the activities around me. People packing the stuff they wanted to bring along, digging into their items for their toiletries, etc. I used my infamous Listerine instead of taking the effort to brush my teeth. Being unwilling to part with my handphone, I packaged it up into an umbrella bag, hoping it would be waterproof enough.

Next, we sat in a big circle, had breakfast, n did a little bit of ice-breaking. Allyn requested keeping a bar of chocolates in the umbrella bag as well, n I was ok with it. I was thankful for it in fact, as the chocolate packaging poked the umbrella bag open, and I realized how fucking lousy the quality of the umbrella bag was. So no way would I put my handphone in there and go out to the sea. In the end, I kept it together with Eddy's stuff in his baja bag.

We went back to our packing after the ice-breaking session. Everyone brought all sorts of funny things along, especially Allyn, who suggested bringing her mahjong set. We were quite excited about the idea at first, but later decided that it was quite pointless. Jackson n Yankai brought their camelpaks as usual. I basically brought just the basic stuff, water n handphone. We had the rest of our items brought over to our destination via a land vehicle (clothes, toiletries, etc). Finally, we had a route and safety briefing at around 9 before collecting our kayaks and equipment.

As usual, we teased Teresa about her ass not being able to fit into the kayak. On this expedition, we used double-Slaloms instead of our usual single-Dancers. We had our usual buddy system - I was with Eddy, Allyn with Kayau, Jackson with Yankai, Teresa with Sharon. Bernard, though, wasn't with Jiahui this time as he was helping to lead the group. Not long after, we were all at the beach, preparing to launch off.

Packing our stuff	Having our route briefing
Our kayaks r ready	Before launching off
The gals

Though I usually don't really like the journey to Pasir Ris, I really enjoyed it on this particular trip, mainly due to the fact that I had an entire fleet of fellow kayakers with me on that day. We joked and laughed our way there, taking short water breaks in between. It didn't take us long to be able to catch sight of the Kelongs at Pasir Ris, which meant that we were halfway to Coney Island. Another short break to reward ourselves, before moving on to Coney Island.

Rafting up	Yiling looking swift
Yankai n Jackson	Kayau n Allyn

Since we were on double-kayaks, Eddy n I decided to try out different ways to maneuver the kayaks using different strokes for the front man and back man. I happened to take the front, so I did the powering while Eddy did the steering using the stern rudder. Eddy n I went rather fast, as we wanted to stay at the front so we could relax later. The distance from Pasir Ris to Coney Island was relatively longer than that from Changi to Pasir Ris, but due to the fact that we were slightly behind time, we had to go faster. We managed to reach Coney Island around noontime. No, not lunch yet though. We took the opportunity to disembark and went up to the shore for a rest. There was an unlucky lizard which happened to be spotted by Teresa, and there she was screaming her head off n scaring the lizard away.. In fact it was so frightened that it dove straight into the water. God knows if it was drowned to death.. Poor lizard.. This time, we rested longer as we had the chance to be on shore. My mouth was starting to itch, and fortunately some of them had brought sweets to share.

All at Coney Island

Coney Island is about the midpoint between Changi Beach to Seletar Island, which means we still had the other half of the journey to go before we could have our lunch. We went even faster after leaving Coney Island, so we could make it in time for lunch before late afternoon. Nearing Seletar Island, a few stomachs were already starting to growl. Chocolate bars n energy bars did their job. I could see that Vincent was already quite shagged out, trying very hard to drag himself and the kayak along. We went on.. n on.. n got closer to land. Seletar Island was within our view.

Mi & Eddy	Teresa & Sharon
Yiling, Bernard & Chris	Eddy & Mi Again

Lunch came shortly after we went up the shore of Seletar Island. Normal packed food consisting of rice, chicken wing (again), egg n some veges. As I don't really like chicken wings, I traded it for Eddy's veges. We found a spot deeper into the island to have our lunch after scaling a rather steep slope. There were a few dogs there, and that was how we disposed of the chicken bones. We had some fruits and syrup as well, and rested for quite some time before moving off. The beach of Seletar Island hosted all sorts of sea creatures - I actually got to see starfish there. And there was this weird crater-like creature which was buried in the sand. We gave it a little poke and suddenly, this huge stream of water was shooting at us, and the ting juz disappeared. Anyway, we had to start moving off to Sembawang Sea Sports Club after that, as we had to reach there before evening. Sembawang Sea Sports Club was only quite a short distance away, about 3km. So we did the last mileage of the day, and reached Sembawang in the late afternoon, at around 3.

Being all shagged out and eager to prepare our home for the night, we decided to leave the photo-taking till the next morning. We washed and brought our kayaks to a safe spot, and started to get down to work. The vehicle carrying our stuff and tentages had already arrived, so we went on to unload n unpack our items. All our clothes, slippers, toiletries and entertainment items for the night was with us. We went around to explore the area so we could find a suitable spot to stay for the night. Sembawang Sea Sports Club is much bigger than Changi Sea Sports Club in terms of size, and it does look much better. Only problem is, it's rather inaccessible by public transport such as bus or train. It's a huge pity that the club had to close down. We quickly reserved and prepared our individual territories. I was a little turned off when I was told that there are snakes in the area. There was a bigger problem though. The toilets and bathrooms in the club has already been locked up due to the vicnity being vacant for some time, and it was a LOOONNGG walk to the public bathrooms at Sembawang Park. I walked my way there along with Eddy n the NPCC guys (Jackson, Yankai n some others), while some took the vehicle. After an entire day of paddling and wearing the same shirt soaked with seawater n sand, the shower was so damn rewarding. After everyone was done, we made our way back. There was still some time before dusk, so Eddy, the NPCC guys, and I went to some ramp near the sea to sit down and relax. After we had dinner (guess what.. chicken wings again), Eddy decided to meet up with one of his frens who was having a scout expedition at Sembawang Park, so I juz tagged along with him. We walked our way out to Sembawang Park, but was fortunate as we happened to encounter the vehicle while it was sending some of them there for a toilet break. The sky was dark by the time we got back to the club. To avoid having to go all the way to the toilet in the park later on in the night, we designated 2 bushy areas for us to do our 'business' at, one for the ladies and one for the gents.

Unpacking the stuff	Done with the kayaks
Sorting out the stuff	Setting up the safari bed

Sometime in the late evening, one of the gals went missing without telling anyone, causing a commotion. Later, however, she returned. I remember something about either her going out for a walk or something, or that she felt she couldn't complete the journey for the next day so she wanted to give up. Whatever the case was, everything was finally settled and we started with our night activities. Old Chang Kee curry puffs were served before everyone gathered for some games, mostly for ice-breaking. Can't remember the exact details of the games, but we really had a fun time trying to save our own asses from forfeits, n trying to sabo each other. In the end, 4 of them had to do a forfeit. They were given a choice to do any kind of forfeit they wanted, as long as they could make us laugh. And on our part, we had to try not to laugh as they would have to keep doing forfeits until we laughed. In the end, we couldn't help laughing even before they started, as we already knew they were going to do something lame.. So much for trying to control our laughter...

The forfeitors!! Hohoho..	Eddy's & my backviews
Aunties' commotion

It was around 10 to 11 after our games session, and it was time to go to bed, while some of the trainers stayed up to discuss some stuff. Eddy and I did not bother to get the tents or safari beds, so we juz tore up 2 trash bags, laid them on the ground and slept on the trash bags. I brought a sleeping bag, which we then opened up to share as a blanket. Jackson n Yankai took the spot right beside ours. Mosquitoes were feasting on us, and it could have been worse if they NPCC guys had not lit mosquito coils to fend off some of the fucking mosquitoes. I was getting kind of excited about going back the next day. Eddy n I didn't get much sleep - we listened to the radio until abt 2am, I got up for a toilet break, then we finally decided to fall asleep.

Day 2 - 7th December 2003

I was yet again reluctant to wake up the next morning, having slept soundly like a pig over the night. Juz wished that I could have slept longer, but then again, there wasn't much point in doing so. The toilet was the first ting I was looking for after waking up, so Eddy n I began to scout for our toilet spot as there was quite a number of people at the designated toilet spot. We found some bushy area near the sea, n did our business there, hoping the gals wouldn't come near when we were halfway thru. I used my Listerine once again, and breakfast was soon waiting for us. Bread with jam/butter/Natalie and/or hard-boiled eggs. The Natalie sandwiches, especially those made by Teresa (wahaha), looked like shit, but who cares as long as they're delicious.. I had 2 eggs, cautious of the cholestrol in the yoke. Bernard, on the other hand, gobbled 4 eggs down. There was milo as well, but I decided to give it a miss as I was feeling extremely heaty.

Teresa's shit	Lots of food
Macdonald's without us?!?

Time to get down to work after a heavy breakfast. Had to dismantle the tents and pack all our stuff for the vehicle to send back as well as the stuff we had to carry on our journey. We got everything settled quickly, and so we started to prepare the kayaks and took our last photos before we left.

Grand staircase	Overlooking the main building
Overlooking the club from the gate	Eddy acting helpful
Overlooking the club from the seaside	Before moving off

Despite the fact that some of us were already quite tired out from the previous day's trip, the journey back was rather easy, as the current was in our favor. We stopped for less breaks than the day before, and it was quite a relaxing journey in general. Not before long, we hit the south-western part of Coney island, and we disembarked for lunch.

Zaid & his little powerboat	Gathering at Coney Island

Lunch for today was once again normal packed rice with mixed dishes. The food tasted great once again. Either it really was great, or we were just so hungry that it tasted good. Chicken wings yet again. I topped my meal off with an apple. Since we were way ahead of schedule, we actually took a VERY long break after lunch. Feeling a little bored, I attempted to do double-rolls together with Bernard. The paddle roll worked well, but the double-hand-roll was a total flop. I spent the remaining time wandering around, before we were finally ready to continue. Coney Island was just a really short journey away from Changi Beach, and in about an hour, we were back at Changi Sea Sports Club. Home sweet home!