Pulau Ubin, Singapore

27-28 July 2002

By Arthur (usual disclaimers apply)

Stepping out of my bathroom, I felt totally relaxed after a 45 min lavender bath. This was totally luxurious, compared to the quick bath I was forced to take a day ago. After instructing my maid, Maria, to serve chamomile tea, with strict instructions to add no sugar, I retreated back to my room and reminisced about the blessed Ubin getaway.

Eighteen of us congregated at Changi Jetty on 27 July at 2 pm. In spite of the discouraging weather, we were all ready and eager to hop onto the not too glamorous bumboat that would ferry us to Pulau Ubin. We were separated into two ferries. The center of attraction amongst the crowd was, of course, baby Owen who surpassed even the cutest dude on board. After about 10 mins of rocking and swaying, we set our foot onto the shores of Ubin.

We settled down at the Malay coffeeshop for a drink while waiting for the next ferry to arrive with rest of the campers. I was very tempted by the Mee Rebus, but the thought of spending half an hour on the treadmill after that freaked me out almost immediately. A few of them wandered around the village. Andrew, Edwin and a few others rushed to the durian sellers for some really cheap treats while the rest of us just sat around and bitched around with Sam, our da-jie.

Finally at about 3.15 pm, we squeezed into two rented vans and headed towards Noordin beach. The journey towards Noordin reminded me of Fort Road, especially with all the dirt tracks, thick bushes and not to mention, a lot of cyclists along the way. Ten minutes passed and then we were walking on the sands of Noordin.

After some difficulties, the tents were pitched. We gathered in a circle and Sam started the camp with a prayer. The weather didn't look good at all, and we were on the verge of canceling the games. However, we decided to carry on, knowing that the Almighty God would graciously hold the weather in His hands. And He did. God is good. While the rest of mainland Singapore was drenched in rain, Ubin suffered from only a light drizzle, which came to a halt at about 6 pm.

The games were hilarious. Sam was the game master, with me assisting him. All the campers were divided into four groups. They had to complete four games within the shortest time, mainly drinking warm coke, eating two bananas, searching for a sweet buried in a plate of flour using their mouth, and a giddy race. The slowest group had to break a piece of cling wrap using their faces (check out the photos). The game was rounded up with a scavenger hunt of bottle caps, seashells, white hair, broken glass, and other interesting items.

After the game, some of us played volleyball. I was hopeless in the game, so I pulled out and helped start the fire for the barbeque. Francis, Edward and Wei volunteered their help too. By 7 pm, the pit was ready and naturally, everybody flanked the pit waiting for their share of food. The chicken wings had been marinated by Eric since Tuesday and they were really yummy (like Eric).

Lazy bums like me who abhor deboning anything feasted on the hotdogs and sambal squid and stingray more than the wings. It was also during dinnertime that we mingled and got to know each other much better, a task assigned by Andrew, our program coordinator.

One horrifying truth I discovered was that the taps in the toilet were not working. There were only a barrel of water available in the toilet, and our dear Andrew finished almost a quarter of it. Well, I could very well forsake my foundation and makeup for a day, but to have insufficient water to bathe is beyond me. However, God's grace was at work again. Just like how Jesus fed the 5000 with only two fishes and fiveloaves of bread, somehow the water was more than enough to last us till the next day (it helped that we raided the girl's toilet and found a full barrel of water).

After the barbeque, we started a campfire and began our acapella worship, followed by Andrew giving a short sermon about love and its applications. We broke up into four different groups for discussion, and finally wrapped up the day with some games like 7-up. Of course, there were still a lot of leftovers, so the forfeit was to eat them all up.

By about 12.30 am, most of us were ready to catch up on our beauty sleep. A couple of us such as Wei, Eric, Cyrus, Kenneth, Francis and myself slept in the open because the tents were too warm and stuffy. I had absolutely no idea how four people can squeeze into a six man tent without getting heat stroke or something. After some chitchatting and tossing about, I drifted off into dreamland.

I was woken by the call of nature at about 6 am. Sam was awake too, and we were looking forward to see the sunrise. Being a tad bimbo by nature, our sense of direction was not exactly fantastic; we had to speculate which direction east was. Finally at about 6.45 am, the bright morning star arose. It was beautiful. By then, quite a few of us were awake.

We walked along the shores, taking advantage of the low tide, looking out for any unusual marine creatures washed ashore. Kenneth went around taking photos of the sunrise, the sea and the sand. A few of them helped make Milo and coffee for the entire group. We ran out of potable water, and had to boil water collected from the barrels in the toilet. God was gracious again. There were no reports of diarrhoea after the trip. Breakfast was another time of fellowship for us.

After breakfast, Cyrus led us in Sunday morning worship, George preached a 20 min sermon, and Andrew administered Holy Communion. This marked an end of the camping trip. All of us helped in clearing up the rubbish, dismantling the tents and packing up the equipment. At 10.15 am, the van arrived at our campsite.

We bade farewell to the beach, individually giving thanks to our Father in heaven for a blessed and safe trip, squeezed into the van and headed towards the jetty for a hearty seafood lunch before boarding the not too glamorous bumboat back to mainland Singapore. And Maria.