Thursday, June 15, 2006
from wilderness to wonder.
i had a well-rested and refreshing experience on Batam island the past week. church camp was fun and i'm glad i went, although there were the initial hesitations and doubts arising mostly from worries that the resort does not have cable and hence, i will not be able to watch the opening game of the world cup. alas, my worries were totally unfounded. haha.the resort was a great get-a-way from all the rush, buzz, and fuss in Singapore, although the ferry ride back was so not comfortable and i threw up. hehs. yeah. anyhow, i kept re-iterating to myself that the whole and main point of going for the camp was to listen to God's word, to experience fellowship with other church-members, to bond and get to know everyone else better.
everything about the church camp was good.
the location. harris resort @ Batam, though its beach was dismal and prospects of having a game of beach volley or ultimate frisbee looked bleak considering the quality and colour of the sand, i had a wonderful time on the 'bananna-boat' (which looked more like a giant inflated yellow pencil) while my other 'kahkis' did para-sailing. Oh yes, and we CAPSIZED although i was phobic about ending up in the not-too-optimistic-looking sea water (in my opinion) that ended up wayyy to salty for my liking. And i'm glad i headed my friend's advice to take off my glasses and to forgo the lovely view rather than to play treausure hunting for my specs in the sea. hehs.
Also, the food we had was sumptous, although i would have liked for nasi padang, indonesian style with losa chilli and spices, rather than chinese food everyday. but, I didn't complain! ^_^
the resort was fully equipped for one to have a memorable time; comfy and cosy rooms, not to mention cable so I could watch HBO , star movies and discovery during the free time between sermons, the friendly and service-orientated staff plus the live band who catered to our whims and fancies and played whatever we requested. well, maybe the only weird thing was, the whole hotel only had 1 mahjong set to rent out. 1 set for the whole hotel, hm, that makes it 1 set for about 500 people. then again, who goes to batam to play mahjong!? Hahaha, SINGAPOREANS duh! ah la la.
Oh, and what batam experience would be complete without the Go-karting and the Spa? Unfortunately, the Spa was fully-booked till the day of departure. I think it's the city-people or rather, Singaporean syndrome, of how we always flock to spas when we get to places like Batam or Bali. Anyhow, Go-karting more than made up for the spa-experience. apart from the agonizing wait (although each ride lasts only 10 minutes) and the slight drizzle when we FINALLY got the chance to rev up the engines and burn some rubber (the tyres lah), the 10 minutes was every bit worth the wait, and the rain.
Previous batches that went all had a 'clown' amidst them, the clown being the person who got the dirtiest and went off course the most times. Ah well, despite my horrendous driving skills and lack of psychomotor skills, someone ended up in a far dirtier and muddier state than i. Initially i was worried that my white nike drifit would be brown, wet and muddy by the time i got back to the hotel.
Thankfully, the 3 'crashes', and 1 ski-ing off the track onto the muddy puddle left me in one piece, and wet, with spatters of muddy water on my white shirt, not forgetting 2 blue blacks which i have no idea how they got there. at least thats better than getting a concussion right. if i've scared you, i was merely exaggerrating, although i got freaked out by the so called 'disclaimer' that was pinned up big and so not-hard-to-miss in the waiting area.
okay, i'm getting pretty long-winded. pictures will be posted up i promise, not that i'm that fantastically photogenic to boot, but the happy faces (some monkey faces courtesy from my friend though) will definitely make you want to go batam for a weekend break or a family holiday.
my fingers are tired and starting to cramp up and this entry is taking longer to blog that i'd expected. Bleah.
And yep, for the first and last time, i shall be leaving singapore on 20 june for LA. Be back only on 6 August. If anyone wants giant jelly beans or any other things from california or San fransisco, pop me an sms or msg me on msn.
Oh, and the tear-jerking movie 'the notebook' that my friends and i caught during the camp, we actually ended up laughing with 'chicken in a biscuit' in our mouths. Hm, okay, i just realised that didn't serve any purpose, apart from the fact that personally, i felt that it was a boring show.
so, holiday VCD rental people, try not to rent 'the notebook' unless all the other blockbuster titles are gone.
btw, hongkong during the year-end hols anyone?
bitten by the travel bug.
sarah at 10:29 pm