You've got a leech where?!...

We had a good few weeks where OB has been really busy, all staff have been on-course and extra instructors brought in, that is all staff other than the 3 mat salleh. While everyone else has been rushed off their feet with back-to-back courses we've spent our time training for the course we're supposed to instruct: KTJ. They are malaysian participants who are studying A-levels and hoping to go to university overseas so pretty smart people, I was a little nervous about instructing though as I've done very little work with people of my own age before. Training included a lot of theory based stuff like WI briefings, admin, debriefings and first aid as we've got a pretty sound knowledge of the practical side of things having been on-course a lot. To familiarise ourselves with the trekking route we would be following we followed a course on HTM. The group I followed was pretty average with no remarkable events. However the watch that Libby followed had one incident. I heard about this incident like this: We were sitting in the van waiting to return to OB. I overheard this conversation in the front of the van between two instructors explaining why we were taking a female participant back to the medical bay: "pacat masuk..." which prompted my shocked response of "leech entered where?!" Libby then proceeded to tell the story of how a participant in her group had come to her hysterical because she thought aforementioned creepy crawly had gone somewhere it shouldn't have! You know Libbys response, "It'll drop out when its had enough"! Sound advice. Alistair appears to be making it a thing that he doesn't trek, he claims its not deliberate but I don't know...this time it was a recurring ear infection. 

 As we weren't on-course we made the most of a free weekend me by going to visit Xiao Wei in Penang, Alistair by going climbing with Amri an ex-instructor in KL and Libby by going to Aishahs house. I am always told that Penang is like the New York of shopping but for food, epecially chinese food. My days it certainly lived up to expectations! Thats pretty much all we did for the weekend; went to temples or ate food, a weekend well spent I would say! Penangites love their food so much that the place we went for breakfast we had to wait 10minutes to find a seat and twice as long queuing to order food! It was most definatley worth it though, dim sum is an incredible creation. Xiao Wei's family were great and allowed me to stay at their house despite only a days notice and took us to the best places to eat :) 

I have recently learned a lesson in life, a very valuable lesson. You shouldn't lock people in the shower. I may or may not have been joking around and locked one of the shower doors while Mera was showering and genuinely forgot to unlock it, my bad. That resulted in Mera breaking the lock, stronger than she looks! And me getting a right telling off, apparently its not quite so funny when you're the one locked in. 

So the course that we had been told right from the start that we would be instructing was upon us and before it had even started it was stressful. When we went to sort our equipment store we were told there wasn't enough equipment so we would have to share. There also wasn't enough actual store rooms so they would also have to be shared adding extra problems. Then the name lists changed last minute. Thankfully once the participants arrived we got a bit more settled in and relaxed. The course was 7 days with 2 big expeditions, one trekking and one round-island kayak. I had the task of doing the Knotting & Campcraft lesson where we teach the participants everything about how to survive the night of camping, from pitching tents to toilets and cooking to tying knots. Its a long lesson where its difficult to keep everyones attention. Luckily for me the participants were eager to learn and very cooperative so the lesson  went smoothly. I even got compliments from the two instructors who were observing for the structure and content of my lesson, a small proud moment :) 

For the trekking expedition I got more praise from the staff as my watch, called Gayong (no laughing), were first to complete the route and were the fastest group that I've ever followed for that route! The participants impressed me a lot during trekking showing a lot of determination, keeping good pace the whole way and working incredibly well as a team by encouraging the two watch members with injuries. Unfortunately we didn't get to camp in the jungle that night as I got a call from MJ the Course Director instructing us to return to OB asap. Know why? 'Cause the haze we'd had for the last few days had reached hazardous levels so the participants were getting sent home that night :( Not going to lie I think Libby, Alistair and myself were pretty gutted that we wouldn't get to finish the course, especially considering it was supposed to be our last course at OB! We made the most of the night before they went home with some good craic, they were shocked  to find out I was the same age as most of them, younger than some! I'd go as far as to say that they were some of the best participants I've worked with all year, just a shame they had to go home early because of the stupid haze!

Mumma Katie...

Sailing! I finally got to go on a whaler course, and an awesome one at that. It was 2nd Boys Brigade Subang Jaya here for only 5days doing round Island on the whaler. 17 kids to each boat, some were as young as 13 but most were 16-17. This was Outward Bounds first childrens/youth whaler course and it didn’t go too badly, some may be too young but there were enough people on each boat to make good time. There were tough conditions and 2 out of the 4 boats needed towing a little but 2 didn’t. I got to helm one of the boats for a whole 10 minutes! The participants were excellent though, they showed so much discipline and teamwork throughout the course. One participant forgot his name badge one morning so one of their teachers told his whole watch to do 10 press-ups; amazingly the other 3 watches who weren’t required to do the press-ups voluntarily did them! When doing the press-ups they would count “one sir, two sir, three sir…permission to get up sir”.

 The next wee while we just did odd jobs around OB and prepared for instructing the 7 day programme KTJ by doing lesson plans, mock lessons, debriefings and first aid. Down time was spent playing snool, cycling to Biriyani’s, and getting a little bit more running done. We went out with some of the staff to play bowling where I played pretty well for the first game; I was winning for the first few shots but the second game wasn’t quite so good: I think I may have set a new record for “the most balls bowled without hitting a single pin” => 10, such a pro!

I supported for Pack N Paddle, one of the OB run courses although all but like 2 kids were sponsored by Vale! The size of the course was cut so there was a greater staff:participant ratio therefore our participants were always finished early and had everything done efficiently. Our course involved a 3.5km kayak to Teluk Sekadeh, rappelling the same morning then trekking in the afternoon. The kids were great, all aged 12-14 and so full of energy. They are all local Malays so were speaking Malay to me which was confusing at times but it helps me learn and I was proud of myself for actually understanding a lot of what they were saying! Some of them were adorable and took to calling me either Mr Katie or Mumma Katie, not sure why! We had solo camp where they are supposed to stay in a tent by themselves for one night, however being so young they weren’t that great at it! Most of the evening they were wandering around the jungle talking to each other but when it came to me and Shuek doing the final check before bed, some of the tents were empty. What we found was that all the boys were sharing about 3 to a tent, one boy preferred to sleep outside his friends tent than inside his own one 5m away. The girls on the other hand all slept alone in their tents, what can I say boys are just wimps!

 After course I joined some of the staff down in the field playing with kites, you may laugh at grown men playing with colourful little kites but its quite a part of Malaysian culture. We lost two kites when their string snapped and they disappeared over the jungle. Din and Fendy even made their own kites with some bamboo and a parang(machete).

 I don’t normally like the fact that OB does short courses like 1-3days but in this instance I’ll let it slide. It was a 2 day course where the objective was simply to have fun, which isn’t what OB is about, its about learning, however this was a worthy cause and it was a fun course to be on and we all finished course feeling like we had made an impact. It was a course for children and youths who were directly affected by cancer, either survived it, fighting it or terminal. We basically facilitated a few activities/games and then went to the hotel where they were staying to participate in other activities. We did rafting, wall climbing, kayaking and belay intro at OB. I was impressed how strong these people are, they pushed themselves to complete the activities as best they could, they had great fun racing up and down the climbing wall and cargo net. The instructors went over to the hotel at night to join them in being taught how to play the harmonica, by the World Champion harmonica player! The second night we went along for dinner and disco with a pirate theme, so Alistair, Libby and myself dressed up as pirates again, this time we thought better of bringing real swords to a public place. I got a little emotional saying goodbye to them, one sweet little girl came up to me thanking me so much with a tear in her eye and gave me a kiss on the cheek :)

Vietnam, The Return!

I worried a lot about the next part of the trip; the border crossing from Cambodia to Vietnam. Did I have the right visa? Would I get across the border? Would I get the right bus? Would the bus drop me in the right place? The bus was 11 hrs long from the Khmer capital to Ho Chi Minh. In that time I almost missed the bus because my transfer didn’t show, we got stuck in a 5km long queue for a ferry which we bypassed in 5mins by each paying an extra USD2! The bus then got stuck half-on-half-off that ferry with smoke billowing into the bus, I almost got left behind at a toilet stop; the bus had started moving when I got on and my seat wasn’t fixed to the ground properly so I had an extra bit of swivel and bounce and squeak for 11 hours! Thankfully it all went right in the end, the bus even stopped in the street that I was looking for, the heart of backpacker area. Now I will tell you why Vietnam is awesome; the hostel cost me £5, I got invited out for a few drinks with my two roommates, we had a greek meal for £1, went to the local pub (hundreds of asian sized chairs lining the streets with alcohol being served from peoples houses), drinks cost 30p per beer and 60p per spirit and mixer! The next day I met Libby concluding my solo adventures but starting the next part of the holiday as the 3 mat salleh from Outward Bound. We spent time catching up and going to the War Remnants Museum which was quite harrowing as it has exhibitions on Agent Orange and some graphic stories and photos from photographers in the Vietnam War. The lifestyle of the Vietnamese is something else, we passed a park at around 6pm and there were hundreds of people there playing football, aerobics, badminton, roller skating, jogging, outdoor gym and the Vietnamese game which is like playing volleys with a giant shuttlecock! We met Alistair later on and he was buzzing from his time in Thailand. 3 mat salleh reunited for a week in Vietnam! We caught an overnight bus from HCM city to Mui Ne which is famed for its beach, sand dunes and watersports. Generally the strip where all the hotels are is just tourists but once we hired motorbikes to go explore we found more of the real Vietnam. A couple of miles inland there are some spectacular sand dunes, one lot are red the other white. I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures on fb. Sadly all the watersports were very expensive so we were spectators only. We all managed to get sunburnt despite wearing suncream and being used to exposure to the sun. One night in our dorm Alistair must of sleepwalked because he went to sleep in the bottom bunk and got woken up in the top bunk by our roommate coming in and asking him to move back to his own bunk! Luckily for Alistair we made friends with the roommate, Kat, and spent the next few days with her as we headed up to the hill station Dalat. The bus ride to Dalat was unforgettable, the road was in such a state of disrepair, I think only about half of the road was tarred, the rest was potholes! I still managed to sleep! Dalat was a little bit of a disappointment, it had been described as the Alps of Vietnam however the hills weren’t very steep or imposing and the town was fairly big. We still found some impressive waterfalls, crashed a wedding photo shoot and got a little too drunk after not very much; quite embarrassing really! Waiting for our bus back to Ho Chi Minh City a 9year old girl came up to us and just started having a conversation, she was practising here English for school. Incredible confidence from a 9 year old to approach 3 foreigners. She was a pretty cool kid, especially because she was a Phineas and Ferb fan. We stayed a night in HCMC where just wandering around the busy streets you would get offered cannabis from old men on street corners! Don’t worry of course we didn’t buy any! Libby got herself a new tattoo which she thinks says “love” in Arabic, poor soul, it actually says “Scotland”! We checked out Chu Chi tunnels the next day before we flew home. They are where the Vietnamese lived for years to avoid the Americans. Most of the tunnels are too small for western people to fit in, specially designed so as only the small Vietnamese could go in. The camouflage is incredible too, we couldn’t recognise any of the trap doors. The Vietnamese were brutal too, they set bamboo traps in the ground which to the Americans were invisible but once they stood on one they would fall through in to a pit of bamboo spikes! All in Vietnam was awesome again!

Malaysia IS food!

Rewind two months and we come to my first time instructing a course! We went to briefing assuming we would be support as always but me and Alistair got taken into Syafris office and told we would be instructing a watch (15people) each with the help of Din and Fendy. Before instructing this course I thought I knew a lot about each activity and that instructing would be reasonably easy, how wrong I was! Its so difficult to keep the kids attention and make sure I'm one step ahead of the game. Most of the course went well, however the teachers on this particular course made life difficult for instructors by always intervening and telling the kids different meeting times to us. This also made it hard for us to gain the respect of the kids as teachers were always undermining us. My watch managed to lose their store key and a compass costing me 86ringgits! I learned a lot from this course and hope I get another opportunity like it to improve on my performance and there is a lot to improve on! The feedback forms made me laugh though, one kid commented

There should be less international instructors.

this particular kid was Indonesian and came from an international school! I had a rare free weekend and no plans so with 10minutes notice headed back to Alia's home in Ipoh. Her family are lovely, especially her mother who made me feel so welcome in her home. We visited multiple other family members who were equally nice. I got a full tour of Ipoh courtesy of Alia, her parents and her brother. We went to a couple of Buddhist temples, mostly situated in caves and have very colourful statues about (great for taking stupid pictures with!). We also went on a cave tour and visited Kellies Castle which was built by a Scot for his wife but she died before it was completed so the castle was left unfinished, still worth a visit although we were too stingy to pay the entry fee so just took pictures from outside! I'm pretty sure one day we had 5 meals, pretty standard in Malaysia, as Alistair said "Malaysia is food!" I had a great weekend getting to see another part of Malaysia, meeting Alias family and understanding more about malaysian culture. I also bought glow-in-the-dark stars so Libby and I can now stargaze before we go to sleep every night! We have Orions belt, the plough, north star, toilet star and light star among others! Back at OB and we're off on another training expedition. This time a kayak around Pangkor Island in two days. Heading up to Syawal took only 2hours, but once we got there we had to camp as participants so instead of our usual hammocks or dome tents we had to pitch a single tent made from a rope between two trees and tarpaulins over the top. Tents pitched, que the storm! Heavy rain threatened to flood our tent so mammoth trenches were dug, Libby hid under a wok and Alistair had a shower in the rain! Next day we started strong making good time, we didn't touch land for 6hours, only stopping for people to jump in the water to relieve themselves! And a mass capsize drill! The last little stint back to OB required good teamwork in each kayak to motivate those who were tired and sore but we all made it in one piece and without any fallouts! Habis for the moment! More to follow on Sunday (maybe)!