OBS Revisited...

It's the time of the year again where my company sends its new employees for some rough training in the Outward Bound School (OBS), Lumut. The course was made compulsory for all execs in order to ensure that the company's executives are tough enough to face the corporate challenges (yeah rite)..

I remembered the time when I had to attend the OBS back in 2003. Being the latest member of the Group's family, the management trainees were part of the 17 people that were sent to Lumut. We were very excited about the trip, despite the fact that most of us were not physically fit to rough it out in the mud. However, we were given early warnings to do some light (so to speak) exercise so that our body/muscles will not be terkejut once we get there.

OBS was great... Even though we were cut off from the rest of the world (everything were confiscate i.e: wallets, phones, ciggies and etc.) we managed to entertain each other during the 5 days adventure.

Some of the great/unforgettable moments in OBS:-

• Kayak Expedition : Lumut - Pangkor
• We had to kayak for almost 2 hours to Pangkor. At 1st it was fun because everything was exciting. However, we had to raft in the middle of the open sea due to one of the team that were too weak to be teamed up together. Hence, we needed to re-shuffle the teammates in order to balance it up. And guessed who had to jumped kayak in the middle of the ocean? The lil' Binx yang ringan and yang will not rock the kayak.. "Weeeee... weee...", I jumped... and ended put with a girl partner. Long gone my strong knight in shining life jacket.. Soon after that, the kayaking were very tiresome. Ye la.. two girls pushing the paddles against the rough sea.. not an easy task tau.
• On our way back, when the two of us were to weak to paddle anymore.. our very-menyakitkan-hati instructor came on his speedboat and screamed through the loud hailer..
  "Kamu berdua tuh.. cepat sikit kayuh.. ada kapal nak lalu"
  "Penat laa Encik.. tak larat dah nieh..."
  "Kapal nak lalu tuh.. cepat kayuh.. kalau tak kamu berdua habis laa.."
  Both of us thought it was another one of his sick joke.. However, we turned to check out the scene and saw a HUGE ship about 2km away heading straight towards us.. Our face turned white at the sight of the ship and suddenly our hands acquired a super duper power and started to peddle super mighty fast.. It must have been quite a sight laaa.. Macam a scene from a cartoon movie pulak.. All I remembered after that was collapsing as soon as we reach the shore and threw up.
  
• Hiking expedition : Pangkor
• One of the team member decided to call it quits half way through the expedition. Since it was a group expedition, when one member quits, the whole team will be failed by the instructor for not completing the task. Most of us were determined to complete the trail and had to coaxed E to resume the tracking. It was not an easy task though because she was afraid of heights and being a city girl, it was hard for her to adapt to the rough situation. However, after promising her that the rest of the journey will be a smooth one, we managed to persuade her to continue. Yipee...!
• However, the rest of the trip was not a smooth one as promised. Since E almost quit, the instructor showed us a shorter way out of the jungle. This route doesn't seem like it had been use for ages. Hence, it was a difficult trail even for the rest of us. "Jauh lagi ke korang... I dah tak larat nieh....." "We're almost there, E. Sekejap aje lagi nieh..".. Despite the tough challenge, we kept ourselves entertained with silly songs like the OBS song..
  "We got the OB spirit up in my head.. up in my head.. up in my head.. " *lol*
• Since the hike took longer than we expected, we accidentally miscalculated our water supply. At first some of us sanggup tak minum because of the yucky-looking water tumbler supplied by the school. But after the long and tough journey, we ended up finishing off the water in each and every yucky-looking water tumbler that we brought with us.. By the time we reached the nearest kampung, some of the thick-skin members actually went to one of the houses to replenish the bottles with tap water.. Tap water pun tap water laa kan cause we were very thirsty. Oh well, that's what they call roughing it out.
• The attack of the Lanuns
• We were warned about them eve before we left the camp in Lumut. Their presence on the island is well known, especially at the camp site area. Rumor has it that the head of the clan actually have one leg and wears an eye patch. How far is it from the truth, we don't know laa because we only saw the kuncu-kuncu Lanuns..
• Our arrival were welcomed by them with loud cheers. As we unpacked all our stuffs, all eyes were on our food supply. Each and everyone of them tried to strategize on the best ways to get to our food supplies. You can actually see their excited eyes thinking. However, we, being the super duper smart executives, kept our food in a huge plastic container with tight-shut lid that were held down by heavy stones. Punya laa takut our food kena curi by the lanuns. The first thing that we checked when we arrived back to our camp place after the long hike was our food container. And luckily it was still there where we left it earlier.
• However, our camp was attacked by the lanun during breakfast the next morning. We were ambushed from right, left, front, back and even above. One smart lanun even positioned himself right above me, on the tree branches, while I was cooking the scrambled eggs on the open fire. There I was, minding my own business, scrambling those eggs and suddenly,
  "plooooooooooooooopppp!!!"
  " Aggghhh... yucksss.... Korang... dia berak in the eggs.........!!!"
  If the smart lanun had moved an inch to its right, it would have missed its target and the taik would have landed on yours truly. I shudder at the thought of it. Oh well, there goes our breakfast for the day..
• When we were packing our stuffs to go back to Lumut, one of out teammates realised that one of our compasses were missing.. After searching high and low for it, we suddenly saw another smart lanun dangling the thing high up on the tree branch. Apa lagi.. all of us tried to coaxed the lanun to drop it laa kan.. Some of us tried to throw stuffs at it, some even tried to umpan it with food.
  "Darling.. mintak laa compass tuh.. we all nak balik nieh..."
  "Apa yang korang suma bising2 nieh?"
  "Encik, lanun tuh ambik our compass.. We've tried our best to get it back.. but tak dpt.."
  "Oh.. senang aje.. Ukk Ukk.. Aaakk.. Aaaak..."
  And at that instant the lanun dropped the compass...
  "Oh.. macam tuh ke.. Cakap laa awal2..."

If I were given another chance attend the course, I would. It was the most interesting trip I've ever been to. However, I would love to try out the 25-days camp instead.. mesti best kan.. However, the next time around I would make sure no lanun squatting above my head at any time...




binx: still phobia over the incident..