Monday, February 22, 2010

1st ECROM

Date: 11-14 Feb. 2010.
Event: 1st East Coast Rover Moot. (Scouting)
Venue: Kem Telaga Batin, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
Participants: approx. 300 scouts from around the country.

This is the first East Coast Rover Moot. I came a day late because of some unavoidable circumstances >:( . Thank God everything was good. I was also the sole representative of Pahang's Kelana(rover). This is probably because most of the rover crews were informed late.

I agreed to go the reason being I havent camp for like 2 years!..I need to go back to the glory days said to myself..I was getting lazier for the past 2 years..I neeed to camp!..And this was like a shining opportunity, seeing that Terengganu wasnt that far from Kuantan.

Being the sole representative, I cant build my own campsite, so the organisers placed me with the UPM rovers seeing that there were just 6 people..haha..Arrived about 7 pm, & when I arrived at their campsite, it was pretty simple, just a tent and a bamboo kitchen..simple but comfortable. & plus, the UPM rovers were very cool and friendly!

That night, there was a screening of scout camp montages..and also the intro to NST (National Service Team) followed by the registration of members. NST is basically a group formed for volunteers to help in dire times like natural disasters and such. The group also functioned as a help team to organize and assist camps, such as the Malaysian National Jamboree (Jambori Malaysia) among others.

The next day, we woke up early to go for abseiling and Halangan Komando which is basically running through some challenging obstacles and stuff. All participants were divided into 2. Half of us went for the Halangan, and the other half for abseiling. I was with the abseiling group. There were a lot of participants, and I end up waiting about 5 hours for my turn in abseiling. Seeing that there was not enough time, everybody only did one activity.

After everybody were settled, we went back to camp, waiting for the next activity which is Orienteering. I took a quick shower before that activity, cause waiting for the abseiling, it wasnt all cloudy in the skies. man, how i needed that shower.

For orienteering, we were divided into about 22 teams. I was in team 12 ;) ..Every team each were given 2 compasses, a map and some side questions. The side questions were interesting and annoying at the same time..haha..I got a great and very cooperative team, i guess thats the most important thing ;) ..The whole journey was very tiring but fun.

After a very long day, we retreated back at camp and getting ready for the culture night (malam kebudayaan). Me & the UPM guys did not prepare anything, so one of us came up with a sketch idea, and we all expanded it. Me, I was lucky I only needed to play the guitar..yeah!..

The night was fun, especially the Unimap performance, they got us all laughing and rolling. The only down side to the night was the 'kuda kepang' incident. Some faint hearted participants got hysteria. but all and all, the situation was under control. We went back to camp early because the culture night was put to a stop because of that reason.

On the last day, all of us was gathered at the assembly point to start the following activity which is the sukaneka(sport games). But...because I arrived a day late, i had to do the backwoods cooking instead of the sukaneka. And there are actually some other participants who did not have the time to do backwoods cooking so I joined them and formed a group.

Overall, the cooking went smoothly, except for the boiling bamboo water dropped on my feet!..ouch!..thank god I can still walk!...haha..

After all the activities were finished, we were told to be ready with our uniforms for the closing ceremony.

After the ceremony ended, all contingents went back home except for some participants and the organizing crew who stayed another day at the camp. I agreed to stay too with the UPM crew because one of them was driving back to Kuantan so I figured I could hitch along :D.

On the fourth and final day there, we went for a bit of travelling at Terengganu. Very interesting seeing that I cant remember the last time I went there.

All and all, ECROM was great!. Gained a lot of experience. Met a lot of people. Gained a new badge(kemahiran)!

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