Physical Education @ Nipah Bay, Pangkor Island : The Survivor Island Experience & Tribal Taste.

Innocence, garlands burn
All the memories
Transparencies, you will see
What this all is meant to be..

(“Eyelash” by our very Malaysian Juliet Of Orange)

It’s been a while since I last jot something in my blog. It’s not that I was down or heartbroken whatsoever. Life has been so hectic that I barely have time to jot anything here. Well, I always believe that there’s Qaramah in whatever happen. Perhaps God SWT loves me so much that He saves me from the unhealthy relationship. Now I figure yeah it was not healthy. Always swirled with jealousy, trust-and-faith issues, doubts… all of these things certainly make me surrounded with negative energy. Now, I am just free. Like a bird. And a single bird never flies alone. It always being eyed despite it eyeing others. All I can say, I am enjoying this state now. I appreciate all the love that trusted people around me are giving me these days.

From 5th April 2009 till 11th April 2009, my class (Science 1) along with Kemahiran Hidup 1 and Bimbingan & Kaunseling 1 pushed off to Nipah Bay which was situated at Pangkor Island. I can say it was an unforgettable experience! We loaded all the camping paraphernalia on saturday morning and pushed off via buses on the Saturday nite. Around 5am, we reached Lumut and there we rested at the port and performed Subuh prayer there. Lebih kurang pukul 7.30am, we loaded the paraphernalia onto the boat. Nak dijadikan cerita, rupa-rupanya Mak bagitahu kat my cousin, Kak Yati and her husband, Abg Jie that I was to have an activity at Pangkor! They reside at Lumut since Abg Jie was a navy officer and now he is kinda like military/navy spare parts trader. While I was busy helping my friends loading the things, suddenly I heard someone yelled my name!

“Shahrill !!!!”

 

I was like in bewilderment! LOL! Rupa-rupanya Abg Jie called me and Kak Yati was beside him frantically waving at me. Eww..kinda embarassing and everyone speculated that MY PARENTS came down to see me because they knew that I’m the youngest so they sort of think I’m so manja that my parents came down to see me! ERK????!! LOL, but I treasure them anyway for making an effort to see me although I didnt have time to have a tete-a-tete with them sebab I was loading the things at the inner side of the port. It’s all family affair, y’all!

Anyway, we arrived at Nipah Bay, Pangkor around 11.00 am. We set up the campsites and prepared everything around 12.30 pm. By 2 o’clock, the tentative began. My group namely “Kilat” was supposed to do rafting first. So we spent around 2 hours designing and building the raft. The lecturer constantly provoked us and challenged our mental; asking us to reason out the rationale of our building. Sometimes kami hilang sabar kerana dalam keadaan penat mcam tu, banyak kesalahan yang dihighlight. Apa-apapun, around 4 o’clock, kami berjaya meletakkan rakit dalam laut. So off we go ke Selat Laut Melaka! Sampai sahja di tengah lautan, lecturers yang datang dengan bot menyuruh kami berdiri di atas bot dan membuat pusingan lawan arah jam! Memang agak menakutkan walaupun kami dibekalkan dengan BA (Buoyancy Aid aka jaket kuning apungan). Kawan-kawan yang agak gempal menghadapi masalah juga dan kami berusaha memberi sokongan kerana pusingan dibuat dengan tangan maisng-masing memegang antara satu sama lain. Kalau satu terjatuh, tentulah semua terjatuh! Kami berjaya mengatasi cabaran itu. Cabaran seterusnya adalah menyelam dan timbul ditengah-tengah celah rakit. Memang very exciting; Sri Devi terpaksa fighting her water phobia apabila dipaksa oleh pensyarah. There’s no time for shennanigan there! Kami juga dikehendaki membuat gaya terjunan menjunam ke dalam laut dan mengapung diri. It was all satisfying. Selepas aktiviti tersebut, kami teruslah mendayung rakit menuju ke Pulau Giam. We arrived there around 6.30 pm and by that time, it was already dawn. Alangkah terkejutnya kami bila our lecturers told us that WE HAD TO SPENT THE NIGHT THERE!!!!! Nak-nak pula awan mulai mendung nak hujan….

Nak argue pun tak guna since the lecturers memang tolak mentah-mentah semua cadangan kami nak balik ke Pulau Pangkor seberang sana. Terpaksalah kami semua mengumpul kayu-kayu api dan berbekalkan paddle rakit kami gunakan sebagai pancang untuk khemah yang mana base sheet tuh kami jadikan sebagai bumbung. Selang pukul 8.00 pm, hujan mulai turun dengan lebat mencurah-curah. It was raining of cats and dogs and kami semua yang kesejukan terpaksa berhimpitan antara satu sama lain. Serangga air kutu babi berkeliaran merata-rata dan habis kayu api yang kami kumpul tadi semuanya basah! Huhuhuh…sejuk mengigil kami. Mujurlah ada bekalan makanan dinner dan salinan pakaian kering yang dibawa oleh lecturers sebelum hujan tadi. memang sah rancangan ni dah di-plan sejak mula lagi!

Lebih kurang pukul 10.45 pm (ya! Kami berhimpitan selama lebih 2 jam!) hujan renyai2x dan akhirnya reda. Kami mengambil langkah menghidupkan api walaupun all the woods that we had collected were wet. I mean, we have to warm ourselves by any means because we were so cold and shivering! Alhamdulillah, berkat hasil usaha gigih selama 1/2 jam, api mula kelihatan walaupun terpadam-padam dengan sisa bara. Only after 1 and 1/2 hour we managed to gain a ‘commendable’ api marak untuk memanaskan badan. Namun begitu, permandangan di situ menakjubkan, Subhanallah! I’ve never seen so many stars upon the canvas of sky in my whole life! The Orion, Sagittarius, The Pleaides were all visible, I tell you! Subhanallah.. Kami lakukan sentri berjaga selang 2 jam. Walaupun macam tu, kebanyakkan kami berjaga sama-sama walaupun bukan hift kami. Bagi saya sebab terlampau sejuk dan tak boleh tidur, saya bangun sama-sama melakukan sentri dari pukul 2.30 pagi hingga 6 pagi. Kadang-kadang tu terlelap juga atas batu besar tepi pantai. Bayangkanlah masa tu pun batu sebesar tu keadaannya begitu selesa macam atas katil!...tepat sahaja pukul 6am, kami semua bersiap sedia (bersemangat nak balik), solat subuh atas pasir, siapkan rakit dan kemaskan campsite. Lecturers datang mengambil perkakasan kami pukul 7.30am dan mulalah kami berkayuh pulang. Sangat menyentuh hati dan bangga apabila kepulangan kami disambut rakan-rakan semua yg berkumpul di pergigian pantai. Ada juga yang menangis dan memeluk kami (macam soap opera kan?). Sememangnya kenangan yg tak dapat saya lupakan.

Aktiviti seterusnya ialah orienteering yang melibatkan tracking destinasi menerusi arah bearing dan penggunaan kompas serta kembara ilmiah. Namun yg tak boleh lupa semasa aktiviti snorkelling dan apungan tengah laut! Kami dilepaskan di tengah laut dan terpaksa mengaplikasikan teknik apungan ‘stail katak’ yg telah diajar pensyarah kepada kami. Apung punya apung rupanynya saya telah tersasar arah tuju! Bukan ke arah Teluk Nipah tetapi terus ke laut tengah! saya agak panik mula-mula dan tertelan air laut masin tu memang biasa la. Dari jauh saya dengar Sarah menjerit:

“Mattt! Tolongg Maaatt!!!”

Saya terdengar pulak suara Mat:

“Shahrill, berenang mai sini!!! Sarah mai sini!!”

Saya terus mengapung menuju ke suara Mat tapi suara Sarah dah tak kedengaran. Slowly and gradually, saya berjaya mengapung diri dan sampai ke pergigian pantai…diikuti Mat. Sarah rupanya dan jauh tersasar ke laut tengah. Ini kerana masa kami dilepaskan, arah arus yg nak ditentang sangat kuat. Akhirnya Sarah diselamatkan Ketua Jabatan PJK. So glad that she was safe!

Sebenarnya terlampau banyak pengalaman yg nak diceritakan tetapi nukilan dalam blog manakan mampu merakamkan semuanya. Apa-apapun benarlah seperti kata pensyarah, “Apa yang awak cakap pada orang tidak sama dengan apa yg awak rasa. Pengalaman yg awak alami itu awak akan kenang sendiri dan amat berharga”. Now, I am actually feel lucky that I am a PJK Minor and entered this KPLI and experienced these. Life at the comfy corporate world is a far cry but I don’t regret of leaving it y’all! I am a teacher. NOW. =)