Over the weekend, I was camping overnight at Jelutong Campsite
at Ubin.
This happened on Friday Night. About the middle of the night 3 am,
a whole big group of teenagers stopped near my tent. They were
speaking loudly, giggling, laughing at bloody 3 am in the
morning!
After tolerating it for about 5 minutes, I got up and went over.
There were about 20 of them I guess. I requested they keep their
volume down please. It is the middle of the night and campers ARE
trying to sleep. They told me they were going to sleep at this
campsite for a couple of hours. Fine.
I returned to my tent, and still the discussion was going on in
non-modulated, cannot-be-bothered-to-speak-softer tones. The
giggling continued. Eventually though, they dragged out their fly
sheet and the nearest group camped less than 10 m away from us. I
wondered why. The campsite was HUGE. I mean H U G E, for anyone who
have ever been to jelutong campsite, it is one big stretch near the
beach. But NOPE, they camped less than 10m away from us.
FINE.
My friend and I eventually gave up, sat up in the tent and observed
them, waited for them to settle down. One guy actually came to
about 5m away from us and SHINED HIS TORCH INTO OUR TENT. walao eh.
(we were camping inside a hut because it was too damn hot to put up
a flysheet) We were so shocked by the torch shining in, felt a
little like deer caught in headlamps, mouth open probably could not
talk.
later, a girl and a guy approached our tent. I don't know for what,
because they sure did not 'call out' when approaching. We asked
them where they were from.
They said NUS. No teacher with them, They are the leaders. At 3
plus am in the morning, I didn't have the clarity of mind to ask
them exactly which organisation in NUS. I suggested to them that as
part of their camp, they should also share with their participants
on the basics of Camping Etiquette and Basic Courtesy which will
make everyone's camping experience a more pleasant one. They said
eventually to give them a bit of time for their participants to
settle down.
Fine, eventually some of them did. More groups came throughout the
night. All equally noisy. We have given up in the need to get more
sleep. Finally they left and we had peace.
But u know what's the worst thing? The worst thing was waking up at
7 am in the morning, and finding the front of the campsite littered
with rubbish. Ziploc bags, half used mosquito coils, paper plates.
These were all not there before.
WHAT THE HELL! NOTHING annoys me more than campers who are so
bloody inconsiderate they can't clean up after themselves!!!!
Jelutong campsite is such a lovely campsite despite the lack of
trees and heat. I felt like I was camping in the australian bush. I
even saw a hornbill, a lovely sunset, lots of birds, butterflies
and flowers.
so yeah. Please.. if you happen to know WHICH group of kids these
are - Let them know that if they continue to do this, there will be
NO nice places to camp in Singapore sooner or later, NO place they
are have fun, night walks, and all the great memories they have of
their trips - will be JUST memories - simply because they don't
know how to take care of it.
