March 2018: I may have gone camping a couple of times, but that didn't mean I knew how to start a fire, or how to pitch a tent. Both times I went camping, everything had been prepared for me by the porters and the campsite owner. Now as someone who took pride in being an independent traveler, I knew this was something I should be ashamed of. I could have gone hiking on my own to so many amazing places had I had the necessary survival skills. It would save me a lot of money and as a bonus, I wouldn't have to deal with people. What could be better than that?
So I looked up online for a basic survival course near me, and found one organized by Lusuh Adventure at Kem Alang Sedayu, near the border of Selangor and Pahang. The company also owns a shop selling camping gear in KL, and has been around for more than a decade.
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| Me, learning the ropes about ropes. |
The instructors had had extensive experience in the field. One of them had even represented the country to climb the Everest and ski to the south pole. So it was safe to say that they really knew their stuff.
We started the day by briefly introducing ourselves to the other participants. It turned out that one of the girls was an old classmate of mine from college. She had traveled all the way from Melaka to attend this course.
Then the lesson began. First they showed us the essential items we needed to have in our pack each time we set out into the woods. Next, we were taught how to start a fire without a match or a lighter. The traditional way to do it is to rub two sticks or stones together until they spark, but this requires a lot of time and skill. So, we used a fire starter instead. We also learned seven basic knots (which I now remember zero of).
The instructors told us of the time when they had a group of kids from an international school in KL, and how surprised they were to discover that the 7-to-8-year-olds already knew everything that they were going to teach them. And here we were, miserable adults struggling to learn the most basic survival skills the kids had nailed at kindergarten.
Well, I didn't have that kind of childhood, so that is why I have to go out and actively seek this sort of activities, to educate myself and make up for all the years I lost, being holed up with school books in order to conform to society's standards.
After that, it was time for us to apply our new knowledge. Our challenge was to cook rice in a coconut. Everybody was assigned a partner. I was paired up with the youngest member of the group, a teenage schoolboy, whose father had joined the previous session of the survival course. Each team was given a coconut, some rice, a knife, a fire starter and some cotton balls. First, we had to find wood for the fire. My teammate helped with this, while I looked for pandan leaves, punctured holes in the coconut shell, extracted the juice and put the rice in.
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| Our disastrous coconut rice |
Starting the fire wasn't so hard for me, I got the cotton burning on the first try, but maintaining it was another story. The fire died and we ran out of cotton. Somehow the wood we had collected just wouldn't catch fire. We only succeeded when the instructor came to help. Then we placed the coconut on it and waited for it to cook, while occasionally prodding the fire.
After about half an hour, we were told to kill the fire. The instructors went from one team to another to check our work. The pandan leaf gave a nice aroma to the rice. Paired with the coconut juice, it made the rice taste and smell almost similar to nasi lemak.
My team's finished product, however, was the only one that was inedible. It was my fault--I hadn't coated the coconut shell with enough clay to protect it from the heat. The shell had cracked and caused the juice to seep out, leaving the rice hard and half-burnt. We had to rely on other people's mercy to spare us some rice for lunch. 😆
After lunch, the instructors demonstrated to us how to set up an emergency tent and how to incorporate the knots that we had learnt earlier into the tent building.
This was followed by river-crossing activity. We formed a line, linked arms and tried to cross the river together without breaking the chain. First, we went across the river. Then, we went upstream. The current was not so strong, but the rocks were very slippery, even with our hiking boots on. Guess who fell down?
Done soaking in the river, we went for a short hike into the forest to learn about edible and medicinal plants. I remember nothing of this either. Sure I could take pictures of the plants and try to memorize them, but I think the best way for me to remember something is to experience it hands-on. That means I have to go camping, pitch a tent on my own, tie those knots, and really survive on wild plants. Otherwise, the only thing that's going to stick in my mind is how to make that coconut rice.
The class was over in the evening, around 6 p.m. Just for the heck of it, the instructors had prepared a charcoal mixture to be painted on our faces before we could get our certificates.
