Day 4
We had a city tour around Ghaziabad today. Basically, we went around the city's temples, a Hindu temple, an Islamic mosque and a Sikh mosque. We learnt about the different gods Hindus worshipped and the going ons in the temples. We looked around, took part in saying some prayers and breathed in heavy incense. I did not find the temples all that interesting until the Sikh mosque, which got "deliciously" interesting. After the teacher at Uttam School explained to us the history of the city of Ghaziabad, we were offered two kinds of sweets. Sweets by Indian definition was not rock candy or chewables or anything of that sort, but rather cakes. The first type was a sticky, white ball and the other was a much larger orange ball. And as we popped the white ball into our mouths, our eager anticipation for treats turned our faces into a sickly shade of green. (or whatever colour your face turns into before you vomit) The white sweets, as it turned out were purely made of ghee and sugar. Ghee, mind, was cow fats churned from milk and there was so much sugar in those things that I was sure I had stepped onto the fast track towards diabetes. We forcibly shoved the sweets down our throats or else retched. The orange one was alright as it was made of coconut and other nuts.
Temples
At first, we were given a task of map reading and navigating around the city, but due to the fact that we were so ill-advised in this skill that the girls had to take over as we sat around. So after the girls plotted the map, we handed it in to the teacher to make it look like we did the work. Along the way, we had some good ice-cream, and then made our way to a big temple. It was grand in its own way. We took off our shoes for the upteenth time that day and visited the temple.
After a nice rest, we headed off to The Great Indian Place, which was a big shopping centre full of things that we could buy in Singapore. We did not find it very interesting though some of us did buy some clothes. We had dinner there and we ordered whatever we liked. I had pizza and it was okay. All of us were quite tired by the time we returned to the hotel, as bouts of discomfort hit certain members of the group, it signalled the start of something nasty laying ahead of us.
Big mall 
The Campsite
Afterwards, we began with an obstacle course of rope bridges, tunnels, rubber tyres and such. I remember we had to crawl through a pipe and we were totally roughing it! The girls did not fare so well on the obstacle course as all the swing ropes and the height was a little intimidating. We boys got on fine and my favourite was crawling upside down on a rope. At first, I thought I could not acheive it but after trying it out it was quite easy! The only difficult thing about the obstacle course was stepping planks suspended by ropes. We could not get our balance and some of the heavier ones looked like they were on the ballet!
We had a city tour around Ghaziabad today. Basically, we went around the city's temples, a Hindu temple, an Islamic mosque and a Sikh mosque. We learnt about the different gods Hindus worshipped and the going ons in the temples. We looked around, took part in saying some prayers and breathed in heavy incense. I did not find the temples all that interesting until the Sikh mosque, which got "deliciously" interesting. After the teacher at Uttam School explained to us the history of the city of Ghaziabad, we were offered two kinds of sweets. Sweets by Indian definition was not rock candy or chewables or anything of that sort, but rather cakes. The first type was a sticky, white ball and the other was a much larger orange ball. And as we popped the white ball into our mouths, our eager anticipation for treats turned our faces into a sickly shade of green. (or whatever colour your face turns into before you vomit) The white sweets, as it turned out were purely made of ghee and sugar. Ghee, mind, was cow fats churned from milk and there was so much sugar in those things that I was sure I had stepped onto the fast track towards diabetes. We forcibly shoved the sweets down our throats or else retched. The orange one was alright as it was made of coconut and other nuts.
Temples
At first, we were given a task of map reading and navigating around the city, but due to the fact that we were so ill-advised in this skill that the girls had to take over as we sat around. So after the girls plotted the map, we handed it in to the teacher to make it look like we did the work. Along the way, we had some good ice-cream, and then made our way to a big temple. It was grand in its own way. We took off our shoes for the upteenth time that day and visited the temple.
After a nice rest, we headed off to The Great Indian Place, which was a big shopping centre full of things that we could buy in Singapore. We did not find it very interesting though some of us did buy some clothes. We had dinner there and we ordered whatever we liked. I had pizza and it was okay. All of us were quite tired by the time we returned to the hotel, as bouts of discomfort hit certain members of the group, it signalled the start of something nasty laying ahead of us.
Big mall
Day 3
Okay, we are back from India and I am writing this at home. It's not our fault, the programmes were so packed there was no time at all to use the computers. Anyway, long story short, I will write the main events that happened each day and cut the part about the 3 hour bus rides.
The main thing we did in Day 3 was that we went to an adventure camp with the grade 9 girls. It was a really good camp. We woke up early and filled our stomachs with something light, then arrived at camp to have breakfast. We had eggs, spicy potatoes and other stuff. We started off with an ice breaking game of volleyball. The catch was that there was no ball. We passed an invisible ball to one another by calling who we wanted to pass to, and if we failed to come up with a name within 3 seconds then you were out. We did not really get to know the girls that well on the bus so both sides lost badly. It was quite funny. The two teams playing were Bala with Mr. Bala in this team and Nameless Wonders (because this team failed to come up with a name quickly enugh) and Mr. Tieu was in it. We were supposed to pass to a teammate first before passing the ball to the opponent, but somehow Mr. Bala kept screwing up by passing to Mr. Tieu on the first turn! We were laughing like mad.
Okay, we are back from India and I am writing this at home. It's not our fault, the programmes were so packed there was no time at all to use the computers. Anyway, long story short, I will write the main events that happened each day and cut the part about the 3 hour bus rides.
The main thing we did in Day 3 was that we went to an adventure camp with the grade 9 girls. It was a really good camp. We woke up early and filled our stomachs with something light, then arrived at camp to have breakfast. We had eggs, spicy potatoes and other stuff. We started off with an ice breaking game of volleyball. The catch was that there was no ball. We passed an invisible ball to one another by calling who we wanted to pass to, and if we failed to come up with a name within 3 seconds then you were out. We did not really get to know the girls that well on the bus so both sides lost badly. It was quite funny. The two teams playing were Bala with Mr. Bala in this team and Nameless Wonders (because this team failed to come up with a name quickly enugh) and Mr. Tieu was in it. We were supposed to pass to a teammate first before passing the ball to the opponent, but somehow Mr. Bala kept screwing up by passing to Mr. Tieu on the first turn! We were laughing like mad.
The Campsite
Afterwards, we began with an obstacle course of rope bridges, tunnels, rubber tyres and such. I remember we had to crawl through a pipe and we were totally roughing it! The girls did not fare so well on the obstacle course as all the swing ropes and the height was a little intimidating. We boys got on fine and my favourite was crawling upside down on a rope. At first, I thought I could not acheive it but after trying it out it was quite easy! The only difficult thing about the obstacle course was stepping planks suspended by ropes. We could not get our balance and some of the heavier ones looked like they were on the ballet!
Breakfast
We crossed some seriously rough terrain with spiky creepers and steep rock. The creepers were really irritating and painful, and their spiky seeds clung hard to any fabric they came into contact with. Goats fared better than us. Mountain climbing was not rock wall, mind you. It was a real face of a small mountain. By the time, we finished, it was near dusk. I climbed and reached very quickly and was actually quite surprised as I was terrible at the rock wall. Guess it was different. The brave ones stayed back to do abseiling, which was to get back down by rope. Most decided to take a long walk to get down the mountain. Abseiling was a bit scary but I already had experience doing it, so it was okay. By the time the last guy was back down to earth, it was pitch black into the night. We took the coach back to the hotel, in the chilly night of Day 3.
We crossed some seriously rough terrain with spiky creepers and steep rock. The creepers were really irritating and painful, and their spiky seeds clung hard to any fabric they came into contact with. Goats fared better than us. Mountain climbing was not rock wall, mind you. It was a real face of a small mountain. By the time, we finished, it was near dusk. I climbed and reached very quickly and was actually quite surprised as I was terrible at the rock wall. Guess it was different. The brave ones stayed back to do abseiling, which was to get back down by rope. Most decided to take a long walk to get down the mountain. Abseiling was a bit scary but I already had experience doing it, so it was okay. By the time the last guy was back down to earth, it was pitch black into the night. We took the coach back to the hotel, in the chilly night of Day 3.
Mr Bala and Mr Tieu
Me on the go
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