Christine Tjia

Then, the real challenge came – waiting. Fishing is a game of patience and passion. I don’t exactly have both and that explains why I ‘enrolled’ myself into this mahjong tutorial, on the magnanimousness of a fren. Graduated with glee, after a few rounds. Hehe.

Dinner was good. We had seafood (Duh!) steamboat, steamed fish, prawns and crabs. On top of that, there's BBQ supper. Who over here hv BBQ as supper??? There's sausage, chicken wings, sambal stingray (which is superb!) and fruits.

Gotten to know new frens and were laughing the time away – mahjong, karaoke, etc. Nana and I were fishing at the kelong bridge, talking on all kinda topics under the sun. Yes, fishing can be boring but with a good company, even if ur laughter scare all the fishes away, it’s ok. After all, it’s the family and frens you hv in ur life that makes it meaningful. Moreover, the nature is so elegantly beautiful that it’s easily mesmerized into it and stoned - happily stoned.

Unfortunately, the fun ended there and the ‘torture’ began. We were told the sleeping arrangements are dormitory style. Yeah, dormitory style in the world of refugees!

Toilet holes that you can straight away see the seawater, shower with buckets, thin mattress lying on wooden boards, no air-con – all those, I can still take it.

But I can not tolerate when I ran my hands on all the mattresses in our ‘compartment’ and felt sandy. You actually can feel small, tiny particles on the bed sheets. How gross is that!

Yes, it is only one night. And yes, S$55 including travel, food (seafood) and accommodation is super cheap but hey, we are no survivors here. At least, you can do some hygiene and cleanliness!

I refused to sleep on it and spent the nite on sofa. Has anyone tried sleeping in sitting position? I kept tossing left and right, constantly woken up by the excitement of the mahjong community and if those aren’t bad enough, the sides of my face started to itch, even though I already limit the exposure of my hands to the couch (by folding and hugging them) but you just can’t help it when you fell asleep and ur faced landed on the leather surface of the sofa.

I woke up every 5-10 minutes and when I did sleep, I woke up again every 1-2 hrs. And guess what, I’m not the only one. As there isn’t enough space for everyone to sleep in, some slept on the chairs, some slept on the sofas and some stayed up all nite,.

Hving a sleepless nite, even when the breakfast seafood porridge is exceptionally divine, it just wouldn’t do it. When some greeting ‘Good morning’ to my face, I felt like slapping them coz it obviously is not a good morning for me. Yet, I politely smiled and left.

Went home as a zombie – filthy and itchy zombie. Spent the longest time bathing and scrubbing, making sure no areas on my body is screaming ‘Kelong’.

The next day, the organizer sent us a thank-you-hope-u-hv-a-good-time email, asking for feedback. Are you sure you are asking for a feedback? Are you really sure?? Well, I can guarantee you that it won’t turn out pretty. And so I did and gave him a humble and honest complaint about the sandy ‘dormitory’ accommodation.

Beneath my frustration, I still hv the courtesy to hv Nana read through my feedback, ensuring it’s not offensive and unreasonable. With green light, I send it with relief. At least, I voice it out, eh?