Adventures on Ghost Island.

It was one helluva weekend we had at Pulau Hantu. So much fun, thrill, excitement, horror, and laughter.

When we arrived on the first day, it was bright and sunny. Perfect for a tan. After setting everything up I saw my dad in the lagoon setting up the net. I went over to check it out and he told me to swim over to the other side of the lagoon. While doing so I realised that the lagoon was actually quite deep and the currents were quite strong. Still, I managed to reach the other side. Kenneth was holding the net in the middle while my dad was searching for a way to tie the net over to my side. While he was swimming over, he started to struggle and became quite pale. He shouted to me that he was losing his breath and couldn't swim anymore. I quickly got into the water and swam towards him, pulling him towards shallower water where he could sit down. As he was panting away, I was quite worried. He told me that the day before he had a medical checkup and the doctor said that his breath was too shallow. As he was resting, I found a piece of log which he could use as a floatation device on the trip back. We managed to swim back without incident.

Once I got back to the campsite, I was told it was time for the initiation. The initiation was a ceremony that required me to jump off from the highest point on the jetty into the water. The jumping point was quite high actually. It was about 3 storeys high. At first, it doesn't look very menacing when u see it. But once you reach the top, your heart will start pumping and the blood will start racing. As I was about the climb out of the railing, Kenneth shouted to me to jump from the top of the railing. I put my feet on top and the railing and slowly stood up. The view was magnificent. I took a few seconds to take in my breath and lept out. Splash! and I was in the water. But I think I didn't go straight down and landed a bit on my butt. So my butt felt damn painful and sore for the rest of the day.

At night, we wanted to water proof the generator in case it rained. So Ken, Wing, Danny, Ester and I set out to look for a dustbin to fit the generator. As we carried the generator back, we spotted a centipede. Ken was so excited. He got Wing to run back to get a pair of chopsticks and a ziplock bag. With those tools, Ken slowly pinned down the centipede and caught it. We brought it back and showed everybody. Back at camp we spotted another one and it was again quickly subdued by Ken. Zinc told us that there was one in the ladies so we decided to go check it out. We couldn't find any in the toilet so it probably ran away. On the way back we spotted a large one on the path. While trying to catch it, Ken was bitten on his finger. He quickly sucked out the blood and spitted the poison out. Even then, his finger and hand started swelling. We decided to call the coast guard and sent him back to mainland to seek treatment at a hospital.

The next day, we found out that he was warded for 3 days for observation.

The second day was a lazy day. Most of the day was spent swimming and picking shellfish during low tide. At night, we had bbq for dinner. Main dishes were chicken wings, sausages and the fishes Danny caught. After dinner, a few of us went to the jetty to have a chat and enjoyed the sea breeze. As the winds got stronger, Esther saw streaks of lightning in the distance. Fearing rain, we went back to our pavillion and took out the canvas to tie on. As we were tying, Esther suddenly let out a loud scream. She was bitten by something at her waist. I told her to go to Wing for first aid and said that it probably was a flying insect. I continued to tie the canvas down but Roy ran over to ask me to stop and becareful as Esther was bitten by a centipede. Then, they saw the centipede crawl off Esther's pants and run away. I was quite shock that it actually crawled up so high. Again we called the coast guard and sent Esther off to hospital. That night we slept at the jetty, not wanting to go back to where Esther was bitten.

The last day was rather uneventful compared the the first two. We had instant noodle for lunch and I laid in my hammock as we waited for the boat to come. It came quite late at 4 and we ended up back in SG at about 445. That was the end of our Hantu Adventure.