Date: 27th December 2002 - 8th January 2003
Agenda: 20th World Scout Jamboree
Venue: Sattahip, Thailand

27th December 2002

e arrived at the Thailand International Airport and were warmly greeted. We then split up to our own troops, the Kancil troop and the Kembara troop, and met up with others who had come earlier on Christmas Eve for a brief tour of Bangkok. As scouts, we, of course, carried all the heavy baggage ourselves. We were then transported to the Jamboree welcome site in three buses, which took two hours to get to the destination.

On arrival, we were briefed by the contingent leader and his assistant on what to do when we arrived at our camp sites. We were also warned to be on our best behaviour during the event. We had a quick glimpse of the welcome performances but had to leave for our camp sites, with the different troops - Kembara, Kancil, Kenari and Kelissa - going their way on separate buses. We had to wait a very long time before we arrived because of the number of buses lining up on a single lane road.

When we were dropped off, we were met by the head of village B, a friendly Thai, who showed us the way to our sub-camp B2, better known as Hudson Bay. When we reached the sub-camp, we registered ourselves at the office and were shown to our camp site which had British, Brazilian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, German, Belgian, Norwegian, Swedish and Thai troops. We pitched our tents and received all the equipment we had sent for earlier from the Jamboree store room that was, fortunately, next to our sub-camp. The Terengganu members of our troop joined us at around eight o'clock and the others from Sabah at midnight. We helped them to settle down and pitch their tents.

28th December 2002

We woke up and got all the equipment and necessities that were provided for each camp site. Then we moved the tents, put up the boundaries and built an archway and a shelter. We were visited by a few scouts from other countries to exchange badges. In the evening, we went to the opening ceremony at the main arena. When the Prince of Thailand, the guest of honour, arrived, the show started with many Thai dances and cultural performances. We were let off around 10.30 p.m.

29th December 2002

Our troop was split into two and our group which consisted of those from Terengganu and Kuala Lumpur went to visit a fish sauce factory while the others went to some agricultural park for Our Heritage Day. At the factory, we were shown the different procedures of preparing fish sauce. We were also taught how to differentiate between a good grade fish and a bad one. Finally, we had to prepare our own Tom Yam lunch. As Malaysians, we knew how to do it and made some for the Japanese and British chaps who were in our group as well. For us Malaysians, the spicier the better, but the Japanese and British scouts did not think so and suffered as a result. When we came back, we finished up the flag pole and the ones who had gone to the agricultural park brought back raw food from the village supermarket to cook for dinner. Later we were visited by some Mexicans and Brazilians to exchange badges. We then had dinner before being allowed to wander around our sub-camp.

30th December 2002

We woke up early for our flag-raising ceremony and were briefed by our troop leader of the activities that were in store for us today. That day we were to visit the Global Development Village (GDV). We went to the Peace Workshop where we discussed world issues that prevented peace. The discussion was mostly directed towards condemning Bush for the war on Afghanistan. (Even the Americans condemned him).

We then went back for lunch box lunches before going to the GDV again. This time we went to the walk-ins and to the AIDS prevention workshop and learned many useful things there. After that, we rushed back to practise our performance for that night's cultural show before holding our flag-lowering ceremony in the evening. That night, we performed the Jerai dance and sang the Rasa Sayang. We got to watch other cultural and traditional dances from other countries. This included the famous samba dance by the Brazilians.

31st December 2002

This was the day we were asked to cook our respective countries famous dishes for the other scouts in our sub-camp. We cooked four big pots of bubur caca while the other Malaysian troops cooked chicken rendang, egg fried rice and bee hoon. Everyone who came liked the bubur caca and finished their portions in a blink of the eye. After cleaning up, we were allowed to go to our neighbours camp site to test their food. We got to eat food such as corn beef by the Brits, chapati and curry by the Indians and sushi by the Japanese. Back at our campsite, we were visited by scouts of many countries who wanted to exchange badges with us. We went to the main arena for the New Year's Eve celebration which consisted of more Thai traditional performances. These bored us except for the special performance by the Brazilian contingent who performed the samba. The fun started when the clock struck twelve. Although most of the music was Thai pop, we just partied on till about 1.30 a.m.

1st January 2003

Today was our free day and we were allowed to wander anywhere we liked. We woke up early as usual for our flag-raising ceremony. Then we went to places like the cyber café, exhibition halls and supermarkets. We also went to more GDV walk-ins to collect stamps for the Jamboree award. Wandering alone after lunch around the huge Jamboree site gave us the opportunity to get to know the layout of the area. In the evening, we returned to lower our flag and went to the main arena for a Thai festival. Once again we had Thai performances and this gave us the perfect opportunity to get a much needed shut-eye!

2nd January 2003

We woke up in time for our normal flag-raising ceremony in our full scout uniforms at 7.00 a.m. sharp. After that, we changed and gathered at the sub-camp meeting place where we caught a bus to take us for a hike. We were split into two groups with the scouts from Terengganu and Kuala Lumpur were grouped together again, with a few others from Sabah. We took the intermediate route - about seven kilometres in length - while the other group took the easy route. Though we passed many trees with thorns, we all made it through safely, thanks to the help of a compass and our scouting skills.

It started drizzling as we were going back but it was so good to finally see some sign of water from the sky because the weather had been burning us. When we reached our camp site, we noticed that not a drop of rain could be seen; it was totally dry, humid and dusty like the Sahara! We washed up and were given an hour of free time. We took this opportunity to go to the cyber café to e-mail family and friends. We returned to lower the flag to mark the end of the day and then had dinner. After dinner, we interacted with other scouts from various countries till quite late at night.

3rd January 2003

We did our daily flag-raising ceremony and had breakfast before going to the beach for water activities. Only three from our troop took part because only three of us could swim and were registered as swimmers. This meant we had to join the Japanese for water rafting. Here, we learned how to tie our own rafts with the proper knots. We were also given the opportunity to take part in wind surfing, rowing and canoeing. We returned for our unappetizing lunch boxes lunches and washed up before heading for the Crossroads of Culture. There, we did activities to promote our culture and shared the different cultures of various countries. We learned how to cook some Thai dishes, to build a paper model of a Dutch building of olden times, to paint Indian tattoos, to make Thai craft and even how to rap in German! We returned in time to lower the flag and wash up to go to the sea festival at our sub-camp where we were asked to perform an item.

4th January 2003

It was another free day, so we wandered around the Jamboree site once more. This gave us the opportunity to hang out with our new found friends from other countries. We had lunch before visiting other sub-camps from the same village and other villages. We exchanged badges, shirts and other items with the other scouts; it was great fun to interact and exchange our things for what, to us, were better ones. We returned in the evening and attended our troop's flag lowering ceremony as usual. We went to a Youth activity in which we discussed the way things were done in each other's countries and the beautiful places in our respective countries.

5th January 2003

Today was birthday of one of our troop members, Yi Huei. It was also Community Service Day. We were split into two groups with our group going to a school. We joined the bus with other scouts from other contingents. When we got there, each country was put into a group in charge of certain tasks. We were grouped with a Swiss, Japanese and Swedish group to paint the outer walls of the school. Other groups had to cement floors, clean the compound, wash toilets and even build a toilet with bricks (with instructions from professionals). During the break we took the opportunity to talk to a few American scouts and so made more friends. We were again given those yucky lunch boxes but still it was food and we were hungry, so anything edible tasted great. We ended at about 2.00 p.m. and were rewarded with a coconut drink each. We took more than one drink each; ever heard of the Malaysian saying: "No food must go to waste"?

We were allowed to do as we pleased for the rest of the day. So we went to the Malaysian booth to help distribute brochures about Malaysia and its attractions as well as stamp the Malaysian contingent stamps on post cards and visitor souvenir books. We visited the Kancil, Kelissa and Kenari campsites to get their troop stamps. That evening, we had a small party for Yi Huei. We bought a few soft drinks and snacks and a Korean guy got her a birthday cake with a candle on it. She invited our closest neighbours over - the Japanese, Koreans, Brazilians, Norwegians and British - but only the first three groups stayed on. We sang songs together and talked about life back home. Everyone in the discussion started to express how much they missed home. This topic lasted until their respective leaders called them back to their camp sites.

6th January 2003

We prepared breakfast today, after which we headed to the Challenge Valley first where we were split into two groups once again. We took Challenge Valley 2 which was an easy course because all of us felt very tired. We then went back to the campsite for lunch. (Yes, it was those lunch boxes again.) We were supposed to return to the Challenge Valley but we already had enough stickers for the Jamboree award. So, we went over to the Brazilian camp site to chat with them and help them cook lunch. We had a walk with our close Brazilian friends and helped them finish up their book for the Jamboree award. We also went to the Prayer Valley where we learnt about the different beliefs of the various religions of the world.

We changed and headed for the main arena where the whole Malaysian contingent took a group photo. We then had our first taste of Asian food, our first decent meal, in eleven days - we had chicken rice at a stall near the main arena! We headed back to attend another Thai festival that was held at our sub-camp. It was fun because we got to taste many delicious Thai dishes for free. We also got to hear the beautiful music played with traditional Thai instruments, learned traditional games and even got a Thai massage.

7th January 2003

We woke up and had the flag-raising ceremony for the last time. We started cleaning all the equipment that had been provided to us as well as our own. We quickly dismantled all the gadgets, tents and boundaries we had put up and headed to the Brazilian camp site to help them pack their tents. We went to the supermarket to fill with hot water the instant cup noodles that had been given for lunch, but we decided to skip lunch and have a walk around the Jamboree site for the last time. We met up with Thiago, a Brazilian International Service Team member, who took us to visit the IST camp sites. They even had a 7-Eleven there! So we got soft drinks at a very cheap price before heading for higher ground to get a bird's eye view of the whole Jamboree site. We could see that the site was located at a beautiful bay that was heavily guarded by the Thai Navy. The view was so lovely and it was sad to imagine that it would be soon demolished when the Jamboree ended.

At night, all the 35,000 participating scouts gathered at the main arena for the last time for the closing ceremony to start. Again, we had Thai cultural performances but this time they added a Japanese traditional fisherman dance and a few other performances that made the event more enjoyable. The best performance was the rap in which selected scouts from all over the world rapped about the Jamboree in their own mother tongue. Sharman was one of them. We cannot really remember what he said but the most memorable rap lines came from the thirteen-year-old Indonesian girls. They sounded something like "We are, we are good, world Jamboree is good. We are, we are good...".

Lord Baden Powell's daughter gave an inspiring speech and officially closed the 20th World Scout Jamboree. There followed a clip of highlights from the past twelve days. This was the moment when many began to shed tears. Everyone started hugging each other because the event had finally come to an end.

8th January 2003

We got up at 4.30 a.m. and got ready to depart. We walked for the last time around the campsite, now an empty plot of land, to see if we had missed any thing. That done, we got on our bus to the railway station as we were catching the train instead of the bus to Bangkok. Our troop parted in three different ways, so those from KL joined Kenari on the train which took four hours to reach Bangkok. On arrival at the Bangkok railway station, we loaded our bags onto a truck that took them to the airport while we boarded buses. We did a group check-in and hung out at the airport for seven hours before entering the departure hall together.

Thirteen days of great experience. "Share our world, share our culture" was the theme. We had, indeed, learned a lot about each others' cultures and this made us see how different people think and understand why they do what they do. Knowing people's culture is the key to peace because it brings great understanding. The Jamboree was a truly unforgettable event and it made us resolve to attend (as International Service Team members) the 21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007 in England marking the one hundred years of scouting at the very place where it all began, so we can contribute to the life-teaching scouting community.

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