NIDA Summer Camp: Day 1

I have told you on my previous post about my participation at The 4th NIDA summer camp in Thailand. It was an amazing trip! AMAZING TRIP!!! (I need to emphasise that I really had a great time :3) There were lots of great people that I made friends with. Besides, this event helped me broaden my mind. Being a camper in NIDA was one of the greatest experience that I have ever had~

So, I am going to share the stories of each day throughout the camp! :D

16 June 2015

I woke up at 4 AM to catch the first ferry to Singapore since there is no direct flight from Batam to Thailand. The best and cheapest ways were taking a ferry, going to Changi, and flying to Bangkok. 

The closest ferry terminal is Batam Centre International Ferry Terminal which is located 10 minutes away from my house. I checked in at 5 AM! Still sleepy that time :"D So I did sleeping in the ferry! xD

45 minutes passed, I arrived at HarbourFrount, Singapore. The immigration line was not really crowded because it was early in the morning, plus it was weekdays, so I could go to Changi earlier than I expected. 

Arrived in Changi at 10 AM, I tried to find Eka! He is one of the campers from Batam, Indonesia, which supposed to be in the same flight with me. Unfortunately he booked the wrong ticket BKK - SG - BKK. He had stranded in Changi since a day before or two to rearrange or perhaps refund his ticket, but in the end he could not. 

Anyway, since Eka had a different flight with me, this was going to be my first time flying overseas.. alone LOL. It was two and a half hours journey until I finally landed safely in Suvarnabhumi, The Land of Gold, literally. Once I got off the aeroplane, I had to familiarise myself to Thai alphabet @.@ It looks like noodles everywhere :'D

When I was waiting for my luggage, I saw Thai athletes picked their luggages. They just came from Singapore competing in the SEA Games. The Thais were cheering all the way welcoming the athletes. They got more golds than Indonesia! I remember Thailand won a gold medal in football, and they defeated us 5-0 in semifinal! *coughs* No, wonder the Ministry of Youth and Sports has suspended the All Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) for a really really bad performance for a loooong time.

After observing the crowd, I went to the meeting point at gate 3 on the 2nd floor. But firstly I bought Thai SIM card because I could not live without internet x) It was 299 baht, activated for 7 days. The price was as the same amount as my internet package for 2 months in Indonesia. However, this Thai card was very fast, I had no regret! LOL. Furthermore, the most important thing was to tell my parents that their kid was not stranded or being kidnapped in Bangkok.

I walked around two times at the meeting point until I met the NIDA staffs holding the paper written 'NIDA Summer Camp'. The campers from Brunei had arrived earlier. They were Bibi, Wardah, and Atiqah. We talked half Malay and Indonesian since we understood each other xD

Bibi - Thai athlete - Me. Doc: Bibi

Since I was the only Indonesian at the moment, they invited me hunting some handsome athletes to take pictures with x)

When we were back to the meeting point, I met some Bruneian boys. They were Felix, Yong and Azre. I was mistakenly thinking that Azre was Indonesian since he talked using 'lu gue' (Indonesian: you, me) -_-" I was pretty much assumed that he watched sinetron (Indonesian drama series) a lot! 

I wish Indonesian government consider to distribute sinetrons all over the world LOL Sinetron has a dramatic story, attractive actresses and actors, and also creative crews that each of the sinetron could survive for years with so many seasons!!! Even the Indonesia Broadcasting Commission lets this happened~ It seems like they also like sinetron. By distribute it, people can learn about Indonesia which is full of drama :')

Meanwhile, there was a very bad news that I received from the NIDA staffs. One of the campers from Indonesia named Cecep could not be found. He had to arrive in 15 June night, but they could not find Cecep even until I arrived. What NIDA staffs told me was just shocking!

I personally worried because a day before, Cecep contacted me asking about the meeting point. He said that he would fly at 5, and needed to know where he should be. I was thinking that he strayed and could not find where the meeting point was. I joked about AADC, Ada Apa Dengan Cecep (What happened with Cecep) long time ago. It seemed like this drama would still be continued.. 

First time arrived in BKK xD Doc: NIDA

There were also participants from Vietnam and China that would be picked up at 4 PM. After everyone arrived, we got out of the airport and a fancy double-decker bus came to pick us up.

It takes 30 minutes from the Suvarnabhumi to reach Metropoint Hotel. I saw Bangkok from the wide windows. There were several differences that I found. One of them was the roads were much better with no holes compared to Indonesia's roads *coughs*

Bangkok :')

Each camper had a roommate from different country. My roommate came from Myanmar. Her name was Su Yee. We went straight to our room at the 5th floor. 5505. It was actually great if I got room number 5555. So, whenever my friends asked my room number, I would answer "hahahaha" LOL.

More participants came after 6 PM. Because there was an awkward moment when you just knew someone which was going to be your roommate for 10 days, and you did not know what topics to bring. I kept quiet and thinking what to say haha. Then, I just texted other campers randomly.

Fortunately Samreen, a Pakistani camper had already arrived. She was about to go out, and she invited me to go with her. I also asked Su Yee to join us. Perhaps this bilateral relation between Indonesia and Myanmar could be firmly established xD

This is what I see from the bus' windows :)

There were also Chapi and Dish from Sri Lanka that went with us. We went around the hotel tried to find money changer. On the way, we met the Vietnam campers. We also met other Sri Lankan camper, Manoj, and other Pakistani, Pathan. I started to wonder where were my Indonesian fellas, and of course Cecep, the mysterious man!

We walked pretty far though. When I came back, my Indonesian fellas had already arrived! They were Eka, Ita, Tia, Nita, Kiki, Bea, Sheila, Surur, and Nanda. We live far away in Indonesia. Eka and I live the same province. He used to study in Batam, but he had been moving to Tanjung Pinang. The rest came from Java island. Ita, Surur and Kiki are from Jakarta. Nanda and Bea from Bandung. Sheila and Tia from Yogyakarta, and Nita from Surabaya. 

Because the distance, we did not have a time to practise our performance for the opening ceremony. We had to put extra effort that on the next day, we could perform well. We planned to sing and dance. Eka had promised us teaching the Zapin dance. 

We had Eka as our dance instructor. Other problem was, we did not have a space to practise. Then, he offered his room. As he said, we went to his room LOL. So once he showed us the dance, we were surprised because he really could dance well! xD

We practised several time because we felt guilty that Eka's roommate, Hung was about to sleep. He had been closing his eyes, this added more guiltiness. Then, we moved to the empty space near the elevator. Luckily, there was no one complain about the music we played. Some of the campers looked at us when we were practising. Indonesians were going to rock the camp!!! LOL

I forgot it was around 1 or 2 AM, we were all tired and sleepy. So we went back to our rooms. However, we did not practise singing. I even did not know what song to sing hahaha.