Camping At Merang, Setiu

At one of the beaches at Merang, Setiu. The beach faces Bidong island and Redang island


This year, our school's annual camp was held at UDM's campsite in Merang, Setiu from 15-17 April. The campsite is about 40 minutes drive from our school in Kuala Terengganu and only a few hundred metres away from the jetty to Redang Island.

Well, I think UDM's campsite is one the best campsites I've ever been to. The camping ground is under shady trees facing a lagoon near the sea. It's a really nice place.

UDM's camping ground

Two years ago, we had the worst experience during the school's annual camp which was held at Hutan Lipur Sekayu (Sekayu recreational forest ) in Kuala Berang. The campsite is surrounded by thick jungle . It was really dark and eerie at night. During the last night at the campsite, some of our students suffered from hysteria. I can still remember that moment when we suddenly heard a loud scream in the middle of the night. A girl was the first victim. A minute later, it was followed by another scream but it was a boy. Strange..I've never heard of boys experiencing hysteria. The girl and the boy were actually quite a distance away from each other. Soon, more and more students were screaming.

It was not easy for us teachers to handle the situation. Everyone was scared and exhausted as it was in the middle of the night!. There were only less than 20 teachers on duty and we were supposed to handle 200 students . I can still remember that I was awake all night and couldn't close my eyes. One of the students were so scared she asked me to stay by her side. Little that she knew that ..cikgu dia pun sebenarnya bukannya berani sangat (I myself was so damn scared)....Eventhough we lied down so close to each other, we were still very scared. I think it was in everyone's head - "Am I going to be be the next person??" as we were aware that hysteria is contagious. It was a lesson to learn for all of us, teachers. The next year we decided to have a break from camping in the wilderness. We had the camp in the school compound instead. It was so easy except that there was no thrill at all. This year we decided to have it near the beach...

Camping is good for students as it teaches them leadership skills and responsibility in many ways. They also learn to appreciate nature

They also learn to cook..The students offered me their breakfast..cekodok hangus!

Facing the lagoon. There are a lot of crabs at the lagoon. The men teacher managed to catch a lot of crabs and the lady teachers helped cooking the crabs -buat gulai ketam

Views of the surrounding areas

It is near the jetty to Redang Island.

Found these wild flowers during a nature walk. Pertama kali tengok pokok ni..

Water activities for the students. My favourite water sport..kayaking

The happy faces of the best team for 2010 Annual Camp. They are my 6th former students

This year, everything went well at the campsite in Merang, Setiu. Nothing bad happened except that during the last night, there was a heavy downpour and we were not really prepared for it. Fortunately, there was no case of hysteria. We really had a wonderful time.