Our family had our first family camping pretty late when our boys were 10 and 4 years old respectively.

On the positive side, they were more capable on managing themselves and also have stronger immune system.

Our first camping was a 2D1N camping organised by my MonkeySons’ art centre founder, Mr. Tan with zero charges. He emphasized on the importance of exposing children to nature at young age. Read more about the important of nature to the growth of children here.

Do visit the camping preparation article before you go…

Day 1

6.10 am

Packed up the frozen food such as satay, sausage, ham & meatballs into the cooler bag. I was amazed that the food stayed cold for more than 10 hours.

7.00 am

Took a while to fit in all camping stuff into our Avanza.

Dropped by food court to buy nasi lemak & fried mihun before departing.

9.05 am

Arrived at Petronas Karak.

Gorgor caught a big moth from the ladies toilet.

Mr. Tan gave simple briefing at the petrol station.

9.55 am

Departed fr Petronas Karak. We followed the long car trail as the reserved forest location was not even shown on Waze.

10.30 am

Briefing given by forest ranger:-

– Looked after the children

– No debris. Burn all the paper before leaving

– Wash plates n utensils at down stream

– Follow the leader, don’t argue

Initially we were bitten by lots of mosquitoes but it stopped after we applied the mosquitoes repellent.
We found an empty spot and used it as our camp base.

RhinoDad n the boys setup the camp. Anyhow, MonkeySons were distracted by the flying butterflies and insects around.
Once our tent was up, Gorgor transferred the moth he caught fr Petronas into our tent. He then caught few more butterflies and kept in the tent. Quite worried that we were have to sleep with the insects tonight.

11 am

MonkeySons continued to hide n play in the tent while I setup the cooking spot.

Strolled to other tents and saw many grasshoppers caught by other camper. Showed it to MonkeySons n they decided to leave the tent to catch grasshoppers.
Persuaded MonkeySons to walk to the public toilet as I wanted to pee.

The public toilet was much worse than I thought – stinky and full with shit stain. Hold my breath and quickly pee.

MonkeySons caught few grasshoppers otw back to our tent.
A boy next to our camp got stink by bee. He was crying so loud when his parents tried to apply lavender oil on his neck.

2.00 pm

A family came n picnic right beside our tent. Apparently they stayed in the resort nearby – Shilimen (石林门). They were amazed with our courage to camp overnight in the jungle.

Changed to swim wear in the tent. Our tent is single layer but luckily can’t see through from outside.
Tough walk on the river as the water was too cluttered n couldn’t see the sharp rocks under the water.

MonkeySons were busy catching water strider while I took a rest on the big rock.

3.00 pm

Walked back to our tent and enjoyed my tea – lotus rice and yam kuih. Boiled water with the portable gas stove.

Decided to pee in the jungle as I still remembered the nightmare of the public toilet. Found a hidden spot n used the umbrella as the cover. Then used a plastic bag to keep the used tissue. Wondered what to do during period? Really scary experience!

Surprised to see some plastic toilet bowls hidden under the grass and a big hole beside it. Perhaps it was a public toilet before?

4.00 pm

MonkeySons n RhinoDad returned with a pale of water striders.
MonkeySons n RhinoDad used the water I stored in the mineral bottle to rinse the body.
Tight up the rope in between 2 trees n hang the wet swim wear on it. It looked just like a camp site.

Made hot milo for MonkeySons. MonkeySons made hot cup for themselves. Didi accidentally spilled the dark sauce, lucikly I had wet tissue to wipe it off.
Gorgor asked to make American Breakfast right after he had eaten the hot cup. Told him to have it later.

5.00 pm

 

A camper boy’s feet got burned by the charcoal when he was playing at other camp fire. His family decided to go home, thus unpacked the tent and luggage despite that they had spent more than an hour setting up their tent n “kitchen”.

MonkeySons setup the camp fire on their own and used it to BBQ sausage, but the fire put out before their sausage was cooked. Switched to gas stove instead.
Taught Gorgor to fry ham n scramble egg n he loved it. Didi was also able to fry his ham n egg with minimal help fr me.

Asked Gorgor to release water strider n butterflies before night.

7.00 pm

RhinoDad started to setup camp fire with MonkeySons while I grilled the satay.

Surprisingly the satay were still cold after 12 hrs in the cooler bag. The satay tasted superb with a dash of honey. I gave 8 to Mr. Tan. There was a grasshopper landed on my frying pan when I was grilling the satay. It was cooked immediately. RhinoDad helped to remove him.

More n more known n unknown insects came visiting our camp, esp grasshoppers, spiders and ants. Gorgor got frightened by the grasshopper n asked me to “sayang” (pacify) him by hugging him.

The sky was getting dark n I had to use RhinoDad’s headlight to do the grilling in the dark.

MonkeySons were getting braver n walked away fr our camp to catch butterflies n moths. Asked RhinoDad to follow right behind them.

11 pm

After packed up the utensils to be washed when we get back home, I chose to lie down on our plastic mat while RhinoDad n MonkeySons went for a walk. It was a rather strange but peaceful experience watching tall trees above me in the dark.

12 am

Settled down in our tent.

RhinoDad accompanied me to pee behind our tent before sleep.

RhinoDad told us the success story of “Tina Turner”. Apparently Tina Turner is also a SGI member.

It was pretty cooling in the tent without the fan.

5 am

Woke RhinoDad up to accompany me to pee n then closed our tent second layer due to the chilling weather.

Want to know how our camping ended? Let’s go to second day of our camping.