I am indeed deeply grateful to my friend Vishpal who introduced me to this wonderful group called myHarapan. He suggested I join for Youth National Summit. I couldn’t register in time for YNS due to some circumstances but we had three members of Youth Mc representing our team there. Pitching your project to a bunch of experts, meeting the PM, cool stuff.
When I heard about myHarapan Startup Camp, I said to myself that I HAVE to make it no matter what. Of course work was a concern, I’m committed to my job and taking 2 days off seems like a bit too much to ask. Boss said he would approve my leave PROVIDED I complete all necessary work. Which is a lot of work. Was zombie-like by Friday (15th July).
Back to the Startup Camp, the location was stated as COPE Adventure, Lookout Point, Ampang. Been to Lookout Point a couple of times but the place is only popular for the food (Haven and Gasoline) and of course the view, some sort of romantic. But where on earth is COPE Adventure?
Googled up the place and *faints*. Staying in tents, they have jungle trekking, rope climbing, and all sorts of ‘lasak’ activities. Okay so the tents are air-conditioned, haha, no joke. Toilets look clean so I’m a bit happy but not any less nervous.
DAY 1
Saturday the 16th came, was at COPE at 7.45am. Our poor friends who were supposed to take the shuttle bus at KL Sentral apparently got stranded because the bus broke down. They were only expected to be at COPE around 10am. But breakfast was ready! Man, the food.. I can go on and on about it. We had (toast bread, fruits, cereal with milk, salad station, mee goreng, and what not) Five Star seriously. And the cook (Kak Izan) used to cook for the Sultan of Pahang! I mean how much luckier can we get??
Myself, Hema and Uthay posing while waiting for the rest
Our tents, super cool right?
They pamper us too much eh? ;)
The bus arrived at 10.30 and you could see the guys literally running to get their food, they were that hungry. HAHA. Okay so classroom session next. Mr.Hisham and Mr.Fauzi conducted the sessions. Big shots. One is the co-founder of Celcom and another is Marketing Director of Sime Darby. Impressive right?
Mr.Hisham and Mr.Fauzi gave us an insight into what made them who they are today. Mind you, even they had to slog to reach the top. So next we were told to fill up a form about “Where do I see myself in the next 10, 20 and 30 years” and then a few of the participants were asked to read their answers to the entire class. After hearing everyone speak, I felt like I was an ant and all these people are elephants. I mean seriously, they are so focused and have so clear goals and most of them are already halfway there. Oh ya, I forgot to mention, we were divided into groups of six. My group was named ELEGANT. Team Elegant – myself, Hema, Uthay, Xin, Bushan, Akmal and Naz.
Dinner was at 7.30 and we were late (as usual :p), and when we arrived at the dinner hall, WOW! Imagine slow traditional Indian music, Indian lamps as table deco, and the food (banana leaf rice, with loads of meat/vegetarian dishes, papadam, mango lassi, fruits). It was like dining in Passage Thru’ India!
Kay a.k.a Cik Rempit and Lorraine
Right after dinner, we had team building activities such as arranging the alphabets (in which my team lost and we had to do sexy dance for the winning team). Then we were divided into groups of 4 (green, white, yellow and my team green) and had more activities led by the very2 charismatic Ajeet. Day1 ended in a good note, all of us bonded so well together and mind you, we were from different races and backgrounds!
...Day 2,3, and 4 up next!
