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IN BANGKOK
Activities ranging from land,sea and air were organised for all the participants of this jamboree daily. Activities are held either in the campsite itself such as Computer, Amateur Radio, Photo & Video Journal, Adventure, Sports-shooting, Creative Programme, Development Village.While some were organised outside such as the Water Activities, it was held at the beautiful Pattaya Beach where warm November sun shone friendly on our face.The activities that were organised for us were very interesting such as the Banana Boat, Jet Ski, Canoeing,Wind surfing, Sea Race and Crab football. Banana Boat and Jet Ski.are 'one of the hottest' activities that we have enjoyed tremendously.
These activities are also very benefial to us and this suit the purpose of jamboree, frankly speaking we really love the Sports Shooting and Adventure activities due to the fact that these events help to strengthen our physical fitness and mentality. Sports Shooting includes Air-Rifle, Archery and Darts competition enhance our aiming skills too! Adventure requires a lot of endurance & perseverance to go through activities such as Commando Bridge which went swaying from left to right, Tower Challenge, Tyre Obstacles and Tar-zan Flying.
Scout Forum provided us the golden opportunity to interact with the scouts and girl guides from Thailand, Pakistan, Sweden Hongkong and many more. In fact, this is a conference where we came together as one big family to give our viewpoints on certain society issues. Lots of laughters that were created indeed provided a cosy atmosphere during the conference by all of us!
Excursions were organised specially for the both the local and international participants to have a clearer and better understanding of Thailand as we visited various historical sites to understand the Thai tradition arts and culture, we found out that the buddhist temples are built with intricate designs. Besides enjoying the above activities that we have stated, we too enjoyed ourselves to the shopping spree in Bangkok and the spicy delicious Thai cusine that we will never forget!
Everyday was spent in a very meaningful way, on top of all the activities that we had to attend, free time after dinner gave us the chance to exchange unique badges with the scouts and girl guides from all over the world.
IN CHIANG MAI
After spending 8 days and 7 nights in Bangkok for the jamboree, we later proceeded to Chiang Mai for our hospitality stay hosted by the scouts from The Prince Royal's College in Chiang Mai. Under the lead of our contigent leader, Edmond Tan, we were welcome warmly by the local officials at the Chiang Mai Airport's VIP ROOM where the Singapore Scouts contigent felt very honoured. We later had a tour at The Prince Royal's College where we introduced to the history of the founding of the school, the most significant event was that we planted several trees in the school as a mark of friendship between the two countries and also that we scouts do care for the environment.
Our accomodation were in the hostel of the Chiang Mai National Stadium, we too visited the local place of interest such as the Chiang Mai Elephant Camp, historical sites of the founding of Chiang Mai, the Largest Umbrella Manufacturing shops in Thailand where all the umbrellas are man-made with traditional arts picture on it. The Diamond Industry where we visted was one of the places that reflected the local people of Chiang Mai as the people there are as hard and precious as diamonds due to the fact that they are hardworking people to earn a living, beside that, they like to share their love around with people regardless of races and nationales too!
Night Bazaar along the brightly-lit streets of Chiang Mai was indeed our favourite place as we brought lots and lots of gifts for our dear ones back at home and also some for ourselves due to the fact that the low cost of the items were irresistable! Local traditional art pieces were the favourite item among the scouts for example one of the scouts even brought two local traditionally- made pillows for his parents!
On the 1st of December 1998, the Singapore Scouts Contigent had the saddest moments as we were forced to bade farewell to our hosts to depart for our home after spending 12 days 11 nights in the gorgeous and wonderful Thailand. Attending the 15th Nation Scout Jamboree had indeed given the two of our scouts members the very rare chance to improve our scouting skills and most importantly, to open up our sight, increase our knowledge and lastly to improve our relationships with fellow scouts and girl guides all around the world.
