On 15 November 2008, the CA Income department of HDPM ventured onto Pulau Besar for team building activities.

Our team works night shift and we finish after 1 a.m. Most of us took the company transport home due to the distance to home and the odd hours. Travelling from work to home vice versa takes approximately 1 hour or more for most of us.

With a few of hours of sleep, a wake up call was essential. Few colleagues were assigned to activate and practise the call tree. It’s not an easy job to wake your colleagues and self up at 5am in the morning.

Miraculously.....it worked!

The group of about 36 staffs traveled early on Saturday morning first by bus to Anjung Batu Jetty, then culminating in a 20-minute ferry ride to the island. The group activity started right away with everyone having to unload the stock of foods, fruits and drinks for the lunch picnic planned for later in the day.

On the island, we gathered for a picnic. That was when the group of gluttons (us) had our feast. The variety of food was superb! We had appetizer, main course and dessert! Thanks to everyone contribution for every little taste that we had.

After the good meal, the group was broken up into 4 smaller teams of 8 members each. Our first challenge was to come up with a name, logo and slogan for their respective teams within an allocated time frame. The teams had to draw their logos as well as present their team slogan with a performance to the rest. It encouraged the teams to work together as well as be creative and interactive.

The four team names that emerged were Purple Light, Hands Off, Paragon and Sexy Blue.

Next, each team was given an unboiled egg which we were to keep in our possession and keep from breaking throughout the activities of the day, with a penalty for any team whose egg broke. We also had to carry the egg throughout the events and pass it from member to member by tagging the next "holder".

This was followed by a series of physical team challenges. The games included a balloon hop and sack race where the participants had to run with a balloon between their legs and proceed with a gunny sack to the finish line.

The next game we played was ‘the stick on the belly’. It is a balancing act where two participants had to balance a stick between their bodies while collecting "treasure" along the way.

Last but not least, the teams were competing for ping pong toss and balloon popper game. The participants had to toss ping pong balls into a basket and proceed to blow up a balloon and pop it.

Next, this was followed by the activity called three legged army where two participants had one of their legs tied to the other one's and had to race to the finish line.

Finally, the entire team was divided into three groups that competed in a "league" format of Tug of War, with the top two teams competing in the final round for first placing. This turned out to be the highlight of the day with lots of fun and participants falling into the sand.

In this event, we showed the true team spirit! We hardly believe that all the ladies and gentlemen from our team are actually so strong!

The outdoor activities have finally ended and the champion goes to Team Paragon. The grand prize has gone to them. Nevertheless, the other teams were not left out empty handed. They were still given their consolation prizes.

We then were given some time to rest and to clean up ourselves in the rented chalet. We packed our belongings and clean the area that we have occupied.

We got on the last ferry back to mainland. Before heading for home, we treated ourselves to a dinner at Anjung Batu, famous for its seafood in Malacca.

Hema had pre-ordered so the food was ready when we arrived, which was a good thing because we were all starving after a long day.

Towards the end of the dinner, souvenirs were given out to all for their great effort, support and commitment shown in the team bonding. Communication was also a value that needed to be instilled among ourselves. And apart from having a fun filled day in the sun and surf, it seems like these objectives had also been achieved.

To conclude, we had not only earned rewards and awards but also values and a better understanding of ourselves and each other. The objectives of the day were to highlight the importance of positive behavior, conflict resolution, listening, team culture, trust and respect, creativity and teamwork in achieving our shared goals.