It is a tradition for the seminary to hold its annual retreat the third week of the first semester, and this year we had the retreat at the 6-star Golden Palm Tree Spa and Resort on last Thursday to Friday. It is uncommon for a seminary to decide having its retreat at a resort as luxurious as Golden Palm, and I believe the unfortunate incident - mass infection - after the last year retreat at Seagull Beach Resort, Pulau Pangkor facilitated this decision.
I blogged about the last year retreat on the following blog entries:
Day +2022 : MBS Annual Camp (1)
Day +2023 : MBS Annual Camp (2)
Day +2024 : MBS Annual Camp (3)
One or two weeks after the retreat, more than 90 students and staff contracted mysterious diseases with symptoms of repeated fever and muscle pain. Some students and staff with severe symptoms had to be hospitalised. It took the research team in University Hospital about three months to find out the real culprit of the catastrophe was in fact a parasite called Sarcocystis. The detail of the finding was blogged on my blog entry "Day +2109 : The real culprit is Sarcocystis".
In order to lessen the fear of the repeating the same catastrophic incident, the seminary find us a six-star resort for this year retreat. Therefore, to put it positively, last year suffering is really a blessing in disguise :-) Due to the cost, the retreat was reduced to 2 days 1 night instead of 3 days 2 night, and due to the tight schedule of the retreat, we were given a day off on Friday :-)
The retreat this year was packed with tours to different local attractions including the F1 circuit, dragon fruit farm, Putrajaya, and Tanjong Sepat. I joined the tour on the second stop - Sepang F1 circuit, skipping Putrayaja as I had been there many times before. I also skipped the Tanjong Sepat tour on the second day.
All the expenses of the retreat were borne by the seminary, except the F1 circuit tour in which we had to pay RM25 against the normal rate of RM50. Those who participated in the tour also get a F1 t-shirt :-)
Below are some photos from the Sepang F1 circuit tour.
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| Taking a photo with my roommate - brother Lio Chin Wee (廖景伟弟兄) |
To be continued and see you next post :-)
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