First exercise in Taiwan. Navigation exercise called Exercise Longstride. 

I googled about it recently and it is said that it is a 3 days 2 nights exercise. Though I don't remember the exact days and dates, I don't remember it being that short. Mine was 5 days 4 night. Or rather it was 4.5 days with the 5th day being a half day. Maybe I got it wrong but I really don't remember it being a short 3 days.

Early morning and we took a truck to the navigation area. We took a truck that was called a 2 and half tonner. It was just slightly smaller than a 3 tonne truck in Singapore. The 3 tonner is already phased out by the current bigger 5 tonner.

We already have the map of the navigation area. It was a topographical map so there weren't much civilian details on the map. But it was good enough for us to navigate. What annoyed me was, I still had no idea where our PuWei camp was. My PC just said that Taiwan is very big. He pointed the navigation area map to us and said our camp is “down here”. He pointed his finger into the air below the map. 

The truck moved on as I looked at the Taiwanese countryside. I was apprehensive and worried and already missing home. Most of us were excited when we passed by booths that sells betel leaves and nuts. There were ladies in sexy attire sitting in the booths selling them. I was told that Taiwanese like to chew on betel nuts and leaves and these booths are by the roadside to be sold to drivers on long drives. These ladies were called “Pinang Girls”. Then I realised that Pinang is also the Malay word for betel. Sorry no photos of these ladies. You can google. I just did as I typed this to see whether they are still around.

We reached the starting point. It was quite a sight. We were surrounded by mountains. Well technically they were hills but for us they were all higher than Bukit Timah so we called them mountains. 

From the starting point, we had to look for our checkpoints which will slowly lead us back to the end point of the exercise and we have to reach it within 4 and a half days. We were all separated into groups of 4 and all groups had different checkpoint allocations. We might bump into each other but no 2 groups will have the same order of checkpoints. Warrant Sim (if you remember me mentioning him in the earlier post) said, “head to the big Buddha”. The big Buddha will be near or endpoint. But he said it in an almost literal and spiritual manner as we separated and dispersed into the forest. Cool. 

The walk was scary as we trudged along an unknown forest. We are not talking about Singapore nature reserves where we are bound to hit some roads or civilisations. This is a foreign forest to us. But we soon found the pattern of the forest. We try to walk along the ridges of the mountains and skirt along plantations so that we will feel safer in case we get lost. There were also tracks along the higher ridges compared to the lower ground. Apparently the locals like to set up their plantations on higher ground. The forest were also less dense than our tropical rainforest and it was easier to walk through. Once we reached higher ground, we realise it wasn't as scary as we thought. There were a lot of plantations and tracks. Most of them oranges and betel plantations. Once in a while we will spot tea plantations. The view was also nicer on high ground where the hills looked less imposing and more scenic.

A day's adventure soon came to end. Night fell and we had to look for a place to spend the night. We all had sleeping bags with us and we can sleep anywhere in the forests but it was cold. We had parka jackets too. We tried resting on the mountain ridge but most of it were to narrow. They were so narrow like a one man's width and we had to walk in a line with steep slopes on both sides. (There was once when all 4 of us slipped down a a steep slope and we slid down unable to stop all the way down to the bottom. We tried grabbing onto vines and roots and branches and tree trunks but we couldn't. So you can imagine how steep it was. We only stopped when we were at the bottom and we had to climb up again.) Plus it was really cold at night. We tried to rest on the slopes but they were to steep. It was really a long walk just to find a suitable place to rest for the night. I remember this. It was quite stressful as it was dark and cold. Legs weary and eyes sleepy.

Then, we saw a shed. It was like those farm sheds. We went to have a look. There was no one there. We wondered if the owner would find us and charge us for trespassing. We thought for a while and decided to give it a rest. If the owner comes, we will just leave. At least we have a few hours away from the cold.

It was a peaceful sleep and no one disturbed us. We woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and moved on with our walk. When the light came in the morning, we found out that the shed was used to store oranges. We never felt so tempted to eat oranges before until that day. I myself am not a fan of oranges. But we respected the place and its owner for providing us shelter so we left the place as it is.

The day moved on pretty much like the day before. Once in a while we will bump into other groups and we exchanged information. We completed our checkpoints and looked for a place to sleep that night. With the previous night's experience, we looked for a similar shed. We kind of know how the terrain is like by now and which areas might have plantations and sheds. 

Day 3 was the same too. More walks. On this day, on one of the mountains, we saw the big Buddha in the distance. We were happy and were very sure that we will reach the end point before day 5.

As we headed southwards towards the end point, we noticed even more "civilisation". There were more houses, buildings, sheds and roads. 

One moment that I cannot forget is; we were bashing through the trees and we heard sounds like some music and chant. That part of the forest was dense so we couldn't make out how far that sound was. We just continued walking and at this particular part, we bashed through some dense trees and it opened like a curtain where we faced a clearing. There was where the music and chant came from. We came head on to a burial ceremony and the grave hole was just behind the “curtain” tree. The group mate who was in front almost fell into the freshly dug hole. I kid you not. We were really facing it. We were shocked, the funeral procession was shocked to see us appearing behind the trees. They stopped playing and looked at us. It was awkward. Especially when they were literally lowering the coffin into the grave. Thinking back now, it was funny. We apologised, skirted around the grave hole and walked while this procession and grieving family members just stopped their business (including crying) and looked at us in silence as we walked away.

That night as we looked for a place to sleep again, we walked through a village. This time it wasn't just a plantation but a real village with people. The children called us “Ah Ping Ke” as we walked past their homes. Some of the residents even invited us to spend the night at their houses. It was a nice gesture but we were told to not accept their offer. 

One group walked past us and said they were from a house who served them grilled duck. They said another group is in one of the house to spend the night. How true were these. I have no idea. 

By now, we were “experienced” enough to locate sheds to sleep in.

Day 4. We completed our checkpoints just before noon. The endpoint was nearby and we were at the big buddha already. There were a set of time for the trucks to ferry us back to camp. Maybe about 3 trips a day. Something like one in the morning, noon and late afternoon. We definitely could catch the noon ferry but we decided to rest and soak the atmosphere a bit more. Plus we knew that if we were to be back in camp before night time, we would not be able to rest. Surely we would be asked to do “Sai Kang” (Literally means shit hole. In the army, sai kang means labour work that everyone dread. Like clean toilets or wash jerry cans or carry things or whatever.)

So we found a good spot where we rested and enjoyed the cool afternoon in the forest. We deserve that rest. Late afternoon, we walked down the slope to the end point where we boarded the 2.5 tonner back to camp.

What started out with apprehension and worry turned out to be one of my most fun life experience ever. 4 days in a foreign forest. 3 nights in the cold. Beautiful views, nice people. It felt like a 4 day hiking trip. But then it was tiring and we also looked forward to be back in camp to have a good shower, cooked food and sleep in our bunks.

​NEXT WEEK : Exercise Warrior

Hello. In view of celebrating my enlistment anniversary on the 13th of June, I think it would be a good time to start blogging again. I have kind of settled down and adapt to this pandemic period and I have given up looking for a job so I guess I have more reasons to post regularly. I am planning to post an entry every Saturday morning so it can be something that you look forward to every weekend.

The last post was about my adventures at SISPEC ASLC. I promised to post on Taiwan next. Here it is. Have fun reading!

February 2001. It was winter in the northern hemisphere. It was also my first long flight out of Singapore. I cannot remember the time and date but it was at night when we checked in at Changi Airport. I was excited yet very apprehensive. I have never been away that far and that long in my life before. 4 hours on an SQ flight to Kaohsiung, Taiwan for exercise “Starlight”.

​When we arrived, it was already morning. I am slowly forgetting these memories so bear with me with all these estimations. I was very sure there was already daylight. 
​
We were told that all other Starlight participants will always alight at Kaohsiung and then head to this camp called Heng Chun Camp. But we are the lucky batch to go to a different camp. How lucky were we? I had no idea. We were told that we will be going to Puwei camp which I had no idea where. There weren't internet then and there and I really could not do any search or obtain any information. I was just following wherever they brought us to with no idea where we were and where we were going. Until today, I have no idea where Puwei camp is and where it is on Google Earth.

​The travelling time to Puwei camp is supposedly longer than to Heng Chun camp. We took a bus and even had lunch along the way. 1st meal in Taiwan. Me being picky, I really wondered what it would be. It was ok actually. Rice with soup, stewed fish, tofu and scrambled eggs. After the meal, we continued on the bus to Puwei.

​Upon reaching Puwei, it was already late afternoon. We checked in into this really cool camp. The premise reminded me of the setting in Ultraman TV series. Everything was grey. The city was grey. They buildings were grey. The skies were grey and this camp right smack in the middle of a town. It was not in some forested area. It was really in town. You would miss the main gate like it was a typical school along the road. Unfortunately I don't have photos of the exterior of the camp. Anyway you can go to street views in Taiwan counties. They all look the same. 

It was winter and as the sun sets, the weather became much cooler. Our first task was to check in into our bunks and get changed to our admin attire. After that, we had our first meal at Puwei camp. It was already dinner time. There was a halal cookhouse and I was very happy that the meals were actually very nice. At that time, there were cooks stationed in camps so the halal cookhouse had normal Singapore style halal cooked food. So yeah we still had rice and spicy meat and fish and vegetables. It was all normal. One guy from Bravo company brought a big tupperware of sambal ikan bilis. He thought that we were going to have bland meals throughout our stay there and brought sambal over. Since we were all surprised to have normal meals, he shared the sambal with everyone in the cookhouse. It was very funny and we all had a good laugh. “I thought we were going to eat soup everyday!” he said.

After that we all queued to use the telephones. There was a room with public phones arranged in rows on tables like an old fashion call centre. You can use either coins or phonecards to make calls. There was also a small booth that sold phonecards (Tien Hwa Ka) but it was already closed for the day. I cannot remember where we got our coins from but we all used coins that evening to call home. 

After that, it was all briefings and then we turned in for the night. I didn't have problem sleeping as the weather was cool and it was so nice to sleep even though the bunks were very crammed.

The next morning, we had our first morning exercise. The funny thing about this day that I can remember was, previously all of us will dread these morning exercises. But on that day, everyone was looking forward for it. Reason being, we were all so cold! We were freezing while we slept as dawn came. All of us walked quickly to the parade square and we really did our exercise with such energy so as to warm ourselves up. The funny part is the run. We always dread the run. But on this particular day, everyone were asking the sergeants to quickly finish up the basic exercises so that we can run. The moment our sergeants said, “Ok all form up for run, 10 rounds around the parade square!” we have already started sprinting around the square. Yes. We didn't just run. We sprinted! We were all so desperate to start perspiring.

The rest of the day were all administration duties and a lot of briefing about our 21 days stay in Taiwan. We had to collect our stuff such as sleeping bags, some military equipment and other stuff. We also got our uniforms. We were all given Taiwan uniforms to use during our stay. It also had our names in Chinese characters sewn on the right breast pocket. Mine had 2 characters and they are pronounced as “An Hua”. My buddy's name is Dzulkifly and his had 3 characters that are pronounced as “Chu Ke Fei”. Our Chinese friends said that it means “Pig Can Fly”. We all had a good laugh. At least they got the “Fly' in Dzulkifly right.

​Our first main event in Taiwan is a 5 days 4 nights uncontrolled navigation exercise. If you read the previous posts, we had another navigation exercise in Pulau Tekong. This time we are going to be thrown into the Taiwan wilderness and make our way back to the finishing line on our own. We were broken up into groups of 4. We were given our navigation equipment that includes 2 maps and 2 compasses per group. We had our navigational data sheet (NDS) and protractor per person. We were also given the Mean Grid Reference (MGR) of the checkpoints that we had to look for and plot them on our maps. If I can remember correctly, we were supposed to look for around 12 checkpoints within these 5 days with the last checkpoint being the finishing line and the ferry point to bring us back to camp. 

​It was very exciting for me as I really looked forward to walk and explore the terrains, views, countryside and the forests of Taiwan. Of course there was always this constant worry of getting lost or injured in the middle of nowhere but I guess the excitement and being very youthful made us more excited than worry. Anyway we also had safety and communications equipment and was already throughly briefed on various exercise procedures.

We spent the night planning our route for our exercise the next day. Remember, we had no internet and none of us (except the commanders) have ever set foot on the terrain. We better not get lost. We better bring enough food, yet we better not carry unnecessary weight on our shoulders. 

Tomorrow morning we will be off into a new terrain, a new wilderness, experiencing winter for the first time in my life.


NEXT WEEK : Exercise Longstride