We will only be here for two weeks, so we didn’t waste much time slacking. We straightaway embarked on our normal exercises. I think by this time you would know the routine. Topography and then mission exercise. Initially I dreaded coming. Well I dread NS and travelling anyway. I already disliked the forests in Singapore and now we have to spend days in the thick jungles of Temburong. But I mentioned last week, apparently this was the best overseas trip ever.
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Our first foray into the jungle was for our topography exercise. I was pleasantly surprised. The jungle was clean. Really. It was clean. It has hilly ranges, tropical vegetation and climate, hot and humid, but it was clean. You can smell the clean air, the clean breeze. It was so clean that I was surprised that there were no mosquitoes. I was expecting the mozzies to buzz around us like in Singapore, but no. There were no mosquitoes.


There were no rubbish on the jungle floor. None. No plastic, wrappers, tin cans, etc. Nothing. I was very happy. Anyway, we were also told not to litter. This rule is very strict. We were told to respect the spirit of Temburong. Before we left camp, we had to lay out everything that we brought on the floor. They will be checked and tabulated. Everything including combat ration packets, instant noodles, ziploc bags, cigarette packs. We are told to keep our rubbish until we get back to camp after the exercise where they will check again that we brought back the same things that we brought out. Especially the empty packets and plastics. I don’t know what would happen if it didn’t tally though. We were just told that we would be punished somehow. 


My HQ section was attached with section 1 this time for the topography exercise. I think we were out for 4 days 3 nights. Maybe. As I mentioned above, Temburong has hilly ranges. We were told to always stay at the side or the top of the range. Never ever go down to the valleys unless we need to collect water from the streams. The streams had clean running water. We would fill our water bottles with the water from the streams. We were also supplied with purifying tablets. We would fill the bottles and place one tablet in the bottle. It was yucky to me. It tasted like swimming pool water due to the chlorine from the tablets. I held on for a day I think. Until I was too thirsty, I gave up on the chlorine tabs. We then got our drinking water from the rain. I tell you…. the rain water tasted so good. So clean and pure. It was the tastiest water I’ve ever drank. I didn’t even bother to put chlorine tablets in the rain water. I told the rest of the guys, they agreed it was the tastiest water ever. None of us used the chlorine tablets anymore. And since it rained quite often in Temburong, we had constant supply of drinking water.


(Sadly, a number of weeks before this blog was posted, it was announced that rain water on earth is no more safe for drinking unless treated due to forever chemicals. And these chemicals are man made. I was very sad when I read the news.)


Here comes the best part of being in Temburong. We are not allowed to move at night. Night activities were strictly not allowed, due to the thick jungle vegetation, hilly range and ever changing streamlines after rain. So once comes 1800hrs, we would stop all activities and rest for the night. Relax, unpack our stuff, cook instant noodles, fix our sheltered hammocks on the trees. Oooh we were also not allowed to sleep on the ground so hammocks were made compulsory. By 2000hrs, we would already be hanging in our hammocks, chatting or already in deep sleep only to wake up again at 0700hrs the next day. It was heaven. 12 good hours of rest in the army. You can never get that even in camps in Singapore.

I cannot even remember the missions in this exercise. Maybe because by now we were all on autopilot and all missions are the same. We were all in good morale though because we know that all exercises will be cut at 1800hrs and we will rest for 12 hours. 


One thing I remember was, for this exercise in Brunei, Lakiun camp has its own trainers. They will escort and guide all visiting units to Temburong. They will check and maintain the discipline, cleanliness and especially safety. Yes. Temburong jungle is no joke. It is really a real thick jungle that SAF has to have permanent staff in Brunei to ensure all these. 


So during the mission exercises, there will be these trainers escorting us. I remember this clearly, they would always try to scare us with this journey called, “The 7 wonders of the world and Mount Biang”. They said the walk was so tough the jungle would kill us. I’ve heard of this thing before coming to Brunei from other soldiers from other units and friends maybe. So anyway, we all had to go through it… so…. okaaayyyy……


As we walked in the jungle, I tried counting these “7 wonders”. They were supposed to be killer steep and high hills. We were supposed to go through 7 of them before reaching the dreaded Mount Biang. Well, I counted. The jungle was thick I lost track in counting the hills as I couldn’t see the definitive shape of these hills. It was just upslope downslope upslope and downslope. We just walked. Maybe there were more than 7. I don’t know till today. 


And then we reached the foot of Mount Biang. Well, the “7 wonders” didn’t kill us, so maybe Biang will. They said that the mountain is high and steep, the way up is called “Stairway to Heaven”. Okaaaay….


So we climbed. Note that Guardsmen have extra load. I had that GPMG tripod on me. It was about 11kg. I had 1 box of GPMG black rounds. I think it was about 3kg. Basically I had about 35kg of load on my 60kg skinny body. And it was just me. Everyone else had their extra load too.

​We just climbed and climbed. Next thing I knew, we were already on top. I remember reaching the top and looked at the trainer who was already there first. I smiled to him and gave the normal peace / victory sign. I remember he looked at me and us in disbelief. He took off his cap and said to his colleagues. “Bloody hell these people are so fit! Look at this guy! (Pointing at me) His face is so fresh!” Honestly, it wasn’t that bad at all. Not just me but for everyone else. In fact, I was known in the Battalion as one of the weakest soldier there who cannot even pass his 10km run. Well, combat fitness and physical fitness are 2 different things. It was still tiring but it wasn’t as bad as how everyone claimed it to be. What was in my mind at that time was, yeay! top of Biang. It’s almost 6pm! Time to eat maggi and sleep!
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Another memorable experience was river crossing. Combat river crossing. Oh yes, I forgot to mention just now. Not only did we have extra load as Guardsmen, my company, Charlie company also had extra load as the “River Crossing Company”. So we had to carry equipment to cross the river for the whole battalion. Hahahaha! Luckily they didn’t disturb the GPMG teams and the 84mm team. We have enough load. Thank you. But it was really pitiful to see the guys sharing the weight of these equipment.


We had to cross this river called Sungai Batu Apoi. Supposedly crocodile infested. Before we set up the crossing, the trainers and some locals got on boats to the left and right of our crossing point. They then shot live rounds into the water to chase the crocodiles away from the crossing point. I didn’t see any. I only heard the gunshots. It didn’t bother me though. My mind was always, 6pm, exercise cut. Make hammock, eat maggi and sleep for 10 hours.


You can google the images of River Crossing at Sungai Batu Apoi.


So that’s pretty much it. It was tiring of course. It has to be. But we get to sleep a lot so it was ok. In fact it was the best. Nowhere and never anytime in the army would we be able to rest the whole night away without disturbances. Nope. Never. It was the only time in my army life that I get to sleep at 8pm and wake up at 7am. Thus, Exercise Lancer was the best overseas trip ever.

Next week :  R & R

​Categories : The Army Series

Oh dear. Another round of travelling. This time to Brunei. It was in June 2002. 

The travelling this time was honestly quite depressing. Remember, we didn’t have smartphones or internet access then. Once we left Changi Airport, we knew that we would be in a world far far away and there was no turning back. Even though this trip was also 2 weeks long, same duration as the Thailand trip mentioned in the previous post, this time we would be placed in the middle of thick jungles in Borneo, away from civilisation.

Let me explain the journey there.
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​2 hours flight from Changi Airport to Bandar Sri Begawan. It was a morning flight. 

Upon reaching, we boarded a bus that brought us to a jetty by a river. There we boarded a boat they called a water taxi. 

Brunei is separated into 2 parts with Sarawak, Malaysia in between. So we were on one side of Brunei and heading to another side. At that time it was only accessible by boat. 45 minutes ride to the Temburong district. The boat travelled across a bay and then entered a river where we travelled upstream. It was surreal. We knew we were going deeper into the rural areas far away from the other side of Brunei, even further from the city of Bandar Sri Begawan and definitely just forget about Singapore….

The boat stopped at a small town called Bangar in Temburong district. There we took the army truck, another 35 to 45 minutes ride to Lakiun Camp.

Anyway as I was typing this, I googled and found out that there is now a bridge connecting the 2 parts of Brunei. So you can drive across now. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Haji_Omar_Ali_Saifuddien_Bridge
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​First impression.

The bunk  buildings look like chicken coops. They were long buildings with low roofs. It was also very cramped with double decked bunk beds. The fellar sleeping on top would have his head hitting the roof if he sits on the bed. Yup, that low. I tried. It was kind of claustrophobic for me. I took the bottom bed. And also it was very very cramped.

The spaces outside was very wide though. Wide wide open spaces with forests as far as the eye can see. It was very depressing. We knew we were there. There was no turning back. No calls home. No texts. Nothing. Just there. 

We settled down and soon it was time for dinner.

Well at least this was interesting. As I walked to the cookhouse, I met with a BMT mate, Chan Meng Seng. I’m impressed with myself as I can still remember his name. I was so excited to see him and said hi. He was doing his training as a recce trooper there. He said hi back to me and gave a puzzled look. And then he walked away with his mates. I think he has forgotten about me. I was a bit sad and I can still remember this until today.

So we walked up to the cookhouse. The meals were nice to be honest. It was nicer than the normal cookhouse food. I found out that there were cooks who cooked the food. Hahaha. Of course cooks la right? I mean, SAF cooks. The real SAF cooks vocation. I heard of this vocation before I entered NS. But when I enlisted, I found out that it was already phased out as SAF started using private caterers for the camp cookhouses. But here, there were real vocation SAF cooks. I think they were doing their reservist duties and volunteered to go to Brunei. Cool. Really…. the food were nice.

The cookhouse was like a village or kampung dining thing. Wooden building. The distinct smell of wooden buildings in the evenings. There were also a lot of cicadas flying around. Those huge dumb insects that flew anywhere without any sense of direction. They just bumped into people and pillars and walls. They were quite huge for insects. About the size of a ping-pong ball. Imagine them flying everywhere. I remember one of them flew to a ceiling fan, got sliced into 2 and dropped on a friend’s lap in front of me. On our last night, in Brunei, some of us did some things to the cicadas. But since it is 2022 now and there are more people who are “woke”, I cannot type what we did here. If you want to know, you can always talk to me personally. Just say these 3 words; Brunei, Cicada, Lightstick.

There was also a canteen beside the cookhouse. It sold snacks and some light food. It also had a TV. Why I can remember that this trip was in June 2002 is because, we watched World Cup matches here at the canteen.

And then, I saw an old friend. I saw Wan Cing Cong. He is the guy you can read in my post about BMT. I’ll put the link here. 

We were so happy to see each other. Apparently after BMT, Wan was posted to OCS and then sent straight to Brunei as Quatermaster Officer. I think that was kinda sad. Meaning he had to stay in Brunei for about a year and a half. He was quite sad about it but he got used to the life there. He said he could take block leave and go back to Singapore once a while but it was very rare. His only escape to civilisation was to the small town where we alighted from the boat about 45 minutes away. That was pretty much it. When I said being in Brunei was depressing, I think Wan had it worse. So naturally we were so happy to see each other. As an officer, he had his own bunk, like his own room with aircon and tv. He brought me to his bunk and said I can look for him anytime when I was free as he was a permanent staff there and would always be in camp.

The first day passed and after dinner we settled in our bunks. Training begins tomorrow. Still, it was depressing and I can still  feel it as I am typing this. But when training started, I realised it was not too bad and Brunei actually was one of the most fun overseas training trip. All of it will be in the next post next week!
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Next Week : Topography and Mission Exercise

Categories : The Army Series
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It is finally R&R! Which means we are going home soon. I still don’t know if R&R means Rest and Relax or Rest and Recreation or whatever it could mean. I just know we are going home soon!
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This post is pretty much going to be a photo blog because it is just R&R. Just us walking around.


I think it was a 2 days 1 night R&R. I cannot even remember the night I slept. I can only remember the places I went and that too because of the photos I took.


I think it started off with another round of canteen break before we left Sai Yok camp. I think I bought some pirated Oakley shades.


We then went off to someplace out of camp. It was definitely not Bangkok. I don’t know where. Some kind of town where we had lunch. Ooooh I did some googling and we didn’t actually leave the Kanchanaburi area. 


The first stop was the floating market. I heard of the floating market before. In school, we read about the floating market as one of the unique places in Thailand. So we went there. But we were boys so nothing there attracted our attention. They were selling vegetables and groceries and fruits and stuff. Why would we buy those? I cannot deny, when I walked pass it, I thought this could be another….. or one of the many floating markets in Thailand because it didn’t look like the ones I saw in books. 


Anyway, I really have nothing much to say because I was much more excited to go home. 


Enjoy the pictures.

Ok done! That's all! Go home!

Next Week : Exercise Lancer Part 1

Categories : The Army Series

​Exercise Crescendo is just 2 weeks! 2 Weeks! So the morale is a bit high for me. It is better than 3 weeks in Australia and Taiwan. In my mind, even if we cock up our missions or whatever, we still have to catch a flight home. There won't be any "Charlie Mike"; the dreaded call sign for "Carry on Mission."
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Just like previous overseas exercises, we will start with topography exercise first. I think I was already transferred to platoon 9 by now. Yes I did. My HQ and GPMG team tagged with section 2 for the topography exercise. I think it was only a few days, maybe 3 days in the forest. Well not actually forest, it was more of like open nature area of shrubs and bushes and random trees. It was very hot, dry, dusty and the view was always pale brown. Very much like the movie Ong Bak Muay Thai Warrior. That movie should be on Netflix. It is one of my favourite movies.


Since the vegetation is sparse, the topography was not that difficult. We could see the surroundings and the grounds and the hills clearly. It was quite easy to navigate. When it got too hot in the day, we waited and walked in the evening. Even at night, the area was clear to walk. We used the opportunity to test our star navigation skills. The Orion belt was our constant guide. Remember, we had no GPS then. It was pure map reading and pace counting. And since it was dry, there was no worry of rain so we just slept in the open under the skies and stars. 


Since it was our first time there, we didn't bring much money with us. We didn't think we should. We just brought some emergency cash. Apparently the training area was notorious for its "Ninja Van". It is not a bad thing really. Even though we were told not to interact with them but, we just did. They were also nice, so if we said we didn't want anything, they would not pester and drive away. 


What are these "Ninja Vans"? They are vans that zoomed around the army training area, filled with snacks drinks cigarettes and even meals. They would pass by us and asked what we want. They would open the vans and showed us what they have. With just combat rations in our bags, these simple snacks looked so so delicious. But we didn't have money. But....... on the last day of topography, we used our emergency cash to buy instant noodles since the trucks will take us back to the camp anyway and we won't have to use the cash. Imagine this, we were in the forest, a van came up and asked what we want, we looked through our emergency cash, we said we want instant noodles, The took out their portable gas stove, a wok and cooked us the yummiest instant noodle we have ever eaten. Right there in the middle of the forest. I can remember the taste until today. I have no idea what flavour it was. It was just yummy. 3 days in the forest with combat rations, constant temptations by the vans, it was a satisfying treat to end the exercise. 
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I cannot remember if it was a battalion mission exercise or a company mission exercise. All I remember was, we better bring more money this time. Hahahaha!


We were not disappointed. The ninja vans were everywhere. It was not discreet anymore. And they brought their family along, wife, grandmother, children and all. I'm sure they have seen this often. I mean, they live there. So they would know that business would be better during mission exercises compared to topography exercises.


One thing I cannot forget. The hills were steep. High and steep. 


I remember we charged up the hill and captured it during one mission. Luckily for us, we would have to capture the hill and stay there to defend it for a few days. At least we got to rest. 


The charge up was painful because it was so steep. By the time we captured the hill, we just sat on the ground panting. What was funny to me was, we were very fit soldiers but had a hard time capturing the hill. Once we were done, we just sat down catching our breath. While we were charging up the hill, there were a number of children about 3 to 4 years old. Small children. They were in singlets and shorts and slippers. They just walked up the hill beside us while we were "fighting". They didn't disturb us. They just walked and watched. The moment we sat down. The moment they realised that our mission was completed, they approached us with plastic bags of cold canned drinks and said "drink.... drink.....". Basket. They were all fitter than us. Oh heck.... we didn't care. We bought the drinks of course.


I mentioned that after capturing the hill, we would stay there to "defend" it. I think we were there for a few days. So did the ninja vans. They just parked at the foot of the hill. Every now and then they will send children to sell drinks and snacks up the hill to us. Sometimes instant noodles too. Not too long after, we actually finished up our cash. I remember on our last day there, all of us were cashless already. The stuff weren't expensive but it shows how much of a good business happened on that hill. But the people there were nice. They know we ran out of cash and they never pestered. We just said we have no money already. Since it was the last day, we had friendly chats with the children. We even traded our combat rations for their snacks and drinks. They really loved our biscuits and fruit bars. So a number of did that. The children didn't mind. Their parents didn't mind either.


It was funny. Day one they would go around saying drinks drinks.... how much? 10 baht 20 baht etc....


Day 3, they came.... drinks drinks.... no more money... they held their hands and said.... biscuit biscuits....

​Another experience that I couldn't forget. 

I just got transferred to platoon 9. I was still trying to recognise all of them. 

So the platoon had to defend this hill. It had a scenic view because the vegetation was sparse. Somehow there was this rock formation overlooking the road. It was a perfect defensive place and the rock formation was just perfect. It was like a trench with a path through it and a cover. I was so happy. It meant that I didn't have to dig my own trench. I just had to park myself there. It was perfect. 
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​To prevent enemies from attacking our position, we would have to plant some booby traps and some kind of signals to warn us of their advance. So in front of my position, we set up a trip flare. You can google how trip flares work and look like. So basically if someone were to trip on a hidden wire, the flare will explode and brighten up the area like fireworks and we can see the enemy. Of course we would have to conceal the wire and the flare strategically. And of course also, the whole platoon would know the position of the flare and the wires. It wasn't just one booby trap. Traps were set up around the perimeter of our positions. 


Then in the middle of the afternoon, a flare nearest to my position tripped. There was a pop and fireworks flaring. We were all like eh....??? It was broad daylight and we couldn't see the enemy. The vegetation was sparse remember? We definitely could see soldiers coming to our direction in the day. But there was none. 


Then I hear the guys shouting... "Alamak! Must be Foo la!" 


Platoon 9 had this thing. Whenever something goes wrong, they would blame it on this guy named Foo. I just joined the platoon so I didn't know how true it was. To me it was just funny. 


And then, Foo really appeared around some bushes and said...."eh sorry sorry....I tripped the wire...." 


Everyone burst out in noises "See la! Must be Foo!!" "Must be him one!" "Sergeant, it must be Foo." "Platoon 9 is like that one." "See! See! Confirm already. You better believe us".


It was funny. I thought they were joking. But here it really happened in front of my eyes. I mean, after that, not all mishaps were caused by him but significant number were. Enough for the whole platoon to stick with the phrase "Must be Foo!". So it was really funny. 


Sorry Foo if you're reading this. At least it was something memorable for us to laugh as we grow old and reminisce.


Next week : Exercise Crescendo Part 3 / R & R

Categories: The Army Series
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