November 2002. Our second time travelling to Australia. Again I dread travelling overseas. But this time it felt ok because it is our second time and I kind of know what to expect. The flight duration, where we land, where we are going to stay and of course, what we will be doing.

This time around, it will be our ATEC 2. ATEC means Army Training Evaluation Centre. Every NS and reservist unit will have to go through this test organised by the centre. There will be 2 tests. Like an exam for the unit. 


ATEC test 1, or what we call ATEC 1, will be a few months before ATEC 2. Like mid year exam like that. Then ATEC 2 will be year end exam. The scores for both tests will be combined and then you will get your overall score for the unit. I just realise I didn’t write a blog post about ATEC 1. By now we would have completed it. 


So what happened in ATEC 1 is basically a test for a soldier’s readiness. We were tested individually for our technical handling skills with our weapons, meaning we can operate our weapons efficiently. Like, strip weapon and assemble weapon within a stipulated time, weapon malfunction contingency actions and also our marksmanship. There was also tests for the section in combat situations too I think. Every soldier will be tested and then the scores will be combined to reflect the unit’s overall score. For ATEC 1, we got the top score which was called Redcon 1. Basically like getting A1 for exams.


The gradings were something like:


Redcon 1
High Redcon 2A
Redcon 2A
Low Redcon 2A
Redcon 3


If your unit gets Redcon 3, you will have to do a retest, meaning you will take ATEC 1 all over again.


So we completed ATEC 1 with Redcon 1. Now we are going on to ATEC 2.


ATEC 2 is to test the combat effectiveness of the whole battalion. Meaning, how the whole battalion execute missions. No more tests on the individual or the section but for the battalion as a whole. Same thing, we try to avoid Redcon 3 so that we do not have to do a retest. Once all this are done, only then can the unit ORD. ORD actually means Operationally Ready Date. Meaning, when you pass both tests, then the unit is ready for operation.


So we are here at Rockhampton, Queensland Australia again for ATEC 2. For us, we just want to ORD and get our pink IC and our lives back. (At this point of writing, I found out that NSF now don’t have to surrender their pink IC to MINDEF anymore.) So the morale is quite high. Get this thing done and we ORD. But the shit thing was, we were supposed to ORD on the 12th of December 2002. We heard stories from those who completed their NS before us that they could clear their leave before their ORD. Sometimes up to a month plus. But we couldn’t because we had to do our ATEC 2 in November 2002. A month before we ORD. So we just had to say goodbye to our leave. For me personally, I had about 14 days of leave unused. And also numerous more days of unclaimed offs. I am still annoyed by that till today. 


November 2002. Exercise Wallaby again. ATEC 2. No chance to clear leave and off. November means it is summer in the southern hemisphere. Meaning daylight is longer. And at that time it was the fasting month. Great. Graaaappeeeee!


ARRIVAL


It’s the same Rockhampton airport again. The same Vanilla Coke. The 40 sticks cigarette packs. The same 2 litre milk drinks. 


The same ride to Shoalwater Bay training area. The same first checkpoint at Samuel Hill Camp before heading to Old Camp Growl. 


Eh wait…. we reached Samuel Hill Camp and we were told that we will be settling there. Woohoo! No need to go Old Camp Growl! Samuel Hill have much better facilities. Our tentages will be on cement and not gravel. There’s a proper administration building made of concrete and most importantly, there is a proper toilet and shower! We still had to be butt naked with everyone to take a shower but at least it’s proper. Not some makeshift tents. I don’t have much photos. Like I said before, we didn’t have digital cameras. But I found a blog with photos which you can have a look. 


https://thedeadcockroach.blogspot.com/2011/12/exercise-wallaby-how-we-bathe.html


So we settled down in our camp. We are already familiar with the routines by now and also the schedule.


1st week. Administration and practice exercises.
2nd week. ATEC 2
3rd Week. Administration and R&R


Yup another 3 weeks here in the Australian outback. Let’s get it done and then we can ORD! Make sure don’t get Redcon 3 la.


Next week :  Exercise Wallaby Again (Part 2)
Categories : The Army Series

XY: So I started working


B: 9 - 5?


XY: It’s 8 to 6:30 now.


B: That’s because you don’t work on Saturdays anymore.


XY: It depends. Some companies still make staff work on weekends.


B: Then that’ll be more than 44 hours a week.


XY: Yup. Just like speeding lorries and vans with tinted windows, the authorities doesn’t seem to be bothered about it.


B: That is life. You’ll have to work.


XY: I do not understand. When we die, the company moves on without us. When the company dies, we die with it. There are 7 days a week but we have to work 5 days of it and only 2 days for ourselves. There are 24 hours a day but we have to give 12 hours to them. That is half. We then have 4 hours for ourselves which most of the time are spent on commuting and stuffing our stomachs and then 8 hours of sleep. We normalise a lot of things in the past decades but we do not realise that spending more time at work than for ourselves is not normal?


B: As I said, that is life.


XY: So it is live to work and not work to live.

Categories : The Short Story Series

you know what is not fair
it is when you want to grow your hair


you think its cool
but you have to go to school


primary secondary tertiary
sorry i dont have degree


and then ns calls for me
followed by reservists and ippt


by the time you rod
hair gone already

categories : The Short Story Series

One day late but it’s ok. 

Why am I writing about this? Because I personally feel that things are getting easier in a lot of things. But it is ok. It is their luck. 

Previously my NS was 2 and a half years. Now it is 2 years.

Previously it was 5.5 days work week. Meaning I would only book out from camp on Saturday afternoons and book in on the next day, Sunday evening. Now it is 5 days work week, book out on Friday evenings and book in on Sunday. Sometimes I see people book out on Friday afternoons. That is 2 nights of sleeping in your own bed compared to one. You have no idea how short our weekend was. 
​
And what about Standard Obstacle Course (SOC)?

​It is because of this SOC, I had to stay back in camp a number of times when all others get to go home. 

Back then, it was a REQUIREMENT to pass SOC. In BMT, if you don’t pass SOC, you will redo your BMT all over again. Redo and redo until you pass your SOC. During the weekend, if you have yet to pass, you will stay back in camp to do remedial training or to do your SOC while your mates book out. If you still don’t pass, you will stay back again next weekend.

Same goes for SISPEC. You don’t pass, you stay back. Weekend after weekend. 

When we got posted to our unit, same thing again. You don’t pass, you stay back.

Remember how short our weekends were? Imagine how much heart ache it was when you see your mates leaving camp and you had to stay back. Book out either Saturday evenings or Sunday mornings and booking in again on Sunday evenings.

So why was it so hard to pass? 

Because not everyone is ready fit lah. Need to train until can pass. I honestly cannot remember the timing to pass. If I’m not wrong, it was 10minutes 30 seconds during BMT. 10 minutes 15 seconds during SISPEC. 9 minutes 45 seconds in Guards. 

So as I struggled to clock 10min30s in BMT and finally passed, I had to train harder to bring it down to 10min 15s and then 9min 45s in Guards. You have no idea how many of my weekends were burnt because of this stupid SOC. I would really have to train hard and pass like just by 2 to 3 seconds.

Back then we had to run 700 metres
Clear these obstacles in order
Low wall
Parallel beam
Step
Monkey bar
Low rope
Balancing beam
Zig Zag bridge
Suicide Window
Jacobs Ladder
Ramp
Run 600 metres to finishing line

This is the old one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYxKqiSePyM

(Somehow, the obstacles in the old Pasir Laba Camp was lower compared to other camps. So when I was in SISPEC, those who really cannot pass would have their last chance to pass at Pasir Laba because it was “easier”. That was the time I managed to pass.)

So difficult meh?

I remember my first few times trying out the SOC, I had problems with the zig-zag bridge and the jacob’s ladder. A lot of people have problems on it. I remember this clearly, my girlfriend talked to me, “why got problem?” I said, “it’s hard to balance, and quite scary if you happen to fall”
She continued, “just run up and just walk. What’s the worse thing if you fall? You will break or fracture your leg. It’s not like you would die. If you break your leg, you will be downgraded and you might just not have to go through all these again.”

So cool. I tried and I didn’t have any problems after that. I kinda hoped I would fall and downgrade but somehow it didn’t happen. I saw a number of people falling and downgraded though.

Yes it was difficult to me. To many others. I stayed back in camp with many. I saw people redoing their BMT and SISPEC because of it. 

And then suddenly some 10 years ago……… they changed the SOC. There are more obstacles now. BUT…… you don’t have to run the 700 metres before and 600 metres after.

Best thing is….. you don’t have to pass it. You just need to ATTEMPT on doing it.

Best right?

So we stayed back and burnt our weekends for what?


Next Week : Back to Wallaby

Categories : The Army Series

One reason why I decide to blog about my army days is because it reminds me of the things that I am blessed with. Every time I feel down, I think back about the army and it reminded me. No days can be worse than the army days. So if I can survive being in the army for 17 years, I can survive anything. 

Today’s post is about food. Why am I reminded about food? Because I have been on a tight budget since covid hits. I thought that everything will be ok when it gets better but 2022 didn’t do any better with my finances. So I have been budgeting with my expenditure and one of those affected is food. I miss eating good healthy food. In Singapore, healthy foods are expensive. Halal foods are tasty but most of the time unhealthy. There really should be more halal foodstalls that sells those economy rice mix thing that I always see in Chinese stalls. But nope. None. The closest is the very expensive nasi padang which isnt actually nasi padang. And they’re always oily. 

I looked back at the photos of army cookhouse food. Now at this age, how I didn’t count my blessings then. Oh how I would love to eat the cookhouse food everyday again. They are nutritious and healthy. 

So here is a tribute to the army food.
​

​Before I entered the army, I heard stories of how army foods were terrible and cooked by army cooks. But by the time I was enlisted, the system has changed. 

13th June 2000, I stepped on the shores of Pulau Tekong. The cookhouse was run by the Singapore Food Industries if I remember correctly. Being a young person who was choosy about everything, of course it didn’t taste nice. But now looking back, I can eat those food everyday. You can google the photos. I don’t have any.

Breakfast. There was always 2 choices. Local or Western. 

Local would be mi siam or mi rebus or mi soto or pau or glutinous rice or something. 
Western would be bread or croissant or eggs with peanut butter and jam. So so blessed. 
Drink would be a choice of coffee or tea or milo.

Lunch and dinner.

Always rice with fish and red meat (beef / mutton) and chicken and vegetables and soup and dessert (fruits or ice cream) and free flow of syrup drink.

Sometimes on random days, we might get chicken chop or horfun or something. Most of us look forward to western.

Damn, I’m hungry now writing all these.

Singapore Food Industries (SFI) wasn’t the only caterer. I’ve been to many camps and I saw some places engaged NTUC Foodfare and SATS. 

It is really very good. Really. Much better than nasi padangs. Definitely healthier.

But not all were tasty of course. Actually they are all edible. Except one place.

I’ve been despatched to these camps. 

Pulau Tekong BMTC
Pulau Tekong SISPEC
Pasir Laba Camp
Bedok Camp
Amoy Quee Camp
Jurong ITI Camp
Clementi Camp

Here’s my take. Pulau Tekong BMTC has (or maybe had) the best food. Clementi Camp was the worst. My 9 days ot Clementi Camp, I ate my own snacks and food brought in from out of camp. They were terrible.
​

Then comes the Combat Rations.

Again I heard stories of how terrible it was. But not for me. They were really good. Give me combat rations now, I’ll gladly eat them. 

So what’s in it? You can google this too.

It is a pack filled with dietary needs when you’re out in the field. One pack is a 24 hour meal. So if you’re out in the jungle for 5 days, they will give you 5 packs. 

What is in the pack. 
​

2 main meals in a green pack.
1 dessert in a green pack.
4 packs biscuits.
2 packs fruit bars.
1 sachet pocari sweat.
1 sachet lemon tea.
1 sachet coffee or milo.
1 packet maggi instant noodles.
Matches, tissue, the candle looking thing to cook your meals.

The first time I opened a combat ration, the main meal were pasta bolognaise and glutinous rice. The dessert was red bean like bubur kacang like that. Awesome. After a while you kind of got sick of its taste. But then again like I said, give them to me now, I will gladly eat them everyday.

It’s by luck. You can random dish in your 3 packets. Sometimes briyani, different kinds of pastas, different tastes of glutinous rice. The desserts are red bean, bubur terigu was the most common. My favourite was green bean. Real bubur kacang.

As for maggi noodles. You almost never get the curry flavour. I have no idea why. We always get prawn or chicken or asam laksa. Almost never curry.

Every pack weighs 3kg.

So if you’re out in the field for 5 days, you will have 15kg of food in your bag.

Being in a Guards unit, it was almost impractical to load all those weight in our backpacks. If you remember, I have to lug 30 to 40kg of load on my 60kg body frame everytime we go outfield. It was torture. So we only brought what we could and what we would eat. 

So what did I bring?

Dessert pack
Biscuits
Fruit bars
Lemon tea, pocari sweat, milo sachets
1 pack of instant noodles.

I didn’t bring the main dishes with me. 

They are lighter on the load. Sometimes I will bring snickers. They are good energy boosters.

Here’s how we eat them. It’s quite cool considering we usually have no time to properly eat them. We only eat them on the go or when we were in defence. We definitely had no time to cook. Except in Brunei.

The green packs, tear the top and pour into our mouth.

Biscuits, small tear on the top of the packets and the right amount of water and soak it. Too much and it will be bleargh…. just nice and it will turn into a cake like texture. Very nice.

Fruit bars. Just eat. This was our favourite. Usually the first to finish.

Lemon tea or peach tea, pocari sweat and milo. We cannot pour them into our water bottles as it will “dirty” the inside of our bottles. We won’t have time to wash them. So we will pour the powder into our mouth, hold it and then drink water. Pour again and drink water again. For milo, I will just eat them.

Maggi. Sigh… so delicious but never have time to cook them. So we’ll just pour the seasoning into the packets, crush the noodles, shake it and eat them like how we eat mamee.

So yes, that’s how we eat them. Like I said, I have been budgeting on food so if you have any jobs for me to do, please let me know. I need money. Currently I am scavenging part time jobs here and there. Not so bad, I still have just enough to live through pay check to pay check. But if you have anything stable for me, do let me know. Thank you. 


Next Week : Standard Obstacle Course

Categories : The Army Series
​

This one is going to be short one. Sounds familiar to a recent post huh? But, I’m sure those who have been to Brunei would know why. It is the shortest R&R ever. I think it is only half a day. And to be honest, I really really cannot remember much of it. It must have been quite insignificant. But I would still want to document this before I totally forget it. It has been 20 years late in documenting. 
​

Anyway, we have completed our exercises here in Temburong. It was only 2 weeks and we slept a lot. So time flew quite quickly. 

Once all our stuff was done, we spent a lot of our time at the cookhouse or the canteen. That’s pretty much escape that we had. But it was nice. The cookhouse had nice food. The canteen had nice snacks. I think they had instant noodles too. The ambience was nice. It was like a you know… those Indonesian gerai or warungs overlooking the forest in the distance kind. 

Of course our best memory at the canteen was watching the World Cup matches. It was 2002 and the World Cup was held in Japan / South Korea. So the timings of the matches good to us as the timezone was similar. It was fun. Really fun. A whole lot of us munching on snacks and watching from one small TV. It was quite an experience. 

Actually the TV wasn’t small. It was a normal maybe 24 inch CRT TV but it would be considered small for today’s standards.

Oooh and also, the cicadas. They are everywhere buzzing here and there. Again I have good memories of it but I cannot type them here because people are now awaken or woke in 2022. So if it happens that you remember this and would want to know, I can always share them in person.
​

Remember Wan Cing Cong? Well, I managed to catch with him again after many days in the jungle. 

We chatted at the canteen and whenever he was free. On my last day there, I spent my day at his bunk. We ate and ate and played Pro Evolution Soccer on the Playstation 2. It was fun because there was aircon. And his bunk was pretty much actually a 2 room bungalow with a living room a bedroom a kitchen and bathroom. With aircon. 

We played on the Playstation until late at night until we fell asleep. I think until 4am. 6am I woke up and told him I need to go back to my own bunk and pack to leave the camp. 

A few hours later we were ready to leave Lakiun Camp. I could see that he was so happy to meet me and was very sad when I left. Actually I don’t think he was sad to see me, as in me, leaving. I think he was sad to see another person leaving the camp and he is still stuck there in the middle of Temburong until he ORD. It was June 2002 and we would ORD on the 12th of December 2002. He was posted there after his 9 months in OCS so he would have been in Brunei for a total of 17 months. Poor guy. Yes. Our NS was 2 and half years then.
​

​We took the same route back. A truck ride to the town and a boat ride to Bandar Seri Begawan. Here is where my mind has deleted many things. I cannot remember anything. I can only remember things that were reminded by the photos in my album. I kinda remember seeing the exhibits at the Regalia Museum. But I cannot remember anything else. I knew we went to one museum after another. I cannot remember where we went exactly, where we ate, what we ate, where we slept. Nothing. 

Oh I do remember we went to Jerudong Park. That park is the largest theme park in Brunei. But…… they brought us there in the evening when it has already closed. What nonsense. 

That’s all. I cannot remember anything else after this. Hopefully some other guys in my unit would remember some things that I have missed.

Next Week : Our Army Food!

Categories : The Army Series

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.
​

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!
​

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.
​

​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
​

​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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