learn to fly;

-- 2:35 PM; Sunday, December 09, 2007

I'm finally back from BRUNEI!! Life there is definitely tough. Of course, i got my JCC badge. =D It was a very long journey to the camp. We switched from air transport, to land, then to water transport, and reached there at about 8 am the next morning. It certainly took us really quite some time to reach the camp. We landed at about near 5 am. I slept throughout the entire journey, to conserve my energy for the day. On the first day there, most of the time we're settling adminstration, settling down and going to our respective beds in the respective long houses, drawing stalls. It's been quite busy. Well, one sad thing is, me and my buddy has to share ONE single locker and the locker itself is pathetically small. I guess it's alright, in the end, most of us left our things OUT of the locker. On the first day, things are so MESSY inside the long house; everything is everywhere. Seeing it to be so messy is certainly an eyesore. We had infantry training that day as well, a rehearsal for the actual thing for the next day. TROUBLESOME as usual. It was supposed to be a dry run. It's such an irony that it rained.

For the first few days of the stay in Brunei was infantry training - CWO and PBC. I was in the "saikang" party that day, so had to wake up earlier just to do "saikang". Training is still as boring. I'm never interested in Army. My combat swim was FUCKED up. Swimming in a group of 4, we are supposed to reach the other bank, at a specific point. It seemed like it wasn't successful during the first attempt, so we were brought back to the bank and swim again, and yet again, we couldn't reach the other bank at that specific point. It is certainly screwed. After the training that day, the "saikang" party had to keep the boats and wash them. Washing the boats was quite fun. The boats are extremely heavy. During PBC, I didn't fire any blanks! So my rifle was 100% clean. Sad thing is, it was hard to keep track of the number of rounds my team fired. I was in the GPMG team. Most of the time, i was concerned about collecting expended rounds, and the metal links, because we have to collect 100% expended rounds. In other words, it was quite slack for me and i needn't carry the HEAVY tripod. Sadly, at the later part of the day, we're handed over to the instructors of the camp there. We then went through revision for JCC. It was quite useful as i forgot most of the stuff i've learnt earlier on.

It was the start of the preparation of JCC since day 5. It is basically on revision and getiing familiar with the ground there. It can be quite boring and tiring, as we had many many late nights just to settle admin stuff. Finally, there came JCC on day 7 where the STRICT inspection took place, to the extent whereby we had to do a body search as well.

It took us 4 hours to search for the first checkpoint! FUCK. It can be done within 45 minutes, instead we took 4 hours. I was in the same group as Weijie, Weiyang, Guanzhen, Ali, Clarence and Kahhock. My role was a plotter. Using 4 hours to find the first checkpoint was a blessing in disguise. Because of that, we skipped the second checkpoint. The second checkpoint was totally out of the way. Then we found a water body, and got to "bathe" there. We harboured at some place at night, where we were severly attacked by SANDFLIES! IRRITATING, it disturbed our sleep like nobody's business, the whole night, we're scratching and scratching. In addition, it rained that night as well.

On the second day, as we moved on, we found a really steep and slippery slope. This is where the fun seeps in. Weiyang slide down the muddy ground, and he really slide at GREAT speed. it was quite funny, everyone was laughing and enjoying that moment of sliding. Then we hit another water body, a small one and we played water there. Wasted quite some time on playing, but it was worthwhile. It was refreshing and it made things easier as everyone's morale was quite high. Our harbouring site for the second day was horrid - small and small. It's really small. we had no fire that night, so clarence was seriously attacked by sandflies, only him alone. I had applied loads of insect repellent so i guess it was avoidable for me. Guan zhen can't sleep that night, partly because of sandflies also, and secondly, was my snoring - it was thunderous. While he was awake, he heard someone crying. Clarence cried. I think the sandflies attack is really "jialat" for him.

It was weijie's birthday on the third day of nomad. We got ourselves bamboo that day and it saved us alot of trouble of making FORK AND SPOON! We managed to reach endpoint by the given time and we got ourselves 20/25. Sadly, Dengsi's group got 1 point because they were late. I don't know whether it is fortunate when i heard his members are coming to my group, as it became compulsary for us to score full points for the second exercise and the requirement for that is very high. It's difficult to reach endpoint within 20 hours. Upon hearing the news of the group, our wing com. actually came to talk to us. On the commencement of the second navigation exercise, it became clear that we need to get this full 20 points in order to help them pass, so the weijie weiyang and me decided to chiong for them and help them get this 20 point. It was a challenge to climb the first mountain - it's rocky and steep. We only had 1.5 hours to reach the top, and fortunately, we meet some kind souls along the way to aid us up to the top of the mountain. They knew about the situation of the members who needed the 20 points badly. We managed to hit the first checkpoint that night. We had our very first fire, started by wilfred. It was quite a small flame but it is still better than nothing. We managed to dry our socks. We set off real early the next day, as time was not on our side. We tried to advance as fast as we could. We managed to clear the checkpoints that we needed to clear. On our way to the third checkpoint, weiyang actually fell off a bridge. FIRST AID really comes into handy here, and i'm quite glad that i actually absorbed what i learnt. His shoulder was partially dislocated. We got to the top of mount biang on the same day. It's really tiring and high. The journey up is certainly mentally challenging, it's not about our physical strength already when we're on our way up. It was quite an achievement when we reached the top and of course, i saw the message left by Andy when he was there during his stay in Brunei. That day, we had quite a big fire and it was a warm night. We set off really early the next day as we have no much time left. We almost couldn't make it that day due to my indecisiveness, even weiyang was pissed about how i navigated that day. Upon reaching end point, i got stuck in mud up til half my thigh. Well, we're lucky we got full 20 points, was really happy back then. On that very day, we got inserted to our Forager sites.

On the first night there, it rained. Quite unfortunate, we had nothing, no shelter no nothing. had to sleep in the rain. On the second day, i managed to finish my A-Frame and Fireplace. In fact, i finished most of my things, i only built my trap on the third day. Honestly, i didn't put alot of effort in making that damn trap. It was useless anyway, the monitor lizards there are so small, and also, there ain't much lizards around. The last day, we were assessed based on our site. I had to kill a quail. At first, i was afraid to kill it, and i dare not kill it. But i still kill it in the end and skinning it. It was quite an experience, a scary one of course. After killing it, we were able to eat it. Of course not raw, but after cooking it. Then the next day, the commencement of the LAST exercise.

Initially movement was quite slow, i was rather pissed. I actually wanted to do nothing for the last exercise but i took over in the end to hasten things up. Crossed a padi field and we ended up paying for the "invisible damages" we did to it. Crossing of the 7 knolls was expected, but when i counted, i think i only crossed 3 knolls. The rest of the knolls were avoided. We were the fifth group to arrive at the end point. Weiyang almost "died". His pack is really heavy, and i really admire him for his STRENGTH.

At the end of it, i was really glad it was over. Last few days of Brunei was returning stalls and area cleaning. We had a good dinner during our last night at that camp before proceeding to another camp in Brunei. On that day, UNLUCKILY, i got fever. But i was alright for R&R the next day.

Took loads of photos yesterday during R&R. Went to quite a few places. It wasn't boring at all. In fact, it was quite fascinating. We have been eating the whole day yesterday. We went to the wet market, water village, museums and malls, and we're given 3 hours to shop. The mall is as big as jurong point. I managed to buy quite alot of stuff for myself, and my brothers. HAHA. Dinner and lunch was the BOMB. Both are buffet, but sadly, i didn't have the appetite to eat so much.

Here are some pictures taken yesterday - Journey fromSingapore to Lakuin Camp to JAC to the various places we went.

Before we left for Brunei...