..:: 327. The One With Brunei Overseas Training ::..

Disclaimer: Super long post. May be unsuitable for some readers.

SOCJOT - Support Arms Officer Cadet Jungle Orientation Training

Reaching Changi Airport and having a look at the departure schedule, i could not help but had this surge of excitement like i was going on a holiday even though it was an overseas training.

some of my ocs infantry buddies were kind to see us off... melvin, calvin, alvin and denzel... flight was at 2+ am and when i touched down at brunei around 4+ am, i was frustrated cos i had not finished watching my krisworld movie provided by the SIA. It was quite a turn-off when one of my instructors took over the captain and use the PA system to tell us to fall in and stuff. that rowdy voice

From the airport to Lakiun Camp was like a freaking 7-hr transport. First by bus then ferry then bus again. Most of us simply 'concuss' throughout.

Place there was ok, all of us sleep in double-decked beds. heard the whole place was built by 30 SCE (unit of combat engineers, not the numbers) mmm... sleeping near the entrance was good cos can fall in easier but got fatigue duty, easy to kena. Can charge phone but mine no reception. sianz.

training started with letting us try out combat swim. the instructors over at the Lakiun Camp were very nice and funny. Got this warrant who could not pronounce propoerly... combat swim became combat shrimp. Obviously he became the first person everyone imitated. Then came this LTA-who-got-promoted-to-CPT instructor who loved to use 'long zong zhang zui' aka All 'bathe' together meaning all get wet together during combat swim. 'lup cheong' also his fave pet peeve.

Then came the compass course which i already knew i was a left drifter long time ago in one of the SISPEC exercises. dunno why have to do it again. perhaps familiarise again ba but its super waste time.

Next day, we had our guided navex. I had a very experienced warrant with us so he taught us some of the jungle survival skills. it was damn fun eating fruits that he plucked and were edible. It was a good exercise as for our batch jungle survival course was taken out. I also ate leaves... tongkat ali... some afrodisiac stuff... bitter as usual but not as bad tasting as the TNT flakes that i had tasted. 0_0 lol.

Then the 4-day exercise started. Ex Nomad and Ex Mountain Rat.
We had to find 2 checkpoints then head for a log point where we are transported to the base of Mount Biang. We then had to ascend 1388m and descend. Everything done with a fieldpack. total weight about 20+ kg.

Survival Tip: When navigating in the jungle of Brunei, follow the ridge lines rather than do bashing like in Tekong

Why? cos there are a lot of hidden knolls and ravines that are not reflected in the map. Follow the tracks that people have been created would be safer and less chances of being 'hollanded' (army lingo for lost). Following the correct ridgeline can be challenging. What seems to be the correct route may meander until its no longer in your direction of move.

Survival Tip: Plotters are very important cos u'll be travelling for more than 1km for each checkpoint. Look out for white/black tapes, they helped

Survival Tip: Wear gloves

i didnt bring my gloves and my hands got super dirty. Finding checkpoints there was not anything near tekong. Sometimes have to climb a near 90-degree slope or even slide down one in order to cross a stream. My pants were dirty just few mins after we set off cos we had to slide down this muddy slope.

Survival Tip: Request permission to bring jockey cap

some groups did not bring along jockey cap so throughout the exercise, they had to wear helmet. Though its safer but you will get tired and sweat more easily.

Warning: Signal set is freaking heavy cos you need to bring 300% batteries and also some of your own stuff

i set a challenge for myself which was to carry the signal set when descending Mount Biang... Ascending it we took 1.5 hours. Descending in total we took about 7 hours. Shocking right? We could not go down the way we came up cos we had to go a river crossing point which was the end point. As we descend, we kept climbing up cos there were lots of hidden knolls and lots of detours had to be made. Whats worse, our dear instructors decided that the 4 groups should navigate together. Movement was super slow and i thought my spine gonna break. Had to sit down everytime they halted.

By the way for the whole exercise we had to drink river water by putting purifying tablets inside. Definitely tasted weird. See all the mud and sand, i also felt insecure.

Survival Tip: Fill up water bottles to the max if you ever have the chance

we had to fill our bottles to the max at the last possible stream before we start ascending. We were reminded that there would be no water source until you reached the river crossing site. Rationing water supply was super important. A few of the guys i knew, jiasheng, alex had heat exhaustion but both were quite mild. Many left less than half a bottle while descending. Some even gulped down all when someone tried to boost the morale by saying we were reaching. Everyone cursed and sweared after that.

Survival Tip: Can boost morale by putting black tape on some thin tree bark

I dunno how to describe the shagness cos i overcame dunno how many near 90-degree slopes. Sometimes with almost nothing to hold on to except digging my nails into the soil. If you are not careful and fall, you will find yourself 50m rolling down the slopes. If there were any casualties, the whole team would have to be responsible for evacuating the guy. Walking already so shag, imagine you have to evacuate a person. I had to cross 10 rivers/ravines throughout my ex nomad.

The navigators from my group were superb. We found our first check point at 9am, just one hour after we started off at 8am. Our second checkpoint was tough and it was like 2km linearly on the map but in reality we travelled more than 3km and found the checkpoint at 1pm. It was an amazing feat.

We then had to go to the log point to be transported to the base of mt biang. However we were not as lucky this time. We had to back track so many times until we were quite demoralised. We wanted to hit several intermediate points to confrim our location but was not successful. We had to harbour for the night by 5pm.

Survival Tip: Bring hammock and set up big fire to dry clothes

hammock was very shiong to sleep on. but first night i could not sleep cos my group mate beside me was snoring super loud! Putting on dirty and wet clothes the next morning sucked. super low morale.

We planned on hitting immediate points in order to reach a passage point which will lead us to our log point. However we could not find any and accidentally hit the log point. Bedlam broke loose... we were at the log point around 1pm the next day. kinda disappointed cos if we could be starting to climb mt biang...

When we had reached the log point, we got transported to a bridge and was told that we had to walk 3km of granite path and another 2km+ of muddy path to the base of mt biang. wah, i almost fainted. I thought walking 3km was easy but under the hot sun and helmet with the load, i was kinda drained. Then we had to walk this farking muddy path which looked like it would never end. Boots were all dirtied and we had to cross slippery logs and by 5pm, we still had not ascend mt biang.

Survival Tip: Bring slippers though the pack list didnt include. Good for powder bathing and you would not want to wear your boots to move around

By the second day i was feeling disgusting, 1001 types of germs on me and i could not change new set cos i only brought one extra set which was my pajamas set. I realised on that night my ex-buddy was a pyromanic. I think he cannot live without lights. The first night when he was doing sentry duty, he kept flashing his torchlight and i could not sleep. I took a peep at what he was doing:
* (symbolising switching on/off his torch)

*fliped over his jockey cap on his webbing*
*scanned the ground around him*
*opened his fieldpack and adjust the flaps and closed it*
*flashed at one of the hammock (somemore on the face of that guy)*
*scanned the ground again*
*flashed at my face*
*flashed at my fieldpack*
*flashed at the clothes line*

w-h-a-t t-h-e h-e-l-l!!!

second night, he kept asking us to burn the biscuits to keep the fire going when we are not going to cook anymore! Biscuits are for eating even though they can be used as fuel. My friends and i were rolling our eyeballs...

i think it has become a habit and he seriously has no light discipline. That explains why every night when we shared the same bunk he only switched off the lights like around midnight. I wondered if he's afraid of darkness...

third day, we started to climb the mt biang... i thought ex nomad was no kick as the slopes were mostly 60-degree but come to climbing mt biang... every 90-degree slope we see, we all would say 'wah biang'. my thigh muscles and shin, ankle were already hurting. Nevertheless, we could go up rather fast cos our navigators were good. we reached the top at 9am and left messages for the foxtrot infantry people. so guys next time if you are going up, look out for the message. lol.

Survival Tip: During ex nomad, if we encountered a river, we would sing 'cry me a river'. When movement slow, we would sing 'I like to move it move it' fun and kinda boost the morale

Coming down was nightmare... we were led by the logistics people whom hollanded until out of area of operation... But we cant blame them... navigation was really difficult and may require recce at times. In the end, tempers flared cos everyone was tried and short of water. Travel in single group was definitely better. At least if you walked the wrong way, you only got your own group to blame and it made travelling easier and faster.

When we reached the river crossing site at 5pm, we were told that 2 out odf the 4 groups that reached together could get to cross the river and head back to camp. We were pissed but then no choice had to harbour for the night and only cross tml morning. I was angry also cos i used up my clean pair of uniform thinking that we would have made it by today. In the end i had to sleep with only my underwear on... it was cold only at 4am.

Survival Tip: There were not much mosquitoes. I didnt get bitten except for some sand flies but only itch for like a few mins. heng.

Survival Tip: Secure your helmet if you are not wearing it

A few guys got their helmets roll off the slopes and you would never get them back if they roll down.

Survival Tip: Bring chocolates if you are not eating the 4 days of combat rations

Survival Tip: Keep all the wrappers

Over there, they got trash inspection and they account for every single trash. every tissue wrapper must get back every single one. Before we set off they would do an inspection of whatever you brought out. Each green pack has to be accounted for and all the other stuff.

Survival Tip: Get a clean mess tin cos you would want to cook

Survival Tip: bring extra sets of uniform (they will issue uniform)

Survival Tip: If during inspection, you are short of wrappers, cut some and black tape them to increase the number of wrappers

Survival Tip: Bring only white trash bags and all the plastic bags will be accounted for

Survival Tip: Sharp objects like jack knife, fork all must be in your duffel bag

you wouldnt want to be hold up at the scanning area at the airport

For your information, of the 15 teams, only 4 teams managed to find two checkpoints and whats great was that the 4 teams were all engineers team. :]

Some headed straight to climb mt biang after they found one. :[

We all came back early cos we settled our stores early and had lots of canteen break and basically lazed around.

Then we moved out of the camp at 0530 on 5th july. Took bus then ferry to HQ Lancer to put down our hand luggage and headed for R&R (rest and recreation).

We went to visit the largest mosque in brunei built by the 29th Sultan of Brunei. All those in gold are made of real 24-carat gold. 29 domes, 29 doors, 29 steps... Brunei was quite a nice place... perhaps its tax-free. The mosque looked super grand.

Then we went to look at a building the sultan built to store gifts given by others. Got to know about his life and also a few replicas of the gifts, the crowning ceremony and tools they used.

Lunch was supposed to be buffet but we kena cheated. Hungry ghost at our table and i simply lost my appetite looking at him scooping a lot into his bowl. -_-

We then went to visit the famous water village and explored one of the resident's home. Cooling... and water taxi was cool too...

After which we got to visit a place where they displayed the oil refining stuff and the arts. boring... cos most of us were more interested in shopping.

yeah its shopping time but i think the shopping trip was the most sucky one. Only can see but cannot buy. Why? The only thing cheap there was VCDs/DVDs... 3 bucks leh. and the quality was good. During the bus trip, we got to watch wars of the world. Pirated so we could not buy. arghz. we were so tempted and the CDs shops were like the only thing. In the end, we all sat down, ate and chatted.

dinner was really buffet but no refill. sucks right?

Survival Tip: Take the dishes for the whole table

That way you get to eat more and no need to keep queuing cos the food would be gone before you know it.

Night time was the finale, my fave. We went to the super big 20 hectares amusement park. But only like a few rides were opened. I tried everything like at least twice and i actually went for some which i did not even imagine i would go for... vertical drop... rollercoaster that flip you 360-degree... adrenaline was rushing man... many of us our lup cheong were like in our mouths... balls all shrunk that night.

Survival Tip: Take off your specs and stuff before going for rides
Got one guy i know his specs flew... lol

Nothing beats coming back home in SIA plane... watching krisworld and still cant finish what i watched... arghz.

stay tuned i guess... i used almost 2 hours typing this entry... now haf to wash uniform and gotta book in soon. arghz. heard soce is a terrible place... *prays*