Well so Brunei trip is over...thankful to come back in 1 piece except for e many sandfly bites on my arms and my scarred leg (due to excessive walking in wet boots which cause severe abrasion) and a sliced thumb which i dunno how but i sliced it with a parang...hahaz actually it wasn't all tt bad and everybody was expected to come back in 1 piece anyway...but well it was a totally different and tougher experience as compared to training in Singapore...
Juz a rough recap of e trip...
16 Aug 0200hrs:
Boarded SQ 8992 bound for Bandar Seri Begawan...hahaz was quite excited cuz first time sitting on plane...and SQ flights really r gorgeous...can watch movies play games listen music...e seats r real comfy n e food's not bad=)
16 Aug 04??hrs
took a bus from airport to a jetty...den had to sit a fast craft to get from e capital to Temburong (our training area) which lasted 1 1/2 hours...den from dere took a bus from jetty to Lakiun Camp...nothing much for e rest of e day...but we found out tt e perm staff dere r v crabby...and SAF cooks actually lose their culinary skills once they fly to Brunei...
17-19 Aug ????hrs
relatively boring these few days...did a pace course, compass course, guided navigation thru some parts of our navex exercise area, TEWT, and platoon battle course...juz to warm us up to e place here...
20 Aug 0830hrs
Exercise Nomad! was looking forward to this because this is an unguided navigation exercise which means no instructors and we can balonglong...had e first taste of e seasonal stream water in Brunei...actually tasted sweet and BETTER THAN LAKIUN CAMP WATER we were e fastest group tt day as we were the only team to find 2 check pts and 1 log pt...had our first douse of Brunei rain...because e shelter we built too small for all 8 of us to squeeze inside...realise tt in e day Brunei is very hot but it's freezing at night...
21 Aug ????hrs
started out enthusiastically as we thot we might be to find all e checkpoints and go back early...found our 3rd checkpoint and was on e way to e 4th but den i made a boo boo with e pacing and we overshot e checkpoint and ended up at the road (which was the boundary of our exercise area) Luckily there was a lady who lived along e road who gave us directions but we ended up overshooting the checkpoint again and we would have been totally lost if not for a kind soul tt wrote e MGR on one of e checkpoints(wasn't our checkpoint)...ended up harbouring wif wen guang's group...
22 Aug 1030hrs...
found e end point! We were the first team to be out and e only team to find 4 checkpoints *proud* were the first to bathe and have a canteen break=) Melvin's team had to stay in the jungle and find another 2 checkpoints and 1 end point because they did not find e required 3 check n 1 log to pass...anyway Wing Comd gave us 3 nights off for being the first team to come out=)
23 Aug ????hrs
Nothing much...preparation for Ex. Chindit
24-26 Aug ????hrs
was the first team to find e checkpoint and our instructor LTA Ikhwan cheeckily put a note which said "Been there done tt" and drew an arrow in the ground for e groups behind...got a little disoriented and had to harbour before we could find 2nd checkpoint...got disoriented the 2nd day too and it rained before we could find a suitable place to harbour and we ended up chopping down trees to make a decent clearing...morale was kinda low so LTA Ikhwan cooked some hot dogs and Desmond made some curry chicken to lift e morale...on e 26th we reached our objective LP 169 3 hours late but we were only 1 of 2 teams to find all e checkpoints...and there were 3 other teams who didn't make it back tt day which meant we could slack till they came back...had instant noodles galore with melvin's section tt night
27 Aug 1230hrs
start of Chindit II...was cursing my luck as I was e 84mm RR gunner for Chindit II...but turned out to be manageable and I was so proud to finish 4 e day...
28 Aug 1300?hrs
our river crossing den e march thru e 7 knolls...climbed 3 knolls before e 84 teams were taken out to be enemies (YEAH!! i really thot i had to climb all e 7 knolls with e 84m RR)...ended up doing some community service in brunei by cleaning e roads because our tonner left a lot of mud stains...e local bruneians were pretty amused...
29 Aug ????hrs
cleared up all our admin...the armskote MSG dere was super kao bei and refused to clear our baggage because he felt we didn't do a gd job cleaning e weapons and compass...lucky wing comd was around and we had early night and canteen break
30 Aug ????hrs
R&R...or M&M (Museums and Mosques) visited 2 museums and a mosque...and did some "shopping"...shopping wasn't much because they seem to have only 2 shopping centres in e whole of e capital and both add together dun think even got Jurong Point size...The mosque we visited was built out of the Sultan's pocket money...it had 29 domes of which 47% of it is gold...and e marble chairs dere r carved out of 1 piece marble and cost US$70,000 each...btw the Sultan earns US$100 every second...
31 Aug
boarded SQ 8991 HOME!!!!=)
Juz a rough recap of e trip...
16 Aug 0200hrs:
Boarded SQ 8992 bound for Bandar Seri Begawan...hahaz was quite excited cuz first time sitting on plane...and SQ flights really r gorgeous...can watch movies play games listen music...e seats r real comfy n e food's not bad=)
16 Aug 04??hrs
took a bus from airport to a jetty...den had to sit a fast craft to get from e capital to Temburong (our training area) which lasted 1 1/2 hours...den from dere took a bus from jetty to Lakiun Camp...nothing much for e rest of e day...but we found out tt e perm staff dere r v crabby...and SAF cooks actually lose their culinary skills once they fly to Brunei...
17-19 Aug ????hrs
relatively boring these few days...did a pace course, compass course, guided navigation thru some parts of our navex exercise area, TEWT, and platoon battle course...juz to warm us up to e place here...
20 Aug 0830hrs
Exercise Nomad! was looking forward to this because this is an unguided navigation exercise which means no instructors and we can balonglong...had e first taste of e seasonal stream water in Brunei...actually tasted sweet and BETTER THAN LAKIUN CAMP WATER we were e fastest group tt day as we were the only team to find 2 check pts and 1 log pt...had our first douse of Brunei rain...because e shelter we built too small for all 8 of us to squeeze inside...realise tt in e day Brunei is very hot but it's freezing at night...
21 Aug ????hrs
started out enthusiastically as we thot we might be to find all e checkpoints and go back early...found our 3rd checkpoint and was on e way to e 4th but den i made a boo boo with e pacing and we overshot e checkpoint and ended up at the road (which was the boundary of our exercise area) Luckily there was a lady who lived along e road who gave us directions but we ended up overshooting the checkpoint again and we would have been totally lost if not for a kind soul tt wrote e MGR on one of e checkpoints(wasn't our checkpoint)...ended up harbouring wif wen guang's group...
22 Aug 1030hrs...
found e end point! We were the first team to be out and e only team to find 4 checkpoints *proud* were the first to bathe and have a canteen break=) Melvin's team had to stay in the jungle and find another 2 checkpoints and 1 end point because they did not find e required 3 check n 1 log to pass...anyway Wing Comd gave us 3 nights off for being the first team to come out=)
23 Aug ????hrs
Nothing much...preparation for Ex. Chindit
24-26 Aug ????hrs
was the first team to find e checkpoint and our instructor LTA Ikhwan cheeckily put a note which said "Been there done tt" and drew an arrow in the ground for e groups behind...got a little disoriented and had to harbour before we could find 2nd checkpoint...got disoriented the 2nd day too and it rained before we could find a suitable place to harbour and we ended up chopping down trees to make a decent clearing...morale was kinda low so LTA Ikhwan cooked some hot dogs and Desmond made some curry chicken to lift e morale...on e 26th we reached our objective LP 169 3 hours late but we were only 1 of 2 teams to find all e checkpoints...and there were 3 other teams who didn't make it back tt day which meant we could slack till they came back...had instant noodles galore with melvin's section tt night
27 Aug 1230hrs
start of Chindit II...was cursing my luck as I was e 84mm RR gunner for Chindit II...but turned out to be manageable and I was so proud to finish 4 e day...
28 Aug 1300?hrs
our river crossing den e march thru e 7 knolls...climbed 3 knolls before e 84 teams were taken out to be enemies (YEAH!! i really thot i had to climb all e 7 knolls with e 84m RR)...ended up doing some community service in brunei by cleaning e roads because our tonner left a lot of mud stains...e local bruneians were pretty amused...
29 Aug ????hrs
cleared up all our admin...the armskote MSG dere was super kao bei and refused to clear our baggage because he felt we didn't do a gd job cleaning e weapons and compass...lucky wing comd was around and we had early night and canteen break
30 Aug ????hrs
R&R...or M&M (Museums and Mosques) visited 2 museums and a mosque...and did some "shopping"...shopping wasn't much because they seem to have only 2 shopping centres in e whole of e capital and both add together dun think even got Jurong Point size...The mosque we visited was built out of the Sultan's pocket money...it had 29 domes of which 47% of it is gold...and e marble chairs dere r carved out of 1 piece marble and cost US$70,000 each...btw the Sultan earns US$100 every second...
31 Aug
boarded SQ 8991 HOME!!!!=)
