Stifled...

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

I'm Back From Brunei...

Yup, I'm back from Brunei. Landed at around 7.40AM just now. Jen went to the airport to fetch me and she came over, but her company lacked manpower, so she was called back in the afternoon.

Anyway, Brunei. Well, the training wasn't really tough, but neither was it easy. We were mostly doing navigational exercises. I, being a slacker, volunteered to pace instead. I won't wanna waste mental strength figuring my position, neither do I wanna bear the responsibility of leading my team and getting lost. We spent 3 days out in some fucked-up jungle on our own. The days there are short, and the nights are so fucking dark, you can't even see your fingers when you stretch your hands out. Thus, we were not allowed to move at night. The sky darkens at around 6PM and only lights up way past 7AM. Because of that, we slept damn early everynight and wake up late every morning. I guess that's why we weren't that tired.

After we went back from the 1st navigational exercise, we did some other stupid things before we were sent out for another navigational exercise. This time, we were inserted into some virgin land where no soul has ever walked before, thus an instructor tagged along to ensure our safety. Well, safety my ass. While crossing a fast river, one of my team-mates fell and was on the verge of drowning. How you even start drowning when you are wearing one big-ass lifejacket intrigues me. Anyway, the instructor jumped into the water to try and save that motherfucker (I happen to detest the victim), but was washed away by the rapid current instead. In the end, the instructor managed to get back on the shore not far away, having suffered an injured shin and a sprained wrist, and guess who saved that drowning fucker? Me! I jumped into the water without any ropes of lifejacket and hauled the fucker's ass back from the gates of hell. Well, I guess I'm not that cold-hearted as I thought I'd be.

I dragged the wet ass back to shore while everyone else watched and held on to the rope that fucker's attached to. Again, how he managed to end up in that state despite the presence of safety ropes and a lifejacket remains one of life's greatest mystery to me. I took the advantage to slap that poor victim, who looked like he was dying. I made it look like I was trying to wake him up, which, to a certain extent was true, but I guess I had some personal agenda in my mind. Haha.

Anyway, the ass managed to puke all the river water out and stand up again after about an hour or so. He lost his glasses in the river, so he must be guided everywhere we go. Being loud and blind, he naturally became a liability to our team, but we managed to pull through.

After 3 days, we came outta the jungle and were made to climb knolls right away. I had to carry some extra stuffs, so I climbed Mt. Biang and the 7 fucking knolls with only 1 hand. Some knolls were literally vertical by the sides. They say you'll have an undescribable sense of achievement and satisfaction after you conquer Biang, but I felt nothing. I only pride I got is that I climbed everything with 1 hand while people who are not even carrying extra load almost died at the end. I've never felt more exhausted and filthy in my entire life. We spent 2 days climbing all those crap knolls before we launched a platoon attack on an objective. Nothing much to say about it.

The 2 days after the exercise were hell slack. Basically, we just ate and slept and ate and slept. I went to the canteen to have chicken chop and fried rice everyday. Those days were crazy. I must have put on all the weight I lost outfield.

We had 1 day of educational tour yesterday, it was rather informative but also kinda boring. Did you know their sultan's palace has over 1700 rooms and about 4000 cars for only 10 royal family members? Anyway, we went to their malls which contain nothing much. Their stuffs are more expensive than those of Singapore, and they don't look like they are any higher in terms of quality. I was dead bored walking in their malls. I just wanna come back here and wank/sleep/eat/play games. You can't imagine the scene on board the plane when the plane finally landed on Singapore soil. Everyone went mad, screaming their heads off on the plane. Fortunately the plane had only us from OCS, or people might think the plane's a flying asylum.

Thank god it's all over. I don't think I wanna go there ever again. My next trip in to Taiwan in October. I suppose it'll be very much more fun than Brunei.

End...

Hanged @ 5:17 PM