Memories of Brunei

08 May 2006

Exercise Lancer
I survived on will power throughout my Brunei trip, which lasted from 21.4.06 till 8.5.06. 18 days in Brunei sets the record for being the longest stay away from Home since birth. From the briefings, it seems like our Brunei trip will comprise of a jungle orientation training (navigation exercise), climbing Mount Biang and some minor exercises in between. As per SAF, I learnt to take these schedules with a pinch of salt to avoid disappointment and be mentally prepared for last minute changes. I heard from friends that our Brunei trip is longer than usual. But surprisingly, the Brunei trip is not as difficult as rumoured and definitely not as hard as what I expected. In fact, the Brunei trip is an eye-opener for me. I think I grow and mature a lot physically and psychologically.

Preparing for Brunei
We were given a packing list on the things that we need to bring. Besides the field pack items, the most important things would be insect repellent, mosquito head net and hammock. We have to squeeze all our military field items into our duffel bag, which will be send to SAT Cargo on 13.4.06. The duffel bag will be secured by a numeric lock, which we can use the lock for our cabinet in Brunei.

On the day of departure, we were only allowed to bring a hand carry luggage below 7kg. I brought an exaggerating number of 17 underwear and 10 green socks to last through the trip. I also brought extra gutters and bootlaces just in case.

As I do not know about the condition of the toilet, I bought a new green mug to brush my teeth; just in case that if the toilet is too disgusting, I can throw the green mug away after using it.

Travelling by Air, Land & Water
On 20.4.06, my family drove me to Changi Airport after watching "大长今" (Dae Jang Geum) and "Channel U 11pm News". On the way to Changi Airport, there was a slight disagreement on the Brunei trip with Papa, but luckily it did not turn into a bad quarrel. We arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 2 at around 12mn and I proceeded to report to SGT Alvin (whom I never met before) at Row 1. My parents and I loitered at the Departure Hall for about an hour before I checked in before 1am. We spend some time traveling on the travelator to Gate E28.

I boarded SQ8992 on 2.30am and the plane took off on 2.37am. I am glad that I was allocated a window seat (34K). With views of Singapore fading away, I find myself on a long way from home for the next 2+ weeks. While on board SQ8992, the Singapore Girl served me a set of Fish air meal, which taste good (better than air meals served by Thai Airways). SQ8992 landed at Brunei Airport on 4.23am. It surprised me that Brunei Airport is quite small and it does not operate for 24h. In fact, we are the only passengers in the airport.

Packeted breakfast was served to us at the Brunei Airport Arrival Hall. The breakfast was not really edible as it seems to be prepared very long ago. After waiting for an hour, we board the bus at 5.30am for an hour long bus ride to the Royal Brunei Naval Base at Muara. I fell asleep on the bus while hugging on to my water bottle.

The sunrise at the Royal Brunei Naval Base is really beautiful. The bright golden sunrise shining on the sea and landscape helps to relieve some of my anxiety. Bangar is located at Temburong District, which is an exclave that is separated from the rest of Brunei by the Brunei Bay. The only way to access Bangar is by a fastcraft. It took the fastcraft 2h to travel through Brunei Bay and up Sungei Temburong from Muara to Bangar Town. Sungei Temburong is a wide and meandering river that is rather muddy lined with mangrove. The scenery is quite monotonous; imagine watching 2h of mangrove landscape on a slow-moving fastcraft. During the journey, the crew will sell us cigarette, which is unbelievably cheap! A pack of Marlboro Red is only $4, which is almost three times cheaper than Singapore!

Next, we transferred for another hour of bus ride. Finally, we reached our destination SAF Lakiun Camp at 9.30am. Can't believe that the entire journey from Changi Airport to Lakiun Camp is 7h! Without realizing, I actually travelled on 3 modes of transport (air, land and water) for the same journey.

Lakiun Camp
Lakiun Camp is located on the mid-slope of a mountain. Lakiun Camp is a substandard camp. The bunks resemble those indigenous long house of Borneo. To be honest, Lakiun looks like a refugee camp to me. I think the zinc and wooden bunks also looks like those disused camps at Pulau Tekong. I am glad that the toilet is not too disgusting.

We were received by our Advance Party friends and we were escorted to our longhouse (Block 31). We estimated that each long house can house 70 boys. The beds are those narrow, black-framed double-deck bed with thin sponge mattress. We joked that these furniture must be some legacy from the 2G Army. The floor is constructed using wooden planks, which will vibrate whenever someone walks past.

The bunk has poor air ventilation, making it very hot and stuffy. This is weird, because the bunk is cantilevered on silt and there is a veranda around its perimeter. Therefore, architecturally, the bunk should be cool. The heat and poor ventilation might probably be due to the zinc wall, small window design and east-west orientation.

Uncooked Rice & Curry
The Cookhouse did not provide full set of utensils, so we need to bring our own fork, spoon and green mug. The Cookhouse only provides the compartmented metal plate, which is always glazed with a thick layer of grease. As everyone are supposed to wash the plate after eating, it is not surprised that there are lazy people who wash it skimpily. To be honest, it is quite disgusting. Therefore, most of us will wash the plate again before taking our food.

Food at Lakiun Camp Cookhouse were cooked by SAF perm staff and reservist cook. To be very objective, the food is quite inedible. For several meals, the rice were not fully cooked. Seriously, this is the first time I ever ate uncooked rice. I am really curious on how would this even happened! And it is curry for almost every meal. I really don't like curry and it is just silly to serve curry before outfield. It is quite difficult to swallow the food prepared by the Cookhouse. Thankfully, we do not need to eat too many meals here.

Fortunately, our PC allow us to patronize the canteen whenever we are in camp (i.e. before and after outfield). Food sold in the canteen is edible, but not cheap. This is because Brunei currency is pegged to Singapore Dollar. A plate of Nasi Goreng Kampong cost $4 at the canteen. However, I am very willing to pay for good food. By the end of my Brunei trip, I spent $70 on canteen food, which is a lot, considering that we are outfield most of the time.

Good Morning Lakiun
From the camp, I am able to see the dry field plantation at the plain across the road. The scenery is at its best from dawn (when the field is blanket with a layer of mist) till early morning. The weather at Brunei is very weird, but predictable. Brunei starts to heat up at around 9am, and it can get really hot as the day goes by. It will heat up until around 2pm or 3pm and it will start raining heavily for a while. Then the sun will start to shine again.

Brunei shares the same time zone with Singapore. Although Brunei is located within GMT+8, which is the same time zone as Singapore. However, as Singapore is in the wrong time zone (Singapore is physically in GMT+7, but uses GMT+8), I feel that there is technically a 1h time difference. For example, the sun would rise at 6am, which is 1h in advance at Brunei, as compared with the standard 7am at Singapore. Similarly, the sun would set at 6pm, instead of the standard 7pm at Singapore. In other words, 6am in Brunei feels like 7am in Singapore. The time lag causes some disturbance to my body clock. For example, when I woke up at 5.45am on the second morning, the whole place is already lit up. It takes time to adjust to the differences.

Jungle Orientation Training
The very 1st training is a Jungle Orientation Training. Duties were delegated and I was assigned to be the team leader of Team 4, who will be under the guidance of instructor LTA Tan. After a series of briefing and preparing our stores, we began our jungle adventure.

From 23.4.06 to 25.4.06, I attended Exercise Nomad, which is a 3 day 2 night unguided Navigation Exercise (Navex). I am in the same navex team (A17) with Eugene, Nicholas, Gilbert, Ronald, Kin Wai, Kheng Mun and both Alex. We are supposed to navigate our way through the thick primary rainforest of Exercise Area Zebu / Tameda to reach our destination. Our starting point is off Zebu Track, near Mike 2. We set off at 8.30am to search for our 1st check point "SIGN/NAME" and we reached there in 45min time.

Confidently, we continue to search for the 2nd check point "POKE/PULL". However, at around noon, we found ourselves holland in the woods. Thus, we decided to backtrack. But after some discussion, we decided to bash in the general direction, which is the biggest mistake my team made.

At 3pm, we came across a stream, where we decided to fill up our bottles. I am very surprised that the stream is so fresh and clear, as opposed to the rumoured "milo water". Small fish and some prawns can be seen swimming in the clear and cold water. We were taught to fill our bottle in the direction of the water flow to avoid collecting sediments into our bottles. We would need to add a puritab tablet into 1 litre of water (i.e. 1 green bottle) to purify the water before drinking. The stream water actually taste better than the drinking water in Lakiun Camp. This is because the drinking water in camp has a strong chlorine smell that is similar to swimming pool water. Furthermore, the stream water is naturally chilled. We rested at the stream for a while before continuing with our navex.

We bashed up a hill and found checkpoint "CUBE". Although "CUBE" is not the checkpoint that we are looking for, it is an important achievement after holland for the entire afternoon, because we finally manage to obtain an accurate MGR of our location, which is essential for navigation. We decided to harbour here till the next morning.

The 9 of us start to find suitable trees to tie our hammock and set up A-frame as roof. It is true that Brunei starts getting dark after 5pm (also known as last light). It is pitch dark by 7pm and we are unable to see our fingers even if we hold them in front of our eyes. I am very scared of snakes, so I sprinkled sulphur powder on the trees I tied my hammock and around my perimeter. Initially, I tried wearing my boots to sleep, but it is quite uncomfortable. Therefore, I have no choice but to remove my boots and cover the top to prevent snakes from sneaking into it. There is a lot of mosquito and insects in the rainforest. Therefore, we need to wear a mosquito headnet to sleep. It is a fun experience sleeping in a hammock, bringing back memories of sleeping in a cradle.

Brunei is extremely cold at night. I need to wear my Gortex Jacket to sleep. When I woke up on the next morning, I lifted the hammock cover and pulled it back immediately. It is cold (about 20°C). It takes a while for the body to warm up and adjust to the temperature. Nevertheless, it feels shiok to be able to enjoy almost 8h of sleep in the forest.

Eugene and Nicholas started planning our navigation route and we decided to continue our search for "POKE/PULL". However, we holland again at around 11am. It is much worst this time because we hit Out of Bounds (OB) area, as indicated on the SAF signboard. We were paranoid. We were worried that we might have crossed the border and intrude into Sarawak (not joking).

We decided to head down to the stream and trek along the river to where we met team A06. After walking for more than an hour in knee-deep water, we decided to take a break on a shore of pebble. The team had some fun playing with water, boosting our morale that river crossing might not be as scary as what we imagined. But at the same time, we started panicking that we might not have enough time to complete the mission. Eugene and Nicholas also confessed that they are not good with navigation.

Armed with my background in Geography and my love for maps, I decided to take over. It started to rain at 2pm, so we need to evacuate to higher ground. After walking for a distance along the river, Alex and I found a neat trail up a knoll and the team climb up. It is raining, the team is tired and morale is low, so we decided to rest at a spot on top of the knoll until the rain stop. There is no clear path on the ridgeline, meaning no one else has passed here for some time. The team is paranoid that we might have hit OB area again. However, based on instinct, we continue trekking on the ridgeline and hit checkpoint "FINAL" at 3pm. We are very happy because we know that we are still in Ops ground and manage to obtain MGR for our location. We started searching for a spot to harbour for the day. We came across this rather open area again, which we passed by a few time on day 1 and we decided to harbour here. We decided to cook and consume some of our ration (which we rationed for rainy days) to lessen our 20kg load.

Knowing that we were near to our 1st check point "SIGN/NAME", we head straight there. True enough, it took us a mere 1h to reach "SIGN/NAME" again. We trekked back to Zebu track and saw our instructors there. To be honest, I am confused on whether we are at the starting or ending point. I guess my team failed Exercise Nomad. Nevertheless, I am very glad that we managed to navigate out of the jungle safely.

Flying in a Super Puma
We were back in Lakiun Camp at around 2pm. On our way back to camp, Ronald heard from the signal set that Ken fainted, rolled down a knoll and was out of exercise. That night, I was informed by my PC that I was selected as a replacement for Ken and I am to join Team 3 immediately. I attended a briefing by the instructors for the upcoming exercises and I had to rush back to our bunk to pack my stuff for outfield. Wei Hao and I fall in late, making Warrant Hong super angry with us. It somewhat gave him a very bad 1st impression. Therefore, Warrant Hong was rather harsh on us for the rest of the day.

We took an hour ride from Lakiun Camp to the Zebu Eastern Quarry Heli LP, where we waited for the 3 lost Ex Nomad teams to track out. After a long period of waiting that morning, the 3 lost teams were finally united with the rest of the company. The teams gulped their breakfast and changed their uniform before setting off for our 2nd exercise.

The Super Puma helicopter arrived and we started boarding in sticks to Kampong Mariam, a mock village that is inaccessible by road. I am in Stick 7, together with instructor Master Gunner and big shots like our CO and OC. Our Super Puma departed at 10.39am and we arrived at our destination about 15min later. This is the first time I took an helicopter ride and I was really super excited. The scenery is really beautiful high up in the air. Lorries at the quarry looks so small, as if they were lego bricks.

At the foot of Mount Biang
Once we stepped out of the Super Puma, we had to trek a distance and cross Sungei Biang before we finally reached the foot of Mount Biang. I bumped into Zheng Feong and we had a casual chat. At the foot of Biang, instructor LTA Shay told me that the path is forever muddy throughout the year. LTA Shay taught me how to walk through the mud in order to keep my boots as clean and dry as possible. As Warrant Hong has a very bad impression of me, he instructed me to follow LTA Shay for the afternoon. From the rear gate, we had to climb a very steep and muddy virtual stairs down, cross a small stream and up a knoll. We followed the ridgeline and some of the guys taught me on various techniques and mistakes.

After the 6th check point, LTA Shay secretly told me that he lost his way and he was trying his luck by trekking down the knoll. Thankfully, we found ourselves on the right track again. It rained very heavily in the evening, which forced the night walk to be cancelled. The rain is a blessing in disguise, as I think night walk can be quite dangerous for Brunei's horrific darkness. That night, instructor CPT Asman invited us to sleep in the instruction hut, as there is no trees to tie hammock and the ground is too muddy. The instructors even allow us to sleep on safari bed and benches, which makes me even more touched, as the instructors do not need to do so.

Early next morning, Warrant Hong cooked some hearty breakfast and gave some bread to us. Around noon, the instructors cooked and had their lunch. After the instructors finished their lunch, they invited us to eat the porridge and leftover canned food. To be honest, it feels quite humiliating initially. But if I look at it from another angle, as a trainee who is not entitled to any welfare, it is actually very fortunate that our instructors chose to share with us almost everything they have in the deep forest of Brunei. Furthermore, I am really very hungry and sicked of the green pack field rations and biscuits. It also taste much better than Cookhouse food.

That morning, I had a long chat with Louis, a perm staff of Lakiun Camp, and get to know him better. After lunch I get to chat with Zhi Hao, whom I am not familiar with when we were in Singapore. Zhi Hao and I exchanged our passion in music and upcoming university courses. We also accidentally found out that we have a few common friends. That night ended without any major event.

I stopped writing notes of my Brunei forest adventure on a daily basis from that night onwards, because I was too tired, the transitions can be quite confusing and some of the exercise details are confidential. There are too many exercise transitions, which usually happened whenever we crossed a knoll and the exercise name will change accordingly. Whenever we transited into a new exercise, we will assume our respective roles for the new exercise.

The next morning, we trekked out the forest. I followed behind CPT Asman and get to know a little more about him. Warrant Hong walked over to me and asked me to comment about the performances of my batch while smoking. I gave a politically correct reply. Warrant Hong replied "hong lan hor?", which I agree in my mind because we really have rooms for improvement. We continue to trek out and we reached the road about an hour or two later.

While travelling along Jalan Temada on our way back to Lakiun Camp, I get to see how luxurious the natives are. The locals live in huge bungalow with expansive courtyard, backyard and lovely gardens. Each house have their own water tank and purifying system. A few of the bungalows even have their own small satellite disc installed. We reached Lakiun Camp an hour later.

Night Walk
We had a good day of rest before going for a short night walk at the rear of Lakiun Camp. LTA Shay introduced some traps that will be used for the Jungle Confident Course (JCC). Louis told me that the quails were usually noisy when they arrived at Lakiun Camp, but the quails will become extremely quiet on the night before the quails were send to trainees out for JCC. It is like as if the quails know they will be slaughtered by cadets the next day.

The night walk also gave me a very good impression of our 2IC CPT Darren. CPT Darren is able to bond with us rather well and even volunteered to walk back into the forest to help retrieve missing parts of the 84. As we will be climbing Mount Biang the next day, LTA Shay want us to bring some sweets and high sugar food to replenish energy.

Over the Rainbow
To avoid making the same mistake, I fall in early on the morning of 30.4.06. However, my radio set played a very big prank on me by malfunctioning at this very last minute. Luckily, Shaun helped me to change a radio set with the store. We set off at around 6.25am.

It is a cool morning and the surrounding of Lakiun Camp is covered with a blanket of morning mist. After travelling for a short distance, I saw a very clear and beautiful rainbow at 6.30am. This is the 2nd time that I saw a rainbow in my life. The 7 colours are so distinctive. The rainbow is really beautiful. The landscape is mystical at this moment. This is definitely one of the most memorable moment for this Brunei trip.

Conquering Mount Biang
We reached Zebu / Temada area again an hour later. LTA Shay is the CRT instructor and I was assigned to follow LTA Shay for the whole of this exercise. We trekked all the way to Zebu Track. On our way, it started raining very heavily and I bumped into Kang Woei.

While walking to the harbouring ground, LTA Shay and I talked a lot. We found out that both of us stayed at Tampines and we studied in the same primary school and JC (LTA Shay is 5 years my senior)! LTA Shay shared with me that he has very bad impression of Shaun, as he observed that Shaun likes to wayang, backstab and enjoys commanding his fellow platoon mates around. LTA Shay also warned me that Wei Hao is rather cunning, as he do things with a motive in mind and he will only help others if he is able to gain something useful in return. LTA Shay said that he appreciates that I did not complain much throughout the exercises and I have always been neutral among the childish conflicts between Shaun and Wei Hao.

We were completely drenched when we reached our harbouring ground. Interestingly, the heavy rain stopped shortly after we reached our harbouring ground. CPT Asman offered us hot ration and asked us to help ourselves with the food. Calvin, another perm staff whom I met in Lakiun Camp before, joined us for this exercise to help CPT Asman and Louis. I chatted with Gavin before setting up our hammock.

The next morning, we walked to the heli point again to take the Super Puma for the 2nd time. I can still feel there is still excitement. This time I get to see the quarry and the villages in detail before the Super Puma landed safety.

We began our journey up the infamous Mount Biang. As LTA Shay needs to cover safety, he will bring me forward and walked further up before taking a rest. LTA Shay explained that by doing so, we will have a longer period of rest and we do not need to keep "pausing". LTA Shay also taught me the technique of "non-stop climbing" as he explained that I will feel more tired if I keep having rest in between.

LTA Shay said we continued our journey up Biang when the medic passed by us. LTA Shay explained the logic of following behind a medic is because if someone informed him of casualties, he can bring the medic along asap.

It took us 1.5h to reached the infamous "Stairways to Heaven", which is well known to be the worst segment of the climb up Biang. LTA Shay taught us on the technique to climb up the steep rocks and to follow his footsteps, as these are the tested and proven path. LTA Shay and I conquered the "Stairways to Heaven" without much sweat and we reached the top of Mount Biang in 2h after commencing our climb. The summit of Mount Biang is quite anti-climax, because there is no view to reward our effort to climb; it is just trees and ridgeline. Nevertheless, CPT Asman treated us coffee as an encouragement.

After everyone arrived, LTA Shay and I left shortly to search for harbouring ground. On our way, it started raining heavily again. Gavin and I hurriedly setup our A-frame using our ground sheet before tying our hammock. If not, our barang barang might be even wetter. Gavin and I were decided to help Shaun, who is having issues with his hammock. By this moment, I was already very annoyed with the childish conflicts between Shaun and Wei Hao. Their quarrels had escalated into personal attacks yelling and I had to talk to Wei Hao to tell him that we are out in the jungle and we should be helping each other instead of insulting each other.

The rain stopped pouring after we finish setup. LTA Shay walked towards my hammock and showed me a leech on his body and he burnt the leech off with a lighter. The leech tried to escape, but Gavin stepped it and blood gushed out of its squashed corpse. LTA Shay asked me to check for leeches as I followed him up Biang. I took off my boots, saw a leech on the ground and stomped it to death with my boots. I checked my body and found stains of blood on my calf, believing it was sucked by the leech that I killed.

The dusk sky starts to darken and we start preparing our dinner. CPT Asman lend us his bunsen burner, which we take turn to cook instant noodles. As usual, we had an early night. Halfway through my sleep at around 4am, I heard loud Malay prayers, which seems to be broadcasted over loudspeakers. This freaked me out, as we are on top of Mount Biang, which is in the middle of primary rainforest. At that moment, I tried to shut my eyes and convinced myself that there might be a mosque in an ulu place nearby or I am too tired and start to hear imaginary things. I tried to forced myself to sleep. I woke up at around 6am and I still hear the prayer.

The top of Mount Biang is freezing cold in the morning, at around 16°C. I feel warm because I am wearing my Gortex Jacket, camo scarf and Nomax gloves inside the covered hammock, which is sheltered by the ground sheet A-frame. However, the moment I lifted my hammock cover, I closed it back immediately. It is cold! I can feel the cold breeze piercing through my mosquito net, making me shivering inside my hammock. I hide inside my hammock for a few more minutes, rubbing my palms to warm myself up, before getting out of my hammock. I was still wearing my mosquito net on my head, which freaked Gavin out. Gavin told me that there is a mosque nearby and I felt relieved. Gavin and I packed our stuff and joined the rest for our descend down Mount Biang.

Surprisingly, the journey down Mount Biang is much more tough than the climb up. There isn't any path to trekked downwards; only big rocks and slippery boulders, LTA Shay warned me that there might be snakes hidden in the gaps and underneath the rocks. LTA Shay added that snakes are more commonly seen in October, so we might be lucky enough to avoid seeing one. This freaked me out, making me on high alert throughout this segment. LTA Shay said I will be safe as long as I followed his footstep.

After the rocky slope, LTA Shay said we should be able to see a waterfall. However, I only hear sound of gusting water and the direction we were heading to is a steep upslope. Finding it strange (as we are descending), I asked LTA Shay if we had gone the wrong path. LTA Shay acknowledged my opinion and shared that our OC insisted of leading, but did not want to hear advices from the instructors, so they decided to let him "perform". At this moment, most of the trainee had finished drinking our water, so finding a stream is very crucial. LTA Shay had finished his water resources, so both of us are relying on my last 1 litre of water. To be honest, most of the trainee had lost 99% of our morale. But as we had really holland, the instructors decided to take over, under the guidance of CPT Asman. CPT Asman is pissed with the proud OC and lectured him. CPT Asman lead us down in search of water.

After holland for 4h, we finally found a stream. Everyone feels so relieved; at least we know we will not die from thirst. It is very encouraging to see CPT Darren helping us to fill our water bottles. This is what a true leader should be doing instead of showing off. A leader earn his respect not because of his rank, but how he treat others.

After resting for a while and consuming a simple lunch, we continued with our descend. We found the markings and we were happy that we were back on the right track. We continued following the marking in fast speed as it started raining. As some of the marking were lost, LTA Shay lead the way based on his experience. I am tired and morale was low, so I need trekked in a fast pace to catch up with LTA Shay. The trainees continued the journey with low morale and we finally reached the river crossing point of Sungei Batu Apoi at 4pm. It was raining very heavily and we were severely behind schedule, so the instructors had to cut the exercise. This is really a big morale booster for all of us, who are all drenched.

After some discussions among the instructors, the instructors allowed us to board the speedboat to cross the river. Once on the opposite shore, we climbed up a rather steep slope, and realized that we are actually very near to the rear of Lakiun Camp.

Goodbye Lakiun Camp
Without knowing, we had completed all our 10days outfield missions. We spent the next 3 days cleaning and returning stores. It is quite disturbing that we need to throw away all the unconsumed combat ration, because we were unable to return these drawn food for hygiene and food safety reasons.

We were issued Polo shirt and T-shirt to commemorate our training days in Brunei. We started packing our stuff for shipment back to Singapore. In the end, I did not throw away the green mug, because the green mug accompanied me through the days in Brunei. I brought the green mug back and named it "Brunei cup".

Before leaving Lakiun Camp, I went to bid goodbye to my senior LTA Shay and thanked him for his guidance in the past few days. LTA Shay and I exchanged contacts and we agreed to meet in Tampines after he finished his posting in Brunei next year.

I also bid goodbye to Louis and Gavin, wishing them well for their stay in Brunei. However, I am unable to find the other instructors in camp to thank them personally.

Back to Civilization
On 7.5.20, after taking a last look at Lakiun Camp and the dry field plantation, I boarded the hour at 5am for the hour long bus ride to Bangar. At Bangar, we transferred to the fastcraft in batches for the 2h long journey to Muara. Watching the mangrove of Sungei Temburong moving at a slow pace is sleep inducing. I fell asleep twice while onboard the fastcraft. Somehow, the return trip seems much longer, as it feels like we spent 4h on the fastcraft. Maybe because I am really tired. Similarly, the crew will sell us Marlboro cigarettes at $4, damn cheap!

Finally, we reached the Royal Brunei Naval Base at Muara at 8am. We transferred to bus and reached Jalan Aman Camp (JAC), which is the HQ of SAF in Brunei, at 8.30am. JAC is a slightly more modern camp than Lakiun and the food at JAC Cookhouse taste much better than Lakiun Camp Cookhouse. We had nasi lemak for breakfast at 9am before commencing our R&R at Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB).

Bandar Seri Begawan Educational Tour
The 1-Day Brunei Educational Tour started at 10am. We reached the Royal Regalia at 10.30am, which is a museum on the royal family. This is followed by a stop at the Jame Asr Hassanil Mosque at 11.30am. Jame Asr Hassanil Mosque is a national mosque named after the current Sultan of Brunei. Jame Asr Hassanil Mosque is the largest mosque in Brunei and it was built in 1992 to celebrate the jubilee of Sultan's coronation. We passed by Istana Nurul Iman (Sultan's Palace) at 12pm and had lunch at Riverview Hotel at 12.30pm.

We reached the exterior of Omar Ali Saiftuddin Mosque at 1.45pm. Omar Ali Saiftuddin Mosque was completed in 1958 and is named after the previous Sultan of Brunei. Omar Ali Saiftuddin Mosque is famous for its golden dome that is constructed using 24k gold. Therefore, it is also known as the Golden Mosque.

We visited Brunei Museum at 2.15pm. The museum documented the territorial evolution of the Brunei Empire, which is extremely fascinating. This is the best museum I visited for this tour, as it provides me with a deeper insight on the history of Brunei and its economic dependence on fossil fuel.

We arrived at Kampong Ayer at 1.15pm via water taxi. Kampong Ayer is a Water Village built on stilt in the middle of Brunei River and visited a family staying on the kelong. The family served us some kuehs, which is quite authentic and delicious.

I am the only one who thinks that BSB and Brunei Museum are quite interesting culturally and historically. Maybe this is because I am the only Arts & Humanities student for my batch. It is very likely that I will make a 1day visit to BSB again...

Back at BSB, we arrived Yayasan Shopping Complex at 4.15pm. Yayasan Shopping Complex is the better shopping mall for this trip. The supermarket sell food and snacks that are imported from Singapore, so the products are sold at a price that is about 10% higher than in Singapore.

Brunei's fashion is quite behind Singapore (which already very behind Japan and Taiwan). But thanks to this 'fashion lag', I actually managed to find the "FILA SURF WEAR R800-2393 4759 LIGHT BLUE" T-shirt at the departmental store! Although "FILA SURF WEAR R800-2393 4759 LIGHT BLUE" was sold at a slightly higher price than its orange colour twin "FILA SURF WEAR R800-2393 723 STARFRUIT" that I bought on 31.7.04, I still bought it. I am very happy because I have been searching for "FILA SURF WEAR R800-2393 4759 LIGHT BLUE" for close to 2 years...

We had dinner at Holiday Lodge at 5.30pm before shopping at The Mall at 7.30pm. The Mall looks like JB's Holiday Plaza as it is filled with Ah Beng fashion store and pirated VCD shops. It surprised me that Brunei does not have any book shop or CD shop that sell original CD. As there is really nothing much to do at The Mall, Kang Woei and I decided to return to our bus earlier.

While waiting to board the bus, I heard a familiar voice shouting my name. I turned around and saw Warrant Hong! Warrant Hong was sitting on the railing and smoking. We chat for a while and I thanked him personally. On the bus, my PC told me that Warrant Hong praised my performance and nominated me for the 'Best Soldier Award'. PC also added that Warrant Hong seldom praised people. I feel very touched because Warrant Hong have been looking after me like his son. Then suddenly, I realized that I forgot to asked for Warrant Hong's contact, so I ran down the bus in search of him, but in vain, making me feel very sad.

Long Way Home to Singapore
We were back at JAC at 9.30pm. JAC has weirdly designed bunk and infrastructure. All of us are checked into a single huge bunk without partition. The double-deck beds are the modern white-framed bed, but placed very closely together with tight space in between. Thankfully, we only need to spent a few hours here before flying back to Singapore. I dozed off for a while. Kang Woei woke me up at 2am telling me that we need to get ready for our trip to Brunei Airport. Finally, in the wee hours of 8.5.06, we are on our journey home after 18days in Brunei.

Perhaps I missed home too much, I actually told the SQ Girls "I Love Singapore" while boarding the plane. I am glad that I was allocated a window seat again and SQ8991 took off at 5.35am.

The SQ breakfast is the best meal I had ate in the past 2+ weeks. The Straits Times was dominated by the result for General Election 2006, which happened on 6.5.06. While on board SQ8991, I listened to J-pop new songs like Koda Kumi's "No Regret" and Tokyo Jihen's "化粧直し" while watching the SQ KrisWorld flight map (map geek mode). Words can't describe the excitement watching the plane inching nearer to Changi Airport.

SQ8991 landed safety at Changi Airport at 7.40am. As we were only allowed to bring $200 cash, I ran out of cash for duty free at Changi Airport (the silly me did not bring my ATM card along). Therefore, I have to borrow cash from Ong to buy lipstick, Tiger Beer and Absolut Vodka for Mumy, Papa and my brother respectively.

Memories of Brunei
This Brunei trip is tough, but not as difficult as imagined. In fact, I think this Brunei trip is quite fun and inspiring for me. I get to realize my childhood dream of riding on a helicopter, not once but twice on a Super Puma. Climbing Mount Biang is also not as horrible as what people described...

The jungle experiences pushed my endurances beyond my limits that I have ever imagined and I am very proud to achieve all the objectives. I understand more about myself. I grow and mature a lot physically and psychologically. In addition, Lancer is a very successful slimming centre; I lose 3kg within 3 weeks.

I really missed home when I was in Brunei. I called Mumy 21 times during my 18 days in Brunei. Brunei is really a milestone in life that trained me to grow up.

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