Guess which unfortunate soul is back from thailand...well..not as unfortunate as those who actually went into the field...

Now now...before you start yelping and whining, I was on medical status..I injured my lower back...Doc suspects 3 things:

1)Soft Tissue Damage

2)Nerve Damage

3)Possibility of slip disk

Now..which of these 3 things tell you I was able to carry near 40kg of load and go on a 30km hike through the terrain of thailand?

Anyway..on with the story eh?

We left Singapore on the 14th morning around 3am?
Now that would be 'Virgin' and 'Jumbo'

Hey..it was 3am in the morning..how sane would anyone be? Not to mention that we were not going on a holiday mind you..

We were going on a SAF paid trip...
Which meant, throughout the duration...
SUFFERING'S APPARENTLY FOREVER!!!







We arrived a rainy morning...It was raining well before that at the airfield..yes..the AIRFIELD!! Didn't even have the decency to land us at the airport...the Thais however are extremely hospitable..anyway..it was raining the entire day or so..imagine that..the first day and it's already raining...imagine the morale...and rememeber the acronym for SAF...yes..it's true..oh yes...
you 250,000 or so ready NS Men know that to be true...touch your heart...



Anyway, we proceeded to a place called Sai Yok camp...nice camp...wanna see? huh huh huh??
Ok..since you asked so nicely...(I can't show you pics of the camp)
Here's my bunk...

A good 70m long...I was somewhere in the middle...imagine the distance I had to go to the toilet...and the toilet's not even in the same block!! I had to go out that little door you see in the distance..go down the stairs and turn right to the toilet...

And before I continue on my tour..here's my little spot in the bunk...with Jumbo looking on...
that 11 months to ORD is not mine...according to the countdown clock on my comp.. it's
8mths 18days 12hrs 19mins 15secs

yeah well...you know.....anyway..here's the toilet
yeah well..the bath side anyway...here...guys stark naked bathe with a bailer (inset) and a pail...but more often than not..those guys go crazy and throw water around...now imagine this..10 guys dressed in their birthday suits, while bathing, take water in their bailers and throw it at newbies who come in to bathe...often the clothes hanging on the walls get wet and you often hear vulgarities coming out and the key word would be "CEASE FIRE!! CEASE FIRE!" Haha..it was fun...hey...come on....

Welcome to our first breakfast..sometimes the serve bread, noodles..but this is nice...
premade bread...
Butter, Chocolate or kaya..I totally forgot what they call in in Thailand......

And mind you..it isn't a thin spread..it's just nice..and it has sugar too...butter or chocolate with sugar....


Mmmmm......

Next pic shows the stuff....


Mmmmm.....













Yeah well...the picture shows a mass of bodies together..it was one of those...
"HEY LETS TAKE A PHOTO!!" moment... Beats the heck outta me what we were thinking at that moment....









Talk about a CSI moment....

Creepy....

That would be the officers...or two of them..the one in front is my DC...the other behind would be..2Lta Wen Hui.









NEXT!!!!






The highlight of the trip..
a 7 day outfield..insertion by chopper...

I took that myself....

And yes..I managed to take it cause I was on status....

Charlie landing site...





I do apologise for not being to take any outfield shots..sigh...I wasn't there....


This would have been my team had I not been injured...

But then again, I helped them out whenever I could...but still...sigh...


Were they in for a 'ride'








This was mostly the weather while they were in the field...

Dark clouds, freezing temps at night,wind, rain, rain and more rain.....








On the brighter side though..... Ever seen a prata that cost 10 baht? 24 baht is $1SGD so go calculate...Let's see.. This was sold from a guy on a bike with a wok next to him..he slabs butter on one side and throws it onto the wok..let's it cook...once it's done, he places it on a piece of paper, pours condense milk and sugar on it and it's done...I ate 6...can you imagine the sugar rush? I felt really really hot after eating it...damn..even thinking about it makes my heart race now...

And This is....
They call it "cha mee" or fried instant noodles..beats the heck outta me how they do that...25 Baht..about $1.1 SGD...nice though..














This is our thai driver..
Boon Dit (hope I got that correct)

47 years old
26 years in the military

2 Kids..
Son of 20+ age.
Daughter of younger age.

Some other stuff too...all from talkin for 5 mins in broken english..not bad eh?



Howdy Folks...meet Floppy...I named him cause of his left ear


Never barks or growls except when some other dog tries to take his food...sleeps under my hammock and wags his tail often...cute chap....

This would be what I share my shelter with...there was a spider too..but it ran off after I tried stepping on it...HEY!! that mother was huge...grey, with dark grey spots and white outlines..you wanna get bitten, be my guest..the thai liason I was with said if you got bitten, it hurts like hell and you get a swell...

I got stung by one of these in Tekong..no way was I about to get it again..I moved my hammock way outta there...



Remember the rain? Yeah well..it water logged the ground..Imagine this..a rover got stuck in the mud, so they called in a rescue vehicle to pull it out...and guess what? The rescue vehicle got stuck too, so they had to call in another rescue vehicle to rescue the rescue vehicle...quite a mouthful eh? So in the end, they had to call in a M113 to pull it out....I was laughing away...

Anyway, this is a milder version..a jeep got stuck in mud at the school we were at on the last night due to the many days of rain...We had to drag it out using another rover...oh well...



After 7 days...Tango 14 and Tango 16 emerged from the jungle...shagged as heck but feeling damn happy to be alive and waiting for the chopper to get them out of there....








Oh yes..The night before, in fear it was going to rain again and the teams needed to take shelter..guess what? There was a house nearby..but they were not allowed in...why?

Thai liasons have seen things inside..it's locked..short story...a robbery took place there. 4 people were murdered in it...

Here's the house....

Nothing much in the bright morning sun...but I'm sure it's alot more foreboding at night when it's raining with thunder, lightning and wind









Remember the 7 days of rain? Here's my friend's foot..damn he's a trooper.....His other foot was the same...major abrasions and he said the MO said something about blood vessels too...










Ex Greyhound End of Frame Dinner....
6th Coy
Detachment 2

Left to right
Kian Siong (Kio Sai), Wei Kang (Hong Kong), 2Lta Alastair, Lie Quan (Jumbo), Shide, Me, Kang Wei, 2Sg Andy, Ian (Sissylia) and Dexter






The original platoon 10..we may have split into two different companies since bmt, but hey....

The "Tigers" 5th Coy
&
The first ever "Wolves" 6th Coy








The Bridge over the River Kwai...seen the movie, heard about it..but ever been there? That's Jumbo again...


That would be me...













Anyway, I saw this sign at one end of the bridge...

In case you can't see. It says
"Caution: Be careful, Walking on the bridge may be dangerous. Please keep away from the railway while the train or the railway checking car comes"









Question would be...would you like me to go off the left or right?












Our second day, we went to a zoo..believe it or not? I've never been to the singapore zoo since I was in primary school and here I am at the zoo of another country...hahaha....

Tigers, Elephants and Crocs....






















And this would be us feeling really bored at the back of the coach

Me, Perry(behind), Pestana (Headlock) Issac and Chin...










Our Flight HOME!!!!!!





Posted on 11/02/2005 by <$The One$>