ROC Trip
Man oh man; I’m back from Taiwan! The last 3 weeks has been a real ride for me, i was very excited about reaching Taiwan and when i reached, i wasn’t disappointed, the mountains and the skies was a real sight for me. We proceeded to Heng Chun camp from our Kaohsiong airport and when we arrived, i was surprised to see that it was actually a very small camp, totally not what i had expected at all. We took our duffel bags today with our kitbags and then we proceeded into our bunks building. Platoon 3 was to sleep on the upper floor and it was a real sight, it was like the olden army where we slept on double-storey beds and our whole platoon was to sleep together in one big room. But of course, we made do with whatever we had and proceeded to unpacking our stuff. The food there at the cookhouse were cooked by reservist men and i must say, they should take over the Singapore Food Industries because their food is really good! I honestly loved the cookhouse food. There was also a canteen there where the most bought food had to be "ji pa" or chicken cutlet and the "tian bu la" which i suspect its actually tempura in Chinese, it was really nice to have those especially at night. For training, we started out with Ex Comet 1 and 2, which was basically just terrain visualization, and it was sort of like a time to relax and just watch the beautiful scenery but after that, the navigation exercises would start and that would be when we would start climbing the mountains that we admired so much. The first ex was Ex. Libra, which was a simple navigation exercise only that the road in between checkpoints was far that’s all. Then came Ex. Red Beret, which was a section navigation exercise, and it was a little tougher because the terrain involved us climbing mountains and bashing through thick vegetation. Then came Ex. Green Beret which was a 3 day 2 night navigation exercise and this was the really super tiring one, we kept walking and walking with our full battle order and we took about 8 eight hours to find our first checkpoint because we couldn’t find one way to go through to another knoll and then we decided to bash out a new route for ourselves. But that really boosted our morale when we found it and we proceed to finding 2 more before we camped for the night at our logpoint. We woke up early the next day and proceeded on and the good thing was, the last 2 checkpoints were the near the area which Mingcai and i had walked during the Red Beret exercise so that helped us. My team was actually lagging behind but now, we had become one the fastest team in the hotel wing and were heading for our endpoint when the worst thing that could ever happened, happened. First, we got disorientated and lost track, we went down a ravine and because we came to a waterfall and could no longer proceed on, we had to climb up a cliff to head for another direction. The cliff was very steep, had lots of loose soil and was at least 50m in height. I was very scared; i kept thinking why did this have to happen to me... I almost fell at one stage and that further made me more nervous. When we finally did reach the top, i realise that my map was missing and after everyone was up, we went back down again to look for it, we couldn’t find anything and because it was a getting dark, we decided to camp for the 2nd night. I was sad, disappointed and angry, if we had gotten back on the 2nd day, there was a possible nights out for us, i had indirectly caused misery for my whole team. Luckily for me though, they were very encouraging and told me to not worry first and look for it first thing in the morning. And so we did, and yes! I found it! I found it at the ravine where we were climbing before we went up the cliff. We packed our stuffs and proceeded as fast as we could to the endpoint. It was then back to camp to prepare for the 5 company missions that were back to back and afterwards, Ex. Finale! The 5 missions were very super tiring because we got less than 3 hours of sleep in between them and only after the 3rd mission did we get to have at least 6 hours of sleep before resuming back the less than 3 hours of sleep we were getting. It was super tiring and I really felt like giving at times but I’m glad I didn’t because that was a sense of achievement for me. I was given appointments of section commander and platoon sergeant. I think I did quite well as a section commander but as a platoon sergeant, I think I need to learn abit more and hopefully have more chances to do it again because I felt lost as to what am I supposed to do and how should I go about doing it. After which, we transit into Ex. Finale which was going to be tough because it’s a company mission, I was in the breaching team and was tasked to carry the bangalore torpedo. It was really a hassle because of its length and during the tactical march, I was really struggling. The march was very strenuous, we were supposed to march for only 2 hours plus but instead, we marched for 8 hours from 6 plus to about 230am. The worst part however was when we reached the top of the knoll, it started to rain very heavily and we already soaked from the earlier rain and our sweat and now, this. We felt very demoralised and cold and for me, I really felt like giving up. However, I pushed myself on by telling myself that this is the 2nd last mission, only 1 more before all of this is over and so, I pushed on. However, during the mission, I slip and fell and the bangalore torpedo slapped against my lower back which was really painful and I tried to bear with it but at the end of the first mission, I was having problems standing straight and so I fell out for the last mission. After which, all the training came to and end and now, all of us were looking forward to the rest and relax period. We went to places like Kenting, Kaohsiong and Taipei to visit places like palaces and museums and also do a lot of shopping and stuff. I did quite abit of shopping and was really glad that I managed to get some clothes that I couldn’t find in Singapore. I also bought some pastries back for my mum and friends. I also went to club at Ministry of Sound, which was the first in Asia! It was really fun there; the people are so friendly, unlike Singapore where the people are more stuck up. Overall though, I had a great time in Taiwan, the training made grew stronger mentally and physically and I learned more in terms of navigation and also planning for missions, also, I managed to have a great time during my rest and relax period which makes this trip and overall success.