i'm back!!!! australia was okay.. though there were some tough times but there are also some fun times as well.. reached there on monday, wee hours in the morning with the slight drizzle hitting on me.. was kinda a sad sight.. but we all pulled it through well, i should say..
A 4 day outfield training, plus 2 live firings there sums up this australia trip.. fired about 73 mortar bombs.. because we're firing a longer distance compared to the firing done in singapore so the impact was kinda big and my knee kinda hurt for a while .. other than that it was just running, running and more runnings!! the sky would illuminate by 5am then we'll all run to some forested areas and mind ya, it was kinda a long distance.. but we got used to it after runnin almost every morning..
also got to see kangeroos, emus, kookaburra and other animals in the wild in the midst of the training.. other than that, the stars in the night are also damn nice.. think i saw a couple of shooting stars as well.. that's the cool part.. the uncool part was that there was a lot of sand and i bet everybody ate quite a bit of sand.. and of course it would be all dark when it's just 6 in the evening.. and it gets kinda dark so you can't see no shit and it makes it a bit more dangerous when night driving was carried out..
the meals there were kinda like singapore.. rice with several dishes.. but sometimes it was slightly better.. with ingredients such as mussels, clams and prawn.. seems to be infested with seafood.. bathing was done with a water bag whereby ya have to fill it up with a tap.. there's cold and hot water as well.. i didn't use the water bag and the hot water at all during my 1 month stay.. i just used 2 pails and voila, i was done bathing~~
no bunks for us!! only tentages with safari beds.. during the day it could be as hot as 36 degrees but cold as 16 degrees in the night.. it was damn hot but the strong wind was there to compensate for that and i liked the wind there.. made our own chess sets, uno and sudoku for entertainment.. and not forgetting my rubik's cube!! finally mastered it~ :D
most of the times were spent in the canteen when we're free and had no missions.. watched shows and feasted there.. i never watched so many shows in my life in a short period of time.. these are the shows i watched..
MI 1 & 2
Sniper 1, 2, 3
Final destination 1, 2, 3
Gen X n Y Cops
Robocop 1, 2, 3
James Bond series
Saving Private Ryan
Black Hawk Down
Jet li series, romeo must die, unleashed, the one
Speed 1 & 2
King Kong
Into the Blue
Godfather Series and many more~~
the food sold at the canteen are very expensive.. they're the only guys there who sell the food so they would jack up the price a bit and monopolise the selling of canteen stuff.. drinks were at 1.60$ per can, fries at 3$ a packet, kebab and other foods at a range of 3$ to 5$ and the portion ain't that big as well.. i spent about 2oo$ on canteen food alone!! =p
the day we left camp growl, we were so glad.. finally exercise over.. going for rest and recreation in the town area.. visited some caves for the educational trip and went to the town to shop.. there's nothing much to shop there as the stuff are kinda expensive and the malls are unlike singapore's.. they have only 1 level of all shops and that's it.. anybody can finish combing the area in less than an hour.. the town's kinda dead.. all closed at 5pm and there's no night life there.. all's so quiet and the only thingy that is to be done is to go to bed.. haha..
new zealand airlines was great!! with all the all blacks rugby matches, movies and various entertainment, it made my journey slightly shorter and much more enjoyable.. can consider taking their planes again..
this is just about the general stuff that was done there.. good experience, an okay place to train but leaving singapore for a month made me cherish what i had back home.. missed out on a lot of things.. and missed a lot of peeps as well.. there was this 'what if i couldn't make it back in a piece' thought.. kinda enlightened me and learnt a lot of stuffs as well..
lastly, this had nothing to do with my ex wallaby trip but to a dota mate i didn't get to know more about.. condolences to everybody who knew reuben.. one of the peeps who fell into the cambodian waters during the dragon boat competition.. though i dunno him well but i played dota with him before and saw him once at minghui's birthday dinner that time.. it was saddening to see somebody near our age to falter and go away just like that..we shall all pray that a miracle happens and he would come back.. if God were to bring him back home, may he rest well in the heavens..
