your guide to training in australia

haha shuwen might have something to say about this, but here goes anyway...

• of the 30 or so days i spent over there, only about 10 or so days were spent outfield. the rest? spent in bunk or camp, sometimes happily slacking away and sometimes being instructed to do some very stupid stuff

• and then even when we went outfield most of the time we sat in the 'vehicle' going from place to place for long long periods of time. so long that the butt and back seriously hurts. and even when we didn't sit in the 'vehicle' there really wasn't nothing much to do.
  

• the climate there was very nice to train in. i guess the air there was very dry so we didn't really sweat a lot. during the day time even with the relentless sun beating down on us we still remained quite dry, and when a breeze blows it is really shiok. so we could go like 4 or 5 days straight without ever changing out of our uniforms. and for the more commando ones (including me) we didn't change socks and underwear for like 4 to 5 days straight outfield. and best of all, they still remained relatively smell free even after 4 to 5 days, hehe.

• the sun rises at about 0430 there. so when you wake up the sun is shining already. a far cry from what most of us do in camp.
  

• the nights were very cool as well. although on some nights spent outfield it was really freezing cold even with like 3 layers of clothing we couldn't wait for the sun to come out and for the time to wake up.

• the base camp we stayed in had surprisingly good facilities. good enough to stay for longer than a month.

• the canteen there really saved us. cold drinks on hot days. warm food on cold nights. although the prices there were overkill. A$3 for a 600ml carton of milk. A$3.50 for a hot dog. A$3 for fries (chips, they call it) so on and so forth. but not like we had a choice anyway. i thought i wouldn't spend much money over there but somehow my money drained very quickly thanks to the drinks.
  

• BUT...the place where all our 'vehicles' were parked were located a good 20 minutes walk away from the camp. i estimated a 1 km walk there. considering that we had to go there almost every day when in camp...good exercise for the body, but very tiring.

• great scenery over there. if you train somewhere on the singapore mainland, and you throw a stone, chances are it will land somewhere urban. over there there were plains stretching as far as the eye could see, ending in tall majestic mountains.

• it sometimes felt and looked like tekong over there though. but it was very dusty. very very very very dusty.

• i don't know how many trees we knocked down while bashing through vegetation. it was a slow and painful process, taking almost an hour to travel like 5 km. it was very dangerous though. a 4 storey tall tree being knocked down and falling right on your head means instant death even with a helmet on.

• the training area was said to be 4 times the size of singapore. so this meant that when the drivers drove they often drove more than 100km in a single day. by the end of the exercise most drivers drove more than 1300+km (!!!)

• they don't call it wallaby for nothing. many kangaroos around. some were even daring enough to hop just opposite the canteen, very close to our camp.

and as for Rockhampton town...

• nothing much to talk about. i estimate that rockhampton town was the same size as Tampines and Bedok towns put together.

• eating over there is scary. since australia is a western country you only eat western food, so we ate western food during our day off and R & R there. and it was about the same for all meals. meat meat meat meat, salads, and then more meat.

• going to a supermarket over there is an eye-opening experience. why? ratio of soft drinks to bottled water over there is like 100:1. all carbonated drinks. no stuff like green tea or whatever tea we are used to over here.

• they have a lot of snacks (i.e. potato chips). and they sell them in HUGE packs. me and my motel roommate bought this huge gigantic pack of crisps containing 30 small packs for only like A$6.50

• and the frozen food section there is O.O gigantic frozen pizzas for only like A$5. and lots of MRE (meals ready to eat) over there as well

• although the Sizzler there pwns Singapore's Sizzler. The salad bar is enough for a very filling meal already

• shops over there close at about 1700. so there isn't really much nightlife there except for pubs and whatnot. food outlets close later though.

If I think up of anything else interesting about Wallaby then i'll add on

-erjian