Life in National Service - Part 2 - The Activities 1

To most people, National Service is all about intensive physical training, long hours of under the sun, and most of all, our hair will be cut, or rather, shaved. Of course, before I attended NS, I was worried about the physical training. Will it be too intensive? Long distance running has always been my weakness. Run a 100 meter and I will be huffing and puffing like an automatic inflator. But buffing up my body has always been my dream, given that I have slimmed down since I was 13 years old. Now many people say I am too thin, skeleton-like, gangly, anorexic, and even bulimic. Had I have the choice to choose whether to be like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Mischa Barton, definitely I would choose to be like Arnold.

The most fundamental physical training during my life in NS had to be marching. Perbarisan, as it is affectionately called, was every trainee’s nightmare. Standing under hot sun for 2 hours each time we had marching training almost made us feels like a muffin in the baker. Whoever suggested that physical training will be proceeding from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm must be a “genius”. Who can withstand the HOT temperature for 2 hours without water (Well, although all of us had went through this without any problem)? Moreover our Desaru camp is near the sea, even standing on the beach, enjoying the sea breeze almost felt like you were the gingerbread man, being baked until you became THE gingerbread man.

Next was the morning PT (physical training). Every morning we had to wake up at 5.30 am, for the Malays they would have to wake up on 5.00 am to have their prayer. Then at 6.15 am, we would be called to gather up, and PT began at 6.30 am. PT varied from aerobic exercise (or rather, dance) to long distance run. I hated long distance run the most, although we sometimes we would be running along the beach, and resting for a while to enjoy the sunrise. Sometimes we would be running out of the camp, but not very far away. But still, I hated it. As I had say, running is my biggest weakness. Even the fattest trainee in my team also could run longer than me. I didn’t know why. It made me feel like I am the worst runner in my team.

The most entertaining exercise of all soul-destroying trainings had to be the high element training, or Tali Tinggi as they called it. In the high element, we were introduced to most of the stuffs used in high element like rock-climbing, for example, carabiner, pulley, belay device, etc. Then came the time we did the rappelling. I was among the last to do it, as I wasn’t sure whether to do it or not. It’s not very high, 2 storeys I think. Finally it’s my turn. We were to use our leg to jump, our hands to control the speed, and our eyes to look at the trainer above. As a first timer, I was quite nervous; moreover I had a little acrophobia.

First jump, - bump, ouch. Hit the wall by my side. Second jump - ahh…, can control a little. Third jump – hey, my palms are burning because of the friction. Are these gloves actually protecting my hands? Fourth jump and the rest – excess use of lactic acid in shoulders, hands, waist, and legs.

Next stop – the postman-walk. This was kind of easy. Just hold on to the rope using your hands, and walk like crab, I mean, side-walking. Nah, ‘tis not challenging at all. I wanna do the flying fox!

So, came the time we did the flying fox. Wait a minute, there was too many people! By using our limited mathematics knowledge, we predicted that we wouldn’t be flying the fox in the first day. Then came the second time we flew. Damn, what do they think they’re doing? They flew on the first day, and now they fly again? Where is justice? Never mind, as long as I get the chance to fly.

Okay, now it’s my turn. The trainer above keeps shouting, “hey wirawati (female trainee), cepatlah sikit.” That hurts a lot, although the trainer is joking. “Cikgu (we called our trainers cikgu), wira lah! Bukan wirawati!” I protested. “Alah, kamu ni terhegeh-hegeh (procrastinate), tak lah macam wira. Wirawati pun lebih cepat daripada kamu,” the trainer explained. I was shell-shocked.

After setting up the equipments, e.g. checking the safety rope, and I was in position (hands holding both ropes that are connected to 2 pulleys respectively that connect to the cables, and the body shaped like an L with legs up high), I was waiting for the trainer to give the “lapor” command. We were told to report before we flew, saying like, “Wira A1-01 (or name), sedia untuk turun, tuan! (ready to land, sir!)”

… …… ……… “GO!” the trainer suddenly shouted as he released his hand that was holding my body harness. And then I was like, “what the heck? I haven’t report yet! And I wasn’t ready to land, yet!” But what could I do? I just kept on flying until I reached the end. Yeah, THE END.

In flying fox, THE END is the most feared part, well, for us boys. You were flying at high speed, what thing should you use to stop you? They used some kind of thick rope. So when near the end, the rope would prevent the pulleys from sliding anymore. In other words, it acts like an emergency brake. Now, here’s the most feared part:

The pulleys, as I had mentioned earlier, were attached by 2 ropes respectively, and the 2 ropes attached to the body harness (shaped like V). The BODY HARNESS is the problem. The half harness (see picture at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climbing_harness) was more preferable for boys. Note that it’s preferable, not suitable. Body harness is like half harness, only it also covers the body, which means there will be 2 belts slung across your shoulder and intersects at you back, forming an X. The problem doesn’t lie in the upper body, but lower body. The harness tightens your hips, and the belts also slip into the space between the pelvis and the hip, get what I mean? And there will be a rope (the one that connects to the pulleys) attached directly in front of your stomach.

Now, Imagine you were a boy. Imagine you were flying down from 3-storey high tower. Imagine the ending was in front of you. And suddenly, VOILA! Your velocity magically reduced from about 10-20 km/h to 0km/h. Then you felt that there was some “tension” in your private part. You walked uphill (‘coz the tower is located on the hill), limping like you had just had a vasectomy operation.

I can’t give details on water activities ‘coz I didn’t finish my NS. Halfway through it, I received the Form 6 letter and left the camp. Water activities were scarce in the timetable. Everyday we checked the timetable with hopes of having water training in the afternoon, but every time we checked, disappointment filled the air. If it was not high element, it would be marching training, or other activities. In this kind of environment (hot hot hot), all we wanted was water activities. Moreover our camp was near the sea. I wasn’t in the rakit or kayak team that was sent to Mersing to compete, so I didn’t have much water training. For us who didn’t take part in the competition, we were still doing our buoyancy training when they all were kayaking. I only had 2 theory classes of water activities before I left. No kayaking. The team? They trained every afternoon. While we were marching, they were training very hard.

We also had nationwide day navigation somewhere in April. It was kind of fun walking through thick jungle, not knowing where our leader would take us to. We didn’t have very thick forest around our camp, only secondary forest. So most of the fun was missed out during day navigation. Unlike my friend’s camp in Jasin, Malacca, which was blessed with thick forest, they trekked deep into the jungle. There even have a waterfall due to the camp is near the Gunung Ledang. However, our camp is blessed with rough sea that they don’t have.

We were supposed to have Ex-Wirajaya in the last week of our NS. Ex-Wirajaya is an activity where we will be placed deep in the jungle, camp there for a night, and find our way out of the jungle and to the camp. But I didn’t have the chance to do that either.

Seems like I missed out most of the fun attending the NS

To be continued…