Brunei Mount Biang…Wau “Biang” ah

Hello guys, I just got back to Singapore this morning. Scaling Mount Biang is not an easy task. The terrain and the weather are much different than Singapore in terms of their natural species, relief and the temperature.

Diary of my Brunei overseas training:

2 January 2006
11.30pm: I arrive at Changi Airport Terminal 2. Most of them had already arrived and was munching on their burgers. I am feeling sian especially when the trip to Brunei was not an holiday but a training stint. The expressions of most of my friends are sulky and I guessed they were in a low morale mode.

3 January 2006
1.30am: A brand new day. I was still in Singapore in SQ 8992 and we are preparing for take off to Brunei. This was my first time boarding a commercial flight but was not feeling excited as I was wondering what kind of training was installed for us. During the flight, I watched a movie and the meal was quite acceptable.

4.30am: Reached Brunei. The airport was quite run down and the only passengers in the airport were us. I was in the second wave of the journey to our training camp @ Lakiun Camp and therefore I was transferred to the Jalan Anan Camp in mainland Brunei. I slept throughout when I reached the camp accommodation quarters.

10.30am: It was time for us to make our way to the Lakiun camp. It was located from mainland Brunei and is only accessible by ferry. We board a bus to the Brunei naval base and board the ferry to the destination. Everything was surrounded by hills and knoll.

2.00pm: Reached Lakiun camp. The camp was modeled as the old camp use in the 60s. Living condition was still acceptable as I had saw camp worse than that. We lived I long houses where it can accommodation 70 personnel. Most of the structure was made of wood. I called it “Pig sty”. We had our lunch; it was a very lousy lunch. The rice was hard and the servings were not up to standard.

4.00pm: Managed to settle down and after the course briefing, it was mostly on stores and taking over the armskote room. After dinner, we had a revision on signals set and the rest of the time was to settle admin stuff.

12.00am: Lights off.

4 January 2006
5.30am: Wake up and had breakfast.

7.30am: We had a pacer course and a basic topology (navigation) course for the whole of the morning.

1.00pm: After lunch, we had a Combat swim where we will use 4 fieldpacks and linked them together using a caribina. Then 4 persons will wear life jacket and swim across the river. The river was known to have crocodiles in the river and hence they did a crocodiles drill to ensure there was none in the river. I was wet from chest to my feet but it was great swimming in the river.

5.00pm: I had dinner and we had preparation for Guided Navex. It was mostly on a guided navigation exercise some hill. It was tough navigating in Brunei terrain as the only “safe” navigation was to use ridgeline and depend on contours lines in the map.

5 January 2006
The whole day, we had Guided Navex. The terrain was slippery and wet. The knoll was quite steep and they were a lot of thorns plants surrounding the jungle. I realized that navigating in the jungles of Brunei could be such a difficult task. If u looked down the ridgeline, it was a very steep slope to nowhere. That was how dangerous the terrain was. The rest of the day was spent on packing our fieldpack for the 4 days 3 nights Exercise Rat (include navigation at some hill and climbing Mount Biang). Before lights out, I was saying prayers for myself and hope I don’t get injured and go through the exercise smoothly.

6 January 2006
5.00am: Woke up and had breakfast.

7.00am: Last check on our fieldpack and account for all the stores. My fieldpack was used to place the signal sets used throughout the exercise.

8.00am: Board a bus to the unknown hill and start of the exercise. For the whole day, it rained non-stop and by then I was half wet. We managed to find the 1st checkpoint just after lunchtime. Lunch was combat rations, nothing special.

1.00pm: Spent most of the time searching checkpoint two. Climbing the knoll and walking on never-ending ridgelines. At certain point, the terrain was very muddy and we had to cross the stream occasionally to get to the other side of the terrain.

5.00pm: We gave up finding checkpoint two and start harbouring at a certain location where it was big enough for us to tie the hammock. By 6pm, Brunei was already dark and as we setup our shelter, it rained again. I slept in the hammock in wet uniform. My friend took some photos of us inside the shelter and it really boasts our morale a bit. I guessed I slept immediately.

7 January 2006
5.30am: Pack our stuff and had breakfast. This time, we skipped checkpoint 2 and head towards PP (Some ending point). It took us the whole morning and afternoon to get out of the jungle. The distance was 3km if we bashed through in a straight line. In actual fact, the jungle terrain will never be a straight line as it meanders here and there. All we had to depend was the general direction to the PP.

3.00pm: We hit a dirt road. The first man-made feature I saw in 2 days. By then, we were late for the bus to Mount Biang. But nevertheless, we head to MIKE 2 (A HQ point) instead of PP. From there, we took a bus to Mount Biang.

4.30pm: After crossing the “Piano” bridge on our way to Mount Biang, we assembled and made our way towards Mount Biang. The terrain was muddy and it was similar to Ex-Spade, which I had in Singapore. I guessed the fact that it was used every year by trainees and with rain, the terrain was damaged quite sometime ago.

6.00pm: We were still at the base of Mount Biang. But as darkness fall, we decided to harbour. By then, my uniform was muddy and wet. After setting up my hammock, we had dinner. We cooked instant noodles and use the river water to cook. To say, river water was cool, sweet and refreshing after we used puritabs to purify the water. After having a warm dinner, I changed into a new set of clothes and decided to turn off early.

8 January 2006
7.00am: Pack up and proceed on. We still harboured hopes of returning to Lakiun camp by evening even though it was an uphill task. The start of the Mount Biang was already challenging. An 88 degrees up slope appeared in front of us. The terrain was wet and it was going to be tough as we go on further. One slip, and that it, u will fall to the bottom. There were numerous knolls and we mostly navigate based on ridgelines and contour lines in the map. I slipped and fall for several times but we still had to move on. We also crossed seasonal streams to cross to the other side of the knoll.

11.30am: the route to the top of Mount Biang was nearly vertical and it was at least 100m in distance. I managed to be the 1st few of my detail to reach the top. But an unfornate incident happens. One of my friend just collapses on the way to the top. He was feeling hot and ice packs were immediately used. He was diagnosed with heat exhaustion and he was feeling a bit dizzy. Luckily, he managed to recover with an hour and was able to continue the rest of the climb. Partly the cause of it was due to the lack of food he consumed as he had poor appetite for the past 2 days.

12.30pm: After lunch, we made of way to the base. Hope was high as we were motivated by the Fish N Chips in the canteen of Lakiun Camp and we made our way in a speedy mode. During the move, we encountered more knoll and slope but was glad to hit a constant down slope. I realized that down slope was easily but there was a chance that accident occurred due to slip and fall.

1.30pm: We hit a turning point and the tree was craved with the word “下山”. Most of them ignore and got lost in the jungle. We decided to trust that it was going downhill and it was the right choice. This time the terrain changed. It was a stony terrain as it consists of huge stone and rocks and many dead falls along the way down. It looks more like a dinosaur land to me. We even encountered beehive, hornet nests that were as close as 100cm from us. Risk assessment: Very Dangerous

5.30pm: Hope of returning to Lakiun camp was dashed as we still got quite a distance to cover. As the instructor had mentioned, we will encountered a very steep knoll on our way back and I saw a knoll that is vertical (Very very steep). This knoll was even more steep and distance was even further than the rest of the knoll. The terrain was muddy and I had to depend on the roots of the tree to pull me up. Imagine a signal set that weights 5 plus kg with weapon, and we need to climb up the stupid knoll.

6.00pm: I managed to reach the top of the knoll and was relief that my prayers was answered. We haboured for one more night. By then, my uniform was filled with mud and was wet from the stream crossing. I made a bold decision and decided to change and sleep with just an underwear and Gortex jacket. During the night I pulled down my shelter and use it as a blanket. What a night!

9 January 2006
7.00am: Packed up and make our way to the base of Mount Biang. With only 500m to end point, it was quite a smooth sailing route back and the slope was steep on our way back. I decided to slide down the entire steep slope and we reached base at 8.45am.

9.00am: After we crossed the river via the speedboat, we made our way back to Laikiun Camp. Is back home with a “is over at last” feeling.

10.00am: Account for the stores and the rubbish we had disposed and off to the bathroom. I washed my equipment and we had lunch @ the canteen and obviously it was to be Fish N Chips.

1.00pm: Clean my weapon for most of the day and rest. Lights off at 11pm.

10 January 2006
Returning of stores and weapon inspection. We packed up our stuff ready for the trip back to Singapore. Most of the time was spent on canteen break and resting. By evening, our kit bags were loaded and were ready to be transported back to Singapore.

11 January 2006
Wake up at 4am ready to have our R & R (rest & recreation). After returning the barracks, we leave Lakiun camp at 5.30am to the ferry to mainland Brunei.

8.30am: Reached Jalan Anan Camp at mainland Brunei. Breakfast was Nasi Lemak. It was a fantastic breakfast.

10.30am: Tour around central Brunei. We had a taxi-boat ride to the villages. Part of the population still live on the sea and I was even amazed that the primary and secondary schools was also built on water as well. We visited one of the village houses, which host many visitors during Hari Raya Pusua. The living room was filled with trophy and photos of the royal family. Toilet was a hole and everything just ends up in the sea. We were also treated with their Brunei kueh, which I think can be found in Singapore as well. We visit a famous mosque where the dome was made up of gold plated with 24K gold.

11.30am: Had a buffet lunch. Cars were much cheaper than in Singapore. Our tour guide alone own 3 cars and fuel was at 53 cents per litres. It hadn’t change much for the past decade. There was also very minimal public transportation unlike in Singapore. There was also inn for backpackers for a low rate of B$18 a night.

1.45pm: Proceed on to another mosque made up of marble and gold as well. We passed by the Sultan Palace, which was not opened therefore; we proceed to the Shopping mall. We were given 3 hours of shopping but with 1 hour, I covered every corner of the shopping mall. The goods there are more expensive than Singapore even though no taxes were imposed. I rotted in the shopping center for most of the time. Similar to Singapore but more expensive.

5.30pm: Buffet dinner @ a 5 star hotel in Brunei. I guessed the only hotel in central Brunei.

7.00pm: We head to another mall call the “Mall”. Nothing much also.

10.00pm: Reached back camp and wait for the flight at 5.30am.

12 January 2006

2am: Wake up and packed up everything. Settle admin stuff and air ticket. By 4am, I was in the bus. By 5.30am, I was in airport ready to return to Singapore.

7.30am: Touch down to Singapore and off to HOME SWEET HOME.

To end off with, I would like to say that this is an experience I will not get elsewhere. It really gives me a very good experience as I have not climbed a mountain before this and improve on navigation skills on foreign land. Not only the training part, it also makes me understand my details mates better and do things with self-initiative.

All is not possible without the support of my family members and friends and last but not least Charmaine for giving me all the morale support during the first days of the Brunei training.

P.S. Photos are still with my friends. I will post it asap.
Cheers!