What will be shall be

Tekong-the island of horrors

My FYP supervisor sent me an email a week ago and told me along with all his FYP students, it is compulsory that we must join the excursion to go to Pulau Tekong for a sort of open house invitation.

In other words he forced me to go to Tekong with a hidden meaning that if I don’t go, do not expect to get good grades for FYP. Or worse still he might even fail me. Anyway there is an extension of a day if we agreed to go. Since he is my supervisor, I don’t have much choice anyway. Xh upon hearing an extension of a day, had both her eyes lit up, like a typical auntie at the wet market seeing that the price for fish has gone down.

Since she was the only one beside me then I knew I had to physco her to go. I don’t want to go there alone in the hot weather. I need someone to shelter me with an umbrella. She agreed eventually after I bribed her with a can of drink. (WHAHAHAHAH)

Anyway mh and pk had also signed up for that trip as well but mh was sick and couldn’t turn up. In the end it’s the 3 of us, hand in hand to combat life and death together at Tekong. This trip will always deeply anchor in my mind because of the horror attached.

We met in school around 12 pm and took a bus to changi jetty and took a sampan boat to cross the sea. The sampan boat was only 2 meters by 1 meter and 11 of us had to squeeze into the boat. My supervisor was our hero, having half of his body submerged in the sea water and 2 hands clutching the sides of the boat. It took us nearly 2 hours before we reached there.

Upon reaching the shore, we were to queue up in an orderly manner and were given a bullet-proof vest each. “Bullets have no eyes,” was the simple reason given. We had to sign a life and death contract stating that they are not responsible for any losses of life or limbs. I was about to turn back and run to the sea when my supervisor growled at me. “GO! Or else FYP fail!” There was no turning back for me. I could understand his grouchiness because he had a crab struck in his pants which he just couldn’t get it out. I do understand crabs like to eat anything that resembles fish balls and so…..

We were brought to their auditorium where we were shown slides of the tortures they do to their recruits. It was simply too horrible to watch. The worst thing is we were sat onto electric chairs and if we were to close our eyes more than 3 seconds, we would be electrocuted. The 3 of us left the auditorium looking like Africans with smoke coming out of our mouth.

Next we were brought to their live firing range and they actually put live soldiers as their targets. The promotion offer is as follows:
1) hit hand or leg – Weekend off
2) body hit – Sunday off
3) head shot – off permanently and transferred to Changi prison for murder case
4) miss and nothing hit – you are next on the list as the next target

Blood were spattered everywhere and there were screams of “Tolong…Tolong…aku sakit….”

Next we were shown a display of a soldier’s food ration pack and were even invited to sample. At least something good out of this trip. We were to carry a paper plate and queue up for the ration food prepared by their people. As we get closer, we realized what the food was. They were actually cooking mud. Deep-fried, steamed, stir fried, boiling..there were a lot of cooking methods. We were told that the soldiers when on out-field trips, just gathered mud from the roadside and then cooked them on the spot. Those who refused to eat will be shot immediately and then cut up to distribute to add dishes.

Having gone through so much it was finally time for us to leave. Before we go, we were told there are light refreshments at the jetty. Each of us were given a straw and were brought to the shore. “Insert the straw into the sea water and drink as much as you want. It’s on the house.”

There were no sampan boats in sight at the jetty. Instead we were to blow our own float and swim back to mainland. My float was the cutest around, a yellow duck float, much to the envy of pk and xh. The 2 of them had to float on coconuts. It was certainly a trip to remember for the rest of our lives.

(Writers’ notes: Any idiot who read this will know this is a frictional story and all of the events above never happen. It is true we went to Tekong for open house today but the trip is so boring and I was so tired having slept just 3 hours the night before that I had to let my imaginations run wild. Hence if there were any events similarly related it is purely coincidence and the writer would also like to offer his deepest condolence.)

posted by malmoncolo @ 2:13 AM