well im back from thailand. though i dont feel as elated as i did when i was back from brunei, its always still comforting to sleep in your own bed with a bolster. hmm, thailand was well, really desert like. that place really needs more clouds, or rather, needs some clouds. the lack of which resulted in weather extremes, with the day really scorching hot and the nights freezing, and i mean it in every sense of the word, freezing cold(winter period). the nights were really painfully cold, esp when you're up at some mountain top armed with nothing but the winter jacket they provided(which was mroe like a wind-breaker actually). if im not wrong the coldest it actually reached was ard 6 degrees.

and the weather was really dry, which made even smiling really painful. lips cracked, noses bled. but that being said the weather was awesome for training, as we hardly ever prespire.

the ex red beret before the main stretch of exercises was something to remember. it was a two day one night navigation ard kanchanaburi region to get used to the terrain and weather, and also to recognise the various landmarks and mountains there. and lo and behold some one decided to be smart and made us carry our usual field pack load ON TOP of our water supply, sleeping bag, winter jacket and ammunition. the result was the heaviest load we had to bear so far. and the best part was the 25km distance which we were "supposed" to cover during the brief turned out to be some 50km++. oh well it wasnt that bad an experience though, and the night sky was stunningly beautiful with stars planted at every square inch of the sky, coupled with the silhouettes of the mountains was breath-taking.

oh well nothing much except maybe for the fact that our objectives were caught in the forest fire twice while we were there and the term 'fire-moment' took on a whole new definition. my comm scot and bell and wadeva was burned down and erm well i nearly broke both legs after a plunge off a cliff in the dark during the ex finale dusk attack. some interaction with the local populace and some cip thing with one of the school's there. yeah well basically no point penning it all down since u wont really get the whole picture unless u were there. so yeah.

well thailand is really quite a beautiful place after all. oh well, no more overseas training at least for now.

okay i did be off to thailand for training (ex crescendo) in about an hour's time. be back on the 24th of jan.

till then.

tough training;
tough times.

even tougher God.