"Tak kenak! Tak kenak!" "Adak Orang sanak!…………"The quiet jungle has suddenly become noisy with intruders. Strange voices and shouting seemed to appear all around us. They were definitely foreign. We were being attacked!
We had been expecting an attack, but we did not expect it so soon. We did everything possible to protect ourselves, but
only cover we had were some bushes, tree trunks, leaves and
natural foliage. If we protect ourselves from
front, we could not cover our backs. Such was
defense we managed to set up.
Our casualty was very high. Nobody could escape
onslaught.
Luckily, this was not real and nobody died.
This was just a Wargame and
weapons were eggs.
The event was an Outdoor Survival-like Jungle Training. Organized by
training department of our Company, a group of staffs went over to
forest reserve at Lata Mengkuang, Sik, Malaysia to take part in Team Building.
The 3-day training started off with
usual briefing, and ice-breaking sessions on
first day. Each person was given a dome tent for spending
night. Various camp crafts were taught. Lectures were given on Motivation, Compass usage, Mission, etc throughout
day and night. In between lectures, there were group management activities, which put into practice what was taught. The management activities took
form of games, where
participation of everybody in
team and
clarity of direction from
leader are of utmost importance. In
games,
team and leader had to work together to fully understand their own capabilities and weaknesses in order to overcome obstacles, and to achieve
target in a limited time. The first day session finished at nearly 12 midnight.
Almost all
participants could not sleep very well in
first night. The ground was hard and cold. The portable generator set, which supplied electricity supply for lighting, was really noisy. Mosquitoes were not a problem, because we had taken
precaution to spray
enclosed tent with insecticide beforehand. There were some expression of fear of creepy-crawlies from some female team members, and also of
tent being washed away if it rains. Other than that
night passed on without any incident.
We started
second day morning with jogging. The distance was very far. Our muscles got more and more tired. After breakfast,
lecture and management activity sessions was conducted like
previous day. The topics and activities were of course different, and were more interesting. We were taught Principles of War, and also briefed on Jungle Mission. We were to enter
jungle at about 5.30 p.m. on
same day.
The Jungle Mission was about camping in
jungle at night, attacking other teams, and protecting your own camp. The whole group of people was divided into 4 teams, each with their own leader, scout, navigator, deputy leader, and members. The team was guided by experienced jungle guides from
organizers whose job was to only take us to our jungle campsites, and offer advice if needed. The challenge for each team is to capture
flags of other teams, which also included a team of Orang Asli's (jungle dwellers). All
teams are free to make their own decision on whether to seek and attack or to stay put for defense. But it is only in attacking that a team can achieve
target of capturing other team's flags. However we could also lose our own flags if we go on an attacking spree without guarding our own camp.