IT SUCKS DIPSHIT.....for the first few weeks.
It all honesty i cried on the fifth day of NS when i got back my phone to call back home. I was homesick, i didn't have much friends because of the language barrier. This of course made me talk less and subsequently people in the Delta company started calling me proud.
Food was disastrous, flies everywhere, the chicken was always half raw and the fish was hard enough to hit someone with it. Vegetables and fruits weren't fresh and the water had a very bad taste and smell that made me gag the first few days i drank it.
Living quarters and facilities is only good enough to let you rest and do whatever you need. My bed was ok but when i changed the pillow case for my pillow, much to my disgust my pillow was almost black with dirt. As for the toilet we only have 6 shower rooms and 6 toilets which only three of the toilets can be locked properly.
The people were friendly though some had some real attitude but nothing too bad. (If you're reading this lisa, there's no cute girls in my dorm. The cute ones stay in other dorms.)
Trainers, they were nice at first then their true colours came out. The male trainers were perverted as heck and the female trainers some were nice, some were ridiculously strict and illogical. Here's an example, Charlie's company female trainer threaten to take away Charlie chinese girls protective amulet (like the mini Buddhist statue or the Christian cross) as she believed that it was 'challenging the ghost residing in the camp'. You can of course imagine the ruckass the girls made. I was pissed off as well, as i brought an amulet myself. But thankfully she didn't took them away.
Onwards to our everyday schedule.
4.00 am - Malays wake up for prayers but they wake us up too.
6:20 - 7:30 am - morning assembly followed by physical training
7:30 - 8:30 am - breakfast and prepare for Character Building class.
9:00 - 10:30 am - Character Building class.
10:30 - 11:00 am - Tea break.
11:00 am - 12:30 pm - Character Building class.
12:30 - 2:30 pm - lunch followed by prayers for the muslim and rest time for the non.
2:30 - 4:30 pm - Physical training
4:30 - 5:00 pm - tea break
5:00 - 6:00 pm - Riadah (this changes often, sometimes we play games sometimes we listen to boring lectures and sometimes we do nothing, just sit in the hall and talk)
6:30 - 7:00 pm - dinner followed by prayers for the muslim.
7:00 - 9:00 pm - the best time of the day, non muslims do absolutely nothing but just hang out in the dorm.
9:00 - 10:30 pm - We call this Simpanan because anything can happen in this time slot. On wednesday and thursdays we have religious classes though.
10:30 - 11:00 pm - supper but most of us just head straight back to dorm to get sleep.
11:30 pm - lights must be off. For those on night duty they start patrol.
And that is how everyday goes, you might think "Hey it looks pretty busy." but trust me sometimes physical training at 2:30 is replace by grouping at the hall and doing nothing.
I'm still trying to be positive about it considering that the trainers keep saying that the activities will really start after CNY like kayaking and so on.
NS is really like life in a kampung, far away from civilization, no news of what's going on in the outside world and just seeing the same faces everyday. Considering my camp is near a secondary forest and an oil palm estate i've seen enough bugs to make me go pale. Like one morning when i headed to the toilet to freshen up i saw a spider the size of my palm with legs as long as my fingers. I think even ridsect can't kill that monster, man.
And basically NS is a place where we PLAY military. It isn't real military, we're just playing. The trainers don't really know what they should be doing and most of the girls drafted for it aren't strong enough to take the mild pretentious military training. Like when Bravo, Charlie and Delta got punished to stand under the sun at 2:30 for half an hour for being a minute late, some girls fainted and some cried because they couldn't take it. So i seriously urged that if they really do want to go on with it for the sake of doing something that other countries are doing, at least make it 2 years and draft only the guys.
And that basically says most of what i want to say about NS. Please do note that this is personally MY experience on NS. I realize that different people will experience NS differently depending on their personal perception on it so i hope you do respect how i feel about it. Anyway here's some pictures of my camp.
Marching field, the place we get punished, do our physical training and to gather for morning assembly.
The hall and canteen.
The really dark and quiet road (at night) leading to the girls dorm. In the background is the tower for abseiling and flying fox activity.
Alpha 1 Girl's dorm.
Road leading to Alpha 1 and 2 and Delta 1 and 2 girls dorm. My dorm is right at the end next to the obstacle course.
And this is how my dorm looks like everyday from 6 in the morning till 5. After 5 the dorm looks like some clothes warehouse sale.
And this is my bed and my unorganized locker. I have a surprisingly and unusually large amount of space beside my bed. No idea why so i decide to move my bed so that it wasn't directly under the window. It's scary to sleep facing the window at night.
