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a day at the police camp

i talked to four myanmese today. i cuddled many cats today. but it was not easy.

we got off one stop late, so we had to walk back to the previous stop. construction work was on the roads, and we had to turn here and there. so we thought we were being smart by wanting to go into a hdb estate, thinking there would be a way out there that would save us time. well, if we got out, we would have been there. but what looked like a hdb estate turned out not to be, but much more trouble....

we saw some filipino maids entering the 'estate', which, from outside contained several normal hdb blocks with block numbers on them. thing was, we found a guardpost with an odd-looking policeman at the entrance. he looked at us weirdly, we looked back. but he didn't say a thing, neither did we. i wanted to ask him how to get to spca from there la, but hong zhi very smart, told me not to.i saw a police jeep near him. as we walked, we saw the entire place was fenced up. okay, i thought, that's weird, but some hdb estates do have fences around them. but thing is they were barbed. and not with the normal rusty coils thingy, but stainless steel shuriken-lke barbs. we walked, and we saw the usual police car. then i said, wow this place must be quite restless, so many police cars. according to our sense of direction which was right, we had to head up a steep slope..quite a long tiring climb. then as we walked out of that slope, we saw what looked like a road. okay, it was a road afterall.

but what lay beyond the road was no longer of hdb flats. we saw a small odd temple at a corner. then another large gold-plated one. we saw the gate ahead. which would get us out. but it was locked. i thought i could ask the guard at the guardhouse there, but only a lazy cat occupied his post. it didn't tell us anything. then i heard someone calling HELLO from behind. he was on a bike. asked us what we were doing there. i said, we're supposed to get to the spca from here, but it's locked, and now we're lost. then he said, oh the spca is just out of here, turn left. but it's locked now, so u have to go out of where u came from with the queer-looking guard standing there.but don't turn right, you'll end up in the main guardhouse, and i can't guarantee what will happen. then i asked, where are we by the way? oh, you're in some -muddled language- internment camp. i wanted to ask again what i just heard, cos i couldn't believe it! but he was being more helpful than he could be already, so i just thanked him a lot, still thinking this was a hdb estate. he looked malay, but didn't speak like one. well, i would soon realise he wasn't malay afterall.the moment i looked back i noticed the structure looked like a factory. so i was like, what? hdb, temple, industry, all in one place?! then we went down the sleep slope again. it was a very serene walk

the same guard was there. this time he looked pissed off. "what u doing here? do u belong here?" i said the same stuff, spca and don't know where this is. he was pissed off. he said wait here. then he went to call his superior. hong zhi and i just sat there. i guess we were both half-stunned. cos we did not know what was to come. we looked at his belt. gun yes, baton yes, and a what by his butt?!! a damn DAGGER! and our thoughts ran wild..

we spent quite some time sitting there, reflecting on what hot soup we just landed ourselves into. and we kept thinking about this and that. like that place was indeed a hdb estate, as it had all the playground and fitness stations facilities. there were a lot of malays walking about too. then i thought, the guard did not look like chinese. he looked like thai, yet he did not look like it. so i pieced together the information. he wore a weird straw hat that i laughed at when i first saw him cos he looked like a tard. i walked around and i saw buddhist temples. and they did not look like thai buddhist temples. then i realised. the only people who could look like thai would be the myanmese! wow great discovery!

then his superior appeared out of a corner, walking stoicly, his bulging chest muscles still apparent. first thing he said,
"Y-E-S gentleman. what are you doing here?"
spca crap. do u not know where this is?
"there is a sign that says what this place is. at the front didn't u see?"
er no i walked in from that side so i did not see.
"where u two from?"
er..singapore?(duh)
"u two brother and sister? or?"
friends.
where u two live?
i live in woodlands, she lives in hougang.
then we walked, some sorta silence. my heart was beating fast. it was half scary, half exciting talking to this dangerous-looking man that was so full of himself and his brawn. i thought i would ask him what this place really was.
so where exactly is this place?
"this is the gurkha contingent police force camp."
(wtf this confirms it! the bloody gurkhas oh my god!)
oh. then why if that's so, there are hdb flats here?
"oh they are for the families of the civil servants."
(oh cool damn it)

then we walked quite a distance, up on a hill, that i realised was called mount vernon. we came to the main gate. the first gate we saw that was open. he took our ics. out came an old man. well, about 50 years old. he was the only one who looked kind there. the others there were just young newbies myanmese standing around guarding around etc who looked at us curiously. they seemed to smile, but hid them when they saw the more senior ones looking at them. the old man was not as curt as the guard and his superior. he was quick to soften to us. i saw that he was the only person who had his name tagged on his uniform. the others had only numbers. gorigoya rai. i still remember. he asked us why we are here. and he explained to us that he needed to see if we have taken pictures of the place cos their cctvs revealed someone was taking pictures in that place! so i was calm, yea take it and see. nothing in there. only three pictures. he looked through them many times to make sure. then the badass superior of the dumbass guard came out again, feeling quite unsatisfied. did u take pictures of the place? i calmly replied no again. u wanna see(my poopy ass:P ?)? he looked through the pictures probably 3x 10 times. do u have any other chips?(chips he said in a very funny way) no, i dun have. u sure u dun have. no i don't have. he then looked intensely into my eyes, trying to see if i were kidding him. or some lie-detector maybe. then the old man said, alright he does not have them. so that sort of meant stop bugging that guy, he's traumatised enough already.

then he said to us in an amiable tone, " u know, sometimes it just happens that u stumble across these places, and u don't know it. even i, i have stumbled into highly protected places just like u did today. and they had to interrogate me very thoroughly, even though i may be an officer. so which is why we had to do it too u see. security is tight nowadays." (i think he meant to say it's more unsafe today(pertaining to the threats of global terrorism))
i guess he made up that story to make me and dear more comfortable. then the grumpy badass gave us back our ics, though i still felt he was real unhappy about it. as if he never wanted me to get out. the old man smiled to us, shook my hands and hers. oh yes, how do we get out from here? u see, u turn right out of here, and u walk down. then u turn left, that's where spca is. it's about....300 metres from here. so i was like okay thanks a lot..i didn't dare look back again.

well i think the dumbass guard got scolded by the badass superior guard very badly. cos after he said come this way, he went back to the guard and gave him a hell of a whippin in their funny myanmese language. i must soon revert back to using burmese; southeast asia history paper on monday ahha. but i just guess the badass superior got owned by the kind old man in the end. no wonder he's so pissed with me.

haha..maybe i'll continue the rest. maybe i wun. but this is the story of how the failure of one dumb guard who failed to stop intruders got everyone in a total mess! and of how we almost 'died' ! it's a once in a lifetime experience, and one which has cemented our trust together. we went through a lot today my dear. i told u we would all be fine, and we were. love you.

"plak!";
x 8:30 pm

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