I was a trainee in SISPEC n it was in Pulau Tekong last time in bslc, there’s this topo exercise where trainees have to form teams of 4 pple n navigate around tekong to find checkpoints. So i will start wif day topo 1st, this story not so scary lah.. but worth a mention cos i did panic a bit at that point of time. I’m sure those familiar wif tekong will agree that kampung unum is the most “dirty” place in tekong. i’ve heard stories of recruits seeing stuff n chasing after them, but that’s another story for another time. anyway, back to my story… during my batch in sispec, i was told by my PC that all other bslc companies had marked off this checkpoint (meaning cancelled it out) but my OC was 1 bo chup fellow… he said our company will go ahead wif this checkpoint, but only 2 teams in the whole coy kena this checkpoint.

My team was so suay to kena this checkpoint. juz b4 the topo started, my PC called my team for a special briefing, he told us we r 1 of the 2 teams that kena this checkpoint n warned us abt that particular checkpoint in kampung unum.
he said:
1) leave that area if we cant find that checkpoint by 1600hrs
2) do not venture into the area on our right that is marked by a long stretch of white tape parallel to the dirt track as it’s where the old cemetery is.

ok… my team reached the area near the checkpoint description and we tried to bash in the bushes to find the checkpoint. that time still newbie, didnt noe that the checkpoint was nicely setup n tot need to bash in. Sidetrack a bit, i have this damn super garang team mate, let’s called him M, a guy who wanted to sign on wif commando, he’s a person who is very brave, very siao on etc…

M volunteered to use the parang to bash our way in n we followed in single file. however, 5 metres into the bushes, the remaining 3 of us decided not to bash in anymore cos it’s unlikely the checkpoint is there but M insisted bashing for another 10metres so we told him to go ahead while we wait for him n ensuring he was in our sight. From our point of view, he continued bashing in for a distance until we shouted to him that he’s too deep in. suddenly, he turned back n faced us, n started to almost run to us. once he reached us, he told us to get out of that place immediately n will explain to us later. knowing that he’s a no-nonsense person, all 4 of us went back to the main track n continued our topo. After a while, we finally found our checkpoint, shaded the symbol n left the checkpoint. once hitting the dirt track, we discovered that we forgot to copy down the number at the checkpoint, so 1 of my fren Y n me volunteered to go back to the checkpoint to copy down the number while the remaining 2 of them wait for us at the dirt track.

So we went back to the checkpoint, copied the number, n was leaving when suddenly a very sweet n nice smell came upon me. the feeling was like i feel like staying there to smell the sweet smell… but at the back of my mind, i noe something is wrong, so i asked Y if he smelled anything n he said “no”. Y was literally directly in front of me yet he cant smell it so i told him to hurry n meet up wif the rest.

It wasnt until when we reached our log point that M told us wat happened. He was bashing in n he tot we were all behind him, he said he didnt hear us telling him to go ahead while we take a break. he tot we were behind him all along cos he could hear our panting n footsteps directly behind him, he said he was even tokking to us like “wah weather so hot, still must do topo” when in actual fact, we were quite a distance from him. *notice the part when he went too deep in n we had to shout for him to come back, he was disappearing from our sight. He then said he tot we were following directly behind him n he smelled a very sweet n nice smell that made him wanna linger in that area until suddenly he heard us shouting out to him. that’s y he almost ran out to us. it was at this point when i told him i smelled the same thing when Y n me went back to copy the number at the checkpoint.

ok… this is roughly wat happened during day topo at kampung unum. Not very scary though… but wat happened to us on the same day during nite topo is wow… mind-blowing… having the creeps now juz by tinking abt it.