One of my younger cousins was so lucky he got selected to undergo National Service. And he and a couple of friends were taken to the Merang basecamp this morning. He arrived in the afternoon, was allowed to make only ONE phonecall, and he called me instead of his Mum. He probably figured out there was nothing his Mum could do, hence he decided to call this cousin sister instead.
The National Service basecamp was located in the vicinity of the Merang Suria Holiday Camp.
The compound was clean, and the dormitories looked OK from the outside.
The canteen looked OK too, nothing too extreme, except for this laughable notice put up to advice trainees to separate the utensils after using them.
And this was where they got their respective pillow case and bedsheet from.
We were not allowed into the dormitory, not even J. So we chit-chatted with the trainers for a while. Apparently, the basecamp can accommodate as many as 400 trainees but there are usually fewer trainees in the 3rd series because students who were selected but also offered a place to further their studies (either Form Six or college) could be exempted.
Meanwhile, I’ll just cross my fingers and toes and pray that nothing untoward would happen during his 3-month tenure there. It is very terrifying to learn that kids do get killed in National Service camps.
By the way, the above pictures were taken with my new gadget 
