One of the things we learned before going to the Brunei jungle for infantry training was Jungle Survival. The course equipped us with the necessary skills to survive when lost in a jungle. There are pluses and minuses for being lost in a place like that (compared to being lost in the desert, that is); it is a much better deal. But if creepy crawlies and close spaces terrify you, then the jungle can be a nightmare. In any case, you don't have to go to Brunei to get lost. Singaporeans have been to known to lose themselves in a small green patch such as Mandai. Our Jungle Survival training course was conducted by one of the Tactics instructor teams. My batch in OCS was the second last one to undergo such a system of instruction. My cohort and I would later graduate to form the new Mentor system. The Tactics officer in charge of the jungle survival course was a skinny chap known to be quite skilled in Tactics but was a humorous chap. It's always nice to have an instructor with a sense of humour. They usually make training so much more enjoyable. But that day, for some reason, LTA Tan looked out of his depth. He seemed rather unprepared. Staff Sgt Karu stepped forward after the intro. He's our platoon sergeant and Ranger-trained. A portly Indian with a handlebar moustache, rumour has it that he had been known to catch stray dogs in Marsiling and cook them in curry. When out in the field, he was seldom without his kukri knife, a standard issue made popular by the Gurkha guards in Singapore. It was something army folks liked to buy back when in overseas training. Today, you can buy one from the army shops in Beach Road or that professional dagger shop in Chinatown. Buy a lousy one and it rusts like mad. Weighted at the blade, the kukri knife is designed for swinging and chopping like an axe. It's very good for slicing snake, for instance. And that was the first thing on the menu. As snake blood is nutritious, we were encouraged to catch one and slice it in half to drink (suck, more like) its blood if lost and hungry in the jungle. A python is ideal as it is large and voluminous. It's also non-venomous, which makes it a safer reptile to corner and catch. Just avoid pythons thicker than your thigh or they might coil you up in a death embrace. I grew up with a neighbour with a python, so I'm not too scared of one. I've also drunk pigeon blood before as a kid. When Staff Karu sliced our course 'Exhibit 1' and asked for a volunteer to drink it, a few hands shot up, including mine. Willie, a tall strapping chap, was picked to go first. He sucked on the beheaded snake, which was about two inches in diameter. Nothing came out. Apparently Staff Karu was fooling around with him; squeezing the snake tight so no blood came out. When he did let go, blood spurted out and Willie got a bit of it on his face and T-shirt. After that, I hesitated. Who would want to suck on the same snake with saliva all over it??? The chicken was next. It would be killed without a knife. How? A cadet suggested jokingly to stomp on it. Haha, everybody laughed. No one knew the answer. (Strangely, no one suggested shooting at it.) If you do not have a knife with you are in the jungle, there is a technique to beheading a chicken. You grab it by the head, swirl it around and give it a good jerk. The neck will snap and the head separates, informed Lt Tan, who seemed to have recovered from his hangover and found his groove again. To demonstrate, Staff Karu picked Cadet Chang, a rather effeminate but talkative fella. I think he knew what was gonna to happen. Cadet Chang got squeamish and did not get a good firm grip on the chicken. When he tried the Swirl, Clean and Jerk technique, all he accomplished was giving the chicken a sprained neck. He even dropped the critter when it struggled. We now all had to chase the animal and get it back on the table with the rest of the (albeit inert) jungle food. When Cadet Chang tried it a second time, the chicken died, but its head was still attached. Sgt Karu gave him a look of exasperation. It was to tell Cadet Chang that he couldn't even do such a simple thing. Staff Karu then took the dead chicken in one hand and with a sudden jerk, sent the dead chicken flying without its head. Blood flew and splattered all over those sitting in the front row. Fortunately, we were all sitting outdoors on a grass patch by the training shed. LTA Tan took out another live chicken and showed us again how it was done. This time, the head and body came apart in one clean motion. The body landed feet first and started running! "That's what is supposed to happen," he said, and jokingly added that it would remain 'fast food' for a while. He was right. The headless chicken ran in circles for a bit, got tired, and dropped dead. Staff Karu then proceeded to teach us how to cook the chicken jungle-style. It was similar in preparation to what I used to buy from Johor Bahru: Beggar's Chicken - something wrapped in clay and cooked in a large charcoal ash pit. In the jungle, you use mud and pile a wood fire on top. You keep the chicken intact with its feathers. In a documentary I once saw, some Thai islanders would cook the chicken in a different manner. They would wrap it in mud but put it on the ground. They then place a clean and empty kerosene tin over the mud pack and then pile a wood fire around the tin. The chicken seems to cook better and look a lot more appetising. The next thing the instructors taught us was how to tell if certain fruits were edible. One way is to taste it. Another is to watch if animals would eat it too (monkeys are our closest cousins). The third way is to rub a little of its juice on the inside of your elbow. If there's no reaction, it isn't poisonous. But really, in a tropical jungle, there are many types of figs and berries (which are both nutritious and delicious). One just has to learn to distinguish between what is inedible and which is not. There are also underground roots like ginger, yam and tapioca to dig up. With ginger, teh alia (ginger tea) comes to mind. Then the instructors talked about mushrooms. I didn't pay much attention to that. To me, mushrooms are high risk. I rather just avoid them all together unless I get expert advice. Then again, even so-called 'experts' have been known to make fatal mistakes. The other important thing to do when lost in a jungle is to find water. Surprisingly, after our actual trip to Brunei, we realised that water was the easiest thing to find. It's all in the overhanging vines, the brown ones, that is. Chop one and the ends will drip with much water. The other way is to collect dew using a plastic sheet. In other overseas training bases, we never drank water from a stream, no matter how clean it looked. Back in the 70s, many growers used pesticide and this had poisoned the water underground, streams and lakes. So when we were there in the early 80s, we avoided outside water like the plague. Even the water purification tablets were of no help. The Jungle Survival Course ended with some talk about eating bugs. I know people roast locusts and even grasshoppers. But looking at the creature's green abdomen, I found it tough to bite into one. There's always this image of green-yellow pus oozing out. It's not pretty and probably not very palatable (and probably non-existent after cooking.) In any case, ants are a better option. But if I am lost in a jungle, I think I'll just stick to a Fruit and Snake diet. No fire required. But the best thing is not to get lost at all. (Contributed as part of the NS45 campaign which commemorates the 45th anniversary of Singapore's National Service, with the theme of "From Fathers to Sons")