My Camping Experience (Travel Writing)

My Camping Experience

My life had always been unpredictable. As an evident, one time I was in a jungle shooting an M16 Rifle then out of nowhere I was in a rural school teaching English. But I like that because it gave me multiple experiences that nobody else had.

Around March 2017, I walked for 5 Kilometres wearing a backpack worth of 3 days living supply and an M16 Rifle hanging on my shoulder. To put it simply, I single-handedly brought 15 Kilogram of weight under the scorching sun on an asphalt. Hardcore? I couldn’t agree more, but I was paid for this so I could not complain. After 3 hours of torture, my Commander decided that we have had enough and ordered us to hop on the military truck. We went straight to our base camp, that was a lot worse than I had expected. First, the base was on a hill in the middle of a Palm Tree estate which means I had to hike with 15 kg load to reach the base camp. Second, the only source of water was a small river nearby which suspiciously smelled like poo. Third, the place was like a rain gutter, it was pouring all the time. But like a blessing in disguise, I was blown away by the greenery, the sunset and the tall tree. The drastic extreme between the hot road and the cold forest floor was somewhat comforting.

After another 45 minutes of a struggling hike, I finally reached the base. Still, without any rest, we were commanded to do the surveillance formation, where we were required to crawl in shooting position while covering a 100-metre of distance. This formation is compulsory because according to the protocol, an army must survey the area they decided to reside, to confront any potential threat from the enemy. Around 7.10 pm, we received a new order to have our dinner.

At night we reload our M16 for a night ambush operation in the estate. We were tasked to lay in a shooting position on wet ground for the whole night until a supposedly ‘enemy’ walk by. Undeniably, that was the worst night of my life. I actually developed a trauma for extreme coldness later on. Hilariously, we mistook a villager for an enemy then start hysterically shooting and throwing the grenade. I wondered who that person is, but I was sure they would be horrified. Despite that, we were rewarded by our Commander to soak our 2 days unwashed body in the river. I was having a blast, but suddenly the cold water turned warm and yellowish. So I suspected that somebody had rudely pee in a small river with 30 people were lining up in the stream.

Now that years had passed, I still reminiscing those experiences, and I felt glad that I endure the hardship because I could share it in a story like this.

                                                                                                           -zamzarif-   (483 words)