Army Open House 2007

This is the week of the school holidays. Sigh! Only one week! Oh well. better than nothing.


As it was the school holidays, i wanted to to go the Army Open House. The army celebrates 40 years this year. It was in 1967, after singapore became independent from malaysia that all guys aged 18 must do national service for 2 years. So i will also have to go for n.s. when my time comes.

The army open house was held from thursday 30 aug to 3 sept to commemerate 40 years of national service. I was given these photos when i went for the open house.

This is the official logo for Army Open house.It is 'where our story comes alive.'

This is one of the promotional adverts of the army.

THe army has changed a lot, i heard. Internet is now used as the battlefield.

The army tanks...

The future warriors...

Steel Rain from our army tanks...

The X Factor

Secret Soldiers...

These advertisements are very cool. Really like them...

The Open house was held at Pasir Laba Camp all the way in Jurong. It is the home of SAFTI - the Singapore Armed Forces Military Institute. The Army is the place where boys become men... This is the entrance/start point.

The first place i went to was extreme world. This is where physical limits are stretched and confidence is built.

Trying out the obstacle course...

The first aid station with a dummy on display.

At hercules Station. Here i discovered that IPPT (physical fitness test ) had gone high tech.

Trying to beat the clock by doing as many sit-ups as possible in 1 min...

The flying fox and rappelling...

Are these banners the mottos of the SAF? Anyway there are

loyalty to country, leadership, disclipine, professionalism, fighting spirit, ethics, care for soldier.

At Hardware land the army armour was on display. This is one of our army tanks...

Up close and personal with the Apache helicopter...

Army rations in the early days. Ugh! how to eat this?

Today's army rations...

SAF proudly presents... NEWATER . This is a mobile distillation plant on wheels- to be used when the army is in the field...

This is Yummy Land where they served army rations...

This is Action World - where there were live performances of the army...

It was held in this square...

In future world we had a glimpse of what army life would be in the future...

The school of infintry specialists at the camp..

Shooting enemies in future world...

All too soon the visit had come to an end. as we were leaving there was a downpour... In fact the skies were very dark before...

The entrance of pasir laba camp when we were leaving... The camp is brightly decorated with flags as we are still celebrating our national day...

i enjoyed myself and learnt alot even though the visit was so short...

MalaysiaKu Gemilang - Malaysia 50th National Day Celebrations in Batu Pahat

Malaysiaku Gemilang!! My splendid malaysia. When we went back to Batu Pahat my father's home town on 1st Sept we were greeted all over with cololurful flags and banners. Malaysia boleh! Yes Malaysia had just celebrated 50th independence day on 31 Aug.






This is a view of the causeway. We are entering the malaysian customs checkpoint.

Malaysian vehicles are to keep left. The speed limit is 50 km/h.

After clearing customs we entered johor baru . Look at the malaysian flags hanging from on the lamp posts. The national flag is a star and a crescent with red stripes. Where is the state flag?

i spotted the johor state flag further down the road. It also had a star and crescent. However, the background is solid blue. There are 13 states in malaysia and all of them have a state flag.

The banner at Plaza Pelangi, a shopping mall in johor baru. Merdeka or independence .it has been 50 years.

We left j.b. and drove to batu pahat. It is about 100km away from j.b. city.

The outskirts of b.p. Passed Batu Pahat mall. Selamat datang ke bandar penggaram!

Celebrations in K.L. the capital of Malaysai. The Chinese newspaer carried reports of the clebrations. In the photo, waving at the crowd is Prime Minister Badawi is on the right . In white is the Deputy Prime Minister Najib.

Batu Pahat town brightly lit at night.

The town is decorated with the national flag.

This is Dataran Penggaram, the town square.

The sultan of johor officially opened the dataran in 2001.

What does batu pahat mean? batu is stone and pahat means chisel. so this is the official emblem of batu pahat. On 30 august midnight, the 50 independence day celebrations was held here.

A view of the stadium behind the dataran square.

Batu Pahat town council is across the road...

Up the slope is the official residence of the Pegawal Daerah batu pahat (district officer) but we did not go in.

Selamat Menyambut bulan Kemerderkaan kali ke 50 tahun. Celebrating 50 years' of malaysia 's independence. No prizes for guessing who is the guy in the photo on the right. Yes! he is Prime minister Abdullah.

The men from left to right are tun abdul rahman, the first prime minister of malaysia who proclaimed independence at merdeka square in kuala lumpur on 31 august 1957. tun abdul razak, tun hussain onn, Dr . mahathir the longest serving prime minister - 22 years 1981 to 2003.

At the stadium i found this banner. There was an independence day celebration on the morning of 31 august (sambutan hari kemerderkaan)

This is my father's old school. High School Batu Pahat for boys. It is now a Malay school.

The B.P. education office...

Another banner highlighting the prime ministers of malaysia.

Part of a long long banner on the wall of the batu pahat high school decorated by the students. This was probably done by a boy from jati 1. Looks very well done and certainly an innovative idea to celebrate independence day...

The motto of B.P. High school. The words on top are in latin, below it, malay, then english.

Another independence day celbration banner. The words at the bottom read

'kami berbangga menjadi rakyat malaysia'. we are proud to be malaysian!

We then went to tasik y. Many people came to run here the sunday morning we were here. The tasik looks so calm and peaceful.

Noticed the rubbish bin. the sign says more bomb less food. who is the face in the photo? what does it mean? In malaysia looks like dustbins are more for than just for trash.

A life like dinosaur in the park . It was at least five times my size....

In the tasik i saw this on the rocks. The pink colour jelly like thing is actually apple snail eggs.

A celebration banner outside temenggong ibrahim girls' school ( premier girls' school in bp)

That afternoon we leftbatu pahat. selamat jalan!pandu cermat!safe journey! drive carefully!

On the way to the north south highway we saw this huge malaysian flag draped on the umno building at sri gading before ayer hitam.

Another flag on the other side of the umno building with the words malaysiaku gemilang.

A brightly decorated bridge on the way to the n-s highway before ayer hitam. Pity it was raining then.

The dark clouds in the sky on the n-s highway. Sure enoough there was heavy rain minutes later.

I enjoyed my stay in malaysia . Pity it was so short. Anyway Happy Birthday Malaysia! 50 years sure is a long time. Even my father was not born then.

I found out that there was a fireworks display in batu pahat at midnight on 30 aug. A resident there filmed it and put it on batu pahat blog.

Thanks runwitme!. As his blog was chosen as one of the top 20 malaysian blogs by the star, i was able to find out about the batu pahat blog which was one of the top 20 too. Congrats, runwitme!

Thanks also to philip of batupahat.org and to tigersden for taking the time and trouble to put up the fireworks display at midnight on 30 august. Hope you do not mind my linking it here! I learnt alot about batu pahat and what life was like when my father lived there when he was growing up from this blog. Thank you ! Here is the fireworks display. Yes it is grand! Makes me wish i had been there that night too. Enjoy!