Food & Dogs are what I love.....: June 2006

It was my Rest Day and I thought I'll spend my day shooting and touring around our neighbouring country. Little did I know that it was to be my most unforgettable day.....the day I and my guy was almost labelled as TERRORISTS!!!!!

This is how it went: It was raining earlier on so we waited till the rain had stopped before proceeding towards 2nd Link. Upon reaching the Rest & Relax point around 4pm, we had our lunch and then proceeded towards our favourite "Bird Paradise" location. As we were approaching our destination, I spotted a White-bellied Sea Eagle perched on a radio tower and decided to shoot a couple of shots. Not bad considering he chose to fly quite low and near. Afterwhich, we proceeded into the "village" to search for more birds. This place used to be a Malay Village but they have since been relocated elsewhere and bulldozers have started their piling and whatever. Anyway, I spotted some other birds and a lone cow grazing along with a Malay man, he then approached us and enquired what we were shooting, so told him we were shooting birds and wildlife. He then left on his bike and we decided to proceed out to another hill top to wait for other raptors to appear.

As we stopped at the hilltop, my guy decided to tune his bike while I proceeded downhill with my camera when out of the blue, two soldiers on a scramber with machine guns came towards me and stopped me. One of them then "detained" me while the other went to approach my guy. They asked us some rather idiotic questions like "what time you entered the country", "why are you here", "what are you doing" etc. We told them we were just shooting the scenery and some birds. They then asked for our passports and asked us for our IC so as to verify with the passports. Told them that we don't carry our ICs out of our native country as passports are valid proof of who we are. They didn't accept our explaination and decided to call back to their base and after about 30mins, a jeep arrived with 4 more soldiers. Again, they asked us the same questions that the two soldiers had earlier asked us. Then, they asked to look at my camera to see what pictures I took. So I showed them and my camera only contained pictures of birds, cows and scenery. Still not satisfied, they took turns looking through the pictures again and again. Afterwhich, they laid out all our things and placed them on the ground and took pictures of our items and us plus our bike.

As it was getting darker and late, we then asked them whether we are allowed to leave since they can't find anything illegal about us....they then said they need to consult their Chief! So again, we had to wait.....another 1hr past before another car arrived and a fat man appeared. We thought he was the chief but alas, he said he wasn't the chief and he has to consult another chief!!!!! What the heck! Here we are, cold and hungry standing in the dark with our passports in their hands and all our items laid out on the ground, and they still can't decide what to do with us!!!!! Trust me, I was almost up to my head and about to question them back or rather tell them off but my guy stopped me.

After what seemed like hours, they finally told us that they need to take our passports and photostate and whether we could wait at the hilltop while they go to the nearest town to get the photostating done. This is where I lost my cool and shouted at them! I told them "you bastards wasted my &^%(&^% 2.5hrs asking stupid questions one after another, photographing me and my items, molesting my equipments and now you want me to wait here while you take my passports out of my sight? No way! If you don't allow me to go along with you to photostate my passports, I will hold everyone of you here as hostages! I don't get out of this place with my passports, neither will any of you get down this hill alive!!! I am not a terrorist if that's what you are thinking!" That's when they suddenly became very courteous(forgot to tell you that they were very very rude earlier on) and told me that I could accompany them down to the nearest town. So I told them that I will go with the vehicle that is carrying our passports while my guy will follow behind on his bike. If they don't agree, my earlier threat remains. So they agreed and we all went down to the nearest town and got our passports photostated for their filing or whatever.

After all was done, the fat guy came over to us and told us that his chief has agreed to release us as he is convinced we are not terrorist or illegals. He then apologised for the earlier ruckus and said we were free to leave. Then just as they appeared, they disappeared in a flash! By this time, all appetite for food was gone and we just wanted to get out and reach back to the safety of our native country. Only when we reached home, we breathed a sigh of relief!

Boy, what a day! Never in my life have I been branded as a terrorist! Ever since this incident, I have not stepped back into that country. If I ever do so next time, I will only go to those places that I will not be branded as a terrorist. Thinking back, I just wonder whether the other guys(apart from the two guys in uniform) were actually soldiers as they were all in civilian and did not produce any ID to us. Maybe, they were "eating snake" at a nearby mosque and thought I had probably captured them on my camera as they kept asking me whether I took any pictures of the mosque........hmmmmmm, I wonder and I leave you to wonder too.......................