It is compulsory for all Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents to enlist for National Service upon reaching the age of 18. The Ministry of Defence invited my mum and I, together with many other Permanent Residents, to visit the Basic Military Training Centre yesterday. The BMTC is located on Pulau Tekong (Tekong Island), and is reachable in 15 minutes by ferry from the mainland Singapore.
At 8am my mum and I arrived at Expo MRT and registered with the coordinators. Then we boarded the bus which took us to the SAF Ferry Terminal, where we had some light refreshments before taking a ferry to reach Pulau Tekong. Every visitor was given a goody bag to take home. In both ferry terminals, I could see many slogans like “BMT – where boys become men” and “Every soldier a leader”.
The programmes include guided tour to bunks, medical facilities, Individual Marksmanship Trainer (IMT), talks by Minister for Defence and commanders, sharing session by two PR NSFs (one from Malaysia and one from Hong Kong), lunch at the canteen, etc.. I am very happy that when we were given chance to try out the IMT, I shot two magazines and i passed both rounds of shooting. Yay!
I found the training facilities on Pulau Tekong quite okay, and the environment is clean. What I found very interesting is that, NS men are not only given daily food rations, but are also given snacks, fast-food noodles and drinks like Ribena, Maggi Mee, Oreo and chrysanthemum tea to enjoy.
During the visit, we were assured many times that NS training will be safe and were told that the welfare of NS men has improved drastically over the years. I also saw my schoolmate, Lu Xiao Heng, during the visit. Both of us will be enlisting in 3 years’ time. Just one day before the visit, on 25 January, my friend Simon Tan was enlisted, but I didn’t see him at Pulau Tekong.
After visiting the BMTC, I am now more confident that I will be able to cope with NS. Now, enjoy the photos I took. =)


















After arriving at Expo, my mum and I went to Malan Noodles Restaurant to have dinner. Here’s what we had:



