"Apart from the mental and physical strain, the jungle gave the patrolling soldier a pale look from being continuously in the shade and he became rather quiet after being restricted to talk during daylight.
"I also became an expert at cooking rice, the daily ration containing a pound of uncooked rice and a tin of stewed beef from Australia. This tin was given to Australian troops as the British rations were not sufficient for the diggers. We carried curry powder, onions, even garlic. It didn't weigh much but gave a little variety to a dull dinner. We also learned to discard from our backpack anything which was not absolutely necessary, like shaving cream, boot polish, writing pads etc....
"We got used to the jungle noises, mostly from monkeys and learnt to recognise some of the weird noises. We also walked very carefully in case we fell into a pig trap or wire trip which could be attached to a grenade or other nasty explosive."
TRICK OF THE NIGHT
"One night I found myself looking at a pair of tiger's eyes staring at me outside my 'hoochy'. I was tempted to fire a bullet at it but I was scared that being so close to me it would jump on top of me. This staring and winking at me lasted a while and was getting more scared by the minute. Eventually, I crawled out of my tent and found myself staring at a tree truck which had phosphorescent fungus growing on it's bark in the shape of tiger's eyes. It just shows you what the imagination can do."
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![[ South East Asia ]](images/mi/tab_header.gif){kind=small}
