life jackets

I recall the days in camp,
to walk down to the beach to retrieve something,
we were told to don life jackets
and mind u, it's just like the beach u see at east coast or sentosa (except it's much more dirty in sembawang)
jurong east wave pool probably has bigger waves
wearing lifejackets, it must have looked really silly to outsiders

but well, we've had people die in our waters here
yes, Singapore's stagnant waters

although silly, I guess at the end of the day,
we've all seen a fair share,
enough to realise that no matter how good a swimmer u are or how high your water confidence may be,
mother nature, especially underwater current, is not one to mess around with

I recall there's this large chinese print on the pillar of my camp's cookhouse

欺山莫欺水

literal translation:
bully the mountains, but not the waters