| Travelling Tips for tourists from a local travel agents brochure In order not to wait for the gate to open, depart from Kuala Lumpur sharp on an odd hour eg 9am, 11am etc and you will arrive at the Gap on an odd hour when the gate is open. However if you delay the journey by more than half an hour say 9.30am or 11.30am, it is likely that the gate will be closed when you reach The Gap and you will have to wait for 1 hour 20 min for it to open on the next odd hour. It is advisable to drive slowly (around 30km/hour) and leisurely on this section to avoid car motion sickness. It is important to negotiate the bends "smoothly" and slowly to prevent the back of the car from swinging causing much discomfort tor passengers. Slow moving vehicles like tour coaches usually does not create car motion sickness for its passengers. Avoid oily and spicy food before the journey, have sufficient sleep and wind down the windows to have plenty of fresh air. Medication like "Sea Legs" is sold in pharmacies as restricted drugs (which can cause drowsiness) but remember to take them (not for the driver), at least half and hour before the journey starts. Remember that once you feel the discomfort of car motion sickness, it is more difficult to alleviate the discomfort than to prevent one in the first place) |
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| For a time I worked at 16 Field Ambulance dispensary where I used to make up the orders that came in by despatch rider from the R.A.S.C Air Supplies which supplied rations and medical suplies to patrols that were out on patrol. I was on call 24 hours a day and as thanks it was arranged for me to go up on a couple of air drops. I remember the first time I arrived at the airfield and we walked to the Valetta, there was a chap working on one of the engines, which didn't help my confidence! Then I was issued with a seven day ration pack and a revolver with ammo also I had to name my next of kin....this was all in case we crashed....which some did, but it did little to settle my nerves! The chap working on the engine turned out to be the pilot who said we could go now. When I climbed inside the supplies took up the space and because of this there were no seats....well there were two they had boxes of surrender leaflets which were dropped out on the return journey. The procedure was that the patrol would send up a smoke signal when they could hear the plane coming, below the plane now would be the jungle as far as the eye could see, so the smoke was imperitive for the pilot to get his bearings. Once over the DZ (dropping zone) we circled round the small clearing in which the patrol had to lay out the correct DZ code in coloured material, once it was confirmed that it was the correct zone the RASC men got the supplies ready waiting for the light to come on, when it did the supplies were pushed out and we circled watching the chute until we saw it land very near to the clearing. Once all supplies had been delivered we headed home throwing out the leaflets as we went. |
| Valetta aircraft known as 'pigs' on the runway at Kualar Lumpur. Click on pic for more info on losses of Aircraft |
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| Here is a full list of R.A.S.C fatalities in the Malayan campaign. You can see how dangerous the Air Supplies job was, |
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| Travelling the Gap and Air Drops |
| These two pic's were taken by me in 1953 using an old Kodak fold up camera |
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| Loading up Mortar Bombs for a drop |
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| Interesting site including some Valetta wrecks |