OK , here I am fed up from being cooped up in my room writing my thesis, barely stepping out for days on end, fast losing motivation and the will to survive!. On some days work goes well and I feel great, on other days like today I will look for anything and everything to do before wanting to return to work and with Rosa back in India there`s little to stop me procrastinating…. and so it was that while looking through the photos on my hard drive that I realise that I haven’t posted any of these on here. So here you go - a product of my procrastination – a belated update on our paintballing experience.
It was my fried Bevan’s 30th birthday and what better way to celebrate it than relive the childhood fantasies in an adult way. So here we are in a place called Hamburger Hill for a bit of excitement.
Bevan and Morgane decided to go down the paintballing route. For those who have never heard of paintballing before here a little help from wikipedia:
Paintball is a sport,[1][2] in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by hitting them with pellets containing paint (referred to as a paintball) from a special gun called a paintball marker.[3] Depending on the venue, games are played on either indoor or outdoor fields of varying size. A game field is scattered with natural or artificial terrain, which players use for strategic play.
and here`s a few answers to the most common follow up questions:
a)Yes they are real guns (air powered pistols)
b) No, they are not real bullets – they are basically gelatine capsules containing a water soluble paint. but..
c) Yes it HURTS!!! badly, but we do get a helmet to protect our heads. Safety is taken very seriously here especially after someone got shot in the eye and went blind!
Anyway, Morgane being extra protective of her boyfriend decided to get Bevan a T-shirt with a bull’s eye on it, so that we could use him for target practice! Just a little birthday present (for us)!!
We were about 25 people and soon got outfitted in military overalls, not just for the camouflage but more so to protect us from paint! We soon headed of to the “play grounds” to collect our pistols, pellets and instructions. Basically we were pitted against another team and given tasks to do. Such as defending a helicopter (yes, real ones but broken) or stealing a flag from under the enemy`s nose….oh yeah, we sent Bevan to the enemy team, just so that we could shoot him too!
Unfortunately I had too much sense to take my camera in with me, and although I regret missing out on the action in pictures, after seeing how devastating a ball of exploding paint at 200 miles per hour can be, I am glad my camera sat this one out. However just to give you an idea here’s a video from YouTube
The video above doesn’t really capture the true spirit terror and excitement. I can tell you, that if you thought war was cool, this will make you think twice. It just makes you experience first hand the danger and risk out there on the battlefield…and this was only with comparatively harmless bullets which don’t kill you!
Oh did I say harmless…err correction. Here`s what paintballs can do to you:
Luckily for me I escaped with a few shots on my hand and helmet which didn’t leave behind any permanent evidence. Rosa was not so lucky and carried a few bruises for the next few days. One thing though…the guns are heavy, and with every passing minute in the field, it got heavier. Manoeuvring it takes strength and skill and by the end of the game we were really exhausted.
Having said all that, we had a great time. Rosa and I even successfully defended a group of huts by the skin of our teeth and earned our team a few valuable points. I must say it feels geat feeling like a war hero! Bevan though, proved quite a handful, He showed great skill in not only evading our bullets but also in bumping us off one after the other.
My only consolation was that I shot him back in the last game- right in his head!
When our time was finally up we were more than ready to leave with aches and pains all over the body, but that was the most fun we had in a long time. I doubt we will get another opportunity to do this in the UK, so its a memory we will cherish forever.
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