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Strategies & Market Trends : Paint The Table -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (15081)	2/17/2002 6:19:39 AM
From: Jorj X Mckie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23786

Fun in the New Territories.....Wargames!!! The New Territories is a part of Hong Kong that is about 30 minutes away from HK Island by subway. The subway on Sunday mornings is actually quite pleasant. I got to the end of the line at Tsuen Wan and found the meeting place for the transportation pickup. There were three shuttle busses full of players, I would guess around 60 total....I was the only white guy. They were really nice to me and very accomodating. I found out why on the bus ride up. Only a couple of guys spoke English, and one of them sat next to me. Turns out, in the couple of years that this guy has been doing this, I am the only white guy to come out and play with them. So, the busride is another 45 minutes deep into the New Territories. We go through a large national park at the top of a mountain, scurrying along a one lane road. We finally get to the place, it is at least 15 acres of land that has been set up for Wargames. Now, originally, I went out looking for paintball. But paintball is scarce in Hong Kong. What is really popular is 6mm plastic pellets. The guns don't use compressed air like paintball either, they are electric guns and I am not sure what the mechanism is that launches the pellets. When you get hit, you are just supposed to be honest and walk off the field. Not like paintball where you have a big ole paint splat saying that you got nailed. So, they set me up with a gun....it looked like an M16. It turns out that all the guns look like real military firearms. They also provided me with camoflage pants and jacket and a face mask. The then split us up into 4 equal groups and took two groups to one area and two groups to another. So, at any given time, there was two wars going on. The first two games were very much like I am used to with paintball. That is, it was a variation called "speedball". An open field with obstacles and barriers to hide behind and you just play a game of elimination. I was getting use to the game and got hit fairly quickly. I did take one guy out in the first game. Then we played in the jungle. They sent 10 guys up into the jungle and then 15 of us had to go and attack their positions. I was sent along with three other guys on a flanking mission. This is where I hooked up with Tony. Tony spoke the best english of any of the guys out there and he became somewhat of my guide thoughout the day. So, we were climbing this hill, making good progress. We were about 200 yards up the hill and the point guy waved me forward, I hugged the hill and then "plink plink plink". I got nailed. I didn't shoot my gun once. I went back to the safe zone and sat down with the other guys that had already been taken out. Then we did lunch. LUNCH!!!! My Mother would be so proud. They served lunch to all the players and provided soft drinks. I have no idea what I ate, but I did eat it. Before we started up again, I was talking with the guys and one girl in the office. The guys were teaching me Cantonese words...and specifically trying to get me in trouble with the girl (she spoke very good english). I asked her "am I going to get whacked in the head if I say these things to a woman?". She said "try it and see". So I did. She took the rolled up newspaper in her hand and whacked me on the head. See, I get abuse no matter where I am. Then, we went to the other playing area and played a variety of games on this small ridge. On the first game on the ridge, three guys and I made another flanking move to the right and then made a run up the ridge to capture the flag. We were behind their lines, but not well positioned. Two of our guys got nailed so it was just me and one of the guys that worked at the place. But I had no idea where he was. I then took a shot at one of the guys on the other team and took him out. It was a beautiful shot. And then I see another guy stick his head up about 30 yards in front of me and I am sure that he is going to pick me off because I didn't have any cover from that direction, so I just unloaded on him...yup, you guessed it, he was my other teamate. Doh!!! We played a few more games and generally had a great time. Other notable things, -big giant piles of crap. Not sure if it was from cows or buffalo, but they were everywhere. -Little Buddhist prayer candles and incense in lots of hollows of trees. Seemed weird on a wargame field -Dogs and chickens...everywhere. -The plastic pellets hurt much less than paintballs. Even on the bare skin, the pain was minimal. Like a bee sting, rather than a whack with a hammer. This was way out in the middle of nowhere. When you think Hong Kong, you don't think of what amounts to rural living. Further, you don't picture people living in corrugated tin shacks either. But, out in the New Territories it is very much a reality. I exchanged email addresses with a few of the guys and told them that if they come to the US that I would take them to play paintball. Oh, and they do have paintball there. But the guns are less powerful and the balls are tiny. Probaly 8mm compared to 15mm (estimate) in the states. They let me play with a couple of guns, but not in a wargame setting. At the end of the day, they served a sweet cream pea soup for dessert and then we got in the buses and headed to the Tsuen Wan station. Subway was crowded, but I actually nodded off for a few minutes on the way to the hotel. Now, I need some food:-)