here are ALL the photos of this trip! have fun looking!
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| Chiang Mai YEP |
Day 1, 10th September, Wednesday
my day started as early as 12am. why? adrian and myself decided not to sleep, therefore we chatted in msn and played maple the whole night. counting down to the time to set off (5am), our feelings are getting more and more complicated. will we miss Singapore when we reach there? will we get used to the life there? it's all a mystery. i sort of had a prediction i will faint there..
the time finally came for us to set off. i went to have the last shower before leaving at 4.15am. i took this shower with lots of emotions and mixed feelings, thinking of leaving my house for 2 weeks. i finished my shower at about 4.35am, which took me 20 mins, longer than usual. at 5.01am, adrian sms-ed me and informed me that he's already below my block, which means i have to leave my house..
my mum saw me going off and asked lots of questions of concern.. my dad accompanied me downstairs with my luggage and met adrian. he reminded us to take care of each other when we reach there and be aware of our own belongings, especially passport. he went off about 10 minutes later, i can see that he can't bear for me to go..
while waiting for ck to arrive in the taxi, tons of taxi stopped by to ask us where are we going (which i think they obviously know we are going to the airport) but we all said we dun need a taxi. the taxi arrived at about 5.15am with ck in it. adrian and myself loaded our luggage onto the taxi and sat in with a heavy heart. from this moment onwards, we can only depend on each other for support. no more parents to protect us in chiangmai, no more maids (i don't have any FYI), no more afternoon naps, no more computer games..
we reached changi airport terminal 2 at 5.45am and found out that we were the earliest.. at about 6am, zr arrived and joined us there. the basic procedures went on.. check in, getting air tickets.. we found out that all of us were scattered, therefore we decided to change seats on the plane itself.
we had a bit of free & easy after that and went on the departure area at 8am with the rest of the group. got to the boarding gate at about 8.30am, saw our plane, an A320 parked nicely at the gate waiting for us. took a photo and boarded the plane shortly after. in the plane, we swapped seats around and finally all got settle. im sitting in the middle seat with adrian at the window and zr at the aisle. chatted alot with adrian about planes and stuff, saw lots of planes taking off. we were number 4 to be cleared for takeoff at that time at runway 20C.
plane ride was just as per normal, with adrian asking me several times if the plane is still climbing. we are at a cruising altitude of 34,000 ft with a cruising speed of 870km/h that day. nice weather for flying, i can say. touched down at chiang mai international airport runway 36 at about 10.45am chiang mai time, which is 11.45am singapore time.
took a van to a nearby shopping centre with carrefour in it. had our lunch there but we were blur as in what to order so we just pointed to what we want to order. lunch was quite good. after lunch, went into carrefour for shopping! oh man, i didn't know adrian is as good at shopping as me. we took things and threw them into our shopping cart as if they were free. ck and zr were stunned! lol
after shopping took van to Huay Zhongbo village. 5 hours journey, nothing much, just sleeping and such. arrived at about 8pm, had dinner, settled down, lights out.
Day 2, 11th September, Thursday
A day to remember...
the slogan for today is a day to remember. why? 7 years ago on this day, the world trade centre in New York City was being attacked by terrorists and killed lots of people. however, there's another reason too...
it's the first day of work for us today. i woke up at about 6am, but scheduled time to wake up was 6.30am so i actually walked around the area. however when i woke up, i discovered it was BRIGHT! i turned around to have a look, i didnt see zr there and ck was at a blind spot. i was like "omg where's everyone??". fortunately, i stood up and saw adrian still sleeping soundly on his bed so actually i aint late at all. it's freaking cold in the morning! had some hot porridge as breakfast, heart warming since it's such a cold morning.
we took a group photo before starting our work at the worksite. afterwards we went back to have a change of clothes and it's time to start work. we were taught how to mix cement and i am totally amazed at it, i never knew cement was mixed like that. 14 buckets of sand + a 50kg packet of cement + lots and lots of water = cement!
guys were called on to fix the soil which is eroding day by day. since there were lots of rubbish underneath, we had to clear them first. for some reasons, adrian is left alone to clear the rubbish so i decided to help him. clumsy little me slipped and fell, felt a great pain in my hand, went to wash with cold water but fainted after that. for more details, read my 23rd sept post, haha.
i rested for at least an hour before getting up to walk. went back to bunk and had a little rest before going for lunch. tofu teacher offered me some honeydew to replenish my vitamin c. alot of others helpd me too, thanks! adrian didn't know i fell because i wanted to help him until after i told him that. im not sure if he will feel guilty or what.. but adrian if u do, don't feel guilty cuz it's not ur fault. it's my own careless mistake lai de :D
after lunch i was unable to work therefore i just walked around and "supervised" the work. i was standing in the shade and adrian came to me shortly after. i saw him perspiring like a tap for the first time. i walked to ck and zr and saw the same thing. this made me think that i am quite useless. i can only see my friends doing the work but yet i can do nothing to help. i kept thinking of ways to help despite of my "handicaption". finally, adrian decided that it's good to use my body weight to help compute the soil and make it firm. woots, i finally have something to do. :D
the day just went on without much more events, the end. :D
Day 3, 12th September, Friday
we had to make cement to fill up the drain today. the cement is similar to what is used to make the bricks except that an additional 10 buckets of soil is required to be added to the cement. as far as my photos remind me of, i see adrian, ck and myself mixing the cement with some other guys, all from our bunk.
it was tiring mixing all the cement, but doing it with friends means fun! my hand is still pain.. so actually im doing almost 90% of the work with my left hand.. i finally know how useful my left hand is now.. :D
halfway through, our group was being called to go back to the village. for what? we dunno too.. but when we got up we found out that we had 3000kg of sand to move into bags and load them up into lorries! it's a chore for us man! lucky thing is we only have to stay at the top, other guys will take care at the bottom. :D
it's fun waiting for the truck. all of us will scream in despair when we hear the engines of the truck rumbling down the gate.. i guess u call that.. hmm?? i dunno too!
Day 4, 13th September, Saturday
no work for today and tomorrow since it's weekend! we are on an hour long trek to somewhere (which i dunno where even till today). however, we trekked for at least 2.5 hours before seeing the truck carrying peeps from the big group.
we were told to get onto the truck where u get to sit down. we were brought to a nearby secondary school to play volleyball with them. wow, they r pro man!
i played in the competition, but i got subbed out soon as the ball hit my right hand too hard and the pain is back again. adrian requested for a substitute soon after i left the game since others wanna play.
today ended quite fast at about 7pm, had dinner and zzz...
Day 5, 14th September, Sunday
有福同享，有难同当!
this is the first time this sentence came into adrian and my mind after we reached chiangmai. why? i'll explain more.. we went to a high up place which required us to climb tons and tons of steps of stairs to reach. before that, we went to a local restaurant for lunch. adrian and zr felt carsick after the ride, ouch, pity them >.<
we have to travel in the car for the rest of our day and expedition! glad that none of them felt uneasy, though.. lunch was not bad, but violet and adrian discovered that their milo was expired by 2 weeks! omg LOL! adrian most suay lah.. discovered 2 flies in tom yum soup and a fly in his fried rice after that. maybe he that day 犯太岁?
went shopping at a market after lunch, did some restocking of snacks, some cam whoreing and finally off to the school.
went to another school this time, but to play basketball. we decided to play volleyball with some other girls instead. some local thais joined us shortly after. the game was great, but adrian started using his head to hit the ball and everyone started using their heads after that.. so it became soccer-volleyball!
at about 6pm, we prepared to leave. since dang, our SL, played in the games, he was sweating like mad after the games. since the van was crampy, he had to sit on the floor. he rested his elbow on my leg while the rest of his arm on adrian's leg. this made our shorts soaked in his sweat. both of us decided it was one of the 有难同当 we are going through, since only both of us got it. we even named it.. 有难同dang!
at night, it was time for mid autumn celebration! we got 2nd at the pamelo and lantern making competition. since i was the presenter, i used my "3 inch not rotten tongue" to present which entertained everyone. wow, i didn't know i could excel so much in public speaking, an impromptu speech even. :p
Day 6, 15th September, Monday
the day started with our group moving the sand again. actually it's nothing much to say about today since it's normal procedure.. adrian and ck went up to lay the bricks. i actually wanted to go up to help them too, but adrian say that he's worried that i'll faint up there which will be GG for me. ok lor listen to him, so i stayed as ground crew to assist lol.
Day 7, 16th September, Tuesday
plastering begun yesterday, continues today. the house is near 20% done. why do i say 20%? cuz lots more things are to be done like tiling the floors, painting the walls, making the wires, getting the water supply and such.
we had facilitation time at night. we were required to play a game called "guess the pattern". but before that, we found out that ruby, violet and dang were trapped inside ruby's room!!! it's darn funny lah.. mr ng even asked dang if he planned it all, LOL. back to the game, shall we? the game is played like the whole group is supposed to form a line in a particular sequence like longest to shortest hair, tallest to shortest and such. our decided to line up in terms of size of our adam's apple. adrian's apple is biggest while ruby doesnt have any at all so she's the smallest. everyone tried to guess our pattern but no one seem to see anything big on adrian nor anything small on ruby! but finally, mr liau guessed correct. :p
next is a sharing session among our group with our LIC, mr john lam. we were required to share our life story. since we promised to keep it confidential as a group, i shadn't reveal much. however, some people's life story is quite saddening, while some is very plain (like adrian =.=). since adrian is the person i know best in the group, im quite excited for his life story to see if he has anything interesting to share that i dunno at all. however whatever he says i know it all -.-
i actually revealed the secrets of Chen Chaojin to everyone in my group that day.. since i felt that they are the ones i can trust...
Day 8, 17th September, Wednesday
very plain today. continued with plastering today.. halfway through biscuits were offered to us. since my hands were dirty adrian actually fed me biscuits LOL. seems abit gay ya, but no choice since i had to continue work. violet joined in afterwards to feed me LOL. actually, dang got fed also :P after that i kept calling violet "mummy", as if we're playing 家家酒!
they transplanted a tree obstructing the way, was fun watching that LOL. at night, had a gathering in dang's room to play some poker. since ck, adrian and myself were not interested, we decided to go and watch shooting stars. adrian suddenly told me he saw a shooting star, i was like so 不服气 that i didnt see any :(
Day 9, 18th September, Thursday
有福同享，有难同当!
yet another day with the slogan. but before that, i'd like to wish atiqah a very happy birthday!
the most memorable event today is mixing the cement in the dam hot sun with adrian. yes, it's just the both of us mixing. it was darn hot, with our perspiration dropping into the cement with the water. the sentence 有福同享，有难同当! movtivated me to do lots of work with some unknown energy. more details, see below, 23rd sept post :p
had another facilitation session today, the last one actually. played a game called 7 up. how is it played? the counting starts from 1, 2, 3 and goes on. when u reach a multiple of 7 (e.g. 7, 14, 21, 28) or numbers containing 7 (e.g. 17, 27, 37) u have to shout "up" instead of the number and that reverses the direction of the flow. mr ng got the first forfeit at number 28. if im not wrong, adrian was next and he also got the forfeit at 28. next a few more people went up and the game went on. i didnt expect me to get it too. however, i got the forfeit at 56, just a slip off my mind since i was thinking of 57 >.< this is when i commented to him that we're really 难兄难弟 lol.
Day 10, 19th September, Friday
有福同享，有难同当!
another day with this slogan! here's how the story goes..
we volunteered to go with one of the lecturers, mr ng to buy ingredients for steamboat that night at the Thailand - Myanmar border. once we set off, it started drizzling. the rain got heavier and heavier and in minutes our hair was wet. halfway through we got reminded that we need our passports just in case there's a spotcheck, therefore we turned back to the village to get our passports. this time we had a canvas covering us but it isn't of much help. however, we gave each other moral support and finally the ordeal was over for both of us.
at night it was steamboat dinner! we had the usual stuff for steamboat like prawns and such. however a special food that day was actually fried bamboo worms!!! i tasted one at first and they were darn nice! took lots after that, let adrian taste one and he fell in love with it too! out of 8 members of our group, 7 fell in love with it except ruby :p
went with the whole group to see shooting stars tonight. saw lots of them alright!! but ruby saw the most, oww. there was at least 2 or 3 that were dam chio la, i remember it even till now... when will i get to see shooting stars again?
Day 11, 20th September, Saturday
it's finally time to depart Huay Zhongbo for Chiangmai City after 10 days of hard work. took a completed work photo at the worksite, such a good feeling to see ur own work being made there. :) got onto a better van this time for the trip back. activity on the bus was a little bit of mass singing and sleeping! :D
reached chiangmai at about 12pm, shopped in nearby shopping mall till 4pm and waited to check into our hotel. bought this metal piece which has my photo engraved on it.. yep, ruby took it for me.. thanks ruby! after getting the thing i noticed someone's head is there.. dam familiar head.. whose is it? adrian's head =.= he's at the background looking at some stuff. when i showed hantheng she said, "now that's what i call buddies, so zun one" lol, funny sia. rested till 7pm, met up with everyone for dinner and shopping time! before going to dinner, adrian and myself had some buddy talk in our room, drinking some beer. to my surprise, his face turned dam red after drinking just half a can of beer, his body is dam hot too. maybe he's weak to alcohol ba, im glad he didnt get drunk or it'd be gg for me =.=
shopped around the night bazaar with me being the main bargainer since i know abit of thai. i actually showed attitude to one of the shop owners =X
Day 12, 21st September, Sunday
the day begun with a visit to Hmong Village, one of the aboriginal tribes in chiangmai. the scenery there was darn great, took a great deal of pics with adrian there. for some reasons both of us are taking lots of pics together during R&R :p
we visited a buddhist temple after that. wow, high tech sia, even have those slanted elevators to bring us up. we paid 10 baht to buy 3 joss sticks, 2 candles and 1 fresh flower to pray at the shrine. the procedure is light up joss stick, walk around the shrine 3 times and light up the candles. i prayed for a safe journey home, good results and good health for my whole family. yup, very practical ones. :)
had lunch after that.. adrian and myself got some stewed beef. when adrian was about to eat them, he reminded himself that he just prayed and shouldn't eat beef. i was stunned cuz i ate mine =.= nvm, i will take note in future.
the next program was hot springs! looks quite ulu ulu to me actually, but the group of 6 guys from group 3 (which is us la!) and 4 other guys from group 1 decided to share a room for hot springs. we wore just our shorts in there (cant expect us to wear clothes right?) and were teasing each other in there lol.
felt refreshed after the hot springs, but perspiring like mad -.-
ruby asked if we wanna go for thai massage. we didnt want to go at first, but we decided to go since everyone else was going. all of us chose the oil massage except zr which chose the normal massage. it was darn itchy man!!! something dam funny happened to adrian too, but i shouldn't say it here since i promised him not to say it.. or he'll reveal my secret too =.=
tonight, had another buddy chat with adrian, drinking singha beer this time which contains lesser alcohol. luckily he never turn red / hot again or i'd get scolded by ck =.= it's quite great for buddies to sit down and have a nice chat sometimes, i think..
Day 13, 22nd September, Monday
took bus to elephant camp, an hour long bus ride. initially sat at the 2nd last row with adrian, but fran called us to the back row so ya, LOL. when we reached the elephant camp we watched abit of the elephant show and proceeded on to the elephant ride. 2 to an elephant, so it's normal that adrian and myself shared one :P
i had to sit dam close to adrian since i am heavier than him to balance the weight of the elephant. ouch, poor elephant >.< the left side was left dam empty since we were squeezing to the right. i kept asking if he has enough space since i think im like squeezing him the entire ride. we cam whored throughout the entire ride LOL, so unusual for guys -.- but maybe for buddies yes? :p
went for bamboo rafting after that. initially they thought it's those whitewater rafting which will get u wet from head to toe, but when they found out it's just a simple bamboo raft they went like =.=" after bamboo rafting was bullock cart ride. i pity the cows, keep kena whip.. after alighting from the bullock carts we were asked if we wanna buy photos of us on the elephant. adrian and myself found it quite nice so we bought one each for 200 baht.
went for lunch after that and then went to shopping. went back to hotel at about 6+ and met downstairs at 7pm for a thai traditional dinner, khantoke dinner. it's a kind of dinner whereby food is served in small bowls and u get whatever u want. the ambience is quite special, but for the food is quite normal but tastes great.. the best meal in chiangmai! there were also performances while we have our meal. some guests were invited to dance with the dancers, dang was one of them.. took some pictures of him doing the sexy dance, lol. :p
dinner ended at about 9 and we were brought back to the hotel. shortly after we went out again for last night of shopping. our gang consists of nian yue, ck, zr, adrian and me. adrian wanted to buy some shirts so both of us walked away from the group for a little while. however, i think we took too long and we couldn't find them after that. therefore we decided to do some shopping ourselves and went back to the hotel for once again.. buddy talk :p
Day 14, 23rd Sept, Tuesday
our mood is quite high today, but at the same time quite sad since we're leaving chiangmai which holds so much memories for us. jh picked us up at the airport, finally reached the place which i hasnt seen for 2 weeks.. my home. sat down for a little rest and went for dinner with jh, the end.
i shall talk abit more about group 3.. a simple summary of all the members
Dang - Section Leader (From Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City)
a dam funny guy, loves talking, cracking dirty jokes and sometimes making jokes out of vulgarities. coiner of the group slogan, "fuck care" or known as FC to us. :p
Adrian (From Singapore, Jurong West)
i know him too well to have anything to say about him =.=
Daniel (From Singapore, Jurong West)
self explanatory i guess =.=
Chin Kuang (From Singapore, Bukit Batok)
a very nice guy to talk to, doesn't show any attitude and cares for everyone in the group. he's quite sociable too.
Zhong Rong (From Malaysia, ???)
his first impression to me was quite cold since i didnt talk to him at all. managed to talk more with him in chiangmai. he's quite quiet sometimes, though.
Nian Yue (From China, Hebei)
he has a gentle character, a very nice guy to tease by with adrian and me around lol. he's good in chinese and some other subjects like maths and such.
Vo Thi My Phuong (a.k.a Violet) (From Vietnam, ???)
a very cute little girl (or known as my "mummy") to me, nice to talk to. smiles gently. also known as mrs dang. :p
Ruby (From Singapore, Yishun)
she has a bit of "zi high" character, but she's quite nice to bully too =X she's easy to get along with and very open minded.
that's all for this post, cya!
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