My 11 WONDERFUL days in THAILAND =)

Day 1, 7/11, tues
hitched a ride to the airport in sockling's mum's car. boarded the plane n arrived at Chiangmai International Airport at approx 10am (thai time). o & lemme tell u, the air there is juz "great". it carries a very strong smell of smoke. O.O aft we arrived, we split into grps of 11 n got into a van to travel to carrefour. had our lunch there, n oso bought some foodstuff to last us thru the nights in chiangrai. lunch was already an eye-opener for us. lol. coz their fast food, specifically mac, is different frm s'pore's. VERY DIFFERENT. x) their lemon tea is super sweet, taste juz lyk syrup. their nugget meal consisted of 10 nuggets. n their fries r served so hot tt u can even smell the oil. LOL. at carrefour, my grp got v lil food rations, as compared to the other 2. but it didn't matter. we still managed to live past those days. =P
we left aft tt n headed for chiangrai in the van. a LONG L-O-N-G L - O - N - G way there... so we had our dinner in betwn. reached HUI ZHONG PO sumwhere at ard 9. was shown ard the kindergarten, & introduced to the ppl n rules there... n well, it had the BEST facilities out of the 3 villages. x) it totally felt lyk a mountain top resort la. wahahaha.. o, n i had to share a room wif jasper. it was lyk heaven man.. not tt sharing a rm wif JASPER was heaven, but the room itself was. xP didn't need air-con, coz the weather there is cool in the day(not under direct sunlight), n COLD at night. temp there approx 10-25 degrees. back to the ppl... there was CHUN LAN JIE the founder of the kindergarten; psn-in-charge, YANG DA SHEN the cook, sumting MIN (i nv knew her name =X) the teen gal helper there, & GAO DA MA n GAO DA DIE the helpers there too...
n tt's the end of my wonderful 1st day. =)

day 2, 8/11, wed
woke up at 6.30. prepared to haf breakfast at 7.30am. aft breakfast we were introduced to the kids. they sang a welcome song, n we saw how they started their day wif a series of christian thanksgiving songs...
it was then time for WORK, manual labour... lol. we proceeded to a house approx 500m away frm the kindergarten, where our road was supposed to b built. we had road-building all the way frm morning till dinner, in betwn returning to the kindergarten for lunch. road building was ok la, considering the fact tt there were so many ppl there, which gave us chances to slack =X
yep n so tt was 2nd day, a day of introduction n road-building.

day 3, 9/11, thurs
as usual we had our breakfast at 6.30, den carried on wif road-building. & yea, we completed the short road + repairs at ard 3pm. tis time it was tiring, coz the building site was getting further n further away frm the cement mixture, meaning we had to carry the heavy cement for a longer distance. but aft sum analysis n grp decision making, we made a human chain. thou slower, but with greater ease. teamwork, tt's wad ya call it ;)
aft we returned frm the road-building, it was very much slack time. i went to explore their vege garden, n realized tt almost all vege on our tables were fresh frm the garden. it was juz great, fresh tasty vege on our tables evryday. trust me, thou it's vege, it's still delicious. =9
at night aft dinner, we had a night walk to the nearest provision shop. it was rather far away, even thou we used the shortcut, which was so rocky n dangerous... n well for safety reasons, we decided to use the safer long way back to the kindergarten. thou there were oso no lights, but at least we were walking on proper cemented roads.
now tt was the exciting night experience of my 3rd day.

day 4, 10/11, fri
it was my (sub)grp's turn to teach the kids. =D initially i totally dread this day coming. y? coz i felt no connection wif the kids there. for the past 2 days i juz couldn't click wif em. ok more of couldn't interact n play HAPPILY wif em... but it all turned out FABULOUS, totally unexpected. =D
aft lunch we went to a padi field to try out threshing the rice. it was to knock the ripen rice grains out of it's stalk... n as indoor human beings, we experienced the warmth of mr. golden sun while we knocked the rice crazily out of its long stalk. x) tis led us to the discovery of the strength n endurance of the ppl there... imagine threshing rice for the whole day frm morn till night, hot till cold. it's not only tiring, but back-breaking... impressive!
slacked for the rest of the day....

day 5, 11/11, sat
went to a rose plantation aft breakfast. it wasn't tt magnificent, coz the plantation wasn't really taken care of. hrd tt it was nearly unwanted.. but it was still worth visiting... 1 end of the plantation was rather "alive" n beautiful. it would haf been better if the weeds on the ground weren't there. x)
went out for a tour ard the villages aft lunch. visited a drug rehab n a chinese high school.
pick-up rides r fun! =)

day 6, 12/11, sun
attended sunday service for the 1st time in my life... but i'm not a religion sorta psn, so i wasn't really interested in wad was happening. =X
aft tt we waited for the other 2 grps to come for lunch.. but bad news came when only the ming li village ppl came. sum silent conflict happend n created fued betwn both grps... there were alot of leftovers, so we brought em to the NCC guys at lu jia... played wif the kids there when we got there, then went to check out their bunks.. it was terrible compared to the kindergarten. toilets were juz outside their bunks, makin the place smell. but it was EXPECTED la... xP
proceeded to sum skl aft tt to witness a frenly basketball match. returned for dinner n it marked the end of the day.

day 7, 13/11, mon
an average day at the childcare wif no special happenings... finished most of the murals n took pictures wif the kids.
o o o.. tis is the day i led a part of my grp to the nearby provision shop. x)

day 8, 14/11, tues
our very last day to teach the kids... practised a goodbye song.. =(
left for liu jia village for "cultural night"... had a sumptous meal there n performed our grp's item. went well, if not for the technical faults.... my grp did 2 songs + a short fun dance. NCC peeps did sum cheer, den their display of pumpings n finally tong hua(which restarted so many times).. mingli village ppl did a song n a dance.. den it was all the formal thankin n goodbyes...

day 9, 15/11, wed
EMO morning, coz we had to leave... many cried, couldn't bear to leave the place, leave the kids n forget the place...
arrived at Chiangmai Holiday Hotel sumwhere in the early evening... shopped at the night bazaar till 11pm.. bought sum stuff n spent quite a sum of money.

day 10, 16/11, thurs
left for Central Airport Plaza in the morning.. we shopped there all the way till 4pm... not enuf time can.. the place is so big tt we took 1 hr juz to walk the 1st storey... n there were lyk, 4 storeys? but it wasn't tt bad, coz as we went up, the shops became more of electronics stuff... so basically we had 3 lvls tt were SHOPable. Ground, level 1 & level 2. had our luch at pizza hut there...
took a taxi back to the hotel n arrived sumwhere b4 5.. then it was NIGHT BAZAAR time agn. x) tis time until 11.30, but my grp ppl returned late. =(
had a final review in ms lee's rm aft tt n it was the conclusion of the whole chiangrai trip.

day 11, 17/11, fri
left the hotel in the morning n returned to s'pore at ard 2.30pm(SG time).

THE END.


thou the trip is over, but i will FOREVER TREASURE the MEMORIES of my time in CHIANGRAI.
those friendly people.
those tame dags.
those days in the kindergarten.
those nights in the bunks.
those playtime wif the kids.
those crazy meals tgt at the table.
those back-breaking dishwashing duties.
those song-filled, cold, windy pick-up rides.
those late-night OT painting sessions.
those reahearsals at night.
the smoky air.
the rocky path to the provision shop.
the 3 healthy meals a day.
the cold mountain-top temperature.
the time on stage when we sang as 1.
the time when we cried as we were abt to leave.
the teamwork.
the friendship.
the bond.
the once-in-a-lifetime experience tt's nv to b forgotten. =)