Monday, April 09, 2007

But well, I'm waiting for Russell-didi to send us all the nice nice pictures!

Like I said before, 2 weeks is really 'shuo chang bu chang, shuo duan bu duan'. The first week of the trip was pretty dreadful because time seems to pass really slowly. But when it comes to the starting of the second week, everything seem to zoom past so quickly! It doesn't seem that long at all.

The trip is full of ups and downs. Ups like doing more fun stuff like Banana boat rides at the end of the day, having all the authentic Thai food which are so delicious yet affordable, having Adrian Ah-pa waking us up every morning, having a sweet and simple birthday surprise etc etc. Downs include me being sick and unwell due to various reasons and me being nua at sometimes.

But overall, I can conclude that this trip is really fun and a good experience. Everything was worth it!

And now, just a few days without seeing my dear mates in the Serve team, I'm starting to miss them like hell. It just feels different. And in those 2 weeks, we really bonded really well, some to the extend of good friends. But Yixin said that usually these friends won't last. As time goes by, this kind of friendship might falter away. Well, it's a sad truth la, but I seriously hope it will not happen.

I didn't take much pictures there either, because we already have Russell-didi being the cameramen. And holding a camera while working is stupid. So ya.

I'm waiting for him to send all the pics, but here are some of them I have.

My qing ai de Denise and Me on Tiger Airways, TR128! =)
We were both damn tired then.

Denise and I again taking our coach to Chiang Rai.

Tiffany and Weizhen, sitting behind us. The trip will not be the same without the both of them. =)

Russell-didi and Gary. Russell-didi was our photographer for the team and I like to irritate him by calling him didi. He's also widely known as our 38 (san ba) or information counter because he's really full of gossips la. Forget to tell you, one reason that our team become bonded was due to gossips. =X

And Gary is our very formidable cook! He really cooks very well. We were supposed to cook a few Singaporean dishes for the Thai people during our cultural exchange night and he did a fabulous job! His ginger chicken, sweet and sour pork, curry chicken bak kut teh, sambal kang kong , tang yuan etc were all yummilicious!! I wanted to try them desperately but the dishes were all cleaned out by our Thai guests.

Anyway our first stopping point was this hot spring. I've never been to a hot spring before, and the water is really HOT! At first I didn't know about it and put my entire feet in it, and I jumped out immediately!

The water is so hot that the people there used it to cook pigeon eggs and chicken eggs. And the eggs are very cheap. 1 small basketful of eggs only cost 20 baht, which is less that S$1.
My qing ai de loves her egg, but she doesn't know how to peel it. =X

Our lunch spot was at a restaurant called Cabbages & Condoms. Their special dish is even called that! I seriously can't imagine how it will taste and look like! And the condoms there are super cheap, like 5 baht for 1 piece of condom? I heard that in MOS or whatever club sell 1 piece of condom for S$3. So if you want to have sex don't do it in Singapore. Do it in Thailand.

Germaine and Debra seems excited to come to this place. But sad to say, the food here kinda sucks. All we had was a huge serving of white rice that is hard, and a pathetically small serving of some fish slices with cashew nuts and green pepper. Even their soup tasted like plain water.

After a couple hours of coach ride, we arrived the CSP centre where we stayed there for 2-3 nights.

That's part of the space where we were sleeping, and these are our mattress and pillows that will accompany us throughout the 12 days. They became part of our comfort zone.

Seriously, living in CSP is the best place of all, because it's actually quite near to the city. 7-11 is our favourite haunt, coming up next would be the laundry store, because we're all lazy to do our own laundry. And there's lots of authentic local food stores around so you don't have to worry that you'll be hungry. I even highlighted my hair there, though I have to say the outcome sucks. =X

Denise and I checking out ourselves in the mirror. =)

Tiffany, Debra and I were the good girls and were helping to peel mangos. I love Thai mangoes! And btw, Tiffany in Thai means homosexual. =X

Another local simple dish I would not forget is their kway teow soup. We had that for breakfast most of the time. And their meatballs and soup base are all very special, probably because they like things sweet. I think I would miss that dish alot. =( And it's damn cheap. 1 bowl of kway teow only cost 20baht.

This picture looks like a typical family portrait right. That's my dear Adrian ah pa and Audrey ah ma. Denise hates Audrey to the core man. Hai difficult to explain la. You have to be in our team to know what's going on. =X *That's part of our gossip*

In the end we don't want to hold on to our rose and jasmine buds that we gave them all to Adrian ah pa. He's even so sporting to let us take pictures of him looking like an Ah gua. LOl.

We had pathetic packed lunch from the school. The food sucks la. Thankfully it's only once. =X

I love this picture, because the different coloured tees make us look so nice! =) We took this at some waterfall in a very secluded and ulu village. Managed to tour the place and the people there lived in those atap houses, and yet they had solar energy to generate electricity to them. So their lives aren't that bad ya. =X

This picture is taken after the whole team and the thai hosts gave me a good birthday surprise. Actually it was 2 days before my actual birthday, also the night before we were leaving CSP centre for the village school. But they were saying there's no birthday cakes and flowers in the rural village so they had an early celebration for me. =) And when they first brought out the cake I thought it was whose birthday and starting singing along with them. It's only a few seconds later that everyone was staring at me then I realise. =X

But really very touched by everyone's kind thoughts. =) The bouquet of flowers were really huge and fresh! Too bad I didn't bring it back to Singapore because it was already dried and I find it quite a hassle. =X At least I managed to get a bouquet of flowers for my birthday this year, because I told Jack I want that and he didn't gave me. =(

That's Benjamin (the guy with pink hair) and George and one of the cute little village boy. Benjamin is every Thai's favourite boy because I think he's decent looking and have that nice smile whenever he flashes his pearlies. =) I think Singaporeans won't agree with that because Singapore girls seems to like bad boys that the good ones. But I still like decent guys. =) I even managed to be his magic assistant during the cultural exchange night. Hehehz.

A close up picture of Debra's serious face when playing a Thai traditional short-put game.

This girl really stood at the exact same spot most of the time. I only had fun taking pictures of her secretly.

Another beautiful picture of the beautiful sunset with 2 beautiful ladies and a beautifully cute french dude. =D

I'll now fast forward to the last day of the trip which is our R&R in Chiang Mai.

Denise and I on the Tuk Tuk. =) Time in Chiang Mai like zoom past sooooo quickly!

Shopping there isn't as great as I expected. And I spent most money on getting gifts for friends and relatives rather than myself. Really sorry that I can't buy for everyone.

The things aren't that cheap as well. Wanted to buy a very nice bag, but one fake Chloe bag cost like S$200! I can buy an original Guess bag in Singapore!! And the tees aren't the kind I'm looking for as well. Hai!

But I did my first Thai massage and some high-end looking spa. It cost me 400 baht which is expensive because the rest of them did it for like 200-250 baht only. -_-'''

And the Thai massage is not bad, except the fact that the lady massage till those sensitive areas like near my crotch, and I'm thinking, how can a guy stand that kind of way of massaging ar?? Cannot understand. *shudders*

I'm really hoping to shop in Bangkok some day, best is with friends!! OH man! I hope my parents will allow me man. I want to go abroad with friends desperately la.

I know some people have waited for me to post this entry for a very long time. I'm sorry if it's not up to your standard because I've blogged this for don't know how many days and it's tiring to blog with pictures. Imagine those people who blog with edited photographs!

Anyway I'll blog more when I get all the pictures from Russell. I'm going to have a difficult time then again. =X

Labels: memorable dates, trips