Pigbit.

In a way, 3 weeks in changmai certainly helped alot emotionally. Along with all the caring friends that i've made over there. Its a long over due post, but i think i shall recap some of the important moments that happened over there.

Village.

The first thing that struck me the moment i reached was the house they provided us. I know not many ppl noticed becos when i shared it during debrief, everyone was then like agreeing with me. It was not the most awesome house but it was definitely the best house in the entire village. newly built, tiled flooring and white-washed.

Bathing was always an exciting venture. to save time, the guys jus grouped and bathed together. the ice-cold water always bringing screams from the same few people every night.

Planting and watering

I was not involved much in planting, i guessed they assigned me and edric to mostly the structuring stuff. but the few times i was in the planting team, i really enjoyed it. there was once we chung-koed with the villagers and there was this strong old man who was like hacking away at the ground like a boss. With his white mustache, he look s like some war veteran. lol.

Watering like a boss with edric. we basically took the black dustbin and fill it about 5/6 full and drowned plants with it.

the only activity that i looked forward to was volleyball after the planting. Because we were planting at a school and the kids will always come to help us or play with us after work/school/during recess. The boys will play takraw or soccer and the rest, volleyball.

Darlie.

This dog has special mention because he is Darlie, as named by chubs. enough said. The white dog on chub's profile pic. He always follows us when we are watering/planting and is always so happy when he sees us. well, we are happy to see u too darlie. =)

Concreting.

The main reason why i joined this ocip. to build some stuff! but i think it's really cool how they have to manual mix the cement with gravel and sand and water. And there is a procedure to it as well. But eventually most of us became experts in knowing wad proportions to add into the concrete. Mixing also has a specific method to hasten the process. All in all, i found it damn enjoyable, bangala ftw. but it is really a good workout. Overall i think i mixed over 20+ batches of concrete. haha.

Cementing.

The fine tuning of the structure. To form the water well, we had to lift concrete rings which were extremely heavy and lay them on top of each other to form the basic structure. After about 3-4 rings, we then make cement paste and cement them together to close up the gaps in between the rings. Picking up from the villagers once again on the method to do it fast and efficiently and making them into nice ring shapes, so the structure looks like a huge bamboo.

Chom then gave me a special job, to cement the inside. so i had to climb into the well, which was taller than me. haha. so basically while everyone was outside resting, i continued the inside, and it was cool, because i still could hear 'boomz'(mp3 with speaker) while inside, so basically i was chilling while working. but it was time to end work soon, so they sent my angel, P, inside too. That's when we had a chat. haha. basically, i knew she was my angel while she was trying to convince me she wasnt. and we talked about wadever we were exchanging in our letters.

Life Journey.

Well, honestly most ppl's life journey was rather sleep-inducing. but at least thru it we get to learn a little more about them and we can see how certain things in their life have shaped them to the people the are.

Guitar.

I think it was a phenomenal choice to have brought my guitar over. haha. despite all the warnings about my guitar not surviving the trip, i decided to just heck and bring it. and how wonderful it turned out to be. I'm glad to play songs for people. and more so when they enjoy and appreciate it.

I love it how the camp fire crackle while i sing a song.

I love it when i lie down on my bed and jus strum family chords and humming to a tune while thinking about you.

I love it when they just randomly ask me to play a song and i learn it after listening to their ipod.

I love watching Lion playing my guit and enjoying herself. haha.

Playing for 2 hours on the ride from the village back to changmai city.

The definitely most awesome part of the trip was christmas eve night, where we gathered as we counted down. And it was the guitar that provided the music for the carols and it was one of the few moments where the entire team bonded so well.

Carnival.

Even though the amount of kids was lesser than we predicted, but due to amanda and i freely giving out chops like nobody's business, we ran out of prizes very quickly. at least we finished everything. haha. i and manda handled the sack race. at first no one wanted to come, still apprehensive of strangers i guess. but eventually, the kids jus kept on coming. its so nice seeing them enjoying these simple games. especially their faces when they are waiting for their chops.

we then performed our dance item, but wad i enjoyed was the impromptu guitar session there. Chai, just asked me over to play with sombrero. but the problem is without lyrics, we don have a proper song to sing to the crowd. so i suggested national anthem. hahaha. and we really did sing it. lol. it was a good chillout session with sombrero, chai, evlin, nurul, shaun, pris and chom!

Cooking.

At first I was not part of the cooking team, cos i din wanna cook. haha. but i was very interested in wad they wanted to cook. and thats when i found out that they don really know how to cook!! omg. so to save my stomach, i decided to help. normal potato and carrot soup but not enough carrots! so at first it was jus chicken stock with chicken cubes, potato and onions and it tasted terrible. the carrots were to be used for another dish, but i told them, without it, the soup can throw away already. so we jus dump the whole plate of carrots into the soup.

turned out, the soup was awesome! lol. so sweet! the mushroom dish was cooked by evlin, but her hand was injured from volleyball, so i helped her out too. also, we had fried chicken wings thanks to aneesa. and omelettes from colin! Turned out, everyone loved our dinner and we were like so relived. lol.

Swimming.

One of the days, we went swimming in the river behind the village. The water is as cold as the bathing water, well, our bathing water comes from the river. lol. but the current was very strong. all we had to do was lay down and we would float downstream. damn refreshing!

SangSom.

The alcohol we prefered since chang beer was utterly atrocious. It was thai rum, at first it was quite burning when u drink it pure, but i got used to it. lol. It accompanied us through many many circle of trusts meetings and late night conversations. Brings out the different sides of people especially when they are high. lotsa laughs and fun for many nights with this drink.

Elephant Nature park.

So many elephants. haha. most of them were abused though and u can see the way they stagger that they are still affected by their injuries. super lots of dogs and a few cats. Blue eyes and green eyes!

We got bathe the elephants and feed them too. Basically bathing is just using buckets and spraying them with water.

Stone Structures.

We were to build something like a stone structure fence but to cut the long story short, it was done in vain because one young elephant came over while we were eating lunch and jus knocked it over easily with his trunk proving how inefficient the fence would be. But still, we spent like 3-4 days on the fence.

Besides the fencing, one day we went to deep into the forest where ENP is expanding and helped to do more planting. As Grant puts it, to do something different other than jus concreting. We split into 2 teams, 1 doing the normal planting and the other doing piping. obviously i volunteered to do piping. haha. it was fun, following Jack around and chatting with him. During our breaks which were quite long, we had HTHT with each other and shared ghost stories. lol.

Village shop at ENP.

This place is awesome. The chicken wings are like heavenly. i duno why. also we found a new kind of roti prata! after frying it, u spam one side with condense milk and sugar then u wrap it up. It is totally sinful but the taste is unbelievable!! I will try it one day with my ntuc roti pratas. Also they had sangsom, so that about says it all.

Oh yeah. and there was a little accident where Weihan fell out of the truck. it was like omg. and i watched the whole thing in slow motion. terrible stuff.

ChangMai City.

Day 1. 25th.

The RnR of the entire trip. we basically had 2.5 days of RnR. The first day was basically a half day, mostly jus from afternoon to night. We sorta chilled at the room first before heading out to the night market. The night market had so much stuff! at first i was like thinking, wth, who to buy for now? haha. but in the end i still bought stuff for her and my other frens. thats at least the most decent thing to do?? lol. bought a couple of stuff for myself as well.

The street food at the night market was awesome! and its so so so cheap. the fried drumstick is so rich in meat and the best thing is there is no need to find dustbin. jus feed the dogs the bones. bonded more with edric and the rest while strolling down the walking street/night market.

Lonely hut! a simple chill out bar. but we din really talk much cos most of us were quite tired alr. We slept early this night because of the planned trip the whole team had the next morning.

Day 2. 26th.

The planned trip was honestly a huge disaster. Besides the white temple thing i think the enjoyable part of the trip was the van ride. haha. because we got to chill, just listen music and htht at the back. Nonetheless, lets try to recap wad happened.

White temple thing was nothing really spectacular except for the design and architecture. The bridge going through the depths of hell symbolism was kinda cool as well. But thats it. and edric, weihan and i decided to sneak in a brunch before leaving off and were scolded by the guide because we were late.

Next stop, golden triangle! This is basically the point where 3 countries sorta merge and u can see and travel by boat to either 3 of the countries, myanmar, thailand and laos. The view is not the most awesome, but i decided to break from everyone and jus walk alone. then basically found a spot facing the ocean and jus ponder about life. meanwhile, behind me, a group of nuns were gathering for a group photo and they jus totally ignored me and jus took it. -.-. the others(the vj gang) soon caught up with me and we shared a few laughs. then lion started observing me -.-. saying that shes gonna watch my every move from then on. haha, to repay for me observing others.

Then it was the crappy buffet international lunch.

Then it was the northern most part of thailand! basically, the border of thailand and myanmar. Nothing much there, just lotsa shops selling normal stuff. but i did get that swiss army knife for harilyn there. i really think my ferrero rocher was too crappy, so this shld back it up. haha. bought fried water chestnuts for evlin and myself to split to the 2 vans and i found my childhood seaweed. those packed in 3 slices and in a transparent rectangle package with blue stripes.

But still, as i said, the main part of the trip was the van trip. chubs, shaun and me were at the back and while the rest were sleeping, we decided to do a circle of trust there and then to say our impressions of everyone in the trip. its actually quite cool to know how they think of others.

while we were not htht-ing, i just enjoyed watching chubs constantly trying to not bang her head against the window. haha. so cute. then each time she does, she will stir a little and try to sleep again. then she will jus lean over to the right and rest on my shoulder, but when she realised it then she will go back to sitting up straight again. lol. then the process repeats itself. But then during a longer ride, she jus found a spot on my shoulder and stayed there, because it was comfortable i guess, and she subconsciously jus fell asleep. Then she woke up abt 30 mins later and apologized. haha. but srsly, no need to apologize de la. =)

After that, on the 3 hr trip back, i told her if she wans to rest on my shoulder its fine, but she refused cos she paiseh i guess. haha. but she started banging her head again. which was really damn cute. lol. so i jus gently pulled her head over and said jus rest here la, then she did for the next 2 hrs and the last 30 mins after the pit stop. well, she smells real nice and she looks cute while sleeping. =).

that night I rmb going out with colin, qinwen, aneesa and weishun and harilyn. great shopping time and bonding with them. haha. Then we met up the rest of the team for seafood zhi cha which was imo terrible. The crab is so-so, and the fish too. but i was expecting so much better. oh well.

After which, the 3 civil guys went shopping together at the night bazaar which was damn far away. Had damn alot of fun haggling. and edric pissed off some ppl. LOL. we kinda stayed out till abt 1plus. have no idea how we shopped so much as we are guys. Then we decided to go explore the tranny bars. LOL. they were damn friendly la, but we just watched from the outside, to their dismay. Then as we were nearing our motel, we saw a few tranny prostitutes i presume. And they were like trying to strike a conversation with us. omg. Then edric was like damn happy, and wanted to return their flying kisses. LOL. me and weishun were like laughing like crazy but we just wanted to get out of there before they caught up with us. because they were across the road and they were like making their way over to us. hahaha. Then in the alley we saw some damn suspicious character which we think is a drug peddler. and the scary thing was he stared at us, then as we were walking back, he followed us for awhile before he stopped. woah. interesting night. Then we just chilled at my room, with lion, chubs, shaun, ws and me. watching mtv channel and just chatting and playing with pigbit. -.-

Day 3. 27th

Buffet breakfast! another kind of disappointment. The quality isnt that bad, but the quantity was. There was not much to select from. oh well, at least its free flow. After which, shaun, jason and i went in search of the guitar shop that jason saw when we were coming back from enp. But after walking for 1 hr, we couldnt find it so we started to head back to meet up with the rest who did not go for rafting/atv. In the end, all of us followed evlin to go visit museums, or rather, museum. haha. It was rather cool to learn the history of changmai and they did batik painting as well. after which, we went for lunch/dinner and the girls found this shop that seemed like heaven to them. lol. clothes, clothes and more clothes. After which, we sorta split, with weishun, P and moe going to cycle. the rest went to night market. then edric and i went back to the night bazaar to find more ppl to haggle with. We walked damn fast and managed to cover the entire outer portion of the bazaar. And we found Foxy Lady! hahaha.

But we soon had to hurry back to the Italian restaurant near the T-room for a whole team dinner. And dinner was good! though the service was a little slow. But the food was so much better compared to the seafood or the breakfast. And they celebrated weihan and my birthday there too. haha. tiramisu cake, which we smeared on most of the girls because evlin started it. -.-.

After dinner, i was kinda shag. so decided to rest for the night, but most of them continued to explore the market/bazaar, except for a little few who like me were tired. so we stayed back to help pris do the frames for the photos for the villagers. After work was done, its Sangsom time. muahhahah. so more crap talking with alcohol went on late into the night.

But because i rested, i wasnt really tired. so was edric. hahaha. so we had a circle of trust again! this time with siyin and jason. then we jus htht, and listened to siyin's life story all the way till 5am. it was a wonderful time.

flying home day. 28th.

slept only for 2hrs. then edric, moe, jason and i went for spa! LOL. 3hr spa consisting of massage, facial and some hot compressing thing. before long, we're at the international airport, eating burger king, waiting to enter the departure gates. Talked more with chubs and lion there. =). But sadly, good things dont last. and in a blink of an eye; we're back on sg soil. and back to reality.

oh yeah, today was my birthday. and she wished me.


There a few people that really made an impression on me during the trip and i shall name some of them here.

Chom.

He is the most insane person i've ever met. haha. u never ever catch him without a smile and 90% of the time he's always making someone laugh, despite not knowing much english, his antics certainly made the village part of the trip very enjoyable. not only that, he is a loving husband and a hard worker. definitely a role model to any guy.

he is the epitome of the phrase, 'joy knows no bounds'. and he reminds us always to take joy in the little things that we do. no matter how shitty life turns out to be, always remember to laugh a little.

Jack.

He is another bundle of joy. I duno why, but somehow he clicks very well with people. Really glad to have met him. talking with him is such a wonderful time. Rock on dude! and never stop talking cock! haha.

Shaun.

My buddy. totally turned out to be different guy that i thot he would be. and turned out awesomely as well. first person i found with such awesome music taste. He says that i'm the nicest guy hes ever met, and i would like to say the same about him. haha. its like after sharing my life journey, he noticed that i was missing. and he jus came over to ask, 'emoing ah?'. lol. and he stuck around, not talking just chilling and listening to music together. Its all these small little stuff that matter to a friend. thanks for the note and the clover, really appreciate it. i still have it. =)

Edric.

Silent killer sia. haha. starting never talk at all. But once he warms up to everyone, he just goes crazy. hahaha. he has a very interesting background and upbringing. but still a good pal. =)

Amanda Tan, pretty chubs =).

The first thing i notice is that awesome smile of yours. =). haha. I still rmb what you said about who being the center attraction of guys. hahaha. Who says you are not! hahaha. you never know you may be one to some guys only. but honestly, i think you're the first person that i took note of from the entire team when i first met u guys. hahaha. but i think i dint really talk to you much till at ENP too, cos i shy =(. lol.

Sometimes i still wonder how u constantly cause hurt to yourself through accidents. its not that i wan to laugh, but its really damn funny. lol. rather cute too. Oh yea, dont club so much la, from wild cat turn to demure cat. that'll be so awesome ;).

Evlin.

As i told u, u portray an innocent image to others but i guess its more of obliviousness. haha. but not in a bad way! its like a child-like obliviousness that keeps u joyful all the time and that i feel is absolutely great. U definitely deserve better, and i'm sure one day u will find someone who will appreciate and take care of you.

its always interesting to hear a girl's point of view about love. and that one question i feel gave us some great answers during life journey.

Sijing the Lion.

Though we din really talk till at ENP, you're really damn easy to talk to. and insightful as well. hahaha. U dont live a life of regrets, and just do the things that you want to. as can be seen from all your adventurous trips around the world.

u always want to be a part of things, to be involved. u grab life by its reins and i really respect that alot. =)

oh yeah. and u play guitar! haha. chicks who play guitar automatically wins my frenship hands down.