Sunday, 29 November 2009/22:33
~2nd day~
*(can you spot some of us?? in this photo, we appear like guerillas)
*(duckling!:D)
Intro 1st:
This is indeed the toughest day. We spent a lot time trekking on the mountain. It was tiring, but the beautiful scenery somehow eased my feel of fatigue. Another thing that encouraged me to go on was probably that we were trekking in a group. The unity we had, and the care and concern which we expressed to each other spurred me on. We reminded each other of the coming slopes, low branches and gaps. Thus, the morale was high although we were exhausted. I tasted a great sense of accomplishment when I reached the village. The arrival at the village was the fruit of my trekking for the past few hours. Afterwards, I did another thing for the first time in my life---bathing in the open river. With my friends, I washed myself in the river, enjoying the flow of the cold running water over my exhausted body. The food and lodging was also better and more comfortable than I expected from the small village.
Then is my record for that day:
BKK 9.05am outside hotel.in a pick-up truck. on same truck with group. position:between Fabian & Shanisca
9.25am arrived at Tourist Police station. ready for check
9.40am finished check
9.55am toilet
on the way: crazy games
-pointing of guns saying chaky chaky
*(alright, these are just some games the senior taught us to play.)
provision shop-all sort of items
-food
-alcohol
-stationary
*(their provision shop really sells all kind of goods! from glues to sprite)
a local market
on the street mostly vans *(On the streets on chiangmai, vans are commonly found. They are more popular than the cars. Probably because they can be used for multi purposes.)
shouts between vans *(As we were on 7 vans, allocated according to our group, and the vans travelled with close distance between each other, we shouted at other vans, mainly greeting them)
Fabian's forfeit
*(on the pick-up truck, as we played games, we gave forfeit to those who were blur enough..n Fabian was one! He was in the end tasked with the forfeit of telling Jolene, a yr1 sc, that she was very beautiful~ n Fabian reali did it well, since he was a great actor, frm Chinese Society (drama))
Tingwei's mad! (actually everyone is)
hike 10km on mt *(this is what we're going to do l8r that day)
NO TRAFFIC LIGHT? *(we rarely saw traffic lights in chiangmai)
then time for jokes *(we talked jokes to each other on the van to 打发时间. here are some examples)
1.which part of your body is associated with Micky Mouse?
-this knee *(disney)
2.
*(the following joke has been censored due to racist content)
3. a bear's coming *(guess a chengyu)
-有备而来 *(有bear来)
4.what's the best colour for armour?
-blue (刀枪blue, 不入)
5.a man in golden clothes *(guess a chengyu)
-一名惊人*(金人)
*(most of the jokes above are provided by Xin Yi)
going into the jungle-> 11am+
temperature cooler. smell of nature *(the difference after reaching the mountain)
11.15am stop. behind schedule. left at 11.27am
11.42am reach the destination
entrance of Chiangdao Cave
In the cave, lying Buddha statue->360yrs old
dark, cool and moist
diff shapes of stones
1.50pm. end of lunch. setting off for trek. more dogs than cats
*(unlike singapore, i saw more dogs than cats in thailand. Some of my seniors freaked out as they were extremely afraid of dogs!!)
various uses of hongnam
*(the word hongnam, meaning toilet in thai, was misused during our stay in thailand. Due to its interesting pronunciation and the frequency of use, we used it to express different meanings, for eg.
hongnam where? where is the toilet?
hongnam you! used as an insult, but we dunno how insulting it is..
this place is so hongnam! used to describe how horrible/terrific a place is.)
emmm..quite worried about the hike. heavy backpack. hot weather--afternoon, strong sunlight. sleepy
haix..no idea of what to expect.
the countryside here is quite similar to that in Cang-nan county, Wenzhou *(my dad's hometown in Zhejiang province, China). At places the buses cant reach due to their bigger size, the task of transportation of tourists is taken over by the pick-up trucks.
I seem to be the only one not taking a nap or closing the eyes. 1.10pm. The road is narrow and dusty.
1.15pm. we stop.
*(from this minute onwards, I have been trekking in the mountain. The scenery was very beautiful)
*(photo taken at the start of the trek, when we were yet to enter the forest.)
*(just entered the forest)
*(can you spot some of us?? in this photo, we appear like guerillas)*(after trekking for more than 1h, we took a break. Mr Tan Tui Gee was talking about the life of the villagers..)
*(then we continued to trek..after some time...we saw the mountains! i said the scenery was very beautiful!)
*(peanuts!!!! Now you know that peanuts do not come from supermarkets!)
*(a splendid view isn't it?)
*(a chinese chengyu to describe it would b 翻山越岭)
*(then we arrived at a village, but it wasn't our destination..We were going to the next village. But we took a break there, and i took several photos.)
*(duckling!:D)*(doggies)
*(cows)
*(and the villagers who were looking at us, behind a pillar, in curiosity. I do not think that they receive a lot of foreign visitors like us every day.)
*(see these two photos, look at the golden field!)
*(as we continued to trek after leaving the 1st village, we came across a stream.
in the stream, we saw several kids playing in the water. Some of them were still in their sch uniform.)
*(Compared to them, who seemed to be so free, happy and relaxed, we are really a bit stressed out...This scene has left a deep impression on me and my companions.)
*(more scenery photos~ hahax..i know many people will be complaining now.."why this guy keeps taking photos about the scenery..we want people!!")
*(then we finally reached our destination!! and i started to record again! I didnt write much during the trek cos i was afraid of losing it.)
*(entering the village!! gogogo! in fact everyone was cheering at the sight of the village, which was the destination of our 10km trek.)
4.50pm we stop. arrived at 2nd village. destination.
everyone's going to buy drinks (coke, sprite, etc.) *(eugene said that the thai coke tasted funny, but sprite tasted nice!)
a very tiring journey.
aft arriving at the village, we went for a bath at a stream nearby (exclusive for guys only) *(u shld know why it's not applicable for girls----bathing in open river, half-naked???) *(those who went were) Yu Siang, Fabian, Benjamin, Jia Teck, Jun jie, me. we were almost naked (only wearing underwear) in the water.
The water was freezingly cold. But i somehow got used to it. i floated in the water. washed hair&body. played water. (journey costs 10 min)
there was a small waterfall. we finished the bath when it's getting dark.
*(in fact, we had to use the torches on our way back. btw sorry guys didnt take any photo for this part..but who will possibly take photos of men bathing??? also cos i was afraid of getting my cam wet.)
Dinner
During dinner, we ate local food prepared by the villagers. 1 soup, 2 dishes. meat & veg included. planned to eat roast chicken, but in the end gonna eat tmr.
Mr Tan TG was SUPER HIGH!
he gave speeches in an excited manner.
Holding a bottle of Chang's Beer in his hand, he talked abt many stuff, including sth like "人生下来就是平等的" *(this was possibly to remind us not to look down on the villagers, who are less educated than us.) then mentioned forms of leadership, included examples of Hitler, Japanese..
Then other teachers, Mrs Low, Ms Ho, Mr Yeo also gave a speech respectively, forced by Mr Tan and sabotaged by the students. We ended the dinner in high morale.
*(we all said that Mr Tan was drunk that day..Couldnt take any photos cos i didnt bring my cam for dinner)
*(my 'bed'..but in fact it's quite comfortable, even if i sleep on it without the sleeping bag. )
*(our hut.)
*(the boys n girls sleeping together in one hut..no choice..but since we were supposed to be in our sleeping bags so it was alright..we slept in pairs, separated by the nets..of cos the partner has to be someone of the same gender as u..)
我和Fabian"上床". Yu Siang & Peter "上床".
*(lol this is referring to the pairs..it may sound weird to some of you, but it's true!! we were sleeping on the same bed, side by side～)
*(Benjamin was even worse, he went to bed with Jun jie, who said to him, "让我们来洞房吧! let's be the first gay couple to have a child!" then, he also asked tongwei to join, saying benjamin "cannot fulfil his needs"..LOL everyone was laughing..it was super sick..)
I found that there's actually no need to bring my sleeping bag and pillow! the villagers provided a comfortable bed! haix..hesitating if i shld use them.
*(in the end i didnt)
nights! THERE'S A LOT OF STARS IN THE SKY!
*(it really true..only in the village in the mountain did we see that many stars..even in the city of Chiangmai, there werent as many stars in the sky at night..the most beautiful sky i had even seen)
~end of record for Day 2~
~to be continued~
