In case you didn’t know what that line in my title means, it just means ‘how are you?’ in Thai. So speaking of which, since I’m back from Thailand for 3 days already, I guess it’s time for me to update everyone about the happenings in Chiang Mai.
Day 1, Thursday
As much as we hate to wake up early, we were told to be at the airport at 4am in the morning, since our flight’s at 6.35am. I had a nice breakfast with my parents at the Midnight Curry stall, before we travelled down to the Budget Terminal. As I was exclaiming to my dad, ‘Everything about it is so budget! Look, they even used a budget font for the word “budget”!’ Actually it wasn’t a budget font, just that they used a ‘handwriting’ font.
My parents dropped me off at the budget terminal before I met up with the OCIP crew.
Checking-in was really troublesome, as a group of us were supposed to check-in an additional 15kg of goods for the stuffs we’re bringing, and we had to check-in together, then check-in our boxes separately.
Flight wise, I can’t complain since it’s budget airline. Couldn’t get much sleep due to the bad seating, and I got a headache on board. Luckily it was only 3 hours.
Touched down at Chiang Mai, and after the security clearance and nitty gritty stuffs, we walked out of the arrival hall. While I was asking ‘where’s the welcome party?!’, the tour agent from CAL raised a paper to signal to us! What a coincidence eh?
We travelled by cab mostly. After loading our baggages onto the taxis, we travelled down to a hostel for breakfast. We had continental breakfast to speak of, scrambled eggs, toast, milo, muffins, what more can you ask for?
Headed to Big C Supercentre (shopping centre as we call), and we had our shopping for groceries and stuffs. I bought a towel from there (yes, this dumbass here forgot to bring his towel). We also had some drinks, and we believe that Thais use things like sugar and salt LIKE FREE.
We had lunch soon after that (yes, it’s that soon), and it was buffet style lunch. That was the last of civilisation we experienced before heading for the village.
For the tribal museum, it was truly a waste of time. I totally forgot what I’ve read there.
So after a long cab ride, we transferred to a 4×4 vehicle for our uphill ride. The ride was truly wonderful. Imagine an Indiana Jones ride brought to live. Totally bumpy.
We arrived at Ban Pha Mon village in the evening, where we first stoned for quite a while before settling down into our various dorms, settling sleeping logistics, then we had our dinner.
Day 2, Friday
As much as the place had a very nice weather, conducive for sleeping, the environment didn’t allow us to sleep that well. Damn. We were awakened by the crowing of roosters, barking of dogs, and snotting of pigs in the early 3+ am! Still, it was sufficient for us actually.
First day of work, we had to dig hole for us to place our pillars into. I’m proud to say that the guys dug 2/6 of the holes needed, and the holes were all nice and square!
Laying of the pillars wasn’t easy at all. The pillars were freaking heavy, that it needed at least 5 of us guys to carry it. Worst still, I was carrying the foot of the pillar, which was the heaviest portion of it. Luckily I didn’t get any cuts from carrying it.
The architecture involved in the pillar was truly amazing. The workers made use of bamboos as support for the pillars while we were mixing cement. Since they do not want to waste money on buying a mallet, they used a wooden log as mallet instead, and Mr Najib was truly impressed by that.
Later, we filled soil and cement into the pillar holes. Cement mixing was a very precise task, as you had to mix sand, stones, cement and water in the right proportions, and mix them very evenly for the cement to be usable. It was a very tiring task, and we had to alternate amongst the guys every few minutes.
I’m glad to say we’re really satisfied with the amount of work done in one day.
In between breaks, we had time to interact with the kids by playing games with them, such as soccer. The kids were truly good in sports, and they are very lively.
Stargazing after dinner was something we probably won’t get to do in under the bright lights in Singapore.
Day 3, Saturday
Work that day was pretty monotonous. It was just mixing cement and laying of the floor. Still, we got to play with the kids, and we made sure we left our imprints on the library (Zonghe wrote some stuffs on the almost drying cement =D).
At night, something really tragic happened, or at least that’s what we perceived it to be. Chun Han and I were heading to the toilet, and we saw some villagers hooking a dog by its neck, and choking it while dragging it to their house. The dog was later attached to a pillar, while the villagers were holding some rituals in the house. We also had eyes staring at us. What we believed was that the dog was being sacrificed by the villagers, and this was proven by the ferocity of the dogs later at night, as if they were trying to do something to take revenge for their companions.
Day 4, Sunday
It’s kitchen duty day!!! I had kitchen duty with Katherine, Yan Wen, Wu Yue, GT and Nazri. Kitchen duty was perhaps the most fun part of our stay in the village. We started off with washing the previous night’s dishes, then we cooked noodles for breakfast. I swear all the food we cooked on that day are really nice food. Fried noodles, fried rice, tom yum soup (which sadly, I don’t eat it)
We spent the day washing dishes, cutting vegetables, cooking and serving food. We also had some very delicious pineapple biscuit snacks in between, which we served to everyone at the work site.
Nazri’s day was also ruined by Katherine, as first she started to call him a ‘katui’ (pretty boy in Thai), and the kid followed her. He later on created a scandal for him and our facilator, Beau.
The 6 of us for kitchen duty that day were really bonded by our jokes.
As for work that day, the bricks were already layed, and we could visibly see a wall there.
Angel-mortal officially commenced that night.
Day 5, Monday
The work that day was something new, as the cement mixing formula changed, and instead of laying bricks or cement, it went on to plastering. I managed to plaster the wall with a little of my skills, but still not enough though. At least we relieved the workers of some labour, as the wall needed 2 layers of plaster, and only they have the expertise to do the second layer nicely, so we helped to do the lousy first layer.
Then we questioned ourselves if we were more of a help or hindrance to the villagers.
We visited the new school site, which was still under construction, and the view from there was really amazing.
Day 6, Tuesday
We continued with the plastering of the wall, and I’m very glad to say that the wall did by solely guys and muscleman was a very nice wall. we did half the wall, and our wall was almost as nice as muscleman’s!
We filled the cement holes, before slacking for the whole day, and watching the cultural group practising their skit and doing their dance.
Day 7, Wednesday
Bad weather, very very bad. We woke up feeling horribly cold, only to realise that the whole area outside our hut was covered in fog. While having breakfast, it suddenly started raining. Little did we know that this rain was going to last for the entire day, such that it hindered our work progress.
Since we couldn’t do any work, the teachers asked if anyone got cards, so the girls got down some cards for us, and the guys started playing Homo with the teachers. I was paired up with Erik, and our signal was so subtle that no one could read it, thus we both won the game.
There was also a song session, with Daniel playing his guitar while everyone singing to it. We played brain teasers and had other forms of fun in between the slacking time. The ‘gossip club’ from the guys also had our time up in the girls’ hut chatting, and I played some games with Edwin’s bunch of gamblers. Whilst doing these, the fragrance of the food for cultural night travelled up to the girls’ bunk.
It was cultural night, and I helped with the PA system for the skit and dance. We watched the village’s girls perform before that, and it was a very nice sight to see little girls dance so gracefully. The kids were also bathed (finally) and dressed up very nicely in their traditional costumes.
As for the PA system, it screwed up a little as I plugged the mic into the wrong jack, and it didn’t, until the villager helped me to plug it in the right hole, thus we only had audio for the dance.
Post-performance was fun with fireworks. There were sparkshooters, mortars and shooting fireworks. We also let off a few hot air balloons. Then, we lit up our krathongs (lotus shaped lanterns) and sang Loy Krathong.
We had a mass phototaking session with the villagers, and we presented our stuffs to them. Then, we ended off the cultural night.
Day 8, Thursday
Woke up much earlier than usual to do our last minute packing, cleaning up, then we had a brief breakfast (toast and hard boiled egg), and we headed downhill after saying our farewell to the villagers.
We headed down to the city for our bamboo rafting ride. It was nothing but a boring tourist trap in my opinion. Then we watched the elephant show.
Had buffet lunch at the place, before we had a buffalo ride to the elephant ride place. Something really interesting happened on the way. While getting to the place, our buffaloes crossed paths with another buffalo cart, and one of our buffalo got suddenly got enraged and rammed into the buffalo in the opposite direction, such that it’s partner got its horns stuck to a tree. The cart somehow sped up after that. It wasn’t something very safe for someone like me who’s sitting right in front.
The elephant ride was bumpy and full of tourist traps, so nothing really amazing to speak of, other than the fact that Xingzhong and my elephant was a really horny one.
At the orphanage, we could do nothing but stone.
So at dinner, we concluded our trip with the facilitators, and were presented a nice plague for us to bring back to Singapore.
We checked-in to the hotel, then we had shopping at the night bazaar.
Interesting things happened at the bazaar, as besides having a good time shopping, I also met Chang Cheng and Pyrena. Such things do not happen all the time.
After shopping, we had a debrief at the teachers’ room, followed by supper bought by the teachers (no, we had to pay for them). The guys had some movie time at Zonghe and Nazri’s room, and we watched some really lousy movie on an island with rabid dogs.
Went over to Cassandra’s room later to watch Edwin and the gamblers, before heading back to Edwin and my room to sleep.
Day 9, Friday
After checking out, we headed to the airport where we checked-in out luggage. After which, we bade goodbye to our facilitators, and we got onto the plane.
On the plane, it was reflections for the trip, and revelation of Angel-mortal. We got the plane pretty rowdy, and Shaun sure cracked the air stewardess and flight attendant up.
Arrived at the airport, and we collected our baggages before bidding farewell and heading home.
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Guess that sums up my 9 days away, and I will comment on it later with the photo post
