before memory fails

pardon for the lack of updates throughout the whole of december. it was eventful but the fact that they were back to back made it difficult for me to record them.

before time erodes the small little details of each episode, i am here again to post.

1. Birthday 

1.1 chickenlets gave me a surprise birthday celebration at cwp's ichiban in advance. initially i thought it was just ls since she asked me out for lunch but it turned out to be a simple celebration put together by them. appreciate the fact that many of them were actually busy yet they still took time off to make it happen. simple lunch but great company, completed the advanced birthday celebration. spent the night with ls and fel at leisure cue playing pool and downing 20-piece mac-nugget!

1.2 on the actual day when 12 struck, jb and ky called to sing me a birthday song and wish me happy birthday. their plan failed for i was fast asleep. woke up to 4 missed call from jb and ky in the morning! my bad, to quote jb "who sleeps before 12 on their birthday".. HAHA. so it was a birthday spent in camp.

1.3 had external catering for breakfast and teabreak to 'celebrate' my birthday. (inside joke). after the day ended, we stayed back a while more. initial plan was to go out for some celebration after camp but somehow we ditched the plan. was preparing to go home when ky said chris was looking for me. so i went into a dark candle-lit conference room. the lights went on and birthday song was sounded off. a huge ice-cream cake was before my eyes and everything after that was laughters and laughters. thank you guys for arranging an ice-cream cake from fruit stall aunty! really surprised and touched.

1.4 left camp and set off for yishun to meet sy and ew. dinner with them at xin wang and it was sy's treat. an impromptu get-together. simple affair but great company again. laughed as we ate, brought back many good old memories. after much persuasion from susan (or whatever her name was), signed up for xing wang's member card.

1.5 done with dinner and met up with family for late supper. was supposed to be going geylang but they waited for me and it was too late for geylang. settled for bai meefen opposite ssc. didnt eat anything since i was still full. and then, mum and sis gave me my birthday present which left me in shock and joy.

1.6 it's back to camp the next day, breakfast and teabreak was catering again. celebration contd! resumed the inital outing with the guys at night after camp. went to beauty world for pool and it was mac for dinner. won all the pool games, owning not to my skills but taiko-ness.


2. EOY BKK-CM Trip

the rest of the days till 10th was spent in camp and finalization of our very very last minute itinerary. met up with sj and zh on 9th to discuss about programme. didnt get far and the next day was darn rush. before long, we were all onboard airasia, leaving for bangkok.

2.1 Bangkok
filled with excitment the moment we set foot on Bangkok International Airport at around 10+ pm. Max came to pick us up from the airport and we left Ekkamai via the train. we were famished and we settled for 7eleven. we bunked over at Max's place inside a temple for the night.

2.2 Bangkok

2.2.1 Watt Phra Kaew
Woke up in the morning and we left for Watt Phra Kaew. Before that, we went around for dinner. Took the train to National Stadium and took a tuk-tuk to Lotus. had breakfast at the roadside stalls. roti, kebab, ovaltine iced... simply delicious. headed for Watt Phra Kaew next, paid 350 baht for entrance fee into the Watt and the Grand Palace. very tourist-y but both were very majestic and grand. spent the whole morning and half of our afternoon there.

2.2.2 Thamasat University
after we were done with wpk and gp, we left for Thamasat University. walked our way there and we visited the faculty of liberal arts. the university is freaking big, it has a river separating the various faculty. changed into shorts in the university. didnt stay long in Thamasat since there was really not much to see, hopped by the bookstore and left.

2.2.3 Hua Lumpong Train Station
took taxi to hualumpong train station to get our train tickets to chiangmai. met a few friendly assistants who helped us to get our train tickets. bought the 7pm slot and we spent the rest of the time loitering at the train station. had lunch at a stall nearby, and we came back to camp at the train station. had thai massage to kill an hour of the waiting time and after that, it was dinner and choochoo~ bidded goodbye to max and we rushed our way to platform 5. we were slightly behind time so we had to rush to our cabin which was nowhere near the front.

2.2.4 2nd-Class Sleeper (Train to ChiangMai)
we settled in the train after some time and it refused to move on time. started exploring the different 'components' of the train and bugged the train conducters to transform our seat into bed. we were all sleeping on the upper deck as those below were all taken up. beside zh and i were a group of israelis and a chinese girl. they were going to chiangmai too and one of them kept making fun of the salesgirl because she was pushing her set menu! "beer? beer?.." haha. once the beds were set, we returned to our own beds and snoozed into the night. the ride was not bumpy, or perhaps i was too tired. slept throughout the night.

2.3 Chiang Mai

2.3.1 Arrival at ChiangMai Railway Station
woke up in the morning and hopped down to a stop. was back in the train within minutes for the train was good to go again. camwhored all the way till we finally reached cm railway station. good thing we had calpis to fall back on! :) it was excitment all over again the moment we reached cm because it's back to seeing the familiar faces after three years! crossed the road to 7eleven to get some food while waiting for the group. the train was delayed. before long, we were greeted by them. not one or two but 7 of them. we were lost for words but it was really heartwarming. thanks sunun, kim, nong, ampha, may, air and mod! so after some discussion, we set off for lodging and lunch.

2.3.2 Hotel and Lotus
checked in to this hotel close to rajabhat university. after we settled down, left on their motorcycles to lotus for lunch. lotus is the shopping center we first went when we touched down in chiangmai three years ago. the food court was still the same, nice old setting. this time round, it was with the students themselves :)

2.3.3 Watt U-Mong
our first stop after lunch was watt u-mong. we cut through cm university and ended up in watt u-mong before long. walked around with the guys and we met kim's friend's friend who is a monk. his command of english is quite good and he remarked that yy was old school for not having a facebook account. explored the tunnel and walked our way up to the pagoda. snapped a lot of photos here and there. after which, we moved to the pond to feed some gigantic catfish. initially we thought that the students bought the bread for us at the entrance and we asked them not buy so much. it turned out that the bread was used to feed the fishes instead. lol!

2.3.4 Chiang Mai University
next stop was chiangmai university. we did not really explore the university for it was too big! way bigger than nus i supposed and they have a big lake/dam. rested over there while we sat around and talked. nice scenery. kim left and pet joined us for the rest of the day. discussed what we should do next, at night and for the day after.

2.3.5 Doi Suthep
set off for doi suthep after pet joined us. we were told to put on sweater cause we were going uphill and the night was setting in. the weather turned cold significantly. good thing we heeded their advice. the way up to doi suthep was very thrilling and chilling! we were going up up and up. bent followed by bent and we finally reached a holding area where we can see chiangmai from great heights. it was very serene. all the buildings looked so small and we could see the overview of the whole chiangmai (maybe not the whole).

2.3.6 Watt Doi Suthep
after the exhilarating view from the shelter, we went higher up to watt doi suthep. it was a temple at the highest point of the mountain/hill. we made our way up climbing a long flight of steps. camera died at the entrance and didnt manage to catch photos for the night. the watt looks magnificient in it's night lights. golden and shiny. we prayed and rang the many bells circling the temple. from the temple, we could see the night lights of chiangmai city. another exhilarating view, a night view this time round. very beautiful backdrop! a pity my canon died. we finished ringing the rest of the bell and we were finally done with temple.

2.3.7 Watt Phra Sing
night fell and we were off to chiangmai city again. we settled for watt phra sing which is located right in front of the chiangmai walking street. thanks to may (inside joke) we got to see another majestic temple. very big and well-maintained. it has an extended platform in front of the watt where fellow visitors place their candles and joss stick. we prayed and waited for may to return before proceeding to the walking street.

2.3.8 Chiang Mai Walking Street
after some wait, we proceeded with the walk! it was a very very very long stretch of street. to and fro, it took up the whole of our night. in between, we bought some food to eat and settled with finger food for dinner. it was a very long street but there was nothing much to buy from the street. we bought mainly food and drinks. had khaosoy at one of the intersection, and played pistol shooting at the game stall. completed the first stretch of the street and was shagged for the return journey. paused here and there to see street performance and  some glass-making process. finally completed the to and fro journey and we were ready to rest for the night.

2.4 Chiang Mai

2.4.1 Chiang Mai Rajabhat University
woke up early in the morning to be ready to join them in school. may and ampha came to pick us up from the hotel and we walked to cmru. on the way, air and mod joined us and we took a shortcut into the school. initially we were alarmed as there were only girls around us. we thought, for a moment, that cmru is a girl school. our concern was soon answered when ampha told us it isn't. canteen for breakfast and soon they left for class. we ventured into the school of western languages and spotted mistakes in the answer sheet. walked around the school like some tourists, attracted a lot of attention but little smiles. decided to look for pank but we didnt know her full name. bumped into a kind soul who wanted to help us but it soon occurred to us that he couldnt really help us. he thought we wanted to apply for international students. brought us to the computer lab but we could not use the computer as they were meant strictly for the students.

2.4.3 Photo shop opposite CMRU
we learnt that pank was not in school that day but she's rushing down to meet us later. so we left for a photo shop to print some photos as momentos for the students. this shop is run by a chinese from hunan, married to a thai. she is a very friendly lady and kept offering us help. we took our time to choose our photos and used the facebook from her computers. in the end, we took a photo with her and we left for rajabhat university to meet the students again.

2.4.4 Chiang Mai Rajabhat University 2
back to the school for lunch. this time round the canteen was packed. maew joined us for lunch and we moved to her class area to chat. was introduced to a new friend named am. maew's friend. after awhile, we moved to a stone table and waited for the rest. yy was explaining some literature passage to oil and may. from time to time we were joined by different students. all the familiar faces. maew, mint, oil, pank, may, sunun, tae, tui, ampha.. we waited and finally we're all good to go. went to 7eleven to stock up snacks and water.

2.4.5 Hoey Tueng Tao
our destination for the day was hoey tueng tao. this beautiful lake with mountains setting. reached there at about 2pm and we started to sit around, play with water, busy snapping photos. the group beside us was high and the guys kept jumping in and out of water. we were comparatively tamed, just wading in the lake to take artistic pictures and splashing significant amount of water to complete nice pictures. we started off with snacks and small talks, the students secretly ordered two steamed fish for us, mango and papaya salad for sides. we added on to the feast with fried rice, ommelette and fried prawns. tucked in and had a very full lunch. we went to the other side of the lake to take group photos and jump shots! we left at late afternoon, close to evening.

2.4.6 Garden
spent our evening at a garden along the way back to our hotel. it has very beautiful spread of colourful flowers. decorated the background ideally. we stayed for a while, took pictures and tried my hands on the motorcycle. rode on maew bike and they were all wide-eyed. perhaps at my inability to ride the bike properly. stood around and talked, discussing where to go next and how to go about tomorrow. realized tht many of them were kinda tired after a long day in school and out of school, we decided to go back to the hotel and called it a day. halfway through, ampha suggested if we should go to a beach, she said it is very beautiful but after discussion we thought they were too tired so we dropped the plan.

2.4.7 Hotel
back to the hotel and we were found sitting around the hotel lobby. chatting with the students, laughing out loud, cracking silly jokes with our broken thai. it was enjoyable, the fact that we were not well-versed in thai and their limited grasp of english didnt stop us from conversing and speaking our mind. we chatted for over an hour and finally decided that it's late for we have to wake up at 5 the next morning. taxing for us and for them too! bidded goodbye and we were off to the hotel rooms.

2.5 Mae Sariang

2.5.1 Arcade Bus Station

ToBeContinued - stay tuned!