```iamsharonang--

memories-

Monday, June 06, 2005

time really flies, and now im already back in s'pore. the laos trip, although not really what i had expected it to be, was really enriching and yeah made a few friends from there too. i picked up some tips from the better ones, learnt more about life..it was really different from all the other overseas trips that i've been to. still, there was the gossip part, still, there was the card games part, still, there was the mahjong part, but the company and what we do there are totally different. the trip was really an escapade from (lousy) life here..all the troubles and worries tossed aside, there was absolutely nothing to worry about there. no false fronts, no different sides to please, just my true self because all the friends are new.

just let me update about my trip..its gonna be a long one.

27th may- went down to the airport in my oversized UN poloT was the earliest there..den slowly, the rest came la den all those checkins and stuff.. our baggage was kinda overweight cus of those boxes of biscuits/groundnuts/haversacks den there was trouble with the jetstarasia staff. haha but nvm. everything went on fine.. on the plane, sat with elaine n koon on the same row. den took gazillion pictures on board. bunch of narcissits =p arrived in bangkok kinda late..checked into SIRIDA PLACE. dinner was alot. but quite fun. fooled around there..hale n liyu did a duet too! lalala roomed with liyu for the night. exciting. ah forgot my room number. but hmm nvm la. stupid liyu complain i keep talking to her at night so she cant sleep. pooh. it ended up that we were the ones who slept the earliest!

28th may- during breakfast watched this horror movie which was damn ______ (shit i forgot the word. liyu help!). anyway the breakfast was kinda ok. aft breakkie went to chaktuchak sunday market. yes.it was the one that we went on my last trip to bangkok (recall: wendy and joanne?). although stuffy. cramped up. noisy. we (our group of four: hale, rubin, liyu, me) managed to walk arnd for quite sometime. bought shirt for my bro and slippers for myself. that's it. poor liyu kinda got a little nauseous at one point of time. damn worried for silly her. anyway had quite a bit of rest at some stall which i bought two fruit juices from. oh yeah. our transport to and fro was by taxi (too bad no tuktuk) but it was really damn independent kinda thing. mr lam just took his own taxi with one grp and left us to fend for ourselves. not bad. we saw julian hee n his gf! oh and zhang zhen xiang with his gf too! left for the airport soon after. had lotsa free time there. spent it eating kfc with hale(zhiperng) and rubin, d dhs trio! cus at tt time wasnt really close to the girls yet and i thot we shudn be spearheading our humanitarian trip with shopping. ha. i had really high hopes for this "international airlines" ended up it was lao airline that had a mini plane that was propeller-driven..but at least they provided food= beef sandwich that i cant exactly consume. sat with elaine and as usual, took alot of pictures. Laos wasnt as bad as i expected it to be. it was really a nice country. first impression when we landed. dinner was at some steamboat place. i thot i was gonna taste laos food.. but nope. unfortunately, they served livers, beef, mutton.. whatever u can find that i dun eat. liyu was busy kiapping food for me. is really not that i'm picky or what la. although the food was good, i thot it wasnt a wonderful start for the rest of the meals.. our guest house (dragon lodge) wasnt bad too! roomed with lohwei and liyu in 201. slept pretty early that night, ready to start work the following day. i tried frantically to remember the song lyrics too. memorised into the night..

29th may- d kids at thongkang primary school welcomed us by giving each of us roses. how sweeet. unfortunately, i thot we werent worthy of their roses. balloon sculpture took up most of the time. followed by games that were kinda slow and draggy. and mr lam told us to do an impromptu cooking. there was me and shirin. then liyu came to help. sadly, it was like "rough trials" for an experiment. the fried beehoon was too oily and everything. but yeah, at least i was proud of myself for trying to cook, and was d last person to finish the washing up while the others were happily taking group photos *glares- but overall. still acceptable, but cant be compared to another grp who went down there for two weeks straight for humanitarian work too (according to peter who is the owner of our guesthouse). we had lunch- steamboat again. but this time the food was kinda good? hahs no meaty stuff. den aft tt went to see this village rocket festival, where they shoot "rockets" up into the sky and the men dress up as women to anger the gods so that rain will come. oh my, the weather was hot. 39 degree celsius. how about that? hotter then body temp! went back to the guesthouse for dinner and discussion/reflection/more planning. scraped the grouping system and regrouped into three different groups instead. well, although quite useful, towards the end also never really use the grping system already. discussed more games and how everything could be improved. my grp - hale, zhihui, wei, koon..managed to scare the other two grps out of our own meeting room and tadah..digressed to playing cards and mahjong. today was the day tt mr lam kept confusing me and ealine up..although we do not resemble each other in any way. at night..happening at room 201. elaine, cheryl, cassandra, zhihui, sherilyn came over to our room. den end up me and wei and zhihui went down to continue our meeting which was disrupted by a game of mahjong before. when we went back, left cass and sherilyn there all three of them pretend to sleep; or was it really sleep. chea den cass complain i go pounce on her. anyway lets continue..there was six of us left. lalala- and that was how our story started.. playing cards..talking..day one of work in LAOs. room 203+201.

30th may-i did a really stupid thing by causing all my room mates to wake up one hour earlier. felt so sorry man. esp to liyu who needed her beauty sleep. early in the morning went to s'pore embassy to meet "your excellency" karen tan. nice woman, talked quite abit..ate cookies there too! yum. proceeded on to our 2nd primary school- Mixay primary school. Things really went on much much much better.. was quite happy to stand in front assisting the song i/cs in the actions for the kiddy songs! the response of the kids were good too. until the games came..wei couldn control the guys on her side and they soon strayed. but i had a wonderful time playin eagle catch chicken with the little girls. come to think of it.. did i really play it as a kid? lalala. but this game was really successful and i felt proud for being the one who suggested it over at YC office the other day. the Handkerchief game was also successful and that came from me too :) did that like boost my morale a little? there wasnt cooking for me this day. i thot it was my best day! the kids there were very very nice too..i thot those guys wasnt interested at all..but the porved otherwise towards the end. lunch was at the lodge, followed by proceeding to the blind school to help. sang songs there..gave out groundnuts. after which we went to the mekong river.. took alot of pictures and had real fun. by now, everyone was starting to gum quite well.was quite happy la..cus at first thot the rest rj ppl den v diff to gum. aiyah but all also big liao..and haha all got common goal, common topic man! after dinner, we had alot of stupid fun. woohoo. pole+chair dance by rubin, pole dance by arshvin and some funny dance by hale which involves jumping arnd the pole. got their videos..can ask frm me! hahah. den we all fooled arnd by dancing frenship dance, chicken dance, or simply acting stupid and dramatic. at night. its the 203+201 gathering at 201. lalala- wonderful today i discovered many other ppl who got the same interest as me man. we were playing mahjong, and at the same time singing the oldies. those like deng lijun and stuff? den sumhow we strayed to singing patriotic songs la! it was a very happy night for me! (its like so different from my other trips. every night either gossip or play cards only. somemore must guiguisuisui. at least its not like everytime ppl sing i duno or nv hear before.)

31st may- proceeded to Chommany Kang school. It was my turn to cook. me, liyu and giri. but the ambassador did not turn up due to certain reasons la. anyway it rained! muust be the rocket festivals too effective already la. but cooking could still be done. each day i cooked, i gain some experience and learn something new, such that my next time would be done even better! the army wok used today was ultra duper heavy. my arms nearly died. but i saw this kiddo boy boy who came for a whopping fourth helping of simple plain fried beehoon.. felt quite good. but kinda sad not to be able to interact wth the kids. blahblah. wenta children's day party at some place, where we played a few simple game. like tug of war. and mind you. laotian kids are super strong. they defeated our guys easily. imagine pri school kids. there was this break dancing item too. and guys there have six packs la. when sporean guys try so hard to get them..at night. there was a BLACKOUT! quite fun. it rained heavily too. was debating amongst us whether to still proceed on to this invited dinner. but still went in the end- without regrets. it was like a social function. this rich man had waiters stand around clearing your plates and serving wine/drinks! gosh. and many hotshots and bigshots were there! like the popluar singers and newsreader..and many guests shipped over from countires like USA, australia, japan.. but sad to say, as big as his house can get..there are still gazillions of mosquitoes fooling around. anyway had d time of our life..eating and dancing into the night..learnt this laos trad dance called lakorn something liddat la. den there was something like disco man..but felt a little silly. like a bunch of youths gatecrashing someone's party. all bigshots and us nobodies. but who really cares? i think it was kinda like an experience i wouldn have ever again. talked and made new acquaintants..its quite amazing at how fast i can make friends. certain girls in the group had nice time oogling at this particular whiteshirtguy and another blackshirtguy. hahs. at night, when we went back..it was pretty late. my roomies plonked down one by one, leaving me to do my laundry and read up my notes...goodnight. oh yeahs! i appeared on Vientiane Times cover page! cool. but i was in a kinda unglam pose- being the eagle for eagle catch chicken game. look like a fool. lala. but hmm not bad la.

1st june- today, i had to be shaken up by ms tan liyu. guess i was really dead tired. the other days woke up damn fast. today's painting day @ Dongnasok school. wow their school was really bad. it stank like a birdhouse and the walls were really bad. painting was really tough job. gee. my grp din really plan well. quite sad la, cus initially told them should paint top and bottom simultaneously but they said paint all the bottom first..den paintpaintpaint in the end left all the high parts to paint. tsktsk. we got qutie a light colour=peach colour..the other grps got blue and green! argh den have to do alot of coats. den we were already kinda behind time la. den blue hands (shirin) frm the blue room kept demanding for the small brush from us. com'on la like we no need to paint? pissifying.. but haha had a fun time laughing with wei and zhihui. and haha about river of lifes. but after everything, everyone helped everyone so yah everything went alright. woohoo. played soccer with the kids there too. pantpant. we lost la. laotian kids are fast and good! and there was this stupid matchmaking done by misterlam today! argh. hmms. today during the soccer, there were ppl left upstairs to continue painting. felt qt bad initially and i thot mr lam shudn have made the ppl go down to play. but maybe he has his reasons, like entertaining the kids because there was no point in ppl w/o anything to do stoning upstairs? probably. went back to the lodge..i bought fruits with yoghurt frm the bar -delicious! and dinner rocks. after meeting and reflections, went walking arnd the district with liyu, hale and rubin. had fun w liyu! went to 203 this time round..played cards annd talked too.. about our present schools. sigh..no wonder we all prefer to stay on longer in Laos. another common topic.. lamenting abt the going-ons in spore.

2nd june- went to our last primary school. Nong Buathongtay school. Again, im doing cooking, my 3rd cooking of the trip. cool. the cooking went on well. worked with liyu and arshvin. third time working with liyu too! lalalas. "things happen for a reason"-quote from mrlam. but this time round..i happen to be able to interact with the kids..for some reasons. i found my favourite boy! damn gentlemanly. he's called B! only 9 yrs old. can speak basic english.. den he offered me to eat beehoon when he asked if i had eaten. sadly, when we had to leave the school, he told me "see you tomorrow". den i was kinda feeling bad..like would i ever see you again? he even did a flying kiss to me! gosh. but he's the quiet type. lunch was at the guesthouse again. proceeded to the blind school after that. we decided that it was the place that needed most help. went there to clear up their dorms that were dust coated and pathetic la. kinda look down on certain ppl i was working with la. their actions and mentalities. i mean if u want to do something for people, you do ur best right? not like there's no time den just anyhow do. worse still, u have the mindset that they can't see den no need to do. but, i was quite happy that i was able to get them to do together with me towards the end. i felt accomplished that i managed to get people to cooperate n of course realise their mistakes. maybe she heard me talking to the rest, but if what she said during the meeting was genuine, i really feel happy enough. at night, the meeting cum debate went on for very very long. we were discussing whether to buy matresses for the blind school or to buy a grass cutter. everyone was damn enthu but i was kinda indignant la. in the end still wasnt very convinced abt the buying matresses part. but anyway strayed on to talk about "if someone offers you 250million to kill a healthy African boy, will u do so?" this ended in a debate between ramana and us. ha.oh yeah silly person teared tonight.. sheesh. oho and some ppl thot i was weird at night too. but its just tt i din have anything to say mah. i dun see the point of faking out something to say when u don't have any to say. at night.. did a pretty bad thing. 2nd last night togather already..there was the 203 cum 201 gathering again. this time it was major gossip session*..where we all finally saw wei's true colours! she was bitching all the way man. hahs.

3rd june- woohoo. early morning set our minds to help the blind school as much as possible. blah for the 4th time, im doing cooking. sheesh did i like deprive alot of ppl from doing cooking..out of 5 days i did 4days! but it wasnt my decision anyway. alot of ppl helped out for cooking today..partly becos we were way behind time. i felt a teeny weeny bit bad for screwing certain stuff. like not checking to see if the kangkong was on the bus. sheesh. but i did check the beehoon! but i know tt cant cover up. anyway yah cooked fried kangkong, fried chicken wings and beehoon la. something pissifying happened today also la. like hello bluehands?! blah. anyway afternoon was the computer handover cum blessing ceremony. lols. quite boring. the speeches made me feel like i was back sitting in the lecture hall. i nearly drifted off to sleep. fortunately i was given the task of taking fotos for the group so i could stand n walk around! and hey guess what? my fav boy- B, turned up at the ceremony. he was standing outside the window with some other guys! awww. things do happen for a reason. no wonder he said "see you tomorrow". gosh i love him man. and he was so nice and gentlemanly. he offered me to share his chair, he did the thumbs up sign after we sang tian mi mi, and of course everyone that asked him if they were "good girl or good boy" he said no. he only said im a good girl! woohoo. B rocks. pity i can nv see him again. and there was dancing session again. quite funny la. did the "indian dance" thingy with this teacher/principal..! departed from the school..saying bye to my fav boy. he flying kissed me again! my wonderful kiddo. reach the guesthouse, bought drinks, took pictures and played cards.. den wenta bathe and prepared for the farewell party. blah.. the farewell party wasnt much of a farewell, just hanging around, socialising, eating..and taking fotos at the humble dragon lodge. until eleven plus. dancing, singing..den haha stupid wei decided to eat somemore after washing up and everything so we went down. quite dummb. two gluttons eating the food left over from the party. i did something nice today man..brought down liyu's ringing hp! :) due to unforseen circumstances, the usual 201+203 ppl went to bed. what a waste..our last night together somemore. but ya la i appreciated the sleep. i needed it.

4th june- woke up late. sheesh. and we were trying to solve the mystery of how liyu went to sleep and how the lights were switched off and how she managed to orientate herself in the right position. early morning listen to mr lam talk..aiyah everyday sure will hear him talk one. somemore everyday sure to barge into our room to find liyu. but towards d end me n wei learned to lock our door so that he would knock. hah. its time to leave Laos. had our last lunch at the szechuan restaurant opposite our accomodation. i ate uber alot..but the food was delicious. remind me of the CO china trip food. at the Laos airport, the Young Artists for Peace people came to send us off, nou nou, tong.. there's also the newsreader, toui, the blackshirtguy..and of course peter is the best. i think without him, our trip wouldn be that smooth sailing and enjoyable. he did the marketing, he did the shopping, he settled our meals, he did what was outside his job scope as the owner of the guest lodge. he's been in LAOs for 11 years..a singaporean who went there to start a business. the bus driver, too, received alot of tips. gosh. anwyay leaving laos..mr lam quit cheeky la.."arranged" our seats one. sat with rubin on the flight. sheesh but i was very tired la..study sleep study sleep on board. then at bangkok airport was damn enjoyable. must make d most of our last time together. the 201+201 gang went to black conyon coffee to makan! liyu, wei, me, cass, zhihui, sherilyn. den aft tt went to jaga the luggage..and ooh i received lotsa massage man. thanks to those people :) my arms were totally aching from the lack of exercise. den checked in luggage..received tickets and everything..proceeded to shop inside the airport. those girls went to look at perfumes and whatnots.. and i fricking bought a pathetic cup of hotchoc for 90 bahts. that's exorbitant! on the plane to spore, managed to sit beside cassandra and liyu. lalaas. but halfway i got called over to join mr lam, rubin, ramana and giri in their conversation abt planning a trip to srilanka. sheesh my parents sure wun allow de. anyway yah..landed, took our baggage..hug hug here and there..take pics.. den its "i wanna go back to LAOS" i bet at least one quarter of the ppl there felt the same. sighs. anyway what a surprise, my parents know sherilyn's parents, or rather her dad! hahah it's a small world afterall!

overall this trip was really a learning experience. been listening to mr lam for many days..certain things he say does make sense. i observe mistakes ppl make..and tell myself to learn from them..also, it made me know the people i already know better and know more people. fortunately the people who went to this trip, most of them got around the same frequency de.. so no problem. i felt happy. like there was no sad moments in this trip..no quiet moments for me..just feeling happy all day long. and the girls there ah.. esp the 203 and 201 girls keep boosting my morale damn high! wah mus observe me one neh. there are no secrets that i keep to myself.. i really think its a refreshing change from everything ive experience, largely due to the company. so far so good..nothing wrong. everyone is so enthu asking abt outings already. sheesh. realy appreciated the break from spore life. now that im back.i feel life being so empty. although there are much more happening here, none of them go in depth..just thinknig about studying or anything related to school kills millions of my cells. given a choice, i would choose to go to the blind school for 20more days rather than go to school for a single day. hee and i really had fun with liyu. its the first trip that i haf things go the way i want them to go. for all my co trips, i din really have a choice of room mates. things happen for a reason, i happen to have nice roomates. lets say if i was in the 202 room..i think things wudn have been so fun. maybe its a mkeup for all the lousy stuff and experience i've had so far. god noes when i'll see all of them again..liyu too!

today i stayed at home for the whole day, my computer turned on ever since i woke up. don't be mistaken, i can definitely live w/o a com..i wanna live in LAos. its just that i dun have any entertainment at home today. oh yeah, last night, i saw my brother's report book. he's officially banned from his computer and from smsing too much. three more weeks. im gonna screw the block tests. but i wanna get promoted. SHIT. im really damn worried la. but as much as i say, i dun do anything to make me unscrew my bloc tests..

oh..so here are the pictures for the trip.. by me and the rest of them.
http://community.webshots.com/
user/laoshumanitariantrip

lohwei liyu cassandra sherilyn zhihui sharon elaine shirin cheryl arshvin girider ramana rubin koonann zhiperng_* not forgetting mr lam, whom everyone wanna shoot for the game "shoot, shag, marry". lalala-

same thing i keep getting suan for being short, being silly and childish but still, its been a nice trip. wouldn never regret it. i pray and hope that my parents will let me go for the next one. like pretty pleaseeeeeeeeee?

01:21

-keeps me alive