Filed under: Rabia
1:21 will be holding a presentation about our trip to Chiang Mai, together with the other groups of students who went for overseas trips during the last semester break.
Come and find more about what we did in Chiang Mai! There will be lots of exclusives! & I do mean exclusive.
Venue: LT 68D
Time: 6 p.m
Filed under: Grace
The trip to Chiang Mai made me realise several things during the 11 days.
1. We should appreciate everything we have in Singapore. People in the village we visited didn’t even have the basic necessities of an average teen in Singapore, such as air-con, a comfy bed, a feast to eat everyday, etc. But they’re some of the happiest people I’ve ever met. They’re so easily contented with everything in life, while here we are wondering whether another handphone will make us happier, when we already have everything that one really needs to be happy.
2. Singaporeans really do not smile. At. All. It’s amazing how much the people in Chiang Mai smile at you. Even when you walk by their stores and don’t even go in, they still smile at you. Even after bargaining with them for a price so low it would drive shopkeepers in Singapore crazy, they still smile at you and talk to you, asking where you’re from. So nice, the people there. Really. Buying stuff made me happy, for two reasons. One was cause of my buys, of course. The other was for the simple fact that the smiles of the shopkeepers made me smile too, which was a good feeling, knowing I probably made their day and they definitely made mine.
3. One definitely needs to have an open mind if one wants to be a traveller. I did so many things that were out of my comfort zone in Chiang Mai. I rode on elephants for the first time, I sat on a raft, I stayed in a village with the bare minimal necessities, I trekked for more than 6 hours in total (something I would have vehemently protested against here in Singapore), I tried food i’ve never tried before (eg, fried worms), etc. It was an enjoyable experience overall, stepping out of my comfort zone and knowing that some of the things i did in Chiang Mai might be only done once in my life, and i was glad i did it there.
Care to try some? We did!
And last but not least,
4. Damn, Singapore air definitely smells good. No more haze man.
Filed under: Ervin
Team 1:21 has just got back from our two day, one night trek!
After an arduous two days of mountain trekking beginning with a bumpy elephant ride and culminating in a wet and wild river rafting experience, stepping through the doorway of the room in the guest house never felt better.
I’m aching to the bones, body threatening to shut itself down-the aftermath of the punishment of the past two days and struggling to keep my senses about, as I labour to bring you this blog article.
We spent the night in a thai village at about one thousand feet above sea level after journeying through the forest and passing, emerald green carpets of rice fields and waterfalls along the way.
As the chilly light of dawn illuminates the skyline, the roosters’ cry roughly rouse everyone, prompting some of us to have thoughts of roasting the roosters alive cross our minds. The team roused and hiked down the steep, craggily path of the mountain.
At the foot of the mountain we were brought via song tiao (2 Wheels), a type of open air pick up truck, to a river where we river rafted down the stream, I tried my hand at being the rear oarsman, utilising a long bamboo pole to push against the river bed to guide the raft. I had to stand on the raft and balance for most of the ride which was incredibly fun being tossed and speeding along the river.
After that, we all went back to the guesthouse via song tiao again, exhausted but happy, and went up to our rooms to rest.
Which is what I should be doing now myself, so see you all again soon! Ciao!
Filed under: Hazirah
Getting a heatstroke is really not a fun thing to suffer from while you are overseas. Especially when you are supposed to have tons of fun and work all at the same time.Oh well.
So far,Changmai has been really great in terms of everything;the people,the culture,the food and etc.The language school which we attended in Brighton Church was really fun. With all the new vocabulary words we have learnt, we are more than ready to test our Thai language skills at the much anticipate night bazaar.
Teaching us Thai culture @ Brighton Church
Testing out what we have learnt
Speaking of which,there are a lot of cheap bargains at the various night bazaars. With all the myrias of accessories,clothes,ornaments and random artifacts available,one cannot resist making at least one or two purchases there
Recalling back to the first few days of the trip,we were amazed at their way of life.Everything seems to run pretty slowly and a much relaxed pace very much unlike Singapore. Also, what stands out the most to me in Changmai has to be their people. They are more than ready to smile and offer a helping hand to a stranger in whatever way they could.Not only that, they are really a cheerful lot who are really easy to talk to. That leaves a great impression on me.
Filed under: Steph
and i MEAN it.well, actually i think it really is not too bad; the ChiangMai students are very friendly and did everything they can to help and were very suggestive with their replies during the interview.Their Radio Daws are EXACTLY what we have back in Singapore; the same Macintosh computers, same kind of mixers and the MD players. It was like editting back in school; they even have the same kind of settings as well, with the daws enclosed in two smaller rooms and a meeting area right outside the Daws for us to hang out. (Sounds familar, right?)
Warm welcome by our new found friends
But doing a 25-minute show with some language barrier (host Nitha had to explain certain issues a few times before the idea got across) and a few pauses here and there (actually, every 5 seconds there was a pause) is no joke. I nearly cried when i see the amount of editting needed to make the show perfect. Instant exhaustion please.
ok, let’s start to do work..
Lunch was always fun with the Thai students; them trying to teach us to speak Thai perfectly (i think only Jorge and Lucas managed to pull it off while the rest of us just looked Thai) and us laughing at our own pronunciations. One of the students, Nat, was very sweet though. Holding up her keys, she offered me a ride up to the English department (where all our work was to be done) on the backseat of her motorbike. (Most of the ChiangMai University students own their own bikes, and it’s so common leaving your bike around that even if you leave your helmet on your bike just like that, no one will steal it.) And on the bike, she brought me to see the beauty of their campus.
Their campus is very beautiful; its beauty is enhanced by nature and it gave the feeling of “not-too-much”; unlike Ngee Ann, these buildings are spaced comfortably apart from each other and there are alot of beautiful trees all around these buildings and the natural beauty of the trees brought out the whole “relaxed” feeling of the campus. Nat showed me this huge lake that is tucked at a quiet end of the campus; it is where tired students come here to hang out, hold discussions and just to relax. This humungous lake sits quietly infront of endless rows of tall mountains, which make the whole setting looked so perfect.
A lake in school, how relaxing..
On our way back to the English department, we past by rows and rows of Bodhi trees, with the leaves dried up and flowing down at the slight breeze of the afternoon wind and this gave me the feeling of a real, beautiful autumn. As i’m typing this, others are working their lungs out doing up the radio capsules and some are busy interviewing the ChiangMai students. Hard-working people, i must say.
Just a little fact. The ChiangMai University (CMU) is symbolised by this angel-lookalike collar pin that differentiates itself from other universities. CMU students will have it up on their collars and also, they have faculty belts for different faculties. For the Mass Communications faculty, it is a brass metal buckle with the word MASSCOM and a flying pigeon, which happens to be the mass communcations faculty’s symbol, on it. The coolest part of this? They allowed us to purchase it at 79Baht for one buckle. It really is super duper cool and it symbolises Mass Communications.
One of the CMU students, Arm (or Am, i have no idea. And he’s so shy and soft-spoken he just kept smiling) showed us his photographs and it was gorgeous. His photography skills just showed us how patient as a person he is, and how much passion and love he has for this hobby. Nat, on the other hand, has a special talent with art. (she’s drawing out postcards of us with watercolour paint and giving them out, pretending to sell them at 1000Baht for one.) She is so into art that she took Art Education as a minor, so as to learn how to teach children art.
One thing i realised about Northern Thailand girls; they are beautiful. The soft, supple skin they have bring out their sharp features, and their friendly and always-smiling kind personalities make them perfect wives! Them being so nice to us, whom they just met a day back, just make me feel how wary we are of people and strangers back in Singapore and how unwilling we are to even flash a tiny smile.
It might be because of culture differences, but i beg to differ, for it really does not take that much of a person to just smile at a passerby. Who knows, you just might make their day, or even your own. Ok, back to radio capsule recording.
sa-wa-dee.
Filed under: Grace
Meeting the students of Chiang Mai University (CMU) was really enjoyable. I followed the students from our group of 21, who were doing radio, and listened as they exchanged information about the culture in Singapore and their way of life, together with the students from CMU. The students from CMU had a really good sense of humour, and they loved to joke with us. Mr Felix HAD said people from Thailand love to joke anyway. Well it was really quite evident from the short session of about 5 hours (:
There was this one time where one of their students asked Cedric, from our group, who’s a little on the plump side, whether he could climb up to the Doi Suthep temple. (Refer to the previous post for more information on Doi Suthep Temple.) Another one of them proceeded to say that Cedric could climb up the mountain but would then roll down instead of walking down. That was then followed by everyone laughing and agreeing. From that moment, everything was much more light hearted, and Cedric was then known as “fat boy” to them. On a light note, it’s not very hard to see why. Haha.
What I felt was really quite heartwarming, was that the students opened up to us really quickly. Topics we talked about with them ranged from talking about which Thailand pop stars we found good looking, to how Singapore and Thailand’s education systems. By lunch time, we were already talking quite abit with them and conversing with them like old friends. We even asked them if they were attached, to which some of them answered willingly and then proceeded to telling us about their boyfriend. Whoever said Thai people were shy and soft-spoken obviously had not met this bunch of students. Soon, we were even talking and asking them about their plans to come over to Singapore in the future, and telling them that we would willingly bring them to all the hot-spots in Singapore.
I’m not in the radio team but would think that the people in the radio team should be looking forward to their assignments now, having met the fantastic students of CMU. I guess now work will seem more like fun. (:
-Grace Yeoh
Off goes the photography team
Filed under: Grace
(Click for bigger picture)
There is a saying, “If you have not tasted the Kao Soi or visited Doi Suthep, you have not been to Chiang Mai”. For something that sounds so amazing, Chiang Mai’s intense culture was indeed evident in the breathtaking architecture of the Doi Suthep Temple that the 21 of us went to on day 2.
The Road to the Temple
The Doi Suthep Temple is situated at the summit of the Suthep mountain. In the olden days, it is said that people who are determined to climb to the top of the mountain despite the road being long and bumpy, were those who were strongly devoted. It’s not hard to see why. The journey up the mountain was really long, and there were uncountable curves on the road.
On the way down, the group saw two cyclists cycling up the mountain, presumably to the temple. They were tourists, but at that moment, I think it was probably they who were the most devoted in getting to the top of the mountain to see the temple. (:
At the temple
Being really fond of beautiful architecture, I was really amazed by the gold designs on the temples. The colours were really vibrant, and the were really picturesque- a photographer’s perfect dream. Going around snapping photos, I came across many shops that sold amazing knick-knacks. But the more amazing thing I came across was Chiang Mai’s culture. I marvelled at the way the temple as built, with elaborate and extremely intricate designs on the walls and roofs. It did not fail to amaze me how these designs reflected how much the citizens of Chiang Mai valued their culture and tradition, putting so much effort into creating a place for worship.
There was a place we could stand at and see the view of the city. It was, to put it simply, really gorgeous. It’s not often that we see such sights like these in Singapore unless one is looking down from a plane that is just taking off from Changi Airport. And so, to see an entire city stretch out beneath me was at that moment, one of the best feelings ever. It was a perfect picture for a postcard.
After going around to see the temple and taking a few photos, the group left with not only a handful of photos each, but also a memory of the strong cultural influence Chiang Mai has, and the feeling of how breath taking Chiang Mai really is.
Reference: http://www.doisuthep.com/english.html (:
Grace Yeoh
Filed under: Uncategorized
I believe I speak for the twenty-one of us when I say that we all did not expect the sweltering heat when we stepped out of the airport and into Chiang Mai on day 1. Based on the book that we received before the trip, we all expected the weather to be a cooling 18 degrees celsius to 34 degrees celsius. Well, the weather that greeted us when we arrived was safely above 34 degrees celsius, or so it felt.
The streets of Chiang Mai
Not being a fond lover of hot weather, I was complaining in my mind about the excruciating heat that failed to let up. I was extremely amazed by the smiles on the locals’ faces. The bus drivers that drove us to our guesthouse had wide smiles on their faces. It was seriously as if they did not feel the heat at all. It was amazing how despite the merciless heat, they did not show their displeasure or irritation in the least bit. At that moment, it struck me how pampered Singapore teenagers like us are. We complain at the slightest bit of rise in temperature from our normal comfort zone.
The laid-back citizens of Chiang Mai were the complete opposite. Even though they might feel irritated (well, who wouldn’t? The weather was sweltering.), they never showed it, always putting up a good face. It was really quite amazing how much of a good sport they were. Our bus drivers weren’t the only people smiling at us and giving us excellent service. Storekeepers and other people we bought stuff from just smiled at us with such a warm smile that one really wondered if they felt the heat at all, seriously.
Chiang Mai weather, in a way, allowed me to realise that Thailand is indeed the land of smiles, through and through. (:
- Grace Yeoh
Filed under: Alexis
Today saw the twenty-one of us Doi Suthep (A Buddhist temple located some 1,500m above sea level on a mountain top). In my opinion, it was a beautiful temple. Everything from the interior, to the people whowork there; so warm in nature. And literally.
It was sweltering on the way up 500m worth of steps to get to the temple itself. Until now, I can’t quite tell you the exact temperature of the environment. (There is a haze but I can’t smell anything L ) BACK TO THE CLIMB, it was, indeed, worth it. Apparently the do-nut/curry-puff-looking stuff (that a really cool guy was selling) were really good. I can’
t tell you first-hand as this man-voice of mine forbids it L
(The air was cooling so high up in the mountains, really.)
This brings us to the experience we had with Brighton Church. Aaron and his wife took us through the basics of the Thai language. We partook in some intellectual exchange of words in Thai and that did go quite well. Yes, we did get ourselves acquainted with some essential Thai phrases which will definitely help us with getting around here. I, again, can’t quite tell you first hand, how the speaking part went. (The Man Voice). But from what I gathered, it was pretty sweet.
Let’
s see how we will engage & tackle the locals with our new skill.
I daresay that all of us are kinda warming up to each other. (A GR8 THING!) Ok, I still don’t like tom yam soup. I Don’
t Care How Sweet/Salty/Sour/Bitter it is prepared, I still dislike it.
Dinner was at the night bazaar area, yes, tom yam soup included. I must say that the chicken (which freakishly tasted of duck) was super. A walk through the night bazaar after surely revved us up for a night sometime soon of hardcore shopping. Oki.
I still maintain that Thai kids are so incredibly sweet!
I Am Not Leaving Without One.
-Alexis Lee
Filed under: Ervin
Shafts of golden sunlight filter through the room window, heralding the arrival of early morning. The time is 7:30am here in Chiangmai.
Seating myself at a table beside the gardens with slices of toast, condiments and a fruit, the melodious humming of java pipes and thai instrumental music weave through the cool, refreshing air of this picturesque area of the Guest House. At the table just beside the gardens breakfasting, I am struck by the sheer tranquility of the place, something very uncommon back in Singapore. Serene. Surreal. Beauty in its simplicity.
As stronger sunlight creeps through, a few more half-asleep members of our team trudge into the hall to get some breakfast. The sound of more toast-laden plates seating themselves against glass tables gently breaks the dreamy mood.
The day has begun.
-Ervin Liu
