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i promised a photo trip report of thailand, and since upgrading myself to using a digicam, I no longer ‘wash’ photos so the people that have been asking me for pictures, majority of them are here.
my flight to bangkok with SQ, only received my boarding pass at 8.15 for a 8.45 departure, not hard to imagine that i had to rush through immigration and security into the gate area. We did hit an air pocket 45 mins b4 arrival, causing my coke to fly. it was the first time i saw the cabin crew grabbing the coffee and tea and sitting down along the aisle.
i was to later transfer to my maiden trip on board air asia, and after the return flight, probably will be the last. managed to grab emergency exits sit despite the mad rush of people, so I had a comfortable ride to Chiang Rai.
We went to Big C (ah hell, this place is horrendously boring), before dinner and a ride to the home.
We visited the school the next day. The pickup the girls packed into for their short ride to the school.
A look at their canteen.
a typical classroom.
their water source.
we had some interactions in the school and were to come back in the afternoon for a sports meet.
on friday we went to clear weeds at the pineapple farm opposite. being virgin weed clearers some of them, they removed the pineapple as well. but oh well, we spent the remaining half bitching about some people.
2 hours later; of cos thats only half of the stretch.
we had a chance to visit the pig farm after that.
after lunch we went to a rice wine brewery, 1 bottle of rice wine with 50% alc only cost 40 baht. it was very smooth, goes down very very easily before it explodes in you.
we went to pick oranges at the plantation. it was a peel and throw thing, and the floor was littered with seeds and orange peels.
a little stream we had to cross to reach the plantation. i almost pulled shermeen into the stream later on when i slipped. luckily she was fine. she’s in the picture now in blue.
we went to the phalac caves after that and visited 3 caves which were used by monks for praying and meditation. the scenery around the mountains were unbelievable, and we thought we could only find that type of scenery in china.
the small bridge on the stream we stopped at.
hiking up to one of the caves. you can see the opening from this picture.
beautiful rapids.
a view of a small plantation. you will probably have mistaken this for a cabbage plantation. however, they are actually growing tobacco. not in season though.
in the evening i had a chance to ride with Fr. Paul to town to pick up Mr Foo in his van. He was travelling at 140 km/h and we reached Chiang Rai in no time. I was not feeling nauseous as Marie had highly recommended me to take some motion sickness pills. He dropped me off at the Chiang Rai night market in which I had a chance to browse through.
the kebab was going at 10 baht.
as mr foo’s flight was delayed for an hr, and marie’s pineapple shop at the airport was closed, he drove me back to town again to a fruit market.
on the way back to the home after picking up mr foo, we stop by a wonton noodle soup stall halfway through the journey. for 20 baht, this was unbelievable.
the noodles of course, with mismatched chopsticks.
we reached the home at 11.45pm. unbelievable friday we had. sat morn was spent doing rice threshing and continuous bitching. i actually found a bitching friend in Thailand this time, and she speaks teochew too. I will see if I can find a picture of her later. The girls also met some small accidents when Mr Foo drove their truck into a bush of thorns. Sat afternoon and Sun were spent at the home, with a mass on Sun morn.
A picture of the chapel with almost all of us together with Fr. Paul, standing beside me in brown.
on monday morning we went to pucheefa to see the sunrise, wasn’t really that cold this year. this is a very nice picture. oh you can find my bitching friend beside me in black and she speaks teochew too haha.
a group picture. Incidentally, where we were standing belong to Laos territory, part of the Luang Prabang region.
there were also some very nice photos that i took with diff ple but I won’t upload it, if not it will take a long time to load. newae being in the girls van today meant lots of bitching and noise, but it was fun.
a picture of sunrise taken from my phone. my digicam’s battery ceased to exist after the last photo.
after breakfast at the home, we went to the banks of the mekong river at Padai. Lovely sight it was, but due to the high tide we could not climb to the other side which allowed us to be within 100m from Laos. But still, the view from where we were was just picturesque. The two of them who insisted on wearing track shoes and couldn’t join us sat at the small restaurant while we were enjoying ourselves.
the mountain range across is Laos territory.
we used to be able to cross those rocks you see at the background. The sand here was so fine and soft.
lunch was an all fish meal at a restaurant not faraway from this place. we visited a Mien village after that and looked at the conditions of the village. I will stop now and continue a little later with the pictures. Need to go get something now.
