in case you haven’t yet figured it out,
I AM BACK PEOPLE!!!!!
like midnight-ish on saturday 20th march
sorry i didnt get things for everyone.
but those who said they wanted beforehand i remembered, and got something small for you (:
i was dead broke by e end of the trip
thank goodness it was at e end and not in the middle or sth. lol
so in bangkok airport whilst waiting for transit flight
i was stoning in starbucks
(YES there is starbucks, like finally im in civilisation! \o/)
and writing my diary
(was still super drowsy from the airsick pill i consumed D:)
and i was outta my mind, i even penned down a poem.
im too embarrassed to type it down here heh.
YOU MAY CARRY ON READING IF YOU HAVE THE TIME, IM JUST MERELY POURING OUT MY FEELINGS ABOUT THE 10-DAY TRIP (:
ok anyway, wow 10 days seemed so long at 1st, but it just went by in a snap.
suddenly, it was time to go home.
i was actually so used to the life there, (i feel so thai lol) i came home and was blur like a sotong with everything.
i mixed up tap water with kettle water, and i forgot how to take mrt etc.
im serious.
after leaving our thai friends at Chiang Rai Airport, we flew to bangkok airport. and we were already starting to miss them. sigh.
you know what’s the worst feeling?
being stuck in transit.
not knowing where to go, what to do.
(yea and being broke, hungry but having to scrimp bcos it’s airport food, it’s supposed to be expensive yikes X_x)
though this is my third time in mae chan, it’s my first time here on holiday, not as part of mission trip.
i realised that when we are at our most relaxed, we learnt the most.
whether it is in a game or in competition or whatever.
amazing, but true.
i didn’t expect myself to go there and learn anything. i didn’t have a plan. i don’t even know what to expect. i didn’t even have a clue as to where they will be bringing us.
had a taste of sanctity in the fields, forest, rivers, mountains, etc
for once actually hearing the sounds of nature
enjoying God’s creations
taking in the breathtaking sights
and smelling the haze
(yes ok they were burning forests, it’s that time of the year)
on the 3rd day they said they were going to bring us fishing.
i was like, oh ok. fishing
little did i know…
i had to climb 6 MOUNTAINS and a few RIVERS
like some of the slopes were NO JOKE.
they were about 10º from vertical!!
ok maybe 20º. but you get the point.
my slippers kept getting stuck in the river. luckily my thai friends managed to help me get it back
so the whole time i was like,
half screaming, half complaining, half whining
like some pampered little kid
(bcos, well, do i even look fit to you? hah)
and those small little thai kids that went with us, they were RUNNING uphill and downhill like nobody’s business!
:O
and there was i, walking slower than my grandma..
and the bigger ones carried stuff to eat IN THE FOREST.
like, ok
how is it even possible to PLAY GUITAR while climbing mountains and crossing rivers?!
WTH i cant even stop screaming and being afraid of falling to my death especially for those super narrow mountain paths O_o
finally, we reached. surprisingly i wasn’t tired at all.
i only was tired when we had to climb back that 6 mountains and crossed those few rivers in between. yea halfway through i just wanted to drop dead and all D:
so our final destination was just…..
a river.
that’s it. and it was next to this mini waterfall
and we rested for awhile, and some of them were playing with the water (hey natural swimming pool, free yo!)
and some were catching fish
they used those HUGE goggles and those little fishing nets. im serious. whatever happened to fishing rods. oh yea i dont think they can afford lol
and over at the other side there were people making fire with just wood.
they totally can survive in the wilderness foreals
if it was me, HAHAHAHA, goodbye man.
they made mango/papaya salad, and 2 cartons of instant noodles
they brought trays, bowls, plates, chopping board, cutlery, pots and pans, water.
oh and guitar of course.
imagine carrying all that WHILST climbing 6 mountains and crossing rivers! tsk.
apparently they grew up doing that.
but idk, will i ever get used to it?
ok i realised im only at day 3.
i need to summarise lol
鸡犬不宁 is a Chinese idiom which literally translates to chickens and dogs making a hell lot of noise. I used to use that idiom when describing people arguing (&screaming) with each other, and are rather oblivious to their surroundings.
But i never knew how it felt like until we were going to sleep on the first night, and at the stoke of midnight,
I SUDDENLY HEARD AN ORCHESTRA OF COCKERELS AND DOGS, crowing and barking their heads off.
im serious.
MIDNIGHT. all the way until in the late morning.
for all 9 nights.
sometimes it’s the entire orchestra together, sometimes it will be simultaneous. it’s like they are competing for some event.
it doesn’t help that they come from all the houses surrounding the one we stayed in, so basically we had good surround sound.
it also didn’t help that we had the mosquitoes to keep us awake D:
i love mae chan because, where else can you get to sit on lorries and motorbikes?
im beginning to love sitting on motorbikes! <3 cool stuff.
apparently u have to be 15 to get ur license. so most of my thai friends are eligible lol.
besides the police ain't so strict there 
i sat on motorbikes almost everyday. shiok. the wind blowing onto your face, til you feel your nose coming off.
at 7+pm every evening you feel these little worms in your face (eww D:) but you can't see them. they are that small. lol.
i must apologise to mae chan though, the first few times when i sat on a motorbike i will start screaming. and irritate the entire town :/
i miss the padthai there!! :’(
and the yellow mee thingy that the lady of the house cooked. wah it’s so good she should set up a stall in singapore. seriously.
in a few days we kinda explored the whole of mae chan already. they didnt know where else to bring us lol.
so we went to Chiang Rai, for more sightseeing and shopping,
went to Mae Sai, and the famous Golden Triangle where the 3 countries meet,
and almost went into Myanmar
(there were nicer things to see there)
but to enter Myanmar it costs about 500 baht (roughly SGD22) for tourists who enter from Thailand
and if u take pics there u need to pay money too wth
for our thai friends it only costs 30baht –> look at the disparity!
on the last day we went to the outskirts of ChiangMai. the roads were so rocky and everything. i got abit carsick. thank God i didnt puke or anything 
oh yes they crack their half-boiled eggs in soyamilk and eat it like that.
all i have to say is, it tastes like soyamilk and egg. HAHAHA. i mean, the 2 don’t mix what. they still have their distinct taste and whatever..
i miss talking to ah tai infront of his tv and watching Thai drama serials & Thai comedy with him.
there is NOT ONE TV CHANNEL that is in English nor in Chinese.
(english because it’s an international language and all, and chinese because alot of them come from China. we communicate to our Thai friends in Chinese too)
i miss your noisiness (:
i miss talking to jian wei about music. that’s all we ever talk about, basically. hahaha
he’s the 1st ever, and by far they only person, that i have come across, who is rhythm perfect. i mean, you get people who are perfect pitch, but i have never known anyone with perfect rhythm before.
even though you’re quiet but you are actually quite funny (:
i miss talking to the people at mae chan church. i miss laughing with the girls and the teasing one another. i miss eating together with them and talking about everything under the sun.
i missed going to the fields at night when it is literally pitch black and just standing there enjoying the stars and moon. it is like a blanket of stars that spread across the sky. i was told that on that night we went, it was considered little, usually the sky would be flooded with stars. oh wow. you can hardly see the sky with all the buildings over here D:
i missed taking the bus which cost less than SGD1 and get the wind blowing in your face bcos the doors never close and the windows are so old they cant be opened, and there is actually a bus conductor whom u pay your money to (:
ok here comes the important part. lol.
早知道，何必当初？
was what she said on the last day when we were eating the breakfast that she cooked for us.
what the lady of the house meant was, “if we knew that we’ll be parting anyway, in the first place, why did we even have to meet/know each other?”
she couldn’t bear to see us leave too
If our church didn’t set up mae chan church,
if i never went for mission trip in the first place,
i wouldn’t have known what LOVE is.
i wouldn’t have experienced so much love the people have for each other
the genuine care and concern for others, even to strangers
i would never have known what true happiness is
having friends who are always around you
who laugh with you and lift you up, making sure you dont fall to your death in the mountains. and always keeping a look out for you.
the people at mae chan have always been serving me
i felt guilty after awhile so i tried to reciprocate and realised that the joy of helping others is actually so fulfilling and satisfying
that unspeakable love. i dont even know how to describe it.
sometimes i see how closely knitted they are with each other, even though they only knew each other for a few years, makes me kinda envious.
i am not not even half as close to my family and friends.
and they looked like they knew each other for life, forever!
温馨 this word came to my mind.
i dont know the english translation for it, probably warmth.
the blissful warmth that is
thank you for showing me the indescribable love.
thank you for demonstrating it to me
thank you for letting me find joy and happiness
thank you for letting me learn the most when i least expect it
thank you for letting me learn more about the thai culture
thank you for letting me be this close to nature
THANK YOU, MAE CHAN. FOR EVERYTHING.
Thank you for allowing me to enjoy the last few months of my childhood
