Khon Kaen and a glimpse into village life.

When I first got to Khon Kaen I never expected myself to love this place this much. It's a dusty box of a town, with Khon Kaen Uni taking up most of it. Its almost like a less developed area of Malaysia. But of course, as with the cliched saying, I love that place because of the people and our hosts (Public Health Faculty International Club students) were realllyyy friendly. Its been a long time since I have met people who so genuinely friendly and glad to have us. Even though communication was quite a problem (as stef described, getting a pt across to them is like leading a whole day of cheer). Thai food rocked, though there was alot of pork in them (and if you know me, you would know i generally dont like red meat). But dishes like papaya salad, mango sticky rice, thai desserts consisting of red ruby and cute fat chendol worms, pad thai, thai green curry, saku, cha yan (thai iced tea) blah blah. The list goes on forever.

Visiting the village was amazing, and it made me want to be a farmer :P Having been a city kid for so long, its nice to know of such an alternative lifestyle. Though I dont think I can survive staying there forever but now I'm really looking forward to going down there, and staying with these people and getting to know them and their culture better. If only UCL offered thai as a language which I can take as SSC. And im crossing my fingers and hoping that this project would take off as a sustainable project. Although Im sick of stef, Im glad she is my partner 'cos I dont think She's like a partner and mentor in one. I really do understand why she managed to get the award.

Here's a little glimpse into their village life and what I did in Khon Kaen.
Basically it was a recce trip for Project Khon Kaen 08. We visited villages, the local Primary Care Unit (PCU) and for R&R, we had Tor, who was a friend of stef's thai friend, who brought us around. We went for thai karaoke (and me and stef sang disney songs in there), cycled around a lake in KK city, visited temple, tried loads of thai food, and bought back Pork Floss which apparently originated from Khon Kaen.

Bikes were the most common form of transport in KK. Even within the KK Uni.

Refuelling with gas from a bottle. How primitive and cute.

Here comes the cowherd. I didnt know there are still people who did this now!

Farming! Its the planting season now :)

Padi fields were so gorgeous!

My thai host, Lake, playing with a stray dog. In thailand, the number of stray dogs beats the number of stray cats in Singapore hands down. And they come in all shapes and sizes and breeds and gender. From Poodles to German Shepherds to fluffy ones like this.

The KKU Night bazaar. Which had LOADS of good food. The Tom Yum Taley (Seafood Tom Yum) here was out of this world. 11 thumbs up.

Stef and Saku. Which is abit like soon-kueh shaped snacks made of sago skin with peanut and garlic stuff inside. REAL GOOD.

Stef and Rice Crackers.

Jaime, Me, Rung and Stef posing with a dino bin.

Tor, Jaime, Me, Rung, Stef.

Typical Eatery in KKU. We totally hecked about hygiene during that trip and miraculously didny get diarrhoea or food poisoning.

Thai food. With pork done in different ways.

One of the more majestic temples in KK. Though not as stunning as those build by the royal family in BKK, it was still beautiful .

Bells put up by worshippers for good luck.

Buddhists believe that the 5-headed snake protected the Buddha during his meditation when the Satan sent the floods. Hence these snakes are seen in most temples.

A view of the lake which we cycled around from the temple.

Rung and I.

KKU Hospital. Opened by one of the princesses. Basically in thailand, most hospitals and temples are built by the royal family. And the King's picture is really everywhere.

Bangkok!

I just came back from thailand where I went to Bangkok for 1 day and Khon Kaen for about 4days to do a recce trip for this CIP trip which I would be doing there.
Anyway, since blogger takes forever to load photos, here's some of the photos which I took in Bangkok, where I spent 1 whole day visiting about 10 temples, with Rung as my local guide.

My 2 thai friends showing that they really love Bangkok. And they also really love their king. Sometimes I wonder if it is possible for Singaporeans to love any of our leaders like that. Maybe I would, if Ben Sheares is still alive. Ong Teng Chiong's pretty charming too. Stef and myself in front of a touristy sign.
Bells symbolize luck according to my thai friends.
Pasting gold on the Buddha.
In the tuk-tuk. After having a go on it, now i do understand why thailand has so many road kills.

At one of the most famous temples in Bangkok, Royal Palace (or smthing along those lines).
Little Giants. They are everywhere. And they guard the temples, according to the thais.

The swing.

The fast boat, the travels along the river. Costs about 16 BHT for a trip. The slow one, which travels across the river, costs only 4BHT.

One of my favourite temples, and those steps are as steep as the length of my shin.

The Reclining Buddha. So majestic it really took my breath away.

Western Influence?
Monk feeding pigeon. In thailand, the monks are really revered. And when a female (accidentally or not) touches a monk, he cant be a monk anymore. So on the streets, when we see a monk, we try to step aside to let him pass.
Tuk-tuk. They should call it 吐吐. Really can puke after the ride and puke blood too.
Cha- Yan. Also known as thai iced- tea. Potentially diabetes causing but my favourite drink there.

Brighton and London

Went down to Brighton for a day trip just before I left London for Singapore. It's a little beautiful seaside town. Nothing much to do, but nice and relaxing (:

Brighton

The amusement park at Brighton Pier.
Seagulls, a common sight. And quite intimidating really.
On the beach. I wished it was a sandy beach instead of a rocky one.

Cute lil souvenirs of the seaside houses. When i went scotland, my guide was telling me that seaside houses are colourful to scare away sea monsters.

My mum looking qte stunning in front of the coast of Brighton.

One of the tourist attractions at Brighton. Beats me why though.
The streets of Brighton.

Last of London

Spent the last few days with the medics, watching Hairpray and having a spaghetti dinner which Miche whipped up.

Anneka and Carmen.

Anneka

Miche the cook and Eejean
Interesting Pasta which QZ bought from Italy
YUM.

Off to thailand for now (: Will be back with more gorgeous pictures from there.

Adieu!

Off to Thailand!

I'll be off to Thailand soon (: First to Bangkok for about 1 day if sightseeing and play and then down to Khon Kaen to plan for this project which I would be involved in with medics from UK. I'm qte looking forward to it, cos stef would be going as well. And with her around, somehow its like having a parent, and you know that things will turn out well.
So wish me luck for my recce trip!

Weekend was nice. (((:

Met up with May and Josh on Fri. Got josh to treat us B&J's cos he was late. Watched Get Smart, which rocked. It was absolutely hilarious, laughed from the start to the end. Plus the seats at Grand Cathay rocked. (Picturehouse's slightly better though.) And dinner at crystal jade which gave me a shock cos i didnt know service charge and gst amounts to such an obscene figure nowadays. Can the fuel prices stop rising, rice supply stop decreasing and GST stop increasing please.

Went cycling with the Losers (Prisc, yk the retard, Liane) on sat and was trying to teach Lily how to cycle. Although I must have been a bad teacher cos Lily never managed to master it. So me and prisc eventually cycled to the nearby hawker centre with Lily blading (she's actually qte proficient. surprise!) behind us. Loads of fun, though I was aching a little after that. But aching is good, it means workout and workout means burning calories.
Plus, i never knew so many people were into healthy lifestyles cos while i was there, i met alps (long time no see and she's wayy more gorgeous now!) who looked like she had worked out loads blading and Mr Rem in his full cycling gear. He pedalled past me while I was looking very unglamourous walking out of the hawker centre with a satisfied look on my face.
I guess its time I stop being a slob. But its easy to say and hard to do right :x Someone motivate me!

Sun was spent being lumps in my living room with boobie and babe and babe's bf, watching dvds and choking ourselves with icecream and waffles and cocktail sausages and cookies and terrible tasting lemonade. Piled on loads of calories and got arteries clogged up. But at least I was happy. Statins can come later.

Toby Hemingway

Normally Blonde, Brit Boys dont appeal to me but I found myself googling this chap after watching The Covenant.

The Covenant was rated rather badly by alot of critics. But I think if you like Harry Potter genre movies, you might like it too. In fact, I liked it loads. Though i suspect it might be because Im generally interested in people having supernatural powers (Harry Potter, Heroes, Spiderman. See the link?)

Warning though, I have a feeling Christians might not like it too much.

Just like how, while watching Driving Lessons (starring Rupert Grint!), I suspect the 2 angmoh ladies sitting in front of me left the show prematurely after their tolerance level for atheist jokes worn thin.

Random Ranting

I like being in Singapore, even though I havent really been doing much except for watching loads of tv, teaching my brother (who seems like he is going to fail anw, but im praying and hoping otherwise), eating LOADS (and putting on loads as well), occassionally going out with my mum and aunts, to a random art exhibition with boobie and sporadically planning for the Thai CIP trip which Im going with the medics in August, and a recce trip with Stef and Jaime in July (qte looking forward to this!).

On a side note, I doubt Im going to HK anymore : (
'Cos its not as cheap as expected, and mainly cos I dont seem to have much time. (Never enough for singapore anyway.)
Plus my granny wants to go with us to HK, Japan and Aussie nxt year, so no harm waiting. It's not like HK will fly away right. hehe.

Hong Kong!

Anyone interested in going to HK during July? : )))

Budget travelling for about 1week or so (plus, minus).
Hostel (about 200bucks sing for about 6days), Jetstar's about S$400 return (please tell me if you know any cheaper deals!).

Disneyland, Dimsum, Kickass Asian Cuisine, Rockin' Shopping, Random Sightseeing.
Actually basically I only want to see disneyland and my friends there, if you are interested you can pretty much decide on what you want to do : ))

The Last of London

And because poopie was complaining that I havent been updating my blog for ages, this one if esp for her : )) Here's to you buddy!

Anyway, my absence was due to the fact that I was busy with:
1. Mugging for exams, memorising PFK and other random acronyms, squinting at histo pictures, colouring my anat book, highlighting every line of Pocock and spamming TFs on Lapt.
2. Going half- mad on the week of exam itself. And yes, I was on the verge of mental breakdown. Thank God for my mum, Miche and even normally annoying peeps like baby and of course, walking encyclopedia QZ.
3. Worrying till I was half- dead, clammy and pale, suffering from tachycardia and almost a walking zombie after the papers. (Esp for MCQ1)
4. Eating non-stop the few days after exams. Chinese Experience (most worth it Dimsum in London ever, and its not too bad really), Hakkasan, Four Seasons, Kebabs from Oxford, Brick Lane Curry and Biryani rice, Harry Ramsden's ... No wonder I gained loads after exams as well.
5. Packing my cluttered room (the amount of stuff I have in there shocks myself even). I think I have 3 times more stuff that Kelvina Mama.
6. Settling Accomm- Currently its MIC, and Im staying in a double with a Chinese girl, with a wacky name, Im betting she's from HK, or Tw, okay maybe China. No idea really, but basically someone that obviously hails from the Land of Unique Names.
Paid the deposit and all, but I just have to tell them that I want to withdraw before Aug then I can get my deposit back -_-" If i had known this earlier, I would have made a decision almost immediately, since I would know the results of my other 2 hostels latest by mid July.
7. Visiting Cambridge, where Stef the Dog is. And I thank God all the time for someone like her to help and guide me along in UK. Someone who is always there, and always trustable, and someone who i can really be myself with. Someone whom i can let into my embarrasingly cluttered room without bothering to clean it up the least bit, and someone to truly love good food with.
Visiting Oxford twice, love the MooMoo's Milkshakes there. Pineapple never tasted so sexy. Icecream at D&G's was fab too. And the air was wayyy better than London. Plus there was babe and Greedy Esther.
Visiting Brighton, a seaside town. East Coast is nicer in my opinion. But it was still rather nice (albeit boring, hence i begged the Nat Express Bus driver to let me take an earlier bus than the one i booked back to London). It was in this historic town, where i rushed madly into an internet cafe with trembling fingers, palpating heart, blank mind (yes i forgot my home phone number, username and password there and then) to check my results. And THANK GOD, I passed, with an extra bonus ; ) No resits, no suaning from relatives about spending a whole load of Daddy's money with nothing in return, and most importantly HOME ((: Seems like my daily prayers to my Granddad was answered, with some extra kindness thrown in as well!
8. Doing last minute shopping for everyone back at home. Bought like 100pounds worth of Leonidas chocs, whole load of Gu brownies (10 boxes at least) and random shirts and shoes for my brother and cousins : )) Which girl doesnt love shopping yeah! Means like almost 180pounds worth of random stuff (mainly food).
OHOH, so people I have to meet you guys real soon to pass you all the goodies cos Chocs in my household seem to vanish qte mysteriously. And i think they might rot. Plus i think you guys want to see me rigghhhtt : PP
9. FLYING BACK HOME TO LOVELY SINGAPORE! : ))

So looking at the year back, as Miche said, studying Med at UCL aint that bad (which I have to agree with her it might be largely due to the Merit we got).
Its nice in a way it truly opened my eyes to what different people there are in the world, the different cultures, and learning to take care of myself (i never knew it was this hard, so kudos to my mum and maid). And its also about managing expectations, your own goals with your parents hopes; and striking a balance between what you want, what you have to, what you can/ cannot.
And its also like getting used to the fact that entertainment = clubbing, drinking and chilling at Huntley; not slobbing at home eating good food and watching DVDs/ TVB. People no longer laugh about what you used to laugh at, talk about what you would like to talk about. And it took me a whole academic year to get used to it, although I would dare say I have taken a teeny baby step forwards. At least, now I have friends from random countries (though mostly Asians still, but sorry hon I have the Yellow Fever).
Plus i think Medicine gets into you, after a while you realise that you start sprouting random terms like linea alba and the 3 or 4 tendinous intersections instead of 6-pack. Which i think, is nice a way. Nice because, I think im starting to enjoy being a medic.



So here's to me, for a year that was relatively well-lived. At least in my opinion, and mama and papa's : )))