back from laos

hi guys i have not been updating for quite awhile now.

well if u have been wondering what i have been up to,i just came back from laos yesterday.all i can say is that it was a wonderful wonderful experience.

i left singapore on the 31st of march and came back on the 8th.

i do not have any pictures now but there are some i am going to upload soon after i get them from my friends.made some wonderful friends there...the people there are so nice...the lao pple too are really nice pple...always smiling...and the person i facilated gave me a ring haha...

they really take things seriously.we went there to teach basic conversational english and IT. and our opening ceremony was held at the moe and the vice governer actually came down...there were so many flowers and the tables were arranged in some united nations conference kinda style with microphones and all..we were really stunned. lol...and the villages that we go to...everyone wld assemble outside to receive us and give us a bouquet of flowers..its happeneed at the airport as well. the orphanage we went to ...every assembled just to sing their lao song to us.the people that we taught were between 20 to 50 yrs of age...and they r really sporty...they would sing for us and do everything we tell them to...they dont find things stupid they totally let their ego down...here we are in jeans and t shirt to teach and all of em are in business attires. wow! haha...

the country is really poor...really poor..so i bought alot of bracelets from the small kids and gave it all to my ocp friends.as we climbed the 348 steps to the temple on the hill i got hold of two birds and freed it..it cost 20000 kip...it felt great ...haha...

we ate at restaurants everyday...the food to me ...was fantabulous...it was just beside the mekong river with no boats just one or two sampans in the whole river...and the rest are all mountains....imaigne the scenery...wait till you see the pictures...its really...something i cant describe...some of the restaurants and bars were really classy and i decided to dine there with a few of my friends...the food was great...the ambience i think is nicer than alot of restaurants in spore.

the guesthouse we lived in was awesome...haha.90 percent of the students lived in one while me and the other 10 percent lived in a small one just beside it...but i can say our villa was the most happening one? pple from the other guesthouse wld always crash with ours to play games such as truth or dare, sing songs , play cards,smoke, drink whisky and talk cock till 2 am in the morning...waking up at 630 everyday lol...and bascially we wld crash each others room...sometimes talking abt heartfelt stuff.

the massage there to me was awesome...50000 kip probably 5 us dollars for one hr massage...for spa its 80000 kip ...woo!and basically after teaching we wld have dinner tgt and than off to the night market to do our night shopping...no shopping centres just a night market...but i loved it.u can always bargain and the pple there r so nice...

we played some of their games ..it was quite fun! o and we had a soccer match with em...what i thought was a simple soccer match turend out to be such a formal event! let me tell u how serious they take things...they had a video cam guy there...and we even had an opening ceremony where we lined up and shaked hands one by one and were give flowers before the game and they got their state team to play with us...and all i can say is that they r really skillful.

we visited caves and temples and they r pretty awesome! haha. o did i tell u there r no traffic lights in the whole town? but i have nv seen an accident...haha! no kidding.

o and when one of our students lost his wallet,they actually wanted to broadcast on radio and tv to get it back but my teacher stopped them...now can u imagine how serious they take things...how much they appreciate us for coming?

on the last day,we had dinner and dance where all the students dressed to the nines came down to our guesthouse and we had a buffet and dance the whole night...drank bottles of beer one after another...i had about 5-6 cups of beer..and their beer i find is much nicer than our local beer.haha and i came pestering them to sing songs for us! we sang to them and we danced together traditionally...each of us were given a traditional scarf..i loved it...and my partner said to me...when u go back to singapore dont ever forget me or i will kill you....and he gave me a big hug...i felt like crying there and then.after which we splashed each other girls and guys with water as their water festival was nearing....just an early celebration...haha!after which some of us drank whisky and one in particular got drunk. lol...

atthe airport as they hugged each one of us...i just kept blasting rock music to keep myself from thinking abt it ...it was so hard to control our emotions.

i still remembered...there were drinks like scorpion and cobra in a bottled drink...looks scary...and they had fried insects on the menu.

well there r many many other things i wanna say but i shant keep it too long..

i might have shrank abit..but it didnt matter...cuz i was having a whale of a time and it opened up my eyes...

going there teaches me to reflect on myself as a person...they might be poor and all but they r happy pple...u can really feel the diff in spore and there.we r considered really rich to them but r we happy pple? everywhr i go i see black faces, i see pple rushing here and there ,impatient pple. over there,anyone i smile at on the street anyone i say hello "sabaidee" to they will all smile at you and reply back.do we get it here in spore? no fucking way.it makes me appreciate nature too...nv seen such a beautiful and peacful scenery.

going on this trip makes me just wanna drop all these materialistic thinking...you dont need branded stuff....you dont need gucci ,armani ,or prada stuff to make you a happy person...i felt happy there with no computer..minimal use of handphone,minimal use of television and no shopping centres...just nice lao pple and nice friends.it all comes from the pple around you and from urself.it kinda makes me sick now when someone tells me i wanna get this bag or shirt that cost hundreds of dollars..i am content with the bag i bought for 2 us dollars...the shirts i bought for 3 us dollars and the food that cost only 2-3 us dollars.

from now on,i aint gg to waste money on branded stuff or unnecessary stuff anymore...totally not needed.

overall ,these 9 days changed my life and how i view things as a person.i would love to go back there again.

as for my one yr...i will post it tmr as it has been a long post..haha!