~ SRGCE Lao Cai - Memories Unerased: Chapter 8 - Time Waits for No Man ~

After a brief stay, it was time to leave.

How weird - we've only been there for a mere stay of 5 days in Ban Ho Village, but the mere thought of leaving that kind of serenity for city life, where we belong, is just plain profound. For once, I truly felt the kind of bitterness when people leave a certain place where the best memories took place. It's like being torn apart in two - Singapore or Vietnam?

If I had a choice, I'd go back there. However, we didn't have a choice back then. We had to leave under Mr Teng's orders, since it was after all, a school trip.

Before we went off to Lao Cai city, we went to help out at the terraced fields. Same thing - plough the land thoroughly before leaving the place. It was much easier now, because the soil is wet. At the same time, the load was heavier because for one, the soil now comes out in chunks with the hoe, and is heavier. Moreover, since our group was assigned an easy plot of land the day before, we were working on the biggest plot that day.

Gym class is important, and so was the entire training process we had back in Singapore. This time, we were made to put in whatever we had. Soon everyone was muddy and dirty, so there wasn't much of a difference anyway - mud wars started out. Hard work, but everyone did have fun whilst getting the job done.

That was the last I saw of the peaceful days in Ban Ho Village, where time stood still...

Soon after the cleaning up, we had to leave that place. I wouldn't say much about the leaving - it rakes up much mixed emotions.

Before we left after lunch, I handed Khnah my green origami plane that all of us were supposed to prepare to give to our tour guides.

"Here, Khnah. Thanks for all the things you've helped us with during our stay here."

"Oh! Thank you very much!" he replied, as he looked a bit... skeptical about the shape of the plane. I folded it the Japanese way, without a tip.

"When I get to medical school, I'll return. I promise."

With that, and all the thank-you notes written down, as well as the appreciation that we showed to the villagers, we set off on our way back to Hanoi. Before that, we went to a minority Dao village.

Setting off to walk the remaining path that big vehicles like buses cannot go through.

Last trek of the entire trip to Vietnam. I like that. And it was here that I took the most pictures with ease and travelling light.

"One shot, one kill." Nice timing, I got a water buffalo looking right at me when I shot this picture.

Crossing the bridge of two completely different lifes - that of the citizen and villager.

This river flow represents the harsh realities of life - one minute your life flows smoothly, and the next moment you crash into endless rocks.

One of the minority Dao villagers' houses, with tourists and travellers like us crossing by.

The houses are old. And I mean, really old. After the brief introduction to the Dao households, we were told that these houses could get as old as 300 years old, passing on from one generation to the next. And, the houses have 3 fireplaces - one for cooking food, the other for cooking animal feed, and the last one for warming purposes. Very nice.

Although the trip was brief, we got to see quite a few things that seemed to invoke a somewhat reflective part of my mind along the way. Just look at the below pictures.

Hmm... We have the luxury of not doing this.

Wow, even tyres can give kids so much fun.

Funny, even as I write this, I can remember vividly what actually happened over there as though it were yesterday. And as we walked on, we saw many more sights of our brief stay at the Dao village area. Priceless sightseeing for a school trip, I'd say.

I mean, just look at this. It's just a bamboo stick cut lengthwise in half, used to transport water.

Wobbly bridge, anyone dare to cross this?

Kids playing on a rocky patch of land.

Well, I'd say it's quite a quiet ending to our trip to Lao Cai, even as we came and went.

Later on, we went into Sapa Town to get our goodies - aka souvenirs. They sell things like lighters, some even bigger than a typical cigarette, and lots of brocades and the like. Man, they even have 4-foot long pipes for tobacco. Cool stuff.

After a while of shopping, unfortunately, I found little things worthwhile buying, and oh. Those kids will try all ways and means to get you to buy their stuff. Irritating, when they start overdoing it despite you telling them you don't want their goods. Well, anyways, can't blame either. It's quite hard for children to make a living out there, especially since they are still at schooling age...

We then set off for Lao Cai Station. Ugh. Pumpkin soup tasted nice when I tasted it for the first time in Ban Ho Village, but the taste grew more and more disgusting by the day, mainly because we've been eating the same thing for a couple of days in a row. Funny, but nobody ever said they find rice, bread or other staple foodstuffs disgusting despite eating it for decades...

Perhaps it's just us.

After that, we set off for our bunks in the train. It's tough penning this down, because everything was in a mess. For example, we were carrying a whole lot more stuff from what we bought for home from Sapa Town, and there was increased specificity about the ticketing - who goes into which bunk, and so on. As for me, I couldn't get out in time to thank Khnah again for seeing us off all the way from Ban Ho to Lao Cai city.

I couldn't thank him enough for what he has done. Bringing us up Mt Fansipan, teaching us the ways of the villager, and even sending us all the way back to Lao Cai train station. It's a real pity I couldn't tell him that before he was gone. Just, poof! Gone.

Even as the train set off, we didn't have time for all that. We still had to prepare for a presentation that we would be presenting to 5 Singaporean entrepreneurs when we got back to Hanoi on the last night.

~ SRGCE Lao Cai - Memories Unerased: Chapter 7 - Overcoming the Self Within ~

Living the days of a farmer. That was what we did, at least for 2 days.

After the fun fair night, everyone was dead tired by then, so only a couple of us actually went to take a shower. And a bad time at that too... try showering in cold water at, say, less than 10 degrees Centigrade? And some actually showered in it, I don't know. Luckily for me it was blasting cold water at first, then it turned warm. Even then it made little difference - I'm still having that cold I caught down there after the shower.

And if Fansipan was something fresh, so was the interacting with the kids, and actually farming off a given plot of land that belongs to the villagers our group was attached to. Well, it definitely is something that we wouldn't be able to do in Singapore. And oh, those kids were still playing with the balloon sculptures we made last night. Wow, these kids must've really enjoyed it to the full from last night's fair.

We had to cross a bridge to reach the other side of Ban Ho, so here's a view of the left side of the bridge.

Let's start work!

We grabbed our hoes and started working. First, we had to clear and rip off those remainder sweet potato leaves off the ground, before we could start ploughing the land and getting it ready for the farmers' next batch of food. The ploughing is seriously tough - I sure could use some help of a couple of gym classes before doing that again. Blisters formed quite quickly - I suffered one that didn't burst right out, luckily for me.

It still did hurt, somehow. When I showed Khnah my hand, he showed me his - he was pointing to the many other worse blister scars he had previously. Wow, perhaps I shouldn't be complaining anymore...

We carried on hoeing, until the entire plot of land was ploughed. There were a few instances where the land wasn't ploughed deep enough, so we had to do it again and again on the same spot until it was done. Not to mention that there were a couple of rocks that we hit under the ground while ploughing - ouch!

Anyway, it was lucky that we got a small plot of land - the others were working on bigger plots, and some were even told to collect dung from the heap. And that was only the preparatory part. When we got back after working under the sun for an entire morning (which wasn't quite as hot as it would be in Singapore), we could see some sleepy faces already.

See what I mean? Sleepy faces!

It was kinda understandable, I reckon. I mean, everyone slept an average of about only 4-5 hours, considering that people slept as late as 2am and woke up at 7am, some even earlier. Anyways, we had luxury of a 2-hour lunch, since the farmers said the seeds couldn't be sown while the sun is so hot, which might make the plants unable to grow properly.

And that was only 2 hours away from getting your hands dirty for food's sake. Because they didn't have artificial fertiliser like we do, so they do it the old traditional way: using cow dung. It was really damned funny watching the others have a dung competition - who's gonna dig the biggest piece of dung today?

"More shit! We need more shit over here!"

"Phwroar!" goes the load.

We had loads of fun down there, getting ourselves dirty. Good ol' organic vegetables fresh from the farm. I mean, where in Singapore can you get such a good chance to actually be planting vegetables in the backyard? Here, you don't even have a backyard to talk about, let alone planting your own food, as opposed to the villages in Vietnam.

Okay... Using a face mask for such a task is kinda far-fetched... The dung doesn't smell as bad, now that we've been into that serious shit.

Now that's serious shit. Phwroah!

Our finished plot. There aren't enough baby vegetable plants to go around, so we sowed seeds in the remaining plot instead.

After doing all the planting, we were told that the effort of 10 of us for an entire half-day was equivalent to that of 2 local women working for 2 hours. Whoa, simply amazing. I guess skill comes with practice, huh, considering that these people work the same plot of land for much of their lives...

It was tough, but it was fun. Imagine ourselves planting our own food - would you bear to waste your own effort that goes into your own mouth to feed yourselves? Lesson learnt on wasting food: you put their work down the drain - do their profession some justice by finishing your food today.

And oh, dealing with buffalo shit has never been so fun before.

That being said though, the workload wasn't finished. We had to saw the big chunks of firewood and chop them up. Feng the Woodcutter seems to be very proficient at it - after a couple of successful chops with the axe he was running it like a machine. Give him the wood and it gets split in no time. Ah, the smell of bamboo wood is getting more and more familiar - been smelling it since Mount Fansipan.

Soon after all the chores were done, we went back to the homestay again. This time, it was a different new experience, even though we've walked that same path back to our homestay many times. For we know that the next day, we would be leaving Ban Ho Village right after the ploughing of the terraced fields...

For some reason, I just can't make myself leave. Look at the scenery, the hospitality of the villagers, those kids, the life down there... It's hard to let all these go, but ultimately, we still have to go back to where we belong to. Still, that being said, that sense of attachment to that place of serenity and escape from highly-urban stress is still something I struggle with till today.

~ SRGCE Lao Cai - Memories Unerased: Chapter 6 - Mirrors for Our Own Lives ~

Time stood still down there. It was all in Ban Ho Village...

After the first night, we had to start with our CIP at the village school. Well, something's gotta start somewhere, right?

I started the day with this photo snap. Beautiful sunrise - would you get it elsewhere?

Một Con Vịt ! Reminder of the song we're gonna include for our school performance, specially and sincerely for the kids only!

The local breakfast fare. Don't waste food, guys - give those farmers their due respect!

Anyways, the breakfast was a simple local meal of sticky glutinous rice with crushed peanuts and some cucumber and tomato. Ah, vegetarian breakfast doesn't seem that unappealing after all, considering that you didn't eat well the day before, eh...

Let's be honest - who'd be seriously eating their fill in any sort of buffet dinner?

Anyways, after the breakfast everyone was gearing up while Mr Lim was talking to me about school, and about my 4-H2 class. Not very streetsmart, as compared to many others, I said. Yeah, I know that isn't very true, but what first came to my mind was that ever since we entered the 4H2 bandwagon, we haven't got a life since...

"Yeah, so that means you've gotta start somewhere right?" he said.
"Yeah, I suppose so."
"Well then, lemme give you one useful advice. You've gotta start learning how to read people like an open book."

I didn't know what that means, but I'm still trying to figure out what he meant by that.

Well, anyways, things went on and we went to Ban Ho Village School for a visit to interact with the local kids. Come to think of it, children can really upset the entire order of how your heart and mind works. In this case, it was for the good, especially after the entire experience with them while at the village school and the fun fair, which I'll be talking about later in this chapter.

How nice, a welcome dance for us. These Vietnamese really know how to treat people well...

When we got into the village, the kids were playing tag, so Yong Qin took the first step. And the rest of the playing activities soon followed - the kids started running into the school and taking whatever they've got for playtime. It was as though they already prepared for our coming - how comforting!

It didn't take long for us to be immersed in that momentary childhood, where everyone of us was enjoying ourselves the way we would be easily labelled as extreme nutcases if we did the same thing in Singapore. Kinda reminds us of that bitter truth that we weren't children anymore once we get back to Singapore - we are now expected to be adults. Society's pressure in Singapore just plain sucks, now that I think of it...

It was as if we, the city kids, were the ones who were really deprived of our childhood, as Singaporeans in a foreign land.

Without a care of the pressures of life.

Award-winning picture, courtesy of Joel Yee of Group 4 (my group!).

Happiest girl of the day - she's holding her own picture!

"Childhood innocence under the bougainvillea tree."

So endearing, these little children... Sad you couldn't bring him back from Vietnam, huh Mirjam?

Haha... well anyways. It's such a joy to be around with them, thus the irony. Last time I heard, Lao Cai was struck by a recent typhoon before we went there, so probably some of these kids are orphans or have lost a loved one to that. Yet they can still be so happy with what they have right now. So shouldn't be we likewise?

Let's go to the classroom now, English class time. It's amazing, these Vietnamese kids.

Never seen such enthusiasm in the classroom. At least, not in Singapore...

...and it's miraculous where all these were taking place in. Check out this chipped-off piece of the school history on the floor.

Look at these kids, they're adorable. Along the way, a couple of us noticed their colouring in the colouring books we gave them. It's stunning - they take so much effort to colour the pictures, and it turns out 10 times better than what we city kids do with our colouring books. It was so nice and fun teaching them English, yet quite ironic at the same time. They were still learning basic English alphabet even though these kids are close to 10 years old already...

Maybe I should be keeping such thoughts for myself. Oh well, shit.

I mean, at that point in time, I just felt I didn't do enough for these kids. Something else has to be done for them instead of just being just there and playing around and teaching the kids English and things like that... But the events that happened later on answered my doubts that were roaming inside my head at that point in time.

And after teaching them, it was the school performance time. We didn't have a defined stage, so we made use of the central clearing of the school. It was perfect for their skit, for Jia Xian was acting as the wolf in The Little Red Riding Hood, and Eugene was the woodcutter. They had a tree at the side which gave both the "wolf" a place to hide, as well as a tree to "gather firewood" at.

Overall, it was a big success - everyone was over the moon. And better was to come.

It was good and all that, but what was that? People living in such conditions, yet we could do so little to help them out, other than what our hands can do at that moment in time. It's that air of heaviness hitting me again. Perhaps I shouldn't be so negative after all, I thought, seeing all those kids having fun.

It's the present that we live in, and there's a reason why the past is called "the past". It's the present that makes the future, right? With that thought in mind, we went back to the village homestay.

After all that, I guess they figured that after a good long hard day on our part out there, they had to treat us well as a trade-off, eh? And they sure as hell did a damned good job at it too - look at these food!

And if this salad wasn't good enough...

...look at this chicken chop with broccoli and mushroom sauce...

...and this. This bloody rich dark chocolate tart easily became the hottest topic for the year among us SRGCE Lao Cai '09 members.

Food aside, we had a helluva good lunch, because what came next was kind of labour-intensive. We went on to give the school building a new coat of paint. repair its windows and doors, as well as entertaining the kids as we went along. Finally, something constructive and not that one-off, one that can at least last the kids some time after we leave that place...

More was to follow. We had a mad rush right after cleaning up from painting the school building, and my group was assigned the first-go. It's tough being operationally ready every time, so right after dinner I skipped the fruits and went straight to bite dirt - set up the projector, play the Tom and Jerry movie on the opaque canvas. It went quite well, much better than we expected.

After the projector was set up, I went on to help the rest of my team with balloon sculpturing. That being said though, they told me to get the balloon pump off a lady who was getting it for a kid to blow up a balloon like how the rest of us did. There was also a male villager who tried blowing up the long balloon meant for sculpturing, with his mouth, laughing as he did so. When I got back the pump, this lady asked me for a long balloon, and so I blew it up with the pump.

Yeah, those villagers would probably be saying "Cool! We don't have this kind of plaything around this parts!" I mean, yeah, that's why we're here for - to bring these kinds of interesting stuff to them and making them happy with them. The lady asked for another one, so I blew another.

By now there was a crowd of children starting to form as they saw the balloon from the distance. I was called back to help out somewhere, so I couldn't tie the long balloon properly. "I'm sorry, I gotta rush off somewhere..."

"It's ok, no need to tie. Here, take the pump back."

I looked back at the children. "Ah, it's nothing much actually. Why don't I finish this one first before going there then. Here look - your kid's wanting it so badly." I did up the balloon and finished it. "Would you like me to make a dog out of it?"

"Oh, thank you, thank you. Ok, ok." She meant it wasn't necessary - the kid already was playing around with it before I could do anything. Sigh, just seeing these kids...

I couldn't resist putting in my all for these kids, and I hope I could do so everyday. I'm dead serious about this - I'm drawing my strength to push on for medical school from these people who need help from us.

Anyways, back to the chain of events. Despite slight technical errors in the controls, the kids that night were simply so adorable, you couldn't resist that smile on your face when they started watching the cartoon movie screening and were yearning for more. That one hour sure made that difference in their lives, I hope.

Besides the movie screening, many of us were also involved in the balloon sculpturing - too many, I figured. Before the movie screening, we blew a couple of balloons for the kids to play with. And there was a large crowd trying to snatch a balloon off me before I was even done with tying the balloon. My group members probably would've known this by now - I suck at tying balloons up.

And so, this particular blue balloon deflated, and there was this little cute girl who picked it up and ran with it. When I ran after her to get back the balloon to inflate it again, she held it on for dear life. She started to cry as though her life depended on it. Somehow, I knew within myself I had to relent. After I let go, she was running around, so happy with her little new piece of rubber.

It struck me thinking. And it wasn't anything about the fair itself. I spaced out, really.

When I got back I looked at my watch. 8pm!? And nobody was cooking anything when it 8pm!? What the hell?

Oh, oh, oh! Those guys finally came setting up all that gas stove and pot, minutes later. Finally time to get cracking. Feng started cooking and serving the noodles, when halfway Mr Tan volunteered to do the serving while Feng, Mirjam and I set up a human chain behind our stall. Feng provided the bowls and held them ready for Mr Tan to put them in, while I held the light and brought the serving to Mirjam for seasoning before giving them the noodles.

It was a blast. People just came like river flow - they never stop coming! Soon it was getting tough trying to keep the orders coming smoothly without them having to wait too long for the noodles. The workload became so heavy that I had to get Mr Lim to take over while I was told to dismantle and pack the movie screening equipment.

Something that just came to mind. The noodles were instant noodles. Noodles that easily go soggy after an additional 10 minutes of cooking in boiling water, and it was left inside the pot continuously boiling for more than 30 minutes. Just how terribly soggy (and now becoming disgusting to the taste, for us city folks) did those noodles get? And these children kept coming like nobody's business. Some even cut the queue and grabbed the noodles without the seasoning. Just plain bland noodles that fragment so much, you'd have trouble even eating them with a spoon.

In the end, we couldn't handle such a large order, we cooked 75 packets and gave the remainding 5 away.

And that wasn't all. To be honest, I think my team's items rock. First, the movie screening, next was the high demand for instant noodles. And the last item on the list was the balloon sculpturing. I suppose without doing any of these I couldn't even imagine myself reflecting so much about ourselves right there, right then. I suppose those other guys wouldn't, too, without this sort of service learning experience.

During the debrief after the entire fun fair, we were told that the village chief was drinking 5-6 cups of Milo, and he was wanting for more! It was an instant hit among the villagers, and it's likely they'd be welcoming more of such activities from us in the future.

However, many of us had our hands tied to the things of the fair, so there's hardly any pictures of the fair in my digital photo album... What a shame! I wish I could put them up here, so... Any picture contributions to this chapter, anyone?

~ SRGCE Lao Cai - Memories Unerased: Chapter 5: Welcoming Committee ~

Here came the much awaited third day of our trek - the final push. The morning wasn't as cold compared to the day before, so everyone had a little bit more energy to finish the climb. It was cool, it was fun camping out there in overall, and nobody really had much to complain about.

Except that my food supply was running out. I'm down to my last pack of Tiger biscuits and Campbell soup. Ahh, might as well finish them, I thought, as I brought them out while everyone was drinking coffee and tea to get their morning warmth. Campbell soup never tasted that good before - it was the perfect solution for having a growling stomach before breakfast was served.

Finally, the people got smarter - they didn't know there was a campfire the night before.

Don't mess with the bamboo for firewood - I saw firsthand the bamboo bursting and popping against the fire. May burn someone's butt if it flies in a certain direction. Pressure build-up due to water in the bamboo stem boiling under the heat. Something to take note - when you're down and out, with no water, consider bamboo for survival. Just cut the stem and drink the water inside it, even if it means diarrhoea or something more serious than that.

Well anyways, we moved on from there, to where we first began our trek up Mt Fansipan. Towards the end of the journey, there was a flatland campsite, where we could take off our extra layers due to the heat building up along the way as we went down back to Heaven Gate.

Almost there... The clothes are soon turning us into steamed buns already!

Reached the empty campsite. Picture time! And this is where Yao Yang shot his "terrorist" video...

An unforgettable moment. We've been through the worst together - now's the time to commemorate the time we spent up the mountains, having rare moments of reflection time to be honest with each other about what we learned from Mt Fansipan, small things and big things alike. I mean, the moment is there, why not just take a few pictures to commemorate our brotherhood and sisterhood?

Camaraderie that transcends beyond the flow of time itself... *sniff*

Survivor shot! From left to right: Me, Jeremy and Shan Ying

Many thanks to our porters - who carry an average of 25kg of provisions and tents, as well as things like live chickens and dried fruit snacks!

Our camaraderie, again. From left: Khnah, me, Tania, Shan Ying, Jeremy, Joel and Feng

With the end of our trek, we went down to Ban Ho Village while passing by Sapa Town again. It's a beautiful sight from start to end - there's so many opportunities for photos but most of them became blurred due to the rocky movement of the coaches we were in. Guess you couldn't have everything good all at once...

Halfway during the journey, we came across a path that cut across a waterfall, of which our coach was really damned near the edge of the road. The coach was almost falling towards one side, but the sight was so beautiful, I took a gung-ho shot at it. It was the most daring one I ever took in my entire life.

Most daring shot I ever took, as mentioned previously.

After reaching Ban Ho Village homestay, the first pleasant thing that rings in my ear to this day was the question whether we wanted a dip in the hot spring. Let's be honest - where the hell in Singapore can you get a friggin' hot spring? The majority raised hands, so we split in 2 groups, one to go right after the other was done.

Of course, we couldn't expect 100% cleanliness in the hot spring, but at least after the hot spring bath we felt many times fresher. C'mon, man - how couldn't we, after 4 days and 3 nights of powder bath and without a change in clothes in that kind of freezing weather?

After seeing this picture I quickly knew why they told me to get a camera to the hot springs. Beautiful horses, walking along the opposite path to the hot springs.

It was a reward. "Oh my God, I love Vietnam," I said, as I dipped my entire head down the hot spring pool to wash off the soap in my hair.

And I still do. The people, their hospitality, the children's innocence, actions and emotions, really can hit people's hearts really deep. Which I'll come to that in the later chapters of the trip.

In the hot springs, something happening really did happen. Joel was enjoying the goodness of the hot spring in its entirety when he got attacked by the soccer boys who were with us and got stripped stark naked inside the pool. Oh yeah, men of big balls' idea of fun.

Anyways, what they didn't realise was that there were women around the pool observing what was going on, so Mr Anuar went on to scold the entire group - Jia Xian and myself included. "You all seriously need a kick in the balls for this." I totally agree, considering how the villagers value personal privacy.

After that, we went back to the village homestay for our much-awaited campfire dinner. It was a village celebration of sorts, and the campfire brightened up our spirits after that treacherous climb at Mt Fansipan. There was this much-deserved aura of pride over this group achievement going around - I don't know if the rest felt it.

It felt good.

What's there to see? A campfire is only a campfire - the village dance is more interesting.

They sure were so damned welcoming - we had a spread ready for us. Talk about beef, pork, chicken, fish, and even prawns. Oh wait - fish and prawns! How the hell did they get the prawns from around that area, and succulent and juicy ones at that?

And the pork was different too, not the way you'd see it in Singapore - chopped up in bits and pieces, in soup or stir-fried. They roasted that stupid little porker on a charcoal spit, and after it's done, they simply carve the pieces out for us, according to the amount we want. Mmm... Delicious!

And oh, bamboo rice. They came up with a way to put in rice inside bamboo. After seeing how the bamboo leaked water, I figured they cooked the rice using that same water found inside the bamboo stalk. "It's kinda popular around here - so easy to cook! Put the rice inside bamboo and just cook," I was told by one of the villagers around. Haha, when people are put into high-stress situations, they always come up with creative ways to get around things, huh. Nice and enterprising one at that, I have to admit!

It was a night of celebration, no doubt. And oh, the chocolate cake they served was fantastic. After digging out some information on where those food came from, it seemed that the cream they used for the cake was made locally in the village using fresh milk. Explains the richness of the cake despite its small size!

An air of glory accompanies the welcoming committee from the village, that celebrates our achievement much better than how our Singaporean parents would have done so. How marvellous.

~ SRGCE Lao Cai - Memories Unerased: Chapter 4 - Facing Death in Its Face ~

Mount Fansipan, That's what we've been training for.

Yeah, I know this picture isn't Mt Fansipan, but it'll do for now...

That treacherous monster that we all have to face and overcome. Throughout the training sessions I've always made myself carry more than what is required - 10kg when I was only needed to bring in 5kg, 15kg when they were only carrying 7 to 8kg of stuff for a 24km hike from MacRitchie Reservoir to Bukit Timah Hill. It was tough, it was endurance. It was sweat, it was blood. It was despair, and it was determination.

Now, which dumbass would carry 15kg for a 24km hike? The same guy who needed extra training to make it through the mountains with easy. Even then, it wasn't easy for me down at Mt Fansipan.

Sapa Town, Lao Cai, Vietnam.

Sapa Town, in the distance, with all that countryside view. Beautiful sight.

We made it to Sapa Town via a night train from Hanoi to Lao Cai, and the bunks were nicely done up for us (expected this kind of good service anyway). The only problem with those bunks was that it was too damned crammed for 4 backpacks and luggage bags. Even so, it was fun sleeping in that bunk with 3 others, namely Joel, Feng and Jeremy in the same bunk, one bed each (You think? I'm damned straight, in case you're wondering.).

Anyways, we then had breakfast at Sapa. Tania - keep quiet when reading this! I did cause quite a ruckus in the cafe because I ordered a croissant, which apparently someone told me the wrong information that it was a side order, and a breakfast set. As a result, I had to cancel the previous order because I couldn't manage the food and the others already ordered theirs. Sorry guys!

Mirjam and Mr Chong couldn't join us for the climb. I thought, "What the...? Our leader is out even before going up Mt Fansipan!" Turned out that she had a sore throat and was running a fever at the same time - why didn't anyone ask for medicine? (I had paracetamol and Dequadin lozenges with me, just in case.)

I couldn't get a proper shot of Heaven Gate, the start of our hike up there, so well... Make do with this.

Bloody cold weather, so there!

In any case, we reached Heaven Gate, and we went, 9.5kg on my bag when the rest of them carred about 7-8kg up the mountains. It was heavy because I was carrying rations - Tiger energy biscuits, Lexus crackers, McVities Digestive Biscuits and Campbell soup powder mix. In addition, I still had mosquito coils with me, which didn't prove to be actually practical, given the bloody cold weather.

Fansipan Warriors. From left to right: Joel, Jay, Linus, Feng

Off to conquer Mt Fansipan - the end justifies the means!

Oh yeah, we see them now. And so, we went off for the hike. The first night was bloody freezing - I lost my heat packs inside my sleeping bag for quite a couple of times halfway through my sleep. It got so bad that many of us couldn't really sleep down there - at most you get only 2-3 hours of uninterrupted sleep before the wind starts blowing against the tent and makes you freeze.

The food was nice, and they served hot noodle soup every lunch and breakfast. It's good food, considering that I was expecting only bread and water up the mountain trek, and the weather conditions made noodle soup ideal. Heck, they even have proper rice meals during dinner which added on to my delight - I do eat quite a lot, but in such a situation I ate much less than normally.

The second day came, and we continued up our hike up the Fansipan summit. Halfway through, Ping See wasn't feeling well - we were told later that it was altitude sickness. One casualty. Despite that, we reached the summit, after lots of hard effort and winds blowing right into our faces. Victory for all! And that was when the trouble started. Descent was worst than the ascending part. Fonteyn hurt her old injury, and couldn't proceed on anymore, so the porters carried her down to base camp. Another casualty. I almost became the next casualty - I got myself hammered 2 times on the same knee by the rocks, and it sure was numbing to my right leg.

"Bloody hell, we've reached the friggin' summit, finally!"

I didn't care, I moved on. And we reached the summit. Ah finally, the end justifies the means. All that training just to reach the summit. It was kinda disappointing up there at the summit though - the entire area was cloudy and misty so you couldn't see the bottom. Might as well it remained that way though, since I'm altophobic.

Cheers to everyone - we've achieved what we came here for!

Signs of severe fatigue - push on, Joel!

And the trouble came again. Mrs Tan became our next casualty due to a ankle sprain - and nobody actually spotted! We were too busy trying to follow the rest back to base camp for fear of being left behind. In the end, after all that rat race, only Shan Ying, Jeremy and I was left at the 2200m campsite...

...while the rest had already continued on to the 2100m campsite. What the hell...? There wasn't anyone familiar in sight by the time we reached there. Where the hell was everyone else?

I touched my water bottle, thank God it was there. But where the hell were they? Cell phone - I swiped it outta my pocket. No signal. Checked the surroundings to hear for people. Nobody around, except for some Vietnamese at the camp site, which clearly wasn't ours - there wasn't anyone pitching any tents. How were we gonna get help?

I used my whistle. It got the nearby Vietnamese's attention. We asked for directions, and he pointed towards a road up ahead. But how were we supposed to be sure that was the correct path? Jeremy put his bag down for us to look after, while he followed down that trail to see whether what he said was true. Shan Ying and I stayed behind, in case there were more of us right behind trying to look for us.

A while passed, and I didn't feel safe. I blew it again. This time, more of them came up towards us, and they beckoned us to go forward, which I mistook to be asking us to call Jeremy back there. In the end, we moved together with them as a group.

"Base camp at where?" a female trekker who was with us, asked the two other accompanying trekkers. "About half an hour to 2 hours' walk to base camp." It was getting dark, and the people seemed to resemble like bandits more and more. What if they led us to somewhere off the beaten path and rob us of our belongings?

I continued walking. My bottle dropped off the strap. Clonk! It was a terrifying noise at that point in time - NO WATER! Anything but having no water, for Christ's sake! I didn't drink much water throughout the trip, and here I was facing such a situation. How are we gonna survive this?

I cannot die here. I won't die here. I mustn't die here. There's so many things waiting for me to do - I cannot afford to die there. I cannot afford to die there. I cannot afford to die there.

I kept on walking with the rest. By then fatigue had already caught up with me, and it was turning dark. I had to continue. How are the others gonna explain to our parents if we couldn't make it back there in time, if at all? I have to make it back there.

"Ah, me no like dark, sun is my friend," I heard one of the trekkers say. We had our flashlights, so it became less of a problem. Then I realised why the other trekkers also were rushing together with us - we had our lights, and that was what they needed too. Nice, people who don't know each other sharing lights to go back to their camp - or at least to ours at best. I hope their camp is nearby ours, for they didn't have their lights anymore when we reached base camp.

Most beautiful sight ever. God took me outta Death's face. My time wasn't up, yet.

It turned out that those people weren't bandits after all. Phew. And God took us back to where we were supposed to be in. And better still, some groups split and arrived at the base camp only just 5 minutes before we reached. It was rather good pacing, from 2800m to summit and down to 2100m ASL (above sea level).

Though that taught me several hard lessons as well, pretty self-explanatory:

1. Don't wait for things to happen. Pre-empt it and think much ahead.
2. No point arguing over why the situation goes awry - think of how to solve it first.
3. Teamwork is of utmost importance - especially when it involves death risk.

~ SRGCE Lao Cai - Memories Unerased: Chapter 3 - An Air of Heaviness ~

We reached Hanoi, Vietnam. From there, we had to take a train ride to Lao Cai, before starting our Fansipan climb. But before all that, we had to visit the Friendship Village there. Along the way there were a lot of things to see, and I witnessed the stark contrast of Vietnam and Singapore.

I mean, just look at this. Building differences, and motorcycles all over.

A couple of pictures here and there, but that would be missing the point of this blog entry, wouldn't it? Here's what I could dig out of the photos I have with me, so this is Friendship Village. This picture below is the best I could take outta that place... Wished I had taken pictures of those kids affected by Agent Orange, then I could've made that difference by waking you guys up to the horrors of war and making you understand the value of peace, by which this place got its name.

Friendship Village. Symbol of peace after the scars of war.

Ah, here it is, one of the rare pictures with people on it.

Kids who would have deserved a better life if not for Agent Orange. Courtesy of Barry Choo, one of our Lao Cai expedition team mates.

Take my word for it. Dioxins are not to be fooled around with it. The kids down there affected by Agent Orange are born with deformities, some become mentally challenged, others become physically disabled. These people live down here, to learn a trade that can help them survive out there in Vietnam on their own. Depending on the seriousness of their condition, some can get out to make a living for themselves after a year at best, sometimes a decade to do so, and sometimes they can simply spend their lives here, doing the same thing over and over again like a robot. Yet they can take joy in what they are doing, so why shouldn't we do so, instead of complaining about bad school grades, school bullying, having trouble understanding school authority, and the like?

Actually, their architecture isn't that bad after all. Funded by several

nations, it seems to be better than the rest of the surrounding buildings.

Joy in their work brings beautiful yields. These flowers are made of crepe paper.

Another beauty of children under God's embrace.

Well, these children shouldn't have been like that in the first place, and honestly, while interacting with the kids, I never felt so helpless in my entire life before. Not knowing Vietnamese is the big barrier which all of us had to break via body language, and I interacted with a Vietnamese boy whom, I was told, was "untalkable", meaning that he can't really articulate his words properly, which I learned later. Hmm, how then do I put my ideas across to this kid then?

It may seem weird, but this entire time, I was thinking about fishing. Patience, just like fishing. I made it through with that thought in my mind, and the kid was finally responding. Yes!

This trip made me realise how there's only so much that one person alone can do. Imagine if you had to take care of all that bunch of kids with this condition. It is not an easy task, and I salute these teachers who have to double up as caretakers. Kudos to you!

The idea of peace, fantastic. Friendship Village - a bittersweet peace that the Vietnamese have. Appreciate it, guys: it's valuable and precious.

~ SRGCE Lao Cai - Memories Unerased: Chapter 2 - Virgin Flight ~

It didn't take us long enough to reach the airport. It was a morning rush - I forgot my MP3 player that I left to charge the night before, so I thought "Shucks!" No more airplane enjoyment.

We reached the airport, where I kept telling myself, the old me is going to die in Vietnam, and the new me being born within me when I get back to Singapore. It should, it will, and it must show.

To be honest, I was both ready to die both physically and mentally when I sat on the plane. I mean, shit happens all the time. No more problems plagueing me anymore, no more pressure to get into medical school, no more threats of being chased out of the house if I took my water baptism, no more homework, no more negativities of life anymore...

But what the hell, that only happens if I die. There's a whole lot more things to do in life, and I wasn't about to kick my own bucket just like that before I start doing the Lord's work. There's no way anyone's gonna convince me to die just like that willingly, wasting 17 years of my life down the drain by some misadventure or some sort. Everyone has to face all these problems anyway, and the cowardly way to deal with it is to die, commit suicide, end your life, etc. I ain't about to do just that - it's just such a friggin' waste.

Enough about all that morbid thought, I'll come back to that later. There's a whole lot of things left for me to learn about Vietnam. The question of being the tourist or traveller. The question of the meaning of life. The question of which one reigns supreme - the mind or the physical ability?

You get the idea - there's just lots of questions which would have been left unanswered if I didn't go down that trip to Vietnam. I had to answer all these questions myself - or leave myself hanging in the air without a clue why I chose to go to Vietnam, defeating its purpose of self-discovery.

Now, back to the main story. I reached the airport at 7am, mainly because my father still had to rush off to pick up his customers in his Limo2000 taxi, which was perfectly understandable, considering the financial situation of my family. We weren't that well-off, we didn't have iPhones, we didn't have a PlayStation 3 to talk about. At least he had the thought of sending me to the airport, and leaving the rest of the sending off to my mother and my sister, Brenda.

It was my virgin flight - don't laugh! It sure isn't funny to have rest of my peers in the Lao Cai expedition group laugh at not having sat inside an airplane before in my entire life. Try living in poverty, and see why I'm against laughing at this fact.

And I thought this was poverty in Singapore. The trip challenged everything that I thought was going to be my life philosophy from then on.

That aside, I had to leave my beloved mother who has always been the major breadwinner of the family, and my sister who has yet to mature and think of the things around her. I can't die there - I've got a family to protect, a family to teach, and a family to bring pride to. I have to survive that, come what may.

And boy, I treasure family time a lot. At that same, familiar McDonald's at Terminal 2, I told my mom about the stuff that I'd be facing - lots of villager lifestyle, no Internet, not even a call back home at worst. I told both my sister and her to take care while I was away. I made that promise to them - I had to come back, dead or alive.

With them leaving the airport before I went inside the departure hall, undeniably I was quite sad. Other parents sent them all the way into the departure hall, while I was left alone down there. There must be a purpose to this, I thought, as I went in alone anyway.

No, I wasn't alone. I was with my friends, whom I would start calling brothers and sisters after the entire trip with all its experiences through thick and thin.

~ SRGCE Lao Cai - Memories Unerased: Chapter 1 - Boot-Camp ~

It's kinda weird just typing this - there's an air of suspense, a whole lot of emotions rushing in all at the same time, before, during and after the flight to Lao Cai, Vietnam and back to Singapore.

"You've just gotta have to experience things for yourself before you can begin to appreciate things."

- By my mom, or whoever the hell said that to me within the family...

Trust me, it's true. Lemme attempt to tell you why. This is gonna span the longest blog entry ever in this blog. It's a true story from the eyes of a traveller who's just your average Joe, without much muscle power, kind of weak in the mind, easily gives up, is shy and easily embarrassed like a sissy, has lots of problems and secrets that he refuses to share with others around him, for fear of being laughed at...

Oh wait, that was what I thought of myself earlier on before the trip. I mean, how can anyone like me, having considered all these above mentioned qualities, be fit enough for such a trip? Not to mention that my last asthma attack was when I was nine, though I didn't suffer any more attacks after that...

After months of physical and mental training down at Serangoon Junior College, affectionally known among us as SRJC, we finally made it through the series of events that caught us on a rat race. The Promotional Exams were considered the killer exams - there were quite a couple of us who failed it and had to repeat the next school year. Next came Project Work - nobody was ever fully prepared for what came next. Then, the holiday lecture demon caught us, as well as the re-exams coming at the same time, leaving us with almost no more breath to draw from our so-called "battered bodies". I thought to myself, how on earth did I survive all those before the SR Global Classroom Experience (SRGCE) programme trip to Lao Cai, Vietnam?

Things like being late for school for more than 3 times didn't seem as scary after all. Things like ridicule from friends didn't seem that painful anymore. Homework didn't seem as devastating anymore at that point in time. We continued on with our intense but minimal training for our intended destination, to conquer that "demon of Mount Fansipan, the roof of Indochina." If not now, then when? If we couldn't handle all that urban stress, what more that physical and mental torture that is to come when scaling that monstrous hike up that range of mountains to get to the top?

Finally, the holiday lectures ended, and many other events soon followed. My paternal grandmother suffered a heart attack, mainly due to the paternal uncles' financial matters and uncalled-for stress at her age, with diabetes and high blood pressure plagueing her body that was worn out and weathered over the years. With much worry, I had to take my worries of homework and family matters aside. It's a tough choice - I could've told the teachers I can't go, right at Singapore, but then it wouldn't do justice to whatever I've been doing since the day I set out to do. It's all or nothing.

**This is kinda long, so I'd rather have it split into chapters to make it easier and more interesting. That's how the trip was, for me.

SRGCE - Lao Cai, Vietnam 2009 Countdown: 9 days to flight

I'm getting really excited over this trip. All that we've done so far in school, those intense steps training, Bukit Timah trips, spending of petty cash on food, balloons and shoes, etc... These was all for this mountain-climbing trip to Mount Fan Si Pan - "the Roof of Indochina", as it is called.

We've ended the last of our Bukit Timah climb trainings. Lagi best. Today's was one of the toughest climbs we've had in Bukit Timah, followed by last week's and the first ever. I'll list them one by one down here - see the difference.

Bukit Timah - First Trip (August 23, 2009)

I've forgotten some stuff about this, since I'm typing it like, since when? Anyways, there were monkeys, the do-not-feed-monkeys signboard, and the virgin climb to Bukit Timah. It was hard, even without a load. Hell, it's a virgin climb, how easy could it get back then? It was tough, mainly because we weren't used to climbing even the stairs. After about, say, 10-odd years of urban comfort, it was the first time hitting the rough edges as well as getting used to the humidity inside the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Time for Mr Lazybones to start working out, and the amount of exercise's been compounding more and more ever since that time.

Perhaps a review wouldn't hurt, since it was blogged down for this very purpose?

Bukit Timah Trek from MacRitchie Reservoir Park on 21st November 2009: Hitting the Roof (a friggin' 24km)

It was much worse than willRun. Worse than the Nike+ Human Race on 24th October 2009. Here's why - we weren't walking on paved concrete, and we had "blister casualties". Not to mention that it was 24km for goodness' sake. Walked all the way, and fatigue got me pwned. Jeremy and Tania got wasted down the trail - we had to borrow an extra eye-patch to patch their torn Achilles' tendon skin area up, mainly because their shoes weren't seasoned yet.

In any case, there was full attendance on that day. Bad part was that I was lugging twice the weight of the others - imagine trekking for a 6.5hour trip of total distance of 24km, with 15kg of load on your shoulders. I wanted to finish the entire trip but Mrs Tan wouldn't have it - she got Feng to carry it for me instead on the return trip. Boy, such a big difference his bag was, compared to mine. At the entire thing, he said it was a tough trip. "How you manage to carry it so far up there ah?" he asked.

"Just carry lor." I replied, as we finished the entire trail.

Bukit Timah - Last trip today!

Definitely not something you'd like to have on your timetable. I mean, seriously. The trip was physically sapping because of the flight of steps you had to take while going to the summit via the Dairy Farm Path. But other than that, the trip was fun, I'll admit. No pain, no gain right?

That being said, let's talk about the climb itself. This time I've learnt to be smarter - less weight to bear. I've decided to treat my back better this time round. How about, say, 10kg this time? Actually, I carried less than that - Shan Ying took a dumbbell off my pack to add on to her load(it was too light before the addition of that dumbbell), so I'm good with 8.5kg. Shiokness on the extreme.

First trip for the day did not look good. Sky was almost spelling a thunderstorm, but it didn't after all - thank God for that! Apart from the fact that two of us were out of action - one was sick and the other was recovering from abrasion wounds to the Achilles' tendon region, well... It was still a memorable experience up there in that blasted hill.

A couple of stuff that came to mind was someone making mooing noises when we started trekking up the Dairy Farm Path back to the hill foot, "killer pee", "bawu sedap", and well, the reward of a nice can of 100 Plus at the end of the first climb. The second one was easier - we didn't have to wind down all the way back to the Dairy Farm Path, unlike Mr Anuar's power-packed group, who came back down at one when everyone else was "picnicking" on ice cream since 12pm.

Lagi best sia.

OctoNov Madness

Cool name for a blogpost that brings about the message real fast.

It's just darned crazy - but at least we made it this far without losing our sanity. Here's a sum-up of what I've done so far in the entire year:

1. Got back GCE "O" Level Results much earlier this year, was lamenting when I couldn't get into a good JC(but at least I got into one)
2. Got into SRJC - Orientation for 2 weeks before school starts - a little holiday mood and school caught up with us. Madness everlasting - and it's still going on today.
3. PW Insanity Part I: PI - we've rummaged through PI without knowing what the hell was going on.
4. PW Insanity Part II: WR - took up much of our stamina for the rest of the year.
5. PW Insanity Part III: EoM - took up much of the last bits of our holiday life.
6. PW Insanity Part IV: OP - took up much of whatever was left of our sleeping time.
7. PW Insanity Part V: I&R - took up much of what was left of our patience for PW.
8. willRun - Ran for charity. It's actually 13km distance for me, not the much bragged-about 16km. Unintended mistake in reporting the distance run, sorry guys!
9. Nike Human Race - ran 10km, again. This time it didn't get into the SGC because we didn't know any better how to actually go about obtaining the timesheet.
10. Guitar Exco chosen - I took up the Quartermaster post, the one who does all the slave work. Cool, though - there's still some authority of getting a couple of "peons" to do the slave work while on duty, hehe...
11. MidYear Exam Insanity - first wave of official examinations was enough to kill a lot of people. What more the Promotional Exams?
12. Promotional Exam Insanity - second wave of official examinations. How's being slaughtered sound like? Almost half the school got less than 35 ranking points, totally not enough to promote into the next year.
13. Holiday lessons, holiday lessons, holiday lessons. Again, again and again.
14. Chinese A Level examination - I hope this doesn't appear in my school timetable next year. It'd better not.
15. International Biology Olympiad(IBO) - Singapore. Madness, 200 MCQs within 3.5 hours. 1.5 hours for Parts A and B, 1.5 hours for Parts C and D. Half the time I didn't know what the hell was going on, and there were scribbled type all over the paper - they managed to squeeze up to 7 questions on one single sheet of A4 paper, miraculously. Talk about being ridiculous.
16. SRGCE Lao Cai Physical Training - this one is madness, it includes the imba training we have at Bukit Timah Hill.

Well, this sums up whatever we did this school year. Check this out - more helltime.

Chronophobic bottleneck - I can't breathe!

Important things are just around the corner. And at a very bad pace too - my Oral Presentation script hasn't been done yet! With however bad(or good) results for the Promotional Examinations, it still isn't a trade-off: there's more stress where those came from...

For one, the class is going to be separated to the ends of the SRJC building for next year. Some may end up together - others may stay in 4H2. A shame, really. after 8 months of being together, we still gotta separate. But enough about this for now - let us move on.

The Promotional Results will be released later on in the day, even as I type this down on my blog. It's an emotional event - some call it the Judgement Day. In other words, the serious day where everyone has got no mood to really sit down and do Oral Presentation. The doctor told us to pack up our feelings after the results release, put it in a "bag" and "throw that bag one side" for now, and leaving the sobbing - or celebration - for personal time at home.

That may be right by reason, but let's be honest - who'd be giving a heck about it once everyone gets their Promotional Results? Possibly a handful would continue - but even then I foresee people being in their bad mood mode. Guess I gotta watch out now...

Bad idea to talk about other colleges having ~45 points for their Promotional Examination criteria at this point in time - there's a large portion of us having less than 35 points - the minimum criteria in SRJC.

Not only that, the Chinese A Level is next Monday. And I haven't really got time to sit down and do my study properly. OP is right there running at our heels, and two Olympiads which I haven't studied for at all. Not to mention I&R two weeks after OP too - but apparently some have already handed in the I&Rs already.

Ok, I guess that's enough updates for a midnight post. Will continue updating often - the only thing optimistic about getting your ass stuck in this situation is that the more time passes, the more time you find yourself free to do more stuff. But how long will this continue? There's not even a breather to talk about.

Madness after Promotional Examinations - it isn't any different!

After the much dreaded Promotional Examination rites, there's another big list of things to do until the end of the year... And trust me, it's inhumane! How can anyone finish up so many things at one go?

Don't believe me? Look at this list.

Disclaimer: Do not view the bottom list if you have faint of heart, or can suffer from epilaptic seizures at any time while using the computer, or are in any way complaining that your current schedule is very tight, in which case you should look at mine. Period.

1) H1 Chinese A Level Examination (2 Nov 2009)

This stuff is hard to swallow, especially when Chinese isn't my cup of tea. In fact, I'm deciding whether to just give this subject up to some crappy standard and be happy with it, or just go and do all out for this. Wait till you see the below stuff. Just wait and scroll down.

2) Project Work at A Level - Written Report(20th October) and Oral Presentation(6th November, tentative)

This stuff is even harder to swallow, given the weird and often unsatisfactory insanely long hours of work at PW in school. Ah, aah. No such thing as leaving early - whenever there's free time it's chucked into PW and pretty much nothing else other than Chinese. And with absurd planning and negotiations with certain people, we didn't get what we want either. Oh well, just make sure we don't die of mental breakdown due to overexhaustion. Just one month to go!

3) SRGCE Lao Cai, Vietnam Physical Fitness Training & Vietnamese Language Examination

Paid for this, gotta swallow this. No turning back now. Trouble is that the Vietnamese Exam is next week, and let's be honest - I haven't been touching those revision notes at all, not since the Promotional Exams preparation started. Time to hit the books again... or maybe I should start eating those words back again when I start peering down the list.

4) Biology Olympiad(10th November 2009)

Crazy mugging(studying), no different from studying for Promotional Exams, except that the difficulty has stepped up 10 times higher, and the odds are pretty much stacking up higher and higher against me...

5) Chemistry Olympiad

See what I mean? The ODDS are stacking up against me! And for this one, I didn't ask for it - I couldn't finish H2 Chemistry Paper II on the day of the Promo paper itself, and on the exact same day, right after dismissal I was called back with Bani for this Chem Olympiad thingie. Again, intensive mugging again.

6) Nike+ Human Race(24th October!)

"This is the age where your body can take the most abuse and recover quickly," I've heard a certain PE teacher say. Crazy madness - add in the training with only 12 days to prepare for this race. Indeed, a big challenge. willRun isn't gonna help anyway - how long has it been since August the 1st? How long have we been actually training?

7) Guitar Ensemble Christmas Performance 2009(25th December)

Add in irregular hours, I think it's time for 3 hours of sleep time everyday just for such work. Disgusting. Not that I don't want any part of this anyway, but just that if there is a time when I want to put in all my best for this, it's definitely not now. Expect lots of goof-ups during these periods of guitar practice. That being said though, I'll minimise cock-ups.

8) Church Christmas Variety Show Performance(19th December)

As always, why does this have to be the last thing on the list? It's an high-priority item! It's coming from within - I want to serve God. I've done it before, and now I wanna do it again. The only thing that's holding me back from doing all these is ~300 hours of hard work without rest, and another 20 hours of practice for the performance item.

9) SRGCE Lao Cai, Vietnam - Trip to Ban Ho Village and Mount Fan Xi Phan(9 days, 8 nights)

This is what I've signed up for, and it takes up majority of my December time. This year is heavy! There's a lot to prepare, and it seems more and more impossible to get my own private time. One where I can just retreat to the beach, breathing in that cool salty air, with a fishing rod and equipment waiting for a catch. Fat hope, looking at the tough list of hard and fast facts resting on my shoulders.

With all these stuff lying around still waiting to be accomplished, I have only my 4 limbs and a battered body lacking lots of sleep since secondary school. I don't want to end up dying, nor do I want to end up coming back from Vietnam in a box. That's the last thing on my mind. God be willing, I am depending on His strength for all these - there's no way any human can do this without God!