Severe lack of sleep

Shit, it's just crazy. I mean, Economics is good and all that but why 3 hours straight of non-stop Economics tutorials and lecture for every Thursday?

Life here is hectic - you try to catch up with various tutorials, and find that the homework comes faster than you can finish them. It's burning many of my Saturdays away for no good reason... So much for the government's 5-day work week policy, I guess it certainly doesn't apply for school at all...

But then again, that's the price we gotta pay to get where we want to get to, anyway. Were it so simple, you'd hit a university graduate for every piece of spittle you spew outta your mouth upwards into the sky. Sometimes you just need some time-out from studies - even a full 24 hour rest from all school and household work would suffice. Yet we aren't granted that at all - what's happening?

We aren't workaholics, we don't craft research papers or create theories like Newton do. I don't see the point of having severe lack of sleep while studying for tests and exams. Work and sleep have to come together in equal proportions (but some just push for more time sleeping than actually doing homework). Sure, mental flexibility can be trained, but in the long run I don't think that's gonna work while everyone of us is deprived of the basic need to sleep and rest the cognitive mind into thinking better than what we actually are doing.

Beginning of the school term - I used to have a life of my own!

Finally, the holidays are over, and I'm back to my study self again - only this time, with a twist.

For one, the holiday homework is never-ending, and it snowballs and gets worse as each day goes by. Looks like the pain is starting to kick in. In addition to all that, the tests are coming up next week, even as I write this now.

That aside, looks like I'm starting another caffeine-drinking year again. "Uncle, iced coffee, no sweet syrup!" And yeah, that's among the things I consume in school all the time, without fail. Sugar inside that coffee is good, but it defeats the purpose of coffee - it's supposed to keep you awake, not bring you to a sugar rush and make you sleep again!

As for adapting myself to yet another hectic school year again, maybe I should count myself lucky, having quite nice people for classmates this year. Maybe this year, I should appreciate my class more than what I did for my previous class. That being said, I do miss people like Joey and Mus, since they downgraded their H2 into H1 Economics and got into a different class. Well, to each his own, if it leads to their personal goals...

And speaking of goals, our new Economics tutor was fantastic. At least it's no longer a drag to discuss Economics questions during tutorial, since everyone has at least some background information off-hand to put into essay discussions. A far cry from what was class 1S02 last year...

Homework is piling up, and I've managed to revive most of the "dead skills of studying". Let's just say that everyone has to work hard from now on, myself included. Still, sometimes I don't have that discipline to stay on task and eventually I drift off from work to play. It's tough, but almost every bit of time is squeezed tight from the start of the year.

Sometimes, you've just gotta give yourself some space and time to reflect upon things, like that valuable time during Lao Cai last year. It's never gonna come back again, and trying to get this kind of time is tough because the work sometimes keeps a stranglehold onto your work.

But anyways, I shall try.

My quote for the month:

"If you're gonna achieve something, keep it simple and just do it."

Yeah, random shit. hope it'll make sense at some critical point in time...

~ SRGCE Lao Cai - Memories Unerased: Chapter 10 - Epilogue ~

The next day came, and it was time to say goodbye to Hanoi, to Vietnam, and all the good times we have been while on this school trip.

I couldn't say a proper goodbye to Khnah, neither do I have anything with me to remember him by, except for that brief but impactful brush across each other's lives that taught me things no textbook can ever teach. So I decided within myself - it's not going to happen to Xny again.

Throughout the journey from the day we landed in Hanoi and stepped into Sapa Town and Ban Ho Village (except for the Mt Fansipan hike), he was there for us - telling us about the history of the place, sometimes even reading out the menu for us, and teaching us of the things that revolve a Vietnamese's life.

It's not going to happen again. So, during the bus ride, I felt a strong inner nudge to do so.

If I can't guarantee I'll ever see Xny again for the rest of my life, at least there'll be a picture of us to remember him - and the entire Lao Cai experience by.

It still happened again, though. By the time we went past the check-in, we were walking into the departure hall. And I didn't know that Xny wasn't going to walk past that place to see us off after check-in. That's two goodbyes I never got to say properly - and will never get to do so again for the rest of my life.

It's kind of funny, though, to say the least. Initially through the trainings, I have been thinking to myself: "Why the hell are you trying to do all these? You have asthma, and God knows when it'll act up. You aren't the sporty kind of person, so what makes you think you can scale a mountain?" And at the end of all that training, the fruits of your labour come so lavishly that you don't want it to end. I mean, seriously.

In fact, it's just psychological warfare that we're up and against, every single day.

Looking at the things we've been doing in Lao Cai, attempting to ease their burden that life throws at them hard in the face, however little or much, I can't help but think of the entire trip from start to end, over and over again. It's like a film replaying itself as and when it wants to, and it's outta your own control. Even little events like having dinner with my family at the coffee shop and looking at the leftovers left at the table next to us can trigger that image. Yes, that image of us "one-day farmers" actually doing the ploughing and working on the land to grow food back at Lao Cai, just to name an example.

Or things like looking at primary school children running around like nobody's business when school ends. I myself have a sister who's in primary school, so I get to see these kids often. They remind me of the kids we taught, played with, and observed and hung around with back in Ban Ho Village School.

These kids' endless and spontaneous loud laughter, where once I saw as annoying when walking past a busy street in the morning, now seemed to be much contagious than it once was to me. Well, I guess things will never be looked on the same way as I did back then before the trip, ever again.

"Breaking barriers, changing mindsets." Yep, I think they achieved their mission well. I mean, look at these negative stuff about myself.

"...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..." (quoted from Chapter 1)

After this trip, I've begun to throw these away. At least some of what I initially thought of myself as, stated above. It isn't wrong to have all these negative thoughts (there will definitely be some at some point in time), but what's the use of holding onto these stuff, if it does you no good? I remember somewhere along the lines of what Mr Teng has said:

"Look at these villagers, so happy with the simple pleasures in life."

Yeah. I can't say I understand that kind of joy that these people have, but at least I can finally say to myself I'm starting somewhere. In fact, if things were that simple, there wouldn't be a need for the concept of having a utopia, anyway.

However, just take a good, long, hard look at what we see around us in Singapore today. People having family problems, job stress that can sometimes involve high-stake investments as large as million-dollar projects, the risk of getting evicted when you cannot pay your rent to your landlord, the problem of not being able to enrol in some of the top national schools, et cetera. You get the idea - the things get more complicated as the list goes on, ad infinitum.

Just how happy can we get? Probably not very, given that almost everywhere in Singapore it's a rat race for happiness. Rat race to enrol in the top national school so that one can impress the employer with one's resume, for a secure rice bowl (good wages and a secure job) that equates happiness. Rat race to become the nation's number one richest man so that he can buy all the things that can keep him happy. And the messier it gets, the harder it is for one to be happy for the moment, if at all...

Perhaps it's just that key of simplicity that makes us happy. In fact, the simple it is, the harder it is to waste time to find fault at it. Perhaps it is time to just sit down and think about what will actually truly make you happy in life. It's a simple task, and I believe it eventually will end up with a simple answer.

When that simple answer is found, keep it simple.

Yes, simple.

~ SRGCE Lao Cai - Memories Unerased: Chapter 9 - Back to the City ~

It was Hanoi that we were heading off to. We were finally heading back to the city where we would no longer be as travellers but tourists. The relaxing days were over at Ban Ho - now the pressure came with keeping together as a group in a crowded city in a foreign land.

By then I've grown tired of all the hustle and bustle of city life, and my heart was still in Ban Ho Village. I didn't want to sleep, because I was leaving the place I fell in love with, the moment when I jumped into the hot spring just days ago. In the end, I fell asleep for the next 3 hours before someone kicked up a big morning ruckus for us to pack up and go immediately.

I felt like a zombie right after taking all the luggage and without coffee - damn, the coffee they served on board was nice! - so I was quite unreceptive to what was happening around me. Next thing I knew I was on board the coach already, and getting out to the marketplace to have a look at what the Vietnamese have for sale each day.

They had fish, meat, lots of vegetables - that's their produce anyways - and oh! They have durian too. I didn't expect them to have durians around this part of the world! It's a shame I didn't manage to take any pictures of what went on from here onwards, so, just make do with my text, I guess...

Well, anyways. Later on we went to a Phở restaurant for breakfast. Quite nice for a morning meal, but certainly not really doing anything to my stomach except fill it just that tiny bit. But anyways, that day I didn't really want to eat, so one bowl was enough.

Later on, we were dispatched to the city commercial centre, so we could get whatever we wanted home. As I was told not to get anything back home, I just hung around with Ms Ng and Mr Lim with Jiaxian around, us 4 in a group. Nothing else better to do anyway.

And so, we shopped around, trying to find the Adidas shop. After some walking and hunting around for sights, it seemed like there wasn't anything different from the rest of the cities around the world, somewhat not even different from Singapore. It got boring until at last, we found some shops that truly had Vietnamese flavour.

Yep, I'm talking about the dried fruit and spice shop. The only thing that made me want to get out of that shop quickly was the heat inside the shop as compared to the cold air outside. In fact, it was different in Singapore - we would rush into shops because of the heat of the outside.

Although I didn't get anything at Hanoi, I did get a taste of local Phở with orange chilli sauce. Guys, don't even try the chicken one - the beef one tastes better when eaten in a roadside stall. And oh, they serve honey-coated doughballs that sometimes can take a toll on teeth... I got a tired jaw after biting off several pieces off the pack Ms Ng shared with us.

After that nice meal of Phở, we needed something to wash it down with, so again, Ms Ng was so nice to treat me to what I had originally intended to pay with my own pocket money - carrot juice. No, I should call it carrot milkshake - their local carrot drink consisted of 2 fresh big carrots ground into pulp, and they add in sweetened condensed milk, fresh milk and coconut milk. It's creamy, and wow, it's only US$1 for both her coffee and my drink. Marvellous.

Someday I might just reproduce this recipe in Singapore, but probably it might cost a bit, due to things like milk all coming in cans and paper cartons, and the like. Still, they way they made it in quite good quality taste as well, considering it's just a roadside stall...

It's almost as if the Vietnamese food's telling us straight in the face: "Eat this!" to tell us of their perseverance and optimism to live day by day, being a united and forward-looking people.

We were done for the day. Time to finish the presentation once and for all.

After being done and over with it, we settled for the last dinner we'd ever have in Vietnam, and a helluva good place it is, too. It's some grand restaurant, but wait - where's the other customers? Seems like nobody actually went there that night, except for us. So, as usual, we ate our fill, but this time there was a much bigger spread than all our previous dinners. Wow.

Even then, we weren't spared from post-midnight torture after dinner either. A tough and long debrief soon ensued and I assure you, I was damned tired after all that. Some people from the previous batch actually drank and smoked inside the hotel on the last night after a quick debrief that ended much earlier got us sabotaged. In the end, it got so late that Jeremy and I thought it was pretty silly to go back to sleep, since it was already almost 2am and we were to get ready at 6am the next day.

And it was then that home-brought hazelnut coffee powder came into good use. I was just about to finish my first cup when out of the blue, the door flew open and a few others flew in as well. Turned out that there was a ghost sighting in Yao Yang's room, or something close to that. In the end the frightened folks turned the room into a refugee camp - though I didn't mind either. I was alone in that room drinking coffee anyway.

So, it turned out that that nice bed wasn't there for me after all. I stayed vigil for the night before being knocked out by pure fatigue for 2 and a half hours into the next day.

~ 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.