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Wednesday, March 17

The *Nepal [service learning] Edition... 8 days
Weather: None

[*]Day one

Woke up at like 5.50 in the morning. I was so scared I was gonna be late. Good thing I got there in time. Anyway people were there and they all started checking into the counter. I was like somewhat there with no friends. Looking out for suet lin cos she was the only girl from C class to go to Nepal. Okay so I hung out with her basically for the first day. How did we spend our day? Mostly in the plane... rotting away. My first transit plane to Bangkok was together with Diana and Dai Xuan... Yeah! and we played dai di... hahaha Diana kept losing :D. Okay I sound so mean. Well my next flight from Bangkok to Nepal was together with Yan beng, Paul and Darren. Paul and Darren we busy playing with their gameboys*( Sorry la... but I find it a bit childish at their age ) While I spent my time talking to Yan beng about XYZ. Managed to do 2 drawings? :) When I first came out of the plane, we had to walk down direct from the aircraft. The breeze blew past me and I started chattering. The weather there was so different from Singapore. You don't even need air-conditioning. The immigration board took a long long time. When we finally board onto our bus, We were told by the tour guide to close our windows. She said that it was the colour festival so we better take precautions. We didn't know what to expect out of it. When we drove down the main road, we saw people's faces being stained in colours, mostly red. The streets were filled with houses mostly half built and dilapidated. I was expecting our hotel to be really shabby. Suddenly i heard a loud sound coming from the window. When I turned to look, i realized that someone had threw a green water bomb. We all heaved a sigh of relief. When we reached the hotel, i was shocked that the hotel looked so nice. At least it looked like a five star Malacca hotel? Possibly a three star Singapore hotel. I wanted to bathe during the 3-hour break but the tap was rusty. I didn’t want to risk myself in getting tetanus, so Diana and me went over to Clara's room. We started playing dai di again, ^^ , until it was dinner time. For dinner, we had Chinese style kinda food just that the meat was a little spicier. The first night was tiring for us so we went straight to bed after the briefing.

[*]Day two

Woke at 7 Nepal time? Which is about 9 o clock in Singapore. We had potatoes AGAIN ^^! I ate some omelette together with potatoes bacon and a croissant. I miss my evanescence songs!!!! After breakfast, we started on our 2 hour journey to Nar Garkgot. The journey there was beautiful if not for the smog and dust. Scenes of people farming were just so fabulous. A bumpy bus ride and a skilled driver accompanied the Mountain View. When we reached the place, the air was cold and fresh. We took our lunch. It seemed like the food we have is always the same. After a bit of rest at our allocated rooms, we started our evening hike. It was hard though. It was much tougher than I expected. The slopes as well as the uneven ground made it difficult to walk. It’s defiantly much tougher than the trekking route at bukit timah hill. The slopes varied between 50 to 70 degrees. I thought going down the slope was harder than climbing up because there is a risk of slipping down. When we finally made it back to the hotel, Yan beng began feeling unwell. Later on we heard his nose began bleeding. He soon developed a fever and flu. His throat was inflamed. It was kinda scary to see someone fall sick so easily. At dinner, I was telling all the people that I missed fish. Suddenly at dinner , Viola~! Fish and chips were served. On the whole, the meal was nice, just accept for the bones but it was good, esp the vegetables mmmm….. yum yum~! Our room became a public gathering area, maybe because ours had a heater. Diana, Yong Hao, Ashley, Chi Seng and me played cards and talked a lot. Lots of secrets and stories were revealed. J Finally that’s how I ended my day.

[*]Day three

Woke up early this morning to see the sunrise. It was beautiful. Time passes so slowly at Nar Garkgot. Really slow… maybe still not used to it. In Singapore time seems to fly. I guess breakfast is the same everyday but its really fine with me. After breakfast, we prepared for our 45 min hike. We were warned that it was gonna be harder. I thought that it wasn’t as bad as I expected but I wouldn’t want to do it again, maybe I might? Well when we finally reached the school, we saw agile children running up the 50 to 70 degree slope Without shoes They just ran up and down like that. The children there had dirty uniforms and unkempt hair. Mucus ran down their nose and after touching their toes they put their fingers into their mouth. I was in the balloon team. Our job was to blow up balloons for the children because in Nepal, balloons were considered to be a luxury. 5 rupees is the cost of a balloon, but it is also the cost of a packet of biscuits, which is enough for their lunch. When they had the balloons they were so happy! But some of them deflated it and asked for more. I mean its understandable. When you have it, you will tend to ask for more. The children there are so contended with their lives, just balloons and origami are enough to make they happy. I had lunch and after that we watched a interesting game of volleyball between our students and the nepali teachers. You know what, they are good! A few times the ball rolled off the hill and the children would just run down to get it. I found it so dangerous. And then, the ball hit a pile of shit… it belonged to Marshall. The kids were not afraid. In fact they were the ones to clean it. Later on, Chi Seng, Marshall and I went to settle the first aid stuff for the children. Tiff , Stanley lui *(some idiot… cant stand him so sissy) and I were teaching them about the body parts. The we taught them the head, shoulders knees and toes song hahah . They were so adorable and I hope they enjoyed it. We hiked back after that. When some of us dropped the lily gurung on the floor, they picked it up and ate it. I wonder how they did it. My friends and I took a group photo!!! Took our baths and our dinners, while watching the sunset. Cai and his dumb gang kept making fun of us because the girls were cold so we huddled together. Its so unfair. Bunch of idiots. We spent the night talking and playing card games again.

[*]Day Four

I had a bad flu this morning. Well we were preparing to leave Nar Garkot. Lala and so happened that Suet Lin fell sick. The gang in the public room left in the same bus = ) Then we reached the stupa. Saw lots and lots of monkeys. Reminded me about Son Goku!! Kawaii ne~! But unfortunately the monkeys looked evil. Dogs and stores were everywhere. Scriptures were hanging from place to place. I thought this place was so cultural but to my horror, there was Karma Sutra. These unnatural sutras… nv gonna touch them. Finally we left the place of souvenirs for a place of food. Hotel Manang!!! While eating, I over heard about leaving straight for Pokhara. After lunch we left for Pokhara. During the seven hour journey, I learnt that there was so much more to life than just studying and complaining. There was so much to appreciate and thank God. Life could be so wonderful if we only learn to appreciate the simpler things in life. The hard work that people put in just to survive. After the journey, we finally came to a halt at the Hotel. The night sky was clear enough to see all constellations. After the usual dinner fare, we were sent to our rooms. As usual, the guys came over to our room to play cards. Clara had diarrhoea. Ended the night with a mystery. Fire in the balcony.

[*]Day Five

This morning’s breakfast was just delicious though its always the same thing. Before we set off, the teachers talked to us about our purpose here, they wanted us to change fer the better. We set off with a different mind set to the secondary school. This time the journey wasn’t that hard. The slopes were all made of rocks slippery… yeahh! Reached the school, got to hang around fer awhile. We were given the national flower of nepal. I sat in one of the classes. It was really interesting to see them learning mathematics, you never expect them to be so clever. It feels kinda bad as if we were looking down on them. Well later on our school handed out some stuff to the village school and gave donations of up to 9000 rupees and 48 US dollars. They offered us a nice cup of sweet tea and biscuits. It was fun knowing them and learning new nepali words. We then made our way to Devi’s fall as the refugee camp was closed after lunch. While walking there, we witnessed an accident where by a car crashed into a dog. Thank God the dog was kept alive. The whole gangs of us were joking about Devi falling when in actual fact she did really fall. That’s y the fall was name Devi’s fall. Freaky eh? After the panoramic view, we began our shopping trip around that area. I bought 6 bangles for about S$1.50 and a shell necklace =) we then took a bus back near the resort and then started shopping. I felt like I was participating in some game show you would have to shop for the most amount of items in the given time. My gang of friends shopped to the extent that we were late. I bought 2 necklaces, a pashmina shawl for my mother, 2 pencil cases and a skirt for myself not forgetting the 2 daggers. While running back, one passerby commented to my friend, “nice exercise” another asked “what’s happening?” It was just so amusing. While having our dinner, a blackout occurred. It was really creepy. I tried to keep calm. It was all too soon before another blackout happened right after the light came back. We went up to our room after dinner and discussed about it. We had all prepared ourselves for another blackout. Indeed, one hour after we discussed about it, the blackout happened. I was so freaked out that when the lights came back, I went straight to sleep. Freaky.

[*]Day Six

Woke up this morning, took a good breakfast and tried to forget everything that has happened in the night. The guys from other classes had a part to play in the Fire incident. They were so irresponsible and irritating. Continued our journey back to Kathmandu. 7 whole hours of our journey was taken up. Oh well, at least I get to see the beautiful scenery and play cards with my friends =). Back to Thamel, we headed straight to the shops! Shopping time again!!! ^^ Bought loads of stuff this time. I bought 2 books, a t-shirt for my dad? Shoes for my mother. Had a hearty meal. Western food was served!!! Yeah! No fish bones. Diana and me shifted to Clara’s room because her room was humongous. The two guys were tired so they slept for awhile while the girls played cards. Halim had to butch in. He asked for Chi seng, we told him not to disturb him. We were like playing cards anyway so its okay. We knew he would call his gang of boys. Our girls pretended that we were asleep. They started threatening us. “ What happens if miss Lim knows about it? What will happen to your reputation.” Just because he doesn’t like Chi Seng, it doesn’t give him enough reason to say he is in the wrong. The girls were freaking pissed so we left the room and went up to sleep in Diana’s room. The boys were not happy so they complained to Mr Chia. This is so dumb lor. Mr Chia thought it was okay to play cards but not to sleep in our room. We had no intention of them bunking into our room anyway.

[*]Day Seven

Ahh woke up this morning to find dandruff in my hair!!! Must be the water here. Well we prepared to go to Durbuy Square… I think its spelt like that, where the Kumari lives. She is supposedly the living goddess. She has to go through countless amounts of tests and criteria before she can be called the living goddess. One of the is to walk across the carcasses of 108 male chickens, goats, buffaloes and wild boars. She cannot cry or not she will fail the test. We reached the place she stays at and it took awhile before she came out. She bounced around like a little child and smiled at us from the top. She looked soooo cutee >.< =D After walking around the place, we bought some items. I bought another necklace, not for me of course and 5 bracelets also not for me. Well after that the students went back to shop at the Thamel!! While Yong Hao, Ashley and I walked back to the hotel because we were so sick and tired of shopping. So we began our usual topics yak yak yak until it was lunchtime. After that, we went to the orphanage, and the funniest event that happened in the trip was that I happened to step on cow dung. Whne I knew about it I could not stop laughing hysterically. People around me were asking me if I was fine. Haha, well how lucky can u get when u step on shit. It doesn’t happen all the time. After that, it was back to more shopping = ) shop shop shop. And I finally bought 2 shirts for myself =). Dinner was nice and we received farewell gifts from the tour guides. Hats!
Act punk, those kinda hats. Cool la! Went up to our room. Clara, Joanna and Dai Xuan fell asleep even before Diana finished bathing. I was in the room talking to Yong Hao when I saw them sleeping so soundly. We didn’t want to wake them up for the party so we let them sleep. Ashley played a naughty prank on them hahah. The rest of the gang slept at 1 coz we were all so tired.

[*]Day Eight

Mann we took loads and loads of photos this morning. As we drove down the streets, I could not imagine how life would be like in Singapore again. I didn’t really want to go home. I wish I could have stayed longer but I missed my parents. Glad but not happy to go home hahah. In the plane flight to Thailand, I sat beside Yong hao and Ashley. It was fun to introduce songs to them, asking them to switch channels at different times. Cheaper by the dozen aired. I thought it wasn’t that great but at least it kept me entertained =). Flight back to Singapore was with Paul, I nearly slept in the flight if they did not ask me to play Dai Di. I realized that people were staring at us while we were playing. They seemed so interested. When we reached the airport, I quickly rushed for the free phoning booth. I wanted to call my mum and tel her what time I will be back. Sadly I could not reach her. Oh well, I didn’t get her. Finally after I collected my luggage, I spotted her. Got to see Ashley’s niece too… So small oops =X. Glad to be home in Singapore

*[Life in Singapore]

Currently I’m still not used to it. Life here is tooo fast for me. Wish to go back some other time =) Nepal feels like my home.

-// When you love something dearly, memories of it will never fade
*ceLina

Took 5 days to complete it…

~~runaway~~

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