Chiang Mai; Thailand!
Monday, November 16, 2009
11:57:00 pm
12th nov
Initially suppose to have 8am flight, in the end, flight changed to 12.25pm. In the end, we could only board at 1pm (plane reached late from BKK) and we only left at like 2pm. And so we had no transit time in BKK and hurried over to catch plane to chiangmai which was already like boarding.
I'm always all alone on the plane! Like my seat is elsewhere far away. But it's interesting, the people I sit beside with. I do wonder where they come from. And they seem like experienced flight ppl. As in, they sit aeroplanes like many times a month or something. Going there I had window seat! Pretty nice really. For the first time in a long time I sat an aeroplane leaving in the day. I actually saw Pulau Ubin, the boardwalk which we walked, the jetty me and lols walked out to, and the viewing tower we climbed! It's really nice, to look down and see the meandering rivers and all!
On the transit flight, I was sandwiched between two big fat middle aged men. One Thai, one angmoh.
Well, it's rather fun to travel with all of them.
Reached the hotel really late, and ate dinner really late. Thailand time here is one hr behind spore. The roads are fascinating. Everybody rides motorbikes/scooters everywhere. You see girls / office ladies in all their skirts n all riding them! And they do so without helmets! And it's so haphazard everywhere. I quite like it. Haha. Better than all the traffic police rules and what not everywhere in Spore.
The hotel is pretty cosy. The bed uber comfortable and I can't remember when was the last time I slept in an air con room! Hmmmmm. I think it's last year when we slept in the SCRC room during FOC. And that's not quite considered cuz we were like sleeping in sleeping bags on the cushions we koped from the Seminar room.
13th nov
Breakfast was yummy toast! They went out for a 4hr ride, and I studied till I was bored and headed down for a swim with the dragonflies. Kicking was pretty scary. I swam at like mid-day! The sun was up but it wasn't hOT at all.
Water was a little cold, but the worst thing is the pool goes hot cold hot cold. Not nice. I did a long and slow swim. The skinny guy (who I think reminds me of Toy Story's Woody) asked where are we from. He thought we're Chinese. Which is correct, except I didn't want him thinking we're from CHINA. And so I was like 'No, Singapore'.
This really bIG lady was swimming with me (we were the only 2 ppl inside) before she went up to read her book. And
Daniel and Jiwen were walking by and talked to me at the pool. My things were beside the lady so I collected my
stuffs before going off. She was really friendly and spoke with me.
"You're training for the games too?"
"haha no"
"oh I spoke with the boys and they told me they're here to train for the sea games"
"yeah, they're cycling, I'm swimming"
And then, I realise how retarded that sounded.
So I lunched at like real late cuz they came back late. Continued studying more.
Then we went to the supermarket! I tried a Dunkin' Donut which sis says is not at all like USA's one. No QC! We bought stuffs yummyyyy.
Back, more studying, dinner, more studying
I went to use the internet downstairs and the girl this time asked me where I'm from. And she said, she thought I was Thai! O.o
14th nov
I tried running today. Only managed a half hr run cuz I was terrified of the barking dogs.And I got sandstorm from the truck. It was really nice though. If not for the fear of dogs running after me! :( I swam in the later part of the evening when they went out for their riding part 2. The sets consisted of 1.6km of kicking. No dragonflies and the water was much much warmer. I saw water spiders! And the spiderwebs were rather pretty. I guess I'm not so particular about insects and such anymore haha. Imagine, last time I hated swimming in TPY pool cuz of the bees and the buzz (haha)
15th nov
No running. Decided I don't wanna face the fear of running and seeing the dog suddenly pop out. Studied mostly in the canteen. And swam with the sis. Another 1.6km of IM kicks. Oooshh. There was the signing of the OCBC contract for the rest of them. And, DINNER.
Meals are so yummy, especially dinners!
16th nov
Waited forever for the bus/truck. I was again isolated on the plane ride back. But interesting ppl I meet along the way! The sis' bike, got LOST! :( Hope it's really alright and we'll receive good news tmr!
All in all, I learnt that Thailand has HUGE mozzies. Learnt a lot of new cycling-talk. Made new friends! And had loads of fun and crap. I ate a lot, AND slept a lot. (bad bad!) Had a lot of interesting experiences. Learnt a lot of stuffs about cycling. It was cool watching how they had a training camp. But the part about them crashing and alll..... ouchhhhhh... I liked how I could just switch on the black box by clicking a button on a remote control. I watched quite some number of movies haha. Most of all, it was fun getting to know the ppl!
Jiwen! Singapore's fastest cyclist! (woooosh!) So sad about his first day crash. It's like ouch. But he reminds me a lot of a squirrel. A very HAPPY squirrel. I so like the way he speaks. And the way he thinks. And the way he talks about cycling. And how experienced he is. And his constant optimism. And his friendliness. And how nice he is to wait and all at the airport cuz he said "we move as a team" (haha!)
Qiqi. He's really cUTE. Like always smiling away. And he's reallyyyyy nice toooo! Like he'll talk to me and all! And I heard about his amazing vo2 max. Altho I'm still not TOO Sure exactly. And not forgetting his laughter......... goodness......
Lee Lemuel. Haa. He reminds me of a HAMSTER. Like a cheeky hamster happily eating away. He always gives this 'hehehe' smile when there's talk about food. And his helmet tan lines!
Adi (not sure how to spell) Didnt talk to him much, but yeah he always beeps when he walks through the airport gates thingy! And super funny today. There was this cannister thingy for the bike tubes. So of course it looks suspicious so they koped it. And so he was like 'okay u can have it' but the can wasnt that ex but the metal thingy to connect it was. And so he wanted it back. So he wanted to remove the can thingy and it went pssssstttt. And you should've seen the girl security guard's face of horror.... like 'DONT RELEASE THAT THING!' as tho it's a bomb. It was, very, funny. (HAHHAHAHA)
Tim and all his crap. Like seriously, all the rubbish! haha.
Jun Rong and the metal in him. Didn't talk to him much too.
Daniel Loy (team manager), and Dan Plews! (the coach) I like Plew's accent. I really like the way British ppl speak! So it was quite nice to hear him speak during the entire trip haha. And to think he's actually so young. And I thought he was so old. But sometimes I don't understand what he's saying.
And there was the Dinahsaur too!
Yay nice nice ppl :)
Only 2 regrets were: 1) Didnt know I could go the van with them! Would've liked to at least gone up once to see it all 2) Would've like to check out the night market since I'm all the way there for the first time!
But nvm, I still had A LOT of fun!
Really like the company haha.
Too bad, I'm not a cyclist.
