on the back of Calvin’s pick up truck was INSANE!! INSANE I tell you!! I’ve never travelled so fast on the outside before…on the road…my hair was tangled in knots when we stopped and my face was like…flapping!! haha 

one of the purpose of the trip there was to visit a few orphanages and see what were their needs, get to know the children and the helpers at each home and see how we can contribute. 

so the first day we met the children of Genesis Home. and there was this little boy, one of the youngest there (his parents both have AIDS and are unable to take care of him) and he was really grumpy at first by the strangers being there. then afterwards he started pointing at my white converse and then to his slippers. not really understanding what he was saying but i just took his hand and he just started giggling and laughing all the way. 

he then went to the shoe rack and took out his well…sort of white…school shoes and put them on too! haha how cute <3

so yes, part three of my adventure with sis haha - sidetrack, i realize i’m a very chapter by chapter blogger. i like to segment my photos and each post the photographs need to complement each other and stuff. weird haha and so that’s why i have posts that are entitled “part three” - but anyway, onto our adventure.

after a super full dinner of chee cheong fun and porridge (yum!), we decided to take a walk and headed towards ann hsiang hill area. and as we were crossing the road I spotted this huge lomography sign glowing bright red in the night. cool! they were having some kind of event…not sure what it was though haha but nobody stopped us when me and my sis cruised right in to check out the new store. 

but if you frequent the other toy camera shops in singapore as much as i do (which honestly is not that…much haha but enough…i frequent the 2nd hand camera shops more often ;)) well, you’d have seen most of the stuff already. so when we browsed enough, shuffled in the crowd enough and stepped on enough streamers, we continued our walk. that was when we were deliberating about photographing a stranger (haha) and then it was time to head home <3

the end of the adventure! till the next one :D

old ruins

we travelled in these pickups!

M+W with marcus doing some mid action talk :P haha

walking to the entrance

entrance of the cave…well, you have to climb a bit of course haha

oh hey cave wow wee done.

“i’m batman…” he whispers

more cave

beautiful mountains

saw this little girl walking towards me

and one more when she got closer

after having a scrumptious lunch we headed off to the caves. we were suppose to go there with the children or something…but they were still in school. right at the end when were heading off there was this little girl walking towards me and she was looking at me giving the “what is she doing?” after i snapped a couple of shots, i waved. and she broke into a cute smile and waved back <3 

following our coffee stop at The Plains, since they closed at 7pm, we headed off in search of food. just randomly, not knowing where we should stop to eat and having no direction in mind, we found ourselves in Chinatown.

“too expensive”

“too crowded”

“hey hawker center, want to go up?”

it turns out that there’s this store on the 2nd floor hawker center that has been open for a really long time. my sister’s friend used to come here with her grandparents when she was little. they serve breakfast food like chee cheong fun, yam cake, fried beehoon and porridge. we were there at night…yes, breakfast food at night…haha and there were people queuing!!! and i think here’s why, with the commercialization of many food joints well…the food’s just food…you know? but when you eat porridge and chee cheong fun from this store, it’s that exact taste of how chee cheong fun was or how porridge tasted when I was young. and it just gives you that comforting feeling of “ya…this is my home (singapore)” and i miss that. haha i know, it sounds a bit corny but with so many coffeeshops closing i’d gladly admit my love and cling on to whatever real singaporean coffeeshops there are.

# which reminds me of my friend/sister’s-boyfriend upcoming exhibition about places in singapore that mean something to you! will share soon :) do share with me places that makes you go “ya…this is my singapore” i would love to visit them too!!

flowers on the floor

heading to our rooms

i didn’t know bougainvillea could grow to be trees haha

breakfast area

the view in the morning at the first hotel stop over

ma’ sista

dy chilling 

thai food lunch, i have never seen chilli padi that SMALL!!

we moved up the next day off the city of chiangmai into a smaller area called chiangdao. the nature around us was just so amazing and beautiful. couldn’t stop looking at the gorgeous mountains that painted the skies in shawdow-y greys as we drove to our destination. 

the weather at chiangdao was lovely too. a little chilly, so i could snuggle up in my winter jacket from time to time :) we had thai food which was super SPICY. tom yam soup usually has slices of chilli padi, this one had chilli padi the size of beans congregating in my tiny little bowl. haha eggs, kang kong, pork slices and stuff, all yummy! but then again, when one travels in a big group and the focus is not exactly a holiday, one just learns to eat whatever is served to you. but it was kind of fun that way too ;)

yes! i’ve finally blogged my way through most of 2011 and now i’m at the beginning of the trip to chiangmai. having not flown for a good 7 years, i can’t tell you the EXCITEMENT and sheer joy i had of being able to shop inside the barricade haha

in the end i only bought a copy of British Vogue for my trip there and back but had a great time browsing the cosmetic shops, marc by marc jacobs and just chilling out in there haha

the flight was pretty thrilling, or rather the take off was, haha the amount of faith one needs to have in the unseen air pressure, physics of the plane and know-how of the pilot is crazy! i know why people freak out, i mean that a plane this size can take off and “float” in the sky is just insane!! 

we arrived at the hotel pretty late past twelve and i was ready to call it a night. but someone went to get supper and i managed to sneak a piece of chocoate banana prata bite before sleeping ;)