Day 1:
We left for Changi Airport at a cruel hour in the morning, at 4 am since the flight was at 8, and we had to assemble at 5.30 am. So with much reluctance, I dragged myself out and quickly changed to leave for the airport in class tee and jeans. On the way I called Fabriz to tell Mr Chiam that I would be late and would not make it by 5.30 am. Turns out that he was on the expressway, the AYE, and arrived later than me in fact. So once I reached, I found out that most of the class was already there and there were a few people that had not reached. Fellowship a while before we left for the departure lounge. Tour agent a bit late, irritated me a bit, and she finally came, so we checked in. In true style, the Singapore departure lounge was really nice. Free internet access, Sakae Sushi, Starbucks, juice, hotdogs, and nice TV entertainment. Then on to the plane. Very long to check in, flight so-so, but that's not quite the important part. So transit to Bangkok, uneventful, but realised that Dr Kiran was not on the plane. Fell asleep on the flight, awoken only when we hit the ground with a bump, so... tired. We later realised that she had been deported back to Singapore. Sad.
Arrived to a nice welcome in the airport with flower necklaces, and of course, the other group going to another town left without any nice welcome, just straight for the bus and nothing else. Well I was surprised by the warm welcome and looked forward to the next few days. Upon arrival, we found that the hostel was not a hostel, but if you remove the "s", it becomes hotel, which was really what it was, about 2-2.5 star hotel, with a mama-shop, coffee cafe, and laundry service. The room had a mini-bar, working toilets, and nice beds. The restaurant, served rather decent food like tempura vegetables, fried tang hoon and the like. Quite surprising indeed. We ate first then checked in, followed by a briefing about the days to follow. Rotary club bags were given to us, water-proof and washable. We met Mr Tham Chen Fye (HAPPY JIA??!), someone I thought initially looked rather Thai, but after the next few days, through his glasses, it was quite obvious that he was Singaporean rather than Thai, so there was the shocker. Morgan, was on hand to welcome us too, and later we went for a traditional Thai performance, one that was rather nice, but not before taking a walk through the streets, going back to the hostel and driving through the night bazaar that we would go to on Saturday. This diversion caused us a 1 hour journey. There were Chinese instruments like the Yangqin and the Guzheng. The food was rather nice, small little dishes with fried banana fritters and a lot of nice traditional food like pork, chicken, eggplant and so on. Fab was a little ill afterward and we were looking for plastic bags just in case he threw up, by his request. The space outside our hostel rooms was later put to good use for practising our mass dance and singing in the days to follow. So that was the first day. At night, our toilet broke down and it could not be flushed. Had to crap. I had no choice. So we tried to flush it with water but it did not work. No graphic descriptions required. Zhang had problems breathing, so a little noisy and I found it hard to sleep.