Went to the gym for about an hour :D but my progress is only 5km. I must practise 10km!! Looks like it'll take me 2 hours =x
Showered and then Gail asked me if I would like to celebrate with her for finishing her thesis for her Master's. So we went to Central Chit Lom. We also stopped by the post office.
We had lunch at the Food Loft. Oooh great service. It's like Marche's, but the waiters will even collect your food for you! Walked to Central World cuz Gail wanted to get her electronic keyboard. And we checked out the photography exhibition outside.
By the time we were done i was stoned and a bit worried about the time. Wanted to explore the area around our apartment, but seems like cannot already. Tried to take taxi back from Central World, but .... no taxis was willing to take us to Yen Akat Rd because of the jam. Urggghhhh.Finished packing and washed my clothes (wrong timing heh) and rushed down to meet Fon to go Sawang Daendin. Took a taxi to Mo Chit where we took the Northeast bus. Interesting experience... Now I know where to go to take bus towards the Northeast of Thailand. :) We thought we would be late, but the taxi driver was really crazy!! As soon as there was an opportunity to speed up, he went up to 110km/h!!
2/9 Tue
The service on the bus was good, they served soft drinks and packets of biscuits and a cute water bottle in the shape of a bus! It was lady who served, and she also asked each passenger where he/she intends to drop so she could wake up the person when the bus reaches. It was an overnight bus.
Reached Sawang Daendin and dropped right in front of the church at 4.50am. It was drizzling. We rang the doorbell and thankfully someone came to get the door. He showed us to our room and then we slept till 8am. The bus ride gave us backaches man!
Woke up for breakfast, there was khao moo daeng (char siew rice). Had an orientation of the kindergarden by Khroo Pim (Somchai's fiancee).
Got more information of the church from Achan Kittikhun and P'Wirachai and then Achan Kittikhun brought us out for lunch at his wife's stall. Took a walk around the market too. Then we had pig trotter with rice. I took photos of the stall and Achan Kittikhun jokingly asked for copyrights fee. haha.. i said i will help them to advertise... :)
After lunch Achan had an interview with a new teacher so Fon and I had time to rest. Did my quiet time (i missed the night before because of the overnight travel) and started reading a book from Rachel Soh. :) Then we went out with Audrey, a Singaporean also, to sightsee Sawang Daendin. Visited a Catholic school where Achan's daughter is studying, a government school, and a church member's house where we fished! Fon and I caught one each. =)
Then we went to a part in town where we stopped for drinks. Achan ordered coconut jelly drink and ice-kacang. Both were too sweet so I added the naam-cha (teh-o kosong) to make it less sweet. After that we went back to church again where we rested, since we have gathered enough information about the ministries of the church in Sawang. We had lots of rest time, so in between I went up to the rooftop to take photos. =) Not much of a view though.
At 7 we went out for dinner with Audrey, P'Wirachai and his wife and children, Khun Don and his wife and adopted daughter. They brought us to Tesco Lotus (I love hypermarts!) and we ate at the foodcourt. It was also cheap to eat there - 35 baht for my seafood ratna (horfun)! Then went into the hypermart for shopping. The clothes look nice! But Fon and I bought breakfast for the next day only instead. And I decided to buy some milo powder, coffee creamer and sugar for the church.
After Tesco - they close super early, like 9pm! - we stopped at a night market where Fon bought desserts and some corn milk for tomorrow breakfast. Interesting... Went back to church to rest for the day. Fon had to prepare minutes for a meeting where she would not be attending, so she actually stayed up to finish the work. =x but we had a chat before that and i got to know her better. =)
3/9 Wed
Next day P'Wirachai got breakfast for us - chicken gizzard and black sticky rice (the kind used for bubur hitam) I only touched a bit of the sticky rice because we had bought corn milk and tuna mayonnaise with bread already. Then I did some final packing and "checked out". Achan Kittikhun is really humourous and fatherly, reminds me of Asun gu-gu. =) He sent us to Udon Thani, together with Somchai and his fiancee Khroo Pim, and her mom.
We stopped by Khroo Pim's elder sister's place where they had kuayteow (we were full already) and I took photos of the kittens.
Achan joked that he was sad I took so many photos of the kittens but none of him, so i took a shot of him haha.
Later I was watching a red ant climb up my glass of iced water and Achan pinched it and put it into his mouth!!! I watched in wide-eyed wonder. Isn't red ant poisonous? I always thought so because i was badly bitten by them before. =(
Finally we reached Udon Thani in one-and-a-half-hour ride in the car and Achan found us a bus going to Korat at 10.30am. It was a second-class bus. It was terrible, the bus driver took anyone that needs a ride and kept horning for nothing!!! Irritating, because we were just sitting on the 2nd row, and there was even a time he took in so many passengers some had to stand! Urgh! It wasn't the short journey kind of bus so it didn't make sense to take in so many passengers. It wasn't comfortable either so we ended up with backache again. :(
We reached Korat at 5pm and it was pouring heavily. My umbrella was of little use. Fon and i were drenched by the time we got to the taxi stand. Someone was supposed to pick us up. Anyway we got a taxi arranged to take us to the church. I was quite pissed because firstly no one picked us up because it was raining heavily. Secondly, when we reached the church we were just left there (although we were offered a drink), we were drenched and (at least for me) would very much like to settle in our room, put down our stuff and get changed! Fon didn't mind i think. Anyway I learnt that we were supposed to wait for Johnny (Singaporean) to come back to bring us to the place we are going to stay. And they were having ministry in school so they came back around 6+pm.
So I realise we were not staying in church, but at a hostel nearby. It was cheap, 350baht per night. The church offered to pay for our accommodation. After settling in we went out for dinner. Kim Yien (malaysian-singaporean) drove us (Fon, Johnny, Mai and me) to a pizza shop.
Saw some angmohs outside. We had pizza and steak there. I was disappointed as the menu listed a wide range of pizzas but when it arrived it was 2 ingredients short. The owner had explained that her cook had been on leave and she's the only person cooking, so... okay la. Kim Yien treated us for that meal. Fon and I noticed a cute guy sitting opp us ;) Then Kim Yien took us around Korat to understand more. Stopped by a 7-Eleven where we bought breakfast for the next day. Went back to our apartment to rest.
4/9 Thur
Next day we woke up about 7+am to go to church for breakfast and we watched Johnny bake cake.
Then we used the internet for a while (too slow and i haven't finished checking my email even - sorry to those who were waiting for updates, i had limited internet access for this week) and had a meeting with Pastor Dickson (Hong Kong-Singaporean) - I guessed he was from HK through his accent when he pronounced some words :P He gave us the background of the church in Korat, which is very useful, and then gave us the documents also.
After that we waited for a while before he was free to bring us out for lunch. We were having difficulty deciding where to eat until he brought us to one end of the city and decided to bring us to Sima Thani Hotel for buffet lunch!!! (after that we learnt that the buffet lunch was only 135 baht!!!) Had our fill of Japanese, Chinese, Western, and of course Thai cuisine. =) He also brought us around Korat to understand the town more... and I really like this place! It was a bit more developed last year due to the Sea Games held here. But it was more or less unspoilt by tourists yet :) Oh, I learnt that Korat is the short name for Nakhon Ratchasima, no wonder I wasn't able to find it easily on the map! We made a short stop outside the railway station for photos..
The trains had not been running due to the protests i heard. Then pastor dropped us back at our apartment to rest. I was too full to sleep, so i watched tv. haha thai drama. or rather, soap opera.
At 4pm we went back to church. We had dinner together with the people who had come to take English lesson.
Then Fon and I followed Aey to a night market nearby.
Nice! Passed by Dusit Princess Korat. :) Saw many things I want to buy, but decided to control, partly because the designs are not so nice. hee.. bought carrot-banana juice instead, to aid digestion (we found Yakult in Korat!!!) but it was rather salty. :S Waited for Johnny to pass us the information of the church in soft copy then he took us back to the apartment - the entry requires his thumbprint! So we rested for the day.
I've been thinking about why I keep saying "anything" to matters that require decision, like where to go for dinner, what to order, whether i want to go night market or not.... (I wonder if it's irritating to other people.) Someone told me that it causes people to say that I'm an indecisive person, or too easy-going. I realise it's because I'm afraid of the responsibility that comes with certain decisions. It's also because I had been badly hurt by criticisms when I made lousy decisions, like when the place i recommend strongly is not to other people's liking. So I tend to throw off the responsibility to other people. But I know that's being irresponsible too. Haiz.
We switched on the tv and saw the "pantamit" (anti-govt) and saw Nakhon Ratchasima on tv! It's the main road outside our apartment! Haha... I joked about going out to join them. hee..
5/9 Fri
Next morning we could afford to sleep in, so we lay in bed till 9am :D and we went to church. We realise there was no breakfast, so we walked to a nearby coffeeshop. I ordered Mama (instant noodles) with pork, it looks like I ordered beansprouts with noodles instead. Anyway I swallowed all the beansprouts!! Hurray! (cheer for me!)
Went to a nearby 7-Eleven and bought more Yakult. :D I also bought a Golf-Mike green tea drink :D then we went back to our apartment for final packing. At 11am we brought our bags to the church and Fon called for a taxi to pick us up to the bus terminal. We had plenty of time, so we bought our bus tickets and went to the food court to stone :P We booked the VIP bus because that was the best available timing for our travel. :D The bus ride was very disappointing though. Though our tickets were for seats near the front, we ended up sitting behind, near the toilet. It's good to have toilet in the bus, but the smell is AWFUL!!!!!
It got colder and colder, and just when i was about to fall asleep, the bus server switched on the tv at a VERY loud volume :( It was screening the Street Kings. Not interested, moreover it was dubbed in Thai. So i stared out of the window most of the time. Passed by Pachinburi, Pattaya, .... wow! Pattaya looks nice.
Although it's a very touristy place, it's pretty clean and has more English signs, and has nicer buildings. I guess i like nice buildings as well as old buildings... perhaps i should have gone into architecture :PReached Ban Chang at about 7.30pm finally... the sun has set. Was hungry by the time we arrived, so we settled for a roadside stall for dinner. It's cheaper here. 25 baht for the meal. Went to 7-Eleven for Yakult again! And took a Ban Chang-style tuk-tuk to church. We were shown to our room, it's actually a classroom, but since the next day is Saturday and there won't be class, it's okay to house us there. I almost couldn't sleep because I had green tea just before sleeping :P When i switched off the lights i became a little afraid, because the place is quite eerie at night, and there were dogs barking, the ceiling fan was making a traditional Thai music, plus my imagination.... :P
Toys for us to play! =D
6/9 Sat
Woke up at 7.40am and washed up, then Fon told me Achan Anong called to say that we'll have breakfast at 9am instead. We had CP shrimp wanton, bread, and lychee. haha, weird combi. Took a look around the church, it was a nice view with mountains at the back! Then we got information of the church from Achan Anong. Fon and I went to her friend's house just next to the church.
Achan Anong took us around Ban Chang. This is the land they bought as the church originally.
For dinner we went to a housewarming party. It was the daughter of a committee member. I feel so honoured to have the chance to join this party! =)
7/9 Sun
Church service starts at 10am. I joined the children's group. They are really well-behaved!! A pri 6 boy in Singapore would have been uninterested in playing games, but over here they are very participative and ... i'm just very impressed. =)
After service we had lunch fellowship and then Fon and I rushed off to Tesco Lotus, to rebond our hair :D I added on hair-dyeing as well. Very cheap! 900 baht in total.
Then we went back to Euw's house to sleep. Hehe... At dinnertime we joined Achan Anong, went to a kuay chap stall. Ermm.... i dun really eat the pig's insides so i didn't really like it. Furthermore I was trying to go on a diet!! =x
Went to 7-Eleven and bought the latest Clash album.:D
8/9 Mon
Packed up and returned the mattress and pillows to church. Achan Anong then drove us to the beach!! Woohoo~! Praise God for good weather! Nice scenery, beach in front, mountains behind. =)
Cute puppies!!
My "pet" dog followed me around everywhere.
Clear water!!
Sunburn!
It poured just after we left, heavily!!
Waited in church for the rain to get lighter and we went to look for Fon's "son". Guitar, my new friend from the housewarming party, was also in the same class, Sunflower.
Then we went back to Euw's house to get our bags. Gail picked us up in Fay's car and we got off at the bus "station". Wanted to get hot chocolate to warm us up but the bus arrived just after we ordered, so we had to cancel our order.
Back in Bangkok! =)
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