UPDATE: I've decided to squeeze all 5 days into one, so scroll down for more!Mad hell
141 PHOTOS in total!
************
I'm finally blogging these!
That's cause I've just received them from Ms Ng. Not her fault - I dilly-dallied with asking her for them... aiyah, NUS High students are just too busy lah!
10 March 2009 (DAY ONE)Met at the airport in the morning, checked in, and went to T3 for breakfast.
Group 1: On Frogs.
Group 2: Cattle Egrets.
I remember ordering some Nyonya Dumpling that was ridiculously overpriced - like $4.50 or something. Mad expensive!
On to the plane! We were almost late for the plane!!! The flight leaves at 8:15, we boarded at 8:10, and got seriously screwed by the officer.
Saw this stupid ad.
Like duh, of course it's in Malaysia!
At the airport. At any other international airport, you will probably realize Singapore's airport is the best!
It's damn bright and Intan needs to wear those sunglasses.
The moment we stepped out of the airport, the air smelt like rotten carpet or something (though carpet isn't organic). Damn gross!
Was thinking whether to like, take a bus or take a cab.
We decided to get a freaking cab.
On to the Hotel!
Not bad eh?
Checked in.
Room1: KayWee, Joseph and me.
Room2: Intan, Nat, Marianne
Room3: Ms Ng.
We settled down fast, and got out to walk around for lunch.
I was kinda coughing cause the air was DAMN BAD. And mind you, this is not even the capital. Urgh, sucky air!!!
Wandering around deciding what to eat.
Nice Italian Restaurant. The chef migrated here from Rome, and he told us his life story.
Sucks to have lousy English.
I ordered this really nice spaghetti thingy :)
She looks like a student!
Then we went back to the hotel, to do some last-minute preparations for the presentation the next day!
Us doing in the afternoon.
Sunsetting...
Yes, we swopped rooms to finish the presentation lah.
11 March 2009 (DAY TWO)Day 2 marks the official start of the conference! Was quite excited, cause it's my first time attending such a conference where renowned scientists gather to share the fruits of all their intellectual pursuits.
At the Empress Hotel.
My bored face.
It was exciting for the first half hour, cause we got served food and all that. However, some lectures got really really boring - because we didn't get the speakers' accents, and it's just, WAY TOO CHEEM.
The whole day was filled with these talks, and Intan, Joseph and I got to present our project.
We were announced as, and I quote, "
Dr. Aaron Ong's team, Effects of Microclimatic Variations and Habitat Disturbance on Frog Communities in Singapore".
Half the time, all the scientists were very amazed at our age.
There was one presenter who started off with a super religious slide!!! like trying to emphasize religion > science, kind of ironic since he's presenting at a congress.
Anyway, after all of that, we were invited to traditional thai dinner.
Waiting for a taxi.
Took a super cute small taxi.
Reached the place!
Artistic horh?
OH I remember that magazine! It had some funny gay comics in it!
Before food.
Nice right? They wanted to charge us $5+ for this photo, but we used our own camera instead... haha.
The meal was of course, concurrent with some performances, that really enlivened the environment.
Then KAYWEE went up when they called for volunteers!
Fun!
Right outside the restaurant:
People boarded the tuk-tuks:
... which we will grow to love in time to come.
We stopped by Shangri-La on the way back:
That concludes Day II!
12 March 2009 (DAY THREE)Yes, again, tons of people were super surprised at us kids for being there.
And we listened to more presentations, and some of them were really lousy (though they are in university). Not to sound arrogant, but some of them really have loopholes that they should have spotted before even submitting such a project for presentation!
Marianne's group presenting on Cattle Egrets.
After their presentation ended, we took the afternoon off the Congress to wander around Chiangmai.
Shangri-La in the day.
Went to this cafe. I remember scurrying to load my gmail cause I needed to schedule my OSAP interview. Internet was so disgustingly slow!
The ambience was super nice though :)
We hung out until evening, where MS NG TREATED US TO DINNER! We were gonna be mean and ask for Shangri-La at first, but we decided to settle for a Jap restaurant.
The first one we went to was super packed, and even had queue numbers, so we settled for this less crowded one in a mall.
ENTICING!
Group shot!
Then Joseph found a strand of hair in his rice. Ms Ng calmly told the waitress that there's hair in the rice, and the woman offered to waive it off the receipt.
However, soon after, she came back and said that she cannot do that, but will instead give us free fruits.
Ms Ng beamed at the word "FREE". She went "freeeeeeee?" and was full of glee. Yes, she happily accepted the offer.
So Singaporean!
After all that drama, we went to the night market for some good ol' shopping.
13 March 2009 (DAY FOUR)We decided to skip the third day of the congress altogether. We were invited by a Dr. Siriwat Wongsiri to visit Mae Fah Luang University at Chiang Rai. He even offered to arrange transportation for us!
After Ms Ng called the school, Dr Hang gave the green light, and off we went!
Intan and Kay Wee debating about Oasis vs Coldplay.
It was a 3-4 hour drive there, and halfway, we stopped by at this hotspring. You can tell that it's really cold - since we are sort of at the top of some mountain or something.
Yes I know it's fake.
Another fab shot!
Cute auntie selling eggs!
I'm such a tourist.
Off we were to Mae Fah Luang University... and it's SUPER GRAND!!!
It was voted the
most beautiful university campus in asia!
On the right is Dr. Siriwat Wongsiri, a rewnowned researcher who published works in Harvard Journals etc, on honeybees. He's the Dean.
We got a tour of the university campus - it's the only university in thailand to use English as a medium of instruction.
Us dining at the canteen, getting a drink :) Not many students there, since it's a new university.
Got a tour of the Chinese museum next:
*chun li music playing in the background*
Well-maintained indeed!
People take chinese lessons here.
Then we followed the Dean back to his house, afterwhich we went to eat at some roadside restaurant. Was a bit apprehensive at first..
THE
YUMMIEST THING I'VE EVER TASTED. Seriously, damn awesome!
Then we proceeded to the Mae Fah Luang Botanical Gardens.
It's super awesome, with flowers of a kaleidoscope of colours!
Breathtaking, right?
I like this piece a lot!
Looks so innocent right?
Awesome photographer
Time to flood you with group shots!
At the entrance again:
I remembered that the toilet was super clean - must remove shoes one.
Then we continued on to the northernmost part of thailand, bordering myanmar.
Kids were trashing around in the
pool river naked.
Then we turned back to our hotel, another 3-4 hour ride away.
14 March 2009 (DAY FIVE)We went shopping by ourselves today, at the local megamall.
Lunch was a fabulous steamboat.
We shopped the entire day :)
Us in the evening, taking the tuktuk to the night market.
Met a lot of interesting people!
15 March 2009 (DAY SIX)GOING BACK SOON! The saddest part of any trip :(
Went to a restaurant at some random place.
Intan and her salad madness!
The restaurant was right beside the river...
Kay Wee didn't join us in this photo!
Then off we were, back to Singapore:
At that concludes this trip :) Had a great break from school!
