i think there were 2 reasons the 11 of us went on this trip -
the first was because we truly did feel that the work we did back in May was meaningful, not in the sense that it shook heaven and earth, but that we saw what we had done and could only smile on the 16 hours of work spread over 2 days...
the second was because it would be the perfect end to a year that has brought a class together, and this would cement (and you can bet there was an abundance of this) the shared experiences...

for me, having been in singapore for slightly over half a day and having had time to reflect, phuket deaux was not simply a repeat of the May trip, because nothing that good could have been duplicated...
it was a whole new experience, but with the same satisfaction that the previous brought...
although it doesn't quite end the year for me, it did mark the beginning of the next month or so in which i won't see at least a few ppl from class everyday...

heading to the airport late last friday morning, we met at the budget terminal to board Tiger Airways flight TR154 bound for phuket...
sat with gen/chunwui, and realized that one should never bother to buy anything on the plane, 'cos a bottle of water set be back 3 SGD...
the flight there also reminded me that one's iPod is with little doubt one's best friend on trips, because of the inevitable waiting...
we had between us 3 iPod 5G videos, 2 2G nanos, 1 mini and 1 touch in total...
landing in phuket, it was pouring when we drove the hour plus to the Khaolak Orchid Resort, the second accommodation during the last trip...
because we had experienced the novelty of natural (for nature, see primitive) living at TVC the first two days last time, the resort looked very much like heaven...
this time round, it was just another hotel, though the spacious rooms and beds were definitely welcome once more...
was in room C222 with darren, sandwiched in between cielo in C221 and tedkin/martin in C223...
there were many more guests in the hotel this time, so since my room was the only one not next to another guest, it was the choice location for the late night laughter (learnt after being reminded of other guests' presence by a german knock on the door on night 3 while we were in C217...
went over to B204 to chat with daryl/chongwee (a regular occurrence for the next few days) for an hour before dinner began...
we headed out to a restaurant that looked very similar to the one we had a few meals at the previous trip, though the furniture made us question whether it really was the same...
the truck we went out in was a pimped out taxi with brake lights so psychedelic it would have made austin powers proud...
we experienced the phenomenon of lacking rice for the first time, but the food was pretty ok, as it was for the rest of the 8 days...
night 1 was spent doing very little, though i didn't get much sleep 'cos i'm pretty sensitive to new environments...

day 2 was the first of 4 work days, and we headed out in the ubiquitous pickup truck (a TVC one) to the work site, a home for children run by the Home and Life Project, a non-govt organization that seeks resources from the TVC...
the first task was basically 1 of 2 i'd perform - digging...
there was a third task of bamboo cutting but i didn't quite wanna do that...
alternating between spades, shovels and hoes, we successfully dug a trench around one house so that a brick barricade could be built and subsequently a cement yard...
and cement was the second and perhaps dominant task...
in total we probably mixed close to 40 tubs of cement, and by the end of those 4 days the process had become muscle memory - 15-20 shovels of sand, half/one bag of cement, mix, add 4-6 buckets of water, mix, throw in 10-12 shovels of gravel, mix, empty into buckets, transport to site (usually by a bucket chain), pour over bamboo flooring, spread even...
there was dechamp again, the wonderfully orangey isotonic drink mix, though we also had coolaid-like cough syrup tasting cherry concentrate on the later days...
lunch was at the site...
dinner was at the hotel...

we decided to go for the optional trip to Bamboo Island on day 2, where we were meant to help clear up a new site for a new H&L project, and we took a long-tailed boat to get there...
it wasn't raining this time round, so the boat ride was far more pleasant...
the real adventure was when we arrived at the bottom of the island...
we had to trek through about a kilometre of mud to get to the site, and that was half an hour of much screaming, cursing and general raised voices...
but it was fun i a very survivor-esque kinda way...
the work we did, however, was pretty useless...
we were told to clear the area of dead things like leaves/trees/etc, but that's kinds hard when you are basically in a freakin' forest where there isn't anything but leaves/trees/etc...
additionally, they basically set up 3/4 fires to burn these dead things, which is not only wrong in principle because we are in the age of global warming prevention, there was so much smoke it was hard to breathe/see and we could very well have been ordaining a new popoe with so much white plume...
thank goodness that lasted for only slightly over an hour, and we then trekked upwards a kilometre to the actual village for lunch...
there were tonnes of crabs, but i really didn't have the drive to eat any of it primarily because of the squalid conditions in which we were eating...
daryl actually fell sick the next day, though it could have been due to something else besides this...
on the boat trip back to the mainland, the engine broke down, and there were these 15 minutes of absurdity in which we were stranded in the middle of an island outcrop with a group playing a hand of bridge...
oh and we constantly stopped by the supermarket (same as last trip) throughout our stay in khaolak, buying groceries and such...
played table tennis with gerald for the first time (did that twice in total), something i did with gabriel/matthew during the previous trip...
night 2 was spent in one of the rooms watching star movies/playing cards...

day 3 was back at the site, mixing more cement and digging another trench, this time for a water pipe...
we headed out to another restaurant for dinner at night was the Monday Mixer, a time for all the volunteers to mingle, though there was very little of that...
back at the hotel, we headed to B217 for cards/movies, but around 1 in the morning our hosts were asleep while we were still playing, so we headed to C221 to continue...
at 330, we reckoned it was sufficiently late to turn in, but before i could wake up my sleeping legs to hop next door, cielo turned off the lights...
so the four of us (me/cielo/gerald/joash) spent the night (about 2odd hours, 'cos the wakeup call was at 6) slept in her room that night...
2 rings of the phone at 6 in the morning was enough to remind me of how i freezing, so i ducked out to catch a little more shuteye in my warmer room before day 4 began...

breakfast all 4 days at the Orchid were pretty similar, but tasty nonetheless...
a few tubs of cement later, our work stint for the trip was over...
though we were pretty reluctant in coming back at night for the floating candle ceremony, it was pretty nice to say bye to that site one final time...
and it looked really different at night, with the lights up and the bbq going...
a few hilarious performances later, the candles were floated and we were off...
oh but i must mention the first attempt at releasing one of those hot-air paraffin balloons...
to much fanfare, the first balloon was released, but as it was ascending, the paraffin started dripping to the ground in small explosions, and the balloon itself fell on the roof and began burning the decorations and popping the regular balloons that were hung up...
quite hilarious really...
night 4 was spent in my room watching tedkin reenact star wars episodes 4-6/1 after a bottle of bacardi and some truffles...

we visited nam khem the next morning, and the place looks pretty well done up...
a trip to a weaving factory later, we were off to phuket for 3 days of leisure...
the ride there was long because we couldn't locate the Patong Premier Resort, which was pretty small when we finally got there...
roomed in 208...
lunch was at the food court of Jungceylon, a plaza of shopping centres that was pretty impressive, though not on the scale of Central which i went to last year...
bought my only indulgent item at the Playboy sale 'cos i can't find the brand in singapore, and spent an hour at starbucks chatting with daryl/chongwee...
dinner was at a pizzeria...
the nights in phuket were spent in 208 (gerald/joash's room)...

day 7 was amazingly relaxing, with a late breakfast, then a trip to Patong beach...
we headed to BK at Jungceylon for lunch before shoppping for the next few hours...
went with cielo/gerald on a bargain hunt along the side streets, succesfully helping them to clear their shopping lists...
another starbucks fix and a trip to Boots (can't get this in singapore either) later, we headed to a seafood restaurant where tedkin's parents bought dinner...
this time i had the crabs, and they were delish...
stayed there for another hour watching the exhibition match between Federrer/Sampras before heading back to the hotel...
while trying to sleep, i was awakened by 2 calls, first from some frenchman, the second from cielo enquiring as to whether i had an adaptor, so by then i was pretty awake and decided to head to 209 to join the rest who were watching Annapolis...
along with that show, i watched The Jacket, Gladiator, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and some other movies that have slipped my memory...

left the hotel early this friday morning at around 6, and 420 baht of Dunkin' Donuts and watching a few hands of bridge later, we were on flight TR 153 bound for singapore...
sat with daryl/chongwee, and the flight was slightly bumpy with bad weather causing some turbulence and a hard landing...

these 8 days really seem to have flown by too quickly, and it feels that way because of how awesome it was...
to tedkin: thanks for organizing it =)
and to the rest, its definitely something to remember...

a you-had-to-be-there moment,
John.