Ecoventure 2015 - Days in Village (Part 1)

Warning : This event will be presented in many different entries (a post-marathon) because I don't want to mix everything in a post :) Bear with me!

(Once again, photos credit to the team and owners!)
ສະບາຍດີ Sabaidee :) 
Yeap, Laos character quite unique and cute right? Too bad NTU not offering Laos language as electives, else I will for sure go learn it hahahaha :P

The post event syndrome is not subside yet! Still replaying the songs sang by the kids, still scrolling and looking at the photo album constantly. Sometimes, in the middle of doing something, it will still hit me that I am working alone but no longer with the team.

But well, beside moving forward to be better, we can do nothing much for now :)

Really appreciate what we went through in Laos, in Ban Phongsavang, with the team and the villagers. It's not only a trip. It's all about the relationship we built, the memories we created together and it is about the simplest way to gain happiness. After the trip, we are happy, more to satisfy and contented, with everything we have, we had :)

Opps, kinda far from the topic d. Let's get back to the topic :)

A video by Xiao Hui, our talented photographer.

It's a short video, but definitely enough to give you a rough idea of what we did in the village :)

So after the night with the not-so-encouraging-news (and the girls had fun with the monopoly game), here came the first morning in Laos :) Gathered at 7am and we went for our breakfast.

Noodle soup which will turn into red colour cause of the tomato LOL XD

After the breakfast, some went to buy construction items, some went to buy supplies for our breakfast (bread, biscuit and etc) and people like me not in both team, went back to chill :P

Around 11am, we checked out from MyLaoHome and what is ahead us? The 4-hours-boat-ride. Because we were going against the current, thus the long hour ride. They said if we were to use the speed boat, we can probably reach within an hour (Never try so me not so sure about this).

I took the motion-sickness pill as prevention, so the journey for me went very smoothly. We even had time for monopoly game :P Had lunch in the boat too. And during the boat ride, one thing that all of us did was preparing ourselves, mentally and physically. Are we going to make it successfully? Can we adapt well? Is there any other problem coming to us? 

Otw to the boat. 

Yes, the boat can fit in more than 25 person, more than 30 luggage, 30 water bottles and 2 big ice boxes.

Managed to drag Justin to play with us hahaha XD

Passed by the famous tourist spot

Some serious topics ongoing :)

In contrast, card game ongoing too!

After hours, finally we reached! And here I list to you what welcomed us in Day 1 :) Remember to expect the unexpected :)

1. The Slope and Staircases
The first challenge we faced - have to climb all the way to the school. And with all our luggage, construction items, water bottles and ice boxes. Formed human chain and managed to unload all the logistics :)
I was helping in the boat and almost die when I first climbed the staircase. OMG! (Forgive my weak stamina :P)
Upon reaching, everyone was already too exhausted till no one took photos of what happening hahaha :D

No, what you can see is not the end point end, it's just halfway.

The kids were helping :)

2. The Different Environment

The scenery was so breathtakingly nice at the school area! (The school was our sleeping and activities place) Everything was just so different! And we met the villagers too! Not to forget, our animal friends also!

The school :)

From the school.

Yes, the school is located at the highest point LOL.

The very shy kids :)

The staircase that link the upper part of the school and the lower part of the school.

Originally only the staircase on the left, our guys were too free and they built the one on the right during the first week.

The lower part of the school, also our sleeping area :)

2 classrooms - 1 to accommodate 12 guys and 1 for 12 girls :)

Introduce to you, our kitchen :)

The traditional way of cooking :)

Pounding rice for dinner :)

Our washrooms :)

Our good buddy for the 2 weeks :)

3. The Setup

After a quick rest, we moved on to clean and setup our bedrooms :)

And sorry to say, the guys did so much better compared to the girls. Their room so so clean OMG.  

Before :)

After :)

They setup the clothesline also :D

Photo taken in the first week, not first day :)

And we set up the space for Angel and Mortal too :)
Photos taken in second week I guess :)

4. Water Shortage

After everything, it's time for us to take shower. And what greeted us? The very common phenomenon - water shortage. After hours of working hard, all 24 of us in desperate to take our shower.

What we did? No other than to take our shower in Mekong River. Definitely out of our comfort zone :P

The guys :)

The ladies :)

Basically, all the 10 days in the village, the water supply in the washroom is never enough for all of us. So, Mekong is the place I bathed everyday whenever we were in the village.

But not all of us did that actually :P Only a few girls and majority of the guys. You know, just not so convenient for the ladies sometimes :P 

Although it might not be the cleanliest shower we can get (actually those water in the bathroom also from Mekong River), but taking shower with such nice scenery, what else you would ask for? Plus I secretly prefer Mekong over the washroom cause we can shower without time limit :P

5. Dine in The Dark

For a place without electricity, we can't ask for lights and fans. So usually we will need to get our dinner done before the sunset. However, it was our Day 1 in the village, hence a bit of delay.

This is how we got our dinner settled.

Trust me, can't see sometimes is really better ;) As dining in the dark, you tend to appreciate the taste of the food more :)

The taste of Laos + Dining in the Dark = NEW & NICE EXPERIENCE

Will I want to do it again? Definitely YES! Cause who else can have dinner while watching the sunset and stars?

6. The Starry Night

One of the best thing in the village - low or actually without light pollution. And it means high visibility of the stars!

So much stars and I just can't get enough of it!

Photos taken by the team members in the village!

It's more than AWESOME!

If you know me well, you will know that I am actually one of those obsessed with starry night :D Ban Phongsavang is definitely heaven for people like me :P

I enjoy moments like this - looking at the stars and do nothing. That is why I was always the last girl to reach the room :P

And lucky enough, throughout the 10 days there, I managed to catch 3 shooting stars ;)

That's pretty much for the first few things that reached me on the first day :) I guess we can conclude that we got a good start there in the village :)

Next : What else we did in the village? ;)