So i went to thailand for the most of last week to take part in this Thai Rice convention... which i must say, has been one heck of an experience, that i wouldnt have traded for anything. no, not even more shopping-time at bangkok (of which i had all of one hour to get to MBK and back). this is some of the yummylicious food we all got to sample.
After bangkok we were flown (at 5 fricking am) to a province in the NE part of thailand called Ubon Ratachani. which was... ulu-nation, to say the least. this is the view from my room. (and yes, i know you can see me in the reflection, i don't care.)was supposed to be a five star hotel. when i got there i was like you call this five star?! but then, i opened the curtains and realised it WAS. needless to say, no shopping here.
that night (which is the second night already) we were brought to a little resort to have a welcome dinner. these two are making some sort of rice cake....
and this one... well, i can't remember what this one was doing. i was just more taken aback that this one looked more tranny-ish than the above two. make-up, i guess.whoops, forgot to let you all see how pretty it was that night. of course my photo-taking skills don't do the place any justice at all, but i think you could still imagine it, somewhat.
They also tied sashes to all the men and ladies there so we all kinda looked like we came from "one place" or we were all "brothers" or sth like that lah. was great anyways, and i get to keep the scarf. :P thats me and another delegate from singapore, Lily.
The first of many, many, many thai traditional shows we watched. (she's a guy, too, we couldn't tell, cept for the hands and feet. SUPER GORGEOUS, anyways.)
look ma, ELEPHANT!! i know its shaky, but i think the photographer totally captured my scared look. this was me backing up to stand with the elephant, btw.
okay, finally, after a few tries, i'm standing WITH the elephant, and have taken the "OMG" look from my face long enough to smile for the camera.
and we even had fireworks! (suaku
Singaporean)
okay day three they brought us out on a field trip to the paddy fields. it was so scorching hot that they gave everyone a hat and a fan and about 10 thousand bottles of ice cold water.
this had to be the absolute most back breaking and yet most fun i had on the trip. i'm actually harvesting the rice!! i know y'all all think paddy field= flooded place, but thats apparently only during the sowing period, by the time harvest rolls ard, its dry.
i forget what this stage is called. but they're beating out the dust and grain by whipping it against a board. they have to do this for about a million times before all the grain is out and they can move on to another batch. nuts.
two locals milling the rice. by freakin hand. mind you they have acres upon acres of land growing rice.
she's sifting the rice from the impurities.its actually harder than it looks. i have a pic of me doing it... and failing miserably.
just one of the little sweeties running about the place. they were all wide-eyed at the visitors.
and then we went to visit the sanctuary (name of sanctuary up soon) elaborate, isn't it?
Thats me and one of the guides, trying to take a pic of the ruin, plus background plus bougainnvillea. ambitious.
here's a better picture of the ruins!
me and another delegate from singapore, Ivy.
they brought us to a high school there, one of the public schools. if you think your uniform was bad, girls AND boys here have to wear pink. *yuk*
finally managed to take this picture without them all staring at me and my camera.
oh you KNEW there'd be one of this didn't you? yes, thats the kind of toilets we get at ubon. just a concrete slab in the ground. the big pail at the side is (yup you guessed it) the flushing system. well. at least it was clean, most of the time. i'd hate to think what the girls did when they were having their periods.phew. there are more pics, but i'm exhausted. i probably don't have to say this again, but it was a great trip, and i was so, so blessed to be able to go and experience it all. :)