yikai

don't have lah! lol. all just friends.

don't think this is a SPS. but it looks like one though.

ups for bro MbMc. a vanuatu pylei with this kind of colour after so long is a good enough reason to get it.

WAH? WHO SAID THAT? anyway yes, it was very worth it. i started breaking down on the 19th day when i suddenly remember local food but nevertheless, i wish the trip was longer. more photos to come soon. tagging them on facebook now first.

okay.

yes of course. plenty of things we did there had no logic. we were told to do to let us experience what the folks in india do all the time. which is, manually digging holes etc without machines. if they were to machine dig everything, it defeated the purpose of us going there anyway. truth is, not everyone in india can afford machines. alot of times, we yue bang yue mang. because we were so inefficient compared to the locals. but it was for the experience.

livestock also play an important role for the villagers of india. goats and cows are found in almost every house. will stop here for now. upload more photos later

another team of students two years ago came to india to build a bio-fuel hut for the village workers. where cow dung is fermented and methane gas is produced to power stoves and light. the left over cow dung after the fermentation is used as fertilizers for crops here, a woman is loading cow dung into the chute. with her bare hands. something i bet no one in singapore will ever do. right?

harvesting of crops to sell. mushrooms. tomatoes, and the last picture is of some cashews.

flowers are a large part of indian culture. they are grown to make flower garlands, amongst other things.

a typical market. very dirty, chaotic and extremely crowded. they don't practice throwing waste into bins, thus rubbish is strewn everywhere.

Here's a typical primary school in the village. nothing compared to that in singapore. we are very lucky.

last day was spend in a hotel before heading back to singapore. i feel like i shortchanged the entire trip. there's so much we did and thousands of photos. need to compile them slowly then post here for y'all to see. as for jacky, will post pics of how they live in india.

after the orphanage, we left to the mountains. where at the peak, its surrounded by nothing but more mountains. it's really really reaaaaaaly beautiful. it's 400 years old and its entirely made out of tea plantations. at the peak, the temp was very very cool and nice. 19-20ish degrees. we stayed in a church, built in the 16th century i think. very very old but very nice. look like harry potter's castle kinda thing. the toilets were very creepty though. dungeon like. and water there is ice cold. with the decrease in temperature, there were tons of plants there and the flowers that grew there were very very nice. the previous places where we lived comprised of semi-arid desert where temperature peaked around 36-37 degrees. so it was a huge relief to stay up in the mountains for the next 5 days. we went to the tiger reserve bla bla bla can't remember the rest. did too many things. i don't have photos of the church and the mountains. have to get them from my friends first. will post pics when i get them. its really scenic and very nice. the mountains of tea and flowers i tell you. even i found it nice.

did plenty more stuff while we spent the 10 days here. like help grow stuff in the garden too... which i don't have photos of. too boring. after 10 days, we left to the next place, an orphanage. where we stayed there for 4 days. there, we helped to grow more trees, educate the farmers, and help them make compost. which is a nutricious blend of ghee, cow dung, cow urine, yoghurt and milk. mmm.....no photos. too gross to post. the time spent at the orphanage was mostly spent with the kids. played with them. oh yeah the first 10 days were vegan, and then onwards it was meat and veg. toilets were okay, with the only exception being very regular water and power shortages. the water there quite hard. can feel my hair dam jialat over there. in singapore it's softer than silk.

We also, swam in a well, taught the local kids in schools, and donated many computers and help set them up.

and spent the free time chasing bugs...

We also help to cook. i miss the cooks. they were so nice to us and uber friendly. treated us like their own kids even though they only knew us for 10 days. both parties cried buckets when we left.

yes but quite impossible. you need an autoclave machine to serilise the growing media first. so that the only thing that grows is the mushroom you wanna grow. mushrooms are actually the fruiting bodies of the fungal strands growing within the hay, called mycelium. when the fungal strands/threads mature, they send out elongated stalks with caps that release spores to continue to next generation. this stalks and caps are the mushrooms.

We played with kids too. i like this boy best. he's so cute

and more fun shots.

and tree planting. that's the SRC polo tee in the right.

We help harvest vegetables too.

oh yes jacky. alot of snake eating going on between work...and tons of "hiao" photo shoots with my friends and i

alot more pictures of the mushroom shed but i think you guys can get the jist of it from the above two. its near completion and only the blue polystyrene cover is yet to be placed. once placed, mushrooms will be grown in hay bags and stored inside where it is more humid, and shadier than the ambient temp. outside.