what i did in india. for 20 days.

[yikai]

here's some photos from the 4000 that i took while away. by now i think most of you would know who i am, if not, i'm the one in the yellow nike shoes.

here's a photo of some of us in changi airport.

would like to request that all photos below must not be taken without my permission. of course i cannot control what you do, but if you want to use it for whatever reason, ask me first and i will let you have it. integrity please thank you

[yikai]

the flight from singapore to chennai was 4 hours+.

here's another photo of us in chennai.

[yikai]

From chennai, we took a domestic flight to Madurai on a double propeller poker flight.

no photos of that. too unglam to post.

here's when we arrived at madurai, then we took a bus to this red coloured restaurant.

[yikai]

then after lunch, we took the bus, overnight, to this place called ISS. aka, inba seva sangum. i think that's how it's spelt. we lived there for 10 days, and it is here where we did the most labourous, but fun work.

the boys slept in a bunk with tatami mats and the girls slept in rooms with beds. typical

[jackywongto]

by now i think most of you would know who i am, if not, i'm the one in the yellow nike shoes.

easy to recognize lah.... the most "hiao" one in the photo

[yikai]

one of the tasks we had to do was dig trenches in the ground, 10 ft x 3ft x 3ft if i remember correctly. this rectangular trench is to be used to grow mushrooms. a metal grame is then added after completion and then a blue poly cover is placed over. took us 10 days to dig 2 holes manually, with basic tools. the other 8 holes were machine dug.

[benjamintse]

Welcome back!

[yikai]

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.

[yikai]

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

[iskay]

Cream of Mushroom soup. hm...

[yikai]

We help harvest vegetables too.

[yikai]

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

[yikai]

and more fun shots.

[kanegan]

So you know how to grow your own mushrooms now?

[yikai]

We played with kids too.

i like this boy best. he's so cute

[yikai]

So you know how to grow your own mushrooms now?

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.

[yikai]

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.

[yikai]

and spent the free time chasing bugs...

[yikai]

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

[yikai]

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.

[jackywongto]

wow bro..... I think it is time & effort well invested !

such a honorable cause.

more pics of their lifestyle if you have. I wanna show my girl

[yikai]

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.

[yikai]

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.

[yikai]

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

[yikai]

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