The last few days of the trip we went to Farm ChokChai. Farm ChokChai is a dairy and Beef farm and we were promised steak so naturally we could not wait!

When we got there we had breakfast and all had lots and lots of coffee, after that some of the people went frolicking in the soft green grass fields. They were running around, doing handstands, running through the sprayers, playing on metal horses and just having a blast. We went on a farm tour and saw the working of the farm, we were all pretty bored because it was all in Thai so we just looked around and made jokes while the tour was going on. We got to milk cows, watch a pet show, feed the animals in the petting zoo, watching a video on artificial insemination, watching demonstrations on being a cowboy, seeing the farm, and making our own ice-cream!!

When we got to our tents we were all so surprised to see how amazing the tents where, we had really nice beds, air-conditioning, a little fridge, a rape whistle and drinks just everything you would get in a hotel in a tent . When we saw the bathrooms we were all very surprised once again to see that there is no back wall to the toilets or the showers, you have a tiny little glass panel on the floor to keep things out and water in and your just pretty much in the plants… let’s just say taking a shower is very odd.

We got the rest of the day off just to spend some time together and have fun. At dinner we got our steak’s (some people got 2)! After our steak we got fruit and I really have no idea how the fruit fight started but it did, we had the fighters and the ammo collectors. The ammo collectors take the watermelon and take all of the seeds out of the watermelon and give it to the fighters, the fighters then put the seeds into straws and shoot each other with it. It’s such a stupid little fight but you have no idea how much fun that was to all of us, we laughed so much it made us cry. After that we all retreated to different rooms and just enjoyed our last night together.  Me and 4 of the other exchange students went to Brandon’s room and watched some of the videos he had made over the trip and just relived some of our best moments and to me that was the best last night ever.

On our last day we went to the gift shop and then we got into the vans and drove to the train station. We had 2 hours at the train station before we had to get onto the train so some of us decided to go to KFC… I found out that even the plain KFC burns! When we got onto the train me and 5 others sat at the very back of the train because we only had a 2 hour ride and the others had a 14 hour drive. After some time at the back we decided we needed to explore and found out that you can just walk out to the back of the train and stand in the wind, if you bend over to much you can just fall off its that easy. After risking our lives we walked 25 cars forward to the other exchange students and spend the last hour with them.

And that was the end of the trip, I went home and unpacked. Back to normal life. But it was an AMAZING trip and I have the greatest memories and friends for life !!

Step 10

The Pukradueng adventure

Day 7

We woke up very early (and I had a freezing shower because there was no hot water !!) to go on our mountain climbing adventure up Pukradueng mountain. It was freezing cold when we made our way to the mountain ( 7°C) and we all stopped to buy hats and gloves, this is also where the strawberry hats where bought by the boys ! Then we gave our bigger bags to people to carry up for us. This is one of the most amazing and awful things I have ever seen, you pay 30 Baht (just under R10) per kilogram then they carry your bags up for you. They have very thick bamboo stick with the bags tied to the ends of the stick and a sponge taped around the middle to soften the weight on your shoulders. The men carry up to 70kg and the woman carry up to 50kg on each trip and they sometimes do 3 trips a day!! Then the walk started, the mountain is 1,288 km high but it’s a brutal and torturous 5km hike to the top. We spilt into 3 groups of climbers. Group 1 : who practically ran up the mountain, group 2: (my group) who took their  time getting up the mountain and group 3: who really took their time getting to the top. The 1^st group took a little under 3 hours to get to the top, we took just under 4 hours and the last group took just over 5 hours. All and all everybody just about died on the way to the top and we all had light backpacks. The whole way up my thoughts where stuck on the men and woman who had to carry our bags up this mountain to make a living. The trip to the top is something I will never ever forget! We had so much fun making videos, taking pictures with our flags, renaming the mountain Puke-a-dune, getting through cramps and Beto’s crazy running!! When we got to the top we got to relax and play card games while we wait for the rest of the people. Then it was a further 3 km walk to the camp, so a 8 km walk on our first day! When we got to the camp and sat down for dinner we all realised how cold it was on top of the mountain! The nights went down to 1°C and we all laughed when a girl talked to her parents in Finland and in that moment it was colder in THAILAND then it was FINLAND ! We then found out that after a 8 km walk and super cold weather there was no hotter water to shower with, we all decided that we just needed to be brave and just do it, we regretted the very moment we got under that water. We slept 9 in small rooms with mattresses on the floor, we slept in multiple pairs of clothing and hats and gloves and cuddled up for heat as we only had 1 thin blanket each.

Day 8

We got up at 6 and went to breakfast (with very painful bodies) and then we started our hike of one side of the mountaintop. We went to all the small waterfalls and rivers and took some amazing pictures! Then we came to an area where there was a pile of rocks with names and counties on them. We were then told that each year the exchange students have to go looking for rocks and then write their names and home countries on them and add them to the pile. I and Frederik then went looking for our rocks and he picked 1 up and found 2 smallish scorpions and a funny looking creature, I stepped back like a normal person but he decided it would be fun to irritate them and see what happens, we quickly attracted other exchange student’s attention. After a while everybody found their rocks and we made our pile and carried on with our walk. All and all we had a 14 km walk on our second day. After our walk we had free time to walk around and see the tiny stores on the mountain. At dinner we made balloons with our countries  flags on them and a message in your 1^st language. This is also when the famous Strawberry attacks started, the boys who bought strawberry hats would put them on and wait for the other to fall asleep and then jump on them and hit them with pillows screaming STRAWBERRY ATTACK !!

Day 9

We woke up at 4 am to walk 3 km to a cliff to see the sunrise, the belief is that if you watch the sunrise on the 30^th or 31^st of December you will have good luck for the next year. When we got there we found a place to sit between the hordes of people and had hot chocolate to help with the freezing weather. Then certain people fell asleep again while we waited for 2 hours to see the sun rise. After that we had a 3km walk back to the camp to have breakfast. Then the real day started! We all got bicycles to see the other half of the mountain top. We bicycled around to see many different cliff and had to wait at every 2^nd cliff for everybody to be together again, at one of the cliffs we had the wait very long for all the people and we fell asleep on the cliff just to all wake up with sunburnt faces!! We saw 6 cliffs and a lake and we really had fun on the 22 km bicycle ride! When we got back to the camp everybody was pretty much dead because of the last few days and we all had a relaxed dinner and a last ice cold shower

Day 10

We woke up at 5:30 to make our way down the mountain and we were told we had to be down the mountain by 15:00 otherwise we would not be in time to attend the New Year celebrations, we all laughed and thought it would never take us that long to get down the mountain. We were about 40 min into the walk when we figured out how hard it is to get down this steep mountain with narrow paths, people going both ways, painful bodies, knees that are killing u because of how steep it is and utter exhaustion of the past few days. The way down was not nearly as fun, everybody hardly talked and we just wanted to get off this damn mountain!! But no matter what Noemie, me and Frederik made the best of the walk and almost died laughing at jokes we were telling and we got happier the closer we got to the bottom.  We all got the bottom by 13:00 but our bags only arrived at 15:00. Then we left and made our way to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel at 21:00 after a good few hours of sleep in the Vans. We had dinner and then we were off to the new Year celebrations and we were told to be back at the Vans at 1 am. We found a place with lots of people and great music and danced for 2 hours; we had so much fun, laughed and just enjoyed night to the full! When we got to the hotel they told us we could stay up as late as we wanted as long as we kept it quite and woke up on time the next morning! In typical style we went to bed at 4 and ha to wake up at 7… it was very much worth it

Day 3

We went to Angkor Watt also known as “the 10 million temples” luckily for us we only saw 4 of the 10 million. Angkor watt is a Buddhist temple that started out being a Hindu temple and now has characteristics of both religions but all and all it is the largest religious monument in the world and a world heritage site. When we got there we walked across the man-made moat that is so huge that it’s hard to believe that it could have been done by hand but the big rocks still have the holes in them where they put bars in to carry it on their shoulders. Once we got into the first temple you could really see just how old everything is and the immense detail in everything took my breath away I still can’t believe it was all done by hand. We walked to the main temple and the pictures started! When we got to the middle of the temple and there where stairs to climb!! The steepest stairs a have ever seen and all of us held our breath while climbing them… I could see the original stairs through the new ones and I am amazed that people could actually climb them and I’m very happy I did not need to!! When we got to the top we had the most amazing view of the temple around us, in reality the temple is crumbling slowly and it made me sad to think of all the people who died building the temple and now it is falling apart, and even though it is falling apart it still had an unexplainable beauty.

When then went to the rest of the temples and each one had its own atmosphere if that makes sense? We started wearing our country’s flags on our backs and it’s amazing how much attention we attracted wearing them  and it seemed to lift all of our sprits a little bit in a weird way. We saw a temple that had a 16 meter wall with carvings on it that told a story. How people worked, celebrated, built everything was right there engraved in the walls of the buildings and that amazed me. We went into a little room where you stand against one specific wall and hit your chest then it echoes through the whole room, it was amazing.  We walked and walked and looked at these buildings that had been there for hundreds and hundreds of years and everything was so peaceful until one of us found something funny…we went to the temple where tomb raiders was filmed witch was amazing but we all expected a signed Angelina Jolie rock or something, there wasn’t one BTW… its amazing to me how we could find something to amuse us no matter where we went.

After seeing 4 temples we were pretty templed out and wanted to go home. When we got onto the bus they told us they would drop us off at the night market and we had to be back at the hotel in a couple of hours. Then everybody went their own ways and I and my friend Taylor went shopping for Christmas presents. We ended up walking around trying to get the best deals we could and fighting off all the people wanting us to buy random clothes, bags and tuck tuck rides… I then bought a shirt that says:” no money, no messages, no tuck tucks”. And then we went to a shop that had that little fish who at the dead skin off your feet and we decided to try it, let’s just say we had 20 min of giggling and pulling our feet out of the water every 5 sec… But we had fun.

We met up with some of the other exchange students on our way back to the hotel and I had a quick Thai lesson from Brandon who is AMAZING in Thai and believe me all the little Thai lessons throughout the trip helped so so much. When we got to the hotel we all met up because it was Christmas Eve and we had a secret Santa. So all the exchange students gave gifts and then Becca and Mirri had letters to all the exchange students and Brandon and Noemi had made us all t-shirts with the Thai flag and our Thai names on it. One boy got a cake for Christmas and he decided to stand up and go around the room feeding it to everybody in HUGE bites! At the end the cake got shoved in his face and the cake fight started. I was sad when the gift exchange started but about half way through I realised how much love was in that room and how much everybody really cared for each other. The sadness was gone. We all stayed up to midnight to say merry Christmas to each other and then started packing and went to bed (after playing with the free between room calls that is).

Day 4.

We got up and got into the bus for a 9 hour drive to Laos. We went from Cambodia to Thailand and Thailand to Laos. When we got to the Thai-Cambodian border most people laughed because all it was was a chain over the road with a little house on the side of the road where they took forever to check your passport. It made me think of Africa: D. we had fun taking pictures of standing with one leg in Thailand and one leg in Cambodia. We got into a party bus when we crossed the border and let me tell you the boys had a lot of fun playing with the microphone … this is where the America Vs. Europe fights started.. When we got to the Thai-Laos Boarder it became apparent how much corruption there is in these countries because they kept some exchange students back because it did not look like their race matched the country their passport said they came from and demanded a bribe to get them over the border. After our travel person mad a long talk with them they just let them through and we went on without trip. We had a party in the bus on our way to the hotel and it was so much fun… when we got to the hotel we had dinner and then we got to walk around in the city close to the Hotel and we made the best of that. A pretty uneventful Christmas but it was filled with jokes and great people so I loved it.

Day 5

We went to see some Waterfalls in Laos. The first waterfall we went to ha blue blue blue water and it was so beautiful, not big or impressive but to peaceful and beautiful. There was a wooden bridge over the water to get the other side and a paper that said 10 people crossing at a time it’s no surprise all of us kind of went at the same time… well we are still alive !! The second waterfall was so so so so so big!! Its two waterfalls next to each other and the locals call it the crying mountain. They said it was 120m high but I don’t believe them because from where we where I could not even see the whole thing so I think it was much bigger!! We swam in the 3de waterfall and froze half to death but we had so much fun. We then drove to the place where we slept. It’s a cute little guest house thing in the hills and we all stayed 2 2 in rooms but somehow all ended up in Brandon’s room sitting around making jokes playing music and talking. A group of people that really don’t know each other that well but all send time with each other so effortlessly.

Day 6 we woke up and went across the border again back to Thailand. We were all very sad that we did not get to see that much of Laos but we had a great time anyway. We then divided into 3 mini vans and spent the whole entire day in the vans. I had a great group of people in my van and did not mind spending the whole day in the van, we talked and joked and laughed, I found a love for Danish music and we watched a lot of harry potter. We got the houses we would stay in had dinner and went to sleep because the nest day the Phukandung adventure started 

So I just got back from my very first Rotary trip and I am going to try and find words to tell everybody how amazing it was! In this post I will tell about meeting everybody and the first days in Cambodia

The trip started on the 21^st of December 2013 when I woke up at 5:30 to catch the train at 7:10 only to figure out the train works on Thai time and it would only show up at 10:40. When I showed up at the train station I saw a blond boy (a rare sight believe me) and I knew there were other exchange students coming but I just ignored him because I thought he was too old to be an exchange student … oops…. When I found the people I did know he came to and I felt like a moron. All of them already knew each other because they were all together on the 1^st trip that I missed because I needed to finish my school year so I took the time to get to know  Momo (Taiwan) I had already met her at a Rotary event so I could sit with her and not feel like I knew nobody, Emily (USA) she is a very soft quiet person who seems to always smile,  David(Slovakia) I discovered he is one of the craziest people I have ever met but her is funny and helpful to go with that, Feo(Finland) you can always talk to her she is an amazing friend , Frederik(Denmark) he is funny and caring and a bad ass who helps girls get down the hill safely when the other boys just walk past.

Then the train came and I met more of the students who had already been on the train for about  12 hours, Brandon F (USA) Brandon has a personality that can light up a room when he walks in he is the best, Brandon lee B (USA) he is quiet and in his own world be great when he wants to be,  Taylor (USA)she is funny and caring and always there when you need her, Etienne ( Belgium) he is one of the most intelligent people I have ever met and can make u smile very easily  , Claire (USA) she seems to know something about the world that no one else knows she seems so wise she is the animal whisperer and photographer , Sille (Denmark) she seems quiet but one you get to know her she is just as out of her mind as everyone else, Humberto (Brazil) berto is never ever seen without a smile except when he is acting like a zombie! He is amazing , Noemie (Belgium) noemie can make me laugh by just saying hello she is truly caring and funny and made my day almost every day, Isabel ( Mexico) she is beautiful and quiet and always having fun, Sammy(Taiwan) he is so cute out of everybody Sammy can speak the least English but he is so willing to listen when you speak and try and talk and kick ur bum in any game on earth, Rena (Japan) she has the best smile in this world ! she doesn’t say much but she is always looking flawless and smiling, Leah (Canada) she is in the own world and she doesn’t say much but she has this aura about her that she will always be there to help even if she doesn’t know you very well and Francois (Spain) fran is out of his A-mind he makes everybody laugh with his crazy stupid ways. Two hours later we had our last arrivals Ryan (USA) Ryan is always where the party is but he’s always in the deep conversations to, Miri (Mexico) he is the youngest of all of us and just a tiny bottle of bubbles and joy and love, Becca (USA) she cares and loves and takes care of everyone even when they don’t notice.  So the bus ride started from Bangkok to a Hotel 15 min away from the Cambodian Border. When we got there we unpacked and then the students had a test about what they had learnt in the 4 months everyone had been here already. Pretty uneventful day except for meeting all the other students and having my orientation.

The next day we had breakfast and a lecture about how you need to keep your backpack in front of you and not on your back, how if they rob you should not fight back but just let them go or they will shoot you, how we should always stay in groups and keep an eye on everyone else’s stuff and all I could think about was “jip back to Africa we go”. We got to the boarder and sat around while some people’s visa’s got sorted out. Then we passed the boarder and some big boys from Europe seemed a bit nervous about all the things we were told that morning. We got on a bus and found out our tour guide spoke in mono tones and said “uummm yes” more than he should.

We made it to a very very big lake and got onto a boat. Then we started seeing the way people live and it broke my heart, they live on boats with a deck on them. Some people have a little floating house no bigger than most living rooms. Or guide explained that they could live of 1000 baht (R350) for almost 3 months. Then people started coming up to our boat on their little boats trying to beg for money by having little children with them holding snakes to try and impress you I felt like crying because of the danger those little tiny kids where put in so the parents could try and get money. Other kids would jump on the boat and give you a shoulder message until you gave them money then they would move on to the next person. Other kids jumped on the boat and tried to sell us water. Our guide told us not to feel sorry for them because they are happy where they are but I did not believe him they must want more from life..  That was one of the biggest culture shocks of the whole trip. After that we went to a temple where our tour guide told us about The Killing Fields a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War (1970–1975).

Analysis of 20,000 mass grave sites by the DC-Cam Mapping Program and Yale University indicate at least 1,386,734 victims of execution. Estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a 1975 population of roughly 8 million. In 1979, communist Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime. We saw a whole room full of human bones and saw so many pictures of how badly the people where tortured and I could not believe I had never heard about this or learnt about it in school. A very sad thing to learn.

We then went to the market to raise our spirits and we all got taught how to haggle with the shop owners. This is how it works: you ask the price, then you offer to pay half price and then work your way up to where you are both happy. We all got the hang of it and then the spending started. After that we went to dinner and then the hotel.  Best hotel ever!! We had so much fun in that hotel.

There is way too much to tell in one post so I will tell each day in a new post *