OUR SCHEDULE

DAY ONE:

Nakonsithammarat - Kuala Lumpur

DAY TWO:

Kuala Lumpur - Johur Bahru

DAY THREE:

 Johur Bahru - Singapore

DAY FOUR:

 Singapore - Genting Highlands

DAY FIVE:

 Genting Highlands

DAY SIX:

 Genting Highlands - Nakonsithammarat  (and bed)

It was about 1am on Sunday 28^th September that we all began arriving at our school. It was once again time for the annual M3 English study trip to Malaysia and Singapore. By about 2:30 we had all registered and it was just time for us to relax until our coaches turned up at the school gates. We didn’t have to worry because they arrived on time and soon it was time for us to board the coaches and start our trip. Most of us had never been outside of Thailand and for us to be going to 2 different countries and with our friends made us all very exited indeed. We left Kanlayanee and our parents and settled down to what we knew was going to be a long coach ride. We passed familiar landmarks such as the famous Wat Phramahatat, Wattahanon and then most of us dozed off because of the time. Anyway, our coaches were to take us to the southern city of Hatyai where we would change our coaches as we weren’t allowed to take a Thai coach for the full journey.

Soon we heard our teachers on the microphone and they were telling us to wake up as we were approaching the change-over point in Hatyai. Bleary eyed we watched the lights passing by and before long we pulled into the coach change over point. We collected all our bags and transferred them onto the two Malaysian coaches that were to be our transport for the next few days. As we boarded we said hello to our new drivers and our guides and settled into our seats for the long drive down to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. After a short delay we set off.

Our first ‘destination’ was Sadao and the Dan Nok border crossing into Malaysia. We soon arrived at the Thai border checkpoint and we all had to queue up and to get our passports stamped with an ‘exit’ stamp showing that we had left Thailand. Then it was back on the coaches again for the short drive down to the Malaysian checkpoint. Here we had to collect all our bags and carry them through the immigration checkpoint again getting our passports stamped, this time with an ‘entry’ stamp showing us that we were legally allowed into Malaysia. We then put our bags back onto the coach and settled into our seats for the long drive south.

Our first stop in Malaysia (not including a couple of toilet breaks) was a Chinese restaurant in the town of Ipoh. We had already been told that we would be eating a lot of Chinese food so we knew that it would be a Chinese restaurant we would be eating at. Our first impressions were not very good. Anyway, we ate our meals and then boarded the coaches once again to continue our journey down to Kuala Lumpur, another 300+ kilometers away. During the journey our teachers kept us occupied with lots of fun games, quizzes, movies and songs. A few hours later, after passing the green countryside of rural Thailand we knew we were approaching Kuala Lumpur because we could see all the skyscrapers in the distance. Soon we were in the heavy traffic of the city and for the first time, we saw the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in South East Asia. Here we were allowed off the coaches and we were given an hour and a half to explore the shopping malls and buy things if we wanted.

An hour and a half later, we all met up again outside the coaches – some with things they had bought and others, because the shops were expensive with empty hands. We boarded the coaches again and we went to another Chinese restaurant for our dinner. After dinner we got back on the coaches and made the short journey to the Grand Metropolitan Hotel, our home for the night. We took our bags off the coaches and in our groups sat in the hotel’s lobby as our teachers and guides checked us all in and collected our room keys. During this time Ajarn Thomas told us some ‘rules’ about staying in hotels, especially in hotels in foreign countries. We were told that because we are Thai, we have to show a good example to others. After that we were given our keys and in our groups went up to our rooms. Once in our rooms, we showered, wrote our diary for the day as we had to hand them into to Ajarn Geordie at breakfast the following morning. As soon as we had finished the diaries, we slept as it had been a long tiring day for all of us.

The telephones in our rooms rang at 6 in the morning, waking us from our sleep. Anyway, we knew we had a long day ahead so it was a good time for us to be woken. We showered, packed our bags and then went down to the hotel’s restaurant for our breakfasts. We handed our diaries to Ajarn Geordie and filled our plates at the buffet that had been set up for breakfast. When we had finished we walked around for a little while and then loaded our bags onto the coaches. We then boarded the coaches and began our second day exploring Malaysia.

Our first stop was the ‘Times Square’ shopping mall. This mall is 16 floors high and was full of all kinds of different kinds of shops ranging from clothes shops to shoe shops and telephone shops with everything in between. It again was quite expensive for us so most of us only ‘window shopped’. Our time there was soon up and we again got on the coaches to continue our trip. Next stop was the King’s Palace. Here, we were not actually allowed into the grounds but we did see the Royal guards looking very proud sitting on their horses guarding the Royal Palace. We took a few photos and then on our coaches went up to the National Monument. This monument was designed and built in the USA but made to be a monument to celebrate Malaysia’s roles in past wars. Here we spent time reflecting on the reason why it was built and then took a lot of photos so that we could remember our time there.

Soon we got back on the coaches and continued with our journey south stopping off at Putrajaya.  This is a new ultra-modern town costing around US$800Billion to build and it was been built with the future in mind. Unfortunately it was raining quite hard so our time there was not long. It was time to board the coaches again and soon we were back on the motorway heading south towards Johur Bahru, the southerly most city on mainland Malaysia.  The journey is about 300 kilometres and so we knew it would take a few hours to complete. We needn’t have worried as our teachers kept us very busy with all kind of activities during the journey. Before we knew it, the day had turned to night and we had arrived in Johur Bahru. We stopped at a beautiful Chinese restaurant on the sea with the island of Singapore visible only about a kilometer away. We finished our meals then looked around the promenade for a short time before boarding the coaches for the final leg of today’s journey. This trip was to the ‘Suriya City’ hotel, about 15 minutes drive from where we were. We soon arrived there and once again we sat in our groups while the teachers and guides check in and collected the keys to our rooms. We wrote our diaries, showered and because we were tired went to sleep as we knew that the next day was going to be a long long day … Singapore!

DAY THREE 30/9/08

Another early morning! We all showered and went downstairs to eat our breakfasts (not the best breakfast by the way!).  When we had finished eating we put all our bags onto the coach and took our seats for the trip down to Singapore. It was raining and not a nice day at all but still, we were all looking forward to seeing Singapore. We didn’t cross by the Johur Bahru to Woodside causeway because it was too busy so instead we drove to the Jurong crossing on the west side of Singapore and crossed that way instead. Exiting Malaysia was quite easy – we simply showed our passports, had them stamped with an exit stamp and we were on our way. Singapore though was a little different – we had to carry our bags through immigration and wait in line, similar to going through immigration at an airport. Anyway, we all passed through and re-boarded the coach for the drive into Singapore. We drove past all of the factories that are situated on that part of Singapore Island and soon arrived at our first stop, The Singapore Science centre. Here we looked at many very interesting displays some of which were interactive. We all had a good time there.

Our time at the Science Centre was soon over and the next place we went to was a money changer so that we could change our Thai Baht or Malaysian Ringit to Singapore Dollars. Money changed and it was time for lunch so our driver took us to another Chinese restaurant in the UIC Building in downtown Singapore. While we were eating here Ajarn Geordie had to buy something for his friend so he went away in a taxi for about 45 minutes. He arrived back just as we were finishing. When we had finished we knew that we were meant to be going to Sentosa, a fun island that is part of Singapore but the weather was really bad. We drove around having a little tour of the island when after an hour or so the weather changed suddenly and soon the sun was shining once again. It was this weather change that put our plan back on schedule and we headed off towards the cable cars that were going to take us across to Sentosa. Winding our lay through the busy Singapore traffic we soon arrived at the cable car station. Our guides went and collected the tickets for us and before we knew it we were hundreds of feet up in the sky gliding our way across part of the harbour towards Sentosa.  Our cable cars slowed, the doors opened and we got out and were standing on Sentosa. We were all very excited.

Sentosa is a resort island with lots of different attractions on it. The first place we visited was ‘Images of Singapore’ which taught us all about the interesting history of Singapore. We made notes as we knew we would be asked questions about Singapore’s history later. We spent about an hour there before we all went onto the ‘luge’, sort of like sledging on roads. We all thought this was great fun and wanted to go again but we couldn’t. Anyway, there were so many other places to go so we moved on. We went on the ‘Sky Tower’ which was a brilliant way to see the city and all of the ships anchored out to sea. Singapore is one of the busiest ports in the world. After the ‘Sky Tower’ we went to the butterfly farm and as the day came to a close we went to see the show ‘Songs of the Sea’, which was very interesting to watch with its lightshows and laser show. Unfortunately it started to rain during the show but we stayed on until the end. We didn’t get too wet! When the show finished we made our way back to the coaches and our final stop of the day, our hotel for the night, the ‘Grand Central’ in the middle of the city. We arrived there quite late so all we could do was to register and go up to our rooms. We showered, wrote our daily diaries and as we were tired after the day’s activities we slept straight away.

DAY FOUR 1/10/08

SINGAPORE - GENTING

Another early morning and we were up. The first thing we did was to shower and get ready for the day. We went downstairs for breakfast and handed in our diaries for marking. We then put our bags onto the coaches and took our seats. This morning we went to the Singapore Flyer’. The Singapore Flyer is a giant Ferris wheel in which we sat in ‘capsules’ and traveled around the wheel. The whole journey took 30 minutes and when we were at the top we could see for miles in every direction. We could even see parts of Indonesia. I think everybody enjoyed that very much. After the Singapore Flyer we went to Little India and a shop called Mustafa’s. This shop is open 24 hours a day and sells everything you could think of. It was quite expensive but a few of us did buy some souveniers of our time in Singapore. We spent about an hour looking around Mustafa’s before heading back to the coaches to continue with our journey. Once we were all back on the coaches we set off for the border and Malaysia. After 45 minutes or so we arrived at the border and had our passports stamped with an exit stamp from Singapore. A short drive across the bridge and we arrived at the Malaysian immigration check point. We showed our passports and were stamped with an entry stamp into Malaysia.

We continued on our way up the highway and an hour so later we turned off and stopped at yet another Chinese Restaurant for our lunch. This lunch was quite nice and when we finished we quickly boarded our coaches again for the drive up to Genting, an hour and half north of Kuala Lumpur. On the coach we sang some songs and did a few activities but because it was a long journey we were also allowed to sleep for a little. A few hours later we could see the skyline of Kuala Lumpur so we knew we didn’t have that far to go. Soon Kuala Lumpur was behind us and we began climbing up into the hills of central Malaysia. By this time it was getting dark but we could see lots of light and then we knew Genting wasn’t too far away. The resort of Genting is built at the top of a mountain and there is a road up but the quickest and safest way to the top is by using the cable car, the fastest and longest (3.4km)in South East Asia.  We all took the cable car and after a time were all sitting in our groups at the top. It took a while so we went to the restaurant first while our guides registered us into the Theme Park Hotel. When we had finished our meals we headed to our rooms to write out our diaries and we wanted a good night’s sleep as we knew we’d be busy having a good time tomorrow in the theme park.

DAY FIVE 2/10/08

GENTING

Because Genting is at a height of 2,000 metres above sea level it is a lot colder than what we are used to. It was because of this (and the theme park) that we were all awake early. We got up and walked to the main restaurant to hand in our diaries and have our breakfasts. After breakfast we went back to our rooms for half an hour before meeting up again ready for our day in the theme park. We were all given paper ‘bracelets’ and these allowed us to go on nearly all of the rides in the park. The ‘Space Shot’ was popular and the roller coaster too. All of the rides were good fun and we really enjoyed the day. In the evening we went to the indoor theme park and continued having fun. After a long but fun filled day we made our way back to the hotel so that we could write our diaries, shower and sleep for the last time this camp as the following day we were heading back to Nakhonsithammarat.

DAY SIX 3/10/08

HOMEWARD BOUND

Our alarms went off at 5am and we all showered and packed and got ready for our 6am breakfast. It was early and a little cold and we knew that today was the last day of camp. We would see our families soon but our time with our friends was coming to an end. There were mixed feelings. Anyway, after breakfast we all made our way to the Genting Skyway to take the cable car back down the hill to our waiting coach. Soon we were on the cable cars heading down to where the coach was. It was amazing because you could actually feel the temperature rising as we descended into the valley. We collected our bags and put them onto the coach and prepared for our journey north through Malaysia and back to Thailand.

Our coach set off and we watched the scenery go past as our road twisted its way through the Malaysian countryside. Before long we were back on the highway heading north towards the Thai border. There was one thing still to do in Malaysia and that was to stop for lunch. We were all very happy when our coach turned into a restaurant in Butterworth and it was a Thai restaurant! We all ate our food and it was really nice – better than Chinese food for sure. After lunch we boarded the coaches again for the journey back home. At around 2:30 we arrived at the border post and we all went through both border controls with no problems at all. An hour later we were in Hatyai and changed from our Malaysian coaches to Thai coaches as they were taking us on the last leg back to Nakhonsithammarat. We arrived back at the gates of Kanlayanee at just after 8:30pm where our parents and families were waiting to meet us.

Thank you Kanlayanee English Program for a great trip!

 Photo Album  HERE

© The English Program, Kanlayaneesithammarat School. 2010

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