DAY
ONE
28/9/08
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
It was
about 1am on Sunday 28th 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.
DAY TWO
28/9/08
OUR
TRIP CONTINUES
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
SINGAPORE
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!
