Hope in a Bottle- BRANDS

Went to Thailand as a student volunteer last month for a charity program by Brands. "Hope in a Bottle" was indeed challenging, but yet super fun!!! =)

1. The accomodation

One of my favorite things about the trip was the hotel we were hosted in. The room was great, sharing it with another friend of mine, Xin Hui, we had the whole place to ourselves. The place was huge, and the place was pretty as all the walls in the hotel were decorated with pretty paintings. We even "complained" that the bed was too big for us we dint bump into each other at all. The staff were very friendly too.

Our BIG BIG Bed

Living Room

Pretty LiftThe room was so nice, that we couldnt help but take crazy lots of camwhore pictures on timer. =P

2. The Program

Basically, the Hope in the Bottle program aims to build 4 new houses for several families in Thailand, so off we went during the day to help build houses. It was a really eye-opening and fruitful adventure.
The building process involves;

a) Mixing the cement- Now i know what you need to mix cement, cement powder, water, sand,and pebbles!

b) Carrying the liquid cement, forming a human chain to pass it along to be poured on the base-
Sounds easy but the cement damn heavy okay.

c) Laying Brands bottles on the ground- This process has been researched to save the cement up to about 25%

d) Did a liltle bit of painting too. =)

After two days of building, I will never look at cement the same way again. It wasnt a super hard job, but I never imagine it to be that tough. Thank god for machines, really. But glad to have experienced it anyway.

One thing impresses me a lot was how the organizer thought of everything, and when i say everything, i mean everything. Imagine building at a site, hot weather, in a village, what do you need?

Packed sushi lunch- checkedMobile Toilets- CheckedWhole tub of ice drinks and even chilled handkerchieves! - Checked

Rest place, with snacks and fruits- checked

Gloves, caps, hand socks for UV rays protection- checked

3. The company

Spent most of my time with roommate/ collegemate/ Malaysian-mate, introducing Xin Hui!!

Shes good company especially if you like camwhoring and shopping! =)- Problem with her was she just so super super tall, and i m like super short, so every picture with her makes me look like a dwarf. =(
Funny though a few asked if we are sibblings, we look nothing alike, and DNA must have gone wrong somewhere, she got all the tall genes. Anyways if we are, then who's the younger one??(she is)

From right, Xin Hui, Thai Ronald MC Donald and dwarf. =(

Besides, met people from different countries too!!! Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong!. They were all super friendly and impressive too! Although at times I might be rather lost among them due to my "good" mandarin skills, it was great getting to know them, comparing cultures of the different countries.

From right, me and xin hui from Malaysia, Charmian and Jackson from Singapore, Alistor and Pei-Chi from Taiwan, Alvin and Alan from Hong Kong and our very berry cool staff from Malaysia/ our "babysitter", Corrine.

4. Thailand

Thailand was just super awesome. Shopping and food in Thailand is just heaven!

Need I say MORE?

And I shall end the post with a picture of,

ELMO AND COOKIE MONSTER. =)