LADAKH TRIP Day 3, Day 4 & Day 5

Hello people!

It's been quite a while since our last update, of which lots of things actually happened.

It begun with a completely empty wall, with patches of peeling paint, and a larger-than-expected expanse of wall to cover. Our logistics were quite limited as well, as we lacked brushes and constantly had problems with our paint supply.

 You can now see the progress of our beautiful mural for the kindergarten children!

 Painting the base coat on the mural outside

 

Painting the mural inside the kindergarten block

The Final Product of Our Hardwork!

Inside:

 Outside:

 

 Hand-painting with children on mural outside

We also interacted with the Ladakhi students, clearly seeing the effects of globalisation; as most of them were avid fans of pop contemporaries such as Justin Bieber.

The Ladakhi students even challenged our ODAC guys to a game of soccer, something that they were only too glad to oblige, even through the blistering cold wind and the plaguing exhaustion from the drastic change in altitude. Although they had to brave the elements, including the sandy ground and the homeground advantage by the Ladakhi students; our ODAC guys managed to emerge victorious. Whether it was because of pure skill or sympathy on the opponent's part has yet to be determined.

We emerged VICTORIOUS! 5-3 :D

According to some of our members, "THE WORLD'S A SOCCER FIELD, THE MEN ARE MERELY PLAYERS WHILST THE WOMEN ARE ALL THE SPECTATORS." (we think it might be Clara, but she claims it was a collective decision)

We also taught them part of our mass dance, our VJC cheer; and in return they shared their traditional Ladakhi dance and helped us with our basic Ladakhi.


TO most of our ODAcers, the highlight of the entire hotel stay was the dinner of which mutton curry was served. A relatively normal dish in Singapore, it was particularly special because of the lack of meat in our diet for the past few days; of which led to cravings on our part for something more savoury. It was so bad one of our ODACers was even eyeing domestic animals in an especially suspicious manner. The meat was indeed a treat for all of us, leaving us immensely greatful; especially since the cooks were vegetarians themselves. SOmething that really taught us to appreciate the hospitability of the hostel staff.

Meat Meat Meat!

 On the fifth day, we were also given the opportunity to carry out group reflections. Most of us took the chance to share how the entire journey impacted us, whether it was the people, the facilities or the weather conditions. All of us brought up issues we felt touched us most dearly, with a particularly memorable quote by Leroy; "CHOICE IS A PRIVILEGE MOST TAKEN FOR GRANTED.", in reference to the luxury we had back at home. It was an intensely personal and meaningful session as all of us learnt something new about each other and about ourselves.

Till next time!

LADAKH TRIP Day 0, Day 1 & Day 2

HEY GUYS!
It seems so strange, but we're finally here; updating from LEH, LADAKH! Let us rewind back to DAY 0 when we first begun our journey. :)

 We gathered at the airport and settled our group logistics on the 14th of November, all excited and reared up to go! Concerned parents flocked the airport, a stark contrast to our overwhelming enthusiasm. All decked out in our YEP shirt, we must have looked like a strange bunch to passersby, especially with our seniors gathering around us to send us off along with a random assortment of other people who were saying their goodbyes.

Our picture with the banner at Changi Airport! :)

 

Boarding the plane

 

On the way to Delhi

It felt very surreal being in Delhi, especially because it was so early in the morning and all of us were so lethargic such that we just slumped over random tables. We even had MACDONALDS and VEGETARIAN fries along with Subway, international food chains despite the fact that we were hundreds of kilometres away. Additionally, we still managed to relay ghost stories with our eyes half-closed.

 

Bunch of tired ODAcers

 For our trip towards Leh, we fought over window seats as we all wanted the opportunity to take photos of the beautiful scenery.

 

Snow mountains you would never find in Singapore!!!

We tried spotting snow leopards from the plane. Unfortunately, due to visual limitations, all we managed to see was more snow. :(

 

About to land in Leh

 When we arrived in the airport, we were all shocked to feel the drastic drop in temperature from the airplane to the airport. According to the announcements made by the pilot, the temperature was at -8 degrees celsius. The airport was a vastly different one from what we are used to, considering that it was made partially out of wood, and surrounded by Ladakhi military. There was also only ONE conveyor belt for baggage collection point. We divided into our workgroups and were transported by vehicles to the Oriental Guesthouse. :)

The journey there was indeed a scenic one as the entire town was made out of brick and covered with a layer of dust, with magnificent mountains as its backdrop. We even managed to spot a random cow or two on our trip there.

 We were initiated into our guesthouse through cups of the most unique tasting butter tea and freshly homemade biscuts; as we huddled, bundled with our winterwear into the kitchen.

 

All of us in the eating area

 Having taken refreshments, we were briefed by Miss Ng and were told of the arduous trip of carrying our 15-22kg bag up the stairs. Most of us were amazed to find out that even climbing up a single flight of stairs left us short of breath and panting. All of us were so exhausted it was all we could do to turn our keys into our locks and collapse onto our beds. WHY? The extreme change in altitude.

 

Us gasping whilst climbing up the stairs

It was really worth it as the room was beautiful, facing a scenic view.

 

Our comfy bedroom

 We also found a mascot, Baby of ODAC of whom we christened BODAC due to all the girls' obsession with said child, who was incredibly adorable. His actual name is Lakesdon but BODAC seemed to stick better so it remained our name for him, unfortunately for the poor boy.

BODAC National Geographic shot!

 Once we reached, we were briefed on taking care of ourselves considering the imminent threat of altitude sickness. After giving us sufficient rest time, the teachers gathered us for a group activity of which involved group dynamics and the application of the 11Cs. We were made to do a skit to emulate a particular scenario such that we knew what to do in different situations. (individual to individual, individual to group and group to individual) Later on, we wrote down what we expected in each particular group and signed it, acknowledging and accepting our goals set for each other such that it formed the framework of our entire stay in Ladakh.:)

 

Our skit!

 

Mr. Seet's group dynamics activity

 

Dinner at the gathering area

After dinner, we did our reflections and had a good night's rest in preparation for the next day.

Day 2

 The next day, some of us woke up early to watch the sunrise, but unfortunately managed to only the rays of sun creeping across the sky without seeing the actual process. Nonetheless, we managed to take quite a few beautiful pictures of the sky, something we Singaporeans usually take for granted, considering how OUR sky is congested by high towers.

 

The pretty sky

We all bundled up, all ready to go to to Lamdon School!

 

Picture perfect :)

 We were really excited to see all the little kids running around, all of whom were extremely friendly, even shaking all of our hands as they passed by with a warm JULLEY! All of them were wearing red beanies and red jackets, somewhat similar that of our VJC blazers. As they gathered for their morning assembly, we watched them from afar and took tonnes of photos as they passionately sang a five-minute religious song, performed morning exercises and listened attentively to announcements, speeches and an interesting short skit performed by some of the students. It was supposed to an EXTRASPECIAL!day because it was Children's Day!

 

Morning exercise

We were made part of the assembly as well, as the principal Mr. Tundup invited Miss Ng to make a speech and presented us a silk scarf, with eight symbols; something unique to Ladakhi culture.

 

Miss Ng's speech

 We reached the kindergarten, our mural site later on; as we scouted the area, playing with the young children there and taking lots of photos with them, making even some of them late for class in the process. They were really friendly, as hardly any of them were shy; all ready for a amiable hello and a enthusiastic JULLEY!

 

Us with the kiddies!

After our little expedition to the kindergarten, we joined the group of Ladakhi students who were watching all the ongoing games in the middle of a basketball court. They played many games as all of them cheered for each other, displaying a very united spirit. :) We were even invited for most of the games, including the tug-of-war.

 

Their team!

 

Our team!

 Our girls even played musical chairs, with Desiree as the runner-up; losing only to one of Lamdon's female school teachers. :)

 We left early, as we were invited to Gangba Guest House by Tashi of whom kindly asked us to tea. We had tea and biscuits, along with an interesting discussion with Tashi of whom shared with us part of Ladakhi culture. We learned about their way of life, their food and their occupation over tea as we basked in the warmth of the radiator.

  

Tea in Gangba Guest House

  

Group photo!

And here's the end of day 2!

In just ONE camera, we managed to take an astounding number of 1286 pictures, merely in 48 hours. (PS: we have almost 23 cameras!)

ODAC cooks up a storm!

On 9 Nov, a group of our ODAC Instructors went down to Mark's place to try out the cooking of local food for the Ladakhis. We met up after some of our Oral Presentations to try our hands at cooking 4 local traditional delights - Nasi Lemak, Roti Prata, Laksa and Pulut Hitam. Yum!

Walking with our ingredients to proceed to Mark's place!

Is Clara actually flipping that prata? :O

 Finger-lickin' good :D

 Testing out the delicious food.

Xin Ru cooks the noodles for the laksa!

Roti Prata

Pulut Hitam

Nasi Lemak

Laksa

Of course, there will be no complete gathering without group photos!

Cleaning up after eating the food.

Having a break with frozen yoghurt at Frolick after a long, hot, but yet enjoyable day cooking in the kitchen (:

Looking at all the pictures from that day, isn't it making you hungry? We hope that the locals will get to try and enjoy our local food! A lot of us are still wondering how we will survive the change in diet there (most Ladakhis are vegetarian), as many of us love our meat. I guess we'll all have to wait and see what Ladakh really has in store for us, and be open to all the new perspectives and changes. 

After that day, we spent one of our evenings shopping for the necessary amount of ingredients to bring over to Ladakh to cook up these 4 dishes for the locals. At the same time, we all also bought our personal happy food to keep us company on cold, lonely nights and long, but definitely beautiful treks.

Ladakh is happening in less than 3 days!