The Stories of Mae Kok

A Visit to Mae Kok

On Wednesday morning, every NIS student of grade 6 and 7 was excited--we were going to Mae Kok!

We waited anxiously for the buses. Half an hour was like one hour. I was so impatient--when can we start off? Finally, they reached. Everybody got on the buses rapidly. None of us could wait any longer.

After four hours of riding, I saw the houses of Mae Kok. "Yay!" I whispered to myself, "It looks great!"                                                                              

Mae Kok is close to Bangkok. It is a place where teenagers can improve their survival skills and awareness of teamworks by completing teamwork activities. We did a lot of challenges in Mae Kok, and there was many stories, too.

Kayaking

Kayaking is really hard. The two people on a boat need to work together in a same rhythm. If you make a mistake, your boat will go to a wrong direction.                               

My partner was Justin. We had five girls and elven boys, so one group must have one girl and one boy. Unlucky, I was in that group. During the practice, everyone was asked to fall into the pond. Even though it could teach us how to survive when your boat flip, I still felt frightened, because I couldn't see anything in the water. I was so tired when I flipped the boat back, and climbed onto it. I thought that I used up my energy in the water. But I couldn't stop until the coach called us.                   

We went to the Mekong River when all groups finished the practice. On the riparian, I saw many boats waiting for us. I lifted up one a kayak and carried it to the river with Justin. It was so heavy.                                                                                                     

We left the riverside. Felling expectancy instead of being scared. I looked forward, and I saw a long, wide river which had mud colored water. It looked so warm, I thought, so I touched the water by my finger. I bet it was the biggest mistake that I made in Mae Kok. 

The water was ice cold. I withdraw my hand as soon as possible, but it made me freeze already. When I recover my feelings of my hand, I was ready for to start.                            

"Right, left. Right, left……" As we chanted, the boat was going forward. I saw majestic mountains, the sandy cliff and many tall, green trees. They were so beautiful. And I also saw some tree stumps in the river.                                 

Sometimes our boat stranded, so Justin and I went into the water, pushed it our boat forward, until it flowed with water again. And sometimes, Justin shouted "Right! Right! " or "Left! Left! " while the boat nearly crashed to the bank. However, it didn't hit the riparian.                                                                      

Finally, we reached the beach where two buses were waiting for us. I thought that I can have a rest, but the coach said: "Go to carried the boat onto the steps." "Oh, no!" I groaned, because the boat was too heavy. Even though I was really tired, I still lifted up the boat with other three students, till we arrived at the top of the steps.

Night Game

In fact, I would like to join the climbing team first. But Candy wanted to play the night game, so we changed our idea. I think that night game is more fun than climbing. We played "Everybody It", "Star Jump" and so on. Those games are all very interesting. For example, "Everybody It" means everyone is the attacker, but everyone are also the prey. You need to be careful, or you will be attacked.                                                                    

And in "Star Jump", we stood in a circle. Then, we started to jog. When the teacher  shouted a number, such as "Six!", we ran into the line of the circle, and then found five partners to make a group of six people. If anyone isn't in a group, he or she needed to do a "star jump".

This is a star jump.

Thai Cooking

In the Thai Cooking class, we learned how to cook green curry and Thai fried rice. First, we went to the market to buy the materials for those foods. Pui Yang and I were the fastest group, because she knew how to talk Thai. Then we went back to Mae Kok, and the teacher showed us how to cook it.                                                  

After she told us the way to do that, we started to wash the vegetables, cut the chicken, open the sugar and the seasoning powder. Then, we put the oil into the pan, added the chicken and the curry paste……                                

I forgot the materials and how to cook them. But I remembered the taste of them--they were great! The green curry was a little bit spicy, and a bit sweet as well. And the fried rice was really delicious. I love it!                                                            

But I think, if you want to eat a bowl of fried rice, go to a restaurant instead of cook it by yourself, because we nearly charred the chicken.

Back to NIS

It was Friday soon, and we had to go back to school. The two days in Mae Kok taught me a lot: teamwork, friendship, courage, trust…… They are all important to me.  

Goodbye, Mae Kok! I will go back there next year!