Entries about haha

Good Day everyone,

To anyone who has been reading regularly ( matthew tan !!!) i apologise for this long interval between my post.
Hopefully, you will be entertained in this one

We had an early breakfast and Marie Francoise gave us a Baguette as well as alot of cheese and more food, She than gave jason a recipe book and me (le petit prince) a French story book ! ( to encourage me to learn french haha ) Gave us both a kiss and than off we went in Adrien's car for the train station.

Super long journey ( >7 hours) to Winterthur, Switzerland to meet our next host Daniel Werner
On the way there, we got to experience the negative effects of the French attitude towards work.
The SNCF train drivers went on strike ! haha ! So instead of the 4 trains we were taking, we now had to take 3 trains and a bus Pek chek.
Everyone was confused and complaining...i thought to myself, all is good as long as i arrive in Daniel's house before 10pm.

We notified Daniel that we were going to be late and arranged to meet at the train station, unfortunately there was some miscommunication as i didnt know he was out and planned to meet us in the train, but thank God we were saved by Daniel's wit and initiative. He just popped into the train and randomly ask us if we were couchsurfers ! haha !! Epic.
His brother Cyril than drove us back from the train station.

The Werner Farm ( Dad, mum, Daniel, 2 sis and 1 bro)

When i arrived, i was immediately blown away...
Our first farm was a vegetable farm ( a really small one with 12 green houses +- 7 Ha)
Our second "farm" was a bed and breakfast ( 34 Ha, but it wasnt used for anything except for taking walks and climbing trees haha ! )
Now the Werners Farm was i think the biggest ( +- 40 ha and with 3000 chickens and i cant remember how many cows but yes, you can imagine )
They produced milk ( i totally forgot how many litres but when daniel told me i fell off the chair, i think it was 300 or more ) and chickens for their meat. Apart from this, all the wood in their forrest was used to heat the house and for other misc stuff...
Their farm house was really nice and was also super old ( if i remembered right 8 generations) Woah !!!

Our room was also really nice, we had a TV and a giant bed and sheets and...

So that night, we had a quick simple dinner and than Daniel brought us jogging ! Yes jogging ( at around 9-10 pm) weee !
We jogged through the small village, and into the forrest ( some places were pitch black) and finally we arrived at a place where we were overlooking Germany ( lake constance and Konstanz, germany ) and than on the way back, Daniel brought us to an old Bunker (used for defence in world war II )
It was locked, but someone had broken in already, so imagine 3 guys slowly creeping into a hole in the ground in the pitch black forrest only guided by the light from daniel's handphone... EPIC
After that, shower and crash

The next day: Breakfast ( fresh milk !!!)

Shawn ( after climbing up from the floor after being stunned by the amount of milk produced daily) : So your family has never bought milk in your life ?
Daniel ( smiling and proudly proclaiming): No
Shawn and jason : yes ! we love milk ! haha

We than went to see Nody at work. He let the chickens out of their chicken house and than went to mix hay for the cows and proceeded to feed them. We than helped to prepare and had a delicious lunch
While i was a little free i started watching " There will be blood" Great movie
We than went grocery shopping with Daniel's mom, our commander and boss
We had 2 fridges( 1 was full with yoghurt) and 2 freezers...when we arrived at the supermarket, she asked us to buy more yoghurt but we both thought of the amount of yoghurt back home and couldnt bring ourselves to take anymore ! haha, but she took like 10 more anyway
While we were queing up, she handed me her wallet and told me to pay, i was shocked and amazed. ( generally jason and i are really honest and we have integrity but Daniel's mum didnt know us yet ! it was only our first day and she already gave us such a high level of trust ) i was really touched by that simple gesture... My own mom would never even think of passing her wallet to my friend and even for me she still would try to avoid it...
When we got back, we kept everything into the fridge and i kid you not when i say we were stocked for war like if there was a zombie attack or something, the werner house is the house to go haha

We were thinking of where to go for a walk when suddenly Daniel came back from school and said he would bring us to Konstanz ( Germany) Weee ! wait, remember i mentioned the trust Daniel's mom had for us, now Daniel said to me " ok you drive" ! wah !!!
And i have never driven in Europe, they drive on the right side of the road while Singaporeans drive on the wrong side also they drive alot faster in the small narrow roads ! haha we parked the car and started walking. ( yes we survived my driving, haha)
Konstanz was a beautiful small town with many interesting shops...We had lunch along the river and than Daniel brought us to the Munster ( a church in the centre) We were going to climb up and i really thought it was free but turns out it was like 5 Euros and Daniel had to pay for the three of us ( Thank you Daniel )
It was the first time we had climbed up a church " tower" and the view was terrific ! we got to see a 360 view of konstanz ( the lake, the countryside, the city, switzerland...) really nice... I coukd have stayed up there for the entire day...
We walked some more and after that we went back, waiting for us in the Car was a ticket !!! ( oh crap, sorry daniel )
I really thought there was free parking everywhere in switzerland...

OK... im very tired now, so stay tuned for the next entry haha
but first some things to think about

Those who make religion their god will not have god for their religion. Thomas Erskine

There is a God we want and a God who is and they are not the same God...
The turning point of our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and seek the God who is. P. morley

I have no problem with alcohol
but i will have problems if i have no alcohol. Andy ( Daniel friend ) haha

Cheers !

buddy--- Thanks ! i ll be as safe as i can hope school is good !
Roger--- i think if u are here with me you will die, ang moh paradise !!! haha
Confirm not everyone here is Drop dead gorgeus ! haha
but no GF la
Leon --- Screw facebook ! and how are the applications ?
Ambrish, kian pin, wei yu, matt, leon--- you ll love it here man !
Warrick--- wa lao, u should seriously be here, we confirm high ! HGBD !

We left Iain house at around 10 am yesterday leaving for Cambridge in search of Dan the Man
How ? heh heh

We took the underground to balthamstow station, the station which we thought was closest to the M11 (highway that leaves London for Cambridge like their PIE), when we arrived we kept asking for direction to the M11. When we got a rough idea of the general direction, and with determination in our hearts and a heavy fulpack on our bags we set off for the M11. Haha !
Excitement quickly diminshed as we started to realise
1.how far it was ! (google balthamstow station to M11)
2.how hard it was going to find a good place to hitchhike (cars were too fast or cant walk there)
3.How dangerous and how little day light hours we had to get a ride !

We started walking and met a few people who kept wishing us good luck which made me burn with a fiery determination ! )
As mentioned earlier, we were trying to reach the M11, the connecting road was called the A406, and somehow we walked past the start of that and were already in the middle of the A406, so we decided to continue walking to the M11, and wow it was one long walk.
The whole time i was thinking to myself
1. this is getting really crazy, is this one of the craziest things ive ever done ?
2. Every step forward will mean 2 steps backwards in order to go back so there were quite a few junctions where a decision was to be made to move forward and boy oh boy despite my fiery determination, it was a hard one to make.
(A little like navigating in the jungles of Brunei, with a heavy field pack, and almost no sense of direction, everytime a junction was reached, a choice on which direction to take and we had to take turn Reccing the area in front ! in order to help us with our decision.)
After a really long and crazy walk ( Climbing over fences, crossing roads and overhead bridges countless times all woth our field pack) we finally arrived at the start of the legendary M11.

Unlike the movies or video clips it wasnt a slow moving or lonely highway where you could take your time, the M11 was really busy road with many cars driving at least 50mph zooming past.
Thankfully there was a small road shoulder where we could walk confidently as there was quite a wide gap.
We were already very exhausted and somehow it didnt occur to us that we should start hitching, and we just walked forward nonstop until we reached a signed which said Cambridge 47 Miles and oh man it hit me again in the face, in OCS we only route marched 30+km in a day, and this was 47 Miles this might take awhile, we might even spend the night before reaching Cambridge !
But with all these being said, we continued walking, i could tell Jason was getting quite irritated and tired, but i was just going a little crazy in my mind thinking back on all the brunei days and was secretly smilingly to myself once in awhile and decided while walking why not stick my thumb out as well...

After walking for who knows how long, suddenly, really just suddenly a green Car just pulled over and Jason was like " Shawn !!!!"
and i was like " Eh he really Stopped !!! Crap !" *both of us running with our heavy fullpacks towards the car, when the door opened, i took a quick scan to screen the driver while he asked us where we were heading, we told him cambridge and asked if he was heading there. He said he wasnt but he could drop us near by so we got in !!!

We soon found out he(Mark) was heading home from London after visiting his Grandson and he stayed in Norwich which was an hour north of cambridge so we told him, drop us any where convenient for you near Cambridge and he agreed.
We were both overwhelmed with a sense of relieve and disbelief. On the Journey there we found out much about him and apparently he was a hitchhiker himself when he was our age and explained that in the past, everyone did it He also shared with us stories about his work and told us about his chickens as he had 1 Acre of Land (about a football field)
Shawn: Wow, if you had that much land in Singapore, you would be a real wealthy man !
saf: Yea, maybe even president !
Shawn, Jason and Mark: Laugh like crap
Mark also told us he had done alot of traveling and had been hitching all his life and shared with us that he had 4 children and was twice divorced
After a long chat, but extremely fast journey, we suddenly realised he had turned into Cambridge and he started asking us which part of Cambridge we were going to and kept asking us to call Daniel for his address, and spent at least 15mins finding a driving us to where Daniel was (Arbury Community centre) We were just lost for words at his sudden gesture of kindness of going out of his way to drop us right at the doorstep !
When we got off, i gave Daniel a call and he said he was walking over. We dropped our bags and thanked Mark profusely knowing the debt can never be repaid but happy that my belief in the goodness of people was still alive

When Daniel was seen crossing the road walking towards us, i shouted in relief :
" DAN ! So good to see you man, epic journey we just had haha "
Daniel than proceeded to help me with my Fullpack and we went away to his school where we took a rest, and Daniel just took our hitching Sign and showed everyone we met on the way " Hey ! this are my friends from Singapore, They just hitchhiked from london "
And everyone was like " Really !?"
I proceeded to stand at the side and act seh pretending as if "oh it was nothing special" haha !
Ang moh Chicks !

Unfortunately, Bad news guys, Jason left the camera battery in Iain's House so we have no pictures to share, but believe me it was one epic adventure ! You can see the sign we made though. haha !

Cheers !