Sing for the World Part V: Three Gold Medals for Indonesia

[caption id="attachment_121679" align="aligncenter" width="618" caption="Voca Erudita in Thailand Grand Palace. Photo by Chung Wing Yeung"]

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[caption id="attachment_121677" align="alignleft" width="325" caption="Thailand Grand Palace. Photo by Sonny Hendrawan Saputra"]

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[/caption] At 9 am, after taking breakfast, Voca Erudita members were picked up by a nice and warm senior tour guide named Yai. She spoke English very well and had great knowledge about Thailand which were very good sources for Voca Erudita. She would bring all of them to firstly visit Thailand Grand Palace. With the double decker bus, the fun trip started. Along the street, Yai gave a lot of information about Thailand. She looked so patient to face the cheerful expression of the young people and behaved like a mother for them. Finally, at 11.30 am they had arrived in amazing Thailand Grand Palace. They did not need to pay there since it had been included in the package. As predicted before, they seemed like birds that were full of energy to fly here and there as they crazily took pictures in any parts of the palace. Though some of them were bit worried about the rain that potentially bothered their stamina, they finally kept moving on to not miss every detail of that place by focus observing and absolutely taking photos.

Actually, according to the package, they could continue the field trip to take the ship along the river to see Thai temple, but they preferred more to do shopping. Finally Yai brought them to Central City Bangkok Mall. Funnily, since the prices there were commonly expensive for students' pocket, they walked by themselves behind the mall to get into street markets to buy some stuffs there. Unfortunately, they could not find something that was actually typical about Thailand. They could just buy like shirt, shoes, and bag without Thailand ornament or writing. They finally came back to the mall for having their launch then continued to go to Assumption University in Bangna.

During the journey from the mall to Assumption University, they did preparation by making up and changing clothes inside the bus. At 5 pm, they arrived in Assumption University. They came there to perform in the Opening Concert. There was no adjudication at the moment. Soon after they arrived in the university, they finished their make up and tidied up the outfit plus they did a little warming up. Certainly, they were ready to impress the audiences in the church inside Assumption University. With elegant green gown for the ladies and grey coat for the men, confidently they entered majestic architecture of church with the graceful combination between European style and the shine of Thai ornaments.

[caption id="attachment_121683" align="aligncenter" width="524" caption="Opening Concert in Church of Assumption University. Photo by Chung Wing Yeung"]

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Yxd yeī̀ym!!! Wonderful they totally could perform attractively.  Firstly, they sang "Gloria 3" with was very matched with the atmosphere of the church. Their voices resonated perfectly in that spacious and high building. After the contemplative song, they "stomped" the atmosphere by the cheerful Indonesian song "Aku Melangkah Lagi" (I Keep Moving on). They successfully entertained the audiences with their quality as they received big applause there.

Before going back to the hotel, they did not forget to take the dinner. Since they knew that they would pass Motorway again between their trip from Bangkok to Pattaya, they decided to came back to the first restaurant where they ate in the first night in Thailand. Cheap and delicious, those were the words mentioned by Voca Erudita members to give impressions about the menus in that simple restaurant.

Second Opening Concert in Sunset Hall of Ambassador City Jomtien Hotel in Pattaya (July 22, 2011)

After having their breakfast, with full of motivation, they were ready to practise again. Yes, practise and practise seemed to be the sacred daily agenda for them. After practising they directly continued by making up and changing the outfits. After they had been ready with their performing costumes, they continued to practise again. Then at 4 pm, they walked to get into Sunset Hall of Ambassador City Jomtien Hotel, the nice circle building with the background of the beach.

[caption id="attachment_121688" align="aligncenter" width="582" caption="Voca Erudita in Second Opening Concert. Photo by Chung Wing Yeung"]

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As commonly known, Voca Erudita is "very strong" in performing folklore songs.  It was proven in their concert by singing famous Javanese traditional song entitled "Gundul-Gundul Pacul". They sang with attractive Javanese dance choreography. Their costumes also supported their performances to be "more folklore" in atmosphere. For the ladies, they wore orange kebaya, the Javanese traditional blouse and jarik batik, the Javanese traditional skirt. For the men, they wore lurik, the Javanese traditional striped woven material. It was very relieving moment for them. They became more confident and relax to face their tomorrow competition.