My last week in Ban Phon Sanuk was amazing - I loved being able to stay there for so long without having to go to school, and as I mentioned before it was lovely to spend so much time with all my friends in the village.
On the day I left Ban Phon Sanuk, the bus to Bangkok wasn't until the evening so in the morning and afternoon I had a leaving ceremony. I wasn't expecting to be getting anything like this, but I think that as I spent so long in the village during my last few weeks in Na Kae they wanted to give me a send off, which was really lovely of them. During the morning I witnessed a pig and two ducks being killed for a meal in the afternoon with everyone from the village - I couldn't believe that they were making such a huge deal of my leaving day, and I felt very honoured that they were doing so much for me. A blessing ceremony took place where everyone from the village blessed me by tieing thin strands of white rope around my wrists while they said a blessing, wishing me good luck, happiness, safe travel and wishing that I would return to Thailand (which of course I plan to do as soon as I can!). The meal was, as always, delicious - one thing I'm really going to miss about Thailand is the food! I will be attempting to recreate soe of my favourite Thai dishes in Scotland, but I can't help thinking that they probably won't be as delicious as the real thing. One dish that I can definitely say I won't miss is "lap" when it is mixed with uncooked blood...
I went outside to wait for the bus about an hour before it was due and sat in the mooching hut with Mei, Paw, P.Joe's Dad (Whiskey Man...) and the three kids who I wanted to take with me (Big Boss, Big Boom and Donut). Mei went to speak to Pippa on skype, then quickly came and told me that Pippa wanted to wish me good luck so I went back into the house for a few minutes to speak to her before having to go back out to get the bus. The journey to Bangkok was quite good and I was in Bangkok by about 6am.
The day before I left I had packed my rucksack and was quite happy with it - it wasn't too heavy and I could lift it, and it seemed to be a nice even shape. However, this changed when I was given seven Isaan pillows as leaving presents from people from the village (three of them are for Caitlin)! I absolutely love the pillows and genuinely appreciate them, but those (plus Caitlin's tea set which I forgot to pack until the last minute) turned my previously well-packed rucksack into a rushed, lumpy, heavy one...! Eventually, after finding a taxi and getting to Khao San Road then helping someone else to find their hotel, I managed to book myself in to a small room, but my rucksack was so heavy that even after getting someone to help me carry it my back was aching so much that I knew I had to find a way to take the weight down. The remainder of the day was spend un-packing and re-packing my rucksack and donating a huge bag of unwanted clothes and books to the reception of the guesthouse. Admittedly, the reason I found it so difficult to carry my rucksack through Bangkok may have been because even when it was packed "well", I hadn't really tried walking with it for any length of time so I suppose I can't really blame the pillows...
The last few days in Bangkok were great fun. The day after I arrived I met up with the other volunteers who were already in Bangkok in the evening and we went out on Khao San Road. Some of the vols. decided to go to a club called Lava, but for some reason men had to pay 100 Baht (about £2) to get in while girls got in free, plus it was a dancing club and wasn't really my idea of fun, so a group of us ended up just bumping from bar to bar without actually buying any drinks because no one could decide where to go. Before I met up with the volunteers I decided to visit Pippa's brother and sister who both live in Bangkok, so arranged to meet P.Non (Pippa's younger brother) so that he could take me to his sister's house. Soon after I entered his car he started talking about a dog, but I couldn't make sense of what he was saying as his English isn't very good. However, when he pointed to the backseat it became clear that he was saying he has bought a puppy. Further questioning informed me that he had in fact bought the puppy for me, as a leaving present... it took a while for me to explain that it was very cute, but that I couldn't take it on the aeroplane. Eventually he decided that he would keep it until I next came to Thailand, and I can take it back then... I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
After leaving P.Non's house (and the puppy) we drove to P.Neung's house. P. Neung is Pippa's younger sister, and she has a 1 year old son called Dono who is very cute. Caitlin and I visited them once before while we were in Bangkok months ago visiting Pippa, but we didn't get to meet P.Neung because she was at work, so it was great to get to meet her. She is lovely, though I must admit not quite as crazy as her older sister...
On my final day in Bangkok I went to Cha Tu Chak Market, which is an enormous market selling everything you could possibly imagine, with Rosie. I managed to get the remainder of my present buying done here which was good, then we headed to Billie and Rosie's guesthouse to find out what was happening about meeting the other volunteers for a meal. After meeting everyone else at "the big white castle" (which is a large white building resembling a castle which none of us know the real name of) we found a nice restaurant and had our last Thai meal! I had Tom Yum with chicken which was delicious. I didn't used to like Ton Yum particularly, but now it's one of my favourite dishes.
The next day was time to fly! Our flight wasn't until 8.45pm, but as we had to be at the airport for check in three hours earlier and didn't want to get stuck in rush hour traffic, we all arrived at the airport at about 4pm and met Hannah Jelley and Francis, the last volunteers to arrive in Bangkok. They came with a huge leaving party as their project was only two hours from Bangkok, so we all got photos taken as a group which was nice. The return flight was fairly uneventful - I spent most of the time watching films and listening to music. It wasn't as long as I thought it was going to be, and it came into Heathrow early. It still took us over an hour to get everyone through and find our bags, as we wanted to go to meet our parents as a group. Seeing my mum and dad after so long was a very strange feeling - I knew that I hadn't seen them in almost a year, but it still felt like I hadn't ever left. It was brilliant to see them, and after another 6 hours of travelling by train to Edinburgh I met my sister which was also brilliant. Although I stopped feeling homesick after a few months I still missed them all throughout the year.
All in all it took over 31 hours for me to travel from Thailand to my house in Scotland, and although it is great to be back I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss Thailand! I'll be going back to Thailand as soon as I can, and will be keeping in contact with all the friends I made over there. Hopefully I'll be able to find someone who speaks Thai nearby who I can practise with as I really don't want to forgot the Thai I've learned over the past year.
I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past year and during the months leading up to my leaving for Thailand. If it wasn't for all of you then I wouldn't have been able to do it, and I'm so happy that I did it!
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