Well our plan was to be further North than this at this point, but we sort of got stuck in Krabi! Intentionally because it was such a lovely place. We ended up visiting both Railay Beach and Ao Nang (Nang Beach), which were both lovely. I preferred Railay because there was much more to do though, such as embarking on a seemingly innocent climb to "The Lagoon". It was not innocent. After climbing/scrambling up quite a steep cliff/gully, with the aid of ropes, to a nice little forest walk. This walk stayed "nice' for about 3 minutes, until we found the next part of the journey. Again with the aid of ropes, we had to go down a cliff. Then another cliff. Then another. I found it extremely difficult as I am not a climber, and at first decided to wait at the Top while Caitiln went down. I sat at the top with another girl who didn't want to go down, but eventually we managed to persuade each other to give it another go and we both made it down! When we got to the Lagoon it was quite pretty, but very muddy with quite spiky rocks to swimming wasn't really an option. There was, however, a very nice shelf with lots of sculptures that people had made out of the mud on it!
We intended to go home the next day, but met up with some Americans called Joe, Tony and Sarah and decided to stay a couple of extra days to do some more exploring. We went to Ao Nang, which was really just a long beach, and Caitlin ventured up the 1237 steps to the "Tiger Temple". No tigers, just a lot of steps!
When we finally decided to leave, we had the dilemma of where to go. We decided to try and get to a small village called Ban DanSingkhon where there is a Burmese Orchid Market every Saturday. We thought that this would be a quite an easy journey - we would go to a town called Surat Thani, from there get another bus to Prachoet Khirikhan and then get a song tao to the village. Unfortunetly, it was not this simple. From Krabi we got a bus to a small place called Ban Na Saan (simple because at this point we weren't 100% sure where we wanted to go, and it was one of the few places that we could find both on the map in Lonely Planet and on the ticket...). Not much here but a train station, so the next morning we decided 100% to make our way to Surat Thani. Note to self: Never go there. Never, ever go there. We arrived and tried to get a bus to Prachoet Khirikhan, but the ticket seller was so obviously trying to scam us it was ridiculus. We managed to get the price down from 450B each to 350B each, but that took a very long time and a lot of bantering backwards and forwards. Usually the banter-haggling is quite fun and can be a laugh, but the man selling the tickets was convinced that because we were "farang" we were rich. He got quite heated and shouted at me that "Thai people pay less because they don't have money, white people are all rich so must pay more". I tried to explain to him that I actually live in Thailand and am a volunteer, but he was having none of it. After finally paying for the ticket I had to make quite a fuss to get my 300B change! The bus was supposedly at 6.10pm, so we wandered around the town for a while. At 6.10pm we headed back to where we'd been todl the bus was, only to be taken in a small song tao to another place. Here we waited until 8pm before out bus finally came!! We tried to find out from the driver what time we would be in Prachoet because the bus went all the way to Bangkok, and he glared at us then waves his hand at us to shoo us away! For the first few hours of the journey the bus kept stopping randomly, and finally we pulled over at the side of the road while one of the drivers fiddled with the engine in the back. I went down and politely asked what was wrong, and again the man glared at me then went out and slammed the door! Thankfully when the other driver came back in he was much nicer and said that it was fixed, and off we went. At about 2am we arrived in Prachoet. Or, actually, we didn't... we were dropped off 2km outside the town, despite the driver asking us where we wanted to be dropped off and agreeing to take us to where ther ewere hotels! Finally after about a 1km walk lined with stray dogs we found a hotel and managed to geta few hours sleep before being up at 7.30am to find a way to the Orchid Market.
The Market was actually lovely, and Caitlin and I both bought Pitcher Plants to see if we can keep them alive. If we start to fail we're going to try and give them to Pippa - she likes plants! After the market and a nap at the hotel, I decided to make my way up to a temple on a hill, with 336 steps leading up to it! I managed it and am very proud that I did, and I saw lots of monkeys on the way! On the way back down, I got a bit trapped by the monkeys though... someone had left a bag of food for them and they were swarming onf of the little shelters on the way up the steps, fighting over the food. I decided to wait it out until they had calmed down instead of risking rabies!
One thing I've noticed pretty much immediately is that there is a huge contrast between the South of Thailand and the Northeast, where I am in Na Kae. The feeling that I got in Surathani was that the locals were almost resentful towards farang. I think that this is probably because being near such a tourist filled area they have quite likely had bad experiences with typical farang party goers, but there seems to be a lack of the community spirit which is obvious in Isaan. I haven't yet seen anyone eating outside and having the whole street join them as can often happn in the villaged around Na Kae. As I have now travelled around Isaan a bit, I can say that it's not just in Na Kae that there is a strong sense of community - it really is all over, and the locals wherever we've been in Isaan have been extremely welcoming and impressed that we both speak Thai, even if they haven't met us previously. It's a shame that this has been lost in more southern parts of the country.
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Saturday, 12 March 2011
In the South!
On Monday Caitlin and I set off on a school trip with some of the teachers from NaKaePitthayakhom. We went to possibly the furthest away place that we could without leaving Thailand - Phuket! After being told that the bus would leave the school at 4.30am, Caitlin and I decisded to deliberately not get much sleep beforehand so that we would get on the bus and instantly fall asleep. Unfortunately, this plan failed because a) the bus didn't leave until about 6am and b) as soon as we were on the bus the teachers decided that Thai Karaoke would be a fantastic idea! As I'm sure I have mentioned, Thai Karaoke has two volume settings - off and max. It was at max. Caitlin and I had brought a DVD of "Mamma Mia: The Movie" in the hope that at some point during the 35 hour bus journey we would be able to watch it. After eventually convincing the driver that if he stopped pressing buttons the DVD would load, we got to watch it. Well, we got to watch about half of it before the school's Director came up and said that they were turning it off because they wanted more karaoke, and they couldn't understand it because it was English! I found it a but annoying that in a 35 hour journey they couldn't deal with 2 hours of an English film, but hey ho!
We eventually arrived at Koh Pang Nga and went straight into the days activities! We visited markets galore of course, and went to the "James Bond Island" which is very beautiful. I decided to sit on a big rock and get my photo taken with the island in the background, and ended up dropping my shoe down the side of the rock... got it back though, managed to rope some kids into climbing down to retrieve it for me :) The rest of the day was filled with visiting a lovely temple and another lovely market, then heading on to Phuket to check into the hotel. After eating, we all went to bed. Well, actually, most people went to bed, but Caitlin managed to find Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix in English on the TV, so we stayed up to watch that. Then we slept.
The next day started at 6am with a wake-up call from the hotel. Since breakfast wasn't untl 7am, we decided to continue sleeping until 6.40am. This resulted in about 4 missed calls from the head of English, Kru Nid (who is strangely punctual for a Thai...) and another hotel wake up call. We were still down to breakfast at about 7am though! After breakfast, it was time to take a boat to Maya Bay, past Koh Phi Phi for snorkeling! The fish were beautiful, but unfortunetly most of the coral had been killed - I suppose that is typical of a tourist snorkelling spot. We then went back to Koh Phi Phi for lunch, and got to wander round the island a bit.
That evening we had a party in the hotel and of course ots of Thai Karaoke, but the disk was realy old so they didn't have many English songs that we knew. We spent most of the evening playing with the kids (once they got used to the fact that we were "farang' and stopped being scared of us :P) wth balloons and generally acting like a 9 year old! Much fun!
The school eft the following morning, but Caitlin and I stayed on Phuket for a couple of days to explore and ended up staying at Patong Beach. It was really nice, and I loved swimming in the sea!
At the moment we are in Krabi, trying to find a way to either Railay Beach or a temple with monkeys... aah, decisions decisions!
I will try to keep updating when I can, but I doubt I'll be able to upload photos because of the time it takes to upload them. More often than not the only internet I can use will be in an internet cafe.
We eventually arrived at Koh Pang Nga and went straight into the days activities! We visited markets galore of course, and went to the "James Bond Island" which is very beautiful. I decided to sit on a big rock and get my photo taken with the island in the background, and ended up dropping my shoe down the side of the rock... got it back though, managed to rope some kids into climbing down to retrieve it for me :) The rest of the day was filled with visiting a lovely temple and another lovely market, then heading on to Phuket to check into the hotel. After eating, we all went to bed. Well, actually, most people went to bed, but Caitlin managed to find Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix in English on the TV, so we stayed up to watch that. Then we slept.
The next day started at 6am with a wake-up call from the hotel. Since breakfast wasn't untl 7am, we decided to continue sleeping until 6.40am. This resulted in about 4 missed calls from the head of English, Kru Nid (who is strangely punctual for a Thai...) and another hotel wake up call. We were still down to breakfast at about 7am though! After breakfast, it was time to take a boat to Maya Bay, past Koh Phi Phi for snorkeling! The fish were beautiful, but unfortunetly most of the coral had been killed - I suppose that is typical of a tourist snorkelling spot. We then went back to Koh Phi Phi for lunch, and got to wander round the island a bit.
That evening we had a party in the hotel and of course ots of Thai Karaoke, but the disk was realy old so they didn't have many English songs that we knew. We spent most of the evening playing with the kids (once they got used to the fact that we were "farang' and stopped being scared of us :P) wth balloons and generally acting like a 9 year old! Much fun!
The school eft the following morning, but Caitlin and I stayed on Phuket for a couple of days to explore and ended up staying at Patong Beach. It was really nice, and I loved swimming in the sea!
At the moment we are in Krabi, trying to find a way to either Railay Beach or a temple with monkeys... aah, decisions decisions!
I will try to keep updating when I can, but I doubt I'll be able to upload photos because of the time it takes to upload them. More often than not the only internet I can use will be in an internet cafe.
Saturday, 5 March 2011
A crazy few days!!
How many crazy, spontaneous things can happen in 4 days? Turns out a lot!!
On Monday Caitlin and I headed to That Phanom, about 26km away, to try and find the Laos market which is there once a week. Once we got there we wandered around and found a few small markets selling nice silk tops (beautiful but very expensive!) and food, but no Laos market. That Phanom isn't huge, so we decided to continue wandering around and see where we got to. Eventually we managed to find what we think was the market, but we're still not entirely sure! It was a large covered market selling everything from clothes and toys to food. Being me, I went straight to the brightly coloured, sparkly clothes and quickly saw a really nice black top with a butterfly on it but didn't buy and and I didn't actually want it as it was made of material that would get very warm in the hot season, plus it was black which would make it hotter. While we were looking at it Caitlin heard the market stall owner saying "farang" and "peng" - "farang" means foreign person (i.e. us) and "peng" means expensive - she was telling her co-partner to make the price expensive because we are farang! It is very commonly thought that white people are rich, no matter what, which means that buying things in markets can be extremely frustrating, especially as Caitlin and I have both been in situations where a Thai person in fron t of us has been told that something is one price, then we've been told it's much higher! As most people assume that white people don't speak Thai, it can be quite funny to watch their face when they realise that we understood exactly what they said :P
The next stall we saw had lots of lovely bright Tie Dye t-shirts, and somehow 50B magically transformed into a lovely pink one... not sure how that happened! I did manage to haggle the price down from 60B though!
Tuesday showed us just how unorganised and spontaneous Thai people are! Our plan was to go to Sakhon Nakhon to see a girl called Print - we met her in Ban Phon Sanuk as her family is friends with Pippa. However, we couldn't get hold of her so we decided to go and see other friends, Tae and Tee, in Sakhon. In the morning, at about 10am, Tae phoned and told us that he was extremely sorry but he was busy as he had to do something for university. So we started on a plan B. This was to go to Sakhon Nakhon and from there get a bus down to a city called Kalasin where there is a dinosaur museum and lots of fossils. We phoned Kru Nid about this and she said that she didn't want us to do this because it is very difficult to get a bus to the dinosaur museum from the city. Plan C was then born, and was to go from Sakhon Nakhon to a small village called Ban Panom where there is a National Park and some waterfalls nearby. Kru Nid said that this would be fine and we could get a bus straight from Sakhon to Ban Panom. Brilliant! All that was left to do was to go up to school and see if we could borrow a tent to stay in. At school, we bumped into Kru Nid who asked us where we were going. After saying Ban Panom in several different accents with several different tones, we decided to get the map out and point instead. Her reaction? "Oooh no no no, there will not be any buses" despite telling us earlier it wouldn't be a problem! Caitlin talked to her while I found a tent, and I couldn't keep a straight face when I heard Kru Nid tell Caitlin that instead of going to Ban Panom we should go to Kalasin - the very place she told us earlier that we shouldn't go to!! As Caitlin tried to tell Kru Nid that we wanted to go to Ban Panom I went back to the house to get some water, and when I came back there was a completely different plan! Is this plan D now? Anyway, instead of going to Ban Panom OR Kalasin, Kru Nid said that it would be brilliant to go to Udon Thani because a very famous Monk called Luangta Bua who lived there had died and there was a huge pilgrimage to pay respect to him at Wat Ban That. We decided that this was something we would definitely like to see, so quickly went outside to try and catch the 1pm bus, missed it, so sat around and caught the 1.45 bus instead!
Udon was really great - we arrived at about 6pm and after wandering around for a while decided to splurge and get a Thai massage. I was a little nervous because I had one in Bangkok and it was incredibly painful, but I hoped this one would be better. Unfortunately it was now. I vow to never, ever get one again! I thought my muscles were going to explode! After this we got some food, then tried to see if the temple would still be open this late. A tuk tuk offered to take us for the "cheap" price of 500B, so we declined and found a Backpackers to stay in and get the free bus in the morning. Morning came and after asking the owner of the backpackers we went to the bus station and caught a free minibus up to Wat Ban That. Although the Monk's funeral wasn't until Friday people came from all over to pay respect and we met a lovely woman who had come from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. There was a large campsite and a covered tent that seemed like it was reserved for Buddhist Nuns. There were also lots of tents serving food and drinks, so we went to get noodles and also got given some odd, but really nice, crunchy boiled potato things. After wandering around for a while we made our way back to find a ride to Sakhon. We managed to find a tuk tuk, and this time we haggled in Thai and bantered with the driver a bit and got there for about 57B! When he realised that we spoke Thai he stopped trying to charge us ridiculous amounts.
From Udon we headed back to Sakhon to see if we could get hold of Print again, but couldn't, so decided to be spontaneous and jumped on a bus to Kalasin! We arrived at about 10pm and while in the bus station we made a list of some monuments that we wanted to see, and ended up seeing two of them as we walked down the road towards the market! We quickly found out that we couldn't have chosen a better time to go - there was a massive festival! It cost 10B to enter the main part of it, which was a giant market spread over several very long streets selling everything with minigame stalls and fair ground rides.
As we walked around we found a large Toyota tent, some very excited Thai girls and a very gay guy. They came running up to us, surrounded us, and asked us to say their slogan which was "TOYOTA!! LOVE YOU!! CHIP CHIP!!". After saying it they gave us pens that were also torches! We wandered around the market for a while, then at about 11pm headed back to find somewhere to stay.
On the way out of the market we bumped into one of the Toyota girls (the craziest one) called Pedzi who asked us where we were going, then said to come with her to meet her friend. We went to a large monument not far from the market and found the very gay guy, who is called Ton (as is the gay guy in Bangkok who is friends with Pippa), who said that we could stay with him! We decided to go for it, and got taken to a song tao full of the other Toyota girls. They were all going to Ton's house to stay over, and were mega excited that we were coming too! I don't think I've ever met crazier people! The song tao journey was free because I think one of Ton's friends was driving, and took about half an hour. We got to his house and made up lots of beds on the living room floor, then had some food and chatted to everyone in broken Thai. They are all absolutely lovely - Ton, Pedzi, Nitzy, Chip, Nampun, Nong, Eve, Art and Boo Noi are their names. We had planned to go to see the dinosaur museum the following day, then head back to Sakhon and back to Na Kae in the evening, but when we were asked to help them with the Toyota craziness there was no way we were saying no!
The following day was brilliant. We got up at about 10am and headed to a nearby lake in the middle of the ricefields to have a small picnic and a swim which was lovely. Not everyone swam - Caitlin and I did, as did Ton, Pedzi, Boo Noi, Nong and Chip. We then headed back to Ton's house to start hair and make-up! Caitlin and I asked Nampun to do our makeup, and Pedzi did out hair. I got a lovely french braid done across my fringe, which somehow stayed in all night!! No idea how, but Thais are brilliant with hair! Our job at the Toyota tent was to dance crazily and advertise Toyota with big banners. There were dressed up clowns and people in large alien and robot costumes, and a show on in the tent with lots of dancing and magic tricks etc. Every now and then everyone got called into the big tent to do a dance, which we picked up quite well! Also, two young boys were doing break dancing and I must say they are the coolest little guys I've ever met (except Big Boom who lives in Ban Phon Sanuk). We gave out leaflets and balloons and got people to come in and see the show under the tent. There was also a lucky draw to win a motorbike, and to enter you had to complete a list of activities including singing karaoke and having a go on a driving computer game! It was brilliant fun, I loved it when the time came to try and make people say the Toyota slogan ("TOYOTA!! LOVE YOU!! CHIP CHIP!!" which when translated into Thai becomes "TOYOTA!! RAK NA!! CHIP CHIP!!") and give out free pens to people who did it! It was Ton's birthday, so at about 10.30pm we headed out to a discoteque (like a large bar with a stage and people singing and dancing on stage) and got to drink whiskey for the first time in what seems like ages! I ended up being lifted onto the stage to dance with a band at one point, which was mega embarrassing but lots of fun! We headed back to Ton's house at about 2am. Obviously we stayed at Ton's house that night as we didn't think there'd be buses at that time, and we'd been told that the next day a Thai Superstar called Duki was going to be coming to the Toyota tent and we didn't want to miss that. "Morning" the next day was at about 12pm, and the whole afternoon was taken up with hair, false-eyelashes and make-up for Duki. Our bus was at 8pm and Duki was meant to arrive at 7pm, but unfortunately she didn't come in time, so we didn't get to see her. Instead we did the usual dancing and talking to clowns, then headed to the bus station.
We hoped to get to Na Kae from Sakhon that same evening, but we didn't arrive in Sakhon until about 11pm and there were no song taos. On our search for places to stay we met a Thai woman who spoke fluent English who was extremely helpful - she was with her daughter and husband and offered to take us to a hotel! We ended up saying 175B each, which was a little more than we wanted but the hotel was lovely. After getting ready for bed we turned on the TV and found an English kids TV channel! It had a progamme called "Real Kids, Real Adventures" on which was about kids who had been in dangerous situations and saved peoples lives or nearly died etc. - I loved it! We watched it until about 2am, then decided to go to sleep.
We'd been told by the woman who drove us there that in the morning the receptionist would help up get back to the bus station and tell us where to go, but I think we slept a little later than he was expecting because when we went to reception at about 11am he wasn't there. Instead there was a woman who told us to go outside and get a song tao to Na Kae from the side of the road closest to the hotel. No luck. We then went to the other side and tried to get to Na Kae. No luck. After asking her again she came out with us and asked a song tao driver about Na Kae. No luck. Back to the other side of the road again, this time asking about the bus station, and eventually found a song tao heading there! At the bus station, as we headed to find the Na Kae song tao, we bumped into one of our friends from Na Kae called Mama Fine. She is absolutely lovely - she lived and worked in America for years so speaks fluent English and said that she would take us to lunch and then drive us back home!! So we had a lovely lunch in the Big C in Sakhon, then got a lift home with her and her step-daughter.
The rest of today had been filled with sorting out our packing for the holidays - we leave for Phukhet with the school very early on Monday morning (the sort of time that I would still call Sunday night...) and after that we have two months of holiday! I will try to blog when I can about what I am doing, but I doubt I'll be able to post as regularly as I don't know when I'll have access to the internet.
On Monday Caitlin and I headed to That Phanom, about 26km away, to try and find the Laos market which is there once a week. Once we got there we wandered around and found a few small markets selling nice silk tops (beautiful but very expensive!) and food, but no Laos market. That Phanom isn't huge, so we decided to continue wandering around and see where we got to. Eventually we managed to find what we think was the market, but we're still not entirely sure! It was a large covered market selling everything from clothes and toys to food. Being me, I went straight to the brightly coloured, sparkly clothes and quickly saw a really nice black top with a butterfly on it but didn't buy and and I didn't actually want it as it was made of material that would get very warm in the hot season, plus it was black which would make it hotter. While we were looking at it Caitlin heard the market stall owner saying "farang" and "peng" - "farang" means foreign person (i.e. us) and "peng" means expensive - she was telling her co-partner to make the price expensive because we are farang! It is very commonly thought that white people are rich, no matter what, which means that buying things in markets can be extremely frustrating, especially as Caitlin and I have both been in situations where a Thai person in fron t of us has been told that something is one price, then we've been told it's much higher! As most people assume that white people don't speak Thai, it can be quite funny to watch their face when they realise that we understood exactly what they said :P
The next stall we saw had lots of lovely bright Tie Dye t-shirts, and somehow 50B magically transformed into a lovely pink one... not sure how that happened! I did manage to haggle the price down from 60B though!
Tuesday showed us just how unorganised and spontaneous Thai people are! Our plan was to go to Sakhon Nakhon to see a girl called Print - we met her in Ban Phon Sanuk as her family is friends with Pippa. However, we couldn't get hold of her so we decided to go and see other friends, Tae and Tee, in Sakhon. In the morning, at about 10am, Tae phoned and told us that he was extremely sorry but he was busy as he had to do something for university. So we started on a plan B. This was to go to Sakhon Nakhon and from there get a bus down to a city called Kalasin where there is a dinosaur museum and lots of fossils. We phoned Kru Nid about this and she said that she didn't want us to do this because it is very difficult to get a bus to the dinosaur museum from the city. Plan C was then born, and was to go from Sakhon Nakhon to a small village called Ban Panom where there is a National Park and some waterfalls nearby. Kru Nid said that this would be fine and we could get a bus straight from Sakhon to Ban Panom. Brilliant! All that was left to do was to go up to school and see if we could borrow a tent to stay in. At school, we bumped into Kru Nid who asked us where we were going. After saying Ban Panom in several different accents with several different tones, we decided to get the map out and point instead. Her reaction? "Oooh no no no, there will not be any buses" despite telling us earlier it wouldn't be a problem! Caitlin talked to her while I found a tent, and I couldn't keep a straight face when I heard Kru Nid tell Caitlin that instead of going to Ban Panom we should go to Kalasin - the very place she told us earlier that we shouldn't go to!! As Caitlin tried to tell Kru Nid that we wanted to go to Ban Panom I went back to the house to get some water, and when I came back there was a completely different plan! Is this plan D now? Anyway, instead of going to Ban Panom OR Kalasin, Kru Nid said that it would be brilliant to go to Udon Thani because a very famous Monk called Luangta Bua who lived there had died and there was a huge pilgrimage to pay respect to him at Wat Ban That. We decided that this was something we would definitely like to see, so quickly went outside to try and catch the 1pm bus, missed it, so sat around and caught the 1.45 bus instead!
Udon was really great - we arrived at about 6pm and after wandering around for a while decided to splurge and get a Thai massage. I was a little nervous because I had one in Bangkok and it was incredibly painful, but I hoped this one would be better. Unfortunately it was now. I vow to never, ever get one again! I thought my muscles were going to explode! After this we got some food, then tried to see if the temple would still be open this late. A tuk tuk offered to take us for the "cheap" price of 500B, so we declined and found a Backpackers to stay in and get the free bus in the morning. Morning came and after asking the owner of the backpackers we went to the bus station and caught a free minibus up to Wat Ban That. Although the Monk's funeral wasn't until Friday people came from all over to pay respect and we met a lovely woman who had come from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. There was a large campsite and a covered tent that seemed like it was reserved for Buddhist Nuns. There were also lots of tents serving food and drinks, so we went to get noodles and also got given some odd, but really nice, crunchy boiled potato things. After wandering around for a while we made our way back to find a ride to Sakhon. We managed to find a tuk tuk, and this time we haggled in Thai and bantered with the driver a bit and got there for about 57B! When he realised that we spoke Thai he stopped trying to charge us ridiculous amounts.
From Udon we headed back to Sakhon to see if we could get hold of Print again, but couldn't, so decided to be spontaneous and jumped on a bus to Kalasin! We arrived at about 10pm and while in the bus station we made a list of some monuments that we wanted to see, and ended up seeing two of them as we walked down the road towards the market! We quickly found out that we couldn't have chosen a better time to go - there was a massive festival! It cost 10B to enter the main part of it, which was a giant market spread over several very long streets selling everything with minigame stalls and fair ground rides.
As we walked around we found a large Toyota tent, some very excited Thai girls and a very gay guy. They came running up to us, surrounded us, and asked us to say their slogan which was "TOYOTA!! LOVE YOU!! CHIP CHIP!!". After saying it they gave us pens that were also torches! We wandered around the market for a while, then at about 11pm headed back to find somewhere to stay.
On the way out of the market we bumped into one of the Toyota girls (the craziest one) called Pedzi who asked us where we were going, then said to come with her to meet her friend. We went to a large monument not far from the market and found the very gay guy, who is called Ton (as is the gay guy in Bangkok who is friends with Pippa), who said that we could stay with him! We decided to go for it, and got taken to a song tao full of the other Toyota girls. They were all going to Ton's house to stay over, and were mega excited that we were coming too! I don't think I've ever met crazier people! The song tao journey was free because I think one of Ton's friends was driving, and took about half an hour. We got to his house and made up lots of beds on the living room floor, then had some food and chatted to everyone in broken Thai. They are all absolutely lovely - Ton, Pedzi, Nitzy, Chip, Nampun, Nong, Eve, Art and Boo Noi are their names. We had planned to go to see the dinosaur museum the following day, then head back to Sakhon and back to Na Kae in the evening, but when we were asked to help them with the Toyota craziness there was no way we were saying no!
The following day was brilliant. We got up at about 10am and headed to a nearby lake in the middle of the ricefields to have a small picnic and a swim which was lovely. Not everyone swam - Caitlin and I did, as did Ton, Pedzi, Boo Noi, Nong and Chip. We then headed back to Ton's house to start hair and make-up! Caitlin and I asked Nampun to do our makeup, and Pedzi did out hair. I got a lovely french braid done across my fringe, which somehow stayed in all night!! No idea how, but Thais are brilliant with hair! Our job at the Toyota tent was to dance crazily and advertise Toyota with big banners. There were dressed up clowns and people in large alien and robot costumes, and a show on in the tent with lots of dancing and magic tricks etc. Every now and then everyone got called into the big tent to do a dance, which we picked up quite well! Also, two young boys were doing break dancing and I must say they are the coolest little guys I've ever met (except Big Boom who lives in Ban Phon Sanuk). We gave out leaflets and balloons and got people to come in and see the show under the tent. There was also a lucky draw to win a motorbike, and to enter you had to complete a list of activities including singing karaoke and having a go on a driving computer game! It was brilliant fun, I loved it when the time came to try and make people say the Toyota slogan ("TOYOTA!! LOVE YOU!! CHIP CHIP!!" which when translated into Thai becomes "TOYOTA!! RAK NA!! CHIP CHIP!!") and give out free pens to people who did it! It was Ton's birthday, so at about 10.30pm we headed out to a discoteque (like a large bar with a stage and people singing and dancing on stage) and got to drink whiskey for the first time in what seems like ages! I ended up being lifted onto the stage to dance with a band at one point, which was mega embarrassing but lots of fun! We headed back to Ton's house at about 2am. Obviously we stayed at Ton's house that night as we didn't think there'd be buses at that time, and we'd been told that the next day a Thai Superstar called Duki was going to be coming to the Toyota tent and we didn't want to miss that. "Morning" the next day was at about 12pm, and the whole afternoon was taken up with hair, false-eyelashes and make-up for Duki. Our bus was at 8pm and Duki was meant to arrive at 7pm, but unfortunately she didn't come in time, so we didn't get to see her. Instead we did the usual dancing and talking to clowns, then headed to the bus station.
We hoped to get to Na Kae from Sakhon that same evening, but we didn't arrive in Sakhon until about 11pm and there were no song taos. On our search for places to stay we met a Thai woman who spoke fluent English who was extremely helpful - she was with her daughter and husband and offered to take us to a hotel! We ended up saying 175B each, which was a little more than we wanted but the hotel was lovely. After getting ready for bed we turned on the TV and found an English kids TV channel! It had a progamme called "Real Kids, Real Adventures" on which was about kids who had been in dangerous situations and saved peoples lives or nearly died etc. - I loved it! We watched it until about 2am, then decided to go to sleep.
We'd been told by the woman who drove us there that in the morning the receptionist would help up get back to the bus station and tell us where to go, but I think we slept a little later than he was expecting because when we went to reception at about 11am he wasn't there. Instead there was a woman who told us to go outside and get a song tao to Na Kae from the side of the road closest to the hotel. No luck. We then went to the other side and tried to get to Na Kae. No luck. After asking her again she came out with us and asked a song tao driver about Na Kae. No luck. Back to the other side of the road again, this time asking about the bus station, and eventually found a song tao heading there! At the bus station, as we headed to find the Na Kae song tao, we bumped into one of our friends from Na Kae called Mama Fine. She is absolutely lovely - she lived and worked in America for years so speaks fluent English and said that she would take us to lunch and then drive us back home!! So we had a lovely lunch in the Big C in Sakhon, then got a lift home with her and her step-daughter.The rest of today had been filled with sorting out our packing for the holidays - we leave for Phukhet with the school very early on Monday morning (the sort of time that I would still call Sunday night...) and after that we have two months of holiday! I will try to blog when I can about what I am doing, but I doubt I'll be able to post as regularly as I don't know when I'll have access to the internet.
Friday, 25 February 2011
February's Missings!
Time for this month's missings! I apologise for not writing down what I missed in January, but with the excitement of Christmas and New Year, plus with Butschi arriving and being pre-occupied with parties and socialising I couldn't think of much that I missed! But here is what I've noticed myself missing this month:
Avocados
Tuna
Avocado and Tuna salad
Mayonaise that isn't mega sweet
Noddy
Domino
Butch
Polly
Bitsa
Jasper (I want to meet you properly!!! :3)
Mum
Dad
Ailsa
Alan
Caroline
Kids TV that I can understand
UK chocolate
Public transport that always comes and leaves from the same place!!!
Uhrm.. That's really all I can think of!! What I thought and hoped would happen is definitely happening - every month I miss less and I love more. The way of life here is becoming normal, but somehow it's still so new and exciting.
Avocados
Tuna
Avocado and Tuna salad
Mayonaise that isn't mega sweet
Noddy
Domino
Butch
Polly
Bitsa
Jasper (I want to meet you properly!!! :3)
Mum
Dad
Ailsa
Alan
Caroline
Kids TV that I can understand
UK chocolate
Public transport that always comes and leaves from the same place!!!
Uhrm.. That's really all I can think of!! What I thought and hoped would happen is definitely happening - every month I miss less and I love more. The way of life here is becoming normal, but somehow it's still so new and exciting.
Monday, 21 February 2011
Bangkok Trip Number Two!
As Friday 18th February was a holiday and hence we had no teaching to do, Caitlin and I decided to take the opportunity to head down to Bangkok for the weekend and stay with Pippa who is there studying German. We left at about 6pm from Ban Phon Sanuk. The journey down was good, although usually the seats are made of kind of furry material but this time it was leathery which meant that I kept sliding around when I tried to get comfy! The seats did recline a lot though so it was actually quite comfy. Plus, we were given a full packed of Cream-Os (cheap Oreos) each as a snack which was nice! We arrived in Bangkok at about 6am, got ourselves a taxi and phoned Pippa so that she could tell the driver where to go. Caitlin spoke to her on the phone and said that she sounded really sleepy. When we met her, she told us that she'd only been asleep for half an hour before we phoned and was indeed very sleepy! Where we met her happened to be outside the Hotel Malaysia - the same hotel that we all stayed in when we first arrived in August! Bangkok is HUGE, so how is that for coincedence?? I got to go back into the first ever 7/11 I went into, but I couldn't find the pizza flavoured banana chips that they had last time. When we got back to Pippa's we all went back to bed, and despite Pippa saying that she'd be getting up at 9am, we all slept until about 1pm...
When we were awake and felt human again we made our way out to a small coffee shop that Pippa likes and met one of her friends from her German course. His name is Ton, and he is one of the gayest people you will ever meet! He has a boyfriend in Germany, and is your typical gay guy. I had a cheese toastie and a Watermelon Fruit Shake for breakfast. Although, really I suppose it was lunch... After this we went to a lovely park and had a wander round before sitting down on a bench in the shade and helping Pippa and Ton with their German work. Actually, Caitlin helped them as I have never studied German in my life, but I smiled and nodded a lot :) Caitlin says that this is what she did too, but at least she was able to take educated guesses! We then headed back and went to Hotel Malaysia to get some drinks. Here we met Nat. Now, we thought that Ton was the gayest you could get. We were soon proved wrong when Nat came swaying in in tiny blue short shorts and a tank top. He also had a boyfriend in Germany. Both him and Ton are absolutely lovely! They are good friends of Pippa's, but for some reason in Thailand in a lot of places being gay is frowned upon, but being a lesbian is not. When Pippa told us on the phone that her friends were gay she didn't know how to explain it, so said "same same lesbian... but man!". This strange mentality shows at schools, especially in more rural areas, because in younger years there are a lot of ladyboys (a boy who wants to be a girl), but the older years don't. This is because ladyboys are steriotypically seen as "gay", even though they aren't necessarily. When they get older they realise that they can't continue being a ladyboy without people thinking that they are gay, so they become "normal" again. There are some gay couples in older years, but very few.
We then headed back to Pippa's apartment so I could get my camera, meeting up with more of Pippa'ss friends on the way, before heading to a Thai barbecue buffet. I love these things - it is a bucket fire in the middle of the table, and on top there is a pan/pot that looks a bit like a wok, but with a raised middle. Meat goes on the middle bit and soup goes round the outside with vegetables in it. Everyone goes to the buffet and gets plates of raw meat that are piled on the middle of the pan and shared by everyone. There is fruit and Thai desserts too, and for the whole thing it was only 150 baht each which is brilliant!
When we were done eating we headed back to Pee Dee's room, which is near Pippa's but not in the same apartment block. Pippa quickly went to get her laptop and Caitlin and I chatted to Pee Dee and watched Thai TV. When Pippa came back we played on the computer, helped her with German homework and watched a Thai dubbed horror film. Wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but it was entertaining! Nat came in and out a few times, wearing just the short shorts by now... We headed back to Pippa's and went to sleep at about 2am.
On Saturday morning we got up at about 11am and again went to the coffee shop and met Ton. After this we made our way to the bus station to get our tickets back to Na Kae for the next day, stopping off at a huge market on the way! It genuinely was massive, everywhere you went there was somewhere else to go! There was a pets section of the market which I wasn't a huge fan of. They lovely puppies that were actually in really good condition and seemed well looked after, but other places had kittens and rabbits that again looked far too young to be taken from their mums. They also had squirrels and other rodents on leads on the top of their cages for people to look at, but they all looked miserable. The puppies were absolutely adorable though, but don't worry mum, I haven't bought one. Yet... :P We then got in a taxi to the bus station, and got there after having to take a diversion due to a redshirt march. It was a very peaceful march though, and everything was controlled, so don't worry. After getting our bus tickets Pippa took us to her sister's shop, then to her sister's house. Her sister is either called Ngun or Nung, I can never remember how to pronounce it, and has a 6 month old son called Dono. He is so cute, and huge for such a young boy! Unfortunately Ngun/Nung was at work so we didn't get to see her, but hopefully next time we're passing through Bangkok we'll go and visit her.
We spent about an hour or so at Ngun/Nung's house (two of her friends were there) before heading back out. This time, onto a bus for about an hour to the food market. The bus was brilliant, really rickety but great to see so much of Bangkok! We had to change buses half way because the headlights stopped working. The buses in Thailand are so much better value! It cost us 10 Baht each, which is about 20p, and we were on the bus for over an hour. It costs me almost 4 pounds to get from Kirriemuir to Dundee! At the food market we had Som Tham, sticky rice, Chinese noodles and fish before heading back to Pippa's apartment. Pippa talked to Butschi (her German boyfriend) on skype for a while before we went to bed.
On Sunday morning we got up at... well, actually we didn't... we got up at about midday. Caitlin and I went to the coffee shop without Pippa this time because she wanted to be alone for a bit to study, so we left her to it. She joined us after a while. Caitlin and I shared a pancake with butter, syrup and lime. It was amazing! After this we went for a walk, again without Pippa as she still had work to do and wanted to be alone. We went round a couple of food markets and wandered along some small market roads before wiggling our way back to Hotel Malaysia and back to Pippa's apartment at about 3.30pm. We thought that our bus was at 6.30pm so we got the taxi at 4pm to give us time to find the bus, and sometimes it can take a while to get to the station depending on what the traffic is like. We got to the bus station at about 5pm, checked our tickets and realised that the bus didn't go until 7.15pm. Not much to do except wait, so Caitlin and I played 20 questions which was actually quite fun. The bus journey was much like the journey there but the seats were furry this time. Unfortunately I couldn't out my seat back as much because there was a woman with a baby behind me and they had lots of bags which I didn't want to crush them with. We got back to Na Kae bright and early this morning, had about an hour and a half in bed at the house, then went to teach at St. Joseph Na Kae all bright eyed and bushy tailed...!
When we were awake and felt human again we made our way out to a small coffee shop that Pippa likes and met one of her friends from her German course. His name is Ton, and he is one of the gayest people you will ever meet! He has a boyfriend in Germany, and is your typical gay guy. I had a cheese toastie and a Watermelon Fruit Shake for breakfast. Although, really I suppose it was lunch... After this we went to a lovely park and had a wander round before sitting down on a bench in the shade and helping Pippa and Ton with their German work. Actually, Caitlin helped them as I have never studied German in my life, but I smiled and nodded a lot :) Caitlin says that this is what she did too, but at least she was able to take educated guesses! We then headed back and went to Hotel Malaysia to get some drinks. Here we met Nat. Now, we thought that Ton was the gayest you could get. We were soon proved wrong when Nat came swaying in in tiny blue short shorts and a tank top. He also had a boyfriend in Germany. Both him and Ton are absolutely lovely! They are good friends of Pippa's, but for some reason in Thailand in a lot of places being gay is frowned upon, but being a lesbian is not. When Pippa told us on the phone that her friends were gay she didn't know how to explain it, so said "same same lesbian... but man!". This strange mentality shows at schools, especially in more rural areas, because in younger years there are a lot of ladyboys (a boy who wants to be a girl), but the older years don't. This is because ladyboys are steriotypically seen as "gay", even though they aren't necessarily. When they get older they realise that they can't continue being a ladyboy without people thinking that they are gay, so they become "normal" again. There are some gay couples in older years, but very few.
We then headed back to Pippa's apartment so I could get my camera, meeting up with more of Pippa'ss friends on the way, before heading to a Thai barbecue buffet. I love these things - it is a bucket fire in the middle of the table, and on top there is a pan/pot that looks a bit like a wok, but with a raised middle. Meat goes on the middle bit and soup goes round the outside with vegetables in it. Everyone goes to the buffet and gets plates of raw meat that are piled on the middle of the pan and shared by everyone. There is fruit and Thai desserts too, and for the whole thing it was only 150 baht each which is brilliant!
When we were done eating we headed back to Pee Dee's room, which is near Pippa's but not in the same apartment block. Pippa quickly went to get her laptop and Caitlin and I chatted to Pee Dee and watched Thai TV. When Pippa came back we played on the computer, helped her with German homework and watched a Thai dubbed horror film. Wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but it was entertaining! Nat came in and out a few times, wearing just the short shorts by now... We headed back to Pippa's and went to sleep at about 2am.
On Saturday morning we got up at about 11am and again went to the coffee shop and met Ton. After this we made our way to the bus station to get our tickets back to Na Kae for the next day, stopping off at a huge market on the way! It genuinely was massive, everywhere you went there was somewhere else to go! There was a pets section of the market which I wasn't a huge fan of. They lovely puppies that were actually in really good condition and seemed well looked after, but other places had kittens and rabbits that again looked far too young to be taken from their mums. They also had squirrels and other rodents on leads on the top of their cages for people to look at, but they all looked miserable. The puppies were absolutely adorable though, but don't worry mum, I haven't bought one. Yet... :P We then got in a taxi to the bus station, and got there after having to take a diversion due to a redshirt march. It was a very peaceful march though, and everything was controlled, so don't worry. After getting our bus tickets Pippa took us to her sister's shop, then to her sister's house. Her sister is either called Ngun or Nung, I can never remember how to pronounce it, and has a 6 month old son called Dono. He is so cute, and huge for such a young boy! Unfortunately Ngun/Nung was at work so we didn't get to see her, but hopefully next time we're passing through Bangkok we'll go and visit her.
We spent about an hour or so at Ngun/Nung's house (two of her friends were there) before heading back out. This time, onto a bus for about an hour to the food market. The bus was brilliant, really rickety but great to see so much of Bangkok! We had to change buses half way because the headlights stopped working. The buses in Thailand are so much better value! It cost us 10 Baht each, which is about 20p, and we were on the bus for over an hour. It costs me almost 4 pounds to get from Kirriemuir to Dundee! At the food market we had Som Tham, sticky rice, Chinese noodles and fish before heading back to Pippa's apartment. Pippa talked to Butschi (her German boyfriend) on skype for a while before we went to bed.
On Sunday morning we got up at... well, actually we didn't... we got up at about midday. Caitlin and I went to the coffee shop without Pippa this time because she wanted to be alone for a bit to study, so we left her to it. She joined us after a while. Caitlin and I shared a pancake with butter, syrup and lime. It was amazing! After this we went for a walk, again without Pippa as she still had work to do and wanted to be alone. We went round a couple of food markets and wandered along some small market roads before wiggling our way back to Hotel Malaysia and back to Pippa's apartment at about 3.30pm. We thought that our bus was at 6.30pm so we got the taxi at 4pm to give us time to find the bus, and sometimes it can take a while to get to the station depending on what the traffic is like. We got to the bus station at about 5pm, checked our tickets and realised that the bus didn't go until 7.15pm. Not much to do except wait, so Caitlin and I played 20 questions which was actually quite fun. The bus journey was much like the journey there but the seats were furry this time. Unfortunately I couldn't out my seat back as much because there was a woman with a baby behind me and they had lots of bags which I didn't want to crush them with. We got back to Na Kae bright and early this morning, had about an hour and a half in bed at the house, then went to teach at St. Joseph Na Kae all bright eyed and bushy tailed...!
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
End of term tests and holiday plans (in an unplanned sense...)
Last week I was asked to prepare a test for my students to do as it is nearly the end of term. So far I have taught Occupations, Family, Prepositions, Descriptions, Directions and Body Parts (plus Christmas lessons), so I decided to do my test on body parts, prepositions, family and descriptions.
It's probably not the best put together test, but it does it's job and is nice and simple. I thought that it might be too simple for some of my classes (the 3rd years in particular), but so far no one has full marks. The highest has been 19/20, and the lowest has been 0. For the first couple of lessons I found it quite difficult getting the kids to understand what I wanted them to do, so asked one of the Thai English teachers to come in and explain it to them. I find it quite funny that some of the students think that after me and a Thai teacher explaining what to do they can still claim that they don't understand, despite the fact that the rest of the students seem to be able to figure it out! I have had some pupils who sit and do nothing even after several of their classmates have explained to them what to do. This happens quite a lot in some of my lower classes, and unfortunately there is very little that can be done about it. I have been told by the head of English (Kru Nid) that if students are like that then I should just "let them go" which is an example of the "mai pen rai" attitude a lot of people have here. "Mai Pen Rai" translates as "it doesn't matter" and is heard everywhere you go around Thailand. In some ways it is lovely to be in such a laid back community, but it does mean that sometimes things don't get done until last minute and things that should be an issue just aren't. Despite the simplicity of the test, every now and then I get some hilarious answers. One that springs to mind is "she is one arm" and "she has face hair" which I thought were very amusing!
On Sunday Caitlin and I went to That Phanom for the Thai Phanom festival. The biggest festival day is meant to be this Friday, but we are going to be in Bangkok by then (we're going to visit Pippa) plus we've been told by many people that it is so crowded that it's impossible to get anywhere on the Friday, so we decided to go earlier. It was brilliant - basically just an enormous market with Prathat Phanom (the temple) in the middle. I spent far too much money but bought some very pretty things! I got a t-shirt that has a map of Thailand made up of all the province names written in Thai which I love, a pair of shorts, a lovely kaftan, a new watch and a butterfly necklace. To be fair, everything I bought is something that I will wear and that will be useful, so really they're all investements... :P
This week is our last teaching at NaKaePitt. until after the two month holiday. For the next two weeks we are teaching full time at St. Joseph Primary School because due to holidays usually being on a Friday (the day we're meant to teach the primary kids) we have missed a lot of days there. It should be brilliant to be teaching there constantly, the kids are absolutely lovely and because they are younger the lessons often revolve around songs and games! Fun fun fun! After that we are lucky enough to be going to Phukhet on a teacher-trp with some of the teachers at NaKaePitt. I can't wait for it, it'll be so brilliant to spend so much time with the other teachers and get to bond with them. We are then back in Na Kae for two days (14th and 15th) to help out at an English camp at St Joseph, then the holidays begin! As of yet our holiday plan is rather sketchy... I am hoping to be doing a week of volunteering at an orphanage in Nong Khai, but am waiting to hear back from them to find out if they have any week placements. I have a list of places that I want to see, and I think that our plan at the moment is to head south at the start of the holidays towards Bangkok as one of Caitlin's friends is coming over a week into the holidays. I doubt it will be a direct trip to Bangkok, that would be far too boring, so we'll probably wiggle our way southwards, pick up Jake and then continue southwards towards some more islands. After that I suppose the only way to go is north! Seven Steps Waterfall is definitely on the list, as are some caves that a family friend (Ian) recommended. We are hoping to be able to get over to Cambodia at some point to visit Ankhor Wat, but at the moment we don't know if that'll be possible due to the situation on the Thai-Cambodia border in Si Sa Khet. Hopefully it'll have cleared up by then, but all border-crossings have to be okay'ed by Project Trust so it depends on whether or not they think it's safe.
It's probably not the best put together test, but it does it's job and is nice and simple. I thought that it might be too simple for some of my classes (the 3rd years in particular), but so far no one has full marks. The highest has been 19/20, and the lowest has been 0. For the first couple of lessons I found it quite difficult getting the kids to understand what I wanted them to do, so asked one of the Thai English teachers to come in and explain it to them. I find it quite funny that some of the students think that after me and a Thai teacher explaining what to do they can still claim that they don't understand, despite the fact that the rest of the students seem to be able to figure it out! I have had some pupils who sit and do nothing even after several of their classmates have explained to them what to do. This happens quite a lot in some of my lower classes, and unfortunately there is very little that can be done about it. I have been told by the head of English (Kru Nid) that if students are like that then I should just "let them go" which is an example of the "mai pen rai" attitude a lot of people have here. "Mai Pen Rai" translates as "it doesn't matter" and is heard everywhere you go around Thailand. In some ways it is lovely to be in such a laid back community, but it does mean that sometimes things don't get done until last minute and things that should be an issue just aren't. Despite the simplicity of the test, every now and then I get some hilarious answers. One that springs to mind is "she is one arm" and "she has face hair" which I thought were very amusing!
On Sunday Caitlin and I went to That Phanom for the Thai Phanom festival. The biggest festival day is meant to be this Friday, but we are going to be in Bangkok by then (we're going to visit Pippa) plus we've been told by many people that it is so crowded that it's impossible to get anywhere on the Friday, so we decided to go earlier. It was brilliant - basically just an enormous market with Prathat Phanom (the temple) in the middle. I spent far too much money but bought some very pretty things! I got a t-shirt that has a map of Thailand made up of all the province names written in Thai which I love, a pair of shorts, a lovely kaftan, a new watch and a butterfly necklace. To be fair, everything I bought is something that I will wear and that will be useful, so really they're all investements... :P
This week is our last teaching at NaKaePitt. until after the two month holiday. For the next two weeks we are teaching full time at St. Joseph Primary School because due to holidays usually being on a Friday (the day we're meant to teach the primary kids) we have missed a lot of days there. It should be brilliant to be teaching there constantly, the kids are absolutely lovely and because they are younger the lessons often revolve around songs and games! Fun fun fun! After that we are lucky enough to be going to Phukhet on a teacher-trp with some of the teachers at NaKaePitt. I can't wait for it, it'll be so brilliant to spend so much time with the other teachers and get to bond with them. We are then back in Na Kae for two days (14th and 15th) to help out at an English camp at St Joseph, then the holidays begin! As of yet our holiday plan is rather sketchy... I am hoping to be doing a week of volunteering at an orphanage in Nong Khai, but am waiting to hear back from them to find out if they have any week placements. I have a list of places that I want to see, and I think that our plan at the moment is to head south at the start of the holidays towards Bangkok as one of Caitlin's friends is coming over a week into the holidays. I doubt it will be a direct trip to Bangkok, that would be far too boring, so we'll probably wiggle our way southwards, pick up Jake and then continue southwards towards some more islands. After that I suppose the only way to go is north! Seven Steps Waterfall is definitely on the list, as are some caves that a family friend (Ian) recommended. We are hoping to be able to get over to Cambodia at some point to visit Ankhor Wat, but at the moment we don't know if that'll be possible due to the situation on the Thai-Cambodia border in Si Sa Khet. Hopefully it'll have cleared up by then, but all border-crossings have to be okay'ed by Project Trust so it depends on whether or not they think it's safe.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Lucie and Unorganised Temple Visits!
On Friday of this week Lucie, our Rep, came to visit us in Na Kae. Lucie was a volunteer in Thailand in 1992 and loved it so much that she has now lived here for over 15 years. She is employed by Project Trust to be our in-country Rep so that if any of us have any problems there is someone close at hand to help. Her visit was simply to see how the project was going and to make sure that us and our hosts were happy, which we are!
She arrived at about 12pm at St. Joseph Primary School, where Caitlin and I were working (we work there every Friday). Well, actually, we weren't working because we had arrived bright and early to be told that we didn't actually have any pupils to teach because they were all sitting mid-term tests. This is a regular occurrence here - quite often we won't be told that something has changed or that something special is happening until the day, and there are a lot of things happening! I genuinely cannot remember the last time I taught a full week of normal classes - there is always something exciting going on! Anyway, Lucie arrived with her 3 year old daughter, May, just in time to have lunch at St. Joseph before having a wander round. She had never been to that primary school because we are only the second set of volunteers that this project has had, and the last volunteers worked at a different primary school.
After this we made our way to NaKae Pitt. with Caitlin and I on bicycles and Lucie following us in the car. Lucie had a quick chat with Kru Nid and then came to see our house. As Na Kae Pitt. is our main place of work and Kru Nid has become our main host, at about 2pm we went back there so that Lucie and Kru Nid could talk some more. While they were talking we used the time to play with May. Actually... in all honesty, we used this as an excuse to play with her toys. It was fun!
We then went on to NaKae Sa., the private school that we work at on Saturdays, to give Lucie a look at all the places where we work. As no one was expecting us and we arrived after the school had finished there weren't many people about, but we managed to speak to teacher Gai who is heading the Saturday project that we're involved in which was nice.
At about 4.10pm we headed on to Ban Phon Sanuk so that Lucie could meet Pippa's mum and dad and see where we had made most of our friends. It was great for her to meet them - she speaks fluent Thai so was able to explain who she was and chat to them. At about 5pm Kru Nid phoned us to tell us that there was a party at the house next to the bridge on the way to the school and that we were invited to eat there, so off we went to eat! It was a lovely house, we thought it belonged to one of the teachers, then got told that it belonged to another teacher (Kru Keh), but it turns out it doesn't belong to Kru Keh but we're still not 100% sure who it does belong too...! The food was good as always though.
Lucie and May stayed at the same resort that Nick and Rachel stayed at when they visited, which is about 2km away from our house. Before they went there though they came back to our house to have tea and chat about how the project is going. We found out that Kru Nid wants us to talk to more people and try not to get lost in our own little world as much, so we know what to work on.
On Saturday Caitlin and I were going on a field trip with the NaKaeSa. pupils, so as Lucie had no plans for the day other than make her way back to Ubon her and May came with us. The plan was to visit Prathat Srikhun (one of the 7 pagodas of Nakhon Phanom) and then go to a temple on one of the mountains just outside Na Kae called Wat Dan Sao Khoi where they have miniature versions of all 7 pagodas. Lucie, Caitlin and I arrived at Wat Srikhun along with Gordon, Dave and Martin who are other 'farang' teachers who have been helping with the project. We waited there for about 20 minutes for the minibus (which left before any of us) to arrive. We then got a phonecall from Joe (another 'farang') who told us that the Srikhun trip had been replaced by a trip to 7/11... I'm being serious. They took so long at 7/11 that there was no time left to see the temple. Luckily the temple is about 8 minutes down the road so we can see it anytime, but it would have been good to be able to talk to the kids about it in English while we were there!
We then jumped back in our vehicles (Lucie, Caitlin, May and I in Lucie's car following Martin and Gordon's car) and went on up to Wat Dan Sao Khoi. We arrived about an hour before the kids because they had to walk up to the temple as the road was too steep for the bus. Lucie went home just as the kids were arriving as she had to get back to Ubon in time to get ready to go to a wedding in the evening. The aim was to get the kids to do a mini tour-guide presentation in English as we saw each mini-pagoda, but all of them were too shy. Instead we ended up asking them questions about each pagoda and letting them use their leaflets to answer them in English. Admittedly it probably didn't teach them a huge deal, but it was good to get to see the temple and talk to the kids.
Today had been fun, we got up at about 7.30am because we were meant to meet a student called Natacha (nickname Nom-Briou - it means yoghurt!) at 8am at the school to be taken up to Wat Dan Sao Khoi again, this time to watch a mountain biking competition. When we arrived at the school, no one was there, and after 30 minutes when there was still no one there we decided to make our own way up (we remembered the way from yesterday, or rather, Caitlin did). When we got there Natacha apologised profusely, as she had forgotten about us. She is really lovely, she is in 6th year and sings the prayer at morning ceremony. Her English is quite good too.
We spent the day wandering around talking to students and watching people on very fast mountain bikes cycling round the course and up the mountain. Cudos to them, there is no way I could have cycled up there! For lunch however we did have to walk, and it was very steep and very hot. Not exactly my idea of fun, but looking back on it I'm glad I made it to the top. It wasn't very far, but it was actually really hard work! We ate rice, som tham and vegetables, and got free ice cream!! I love the ice cream here - a lot of the stuff you get at the market is made from coconut milk and is amazing.
We got a lift down the mountain with a teacher, and then cycled back to our house to shower. At about 5pm the same teacher who drove us down the mountain drove us to Ban Phon Sauk to see Pippa's parents who we now stay with a couple of times a week. My main job there is watering the plants and looking after Pippa's garden... lets hope it survives!
Oh, on a side note, if I thought that getting the hang of one new language was difficult, it has just got a lot harder! As Pippa is now studying German, and I have never studied German in my life, I am now getting taught how to say lots of things in German, and I get asked questions in German! It is really fun, and I hope asking me questions is helping Pippa to learn, but it is really hard to remember!
She arrived at about 12pm at St. Joseph Primary School, where Caitlin and I were working (we work there every Friday). Well, actually, we weren't working because we had arrived bright and early to be told that we didn't actually have any pupils to teach because they were all sitting mid-term tests. This is a regular occurrence here - quite often we won't be told that something has changed or that something special is happening until the day, and there are a lot of things happening! I genuinely cannot remember the last time I taught a full week of normal classes - there is always something exciting going on! Anyway, Lucie arrived with her 3 year old daughter, May, just in time to have lunch at St. Joseph before having a wander round. She had never been to that primary school because we are only the second set of volunteers that this project has had, and the last volunteers worked at a different primary school.
After this we made our way to NaKae Pitt. with Caitlin and I on bicycles and Lucie following us in the car. Lucie had a quick chat with Kru Nid and then came to see our house. As Na Kae Pitt. is our main place of work and Kru Nid has become our main host, at about 2pm we went back there so that Lucie and Kru Nid could talk some more. While they were talking we used the time to play with May. Actually... in all honesty, we used this as an excuse to play with her toys. It was fun!
We then went on to NaKae Sa., the private school that we work at on Saturdays, to give Lucie a look at all the places where we work. As no one was expecting us and we arrived after the school had finished there weren't many people about, but we managed to speak to teacher Gai who is heading the Saturday project that we're involved in which was nice.
At about 4.10pm we headed on to Ban Phon Sanuk so that Lucie could meet Pippa's mum and dad and see where we had made most of our friends. It was great for her to meet them - she speaks fluent Thai so was able to explain who she was and chat to them. At about 5pm Kru Nid phoned us to tell us that there was a party at the house next to the bridge on the way to the school and that we were invited to eat there, so off we went to eat! It was a lovely house, we thought it belonged to one of the teachers, then got told that it belonged to another teacher (Kru Keh), but it turns out it doesn't belong to Kru Keh but we're still not 100% sure who it does belong too...! The food was good as always though.
Lucie and May stayed at the same resort that Nick and Rachel stayed at when they visited, which is about 2km away from our house. Before they went there though they came back to our house to have tea and chat about how the project is going. We found out that Kru Nid wants us to talk to more people and try not to get lost in our own little world as much, so we know what to work on.
On Saturday Caitlin and I were going on a field trip with the NaKaeSa. pupils, so as Lucie had no plans for the day other than make her way back to Ubon her and May came with us. The plan was to visit Prathat Srikhun (one of the 7 pagodas of Nakhon Phanom) and then go to a temple on one of the mountains just outside Na Kae called Wat Dan Sao Khoi where they have miniature versions of all 7 pagodas. Lucie, Caitlin and I arrived at Wat Srikhun along with Gordon, Dave and Martin who are other 'farang' teachers who have been helping with the project. We waited there for about 20 minutes for the minibus (which left before any of us) to arrive. We then got a phonecall from Joe (another 'farang') who told us that the Srikhun trip had been replaced by a trip to 7/11... I'm being serious. They took so long at 7/11 that there was no time left to see the temple. Luckily the temple is about 8 minutes down the road so we can see it anytime, but it would have been good to be able to talk to the kids about it in English while we were there!We then jumped back in our vehicles (Lucie, Caitlin, May and I in Lucie's car following Martin and Gordon's car) and went on up to Wat Dan Sao Khoi. We arrived about an hour before the kids because they had to walk up to the temple as the road was too steep for the bus. Lucie went home just as the kids were arriving as she had to get back to Ubon in time to get ready to go to a wedding in the evening. The aim was to get the kids to do a mini tour-guide presentation in English as we saw each mini-pagoda, but all of them were too shy. Instead we ended up asking them questions about each pagoda and letting them use their leaflets to answer them in English. Admittedly it probably didn't teach them a huge deal, but it was good to get to see the temple and talk to the kids.
Today had been fun, we got up at about 7.30am because we were meant to meet a student called Natacha (nickname Nom-Briou - it means yoghurt!) at 8am at the school to be taken up to Wat Dan Sao Khoi again, this time to watch a mountain biking competition. When we arrived at the school, no one was there, and after 30 minutes when there was still no one there we decided to make our own way up (we remembered the way from yesterday, or rather, Caitlin did). When we got there Natacha apologised profusely, as she had forgotten about us. She is really lovely, she is in 6th year and sings the prayer at morning ceremony. Her English is quite good too.We spent the day wandering around talking to students and watching people on very fast mountain bikes cycling round the course and up the mountain. Cudos to them, there is no way I could have cycled up there! For lunch however we did have to walk, and it was very steep and very hot. Not exactly my idea of fun, but looking back on it I'm glad I made it to the top. It wasn't very far, but it was actually really hard work! We ate rice, som tham and vegetables, and got free ice cream!! I love the ice cream here - a lot of the stuff you get at the market is made from coconut milk and is amazing.
We got a lift down the mountain with a teacher, and then cycled back to our house to shower. At about 5pm the same teacher who drove us down the mountain drove us to Ban Phon Sauk to see Pippa's parents who we now stay with a couple of times a week. My main job there is watering the plants and looking after Pippa's garden... lets hope it survives!
Oh, on a side note, if I thought that getting the hang of one new language was difficult, it has just got a lot harder! As Pippa is now studying German, and I have never studied German in my life, I am now getting taught how to say lots of things in German, and I get asked questions in German! It is really fun, and I hope asking me questions is helping Pippa to learn, but it is really hard to remember!
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