Thailand and beyond

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read one page"

2009-07-03T08:47:00.002+07:00

That is a quote from St Augustine that I have started to think of as my own little catch phrase. In my life I’ve been lucky to travel a lot and at the moment all I want is to keep reading those other pages and seeing the rest of the world when I can.

If you followed my ‘Marianne Goes East’ blog then you know that I’ve recently been traveling around Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Australia. Those blog posts have been imported to my new site now so feel free to have a look if you haven’t already!

I loved writing about what I was up to while traveling all over the world so I’ve decided to keep up with this whole online writing gig and set up a permanent blog – Filling the Pages.

This blog won’t always be about my travels. As much as I’d like to continue traveling non-stop my bank balance won’t allow it, so I’ll be somewhat stationary for a little bit until I can afford my next big jump which is probably going to be a year in Australia.

So here it goes. Let’s hope my life and thoughts are interesting enough to keep reading about!

I’ll write about what I’m up to (at the moment that would be visiting old school friends and my parents in the USA),traveling that I do myself, and any other news about the world and traveling that I decide to put here.

Since I can’t always do my own traveling, what I would LOVE is to get your travel stories! So if you have been abroad and had some crazy experience, tell me about it! Check out the ‘Contact Me’ tab for more information.

Thanks for reading, tell your friends, and keep checking back for more!

Australia cont'd

2009-06-27T19:47:00.002+07:00

I've had some issues with Internet connectivity lately so here goes the very delayed last entry to my traveling blog. Since I left Australia I was back in London for two weeks, doing some work for a quick bank account boost, and I'm currently in the States visiting friends and family for a few weeks.

Here it goes:

So after leaving Sydney I headed up to Byron Bay with the Wills. We got off the bus after what ended up being a pretty sleepless night for me and arrived to several backpacker staff with their vans trying to draw us to their hostels. It worked; Will, Will and I were too tired to do any deciding ourselves, so we followed a blond Canadian named Eric to his van and he took us to Aquarius hostel.

We checked in to the nicest dorm I've ever stayed in and picked beds on the top floor of our duplex style room where we met Katie, another Canadian who had also just arrived.

Our first day in Byron was spent watching the rain POUR down like I've never seen before. We realized that this may go on, so we found out about bus trips to a place called Nimbin - a hippie town that hasn't moved on since about 1968. We took a very psychedelic bus tour to the town listening to Pink Floyd, The Doors and other 'free love' bands to arrive in a multi-coloured tie-dye town. Walking down the main street was an exercise in turning down one offer after another for weed, brownies, more weed, cookies...you get the idea. I took a tour of the Nimbin Museum whose design concept was something along the lines of 'here's some stuff I found on the street/at the flea market/in my cellar.' There was stuff EVERYWHERE, and none of it seemed to make any sort of sense. Hippie heaven. At the end, before exiting, we met a 50-something year old woman rushing off yelling "just wait 15 minutes guys, I'll be back with the cookies soon, I just have to pick them up from my house." This wasn't just a nice lady who baked things for visitors. She made her money making tourists feel like they were on a Grateful Dead tour, or a character in Ken Kesey's acid charged life. On the way home our bus driver pointed out all the 'beautiful shades of green' in the countryside and took us through the mud back to our Byron home. Where it was still raining.

Unfortunately the rain continued so after meeting the backpacker staff and we spent our nights exploring Byron Bay nightlife with them and spending most of our days watching the rain come down with two days of sun that we spent on the beach and walking to the lighthouse - the Easternmost point of mainland Australia.

After a few days I decided I needed to make a move up north if I wanted to see more of the country. One problem. All that rain? Causes problems. Like flooding. In both directions.

Nobody, myself included, could get in or (more importantly) OUT of Byron for a few days.

I embraced my fate and paid at the reception for more nights at Aquarius. At least I could hang out here with people I liked, and I got free dinner every night, even if it was the same stuff over and over again... free is free. Plus we entertained ourselves with pub quiz nights and poker tournaments.

For all the less-than-ideal weather, I had an amazing time in Byron Bay thanks to the Wills, Katie and the Aquarius staff. After deciding that it was time for me to leave I realized that my time was now quite short, so instead of heading up north I headed back to Sydney and the twins. Since the highway was still flooded I took a flight from the small airport inland that was still accessible down to Sydney airport where Joh met me to take me back to another few days of home comforts. Mike and Lisa were still around so I spent my last few days seeing them, taking a day trip to the Blue Mountains, and going to the Sydney Aquarium where I saw a platypus! They'd been hiding when we went to the Sydney Zoo in my first week, so I was glad to check off that last Australian animal from my list after kangaroo, wallaby and koala among others.

I also cooked a meal for Nad, Sal, Joh and Lisa that went down well, I think?

I loved Australia, a sentiment perhaps not expressed well enough in this shortened version of my time there, but I have decided to save up as quickly as possible for a return trip on a one year work-holiday visa.

So that's it! I took a flight from Sydney back to Bangkok where I spent a day doing some last minute shopping and sharing my stories with new travelers experiencing their first nights abroad on Koh San Road. Then it was back to the airport to travel back to London and home.

Seven and a half months later, a term of teaching and an amazing backpacker experience through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and finally Australia and I'm back where I started. Back in the Foster home in Crouch End, London. Dreaming of my next adventure.

I've had a great time writing this blog and plan on setting up a more permanent URL to continue life as a blogger, so watch this space for a final update and a name URL address.

Thanks for reading, commenting, and sending me all those great letters and packages. I write for you. :)

"The world is a book and those who do not travel only read one page." - St Augustine.

This Strange Western World....

2009-05-29T09:25:00.005+07:00

I arrived at Bangkok airport on May 12 to find out that my parents lovely next door neighbor, Betsy, had managed to get me upgraded on my British Airways flight to Sydney! So I went from being a poor backpacker living in dirty guesthouses to walking in to the Business Class lounge with all the other richer travelers. I felt slightly out of place with my clothes that I'd been wearing for the last week of partying and my bare feet, but hey, they still let me in!

After a long flight where I watched Milk, Happy Go Lucky, The Reader and Frost/Nixon in the World Traveler Plus section of my Bangkok to Sydney plane I arrived in this strange place, where people spoke English, and signs were in English, and people weren't bowing to greet each other....I didn't know what to do. I decided to put my sandals on since I was now the only barefoot person in the place, and it was FREEZING!!! Okay, not freezing maybe, but that's how it felt after months of wallowing around in oppressive heat.

I got through immigration, found my backpack and went through the crazy strict Australian quarantine to wait to be met by a complete stranger, a friend of my godfather's who I knew very little about. After a few minutes I was met by two identical twins, Nad and Sal who took me in a real car! It wasn't a tuk tuk, or a songthaew, or a Bangkok taxi or anything. A REAL car! Weird.

Then they drove me back to a real house! Where I met Joh, Nad's girlfriend, and India, they're lovable Golden Labrador. It was all very....normal. I haven't had normal since I left London back in mid-October, so it was all quite a shock. I napped in a double bed with a duvet and everything! Then when I got up, I watched TV on this HUGE widescreen and was reminded of the joys of cable.

After that, Sal took me to a mall! Like the ones I go to in the States, with a food court and everything, where I was overwhelmed by choices of food and I found myself wanting ANYTHING but Thai food! There was a Thai stand, but I was surprised to find how little I wanted to go near it. However, to ease myself in to all this normal food, I did have an Indian curry. Baby steps.

After my re-introduction to the Western way of life, Joh took me on a quick driving tour of Sydney where the sight of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House really made me realize where I was. Australia!! We met Nad for a drink and some dinner at the Opera House bar sitting outside under a heat lamp with the lights of the Harbour Bridge behind us. Not bad.

I spent the next few days seeing some of the sights with Will and Will, my friends from Koh Pha Ngan, my good friend Lisa from my days as a Thai English teacher who now works as a nanny here in Oz, and Mike, an Irish guy who I ran in to several times on my travels through Laos and Cambodia, now living and working in Oz himself on a one year visa.

I had lunch with Nad and Sal in Darling Harbour, where I also watched fireworks on jet skis with Mike and some friends. I went to The Rocks market with Lisa after an AMAZING buffet lunch with her in the revolving restaurant in the Sydney Tower where I was able to look over all of the city on a perfectly clear day. Oh yea, and I ate barbequed kangaroo. Never thought I'd say THAT sentence. I saw Manly Beach and the surrounding area with Nad and Joh, and went to the Taronga Zoo with the Wills.

I also experienced nightlife being back in a city. My first night out was with the Wills. I hadn't quite adjusted to wearing shoes at that point, and I in fact didn't really own any except some unimpressive sandals. My friend Bella had given me her sandals that were slightly nicer, so I wore those but since they were the closest thing to shoes I'd worn in quite some time they immediately started to hurt. I carried them around, putting them on to get in the door of bars and then promptly taking them off again. I got some looks for walking around Sydney barefoot, but not much I was going to do about it. I bought a pair of nice warm suede boots the next day, don't worry.

After about a week of this city life, I joined the Wills on an overnight bus up north to Byron Bay. I planned to go there for a few days then head up to try to see Frasier Island, the Whitsundays and whatever else I had time for. My plans changed slightly once we got there thanks to Mother Nature, but that's a story for my next entry!

Koh Pha Ngan - A Bermuda triangle of Fridays and Saturdays

2009-05-12T12:40:00.003+07:00

I have survived another ten nights on Koh Pha Ngan. Somehow.

Claudia and I took a bus and an evening ferry over to the island where we met two other English girls, Claire and Laura, on their way to Koh Tao via Koh Pha Ngan for one night.

Since the full moon was on the same night as last month, Claudia and I assumed that the half moon party - basically the same as full moon except in the jungle.. would also be the same day, giving us one night to rest before starting the party. However once we got to the island we quickly found out that in fact the half moon party was that night, so there would be no rest for us. Skipping the half moon party was not an option since we had yet to make it to one.

So we booked into the same place we stayed last month - Rin Beach Resort and got a cheaper deal since we're getting further into low season now which was a nice surprise. After some dinner at the Lucky Crab where Claudia and I shared our favourite green curry we headed back to our balconies via the liquor store where we bought ingredients for our own buckets.

The only way to drink alcohol on Koh Pha Ngan is in bucket form. It's a rare sight to see a glass of gin & tonic, because why get a glass when you can get a whole bucket for about 4 pounds?! A bucket consists of one of those half size bottles of the alcohol of your choice (ours was vodka) and then whatever mixers you like (our choice was M-150 or Red Bull and a bottle of Sprite). If you're drinking these buckets on your own and you have a normal capacity for alcohol you can very easily get through two or three of these, or four or five if you're a man perhaps. If you're sharing, you can start to lose count, or if you're Claudia and you have an amazing capacity for vodka and M-150 you can go through six all by yourself. Claudia's a real trooper.

After sharing a bucket between the three of us we hopped on the back of some taxi motorbikes and headed off to the jungle where we came across a party almost exclusively lit by UV lights going strong. I'm not sure how long we lasted, but long enough anyway before we realized it was time for us to get home. On the way out I ran into Chris - the bartender of Outback bar who I met last month when I was here and whose job I considered taking at one point. The drive to and from half moon is pretty hair raising - Koh Pha Ngan hills are not something to be taken lightly, so I sat in the taxi and held on to Chris while he held on to the back bars, and Claudia found room on the roof since the inside was full. I have no idea how she survived, but I'm so glad she did.

After that night you'd think we'd have a night or two off, but the thing about Koh Pha Ngan is that it possesses this weird kind of energy that somehow makes going out every single night surprisingly easy. We often described it to people as this Bermuda Triangle, or Twilight Zone, where every night was a Friday night, and everyday was a Saturday spent recovering from the night before and getting ready for that nights festivities.

We spent most of our days in Lazyhouse watching films, or occasionally in Utopia watching Friends which they play all day long. Lazyhouse and Utopia are owned by the same guy who has great taste in good British food, so despite how expensive it was I had some delicious home comforts including a Sunday roast the day after full moon. It even had a Yorkshire pudding. Amazing.

Then each evening we headed down to Cactus Bar where Woody the Scot worked. We met Woody last month as well and since we quickly became his regulars again we got a nice discount on our vodka & Red Bull buckets. What a nice guy.

One day just to mix it up, Claudia and I rented a motorbike and drove to the other side of the island, up the coast and cutting across the middle over a mountain to visit Sara and Caroline. Sara is Claudia's friend from school and both of them joined us down at Rin Beach for the last few days around full moon. The ride was pretty terrifying but I'm pretty proud of myself for making it and for not completely having a break down since the paved hills average a 20% incline and the unpaved roads have huge ravines in them caused by the water running down. But we made it there and back, then headed straight to Woody's for a drink.

The good thing about being friends with the bartender (other than the cheap drinks) was that we could sit at the bar facing the beach for hours without being bothered and we got to watch all the Cactus fireboys do their thing each night. The Cactus fireboys are all young Thai guys who make a living by playing with fire, and doing it very well. After they started recognizing us they tried to get us involved and I once had to hold a stick of fire while another guy blew alcohol/kerosene at it to create an enormous fireball. I gave it back after one blow because I value my eyebrows and my unscarred skin.

A few days before full moon we were also joined by Will and Will, two English boys that Claudia had met in Chang Mai while I was in Koh Phi Phi with Emily. They were two guys traveling on their gap year before uni and were a great addition to the group. We also reunited with Bella and Lucy who we last saw on Koh Lanta, along with Lucy's sister and friend who were over on holiday.

By the time full moon finally rolled around we had a pretty big group, with a few additional characters that we met on the island along with a few more faces from the past, mostly from Koh Phi Phi.

The actual night was a great time as expected. My favourite part might have been when me and some of the girls climbed up to Drop In bar's balcony and entertained outselves by throwing ice cubes at unsuspecting people below. I know, I know, immature, but don't pretend that you're not laughing too.

The next day we had our Sunday roast at Lazyhouse and I went around to Woody, Chris. Ay (the bartender at Reggae bar who I talked to about being a teacher) and the Thai guy who ran the art gallery (I still feel bad for forgetting his name since he remembered my name after I'd been gone for a month...terrible) to say my goodbyes.

It was pretty difficult to leave this time, and I actually made one of the Wills walk back down to the beach with me to see it one more time because I couldn't get to bed at about 1am. This was my last big party in Thailand and I don't know when I'll be back.

I've been in SE Asia for almost exactly seven months now, six of which have been in Thailand and while I don't want to stay here forever, it still feels strange to leave and go back to a world I feel like I haven't lived in for so long.

But the big unexpected surprise is that about four hours after I've written this blog I'll be getting on a plane to....Sydney!!!

I'm a pretty lucky girl and I have some amazing people for godparents who have made it possible for me to go to Oz for about three weeks! It's not a huge amount of time and I won't get to see everything, but it'll be an amazing chance to see a new country and a place I've always wanted to go. I'll be arriving in Sydney on Wednesday morning and have no plans from there except to hopefully meet up with Will and Will again, plus Lisa, who you may remember from my teaching days. Lisa now works as an au pair in Sydney and is going to be a tourist with me this coming weekend. Thanks to all the people I've met traveling and to the connections I have through friends and family, I actually know quite a few people in Oz and I can't wait to see some of them while seeing as much of the country as I can.

So there it is! My final post about Thailand. For now. :)

Next time I write here I'll be in the Southern hemisphere for the first time, and will have landed on my fifth continent!

Th Thai mafia, illegal work and visa runs...

2009-04-30T21:35:00.003+07:00

So I successfully completed three nights of being a promotions girl for Reggae bar. While it was nice to get the small income (can't complain when you're getting free alcohol all night plus 300Baht and you're only paying 200Baht for your bed...) I really enjoyed the chance to get to meet so many different people. Holding a pack of flyers in your hand is a great excuse to talk to complete strangers. The Tiger Bar and Reggae Bar promoters were a great group of people, almost exclusively Brits interestingly enough, and we definitely knew how to have fun. I got to watch the sunrise after my first night of work and then sit on the curbside commiserating with other over tired staff the next day. Then I got to see what influence the Thai mafia/police (same thing...) have around here on my second night, then on my last night I was reminded that my job was actually illegal. Technically.

On most/all of the Thai islands, the place is controlled by the Thai mafia. The only reason bars, especially on the beach, party until the sun comes up is because they pay off the police enough to keep them from shutting down the music. Unfortunately, sometimes things don't go to plan. Someone doesn't get their money, or someone elses causes a problem and people get angry. A few days before my first day of work a stabbing occurred at one of the beach bars. The story differs, some people say the guy survived, some insist he's dead, some say it was a fight between two white guys, others say a Thai bar staff member was involved. Either way, the police were not happy about it. After a few days of uncooperation, the police decided they were going to starve out the information that they apparently think is being kept by some barstaff. So on my second night, all the bars on the island got the call that they had to shut down at 1am or there woul be trouble. Most Thai people don't like trouble, in fact they really go out of their way to avoid it, so by 1am the island went dark despite the many many angry football fans who were waiting to watch the semi final game at 1:30am. It was a nil-nil game anyway; at least they didn't have to miss any epic history making match. After walking to the beach just to briefly observe the shocked tourists standing around still trying to order alcohol, I headed home for a proper nights sleep.

Our third night out, the same call went out - 1am shut down. We started work at 7pm - an hour earlier than usual, however Claudia and I showed up at 7:20, unaware of the time change, grabbed our flyers then ran off to sit down for dinner... Very good work ethic, I know. After a yummy green curry we set out to actually start promoting, only to be quickly shut down. A strange looking Thai man had come around taking photos of the white promotion staff, then shortly after that our manager came around taking away our flyers and saying "Immigration police, go go go, come back in one hour." So we walked off around the corner, found the Tiger Bar staff and joined them at their bar to wait it out and share travel stories.
After our hour waiting period I wandered back to find the immigration police had decided that Reggae Bar wasn't such a bad place and they would in fact be spending the whole night there. Hmm.. I walked up to the bar, was very generously still given my full wages, then told to hang around outside the bar and discreetly 'promote' Reggae Bar without the flyers for awhile. That didnt have to last very long since a curfew was already set. This time it seems the cops relented and allowed one of the beach bars to keep their big screens running without sound so as not to upset the football hooligans two nights in a row. After watching what seemed like the longest game ever with some fellow staff at the beach, I made it home in time to sleep for about three hours before an early wake up and a boat ride to the mainland.

Claudia and I made the ferry, then got into a minivan to drive down to Hat Yai where we hired a private taxi to drive us down aross the Malaysian border and back again. Got to love those visa runs. So now we have one night in Hat Yai before heading to Koh Pha Ngan once again for full moon number three. Hey why not, right?

Then, my very big news is that I may be headed Down Under after all! Will keep you updated...

Living in Paradise

2009-04-28T14:24:00.003+07:00

The group split up again temporarily and Emily and I headed down to Koh Phi Phi while Claudia stayed behind to meet up one more time with our old travel buddy Calvin before he headed back to Canada and the real world again.

We spent four lovely nights on one of the nicest islands I've seen. Our guesthouse was situated on a beautiful beach in a protected bay with white sand and blue waters. Not bad.

The tides in the bay are amazing; I suppose because the level of the sand is so even the tides appear absolutely enormous. Around midday there is often only a few feet of beach, but by the middle of the night you can walk out almost 100 feet before you hit any water at all.

We spent most of the time being beach bums during the day and checking out the bars at night. We managed to run into Bella, a friend of Emily and Claudia's from home and her friend Lucy who were traveling around the world and celebrating Bella's 23rd birthday on the island which was a great reason to celebrate!

On our last day there the four of us went on a boat trip to explore the other beaches and the second island of Koh Phi Phi which has, among it's features, the beach used in the movie "The Beach." We headed out and although the tide was pretty strong, Lucy and I were determined to go check out the famous beach. It was a pretty tiring swim from the boat and then a rather dangerous climb up and over some rocks on a very wobbly bamboo ladder, but we made it nonetheless. It would probably have been the most beautiful beach I'd ever seen if it weren't for the hundred other people there thinking the same thing. The sand was soft and pure white and the water amazingly clear.

After that and some more snorkeling stops we hit Monkey Bay, a secluded beach inhabited by..monkeys! How did you know?? The four of us were the first ones to get on our kayaks and land on the beach. As we started to walk towards these monkeys I picked up a little plastic toy mobile phone thinking 'oh cute, the monkey's have toys.' Then these 'cute' monkeys starting approaching us...at a full on sprint...and growling... I RAN back into the water which turned out to be a good choice since they can't swim and therefore couldn't get near us. Unfortunately Emily ran the other way and so after I chucked the plastic phone at them to get them away from Bella and myself they turned on poor Emily and one of them managed to sink it's teeth into her knee before she could hit them away and run to safety. A little traumatic. She is now safe and sound back in England and halfway through a course of Rabies injections. Thanks Thailand. I skipped over this in my last post, but while we were in Pai, Emily also got her hand almost eaten off by a baby elephant. Thai animals and Emily Foot - maybe not such a good idea apparently.

After that we reunited with Claudia who had one night out with me in Phi Phi before we headed to Koh Lanta for some serious peace and quiet. Lanta is a beautiful island but thanks to low season it is really really quiet. Almost eerily so. I enjoyed my time with the girls but this place wasn't for me. After three nights Claudia and I are now back in Koh Phi Phi! Our bank accounts are feeling very pressured, so to give them a little rest we have become one of those annoying people who stop you in the street with a flyer and try to get you to come to their bar. Yup. I'm a bar flyer girl. Hey it pays and covers my accomodation and most of my food/extra costs each day while we do it, so it doesn't hurt. Last night was our first night and I actually enjoyed meeting all the other travellers like us who needed a bit of extra cash and an excuse to stay on this island just a bit longer.

After this our trip may be coming to an end sooner than I would like. Money being the main driving factor of course. I was thinking about the idea of going home today, and while it seems strange, I think I am getting close to achieving what I wanted out of this experience. There's still a small hope that Claudia and I will make it to Vietnam, but barring that happening, it looks like a couple of weeks to make some last memories on the islands before a flight back to London town. Hopefully I will then be making it Stateside to see mum and dad and my other American loves for a few weeks before getting back to London to try and ride out this recession!

Meanwhile, back to the beach for a few hours before it's time to hand out those flyers!

It was always you Thailand..

2009-04-25T18:20:00.003+07:00

So after my tour of Laos and Cambodia I headed back into the familiar Land of Smiles. It was nice to be in a country where I didn't have to learn the language or customs as they were already old familiars to me.

The group split up a little due to various forms of travel. Matt and I took a very long bus from Sihanoukville to Bangkok. Actually I think it ended up being three buses? Four? Five? I lost count. But eventually we got to Khao San Road where we met up with Claudia and Calvin who had flown in from Phnom Penh.
There we also found Emily, Claudia's friend from home who came to join us for a few weeks and we had one night in the big city before we said a tearful goodbye to the boys and the girls headed to Koh Pha Ngan for a week to join the infamous Full Moon Party. This is the same party I went to for my New Years Eve, so my time on Koh Pha Ngan was "same same, but different" (don't ask, it's a Thai phrase, I don't know why they say it, but there you have it).

Our group became pretty huge after we met up with my friends from London, George, Sophie and Claudia, on top of meeting up with a couple - Graeme and Donna who we had briefly seen in Luang Prabang, and the five people they had also befriended on the island. On top of this Juliet had two friends from home meeting her, one of them brought a boyfriend and another friend in tow, AND Juliet's friend from Chang Rai plus a friend joined us too so it was quite the crowd.

We spent a week in Koh Pha Ngan and it was pretty interesting watching the island go from relatively quiet to completely overrun by the time the full moon hit. Unlike New Years, this time we all managed to stay on the beach until the sun had risen which was quite a sight to see, although not all of us remember it...

I enjoyed beign on the island for longer and getting to know some people. I befriended a group of Thai guys who work at an art gallery there and who welcomed me into their studio to hang out, listen to guitar and have a few drinks each night when I was walking home from whatever bar we had been in. Koh Pha Ngan is a strange island and I'm not sure I could stay there for too long, but I'm happy I got to know it a bit better this time.

The next day was reserved for being as lazy as possible before Emily, Claudia and I said goodbye and made our way up to Chang Mai for Songkran from April 13th - 15th. Songkran is the Thai New Year celebration; it's also celebrated in Cambodia and Laos I believe. It was essentially a three day long water fight on the streets. We reunited with Calvin who had been doing some volunteering work in the hilltribes outside of Chang Rai, and every day we went down to the streets armed with our super soakers ready for action. We parked ourselves near a backpacker corner of the city where the bars blasted music and people slowly drove down the streets in pick up trucks with enormous barrels of ICE water on the backs to soak unsuspecting pedestrians. The most fun was probably watching the Thai ladyboys strutting down the streets in their heels, hands in the air, getting drenched and loving it.

After three days of this we were exhausted. Emily, Claudia and I went to Pai, a village I visited in December (click here for the post) . My one day there was spent on rented motorbikes exploring around the various natural hotsprings and waterfalls. The village was significantly quieter than it had been in December, most likely because it was not a holiday weekend and it is summer now and Pai is a big tourist spot for Southern Thais to come in the winter so that they can feel the cold...I know, it's strange, we don't get it, but feeling cold is a novelty here. But it still had the feeling of a sleepy hippie town. After that I unfortunately had to leave to go to Myanmar...

The fun thing about visas is that they expire... A very long bus ride and a quick walk across the boarder and back again and I had a brand new visa, plus a new fun stamp on my passport, so everyone wins, especially the Burmese who are 500 Baht richer for every person like me. Rip off if you ask me....

After meeting the girls back in Chang Mai we headed down south for some more beachy goodness!

Tori Rubino

2009-04-15T14:42:00.004+07:00

My senior year at BU was split between two continents. After finishing my junior year (third year) I went back to London where I worked and then stayed to study for one term.
When I returned for my last term before graduation I was lucky enough to find a room in Boston University's Student Village building with three girls still in their junior years. Leeor, Julie and Tori.

Leeor and Julie lived down one end of our hallway and Tori and I lived on the other. Our rooms were all the size of closets, and small closets at that, but Tori always managed to keep hers immaculately clean. I like to think I'm a tidy person, but Tori's room got a professional service every day; nothing was ever out of place.
Her dedication didn't end with her room. She was probably one of the most responsible students I knew, managing to actually NOT go out when she had to read or study instead... what a concept!? She was dedicated to her friends and never had a bad word to say about anyone. She was a peaceful, fun and happy girl who never gave me a reason to frown.

We shared an obsession with the show Lost, especially when ABC decided to put every single season up online for free; we would often sit in our rooms less than five feet apart with a thin wall between us for hours watching episode after episode and running into each other's rooms to talk about what had happened.

She studied in London when I was there working before heading to Asia, but we never managed to connect in my home city because of our difficult schedules.

A few weeks ago I was sitting in an Internet cafe not unlike the one I'm in now, in Vientiane, Laos surrounded by six of my friends and a few dozen strangers when I received an e-mail from Julie telling me that Tori had mysteriously passed away in her sleep on March 8, 2009 at 21 years old. I didn't know what to do or think then, and it's hard to know even now. I wanted to write something to let people know what a great girl she was, but finding the words that don't sound like every boring cliche you've ever heard is difficult.

Perhaps the strangest thing about it all now is occasionally surfing through Facebook and finding her profile still up and running. Her wall has turned into a place for friends to grieve and talk about the things they remember about their time with Tori. It's given everyone a chance to show their respect and share their stories instead of limiting it to those who were able to speak at the services. Anytime I think of Tori I can go to her profile to see her photos, see what friends have written lately, and maybe one day write something myself.

I know it was a little while ago now and the memorial services have already passed but since I couldn't be there, here's my contribution to the things that have been said about Tori Rubino since she left us. I miss her and the part she played in my last months of university. She didn't deserve to miss out on that herself.

Travelling family

2009-04-05T16:23:00.005+07:00

I've talked a lot about where I've been going over the last few weeks but not that much about the people I've been sharing the experience with.

This is where I get all emotional about how great friends are...stop if you've heard this before, bottom line is - the friends I've had with me here are the bomb.

The places I've seen have been amazing but this experience would not have been nearly as fun if it weren't for the people I've been with.

Juliet - one of the first people I met when I arrived in Thailand so many months ago now who will always keep me entertained with her drama from getting her passport lost by the Laos immigration office to swimming half drunk down the Mekong river with a broken hand... :)

Calvin - The youngest of our 'family' yet still the 'dad' somehow, whose feet haven't touched a pair of shoes in months. (By the way Calvin you're rubbing off on me, I've been barefoot since arriving in Koh Phangan)

Matt - I don't think he knows why he stuck with us for six weeks, but we're so happy he did, even if he did get a bit grumpy sometimes. ;)

Claudia - In Claudia I've managed to find someone with almsot the exact same ideas as me about what traveling should be like. Thanks to her I've got someone to go see Vietnam with and to hopefully get a job with!

Zoe - She wasn't with us for nearly as long as I would have liked but my time in Van Vieng wouldn't have been the same without her, as well as the rest of Laos of course!

Chris - I think he was healthy for about two days of the five weeks I knew him... Moral of the story, M-150 is dangerous stuff....

Patrick - The 'talented bastard' whose guitar skills have kept me entertained many a night..

Sophie, Claudia and George - My lovely London friends who I have joined in the islands for a week or so who remind me of what I miss from home.

These are the people who are in all my photos that I will one day manage to post, and they are the people who have made this the best trip of my life. Can you taste the cheese yet?! Whatever, deal with it.

Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, briefly

2009-03-28T11:53:00.003+07:00

Spent a few days in the capital, Phnom Penh. Mixed feelings about the city, it was really overwhelming, definitely the biggest city I've been in for awhile, Laos cities aren't so hectic.

We got used to it though and went to see the S 21 Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields. Trying to explain how intense that experience was in words is very difficult. S 21 was a high school turned into a prison/torture camp by the Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields is where the prisoners were killed and buried in mass graves.
Walking through the hallways and classrooms in S 21 is a strange experience. There are hundreds of photographs of past prisoners, including some photos of the dead bodies that were still found in the prison when it was liberated, photos of dead bodies placed in the rooms that they were found in. The floor still has what looks like drops of old blood everywhere, then makeshift cell walls constructed of brick and wood are still intact in one building where prisoners were kept separately instead of in large groups.

At the Killing Fields, the first thing you see is a huge tower built to preserve thousands of skulls that are stacked up as high as the eye can see. After that, walking around the mass graves that are now large holes in the ground would have been hard enough without the scraps of clothes and piles of bones that are still sticking half up from the ground.

Luckily after a day like that we had a nice guesthouse lounge that we went to every night at #11 Happy Guesthouse to meet new people and have a few drinks although it all seemed a little surreal after seeing what we saw. It was hard to look the bar tender in the face knowing what his family probably went through. With such a young history, there isn't a face on the street that isn't marked by what happened. While people in the west were celebrating peace, love and happiness and focusing on stopping the Vietnam war, it seems that almost nobody was really aware that right next door to Vietnam this huge genocide was going on. America's war wasn't even confined to Vietnam, US bombs were dropped in Cambodia too which gave the Khmer Rouge fuel to drive the paranoia and force everyone out of the cities into the country to essentially work as slaves. It's intense stuff that deserves a lot more publicity than it gets, so look it up and read about it if you have time.

After that we moved to Sihanoukville where I am now. It's a sleeping beach town and will be a nice place to relax. Then back into Thailand to see some of my favourite Londoners and party on the islands before we all head up to Chang Mai for Songkran!

And happy birthday to my dad who celebrated another year of life yesterday. It is really hard to keep track of dates out here, but at least I got that one right. :)

Siem Reap, Angkor What?!

2009-03-22T13:29:00.000+07:00

Siem Reap was fun, Angkor Wat is of course amazing. It was exhausting though! Three days ago we went in the afternoon; we hired a tour guide who was great. He spoke very good English and was a history teacher before which meant he really knew his stuff. It was a lot of information to take in, but it was nice having someone tell you the significance of all the different temples instead of wondering around by ourselves aimlessly without having an idea of what these building really were/why they were built etc. We watched the sunset sitting on top of one of the temples which was pretty cool although unfortunately the sky was pretty cloudy so the sunset wasn't as dramatic as it could have been. Then next day we got up and went back again but this time we got there for sunrise, which again wasn't as good as it could have been because the sky wasn't clear, but it was still quite a cool experience to walk through some ancient temples when it was still pitch black outside and see them light up in the morning. We went around the main temples that we hadn't seen the day before plus a few smaller ones on our second day. One of the temples was used in the filming of Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie so that was the most touristy overdone of the temples although next to Angkor Wat (the big 'main' building) it was by far my favourite. These enormous trees have grown throughout the temple and taken over so it is a really cool site to see - these ancient sandstone walls then broken down by the huge dramatic trees with enormous root systems. A few hours after sunrise we had started to see lightening in the sky and eventually it did start to POUR with rain. We decided to press on though and our tour guide had an umbrella so he didn't mind. We got completely soaked but it was actually great fun because the rain cleared out a lot of the other tourists of course, and for some reason seeing these temples in the jungle with this big rainstorm going on gave it a really dramatic atmosphere that was pretty cool to see.
There was a large Japanese tour group at the Tomb Raider temple (or Tha Prom if you want to call it by it's actual name) at the same time as us with their umbrellas and everything. The open area by the entrance had turned into a shallow mud pool except for just along the sides so they were all waiting to go along single file to get in. After about 30 seconds of that we decided we were all soaked and dirty already so we just took of our sandals and walked straight through the mud to get in which worked out well because we were able to take some photos before all the Japanese filed in!
By noon we were already exhausted. We lasted for another hour or so before calling it a day and going back for some much needed sleep.

On our third day we took a tour of the floating villages which was pretty interesting. We hired a boat with a guide and we slowly made our way down the river to the Tonle Sap lake which is the biggest lake in Southeast Asia and is one of the major sources of income for Cambodia as well as a major source for their diet. The lake is full of a huge variety of fish that make up most of their diet around here. Unfortunately we're here during dry season we the river and the lake were both at their lowest levels, although the lake was still so big that I couldn't see the other side over the horizon. The villagers move their 'houses' every year, living on the lake during the dry season, and living further down the river during wet season because the lake water gets to rough with all the rain and storms.
It was very strange seeing things like a floating Catholic church (one day I'll manage to get all these photos up, but for now just picture a Cathedral on water...not because that's what it looked like, but because that's a funny image :) ) and a floating school. The first school building we passed had the enclosed playground on the roof, the second school had a second floating platform that was an enclosed basketball court/playground. Kids just ran around the boats and the younger ones splashed around in the river.
We also saw floating ducks (ok, ducks float everywhere, but they were farm animal ducks being kept in a floating cage), floating pigs and floating chickens.
We visited a floating restaurant for lunch that also had a crocodile farm, a fish farm and a snake cage. We also went and visited one of the floating schools although I have my doubts about how much of a school it really was. It was a Saturday after all, and the building seem to lack any obvious education material. We started to get the notion that these children just sat in this building all day for the tourists waiting to be given candy, money and things like notebooks that they can sell back for money all of which they got while we were there. It was an interesting thing to see though overall.

Tomorrow is Phnom Penh. Not sure exactly what the plan is although I think the main thing to see is the S-21 Museum and the killing fields which I'm sure will cheer me right up....

It is pretty strange being in a country with such a recent gruesome history. I was in a pharmacy yesterday being served by a woman who looked to be at least in her 60s or so which I noticed because there are very few old people here - probably a compounded effect of the Khmer Rouge history plus the simple fact that life expectancy is shorter here, but trying to imagine the things she had gone through was pretty hard. You can still feel the history around you; more than once I've walked past people, often beggars, with limbs missing; a few times we've seen street bands made up of land mine victims who are playing traditional Cambodian music to try to make money instead of just begging. Every night when we walk home from going out to dinner or a bar we're accosted by a dozen children who literally cling on to our clothes or arms trying to get us to buy them food.

Despite all that I've actually been really impressed with the Cambodian people in general. They speak great English - better than in Thailand and Laos, and they have a great sense of humour. All of our hostel staff, restaurant/bar servers, guides, etc have been so friendly and they really know how to have a good laugh.

From Van Vieng to the Four Thousand Islands

2009-03-18T15:06:00.004+07:00

So after three total days of swimming from bar to bar in Van Vieng we decided it was time for a detox.
After a quick overnight stay in Ventiene, the capital, with a brief visit to a couple of beautiful temples, we headed on a very long journey down through Laos to the Four Thousand Islands.

After a sleeper bus whose beds were obviously not made to hold our overly tall Western frames a minibus the next morning and a boat ride, we found ourselves on Don Det island.

The Four Thousand Islands is right down in southern Laos just before the Cambodian border. I'm still unclear as to how many days I stayed there because time didn't seem to move. While the islands are getting a little more popular, we managed to hit them at a pretty good time. There are a few guesthouses, mostly bungalow style which means a wooden hut by the water with just enough room for a double bed and nothing else. No, not even toilets, those are in another building.
We spent however many days hanging out in hammocks a LOT and occasionally jumping into the river for a quick swim.
If you are ever on Don Det, find the bakery if it doesn't find you first. Darren, an Australian who has moved to the island runs a delicious bakery/resturant. On our first day there he rode to our guesthouse on his bike with his leftover pastries for the day. You HAVE to try a coconut slice or a caramel slice if you're there and he's making them. After he realized we were his goldmine we went there almost every day at noon when the fresh stuff came out of the oven, and then without fail he showed up on his bike after closing with leftovers.

There are no banks, ATMs, or anything on the islands which caused some entertainment. Two of our group made it to the mainland before finding out that it was a Sunday and therefore the one Western Union was closed. Then made it back the next day with some cash which was lucky because then we all started to run out...stupid Darren...

We finally decided to leave and bought a ticket to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We got a boat to the mainland, then a bus to the border. We got dropped off and went through the departure process (which costs $1) then Claudia and I (we were ahead of everyone else) realised that our bus wasn't there anymore....
The bus had driven across to the Cambodian side, dropped our bags on the side of the road and left. So Claudia (who was barefoot after losing her flip flops, well done...) and I walked the 200 metres of No Man's Land in between the boarders to our bags. I should mention that this was an unofficial border, so the border offices were literally just wooden huts on the side of the dirt road with a wooden police station in between to apply for the Cambodian visa. We were in the middle of NOWHERE. We get our visas, ($21) then enter Cambodia (another $1).
I managed to get through this whole process with exactly $0. Remember the whole problem with no cash machines on the island.... Anyway I'm lucky enough to have friends who do bring dollars with them and my tip for you is to do so as well!!

After a long hot bus journey we arrived in a small Cambodian town where we stayed the night and celebrated St Patrick's Day by drinking a bottle of Baileys after I had some wine!! My first wine and Baileys since leaving England, so it was a big deal. Then on to Siem Reap this morning.
Some tuk tuk driver tried to take advantage of us, but after getting out at a gas station and walking away we found another tuk tuk who took us to our hostel and here we are!

Cambodia, here we go.

Chang Khong, Huay Xai, Luang Prabang, Van Vieng in a nutshell

2009-03-08T11:27:00.003+07:00

This is an e-mail I just sent to my friend Lisa covering my travel so far. Since I'm paying for internet and I'm lazy, I have copied it here. So read below to get the short version of what I've been up to! It has been edited a little, I tried to add more detail where I felt like it, but like I said, I'm lazy.

Hey dude,

Juliet said she just replied to you in the briefest form possible and would like me to explain that typing is a massive pain for her right now because she has a broken hand!

Let's rewind shall we? First we get across the Thai/Laos border, after meeting some awesome people in Chang Khong who we're still traveling with now. On the Laos side, we give our passports in to get stamped by a bunch of people and they give it back. Except Juliet never gets her back.

Long story short, they accidentally gave it to someone else, but Juliet and I are both blessed with dual citizenship so she used her US passport to get across, we get on the slow boat with the friends we'd met the night before plus a ton of other people obviously, then we started a small protest to force the slow boat guys to give us a second boat because there were FAR too many of us to fit on one boat. This ended up really well because we got the second boat and it was way better than the first boat. Comfy seats, plus an area in the back where we just laid down a mat, sat on the floor and did our thing. A Laos border guy calls Juliet, and at the first stop we make they deliver her passport. No idea what happened, but who cares, she is now a dual citizen again!

Two days on the slow boat - big party, it was awesome. We had a great group of people, we just drank a lot and played cards and hung out for two days. Not bad and totally worth it, whatever you do, do not take the speed boat or the bus. The speed boats look like suicide missions and apparently the buses are pretty horrific.

Our group currently consists of myself and Juliet, Calvin from Canada, Matt, Zoe, Claudia, Patrick and Andy from England (the Brits kind of dominate the group), and Chris from Australia.

Luang Prabang was cool, the one thing we really did there except just explore around was to go to this amazing waterfall. The night market is also amazing, I highly recommend it for some shopping although I did none because I cannot fit one more thing into my backack right now.

Most of us took a tuk tuk to the waterfall, but Juliet, this guy Patrick, and this couple Heather and Jason decided they wanted to rent motorbikes. I should say that about a week and a half before that, Juliet had her cards read and was told that while traveling to NEVER ride a motorbike. So a week later that's exactly what she did. The four of them arrive at the waterfall a little while after the tuk tuk group, Patrick's arm is covered in blood, and Juliet can't move her hand. The next morning when her hand is still incredibly swollen, she goes to the pharmacy to get pain killers and comes back a couple of hours later after being sent to the hospital to find out she has snapped a bone in her hand in half. So now she has a large club for a left hand. Luckily it hasn't stopped her from swimming down the river with the rest of us in Van Vieng, going from bar to bar and enjoying herself. The only thing she can't do are the HUGE rope swings that are at each bar which is a shame. Another tip - if you go 'tubing' in Van Vieng, don't bother getting a tube. They're expensive, it's very easy to swim from bar to bar, and it means you don't have to keep track of a massive rubber tube that people are constantly trying to steal.

So that's it so far! Another day of tubing ahead of us I think. We're currently a band of about nine travellers all doing this thing together and so far it looks like a lot of us will be together for a large amount of this trip, which should be a blast. Sorry there are no photos but I can't afford toi spend more time in on the internet than already have today! There are LOTS of photos and videos to upload though so I'll try to get to that sometime soon.

For now, bye bye!

Thai Royalty

2009-02-25T20:21:00.002+07:00

So one of the princesses is coming to our school this Friday. Which means there have been no classes all week because they use their students as manual labour instead of hiring people for that. So we have new Zen gardens, white and purple sashes EVERYWHERE (I hope she likes purple...) ALL the building have been repainted including the water tower - all by students. Princess Margaret came to visit my school once when I was younger and I don't remember being allowed to miss a week of classes to clean up! Although I probably would not have volunteered to climb into the roof with a paint brush attached to a 20 foot pole to paint the wall....

Friday is also our last day of "school" obviously there will not actually BE school, details, details. I was given strict advice on what to wear. No jewelry allowed including rings in case it's a weapon.

A lot of things are happening on Friday. Thai royalty, the end of my school days in Thaiand, and, as it happens, my good friend Amanda heads off to the Peace Corps in Africa to help save the world like I know she can. Not a bad day overall.

Tha Wang Pha Part Two and a quick catch up

2009-02-23T08:53:00.004+07:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the lack of postings lately, but hopefully this one will make up for that.

My time in Tha Wang Pha is winding down now. I should be leaving this coming weekend to start a new adventure! On that note: THANK YOU for all the packages and cards I've received, they have meant so much to me. Since I'll be leaving in less than a week, please hold off on sending anymore since (unless you send them super Express) I won't receive them.

On to the quick catch up:

A couple of weeks ago, a student, May, took me out for the evening. We went to the market first and she bought and showed me a bunch of fruit that I had never seen before (the season here is just changing, so all this new exotic stuff is showing up), then she took me out with some of her school friends and we went to the Nan River where we picked algae off the river bed to cook and eat. On our way back through the farm fields, we picked green chili peppers off the plants. May took me back to her house where her aunt taught me how to make naam prik (chili paste) which they eat all the time here with sticky rice (I think it's a northern Thailand thing). It was great fun, and I got to eat dinner on the floor of her home with May, her sister and brother, mother and father, aunt and grandmother. It was the first time I've really felt accepted and welcomed by a Thai family. Everyone here has been very friendly of course, but this family taught me about different food, how to pick the fresh stuff from the fields, how to cook it, and eat it. It was one of my favourite nights here. I've added some photos from that night to this album, so check it out.

Another recent weekend involved a Girl Scout camp and an English camp. The Girl Scout camp was fun - the teachers just made the girls go through a number of obstacle course type challenges. English camp was interesting. Me, the girls and Devon were each given a station and asked to come up with an activity. There was no clear direction, and although there was a schedule it included things like "Rehearse for talent show, perform talent show." What talent show?! The Thai teachers seemed to have slightly high expectations of what this event was going to be.... Luckily Shaleas' made her station acting. Each group had to write and perform little plays, and the best ones performed for the whole group at the end which saved the "talent show" idea. It was fun although extremely poorly organized, but I met a woman and her daughter at the camp who I now tutor after school, so something good came out of it! Photos from Girl Scout camp, English camp, and some random school photos are all in this album.

A week ago, Kelly and I met up with Kim in Hang Chat, where Lisa and our other friend Nate teach. We stayed with them for two nights, did a lot of shopping and I took everyone's money in poker which felt good after losing my money to Shaleas and Devon twice since we've started playing... Since we don't have poker chips, or enough 1 baht coins to play with, we have adapted to playing with grains of rice. The first ten minutes of every game is spent counting out 100 grains of rice each. It works surprisingly well. Photos of our first poker tournament when Shaleas' friend Stephanie (another teach) visited are in the previous album link.

There are a few more memorable events that have occurred over the past week or so but I don't want this post to get too long. Keep checking the site for another update soon. BUT

Meanwhile....

Another video! I got really into playing around with iMovie, so here is another video, this time based on my school and my students, so I hope you enjoy it! Keep checking for a third installment about my village.

Hi, my name is Marianne and..

2009-02-09T12:21:00.002+07:00

I'm a podcast addict.

I listen to them every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to bed. You might too if your only television channels were 24-hour news. Yes I like the news too, but sometimes I'd rather watch an episode of Rocketboom, or hear about why it is so hard to say "toy boat" three times fast from "Stuff You Should Know." I mention both of those podcasts because along with the "Best of Today" they're my favourite programmes and I am always anxiously awaiting the next ten minutes of Internet I'll get so that I can download new episodes.

So here's what I'm listening to/watching, in case you ever wonder where I get all these random conversation topics:

ABC World News

Best of Today (The BBC Radio Today Show)

Best of YouTube

Cook's Illustrated Video Podcast

The Economist

The Feed Video Podcast

Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4

Front Page (NYTimes)

LearnItalianPod.com (ok, I haven't really started listening to this one yet, I'm trying to focus on my Thai at the moment, but I have all kinds of great plans to start learning Italian)

NBC Nightly News Video

The New Yorker Animated Cartoons

NPR: Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me

NPR: World Story of the Day

Onion News Network Video

Onion Radio News

President Obama's Weekly Address Video

Rocketboom

Stave V Videocast

Stephn Fry's PODGRAMS

Stuff You Should Know

ViroPOP - A Green Video Network

Wild Chronicles Digital Shorts

Yoga Today

Yogajournal.com

20 min. Yoga Sessions

There you have it. The 20-odd programmes that keep me connected and therefore sane.

Second Tha Wang Pha video coming to a blog near you soon I promise.

Tha Wang Pha Part One

2009-02-04T12:47:00.005+07:00

Last night I was sitting in my room getting bored of my own company. So I made a video! The sun was going down so most of the outdoor shots were too dark to include. But here's a quick tour of my home. I'll make a couple more about the school and about Tha Wang Pha. Here's Part One. Enjoy.

Novelist Given 3 Years for Insulting Thai King

2009-02-03T00:56:00.001+07:00

An Australian writer was sentenced to three years in prison Monday for insulting the Thai monarchy in a self-published novel. Elaborating may land me in the same position, so I'll stop there.

read more | digg story

Take The Weather With You

2009-01-26T14:46:00.003+07:00

The weather changes pretty often in a lot of the world. It's usually pretty unpredictable no matter what Al Roker or any other crazed weatherman/woman tells you.

Have you ever travelled to visit friends or family on a day where their weather happens to change from warm to cold or vice versa? If yes, then have you found people saying things like "oh, you brought the sun with you," or "ohh, why did you bring the rain with you from England?" I am an innocent traveller. I do not 'bring' weather with me, it changes when it wants to change and pays no regard to my travel plans. If it did, I would never 'bring the rain from England' as I often seem to do. Despite how aware I am of how weird this phrase is, I've found myself thinking it, and I may even have said it at one point, not sure, to our new visitor Matthew, Kelly's boyfriend.

Matthew lives in San Diego, where Kelly also resided until she decided to jump ship and come to Asia like the rest of us in the CIEE programme. Anyone in a relationship can understand how hard it is to be away from your partner for long stretches of time and the experience has been just as difficult for Kelly and Matthew as can be expected. Apparently one week ago Matthew finally decided that it was just too long since he'd seen his sweetheart. Last Monday night (or Monday morning for Matthew) he managed to get Kelly to give him all the information he could possibly need to get from Bangkok to Tha Wang Pha including the name of the bus station, the name of our town, everything, using some fake story about a bar tender who told him that trains were better than buses in Thailand (which is FALSE...refer to this post from a couple of moths ago for more details).

So on Tuesday morning San Diego time, Matthew hopped in his car, drove to LAX, took a plane to Tokyo (several hours in layover), then another plane to Bangkok (several hours hanging out in the airport), got a taxi to the bus station (a couple of hours of waiting...), bus from Bangkok to Nan, BARELY caught the last local bus from Nan to Tha Wang Pha, then hitched a ride with two students who found him on the side of the road, and showed up at our front door completely unannounced on Thursday night, about 38 hours after he had left. Wow. Talk about a big gesture.

Meanwhile, I was happily cooking away in the kitchen (which is in Kelly's room) when these two students pulled up. I couldn't see them in the dark, only their headlights, and all I heard was "hello," and then "Marianne, I don't know..." So I went outside only to see Matthew walking towards my front door having assumed that the room I was in was actually mine, not Kelly's. I recognized him because....well I'm a Facebook stalker (there I said it), and in breathless hysterics tried to explain to Kelly who was outside. I don't think she understood what I was saying until Matthew had been in the room for a good 30 seconds.

So here he is. White person #5 to temporarily reside at Thawangphapittayakhom school. Unfortunately he's only here until this Friday when he will return to sunny San Diego to take care of some things before going to Australia and then back to Thailand in March which is when he was supposed to show up in the first place. Speaking of sunny - back to how I started this post. I know I just recently wrote about how incredibly cold it has been around here, especially at night. Well since the night Matthew showed up with his bags on the back of a student's motorbike it has been surprisingly mild. I wouldn't call it warm, but I no longer have to sleep with every item of clothing I own. I still have two duvet covers, but Matthew has, as they say, 'brought the warmth' with him. So thanks Matthew, for bringing a little sunshine to Tha Wang Pha and for giving this village some new gossip to chatter about.

In other news, my friend Kim just wrote a blog about life in Thailand that I think does a great job of describing all the little everyday things. The only thing that differs between her life here and mine is that I do not have a 7-11 on every corner. We do have one, it's a pretty cool hangout. But in general, she's right about the abundance of this 24/7 convenience store. Also, my school does not have buffalo, we have pigs. Kim's blog.

That's it for now. We tutored all this past weekend which was just as fun as it sounds. This coming weekend we are more than likely going to be running an English camp for the students, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Finally - I want your comments. Tell me a story (any big gestures committed/witnessed lately?), say hi, talk about what life is like where you are, I don't care, I just care that you share it with me and the rest of the blog-o-sphere.

Bye for now

Obama becomes America's 8th left handed President

2009-01-21T01:05:00.003+07:00

So Barack Obama is President.

I just watched the inauguration sitting on my bed in Thailand with Kelly watching Aljazeera Network huddled up in my sweater and my blankets.

I wish I could have been there in DC, but it was great to watch this event.

Obama is still as always a great speaker, although to be honest I wish his speech had done more. It was good, but not so memorable. I can't really remember any full phrases from it already... except something about harnessing the wind, water and earth for power or something along those lines. Definitely no "ask not what your country can do for you..." moments.

The Aljazeera panel is basically ripping apart his speech right now. Should of kept it shorter buddy, then at least they'd have fewer quotes to criticize.

There's not much else to say that hasn't been said before by hundreds of people, but it feels pretty amazing to be around in a time like this when so much is happening and so much change is trying to bust through the door. What will happen in the next few years? Watch this space I guess.

Meanwhile - just watched Obama sign those first executive orders. Who knew Obama was a leftie?? As a fellow leftie, I can't help but like him just a little bit more for that.

Obama - you are officially hired. Let's see what you got. Don't let us down, that would be upsetting and just kind of awkward for you, sort of like the whole 'Mission Accomplished' thing. Lets learn from our predecessors there please...

Thai Tunes

2009-01-20T00:16:00.002+07:00

I've added a fun little widget to the side of this blog called 'Thai Tunes.'

The playlist includes My President is Black (see my post about Obama two below this one) and then songs that I hear here in Thailand. So this gives you an idea of what Western music gets played over here. All these songs are ones I either hear repeatedly at karaoke or at Thai bars/clubs (except So Long, Marianne....I just threw that one in there for myself...:-) ).

I'll update it with anymore songs that I find are favs over here, or just songs I feel like you should listen to...

We'll see how it goes

Photos of it all

2009-01-19T17:02:00.003+07:00

I know these have been long awaited by some people and my internet finally wants to cooperate, so here it is. Photos from all these old stories I've been telling. I don't blame you if you don't have the energy to go through all of them at once, but here are all the links for those not on Facebook to peruse at your own pace. Enjoy.

The most recent album is from this last weekend. I went to Chang Mai and met up with the girls plus the lovely Sophie and Claudia from London! They are here in Thailand/Laos/Cambodia for the next few months and it was great to see some familiar faces for a couple of days. You can check out their blog about their travels here.

Sophie and Claudia/Chang Mai/Rai

Tha Wang Pha

Tha Wang Pha Sports Day

Pai

Nakhon Sawan English Camp

Chang Mai

Kanchanburi

Sukhothai

Bangkok (way old)

Obama and my generation

2009-01-18T23:35:00.002+07:00

So Obama is about to become the new President of the USA. I know it's old news now, but I was just watching last Friday's ABC World News webcast and they had the 'exclusive premiere' of the music video from Young Jeezy called 'My President is Black.'

Despite what you might think of the song and this rapper's eloquence, when's the last time you heard a popular song about how great the president is? I'm sure more than one rap/pop song feature digs on how much Bush let everyone down, but it's been a long time since the US ever had a president that was 'cool' to the young generation; one that has created anything but indifference.

The video is here if you want to have a look.

Apart from the fact that I think it's pretty amazing how much people my age are talking about politics, it got me thinking about the fact that this kind of thing could only happen with a political system like the one in the US.

For a few years now everyone's been complaining non-stop about George Bush and Tony Blair, and yes they're both (almost) out of the picture, but what did Blair get replaced with? Certainly not Britain's version of Obama. I know I'm part of the young generation, so I have a bias here.

If you look at the voting records from last November in the US, the amount of young people that came out to vote is astonishing. This election year gave me a new found respect for the way the US government works. That is to say, no matter who is in the government - the members of the House and Senate, the American people still get to dictate (more or less...let's not bring up Gore's election here) who's going to be the number one in charge. The system's not perfect (again...Mr. Gore...) but no system ever is. I suppose my point is that even if the young generation in the UK did start to rise up and call for change, who can we follow? No matter what, we still have to hope and pray that the party members pick the right leader. Sure you can say that they're the ones who know what's going on and understand what's needed, but sometimes what's needed is someone to inspire change, not someone who has been intrenched in old politics for years and was probably part of the problem in the first place.

We're in an economic downturn right now (in case you've been living in a cave for the past few months...just look at any news source - it's story number two after Gaza/Israel these days) and aside from some miracle plan to switch it into an upturn, what we really need is someone to provide some optimism and inspiration to get us off our lazy arses and doing something about it instead of sitting at home panicking.

Throwing stupid amounts of money at the problem doesn't seem to have gotten anyone anywhere yet and at the end of the day everyone's going to have to tighten their belts and re-prioritize what's important in life, even if that means taking jobs you never thought you'd have - like all these new jobs Obama plans to create that certainly won't have fancy executive titles and cushy offices. Whether or not Obama turns out to be our man stateside, at the very least he's created an amazing amount of drive in a generation that previously wouldn't have dreamed of going to the polls in such numbers.

I just hope that my US peers stay motivated to work through these inconvenient times, I hope Obama does turn out to be our man, and I hope that the government in the UK can find their own way to get the people moving.

Putting clothes ON to go to bed

2009-01-15T11:50:00.002+07:00

This week back has been pretty hard so far. I've been reminded of all the things I find so frustrating about the Thai education system - mainly that the kids have no discipline whatsoever and are impossible to control. Then there was a small dramatic episode with our visas and work permits. On Monday we went to extend our visas only to find out that they would expire on exactly the last day of school. That means that we would have to do a border run to Laos either the weekend before, or on the very last day of school which is time consuming and not free. We finally got that sorted out, and I can now stay in the country until March 31st with no obligation to leave which is a huge relief.

In case this all wasn't annoying enough, it is FREEZING here. When most people think of Thailand, they think about tropical weather, beautiful beaches, etc. Read my last two posts to see evidence that this does in fact exist. However, up here in the North, when the sun goes down it takes the heat with it. Yesterday I wore a huge pair of wooly socks, long pajama pants, a long sleeved T-shirt, a sweatshirt with the hood pulled over my head and a SCARF to bed. And I was still freezing underneath my two thick comforters. Our rooms have tiles floors and cement walls with no insulation and no heating/air conditioning, so if it's cold, we're cold, if it's hot, we're still kind of cold. If you've been thinking of sending that care package with the electric blanket, now would be a good time.

Let's hope it only lasts a couple more weeks, then bring on the Thai summer!

Koh Samui and Koh Tao

2009-01-11T17:39:00.004+07:00

After a great New Years 2009 Kelly, Kim and I made our way over to Koh Samui and settled in to our bungalow a few yards from the beach on Hat Lamai.

That night we enjoyed our dinner on lounging platforms by the beach before Kim and I headed out to see what nightlife this place offered. The only bar we could find that wasn't full of dirty old men and Thai prostitutes was the Irish pub, so naturally we entered. A surprisingly excellent cover band from the Philippines was playing and we met three fantastic Brits who were having the time of their lives so it was a good night.

After helping one of the Brits find his guesthouse in his very drunken state, we crashed.

The next day we were joined by Anthony and all four of us enjoyed a lazy day by the beach and explored around a bit. That night we went out for dinner, then Kim, Anthony and I went out to explore Hat Chaweng beach. The rest of the night is a big blur of moving around to a lot of different places. We found two bars, around the corner from where we had been (which closed down) that were open air and right next to each other. Both packed, both playing good music, but two open air bars playing competing music right next to each other gets a little confusing. I found myself trying to dance to two different beats. It just doesn't work. After these bars both closed we managed to find a 'Black Moon' party. Sort of like full moon, only there's wasn't a full moon, we were on a different island, and it was much smaller scale. It was fun in it's own way, but we didn't stay too long. The sun still beat us, hence the sunrise photos in my photo album...

On our next day out, we rented a 4x4 car which Anthony was capable of driving, luckily. We went exploring and found a great waterfall, after a small episode of almost getting stuck on a very very steep windy road that we had to partly reverse down. THAT was interesting....

To get to the waterfall, we were guided by a Thai man up what was basically a cliff for what felt like an hour. We pulled ourselves up over rocks, using tree roots and random ropes to stop ourselves falling to our deaths. Near the top was a little pool that we swam around for awhile, going into the little cave area behind the waterfall etc. The highlight was probably just watching our Thai guide strip down to his skivvies and jump off the cliff into the water. No big deal.

The way down got more interesting when we had to half jump over a part of the waterfall. I had one good foot at the time, and my bad foot was clearly lonely, so I smashed my head into a rock, fell back into the waterfall and did a nice job on my knee and my previously functioning foot. Then Kim, Kelly and I watched as the top of my foot turned from pink to a very dark purple. Hmmm... The way down was slightly more painful, but our guide was awesome, he rubbed some plant on my cuts to help stop the bleeding and guided us through what I assume was the 'easy' way down. Then when we got to a part that was paved he drove us the rest of the way for free which was huge. Really I just did it all for the free ride.

That night we watched Taken. Very good movie, unless you happen to be a girl traveling for the first time with another girl...and you're in Paris. Watch out for those taxi rides.

So after some fun in Koh Samui, we discovered that there were no boats back to the mainland....so we headed to Koh Tao! What's another couple of days?! We're all really glad we did this, Koh Tao was our favourite island and I really recommend it. A lot of people say it's only worthwhile if you plan on doing some scuba diving, and yes there are a TON of diving companies, but it's still a beautiful island, not quite as built up as Phangnan or Samui, with plenty to do. We were able to relax, watch movies at an Australian bar and listen to some good live music, as well as go on an amazing snorkeling day trip. I swam with sharks! SHARKS! I did my best with the underwater camera, but sharks aren't cooperative when it comes to holding still for a snapshot. Can't figure out why.

On our trip we were taken to another island called Koh Nang Yuan which is actually three islands connected by sandbars. Really beautiful.

For dinner we ate on the beach and I had a red snapper that was probably caught that day that I got to pick out, grilled for me right by the ocean. Not a bad time. The photos are here.

After that, the honeymoon finally ended, we waved goodbye to Anthony who had one more day before a border run (gotta love having a long term visa) before heading to Bangkok to meet up with some of his Kiwi friends. The three of us arrived in Bangkok only to realise that it was too late for any of us to get a bus. Another night in Bangkok?! Yes please! We found an overpriced hotel and the next day after saying bye to Kim, Kelly and I met up with Waqas for lunch before heading to the CIEE office with him (where he works) to see our lovely coordinator, Phil! It was nice to have a place to hang out, and to see some familiar faces before getting on yet another overnight bus back to good old TWP.

After arriving at about 5 am on Friday, Lisa showed up! She'd been home for a week already at that point, my how time flies. Luckily she wasn't too demanding and we basically spent two days doing nothing while I recovered from the long journey home. It was good to see her again, when you feel like spending two days in your pajamas it's nice to have company.

So now it's back to 'reality' if that's what I can call it. Tomorrow I teach for the first time in.... well who's counting anyway. We'll see if I remember what to do.

By the way, my left foot (the one that turned purple) is back to normal. My right foot is still healing, but I survived. And now I have fun war wounds with cool stories, so that's something right?

I hope you all had a great New Years, whatever country you were in.

In case you missed the links check out photos for:

Koh Samui

Koh Tao

Now that the internet more or less cooperates I'll try to add more photos of previous events.

Koh Phangan New Year. Full moon or no full moon.

2009-01-11T16:35:00.009+07:00

I'm finally back after some much needed days by white sand beaches and turquoise ocean water. If you are going to get jealous after reading more about beach parties, beautiful waterfalls and snorkeling trips then stop reading now.

On Monday, January 29th, Kelly and I took our first of many overnight buses. We arrived in Bangkok at about 4:30 am on Tuesday morning, a time reserved for the morning market vendors and the drunks who have finally been kicked out of the clubs. We made our way to Khao San Road and rented a room in a guesthouse for 5 hours - enough time to nap and use the showers. Perfect. It wasn't exactly the Hilton, more like a 6x10 cell, but I slept great all the same. It's amazing what a 10 hour bus ride will do to your ability to sleep anywhere.

So after our rest, we spent the day doing a little shopping and wandering around Bangkok until Kim arrived on her bus that afternoon. Then the three of us took another overnight bus, this time to Chumporn. Then at about 5 or 6 am on New Years Eve, we got a boat from Chumporn to our first destination: Koh Phangan. Home of the world famous Full Moon Party.

After meeting a great Thai girl named Joy who helped us with our taxi and waiting

around for awhile, we gained access to our two little beach huts at Green Peace Bungalows and were met by Lisa and Jen who came over from a few days in Koh Samui.

After more preparation, we were met by Anthony at our huts. Anthony was mentioned in a previous post about my trip to Pai, which is where I met him. He is a traveling soul who I kept in touch with after Pai, and it turned out we had the same New Year plans. Lucky him.

When we were ready to go, we headed to Anthony's room on Haad Rin - the Full Moon Party beach, to meet his roommates Shanna and Jessie from Canada. On our way to the room we managed to run into Joy and her friend. Out of the thousands of people that were already on the beach, we found the one tiny little Thai girl we already knew. Fantastic. They joined us for a little while as we all got covered in glowing body paint - the only thing you really need to wear to a Full Moon Party. And before you get too confused or start to think I'm losing it, I know that New Years Eve was not a full moon, but on Haad Rin that doesn't matter. Full Moon parties happen every full moon, yes, but they also happen on Christmas Day, New Years Eve, and really just whenever they feel like it.

The rest of the night was several amazing hours spent dancing and rocking to drum 'n bass, trance and house music played all down the beach while watching fire shows, fireworks, and neon light displays. It was all I wanted in a Full Moon Party.

I'm keeping this blog post light to appease readers of all ages, but I've already received criticism (thanks Lis..) but I like to leave things to the imagination. If you are familiar with/have been to a Full Moon party over here, then I don't need to say more. For everyone else, think massive rave parties that seem to always occur in random warehouses. Music with no words, a LOT of glow paint, a LOT of alcohol and a LOT of drugs. Anthony and the girls' place was next door to 'Mellow Mountain' which advertised their wares on large blackboards stuck up on the rocks. Yes it was a bar and you could stop off for a beer on your way down. You could also step in for a couple of little white pills, or a 'special' shake made with everyone's favourite fungus plant. Or you could just eat the mushrooms raw if you preferred to skip the blending process. That made for a lot of pretty hilarious people watching. Lisa's new found fascination with glow sticks will always be a highlight of that night.

The only downside of the night was that I managed to step on a piece of broken glass slicing the bottom of my right foot open. Luckily this happened near the end of the night anyway, and Anthony happens to be a medic, so it got taken care of.

The next morning...okay it was definitely the afternoon...I discovered that I was one of hundreds of people sporting bandages of all shapes and sizes. So now I felt like part of the crowd; like me an all the other injured shared some special bond. That somehow we had enjoyed ourselves more than everyone else just because we had managed to spill blood while doing it.

After my most memorable NYE yet, we had to say goodbye to Jen and Lisa who headed back up to their schools. Kelly, Kim and I headed to Koh Samui where we would be joined again by Anthony one night later to continue our island holiday.

Facebook seems to finally be cooperating, so click here for the public link to see a few photos from our time on Koh Phangan

To read about Koh Samui and Koh Tao, click on my next postings!

New PM, ABC News, oh and Happy Christmas!

2008-12-25T23:16:00.002+07:00

Happy Christmas everyone! I had a great day here in Thailand. This morning in front of the whole school, Shaleas, Kelly and I sang 'Silent Night' and 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' while Devon played the violin. It was a beautiful sight. Kelly also told the historical story of the real Santa - St Nick, and a student spoke the words of the song 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' among other activities.

The kids enjoyed having one more thing to yell at us down the hallways. Now instead of just "Hello teacher! Good morning!" it's "Hello teacher! Good morning! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"

My friend Kara had sent me a can of cranberry jelly, powdered mashed potatoes and powdered gravy from the States which the four of us made and ate with some good chicken for Christmas dinner. Then it was followed up by some delicious mince pies and traditional Christmas pudding which I received this morning from London thanks to Naomi!

After stuffing our faces we watched The Christmas Story on Kelly's laptop and I now feel appropriately 'Christmassy.' But now Christmas is about to be over, so what now? By the way, HILARIOUS skit about the time between Christmas and New Years by Michael McIntyre here. Please check it out, he is hilarious. American's may not find him as funny, so Brits, enjoy. :)

I hope you've all had a great holiday, it was definitely strange not being home for the first time, but I got lots of love from a lot of you through cards, e-mails and Facebook messages so thanks so much for that.

Moving on briefly...

A few blog posts ago I wrote about the political situation here in Thailand.

Since then I've mentioned that Thailand does now have a new Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva. One blog reader asked me what I thought about him. Right now I'm not sure what to think. He represents a political party that I'm not particularly supportive of, however if you check out what he has said in that past (read here, thank you Wikipedia...it's on the internet so it must be true right?) he seems to be all about helping out the people. The PAD as a party appear to be more about supporting the rich and ignoring the poor, but Abhisit says he supports creating free health care and lower gas prices among other things, which clearly help out the less fortunate in this country, of which there are many. So in other words, I don't know and I will wait and see just like everyone else! He was educated at Eton and Oxford (more bio information here) so maybe it's just my innate tendencies to love my fellow Brits...

As far as news in other parts of the world - my only connection to the Western World is Aljazeera, the Internet, and my podcasts. I am a podcast junkie, subscribing to over two dozen including ABC Nightly News. I am currently watching the December 22nd episode, and I just want to say how ridiculous it is that the FIRST headline news story; the one Charles Gibson/whoever actually organises the show thought was most important, was the weather. That's right everyone, it's winter. In winter, it snows sometimes. Sometimes a lot. Apparently this year, so much snow that it trumped the economic downturn, the many wars going on in the world, and all the other fun things Charles Gibson chatted about. The reporter on the scene - standing in front of some ...snow... Linsey Davis (someone should tell her there's a D in Lindsey) described it as 'bone numbing.' That's one level above 'bone chilling' I guess? Fascinating stuff. Also in the podcast - you can now buy an attachment for your iPhone called the iBreath to test your own alcohol blood content. Love technology.

That's it for now. I miss you all especially during this holiday season, so have a great time and Happy New Year!!

English camp and English nicknames..

2008-12-23T10:44:00.006+07:00

So just over a week ago I went down to Nakhon Sawan with Kelly, Shaleas and Kru Rin to help out at an English camp for the day.

It was fun, nothing too much to report, but I wanted to take the opportunity to discuss the ridiculous nicknames Thai children have.

When Thai kids are babies, their parents name them, and then also give them a nickname that they go by except in more formal situations. Some of the names are nothing to look twice at, but some are priceless. In their quest to be more American, a lot of Thai kids are given English words as nicknames. I don't mean English nic

knames, like Tom, Nick, Ali, etc. I mean just completely random words, including 'Milk,' 'Beer' and 'Tutor.' Pictured here are 'Bank,' 'Nut' and 'Beer.'

At English camp I think I found my favourite name so far. God. I met a child named God. I'm not sure if he had any divine tendencies, but I started to doubt it after watching the way he fumbled through 'Head, shoulders knees and toes.'

At camp, the kids were also split into groups, with names from Disney characters and things like that. Except one group. The Playboy group. Referring

back to the picture of the three boys, you'll see that Bank and Beer were both members of this group.

The teachers insist that it's okay, because they don't know that Playboy is a company that promotes sex and naked women. Maybe that's true, but it is still disturbing to hear a group of eight year olds singing 'I like Playboy, you like Playboy, I like Playboy, let's all be friends!'

The day after camp, Kru Rin's friend showed us around the city, which was nice. I bought a kick-ass jacket at the night market. It's amazing. It's made of plastic, but that's a

small detail and if you could see it you would all be jealous. Or you should be at least. I'm sure it will feature in a photo some time in the future. For now you'll just have to imagine it.

The Friday after we

came back from camp, our school had their Exhibition day which was a day of good food cooked by the students, singing, dancing, a

nd all around good times. I even got some students to make a custom cloth bag for me with my name in Thai letters painted on it which I love.

Since then, it's just been school as usual, although I have to admit that the pangs of homesickness are starting to kick in a bit. It's definitely going to be hard to be away from home over Christmas, but thanks to all of you that have sent Christmas cards and/or care packages so far, including the lovely e-card I received from Blair, and the card from Liz! :) Thanks as well to Johanna, Kara, Jackie and Naomi who between them are supporting the Thai postal system's finances. :) I know some more of you have sent packages and I can't wait to receive them.

This Thursday we'll be singing some carols and playing lots of Christmas games with the kids, so I'll let you know how it goes! Miss you tons, have a great Christmas/Hanukkah and Happy New Year!

My encounters with Thai wildlife...

2008-12-22T09:15:00.004+07:00

Apparently December is spider season here in Tha Wang Pha.

If you know me at all, and especially if you've ever lived with me, you will know that I suffer from pretty major arachnophobia. I'd like to take this time to thank my previous roommates for their wonderful tolerance of my problem. Especially when residing on Buswell Street, Boston. Any BU alum/students reading this who have ever lived in an old South Campus brownstone know how fun the bug problems can become...

Anyway, last week I was pleasantly surprised by a rather large (but thankfully already dead) spider that had managed to jam itself in between the open slits in my bathroom wall and the screen that I am SO happy we had installed. When we first moved in, these open slits which presumably serve the purpose of ventilating the bathroom (and making sure it is always cold in there at night) were exposed, and Kelly, Shaleas and I found ourselves with a whole host of guests including beetles, geckos (which are actually very welcome since they take care of my mosquito problem), and at one point a frog. Nothing too scarring, but a slight nuisance nonetheless, so we all had a wire screen installed to cover up these slits.

Fast forward again to last week and I had to spot this spider (about the size of my palm with nice hairy legs) jammed in this screen. Kelly, my official spider assassin, somehow managed to use the combination of a wire hanger and some water from my shower to push the spider back out into the back area where I hope he made a nice dinner for the chickens.

So I thought that was bad. Come to yesterday morning when Devon and Shaleas discovered a live spider, reportedly even larger than my deceased friend, running around the bedroom. Needless to say that resulted in some blood curdling screams from Shaleas, although they did take their time trying to capture it, deciding instead to video tape the experience. I did not partake in this event except to yell at Shaleas for waking me up with a noise that sent chills down my spine, so I cannot comment first hand on the spider, but those involved were clearly pretty shaken by it all.

So just to confirm that we clearly have an infestation of enormous spiders, Kelly was visited by one this morning, also stuck between her bathroom slits and the screen, alive. Being far more rational about these things, she went about her business and left it alone. Needless to say this recent sequence of events has not helped to settle my nerves.

At least I don't live near here. Cyanide millipede?! Come on now.

Me: "Hey internet, want to upload some photos today?" Internet: "Hmmm...well it's been awhile, so sure why not!"

2008-12-18T13:12:00.006+07:00

Apparently my internet connection got up on the right side of bed this morning and has briefly allowed me the ability to upload photos, so here are a few!

Juliette's visit to Tha Wang Pha:

Out on the rice fields before sunset

Hanging out at the apartment (that's my room behind us)

Shaleas and Devon outside the apartment

Sports Day:

One of the medal ceremonies I was able to preside over.

My adopted colour for the day - blue, or sii fah if you speak Thai

The seniors on the purple stage dancing and trying to keep the first years motivated

During the parade, each colour was led by a student dressed in traditional Thai costume. I chose this student to post on my blog but as beautiful as she is, she is actually a he. Love those ladyboys.

The purple dancers in the parade

Pai, Thailand. Where life is good, all the time.

2008-12-16T16:34:00.005+07:00

Thailand loves their king a whole lot. So every year on December 5th the entire country celebrates his birthday.

(For more about just how protective they are about the royal family check this out. You can go here to see the article that caused the problem; a very good read)

I took the three day weekend as an opportunity to check out some more of this country. So on Thursday I hopped a bus to Chang Mai where I met up with Jen, who teaches in Chang Rai, and James who I was meeting for the first time after some e-mail correspondence thanks to our good mutual friend Rachel Mennies.

After a stroll and some shopping around Chang Mai's wonderful night market, eating one and a half enormous yet delicious Mexican style burritos made by a guy from New Orleans, and a few bars, we hit the hay at our favourite Chang Mai guesthouse - Top North and prepared for the long day we had ahead of us.

Friday morning we woke up, and after a few failed attempts, found a motorbike rental shop that had three Honda 125 Dream's that could be ours for the weekend. As the only member of our threesome to have ever driven a motorbike, myself and the bike rental employees began a little lesson for biker newbies Jen and James. Three minutes later we were off (after all you learn faster from experience right?). After navigating some serious Chang Mai city traffic, filling up on petrol and finding the right road, I led the way into the mountains on our way to Pai.

About 40 kilometres into the ride we hit Route 1095 which would lead us all the way to Pai on one 136 km long trip. To get from Chang Mai to Pai you have to get over the top of Thailand's northern mountain ranges. If you've ever driven up or down a mountain, you know the only way to do it is to weave back and forth, while the road turns back on itself and you make 180 degree turns while fighting up or down a 40 degree hill. This is not a road you want to take on a rickety old bus. Trust me, I saw those buses trying to climb at a 5km/hour pace and it's a wonder that the fronts didn't slowly lift up and let gravity finish the job down into the valley.

But on my trusty Honda Dream, it was the greatest drive I've done. We stopped on the way to check out Mork-Fa Waterfall in Doi Suthep National Park. If you're there, it is well worth the 200 Baht entrance fee. After that, and another stop at a roadside vendor for some Pad See-You we found ourselves in the happiest place I've found in Thailand.

It was probably the combination of a long exhausting ride, the beautiful clear night, the lantern lights lining the river and the bustling walking street/night market but I haven't felt that at peace in awhile. Jen and James very quickly got tired of my repeated declaration that I was going to find a way to live here somehow.

After struggling through the mobbed walking streets and discovering that no one in Pai actually knows the names of the roads they live on, we finally found our guesthouse and our little cabin room. It's a decent guesthouse called Golden Hut run by a hippie with huge dreadlocks, with hammocks, table tennis tables, and beds with mosquito nets hanging over them which always seem to add a touch of romanticism to a place, even if their real job is to keep the malaria-infected mosquitoes away. It was pretty rustic, don't stay here if you're high maintenance, but I enjoyed it.

After showering and changing we ventured back out on to the walking street for some good food and good music. We ended up spending most of the night sitting/standing on the street by a band who had set up their gear in between two banks to play and promote their show the following night. They were a great bunch of guys, one of whom had an English wife from St Albans (where I went to school for almost four years) who we chatted with for awhile. We had nowhere to stay the following night and we asked her about this, and she insisted that we were definitely not going to find a place. The problem was that this was a national three-day weekend and Pai has become a very popular tourist destination for Thais, so the place really was packed to capacity.

We called it an early night, I woke up at dawn the next morning and starting the process of calling up all the guesthouses I had a number for to find another room. That failed, so I showered and went to Golden Hut's reception to ask for help. They called up a lady who gave us 'rooms' for the night. We moved our stuff to our new residence to find that we were actually sleeping on the floor of this woman's living room on mattresses, but it was probably cleaner than the Golden Hut, and at that point we were taking what we could get. We thanked her for the room, hopped on our bikes and went to see what Pai was all about. We checked out their waterfall (pretty, but not as impressive as Mork Fa), the beautiful canyons and the natural hot springs (which have a 200 Baht entrance fee too...still not sure if that one was worth it). The natural hot springs were pretty cool. The highest little pools of water were so hot that people were literally boiling eggs in them. The lower ones were still pretty hot, but some thick skinned Thais, and James, still got right in.

After that we headed back into town, showered off the spring water which left a strange film on our skin (minerals?) and headed back out. Stop one was the best dinner I have had in Thailand. Ever. Here's where you'll all be disappointed and rolling your eyes at me - it was a burger. The best burger ever. I've already mentioned this, but Tha Wang Pha is devoid of any Western food, which sounds great, and don't get me wrong I love the food here, but rice and noodles. Everyday. It wears on you. And I'm serious when I say this was a good burger.

Burger House is run by Ed, an old ex-pat American Vietnam vet who moved to Thailand and opened up the Burger House "because I was starving." Amazing. He offers 100% beef burger, with toasted buns, real lettuce, tomato, onion, CHEESE, real good bacon, and BBQ sauce. He even has real thick-cut chips. Not McDonalds fries, real chips.

After that little piece of heaven, it was back to the night market for a bit then we wandered into a bar mostly because an English guy was heckling us from the balcony and telling us to come in. He was basically running a pub/bar crawl for the westerners that were in town that night. He was from Yarmouth of all places. So we hung out and played a few card games with him (I've forgotten his name and I feel bad about that...), Darren from Putney, Mack from Balham, Yelena from Germany, Dan from France, Anthony from New Zealand and a few other internationals that I didn't get the chance to chat with. From there we moved briefly to a dance club called BeBop before reaching Bamboo which encompasses a lot of how I think of Pai. Bamboo is a large hut made of...well guess, with no chairs or seating of any kind except some cushions on the floor and perhaps a few stools. For the most part you just hang out barefoot on the bamboo floor huddling around the bonfires burning in the centre. It was like a little hippie haven.

After an unknown amount of time, Jen noticed that James had wandered off... I won't go into the details to save him the embarrassment but Jen and I ended up walking home in the hopes of bumping into him and falling asleep. Luckily James showed up a few hours later.

Our final morning in Pai we grabbed some fried rice for breakfast and hit the road back to Chang Mai. It was a lot busier since everyone was headed back home before work on Monday, so on the route back we navigated our way past cars, large passengers vans, buses that looked like they could topple at any minute, herds of BUFFALO, baby cows that chose the middle of the road for their afternoon nap and the usual extreme turns and hills. Luckily Jen and James were veterans on the bikes by then, and Jen only fell over once, but to be fair we were going up a massive dirt hill after an unsuccessful trip to check out a geyser (another 200 Baht entrance fee which we decided was one too many fees to see nature) and the ground was like swiss cheese with holes to trip over everywhere. She was unharmed and we continued on.

Our farewells were brief, Jen and I got a tuk tuk to the bus station and I had to immediately get on my bus without saying goodbye. I was headed for Lampang where I was meeting Kru Noy who was there for a large school competition that our students were competing in. In a few hours, after a dinner of broth and a very large pork ball (this will be relevant later) I found myself standing on the grounds of my good friends Lisa and Nate's school in Hang Chat. Unfortunately they had both taken off for the long weekend since their school was closed due to the competition, so there was no teary eyed reunion.

I was exhausted but obligated to stay and watch some rehearsals before heading back to Kru Noy's friends house to pack it in for the night.

A few hours later I find myself in the bathroom and the large pork ball I had eaten later floating in pieces in the bowl....

Food poisoning.

The next day isn't worth writing about, but I spent it wrestling nausea, a huge fever and the distinct wish to crawl up and pass away to another world. I will never look at pork balls the same way. I don't even like typing those words.

Luckily Wednesday was also a national holiday so when I got back to Tha Wang Pha I had another day to recover.

So there were some highs, like discovering a place in Thailand where sadness does not exist, and some definite lows. But all in all another successful trip into this beautiful country.

New PM in Thailand. Opposition wins.

2008-12-15T13:55:00.005+07:00

Quick update on the fun going on down in Bangkok. A couple of hours ago Thailand elected a new Prime Minister. For the Americans reading this, the process did not involve the whole population voting, the system worked closer to the British way of organising things. I guess they do hold popular elections here, but because this was a special circumstance, that didn't happen.

So since the old political party got kicked out and disbanded last week, members of parliament voted for who they wanted their leader to be - and the opposition party won. That would be the party who made themselves comfortable hanging out in the airports recently. So we'll see what happens now.

Will the rural population finally get mad enough to have an effect? We'll see..... but this is Thailand's third Prime Minister in a four month period, so they don't have a great track record so far for accepting things the way they are....

This new guy, Abhisit Vejjajiva, is young and attractive and promises change. We'll see.

PAD...PPP...too many acronyms, not enough information

2008-12-11T15:24:00.004+07:00

I have to admit that before coming to Thailand, I knew very little about the country except that I have a lot of friends who have spent many a drunken week here diving, sunbathing, and all in all 'chilling out.'

I also don't remember the last time I ever saw Thailand in the international news headlines.

My how things have changed.

I've learned that Thailand isn't just a drunken beach party, and I've managed to arrive in this country just in time for it to splash its name all over the English papers paired with words like 'crisis' and 'attack.' Words I don't like to hear any more than the next guy.

So for my readers who are just as naive to the situation here as I was just a short time ago, here's the deal:

For a few months there was a large group of anti-government protesters (the PAD, or People's Alliance for Democracy...the most ironic title they could find; will explain later, or read here for more details) on the streets, surrounding government buildings, and for a few days sitting in Bangkok's two major airports, suspending all air traffic in and out of the country's capital. Basically they wanted the Prime Minister to resign because they believe him to be corrupt (which it appears is probably true).

The airport sit-in caused enormous disruptions to Thailand's economy as you can imagine, so the protesters definitely made their point. Check out the link for more on that, but the short version is that during Thailand's busiest tourist season (now) hotels are at a fraction of their usual capacity. Not to mention all the exports Thailand produces that couldn't fly out last week. One foreigner managed to get inside the airport and camp out with the PAD. He video taped a bunch of what he saw which you can see here.

So last week when the PAD made it clear that they in fact were quite comfortable in the airport, but thanks for asking, the leaders of the ruling party were found guilty of electoral fraud and the Prime Minister plus his executives were banned from government for five years. Ouch. Party in the airport!!

So now everyone is sitting around and playing the waiting game. They will probably hold elections in the next couple of weeks which could be pretty interesting and could very probably make things worse regardless of the turn out. Here's why.

The PAD is not a party for the people, nor are they democratic. So great title right? PAD members are royalists, consisting of middle/upper class citizens who believe in an appointment based government led by the royal family. So no popular elections, no democracy, the term fascist-like has been thrown around...

The PAD managed to lead a government coup a couple of years ago throwing out the previous Prime Minister, Thaksin. Only problem is, when a popular election was held after that coup, Thaksin's ally was appointed Prime Minister, because despite their ability to make a whole lot of noise, the PAD do not make up the majority of the population here.

Do you see the problem yet?

So now here we are again, probably about to have another election. And guess what? The PAD still don't make up most of the population. The PPP (pro-government) members consist mostly of rural farmers which is a huge majority of Thailand's population. So post-election, either the PAD wins (not likely) and the majority finally get pissed off enough to do something about it, or the PPP supporters win and we've all seen what kind of mess the PAD can drum up.

So there's the deal on Thailand. Don't you feel smarter? Now go impress someone with your knowledge and feel free to correct the mistakes I probably made.

Play in Vienna gets a messy ending..

2008-12-11T14:56:00.004+07:00

This has nothing to do with Thailand or me, but I just wanted to share it with a wider audience.

Moral: Don't mess with a jealous actor...

Kind of reminds me of this musical murder-mystery/comedy I saw in NYC last year called 'Curtains.' So now I only have images of David Hyde Pierce dancing around trying to solve this case sporting a trench and a Boston accent.

Check out the article here

I just called to say...

2008-12-11T14:36:00.004+07:00

It is so nice to be reminded that some people are in fact reading this blog and that they even get worried when I don't post. Last night I received a phone call from my lovely friend Naomi in London, calling to say hi and to make sure everything was okay due to the lack of blog updates. Now that is friendship. To my other readers...I love you all, and I'm sure you love me too...but maybe I would feel more secure about that love if I saw some more comments on my blog posts. That's all it takes people. Oh yea, and a care package. Am I being too needy here?

So to calm Naomi's and any other concerned friend/relative out there's nerves, here is my new blog post to show that I haven't in fact been taken into the jungle to be used in a non-existent cannibalistic ritual.

There is a lot to catch up on, which means I will probably skip over some of the more insignificant events of the past couple of weeks. Like Sports Day. Was made out to be a huge deal - is more like moderately organised chaos. The students were split into colours and in each colour about 50 students competed in sports like running, high jump and javelin toss. The rest of the student body either skipped school, hung out doing nothing, or were one of the lucky (unlucky?) few to be sat on the bleachers all day waving pom-poms and cheering. The excitement for me was contained to dancing around on the stages in front of the bleachers, and getting to run in the teacher's relay. Remember on sports day at school (if you had a sports day...this may be lost on a lot of my American readers) the teachers had a race, the sole purpose of which was to give the students something to laugh at? Well welcome to the other side of the coin. But since teachers apparently cannot run even half a lap around a track, I barely had time to speed up in my leg before I had to hand my baton over. My team came in second but I still maintain that Kelly's team had an unfair victory because they had one less person. Cheaters. But I'm not bitter.

The rest of the weekend was relatively calm in Tha Wang Pha. Juliette came to visit from Chang Rai to escape the city and come hang out in the countryside for a day. The two of us ventured out on my bike for an unintentionally romantic sunset before going out to dinner with the group followed by the usual evening ritual of entertaining ourselves outside our apartment building.

This past weekend was significantly more eventful, but probably deserves it's own post, so sit back, maybe go get some food, or go to work depending on what time you are reading this. Maybe by the time you come back I will have some new posts about my adventures.

I Now Measure 'Fun' By How Much Karaoke Is Involved

2008-11-25T19:41:00.001+07:00

Last Tuesday was Kru Noy's birthday. We went out to dinner with her, her husband and another teacher from the school.

We ate in a town 20 minutes down the road called Bua, or Pua depending on who you ask (the Thai sound is actually somewhere in between a 'b' and a 'p'... they have more letters than us). We ate some good Thai food, but I couldn't help but notice that the menu also had 'farang food' i.e. Western food including steak and burgers. My mouth is watering just writing about it. I restrained myself since the 'farang food' was a lot more expensive, but you can trust in the fact that this restaurant will feature again at a time when I am not so poor. Or perhaps when my mum comes to visit since actually if you convert the prices into dollars or pounds it's hilariously cheap. Suddenly the £5.50/hour I was making with AYS in London is looking really good...

After we ate, the karaoke machine was turned on and you all know what happened next. Devon even bravely got up and sang "Have I Told You Lately" by himself, and he even managed to sound great.

Karaoke is one of those things that I have always been scared of. Like most of the population. I don't enjoy making a fool out of myself and I'm aware that my singing abilities are slightly below par. However, I have come to realise that the whole point of karaoke is not to sound good, but to entertain. I suggest that everyone reading this blog, if you haven't already, go to a karaoke bar and sing one song.

Just one.

Good songs to start off with include (in my opinion) "Kiss Me" "I Will Survive" and "I Want It That Way." The Beatles also have a large list of sing-able melodies. I hope that, like me, after this first song you will realise how addicting and fun the microphone can be. However, be careful not to be a microphone hog, as this makes it less fun for the others involved that want to share in the high you are getting from the spotlight.

To continue on my mission to karaoke my way through Thailand, Kelly and I met up with Lisa, Kim and Lee (a Chinese teacher at Kim's school) in Sukhothai this past weekend. We arrived at 2am after nine and a half hours of waiting for and/or sitting on buses (again, we live in the middle of nowhere) to find that Lisa and Kim were still up hanging out with Sergeant Smith.

Naturally.

So we grabbed a drink with the Sarge before heading to bed. Sergeant Smith was a middle aged Thai man who decided to assume the identity of Will Smith from the movie 'Bad Boys.' I'm still not sure if he was actually in the Thai army or not, but he did drive a Mercedes...not sure what that means, but it's not often I see a Thai person in anything but a motorbike or a pickup truck.

Sukhothai is the oldest city in Thailand, where the Thai alphabet and language were created. Old Sukhothai is now just a maze of ruins, mostly of old temples that have more or less crumbled to the ground. Still standing are some amazing Buddha images and the remnants of the pillars and walls that once protected them. There is a standing Buddha (something not often seen) that is the height of about ten men. There is another temple ruin and Buddha at the top of a rather steep hill that we climbed in the beating sun to be rewarded by beautiful views over the countryside. My favourite, and probably the most famous Buddha image in Old Sukhothai was of a seated Buddha in a temple called Wat Si Chum. This seated Buddha was bigger than any of the others. The distance between the tips of his fingers to his middle knuckle was as long as I am tall, if not more. It was a humbling sight.

We explored all these ruins and more by renting bicycles. We rented five bikes, for the cost of 30 Baht each (about $1). We rode to one side of the walls of the old city, locked three bikes together with one chain, and the other two bikes with a second chain. We explored for a while and then came out to continue our adventure and found that the two bikes that had been locked together were gone.

Stolen.

My first experience of crime in Thailand, and if I'm lucky, my last. After awhile we started to realise that there was a good chance that the bike rental place was in fact stealing their own bikes back in the hopes that naive farang would return groveling and willing to pay huge sums of money for the missing bikes. Little did they know that we are now seasoned Thai residents who are not fooled so easily. For that reason, we spent the rest of the day with two of us sitting on the book rest on the back of two bikes, and then at the end of the day, abandoning our three remaining bikes, unlocked near the old walls. In the time it took us to buy an ice cream, the three bikes were gone and our troubles were over. We got a tuk tuk back to the hostel to avoid walking past the bike shop again, and all was fine.

That night, we met up with Mark, a guy from England traveling alone whom we'd met earlier that day. We had a rather disappointing dinner at Poo Restaurant ('poo' means 'crab' so stop laughing). Poo came highly recommended by the Lonely Planet guide, but for perhaps the first time, this recommendation has let me down. After that, we went out to find somewhere else to spend the rest of our night and we happened across a restaurant with a live band. We were one of two tables in the place, and I made sure we sat right up front.

It took less than 10 minutes for the karaoke to begin.

Song after song was performed, ranging from "Like a Virgin" to "A Whole New World" which ended badly because unfortunately the words were in Thai and Kim and I didn't know them quite as well as we thought...

I even got to sing "I Will Survive" with a Thai girl who was in fact a good singer and probably belonged somewhere better than in front of a karaoke machine with us. She also took our request to sing the only Thai song Kelly and I know, called Rak Saam Sow which translates into something about Three Lovers, or Three People In Love, I'm not sure. The gist of the song is that a girl has a great, secure boyfriend whom she loves, but she is also in love with his more dangerous and way cooler best friend. She can't decide between the two of them, who both love her back, but lucky for her she gets hit by a car and dies so never has to make this heartbreaking decision. It is in fact a requirement that all Thai music videos involve someone dying. The more tragic the better.

On Sunday, Kelly and I were able to meet Kru Noy and Kru Daeng (her husband) in Uttaradit, a city a lot closer to Sukhothai than Tha Wang Pha, and ride with them back home. This cut our travel budget in half, and our time by three hours so it was a blessing.

That's the news!

I have received more notices of soon-to-arrive (hopefully!) care packages from some people, and I would like to remind the rest of you that you can indeed win my heart by sending your own.

Things to consider including: things that will make me smile, things that are delicious, fun letters/notes/cards (this falls under things that make me smile), a book that you're willing to donate to Thailand (as I will read it and then sell it to a shop to avoid the extra luggage) and if you have any photos of me with you/other friends/anything, I would LOVE something to stick up on my walls that are currently bare except for some photos of me and my parents circa 1988 mysteriously sent to me by a Siamese cat residing in Glasgow.

I'm not even kidding.

My mum insists that the cat's owner, a good family friend is, in fact, the one who wrote the letter and sent the photos, but I personally think she underestimates the abilities of Siamese cats and should perhaps watch out for our own Siamese, Molly, who allows my parents to live with her.

Missing you all TONS! For the record, I currently have a second bed in my room which can function as a guest bed should anyone get the notion to buy a ticket half way around the world! Just think about it...

Thai lesson #5:

Juur dan mai pru nee = see you tomorrow.

Loy Kratong photos

2008-11-17T09:38:00.002+07:00

Here is the public link to my Loy Kratong festival photo album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2334948&l=77016&id=910127

Hopefully it works!

More photo evidence

2008-11-16T21:21:00.001+07:00

Yesterday Kelly and I were taken by Kru Rin and Kru Noy to the funeral of the King's sister. It wasn't her ACTUAL funeral, which was happening in Bangkok, but every temple had it's own ceremony. The King's sister actually died a year ago, but for the past year people have been going to pay their respects to her body, and so now she is getting put to rest. It was a pretty interesting ceremony, I was glad I got to see something like that. The monks chanted for the first half hour which was really cool and very calming, I loved it. Followed by a half hour sermon which of course I didn't understand, before we laid our flowers and incense sticks on the memorial created outside.

Today Kelly and I went on a short road trip to do a little exploring. We drove to the next big town, called Pua, and then up a windy road that has beautiful scenery and eventually leads to the nearest National Park, but we didn't make it quite that far today.

Here are a few more photos from Chang Mai and this weekend in Tha Wang Pha. I created a Facebook album with photos from Loy Kratong festival which a know a lot of people reading this can access. I will put a link to it on this blog for those without Facebook to connect to as soon as I can access the website again myself! For some reason Facebook does not work for me a lot of the time, so apologies.

The photos are in chronological order starting from the bottom.

One of the many huts dotted around all the fields for the farmers to sit in the shade to rest/eat lunch, etc.

Out on Kelly and I's road trip. I have no idea what this sign said except that it has the number '100' on it.

The beginning of the windy road we took on our mini road trip that does eventually lead to the nearest National Park, and then Laos.

About to go exploring with Kelly!

After the funeral

With Kru Rin (far left), Kelly and Kru Noy at the funeral for the King's sister.

Devon's welcome dinner at the restaurant on the hill (I'm sure it has some Thai name, but who knows)

Our school performing Peter Pan at the school competition. Wendy, in the pink dress, is one of my students!

Good times at karaoke at the restaurant on the hill.

Post fight victory with Julien!

Crazy Mauy Thai boxing

Before his fight. I knew he would win.

The fantastic ladyboys of Chang Mai

Inside the temple at Doy Suthep

Getting the white thread tied around my wrist

Before climbing up to the temple

The drive up Doy Suthep

Part of the market in Chang Mai

School competitions/ karaoke/ and Loy Kratong Festival

2008-11-13T11:26:00.001+07:00

The school competition last weekend was a lot of fun. I yet again went through a little bit of shock when I saw other white people walking around! The other schools that came to compete brought their own foreign English teachers so we made some new contacts which is nice.

The highlight of my day was no doubt the drama section which Shaleas was judging. Three schools including ours competed. We performed Peter Pan (one of my best students was Wendy, I was so proud!) and the other schools performed Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella. It was absolutely rolling-on-the-floor hilarious. The scripts were clearly written by their Thai English teachers, who sometimes get the grammar just a little bit wrong. That along with Thai people's inability to pronounce certain English sounds resulted in the weirdest versions of my favourite childhood stories ever. Including Peter Pan asking Wendy "you come ON me" instead of "come with me (to Neverland)." Oh goodness.

That weekend, Kelly, Shaleas and I also went to one of the two nice restaurants in this village that we have discovered which also happens to be a karaoke place. The great thing about singing karaoke in Thailand is that a) everybody does it, so there's no escaping, b) they are all really bad singers so there's no intimidation, and c) if you're singing English songs, which clearly we were, it doesn't really matter anyway because they have no idea what you're saying.

So I did what I consider an expert rendition of 'My Heart Will Go On,' Kelly chose 'I Just Called to Say I Love You' and the three of us did a great version of 'Wonderwall' among many other songs. When we got back to the school at about 10pm we discovered a bunch of teachers having their own karaoke party in the gym, so we briefly joined them as well. They really really love karaoke here.

Last night was Loy Kratong festival which was amazing. It's a beautiful festival centred around the river, I recommend you read more about it, but I don't want to bore you all here. There's a short paragraph about it here

During lunch period the students set off huge balloons made out of tissue paper into the air by filling them with hot air. Then we decided to cancel our afternoon classes and our coordinators took us to the salon instead to get our hair and makeup done and get us dressed in traditional Thai costume. They didn't have any makeup pale enough for my British skin, so I looked a little bit like I'd been fake tanning, but other than that it was pretty awesome.

Then we inadvertently ended up leading the entire parade! Kelly and I were grabbing a quick bite to eat at the market and saw the parade starting, so we went up to take photos. The two women in front were carrying a big photo each, one of the king and one of the queen. They came up to us, took our bags/food and handed us the photos! So I walked the 1.5 - 2 mile stretch from the fresh market to the festival grounds by the river leading a parade holding the queen in my hands! It was great fun, and a huge honour to get to do all of that; I loved it.

At the festival we hung out, watched some ADORABLE Thai children dancing, and watched part of a beauty contest for 'Miss Loy Kratong' before heading home and collapsing into bed.

I sent post cards today! I'm working through my address book alphabetically, so if you're last name starts between A - K and I have your address, you will hopefully get a postcard before I get back to England... I don't have a lot of your addresses yet, so send them along and I'll write to you too!

Finally, the wonderful Nims Laban gets a shout out for being the first person to make use of that mailing address I posted. She sent me THREE wonderful care packages so far including some glossy mags and yummy chocolate! Thanks Nims! You should all follow her example.

I am TRYING to upload photos but my internet connection can't really handle it, so I'm sorry for the lack of picture evidence, I swear I'm doing my best!

Contact details

2008-11-06T18:44:00.001+07:00

Receiving some snail mail would probably make my day. Actually, it definitely would.
Receiving US/UK themed care packages would make my entire week, maybe the month if it's a seriously good care package.
So here's where you should probably start sending stuff. Now.

Marianne McPhee
Thawangphapittayakhom School
Tha Wang Pha District
Nan Province
Thailand 55140

Do it because you know you want to.

I'm working on a Christmas wishlist. For those of you too poor to pay shipping costs - iTunes gift cards always work....sending me an e-mail with a gift card code in it will almost be as good as getting something in the mail. Almost.
Thanksgiving's coming up for the Americans reading this. If you could figure out how to send a turkey and some good stuffing, and maybe a pumpkin pie, I'd really appreciate it.

If you want to call me, from the States it's: 011-66-82-441-3720
From the UK it's: 00 - 66 - 82 - 441 - 3720 I think.

Anxiously expecting some mail-shaped love

"Teacher, you are beautiful!"

2008-11-06T12:56:00.001+07:00

Last Thursday involved another day of unsuccessfully trying to get a bike for me and Kelly, but it's not interesting enough to talk about here, so let's skip right on to when Kelly and I finally made it to Chang Mai!

Our short little trip included:

20 minutes riding in the back of a stranger's pickup truck

6 hours on a bus

10 minutes on the back of a motorbike

6 hours on the sloooweeessrr traiinnn evvveerrr

= 12 1/2 hours of traveling

Maybe now you understand exactly how remote Tha Wang Pha actually is.

We arrived in Chang Mai unharmed but tired and ready to party with Lisa, Nate, Juliet and Jen.

This was the first time I had seen white people except Kelly and Shaleas since we left Bangkok. I kept pointing out all the 'foreigners' as if I'm not one myself, but it's easy to forget around here.

It was also the first time I ate something that didn't involve rice OR noodles!! The great thing about Chang Mai being a tourist city is all the international food that's around. Like really really good pizza for instance.

On Saturday we went up to an amazing temple on a mountain called Doy Suthep. You walk up a huge big set of stairs to get to the top, and it is totally worth the work out. I highly recommend it. We got white threads tied around our wrists by a holy man (not actually a monk because monks aren't allowed to touch women; the monk was tying the men's strings). The string symbolizes good health and long life.

That night we got to see Muay Thai boxing! It was amazing. There was one European (French) fighting among all the Thai boxers, so I met him before his fight, which he then won in an awesome knockout. We ended up celebrating with him and his friends (who all teach English at the university in Chang Mai) for the rest of the night, first at a pretty cool bar/club frequented by both Thais and farangs (Westerners) called Warm Up, and then the Van Bar, which is literally a van, like an old VW bus, that is a bar in the middle of a car park. At Warm Up I also managed to find a guy from Glasgow (my entire family is from Glasgow for those who don't realise). So Glaswegians are literally everywhere, as usual.

Monday = the real world, and a reminder of why I'm actually here

So for the last four days I've been teaching at Thawangphapittayakhom school (it's a lot easier to say than it looks at first).

In Thai culture, children are more or less allowed to do what they want with little to no discipline, which apparently also applies to school. So the first day was really overwhelming because the kids just talk and laugh and mess around in class, but after four days I have adjusted. I have first years (12/13 year olds) and fourth years (15/16 year olds). As long as you have fun with them, and get them to learn while they're messing around, it works. As a result we play a whole lot of games, but hey if they're screaming and laughing in English then I've done something right.

This is also the first time a lot of them have ever seen a white person, and definitely the first white teacher they've ever had, so we get a lot of attention. I am the whitest out of me, Shaleas and Kelly and I also have the lightest colour hair, so a lot of the students seem to talk about me and whistle at me a lot more. When we walk down the halls, a lot of the students yell "teacher, you are beautiful!' at us. I've even been specifically requested to go visit the sixth years next week (who Kelly teaches) because they've asked to see me by name. At lunch my fan club of first years often come and just stands outside the English department door and stare at me. Yesterday they asked for my autograph.

The levels of English are totally different. I have first years who can speak better than some of my fourth years, and some fourth years who seem to know more vocabulary than me. One of my best students just came to see me in the office to practice his speech for the school competition on Saturday. It's a 10 minutes speech about the environment, which is one of four he has memorized. It makes lesson planning pretty tough, but it's all a process.

and finally........<>...

WE HAVE MOTORBIKES! We FINALLY managed to get a hold of a couple of bikes, plus another teacher who lives in our apartment block said we can use his old one when we need it.

And yes - we have also FINALLY MOVED! So we are in our "apartments" which are just one room each with a bathroom but they're pretty nice, it's all brand new furniture, sheets, microwave, electric kettle, plates/bowls/cutlery and everything. They clearly went to a big effort to get us what they could so it's really nice. I think me and the girls are just happy to finally be able to actually unpack our bags!!!

That's the news from the last week. I'll be sure to let you know how the school competition goes on Saturday (we are judges by the way).

I miss you all terribly! GO OBAMA!!!!

Thai lesson #4:

Motorbike = motorsi

At least some words are easy....

WWIII in our back garden

2008-10-30T11:52:00.001+07:00

So Tuesday morning at 8am, Kelly, Shaleas and I were woken up to the soft gentle sounds of gunshots...Yea.

Turns out our guesthouse is right next door to where the local military branch train, which apparently begins at 8am on Tuesdays. After about 20 minutes of lying in bed listening to what sounded like a town massacre, I stepped outside to see what was happening. After seeing our landlady casually doing laundry I decided it was safe, and ventured out a little further into the porch to see dozens of men in green getting dropped off at the field next to our guesthouse where they were apparently running drills. Thanks for the warning guys. Really appreciate it.

After our less than welcome wake up call, I got to ride on the back of a motorbike (our buddy, Jet, who runs the internet cafe gave me a ride home), and we shared beer and a game of gin rummy with a man who invited himself to our table on the porch that evening. He also insisted that we call him if we ever need a ride to Chang Mai, so we have clearly got the hook up. We can't remember his name, so we have christened him 'Mr. Dude' in our usual highly intellectual fashion.

Meeting the locals is definitely helping us out big time. Orn, our friend who runs one of the shops around here, said she'd help us buy motorbikes so that we can find a good deal. So we have officially been accepted into the Tha Wang Pha commuity.

We ate dinner at the Thai version of a fondue restaurant, which I loved. Maybe mostly because I could control the ingredients and the spice level of my food, which is definitely a blessing after the chaos this stuff is starting to create in my stomache...

Next step - figuring out how the post offices around here work. Then maybe some people reading this blog will receive some fun postcards! Also - Tha Wang Pha doesn't have postcards, because they don't have tourists; we are officially the first white people to ever step foot in this place, so your postcards will come from Nan, the closest place to civilization around here.

Wednesday - the day of NOT going to Nan...

The only problem with everyone being so desperate to help us around here, is that it's actually hard to figure anything out by ourselves, because they won't let us. So instead of figuring out how to take the bus into Nan, walk around, explore, find the post office; we were driven to the Tha Wang Pha post office, where they also do not sell postcards. People reading this might be saying "why didn't you just say, 'no thanks, but could you help me find the bus?'" well trust me, we tried. But they just keep asking us EXACTLY what it is we're doing, until you answer, and they didn't seem to understand that we just wanted to walk around and explore, I'm not sure why, I guess they don't really do that here? So when we mentioned the post office, it was all downhill from there. I shouldn't be so bitter though, because at the end of the day, everyone around here is desperate to help us out which is very nice, and something we certainly don't get on this level in the UK/US. Tonight we ate dinner at Kru Noy's house (kru means teacher, Kru Noy is one of our coordinators/a teacher at our school). It was her and her whole extended family. Her oldest daughter spoke pretty good English luckily, and helped us out with some Thai that we were struggling with. So here are some fun things I have learnt:

Thai lesson #3:

Moo = pig/pork. NOT the sound a cow makes

Cow = rice. NOT the animal that beef comes from

Gai = chicken/far away/near/guide depending on how you say it. Thai is made even more fun by the fact that there are FIVE different tones. Whoever though making 'near' and 'far' the same word was a good idea??

Today Shaleas took off for Chang Mai before Kelly and I even woke up, so hopefully she's having fun! This morning we were supposed to teach a private English lesson to Jet, but he wasn't able to make it. So we'll see what the rest of the day holds for me and Kelly. Possibly the purchase of a motorbike if we can find Jet or Orn or someone to help us out with translation!

I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore...

2008-10-27T20:37:00.001+07:00

Here's some photos relevent to my previous posts.

Lisa and I eating street food and beer at about 4 in the morning in Bangkok

My favourite part of the Grand Palace - the demons and the monkeys. (The monkeys are barefoot). Everything you see that looks like it might be made of gold or gold leaf - it is.

A group of us out at the Happy Beer Garden in Bangkok before experiencing ping pong...

It’s been a crazy few days since I last wrote.
As expected, elephant trekking and bamboo rafting was a fantastic experience. I highly recommend Kanchanaburi if you are ever in Thailand, it’s beautiful, and there’s a lot that I didn’t see, so I’m hoping to find time to return.

On our way to the hotel (which was a paradise in itself) we stopped by the Bridge over the River

Kwai, which apparently is really famous thanks to a movie that was made with the same title.
If you’ve heard of it, sorry to let you down in the movie culture side of things. I guess I haven’t seen as many films as I thought!
But the bridge has some interesting history that you should look up, to do with how it was built during WWII by POWs for Japan, thousands of which died during the construction/reconstruction (after the Allies bombed it). We almost got run over by a train, because we were not warned that the train tracks running along the bridge are still active! Luckily there’s little platforms along the bridge for pedestrians to cram onto to prevent death. How thoughtful.

Our hotel, as I said was a paradise running along the river Kwai, where I enjoyed a fantastic Thai massage. It’s hard to describe the hotel without this getting too long and boring, but just think peaceful jungle paradise. The picture is of the river by our hotel. The lamps are where we ate dinner.

Lisa and I shared an elephant ride, which was great. I got to ride on the elephant’s neck! And they went walking into the river and through the jungle. Then during our bamboo raft ride down the river, I actually spent most of the time swimming; so I get to say I’ve gone swimming in the River Kwai which at least my parents are exceptionally jealous of. The bonus is that I haven’t been sick since this experience either, which is probably against all odds.

That afternoon we went to visit an orphanage and teach a short English lesson. I left wanting to take every orphan home with me. Thai children are irresistibly cute and they loved us. I spent about 45 minutes straight in the hot sun doing nothing but bumping kids up and down on my lap, which they never got sick of, even if I couldn’t feel my thighs afterwards.

Finally, after a crazy Thai bus station experience, an 11-hour ride on a pretty amazing bus that had reclining seats, a stewardess, a hot meal at a random restaurant at 1:30am, and Thai karaoke music videos, Kelly, Shaleas and I have arrived in Tha Wang Pha. Our coordinators (Patarin and Amporn) met us and broke the news that we cannot move into our apartment yet and are stuck in a guesthouse for about two weeks (but who knows, on Thai time that could mean anything).
Kelly and I are sharing a room that we have already had to rid of enormous spiders, a massive cockroach, and an ant infestation. But other than that….it’s still pretty annoying. The room is actually ok, it’s just frustrating since we have to continue living out of a suitcase, and school starts next week. Also, the shower is the bathroom. So each time we shower, the toilet, sink, and anything else in the bathroom gets soaked. But we have a Western toilet, which trust me is a blessing.

We saw the long boat racing in Nan on Sunday, which was fun. It’s one of the things this area is most known for, and we managed to catch the last day, which was lucky.

We are clearly the only white people for miles because we get treated like celebrities everywhere we go. At the boat event several people took pictures of us, and one guy even videotaped us. Everyone who can speak a little bit of English makes an effort to talk to us though, and last night we went out to dinner with Patarin, her husband and bunch of his friends who all had at least eight whiskeys each, and they spent the evening teaching us a lot of new Thai words, although I can’t remember most of them. I'm not sure if that's because of the whiskey or the completely foreign language. We rode home sitting in the bed of Patarin’s pick-up which was amazing because the weather in the evenings up here is perfect, and the sky is full of stars, more than I've ever seen thanks to my city-dwelling life. There's not much to see in the skies of London, New York, Baltimore or Boston I'm afraid.

There’s a good market five minutes from our guesthouse, which we will be buying everything from toiletries, clothes, school supplies, and food from since we have no kitchen. It’s going to take a few days to adjust to this place, but all in all Tha Wang Pha is a really nice area, as is Nan (the main city, about half an hour drive from here). In order to get around, it’s becoming more and more clear that our only option is going to be renting or possibly buying motorbikes. Absolutely everyone here has a motorbike of some sort, and the public transportation seems to be very sparse, if it exists at all, so we’ll be looking into that pretty soon.

That’s it for now. I’m here for a week, possibly going to Chang Mai for a couple of days if we can make it, and then school starts on November 3rd! I’ve already met one boy who goes to the school and also works in the market; he’s in the highest grade and spoke relatively fluent English so that’s a good sign!

I’ve tried to post a few photos (hopefully it has worked!). There are a lot more, but I’m borrowing Kelly’s thumb drive to upload these at an internet café so the rest will have to wait I’m afraid.

My future mode of transporation: literally everyone has one.

Thai lesson #2:

One = Neung
Two = Song
Three = Saam
Four = Sii
Five = Haa
Six = Hok
Seven = Jet
Eight = Baad
Nine = Gow
Ten = Siib

Sawatdee ka!

Whiter skin in just 14 days!

2008-10-22T13:09:00.001+07:00

Just a quick post since I'm actually not sure when I'll next be on this thing. Tomorrow I'm off on a my two day trip to ride elephants/go bamboo rafting/visit an orphanage, then on Saturday we leave for our sites where my internet may be slightly limited, I don't know yet.

Tonight I meet my school coordinator and hopefully get all my questions answered about what I'm doing and what to expect, including what to wear. All the days of the week have a colour here which I love, so that's going to take some of the guesswork out of what to put on each morning!

Monday - Yellow

Tuesday - Pink

Wednesday - Green

Thursday - Orange

Friday - Blue

Saturday - Purple

Sunday - Red

There is a specific yellow polo shirt that a lot of Thai people wear on Mondays with a royal emblem on it, because the king's birthday is on a Monday, so every Monday they all wear this shirt to show their love for the king. There's an equivalent shirt in pink for Tuesdays because the most popular princess was born on a Tuesday, but it's not as common as the yellow ones.

Other things I've learned:

Everyone assumes you're rich if you're white, but any price can be bartered and brought down, including camera chargers in a camera store inside the BIGGEST mall ever (called MBK....massive). My brand new camera charger chose to break immediately after entering this country, but as I said, the woman selling me my new one and I had a little discussion and we completed a nice little transaction.

Just as Americans/Brits try to be more tan by buying sunless tanning lotions, the Thais buy skin whitening lotions. Vaseline have large billboard advertisements all over the place promising whiter skin in 14 days.

Porn means beauty in Thai, so a lot of beauty parlours have the word 'porn' in them, and a lot of women have it added to the end of their name as well. This fact causes many smile and giggles from naive foreigners.

Some Thai phrases that don't work when translated directly into English:

"I speak English snake snake fish fish." (means I speak very little English)

"You are sweet mouth" (smooth talker)

"Banana story" (very easy)

"You old man snake head" (dirty old man!)

You have heart water (you're very kind)

That's it for now! I'll post again whenever I can to tell you about the elephants!!! I'm so excited!!!! Can you tell?

Sawatdee ka!

Ping pong like you've never seen before.....

2008-10-20T23:56:00.002+07:00

Sawatdee ka! (that means 'hello' or 'goodbye' )

So I've been in Bangkok for a couple of days now and it is completely insane. Sunday was my first day of orientation. We had a 'welcome to Thailand' talk by our coordinator Phil, who is really nice although he seems reluctant to give us any information about having too much fun. I think he's scared that we'll hold him liable if we get into trouble. For a guy in charge of 60ish 20-somethings for a week he seems pretty tightly wound.

We also had our first teacher training lesson which was interesting; I'm hoping to pick up some ideas as to how on earth I'm supposed to teach these children. Then we had out first Thai lesson. Our Thai teacher is really hilarious, which helps, and she's been teaching us pretty useful Thai phrases that we need to know in everyday life, although they are all pretty hard to pronounce. The sawatdee ka is basically all I have mastered so far!

I've become friends with four other girls here, so Sunday night, the 5 of us plus my roommate at the hotel, Masha, and another girl, Emily, went out to dinner, and then the fun began.

We had some yummy curries for dinner, so far no complaints about the food at all, although I think by the time I get back I won't ever want to look at rice again.

Our hotel happens to be quite near the red light district (Phil at least did that right), so we walked through and got bombarded by street promoters holding out what are essentially menus showing you all the things you can see inside their clubs. The club doors were all open, so we could see dozens of women standing up on these platforms just waiting to be hired I suppose. They really were jut waiting. I can't say I've ever visited a strip club in the west, but I imagine that if you peeked in the door you'd see women with beautiful bodies doing seemingly impossible things with their bodies and a pole. In Bangkok all you see are some rather unremarkable looking girls just standing. Almost, or completely naked. Doing nothing. They clearly missed the marketing course.

Anyway, the menu is perhaps too graphic to directly quote here, but it essentially described all the different things the women were able to do with their womanly region. I think I should censor this blog a little, so for more details you'll have to e-mail/facebook message me. Just think ping pong balls, cigarettes, bananas and so much more.

At the end of the street, we found a place called the Happy Beer Garden where we sat and were served by our bartender/new friend Joy who preceded to get even drunker than us. We were also joined by a small Thai boy, I'm guessing about age 7, who was originally trying to sell us stuff, but ended up just hanging out and being really adorable and hilarious. Very wholesome environment for a child.

By the end of a couple of beers at the Happy Beer Garden, five of us decided to see what these red light girls had to offer. It was just something that had to be done while in Thailand. You may have heard all the stories about 'ping pong' or maybe you've seen it if you've been here, but we had to see for ourselves.

So that's what we did. It was certainly ping pong like you've never seen before....to say the least. We're still trying to figure out how it's physically possible. Before leaving we got hassled by these two very intimidating Thai women who worked there and tried to completely rip us off with the bill. What I've learned is that everything here is negotiable and that every Thai person sees a foreigner and seems to automatically multiple their prices by about 20, so you have to be pretty aggressive if you want to get a good deal anywhere.

And that was my first night in Thailand!! I know I've left a lot for the imagination there, but I know people like my parents are reading this (hi mum and dad!), but do use your imagination!

Tuesday we went on a group field trip to see the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha. The palace was really amazing. Incredibly ornate and really beautiful. Almost everything is covered in gold leaf, so in the 31 degree humid heat and sun, the place was really fantastic to see, if not a bit hot! The emerald buddha is in fact made of one solid piece of jade and was set in a temple inside the palace. My friend Lisa and I got front row seats to kneel down in front of it. You had to make sure that your bare soles of your feet (you had to take your shoes off) never faced the buddha, or the guards told you off.

Tonight, we just ended up having a few drinks on the roof of the hotel with a bunch of other people from the programme; the other participants are all really great, we're all getting along very well, and there's even one other English girl here from Kent! After last night, we were up for something a bit more low key, so hanging out by the pool was nice! Although after the stories we told, a few people went off to see for themselves what this ping pong was all about. We were pretty proud of being the first group to brave the dark side of this city.

That's it for now. Tomorrow's another long day of teacher training and Thai lessons, then possibly a Thai boxing match in the evening. On Thursday and Friday I'll be going on my two day trek and riding elephants!!!

I miss you all terribly, please don't forget about me - I desperately want e-mail updates on your lives, even if it's super boring, I need contact with the Western world!! Send me your mailing addresses, and as soon as I know mine, which I still don't, I promise to pass it along!

Sawatdee ka!

Meeting new people

2008-10-18T20:31:00.001+07:00

This hotel is pretty much full of people from my programme, so it's going to be a few days until I really get the full Thai experience since I'm going to be surrounded by Americans for the next week.

Had dinner with two girls from the Boston area, go figure I manage to find girls from the city I lived in for four years! It's kind of like being in the first year of university again, everyone's just running around the hallways desperate to meet new people. At least it's a good conversation starter. If they're clearly Western (i.e. white...haven't seen any other ethnic groups represented as of yet) and look as wide eyed as me, it's a pretty safe bet to ask "are you here with CIEE?"

Goodnight!

Bangkok!!!

2008-10-18T16:51:00.001+07:00

After a very very long day of traveling, I am finally in Bangkok!

By the way, unless they go bankrupt (which may happen any day now...) I would highly recommend Jet Airways - I had a pretty decent flight.

I met a girl on my flight, Lucy, who I hung out with in Mumbai during our connection; she'd been to Thailand before and helped calm my fears a little bit, and gave me a few tips on how to get around, plus she gave me a big hug which is really what I needed. I'm not suggesting that you are guaranteed to have a friendly English girl to help you out on any Jet Airways flight. Aside from meeting Lucy, I would still recommend this airline if they still exist by the time you're reading this.

At the Bangkok airport I discovered that my mobile phone is still locked, so I can't use it at the moment, and my credit/debit cards aren't working even though all my banks/credit companies know I'm here! That resulted in several minutes playing the 'how do you call the US collect from Thailand?!' game so that I could let my parents know that I am indeed still alive and well despite being slightly, okay very, overwhelmed.

Meanwhile I have 20,000 baht to play with. How stupid does that sound?? 20,000. I've never had 20,000 of any kind of currency in my hand. Except maybe in Hungary...I seem to remember the exchange rate there being pretty extreme too. But if you convert my thousands of Baht you will realise it's only about £240.

I got a little ripped off by some taxi company to get to the hotel; I was way too out of it to do any real arguing about the price. They can be pretty scary and in your face, which is hard to combat when you've been more or less awake for two days straight.

So that's it! I'm in Thailand! Orientation starts tomorrow morning with an introduction to the Thai education system, information about my visa and stuff, then some teacher training and my first Thai language lesson!

On Monday we're going to visit the Emerald Buddha Temple and the Grand Palace before more training and a lesson on how not to die in Thailand (I think they have a better name for it...)

Tuesday and Wednesday will be more training, language lessons, and seminars about living in Thailand, then on Thursday we go on a two night trip to Kanchanaburi where we're going elephant trekking and bamboo rafting!! Then we are visiting a children's orphanage village, where we have to present a lesson. So I'm really excited about that! Especially the elephants!!

I just had the best nap ever, and now I may venture downstairs to try to find food. I'm still waiting for my roommate to arrive, I hope she has as much luggage as me so that I don't feel too stupid. :)

I MISS YOU ALL!! Please keep in touch, and send me your address and I'll try to send lots of postcards! (marianne.sheila@gmail.com)

Leaving tomorrow?!?

2008-10-16T17:27:00.001+07:00

So here it goes. I'm actually going to do this.

I don't have too much time to write now, but I will try my best to keep this updated as often as possible, although who knows what my internet access will be like once I get to Thailand.

My flight leaves tomorrow morning from Heathrow at 9:30am, then I get to hang out in Mumbai from 11pm - 1am before finally landing in Bangkok at 6:50am on Saturday morning to start my week long orientation with CIEE!

Right now I am incredibly nervous and having a hard time leaving behind all my amazing friends in London, but once I'm there I'm hoping to be too distracted to think about all of that!

For now, back to some last minute packing and cleaning before going to see Oasis in concert tonight!!