Chuen ben mansatwerat I’m a vegetarian
Chongrak had got me two wee soy milks and Ofc one of those buns things, I will have a whole suitcase of them by the time I leave lol! Got the van at 7am to Ayutthaya, arriving after 9 with only one pit stop and another cartoon of soy milk and barely, I will miss it! The ones at home are only soy, sweetened or unsweetened. Boring! And not so readily available. Chongrak’s friend met me, he only spoke a little English and I only speak a little Thai, quite the combination eh? From what I could make out, he’d worked as a sports teacher in Anuban Phaisali for 20 years and now he lives and works in Ayutthaya. For someone who apparently knows the place so well he had to ask directions to BANG PA, the summer palace the roads to it were awful, so bumpy! And lots of road works, turns out there was a massive flood last year and they’re still repairing the damage. As I was told on my initial trip to Phaisali, Ayutthaya is recognisable by the styled roofs many of the houses have, these roofs are pre made and bought and attached to the house. They’re wooden pointed roofs, very picturesque.
Bang pa In temple
Phra thinning warapoat phiman
“divine seat of personal freedom”
Terrapin feeding!
Phra thinning warapoat phiman
Phra thinning warapoat phiman
HO WITHUN THASANA
“the sages lookout”
PHRA THINANG (royal residence)
WEHART CHAMRUN
Not too sure what the market was called but it had some lovely little woven baskets which im sure mum would have loved. We then moved on to some temples, he told me we’d go to the Historical town at 2, but he said it in Thai so I was worrying the whole time that we wouldn’t go! The first was called WAT YAI CHAIMONGKHON next we went to one called WAT PHANAN CHOENG which had a huge golden Buddha sitting upright, it was stuffed full of people, Thai Buddhists and tourists alike, there was only myself and one other man actually doing the Buddhist prayer thing I even tried to repeat whatever was being said, failed miserably im sure, one of the monks was on a vierra I think it’s called, beside us, he kept hitting people with the incense, not tapping like they’re meant too, maybe he has some pent up anger, or the peaceful Buddhist image is maybe not as peaceful as I was led to believe! I think there may have been some sort of baptism thing going on, there were lots of people behind the barricade with the Buddha in white and two were playing with the orange “gown” and one had a rope like thing, not sure if he was to swing or be uplifted to Buddha or what was going on as we left shortly after that, think it was called Next we went to an ancient temple called WAT PHRA SI SANPHET it was in disrepair as the Buddhist army had attacked it and striped it of its gold in the 18th century I think, originally built in the 14th century! The main Pagoda was huge, and of course very steep, we were out off breath nearly and Noi had sore wee legs, thankfully the inner sanctuary was only 10 more steps up inside the Stupa, it had several seated Buddha’s all covered in gold leaf squares by the followers, not sure if this is lucky or doing your bit for the temple, Who knows really. I think he’d been advised to let me ride the elephants beside this but I wasn’t keen, I’d already rode Jasmine in Chang Mai and I’ve been spending so much and still want to buy things so I declined,. The elephants had beautiful head pieces on a coverlets, but they were constantly being used by the tourists, going round repeatedly in circles, some were being made to do tricks, with no real shade, the had some chains on Ofc course and one of the drivers, who had no tourists was hitting the poor elephant with the blunt back of the axe as it wasn’t doing exactly what he wanted her to do, how horrid! Definitely against my views and vegetarianism, even if I do take great pleasure in killing Thai insects haha.
We viewed a typical Thai house in the old style, on stilts, with a main “hall” or middle room were the families would eat, share news, etc, the family room. There was a small kitchen and to each corner, long rooms which is were the families lived, maybe up to four different families then, and I guess if there was more you would add or build another house beside or perhaps add rooms underneath. It had the typical Ayutthayan styled roof and the floors were lacquered and polished, Noi and I had sat underneath before going up drinking some water under the cool of the house, got lots of mosquito bites today, one on my foot under my flip flop strap is particularly irritating, so much so that I thought it was a blister at first, least I was able to understand him when he asked about what I was putting on my arm, realising it was for my Yung Cat. Pretty sure I got them in the van, there was a couple flying around, little bastards!! Noi had Parallel parked bside the river near th house, I have never seen such a retarded reverse in all my life, even the Thai guy who tried to help him looks confused, instead of turning out on the left he turned in, ending up nearly in the river and hitting the car behind and nearly running me over, his reatrdedness made a simple manoeuvre into a 5 minute difficult task, Asian drivers for you, and older men I guess, nothing is ever simple, safe, or easy!
After this we went the back entrance to the historical park, we climbed over a wee wall and Noi got caught out, he had a 40B fine I think? The Royal palace, built around 1448 the town was first founded in 1350 was no longer here so instead pictures and models were shown of what would have looked like, shame really, so we entered Wat Mahathat here again there was the beheaded Buddha’s and this is were I saw the famous Buddha head in tree, which I got a card of in Chang Mai, I was able to look around lots of it, but there were lots of tourists so couldn’t climb, it was really big though, initially started on around 1374! Being added to and restored in the different centuries, beside this temple, beside a river was WAT PHRA RAM, it was partially under reconstruction but I could see some of the restored work, lovely carved elephants and winged gods around the top of this Khmer reminiscent pagoda, I climbed up as some French people had and Noi took some photos, the views and remaining carving near the top were fascinating, unfortunately I didn’t have my camera!! It was 50B in here and I bought a little tour guide book for another 20, quite helpful but basic, not like my Angkor wat book but that’s a proper published book with lots and lots of different information of the Khmers and all the buildings. These must have been monasteries of a sort as now-a-days the temples are spread out? Our last ancient temple was WAT RATCHABURANA there wasn’t as much too it, the first ruin was a rectangular shaped hall originally as a simple temple, with two Chedi’s built to commemorate the king’s brothers who had died, smaller than the others but interesting al the same!
We moved away from the ancient part to two more modern temples, the first had a large Buddha ain it and lots of smaller ones around the sides, all golden of course, Noi told me that these 7 Buddha’s represented the day of the week you were born, mind was a standing Buddha so I took a photo to remember, got a nice photo of me sitting in front of the Buddha too, WAT - NAPHRAMERU, was quite funny actually, a side said “beware of falling head” haha, the highly bright and elaborate colours of the ceilings made the temple, even though it was partially under reconstruction, absolutely beautiful inside! The second, like the first, was also included in the ancient design, PHRA MONGKONBOPHIT was a royal temple mainly from around the 1600’s here a large bronze Buddha was housed, lightning struck the temple and the roof had collapsed beheading the Buddha, the present queen Sirikit donated 70,000 to the 3rd restoration fund of the image, this time for it to be covered in gold leaf, they completed it for her 65th birthday, outside there was a lovely
fountain area which reminded me of the temple near the place in Bangkok, saw a huge lizard jump into the hedge, it was blackish! Noi organised my Van back, and to kill time we headed to the floating market were he got me a drink of Fanta strawberry, was so thirsty, and had finished all my water again! The floating market was busy, beside the riverside a sort of wooden island, were al the stalls, there was even a form of children’s playground, it was very busy, and there was some annoying voice on the microphone shouting out of the speakers, I was beyond knackered at this point, when I was in the car and he stopped I didn’t understand and thought we were doing more, I thought he was trying to kill me haha, he explained in a combination of Thai and English that we were stopping for a drink to kill time thought of quenching my thirst, Jongrak rang for like the 6th time to check up on me, how is she even getting any work done on that farm of hers if she’s always on that phone eh? There were got pens at the floating market as well, I feel perverted or something but all the male animals here had enormous balls, dogs and goats in particular, I literally thought it had some sort of extra leg growing down there, what on earth is that about? And the females all have very apparent sagging hot teats, is it constantly mating season or something? But I haven’t even seen that, bar the two monkeys going at it on top of the temple at Lop Buri, awkward… we left for my van near the Tesco’s at the side of the road, waited maybe 10-15 minutes and Noi sorted it all for me, he really didn’t have to do all this, much better than a package trip from Bangkok im sure!
Long van trip, napped a good but of it, as I felt ready to konk out in Noi’s car after the historical park. Arrived before seven, Dang and Chongrak were out, but Dang’s son came running over with the phone, Chongrak was on it, she asked me where I was, second Thai reatrdedness of the day, im obviously at your house if your nephew gave his mobile to me…she arrived soon after and I changed my shoes, then Bla, Chongrak and I had dinner at a nearby café, more rice and peppered veg, PREET THAI (pepper) added some of that beaut sauce that I had at the hot pot place on Dang’s birthday, its out of a bottle known as slightly spicy, I must get! I put on some of the herbal bite cream Chongrak gave me last month and Bla asked for it, to sniff, her and Dang sniff little pots and stuff a lot, maybe they’re always slightly high, would explain why they’re all so jolly and laughing all the time haha, maybe I’ll sniff the herbal stuff and see what the craic is, or better yet some glue…not. Thai’s can be strange. Afterwards at the house Dang and her son joined us and we went to walking street by rut, for the market, still no sign of a partner for Dang, maybe there isn’t one? It was a huge street, and sort of continued into the municipal hall, but there was just a live band there and a big sheet on the ground that people were signing, Chongrak told me to but I declined. Got some cool dyed shorts with some styled rips on them, originally Levi’s, got a bigger size than my waist, 28” so not on my hips and not really high, only 30B bargain! I then got a key ring furby for Adam as I knew it would wind him up as he hates me for helping his sister Kara get one for xmas (insert evil laugh here) thought I saw a nice Thai wooden jewellery box, but on closer inspection the female ladies in it were ugly, there were fighting fish for sale, lots of cheap jewellery, puppies and dwarf bunnies, stroked one!! And wee chipmunk like things, adorable, the girl had it in a little bed showing people it sleeping, I want a cute animal to wuve me!!!!
sooo cute!!!
Got a dress too, the girls said I was beautiful, black bodice, slight open back swing skirt, tried it on, and it even fitted over my chest! However for some reason they decided to take it off downwards, resulting in me flashing the rest of the shoppers! Oops! Got it for 100B then waited for the others, Chongrak got me a milkshake, ate half the ice that wasn’t melted, so creamy, was delicious!!! The showed me near the car a shrine that apparently was the first for the town, that every home needs a shrine or temple or something first and it is the sign of the town or something, Ofc we got photo’s, I was with Bla! Back at the house I watched and I continued of with renewed vigour a the 10 minutes of the Borgias after a divine shower with hot water (oh the simple pleasures in life) and had an early night of around 10, how lame!
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SUNDAY 18TH AUGUST
Up early again, half 7, more soy milk and “bread” as she calls it, bread is not like a sealed bap sweet with custard like a donut!! Got to the station after 7 to discover it had just left, thankfully I go get a van for 90B at 7.30 J we checked out the bus times and prices for Nakhon Sawan to Chang Rai, only 400B and think im getting one on Tuesday night at 11! Arrived around 9.15 in Kaempheng Phet, where I got 3 hours for the journey I have no idea! Asked for a motorbike but it was still too pricy BY TANG MOTORWAY so instead got a van for 50B ;) had to get changed so he dropped me at a stall outside the big C, ended up getting a wee trinket box shaped like a chest, me booty ;) may be handy for my Thai dancing accessories. Tom had brought the most ridiculous looking bicycle! And he’d rode it across a busy road from his school, he thought he could have pulled mine along two, this, being the second stupid male error/idea of the past 24 hours, I thus conclude that is not Asian men that are stupid, but all men, thinking they can do anything! Silly! We got a tuktuk instead to the historical park, for 100B, it was really strange, we sat in front of the driver and his motorbike, I think it was a lot slower but we could see much more of everything, according to Tom this is a proper Thai tuktuk, and I must admit, I prefer it, even if it is slow! We stopped past the first of the ancient sites, it was huge, with a good amount of the foundations on view and the Pagoda, there were even remains of the elephants that decorated the base, however the main one had been clearly reconstructed and added, unfortunately for Tom, he went over to read something on a board and started making some strange shrieks and dance moves, sort of like a sneeze maybe, before running of, I soon learnt the reason why, giant buzzing hornet trying to attack the face, I quickly walked off too, it had stung poor Tom in the neck twice and on the face near his nose, it tried to go for his lip too, awful! Fortunately, it was venomous, he didn’t look “like he had a stroke” as he asked, not much redness and no swelling, lucky. I had visions of exploring and coming back to find Tom K’od, particularly when I had climbed the Pagoda ruins and stayed up for a while admiring the sights and taking pictures, we moved on to another, the gate was locked so we exited through a hole in the fence (as one does in Unesco sites) we tried to go to another area to read up on the sign, we I met my nature misfortune. FUCKING ANTS!! Just like in Cambodia but worse, over my leg and several on my shoe, biting, I ran back and kicked my shoe off and swiped at the ones on my leg, I caught one and squished it and the wee bastard bit me, Tom, my gallant Scottish hero, proceeded to squish the ones of my shoe with his, fucking hate the wee bastards! What is with Asian nature and me? Particularly in unesco sites? Perhaps its not a historic park after all but a fucking nature reserve, seems like it, to add to it, we came across some stalls which had bags of smallish fish, some cat fish, and even eels, BOKE! There were little cages with several birds squished into them and a box of turtles in water, the these creatures were alive, no idea what for, possibly to eat, who really knows?
probably wont get the national museum though as I think waterfall visits are maybe on the table, unless I just do 2 nights in Chang Rai or go early on the Sunday before my flight , we shall see eh? Hopefully there’s Thai boxing there in chang rai!! We retuned our bikes and headed back, getting a drink at the stall and meeting our tuktutk driver, he was perhaps a bit slow or deaf as he didn’t even seem to understand my Thai, trying to drop us off at some hotel and not the big C, Tom paid and I got another Tuktuk to the bus station, Tom bike was missing though, but randomly the pink one was there, turns out Leticia, the coloured girl from the school, in her confusing text had told him this, she’s swapped the bikes, he returned to the school being called a lady boy by the students on his pink bike haha! Luckily there was soon another van, got an ice tea for 25, yum!! The rive back was awful, there may as well have been no air con! I was in the back with 2 then 3 guys, sooo sweaty and squished, one guy kept trying to talk to me and I really couldn’t be bothered, in the end I gave in, turns out he’s from Cambodia and is staying in Nakhon Sawan, he’s learning Thai and may re do his French and learn some mandarin, he’s also teaching English to earn some cash, bit like me I guess, he tried to explain Aesan to me, I stopped him short trying to explain that why I was teaching English with the British council, he was very good actually, apparently 70% Cambodian language or letters maybe, are thai so its easy enough, and you can get to Cambodia from Nakhon Sawan, ffs if only I’d known before, also, it only takes 16hours by train to get from Bangkok to the capital of Malaysia, if only I had more time!! He asked for my facebook so I gave him my thai one. Luckily there was a bus to Phaisali, I got it easy enough, fans and so little people meant I could chill on the bus, 30B, though I got confused as we swapped buses and I nearly stayed on until the woman yelled at me, another 30b but still, very cheap! At Phaisali, beside the bus on the road Chongrak and Bla wound down the window and told me to jump off and get on, how random, I did though, and we headed back to the school, did some washing and went to hers for some cooking lessons and dinner, she had a bamboo meat soup I ate the bamboo and added the soy chilli, spicier than last time but still lovely and she’d made a 4 veg dish, lots of mushroom and soy bean, yumyumyum! Her husband was there and another teacher turned up, they put on the volleyball match on the TV, Thailand women vs. Russia. I went back to mind to finish my washing then at the school I skyped Nan and gag telling them of my weekend and my plans, showing them the ring which they adored and of the things I wanted to get, they think I should I will help with the pay, though going to see if becks wants to split on the camera ;) need an early night as to meet Chongrak at 2.30 at for this field trip, kill me! Tom leant me “the beach” started reading it, it just makes me want to go to the islands, loving it as it mentions so much here, and the first day makes me think of mine, love it, want to have it read for the weekend at Pattaya, started on my top too, cut it into fringe pieces and started knotting, my fashion classes were useful! Oh and Cathy has stuff in urgent need of talking about but she had dinner and I have exhaustion and that trip…nooooo!!!
MONDAY 19TH AUGUST
early risings for the Bitec in Bangkok with the children, non stop singing and dancing, how do they do it??? interesting science exhibit and visit to the floating market
Alarm went off at 2.15 rolled out of bed and chucked on the clothes I’d left out, after roll calling we finally got on the four buses, I was on bus no. 3 with Bla, Dang and Chongrak. The buses were the ones with the elaborate graffiti designs all over them in bright colours, one was fairies. I thought I would hopefully be able to ignore the noisy excited kids and get some sleep at the front with Chongrak with a slight seat recline and the use of my ear plugs and eye mask. But no, 5 minutes into the journey loud pumping Thai dance music started to play, along with flashing lights and the kids all got up and began to dance along…the songs all had the same rhythm or at least very very similar, I don’t think I’ll ever forget it! Some how I managed to sleep, we stopped once or twice for toilets etc, arrive at the exhibition after 8am, the sun was out and it was roasting, we got out of our buses, the place was already swarming with kids! We lined them up in a gazebo tent area and everyone put on a sticker, I snuck off and got an iced Thai tea for 20B telling Bla CHEUN NIM. the director appeared from no where, he must have drove down, don’t blame him, the creepy fat male teacher guy is on the trip so, he has some perverted feel to him, like all his Buddhist necklace are flamboyant and very showy, like he’s trying to make the point out that he’s amazing, maybe it’s just the fat face and moustache? But his attitude is showy too, its like an act? We entered the exhibition, turns out its not really space, its science, still, pretty cool! Had a text from gag and my parents to say they were back home ok J there was lots of renewable energy stuff but we moved quickly into the fun bits, there was men from the army at the start, with animals set up and plants like they’d hunted and gathered in a forest mission, there were live frogs and snails too and a pot with a leaf over it, there was a whole in it and you had to insert your hand and pull out whatever was in it. Bla was too chicken so I was the first, it was quite daunting, I now know how the celebrities felt in “I’m a celebrity get me out of here” in the bush tucker trials. The soldier pushed my hand on down, there was something squelchy and hard, it was moist down there, I went ahead and grabbed the hard thing, pulling it up I realised before I saw it what I was holding, one of the snails!! Then the guy quickly dipped his hand in and pulled out the squelchy thing, a frog! Next there was an x-ray screen set up, they’d used Xbox kinect scanners to do it, was pretty cool, going up it would show you your skeleton, mine kept messing up though, the legs being in the air in random angles and then it just wouldn’t work at all!! Not fair, there were lots of market like stalls too which the kids were going nuts over, buying lots of hats and funky glasses, spotted a couple pairs of the ones I got in china, and the “angel” hat was very popular that Lisa had got the day I got my panda one at the Nanjing wall.
I got split up from the others and made my way alone round the different exhibits, all in Thai, but there was some fun things at it too, all the kids said hello when I met them, the ones on the bus are the year 6, I haven’t taught them except if they are part of the after school class. They finally started adding me since I explained on Friday by showing them the facebook I was using, someone always speaks to me on facebook chat but I never know who! Came across an international section, American English, amazing! Just able to read something, they spelt Lindenburg wrong, the guy to fly over the Atlantic in 1919, spelling in Lindburg, or maybe im wrong, “lucky Lindy” as he was henceforth known. The boards talked about the work they’ve done with Thailand and then there were Kevlar gloves I tried on, they just seemed like thick wool, was class. Then there was one about finding out fossil colours, the experimentation they used to discover the dinosaur with the feathers and its colouring, orange/yellow with white stripes! It was through the British council, explored some more, lots of students that were Muslim were there, Chongrak told me ages ago that the south is quite full of Muslims now, hence the fighting before I came here. Got tired so sat down in the foreign bit, in a Japan section, one of the young boy students of my classes sat with me and wrote notes, I got to reading it, was all about how they were trying to fix the sugar crop here from drought and disease but creating hybrids from the 2 main types, sturdier with longer roots, was interesting! And about the diets of cows in produce less methane through stuff they’d made mixed in with what was usually fed them, it seemed to work too! Apparently Thailand grows a good portion of the world’s sugar and its actually the forest/rainforest areas that have the most cattle which do the most damage to the environment with methane gas, maybe its something to-do with the combination of the trees and the cattle? Bumped into Bla, Dang and Chongrak again, th little boy stayed with us too! Got pics with the card board cut-out of Obama at the American section, and with the U.K bus for the British council, just like one of the other guys in T.E.T turns out this is were he went. We sat and waited near the front soon after for the kids, got a coke from Bla and read more of the “beach” I really want to go to an island now, damn you Tom!! On the bus by 12, had lunch on it, Chongrak had made noodles, bit spicy with cabbage and we shared. Was delicious! Napped a bit while the kids did more dancing!!
Arrived in Ayutthaya around half 1 or 2, went round the stalls got a pink zebra print stretcher, anklet and fish key ring. Met up with the other teachers, eating again! Chongrak got me a Fanta strawberry. Noi turned up unrepentantly which was cool! Said hello and whatnot, the little boy was with them again, he’s a cute we chubby thing! Went round the stalls some more. Got a photo frame for gag, they had elephants and you could feed one of them, I stroked its trunk, its so weird that they’re skin is so thick and dry, I keep expecting it to be thin! There were tigers too but couldn’t really get in to see them and wasn’t allowed a free pic ffs! One of the students gave me a pair of lovely pink feather earrings she bought for me, they’re lovely and I put them in immediately, how kind! She one of the girl sitting behind me on the bus. There were ostriches too, though they were miserable, most of their feathers were plucked out, most likely by each other or themselves, and one kept pecking at the wire corner as if to slowly hammer itself to from, some Thai Chinese students came up and asked me some questions for a project and videoed it, reminds me of the time with Rebecca in Dublin, but foreign people and its hot! Had to get several pictures with all 3 of them! Back on the bus waiting for the others, the student who I gave the nickname “nikki” to came up annoyed, one of th students had been drinking alcohol, this was very bad, no idea how or who, I told Chongrak but she either didn’t hear me over the music, didn’t understand or didn’t care, who knows. This time when the music started up, the students tried to get me involved so I did haha, though I didn’t stand, I either knelt on the seat looking down the bus or leaning back against the front, my moves were sad and simplistic but I feel they had an Asian feel to them, the kids loved it and lots of them started to copy me haha! Was slightly annoying at the start but I got on with it and began to enjoy it as a form of flattery, not really used to this sort of thing,. While I was doing it I sat thinking, my life is so random right now, everyday, and I just seem to take it as it comes The English music they played though had lots of swearing in it, Ass and Fuck, I was really shocked, I wouldn’t let school kids listen to it, even if it is another language!! But maybe that’s just me being over protective? Had a couple more stops, one in which Chongrak got me lemon honey ice tea, yummy! Back on the bus I tried to learn some more Thai and she wrote my full name and my family’s in Thai characters for me! It’s class!!
We arrived back at the school just before 7. Got a bucket shower and then went to Chongrak. She wasn’t hungry but she showed me how to make vegetable fried rice and I ate some of it, along with the sugar strands and wraps she’d bought for me a the floating market, sooo bad but so good, at least I understand why they use so much sugar in everything…there’s so much of it, when before I though Phaisali was mainly rice fields I was wrong, its mainly sugar, thanks to today I can now sort of tell the difference! She also got me a little hand woven box, just like the ones I saw on Saturday! Yay! Went on the computer and talked to gag and Ryan about the notebook and camera, everyone else was out, so alone!! Gag says if I paid 100 he’d pay the rest, but do I actually need one or am I just being greedy as it’s a decent price, looking online I saw decent deals in the U.K? absolutely shattered tonight class tomorrow though! Funsies. According to Google the nearest island KO SAMET is only 3 hours from Bangkok station by bus, promising ;)
TUESDAY 20TH AUGUST
It’s the same thing every morning, I’m exhausted, I think that may be the only thing that stays the same here for me in Thailand, I’m always tired, I don’t sleep enough, I do so much in the day, up early for class or an adventure at the weekend and up late on the computer to my family or writing this journal. The heat throughout the day doesn’t help matters, it adds to the tiredness!
After Assembly I brought my laptop to the English base. I only have two classes today and no after school class, I’m teaching Prathom 6 for the first time as Chongrak has two meetings to go to so I will be teaching solo. She gave me the book and told me to sort of follow it, they’re doing shopping and food at them moment, uploaded a video and asked for lots of Thai words to practise for the weekend.
The first class 6/1 is obviously the brighter class with the two students that try the hardest to out do each other in my after school class, who I call “Nikki” and “Nick” she said I was great at my dancing haha. They class picked up the lesson very quick. Going over conversations in the book I had them work in pairs before taking my own twist on the 2nd exercise, the four shops were fruit and veg, butchers, bakers and grocery. Got them to list about 10 or so items and then make they’re own shopping list using the words on the board and other ones that hadn’t, and I chose a number for the about of items per shop, giving them paper to do so, the rest of the class spent their time drawing it up or coming to me for English nicknames, Chongrak came looking me as I overspent my time. Called in to Dang’s Thai room to see about the head pieces, turns out I can get them in Nakhon Sawan later, she also gave me a pink Thai outfit, a complete set, apparently its worth around 2-4000 new! Cant get a really big head piece as they are hand made and take a month or so to make so will be getting a smaller one. They also gave me the back hair piece, belt, belt buckle and necklace, how kind! Anddd my package from Nan and gag arrived!! Opened it up at home, a card from them both and lots of goodies to give to the teachers, lots of union jack pens (which is what they’d ordered in) postcards, one of which is scrabo so may write in the back that its close to me! Made them a video, started getting emotional from my exhaustion and the though of how much of a good time im having and cried a wee bit, I disgust myself some times, made a video for the family as well. Unfortunately I had the great idea of deleting al the music on my mp3 to put new stuff in, it wont fucking work now!!! Wont sync. Kill me, all that’s left on it is Thai phrases. I guess if worse comes to worse I’ll be fluent in these L how am I going to survive??
Up early again, half 7, more soy milk and “bread” as she calls it, bread is not like a sealed bap sweet with custard like a donut!! Got to the station after 7 to discover it had just left, thankfully I go get a van for 90B at 7.30 J we checked out the bus times and prices for Nakhon Sawan to Chang Rai, only 400B and think im getting one on Tuesday night at 11! Arrived around 9.15 in Kaempheng Phet, where I got 3 hours for the journey I have no idea! Asked for a motorbike but it was still too pricy BY TANG MOTORWAY so instead got a van for 50B ;) had to get changed so he dropped me at a stall outside the big C, ended up getting a wee trinket box shaped like a chest, me booty ;) may be handy for my Thai dancing accessories. Tom had brought the most ridiculous looking bicycle! And he’d rode it across a busy road from his school, he thought he could have pulled mine along two, this, being the second stupid male error/idea of the past 24 hours, I thus conclude that is not Asian men that are stupid, but all men, thinking they can do anything! Silly! We got a tuktuk instead to the historical park, for 100B, it was really strange, we sat in front of the driver and his motorbike, I think it was a lot slower but we could see much more of everything, according to Tom this is a proper Thai tuktuk, and I must admit, I prefer it, even if it is slow! We stopped past the first of the ancient sites, it was huge, with a good amount of the foundations on view and the Pagoda, there were even remains of the elephants that decorated the base, however the main one had been clearly reconstructed and added, unfortunately for Tom, he went over to read something on a board and started making some strange shrieks and dance moves, sort of like a sneeze maybe, before running of, I soon learnt the reason why, giant buzzing hornet trying to attack the face, I quickly walked off too, it had stung poor Tom in the neck twice and on the face near his nose, it tried to go for his lip too, awful! Fortunately, it was venomous, he didn’t look “like he had a stroke” as he asked, not much redness and no swelling, lucky. I had visions of exploring and coming back to find Tom K’od, particularly when I had climbed the Pagoda ruins and stayed up for a while admiring the sights and taking pictures, we moved on to another, the gate was locked so we exited through a hole in the fence (as one does in Unesco sites) we tried to go to another area to read up on the sign, we I met my nature misfortune. FUCKING ANTS!! Just like in Cambodia but worse, over my leg and several on my shoe, biting, I ran back and kicked my shoe off and swiped at the ones on my leg, I caught one and squished it and the wee bastard bit me, Tom, my gallant Scottish hero, proceeded to squish the ones of my shoe with his, fucking hate the wee bastards! What is with Asian nature and me? Particularly in unesco sites? Perhaps its not a historic park after all but a fucking nature reserve, seems like it, to add to it, we came across some stalls which had bags of smallish fish, some cat fish, and even eels, BOKE! There were little cages with several birds squished into them and a box of turtles in water, the these creatures were alive, no idea what for, possibly to eat, who really knows?
eels BOKE!
We continued on up, turning left at one point to admire the fort wall, it was arrow shaped and the bit we went in was sort of like a turret overlooking the boat, was really cool actually, never seen a design like it, though the board said it was quite European in styling? Or maybe that was just the steps, it didn’t seem like it to be honest, they may as well have been for midgets who loved heights! Back tracking and going straight we arrived at the main park only to pay another hundred baht for another ticket to the same frigging park!! We rented bikes here though, 30B as its quite a big park, there was a front basket for our bags and a wee bell, we explored a good few of the temples, lots of Buddha’s and elephants, climbing over some riding through others, tom was on the lookout for ice cream and just couldn’t get any anywhere! He also concurs about the dogs balls thing, turns out im not perverted after all, its hard to miss haha, he said his English camp was great fun but exhausting! Did lots of climbing and got some amazing photos, not sure it around some of the temples were ponds, or as Tom suggested, torture pits, I hope not they were Buddhist, I really need to read up on the religion! The last wat we visited was quite over grown with trees, I reckon it would be really eerie at night! We continued on, stopping a the information office, to read up on the history of Kaemphengphet and the temples, it was a bit of a frontier town between the Capital Attayutha, and some place called Lanna, with evidence of communities established there form the stone age, impressive! This, along with Attayuthaya, Sukhothai and Udon Thani are all Unesco historical sites, Udonthani being even older I think so we may go there for our last weekend, do the further one, Udontani on the sat and Sukhothai on the way back on the Sunday :D then in Bangkok I can do my sat morning at the palace, excited
probably wont get the national museum though as I think waterfall visits are maybe on the table, unless I just do 2 nights in Chang Rai or go early on the Sunday before my flight , we shall see eh? Hopefully there’s Thai boxing there in chang rai!! We retuned our bikes and headed back, getting a drink at the stall and meeting our tuktutk driver, he was perhaps a bit slow or deaf as he didn’t even seem to understand my Thai, trying to drop us off at some hotel and not the big C, Tom paid and I got another Tuktuk to the bus station, Tom bike was missing though, but randomly the pink one was there, turns out Leticia, the coloured girl from the school, in her confusing text had told him this, she’s swapped the bikes, he returned to the school being called a lady boy by the students on his pink bike haha! Luckily there was soon another van, got an ice tea for 25, yum!! The rive back was awful, there may as well have been no air con! I was in the back with 2 then 3 guys, sooo sweaty and squished, one guy kept trying to talk to me and I really couldn’t be bothered, in the end I gave in, turns out he’s from Cambodia and is staying in Nakhon Sawan, he’s learning Thai and may re do his French and learn some mandarin, he’s also teaching English to earn some cash, bit like me I guess, he tried to explain Aesan to me, I stopped him short trying to explain that why I was teaching English with the British council, he was very good actually, apparently 70% Cambodian language or letters maybe, are thai so its easy enough, and you can get to Cambodia from Nakhon Sawan, ffs if only I’d known before, also, it only takes 16hours by train to get from Bangkok to the capital of Malaysia, if only I had more time!! He asked for my facebook so I gave him my thai one. Luckily there was a bus to Phaisali, I got it easy enough, fans and so little people meant I could chill on the bus, 30B, though I got confused as we swapped buses and I nearly stayed on until the woman yelled at me, another 30b but still, very cheap! At Phaisali, beside the bus on the road Chongrak and Bla wound down the window and told me to jump off and get on, how random, I did though, and we headed back to the school, did some washing and went to hers for some cooking lessons and dinner, she had a bamboo meat soup I ate the bamboo and added the soy chilli, spicier than last time but still lovely and she’d made a 4 veg dish, lots of mushroom and soy bean, yumyumyum! Her husband was there and another teacher turned up, they put on the volleyball match on the TV, Thailand women vs. Russia. I went back to mind to finish my washing then at the school I skyped Nan and gag telling them of my weekend and my plans, showing them the ring which they adored and of the things I wanted to get, they think I should I will help with the pay, though going to see if becks wants to split on the camera ;) need an early night as to meet Chongrak at 2.30 at for this field trip, kill me! Tom leant me “the beach” started reading it, it just makes me want to go to the islands, loving it as it mentions so much here, and the first day makes me think of mine, love it, want to have it read for the weekend at Pattaya, started on my top too, cut it into fringe pieces and started knotting, my fashion classes were useful! Oh and Cathy has stuff in urgent need of talking about but she had dinner and I have exhaustion and that trip…nooooo!!!
MONDAY 19TH AUGUST
early risings for the Bitec in Bangkok with the children, non stop singing and dancing, how do they do it??? interesting science exhibit and visit to the floating market
Alarm went off at 2.15 rolled out of bed and chucked on the clothes I’d left out, after roll calling we finally got on the four buses, I was on bus no. 3 with Bla, Dang and Chongrak. The buses were the ones with the elaborate graffiti designs all over them in bright colours, one was fairies. I thought I would hopefully be able to ignore the noisy excited kids and get some sleep at the front with Chongrak with a slight seat recline and the use of my ear plugs and eye mask. But no, 5 minutes into the journey loud pumping Thai dance music started to play, along with flashing lights and the kids all got up and began to dance along…the songs all had the same rhythm or at least very very similar, I don’t think I’ll ever forget it! Some how I managed to sleep, we stopped once or twice for toilets etc, arrive at the exhibition after 8am, the sun was out and it was roasting, we got out of our buses, the place was already swarming with kids! We lined them up in a gazebo tent area and everyone put on a sticker, I snuck off and got an iced Thai tea for 20B telling Bla CHEUN NIM. the director appeared from no where, he must have drove down, don’t blame him, the creepy fat male teacher guy is on the trip so, he has some perverted feel to him, like all his Buddhist necklace are flamboyant and very showy, like he’s trying to make the point out that he’s amazing, maybe it’s just the fat face and moustache? But his attitude is showy too, its like an act? We entered the exhibition, turns out its not really space, its science, still, pretty cool! Had a text from gag and my parents to say they were back home ok J there was lots of renewable energy stuff but we moved quickly into the fun bits, there was men from the army at the start, with animals set up and plants like they’d hunted and gathered in a forest mission, there were live frogs and snails too and a pot with a leaf over it, there was a whole in it and you had to insert your hand and pull out whatever was in it. Bla was too chicken so I was the first, it was quite daunting, I now know how the celebrities felt in “I’m a celebrity get me out of here” in the bush tucker trials. The soldier pushed my hand on down, there was something squelchy and hard, it was moist down there, I went ahead and grabbed the hard thing, pulling it up I realised before I saw it what I was holding, one of the snails!! Then the guy quickly dipped his hand in and pulled out the squelchy thing, a frog! Next there was an x-ray screen set up, they’d used Xbox kinect scanners to do it, was pretty cool, going up it would show you your skeleton, mine kept messing up though, the legs being in the air in random angles and then it just wouldn’t work at all!! Not fair, there were lots of market like stalls too which the kids were going nuts over, buying lots of hats and funky glasses, spotted a couple pairs of the ones I got in china, and the “angel” hat was very popular that Lisa had got the day I got my panda one at the Nanjing wall.
I got split up from the others and made my way alone round the different exhibits, all in Thai, but there was some fun things at it too, all the kids said hello when I met them, the ones on the bus are the year 6, I haven’t taught them except if they are part of the after school class. They finally started adding me since I explained on Friday by showing them the facebook I was using, someone always speaks to me on facebook chat but I never know who! Came across an international section, American English, amazing! Just able to read something, they spelt Lindenburg wrong, the guy to fly over the Atlantic in 1919, spelling in Lindburg, or maybe im wrong, “lucky Lindy” as he was henceforth known. The boards talked about the work they’ve done with Thailand and then there were Kevlar gloves I tried on, they just seemed like thick wool, was class. Then there was one about finding out fossil colours, the experimentation they used to discover the dinosaur with the feathers and its colouring, orange/yellow with white stripes! It was through the British council, explored some more, lots of students that were Muslim were there, Chongrak told me ages ago that the south is quite full of Muslims now, hence the fighting before I came here. Got tired so sat down in the foreign bit, in a Japan section, one of the young boy students of my classes sat with me and wrote notes, I got to reading it, was all about how they were trying to fix the sugar crop here from drought and disease but creating hybrids from the 2 main types, sturdier with longer roots, was interesting! And about the diets of cows in produce less methane through stuff they’d made mixed in with what was usually fed them, it seemed to work too! Apparently Thailand grows a good portion of the world’s sugar and its actually the forest/rainforest areas that have the most cattle which do the most damage to the environment with methane gas, maybe its something to-do with the combination of the trees and the cattle? Bumped into Bla, Dang and Chongrak again, th little boy stayed with us too! Got pics with the card board cut-out of Obama at the American section, and with the U.K bus for the British council, just like one of the other guys in T.E.T turns out this is were he went. We sat and waited near the front soon after for the kids, got a coke from Bla and read more of the “beach” I really want to go to an island now, damn you Tom!! On the bus by 12, had lunch on it, Chongrak had made noodles, bit spicy with cabbage and we shared. Was delicious! Napped a bit while the kids did more dancing!!
kevlair
dont tell mrs O!
my British council bus
HUGE BALLS!!
Ayutthaya floating market
wrecked Bla
My Gaff
We arrived back at the school just before 7. Got a bucket shower and then went to Chongrak. She wasn’t hungry but she showed me how to make vegetable fried rice and I ate some of it, along with the sugar strands and wraps she’d bought for me a the floating market, sooo bad but so good, at least I understand why they use so much sugar in everything…there’s so much of it, when before I though Phaisali was mainly rice fields I was wrong, its mainly sugar, thanks to today I can now sort of tell the difference! She also got me a little hand woven box, just like the ones I saw on Saturday! Yay! Went on the computer and talked to gag and Ryan about the notebook and camera, everyone else was out, so alone!! Gag says if I paid 100 he’d pay the rest, but do I actually need one or am I just being greedy as it’s a decent price, looking online I saw decent deals in the U.K? absolutely shattered tonight class tomorrow though! Funsies. According to Google the nearest island KO SAMET is only 3 hours from Bangkok station by bus, promising ;)
TUESDAY 20TH AUGUST
It’s the same thing every morning, I’m exhausted, I think that may be the only thing that stays the same here for me in Thailand, I’m always tired, I don’t sleep enough, I do so much in the day, up early for class or an adventure at the weekend and up late on the computer to my family or writing this journal. The heat throughout the day doesn’t help matters, it adds to the tiredness!
After Assembly I brought my laptop to the English base. I only have two classes today and no after school class, I’m teaching Prathom 6 for the first time as Chongrak has two meetings to go to so I will be teaching solo. She gave me the book and told me to sort of follow it, they’re doing shopping and food at them moment, uploaded a video and asked for lots of Thai words to practise for the weekend.
The first class 6/1 is obviously the brighter class with the two students that try the hardest to out do each other in my after school class, who I call “Nikki” and “Nick” she said I was great at my dancing haha. They class picked up the lesson very quick. Going over conversations in the book I had them work in pairs before taking my own twist on the 2nd exercise, the four shops were fruit and veg, butchers, bakers and grocery. Got them to list about 10 or so items and then make they’re own shopping list using the words on the board and other ones that hadn’t, and I chose a number for the about of items per shop, giving them paper to do so, the rest of the class spent their time drawing it up or coming to me for English nicknames, Chongrak came looking me as I overspent my time. Called in to Dang’s Thai room to see about the head pieces, turns out I can get them in Nakhon Sawan later, she also gave me a pink Thai outfit, a complete set, apparently its worth around 2-4000 new! Cant get a really big head piece as they are hand made and take a month or so to make so will be getting a smaller one. They also gave me the back hair piece, belt, belt buckle and necklace, how kind! Anddd my package from Nan and gag arrived!! Opened it up at home, a card from them both and lots of goodies to give to the teachers, lots of union jack pens (which is what they’d ordered in) postcards, one of which is scrabo so may write in the back that its close to me! Made them a video, started getting emotional from my exhaustion and the though of how much of a good time im having and cried a wee bit, I disgust myself some times, made a video for the family as well. Unfortunately I had the great idea of deleting al the music on my mp3 to put new stuff in, it wont fucking work now!!! Wont sync. Kill me, all that’s left on it is Thai phrases. I guess if worse comes to worse I’ll be fluent in these L how am I going to survive??
Had my second class afterwards, they didn’t pick up on the whole working in pairs thing, or they just couldn’t be bothered really, only a couple at the front really tried, so ended up making them repeat the same thing together again as a class I say “how much is” 10 times. I then did a family shopping list with them and after about 5-10 minutes of explaining got them to draw what was in it. With 10 minutes or so to spare I taught them the pizza hut song from my childhood, it really takes me back to p.6 being ultra completive with Ashleigh Brown, Kathryn Boyd and Jude Young, does my life seem to centre around 3 or 4 very clothes friend?
“a pizza hut, a pizza hut, a country fried chicken and a pizza hut. McDonalds, McDonalds, Country fried chicken and a pizza hut”
Getting faster and faster and doing the arm movements as well. The kids loved it! Back to the classroom to grab some stuff I mentioned it to the few 6/1 students that were there playing scrabble, wouldn’t be surprised if there was mass competitions in the playground to see who can do it fastest, especially when I showed them me do it at ultra speed. Back at mine with all my packing done I fought with my mp3 again to no avail, went on a bike ride and ended up at the squared pond area past the fancy houses nearby the school, did a couple of laps of it and was going to dip my feet in but it was too far and looked so rank I chickened out at the last moment. Stopped at the 7/11 for a ice coffee/ovaltine mix and was told my gum packet was buy one get one free. I then had Thai dancing with Dang, she taught me dance number 5, harder again in the different foot work, circular steps this time and separate JEP and WONG hands for the steps. This song is called DOUNG JAN WAN PEN something about a sweet moon I believe? Most of the songs seem to be centred on the moon. Waited at Chongrak’s for her to finish with the director, a man, young Thai girl who spent last year living in Australia and another teacher from a different school were there. The female teacher is 36, again teaching English, she was pretty good too, she explained that there was a black girl and another girl at her school but no native English speaking teachers and they really needed one for next semester, two perhaps, I gave her my email and facebook and said I might be interested, it is also in Phaisali, I’d had accommodation and pay as well, but the term is November to march. I really just want a summer thing…with Rebecca if possible? Chongrak finally appeared and we set off to Nakhon Sawan, laughing away as usual with high Dang and Bla in the back! Once we got here we went straight to the shop for my Thai head dress pieces, there was in fact a really large one, but it is so heavy to wear for too long and it was 1,500B. Instead I choose a smaller one at 640, bracelet and upper arm sit out bra. All very colourful and in gold, Dang was able to get me discount too, so instead of it costing 2468b I GOT IT FOR 1900B!! Bargain anddd Dang says eh will let me have a costume FOR FREE for my sister too, these people are way too good to me!! We stopped nearby and had a spicy noodle and veg soup and tofu with tortilla crisps in it, very tasty! On the way past the big C I saw a temperature and time sign, before 7 and its 34*, it wasn’t even sunny today, no wonder I was a sweaty madam!
Unfortunately, with my luck, when we went to the riverside market we found it was all shut down, Bla had forgotten that on the 20th it shuts for cleaning! But Chongrak says we will go after school some time next week for the t shirt picking, Hoorah! Went to the open market near her house, it was shutting and there wasn’t much but I did get some cross earrings for 19B. Took out another 7,000 earlier and we booked my ticket for 10pm, 520B V.I.P though at 10pm, I’ll arrive in Chang Rai about 6 and from there I’ll head to the guest house area, only staying a night so I’ll check out the local stuff then get a package tour hopefully for the “golden triangle” and the white palace or temple, and maybe even the grandmother palace in the mountain, there’s lots of temples plus a night bazaar and apparently according to Chongrak a great DA LA near the border to Burma :D
“a pizza hut, a pizza hut, a country fried chicken and a pizza hut. McDonalds, McDonalds, Country fried chicken and a pizza hut”
Getting faster and faster and doing the arm movements as well. The kids loved it! Back to the classroom to grab some stuff I mentioned it to the few 6/1 students that were there playing scrabble, wouldn’t be surprised if there was mass competitions in the playground to see who can do it fastest, especially when I showed them me do it at ultra speed. Back at mine with all my packing done I fought with my mp3 again to no avail, went on a bike ride and ended up at the squared pond area past the fancy houses nearby the school, did a couple of laps of it and was going to dip my feet in but it was too far and looked so rank I chickened out at the last moment. Stopped at the 7/11 for a ice coffee/ovaltine mix and was told my gum packet was buy one get one free. I then had Thai dancing with Dang, she taught me dance number 5, harder again in the different foot work, circular steps this time and separate JEP and WONG hands for the steps. This song is called DOUNG JAN WAN PEN something about a sweet moon I believe? Most of the songs seem to be centred on the moon. Waited at Chongrak’s for her to finish with the director, a man, young Thai girl who spent last year living in Australia and another teacher from a different school were there. The female teacher is 36, again teaching English, she was pretty good too, she explained that there was a black girl and another girl at her school but no native English speaking teachers and they really needed one for next semester, two perhaps, I gave her my email and facebook and said I might be interested, it is also in Phaisali, I’d had accommodation and pay as well, but the term is November to march. I really just want a summer thing…with Rebecca if possible? Chongrak finally appeared and we set off to Nakhon Sawan, laughing away as usual with high Dang and Bla in the back! Once we got here we went straight to the shop for my Thai head dress pieces, there was in fact a really large one, but it is so heavy to wear for too long and it was 1,500B. Instead I choose a smaller one at 640, bracelet and upper arm sit out bra. All very colourful and in gold, Dang was able to get me discount too, so instead of it costing 2468b I GOT IT FOR 1900B!! Bargain anddd Dang says eh will let me have a costume FOR FREE for my sister too, these people are way too good to me!! We stopped nearby and had a spicy noodle and veg soup and tofu with tortilla crisps in it, very tasty! On the way past the big C I saw a temperature and time sign, before 7 and its 34*, it wasn’t even sunny today, no wonder I was a sweaty madam!
Unfortunately, with my luck, when we went to the riverside market we found it was all shut down, Bla had forgotten that on the 20th it shuts for cleaning! But Chongrak says we will go after school some time next week for the t shirt picking, Hoorah! Went to the open market near her house, it was shutting and there wasn’t much but I did get some cross earrings for 19B. Took out another 7,000 earlier and we booked my ticket for 10pm, 520B V.I.P though at 10pm, I’ll arrive in Chang Rai about 6 and from there I’ll head to the guest house area, only staying a night so I’ll check out the local stuff then get a package tour hopefully for the “golden triangle” and the white palace or temple, and maybe even the grandmother palace in the mountain, there’s lots of temples plus a night bazaar and apparently according to Chongrak a great DA LA near the border to Burma :D
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