South Islands

The diving in Koh Tao was not quite as good as expected, but we still made it fun. The conditions were really bad (apparently due to the recent full moon) but we were diving with a group of lads from Sarah's open water course, and as they were typical lads we ended up spending the whole time doing Underwater Kung Fu Fighting and gymnastics (there were literally only about 10 fish)!!

One of the afternoons we had off from diving, we decided it would be a good idea to rent out some motorbikes (it's the done thing in Thailand - everyone has one) and go and investigate a beach which has some good cliff jumping. On the map, the route was one of the few proper roads so we figured it would be fine - the fact that I'd never ridden a motorbike before was clearly not an issue for the Thai people hassling me to rent one! After about 50m of practice on a proper tarmac road, we reached a dirt track. Thinking that it must just be a short section, then lead back on to the main road, we decided to keep going on the motorbike. This carried on for about 20 minutes, and every time we turned a corner or got up a hill, the track got worse! Due to my lack of experience on a bike, half of the time one of the guys had to take their bike up and come back for mine (Sarah was sensible and didn't get one!), until we gave up and left them half way.


Even the quad bike was struggling with it! So we had to walk the rest of the way (about 45 mins in the blazing heat up a dirt track - not fun!) but the beach was awesome once we got there and we did get a chance to do some cliff jumping. The next day, however, I discovered maybe the bike renting wasn't such a good idea when I took it back to them and they tried charging me 6000B (120 pounds) for a few small scratches on the bottom of the bike! This is clearly how the Thai's make their money - hire the bikes out to inexperienced blonde english girls then rip them off for all the money they have. Luckily we managed to agree on only 2180B (44 pounds), but still a rip off!



We only stayed one day after the diving then headed to Koh Samui (yet another hungover, not fun boat ride) for a couple of days. Koh Samui is very pretty with nice beaches, but much more touristy which also made it much more expensive! There were less backpackers and more holiday people, so we didn't stay too long. I did, however, make the most of the amazing shopping there and managed to get almost all of my Christmas shopping done (you're all getting socks! lol).

Phi Phi was the next stop, which we absolutely loved. It's such a beautiful small island, no vehicles are allowed (apart from push bikes), so everyone walks everywhere. It only takes about 10-15 minutes to walk from one side to the other in the main section. We did a sunset boat trip which included visiting monkey beach, snorkelling, kayaking, and visiting Maya Bay (the setting for the film "The Beach") which was amazing.
We also got to do several dives - in much better conditions than Koh Tao. We got to see a huuugggeeee wreck from a passenger ferry which sank 12 years ago, several turtles, and oh yeah...about 10 leopard sharks! They ranged from about 1.5m to 2.5m and would literally just sit right next to you minding their own business. I felt like giving them a hug but thought maybe that wouldn't be the best idea seeing as their closest relative is a reef shark which could eat me!

The evenings on Phi Phi were surprisingly busy. We spent most of the time in a place called Banana Bar which did amazing banana buckets (basically tasting of banana milkshake), and a bar which had Muay Thai boxing every night. One of our friends got in the ring one night to win a free bucket, it was an awesome atmosphere. We would then spend the rest of the night dancing in a beach bar with lots of english music - I've heard quite a few songs now that weren't released before I came, so I've got lots to catch up on!

We are now in a place called Railay which is just around the coast from Krabi - this is the most well known place for rock climbing so we're gonna give that a go! The next stop will be a small island where a James Bond film was set, and then back to Bangkok before flying home. Can't believe how quickly the time here is going!

Sawadee Ka xxxx

Koh Phangan - Full Moon!

I'm now on Koh Tao, which is a nice rest after a very hectic and drunken 6 days on Koh Phangan for the full moon!

The last week of volunteering was fun, but also pretty sad as we realised how much we were going to miss Surin, it literally felt like home to us after living there for 2 months and we'd made so many Thai friends as well as other volunteers. So I'll definately be back to visit as soon as I can!

Almost all of the other volunteers were easily persuaded to join us at the full moon, so we all headed down together on an overnight sleeper train with beer to start the trend for the week (yes, I was forced to drink beer and can now actually tolerate it ok!). Our hotel was pretty good for Thailand standards, we had hot water, air con and a flushing toilet (!!) and was the centre for all the pre-full moon pool parties so was always filled with travellers.

We quickly got in to a routine of pool parties and drinking on the beach until the early hours of the morning when the sun came up, then sleeping until early afternoon and lazing around, shopping, eating, and preparing to do it all again that evening. The atmosphere was amazing, with UV paint, fire dancers and lights everywhere. On the actual full moon night there must have been around 30,000 people on the beach, and we all managed to survive with no thefts or injuries or anything (we were being very sensible!).

The day after the full moon (after having no sleep) we had to get straight on to a boat to get here to Koh Tao - possibly the worst boat journey I've ever had! It was full of post-full moon travellers and there was a lot of sickness going on! We eventually made it here safely though and have checked in to a hotel right next to our dive centre. It's now just me and Sarah again, she starts her open water course today, and I'll be diving from tomorrow. The dives here are ridiculously cheap, only costing 15-16 pounds including equipment, tank etc!!

Everyone down here in the South find it amazing that we can speak some Thai, even the Thai people are surprised when we order food which is really cool! Oh, I also love fact that it's now december so I get to open my (very squashed) advent calendar!! We're celebrating it properly by playing christmas songs very loud and wearing a santa hat while opening each day.

Parade and Elephant Festival

The elephant parade was absolutely amazing, we truly felt like Princesses!

We were up really early to go and get professionally made up at a local salon which was awesome, I've always wanted to have professional hair and make-up (2 of them had to do 14 of us in 4 hours!). After doing our nails and make-up, I had a ladyboy dressing me and doing my hair - she was so talented at doing different hairstyles and kept calling me a princess! We then got blinged out with loads of shiny jewellery and even had people putting whitening cream all over us to make us look like porcelain dolls - apparently they don't like tans!

Once a group of us were ready we were taken to the parade to get a million photos taken for newspapers etc. We were told that we were the first foreigners EVER to be in the parade, and that it was a huge honour, and we even had people coming up to us asking why we were in it as they've never seen farangs dressed as Thais before!

For the actual parade, we were very near the front and some of us were carrying signs. Luckily we only had to walk for an hour and we had people waiting on us handing us water and vicks to give us energy! By the end of it we'd had thousands (literally!) of photos taken and were constantly being stopped in the street by Thais saying we were beautiful and wanted a photo with us. People were more interested in us than they were by the hundreds of beautiful elephants that were brought especially to Surin for the parade. I've definately experienced what it's like to be famous, I think we're actually famous in Surin now!!

The rest of the weekend consisted of elephant watching, shopping, drinking and sunbathing - awesome! The town has been full of elephants and foreigners (it's weird having other foreigners here, we're supposed to be the only ones!) We went to see the elephant show which involved hundreds of elephants playing football, doing tug of war, acting in a circus, traditional thai elephant dances and a reinactment of a famous war.

It was mad to see how many people come to Surin just for the elephant festival, and how famous it really is. I can't believe we were actually asked to be in it! I've been told there is footage on youtube so I'll get hold of a link for that so you can all see me being a real Thai Princess!

We've booked our tickets down to the South Islands now and leave on Friday. I can't believe how quickly it's gone and it'll be so sad to leave Surin! This truly is like a home to me now, and I've made so many amazing friends here. I'll definately be coming back to visit next time I can!

Next update will probably from a beach in the South! Sawadee-ka xxx

Clinic Volunteering

Sorry it's been a while!! I've recently taken up aerobics with some of the other volunteers which happens in our local park at 5pm every eve, making it very difficult to come on the internet! We've all decided that constantly eating rice with no exercise is not going down very well, so we're attempting to lose some of the weight we're all putting on! I even went for a run yesterday before aerobics, those of you who know how awful I am at running will realise what a big deal that is!!

So the last few weeks have been pretty good. The new volunteers have arrived so there's a nice big group of us again, and everyone is getting on really well. The only down side is that this month everyone has been split up into small groups and go to separate locations for volunteering, meaning we don't get to see them much unless it's in the evenings. Myself and Sarah have been joined by a nurse called Alison in the clinic and she's great, but we no longer have Ake (pronounced Egg) our favourite translator so it's not quite as fun!

At the clinic we get to go and see patients in their own homes as well as those who come into the clinic for treatment, and it's mainly adults with strokes or RTAs (Road Traffic Accidents). Although, yesterday we saw a 3 year old blind boy for the second time who is completely uninterested in anything and therefore is severely delayed in his development. We managed to discover that he enjoys being tickled, so we spent over an hour playing with him and tickling him to get his muscles working, and his Mum was so happy with his progress she said she'd never seen him that happy and well before!! It was so awesome to actually see how much she appreciated our help and how well the kid is improving!!

Last weekend Sarah and I went to stay in Ake's house in a village about an hour away, so we could experience real Thai life. His Mum was so welcoming and so happy to see us, she'd told the whole village we were coming! So throughout the weekend we had locals turning up at their door to have a look at the "farangs", I've never heard that word said before so many times, literally every person we saw on the street was asking Ake why he had 2 farangs with him! His grandma was also so excited about seeing us, she had walked halfway down the street (she couldn't get the whole way as she can't walk more than about 3m at a time without needing a 5-10 minute rest) and was sitting there waiting for us to arrive. We had a huge feast the first night, with all the family round to meet us, and they gave us a welcoming ceremony wishing us good luck like we had previously at the school party. Several of the aunts were also asking us if we would marry their sons as we are apparently "beautiful"!!

The next day we went and spent the morning in one of the family's rice fields, helping to cut the rice. Sarah hadn't brought any long trousers with her so had to borrow some of Ake's dad's, and we were both given long tops and a towel and hat to put over our heads to protect us from the sun, we looked ridiculously funny (photos will follow when I can upload them)!! Several of the Thais found it hilarious to see 2 farangs dressed like Thais attempting to cut rice, although apparently we were pretty good at it! We then got to explore the village a bit more, and found a beautiful lake where we watched the sunset. In the evening his Mum gave us traditional Thai skirts to wear to dinner at his Aunt's house, again with the whole family, and they were all telling us to stay longer, and make sure we go and visit them again soon. They were all so lovely, we've adopted his Mum as our Thai Mum for whenever we're over here!

This weekend is the famous elephant festival in Surin which we're going to, and we're all part of a huge parade which takes place tomorrow. Apparently it's going to be aired on Sky TV (no idea which channel!) but we all had fittings for traditional Thai outfits today, and will be walking 10km in a parade for everyone to watch us. We even have to get up at 7am tomorrow morning to go and get our hair and make-up done professionally! So if anyone has something like Sky World News, it's possible I may be on there dressed as a Thai! We're all really excited about that.

The festival goes on all weekend so we'll be spending most of our time with elephants this weekend. We've even seen quite a few more farangs in Surin who have travelled here just for the festival so it's a huge event. I'll try and get on the net sometime next week to update you all with photos from last weekend and the festival.

Much Love xxxxxxx

Ko Samet - Paradise

It's only 5pm on Monday and I'm already knackered after a brilliant weekend!! We went down to the beautiful island of Ko Samet (just off the coast from Rayong) to get some well needed beach time.

The journey down there was an overnight "VIP" bus journey leaving at 10 and arriving in Rayong at 8am. To be fair, for Thai standards it was pretty good, the seats reclined a lot further than usual and we were given blankets, but I don't think the Thais appreciated a group of 7 "farang" white girls jumping on the bus at the last minute and giggling about a bottle of wine falling from the overhead locker onto a poor sleeping Thai girl in front!! We eventually settled down and attempted to sleep, although I wasn't very successful.

After arriving on the island we found a slightly more remote beach, further down to the south, and checked in to the hotel. We then didn't leave this complex until we had to return on Sunday! It was beautiful - photos are on facebook if you're able to look, and I was very happy with my Mai Tai cocktails whilst lying on the beach sunbathing. We even got fireworks in the evening from the beach about 10m in front of us because the Thais were celebrating Halloween (not sure we should have been that close for safety reasons!).



The return journey on the bus was just as comfortable (or not!) and we finally got back to Surin at 5am this morning, in time for a quick nap before work (hence the tiredness). This week we have started physio at the clinic, and although it's not as fun as the school it's still pretty good. We don't get to play with the patients (as they're all above the age of 50!) and we have to work harder, but it's good experience and the people are all very very lovely and welcoming!

There are only 4 of us volunteers this week, as the new ones arrive on Saturday which we're looking forward to. We're off to a Thai festival this evening celebrating water! We've even made some bamboo/banana leaf decorations to float down the river which should be fun!

Oh and I forgot to say previously, that my karaoke skills must be either absolutely amazing, or terrible (more likely!), as Sarah, Alex and I were given roses and 100B (2 pounds) for our rendition of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On"!!! Apparently it's a Thai tradition to give someone money when they make you happy!! So I'm sure you'll all be blessed with my singing when I'm home as I now think I'm amazing...

NamPueng xxxxx

Elephant Village

The elephant weekend was brilliant!! We turned up at a local Thai family's house where we were staying, and had a cooking lesson off our translator (Oh) which was great fun. Soon after, our "taxis" turned up, 8 big ones (for each of us) and 2 babies. This one was mine (complete with the underage driver)...

We all trotted off for a 3 hour elephant ride, including getting soaked in a river to help wash them, surrounded by elephant poo. We also came across a road which had a huge section caved in, so we had to wade across a farmer's crops to get into a swampy area to go round. One of the smaller elephants was too short and almost drowned, which meant Liz who was riding it ended up swimming in the mud! My lovely elephant called Boontan happened to be the one with the boniest spine, and one of the few with no mat, which meant that by the end of the trek I could barely sit down!! Very painful!!

We had another cooking lesson that evening (I'm gonna be amazing by the time I'm home) and had a fun evening with some rose wine and a mosquito net, which happened to be hilarious at the time!

The next day we went kayaking (check out the sexy life jackets) and then back to Surin via a Silver Market which I managed to resist.

This week is our last week at the school, so the teachers have been making sure it's memorable. On Tuesday we went shopping for food etc, and gave out donations to local poor families. It was very eye-opening seeing how badly some of these people live, even worse than the poor ones we've seen on Outreach! It's great so see how grateful they were though, although a bit shell-shocked as I don't think they've ever seen white people before! We had lunch at a temple and were blessed by the monks, who were also fascinated by us as they too have never seen white people before let alone 10 of us!

Last night we had a traditional Thai party, put on for us by the school which was AMAZING. It was so much fun, they had traditional dancers, buffet, karaoke, and we were blessed by each of them during a ceremony. We will now apparently have lots of good luck! The director of the school also made a speech and couldn't express how grateful he was to all of us, and said we are like "family" to them and will always be welcome. It actually got us quite emotional!! After the party a few of us headed to our local club called "Speed 3" to check out the Thai club scene! Again, we were the only white people in there so we were constantly being stared at, I definately know how it feels to be famous now!

I've decided to do another month of physio instead of switching to child care as it's more beneficial and better experience for me (plus I get some money back from the company as it's cheaper, which is great!!). So next month we'll be based in a clinic seeing adults - will be a big change from the kids. Although we're hoping to carry on our Outreach program at the same time so I'll get a mix.

This weekend most of us will be going down to Ko Samet to get some sun, and have a relaxing weekend! Plus it's a chance to say bye to the volunteers who are leaving after just one month (including Alex and Rachael, the other physios), so we're looking forward to that.

Sawadee ka for now! xxx

Laos - 4000 Islands

Last weekend we travelled to Don Det in Laos, otherwise know as one of the 4000 islands - absolutely stunning! Completely surrounded by water and small islands (4000 as the name would suggest! Although we didn't actually see that many...)

The journey to the first main city in Laos took a total of 11 hours, and consisted of 7 forms of transport! These consisted of... TukTuk, Train, Taxi, Bus, Walking (guided by nice Thai man), Minibus and the back of a van! Due to the long travelling, we spoke to our volunteer co-ordinator and she gave us Monday off work, to allow us to stay an extra day to make it worth while! So we decided to stay the night in Pakse and travel the further 4 hours in the morning.

Once we got to the closest town to Don Det, we had to get a "ferry" across to the island. Now they call it a ferry, but what they actually mean is long, thin wooden row boat with a tiny motor on the end, in which the try to pack in as many travellers and large backpacks as possible without it capsizing!! Very interesting experience, but we got used to them as that's what was used every time we needed to travel away from the island. The island was tiny, and almost every guesthouse cost a maximum of £1.50 a night per room, and that got you a bed and a squat pot. But we decided to go all out and spend £4 so we actually got a mosquito net, proper western toilet which flushed (better than here in Surin!!), shower (cold - but we're used to that) and electricity between the hours of 6.30 and 10.30 at night!! It was like heaven!! The whole island was very chilled out, and ideal for anyone looking for some tranquility.

The next day we did a trip to go and see some Irawaddy Dolphins and the largest waterfall in East Asia. We were pretty sceptical about the promise to see the dolphins, as several people had told us we'd never see them in rainy season, but we went to the Cambodian side of the river and sat down on the bank for an hour, and managed to see several dolphins playing and jumping, very close to us!! Attempted to get some photos but the best I could do is a tiny black dot in the middle of the river!! That afternoon we did some tubing down the river - not quite the same as Vang Vieng as there were no bars along the way, but we made up for it by getting some small bottles of wine to drink on the way down!

The journey home on Monday was a bit easier as we got a package deal, and we ended up on only 5 types of transport this time and made it all the way home by 10pm ready for work the next day. We were all geared up for a hard weeks work (well, 3 days...) but so far we've only had a couple of kids turn up to school who actually need physio, and we have another trip out tomorrow to go and meet the Governer of Surin!! We did, however, spend a day on Outreach and got to see another couple of patients who we'd previously assessed - turns out we must be reasonably good physios as they're improving already! It's great to see that we're actually making a difference!! It's also great how laid back they are with it all here, so far we've only had to do a maximum of 3 days actual work as there's been a school trip each week. Last week's was to an elephant centre where we got to watch a show with the elephants playing football, basketball and doing various other tricks! The elephants actually looked like they were enjoying themselves and they are treated well at that place which was really cool to see.

This weekend we're going to an elephant village to spend a few days looking after the elephants and do some kayaking which I'm very excited about! Then we'll be heading to a market at the Cambodian border on Sunday to do some much needed shopping!!

Much love xxxxxxxxxx