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

First week in Surin and Cambodia

The rest of the week consisted of some physiotherapy combined with school trips and fun sessions! The 4 of us were split in to pairs, and 2 stayed at the school to see the children there, and the other 2 went out to see children in their own homes as part of an Outreach program. The Outreach program was amazing - such an eye opener. We saw a few kids who have never been able to walk, but with some help from us and exercises etc it may be possible! One of them was given a splint for her wrist when she was younger but the importance of it was never explained, so she's never made much improvement. She was lucky she was even given a splint, as we've now encouraged her to use it so can make some progress, but most of the kids would benefit so much from some medical equipment which is just not available to them. Makes me realise how lucky we are in England - as most of these kids would be walking by now if they'd had the same resources available!

On Thursday the school decided we needed a day off (as we obviously work so hard the other 3 days!!) so we all went on a school trip! We went to the National Museum of Surin and some temples, then went back to the school to attempt to clean out their mini pool which we may be able to use for hydrotherapy. That basically meant we could play around in a pool whilst sunbathing! Although we managed to clean it, it's still pretty rusty so next week we're going to try and get some swimming pool paint to sort it all out, so the kids can use it for therapy (obviously we're only doing it for the kids, it's got nothing to do with the fact that we'll be able to go swimming)!

After a hard week of work (or not!) we decided to treat ourselves and take a trip to Cambodia to go and see Angkor Wat. We got to the border, and got very ripped off by taxis (with no choice but to pay) and set off on a 4 hour journey down to Siem Reap. This journey was such an experience in itself! Basically thin, clay, extremely bumpy roads with potholes down a mountain, in a small crappy little car which almost got stuck at several points. In england even the tractors would struggle with this ground, especially during the rain, and there was even an overturned small truck, yet the taxi drivers skillfully made it through and got us to Siem Reap safely. I'll try and put photos up, but they don't really do it justice, you have to see it to believe it!

Once in Cambodia, we decided to get up early (4.30!!) and go to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It's supposed to be absolutely amazing, and I'm sure it would have been but unfortunately the whole sky was covered with clouds so we barely saw anything! However being up that early meant we could go round the majority of the temples and be finished by 10.30am and have the rest of the day to get massages and relax! That night we went to the famous Angkor What? Bar, and had a few merry drinks, then up early again for the drive home! Felt like a short trip, but we managed to pack loads in and had a really good weekend. Even managed to get a roast on Sunday night when we got back to Surin!

Just started the next week of work, and I've already fallen in love with a 2 year old boy who I'll definately be trying to sneak back with me!!

Lots of love to everyone,
NamPung (My nickname in Thai which I was given by the staff at the school - it means Honey!)

Bangkok and Surin

Sawatdee ka!! (hello)

So we left Hat Jomtien a bit early too, due to lack of things to do in the evening, and ended up on Koh San Road in Bangkok, which I'm sure you've all heard of! It's amazing, literally a travellers heaven as you can buy anything you want/need from the markets, and it's got loads of bars and clubs full of other travellers! The noodles on the street are only 50p which meant we could spend the extra money on the famous Thai whiskey buckets, although my stomach definately didn't agree with me the next morning!

We spent 2 nights there, with shopping during the days, and then went to meet our fellow volunteers on the other side of Bangkok. There's a group of around 15 of us with Starfish Ventures (our volunteering company) doing a combination of turtle conservation (basically sunbathing on a remote island, apparently looking after turtles!), child care, school development, and physio. There's 4 of us actually doing physio, and we have our own house in Surin which is very basic, but nicer than expected! It's kinda like being back at uni again on placement, as the other 2 girls are also from brum uni, and we have to cook/clean for ourselves etc. There's also bars and nightclubs nearby which we'll be trying out on thursday night!

We had our first day of placement today, which was in a school for children with mental health disabilities, and it was really cool. The kids are absolutely amazing, so friendly (apart from a couple who managed to bite/kick sarah!), and they're so fascinated by us and are continually taking photos. One little Down's Syndrome boy even gave me a kiss on the cheek! They're all really interested in learning english too, so in return we've been learning a few thai words. So far we can almost sing "heads, shoulders, knees and toes" in Thai!

We didn't actually get much physio done today, but we're scheduled tomorrow in the same school for the morning and home visits in the afternoon to see some of the more sick kids. But so far it's great, and everyone is so welcoming. I've really settled in to Surin, and it feels like home! It's nice to actually have a base, and unpack, rather than live out of a rucksack.

This weekend most of us volunteers have planned to go to Cambodia, to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, so our translators are arranging that all for us. Then the next weekend we're going to Don Det (Laos) where there's apparently 4000 beautiful islands! I'll update again soon. xxx