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