The final 2 weeks

wow so i have alot to catch up on! starting with... ah yes my last week at the school. for this week we were teaching all ages at the school from 6 up to 15. needless to say the p1's (aged 6 and 7) didnt really grasp alot, and as they had just moved up from pre school which is just fun and games they didnt understand the concept of sitting at a desk and learning so they just ran about all lesson climbing on eachother and jumping on tables and screaming, it was complete chaos. then there was p2 who i adore because there were quite a few kids from my summer camp class in there and despite only being 7 and 8 years old they were all so enthusiasitc especially the ones i'd already taught for 3 weeks. and it was lovely because at the end of every lesson i would say 'bye bye!' and they would all run at me and hug me, almost taking me out in the process. to be fair the older ones startes copying them and doing that aswell. but i do love my littluns. in terms of teaching, the older ones were great because you really saw progress in their learning. we had a day off on thursday and the teachers took us out to these other schools which both had presentations bring held on e-learning, which, between you and me, is a pile of poo. making the kids sit and watch a lesson being conducted on tv does not count as a lesson. but because this is thailand and they are so desperate to develop as a country they see any kind of technological progress as beneficial and neccessary. i stuck to the blackboard and pens and paper in my lessons as a little protest against it. anyway at one of the schools we met a thai english teacher who could actually speak english! (a rareity). and at the other school there was a tree that was covered in huge hairy bats which was cool. oh and we went to this temple and there was a dead monk in a coffin who had apparently been dead for 4 years. i did not enjoy this.
so at the end of that week i was so sad to be leaving the school and the village. we went into the village to say goodbye and the grandma of some of my students put on a massive spread for us all, the food was sooooo good and i got to spend a few last moments with some of the kids, including my little chubby bun who i love and miss so much. anyway after dinner i gave them presents to say thankyou and the grandma started crying which completely threw me as i didnt expect it at all, and she was just holding onto me and sobbing and it was all too much so i just started bawling! which then set jenna off aswell (women eh!) and i found it very hard to leave after that. the next morning the grandma was waiting outside the gate for me as i left with all my bags and she walked to the bus stop with me and waited until the bus came. she literally didnt speak a word of english but somehow we managed to communicate and i think she told me i am welcome back to the village anytime. then the bus eventually turned up and after a few more tears i waved goodbye to the school and travelled into bangkok where caoimhe was waiting for me!
i found caoimhe curled up on a bench in a shopping mall fast asleep. to be honest at first i thought she was a homeless person. i joke i kid! i knew it was withers and it was so good and so weird to see eachother again. its been 4 months. we spent the next day and a half basically catching up on everything and then on sunday afternoon we went to watch a muay thai match which was extremely brutal. we enjoyed it for the first few matches and then we got bored so we left. on the monday morning bright and early we got on a 6hour bus to surin. i can even describe how excited i was as we started getting closer to the elephant village. being back there was SO GOOD. it felt like home. we had a yummy dinner cooked for us by out homestay hosts and then went to bed ready for a 6am start to go on a 6km elephant ride! at the time we didnt fully understand where we were going and why we were riding for such a ridiculously long journey but then we later found out there was a parade happening in the neighbouring village that afternoon. so thai, caoimhes mahout picked us up on his motorbike and took us to the parade. as we were waiting for the elephants, a load of thai teeneagers ran up to us yelping and giggling and daring eachother to talk to us (standard thai teen behaviour) after a few minutes we worked out they were trying to ask us to go and speak to their teacher which we did, and i told them i had taught english and they asked for my email so that was exciting. then the we heard the music approaching as the parade came down the road and i start dancing and the kids all screamed, it was so funny. then i saw the elephants coming through and i saw my elephant chokchai with my mahout hong riding him, and hong had painted chokchais face and he looked so beautiful! chokchai is a full grown elephant but hes only 7 so hes still a baby really. hes so cute, hong has taught him loads of little tricks like when you give him a treat he bows down and says thankyou (in elephant language) and hong has taught him to pick up objects off the ground and pass them up to him with his trunk when hes sitting on him. its brilliant. anyway so i ran up to chokchai and made a big fuss of him and then hong ushered for me to get up on the elephant and ride him through the parade which i obviously accepted! it was so much fun. i felt like a thai princess apart from maybe slightly less elegant, especially when a thai women gave me some fruit to eat and it was all dirty but i didnt want to be rude so i ate it and it was really quite disgusting, and hong saw my face and started cracking up, but i had already committed to the fruit so i had to at least have a few more bites before casually tossing it into a hedge.
for the next few days we carried on having a wonderful time, and i was obviously the happiest person in the entire world because i was with the elephants again and nothing makes me happier than that. we swam with them in the river and we did field work for the conservation project and we rode them for hours and it was just perfect! so glad i went back. so as you can imagine, i found it very hard saying goodbye but i held it together! i know i will be back there someday so its not goodbye forever. so we came back to bangkok for one night and then went down to the beach in pattaya which really is not a very nice place but we wanted to go to a beach and this was the closest and most convenient one, plus my thai friend nang reccomended a good tattoo artist there where i could get my tattoo done. but i wont go in to detail, pattaya is basically full of old fat sleazy white men with thai brides. everytime i look at one of them i try to convey the message of 'shaaame on you' on my face and i hope it bloody comes across because the way they live their lives is sickening. but me and caoimhe still enjoyed ourselves, especially loved our guesthouse owner who was so nice to us and the room itself which greeted us with a beautiful blast of air con every time we went in.
SO! now i am in back in bangkok. i have tomorrow to do a final shopping trip and sort out my flight ticket and then first thing wednesday morning i fly home. woah. i am scared and excited and sad and happy all at the same time. i cant believe its all over. i have honestly had the time of my life and i dont reeeally want to come home, as much as i love you all! and yes, i have got the travelling bug, and am already planning future trips including a stop off in thailand to see some of the amazing people (and elephants) i have met out here again. for those of you who have followed this entire blog, well done! i hope you have enjoyed reading it. i can guarantee i have enjoyed the experiences i have blogged ten times more. so i guess all thats left to say is goodbye southeast asia, thankyou to everyone who has supported me back in england, and i will be home soon! lots of love x

Summer Camp

I spent 4 days last week in Erawun, teaching at a summer camp in a school near the waterfall. It was so much fun! we didnt actually get a chance to teach them that much english, it was more of a fun sort of camp with loads of singing and dancing and shouting. there were 15 volunteers who came from all the different teaching placements all over thailand. we split the kids up into 4 groups and i was one of the leaders of team 1 which basically meant acting like a big kid and making a fool out of myself all the time. Suvanna who is our project coordinator ran the camp but to be honest i think alot of it was made up on the spot so she would call up the group leaders to entertain the kids quite alot. we ended up doing loads and loads of dancing, also forming a band in 5 minutes (i was on piano) and performing man in the mirror which was interesting! we did a talent show aswell and i taught the kids a dance and then stood at the back of the room and did the dance so they could follow me...probably looked like a bit of a weirdo but it meant the kids could perform it on their own on stage without me standing in front of them. i was so proud of them! had some really good dancers in my group and any of you who know me know that choreography is right up my street. on the thursday we took all the kids to the waterfall which is just up the road, and seeing as there were around 100 kids that was pretty interesting! as the loudest leader of team 1 i spent the whole afternoon shouting trying to get my kids to gather together and not wander off, but they were actually surprisingly well behaved and it was a really good trip, apart from when the yougest boy in the group (he's only 6) decided to strip down completely starkers to go swimming. in thailand modesty is a big deal so literally everyone was staring at him and giggling and i had to wade into the water to fish him out and put some clothes on him. bless him, he was completely oblivious. on the last day we played the board of directors at football and tug of war and won both! all round a really good few days. and we were lucky enough to stay on these really cool floating houses on the river kwai. we could go swimming in the river whenever we wanted and most nights we would lay out on the floating bamboo raft under the stars and just chill out. it was lovely. oh and we did looooads of karaoke as there was a karaoke machine in the restaurant which was such a laugh. at the weekend we went up the waterfall again but all the way to the top this time (my 2nd time up to the top now) and bumped into some of the kids from the camp and had ice cream with them. then ryan, one of the other volunteers, dared me to dip my feet in the pool where all the big fish were, and they all started nibbling at my feet.
So after i really great weekend we made our way back to Suphaburi for a free week. By this point it was just the four of us- me, Jenna and Ryan who are brother and sister, and Jacob who has been volunteering at the school for the same amount of time i have. We all get on really well so we decieed to make the most of free accommodation at the school and keep ourselves occupied in the village and local town. Then this weekend the 4 of us went to Ayutthaya, the old capital of thailand. It was a really nice place, lots of old temples and ruins scattered about and we visited a non profit elephant camp which i obviously loved. we turned up right in time to watch the newborns getting bathed which was absolutely adorable. After that we went to the floating market where they have lots of muslim thai food such as roti which is my favourite and extremely fattening. On the second day there, 2 of our other friends from the summer camp came to meet us and we all went out that night, got roped into watching the FA cup final in this dingey thai bar and then the owner of the bar ended up taking us in the back of her truck to a nightclub in the midle of nowhere where, again, we were the only white people and everyone stared at us and touched our skin. But it was a really good and spontaneous night and we all enjoyed it, apart from the ride home where the lady had about 10 shots of whisky right in front of us and then got behind the wheel. Never been so scared in my life!
Anyway now i am back in Suphaburi for one more week of teaching, Jacob has moved on so its just the 3 of us now and we're teaching at proper school as opposed to summer camp, and on the side we are working on a year long lesson plan structure for future volunteers to follow. Next week, as long as i can get back into bangkok (protests are in full swing again) then i will be meeting with my dear friend Miss Caoimhe Withers and taking her to elephant village for 4 days, so that i can say goodbye to my elephants before i go home in just over 2 weeks. SEE YOU ALL SOON! lots of lovex

Dirty Farang

its been ages since i've written one of these! apologies. i have now settled into my teaching placement in Suphanburi and have done 2 weeks there. I am taking the youngest class, 7-9 year olds, at an english summer camp as it is thai summer holidays at the moment, so i teach from 9-11.30 and have the rest of the day off! next week i am doing 2 more days at this school and then moving on to another school in Kanchanaburi which i actually went on a 2 day trip to last weekend, and we climbed a waterfall and went to the bridge over the river kwai, which i really enjoyed.
The teaching itself is easier than you would think, when i started i had no idea how i would communicate to a load of kids who spoke absolutely no english, when i speak absolutely no thai. but it works! there are alot of hand gestures involved and we play alot of games and activities instead of just loads of written work because theyre too young for that really, they dont have the attention span. but they are really receptive and in the last 2 weeks we have covered 'i like/ i dont like' and learnt vocab on animals, fruit and vegetables, and hobbies. next week its their last 2 days of camp so i think i will do something fun with them and teach them a dance or something. They are generally quite well behaved, they mess about as much as you would expect a group of 7-9 year olds would but there is one really naughty boy who i completely despair with! he hits all the other kids and is really rude to them and is just out of control. when we do a written exercise he will sometimes get his head down and concentrate but other times he is just a livewire and cant stop fidgeting and shouting and getting violent. its hard to discipline a little boy when you dont speak the same language... but i give it a go anyway! we are actually allowed to use the cane out here but i havent used it.. yet.
in the evenings sometimes we play basketball with the kids from the village, some of whom are really young and some who are about 15/16, and then 2 grown men. its usually us teachers and lthe little kids versus the older kids and the thai men... and boy do they play dirty in thailand! the phrase 'non-contact' doesnt exist out here, which is ok because we're only playing for fun but i do draw the line when one of the adults runs up to one of my kids and grabs him round the middle and tears the ball out of his hands. for this reason i have had to resort to some mild violence to protect my kids... including kneeing one of them in the abdomen... so i have decided to be a spectator from now on to keep out of any trouble by harming one of the locals!
we have lunch included every day so i am living for quite cheap at the moment. we get fried rice or pad thai or noodle soup (except i cant eat pad thai because it makes me ill and its way too hot for noodle soup so i always have fried rice) and we can get home made coconut ice cream and sticky rice for 5baht (10p). in the afternoons sometimes we go into the town centre called suphanburi. There isnt a huge amount to do there but the main advantage of it is there is a mall which has air con, something which is unheard of in the village where we live. air con is a godsend in this heat! But Suphanburi is a nice little town with lots of foodstalls which keeps me happy. there are absolutely no foreigners (farangs) in Suphanburi so the fact that i have white skin and blonde hair causes a bit of a stir. Its hard to believe but i have actually been signing autographs, no joke. i also have people stop me on the street quite alot to take a photo of me, and everytime i walk past a group of teenagers they all start pointing and giggling uncontrollably. the other day on the bus the lady sitting next to me starting touching my skin and saying 'suwai' which means beautiful. its a little weird, very flattering and makes me feel exteremely self concious all at the same time! anyway a few days ago we stumbled across a water park in suphaburi and decided to try it out and it was brilliant! granted we were the oldest there by about 15 years but still. its been far too long since ive been on a waterslide, had forgotten how fun it was. needless to say we all got injured a few times especally when we went down the slides in a train (there were 4 of us) and ended up falling on top of each other and sliding into eachother and completely taking eachother out. but it was such a good day and definitley want to go back there next week seeing as it was only 50baht entry (1 pound).
I'm back in bangkok this weekend to see a friend i made at the couchsurfing house for her birthday, she is thai and lives in bangkok and she cooks meals for all the poeple staying in the house and we used to cook together a lot so i thought on my weekend off i would come back to celebrate her birthday with her. but dont worry i am out of the way of the riots. i hear there are some protests in aylesbury at the moment so seems like back home isnt much safer anyway!
so theres only 4 weeks to go and for 3 of those i plan to be teaching, and then for the last week i want to go back to see my elephants in Ban Tha Klang because i miss them so much. Not definite yet but i will keep you posted as to how that plans out. 4 weeks and counting! i cant wait to see you all, but then i'm not really ready to go home yet... but either way i'll be home soon. lots of love xx

Happy New Year! again...

Thats right, this is now the 3rd new year i have celebrated this year... does that make sense? i don't think it does but anyway this week it is Songkhran which is Thai New Year. It is a week long public holiday, and it definitley highlights the differences in thai culture and western culture. If english people were given a whole week off work to celebrate new year, we would sit around eating and drinking, maybe go out for a day to do something which doesnt require much effort, see some friends, but generally just be lazy. Here, they are given a whole week off work and they choose to run about the streets throwing flour and water on eachother.. for 5 days solid. Therefore it is near impossible to make any kind of journey anywhere in bangkok without being forced into participating. Just now as i walked the 3 minute walk from the house to the internet cafe, a grown man sprayed water down my back with a watergun. I was not impressed, and showed him by using a glare i have perfected over the past week when i have been involuntarily soaked or had flour rubbed into my face. He looked shocked... these people cannot comprehend why anyone would not want to join in. But its safe to say i'm done with Songkhran now, one day would have been enough for me. I am all for waterfights, they are good fun but for me a waterfight should consist of people with waterguns or waterbombs running around trying to soak eachother and dodge the water themselves. Here, you just walk down the street and people will come up to you with a bucket of ice water and immerse you in it, with absolutely no haste at all. Then they will get a bucket of flour/water paste and dip their hands in it and rub it all over your face, whilst saying sorry over and over again. Last night we went out to a bar and i was determined not to get flour on my face, so i had to block them king fu style which unfortunately led to a small girl getting hit in the face. (sorry small girl)
Anyway, today is supposedly the last day of songkhran although it can sometimes go on for weeks, brilliant! We were thinking of heading down to Pattaya tomorrow which is the nearest beach. I wouldnt mind it so much if there were waterfights there as at least i would be in swimwear and have the sea at my disposal to wash of all the flour-gunk. Will have to wait and see i guess!
Whilst the new year celebrations are going on, the redshirts are still out in their swarms and things have started to get nasty now. For people like me who are not directly involved (except for the day when i accidentally wore a red shirt... my bad), the whole thing is just a big inconvenience because roads are being blocked and train lines are being closed and so it is easy to get stranded, which happened to me the other day. But i am not in any danger at all, don't worry about me. The protestors are now taking things further because the armed forces got involved which caused a big commotion. There were 15 killings this week, including a japanese journalist. As if that wasnt enough, they are now displaying the corpses at the end of khaosan road, i suppose as a way to show that they mean business. The armed forces have withdrawn and things seem to have settled a bit for now. But i will be glad to get out of Bangkok on Monday! I am heading off to my teaching project which i am really excited about. It will be nice to get stuck in to a project and i am spending 6 weeks there so it will be good to really get to know the school and the kids. I will find out later today where i am being placed, i have a feeling it will be rural so in that case internet access might be tricky. But either way i'm sure i will have an opportunity at some point to get on and do another update. Until then, take care, keep the emails coming, miss you all loads. lots of love xxx

Southern Thailand

So after the trek i spent a few days in bangkok before heading down to Koh Phangan. We took an overnight bus which took 8 hours followed by a 4 hour boat trip. on the bus they played the film outlaw which was actually pretty good! i tried and failed to get a decent bit of kip on the bus as the seats didnt recline very far and the air con made it really cold. when we got of the bus we had to wait in this random place for about 2 hours for the boat, it was like a service station but it only sold dried goods- dried fruit, dried vegetables, dried meat, dried bread, and a lot of nuts of all different varieties. funnily enough i wasnt feeling so peckish so i slept on a bench for 2 hours with my sarong as a cover. we then got on the boat and i decided i needed to eat something so i didnt get seasick s i ate a massive packet of crisps and then fell asleep again. so for me the journey there was bearable as i was unconcious for about 80% of it, but i know alot of people suffered with travel sickness and it was hardly luury conditions but considering the whole trip cost us the equivalent of 19pounds i couldnt complain. anyway we arrived there at about 11 the next morning and checked straight into our hotel. had a quick swim and some lucnh and then went straight back to sleep- i figured i needed my energy for th efull moon party that night. i was nic and sensible and lined my stomach with a wholesome jacket potato with beans and cheese before getting started on the vodka! we all painted eachother in neon paints (which do not come out of clothes in the wash!) and headed down to haadrin beach for what promised to be a wild night. and it didnt dissapoint! there was estimated to be about 30,000 people on the beach and by the time we got there at 11pm there were already people (mainly girls) passed out on the sand left right and centre, clearly went too far with the drinking. there were bars all the way along the beach, mainly playing techno and drum&bass music and there wer elight shows and fire displays everywhere. it was insane! i managed to stick it out till sunrise which was pretty special, and then headed back to the hotel for some sleep! the rest of the time on the islands was ok but not great, after the novelty of the beautiful beaches had worn off it just became really expensive, the taxis in particular were extortionate but we did find this gem of a night food market in our local town where you could get thai curry ad rice for 30baht (about 60p). i also did an overnight trip to koh tao were i saw a certain ms ivey and ms ruiz! it was so weird but so cool to see them both, obviously we did plan to meet but still i am pretty lucky to get to see 2 of my best friends on a tiny island off the coast of southern thailand! we had loads of catch ups and chilled out on the beach, it was lovely :) i was planning on travelling with them a little while longer but unfortunately my finances wouldnt allow for another 2 weeks on the islands so i have come back up to bangkok, it took all day to get back and after a few bad eating experiences in a stop off simialr to the dried goods shop on the inward journey, i decided to treat myself to a macdonalds when we got back to bangkok. after we had finished eating, i was taking my tray back to the bin and a napkin fell on the floor so being the good citizen that i am i decided to pick it up, and did not think through the weight ratio of my huge rucksack that was on my back so the minute i bent down i toppled right over and lay there flailing about with my legs in the air similar to an overturned tortoise. it was highly embarassing and my good friend JOCELYN though it was extremely funny to push me back down every time i tried to get up so i spent about 5 minutes in the middle of macdonalds lying on my back laughing my head off, while thai people watched with concern wondernig whether i had fainted and why my friend was hindering my efforts to get up again! after that saga we finally made it to the house i am currently staying in.g its a 5 story couchsurfing house in saphenkwai which is a non touristy area which is good because its a lot cheaper! i am here for the next few weeks and not really sure what il be doing yet, just settling in at the moment but hoping to get involved in either renovating the house or maybe a bit of volunteer work at a school. not much else to report really. next week is thai new year and they celebrate by having a massive waterfight which i will definitley be participating in! i will update afterwards and let you know how it was. lots and lots of love xxx

you can call me rambo

Sorry its taken me a while to write another post, i have been in really remote villages and hilltribes for the last 3 weeks so its been a bit of a struggle to get time to sit down on a computer for more than about 15 minutes. but i have had the most AMAZING 3 weeks. its been unreal. i spent 2 weeks in the elephant village which i completely fell in love with, it was so nice to spend so much time them and also doing a lot of labour to help conserve the camp itself. we did a lot of planting and ploughing in the fields and then msot days we got to go down to the mudbath or the river and get in and wash the elephants and swim with them. by the end of the 2 weeks i felt completely at home and wouldnt even blink if an elephant herd casually strolled past my window. we lived in really simple conditions which i also loved. and it was good to spend time with the mahouts although there was quite a language barrier, but we gave them all engilsh lessons which was a good laugh. ive also learnt a little bit of thai although not much, it is a very confusing language! so after we waved quite a tearful goodbye to our elephants and mahouts and homestay families, we headed up to chiang mai for 3 days of trekking and bamboo rafting in the jungle. this was also absolutely incredible. really hard work but very satisfying at the end. on the first day we did a 3 hour trek up a mountain and back down the other side into a hilltribe village. now, as you probably guessed i am not a natural trekker, and one of the trekking guides, nooka (we called him nougat) decided within the first 5 minutes of trekking that i shouldnt be trusted ot be left alone so he accompanied me for monst of it, cacthing me when i almost slipped down the side of the mountain, carrying my bag for me up the realy steep bits, and tying various leaves and shrubbery around my head because he thought it was hilarious. that prompted the whole group to re-name me rambo. we stayed in bamboo huts overnight and had some amazing real thai food. then the next morning we were woekn at the crack of dawn by the cockerel and did another 5 hours of trekking through the jungle to an elephant camp situated right in the middle of the jungle. it was a lovely camp anda really nice habitat for the elephants with a stream running thorugh the middle and lotfs of grass and bamboo for the to eat. we then rode the elephants for another hour through the jungle and i am definitley glad we had already had experience riding elephants because otherwise i deifnitley would have fallen off. i was sat on the neck and we were going up and down really steep hills but thankfully i was quite comfortable with riding them although i did have to hold on quite tight in some parts. they took us to our next village which was a little bit bigger, there we had a tour round the village school and we fed the fish in the river and then had another amazing dinner, followed by a traditional karen tribe massage to soothe our sore legs and then another night in a bamboo hut. i dont know why but i actually really love living the simple life in tiny little remote villages like that andbeing completely cut off. we washed in the river and went to the toilet in a hole in the ground, we slept on mats on a wooden floor with a blanket and had no electricity and there were loads of different animals just casually wandering around the village. it was great! anyway on the 3rd day we did something like 9km of bamboo raftnig which was bloody tiring! i was not a natural bamboo rafter but i gave it a go, and then there was one part where we had to get in the river and swim down because the raft could fit through the rocks and i got dragged off by the current which was quite funny. we finally made it to the end of the trek by lunchtime and i ate laods of fresh pineapple which was soooo nice. so in general a really grat experience! and my hiking boots did my proud thankyou mama hinson! i am hoping to do something similar to that when i get back from the islands. so now i am back in bangkok for a few days and on monday night i head down to koh phangan for the full moon party for a night of good old civilised fun (cough cough) and then travelling over to krabi and koh phi phi on the other side of the peninsula. will update again soon. miss you all and thinking of you. loads of love xx

Sa Wa Dee Ca

So i have now spent a week with the elephants. Sorry for not being in contact for such a long time, there is no internet where i am staying, its a really remote rural village about an hours drive from the nearest town. i met the group back in bangkok and then we headed out to surin on a night bus. we are staying in homestay with a local family who are so sweet and friendly but speak absolutely no english so we have to speak thai to them which is interesting! i have been living off rice and noodles all week, it is nice but gets a bit samey, but its inclusive in the price i paid for the project so i cant complain. on the first day we were introduced to our elephants, we have one between 2.. except me and ryan have 2 because our 2 elephants (thai thai and leo) are inseperable. its so cute. we thought they were father and son at first because thai thai is the smallest in the herd and leo is the biggest, but turns out they are just best mates! they look so funny next to eachother. we have been riding them and have washed them in the river which was absolutely amazing, they all have such big personalities and i could just watch them for hours. we have also been doing general maintenance work around the camp, stripping sugar cane and then cutting it with a machete, ploughing the fields and planting, and then feeding and cleaning out the elephants. everyone in the group gets along really well which is good. and unbelievably, we happen to have come to the village on the weekend that our group leaders brother is getting married, so we are all invited to the wedding! that starts tonight and goes on all day sunday so i cant wait for that. a few nights ago we went camping by the river with the mahouts which was amazing. oh i havent explained about the mahouts, basically they are the elephant trainers and there is one per elephant so we all have a mahout sort of teaching us about the elephants and looking after our safety and stuff. so yeah we went camping with them, had a huge camp fire and cooked corn and had sticky rice and loads of samsun which is the rum they drink out here. and they caught fish in the river and cooked them on the fire. it was so fun. had one scary moment the other day when the elephants got a bit overexcited and a few of them started stampeeding along the road, including the one i was sitting on! my face must have been a treat. but anyway the mahouts got control of them and it was all fine, no need to worry. the village is really religious so we have seen a few buddhist ceremonies, one was a sort of funeral but for a monk and a year after he had been buried, they dig him up and have a ceremony and everyone stands around his bones and then they burn him. i didnt really enjoy that one to be honest. but we also had this really nice forgiveness ceremony where the mahouts tied these orange bracelets around our wrists and said anything they were sorry for (kind of like catholic confessions) and then they threw all the flowers into the river to symbolise getting rid of all the bad spirits. we have the weekend off this weekend to go to the wedding so we are staying in a guesthouse in the centre of surin, air conditioning and a proper shower is a bit of a treat! back in our homestay there is just a massive water resevoir and you use a bucket and pour the water over your head, which is nice and refreshing after a long morning in the fields! so anyway, theres a brief outline of all the stuff i have been getting up to in the past week. i'm having an amazing time. but miss you all lots and lots. love to everyone x

"whatever lessens suffering in yourself and others, that is right. We cannot give up on any person. Never Abandon Anyone"

Evening all, i am now back in thailand which will be my home for the next 3 months. the blog title was just a quote that was on a menu in Lao Lao gardens which i quite liked. anyway, crossed the border earlier today, it seemed like my time in Laos flew by but it was really good. so i did my last post from.... Vientiane? i think? thats the capital of Laos which was really nice i loved it there. one particular highlight was a bakery called Joma which we pretty much lived in for the duration of our stay. It had amazing food. then when we got to Laung Prabang we discovered there was a Joma there aswell! but anyway back to Vientiane, we went out after dinner to a bar and then our tour leader took us to this gay bar which was so funny, there was a lady boy show (nothing dodgy, just lagre men in dresses miming horrendously to songs they didnt know the words of.) i got a few amusing pictures from that night! the next day we headed to Vang Vieng. for those who dont know, this is the place where people go tubing. tubing basically consists of free shots, lots of beer, sunshine, a big river, people jumping into river, people going on rope swings into the river, and about 50 bars dotted all the way up the 4km river where they write all over you and spray paint stuff on you and give you booze buckets. so that was good fun! we met lots of travellers and i had a full english the next morning... so good! i never thought id be so relieved to see baked beans. so after that we travelled to Luang Prabang. here i FINALLY got to see my babies.... we went on an elephant ride! it was amazing. my elephant (Camde) had a slight wind issue but that was nothing compared to another poor girls elephant who clearly had an itchy belly so kept collapsing its legs so it could rub itself against the ground. seeing elephants poo is also quite an experience. so yes anyway we did that for about an hour and a half, Camde was a bit of a naughty elephant and kept going in different directions and wandering off with me and riana sitting on its head, it was weird you kind of have to get past the fact you could quite easily fall off and injure yourself and just go with it...you gotta trust your elephant! so that was a nice taster of things to come, i will be heading to the elephant village in Surin on saturday to start my work there. in Luang prabang we also went to the waterfalls. as usual everyone let me be the test dummy and try the water, and then once i had frozen my bottom off everyone else decided they could aswell! then i tried the rope swing, now for people who know me, you will know that rocks, heights, and anything involving any kind of adrenaline/thrill doesnt really work with me. but i did it, i was about as graceful as a rhinocerous but i did it and i have pictures to prove it! sort of. there are pictures of me before and after but because i kind of just flopped into the water like a dead fish they didnt get a chance to photograph it.
the next morning me and riana got up at 5 to watch the monks collecting alms (got the wrong day on the last blog). it was a really strange experience, we had been told that giving alms when youre not a buddhist is seen as offensive and we can take photos but not go up close to the monks so we stayed back and just watched, but there were some stupid tourists who just looked ridiculous in their chinos and polo shirts and a weird scarf wrapped around their middle to try and disguise themselves as buddhists, going up to the monks and taking photos as if its some sort of tourist attraction. it was so rude but the monks seemed used to it, which is a shame in a way. other than that annoying disturbance, it was actually a really nice calm and serene atmosphere, it was like a sea of orange there must of been about 100 monks at least, and it wasnt completely light so their robes were really striking. after that we got on the slow boat towards the border (10hours) and spent the night in a tiny village called pakbeng. we went for dinner and then afterwarsds as we were walking home these locals invited us into their party, very surreal experience. it was like an abandoned bar and a dj had set up all these disco lights and a smoke machine and a bubble machine and stuff but it was completely empty... kind of like the first hour of a school disco. but then some more people turned up and we had some drinks and a bit of a boogy which was fun, and definitley not what we expected to be doing that night. this morning we got up and had 6 hr bus journey to the border and what must be the most dangerous road in the world. most raods in Laos are pretty dodgy as its all mountains but this was like a dust road with no railings seperating you between the mountain and a sheer drop. they were really narrow aswell and there were loads of blind corners and really really steep slopes. but we managed! then croseed the river to thailand which is where i am now, Chiang Kong i think? another stop off as we are going to Chaing mai tomorrow and then Bangkok. its the 1st today, so i have been here for a month now! crikey. not much else to update on, good to hear youre all enjoying the old blog, keep your emails coming tale care lots of love xx

Start of week 4

Hello all. I am now in Laos, arrived here yesterday. after a 10 hour drive we stayed over in a weird ghost town called Lacsao, everyone lived in wierd little huts and it was really really quiet and a bit creepy. not much to do either, and went to dinner on a restuarant named 'the only one', as it was literally the only restaurant in the town! i had 2 eggs for dinner, and then woke up and went down for breakfast in my guesthouse and was handed the menu... eggs, eggs or eggs? i went for the eggs, again, so now i'm all egged out.
After another 7 hours in the bus today we arrived in Vientiane which is the capital of Laos. the town is really nice, very calm and chilled out and everyone is very friendly. In some ways its actually more developed than Vietnam but its also very small and simple. I think we are going out tonight for a few drinkypoos and then i am getting up tomorrow at about 4.30am to watch the monks collecting alms, which will be heaps of fun with a hangover. not to be missed though.
So an update on the last few days. I think my last post was from Hoi An? after that we went to Hue which was only about 4 hours drive but worlds apart from Hoi An. Firstly, it was raining and freezing cold. well when i say freezing, it was probably about 15 degrees but im used to 35! it was also weirdly industrialised, it kind of reminded me of aylesbury which is not what i hoped for when i booked my tickets to the other side of the world! we went on a motorbike tour there which was fun, it took us further out into the country side through paddy fields, visited an ancient burial site and a Pagola/Pagoda cant remember which one. but it had The Happy Buddha Statue and lots of Monks everywhere. i think i am turning into a bit of a biker chick, i absolutely love riding on motorbikes! my driver had a lazy eye which was a little worrying but he was a nice enough chap! i got burnt on the exhaust pipe which was a bit annoying but it has left a really cool scar on my leg which makes me look hard so its fine. i'll just say it was from a motorbiking accident, no need to go into details. almost as impressive as my big brothers shark bite scar!
Then we got a sleeper train to Hanoi. it was delayed for quite a while so we had to sleep for a bit in the waiting room, we must have looked like such typical backpackers. when we arrived in hanoi we went straight to Halong Bay for the night, now it really was cold there. and again a little weird, it was a massive tourist resort but completely empty. The only thing we did there was a boat trip to the Halong Bay caves which was good. We had lunch on the boat which was AMAZING, i'm not usually a seafood person but i really enjoyed it. we had crab and prawns and squid (didnt eat that) and then this big old fish for main course, no idea what it was but it tasted good. The next morning we headed back to the centre of Hanoi where we went to a market and then went out in the evening to a shisha bar called dragonfly which was really cool, however there was a traumatic experience that night when we found a dying cat at the side of the road and an australian guy who said he was a doctor came over and decided the only thing to do was drop a large rock on the poor moggys head. he did it, the cat didnt die, he did it again, cat still not dead, third time lucky, the cats brains were splattered all over the pavement. (sorry to the weaker stomached readers.) anyway me and riana thoguht we should get rid of the remains of the cat to keep a bit of dignity so we put it in 2 carrier bags and wrapped it up in an old pair of tracksuit bottoms we found on the road and then put it in the bin. we then drenched our hands in antibacterial gel and went on our way!
The next day we were all hungover but thought we should get up and do something midly cultural so we went to Ho Chi Minhs musoleum. The taxi driver ripped us off and then when we got in they told us we had to pay because we weren't vietnamese! I thought this was quite racist but anyway we handed over our money and got in, walked around for a bit, saw an old house and a pond and then when we went to find the actual attraction (Ho Chi Minhs Body) we were told it was closed! major disappointment. That night we went out for dinner and a few of us ordered Hanoi beefsteak, mine came out fine but 2 of the girls meals were just pork steaks disguised in a brown sauce! it was so funny. they tried to send them back and the waitress said it was just different beef. it was definitley pork. but mine was good anyway.
I think thats everything up to date! ive probably missed out laods as usual, will post again soon but going to go and get ready for dinner now. Keep the emails and comments coming :) lots and lots of love xxx

Happy New year

Hello. I am now in Vietnam, have been here for about 4 days now. We started off in Chau Doc which was kind of just a stop off to split up the journey, not alot to do there really but my hotel room had a proper shower which was a bit of a treat. Then we got an 8hr bus journey into Ho Chi Minh City. It was a really busy place, especially as they were preparing for chinese new year. We went to another market and turns out Vietnamese market sellers are even more pushy than Cambodian ones, at one point i had about 5 women latching onto my and trying to grab me and pull me into their market stalls, even thoguh they were all selling the exact same things. and they try to rip you off ridiculously so if we dont really have a choice but to haggle. That evening we went to a bar with a live band and me and 2 of the other girls got up and sang ironic by Alanis Morisette and then the bar gave us free drinks!we also met a group of Australians who were travelling, they reccommended tubing in Laos which i think we are doing some time next week. The next day we went to the Cu Che tunnels whichis a network of underground tunnels where the Viet-cong (sp?) soldiers hid during the Vietnam war. We had a tour and then we went inside the tunnels. they were reeeeally claustrophobic, i would have been a rubbish soldier in the war because i had to get out after about 3 minutes because it was too cramped! Apparently the soldiers would hide in there for up to 6 hours. That night we got a sleeper train to Nha Trang, which wasnt actually too bad, infact compared to the second sleeper train we went on it was luxury! there were clean sheets and the beds were made for a start. so anyway, in Nha trang on the first day we just went to the beach, i didnt really go in the sea though as the waves were really big and the current was really strong. So we were just chilling on the beahcand then suddenly out of nowhere, a dead pig got washed up on the beach right in front of us! it was so weird and really disgusting, its tongue was flopping out of its mouth and its eyes were open. some people took pictures.. i did not. That night it was chinese new year so we had a free dinner in the hotel which was HILARIOUS, we had a buffet it looked like dog food and the only thing any of us could stomach was the chips. The main dish was Pigs penis! so i opted for a chip butty. But it was free so cant complain! then we headed down to the beach for some drinks and the fireworks display which was AMAZING never seen one so good in my life. it went on for about 20 minutes non stop. The town was absolute chaos, there were thousands of people and every single one of them seemed to have a motorbike. The next day me and one of the other English girls Jess went to the mudbaths. We spent about half an hour in the mudbath itself which was literally what is says on the tin, a wooden bath filled with liquid mud, and then we went in this mineral water jet spa thing which is meant to be good for your skin and then we had a soak in a warm pool. it was so relaxing, although at the same time quite depressing on Valentines day, especially as our bath was in the shape of a heart! we renamed ourselves the lonely hearts club that day. Anyway after the bath we had a full body massage, I had never had any kind of massage before so i was a bit nervous but it was so nice. She even cracked my back for me like the chiropractor did, although she used the method of walking on my back instead. but it was really rlaxing and i definitley want to get another one while i am here. It was so cheap, a day in a spa at home would probably cost about 80 quid but here it was the equivalent of 12 pounds. That night we got our second sleeper train which, as i earlier mentioned, was disgusting. i slept for about 15 minutes in total i think. i was on the top bunk and the train was so jerky i was constantly worried about falling out of my bed, and i was really cold as the air con was blowing on my head. and the sheets were smelly and had already been used so i am very glad i had my sleeping bag liner! (thanks amy)
We are now in Hoi An which is a really quaint little town with loads of tailors and little cafes. Yesterday i got a dress made for me so today i am going back for a fitting, will let you know how that goes! This is my favourite place we have been to so far in Vietnam. Last night we went out for some drinks and as we were walking to the next bar we saw a local guy sat outside his shop playing the guitar so we said Chuc Mung Nam Moi (happy new year) and he invited us in for food and drinks and he played the guitar for us. We had already picked up another group of Danish people and some English lads so it was a very surreal experience but really nice. (By the way,if you say happy new year to anyone in Vietnam they offer you drinks or food or for you to come into their home, the man wasnt just being creepy.)Then we rode home on the back of a motorbike which was so fun. Today i am picking up my dress and hopefully going to a cooking class and then maybe to the beach. Sorry this has been an extremely long blog but there was alot to catch up on! tomorrow we are heading to Hanoi i think... I cant actually remember but i will keep you updated. Anyway, better wrap this up but thankyou for all your messages, keep them coming its so comforting to hear from you all, it can get pretty lonely out here! Comment on the pictures aswell, let me know what you think. Miss you all loads xxxx

Photos

Just a quickie to say that i have managed to upload some photos onto facebook. it takes way too long to do it on here, sorry for those of you who dont have facebook but if you speak to someone who does you should be able to view them on their account. I still have managed to upload every single one but theres a selection there from the first 2 weeks xx

The Beach

Ok so i have managed to upload 1 photo. it took a while, and its really big so you can only see half the picture. this is me at the beach on one of the islands near Sihanoukville, its an uninhabitied island and probably the most beautiful beach i have ever seen. We stayed 2 nights in the beach huts in Sihanoukville and just chilled for 2 days which was lovely. did a bit of snorkelling, a lot of sunbathing and had a couple of alcoholic beverages at the beach party! met some other travellers at the party aswell, and some english people which was good. I got talking to the DJ and turned out he was from Birmigham and had fallen in love with Cambodia so much that he had moved out there permanently, he only earned $100 a month but he said it was worth it. And he taught me how to use his DJing programme and decks so im even getting in a bit of music experience! i am now in Saigon in Vietnam, going to the Cu Che caves tomorrow and then getting a sleeper train to the next destination. I cant really access facebook in Vietnam other than on friends phones so if you want to contact me email me me instead, my address is phoebetansley@hotmail.com. I will update again soon when i've settled into Vietnam. Lots of love xxxx

end of week 1

Cant belive its been a week already! i have already experienced so much aswell. I'm so glad i came on this tour as our tour leader knows all the local knowledge and so we always get the best experiences and dont get ripped off. He is hilarious, a tiny little peruvian gay man with a massive personality. he's called Rod but we all call him Rodders. So yesterday we were in Phnom Penh which is the capital of Cambodia. In the morning we went to the s21 genocidal prison museum and killing fields which was... well i cant really think if a word for it but i think we all found it really emotional. It is the place where the prisoners of the Khmer Rouge were taken under Pol Pots Regime and tortured and left to die. over one 3rd of the entire Cambodian population were killed and Phnom Penh was completely wiped out. Anyone who was suspected to be a spy or enemy or the regime was automatically taken to one of the prison and under the dictatorship they were forbidden to challenge what the interrogators were asking them, so they couldnt even defend themselves. basically if they thought someone was an enemy, they had no chance and were sent for certain death after months of torture. It was heartbreaking, we saw the cells were they were detained and one still had bloody handprints on the wall. then we went through rooms and rooms of mugshots of people who were all brutally killed. The wives and children of all who were captured were also taken to the killing field where they were also killed. We saw a tree that thousands of babies and children had their heads repeatedly smashed against until they died and were thrown into a mass grave. The Khmer Rouge didnt want to spend money on expensive weapons and guns so they used blunt and self made weapons, sometimes just things like shovels and garden hoes as weapons which made the murders even more slow and painful. it was definitley an experience. i didnt take any photos out of respect so thats why ''m covering it in so much detail. The highlight of the trip was when we actually got to meet one of the 3 remaining survivors (there were original 7 out of over a million, but 4 have now died) it was only by chance he was there but our tour guide knew him and asked if he would tell us our story and the tour guide translated it. He was incredible, so brave and strong considering he was telling us how he got his back broken by the Khmer Rouge and had each toenail ripped off individually, his fingers broken and was made to lick up his own blood off the floor. He said it meant alot to him that we had come all this way and spent our money to come and see the prison and learn the story so that the victims of the regime were not forgotten. He also wished us luck and fortune in our lives.
Anyway, onto a lighter topic! in the afternoon we went on a cyclotour of the city which was absolutely hilarious. we were sat on these chairs with bikes attached to the backs of them and cambodian men cycling us along the road. i have already explained that the traffic here is completely mental so i did fear for my life a few times, especially when a four byu four was heading towards me with no sign of stopping! they do not use their brakes in Cambodia, they just beep their horns for people/motorbikes/cyclists/tuktuks/random cows chilling on the road to get the hell out of the way! i must try not to pick up any bad habits as i dont think this kind of driving will be acceptable back home. For dinner onboth nights in phnom penh we went to non profit restaurants which raised money for local schools. at the first restaurant the kids put on a performance for us which was so good!
This morningwe got a bus to Sihanoukville which is our last stop in Cambodia... the beach! we are staying in beach huts whish are 5 minute walk from the sea, have been sunbathing all day and swimming in the sea which is lovely and warm. also briefly went to the floating water park in the sea however there were a load of annoying cambodian children trying to pull my bikini top down so i made a quick exit after telling them to go away but not so politely! there had soooo many people who approach you asking to buy things or give you a massage they are so annoying. all the local people also stare at us (mainly the men) because we have light skin and they think its amazing. its weird, all the women cover themselves up and in the shops there are loads of lightening skin products, thats the last thing i want!
anyway better be off, going to have a nap and a shower ready for the beach party tonight! cant wait. Thanks for all your comments on the blog i enjoy reading them. Speak to you soon, miss you all! x

Angkor Whaaaaat??

Hey there homies! I am now in Cambodia. Spent yesterday travelling which was pretty long, got up at 7 and had a 2 hr bus trip to the border and then hadto go through visa and immigration befoe having another 3 hr bus journey into Siem Riap, arrived at the hotel at about 4.30. The people in Cambodia are so nice! Especially the people in the hotel i really like them. Oh yes so anyway i am now with my group i realise i havent mentioned that yet, they are all nice, similar ages to me and there are people from England, Australia, Denmark, Holland, Finland and Ireland! so a nice mix. the only annoying thing is that im the only member of the group travelling alone, eceryone else is with a friend/partner so i am always the one who has no one to sit next to on the bus! but hey its more leg room i suppose, and i also am the only one who gets their own room. This morning we got up at 5am to watch the sunrise at the angkor temple which was really beautiful. there were alot of tourists there which kind of ruined the atmosphere but it was still very calm and serene and i managed to get some good snaps. I know this isnt very chronological but i must tell you about last night, we went into the centre of siem riap or a few drinks down bar street, (draught beer is 50cents and cocktails are $2!) and then we went for dinner in a really nice little restaurant. i decided ot mix things up a bit from the usual stir fry so order a beef dish with green peppers... and when it came out i thought i might die from happiness. It was STEAK AND CHIPS!!! soooooo good and such a nice change from rice, but it was a khmer steak so it was still local food! but definitey the highlight of my day. then we went to the night market where i did a cheeky bit of haggling for a pair of flip flops and got approached by about 20 different people working on different 'fish massage' stalls where you sit with your feet in a tank and the fish nibble off all your dead skin. i passed on that one. anyway just had breakfast (bacon and tomato and potatoes and mini bananas and strange pink spotty fruit) and going back to the temple in about half an hour so i better go. sorry about any spelling mistakes this keyboard doesnt have letters on it so im kind of guess typing. keep the emails coming! i love coming to the pc and having messages from you all it really makes my day. speak soon! x

Gooood morning Bangkok

I am in such a better mood today! just re-read yesterdays blog and it really does not convey how hard i found it yesterday, especially as i vomitted about 3 mins after finishing the blog, in the internet cafe. the same one i am in now, so i really hope they dont remember me! anyway i got back to my hotel and at 6 went down to meet my group and the receptionist broke the news i had another 24 hours to wait till i meet my group. she might aswell have told me the world was going to end. so i went back upstairs, rang Ashley and i have organised to meet him at one of his conferences today at midday, after that i couldnt face going out again so i went to bed and got a ridiculous amount of sleep. got up just before 7 this morning (yes thats right, your eyes are not deciveing you i really did get up at 7 by choice) partly because i couldnt sleep any more and partly because i thought i should go and get some breakfast as over the next 2 months at least i will have to get used to early mornings and a proper breakfast, something i try to avoid back home as my parents well know! so i had a nice healthy breakfast of yoghurt, fruit, pancakes and bread which filled me right up as i realised i didnt eat anything at all yesterday. then when i got back to my room i had a nice shower and washed some clothes in the bath as i was sick on my clothes yesterday. attractive i know. so they are now hanging up to dry. at 12 i am moving my bag to my new room and then getting a cab to meet ashley (for those who dont know, ashley is my dads friend who lives in bangkok).
Might be a couple of days before i can post again as we are heading to Cambodia on thursday and not sure how long that will take or if i will get internet access when i'm there. Hope all is well back home. lots of love x
(ok i was going to try and upload some pictures but it wont let me so you will have to wait till next time. keeping you all on your toes!)

I have arrived!

landed in Bangkok at around 7.30am this morning, the flights were exhausting but the films made it pass by quicker (all 4 of them). On the first leg of the flight the seat next to me was empty which in some ways was bad as i didnt get to make a friend but then on the other hand i had lots of lovely legroom so every cloud! Although the man sat in the middle seat tried to make it as obvious as possible that he thought it was unfair that i got 2 seats for the price of one... aka 2 blankets, 2 pillows, 2 tv screens.. but i wasnt complaining. Then on the second bit of the flight i was sat next to a lady with her little boy but they didnt really speak english so i resorted to more films and a bit of sleep. The taxi ride from the airport was HORRIFIC traffic here is crazy. and it made me feel really nauseous because it was so stop-start. so that took about 50mins and then arrived at the Hotel which is actually really nice! i had about 8 hours to kill so i decided to have a quick nap before i headed out for a bit of an explore, which is where i'm at at the moment on todays schedule. at 6pm i have a group meeting followed by a 'thai supper' which should be interesting seeing as i have completey lost my apetite thanks to the anti-malarials. Weather is humid and sticky, i am a sweaty betty but theres air con in my room which is good. just been to a convenience store to buy some washing detergent which cost about 45bhat but the smallest note i had was 500 which i assume is about the same as buying some thing for 4 quid with a 50 pound note. needless to say they werent too impressed. also have been approached by men trying to take me on tours of the city on their tuk tuks but ive been told this is a rip off so have avoided those. looking forward to meeting the rest of my group later. have taken a few photos, will upload when i have worked out properly how to do it. so anyway just to let you all know i have arived safe and am fine although i have alot of adapting to do. Miss you all love you all x