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