Meg arrived in my village Friday night, and it was so good to have some company - I have been going a little stir crazy so was such a luxury just to chat rubbish and watch a movie (and eat some kinder bueno...mmm).
The next morning, we had a knock on the door and it was fellow ETAs Sian and Dan turning up for a chat. I think they were as surprised as we were to see them, they thought they were going to a cock fight (!) - but was good to get some English speaking company! Their mentors took us out for some noodle soup, classic choice, with some random meat in - stray dog?!
Sian, Thai mentors, Dan and Meg
After lunch, we took the train to the next city of Ubon Ratchathani, which was preparing for a candle procession this weekend for the Buddhist holiday. We had a little explore of the market stalls, and a quick drink with some more ETAs (so much company!) before heading off for the night bus to Pattaya!
Making candles for the parade
After our long night on the bus we finally made it to Pattaya, checked into our hotel and headed straight for the beach - and then came disappointment. As Meg described, it was more like Skegness than Thailand! We were imagining blue skies, white sand and crystal clear water....and it just didn't meet expectations!
The Hollywood hills of.....Pattaya
We weren't going to let this ruin our weekend, so managed to haggle a cheap taxi to get to Pattaya's floating market. After missing out on seeing Bangkok's version, I was excited to see what all the fuss was about and wasn't disappointed. The buildings of the market stalls are all on stilts over the water, and people on boats drift over to try and sell you their stuff. We didn't buy, but did decide to fly on a zip wire across the market - bit surreal but good fun! Another bonus was we managed to get in to the market without paying - we noticed a sign saying foreigners with a work permit didn't have to pay - neither of us had passports or visa with us but managed to blag it by showing them some vaguely official looking British Council business cards! Yay!
The next day, we took a boat to the nearby island of Ko Lan which was a little bit more like the beach we were expecting. Was still quite touristy, but gave us the chance to have a well needed chill and time to relax. A coconut cocktail and sunbathe later (crazy tan lines going on) and was definitely feeling a lot more positive about living in the village and about the next 6 weeks.
Ko Lan
Heavily decorated cocktail...
Sun setting on the way back to shore
One more night in civilisation in our hotel and it was time to head back on the 12 hour bus to Si Saket, and a week of school.
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