Let's go to the beach beach!!

After culture shock this week in my little village, another ETA Meg and myself decided to have a chilled weekend as far away as possible! As a Bournemouth girl, I love being by the beach, so we decided to take the 12 hour journey to get some sea air.

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. 

 

On the road to nowhere

Tuesday evening I said bye to Bangkok and hello to the night train! The beds on the train were my saviour to escape an awkward 10 hour journey with my mentor (she is lovely and one of the kindest people I have ever met, just doesn't speak English, so we just smile at each other!).

Train bed!

We arrived, bleary-eyed, to my apartment, where I experienced true culture shock...
Arriving at the apartment, lack of sleep and the prospect of starting school in just 1 hour was a bit overwhelming, added to the cockroaches and lizards crawling around the washing area. I was expecting basic accommodation, and to be quite honest am very happy with what I have got but didn't stop me feeling a little bit homesick!! I am sharing with 5 chinese student teachers who are all lovely and some speak English which is a bonus!

Here are some photos of my new flat:

Sharing a shower with a gecko

scorpion outside front door

Thai bath anyone?!

And lush squat toilet - there are sit down ones too but no flush, bucket of water does the trick...just squat toilets in the school though!

My new ride - the headteacher has bought me a brand new bike, not really sure why as had another one yesterday, think it is to do with me wearing a pink skirt yesterday...

It is definitely true that Thai people are extremely generous, everybody is trying their hardest to help me settle in, turning up at my door with bags of food and big smiles is definitely helping me get to grips with life in a tiny village!

Bangkok

The last few days have been spent settling into life in Thailand, but I’m not sure we’ve seen much authentic Thai culture so far. After a long flight (and some dodgy 4am curries as plane food) we arrived in Bangkok and headed to our hostel in backpacker area Khao San Road. Think McDonalds, Irish Bars, Shisha, cheap drinks, drunk tourists and late nights….

Khao San Road by day

 First stop for us was to experience a brutal Thai massage to try and help our jetlag. It was definitely not the relaxing spa experience you get with massages in England, but made us feel a little bit more refreshed afterwards. An afternoon of napping led up to our first night out in Khao San, chatting to other ETAs and drinking the local Chang beer.

 Some of the ETAs in Khao San Road

Ruth, Me, Helen

We spent the next few days seeing some of the tourist attractions in Bangkok; the Grand Palace which was pretty but very busy, and a long tailed boat trip which took us down the canals.

 Grand Palace

 Grand Palace

 

 View from Long Tail Boat

 View from Long Tail Boat

 Saturday night was spent celebrating the birthday of another ETA in Sky Bar, the roof terrace of a luxury hotel. We took the lift to the 64^th floor and sipped on our 500 baht cocktails (so expensive for Thailand!!) looking over a magical view of the city, imagining we were VIPs and had enough money to stay there. Then, being the students that we are, we went to the other extreme: another night out in Khao San road, and ended up chilling on the hostel roof terrace at 6 am. Jet lag and lack of sleep are definitely catching up on me!

View from Sky Bar - Camera definitely did not to it justice

At Sky Bar - Jade, Ruth, Helen and Birthday Boy Tom

Today we met our mentors from school, and tomorrow is the long journey to Si Saket province…Our time in Bangkok is coming to an end.

Quick Intro

Sà-wàt-dee!

My name's Caroline and I am a student at the University of Winchester, where I am training to be a primary school teacher. I have been given the opportunity to work as a teaching assistant in Thailand for two months this summer (who would say no!?) and have just arrived in the country!

Here are some of the things I want to achieve while over here:

• Build friendships with Thai locals and the ETAs working out in Thailand so that I can enjoy my time in Thailand to the max
• Be adventurous! Try foods I haven't had before, explore the areas I am staying in and generally do things I don't have the opportunity to do at home
• Learn more about myself as a teacher, and how I can use the experience working in a Thai school to improve my classroom practice back in the UK
• Engage the students in lessons by providing interactive and enjoyable opportunities for learning
• Learn some Thai!
• Travel around the country - ideally visit an island/waterfall/jungle/ride an elephant/experience night life in Bangkok

Will post in a few days how I am settling in and what have been up to!

Thanks to the University of Winchester, British Council, Thai Ministry of Education, Property Care Services PCS and DLA Piper for the opportunity!