Ziplining in jungles is fun

I got a long weekend recently, out of the blue. I knew there was a scout camp on in my school over 3 days which meant there would be no class but nobody had said if this meant I had those days free. As it turned out my coordinator had been looking for something to keep me in Li for those days. On the Wednesday we visited 3 more schools to present about the MEP but I found out that nothing was planned for the rest of the week so off to Chiang Mai I went! I got there on thursday and spent a pretty relaxed day doing a few things I had put on the long finger up till now. One of these was a trip to the dentist. Why the hell would I want to go to a dentist in thailand? Well one reason is its so cheap compared to Ireland. Another is that I hadnt been to one in ages (it being so bloody expensive in ireland) so I figured it was time to see how bad my teeth were. What I had planned as just a clean and polish ended with me coming out with 2 fillings as well and some advice about looking at removing my wisdom teeth. I said i'd consider it and settled my bill for 1500 baht (thats about EUR30 for a clean, polish and 2 fillings folks). After this I went to book my trip for the next day which was called “Flight of the Gibbons” but more on that later. So with my following day all set up I decided that I deserved a cold beverage so I sat down at a stall outside a hotel near the Tha Pae gate and had a beer. Here I met David.
David is an interesting guy. Firstly he is Thai and 'David' is a decidedly normal nickname for a thai person (they are usually called Arm or Ford or something). Anyway he was in CM for his hols. He is a pilot for Thai Airways and comes from a fairly well off family. His dad used to work for Thakhsin (the former PM) and his friends mostly own companies or their families do and so are wealthy. He also mentioned he has a Porsche at which point I nearly choked on my beer. Anyway the two of us met up with some friends of his and went on the lash. Random nights out with some thai people are fun!

The next day I wake up a little worse for wear and get picked up at my hostel for my day with the “Flight of the Gibbons”. Basically this was to consist of ziplining through the jungles with some abseiling thrown in as well. So the van (goddamn things) picks up me and a couple other people and drives 45 minutes outside of CM to the hills. The trip was pretty interesting as most of it was on narrow windy roads up steep hills. This meant our driver would race up said hills at full speed (if he didnt floor it we werent getting up these hills) usually on a blind corner all the while blaring his horn to let anyone coming the other way to know he was coming. What they were going to do was beyond me but thankfully we didnt get to find out. So we get to our destination which is a small village in the hills surrounded by jungle. We are introduced to our two guides for the day and get harnessed up. The next few hours are spent ziplining between platforms amid the treetops and at points abseiling to lowere platforms. Because it was all hillside we could at one point be a few feet up and another point be 60 feet up. At all times you are attached to something so there is a real sense of safety and my usual fear of heights didnt affect me this day. The ziplining itself was amazing because the scenery was spectacular. There were moments when the guides would start bouncing the wire as you are on it which is uncomfortable but fun. The end was great as well with us abseiling down from a 60 foot platform to the ground. I did this upside down and the guy holding my rope let me drop for a little bit. As you may guess the guides are nutters, one of them was called Bat and spent most of his time on the wire upside down and going backwards. They were good craic though. After the zipining we went to see a waterfall which was nice but to be honest Thailand is full of pretty waterfalls so the initial wonder tends to fade a little after you've seen a few. We then got fed and I got a free t-shirt and soon we were back on our way to CM again. I was pretty jacked when I got back so I met up with Pez for a few quiet drinks and a catch up. Got to bed at a pretty respectable hour for a change.

The next day I met up with David again and had a chilled out day. We walked around a bit got a massage and basically took it easy. At the massage place the woman doing mine spent a lot of time stroking my hair which was weird but thats thais for you. Anyway David got his (free) flight back to Bangkok later and I met up with Pez and his workmates. This turned into a crazy night with far too much alcohol being drunk (a litre of whiskey and a lot of beer) but I slept soundly. The next day I get up (barely) and catch my bus home. Let me tell you that a 3 hour journey on a rickety bus in the blazing sun accompanied by a thunderous hangover is not a pleasant experience.

Roadtrip!

Alright this week the midterm exams are on. Sweet! Time off to travel right? Wrong! This week I get to travel by van (pronounced wan) with a few fellow teachers to various pratom schools trying to convince students that they should come to the MEP in our school when they move up to Matayom. This involved a brief introduction in thai before handing over to the foreigners to play games for an hour! So Monday morning dawns and I head to school a bit later than usual. I meet up with the team for the day consisting of my coordinator, Adjaan Chaweewan, Richard and Faith, Reya and myself along with our driver. We hop in the van and head for the first school on the list. Here I must pause to vent my dislike of these cursed vans. Firstly it’s a minibus or people carrier not a van. Secondly it’s a freaking Hiace. These vans are specifically built to bounce along even the smoothest of roads. Whatever kind of suspension they have it may as well have been made of jelly. Ok now that that’s off my chest I’ll move on.

We visited roughly 4 schools per day and spent an hour in each. Adjaan Chaweewan would do the introduction in thai, extolling the virtues of learning through English and then the rest of us would take turns playing games and activities in English. Between the four of us we played a variety of games ranging from word games to activities that got the kids up and about. I used some activities that I had used in science class to teach about the senses so the kids “learned” about sight, hearing and touch. The touch game involved me jabbing a blindfolded kid with paperclips. This isn’t as bad as it sounds. The idea is that there are one or two clips each time and they have to tell me how many they can feel when they touch their hand. For hearing we put one person in the middle of a circle, got them to close their eyes and then asked one of the others to clap. Then the one in the middle would have to find the clapper. This usually involved the guesser opening their eyes really quickly and turning in the direction of the clap where the clapper still had their hands together or had a really guilty look on their face! Finally the sight game involved a person blindfolded and sitting at a table. On the table are 3 coins and one cup and they try to get the coin in the cup. To do this one other person must tell them when to stop waving their hand over the table so they can drop the coin (hopefully) in the cup. These all got a good response from the students and all the participants got goodies. So I spent the week playing these games and helping the others out with theirs. It was a good laugh for most of the time though some schools were harder than others when everything I said had to be translated to thai to get the message across. I’d usually demonstrate the game first to show the kids and that usually cleared up any confusion. In the schools where the English was a bit stronger I would try explaining the science behind the games but didn’t attempt it too often!

At most schools while we were there the school kind of stopped as word spread there was a farang at the school. Most of these places are pretty rural and would rarely see a westerner if ever so it was a big deal for the kids to see someone like me about the place. The youngest kids approached with a mixture of curiosity and fear with the latter taking over as soon as I tried saying ‘Hello’! I may as well have roared and breathed fire at them, probably would have had a similar effect. But at one school I had a class of kindergarteners come up to me individually (pushed by their teachers) and tell me their name in English and then say thank you when I rewarded them with candy. They were all about 4/5 years old and everyone thought this was really cute.

Over the course of the week the team changed. Some days we would have 5 or 6 teachers and other days we had only 3. We were joined by Goy and another teacher called Teerata for a couple of days. Only myself and Reya were constant for the week so come Friday we were pretty knackered. This was more from the travelling than the than the games but the two combined started to take their toll. Anyway the last school on the last day rolls around and its only Teerata, Reya and me left. On the way back to Li I suggest going for some beers later to celebrate the end of a long week. This translates to “Lets get a bottle of whiskey and get wasted right now”. It was 3 in the afternoon at this stage…… So we get a bottle sneak away from the school, head for Teerata’s gaff and settle down for an afternoon’s drinking. This lasted about an hour until Teerata got a call from her ‘gig’. Now I’ve had this concept explained once or twice and as far as I can tell its like ‘friends with benefits’ (any thai based readers who can add to this description feel free to comment). Anyway he is heading to CM for the night and invites her along. She passes the message on to us and for some reason Reya (the most tired person of the 3 of us and usually the quietest) pipes up and says “Ok lets go”. I’m a tad more reluctant (this is a 6 hour round trip for a few drinks after all) but agree nonetheless. Now Teerata is caught as she had been expecting us to provide her with a ‘get out of jail free card’ here. 10 minutes later this guy pulls up in his pickup we hop in and off we go. Oh and he’s a policeman, just thought I should mention that. An hour into the journey we decide to aim for Lamphun instead as it’s a good bit closer to home and still a big enough place to have a good night.
So we hit a bar, grab some food and start drinking our bottle of whiskey. For some reason they let us bring our own alcohol into the bar and drink away, something I don’t really understand. After polishing off said bottle of whiskey and some spicy food we head to the adjoining venue to drink some more and maybe dance. This place has a band on stage when we get there and are using Oxegen stage style speakers in a room far too small for this kind of set up (they love their giant sound systems over here). Now as I said there was a band there when we arrived but they were soon joined by a few different singers and some girls in lingerie dancing on stage. A good night’s entertainment im sure you’ll agree! We polish off another bottle of whiskey and hit the road. We got home in the wee hours after a long week.


Pics: 1) Adjaan Chaweewan talking at one of the schools
2) Kids playing the penny cup game
3) Some teachers at one of the schools
4) Very tired and drunk Teerata and Reya

Sun, Sea, Sand, Buckets and Fire!

Right im in Phuket airport ready to fly back to Chiang Mai after a hectic few days in the south. I stopped writing the last piece after arriving in Phi Phi so I’ll go back there. When I was sitting there sunning myself and basically enjoying the afternoon I met a few people off the program who I hadn’t seen since the orientation. It was especially good to see the two other irish people for some civilized company ;). So I spent the rest of the day chilling with a gang of friends on the beach, everyone swapping stories about the trials and tribulations of teaching thai kids English. In the evening my friends came back from their day trip (eventually) and I got to go to the hostel to refresh myself. We went in search of food and aimed to start our night’s drinking. We settled on an “Irish” bar which was doling out free pad thai and potato salad for some reason and that’s when the first batch of buckets appeared. For the uninitiated a bucket is a shitload of alcohol (vodka/whiskey/whatever) with a few ice cubes, a dash of mixer and a few straws all lumped into a plastic bucket you might have used as a kid to make sandcastles. Dangerous stuff! We started moving between bars as there were countless promotions on everywhere but the most enticing one was the offer of “FREE BUCKET!!” in a specific period of maybe 10 minutes or so. So as a few of the beach bars had this offer going staggered throughout the night we headed in this direction, the cheap alcoholics that we are.

Now I mentioned before that im not a strong drinker (except compared to thai people) and these buckets took their toll. Anyway I got to enjoy the various fire shows at each beach bar for a while, from fire limbo to fire jump rope to guys playing with fire poi or firestaffs. Basically if you could set in on fire these guys were either throwing it around or getting drunk foreigners to dance under it or jump over it. They also had glow in the dark face paint as the pictures can show so this mixed with the fire, the sand, the buckets and a clear night sky led to a memorable countdown. Oh and there was a load of fireworks as well!!

The next day I began paying in earnest for the buckets of the previous night. I wasn’t alone in this as the gang I was staying at the hostel with were suffering similarly. But I had hoped to go on the same boat trip they had done the previous day with a gang I got talking to last night. Well lets just say several hours spent on a pretty narrow boat didn’t seem like a barrel of fun just then. Reluctantly I pulled out of the trip and decided to go with the guys to Maya Beach instead. This also required some travelling on a boat, but it was a short hop in comparison so I wasn’t too concerned. Maya beach is part of the set of the movie “The Beach” and boy was it beautiful. We got dropped around to the far side of the little island it inhabits in an effort to try and dodge the fee they charge when you drive right up. This wasn’t as simple as we thought as the longtail boat couldn’t get too close to the shore due to rocks. So we sent the boat with two of the group as we all had bags with us(there were 14 of us) around to pay the fee while the rest of us swam the short distance in and walked the rest of the way. So sandals in hand and with my suncream in my shorts pocket (in case it took ages for the boat to get to the beach) I jumped into the clear water. I then proceeded to flounder my way to the shore (I cant really swim) losing my suncream along the way and climbed a big ladder over rocks to the other side of a gap in a cliff. Then we walked the short distance to “The Beach”. It’s an extremely beautiful location with powdery white sand, clear water and a picturesque backdrop. The tide was out so it was a bit shallow but this meant I could walk around in the water and look at all the exotic little fish scuttling about the place. All in all it was a nice, relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

After returning to the main island in our longtail boat we decided to go up to the viewpoint (top of the hill) and watch the sunset. This was much harder work than we had anticipated and we huffed and puffed our way up a pretty steep hill. Once we got to the top, though, we forgot our complaints and just took in the beautiful sight of a sunset over Phi Phi island. Once we descended again and refreshed ourselves we tucked into a beautiful meal and hit the beach again for a few chilled out beers to complement our equally chilled out day. This was a low-key and early night which was just what the doctor ordered for most of us there.

I had an early start the next day to catch the first ferry to Phuket. I was flying out the following morning and wouldn’t make my flight if I stayed on the island so I was bound for phuket to look up some accommodation. Luckily I wasn’t alone in this quest and I attached myself to a small group and we found a nice spot right beside Kamalla Beach. We then slapped on our beach gear and lounged around for the day. Weather wasn’t spectacular that day but it was pleasant. The beach was nice but nothing compared to what id spent the last two days on. Then as we were walking back we got hit by a little shower of rain which was kind of refreshing. For the evening we determined to seek out the famous Bangla Rd where all the ‘fun’ is to be had in an area called Patong in Phuket. I regretted not bringing my camera with me this night as we happened upon one of the sleaziest places im likely to see where every bar had a gang of scantily clad girls pulling customers into these places. Then there were the other places that had pole dancers on show to the street in order to get attention. On top of that you have the constant propositions of seedy shows, trinket sellers and if you walked near a shop they would almost tackle you to get you in and buy something. It was an experience to go there but I wouldn’t be in any great rush back, it was all a bit too much.
All in all, Phuket is a bit overcrowded and too touristy for me. You simply cannot escape someone trying their damnedest to sell you crap even on the beach. The constant harrassmant wears on you. Phi Phi is altogether more chilled and would be worth a revisit. But for now im glad to be on my way back to cooler climates and a much more relaxed way of life in the north. I should mention I got badly sunburnt on my first day in Phi Phi despite suncream and cover. This got me a lot of “what happened to your legs?!” which I explained was due to my being irish, redhaired and the sun being my mortal enemy. God knows what the kids will make of me tomorrow…….

Koh Phi Phi and Phuket Part 1

The first part of this i am writing in my journal while sitting on a white sandy beach, in beautiful sunshine, sipping a pineapple fruit shake and gazing at a beautiful horizon(see above). Its New Year's Eve and im on the the tropical paradise of Koh Phi Phi just off the western coast of Thailand, near Phuket. Now that i've set the scene, lets recap how i got here. I left Li yesterday morning after the Teacher's New Year party the night before (so i wasnt feeling too fresh). At this we had a Kris Kringle on a larger scale and i ended up with a pink blanket to go with my fluffy cushion. This cracked most of the staff up and i just grinned and laughed along with them. Anyway i left Li on the bus in the early morning armed with my paycheck that i had received the previous afternoon with the intention of lodging it once i got to Chiang Mai. So i get there and find the nearest branch of the bank im using and walk in fully intending to walk out a few minutes later with the transaction finished. Sadly i didnt account for the complexity of the thai banking system. Lodge a cheque issued in a different bank in an account in a different branch of our group, are you crazy? Now, having worked in banks i knew what would have happened in ireland so i was perplexed at this inability to do what i wanted. I ended up having to cash the cheque in a nearby branch of the bank that had issued it, then return to the first bank and transfer the money to my account in Li. To do it any other way would have taken 7 days as they wanted to send the cheque back to li. So an hour later i had managed to get my money into my account where in ireland it might have taken 10 minutes to complete. This frustrated me and added to my tiredness made me fairly cranky heading to the airport to catch my flight to Phuket.
I bumped into Nancy, Markus and Tyler (all teachers off the same program as me) in the airport as we were all getting the same flight. Now i learned that the last ferry over to Phi Phi from Phuket would leave before i got there so i now had to figure out accomodation in Phuket for the night. I ended up crashing with Nancy and Markus, luckily. The flight was fairly straightforward except for the gang of crazy kids running amok around the place. Upon arriving in Phuket we got a minibus to the hostel and arranged a pick up and our ferry ticket for the morning. So all ready for the next day the 3 of us (Tyler had wandered off) walked around Patong in Phuket for a bit, got a nice meal and made our way to the beach beer in hand. We spent a while relaxing on the beach for a while and bought a stupidly expensive lantern but all in all it was a pleasant and relaxing evening. We got up early the next day (again) and caught our pre-ordered minibus to the ferry which brought us to the paradise of Phi Phi. We had a nice breakfast and went our separate ways. Its now early afternoon and ive been waiting for my friends to return from their day trip around the island so they can let me into the hostel. Let the fun begin......

Christmas Thai Style

On Christmas Eve, one of the teachers in the school asked if I'd like to attend a little dinner her and a few others were having to mark the day. I jumped at this opportunity for company over the Christmas period as I was afraid I was going to end up celebrating alone this year. I needed to find something to use as a present for Kris Kringle and eventually plumped for a selection box I had been sent from Ireland. I figured they would get a fair deal more excited about it than I would they love anything foreign. I also brought some snowballs that id been sent as dessert which went down a treat as they were all keen to try 'farang' chocolate. Anyway one of the girls owns a clothes shop she runs after school and we settled here and got some food in. Not quite a traditional Christmas dinner it consisted of Somtam (papaya salad), pork in garlic and a few others accompanied of course with steamed rice. It was good fun hanging out with the gang though and they were constantly asking me questions about Christmas and how it is celebrated in Ireland. I didn't mind this as it meant they were speaking in English which is usually the problem as not all of them are too strong at it. I even managed to teach them a drinking game when the beer came out which was hilarious as it involved using English! Soon we got around to the business of the evening – the presents! Everyone got something small and we piled them up and pulled numbers out of a hat, I ended up with a cushion with a bear on it which was funny to the gang. My present went to the only non teacher among us, he's a guy who works in one of the banks and speaks superb English. After this a few of the gang went home as we all had school the next day but I decided to make the most of the occasion and stayed out drinking.

Now I feel obliged here to point out that Thai people aren't great drinkers. I'm not exactly immune to getting wasted but compared to most of these gang I was drinking them under the table. For a start they put ice in everything. They drink bottles of beer in glasses full of ice, they drink glasses of chilled beer with ice. Its nuts. Oh they give draught beer (if you are lucky enough to find it) in towers that hold about 3 litres and in this there is a core tube full of ice to keep it chilled. Then you just pour away from the tap. They thought I was weird when I asked them not to put ice in my glass and I looked at them like they were crazy when they packed the glass with ice and dribbled some beer on it. Like I said I'm not a guy for guzzling pints with no ill effect but I felt like a king here in that regard. Id say I was drinking two glasses to every one they had and without ice as well. Couldn't get my head around it at all. One of the girls had a go with keeping up with me and ended up getting carried home.

The next day I'm up at 6 (after hitting the hay close to 1) and head for assembly a bit before 8 to get dressed as Santa Claus. All I had was a red hat, fake beard and a red t-shirt I turned inside out to hide the pattern. Then began an hour of trying to entertain 1500 students plus however many teachers were there with a brief explanation of Santa Claus and Christmas and a few performances put on by the MEP (very reluctantly). Then at the end a few of the teachers joined me for a rendition of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” . Throughout all this the different mikes we had would randomly turn off so I had to chop and change between them for most of the hour which made for a half hazard show. This was followed by a day's teaching and then out on the lash again with my new found buddies. This one involved whiskey as well as beer and I got a little drunk this time. Now this is where things start to unravel as I had arranged with Nancy (a teacher on the program who lived in a town up the road) to meet and hang out with her over the weekend in Chiang Mai. So up I got at 7 after hitting the hay at 5 and jumped on a bus. Upon arriving in CM I got a hostel for the night and met up with Nancy. We bummed around the city for the day and met a few other teachers who were unexpectedly in CM for the weekend. This night also finished up around 5 and was pretty messy as I had been on the lash for 3 days with little or no sleep. I caught a bus the next day back to Li properly exhausted to find a big fair completely set up in my town. I had seen some stuff going on but nobody told me what it was about so I paid it no heed. I didn't realise however that they would be blaring music till 2am which of course kept me awake as I'm not far from the market and this was a rock concert set up. All in all a nice relaxing Christmas!