Mae Hong Son Loop Pt 2

After a short breakfast with our new thai buddy from last night we get on the bikes and begin our journey to Mae Hong Son. The caves we visited the previous day are on the same road so the first 30km was familiar. This is probably the most scenic part of the trip or at least the part where we took the most photos. This slowed us down a little as we took it in turns to lead and pick out the next photo stop. The road was full of curves up steep mountains which didn’t speed us up either. When I say steep I mean crawling up in 1st or 2nd gear after going round a switchback turn. Not the kind of road you would care to be on with a bicycle! Anyway the roads were quiet so this allowed us to do our own thing without worrying about other road users. We arrived in MHS in the afternoon and found our first choice hostel was full so had to go searching for a new one. While we were standing over our Lonely Planet and map we heard a yell in English “You guys looking for a hostel?”. This is shouted by a big, burly American guy on a motorbike who yells at us to follow him if we want a place to stay. We scramble to keep up with this lunatic as he nips in between traffic like he owns the place. He eventually guides us to an out of the way place and shows us a room. Its kind of late in the day and we are not entirely sure where we are so we agree to take a room (the rate was fine though the room was a bit Spartan). Here we discover our mysterious benefactor is ex-US military and goes by the name ‘Rambo’. Apparently he is here to get involved with the troubles in Burma which is pretty close to the town. Anyway we work out where we are on our map and manage to work out how to get to the town centre again. We had a fairly unimpressive dinner and have a walk down the walking street (small and doesn’t come close to Chiang Mai) before settling in a bar that has a pool table. We knock back a few cold ones and play some pool and head for bed when the bar is getting closed up. We had the place to ourselves which was a tad disappointing. We had been hoping to meet up with fellow travelers on the trip. However, we decide to give it a chance and stay another night.
The next day we escape from ‘Rambo’ and book into a hotel for almost the same price we paid him. We then proceed to waste away the day relaxing by the small lake in the town. Then in the late afternoon we start searching for Markus’s pick for dinner (he had been doing a good job on this so far) which he had been talking about for the past day. Its supposed to be the best curry in MHS and we are both craving curry by this stage. We arrive at the shop only to find they have run out of curry and are closing. Devastated we start asking people for another place we can get a curry and end up at a resteraunt that did a pretty good one. Our craving for curry sated we make our way to a different bar than the previous night in the hope that we will meet some people there. Luckily this one has a pool table as well albeit an American one. Markus sees this as his chance to get some revenge for the previous night where I came out on top on a European table. But as we are playing a group of people come in who are obviously travelling the loop as well. Competition forgotten we join them for some drinks. We soon decide to grab a few drinks in 7-11 chill by the lake. Another gang are set up in a bar nearby and soon a mini-songkran ensues (a waterfight). But not too long after this the cops show up and tell us to move it on which we do and all go our respective ways to our beds.

The following morning Markus and I get up and refuel ourselves as well as the bikes before heading south. Today we have a choice to make. We can go all the way south to a town called Mae Sariang or halfway at a place called Khun Yuam we can turn east towards a town called Mae Chaem. Figuring that Mae Sariang will add an extra day that we don’t have to the trip we take a pit stop in Khun Yuam and turn east. This is not strictly part of the loop and we soon worked out why. Initially things went well with the scenery being pretty and the weather being hot (did I mention yet that the heat so far was baking hot? No? Well it was), and we were motoring along fine. Then at one point I got caught behind a pickup and not being thai I decided not to try and overtake him going uphill around a bend. Markus didn’t realize and was pretty far ahead by the time I got around the truck. It took some hard driving to catch up but I managed to find him again. We stopped and figured we were about an hour or so out of Mae Chaem. We got back on the bikes and the road suddenly turned bad. The surface had odd pits and bumps in it that were tricky to spot so we had to go a tad slower. There was even a spot where a chunk of the road had just fallen away. It was going round one of the unpredictable bends that I encountered trouble. I had moved out in order to duck into a corner at a better angle. I’d been doing this every day and found it the best way to get around some of the tighter curves. Unfortunately there was a thai lady on a bike behind me who was in no mood to wait till I was out of her way to pass me and resolved to go past on my inside on the bend. Having not expected her to try this when I turned into the bend she clipped my front wheel and sent me spilling onto the ground. Of course she fell as well but she was up and gone before I was really aware what had happened. Luckily I came out of it fine, had a few scrapes and bruises on my arms and legs from skidding on the ground but nothing life threatening. The bike suffered similar superficial damage and still ran. Markus must have suspected something was up as he was just ahead of me and the Thai lady went roaring past him with no sign of me. After a few minutes cleaning my wounds as best I could we both got back on our bikes and got as far as Mae Chaem without further incident. I went as far as the hospital to get the wounds cleaned properly and got some sticky plasters for maximum visual effect. This done the two of us found some food and retired to a hotel to bitch and moan about crazy thai women drivers.

After my run-in it took some of the shine off the week. The bikes were due back the next day so instead of going to Doi Inthanon (highest peak in Thailand) we skipped it and went straight to the bike shop. Later in the day we met up with Jesse (who works with Markus) and a mate of his and we regaled them with tales of our adventures. It was Sunday the next day so I had a good night’s rest before catching the bus back to Li in the morning. I was working on Monday again after all. And so ended Markus’s and my motorcycle tour of the Mae Hong Son loop.

Mae Hong Son Loop Pt 1

This trip was the brainchild of one Markus Chisholm (or Market to most thai people) and he put the word out looking for companions. Initially there was due to be 3 of us on this trip but Reuven discovered he was working that week and couldnt get out of it. No matter, myself and Markus were confident we could manage ourselves. The trip consisted of a week long motorbike journey through the mountains of the northwest of Thailand along what is known as the 'Mae Hong Son Loop'. It takes in over 400km and famously has 1864 bends (i wasnt counting). To do this monster in a week was fairly challenging especially considering Markus's motorbike experience was limited and mine was nil. Anyway we rented two bikes in Chiang Mai, one was a Honda Sonic 125cc with a manual gearbox(Markus) and the other was a Honda Dream 125cc semi-automatic(me). I should point out that anything with two wheels and a motor is a motorbike over here whereas i would have classed the dream as a moped but thats just me being pedantic. We took a warm up lap of the moat in Chiang Mai, filled our tanks, I layered on suncream, we strapped on our helmets and sunglasses and hit the road north out of Chiang Mai towards our first destination; Pai.

The initial part of the journey was easy, it was motorway, straight and flat. We turned west off this after about 30km and began our trip in earnest on the windy, mountainous roads we would become familiar with over the next 7 days. Now when i say curves i dont mean a slight bend in a road, i mean big looping switchbacks up hills. This is what we coped with for the most part and it meant we werent moving too fast but that suited us to an extent as it meant we could drink in some of the amazing scenery. The descents were trickier but we managed. I guess my experience with a racing bike served me in good stead here as once i got the hang of the accelerator and brake i was flying. It was weird to just drive over little stones and cracks in the road though, i was tempted to yell "hole" and swerve wildly but i figured that wouldnt end well for me so i just ignored them and kept going. As i said above the scenery was beautiful so we would stop every now and again to take some scenic pictures and have a water break. But the first day on the road was remarkable for being uneventful really and we arrived in Pai in the late afternoon after about 3hrs + on the bikes having covered over 100km of mountainous road. Not bad for my first time on a motorbike. We scouted around Pai for a place to stay and found a decent spot for a decent price. We then found out that there were hot springs nearby and a few places offered the chance to soak in them so we having grabbed our swimming gear we hopped back on the bikes and went and soaked ourselves in the hot mineral waters. Just what the doctor ordered after a hard day's biking! After some time we dragged ourselves back onto the bikes and drove back to Pai. A quick shower later and we went in search of food. Now Markus introduced my previously uncultured self to the delights of Vietnamese food. We found a nice little resteraunt and between Markus and an extremely excited owner, they preached the wonder of Vietnamese food and converted another unsuspecting customer. The food is really light but delicious and apparently is good for body and soul. So to counter this bit of good work we went and downed a few beers. The town was pretty quiet and we were kind of tired so we called it a night and got some sleep.

The next day dawned in Pai and we slept in. This was a rest day and we were going to take it easy in Pai (its hard to do anything else). Firstly we changed hostel to see what else the town had to offer. It was low season so this was pretty easy and the second place was pretty cool. Next we made our way up to the temple on the hill in the late morning on foot which proved to be a silly mistake when we could have driven. Once we got to the temple we found our view blemished by some kind of haze. This was to be the norm over the week, beautiful countryside, a sunny day but what looked like fog settled over everything. I now suspect i have an answer for this. This is the time of year in Thailand when the rice fields get burned to make way for a new harvest so it could be that some of the dust and smoke settles as a kind of smog over everything. I think.... So a tad disappointed and even more sweaty we went back to the town for lunch. We had this in a place called 'The Witching Well' and proved to be one of the best meals i have had in Thailand so far so if you go to Pai go here! For the afternoon we were going to head to some caves that were 30km outside of Pai on the road to Mae Hong Son. We had read up on them and knew that sunset was a good time to be there so thats why we left it so late in the day to go there. So an uneventful ride later we found our way to 'Cave Lod' about an hour before sunset. We got a guided tour of the caves which included a guide with a paraffin lamp (caves are dark, who knew?) and another to steer the boat. Since there was a river running through the caves there is no other way to see them. The main parts are on land though so we got off at parts and were treated to a wonderful tour of the caves with our guide basically pointing at rocks and saying things like "looks like elephant". This would prompt a few minutes of me and Markus staring at the rock before one of us said "oh yeah i see it now" and we could move onto the next one. Some were interesting and it was a cool cave but the guides could use a bit of work. Maybe they dont get many English speakers. Sunset was fast approaching when we got to the end of the cave network and saw the exit point. This is where the magic happened. Every day at sunset, hundreds of thousands of swifts (and some bats) fly into the cave to their nests. We must have been there for a half hour or so and there was a steady stream of them flying in so i could believe the figure to be a little bit accurate. It was a truly amazing sight and created a sound like a loud waterfall as well with the birds rushing in so it was well worth the visit. Unfortunately my camera chose this moment to die so i didnt get many good pictures. I guess the memories will have to suffice.

Having spent a nice afternoon in the caves and witnessed the sunset bird show we got back on our bikes and drove back to Pai in the dark. Here i feel the need to blow my own trumpet a little. Having never driven a motorbike before i had in two days covered over 150km of tough terrain over mountains and on windy roads. I had also driven 30km of this in the dark and so covered night driving. All of this with no problems whatsoever so im fairly proud of that. Moving swiftly on we got back to Pai safe and sound, had our showers and went for dinner. Tonight i was introduced to Middle Eastern food in the form of falafels. It was good enough that i would try it again but wasnt as nice as the vietnamese food. We went in search of a bar to see out our last night in Pai and found our way to a spot with a live band. We started playing 'Guess that tune' which was tricky enough as these guys were playing a wide variety of stuff. We had a bit of banter with the band as well and after they finished they joined us for a beer. This drew over one of the staff who sat with us as well. The band moved onto another bar where they were to play again and the girl stayed talking to us (in good English). So having made a new friend we went back to our hostel and got a good night's rest before we moved on from Pai.

Pics: 1)Me and my trusty Dream
2)The Markus pose
3)The mountains of NW Thailand
4)The second place we stayed in Pai
5)"Look like lady"

English Camp

Recently we held an english camp for all of Matayom 1. This is about 300 kids so this was a big task, especially since there were only 12 teachers to manage them. Like everything in Thailand the organisation was a bit lax so it was a case of just jumping straight in and getting on with it on the day. This wasnt help when my boss jumped ship the day before since it was her idea to have it in the first place and she was one of the main organisers. So it was left to the rest of us to muddle our way through the day. The basic gist is that the day began with registration and orientation, at which the students were going to learn the words to some songs in english. After this was the main part of the day where the students would visit the teacher stations and we would all finish the day with a talent show. For the orientation our main person for making the kids sing was AWOL (my boss) so it was suggested that i take over. I pretty much laughed in the faces of the other teachers at this suggestion and almost told them where to stick their singing but managed to politely decline and swiftly suggest an alternative. So someone else got stuck with it. We also had assistants for the day in the shape of one of my classes; 4/3. Now this lot have pretty poor or in some cases non-existent english language skills so i was a bit pessimistic about how much of a help they would be. Mostly they ended up guiding the groups of students between the teacher stations which required no english and they just kind of dumped the kids on me and moved out of sight till the time was up. Useless bums.

Orientation lasted about an hour or so and with the students in predetermined groups we moved on to the stations. Now the idea here is that each teacher has a spot and will do an activity with a group of about 20 kids for about 20 minutes. The idea was the groups would visit all the stations and see each teacher. It didnt quite work out like this but was close enough. We had a break for lunch but this was my day from about 10 till 3.30. I had come up with a few ideas i though would be fun for the kids during the week. Unfortunately these mostly relied on the students having the basics of the english language. They didnt. I thought the assistants would assist me. They didnt. In fact they looked at me as if i was crazy when i suggested it. For the first two groups i attempted to explain a game called 'murderer'. In this game everyone closes their eyes and i pick one as a murderer, their job is to kill everyone else without being found out while everyone is trying to find them. The whole point of the game is the victim dieing. In my head this was fun and cool because the students would fall around screaming in ever more elaborate ways. Sadly this was not to be as i found out when they couldnt understand 'close your eyes', 'kill' and 'die'. SO very frustrated i moved to my back up plan of "Simon Says". This is a pretty basic game that they should have been able to manage. Of the first two groups one of them picked up the rules of this game. The other group had zero english and zero interest in anything i tried. I was thoroughly disheartened by the time the next group came and moved onto my third game - Rainbow Tag. This is a version of 'Bulldog' where the students are split into colours and when i shout this colour that group runs, unless i shout rainbow and everybody runs. Since i managed to explain that all they had to do was run from one spot to another this proved the easiest game of the day to explain. However it took its toll on me as i knew to convey the message i would have to show them. So i spent time with the two groups chasing them around a patch of grass..... in almost 30 degree heat. Fun but exhausting.

After lunch i was advised to move into shade as it would get quite hot in the afternoon. This meant another game had to be brought into play. For the rest of the day i played two short games. One was a game i had used on the trips to the pratom (primary) schools where one person sits in the middle of a circle with their eyes closed, one person in the circle claps and the guy in the middle has to find the clapper. This gets old quickly hence why i needed a second game. For my sins i tried to play 'Buzz' with them. I thought it would work to an extent as it relies on knowing the numbers up to about twenty or so. For those who dont know it, you count around the group with each person saying a number but instead of the number 3 or multiples of 3 you say "buzz". I did a round of the group just getting the numbers straight and then introduced the buzz idea. Some students cant count to 20 in english so that was a problem right there. A good few students got the game and had a bit of fun but there was (as there always is) a few who couldnt care less and point blank ignored me until i was in front of them demanding a number and staring them down when they would panic and turn to the person beside them for help. One group actually did quite well and some of the students were looking around counting to find out if they were 'buzz' in advance which was great to see. Thankfully 3.30 rolled up and meant it was time for the talent show.

Im absolutely exhausted at this stage. The talent show doesnt require much input from me thankfully. The idea was that each group was given a sheet with a list of basic songs in english (some composed by my coordinator apparently) of which they would choose one and perform it on stage as a group with an accompanying dance routine. They all knew the songs before the day and knew the dances that went with each one. So no problems here right? Well each group got up and sang a song and danced along to it (extremely reluctantly) with each one on stage for, oh, maybe a minute or so before running back to the safety of the hall floor. But out of 14 groups, 10 did the same bloody song! After the 3rd time in a row i was sick of it but since i was the judge i had to listen to them all. The winner was the group that had a different dance routine to the song and looked to have put a tiny bit of effort in. They also looked like they had fun whereas the others did not. So ended the english camp and after a long and exhausting day shouting at kids i was ready to flake out.

Pics: 1. The view from my spot in the morning.
2. Some reluctant singers and dancers in the morning.
3. Some reluctant dancers in the afternoon.

Quiet Birthday and travel plans

(just so its clear i do not dress like this in the classroom and the thing on the side of my head is a microphone)

I had a relatively quiet birthday recently in Li, saving the craziness for Chiang Mai at the weekend. Basically the day panned out as any other Tuesday. I only have two classes and a giant gap in between them. So science class rolls around towards the end of the day and i get a surprise. The class barrel in late with big grins on their faces, not usually what happens for science. Then at the back of the troop are two of the students carrying a cake with a couple of candles on it. The kids belt out 'Happy Birthday' and present me with a handmade card signed by most of them and a couple of gifts. But im doing the whole scenario an injustice. The cake had a picture on it, a picture that one of the kids (Googig) had drawn and got the bakery to create on the top of the cake. It was a picture of yours truly and i was a bit taken aback at the work they had put into the whole thing from the cake to the card and even going and getting me gifts. It was all very cute. So i rewarded their kindness by cutting science class short and giving them the rest of the afternoon off.

Besides this little event its been fairly quiet. I have a heap of work to get through this month between regular teaching, end of year exams to write, an entrance exam for next year's batch to come up with, some projects to dream up and an English camp on the way its been a bit hectic. So instead of boring you with my complaints about that i thought id go through what im doing after my little stint as a teacher. Ive been asked a few times by a few different people what my travel plans so hopefully this blog will stop me repeating myself constantly. Come the 31st March i finish my contract with the school and head off on my travels officially. I start with a few weeks in the North of Thailand in order to see Chiang Rai, Pai and Doi Inthanon among other things. I also want to be in Chiang Mai for Songkran (Thai New Year). This occurs over 3 days around the 13-15th April and is celebrated by people splashing water at others. This has developed into a 3 day pitched water fight on the streets of Chiang Mai so should be quite the experience. After this craziness i head for the border in order to cross over to Laos. From here i will travel south to the capital Vientiane taking in a few places along the way. From here i will head for Hanoi in Vietnam. Then i will go down the coast and arrive in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). From here i will go across the border and into Cambodia, head west through that country and end up in South Thailand. Here i will have a few weeks to wind up my South East Asia adventure before taking a flight to Australia. So between the 16th April and the 18th June i aim to see as much of SE Asia as i can. Im looking at about 2 weeks in Laos, 3 in Vietnam, 2 in Cambodia and 3 in Thailand at the end. This gives me a week spare to spend as i wish between the lot of them and will probably be set aside as travel days in between everything. I have a few places in mind on that journey but i dont want to tie myself down to a strict itinerary.

The next stop after that is Australia where i have about 2 months to take in the East Coast and Melbourne which are my main targets though im not sure how that will work out just yet. Im sure between now and mid June i will have plenty of time to mull it over though. Then after that i have a month in New Zealand where i have a month. I figure NZ will sort itself out as i have to travel from the north to the south over the month anyway in order to catch my flight home. On that note my flight will leave Queenstown, New Zealand bound for Sydney where i change to a flight to London at which point i will embark on my final leg back to Dublin at some stage on the 19th September (i think). So I will arrive back in Eire penniless, tired and without much clue what to do with myself at that point. Maybe i will end up back in Thailand for another go at teaching, they are trying every trick in the book to guilt me into coming back. They even have some of the parents of the kids asking me to come back now. Maybe i will end up teaching somewhere else or god forbid even find a job in Ireland! Anyway thats something to worry about in September, plenty of time to think about it on the long flight home!

Mai pen rai, right?

Tigers and an Irish invasion

Recently i met up with two friends from Maynooth, Rob and Linda, who are on an adventure of their own touring the countries of South East Asia. The route they took through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos is what i want to do just in reverse. On this particular weekend in Chiang Mai it also happened to be the flower festival which meant a few of my teacher buddies would be up for a visit as well. All this boded well for a good weekend in the capital of the north! However when i got to CM on the Saturday morning (early start as per fricking usual) i was cursing the festival as it took me around 3 times as long to get in to where i wanted to go from the bus station. Thailand love their parades and this one was big, it had giant floats made of flowers and everything. Of course, no parade in thailand is complete without its marching band component. This had at least one and some of the songs the bang out are good. There is nothing like listening to a marching brass band blasting out a rendition of 'Smoke on the Water' swiftly followed by 'The Flinstones'. Epic stuff i can tell you!

Anyway i get as far as my hostel, dump some gear and then head to the Tha Pae gate where i had arranged to meet Rob and Linda at a specific time. This would be done without the modern wonder of a mobile phone as neither of them had one that was working in Thailand. At this point i bumped into four of the gang teaching over here including the other two irish people on the program. When Rob and Linda showed up we irish were in the majority for my first time since landing in this country. So i brought this lot to a local place where i'd had some good hangover food the occasional sunday. The guy who runs it is real nice and recognises me each time i go back. He had a big smile on his face when he saw me with a big group too. He got chatting and after finding out i was a teacher and would be finishing up in this part of the world soon he offered me a free meal before i jet off, SCORE! So buoyed by this piece of news i suggested we all head to something in CM i had been curious about for a while but not got around to visiting, The Tiger Kingdom. We hailed a songthaew and bundled in and arrived at our destination an hour later. I didnt realise it was quite so far out of town.......

Now Tiger Kingdom is a small park with large enclosures of tigers (they have a new one with lions as well now) and the draw is that you can get into the enclosure and get up close and personal with these oversized kitties. You choose whether you want to get in with the big ones or the little ones or splash out and go for both. Our group kind of split down the middle with some choosing the big guys and some choosing the little ones. I spent around 10EUR to get into a cage with 3 tigers and spend 25 minutes with them. I chose the little ones who turned out to be the size of your average dog. They are just tame cats really and you get to watch them play and get your pic taken with them. Our trainer was all for us lying down beside them and putting our heads on their stomachs. He also told us they eat tourists and that it was nearly dinnertime. We all laughed (a bit nervously) and he said it was actually chickens that they were fed. They also sleep 18 hours a day. Easy life huh? When they get over about 2 years old they are sent off to the zoo just in case their wilder instincts start to come through and they do actually eat some tourists or trainers. Cant be too safe!
After our tiger trip we arranged to meet up for dinner and have a few drinks. A good itialian later we are hitting the bars. Our numbers increased but the Irish still stayed in the majority. We had a great time watching the incomprehension on the americans faces when we talked to each other, they just couldnt keep up with how fast us irish talk. It was nice to let loose as i speak pretty slowly almost every day of the week when im talking to thai people. It was a pretty good night and it ended in Fabrique again. The next day i woke up with a less than comfortable hangover but was happy nonetheless. I'd had a good day and night and had got some travel tips for when i finish my attempt at this teaching lark and go bumming round the world for 6 months. What more can a guy ask?

Hot Springs, Snow and Pandas.

We recently went on a school trip to Chiang Mai taking in some Hot Springs and the Zoo. This involved leaving Li at 6am on a Thursday morning so i was a bit cranky when meeting up with everyone at the school gates. Anyway we managed to round up the students and bundle them onto the buses in order to drive them to the hot springs. These are just north of the city of Chiang Mai and it took us the guts of 3 hours to get there from our little town. The kids were fairly quiet at this hour so it was a fairly easy trip. Once we got there we surprised the kids with a worksheet they had to fill in during the stay at the springs. Basically it was a series of science based questions linked to one of my previous classes (we had done geothermal energy). They were thrilled with this of course ("TEACHER! Answers....?" "Yeah i want the answers, well done on working that out"). So we stay at this place for the next 2 hours which consists of some geysers, a park with a canal (of hot spring water)running through it and a place to boil some eggs. There were a few places selling these eggs so the kids thought this was great, dunked their baskets in the water left them there for a while and then ate the eggs after they took them out. I spent some of the time wandering around and some of the time soaking my feet in the canal. the kids were doing the same nearby and when i took my feet out of the water to cool them a bit (the water was bloody hot!)they were amazed that my pasty white skin had now turned pink. Hilarious im sure you'll agree :).

Anyway after this we hopped back on our bus and went to the zoo and had a few hours here. The kids had all been here before so it wasnt that new to them but its a big place and there are a good variety of attractions and activities, some of which the kids hadnt done...... like the snowdome. Now this isnt quite as wonderful as it sounds. It was a pretty small room with an ice slide and artificial snow. It was good fun but i was expecting something a bit bigger if im honest. But the kids loved it, asking me was it like home to which i said yes, sure dont we have -7 all the time and snow blowing about the place. They nearly died in this cold but i just laughed and said it wasnt all that chilly. We had all gotten big ski jackets going into the room so i was actually kind of warm. We got a group photo at the end which consists of 20 odd thai kids, 2 Filipinos and me. I look like a ghost at the side of the pic. After this we walk back outside into the 20+ heat and head for the aquarium. This was ok, they had some pretty coral fish there but nothing too big so it was also not as good as i thought it might be. Next we hit the pandas who are sleeping away the day. I should explain that the thais are nuts about these pandas. They are on a loan from China and had a baby panda here in Chiang Mai recently which is a big deal so its now the emblem of Chiang Mai really. Anyway they were asleep and the baby was in the back so we didnt get to see it but it was cool to see an animal like that up close that could go extinct in my lifetime.


After the zoo we head for Big C (the highlight of the day for the kids) which is a big department store where the kids buy a heap of junk food. I was slightly more boring and did a bit of grocery shopping, picking up a few things they dont have in my local shop. Now its late in the evening when we depart for home so i guess everyone is pretty knackered and will pass out on the bus right? Wrong! Having spent most of the day on their feet walking around but replenished now by sugar the kids start singing and dancing to thai/korean pop music that the driver is blaring out for them. Fricking nutters the lot of them. This carried on for about two hours accompanied by lots of cameras flashing. I took the attitude that if you cant beat them join them so i went down the bus and tried to talk to some of them and getting caught in a million pictures. It was a good laugh and the kids were having fun so it wasnt doing any harm. Anyway as we got closer to home a few of the kids got dropped off and the party calmed down. We got back to Li around 8pm with everyone pretty tired at this stage. I devoured a bowl of noodles and collapsed into bed, knowing i had work the next day.


Pictures: 1. A sign warning not to touch the 100 degree water.
2. Googig, Namwan, Joy and Bam-Bam.
3. A ray hanging from the ceiling in festive mood.
4. Panda!
5. Some of the kids partying on the bus.

Work, Work and more Work

It has been a while since my last post and this is largely down to (as the title suggests) work. Ive been kept pretty busy since my surprise 2 days off with both Matayom 3 and 6 getting ready for their National tests. Its basically something like the Junior and Leaving Cert i think. Anyway i had to prep M3 for the English part of their NT during the week and then at the weekend as well so was kept occupied with that. At least i was told i was going to be on duty that weekend. I had been told all week that the foreign teachers would be needed to work so i was all set for a working weekend. That was until friday at 4pm when i was told that i wasnt actually on to help. At this point i'd already made up my mind that i was staying in Li and i had nothing else to do so i decided to come to work anyway on Saturday. So up i got at the regular school time and starting helping out the on duty teachers with giving out the answers to a sample test. Basically they will have a multiple choice exam based mostly on converstaions so it was a case of picking out the least wrong answer from the 4 provided. This was a bit trickier than it sounds for some of the questions as the person who wrote the exam clearly didnt have a very strong grasp of English. The grammar was a bit all over the place and for a few questions i started by saying that none of the answers were correct but one was less wrong than the others.

So i did 2 classes in the morning and then for the afternoon i was asked to sit down with my coordinator/boss to run through the M6 version. I should point out that these tests dont come with an answer key, which is a pretty ridiculous idea but something you gotta deal with. Hence why the foreign teachers are enlisted to help out with the preparations, since the thai teachers teaching english arent too sure of the answers themselves. This is especially true for the M6 version which is very grammar heavy and deals with complicated situations and throws in some scientific terms for good measure. Now as far as grammar goes with me i know right from wrong but having to explain why this is right and that is wrong is not my strongest point. I had to explain most sentences and phrases and my boss was a bit flummoxed by some of my answers. And she is the one who gets the highest score from the school in the tests the teachers have to take so i cant imagine what the others would do. This was a particularly draining way to spend two hours but i muddled my way through the test and managed fairly plausible explanations for nearly all the questions. After a hard day's work i went home and relaxed for the evening with the intention of doing nothing that required brainpower the next day.

Unfortunately i forgot that i had to rewrite my Midterm tests as some students failed. They arent allowed to do that so im supposed to retest them until they all pass. Im probably not really supposed to change the exam but if i dont then they will figure out the pattern of answers and just put that in rather than looking at the questions. I had one boy do this for Math even though i told him i had changed the questions and answers. They are too lazy to study and have no incentive to so not a whole lot i can do. Anyway on top of that this week we are going to the zoo come Thursday in Chiang Mai on a field trip and then im heading back up on Sunday to meet Linda and Rob who have been travelling along the route im hoping to take after i finish in the school. So some fun after the recent drudgery!