Eco House

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Hi all

Sorry about not getting the blog yesterday but the damn thing crashed as I was saving it so now have to start all over again!

Well we wokeup Tuesday morning and got ready as usual and opened our bedroom door to go round to the communal area for breakfast and found the pond on our doorstep. Due to a huge amount of rain during the night most of the eco house was flooded including alot of the bedrooms, luckily not ours. We had to wade through about a foot of manky pond water to get to breakfast which was nice and they had to get pumps in to get rid of it all. During breakfast I turned my phone on and had a million messages checking all okay as everyone had heard the news of problems in Bangkok, it was turning into an eventful day. Being in the rural village of Singburi which is about 2 hours out of Bangkok and in the middle of nowwhere we were completely oblivious to the news but we managed to get the co ordinators to put their TV on and translate the news. It was not as bad as it seemed and the Thais seemed quite unconcerned and said that this sort of thing happens almost every 10 years and we should just stay away from Bangkok for a couple of days and then it will all die down. Because of this the schools were all closed, as there was no government it was announced as a national holiday so there was no teaching at the orphanage. We went to the orphanage anyway as we were sorting the bathing area out for the kids. When we arrived some were there washing and it was not nice. Basically they stand there fully clothed around the bath and tip buckets of water over themselves and then shampoo themselves and then wash it off thus cleaning their clothes at the same time! I think I have mentioned before that the water is not pleasant and can sit in the bath for a few days going stagnant with the sun on it allday. We have decided to knock some of the walls of the bathing area down and then re build to make smaller bathing areas and then tile them to make them more hygenic, with the next group getting a roof put on. It was an interesting couple of days as between us we had an Estate Agent, a Nurse, an Assistant Bar Manager, an IT Consultant, a Graduate and a Nursery Assistant so not ideal for being Brickies! Anyway we got on with it and I was given the important job of mixing the cement, this was really not a good idea. As with anything I do I managed to get it everywhere and at one point thought my days of wearing flip flops were over when I managed to get cement between my big toe and the one next to it, luckily it came off after much scrubbing. It was very hard work as hot as usual and no shade and we were very achey and had blisters on our hands as not used to the manual labour. One of the co ordinators was good at brick laying thank good and so far the wall is still standing and is straight (kind of). On Friday 4 of us (Judith, Ami, Sander and myself) decided to spend the weekend in Kanchanaburi which is to the West of Thailand. The journey consists of 2 bus journeys each taking about 2 hours. The first part was fine and we soon arrived in Suphanburi were we then discovered that due to setting off late we had missed the last bus to Kanchanburi which was a bit of a bugger. The bus driver was very sweet though and explained to another passenger our problem and she took us under her wing. This involved following her for ages trying to find another bus and then waiting whilst she spent forever making numerous phone calls of which we obviously understood nothing. In the end we phoned Mewl one of our co ordinators and asked her to translate for us what was happening as it was getting late and we were worried that we may end up spending the night sleeping in the bus station like homeless people. It turned out there were no more buses (we had guessed this) and that the lady was trying to arrange transport for us to Kanchanaburi and we were to wait with her. Years later (maybe exaggerating slightly) a mini bus turned up and upon opening the door there were 2 spare seats! After you have been in Thailand for a while you realise things like this do not bother the Thais and they travel round on all sorts for example one bike will hold a whole family including babies in mothers arms, buses have a million people on with more standing on the back holding on for dear life. Anyway somehow the 4 of us got in although they did not seem to appreciate that us Westerners are slightly larger than Thais so it was like trying to get elephants into a mini. At one point we were not sure whose arms and legs were where but luckily after 10 minutes some people got out. We eventually arrived about 10pm completely knackered and checked into a resort which we had found in the Lonely Planet called Little Creek Hideway Valley. It was listed as budget accommodation so were pleasantly suprised when they showed us to our rooms which were very sweet huts made of cement with bamboo roofs. Inside was basic but great with a giant bed with mozzie net and concrete floors and 1 shelf. When you opened the door to the bathroom you stepped back outside with a loo which was covered by the overhang of the roof and the shower was completely open with a waterfall affect were the water cascaded off the rocks and the whole room was surrounded by a high wall so we were well impressed and it was only costing us about 3 pound a night. Even more exciting was that they did Pizza in the restaurant so we went to bed very full, happy and tired. On the Saturday Judith spent the day by the pool as she had been to Kanchanaburi before and the rest of us set off on a tour. The first stop was the famous Erawan waterfalls which are some of the best in Thailand. It is made up of 7 tiers which you can walk up stopping at each one where the water falls into a pool area which you can swim in. It was fantastic although only made it to tier 5 before going back down to 3 for a swim as felt like treking all over again and too hot for that. Swimming in the waterfalls was great although if you kept still for too long the fish came up and nibbled you which was funny until I saw the size of some of them (like whale size!) so after that I kept moving. After lunch (rice & veg) they took us elephant treking which we had done previously but this was much better as actually in a nature area. Still just as uncomfortable and also a little bit scary as very high up and they gave us seat belts which worried me more and believe me they would have done nothing if you fell off! All good until started going down a very steep hill and then I started thinking I would fall off and die and we were flying this way and that on the back of the bloody thing. I managed to expand Sanders English vocabulary but teaching him every single swear word in the English language at this point, however we made it (un) safely to the bottom. We then entered the water on the elephants so having just come to terms with the fact I might fall off and die I now had to worry about drowning. It was great though and they waded through the water and back to the base were I got off as elegently as you can from an elephant. Next was Bamboo rafting on the River Kwai which was basically flat rafts made completely of bamboo with little seats on and you float down at quite a speed as a very fast current, with a little Thai person steering. You end up spinning round quite a bit which was fun although you get a bit dizzy and when I stepped back onto land I nearly fell straight over. After this we were taken to Death Railway and saw a cave which was the hosptal where all the injured were taken when working on the railway. We had a train journey along the railway on the oldest train I have ever seen and again fun but very rickety and got thrown around and attacked by branches flying in through the windows as the train lines appear to not be very well maintained. I did'nt think I would be able to sit down for a few days after all of this. It was then onto the Bridge over the River Kwai which was very impressive and you could walk from one end to the other and it was a lot bigger than I imagined and it felt pretty amazing standing on it. I won't bore you with the history lesson, if you don't know it then look it up yourselves. We had had a brilliant day and spent the evening back at the resort chilling out and eating wonderful food (lasagne, garlic bread and chocolate cake) and having a few beers. We travelled back Sunday which luckily was a lot better journey than on the way here.

This week so far has been a bit uneventful as there are major floods in Thailand so most of the schools are shut as flooded and we can't even get to the bath at the Orphange as it is currently surrounded by the river which has burst it's banks. Apparently the North is seeing a very high rainfall and it is coming down the rivers and causing problems everywhere, it is quite amazing driving round and seeing so much water although I am sure it is quite worrying for the Thia people. It has ground alot of the country to a halt and does not seem to be stopping so there is not much we can do at the moment.

I can not believe I fly to Australia on Saturday and am really going to miss Thailand as starting to feel like home. We found out this week that apparently the airport has now closed and a new one has opened! No one told us and it is not on our tickets or anything, but as of the 28th the change over happens and we must go to the new one. It is on the other side of Bangkok and about 2 hours outside so we will have to allow a lot longer plus it will probably be chaos as just opened. We are franticly trying to contact our airlines to make sure the flights are still the same and whether the terminal numbers have changed as nothing has been mentioned. Hopefully I will be flying Saturday so keep you fingers crossed. Anyway my next blog will probably be from Australia so take care all and will write soon.

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