Arrival in Phuket

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Well after a 6 hour wait in Heathrow airport, an 11 hour flight to Bangkok, an internal transfer to Krabi, a nights stay in Ao Nang and a 3 hour drive I finally made it to my host family in Phuket on Wednesday 20th July after leaving home on Monday 18th!!

I am staying with a host family in the Bor Rae area of Phuket, which is not far from Phuket Town at the south of the island. In the family there is PeeJeed, my host mum who works in a day care centre where other volunteers are at the moment; Buyang (not sure how to spell it), my host dad and Mona, their daughter. They also have a son who is away at university. At the moment there is just me staying here with them but in September two more volunteers are meant to be staying here too.

There are several other volunteers in Thailand with me at the same time but currently only two here in Phuket, the rest are in Krabi where the main offices are. One other volunteer has just left Phuket after 6 months only yesterday. I have met up with all three girls over the last couple of days and they are all really nice. I get the impression from them that as volunteers in Phuket we are less involved with the projects as all events occur in Krabi, which is a three hour journey away and so is difficult for us to get there. I will have to see how it goes but at least we stay near each other to do our own things together.

On Thursday I went to my placement for the first day and had my introduction and the school was closed on Friday so haven't actually started working properly yet so I will write more about this next time when I know more of what I will be doing.

Then this weekend I have been into Phuket Town on the local bus to get used to the bus and where to go in the town center as I have to get the bus back from work during the week and my placement coordinator confused me slightly when she tried to show me the town, much better doing it in your own time!!

So first few days have gone well and I feel settled in and very welcome with my family and other volunteers, now just waiting to see what work brings and what sights I can see at weekends....

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