Blogs from Southern Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 24

Thank god it’s the weekend!!! To all of my old teachers out there, I am so sorry if I ever caused you stress or anxiety or caused you to work overtime. I now know how you felt, and you have my deepest apology. I have had to crack down hard on my students these last two weeks. The high school I work at starts with 7th grade and continues up through 12th grade. Both of my 8th grade classes were naughty this week. One of them was just chatty in the sense that I constantly needed to remind them to simmer down. However, the other class has been giving every teacher heart-fits. I work within a program called the Multi Language Program (MLP) at Suratpittaya which provides Math and Science classes in English, as well as ... read more

(Written by Kerry, then Graham, then Kerry and Graham at the same time on different computers and then stitched together at the end. Hence there may be some confusing uses of the words "I", "We", "My", "Kerry" and "Graham" as well as some interesting changes in narrative style along the way - sorry!) Back into Thailand After a week of trying to arrange a replacement passport for Kerry from Vientiane, we finally gave up and decided to head to Bangkok to sort it out in person. After 3 or 4 working days we'd secured the necessary emergency travel documentation via trips to the Aussie Embassy, the Laos Immigration Office, the Aussie Embassy again and finally the Thai Embassy - a police report, a letter of recommendation from the Aussies, a Laissez Passer (bizarrely written in French ... read more

Day 6 08:30 Another sleepless night. They told me this was the quiet side of the island! So many screaming scooters around here that ferry the drunkun idiots around at all times of the night. Westerners seem to ruin every little bit of paradise I've seen, I guess I'm just in the wrong hostel maybe, there is a bar at the end of my road afterall, Once the course is over I shall find another. Had the classroom theory for the scuba yesterday afternoon, seems like alot to it but probably something that will become natural underwater, mainly just alot of safety checks above water I guess. Also took a wonder round the Buddha view diving resort area, seems a well run place with very friendly people, alot of great looking women too but they don't ... read more

23rd oct 2009 Been a fair few days since I've written a blog entry, sorry to those that have missed it but Internet time is double the usual price here on this Island. There's been alot going on, I finished my open water and decided to go for the advanced which included a navigation dive, a naturalist dive with a camera, peak performance bouyancy dive, a deep dive and a night dive! I found I'm just as crap at navigating underwater as I am on the surface during the first, next was naturalist where you have to learn the names of everthing, good thing was that I hired a camera for that one too so got a few nice pics from the deep. The bouyancy dive gave me a chance to perfect my skills in moving ... read more

Day 5 15:00 WOOOOOW! Now this is more like it!! :o) Just arrived at koh Tao and it's every bit the paradise I expected, White sandy shores separated by huge natural Boulders with a backdrop of forest covered mountains. It's shear bliss here and I recon it may be quite a while till I leave too. I've come here to do my padi open water cert but 4 nights will not be enough, I love it. Arrived at 9 in the morning after leaving khao San at 9 last night, there was Around 30 people on the bus and everyone but 2 people slept, the other was Carla who was sitting next to me, an exotic dancer from Blackburn in lancashire. We chatted for hours, whiling away the bumpy journey with views on life, mainly the ... read more