Blogs from Asia - page 13073

Dear friends and family! Today was our first day of kindergarten classes! It was quite chaotic with many cryers and clingers. We only had an hour with the kids because we had celebration with the parents. We do a lot of singing at Sullivan. There is a song for lining up, eating snack, saying good-bye, and of course...the school song which starts off " Here we are at school...its nice to be here"...the kids are very cute when they sing. Along with my first day of school, it was also my first snow day! No joke! I looked out the window at about 11 o'clock AM and these HUGE flakes were coming down! It was cold but it still doesn't compare with the Canadian winter. As I said before myself and two other teachers have joined ... read more

greetings and much love everybody! been in the capital phnom penh the last few days now after triapsing down from efferverscent siem riep. while superlatives like imposing and grandiose are employed to typify the very heartbeat and arterial of any country, quite the contrary this capital disproves the very notion. its hardly imposing, most genteel and still in the nascent stages on the road to a flourishing finish, albeit a good 30 odd yrs behind the world we're so acclimatized to. my only gripe is that we find ourselves nestled in the very suffocating kao san rd-esque mould of guest houses, where you find yourself tucked away with deep fried farangs. well the only redeeming factor is the sublime sunset that we're privy to every evening, declining against a backdrop of lowlands while we overlook the ... read more

it was HUGE!!!!!!!!!...people partying everywhere covering a whole stretch of beach, absolutely insane! we had a top nite...everyone knows we like a good dressup and so did the other aussie girls so the 4 of us had the best afternoon stripping the shops of glow paint, necklaces, headbands and everything fluroscent we could find!!...the best bit was splashing glow paints all over our white dresses on the verandah of our bungalow...so of course we were covered and so was our bungalow..not sure how much of it actually went on our dresses!!! shez and sam even had matching fluro bandages that we painted 2!! Anyways had a few drinks at our bungalows...everyone was in the best party mood and pretty soon everyone was glowing in paints...then we headed into town with a group of swedish boys...so funny ... read more

This week started off at a relaxed pace - the usual cleaning of quarantine and environmental enrichment. On Monday we went on a night frog trek at Kubah National Park, where we sighted many huge river frogs including some rarer species. Apparently it is better to try and find them at night, as their eyes reflect in the darkness making them easier to track down. We also saw an eel, fireflies and a wild civet on the prowl. However the trek involved a steep walk up a hill 900 feet above sea level! We all had our last meal together as two of the volunteers were leaving the following morning (Ryan and Dave). Tuesday was spent feeding chickens to the crocodiles - an interesting experience not to be repeated! Matt the macaque was in a particularly ... read more

Our stay on Ko Pha Ngan has been absolutely glorious...maybe thats why we've stayed almost 2 weeks. There isn't too much adventure to talk about as my time has consisted of lying on the beach, swimming in the ocean, drinking banana shakes, and making a decent attempt at a tan. Seriously, heaven! Linds and I arrived on Bottle Beach after taking the night ferry, a taxi and then a long tail boat. Bottle Beach is a very secluded part of the island with white sand, swaying palm trees, and high mountains on either side. It is only accessible by boat. There are 4 sets of bungalows only. We stayed in a cute little bungalow overlooking the sea. About 6 days later we moved to Thong Nai Pan Noi Beach just for a bit of a ... read more