This week 8 of us went off to do 'trekking' for the week, I use this term as lightly as possible as in the end we only actually walked anywhere for 2 days of the week. On Monday we spent most of the day travelling to Suphanburi to the Phutoei National park 'base camp' where we set up our tents for the first night. We met some of the national park staff including Joe who was to be our guide for the next few days. That evening we sat round with the staff who gave us some of their whiskey and [View Full Entry]

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At the end of my last Blog we had been staying in a resort for the night. The next morning after breakfast 8 of us headed for Hua Hin after being told that we had a free weekend - we were craving the beach and also any food other than rice and vegetables. Hua Hin is one of the closest main beach resorts to Bangkok but we hadn't reckoned on a 7 hour journey from where we were and a particularly sweaty hot 4 hour bus ride. Hence we were glad to land finally on friday afternoon. We checked into our [View Full Entry]

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Well this week has been a very interesting one. We have immersed ourselves with the monks, so to speak!!! On Monday we got up at 6am to give food to the monks as they walked past the eco house. This is a tradition that happens every day and in every town accross Thailand. Basically the monks gather food such as rice and vegetables, (my favourite food! ha ha), and take it back to the temple to eat it as their breakfast and lunch but they cannot eat after 12pm as this is considered a way to prevent them from becoming greedy, [View Full Entry]

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On friday we got up really early to go and visit a local school. We were then split into 2's and had to go and teach the kids for 2 hours. Oliver said to us 'just sing songs and play games, it'll be fine' but I have never done anything like this and also when there is a language barrier it kind of makes things even harder...I was with Hannah and we had the youngest ones who were so adorable. There were 9 of them and they all stood up and bowed and said 'hello teacher' when we entered the classroom. [View Full Entry]

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Sawat dii ka!! Still having lots of fun here in Singburi, exploring around the place and visiting temples The things you get used to but feel strange at first are; 1) Walking around a lot bare footed...especially around the eco house...kind of makes your feet very dirty though!! 2) Cold showers...hard to get into at first but then refreshing 3) Gecko's - lizards that are on all the walls around your room and bathroom - suprisingly I am fine with it!! 4) The rituals at the temples...(explained later) The things I am seriously NOT getting used to are; 1) Rice and [View Full Entry]

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sawat dii ka!! (Hello in Thai!) We arrived at the eco house on sunday afternoon to be pleasantly suprised by the standard of the accomodation...bunk beds (as expected) thick mattresses (not as expected). Bathroom and cold shower (as expected) being en-suite for a room of 6 (not expected)!! Also although we were allocated rooms, I was meant to be in with a girl called Amelia and another who didn't show and I had been getting on really well with Hannah and Marianne so we asked Amelia if she would swap with Hannah, and Marianne replaced the girl who had never shown [View Full Entry]

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first update...arrived Friday in Bangkok and met the group in the evening, we went for a nice meal and drinks down the famous Koh San road! we were all quite shattered so didn't make it a late one...everyone seems really nice so far...apart from 2 of the guys who aren't conversing with us however much we try, but seem to tag along with us so they can't think that badly of us!! feels like I've done loads already!! hotel is lovely got our own en-suite rooms which is nice...got up for breakfast saturday morning quite early and headed out at 9am [View Full Entry]

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