Blogs from North-East Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 7

Well today was the first day for our 800km bike ride – it started off really slow which was nice considering I didn’t do any training then everyone found their pace after the first water stop. One leg I found really hard but then we stopped for lunch which was nice and of course I over ate so the last 20kms was also a little tough! No stacks today so that was good! We did 85kms so was a shorter ride than I thought which was a GREAT thing as when I finished I was hurting! Claire and Pete were the little rockets and leaded the pack most of the day with their matching bikes (cute)! J Claire and Peter have had to drive back to the airport as Claire left her laptop on the flight ... read more

It is now four months since I first touched down in Thailand. So much has happened yet it feels like only yesterday when I was stepping into the hot humidity of Bangkok. It has been an incredible few months. Starting up with a cockroach infested house, eating strange foods/animals and teaching classes bigger than those I learnt in. Then, just after settling in, we journeyed with everyone to Chaing Mai for some of the best weeks of my life. We struggled through Thai classes till weekends of jungle trekking, white-water rafting, and bungy jumping to name but a few. Nights out were a hazy, Hong Thong blur of winding and grinding before making the 5am pilgrimage to McDonalds. Evenings of walking through wandering markets, swimming in a monsoon and getting face to face with tigers is ... read more

It’s another scorching Tuesday morning and we’re outside wishing the king a happy birthday. Ben and I are standing alongside the rest of the school in front of the King’s portrait. I feel beads of sweat dripping down my back like a broken tap and Ben’s strained face tells the same story. As we slowly cook in our suits, I dream of how you must be having it back home with snowy blizzards and an actual need for clothing. This lasted for an hour before returning to a cold shower and a promise never to be suited up in the blazing 35 degree heat. Tuesday was a public holiday so joined Claire, Robyn, Stephen, and Pra Yung, we headed for a waterfall whose name escapes me. Unlike the openness of Pha Diem, it fell deep into ... read more

Monday night. Ben is otherwise incapacitated with a killer migraine, so I stepped out the front door to spend an evening catching up with the world at the café. So absorbed was my gaze by the immensely bright and near full moon, I almost stood on a tortoise. I picked up the snooping shelled little reptile and brought him inside, thinking he’ll make an easy pet for volunteers to come. I left him helplessly sliding about the sink whilst I dashed round the house looking for a suitable box shaped home. He did not appreciate being taken indoors. In protest, he started firing turds at an alarming rate over his new house and mine. I took the hint and placed him outside to finish his evening stroll, undisturbed. Feeling a lot better, Ben joined me once ... read more

After lasts weeks mission down South, we’ve been finding goings-on closer to home. As you know, we were off because our students were busy helping gather in the rice harvest. So I reckoned it would be handy karma if we got a taste of what almost every rural Isaan does for a living. Kitted up in a long-sleeve top, woolly gloves and a Vietnamese-style hat for protection, we hopped in the back of Bra Yung’s pickup truck and went to labour under the evening sun. We worked back-bent and drenched with sweat alongside Bra Yung’s uncle who, with a smouldering cigarette clenched in his mouth, calmly and skilfully went through his crop like a combine harvester. We worked at half his speed and sweated twice as much. As the orange light grew too faint to know ... read more