Blogs from Nan, Northern Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 2

Hey guys! me again! just thought i'd tell you about sports day while I can remember everything cos it was so incredibly random and surreal! Had to get up at 3am to get makeup and hair done (put bright pink eyeshadow and lipstick on me yuck) and then I was dressed in traditional Thai dress (orange and red! pics to follow later...). Then we were driven to school and told to hold this piece of paper with Thai writing on. The whole school, led by marching band (some of whom were in fishnets and tartan minis, and others in crazy fairy-like costumes), cheerleaders (girls and ladyboys!) oh and army people (gave it all the feel of a Communist rally) marched through town to the tune of Mission Impossible! On the way we were stopped for photos, ... read more

Wow where do i start? The last few days seem to have lasted a lifetime! Firstly, i think, a word about "Thai time': it's completely true what everyone says, they really are on a different time scale to the rest of us!! A few examples: on Monday we were supposed to be going to a temple for a festival at 1.30 so we were all ready and waiting. At 2.10, the director of the school came and told us the festival had finished so we weren't going any more! Last night, we were going for a dressfitting at a ladyboy's house (we've gotta parade up the street in Thai traditional dress (gotta get up at 3.30am 4 makeup!) with a load of ladyboy cheerleaders for the start of sports day 2moro!) and were told to be ... read more

Had an ok day today, got picked up for school (which is about a minutes walk away, but they won't let us walk anywhere!) pi na then asked us if we wanted to go to the temple with her so we did but stopped off on the way for some take-away, bottled water and this big orange basket filled with things like coffee mate and colgate toothpaste! apparently these are alms that they give to the monks. we kind of thought we'd be tagging along but we got to go in the temple with her and the monk came and accepted our gifts and then prayed for us and gave us some bracelets which was pretty cool as its something we would never have got to experience had we just been travelling. on the way out ... read more

So after spending Saturday in Bangkok where we did the grand palace, we caught the plane to Nan, it was the tiniest plane i have ever seen and seated about 60 people (apparently they're being taken out of service as they aren't particularly safe!) got to nan after about an hour and a half, so they just had time to serve our food and clear it away! the airport was tiny and looked like a golf club, i have a great picture of the baggage claim area that i will hopefully put on flicker soon! and they moved all the bags in a little toyota truck. only four other white people on the plane, an american guy who used to work in nan, and his family. at the airport there was about 4/5 people waiting for ... read more

I am currently in the city of Nan, located in the most western of northern Thai provinces, Nan. It's a pleasant little town on the Nan River. I optimistically thought I might get here in a day, but it took two in the end. The first day on the road was quite the adventure! As many of you know, I have never taken a roadtrip on a motorbike before. As such, I have a few things to learn. For one, as the bike does not have a fuel gauge, I discovered the hard way that it only travels maybe 200 - 250 km per tank, very much unlike a Honda Civic! For another, my odometer appears to be in miles! Gee, didn't think of that! As a result, I ran out of fuel on a ... read more