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Published: July 10th 2008
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Sabai dee mai kwap?
Okay, mega catch up time! Yesterday I arrived in New Zealand annd its FREEZING here. Really excited to start exploring as looks like there is loads to do but another benefit of re-entering eth western world is cheaper and way faster internet connections so hopefully I can claw back soem of the time I've lost. I reckon I'm about 3 blog entrys behind to catch up fully so without further ado here is the first. This will cover my last month in Thailand where I was living in Khao Lak, so here we go.
As I mentioned at the end of my last blog, through pretty much random chance I ended up deciding to do a couple of weeks work as a volunteer English teacher in the town of Khao Lak on the South West Coast of Thailand. The organisation I was working for was actually set up just after the Tsunami over 3 years ago (infact its called the TVC, Tsunami Volunteer Centre) and at the time was involved with a lot of rebuilding work as the area around Khao Lak was the worst affected in Thailand, thousands died there and to see the
devastation was pretty shocking (like a giant metal police boat washed 2km inland which now just sits there nowhere near the sea) but the rebuilding work is pretty much over now and all thats left for the TVC is the teaching project which I was involved in.
To sum it up in a line, I LOVED my time in Khao Lak. I was planning to stay for maybe 2 weeks and ended up there for a month and could easily have stayed longer. Obviously it very different from anything else Ive done on teh trip but was as good a time as I've had anywhere. During the week we would head off to varoius schools in the area to give English lessons which although was alot of fun was pretty chaotic as the Thai kids a pretty rowdy and they spoke about as much English as I spoke Thai. Depending on teh age we taucgh them varoius basics like food, body parts, colours etc as well as playing different games and stuff and although it was hard to tell I reckon we did get some stuff though to them is cool!
The other teachers varied a little over
the weeks. Starting the same day as Michelle and me was an English Girl called Jenny who we got on really well with and she was the only otehr person who was there for the whole 4 weeks with me. (Other than the teaching co-orinadinator Ken who is a retired teacher (who taught for 30 years in Warrington!!) who has been working for TVC for 2 and half years and should be acknowledged here as a legend!) After the first 2 weeks Michelle moved on but we were joined by 3 Candadian girls, Corry, Elyse and Nikki, who provided me with hours of entertainment ripping them for tehir accents ("oh my God, oh my god") There were a good few other people knocking round too who I became good mates with so without going into more details thanks to Kev, Steve, Gap, Tom, PingPong, Goi, Dan, Rob and Frank (The beer bong) and everyone else for having such a great time with me while I was there!
Other than the teaching, Khao Lak is a beautiful place with miles and miles of glorious beaches up and down the coast from there and some of the most amazing sunsets I've
ever seen in my life. I have way too many stupid little stories about my time there to go start reliving them all but inbetween carrying 4 little Thai lads around at the same time as they tried to bring me down, traveling to Burma on a boat to renew my visa, playing some tunes on the guitar in the local bar (The Lazy House where we would be boozing every single night) including a pretty sketchy version of Umbrella and getting stung by a well painful Jelly fish on a remote totally deserted beach on a little Island, I had an amazing time!
Again, without reliving the dramas of not being able to change my flights to what i wanted I ended up having to totally cut going to any of Malaysia and Indonisia but thats okay as I know I will go back in the future and travel there properly as well an no doubt going back to Thailand. After Khao Lak I spent a few nights in Phuket to sort out my flights, a horrfically touristy town which after the chilled out month on Khao Lak wasnt my scene at all. I did have an alright
time there which included a drink in an Ice Bar (-20 degrees inside wearing shorts and flipflops) and a couple of cool nights out, but will def not be going back. I needed to get to Hong Kong for my next flight so after a bit of stress I ended up booking a flight to Macau (The Chinese Las Vegas and only a boat ride from HK)
I think my escapades in Macau and Hong Kong will cover the next blog and then a final one to re-live my last two weeks in Fiji will be about right so this seems like a good place to stop. I know I put this every time but thanks so much for reading and thanks to all of you who have written to me. Where ever you are I hope your having fun, I know I am! 😊
Speak soon,
Andy!
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