I Heart Elephants Kate When we were in Pattaya before our flight to Vietnam, they mentioned that the beginning of November was going to be very busy in the land of the elephant mahout project. They had 8 volunteers arriving in the same week, and Arnon had someone visiting the dusky langur project so he needed to be there. That only left Ao and Sam to take care of them at the camp, with Mrs Noi looking after them at the hotel. Being the lovely people we are, and never ones to pass up a week hanging with the ellies, our mates in Pattaya and meeting elephant mahout volunteers, we agreed to go and help them. We flew from Hanoi to Bangkok in the company of Naomi, who we had to say goodbye to at Bangkok ... read more

Kate One of the things everyone reccommends you see when you go to the Norh of Vietnam is Halong Bay. It's supposed to be the most beautiful natural wonder, lots of limestone karsts thrusting out of the water. Its a World Heritage Site. Again, like the turtles in the lake story, there is local legend about Halong Bay as well. Apparently long ago when the Vietnamese were fighting Chinese invaders, the gods sent a family of dragons to help to defend the land. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. The people kept their land safe and formed what later became the country of Vietnam. After that, dragons were interested in peaceful ... read more

Kris After a brief stopover in Bangkok to pick up on visas for Vietnam (2,500 baht each, 35 quid, ouch!), we hopped on a bus to Pattaya for a 4 day stay with our mates at the elephant camp before flying to Hanoi. We arrived in the evening to find Arnon watching TV with his mum and agreed to go to the camp the next day to check out what changes had happened. And alot of changes there have been. The camp is bigger and there are more elephants and mahouts so alot of new faces around. Plus, while we were there a 4 bedroom volunteer house was under construction for budding western elephant mahouts to stay in overnight. Previously this had been done in vacant mahout houses but what with the place fully occupied more ... read more

Holiday in Cambodia Early the next Monday morning after finishing work, we met our friend James (who we did the TEFL with) at Bangkok's northern bus station. We jumped onto a bus to the Thai-Cambodian border town of Aranaprathet , ready to start our holiday in Cambodia. We went to Cambodia in January to meet Paul and Sonia on their honeymoon, but only visited the beach resort of Sihanoukville and the coastal border town of Ko Kong. We hadn't yet seen the Temples of Angkor. We had to go out of Thailand to renew our visa anyway, so we thought it was a good opportunity to see them. Bumpy journey The temples are near the town of Siem Reap. The road from the Thai-Cambodian border of Siem Reap is not quite finished, less of a road ... read more

So, on 21st September the semester 1 ended at Nantawan school, and we finished our contract. After 4 1/2 months of teaching, playing, shouting and learning we finished our first teaching experience. It was fun and challenging and rewarding and hard work. But ultimately when we had to say goodbye to the children we have spent the last few months with, it was a tearful farewell. We will really miss them, and miss out on seeing them grow up. So as a tribute to our time at Nantawan school, in true Big Brother style, here are their best bits: ... read more