Northern Downpour Sends Its Love

Bugger, it's New Year's Eve and it's been raining all morning. Here's to hoping that the weather improves so that some partying may be done this evening! I'm off for the next few days and the weekend; the little monsters at school are now on holiday for the New Year.

I have eaten some very strange things lately. Gustaf (another i-to-i volunteer here) won his first Muay Thai boxing match the other night - it was a great fight. Other than that, just been living life on the island, and it's going pretty well.

Happy New Year, all :D

Upon a Dusty Road I Met Another Traveller

I met a fellow South African on the island today! It was rather odd, in that I found him in the middle of nowhere. I went hiking to find Jan Som Bay and Sai Nuan Beach at about midday and I got rather lost while doing so. I ended up wandering around in the middle of some serious island jungle, and I'm talking about "paranoid about finding opium plantations and guys with machetes and headbands" jungle (Paranoia! Dire Straits! :P) here, when I saw this guy under a palm tree looking lost. Anyway, I recognised the accent quickly and soon camaraderie was established. We ended up finding the beach, and I had a swim and snorkeled a bit. Amusingly, the route back to the main town was far quicker and less complicated.

The Lameness of a Saturday's Weather

I woke up this morning excited to begin my hike only to see big, menacing clouds. Still, I went off to find breakfast in Mae Haad. While I was eating it started raining heavily and it didn't stop for a good two hours...

"In Thailand it's rude to wear shoes inside,
But with all this rain I'm half expecting
To see my flip-flops go floating down the street."

It didn't really clear up much so I spent most of the day indoors reading The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson, which is very good. Hopefully I can do the hiking and exploring tomorrow.

Regarding the Weekend

So tomorrow it will be my first weekend on the island, which means two full days of free time - hooray! I've got a lovely and detailed map of the island and I've decided that I'm going hiking south tomorrow. There are some nice, quiet beaches that way, and I'm keen to check them out.

On Christmas Day

It's weird being away from home on Christmas Day, especially here in a majority Buddhist country, and therefore it really hasn't felt like Christmas at all. I just got off the phone with my parents now and it was lovely to speak to them and laugh and smile and catch up. Right now I'm in an internet cafe next to many other people talking to their families on Skype, who are all doing pretty much the same. There's a good feeling in the air that can't be faked or bought, and that's of love and how much people actually care about each other. So maybe the tourists aren't so bad. After all, we're all just the same, really.

A very happy Christmas to all my wonderful family, friends and brothers, the Quadpod. I hope you guys are all having a splendid day. Missing you guys loads. Much love from me! :)

Things of Great Amusement

Some things on the island that are amusing me immensely:

1. The colourful, and immobile, bikes at the nursery school. There is a nursery school right next to the primary school where I teach, and every now and then I hear a squeal of metal wheels spinning round and round and I look out the window to see little children with big heads and skinny limbs pedaling furiously on stationary metal toy bikes. I love how they just keep pedaling as fast as possible and seem oblivious to the fact that they're not actually moving, but they keep pedaling and smiling and continuing their own little adventures.

2. The street dogs on the island. There is an immense variety of dogs here on the island that no one in particular seems to own, but the dogs seem to be very well fed off scraps from food stalls on the streets. So they just lie around and look dopey and happy. There's even a dog at the school who lies on the basketball court and protects the children.

3. The tourists, though this is more irritation than amusement. There is an astounding amount of very bored-looking tourists (mostly European) here with extreme tans and awful tribal tattoos. These people look as enthusiastic about life as panda bears are about the idea of having sex. Thankfully, the majority of the tourists go off on diving courses during the day and leave the island quite empty and peaceful. Also, I have noticed that the evolutionary process in the Northern Hemisphere has rendered the legs of such tourists rather inert. So they spend their days tearing up and down the streets on motorbikes and scooters. Epic fail.

I went to a Muay Thai boxing match last night with Rob, who's doing Muay Thai training for a month. Muay Thai is a Thai form of kickboxing, and the match itself was excellent and exciting. The fighters are so calm and focused but strike with power and precision. A couple of guys were knocked out cold within the first round.

It's very hot here and hard to sleep at night - with the additional support of one very confused rooster outside my hotel who seems to think that it's sunrise every hour or so at night. Time to go plan my next lesson now, and then maybe hit the beach a bit later.

Love to all!

First Day of Teaching

I taught my first class today, a smallish group of Grade 1 children. They're very cute, and seem to enjoy high-fiving all the time. Now I just need to teach them to say, "NICE!" It's quite frustrating teaching a language, but it feels good to be helping these kids. I've got this weird scratchy throat from the weather here and, combining that with constant drilling today, has resulted in maximum voice hoarseness.

I had the most awesome chocolate and banana pancake here today. Yum. Also, I went swimming for the first time today. Lovely, clear water to wade about in; I think I will go buy a snorkel tomorrow. I'm really starting to enjoy the lifestyle here - it's very laid back. I spend most of my time just walking around and exploring places, and having something to nibble here and there. In fact, it's time for dinner now.

Arriving on the Island

Arrived this morning in Koh Tao after an overnight bus trip and a ferry trip. It's lovely and warm here, and I'm looking forward to doing a lot of swimming and snorkeling. Ben and I met our co-ordinator, Bee, earlier. Great guy, very passionate about minimising tourism damage to the environment and giving the kids here a good education. We've been wondering around the main tourist beach (Sairee Beach) this afternoon and having a look at all the little places to eat. In all honesty, I think I will be avoiding the main tourist places and looking for the small and secluded wonders of the island to swim and snorkel at. I am delighted to announce that there are a surprising amount of secondhand bookshops here.

My accommodation is basic, but quite all right. I'm on the main street in town so there are plenty of useful things round here. I start work tomorrow with a variety of tasks to do during the week. I'm sure I'll write more about them as the week goes on. And there is so much exploring to do; I've hardly seen much of this place yet.

Bangkok in December

Today is my second day in Bangkok, and I'm really enjoying the city. Huge place, and there is cheap and scrumptious food everywhere. The key is to eat what the locals eat and to avoid the restaurants filled with tourists. Getting around is also easy, with a billion taxis on every street and tuk-tuks constantly trying to get your attention I met the other i-to-i volunteers last night and we all went to a beer garden somewhere by train and taxi. They're a lovely bunch; two of them are going with me to Koh Tao - one is doing environmental conservation and the other is going to do a Muay Thai boxing course. We drank Tiger beer and had market food last night before setting out to look at the local flea markets. They sell Tasers here on the street. Scary stuff.

Our co-ordinators here are excellent and very helpful. We're all getting very excited about going to Koh Tao from what they've told us. There's a place at the top of the island called Mango Bay which apparently has wonderful snorkelling. And then there's a legendary twenty thousand people full moon beach party in next few weeks on a neighbouring island, which we are all very keen on going to. My co-ordinator in Koh Tao sounds rather punk rock, he's apparently an Italian ex-pat covered in tattoos.

For the first time in my life today a dish (chilli-beef) actually managed to move me to tears - it was that hot. That experience was soon remedied though by a local type of melted-marshmallow taco, which was obscenely sweet and indulgent. Speaking of which, I must mention that everything here in Thailand is sweeter and stronger. All the Coca-Cola products have extra sugar in them, and more than two bottles of Red Bull (pure syrup, not the carbonated, watered-down stuff the rest of the world gets) could get you very sick. I only discovered today that Red Bull was invented here.

Leaving tonight on a bus for the coast (The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round!), and then taking a ferry to Koh Tao in the morning.

Love and hugs to all :)

6 am, Singapore Airport

You have to love airports with free internet access, and entire train systems to get from one terminal to another. This place is massive, and filled with an enormous amount of shops and places to eat - including, and not unexpectedly, the mighty empires of Starbucks and Burger King. The flight was pretty good; I ended up watching Flight of the Conchords (Hooray!) and How I Met Your Mother, but I hardly slept a wink. I sat between a friendly couple whose pet names (Goggie and Boo) I learned, but their real names will remain an eternal mystery to me. I awoke near the end of the flight with an immigration form sitting in front of me with "DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS IN SINGAPORE" written in bold red letters. Quite a frightening fact, that, and not a particularly nice way to wake up.

I take a plan to Bangkok a bit later today. Time to take a walk and go find some food and coffee now. It's great to be wandering around with a backpack in new places.

Setting the Sails

Tomorrow morning I shall be leaving for Thailand; I'm off to teach English on a little island called Koh Tao for a month. I've had to complete a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course, and I'll be teaching at a small primary school on the island. I'm really looking forward to the experience, though right now I'm a mixture of nerves and excitement. I've pretty much finished packing, and now off to have an early night before the traveling begins tomorrow.