You Only Live Once

I present some exciting news to you today: I got tattooed last night. Ever since I got here I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve had design ideas for years and years now. So I decided that it was now or never, and what better time and what better place to do it? My friend Ben got some Chinese mythological characters tattooed on his leg a few nights ago at a traditional bamboo tattooing shop, and we befriended the artists there. These guys are very talented, with immense attention to detail. All health and safety stuff was very much above board, which was the first thing I checked, since I’m utterly paranoid about such things.

The process was pretty painful. The instrument used is composed of a rod with four needles bound together with bamboo, which is then repeatedly poked into your skin for an hour and a half, in my case. Still, it was a thrilling experience. My chest now bears the Latin word “Cantare,” which means “To sing,” in a lovely cursive font. I'm really happy with how it came out. In short, it’s a dedication to and the recognition of the wonder, importance and love that I have for music in my life. Unfortunately, I won’t have time to put a photo of it up on this blog, since I’m leaving for Bangkok tomorrow. I fly home on Friday evening. Hooray! Can’t wait to see everyone!

Love and hugs from me :)

“There is this thing that's like touching, except you don't touch
Back in the day it just went without saying at all
All the world's history gradually dying of shock
There is this thing that's like talking, except you don't talk
You sing, you sing

Sing for the bartender, sing for the janitor, sing
Sing for the cameras, sing for the animals, sing
Sing for the children shooting the children, sing
Sing for the teachers who told you that you couldn't sing
Just sing

There is this thing keeping everyone's lungs and lips locked
It is called fear and it's seeing a great renaissance
…So sing”

- From "Sing" by the Dresden Dolls

The Last Week Approaches

Went out last night to watch a ladyboy cabaret show and then to party on the beach. The show was, erm, interesting. It's quite freaky to realise how good looking some of them are, though that observation may have been intensified by Mojito intake. Still, unless you look at their hands or Adam's apples, you might easily make gender judgement mistakes.

I've realised how settled in I am here on the island, and I've gotten used to the lifestyle. I can see why there are so many ex-pats living here. I really am looking forward to getting home though and seeing everyone. Hopefully I'll be able to some more snorkeling and kayaking over the next few days. Going to be in Bangkok on Thursday and then I fly on Friday.

Into the Third Week

The teaching is going a lot better with the other four volunteers here now - they're a great bunch and it's good to plan lessons together. My feet are covered in mosquito bites. I am reading Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, the guy who wrote Fight Club. His style of writing is pretty damn awesome. Life is good here but I am missing friends, family, Labradors, guitars, music and other things immensely. The weather is much better this week and I am trying to ensure that I come home looking like this:

The Return of the Magical Flip-Flops

My flip-flops returned this morning! I was checking out of the hotel and there they were lying on the ground outside. I have been relocated to a new hotel, and I moved my stuff in this morning. The teaching is going to get a lot busier in the coming week; four more teachers are arriving tomorrow. Hopefully there will be some free time to do more islandy things.

I went snorkeling today with Ben and Nicci. It was a lot of fun, and I saw plenty of interesting things underwater. The weather was quite stormy at one point and I've got some hilarious photos of us all holding onto the sides of the the long boat for dear life. I shall try upload them soon. It was rather thrilling and very enjoyable though, riding the swells in the ocean, and I wanted to shout "Aargh!" a lot.

Photo Time!

As promised, here are some photos of the trip so far:

First night in Bangkok with the other volunteers.

The infamous Khao San Road in Bangkok.

The school that I teach at.

The street that my hotel is on.

Sai Nuan Beach.

Sairee Beach.

Muay Thai Boxing.

Outside the local temple.










In other news: Some nana has taken my flip-flops from outside the hotel. I mean, come on, who steals a pair of flip-flops?

Happy New Year!

I ended up having a unique and awesome New Year's Eve party. I was on the beach until about 2 am drinking Tiger beer, dancing like an idiot, and sending these lovely paper lanterns off into the sky. At one point there were about fifty or sixty of lanterns in the sky - all sent up from various points on the main beach from each bar. It was so wonderful and beautiful to watch these great, golden orbs flow through the night and to hear people shout and cheer in celebration. Seriously, there's nothing like a beach party with a good vibe. After that I hung out in an odd little bar that was playing James Brown at full volume and made friends with a girl from Amsterdam. Spent the rest of the evening playing Simon & Garfunkel songs on the beach on her guitar with a bunch of passersby, but we were all too drunk to remember more than about two lines of the lyrics from each song that we played. Got home at 5:30 am and slept like a zombie. I am now starving and in desperate need of a greasy breakfast.

Hope everyone had grand New Year's Eve celebrations! :) I didn't take any photographs last night - taking a camera with me and worrying about losing it was not what I wanted - but I promise that a photo blog entry of my trip so far is coming soon to a cinema near you.

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.