Koh Tao

We started our holidays on Koh Tao, a lovely little island in the gulf of Thailand. Most of the volunteers were there as a lot of them wanted to do a diving course during their stay. I didn't fancy the diving, so I just stuck to sunbathing and snorkelling.

One of last years volunteers is now working at Bans Diving on the island, it was nice to talk to her and find out about her experience of Thailand.

We all had a lovely week relaxing in the sun and working on our tans, the only downside was that it was rather expensive, meals were 3 times the price than what we would usually pay in our projects, so we had to budget very carefully as this was only the first week. There were a few good nights out, one of the most entertaining was when we went to see the cabaret show, which ended up with David and I on the stage, with a few other reluctant men, dressed in boxers, a bikini top and a big wig!

It was so hot, all of the time, I needed to shower about 3 times a day. The worst part of the heat came when we went kayaking. We rented kayaks between us for a couple of hours and just went out into the sea armed with snorkels. After about 10 minutes of hard paddling, anyone would have assumed that I had just been for a dip, but no, I was just ripping in sweat and the sun was still beating down. This was about 4.30 pm, so it was not as hot as it had been earlier, but it was still roasting.

Kayaking 

This was our view, every day we were there.

After Koh Tao, our plan was to travel to Koh Phangan and go wild at the full moon party!

A whole lot of orange.

Last week, Me, Dave and 12 other volunteers joined the girls in Nakhon Sawan to do an English camp at one of the temples. It was very successful, and a lot of fun. There were about 120 novice monks, most of which were very good. Throughout the day, we did a lot of different games and activities, one of which was a scavenger hunt, and I was a Panda. I had to dress up and hide somewhere around the monastery and wait until I was found by a monk. It was really hot and I was sweating buckets, until finally I was approached by a monk, asking what size my shoes were. (Another item was a pair of size 36 shoes) After explaing to him that my feet were far too big, he realised that my strange black and white outfit resembled a panda, I was then escorted to the main hall where we were welcomed with a round of applause as the monk who managed to find me paraded me into the room.

Me and Dave ran one of 6 different rotations, ours was to do with food tasting. We had 5 different tastes, coffee for bitter, fruit mentos for sweet, chilli powder for spicy, lemon juice for sour and crisps for salty. We then had to blindfold 5 monks at a time and get them to taste different things. The monks had a lot of fun, and so did we. It was rather entertaining watching the unlucky ones who got spicy, however, one little monk ate a half teaspoon of chilli powder without complaint. There was a point when one boy was almost in tears after tasting the chilli powder. Dave managed to get chilli in his eye after a monk had coughed after his taste and blew it into his face.

Nakhon Sawan is a beautiful city and we were there for Chinese New Year. Following the parades was amazing, the streets were painted with colour, and as the nights drew in, the streets were lit up with floats and echoed with the sounds of fireworks. There was one pout where we were watching some floats pass buy and we hadn't realised that a long string of firecrackers had been lit behind us. t was terrifying when they started and we were being showered by bits of paper. We quickly ran off, but my ears were ringing for at least half an hour after.

It has been our last week of teaching this week and has been rather emotional, as we will be teaching different classes when we return from our holidays.  I have been saying goodbye to my favourite classes, and telling them to come and talk to me whenever they see me.

Today was rather scary though, I was sat in the office when I saw a large cloud of smoke coming from near our house, so I ran to our house to find that our neighbours house was surrounded in fire and the fields were ablaze. The fire was started by the farmers of the rice fields adjacent to our house. This get the field ready for a new crop when the we season begins in June. However, it has been very windy today, and because it has not rained for months, all of the grass and surrounding land is very dry. Dave was already putting out fires when I arrived. I joined in and we spent about an hour traipsing round the paddy fields with buckets and jugs putting out fires. After the majority had been dealt with, we returned home and I now have cuts and burns on my feet and legs, nothing serious.

It has all been rather exciting, and now we are not teaching until may, so we are going to kick it off with a bang, David is buying us a crate of beer for tonight and in the next couple of weeks, we are going to travel around isaan visiting volunteers in the North East, before my parents hopefully come and we all meet up on the island of Koh Tao


Summer is going to be good.

Love and kisses

Ben xxx

Life...and Project Trust Staff Visit

Kate, our desk officer, and Heloise from Project Trust visited us at our project on Friday. They saw us teach and we showed them around our house. They were pleasantly surprised when we cooked them tea, we cooked a lovely Panang Gai (red curry, with chicken and coconut milk). It was nice to see them and talk about our project, and they were asking if we had any problems with anything. The only thing that came up was about money. Pying, one of our friends and teacher at the school was saying that she thought we were not getting paid enough. When Kate was volunteering, she was paid the same amount, but 6 years ago, and the cost of living has increased since then. 

I was talking to them about my blog and everything and they were surprised at how many posts I had made. I thought I wasn't doing too well, as as soon as I haven't posted for a while I find a message from my Mum questioning me on my lack of post. I appreciate it though as it makes me realise that you want to know what I am up to and are supporting me. However, from my perspective, I have been here for over 5 month now. And not much happens that differs from what I now perceive as normal life. I blogged a lot more at the start because everything was new and exciting. But now, blogging about everything would be like you blogging about every little thing you do in your daily routine. 

This morning, I woke up at 7.15, but it was a bit chilly, so I wrapped myself in my blanket and listened to a bit of music. I then rose out of bed at 7.30. I went downstairs to have a shower and a shave, yes, I actually needed a shave. We then heard a knock at our door to find Brayung, out host, waiting with a new fridge. Well, new to us, it was an old one from her house. Our last one has been broken fro a while, we opened it yesterday and were welcomed by an awful stench and an assortments of mould, lovely. 

After replacing the fridge, I cut up some watermelon and poured myself a cup of coffee. We really need to go shopping as we have no food in the fridge. I still have Nesquick from home which I got for Christmas. We then brushed our teeth, fixed our hair and proceeded to lock up and leave for assembly. After signing in, I sat myself in the office, logged onto the internet and started to write this blog... this is my day so far. 

Later I will most likely teach a few lessons, my first one at 11.15, then 2 in the afternoon. I am not sure what we are having for lunch yet, that is the exciting part, it is a surprise. 

The weather has been much cooler this month which has been nice. I am not looking forward to the hot season when the temperatures will be dancing around 40 degrees. 

That's a thing, my Christmas present, IT ARRIVED! It was an amazing day, I was so excited. I didn't even let Dave wrap them. I just dove in to the parcel to see what I got. It was so good. I got a few present that made me laugh, like a Rodney mask and some stick on monsters. A transfer tattoo that goes onto your hand between your thumb and index finger, so that you can have a talking monster. 

There were plenty of sweets and biscuits as well that were polished off not long after the package was opened, I now wish I has savoured some. 

I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who sent me a present or card. It was very kind of you! I had a lovely Christmas morning opening presents with David, then a great second Christmas opening my package from my parents.

I didn't think I had that much to say, but I started writing and then couldn't seem to stop, until now. 

Stay classy...world.

Ben 

x

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Celebrating the New Year in Thailand was incredible, all of the volunteers met up on the Island of Koh Chang for the festivities. It was great to see everyone and to catch up on how they were all coping in their separate projects. We also had a new member to join our group, Charlie, who was originally meant to be David's partner before he dislocated his shoulder playing rugby and was in need of an operation, that caused him to miss training and the flight. So he has joined Alex up in Wawee, north of Chaing Mai and miles away from anybody else.

It is a pretty good start of the year to be with friends on a 7 night, non-stop celebration on the sunny beaches of the Thai islands. I definitely want to return to the island as it was simply beautiful.

It is good to be back at school though, it feels like home and I did miss it whilst I was away. It i good to see all of my students and we even got a couple of New Years presents when we arrived back at school, which was a lovely surprise.

Our desk officer from Project Trust is coming to visit next week, so we are doing a bit of spring cleaning to get everything in ship shape to give her the best impressions of our project. Its not like we live in a complete mess, there are just a few things that could be painted over to make our house look a little more presentable.

Thanks for stopping by,

B xx

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. I have just uploaded a new video blog.

http://youtu.be/LVCNnwRXpJA

We are setting off to Ko Chang tomorrow night, for a few days of New Years celebrations, and to meet the new volunteer Charlie. It is all very exciting.

B x

The day before, the day before Christmas.

This past week has been rather quiet, we have not had any lessons due to mid term tests, so I have kept myself busy with painting and cleaning the house.
I have received a lot of what seems like positive feedback to my video blog, however I am not sure if it is sarcasm or not. Overall, I am pleased with how it went and ave already started on the next.

I am going to give you all a little message for christmas, I may even sing, so make sure to keep the volume on your computers down if watching. I do apologise in advance.

This weekend has been lovely, we have met up with 6 other volunteers to celebrate Vicky's 18th birthday and Christmas. There is a big party at our school on Tuesday which should be good, as the teachers like to party. Me and David have been asked to perform, so we kindly accepted and have been practicing. David on vocals and keyboard, Me on standing up in front of everyone, forgetting the words.

Two weeks ago we helped to run an English camp at a monastery. It was a strange experience as I am still a little unsure of the cultural no no's when it comes to monks. It did turn out to be very productive and the novice monks had a great time learning english. They all had their heads and eyebrows shaved, so I gave myself a challenge of finding the one who looked most like my dad. There were a few close contenders, but then one came in wearing glasses and blew them all away. It did make me laugh.

I am learning the names of more students a school, which is a difficult task. I know the names of my favourite students, I know you shouldn't have favourites, but you just can't help it. One of my students has a remarkable resemblance to a friend, Phil Waite, so even though his name in Vun, I can't help but call him Phil.

I have received a few presents from home which is amazing, thank you so much to everyone who made the effort to send one, it really does mean a lot, you are making my Christmas. There has been a bit of a problem with the parcel from my parents, and it is somewhere in Thailand. It has all been sorted now, so I am just hoping that it arrives before Christmas.

I will post again on Tuesday...

Stay classy ... World

B x

Video Blog

I have now posted a new video on my youtube page.

Please take the time to have a look, it is only 5 minutes long.

http://youtu.be/u8Z6htRn7ZA

Hope you like it...

B x