Last week I went for an oil massage (250 baht, 1 hour) in a rather dingy green, backroom of a massage shop in Ao Luk...whilst laying there semi naked I turned round to find one of the students I teach , she works there as a masseur - slightly embarrasing!  Whilst the massage was lovely and relaxing, my legs were still in agony after walking up and down the 1237 steps at the tiger temple - I tried to explain in actions to the the masseur to go gently. she did for a while and then i think forgot.

We had a Halloween party on Thursday night at the GVI house... i was elated that my lesson was over so got in the spirit, wearing all black and making a witches hat and bin liner as a cloak, others went as a mexican, a bottle of Chang beer, a hippy, and one of the American guys went as me as he's also tall and lanky :).  All the trainers went at the TMNT - there costumes looked like serious effort had gone into them, and Jack went as the Riper !

Next day we got up at 7.30am for breakfast, chores and then on a seriously luxurious mini bus to travel all the way to Khao Lak...costal, touristy town.  Windy roads leading there.....whilst making resources for the lesson we were going to teach some Kids in the afternoon...bad combination with hangover!  Arrived and dumped out stuff in a lovely Khao Lak hotel (such an improvement on the 'Thai Hotel' we stayed in on the first night!) plus hot showers!!!!  Then back on the mini bus to the K?? School - a massive school holding 1100 pupils, built after the Tsunami destroyed the last school there, sponsored by Pepsi, and taking kids that had lost parents in the Tsunami or involved in the civil unrest down South.   All kids stared as we arrived  and then the lessons ensued... oh my god!! 4 groups of about 10 kids each, moving round to each of our groups....for 1/2 an hour each...such hard work...some immediately dissinterested in our Animals drilling and games, some seemed to enjoy them!  Boiling and exhausted by the end!  Back to our hotel where we rested then all of us went to the Italian restaurant for some pricey pizza/pasta/wine...nice after all the rice we've been eating.

Saturday...up at 7.30 again, buses left at 8 for an epic journey to BURMA.  2 1/2 hours on the bumpiest, windiest road to a port where we got stamped out of Thailand, then got on a funny, long wooden boat with a dodgy metal pole and blades on end as a motor...travelled to a Burmese island to get a stamp to say we'd entered another country.  The port on the Burmese island was extremely dodgy, with rubbish dumped all along the coast, slum like huts balanced on stilts out of the water.   We were given an hour to walk around...as soon as we crossed the red line, 2 boys wouldn't leave us alone, offering us Viagra, amphetamine, opium among others (extremely strange seeing as there were big signs at the entrance of the port saying 'let us all cooperate for eradication of narcotic drugs' and there was a big military truck and soldiers standing metres away from the boys whilst they were speaking??).  Seemed a lot more intimidating and unfriendly than thailand...and we saw a crab eating a massive rat on the beach to top it off.  Then to another island where they stamped us out of Burma.  Then back to port had lunch in a dingy restaurant and then got re-stamped back in to Thailand. What a ridiculous procedure ! and it has to be done every 30 days....  2 1/2 hours back on bus to the haven of Khao Luk, where we hd hot showers, ate, had a cocktail and went and sat on the beach in the dark.

Sunday we had a day off so slept into 10am aghhh.....went down to the beach for some lovely sea swimming and then ate lunch and 3pm left to come back to Ao Luk.

P.S. a Cobra was found  in our garden at the GVI house, apparently Jack caught it and killed it and then gave it to the next door neighbours who cooked and ate it.!

On Saturday we visited Wat Tham Seua or the 'Tiger Cave Temple' 5km from Krabi town centre - this is a famous meditation centre where around 250 monks and nuns live.  A staircase leads all the way to the top of the mountain - totalling 1237 steps.  We walked up to the top, which almost killed me, especially as i haven't done any exercise in 3 weeks!  Excellent 360" views from the top around the Krabi province...unfortunately the rain clouds swept in in under a few minutes, clouding most of the views.   There was a huge golden sitting buddha, other statues and chime bells at the top.  Lots of monkeys at the bottom, and stalls with huge buddhas where people could meditate perhaps?

In the afternoon we stopped off in Krabi and saw other falang (foreigners!) for the first time in 3 weeks - it was so exciting!  I bought some clothers - tried to bartar with the lady in the shop but she just looked at me like i was stupid so gave up on that.  Then found a shopping mal with a Boots!! and a Dunkin Donughts, and a KFC, where i got a meal deal - didn't enjoy it as much i thought i would though...really greasy after eating healthy rice and fresh food for last couple of weeks.  We then went back to base to get ready to go to One Penns party (lady who comes for English lessons, and owns a big shop along main Ao Luk road)...her adopted son was joining the army so they had a party in front of the shop....We arrived to be stared at for about the first half an hour.  Then they got us singing kareokee and downing whiskey with a mad Thai Woman!  One Penn kept the females seperate from the males....apparently it was because all the Thai guys had been drinking since 4 in afternoon and didn't want any of them to affend us!  Then Jack, who had been drinking quite a lot, squeezed 6 of us into his tiny car and drove home at about 60 miles an hour.

On Sunday, slightly hung over, we went to nearest beach to Ao Luk - the land is owned by one of our students who invited us for lunch ...lots of lovely sea food, crab, and shrimps, and a massive triangular fish.  The owner then took us for a walk into the valley...amazing caves and staligmites/staligtites, huge plants like Jurassic Park!  I ended up getting 18 mosquito bites on my back, very painful.  Couple of us then went swimming in the sea....I unfortunatley stood on a massive piece of coral....and shreded me toe in about 5 places.  Finally went home, where I lay on bed exhausted for the rest of the afternoon.  Gill (project leader) then brought out the chocolate cheese cake she had made at the 7 o'clock meeting...we'd all paid 100 baht for a slice (about 1.50) - the ingredients were very expensive because it's 'falang food'.

Today we did another community litter pick along the main Ao Luk road at 7am (groan).  This afternoon we have been planting plants at the teaching community centre to make it look a bit prettier and inviting...students bought along  plant clippings.  Looked quite good after we'd finished dotting them around the flower beds and the massive field mower had plowed down every large bush/tree in its path!

I taught a 90 minute lesson last night and it actually went quite well...well the Thai students (12 of them) didn't look as confused as they did on my last lesson.  Think the activites i did were quite good, tried to introduce the idea of text messaging as a measns of showing regular/irregular verbs.  Unfortunately i don't think they  quite understood my demonstration of me talking on a mobile phone!

Seems a bit cooler now, or maybe it's because I've got used to the weather...still don't have enough clothes to wear though, especially for teaching where we have to wear tousers/skirts below the knee, and tops that cover the top part of our arms.....

Today we had a day off - made a visit to 'Tham Phet' (Diamond Caves) - at the entrance to the cave was a big buddhist statue and meditation area where a monk lives on his own (who depends on food donations).... So we all had our torches and made a move into the caves with leader Jack at the front, slipping and sliding in to the cave, looking at the staligmites and staligtites, including a huge mineral formation that glittered like diamonds when light shone on it. Because there has been lots of rain lately there was a running stream into the cave. We got to a point deep in the cave where our path had flooded, but we still continued on, water up to our thighs, some of us were pretty scared, especially when thinking about the people who died in a cave recently....when the water river was about to go up to our waists we decided to turn back - thank god!
We then got back on the mini bus and went on to 'Tham Sa Yuan Thong' (Lake cave) - where we went swimming in a huge lake in the cave, which was pretty amazing - the lake is apparently very deep and in semi darkness....we started jumping off the edges into the water...i'm sure our insurance didn't cover that!
Then went for lunch at a roadside restaurant (muslim) - served in thai way with lots of dishes, barbequed chicken and rice, cucumbers, and chili dips.

First moment i've had to write my blog...intensive training, lesson planning and actual teaching plus litter picking and community development!!!! Settled into my new environment, including work pattern, which consists of up at 8am, breakfast, house chores, input sessions, feedback sessions, lesson planning....cook dinner, go to school, watch/teach a lesson, home, have a beer and go to bed - to start all over again!! I've taught 2 lessons so far and suvived both.....i'm teaching level 2 english...the students are absolutely lovely, so smiley and encouraging and interested in what we're teaching.
went out with 2 girls from the programme to get some crisps from local shop in evening...it was dark and we didn't take a torch, even though we have been repetedly told not to leave without one....only for one of the girls to fall down the drain running along the road (we saw a black snake swimming in it only the day before)...it was very traumatic, as she was screamng in pain and shock, up to her armpits...i coudln't pull her out, it was pitch black...got her out, and police pulled up...they helped to take her to hospital where she had to have 4 stitches,with 2 cuts, 1cm deep into her leg. She came home, but 2 days later her leg had swollen and become infected. She is currently in hospital having a drip in her arm every 6 hours...Think she is going to be ok though. We went to visit her...she has paid for a private room with air conditioning (ah luxury!), she says the nurses keep coming in every couple of hours, stand at the door, giggling and then leaving!
we have 2 days off now, thank goodness as i need to wash some clothes :0)

Made it to Thailand after being on a plane for what seemed like days - 3 changes and over 24 hours travelling without going to bed urgh!  Also seemed to have about 10 meals as the airlines didn't stop bringing meals around. Arrived in Krabi where some of the other GVI volunteers were staying in the 'Thai Hotel' - 7 pounds for a room but it wasn't a pleasant experience - my 'view' was out into central courtyard with not natural light, dripping pipes and rags hanging - looked like something out of a horror movie! there was also a cockroach in my bathroom.  Went out to the local market and saw lots of delicious/strange foods and sat on floating restaurant looking out on mangroves and had a Thai beer which was very strong!

On Wednesday we were picked up from our hotel by a man who spoke no english and wasn't sure where our base was...turned out we shouldn't have got in the taxi as he could have been anyone....luckily he was hired by GVI but he shouldn't have gone without a GVI rep etc.  So got to our base canp...on a busy main road, in the town of Ao Luk - amazing mountain scenery surrounding...and house we're staying in not as bad as expected...3 showers (all cold :-(), and one a scoop shower!) big bed room with many fans and nice outside sitting area.  Was ok until told on our health and safety tour that need to check for snakes and possibly scorpions in our beds!! oh and rats and spiders.  Only seen cockroaches so far.