Discovering Gangnam style In some clubs in Phuket

The following Wednesday we went to go check if the rest of Brian’s salary was paid in and (whooohooo) there it was - 4600 Baht. So what do you think we did? WE ATE A PROPER STEAK at a small restaurant (can’t remember what the restaurant’s name was) – you can just imagine how enjoyable it was after a non-stop 2 minute noodle diet.

That Friday we decided to go out clubbing in Phuket (you see the thing of being poor is – the moment you have money you want to spend everything hahaha). So we took 300 baht and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly at this real Thai club (ie no English and not a farang in sight). The thing about Thai clubs is that it is designed to get you drunk (I think it is to better “enjoy” the music) -  you can take  your own bottle of alcohol into the club or you can buy a bottle there (no you can’t buy a typical double on the rocks). We then decided to look for another club because we couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying. So off we went to discover our new favorite club in Phuket - Club H20……   

So as we walked into the club we kinda got instant celebrity status – since we were the only farang there EVERYONE looked at us. So what did we do? We made ourselves at home with a beer in the hand. And then this cool song started playing - everyone started doing moves to the song (we thought it is probably their version of the cha-cha slide). We started copying them which got EVERYONE very excited and we turned into the main attraction. We just danced the

moves and sang the one line that we did understood “HEEEEEY SEXY LADY…” Yup you guessed it we danced to Gangnam style before the rest of civilization knew about it. Turns out that not even Asian people understand the rest of the song except for the “heeey sexy lady part”. (So Tannie Juanita is nie die enigste een wat simple onverstaanbare woorde gebruik nie.)

The following weekends we ended up in the same club over and over again and each time we were met with more enthusiasm (the last time they even blocked of the part of the floor where we sat to stop anyone from interfering with our dance moves whAHAHAHAHAH.) Thai clubs as a rule will have a life band playing until about midnight and then there will be a DJ and make music (as we know it). Some clubbing photos:

 

 

We also went to see other beaches (including Kata-beach) around Phuket every weekend. Some more photos:

Don't you think I look like Spiderman?

Read in our next blog how we walked barefoot over mountains to get some Aromat, peanut butter and chocolates that was sent from South Africa. 

Exploring Phuket - monkey temple and Phatong beach

After our first week of teaching we decided to go explore Phuket a bit more. During the week I transferred some money (R600 – 2000baht LLLOOOVVEE the exchange rate) and we had extra cash again to enjoy ourselves.

We rented a scooter and took on the streets. We went to monkey mountain (I already told you each village, town or city has one of these). 

And also went down to the river where there is a monkey feeding site.

We also went in search of a beach where we could swim – strange as it might be with Phuket being an island it is nearly impossible to find a beach where you can swim in Phuket itself. (If you want to swim you have to go to Phatong or Kata beach.) So we ended up at a place where the yachts get launched, and Steven and I ran up and down the plastic buoys that were in the ocean – just imagine the thoughts that went through the Thai’s brains…. (WHAT ARE THESE FARANG DOING??!!)

After our frolicking on the plastic stuff we went to a local market to buy Pepsi in a bag:

That night we bought our cheap bottle of wine and went to watch the Water-organ show again. The next day we went in search of Patong beach because Brian had to teach at one of the hotels there the following Tuesday. So off we went lock stock and of course some food to fill my small tummy…. Past the Village mall decided to have a stop and eat our lunch (since I’m always hungry), with cars passing by and people staring at us (we could not see a problem with sitting in the middle of nowhere next to the highway to enjoy our calamari cakes on buns). After a while we finally finished, and off we went heading towards Patong beach. Driving, and driving and driving and driving we finally got to our destination - PATONG BEACH.Looking around for hours for the specific hotel that Brian had to go teach at and finally got it. So Brian and I decided we only have to return the scooter at 6 pm, and then headed off to the beach   Here are some pictures of the beach:

We swam in the ocean but after 1 minute in the water we decided to get out because the ocean is really dirty with plastic bags and bottles floating around. We lay on the beach to get a nice tan and after an hour or two we headed back to return the rented scooter (18:03 – how is that for timing). Now this is where I have to commend Steven on getting us there on time – but I also have to mention that the Thai driving style has rubbed off on him since he nearly made a portrait of us in a car’s window… Needless to say I had to pull the scooter from out of my ass and throw away my best white underwear that I wore that day.)                                                                                                 

Teaching in Phuket at Anubhan Phuket

Monday was our first teaching experience in Phuket at a massive government school – Anubhan Phuket. It consisted out of 5 buildings with 5 floors each. 2300 Prathom learners – Prathom 1 – 6 (grade 1 – 7). Steven was assigned to the Prathom 2,3 and 4 classes and I had the Prathom 5’s and 6’s with one Prathom 3 class.

 

 The manager from ECC drove us to the school (driving typical Thai style - like a real moron skipping robots, driving all the way in 1^st gear and cutting in front of cars) to introduce us to the head of the English department (who could of course not speak coherent sentence in English).  She was a very nice lady once you get to understand her short way of doing things and abrupt instructions. She introduced us to our co-teachers and we went to meet our first classes. Pheeeew – bussssy kids. A golden rule of teaching English in Thailand is not to be too phased about keeping your class dead quiet – if you try to achieve this you will have a breakdown before your first day is done. Kids will talk very loud in Thai, some of them will walk around and some of them will not want to listen to you. The trick is to have lessons (and the personality) to get their attention  and to keep it. A bit of chaos is okay – it is not like western schools where kids have to be quiet all the time. “Sanook” is their life philosophy. Sanook – to have fun.  Some photos of our classes and the kids that we taught:

 We also got lunch every day – this included anything from very curried fish to Chinese style cooked eggs in soup, and always served with RICE.

Some pictures of the school:

 After school we went in search of an apartment. One of our friends in Thailand would join us later so he helped us out with a deposit for the apartment. We would now be spending our last money to move in to an apartment. The Head of Department showed us a very nice (bit expensive) place earlier that day, and impulsive as I am I immediately wanted to take it. Steven (always being the voice of reason) said that we should first look around if we can’t find something cheaper. So as we walked back to the hotel we stopped at every place that seemed as if they had apartments to rent out. After stopping at one hundred and twenty five (4) apartments I said to Steven that I’m fed up and we should just go to the hotel and take the other apartment – he was less than happy with that idea. So I said okay we can stop at one more place and if we don’t like it we take the other one. And alas the next place that we walked in was Joe Mansion – cheap, comfortable and had aircon, a bed, a fridge, a table and a hot water shower. So we first went to the hotel and took an afternoon nap.

Well it turned out that our afternoon nap lasted until 21:00. So we woke up and packed all our stuff (and some of the hotel’s stuff) and moved 4 blocks down to our new apartment in the middle of the night. Our apartment: