The crazy Thai experience

(This blog will only have one photo as the laptop ate our photos. But the next blog on the rooftop party will have loads of photos again.)

And so the first few months of our teaching semester flew by and it was already Christmas and New Years time. In Thailand Christmas is not a public holiday like most other Western or European countries – which means you will have a normal working day and it will not even feel like Christmas. However there are a lot of other public holidays before and after Christmas.

Steven and I decided to use the weekend before Christmas day to have our “Christmas trip”. It was a long weekend and the perfect opportunity to go see the ocean again and feel a bit of sand under our feet. The Friday night we packed everything and sorted all our stuff to get on the van very early Saturday morning – excited for the beach and some fun in the sun.

Saturday morning we got up at 5 am, grabbed our bags and went to the van station to get a van to Victory monument – you can get a van to almost anywhere in Thailand from here. We arrived at Victory monument and suddenly we realized that the idea to get a van from here looked much easier on the internet than in real life. There are people EVERYWHERE, vans EVERYWHERE, busses EVERYWHERE, street vendors EVERYWHERE, cars EVERYWHERE, scooters EVERYWHERE and someone that can speak English – ABSOLUTELY F*^%&%ING NOWHERE! (Dink aan jou ma se Tupperware kas – dis die chaos wat hier is, behalwe net dat hierdie Tupperware rondbeweeg en jy kan nie die deur toe klap nie.)

So we walked into the general direction that was indicated on the web page that we visited – and alas we found... nothing. Here is a tip to everyone reading this blog – walk up to the nearest table and say where you want to go. You might have to repeat this a couple of times in different tones with different pronunciations – but after a while there will be a face that light up, a very excited smile and a finger pointing in a general direction somewhere. (Do not get too excited, this will not where you need to be. AS soon as you get where you think the finger pointed to you ask again for the place you want to go to in different tones and pronunciations. And after stop number 3 or 4 you will get to the table that sells the tickets for the van you want to get in.)

“Hua Hin…How Hien…Huha hien…Hooi Hien….Hooi Hieeen” (us) “Oooooh Hua Hin” (Them). Ticket cost 160 baht per person one way. We had one quick cigarette and jumped in the van – excited to see the ocean and beach again. The van takes about 3 hours and makes 2 stops to get to Hua Hin.

We were dropped off in Hua Hin and we got on to a Song Tau (almost double the price for half the distance of what you would pay in Bangkok) and went down to the other side of Hua Hin where we rented a scooter.

We took on the main road in search of a hotel – this was quite a different story since it was a long weekend and almost everything was fully booked. After hotel number three we found a nice place next to the mall for only 800baht for the night. We checked in and then went to get ourselves some breakfast. We got a full farm house breakfast with orange juice for only 120 baht each.

After that we got our towels and went to the beach where we lay on the sun chairs and sipped on some cocktails. Being the adventurous beings that we are Steven and I could not lie still for long so we rented a jet ski for 1000 baht for 30 minutes and showed the Thai people (and ourselves) a few tricks.

And what do you need after (2) 30 minute sessions of jumping waves, speeding over the ocean and being thrown off the Jet Ski? Exactly – a nice Thai massage. Please don’t let anyone lie to you – a Thai massage is not calm and relaxing. A small Thai lady suddenly becomes an elephant that presses her knees into your back. She twisted my body in more positions than it has been since my birth.. At one stage I was almost sure the people on the floor below could see my knees pushing dents into the floor.

After that we went for dinner at Janlerm - this is definitely the place where you can get the best Thai and international cuisine. It is almost at the end of the main road on your right hand side. Then some clubbing and the next day we took the van back up to Bangkok.

Well here I was home alone. While Brian went off to go teaching I had to keep myself busy with my iPod… Well it worked… So after a few days of being (well just me) lazy I finally headed out to my one school.

Mr. Lars messaged me and said ‘’ Steven you must be at SIAM at 7:30 am, one of the SIAM employees will be with you the first day at the school’’ WHO NEEDS A BABYSITTER?????? (Still cool though.)So off we went to the Van Station to get us on the road to my school. Stopped at a random street and I thought by myself WHERE IS THIS SCHOOL? - As I did not see it anywhere.

So we walked down this weird passage where I read this sign ‘’ PITTAYAPHAT SUKSA SCHOOL’’ and underneath said ‘’Muslim School’’. (I was informed that it was a Muslim school) but then reality kicked in… so I stood still for a moment (Steven you are going to teach Muslim students (Silence. I kiiiiilll you!!) Ahh well let’s do this. So we walked in to this very small school, I met some Thai teachers that could not speak any English, and of course you had to greet them with a nice ‘’WAI’’ (I felt like a praying mantis after the first minute).

The one teacher spoke to the SIAM employee and said ‘’Nice Wai’’(Off course I have a nice wai). When I finally greeted most of the Thai teachers I finally got to my new office. Well you can say its an office… It’s part of a library. Before I went to Pittayaphat School I did some research and asked around about the school –and each person gave the same response: ‘’ VERRRRY NAUGHTY!!!!! So I prepared myself for naughty students, my first lesson went well when I only played games to get to know the students. They are not so naughty once you get to know them. (Or maybe it is because one naughty person has to teach a bunch of other naught kids – I am the master of naughty…)

Here are some pictures of my School: