Anothie....

ko mook: http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip518.jpg
thai fishermen: http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip516.jpg


flippin 'eck...... another island paradise.... Barry one of the other volunteers negotiated this deal for 20 of us to go to Kho Mook.....3 nights in a beach side bungalow, all transportation, booze, food, boat trips, internet - 100 smackeroonies.....
the bungalows are literally at the end of a peninsula that is no more than 100 yds wide with golden sand and clear blue sea...
took an amazing and frightening experience to a hidden beach that involved donning a lifejacket , jumping from a boat into choppy Andaman Sea waters and swimming into a cave. at one point you are swimming in pitch darkness bar the guides torch that looked like it had been bought at Robert Dyass for a quid.. shit for brains here managed to forget to attach the lifejacket straps between his legs so the frickin' (new word from yank friends) thing kept trying to ride up over my head...... there was a point in the darkness with this happening that i thought i was in trouble - there were 8 of us doing this and i was last because of the strap handicap and i was losing sight of the others when suddenly i rounded a corner and spied daylight. That was most welcome!
we arrived on small beautifully formed beach with much relief.....it turns out after speaking to the others that we all had our scary moments. the beach was totally surrounded by limestone cliffs - amazing.
the journey out was easier with the lifejacket on properly.
also did a snorkelling trip and saw some stunning fish.......... we played charades on the beach last night (cha raids if you are american).....funniest thing ever up there with the chiltern chase meetings...... just about to leave to go home.... work tomorrow.... i was just getting into this place..... :(

up a gear...

stand by your beds: http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip481.jpg
the young pretenders: http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip463.jpg
just when i'm settling in to teaching 12 - 18 year olds fairly basic English and grammar the stakes are upped. the Director of the school asked me to accompanyh her to a teacher training day in Kantang a town 20 miles away.l... all of a sudden im into Phonetics, Dipthongs, intonation, word stressing all sorts of mullarkey that apparently is crucial to the way we speak?
so here i am microphone in hand explainng to 40 teachers in my best English what a Dipthong is and which syllables in words are stressed... what fun! "sanouk"....... especially when i took my shoes off!
its really great all this teaching business - if only i had a chance to prepare. you're basically thrown in and winging it.........

the monsoon cometh.........

phi phi: http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip444.jpg
"fire show": http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip457.jpg

set off to Phi Phi for the weekend on my own.. took a bus and stayed in Kra bi in the evening. found a cool bar "hard rock bar" and met 2 thai people who said they could take me and friends to some off the beaten track islands on a longtail boat........ sounded genuine people. might take them up on it later... on the ferry next am and hit Phi Phi at 1000am - spent the whole day in the sun - probably over did it..
saw 2 fire shows on the Sat night. the professionals at Hippies Bar (choregraphed throwing and juggling of lit sticks and ropes). loud music - pretty impressive stuff and then my favourites the "Young Pretenders" at Carpe Diem. younger lads who make mistakes but the lack of polish i prefer.
returned home from Phi Phi on Sunday via the roughest ferry crossing i have ever had (there was a storm and the boat listed badly), bus journey and motorcyle ride..
another teaching surprise on Monday - went to my normal school and taught 2 lessons then Sawapao the Director asked me to join her at a college in Trang teaching Business English to 20 somethings.... now these were proper stoods................. long hair, dyed hair, earrings, short skirts and that was just the boys)..
again, very attentive and polite - they did Powerpoint presentations on hotels in Trang and classmates asked questions - i corrected grammar and helped with pronunciation (yes me!)
just getting to know the 19 new people in the house now - they seem nice and a good mix....
rained properly today - and is forecast all week - still hot though..http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip444.jpg

wei crue..

yesterday in the Thai school calender was "Wei Crue" day. this is the day the children honour the teachers by making and giving gifts (garlands of flowers) and play traditional Thai music to them. it is all in line with their Buddhism faith that teaches children to be 1. most important - morally good 2. second most important - academic achievement and 3. happy. we were fortunate enough and honoured to be given teacher status and were an integral part of the celebrations. there were 1000 children involved. a great experience. from school took a bus to Kra bi to get a boat to Kho Phi Phi again tomorrow - want to visit Kho Lhay again with a camera this time! phi phi lost 2000 people in the Tsumani - no obvious evidence of the horror other than signs now saying "tsunami evacuation route"........such a beautiful place for something like that to happen.

have family will travel..

in class today of the boys was asked to move to the front by the teacher before i started my spiel..... he nonchalantly refused to and showed a little insolence (nothing more than a slight grimace and a shrug). teach was having none of it, she had a cure. she clumped him with a cane (yes a real cane about 3 ft long)......... not to hard but enough to make him realise he needed to move to the front of the class...............it didnt seem undeserved and he wasnt hurt. if that happened in the UK ??!! While we're on the subject of Thai ways. it never ceases to amaze me (and im sure it will continue to do so for the 3 months i am here) their laissez-faire attitude to road safety. there are no rules basically.

for motorbikes: no helmets, 5 people on one bike, TVs, 3 generations of one family, exotic birds in cages, toddlers, gardening tools, babies. they're all carried without a second thought.
for cars / trucks: as many people crammed in or on as possible, cattle strapped to the back, pigs in cruel single pens. i saw a plastic conduit strapped to the back of a vehicle doing about 60 - the thing was swinging about like a coconut palm in an earthquake (ive heard they do a fair bit of swinging) very amusing but quite dangerous... every morning on the way to school (about 25 miles) i see something "road safety challenged"

went to a hot spring after school today - could have done with a cold shower to be fair but it was good. they pump 70 degree spring water into baths and you wallow in them..........very mineral rich and good for you apparently...........

pic 1 : where i live http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip393.jpg
pic 2: have family will travel http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip385.jpg

Welcome khun Barry

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OK.
Teaching again today. please see 3 piccies attached to get you in the mood.
pic 1 : roughly translated means "welcome khun Barry, you're a great guy, we love you and thank you for being here" :)
pic 2: end of morning assembly
pic 3: my schools' name (its a longie..)
some tips below for teaching in Thailand (well this school anyway which i really like)


be confident even if you havent taught before. the reason i say this is because the kids will be pleased to see you and if you talk confidently in English to them they will listen

be patient with the admin side of things. you may find that you have no schedule or that it is changed at very short notice (today i taught in the morning and in the PM was meant to do some more according to the schedule only to find all the teachers were pre-occupied with a hospital visit) never got to the bottom of that?

be prepared to find it difficult to converse with some of the ENGLISH teachers in English as their grasp of the language isnt very good - having said that i think it may be a confidence thing. once they get to know you they open up more and the English speaking comes easier.
still.. planning lessons is awkward sometimes as they cannot tell you what they want you to do..
be prepared to "wing it" - it adds to the fun!

i brought with me questionnaires for the kids (off the web), music lyrics and the music on ipod - we blank out words of the song give them a copy and then play the song - they fill in the blanks - they love it.

bring a map of your country - its easy to talk about "home" and they're interested. sport and music as topics go down well........

bring anything relating to your home life 1. because you'll feel good talking about it and 2. they will be interested..

be prepared for celebrity status and be prepared to say good morning about 600 times a day as all the pupils want to talk to you...........

be prepared to be flippin' hot in most of the classrooms and take plenty of water with you. be prepared for having to almost shout in lessons when its raining as its very noisy.

be prepared for a bird to fly into the classroom to its nest behind the TV above the white board (all classrooms without A/C have one.

they will laugh at you sometimes dunno why, probably you're pronunciation of thai words, maybe someone has made a wisecrack about you, maybe because you're sweating profusely... anyways dont worry about it - they're very good natured...

be prepared to question your knowledge of the English language and its grammar (its funny how we communicate grammatically erroneously everyday probably but we dont realise (apart from Robin and Olly P maybe).

feeling like a spare one..

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip370.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip372.jpg - nasty looking Mother isnt he?
not working today so took it easy... dropped off Aaron (my drinking buddy!) and Vicky from NZ at the airport... they are off home. came back then went to lunch with the Thai people who run the show here... khem, joopjang, ohb, joo and chaa... they are really nice, kind people (like most Thais it seems).
Had a 2 hour Thai massage this PM for 10 quid! hurts though they apply lots of pressure to the muscles as well as traditional techniques and flexibility stretches...
on my own in the house this weekend - decided not to go anywhere........ a family of 6 (3 generations) come here next week..........
spent the weekend contemplating my navel................ and watched "the wedding crashers" twice what a funny film... irish wedding scene - "hi, my name is seamus o'toole and this is my friend booby o'shea, we're here to get drunk!" v funny...

buddhism and cloth weaving..

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spent the last 2 days in school well from 9 - 2.30 anyway.. lessons going really well. did the "Angels" routine today the kids in the class loved it as did kids from neighbouring classes who massed outside to see what was going on. yesterday PM visited a Thai cloth weaving place (we're talking cottage industry here). the women turn out beautifully coloured and patterned cloth on these seemingly antiquated foot and hand driven looms that on the face of it looks like it could go wrong at any second. its all in the timing apparently, a reel of cotton is fired backwards and forwards between umpteen strands of cloth by the pulling of a string. a millisecond out and it all goes pear shaped.
i bought a lurid green silk shirt from these people that I feel I may only wear in Thailand. had a lovely meal in a very nice thai restaurant.
in school today i was walking past a group of teenage girls when i heard "i missed you"............. so funny, these kids speak more English than you think sometimes...
this PM we were honoured to have the Head Monk of a large temple in Trang visit us and introduced us (via an interpretor) to Buddhism. a very serene looking 32 year old man who was happy to answer anny of our questions.
my gems were:

how old are you - 32
do you interact with other religions? - i read about all things in order to gain knowledge
who is your best friend? - none there is only me.

interesting stuff - showed us how to meditate - think i'll give it a shot my mind is so full of bullshit most of the time. if i could clear it out it would be marvellous

out for dinner again tonight - 2 more of the Volunteers are leaving, and 2 others are going with them to Phuket for the weekend. didnt fancy that so im not sure what im doing....

no work tomorrow so can relax............. working in the heat in strdies and shoes is draining..

good day..

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in school again today.. also Aaron the CCS videographer was there to film us working with the kids...
went really well.. introduced them to Angels by Robbie Williams , gave them the lyrics with words missing and asked them to fill in....... they loved it - so did the teachers, they were rocking in the aisles...
not sure what the video will look like though... they got us to sing Angels at the end of the shoot... anyone who knows me will laugh at this. in the evening went into Trang town this evening to do some "shopping" well i just went for a ride... bought a pair of sandally things - good 'uns fcr 3 quid... then found a cool Thai bar - sat outside with a Singha , watched the world go by and the Thai people socialising....they are nice people......
check the photo attached a family on a moped - brilliant..

teachie teachie.............

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in school all day today. Taught 16 yr old and 18 yr old students. Gave a questionnaire to each of them in English and told them to fill it in. The standard of written English ranges from poor to very poor although one cannot fault their attitude and attentiveness. I was talking to Sawapao the school director and she says the problem is that the Thai English teachers give instruction in Thai about the English questions they are going to give. They do not learn this way.

The English teachers English is limited but we have a noticed a difference in their confidence about speaking since we have been here. This is a good thing. none of the English speaking teachers in this school have gained any of their English speaking qualifications in an English speaking country.
One lesson today was during a tropical rainstorm in a classroom with no A/C so all the windows were open wide, the noise was deafening and made talking to the students very difficult though never once was their concentration broken.

The feedback is very positive and since we have been there 4 more classes have requested to have us teach them. I must stress “teach” is a fairly grand description. We talk to them and help with their pronunciation. Basic stuff at the moment.

Gonna find the Thai Robbie Williams before I leave with the aid of my Ipod, speakers and song lyrics…

quiet one...

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while records are being broken in the UK (Chiltern Chase - 420 runners - well up on last year). the only record being broken here is one for doing the least in a day..
hangover city here - journey back from kho ngai a trial... sat around doing nothing really. Back to school tomorrow.
went for my run... 3 seconds slower than last time (remains of hangover didnt help)
now watching a movie - early night tonight......

dazed and confused and bitten....

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ok – I’ve set myself a get fit training schedule. How long will this last? As often as I can I do a 2 ½ mile run (max possible for me in this heat and humidity) and time myself. Did first one this morning – phew. Had to remove a Horned Toad from my training shoe first.
Its interesting. 0700am and the streets are vibrant and full of people. What’s interesting is that this is the morning after the biggest day in their calendar. No alcohol, no hangovers – very productive. Strangely no dogs yapping at my heels though, they were either eaten as part of the festivities or it’s the one day in the year that they are allowed to drink.

Off to Kho Ngai (hai) island today for the weekend, although nearly didn’t make it as we had “James Hunt” taking us to the ferry. This bloke was a liability, his driving was worse than mine, overtaking 3 abreast, accelerating into corners, cutting corners on the wrong side of the road. I kept making over exaggerated stares at the speedo (I was in the front) to try to get a “slow down!” message across. All to no avail. We got to the speedboat in double quick time. Uneventful 40 min crossing to Kho Ngai….
The island has a couple of small resorts but no shops… there was hardly anyone on the island, deserted sandy beaches but the sound of builders building new apartments interfered with the peaceful idyll.
Found a deck chair under a tree by the waters edge and chilled only to be bitten rotten by a host of pesky red ants – little bastards, if its not ants its mossies…. I am just so darned tasty.
In the evening tried to get a drink in the hotels “blue lagoon bar” (comfy chairs right next to the beach) only to find a private function was being held in there. Seemed like a large Thai family reunion. Then things got interesting, they started Karaoking. It seems that the tradition is for every member of the family to have a go. Some of the singing was at best atrocious. If you weren’t looking you could have been forgiven for thinking that a Tom Cat was sliding down a razor blade using its balls as brakes. It did make us chuckle. Then they played an instrumental of “O come all ye faithful” and they’re Buddhists? Very strange. Very friendly people though invited us to join them but we politely declined. I could just see myself doing an impression of the Old Tom.
We wandered up the beach and found a really nice bar that was totally deserted. Had a cold one and a Mai Tai sock blower then home to bed.

My drinking buddy Aaron arrived in the morning (he’s making a video of our Programme). Great bloke. Born in the USA but NOT a Bushite. Drinks for his country.
Fantastic tropical storm this morning over the sea. Took a trek to the other side of the island through dense tropical rainforest followed by coconut plantations…. Didn’t hang about as I didn’t know what was lurking in the undergrowth to bite me. “If we can bite we’ll bite Barry” is the insect worlds mantra it seems.
The other side of the island was even more deserted with a few tin shack houses and a golden beach….
Returned to the hotel safely. In the evening we had a couple in the hotel then back to the beach bar – we all got hammered…. Felt rough this morning for the first time in a while… ended up playing “never have I ever” some US drinking game…. I tried to introduce an English drinking game or 2 but by then we were too gone…

PHOTOS ONLINE NOW IF YOU CHECK BACK THROUGH POSTS.....