full moon party and more.....

Interesting....Took the opp to go to another school this week as my school was closed for Poetry Day to honour the Thai Will Shakespeare.. Went to Casey and Rachels school - 2400 pupil secondary school in Trang Town... Different kettle of fish altogether - much as I love the Sikao school, its kids and teachers it is somewhat rundown, poorly equipped and dirty. The Trang school is clean, well equipped and vibrant. I initially went there to observe but was soon whisked off by an English teacher to a class and told 'the lesson is yours' - went through the basics about me, my family and what a great place England is..:) Seemed to go well - the teachers wants me back so I've negotiated 2 days here and 2 days at Sikao. 6 weeks in it would seem sensible to see another school. what confuses me is the fact that the new shiny school is government funded and the Sikao school is parent funded. Sikao parents are fishermen and rubber plantation workers and are quite poor surely the gov should help them more. The Trang parents are townies with professional jobs generally who could flash the cash for their kids. Not had a satisfactory answer to this one yet??Went into town last night with a few people for some cold ones. Came out of the bar to find everyone had gone to bed - no taxis, tuk tuks.. Ended up blagging a lift with the local plod in the back of their truck - 6 of us ....I'm on a beach in Kho Pha Nang now having just arrived by night ferry which was awesome. take a big old wooden boat put in an upstairs , lay down loads of mattresses and provide a pillow like a brick, nail a fan to the support beams and there u have it, your bed for the night... Everyone just lays down next to each other and chills... With the warm sea breeze coming in the window and the gentle chug of the engine and the half moonlight - well.....Ko Pha Nang on the face of it seems to be full of drug crazed (and this was 0600 am) Brits.... Something to look forward to - will let u know how the 'full moon party' goes in the next installment..

right. its 2200 and we're having a cocktail on the beach waiting for our speedboat to take us to the FMP.......... in we get 26 people on a boat whose capacity is 17 .... nasty journey, petrol fumes, bumpy, too crowded- felt like shit....
basically you hug the coastline of Kho Pha Nang for about 40 minutes when suddenly you round a headland it and hits you. the pulsating throb of the FMP resonates out from the beach which at this point is still a mile away...... visually you see a mass of bright and flashing lights stretching about 1km along the beach... due to our overloaded boat we had to wait around before going in as the Feds were on patrol....
finally got there - an amazing place..... 1000's of people seemingly all with a smile on their face partying in countless bars to a mix of Techno, Pop and Rock tunes..... i spent most of my time in Cactus Bar dancing and drinking Vodka buckets.... because its so hot and youre sweating like crazy the booze seems to move through your system without you getting hammered.....
came out of there about 0500am - my friend Chrissie from Kansas snagged herself a matey from Aylesbury in England and i left her to content myself with a hot dog.... met the others and spent the next hour trying to find the return boat..... you wander into the shallows checking out all speed boats on view...... ours was called "luvly jubbly" - yeah really.....eventually found it i slept all the way back as the sun was rising....
had to sleep in a friends room as adam my room mate who had the key got lost with a bunch of Austrians.......
A great night with a great atmosphere and completely unthreatening even though everyone was out of it...
had a phone call from mum Sunday lunchtime - very upset, my Dad is very ill. i need to go back to England ASAP.

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

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip376-1.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip378.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t281/beejay44/trangtrip379.jpg


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).