Last stop (for now)...Adelaide. Final post!

This comic strip was sent over to Scotland by my parents. I think it sums up a lot about my travels this year!

I arrived home a little under a week ago and am a little surprised at how well I'm settling back in. Not that I expected to be restless but I suppose this is the first place I've come to in awhile where I don't have to figure it all out for myself, I already know it (like the back of my hand!)

Uni has started and feels manageable, while the job hunt is about to start. I'm going to take my time to get something I want and will tie it in with my postgrad studies (Grad. Dip. in Information and Knowledge Management). I'm hopeful for work in archives.

The Adelaide Fringe is currently in full swing and after having experienced the juggernaut that is the Edinburgh Fringe I can now definately say Adelaide's is much, much smaller! The weather is crazy at the moment, heatwave in Autumn! We've had a record-breaking nine days straight of 35+ degree weather and predictions are for no sign of relief for at least another 8 days.

Well, this will be my last post on this blog. Hope you've enjoyed reading my journey, and I'm glad I've got a written keepsake of some of my stories from my year of travel. I've been meaning to share many more stories with you, especially from Thailand, but alas, the moment has passed. Feel free to ask me any questions about anything via email (or in person) if you so desire!

My friend Tic (pictured) said the most beautiful thing when I left Kuraburi, and that was when she looked up at the stars she would think of me, and for me to do the same thing and think of her. I take the time out to remember Tic, and all of the great people I met on my travels and hope they remember me.

Thankyou for reading,

Besos (Spanish for kisses!)

Lisa

Perth-Moora

I arrived in Australia with a jolt. A jolt from the plane suddenly aborting its landing about a metre from the ground. The girl sitting next to me whom I'd been talking casually with then burst into tears and threw up into her blanket. For some reason neither of us had sickbags in our tray. Mmm. We circled for another half an hour and tried another runway, that did the trick in the particularly windy weather.

Greeted by customs (yay, nothing got taken off me) and then Jen at the airport standing there with masses of helium balloons, the envy of every small child that walked past her in the last two hours. I spent the rest of the day pointing out things I hadn't seen in a long time "Wendys!", "Coles!", "Holden Commodores!" etc. It amused me no end, poor Jen having to put up with it.

We headed to Jen's home in rural Western Australia. It's not quite a 3 hour drive to Moora, North of Perth. It was an amazing drive, just taking in the colours on the ground and in the sky, everything is so dry but still has life. Except the roadkill on the side of the road, yep I'm in country Australia.

It was my 24th birthday on that first weekend back and Jen organised to go camping at Sandy Cape with friends and Chris' (her fiance) brothers. Sandy Cape has a beautiful beach that rivals Thailand's, except the water is much, much colder! The next day we went for a swim in the morning as well then off to the Jurien Bay Hotel for a counter lunch. And a birthday cake which somehow the group had managed to keep secret (and cool!) for the weekend. The icing read "Happy Freakin' Birthday" which apparantly the girl at the Cheesecake Shop had problems spelling. Always a joker, that Jen...

And the last week and a bit has been full of either full on on the go in Perth, driving to and from Perth, or flat out on the couch watching Foxtel in Moora. It's been great fun. Other highlights include seeing Ben Lee play with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra at King's Park (pictured), going out in Freemantle, dinner at the Little Creatures Brewery and shopping at Myer (a girl can't help it!). Also helping Jen with wedding plans, seeing her try on dresses and having our trial makeup done - fake lashes included!

We leave Moora later today and have tickets to see Miss Saigon on Wednesday. Then Thursday I will be home in Adelaide. University has started and I have started to grasp the fact that I will have a lot of work to do in amongst trying to find a job, catch up with friends and family, and enjoy the last week of the Fringe Festival. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Singapore

EDIT: My Thai mobile doesn't have international roaming so is rendered useless from now on. Was good while it lasted.

I left Bangkok yesterday for my final international destination, Singapore. Had two wonderful surprise phonecalls from two great friends from Kuraburi, Tic and Kelly while I was in the taxi to the airport. I had another awesome few days in Bangkok which I really want to write about, perhaps in a few days. Highlight was going to Lumphini Park which is Bangkok's version of Central Park and watching mass aerobic dance taking place at dusk. Lots of fun.

I was met at Changi Airport by Sherilyn, who I met when I was in Spain. We both spent the week helping to teach english at Vaughantown. We kept in touch and it was so nice being greeted at the airport by someone. She even brought me a little present of a cake made with pandam (sp?) leaves. It was a ring sponge cake, the lightest I've ever seen and very subtle flavour, kind of like a green tea cake. Very traditional in Singapore. And yum.

She's got this funky little car we spent the evening driving around town in, seeing the sights before having tea on the East Coast at a restaurant that is known for it's chilli crab. It was amazing. We had a huge spread with drunken prawns, veggies, rice, cuttlefish cakes and sharkfin soup (delicious) and Tiger beer. I have not eaten at a sit down dinner like that in a long time, in fact my time in Bangkok I didn't have a meal at all, just picked snacky things from the street all day, also very good.

After dinner we rolled out for a stroll along the East Coast, lots of locals eating out at the restaurants along the seafront and great atmosphere. Every table had something different and as it is still within the 15 days of Chinese New Year (now I understand why Happy New Year signs were still up in Thailand, oops), it was very busy with company dinners and families celebrating. We then went to Bugis market which is like a little bazaar selling all sorts and everything. I tried a local dessert which I have forgotten the name of but it was shaved ice with different coloured syrups, with red beans and grass jelly at the bottom. Was nice, but cold!

So I will be in Singapore for one more night, no doubt eating my way through the country with Sher. I suppose apart from shopping, culinary delights are what the locals are known for. That and the fact that everything is so clean and fragrant. My Dad seemed to think everything in Singapore had a fragrance, even the shower water. I can tell you my mixed dorm room smells too, but certainly wouldn't describe the mixture of mouldy feet and someone's unwashed clothes as fragrant. One more night of goddamn hostels!

I fly out tomorrow morning at 9am Singapore time bound for Perth. Should arrive about 3.10pm WA time and cannot wait to see the greatest friend I have ever had in my life, my precious Jen. Get to spend my 24th (eek) birthday with her also which comes up in a few days. Party!

Mai pen Rie

One essential phrase in Thai I have kept in the back of my head on the trip from Samui to BKK is 'Mai Pen Rie'. It means 'it's okay, never mind, doesn't matter'. A few days ago I had booked a VIP bus for the trip to Bangkok with a minivan pickup at my hotel in Samui. Simple, right? Minivan, airconbus, ferry, aircon bus. 18 hour trip for $30AUD. Cheap Cheap in terms of money but that's a lot of time spent journeying!

On Saturday I check out of the hotel at Samui and await the minivan that will take me to Na Thon Pier for the ferry to the mainland. Twenty minutes later, a taxi rocks up. Apparantly the mini van is busy today. Mai Pen Rie. The driver overtakes on the narrow, curvy, busy island road whenever he gets the chance. Even with oncoming traffic coming, apparantly that's a chance. It's at this time I think putting on my seatbelt is a good idea but despite it being a newish car, the buckle is missing. Mai Pen Rie. 30 minutes later, we take a turnoff, that's okay, we must be picking up someone else...turns out to be a family of 3 and their luggage. We can't fit them all in so we drive off for the taxi driver to hail another taxi down on the main road. This takes awhile. By the driver's continuous glancing at his watch, I start to think missing the ferry is a distinct possibility. Thankfully, we find a taxi for them and speed off to the ferry and I arrive in one piece. Bonus. About 30 of us and our luggage are squeezed onto a bus with fans and we wait on here for the 2 o'clock ferry to arrive. The ferry ride is okay, I feel a little odd, a little clammy and hope I'm not getting sick. Amuse myself for the almost 2 hour journey by falling asleep and by watching the crackling tv in the passenger's lounge. A 'Saturday Kitchen' style programme is on, then all of a sudden a Japanese Iron Chef-style programme comes on (dubbed in Thai). It's about croquettes, and every five seconds in between the Thai commentary, I hear the word croquette. 10 minutes into this one hour show I really feel like eating a croquette which is weird because I don't normally like them. Subliminal message 'croquette, croquette, croquette...'.

Depart the ferry and take the bus from the pier to the town of Surat Thani, another hour or so away. We suddenly pull to a stop on the side of the highway and I am the only one to be told to get off. The people around me are all taking trains or planes so this must be the bus station stop. Except it's not a bus station. Wait around for 5 minutes of so before being told to jump in the back of a taxi truck. We drive around for 10 minutes and the journey we take on back roads tells me I'm not headed for Surat Thani bus station. Really hoping at the time I haven't been done by a fake travel agent selling bus tickets to Bangkok, but again I override these thoughts with 'mai pen rie'. We stop at a little roadside cafe and I'm told to write my name and nationality down on a list of people going to BKK. At least I'm not alone, there's a group of Libyans here too. I've got about 3 hours to kill so eat some food, write this journal entry down in my notebook, beg Mum and Dad to entertain me by giving me a phonecall. All in all, the time passes quickly. Slowly, more people arrive and by 8pm, a gaudy double decker bus arrives and we all pile in. We watch 2 movies, the classy 'American Pie 4' and a film about the Mayan hill tribe that I didn't catch the name of. About 1.30am it starts to rain big time for the next couple of hours and I'm thankful the bus driver is relatively safe, a lot of these overnight runs are nailbiting affairs as the drivers often take methamphetimene to stay awake. About 2am wes stop for a meal break (you don't feel like eating at 2am? What!) and get chauffered under big umbrellas to the shed like structure at the fuel station. Like the fact we aren't stopping at a 7/11 which illuminate the roads here, there are just so many it's unbelievable. Don't like the fact they have a microphone blaring telling us about the different foods they have available. The Thai tones at 2am in the morning do not sound nice over a squeaky microphone.

We arrive into BKK only half an hour late and I'm at my hostel by 7am, ready for a shower and bed! The last 20 hours or so are why I would never recommend Thailand as a holiday destination for my parents. The logic here isn't the same as logic back home, things aren't as straightforward, perhaps. It would make my Dad's blood pressure rise and completely baffle my Mum. Mai Pen Rie!

Stay classy, Thailand...

My time in Koh Samui has been bizarre. For example, right now I'm having a late lunch at a beachfront restaurant and one of the staff has just turned on the music. The CD? Kenny G Christmas Album. Seriously...IT'S FEBRUARY! Signs here (all over Thailand actually) still proclaim Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Now even with Chinese New Year over there is no excuse!

Looking out onto the beach, there are A-frame signs littering the sand advertising day trips around the island, elephant treks, snake shows etc. Local touts trawl up and down the beach selling icecreams, tennis paddles, footballs, sarongs and souveniery knick knacks. The part of the beach I am on is quite rocky so not many swimming but certainly lots of people baking themselves silly on loungechairs. Some people look purple they are so tanned, and also don't give a care that Thailand is quite a conservative country and are walking around topless. My first thought upon arrival was how ugly the island looked with resorts cutting into the mountains, lessening the beautiful greenery. People think this place is great, but to me it's just overwhelmingly awful. Admittedly, I'm staying on the busiest beach in Samui - Chaweng - where the main road is a mecca to Globalised food brands. McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, Pizza Hut etc. There are girly bars everywhere where socially inept men can buy coolness for the night and play pool with a girl who tells him how "handsome" and "strong" he is. I'm not scrubbing Samui entirely, I know there are other parts of the island which are less developed, but I just think Chaweng screams awful, the equivalent of Patong Beach in Phuket. The one thing I do agree with here is the Thai massages on the beach. I've had one already today and I may go back for a second. Hooked, I tell you...

My speech at Rotary went well, spoke to about 20 members (one of them an Honorary Consul for Australia). It was located in one of the most exclusive resorts here in Chawend and we had a WEstern style buffet dinner before the meeting. Pork in mushroom sauce, potato, baked veggies...all these "new" flavours to me...yum! I just talked about my experience with Andaman Discoveries, and how I found the experience. Rotary helped fund NATR so it gaves them an update of how things are going now they are no longer working in the region. On a selfish note, I wanted to do this as an exercise in self confidence as I hadn't made a speech really since my school days as 'El Capitano'.

So I leave Samui tomorrow on a hellish trip to Bangkok on the bus. Leaving Samui around Noon, I get into BKK the next day areound 6am. Wish me luck, and curse Bangkok Airways having a monopoly on flights from Samui as they are ridiculously expensive.

Mobile phone and update

Those that use my number are already in the know but I should broadcast that my UK mobile phone number has no more credit has been made redundant. Delete that number from your phone and for the next few weeks I have a Thai number if you need to ring or send a random text message (highly recommended!):

+66836477793

When I get to Australia that number will also become redundant and I will probably get another Australian number. Keep you posted.

Today is my last day in Kuraburi and it's been a busy one. Starting to get sad with all the goodbyes I am doing as I have made some great friends. I spent the morning at school and the afternoon polishing off a speech I have written. For what, I hear you ask?

Well, when I arrived at the Andaman Discoveries offices last month I saw Rotary flags for Ko Samui and Patong Beach Clubs. Upon further investigation I found out that both clubs gave millions of baht to NATR immediately after the tsunami and also for sustainability projects after recovery work was finished. My connection to Rotary is that they gave me my first taste of travel overseas on an exchange to New Zealand in 1999 and gave me the love for travelling differently (ie. not in a hotel). I got in touch with the Samui club and they invited me to do a talk on Wednesday 13 February about my recent travels and what Andaman Discoveries is up to now. This opportunity justifies me lying around Samui's beaches for the following few days, something I definately did not plan but will enjoy. Update you on how it all went down soon.

Ironically, I will be staying in a hotel...pah to all this ponce about 'travelling differently'!

Side note:

I just read PM Kevin Rudd has released the wording of his apology to indigenous Australians, and it will be read out at 9am on Wednesday morning. I am amazed. I don't have much to say on this yet but for those that want to make a joke about this on my messages, please refrain. Opinions otherwise welcome, for or against it. A nice resource:

http://www.reconcile.org.au/

http://www.reconcile.org.au/getsmart/pages/sorry/sorry--faq.php

Lights, Camera...can I go lie down in the shade?

The film crew arrived in Kuraburi on 1 February and the next few days were a complete spin.

A little bit of background...the crew are filming for a television show for TV5 in Canada. The show is called 'Partir Autrement' which I am told loosely translates "to leave otherwise" The first season is currently showing on Monday nights at 10pm, I think they are up to the 4th episode and have been told it's become quite popular. They have a website if you read French http://partirautrement.ekimondo.com/. Looks like when the episode airs there will be video on the site and at that time I should also get a dvd copy in the mail.

We will be in episode 13, the finale of Series 1, which means it should air in 8-9 weeks time. The show, as the title suggests, is about travelling differently eg. fairtrade travel, community based travel etc. Emily and I played the "tourists" and we were filmed doing a range of activities in 2 villages near Kuraburi, Ban Talae Nok and Tung Nang Dam (my third visit there! It was only supposed to be once but it was nice to go back).

Here are the activities we filmed in the 4 days they had the cameras rolling:

--making soap with the ladies who run the tsunami soap cooperative in BTN. The group was set up after some funding and training was given to the community. The women who work on this project all lost their husbands in the wave and do it for a source of income. There is a website http://www.tsunamicrafts.com/. The soaps smelt gorgeous...the use all natural ingredients like lemongrass, tumeric, avocado and I think palm oil.

--Fishing with nets from the beach. We used a giant net which we walked out into the sea then dragged it back to shore. First time wasn't too successful but the second time we managed to catch a few fish and crab, and a whole lot of lil fish that needed to be rescued to go back to the water. The water was warm and we had beautiful blue skies. I bet the colours will look great on film. Didn't mind being filmed in the water so much as it is a Muslim village we had to wear tees and shorts in the water so lucky no getting my pasty, wobbly bum on camera.

--Nipa palm weaving. I didn't do this activity as it followed straight from coming out from the water and I needed to put on some dry shorts. These weaves are used to roof and decorate the exterior of houses here although demand is dwindling due to most houses now having corrugated roofs. Obviously the lifespan for iron is a lot better than the 2 years the nipa palm weaves last but certainly not as aesthetically pleasing.

--Cashew nut shelling. Around this time of year the ladies in the village are sent cashews in 5kg bags to be peeled from the factory, which then have to be sent back, same weight. So they have to send back shells and all to get the weight right. Very odd. They use a homemade peeler/knife object and it's a delicate art not to break the cashew! The ladies do it at lightening speed and gossip about the day's events, while I struggle with one! A lot of fun, though.

--Sea buffalo herding. I was not present for this one but basically the deal is at the same time each evening the sea buffalo all head down to the beach for a spa. What a sight!

--After dinner on the first day, we watched a fishing net weaving demonstration. It was filmed in a villager's house and a few people were watching but only P'Tui and I were watching whilst being filmed. The lady demoing was doing her thing making the nets and we were admiring in silence when suddenly...the sound guy farted. Do you know how hard it is not to laugh, or even let out a bit of a giggle when a camera is on you? Well, P'Tui and I did it, true professionals. however as soon as the camera crew left we were in stitches. I get my high brow humour from my Mum, by the way.

--The next day in the morning we took a longtail boat out to some mangroves, Ban Talae Nok are really getting into conservation and are planting lots of mangroves. We got our hands dirty and planted some mangroves although some had to be replanted as Emily wasn't listening and didn't realise she had to take off the plastic bag acting as a pot! Very very muddy work. The canal we took to get to the mangroves used to much narrower but since the tsunami they had to widen it in order to take out all the material that washed up. There are still some boats lying out of the mangroves that were destroyed by the wave.

--In the afternoon we attempted to do some batik, another cooperative started up by ladies in the village as the soap was not bringing in enough income for all. It was fun first outling the drawing in wax then filling the rest in with paint. Quite delicate work and I have quite a few splotches on my little canvas to show that it was my first time. Very vivid colours, wish we weren't so rushed from filming, otherwise mine would have been a lot nicer!

--Being a Muslim village, we also got to do cultural dressing in the community centre. Headscarfs are really really warm to wear and all I wanted to do was pull out a bit of fringe to funk up the outfit but then I remember that's not the done thing. Add a cheesecloth shirt, a traditional sarong and voila!

We had filmed so much that the film crew didn't think it was necessary to spend a second night in the first village. I welcomed the fact I could go back "home" to Kuraburi to have a nice, cold (bucket) shower. I was sweaty, stinky, and grumpy from the days filming and sometimes travelling on your own means that when you are around too many strong personalities you just need some bloody time alone!!!

Felt very refreshed the next day as we met to head to Kuraburi Pier, the crew did some filming there while I caught up with P'Noy who was going to take us all the Tung Nang Dam again. Orchid conservation, jungle hike and beach walk for the third time meant nothing new and frustrating time with nails again making orchid pots. Beautiful surrounds though and fantastic hike. That night we spent filming at the mosque where things came to a head when budding photographer Emily took a picture with flash just as the film crew was getting his perfect closing shot. Oh oh. Staying out of that one...

Last day of filming and we are lucky to arrive just at the time when the cashew nuts are ready for picking! P'Noy has an orchard(?) of cashew trees on her land and we picked a whole heap, roasted them on the fire (literally, as the pan we were using broke and all the nuts spilled out, then peeled them from the hard shell and ate them hot. With freshly picked young coconuts to drink. Mmmm mmm Dad would have really enjoyed this activity! Did you know the cashew nut is poisonous before roasting? The outside of the shell has a poison in it that irritates your skin and mouth. Nasty stuff.

Last but not least, we headed to a floating fish farm to feed the fish. Well I fed the fish anyway as Emily the veggie refused to. This involved me putting my hand into a bucket of slimy, smelly small fish and feeding it to the bigger fish. Lots of girly squealing involved and thankful for the journalist who offered antibac handwash straight after to get the smell off. It was here at this location where I was interviewed about my experience and wonder if part of it will get to air.

All in all the filming was fun, educational, frustrating, tiring, HOT! Ultimately I hope rewarding for Andaman Discoveries. Disappointingly, I didn't learn any French. But I now have contacts in the French part of Canada (it's the technical term ;)) so I will be putting it on the list of where to travel next. Before the crew left Jeff, the cameraman and director offered to buy us a round of beer then bloody left without paying for ours...tsk tsk! It was my first beer in 3 weeks too. The next day I got a stomach bug. Coincidence? You decide. Some beer brands rinse their bottles with formaldehyde here...spent a few days recovering as the combination of dehydration and heat wiped me of energy. Think I'm right now though, tally ho! As the sage Jen said, it had to happen sooner or later...

Get back to class!

My first day of teaching at Kuraburi Pittiyakon was like throwing me off a jetty. Of sorts. I had just arrived at 8am right before the school assembly, held out on the school oval. 760+ students file neatly into line and the Thai National song is played by the school band - in true school band style with a few extra squeaks where there shouldn't be. Then announcements are made. And then, apparantly, that;s when you give the farang standing to the side grinning nervously like an idiot the microphone to introduce herself. Ooh! I manage to eek out hello, my name is Lisa and I come from Australia before handing the microphone back.

First class is at 8.40am, classes go for 1 hour and I did 3 classes before 12noon. The first class is a shocker, my lesson plan goes out the window as the kids are a little older (17 and 18) and it seems a bit patronising to play Simon Says and learn about telling time. I thought my first day was a bit of a shambles but the teachers with me though otherwise. I quickly learn there's not a great deal of structure within lessons and start going with the flow. Much better! Walking around the school the kids smile and wave and wai (press hands together) at me, say hello or Sawadee ka. Feel quite the celebrity. It is rare for them to see a Westerner in their town let alone have them teach at their school.

The levels of english vary, even in the same class through to nit noy (Thai for a little) to non existent. Same goes for the English teachers! Teacher Jack is my buddy, good englsih teacher in terms of grammar but not so good at speaking english. so he too is loving having an english speaker at the school. We muddle through conversations at lunchtuimein the cafeteria . He is very camp (though not sure if he is gay(!)) and loves taking photos and having photos taken of him. The other teacher s include Shinwut, a teacher who has come back out of retirement as the school was desperate for an english teacher. He starts off every lesson by getting the kids to sing along to a karaoke DVD of 'Sailing' by Rod Stewert. Yep, I'm telling the truth. The kids love singing in class, if you ask a class 'who wants to sing a song?' they go crazy and it gives you a chance to sit dpwn for a minute! They do the whole fake microphone thing, int heir own little world with closed eyes and facial movements. It's gorgeous!

It's so much fun just observing the kids here, the boys are constantly pulling up and tucking in their too big shorts. Without even thinking, the boys and girls both enter the classroom and seperate to sit down on opposite sides of the room. The kids take off their shoes before entering a school building so the entrances to buildings are littered with shoes.The school colours are navy blue and white and lilac. The lilac is because the King's daughter came and visited the school a few years ago and gave them a lot of money for computers and a new school building. Lilac corresponds to the day she was born.

On my first day Emily arrived and also a newly married American couple travelling around Asia on their honeymoon. So on my second day they all came to the school for a day of teaching. It was nice to have others there for ideas and to also play music as Amy and Ramon brought a guitar and mandolin on their travels. They have a blog which is http://www.ramamymon.wordpress.com/. Hop over and have a look as they've just posted a blog about the homestay village in which I am staying in so have some great photos of my surrounds which I have not yet gotten on to. Some pictures include my homestay family, Tic, Godam, Su and Cookie, the little mischievious girl. I saw them off on their bus to Bangkok earlier this evening, wish them well and know they'll have a fantastic time traipsing around this crazy planet of ours.

Okay, I'm writing this on Friday night and tomorrow I am heading to another village for the next 5 days. A French Canadian film crew has arrived and is doing a story on Andaman Discoveries and community based travel. I'll keep you posted as to what it is like when I get back. I have to play tourist which sucks as it's bad enough having to have my sweaty photo taken let alone video! It will be cool to visit another village, though. We have 3 days in Ban Talae Nok and 2 days in Tung Nam Dam, which will be my 3rd visit there in 2 weeks as I went for a few days with Amy, Ramon and Emily earlier this week. Teaching was out because the kids had a Boy Scout Camp.

See you soon!

Australia Day Weekend

Happy Australia Day, and also Happy Burns Night to my Scottish friends. Hope both events were filled with much fun and laughter and bbq/haggis. Nice to know that I am so behind the music that I have never heard the Muse song which came in at Number 1 on JJJ's Hottest 100 this year http://triplej.abc.net.au/hottest100/. Very surprised that Josh Pyke didn't rate higher as his album did so well in the charts for an Australian artist. He did, however get several entries (3 or 4?) in so well done. Sounds like Architecture in Helsinki have had a stellar year and seems like BritPop has made a small comeback in Australian radio with lots of Muse, Editors, Kasabian etc. Only 4 Aussie songs in the top ten this year, hoped for better!

I spent Australia Day with my homestay family, extended family and new friends. We bundled into the back of the ute and went to a waterfall about 10km outside of Kuraburi town (picture above). The water was so clear it was unbelievable and the surrounds so picturesque. Reclining myself in a nook of the gentle waterfall and having the cool water wash over me in the hot sun with the kids playing in the background was bliss. One of those "this is what I am travelling for" moments and a big smile on my face all day. I love the water (typical Pisces, eh?) Had a yummy picnic there (rice of course) before returning in the afternoon a bright shade of pink. My sunburn on my arms and legs is settling down now but I've had a few uncomfortable days...silly girl.

Sunday was my "Visa Exemption Run". Originally I was thinking I would have to fly to Singapore but turns out all I needed to do was travel 2 hours north to Ranong and cross the border to Myanmar (Burma), get my stamps, turn around and come back. Ranong is not much to write about and the boat ride to Myanmar was smelly and hot. Once in Myanmar the sense of calm that Thailand has was completely missing. At Port Victoria there is chaos, confusion, poverty, corruption and oppression all staring you in the face. Not a nice place to live and no photos to show you as if the authorities catch you taking photos they can confiscate your passport and camera. Most Westerners just go to get their Visa/Visa Exemption, buy cheap whisky, rum, cigarettes and viagra(!) and turn around and head back to peaceful Thailand. It was nice to not have to experience this alone, I had Emily to chat with (in picture), a volunteer working for Andaman Discoveries office for the next few months join me. She's only just arrived in Thailand last Thursday from London and plunged herself into daily life here really well. Great girl and has some amazing pictures I hope to copy, she always pulls out her camera whenever I cannot be bothered.

Kuraburi - Tung Nang Dam

As part of my 4 weeks volunteering in Thailand, I spent the first 5 days on a 'cultural immersion' programme. The first day I arrived in Kuraburi, I had spent the say travelling from the top to the bottom of the country.

At 6am I left my hostel in Chiang Mai to head to the airport for my Air Asia flight to Bangkok. All smooth sailing except for the fact they wanted to charge me for my excess 2kg baggage. No worries, snap off the front part of my pack to carry onboard and took it down to 15kg exactly. Gol! Once in Bangkok I hung around for about 4 hours at the airport waiting for my flight from BKK-Phuket. The time went quite quickly once I got some food, had a few texts from Mum and dealt with baggage again. Same airline for this flight, I added the front part of my pack back onto my checked in luggage and no mention about excess baggage. Excellent. Cut price flights are cheap here so I treat myself to flying instead of travelling on trains/buses for this journey.

Walking outside at Phuket Airport, it is POURING with rain. What a welcome! Tony, one of the young Thai workers for North Andaman Tsunami Relief (NATR) is waiting to pick me up and drive me to Kuraburi, my home in Thailand for the next little while. NATR is the NGO from which has grown Andaman Discoveries, the community based development organisation. Have a mosey on their websites http://www.andamandiscoveries.com/ and http://www.northandamantsunamirelief.com/unamirelief.com/.

For those that can't be bothered clicking, Andaman Discoveries' mission is to "support community-led development by acting as bridge to respectful visitors and volunteers through sponsorship of education, conservation and cultural empowerment". I am really impressed with this organisation and how it is run and would definately recommend it to anyone wanting to travel to Thailand for a bit more than beaches, sunburn and cheap sunglasses (or if you really want you can do both!)

Anyway, back to the story at hand.

So, Tony and I drove up Highway 4 to Kuraburi. It was a pleasant (straight!) drive of about 3 hours. I met Kelly, the Director of Andaman Discoveries. She is English but has been in Kuraburi for 2 years and Thailand for several more. Once the organisation is a little more set up, she will leave all the running to the local Thai team which are doing a great amount of work already. This change may be as soon as mid 2008.

Kelly and Tony took me to my homestay where I would stay for the night then take a long tail boat to Tung Nang Dam village the next day. Details of my homestay family and surroundings coming up in a later story. In short: delightful!

So good nights' sleep and a visit to the Watermelon Festival (another story on it's way) and off we go to Kuraburi pier to meet noy, my homestay host and local guide for the next 4 days in Tung Nang Dam. The boat ride was about half an hour and we travelled through mangroves to get there. Noy lives with her ageing (but still sprightly!) parents and looks after them. She has quite a few brothers and sisters, the youngest is also living in the home. The home is two level, is clean and cosy - as cosy as you can get with a cement floor and a few plastic chairs, no hot water or refrigerator. In fact, not much electricity at all, they have solar power so they save it up at night to watch a little bit of telly in the evenings. Pictures are of the living space downstairs and the hong nam (toilet!).

During the 4 days Kelly left and Tony arrived to stay and help with translation. We did plenty of activites where I learned so much and made me look forward to a cold shower twice a day...it is very hot on the island, shade or no shade!

On the first day we made pots of Noy's orchid conservation project. She has set up a nursey as people used to come to TND and steal the wild orchids to plant in their gardens. She plants cuttings from orchids, focusing on rarer varieties and when they are grown a little more and ready, she replants them in the jungle on the island. These pots we made from wood and bamboo and I am frustratingly bad at hammering nails into these materials! The nails we used were covered in black sticky stuff, they had been dropped in the sea water so to stop them from being unusable they soaked them in petrol. It saved the nails, but they were very unhappy to use the petrol as it is very expensive. Anywhere else we would just have thrown the nails out and bought new ones, hey...

Another day we made a traditional Thai dessert out of coconut. We shredded the coconut by hand (not as easy as it sounds!) then made milk from the shreds. The milk was poured into hot moulds and fried. Very sweet, not so tasty in my opinion but good experience!

The jungle hike was my favourite part of this trip. Hard but not too hard, stunning views and well worth reaching the top. So nice to see the wild orchids also, as well as various wildlife (snakes!). I am debating about whether to include my photo here as I was looking like a hot, sweaty Farang (westerner) - UGLY! After that we walked to the beach.

One of the days I was supposed to help build the community centre on the island but this didn't go to plan as that day they were building the roof. Instead, I watched them build whilst breaking countless Occ Health and Safety rules. Not wearing shoes on site, or whilst operating a chainsaw, almost falling off the roof from trying to pick up a lit cigarette (with their feet!) and children running about the site without a care in the world about the various offcuts and general construction materials lying about the playspace.

I made a mobile/windchime with coconut shells, sounds great in theory but bloody hard work and boring when drilling the holes without a drill! I hate being from the instant gratification generation. I made this for Jen as I was going to buy a windchime but I'm not sure if i'll get it through Aussie customs. I'll try!

One of the main sources of income in the village is natural rubber and I saw how it is extracted from the tree and made into sheets to sell. It is extremely had work, very low pay and as such a lot of Thai won't do it, so Burmese families come over the border for work. Same goes for the work on fishing boats.

Finally on one of the days we took the boat and went fishing for the day and visited a little island about 90 minutes away. I really don't enjoy fishing! We caught some squid as well and it's just so mucky with the black ink squirts and all. My only princess moment :)

Spent the day on this "deserted island" (by my standards ie. there was no one but us there and no buildings). We had lunch (cooked on board!) with rice and the fish we had caught that day. tony also made a fire to BBQ the squid on the island.

The food situation was amazing, every day we would make several different Thai dishes to share with lots of rice. Being an island there was a lot of fish to eat which I struggled with a little. Getting used to the spice now though.

It is hard to write just the bare bones of my experience but I wish I could share so much more with you. What I have seen, the smells, the weather, the mosquitoes(!) All pretty amazing. Living with a Thai family and doing normal things for them was completely new for me. Like rounding up the goats and feeding the baby ones in the evenings and waking up to rice soup for brekky. This is Noy and I in the picture as I was leaving the island. Great fun, great smile.

Lots of stories, jumble jumble.

So many stories for you I have not been writing down.

In chronological order I have:-

-BKK craziness in Bangkok

-Been to the Couch Surfing Collective in Pai, Thailand.

-Talked with a monk in Chiang Mai

-Travelled to Kuraburi on the Andaman Coast. Met my homestay family who I will stay with for a month.

-Been to a Watermelon Festival

-Stayed 4 days in an island village off the coast of Kuraburi

-Started my teaching at Kuraburi Pittayakorn (High School)

It is here where I am until mid February volunteering teaching English. It is amazing, surreal, crazy fun. I am treated like a bit of a celeb as they don't see Farang (foreigners) here in the town very often. Like I said, crazy.

Slowly I am getting together my thoughts and experiences to tell you. They will be out of order so when you read them as I update, story number one is on it's way next!

Thailand

It's been awhile blog!

So New Year's went grand, big party and silliness and I got on my 12.30pm 5 pound train to London from Edinburgh. Much fun especially having Ezara (pictured) visiting from Dublin to stay with us as well - the flat was full. Some tears from Briony and I at the train station, can't believe I won't see her in a little/long while (who knows?) after such an epic 2007 with her by my side for much of.

My flying visit to London went so smoothly, would have loved more time to catch up with people before I went but alas. Like I mentioned in my last post, I stayed with Claire, a lovely friend of mine who would probably be in Australia right now, visiting for the first time...lucky her! It was a great base to get all my last minute messages done and I was able to mosey to Heathrow very easily from there on the tube in the evening. Still can't believe I am on my way home and that I won't be hopping back to London any time soon. Flight went well and had a fantastic hostel in Bangkok, met some people and saw some sights...and had never yearned for fresh air more in my life. Would have liked to have spent more time in BKK but Pai beckoned 3 nights after my arrival in SE Asia.

Pai is a little town in the mountains in Northern Thailand. Quite an artistic community and it is so nice to have lots of music and art all around all the time. I don't have much internet time so I will post a little more about it another day but to cut it short I've been having a great time with beautifully hot days but freezing my bum off at night - it's the cold season here and the temperature DROPS after 8pm. I had a flight to Chang Mai from BKK then caught a rickshaw/"bus" (pictured, and PS the doors didn't shut for most of the ride, safety third in Thailand!) on the 4 hour drive to Pai...with a journey that encounters over 760 curves in the road. I had dosed up on travel sickness medication and unfortunately missed what I am sure was an amusing journey as I was knocked out for most of it.

More on Pai soon!