Thailand's Kanchanaburi in Pictures

Monday 4 November at Duneshine Resort in Kanchanaburi before we were shipped off to our schools.

Pre- teaching week: PacSai (The English teacher) took us to see a beautiful temple 

Pre- teaching week: Also were taken to see how cloth is weaved and created

Pre- teaching week: Here's me having a go at it (really messed it up because you need to press your left foot down at the same time you pull something with your right hand and press your right foot). It was really complicated... think I messed it up but I couldn't understand Thai so I didn't worry too much.

Pre- teaching week: It was great giving it a go though. Really genuinely appreciate the work that goes into making sari's and beautiful cloths and clothes. Everyone at the work shop were lovely and I even brought the little hat (in my second blog) to remember it by.

Pre- teaching week:Well the last three things were all done on the same day! The bridge over the river Kwai (during the day). Beautiful piece of architecture and definitely a place to visit in Kanchanaburi.

Pre- teaching week: The students had a military week and most of the boys had gone camping for the latter part of the week. 

WangSala school 

Weekend Two in Kanchanaburi

I'm 60% sure this was waterfall two of seven... on this lovely waterfall trek we were also shown a ginormous spider in a tree with long thin legs and also a hole in which a Teranchala lives. Considering I don't even visit the insect house in a zoo... this was a little too close for comfort.

Waterfall three: This is the place where I slipped (not in this picture obviously) and were playfully approached by the sucking fish while we all swam to this rock.

There was a viewing point as we continued up the hill towards the top.

Lovely little waterfall (think this one was five). You had to climb down the rocks to get into this one.

Felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie as we walked up this one!

Waterfall seven: We made it to the top! It was stunning and even though I  was tired, could feel a couple of bruises coming up and damp, it was still worth seeing.

Little Elephant (I say little but it was bigger than me!)

It was meant to be a picture of just the bamboo boats but Charlotte's hand couldn't help photo bomb it! (Joke) Amazingly captured; as we were setting off the boat moved suddenly and Charlotte just nearly toppled backwards into the river... now that would have been a picture moment!

All the boys in our LoveTEFL group on a bamboo boat. All in safety gear!

Just caught it, before it grabbed some food!

Not the same elephant as the previous one...

The view from the death railway station as we patiently waited and waited for the train which was running on Thai time.

Would never do this back home... but here's a few of us on the train line. All worn and hungry as we approached the end of the day.

And finally... the bridge over the river Kwai at night (I'm guessing when it was originally built without the lights but what's a tourist attraction without colourful lights right?!- still looked beautiful.)

Waterfalls and Weekend Two in Kanchanaburi

OMG I thought buses back at home were bad but this one! So we finished at about 12.30 on Friday (after lunch obviously) and waited for about 45 minutes (I mean come on I know theres Thai time, but really??) to catch a bus into Kanchanaburi central. We were charged 20 TB this time each for the journey... Being a proper tourist we didn't realise we shouldn't pay extra (so shame on us once but never again as it only usually costs 15 TB). We then got the two seater taxi from the bus station to Noble again as we knew the others were staying there (we didn't feel so bad this time for the driver as he was a lot younger and was taking his time about getting us there too). At Noble we were given a crappy room (like an actual hut on the river with a shed as a shower). I mean come on, here was me looking forward to washing my hair (do not mess me about with that) so we went back to reception, met with Charlotte and Olivia and decided we'd just look somewhere else and asked for our room money back (little did I know, the cheeky little taxi driver got 50 TB for dropping us there and she gave us 350 TB back instead of 400... I wasn't going to argue for £1ish so we just took it and left).

Enter a brilliant little place, Tara's BnB- literally round the corner from Noble and was just 250 TB for two nights for a room with shared showers and loos (first time for everything as I've never done this before... actually I may have done but not in a country far from home on my ones... and it was really good actually, would definitely do it again).

(Just got totally distracted from writing this blog and just watched One Direction's performance on the X Factor... multiple times).

Before we came across Tara's we walked past Peng Pong and spotted someone eating a tasty looking plate of fish and chips... So after we'd checked into Tara's we made our way back there and nommed (yep you guessed it) a cheeky fish and chips and went back to the room, showered up and knocked out as tomorrow was going to be a long day.

So Saturday morning.

Rain.

Rain, the one thing all of us were not hoping for because we were going to do a waterfall and elephant trekking day for Olivia's birthday! We met with the rest of the group for a 8.00am pick up and also had a little happy birthday sing song as Olivia got onto the bus.

A little rain was not going to stop us! We got to Erawan Falls (fun fact: Its called Erawan after a three-headed white elephant in Hindu mythology. The seven tiered falls are said to resemble the Erawan- thank you Wikipedia!) and unbeknown to us the guide failed to mention we would have to trek up to the of the waterfall and that the road to beautiful scenery would be hazardous and frightening. The rain had made the paths a little muddy and it was a little fun slipping and watching some of us slip here and there. Now I'm not much of an outdoor walking person and the weight of my bag clearly reflected that. In it was my tablet, passport, camera and phones (none of it was waterproof by the way. Clearly not one of my brightest moments but anyway...) Typical me slipped and landed on my fat ass as I went to step over some stones in the water to take a 'better' picture... I wasn't impressed. Walking around in a wet pair of jeany shorts are highly not recommended.

But all seven waterfalls were worth the Indiana Jones trek up to the top waterfall (along the way myself and Charlotte thought it'd be good to get a cheeky selfie or two and accidentally lost the rest of the group. We made it to the top 30 minutes after they did more weathered than the rest of them) and as they say... What goes up must come down! It was an experience, an experience you should all endure I mean endeavour, trekking up and down a waterfall hill/ mountain thing in damp pumps and wet jeans... And poor Charlotte at one point had to be gently helped by a German man who kindly over took us in the next opportunity he had. Like I said if I was to ever pitch this to anyone I'd say don't read this and just look at my pictures... joke. It's beautiful and even the walk up, past the six waterfalls to the top one is worth every minute. Just remember its a jungle and there is mud so take someone with you to carry your stuff and watch out for the fish in the water. Its a little odd at first as they surround you and 'suck' on your skin but they're harmless and takes nothing away from the beauty of the waterfalls and location. Not even the rain could dampen our spirits... My hair and clothes maybe but not my spirit... Well at certain points it did but I got past it, I admit I had my moment (maybe even moments I'd say).

After being told we only had six minutes to eat, when we eventually made it back to the bottom, we shovelled in our complimentary lunch (delicious... well I guess anything would have been nice as I was starving- I know hard to believe but you can't take food up with you after the second waterfall) pad thai with chicken. We were waved back into the minibus for the second part of our day... Elephants.

Elephant Camp:
So we got to the elephant camp and I was dying for the loo (having full swimming gear on was not going to make it easy! Anyhoo...) we quickly realised it wasn't as amazing as we thought seeing elephants would be. Here's why. We seen the elephants get poked and kicked -and ok I know they have thick skin- but it's an animal still right? I couldn't even bring myself to place my foot on the elephant to sit on it. Have no idea what came over me... I think its that's same feeling I get when I have to step on a spider (for those that know me... Absolutely not true! Spider equals fear. Well I think I'm slowly getting ok to spiders, theres a few living in the bathroom back at the hut and I'm pretty ok with them there, even though the first thing I do is still pop my head round the door to check there are no beasts in there! Again, anyway...) It was myself and the birthday girl on one and we were in so much shock and despair throughout the whole ride. Our 'driver' of the elephant was poking the elephant to go down some steps which it clearly didn't like the look of (after getting kindly pushed by Ed and Marks elephant, scaring the crap outta us!) and kicked because it didn't want to go in the water (at this point both myself and Olivia were screaming no, don't make it). So all in all, by the end of it we had Justin B's Baby song in our head and so much sympathy for the elephants kept there. It wasn't the elephant experience we wanted but an elephant trek it was. And to remember the experience we brought a photo which has our elephant driver making a heart sign with his hands... ironic really.

(Also did a little bamboo rafting, not the kind of rafting you expect... Just a bamboo boat which was tied to the back of speedboat which took us out down the river then left us with a boy to paddle us back to shore- we weren't quite sure what to make of it to be honest).

So back onto the minibus we jumped en routed to the death railway. Still a little damp from the waterfall, hair in disarray and all of us feeling the hunger, the death railway was really the least thing we were interested in. But the history behind it was impressive, the reasons for which it was built and the short amount of time it was built in would have been interesting to hear if the guides voice was loud enough to reach the back of the minibus. Beautiful views and a little opportunity to buy elephant print trousers and mini elephants were all perfectly timed as the train was on 'thai time'. We got on to the train and off the train 20 minutes later to then go see the bridge over the river Kwai (my uncle gently reminds me its a film I should watch... When I get back maybe). I brought a coconut and enjoyed a little Indian style coconut water and off we set back home, the only discussion home was to decide if we should get changed, ready to go out, or eat first (EAT FIRST). Enjoyed the best vegetable spring rolls ever (up until then) and then showered (washed my hair again) and was off to enjoy a night out for Olivia's birthday.

We really enjoyed the food and ambiance at Peng Pong and decided why not have breakfast there too. Beans on toast with a bacon rasher (why are they called rashers?) and wrote a postcard or two and off we went back home (well not the UK...).
Back to school for week two!

Also just an FYI... I'm still waiting to upload my camera pictures. All these pictures I post with my posts are all just taken on my phone. I'll have a pure picture post soonish.

Images
1. Mango smoothie (mmm icy and refreshing)
2. Journey to the hotel from the bus station
3. Fish and a little portion of chips
4, 5 & 6. Waterfalls (can't remember which one)
7. Wooden bridge (not going to lie, it was a little scary)
8. Little selfie before we got repeated from the rest of the group
9, 10 & 11. More terrain and waterfall
12. Making our way down bamboo to a bamboo raft
13. Train to Kanchanaburi on the death railway
14. Nice little path en route to the waterfall
15. Bridge over the river Kwai
16. Coconut
17. Spring rolls and noodles (burger... Not mine... I mean I was hungry but not that hungry)

The elephant pics are on the camera... Sorry, hopefully upload some soon! x

First Weekend in Kanchanaburi and First Week of Teaching

So I'm 24 days in and I've spent the last two weekends in the backpacker area of Kanchanaburi city and this weekend in Bangkok (but that's another post in the making!)

First weekend in Kanchanaburi:
Well it rained and poured and rained a little more. Ok, I say a little but it was more like a constant shower of water since the Thursday night (just after a quick run to the Tesco Lotus for a pastry and ice cream). Roseanne and I met with Kate and Dave for an afternoon munch and had a really interesting catch up and 'getting to know you session' over a fresh fruit drink (passion fruit) and food. We were staying in a lush 650TB per night guesthouse called Noble Nights (little did we know that there were cheaper rooms and were a little mislead to taking the room for the whole weekend!) But at an awkward time of the month the comfort was much appreciated! A little bit of luxury in an air conditioned room and en suite not-so hot shower and English toilet made it a little hard to leave on Sunday but we knew the quicker we went back the sooner we could come back to a similar style (not so expensive) room. Apart from the home stay on Friday, we all adventured out on Friday evening to enjoy a little Western food at a bar on the backpacker strip. I literally devoured an omelette covering rice and chicken and a side of carbs (in other words fries) with a helping of the good old tomato ketchup. It was amazing, never loved food like I did that! After a meal (I'm making it sound like a posh affair but it weren't, we all yammed hard and moved towards the sofa for group bonding time!) Obviously after a week apart we all had a few stories to tell and a bit of steam to let off. Drink anyone?

So I don't really plan on drinking much while I'm out here (as I can basically do that back home) but I do plan on trying a few local drinks. So the first one... A Spy. Its a wine cooler, nothing fancy but sweet. But anyway... the Friday night ended at Blue Jeans, a live band, rock and old school kind of place (which we just keep on going back to). The Sunday (omg) we found Wilson and Rob at a quiet Australian cafe which made the best fry up breakfast ever (that one 130TB breakfast was my only food on that day, it was that good). Talking about food, (yes, this may someday turn into a food blog the way I keep going) the Saturday night we enjoyed an Italian meal. I had a spicy chili chicken pasta and garlic bread. It tasted amazing and would totally recommend this place for food (not so much for the entertainment, I will say no more... But if you're travelling as a couple you may not enjoy it so much but on the good side they show sports on the TV there!). We headed to the city shopping bit near the bus station, window shopped through a couple of market stalls and caught the bus home (a well ventilated hot kind of bus) back to WangSala where the Sunday evening consisted of washing clothes and adjusting back to a hard bed nights sleep.

Teaching Time:
Nerves, number one because of the language barrier and more nerves because I was timetabled to teach... Wait for it... Teenagers! Matium (grade) 1, 2 & 3 were all timetabled for me and oh my god were the most traumatic moments ever. Guess you're wondering why well...

We were given a massive introduction to the school over a tannoy to the students then I was guided (and left) in a classroom full of 20+ kids who didn't know much English.

So the perception I had about teaching abroad was tragically broken on the first day. The teenagers here are exactly like those back at home; the attitude, the not bothered approach to learning, the cool kids clique and the smart kids were all (I am unhappy to say) encountered in my first lesson. A classroom full of teenagers staring back at me blankly as I spoke to them in a total foreign language with the 'no intention to learn' look. Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, in my second lesson thus reoccurred and a student was asleep at the back of the class (so not good). The Monday was a horrific tragedy and a traumatising experience I was happy to forget. On the good side, however I met a group of girls who played volleyball and had a 15 minute knock about at the end of the school day (trust me, with the heat and exhaustion of waking up at 6.30am that was long enough) and I am now timetabled to play volleyball with them every Monday and Wednesday.

Prepping for lessons between those I taught was a good way to fill the time and I learnt that the younger ones knew more than the 16 year old... I mean what!! So back to basics I went with a name game and an introduction to colours.

For the rest of the week I taught (well tried to) English and helped Roseanne with the kindergartens singing the wheels on the bus, heads shoulders knees and toes and if you're happy and you know it. The enthusiasm to learn and get involved was also witnessed in my p6 class, where the students were more happy about learning new words and English. This reminded me of why I was here and was ready for a challenge to get the teens attention and make a lesson more appealing so they want to learn. I'm timetabled to endure the painful teenagers classes twice a week... Oh the joy?! (It gets better... just like the cold water hose baths are in the mornings now).

Lunch:
I think this deserves a special section as I'm sure you're all aware I can't get enough of posting pictures of my lunch (for those of you not following me, my instagram name is NP120... may as well plug this). Lunch here always consists of rice with some sort of chicken and soup dish. All yummy but strange and to be honest I can't really complain because being served lunch at 11.30am is pretty much brunch and I love brunch! Fruit or ice-cream also helps complete the meal.

And Friday... Two weeks in and teaching would not be the only thing I would find challenging. Bring on the weekend!

Images:
1. Noble Night hotel
2. Rain in Kanchanaburi
3 & 4. pastry after and before it was devoured
5. Chicken rice covered by an omelette (which also contained chicken)
6, 7 & 8. Food, food, food.
9. Spy drink
10. Bar on Saturday night next to Noble Night
11. #LoveTEFL crew
12 & 13. Full English and coffee
14. The mall also KFC making an appearance
15. Tuk tuk (funny story, no where else to add it but here... So this is the thing which took me and Roseanne to our hotel. The poor guy that was pedalling was unfortunate to have us and my heavily packed weekend bag on the back! Only made 80tb from us and a little more from the hotel... How you wonder? Well you have to read the next blog.)
16. Morning assembly
17. My volleyball coaches
18. Kindergartens