Going where I’ve never been

…do as the Romans do. When in Thailand, don’t necessarily do all of the things that the Thais do. Especially when it comes to driving! I finally broke down and rented a scooter on Monday afternoon, although I wasn’t completely sure it was a good idea. I had no concerns over operating the machine, since I drive one in Austin, but I definitely had concerns about that left-hand-side-of-the-road thing and was downright fearful when it came to the other drivers on the road!

You can rent a motorbike pretty much anywhere in Phuket…restaurants, mini-marts, bars, massage places, laundry places, the guy walking on the side of the road. Everyone who is anyone has at least one bike sitting around just waiting to be lent to the next crazy foreigner who thinks he/she is well equipped to drive here. I saw a few bikes sitting outside of an internet café a few doors down and decided to try my luck there. The process of renting a vehicle in Thailand goes like this:

Me: How much for the motorbike?
Lady: How long? 200 baht.
Me: 3 days – 150 baht?
Lady: Okay, you wait just minute. Automatic or manual?
Me: Automatic
Lady: Yes, very easy for you! You wait.
She goes to get the keys, has me fill out a paper with my name, where I’m staying and what day I’m bringing it back. As she hands me a helmet and I get on the bike she asks “You know how drive?” I say yes and she grins, says “have fun, you pay Thursday!” and that is that.

Whole different ball game than at home! For less than 5 dollars a day (which I’ve yet to pay) and not so much as a license check, I have a vehicle and it is just assumed that I’ll come back with it in three days. Things are so easy here!

I wasn’t feeling too good about it at first, as it was right around 5:00, the roads were busy and there was no time to “get a feel” for how traffic worked. I rode one loop around our beach and decided to put it up until the chaos died down a bit. I went out again after dark, when the roads were empty, and started feeling pretty comfortable, getting the hang of which way to look for certain turns, etc. The next morning I went out once more after my run and LOVED it – the roads were empty, I could ride around the mountain with jungle on one side and a gorgeous sunrise over the ocean on the other side. I wished I’d gotten a bike weeks ago!

Now that I felt like a pro at driving on the left-hand side, it was time to tackle the issue of the other drivers. I had no intentions of going into town, I really just wanted the scooter so that I could see a few other beaches and get up the mountains a bit easier. Let me start off with a statistic that I wish I didn’t know: 200 people die every year on Phuket ALONE in motorbike accidents. It makes sense – the roads are winding, hilly and crowded, and half of the drivers are tourists that don’t know what the hell they’re doing. They try to drive in an orderly, western fashion which honestly just does not work here.

The way it works is that everyone looks at what the person in front of them is doing and then makes decisions from that. Blind spot? What’s that? Passing on a curve? Why not? Left lane? The right lane has more space! Car coming headon? They’ll move. I’m not exaggerating one bit. If a road has two lanes going each way, cars will drive right on the center, two wheels in each lane. The motorbikes will just go around them wherever they can get through, and at stoplights the cars will line up in chaotic fashion while the bikes will weave their way up the sides and through the middle to get to the front, only to be re-passed by the cars as soon as the light turns green. Sometimes markets will decide they need more space, and booths will be set up right in the middle of the lane – people can just go around them, right?

Everyone from 12 year old boys to 90 year old women are driving cars, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles, food carts, tuktuks, songtaews – if it has wheels it is fair game. I’ve seen scooters with four people on them, dogs standing on the back, cats sitting on the front, entire restaurant setups attached to the sidecar. Stray dogs are everywhere, and their favorite place to nap is right in the middle of the road. It’s so much fun to look at, not as much fun to drive in! Luckily it’s relatively tame in our immediate area (the beaches are all away from town, and it’s low season which means there are not very many people around) and I’ve come out unscathed.

I’m glad that I rented it, as it’s been fun to drive and really nice to see some other areas, but I will also be a bit relieved to take it back this afternoon. Besides, there is a certain someone who REALLY doesn’t like my riding around Phuket on motorbike, and I don’t want him to keep worrying about it. I’m off to Bangkok tomorrow where I will definitely not be touching any sort of two-wheeled vehicle!

p.s. I’ve added more photos to my flickr site, which again is where I will be putting them all from now on. In case you missed the link last time, it is

http://flickr.com/photos/26728799@N06/

Save it!

I haven’t written much about class and/or teaching, but that’s because there wasn’t a whole lot to tell in the beginning. We just completed our final week of training (I cannot believe how time flies!) which consisted entirely of “TP,” or teaching practice. It was set up pretty simply; there are 15 trainees, so they split us up into three groups of five. There were 90 lower-level students (14-15 years old) who were split into three groups of 30 and all sat through 3 classes in the mornings. In the afternoon there were 90 higher-level students (16-17 years old) that came for the same thing, but only had to sit through two classes.

What made this especially difficult for the students (and thus the teachers as well) was that not only is this their summer break, but we are all practicing the same basic model of teaching. This means that by the end, they’ve had to sit through 5 days of the same damn thing, over and over again. On top of that, Monday was a national holiday, but we are required to have 5 days of teaching practice. How is that solved? School on Saturday, of course!

I was the first one to go on Tuesday morning, and was more nervous than I’ve ever been for a new job before. Teaching is more or less performing, and I was not only put in front of 30 teenagers (we all know that they can be ruthless, and these particular ones know that I can’t speak their language!) but I also had five observers in the back, pens and pencils poised. It was a challenge because we really had no idea what their English level would be like, so the lesson was going to have to be adapted along the way.

It turned out that going first was the best thing that could have happened to me – the nervousness disappeared as soon as I got going, and the students were super attentive since everything was new for them. As the day wore on, that interested level dropped quickly! There were a couple of kids that could speak workable English, or at least understand my instructions, but for the most part it was very challenging! Just trying to get them to get up and stand in a circle at the beginning was a serious trick, as no one knew the word “circle” or had any clue what I was getting at. My art skills are going to be the best teaching tool I’ve got – I’ve drawn more this week than I have since high school art class!

The second day was a lot tougher. The kids were sufficiently bored and well aware that they were supposed to be on holiday. The girls are all great, but the boys can be little bastards! There are no problems anywhere near what you find in American classrooms, they just get very talkative and distracted, and enjoy plenty of “bathroom breaks.” Every five minutes someone else waves their hand, jumps up and says “Teacher, I go toilet now!” as they run out while their friends giggle. I managed to get through the lesson in one piece and told myself that I’ve got to figure out how to come off at least SLIGHTLY authoritative! Unfortunately a raised voice and a “stern” persona are not things that I possess…

The next two days were fantastic, as I got put with the afternoon groups who are older, speak more English and have infinitely longer attention spans! The lessons went perfectly, and I really enjoyed myself. Today (Saturday) was the final day, and we were all prepared to have it be a tough one. The plan was to just do four straight lessons in the morning and be done with it, as opposed to doing three then going to lunch. On top of that, they had both groups come, enlarging our classes to about 50 students. And then on top of THAT, it is Saturday and I was scheduled to teach the fourth and final class! I was ready for a beating, but it actually went very smoothly and the kids were fine. It was a   massive class and they were very talkative, very ready to go, but I made it as fun as I could and made sure that they knew that I knew they were tired of it.  I ended up having a good time and am feeling pretty confident about this teaching thing, especially since I’ll be with 20-year old college kids in my real job!

So anyways, about Thai schools…it really is a whole different world. Thai people are very shy, especially the kids. This is not a culture that places importance on individuality, in fact it is the exact opposite. There is definitely a safety-in-numbers mentality, and you’ll never find a student who will volunteer to speak or get in front of the class without bringing a friend along. You can’t rely on someone raising their hand to answer, you have to pick someone then coax them. They don’t like to have anyone singled out, for anything. Kids wear uniforms from preschool through university so that there is no class distinction or anything like that. At the same time, Thais are very fun-loving people and the kids are enjoyable, they laugh constantly and there is always a good vibe in the classroom. That said, English classes are very different from any of their other classes…

Thai teachers are very authoritative and classes are run lecture-style – creative freedom and participation don’t really exist in regular classes. Corporal punishment is also traditionally practiced, and while it is not used everywhere, for the most part it is still very common. Foreign (ie English) teachers cannot lay a hand on students, and a foreign language class relies on participation and lots of interactivity. Understandably, kids can get out of hand in English classes, though if a Thai teacher walks in it is INSTANT silence! I saw this phenomenon yesterday and it was unreal – literally everyone in the room shut their mouth, sat up straight and didn’t blink the second that the teacher stepped in the doorway.

Thai students also cannot fail, ever (going back to everyone being equal, no one gets singled out), so there honestly isn’t much incentive to work too hard. It’s a deeply running cultural thing, something that in one way is wonderful (everyone is so laid back, so friendly, so happy), yet is also a big problem (little to no progress in many areas of society).

I could go on and on about culture, but I’ll save that for another post. There are many contradictions here, and a major one that I’ve seen this past week regards the ladyboys. If you don’t know what a ladyboy is, it is exactly what it sounds like. Guys have to be careful in bars because a good portion of the Thai girls up for grabs (usually the most attractive ones) are NOT actually girls.

Apparently this gets going at an early age… We had at least 5 or 6 ladyboys in our classes this past week, none of them older than 16. Basically they still wear the boys’ uniform, but wear full makeup, carry purses and are extremely effeminate. They hang out with the girls and seem completely accepted by both sexes – there are no strange looks or awkwardness if you pair one up with another boy. My favorite moment of the past week was when I was playing a ‘name game’ at the beginning of a class and one of the ladyboys gave his name as “Beyonce!” Anyways, it’s so strange considering what a conservative and tradition-focused culture this is. Many, many contradictions, but again, I’ll save it for later. For right now, it’s time for a “we-finished-the-course” beer!

…It’s going to be tough to do.

I’ve fallen behind with my posting, but for good reason! Last week was uneventful yet busy in terms of class, and thanks to a three day weekend about ten of us headed out to Rai Leh beach, just returning this afternoon.

I can sum up Rai Leh in one word: paradise. It was absolutely breathtaking and absolutely worth the process of getting there. After a late night of drinks and swimming at the beach, everyone finally got themselves up on Saturday morning and packed a bag. We caught a bus (again, this pretty much means the back of a truck) to the Phuket bus station where we found an air conditioned van to drive us the 3 hours to Krabi for only $4 per person. Once in Krabi we bargained with some tuktuk drivers until we found a guy that would take us to the Ao Naemo pier for $1 per person. He took us about halfway, obviously having no clue where he was going, then stopped on the side of the road and passed us off to a more competent driver who took us the rest of the way.

Once we got to the pier we had a short wait as it was low tide and the boat had to be dragged in for boarding. I bought the most delicious snack ever from a woman on the street, sticky rice with fresh coconut wrapped in a banana leaf and then followed everyone through the mud to the longboat. We finally pulled into Rai Leh bay around 3:30pm and again had a long slippery walk through knee-deep water to the beach (note to self: get on boats at high tide!). It was BEAUTIFUL. Rai Leh is a major rock climbing destination (and the place that Gabe and I will most likely be hanging out at for a while as soon as my teaching gig is over) and of course, with the scenery as it is, a major resort destination.

We hiked around with our backpacks, sweating and wanting nothing more than a dip in the ocean – unfortunately we needed a place first. The entire island is pretty much a network of resorts/hostels and bars/restaurants and there are paths connecting all of them. The places that we immediately came to were of course far out of our price range and definitely not the sort of atmosphere that we were after. We finally found a fellow backpacker on the beach who directed us to the opposite side of the island, where we found rooms for $8/person. They were really nice, bigger than we needed with TV, fridge, hot water, nice patios, etc. We figured there was cheaper, but 250baht was more than doable and we really wanted to swim!

The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent swimming, napping, enjoying massage on the beach and waiting for the incredible sunset. That evening we went to a few bars, beginning with the most laid-back establishment I’ve ever been in, the Stone Bar (you get the idea). It was this awesome set up – the actual bar on a big circular bamboo platform at the foot of a huge rock face with hammocks lining the perimeter. Around the main platform were a several small bamboo platforms with cushions to recline on and low tables set your drinks on…it’s tough to describe how it looked, but I’m about ready to buy it from them and run it myself!

After a drink or two there we came across a cave down the path that had a sign saying “Entry 40baht.” Naturally there was no one there at 10pm, so we got out our lighters and gave ourselves a tour! They had built a bamboo walkway through this cave and it was pretty creepy…Not so much because of the dark or the crazy rock formations, but because of the thousands of bats nesting up above! Raina and I were a bit freaked out by that, as these bats (2-3 foot wingspans, these were not Austin bats!) did not seem happy to have us there, so we turned back after a few minutes. Everyone else did the whole walk and came out unscathed, so we headed to another bar where we celebrated Lisa’s birthday well into the night.

We’d had every intention of coming back Sunday night, but decided that a second night was in order. We had a wonderful breakfast at a restaurant up in a tree and then took a walk down a path to see what was there. Luckily it was the Rai leh Cabana, a true backpacker place that only wanted $3 per person. We got our stuff and moved in – these were thatched roof bungalows with mosquito nets, no hot water, wooden plank floors full of gaps, a non-flush toilet and bananas growing on the tree outside – it was great! Exactly what I’d been preparing myself for in Thailand…

That afternoon we got on a boat to go snorkeling at four different islands. It was awesome, I’ve really never done that before and I was blown away (especially at the reef sharks swimming around)! The reefs were incredible and water is crystal clear – it’s this crazy whole other world down there! I could’ve stayed down for hours, and am even more motivated to get my diving certification now.

The guide was this older South African who has been living in Thailand for about 10 years now and has been taking people out on boat trips since day one. He was a really neat guy and we got to hear things that you would NEVER here on a tour in the states – on the way to the second island he asked “so is anyone interested in free climbing or cliff jumping? There’s a great spot up here, you just need to be pretty strong because the only way to get up is to climp up a rope…I think it’s pretty secure. Just don’t fall, there are a lot of rocks on that side.” In the end, the waves were too crazy to be able to do it , but I’m sure it would’ve been 100% safe, as everything in Thailand is (right?)!

Once the sun started to go down he took us to his “office,” a tiny secluded island with flawless sand and some of the best views ever. He showed us a small patch of sand that was a different color, saying to put our stuff there because the tide would eventually come in over the rest of the beach. We hung out there for a good three hours, saw an amazing sunset, watched bats take off from a nearby island and had an amazing dinner (a big pot of coconut milk, green curry, mussels, shrimp and vegetables, with rice of course).

Around 9pm everyone packed up and we got back into our two longboats which took us to yet another spot where we went nightswimming to see the water light up (if you’ve ever seen “The Beach,” you know what I’m talking about). It’s due to the phosphorus in the water – moving around in the water creates a sort of glowing effect, like lots of tiny fireflies everywhere around you. It was pretty amazing!

We had a low-key night, dousing ourselves in mosquito spray before sleeping in our huts (along with many other creatures, I’m sure). We left early this morning and got back around lunch to get busy on lesson planning.

This will already be our final week of training (?!?), which means that we are doing nothing but teaching practices aaaaaalllllll week long. Naturally I am the first one to go (thanks, Mom and Dad, for naming me with an “A” ☺ ), so at 9am tomorrow I will be thrown to the wolves (ie 30 15-year old Thai kids). Cross your fingers for me!

I have hundreds (seriously) photos from this past weekend, so I uploaded a good number of them here:

http://flickr.com/photos/26728799@N06/

I’ll be doing that from now on as I don’t have all that much space on this blog. Save that link as well and check it often – you won’t be disappointed!

Seriously, it’s a real concern here…those things fall out of the trees like bombs, and they do it often! It would sure be an embarrassing way to go…

Despite the many “dangers,” I am still loving every minute here. On Saturday morning my housemates and I took a walk down to Rawai beach to find someone to take us to an island, preferably Ko Phi Phi. We had already been through a couple of rainshowers, but that wasn’t going to deter us! “Johnny” was the first guy to wave at us, so we asked him about Phi Phi and he said no, the waves were way too big and wind far too strong for his longboat (basically a long wooden plank boat with a small motor on the back). He said that he would take us to Coral Island plus one other island for 1000baht total (roughly $7/person) – we were sold.

We were blessed with great weather for the 45 minute ride out, and enjoyed blue water, hundreds of lush islands in the distance and plenty of sun. We got to the island and were the ONLY foreigners on the beach – the only other people were Thai food staff and boat guys. It was great, and the place was absolutely stunning – the water blew away what I’ve seen of the Bahamas. The nice weather lasted a good hour, giving us some good tanning and swimming time. Then the storms started rolling in…

You could see the islands start disappearing one by one as the rain moved towards us, and everyone ran for the covered eating area. We, of course, decided that it’d be a good time to go snorkeling! There were some cool fish and Raina found some Oakleys, but overall it was pretty murky due to the rain and we couldn’t get out to see the reef or anything.

We finally gave up and went to eat and wait out 4 or 5 five more storms before Johnny decided that it was okay to leave. I was more than a bit apprehensive, but figured (prayed!) that he knew what his boat could handle. It took a good ten minutes of being sent airborne over the swells before I finally relaxed and had the time of my life! We were all holding on for dear life, shrieking at every massive wave while Johnny just perched on the back, completely relaxed and having a great time laughing at us!

That night a big group of us went out drinking at Kata beach. In theory, bars close at midnight, but in practice they close whenever people quit buying things. We kept buying things until nearly two, finally leaving only to discover that taxis and tuk-tuks do NOT stick around that late. We weren’t quite sure what to do as home was one very dark mountain away, so we returned to the bar. Luckily the bartender was awesome, jumped on his scooter and returned ten minutes later with two friends and two cars.

On Sunday I awoke to beautiful weather and was at the beach before 10am. There is a “storm warning” for the next five days and the waves were HUGE. There were red flags all over the beach warning swimmers to stay away, but of course I had to at least feel the water. I literally could not go beyond ankle-deep water without being knocked over – needless to say, I didnt dare venture out any further!

That evening a few of us went to the big temple complex here on Phuket, which was incredibly beautiful and really neat to see. Unfortunately it was overrun by tourists (mostly the Japanese kind), but I knew that it would be and am looking forward to eventually getting up north and seeing the temples there.

The weather is still holding out and the humidity has dropped a ton, making the past two days perfect for sitting outside and enjoying the views and sounds (or lack thereof). For now, however, it’s time for school once more…

…and now that I’ve actually read my blog, I realized that I’ve included quite a few. I’ll try to rush a little less with these entries!

Today it rained and rained and rained and then rained a bit – no, a LOT – more. It’s pretty incredible, really. The most incredible thing is that 90% of the population drives scooters, and they continue to do so in torrential rain while continuing to carry entire families, ladders, umbrellas (ANYTHING) along with them. I shy away from my scooter in even a drizzle, rain can be painful when you’re moving over 20mph!

Along with the rain comes muddy, river-esque  roads, extremely lush flora, hoardes of mosquitoes and a quiet Friday night shut indoors. Being shut indoors, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that you are shielded from the great outdoors!

The showers in our place consist of a shower head on the wall with a small drain in the corner of the bathroom. Basically, the entire bathroom floor functions as the ‘bathtub’ and once you are done, you squeegee (?) as much water as you can down the drain. The rest of the water simply has to evaporate, which is sped up due to the windows that don’t close. Each window consists of two sheets of glass with about a four inch gap in between them. This lets in a great variety of creatures and teaches you to leave any open boxes of food IN THE FRIDGE.

Anyways, about an hour ago we discovered a black and white lizard the size of a cat sneaking it’s way in between the panels of glass, looking for refuge from the storm. My housemate Raina’s scream was enough to help him change his mind before he’d gotten too far in, and we’re hoping that it was enough to scare him off for good! With that said, there is a gecko living in my bedroom that I’m perfectly fine with, as he takes care of any mosquitoes or other insects that find their way inside.

Tomorrow’s package deal won’t happen since too many people backed out due to rain, but a few of us are going to walk down to the harbor and find someone to take us out to Ko Phi Phi for the day, bypassing all of that unnecessary buffet lunch and whatnot. It should be far less expensive and much better (in my book, at least) than being shuttled around all day. I’m not worried about the rain, we’re getting wet either way!

Hopefully I’ll have some good photos (again, weather-permitting… the camera may not come along) tomorrow, but for now I have a $3 bottle of Thai brandy to get to…

We finally got our official school/housing assignments yesterday and I am in fact in an area of Bangkok (outskirts though, luckily) and will be teaching at a vocational college (ages 18-20). That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll know english…Thai people know surprisingly few english words at all, they just make sure to have their signs and menus translated in tourist areas. There really isn’t a good grasp on our language at all here, which makes sense once you try to saw a few words in theirs!

Anyways, my housing was described as an “apartment” (we’ll see what that entails) with free internet, but no bed or hot water. Luckily the bed thing was a typo, but unfortunately the hot water thing was no! In any case, free internet will be nice, and three of my classmates will be living in the same place.

I’ve masted hello, thankyou, and sign language quite well by now, along with the art of removing your shoes before going inside a shop, the wai (bowing for greetings), the sign for “check please,” and am well aware that I should always use ‘rock paper scissors’ and not a coin toss to determine things in class (money has the king’s image on it, which is revered as the image of Jesus is…they view him as both a leader and the father of all fathers, you should never ever let a coin touch the ground!).

I’ve finally left my safe little running sidewalk and gone out exploring a bit more in the mornings, and have been well rewarded with new beaches, new food stands, more runners and a million more stray dogs.

This weekend (weather permitting…it rains every few hours) a group of us are going to head out to Phi Phi Island (where “the beach” was filmed), monkey beach (hundreds of monkeys running around) and a few other remote islands. Package tours aren’t usually my thing, but we’re getting a 12 hour day, food/drinks, several otherwise inaccessible islands and snorkeling gear for a great deal! Note to anyone who might come to Phuket for vacation…do NOT book things like this in advance or through a hotel! Go straight to the guy with the boat! This package sells online for 3500Baht ($120) and we are getting to go for 1300Baht (about $40)…it didn’t even take any bargaining!

I’ve got homework to get to, thanks to everyone for the comments!

But it’s actually a good time! We met our instructor, a Dutch guy named Kors, on Sunday night at the bar next door. After many, many beers with him, we were expecting a pretty laid back, slow-paced education. Once Monday came around we found that it’ll be quite a bit more intensive than we may have thought, but it’s extremely imformative and after only two days in class I’m feeling much more confident about getting in front of a class. He did an entire lesson in Dutch to illustrate how our Thai students will feel when we start speaking nothing but English to them, and it was quite eye-opening.

I’ve been starting my day with a run around the only sidewalk in sight, which is about a 2K loop around a lagoon. Thais are up very early, and many of them are out running at 6am. I had a cheering squad this morning (a group of young runners that I passed) and then one of them tried to race me…I left him in the dust 🙂 It’s a great time of day, and I also saw my first monks this morning, walking barefoot down the road with their rice-collection bowls. It really is a whole different world, and I’m really enjoying it thus far.

We are training at a college in Phuket – every morning a song taew (a basically a noisy, smelly truck with a covered bed and two benches running down each side) comes to take us the 45 minutes to the school. On the first morning the entire Thai staff was there to take photo after photo, followed shortly by the cameras for the local TV station! We all dressed up as we were told, but luckily the rules (for training) are much more lax than that and today we were able to show up in pants and flip flops.

Yesterday they took us to a Tesco for lunch (a huge supermarket chain almost everywhere but the USA – it has everything from groceries to clothing to a mall to a food court…walmart-ish), which was good because I was able to find a pair of flipflops (men’s size LARGE), bad because the food choices were things like KFC, McDonalds, etc etc. We all decided against that and were able to find food near the school. None of these places have roman letters, much less english, so ordering was quite an ordeal. Using a phrasebook we thought that we ordered a few different dishes, but the woman cooking apparently took the safe route and served us all the same dish, fried rice with chicken and chilies. It was very tasty and cost less than a dollar, so no complaints from us! I think next time I’ll use the point-and-pray method…

I just got in from a post-school swim in the ocean with a few friends and am now about to head down the road in search of more cheap, delicious Thai food (surprisingly hard to find around here, as it’s a tourist area and there are many italian, mexican, french, etc places). There will be more photos soon…

So I’m here in Phuket and things are pretty much wonderful! I landed yesterday around noon, my bag made it with me, and I was promptly picked up, along with a fellow trainee, by a guy named Neil. He drove us the hour or so to our accommodations, which actually surpassed the photographs! We have little beach “villas,” 3 or 4 in each one, with our own bedrooms upstairs and a common living room/kitchen/patio downstairs. There is a beautiful pool on site and we are less than a five minute walk from one of the 12 beaches on the island.

This is definitely a tourist area, but it’s a good, easy introduction to Thailand and the food is still quite cheap, the roads are still chaotic, the people are amazingly friendly and it is HOT. It feels like Florida in the dead of summer, complete with afternoon thunderstorms and palm trees doubled over in the wind. It’s wonderful!

There are 15 of us in the group and everyone has hit it off extremely well. It’s a good mix of girls and guys, americans, canadians and brits. We’re all expecting our “training” to be pretty lax and are looking forward to what will more or less be a month of vacation at a beach resort.

No matter how cheap things are, however (beer excluded – one beer costs as much as a meal), it is EASY to spend far too much. There is too much to do, too much to eat, too much to drink and too many neat things to buy. I should be fine as I’m pretty good at moderation, but I will certainly be spending more than expected here. There are several of us that want to get our diving certification done, so we’re going to try to pull it off while we’re here – hopefully during the week between this course and when we start to teach, as it is a four day ordeal.

I’m still weighing the pros and cons of renting a scooter – it’s cheap (the girl next door got one for three weeks and paid less than $100) and I would love to be able to get around the island, actually see it while I’m here without having to hire transport (there are more varieties than you can possible imagine!), but I am slightly concerned about making through the month without an accident! It’s actually not that busy on the island and no one drives fast, but they do drive on the left (sometimes), lanes are merely suggestions, and the signs (whatever the say) might as well not be there. Needless to say, they haven’t really discovered sidewalks and walking isn’t always the smartest option! So we’ll see.

Anyways, things are great so far and I think that I’m in love with the place. We lucked out and the ethernet connection in our villa (which is supposed to cost 1000Baht/month) is working and we are enjoying free internet. My only regret is in not bringing more clothing…you are literally soaked the second that you walk outside. Luckily clothes are cheap and plentiful here…I just may have to lose a few pounds first!

Strangely enough, China seems to be the only place along my journey to offer free wifi in the airport! The bulk of my flight(s) is done, I’m here in Hong Kong waiting for the final 3 hour leg to Phuket.

I boarded the plane in San Francisco at 1:30am on Friday and landed 14 hours later at 6am on Saturday – I’m still trying to wrap my head around that, but the flight overall wasn’t bad. It was a huge, comfortable double-decker plane – they served us dinner, I promptly went to sleep and that’s really all that I did until breakfast time. The jetlag shouldn’t be bad at all…

It’s really foggy and drizzly out, but I was able to catch a small glimpse of fishing boats and mountains as we flew in earlier – it appears to be a beautiful place.

I’m already starting to get used to being the only blonde for miles around and hearing more or less no english. Of course, this being an airport, everything is subtitled and I really don’t feel too out-of-my-element yet. I’m sure it’ll hit, and soon…

But this is where I will be spending the month of May (rent free, mind you)…

http://www.naiharnvilla.com/

…and that makes the nervousness turn into excitement! 2 hours til I head out, it’ll probably be a few days before I get back on here!