Chiang Mai part 1 - First weekend

Chiang Mai is so amazing! When I first got there it seemed so daunting but little did I know that over the 3 weeks I was there it would eventually feel like home. Compared to Bangkok, Chiang Mai was a whole lot quieter, cleaner and less smelly.

As soon as we exited the train station we were surrounded by millions of taxi drivers calling us over. We had been told by our reps to get a red truck to our guesthouse. A red tuck is a red, van sized vehicle with a row of seats on the right and a row of seats on the left. You climb in through the back, where there is no back door- and fairly often you find people hanging out the back when all the seats are filled up.

The inside of a red truck

Anyway, we got on the red truck along with several other backpackers - who all seemed so much older than us and Alex and I felt like total kids.

Our friend Tori had waited for us at the guesthouse (Libra guesthouse) as everyone else had gone out. As soon as we got to our room we got dumped our stuff, got changed and went out again as quickly as possible.

The others were at a bar which we arrived at after a 10 minute red truck ride. Everyone was excited to hear about our project as I think a lot of people were pretty anxious about what to expect. We stayed at the bar for a drink before moving on to a different one. The second bar was fab as there was a dancefloor and the music arrangement was YouTube being played over speakers. This was great as we could request any song we wanted including my favourite: Barbie Girl.

The next day after a late breakfast at our local bar (Thai 1 On) a bunch of us went to a local hotel swimming pool which was great as we had the pool to ourselves. A few people even had underwater cameras meaning we could take a load of, pretty awful, underwater pics!

That evening we all went out the Sunday market which was only a 10 minute walk from Libra. The market was amazing. There were great food, great music, loads of colours and an amazing atmosphere. I got a spring roll and a pot of buttered sweetcorn for only 20฿ - about 35p!

Uthai thani

So I woke up at half 5 today and after getting ready and making sure our room was clear Alex and I headed to 7/11 to top up our sim cards.

Today Alex and I were heading to Uthai Thani whilst everyone else was taking a train straight to Chiang Mai. Alex and I were the only ones heading to our project because our host P'Ae insisted that we needed to sign some documents ASAP. Which I was totally fine with. I couldn't wait to get to Uthai Thani and meet everyone!

After everyone else had left in taxis to the train station, Nici (our representative) took us to a bus station. When I say bus station I mean a ticket booth under a bridge with a minibus which leaves whenever it fills up.

The bus journey was 3 hours long and relatively cramped as I had both my suitcase and my handbag down by my legs.
About half way through the journey we made a pit stop and for some reason everyone had to get off the bus. We were so confused and just spent about half an hour sitting in the bus station petrified that the bus was somehow going to leave without us!

Anyway, we made it back onto the bus and we carried on our journey.

We stopped at Uthai Thani bus station where P'Ae greeted us with a hug, lots of pics and food.

We drove to Uthaiwitayakhom school (where we'll be teaching) and we were greeted by the other members of the English department. Everyone was amazingly kind to us and we were given more food!(Bearing in mind that Alex and I had stocked up for our bus journey and we hadn't finished the food that P'Ae had given us). They had also put our pictured up on the doors to the English department along with a sign saying 'Welcome to Uthaiwittayakhom School'. Which was so sweet, but it was a really awful photo of me taken just after the ferry ride on my selection course! As P'Ae was sorting out a load of our documents, one of the other farang English teachers took us on a mini tour around school. The school is huge, there's teacher accommodation, a massive 'area' with a roof (which is still being built), 4 department buildings, a cafeteria, a shop, a pool, a gym and a load of other buildings. We also saw a students who looked about 13 riding motorcycles without helmets - which is apparently very normal here!
After signing loads of documents we left the school with P'Ae and Ong (a student and Pe Ae's nephew). They took us to get lunch which consisted of French fries, rice and onion rings!

The next stop was the bank to sort out our Thai bank accounts. Ong and P'Ae had to translate for us and the whole ordeal took well over an hour - staying awake is an incredibly hard thing to do when you're sitting in silence in a quiet place whilst jet lagged!

Finally, we were able to visit our host family's home. We are staying with P'tong (who is a teacher at our school), his nephew Tos, the grandfather and Kao. Almost as soon as we got there P'Ae explained that we were incredibly tired so we were shown to our room and fell straight asleep!

When we awoke our host family took us up to the nearest major town - Nakhon Sawan which is apparently where everyone from Uthai Thani goes for fun.

Here, P'tong very kindly bought us both a T-shirt and me some flip flops before taking us to Swensens for ice cream!
That day was the first day that I tried durian ice cream and it was delicious (although Alex wasn't too keen)!

Then, we want out for dinner, right after finishing our ice cream. We drove to a restaurant which seemed to be cowboy themed as it was wooden and there were people in cowboy hats singing on stage. There wasn't a lot of veggie food here so Alex and I settled for a salad.

On the way home we saw loads of dogs sleeping on the road which is common - apparently they do have owners but they're mostly left to the own devices outside.

The next morning P'Ae and Ong came and picked us up to drive us to the train station. At this time Alex and I had just finished breakfast (which had consisted of some sort of watery rice, eggs and chives). So we rushed to brush our teeth before saying thank you and rushing out the door.

Our train arrived at 11:50 and P'Ae seemed to know the conductor as he helped carry out bags and made sure we were okay.

The train journey was meant to take about 6 hours but it ended up taking 10. At some point there was a problem with the train and we ended up going backwards for about 30 mins - 1 hour back to the previous station where another engine connected to us and drove us.
There was food given to us on the train but I think I was shrimp so we just left it - thankfully we had an abundance of snacks to keep us going!

We arrived in Chiang Mai at about 9 o'clock, and I'll update you all about it in my next post!!

Bangkok

My first day in Thailand was certainly eventful.

To get to our hotel we all got onto a couple of minibuses and drove through Bangkok.
Which.
Was.
Terrifying.
Seriously, people drove on motorbikes with no helmets, people switched lanes whenever they felt like it, people drove on the hard shoulder, no indicators, and motorbikes were everywhere, weaving in and out of the traffic!

So after that heartstopping journey we got to the Malaysia Hotel at 10am. To help combat jetlag we were told not to go to sleep, even though many of us didn't sleep on the plane. Instead we went out to our local shopping centre (MBK). To get there we had to get taxi's and ensure that they took us there using the metre and not a fixed price. MBK was soooo big and amazing! There was an entire floor dedicated to mobile phones. Of course, the first stop for most of us was trying to find a sim for our phones. This was easier said than done as none of us were 100% what we were looking for. Nevertheless, after a lot of searching I found one. After that, I was whisked away to the food court by the other volunteers for a meal of tofu and rice.

In the evening our reps took us all out for dinner at a delicious restaurant. During the meal we all had to stand up and say something about ourselves so the reps could remember our names better, I stood up and said that I dance hip hop which of course led to calls for me to start dancing - which of course I didn't do.

After this we all went to a rooftop bar which was absolutely amazing. There was a balcony and the views from it were stunning.

The next day, after breakfast (which included very sweet toast), everyone got in taxis to go and see the Grand Palace - which was spectacular! There were so many statues and so much gold and colour! Although after only about 20 minutes inside everyone was exhausted from the heat - I felt like melting!

After the Grand Palace about 15 of us went to the local market - which was a bit scary. There were so many vendors trying to get our attention!

Forgetting the market we eventually found a cafe where we bought some drinks. We then decided that the safest bet was to go back to MBK and get food there - unfortunately this resulted in one of the volunteers finding a maggot in her food!!

That evening we all went to the park with our reps for a Q&A session. During which time the national anthem played and everyone stopped what they were doing (including us) and stood in silence. Apparently everyone across Bangkok would've done the same, and the anthem is played twice a day.

For dinner we got street food, one of our reps managed to find a street cafe that agreed to seat all 24 of us! One of the dishes that I ate that night was glass noodles and fried vegetables - which tasted soooo good!

The next day Alex and I made our way to uthai thani - which I will write about soon!

First meal in Thailand!

Grand Palace 

In our minibus

Bye bye Britain

Ok first of all I'm so sorry this this post is so long over-due, but I've been so busy that I'm even struggling to keep up with my diary - let alone this blog.

Anyway after visa problems and delays, Tuesday 22nd September 2015 was THE day that Emily Murray flew out to Thailand.

Mum, dad, Anna and I left the house at the ungodly hour of 6am to drive to Heathrow airport, we met a few delays on the way but got to the airport in good time. There we met the other PT volunteers who were also raring to go. I don't think I've ever been this excited in my whole life!!
Leaving my family was pretty emotional, but thankfully I actually managed to hold back tears (first time for everything) as I walked through security.

The first flight (London-Mumbai) was sooooo long it took 9 hours which I managed to fill by watching 3 films and eating 2 delicious (but rather spicy) meals.

After a very brief 30 minute stop off in Mumbai, which we spent most of actually looking for our next terminal, we were hoarded on to the next plane to Bangkok - on which we got more spicy food!

We arrived in Bangkok at about 7am local time, had to pass through visa control (which was super terrifying - we had to have our picture taken and everything!) and pick up our bags (which weigh a tonne). After this we set off to find our in-country representatives who were meant to be meeting us at Black Canyon coffee.
After what seemed like hours of going up and down esculators which heavy trolleys full of luggage we finally found our reps downstairs - apparently Black Canyon Coffee had been closed and no longer existed in the airport!

Eventually we found our reps and made our way down to the minibuses which would take us to our hotel.

Everyone at Bangkok airport

Training Course 18-22nd July 2015

YES, the time had finally come for the THAILAND TRAINING COURSE 2015 (as well as Japan and Sri Lanka...).

This time I actually met the people before the course started. I'd been in contact with one girl prior to travelling up to Oban who facebooked me telling me that everyone who was here was in the backpacker's 'common room'. So after sorting all the stuff out in my room (which was again private as I wasn't quick enough in snapping one of the dorm beds) I met some of the Japan and Thailand volunteers. It was fab - we played jenga and added each other on snapchat :)
After a few more people had arrived some volunteers who had just got back from their training course introduced themselves and warned us that training was very very very intense. Of course this did nothing to calm our nerves :(

As the evening wore on a large more and more volunteers arrived (most of whom were for Thailand) I still hadn't found my partner and all sorts of thoughts were going through my head like : 'what if they don't make it up to training and then can't come with me?' or 'what if I don't even have a partner, what if I have to go to Thailand by myself?!'


Anyway the next day we all walked to the ferry together which meant an early start to catch the 7AM ferry *groan*. The ferry crossing was rough and a lot of the volunteers, including me, spent the entire time in the canteen with everyone groaning every time we went over a wave.

On Coll we were greeted by PT representatives and driven up to the centre. As we were staying up at the centre this time we were all assigned rooms with our partners and another pair. That meant I finally found my partner! Her name is Alex and I had met her the night before but she just couldn't remember the name of the place where she was going!

So anyway, after getting settled into our rooms we were given a welcoming talk and given out some booklets to fill in over the course of training. That day we filled in the first part of our booklets which were our hopes and fears for the year and how these fears can be overcome. After lunch we went through insurance and some extra tips on fundraising for people who hadn't completed it yet.
Before dinner we all went down to the beach. Alex convinced me to run in the sea, which was a BIG mistake it was so cold!!! After dinner each day we have free time to either sit and chat or go outside for a walk. This was a good opportunity to meet everyone - even though I had about 2% chance of remembering their names.


The next day we got an introduction to teaching and how to plan a lesson - which was a big help as classroom management and planning a lesson were two things I was super scared about. After lunch we got a talk on culture shock, we filled in the second part of our booklet (Understanding your Community), learnt about the rights of a child, filled in the third part of our booklet (Problem Solving) all before dinner. After dinner we were all super busy planning out 10 minute lesson for tomorrow which we were to give to small groups and a PT representative.

On the Monday we had to give our lessons first thing. My lesson was on shops. As a starter I mimed out different types of shops and got students to repeat after me what they were. Then I would mime that action and the students would shout out. For the main part of the lesson I taught the students how to say 'where are you going' and 'I am going to the ...(shop name). I got students to say this collectively and to each other. I then pointed to flashcards and students shouted out what each shop was. At the end the students shut their eyes and this either thumbs up, down or in the middle to see how confident they were.
After lunch our talks and lessons were centred around safety and security whilst abroad which included filling in the fourth part of out booklet. In our free time that evening after dinner we had to plan our 20 minute lesson which we were to give the next day. A lot of time went into this lesson as I needed to fill up more time, and I had pointers to work on from my 10 minute lesson.

The fourth day was the day we all had to give our 20 minute lessons. I did mine on daily routine. As a starter I got the students to do some star jumps and exercises before asking them to quickly write down as many foods they can think of. Which I then wrote on the board. As the main activity I put some flashcards up on the board and said them out loud to the students, e.g 'I wake up at 6 o'clock'. Later I pointed to flashcards and the students had to call out what they were. I then gave each student a task to write a paragraph about their daily routines with the option to either just use simple sentences or use sentences with connectives. I then checked their work, checked the objectives of the lesson had been reached and used the thumb up/down/middle technique to see how the lesson had gone (thankfully I got all thumbs up!).
After lunch we were given a talk on health and how to stay healthy. There was another talk on the media and how we present ourselves online. We then had to complete the fifth part of our booklets entitles 'Roundup and Expectations' where we had to write down how prepared we felt and what we wanted to achieve from out year out.
After tidying up and having a talk with our project leaders about any questions we had we all went to go and get ready for the leaving ceilidh! The ceilidh on selection was fab so I was so excited about this one!

Before the dancing began we all sat down to a fancy 3 course meal complete with wine, after which we all gathering in a main room to socialise, drink champagne and take lots of pics! As it was such a nice day loads of our pictures were taken outside.

The ceilidh was so much fun! We didn't do as many dances as we did on selection because a returned volunteer had joined us with his wife and children who persuaded all of us to join them outside for a game of Frisbee!! The dances that we did manage to do were great - even though quite a few of us messed up a lot (me included) it was a great laugh and a great night.

Wednesday was leaving day :( It was a mad rush in the morning to make sure rooms were clear and that everyone was washed, dressed and fed before being taken down to the ferry port. Waiting at the port was none other than my host from last year Lisa, along with her daughter!!! Some other volunteer and I talked with her until it was time for us to leave.

I left Coll feeling prepared and excited about my upcoming adventure!! I can't wait to go!

I'm so unbelievably grateful to everyone who helped me - especially my parents who were a huge support! Love you guys xx

I can't wait to start my adventure, it will be an amazing time with amazing people! I will try and keep this blog updated as often as I can, but it does all depend on accessibility!