Time's up in MHS!

Firstly, Happy 23rd Birthday to my darling daughter Stace! Love you darlin' and home soon!


Well, the other volunteer has come down with a hacking cough which saw her packing off for Chiang Mai today. Of course the 'co-ordinator' of the Travel to Teach volunteer program we are with did not organise the tuk-tuk for her, so her last few minutes were a panic as she skolled some wine (to quell pre-flight nerves - a routine apparently) and ran to the tuk-tuk which the owner of the guest house arranged at the last minute - 2 tuk tuks arrived within one minute of each other and she was off.


So after calling Stace, (yay!!) went down to the post office as heard it was cheap enough to send stuff back home rather than lugging it around SEA. The price quoted changed from 1630 baht, to something like 1830 as she reweighed my stuff in the 55 baht box, and added on 20 baht for sticky tape etc - I did make a bit of a fuss re the price changing every 10 seconds - anyway - decided best to pay the AUD$57 rather than lugging lots of stuff around and having to pay excess fees on every flight to come (about 5 left yet). It is yet again stinking hot and the net cafe refuses to put it's a/con on (grr).  So, have had a pretty good 'full breakfast' consisting of bacon, eggs, toast, coffee and juice for around $3 AUD. And will head off for a brilliant potato bake and pineapple shake for lunch which will also cost around that amount. It's not actually as cheap here as I thought it would be, but I guess still fabulous value for money.


I'm ready to leave MHS tomorrow. It's a lovely place but 2 weeks here has been enough. Tomorrow I head off to the great northern metropolis (AKA "the rose of the north") Chiang Mai. Reckon I'll go to the Wat Doi Suthep in the arvo, and crack out to the night food market for tea, then back to (delicious) air/con'd room and cable for the late evening. Excited re cooking course on Thursday - not expecting alot for AUD$22 including the transfer there and back - but surely I'll come out knowing how to do an authentic Pad Thai or Tom Ka Gai??


Anyhoo, it's a pretty overcast day, but still stinking hot, just have to eat (again!) one last time in my favourite cafe's and pack really. Probably good that I coughed up the (excessive to my mind!) dosh to send stuff back to Briz (and that was the 'slow boat' price - about double or more for airmail!!) so let it go, let it go! Here's a pic of the motorbike I'd get if I lived in Mae Hong Son - I also made a video yesterday but it will have to wait for another day (okay I can't get it to load!!).  Mae Hong Son, it's been a real pleasure - crazy Chiang Mai here I come...




Okay no photos will load today?!! Bye for now!

Mae Hong Son!

The Wat Jong Klong where I teach (viewed over the lovely lake)

Me helping teach the monks "where do you come from?" (the towel over the head is not de rigeur monk attire - Sombhut had a cold)

The school I teach at in MHS

So what's been happening in MHS? Plenty of monsoony weather - like the build up season in Darwin at home. It's steamy pretty much all the time but the rain eventually provides some relief.  Last week the other volunteer was sick, so I rocked up to the school on my own expecting the co-ordinator/translator to be there - he was a no show twice last week, and the Thai teachers make a run for it as soon as they see you. It was probably quite funny to see me calling (gently at first) "nang long kha" (sit down please) which eventually morphed into commandant type yelling to "NANG LOONNGG!" (I also confiscated a yo-yo, plastic container of >>>>>> who knows, and motioned to at least 3 children to stop banging on the freaking desk while I was singing the ABC frickin song!!! (They refused to join in even though I especially sang the Thai version "happy happy we will be...." instead of what I wanted to sing - ungrateful or what! - pretty cute though). The  most memorable part of Friday's lessons was when the kids saw my model of our activity blu-tacked to the blackboard, and while I was sitting marking/stickering their work, many delighted in their new-found glue-stick using skills to actually glue their work next to mine on the board, and since their Thai teacher was in the room and pretty near them, I think she has ended up with a board full of glued on worksheets. (They are nice worksheets though!!)

Have been teaching the young monks at the Wat near the lake each night - alternating beginners and intermediates. It's been pretty fun, just being around the Wat, hearing their chanting and helping them learn some basic stuff - I've made very very little difference since I've only taught them a couple of times each, but they are lovely young men and most are very studious and intelligent. 

Lots of great food to be had here and am greatly enjoying the fact that there is no grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning up to do.  Here's some pics of the 'pineapple shake' (my fave) and the northern specialty dish 'khao soy' with chicken  mmm..mmmm.

So not a great deal happening other than eating, deciding which restaurant to eat at, and lying down after eating. There is some teaching of children and monks and planning for that. Other time spent shopping, riding bikes around the town and sitting in airconditioned internet cafes. I can highly recommend a visit to Mae Hong Son if you get to northern Thailand. So beautiful, but a very slow leisurely pace of life here. Wonderful really!

Typical Mae Hong Son streetscene with mountains in background

The not so 'clean and comfortable' volunteer accommodation - yeh  - the outside looks okay...wait for the inside photos

Time to head off for more delish Thai food - maybe a pizza - Thai style??

My favourite coffee shop "Coffee Morning"

Okay thats all for now folks!

Thailand adventures!

Wow! First opp to update blog - so here goes. Okay left Brissi midnight 12th August - Singapore airlines flights okay. A bit lost in Bangkok airport and no-one seemed overly keen to help - however made it reasonably intact to Chiang Mai on Saturday arvo. Holy ____! (insert chosen expletive here) I got the shock of my life to find that Travel to Teach (the volunteer 'organisation' that I went through) told complete and utter lies on it's website regarding (firstly - there's much more to come) the accommodation etc in Chiang Mai. First I was picked up (late) by the 'co-ordinator' who then drove like a raving maniac (there was more of that to come - hold on to your hats ladies) to the dorm, which in no way resembled the vaguely livable dorm in the photos on their website (and here I was concerned that the standard on the website might try me out). Filth with many many capitals is all I can say. Yes folks, it was 'filthy' and I don't mean in a cool way.  I burst into tears and immediately thought of calling a taxi (except my 'unlocked' phone did not work) and returning straight back home. Worse yet, there were only 2 young men and no other volunteers coming during my time.

So the co-ordinator suggests I might like to go to Mae Hong Son (I'd looked at it on the Travel to teach website but scorned it since I was led to believe I may not make it out of there alive - I was up for an adventure 'n' all but that might be taking it to the extreme). Anyhoo, since my immediate thought was to turn around and come straight back home, I thought I'd give MHS a crack. (There is a bit of positive coming up). After surviving (yes, I have several T-Shirts that say so) an utterly horrendous bus-trip (the Mae Hong Songians if I may call them that rather lyrical name) are quite proud that there are 1834 'courves' in the road trip to get there - kind of like the young lad in Luton, England who proudly boasted to me that that shithole had been voted "Britains worst town" Yeh, go me!   Guess what - MHS is the best thing that has happened to me in Thailand. It is utterly gorgeous, and after a week here I could almost imagine living here - beautiful 'lanna' style (lots of teak - no tacky at all) buildings, restaurants, coffee shops. The lake, behind which is my accommodation. See pics (once I upload). The guesthouse is disappointing to say the least - but I'm thinking of it like camping - the hot shower is down the back yard and you have to share it with a cockroach or spider for company.  Anyhoo, I'm okay with it all (unlike one other volunteer in particular who cracks on a regular basis to anyone within earshot re lack of this, that and the other) - other stuff in MHS had made up for the crappy guesthouse.
Since I've been here I've 'taught' at the primary school (a bit of a waste of time really) but I have the phrase 'nang long' down pat which means 'sit down you naughty naughty person'. One little tacker yesterday sat on the floor right where he was when I issued the command (I really wanted him back in his seat -oh well - they are obedient aren't they?).  I totally love the fact that the teachers still have sticks - not sure if they really use them, but gosh they seem a good deterrent (I have witnessed children standing on chairs, 2 boys were doing a sort of gymnastics lesson in which one tied the other up like a pretzel - the worksheet the other volunteer had given re types of fruit just wasn't holding attention I guess). Another major major highlight for me (the reason for coming to Thailand) was that I have been along to the Wat to teach the monks! Yeh, that's right! However (like the school) you can turn up (like last night) and they will prefer to do a slip 'n' slide into the (religious) fountain rather than come to the class - so we went and had (bizarre) cake and ice-cream at the gorgeous (one of many) little restaurant across the lake.  People if you get a chance to come to MHS - do it - it's kind of like Ubud in Bali - sleepy, relaxed, friendly, just lovely.  Also we have a lovely young American volunteer who only has a few days here and she wanted to go to the Burmese border - so we did, and visited lots of places such as Karen village (neck and leg rings!), Lishu people, Chinese village and the most memorable part of the day for me was having tea and pineapple made by an 84 year old Burmese refugee who sat over the way of his modest hut and smoked something in his pipe ( - he looked pretty relaxed put it that way).

This is a Karen Hill Tribe woman

Me outside a Wat in Mae Hong Son with the first Ylang Ylang plant I've ever sniffed!

Anyhoo raving over for just now, I'm gonna try to upload photo's - don't expect much - I'm not up for any National Geo prizes for photography - it's a Kodak point and click camera but you'll get the idea.  Over and out for now. Must go for a pineapple shake (mmmmmmm shaaakkke!) 30 baht (1 aussie dollar!) Delish!