Farang friends

When you are an outsider in a city you tend to stick together with the other outsiders. It is the case in Chachoengsao where all the English teachers have formed a group who spend time together. It is a group Tim and I were invited into after a chance meeting at the Big C.
We were both invited to dinner and we met at least 15 of the English teachers who work in the city. Some of the teachers have been here years, others have just arrived. We were taught about life in Chacoengsao and invited the following day to swim at a pool. The pool was part of a golf club resort and it seemed only the most elite Thais were able to swim there. It was a great day out and I actually felt like I could have been anywhere in the world.
Karen, Lindsay and Jenny all returned from Phuket and we made plans to get to Ko Samet an island off the south east coast of Thailand.

Chachoengsao under water

Saturday 30th October

When I arrived back into Chachoengsao I had ridden on the back of a motorbike taxi to get back to the school. It was a great way to get my bearings as the other trips I made have been in the back of tuk tuks and when sitting on the back of a tuk tuk I am too tall to see anything out the sides. The ride on the bike gave me the confidence to go explore a little further and I found a good street food market and got some dinner.
This morning I also went for a ride on the local bus just to find out where it went. Turns out it went to the Big C which was handy as it was where I wanted to get to to buy a bottle of water because each of the 7 elevens where completely out. On the journey to the Big C the streets of Chachoengsao where underwater and the locals where out taking photos. I was guessing it does not happen very often and I had no idea if it was going to get any worse.
While in the bus 'Who'll stop the rain' by Creedence Clearwater Revival started playing. When I got off the bus the driver was dancing away to the music and had a huge grin on his face. I am guessing he put the song on just for me. I walked around the Big C for a long time and turned out they had no bottled water either. It could make life interesting in a country where even the locals will not drink the tap water.
I did manage to find a couple of bottles at a shop at the food court and stocked up before getting on a bus back to the school. The bus I boarded was not going in the direction oof the school so I spent about an hour walking back to the school from where I got off the bus. To my suprise when I got back to the areas which were under water in the morning they were completely dry and everything was back to normal.
Tim arrived back from Phuket this afternoon and he needed to go to the Big C so I returned and while shopping we met some 'farangs,' (foreigners) who are also teaching english at schools in Chaceongsao and they have invited Tim and I out for dinner.

A first hand view of the floods

The return journey from Lop Buri to Bangkok was quite simple compared to the hitch hiking mission to get there. Leaving Lop Buri early in the morning I went to the train station to get on a train only to be told there were still no trains. I found a motorbike taxi and got to the bus station, somehow without telling the motorbike driver I needed to get to Bangkok he knew and so when we got to the bus station he called the driver of the bus which was pulling out and I climbed aboard.
For the five hours or so it took to get to Bangkok it seemed the driver was taking the side road and kept beeping his horn at anyone on the side of the road and people would run and climb aboard the bus. The journey took me through some of the flood affected areas and I was seeing first hand what I had been watching on the news for weeks. At one point the water must have been coming in the door the water on the road was so deep. Trucks full of passengers with all their belongings where either driving or just park on the side of the road. Cars full of people were parked on overpasses and army trucks with supplies where delivering food and life jackets. Most of the car traffic was leaving Bangkok and not a lot entering so we had a pretty good run except for where there was water and we had to drive really slow. This weekend was due to be the worst of the floods in Bangkok.
The bus pulled in at the Bangkok northern bus terminal, expect it looked different to where I was a couple of days earlier. I tried to retrace my steps to end up at the local bus and somehow it worked. I climbed aboard the 49 bus and was headed back to the train station.
The train station was full of passengers. Many of who I figure where not going anywhere but instead just using it as a base while they have no home. Luckily the train to Chacoengsao was still running and I was able to get back on board and head back to the school. The man sitting opposite me on the train was practicing his engllish with me by reading all the signs at the platforms we passed.
While on the journey back to Chacoengsao I recieved a text message which read 'SCHOOL CHANGE AGAIN START 15 NOVEMBER.' I now have another two and a bit weeks off to decide what to do with.

Monkey Town

Thursday 27th October

The plan was to stay in Lop Buri for a day or so and continue on to see some other parts of central Thailand although the mission to get there had put me off exploring too far. Instead I spent a couple of days in the city which is well known in Thailand as the monkey town. In one section of the old town there is a temple which has become a home to monkeys. The monkeys also run amuck in part of the town climbing on power lines and on cars and eating whatever they can get their hands onto. They will also bite if you try to get too close. I did go inside the monkey temple although the girls I was with left me to go alone. Monkeys are locked out of the inside of the temple but it is infested with rats and bats. The inside of the temples was disgusting but it was quite a sight in the grounds as the monkeys went about their daily life.
While in Lop Buri I also visited the ruins of the temple directly opposite the train station which is not over run by monkeys.
The Lop Buri crew were all still on holiday so we spent a couple of nights drinking at a pub before continuing onto the club. The band at the club Jontrajao seemed to play exactly the same set on the two nights including Zombie by The Cranberries which was the only English song they played all night.
Some of the girls had invited me to visit a waterfall and it ended up twelve girls and I climbed into or on the back of a ute and made our way to the waterfall. The waterfall was quite spectacular and the surrounding grounds where full of Buddha statues. The waterfall was full of young children sliding down the rocks and families having picnic by the side of the falls. The local boys thought it was hillarious watching the white girls in bikinis swimming.
I climbed in the back of the ute with ten girls on the return journey to Lop Buri. It was a pretty good way to see Thailand. We had almost made it back though when the ute stopped. We all piled out as oil began leaking out the bottom of the car. The driver called for a friend who drove to collect us and he swapped cars as our driver took us back to the centre of the old town.
I was glad to have seen Lop Buri as many of the interns working for the same internship as me have been placed there although I felt like I had seen the whole city in a couple of days. News of the floods in Bangkok was getting worse therefore I wanted to get back to the Chacoengsao side of Bangkok before I got trapped and not be able to get back to my school so I left on the bus having been told there where still no trains to Bangkok.

Hitch hiking through Thailand

Tuesday 25th October

A quick consultation of the Lonely Planet and I figured it would take about six hours to get from my school in Chachoengsao to Lop Buri via Bangkok. I set out the door with no idea of the journey I had before me.
'I need to get to the train station to get to Bangkok,' I said to the tuk tuk driver.
'Bangkok a long way,' he replied.
'No the choo, choo train,' I again asked.
'Ah train yes.' I climbed in and he dropped me at the station.
I booked a ticket for 14 Baht (50 cents Australian) and everything was going to plan. The train was thirty minutes late but it was ok at least it was coming. The train journey did not take too long and when I got off the train I was called over by a lady at an information desk who asked in English where are you going.
'I need to get to Lop Buri on the train,' I said.
'No train, bus,' she replied. Then she wrote down instructions in English and Thai on how to get to the Bangkok bus station by catching a local bus.
Things were still going ok and I got to the northern bus terminal and booked a seat on the bus. The bus was due to leave at 3.15pm so around 3pm I went outside and waited hoping not to miss the bus. The bus did not leave so I waited in the scorching heat with sweat pouring off me with no idea when the bus would leave.
At 4.15pm a large bus came and everybody scrambled to get a seat. The bus did not say anything in English about Lop Buri but I checked with a few other passengers and I was fairly confident I was heading in the right direction.
As we were driving I began to see the affects of the floods. The highways and overpasses were full of parked cars. The people of Bangkok have driven their cars to higher ground and left them there. Some families are living in their cars. The driver of the bus drove us around and around Bangkok for a few hours trying to find an exit which was not clogged with traffic. At one point I saw a few signs which read Chachoengsao, meaning I was back close to where I had started the day.
The driver found an exit and I felt like we were making ground and getting somewhere close. Even when there was no traffic the bus was getting any speed. Until finally the bus just stopped, a driver in a passing car yelled something to the driver and the passengers began to run off the bus. I ran off too and followed the crowd away from the bus. I turned around to see the back of the bus in a cloud of smoke and passengers running in all directions.
All the passengers began waving down cars and I followed a couple who had waved over a driver of a Ute (pick up truck) with a canvas roof.
'Lop Buri, Lop Buri, I need to get to Lop Buri,' I said.
'No not Lop Buri,' they replied as I went to walk off they said 'Let's go.'
For the next half an hour seven of us, the rest of the passengers all Thai including a lady boy, rode in the back of the Ute till we reached a major intersection. At the intersection we all climbed out, walked over an overpass and waved down another car.
The next four or so hours passed in the same way getting in the back of a Ute till a major intersection then climbing out, waving down another car and continuing on. I felt safe although for the most part I had no idea where I was. Until finally I spotted a sign which read Lop Buri. As soon as I had seen the sign the Ute we were in started going a different direction. Then it stopped outside a supermarket and I followed the rest of the passengers as we walked through the car park along a road and ended up at a bus station.
Somehow some of the other passengers I had noticed on the bus earlier had also made it to the station although none of them could tell me how they got there. After much conversation of which I understood nothing I realised there was no bus from that station to Lop Buri that night. They pointed me in the direction of another Ute and followed some other passengers and paid the driver 70 Baht. With about ten others we rode in the back to Lop Buri. I had made it to Lop Buri.
I called my friend to say I had made it to the bus station only to be told she was waiting at the train station.
Then I had to work out how to get to the train station. Luckily one of the passengers was still around. I told him I needed to get to the train station and he walked me to the motor bike taxi stand and I climbed on the back of a bike.
Finally around 11.30pm I made it to the train station and met Alice and she walked me to where the rest of the crew where drinking at a pub. It was a 15 journey I am fairly sure I will forget in a hurry.

The Big C

Monday 24th October

A 50 Baht ride on a Tuk tuk dropped us at the Big C for the first of what I feel will be many visits to this large shopping mall. It was an interesting experience though with many of locals stopping to stare at us with the whispers of 'farang.' Farang is the Thai word for foreigner and it is something I expect to hear a lot in my time in Thailand. Along with Jenny, Tim, Lindsay and Karen we sat to have a meal at a restaurant. Although I was sure I had ordered food it never showed up and after trying to ask where my food was I was only given a plate of green noodles. I gave up and went to the supermarket to buy some bananas and apples to eat for dinner. I will be learning some Thai just so I get to eat food.
We took a walk around the Big C to get some items then rode in a tuk tuk back to the school. While walking through the school grounds at night getting back to our rooms Tim almost stepped on a huge lizard. Thinking it was just part of the play equipment he stopped to have a second look when it started to move, then it started to move fast. It would have to be the biggest lizard I have ever seen. It was almost as long as me and bigger than the ones in Australia. The close encounter with the giant lizard got everyones heart pumping and made us check every step back to the rooms.
Having woken up early this morning I went for a wander around the school yard and then out the gate in the opposite direction to where we had gone last night. There must have been close to one hundred people at the school sweeping the yards even though I am pretty sure it was a public holiday and the school will not be open again until next week. The school was full of life all day with basketball training, swimming practice and what seemed to be cheerleading practice.
Once we were all awake we again visited the Big C. I purchased a new camera to replace the one I lost the other night. Tim and the girls decided to visit Phuket for the week because Tim's parents are holidaying there at the moment. I only just stayed in Phuket a couple of weeks ago so I decided not to go and instead get somewhere tomorrow on the train. I will most likely visit Lopburi where many of the other interns have been placed.
The rest of the crew left and I went to visit an internet cafe to update this blog and in the ten seconds I was on Facebook the boy next to me who was probably only ten had sent me a friend request just by copying my name. I quickly escaped and went about updated the blog which I am guessing had too many English words because he did not seem interested. The level of English among the locals does not seem to be all that high so classes are going to be interesting.

First impressions

The majority of the Lawoe interns were placed in schools near Lopburi and Surin and they left on coaches early in the morning, leaving only a dozen of us to wait to be collected by our individual schools. Plah, a school principal once again gave us the run down on our school and her last message directly aimed to me was 'Do not break up any marriages.' Basically meaning do not sleep with any Thai women. She told me if she was told I had ended a relationship then we would be having some very serious words.
Karen, Lindsay, Jenny, Tim and I were collected in the St Louis School minivan by a driver and Sitong and driven to the school in Chacoengsao. Sitong is a teacher at the school as well as being in charge of all the foreign teachers.
Foreign teachers in Thailand are well looked after and although we will be teaching only a fraction of what the rest of the teachers work we are paid the same if not more. A couple of the rules placed by Lawoe internship is that all interns have to be given a private room with hot shower and air-conditioning. It is much more than many of the locals have.
Within an hour of leaving Bangkok we were at the school and assigned rooms. The rooms were much better than I had expected and the five of us are living at the school directly above the teachers lunch area. The school is located on a major river and has its own swimming pool, gym, basketball courts, football fields all of which we are allowed to use whenever we wish.
There are 4000 students at the school ranging from three to 18 years old and I have been assigned to teach the older primary students. School was due to start on Wednesday although the floods have delayed the starting date pushing it back to the 3rd of November. The school is loacted in an area the Thailand government was going to flood to save Bangkok although it now seems unlikely we will be flooded. Just like in Bangkok though all the shops are protected by concrete walls and sandbags. The school have built a concrete wall on the edge of the river to protect their grounds.