Riding an elephant

‘You can now all enter the water and swim with the elephants,’ the tour guide said just as a large piece of elephant poo floated to the surface of the water. I hesitated for a moment but then thought when would I again get to swim with an elephant and a large piece of poo. So I dived in head first, not really I moved cautiously through the water and climbed up on top of the elephant with the trainer. I scrubbed the elephant with a brush while sitting on top of the elephant which was sitting in the shallow water.

Prang did not enter the water and was hardly watching the elephants, she was too distracted watching the Eastern European men in their tight bathers. Following the half an hour or so spent in the water we walked back to the camp and were assigned an elephant each.  Our guide like most of the guides was Cambodian although he could communicate enough in Thai for Prang to have a conversation with him.

I am not sure if he felt sorry for her for having to spend time with me or whether he just didn’t feel like riding the elephant because after only ten minutes he got off and let Prang sit on the neck of the elephant and take charge.

For the rest of the ride our guide became our personal photograph taking almost one hundred photos in the hour.  At one point I rode on the neck of the elephant and could feel its muscles and bones move as it walked.

I enjoyed the ride and so did Prang and thanks to our guide we had many great photos to keep and share.  

Koh Chang

A four day holiday on the island of Koh Chang was a fun relaxing way to spend the last few days of the first part of my time in Thailand. My girlfriend Prang and I spent almost a day on buses, boats and minivans getting to the island. We arrived late at night to a small guesthouse with shacks on Lonely Beach. It was difficult in the rain and darkness to appreciate the location. All I could hear while I was trying to sleep was the noise of the tattooist only meters from our bed. We decided we would move the following morning to a better guesthouse.

Although when we woke the following morning to see the empty beach and clean water we decided to stay at same guesthouse but move away from the tattoo shack. Ko Chang is one of the biggest islands in Thailand and Lonely Beach was at one time Lonely but now full of tourists.

We spent the first day relaxing on the beach enjoying the sun. After one full day on the beach we decided the following day to move to a different part of the island. I really wanted to ride an elephant therefore we moved closer to where the elephant camp was set up.

We stayed another night at the Blue Lagoon resort without a tattoo parlour in sight. We organized and went on an elephant ride before returning to eat  some very delicious fish on the beach to end our time on the island.

Prang's Birthday

I was sitting in the cinemas watching a movie when it struck me that the movie was about Snow White. Somehow I had agreed to go to the cinemas to watch a Julia Roberts movie about Snow White translated into a language I can hardly understand. The movie was called Mirror Mirror so I probably should have guessed it would be a take on the Snow White story. I must admit though I did fall asleep for some of the movie.

I agreed to go because it was Prang's birthday and it was what she wanted to do. What I found interesting was that all the previews are in English and after sitting through almost twenty minutes of previews getting comfortable you then have to stand for the King's song. 

I will not be going back to the cinemas any time soon, especially not to watch a movie based on a fairytale.

Exam time

Every student at Saint Loius sits an end of year exam. This includes all the kindergarten students right through to secondary six. As I have taken on the role of teaching Primary 4, 5 and 6. I was required to write three exams, one for each year level. Each exams had to be 40 questions which was broken into 30 multiple choice questions and ten true and false questions. The exam had to be difficult to challenge the students but not too difficult so the students would fail.


I found it easy enough to write the exam for the Primary 5's and 6's as I had been teaching them all semester. The Primary 4 exam was hard to put together though as the exam was due the same week I started teaching the year level and was left little help from the teacher who left the school.

The English exam was the students final exam on Friday afternoon and I am sure they were all tired by then and could not be bothered with the exams.

It really doesn't make a big difference though. No student at Saint Louis can fail English.I am not sure if that's just the school policy or if it is a private school policy. It's a little disheartening when at the end of the semester those students who have tried hard get almost the same mark as those who have shown no progress at all. Many students at the school know they can pass English without trying and therefore do not try. Only one student in the 800 plus exams I corrected ticked true for every answer in the True/False. It was smart thinking as he got 5/10.

Some students at the school can leave without even being able to speak a single sentence in English. But it is not completly there fault, with 50 students in a class it is easy to get lost in the system and get left behind.

While the students sat their exams I along with all the other foreign teachers had nothing to do. Luckily the Facebook ban had been lifted and gave us something to do for at least a couple of hours a day. When all my students had finished there exams I had to correct the true/false questions for all 800 plus exams. Luckily I was helped by some of the other teachers who offered to help to ease the boredam. Then when all exams where marked I put all the results into the computer and my work at Saint Louis was done. In the final week we spent the week trying to sneak out of school for as long as possible as we had to be at school from 7.30am until 4.00pm to get paid a full salary.

My final lesson

There were no big goodbyes when it came to my final lessons with the students at Saint Loius. It's too difficult to try to explain to them why I will not be teaching at the school again next semester. The students also had a lot of work to do in their final lessons as I wanted them to do well on their exams and I knew they would struggle. In the past few weeks the weather has heated up a lot and many times I walk into the classroom and the students are all half asleep because it is just so hot. The students were also losing interest I could see they needed a holiday and so did I. Next week the students will sit their final exams then I am required to be at school for the week following before I am finished at the school

Two weddings and a holiday

In the five months I have been in Thailand I had not attended a wedding then in the space of one week I attended two.
The first was the wedding of an Australian teacher who married a Thai teacher who is the head of the foreign teachers at the school. In Thailand the majority of the guests are not invited to the actual wedding ceremony they are invited to the dinner which is quite similar to a reception for a wedding in the Western world.
As the wedding was held on a Monday we all attended school as per normal and I went to the dinner in a van with many of the other foreign teachers. I ate a meal and listened to a bit of karaoke, which is also very popular in Thailand. At about 9.30pm we all got back on the van to return home. It is also common in Thailand for people to leave parties, weddings included as soon as the food has finished being served.
Two days later I enjoyed yet another public holiday in Thailand. This time it was a Buddhist holiday for Mugha Puja Day. Buddhist Thais visit the temple in the morning then return again in the evening. I visited the Wat Sothon temple in the evening to see what takes place and there where thousands of people walking circles around the temple holding candles. Prior to visiting the temple Prang and I spent the morning at an old market in the outskirts of Chachoengsao.

The second wedding of the week was also held on a school day and was again two people from school. On Friday afternoon I attended another wedding and there were so many people there it took me almost five minutes to find my friend Tim. I asked the groom how many people went and he said 1500. Large weddings are quite common in Thailand. The whole ceremony part was all in Thai so I didn't really understand although I did enjoy the food and the experience. Invitations to weddings in Thailand are given in an envelope which when you arrive at the wedding you give back to the couple with money in it to help pay for the wedding.

'Some students are absent because they are fat.'

Every class I teach there is usually at least one student missing because they are practicing sport, music or dance. Last Friday though I heard the best reason for some students being absent.
My Thai partner said to me "Some students are absent because they are underground." By underground she meant in the bottom of the building. I asked what they are doing. She explained to me the students are absent because they are doing an activity because they are fat. She continued to say the students will play games and learn how not to be fat.
At the end of class I went to have a look and sure enough all the fat students in the school were grouped together excercising.
It's the sort of bluntness you have to get used to when teaching in Thailand. If you are fat they will tell you, if you smell they will say etc. etc.

Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya is a very popular tourist spot in Thailand and an easy day trip from Bangkok. My girlfriend Prang and I decided to stay overnight and spend the weekend exploring the temples and other sights of the city. Leaving Chachoengsao we caught a minivan to Bangkok and then another to Ayutthaya. I am still unsure if any of the van drivers in this country actually know how to drive as the journey is never comfortable.
Making it to Ayutthaya we checked into a hotel then found our way to the floating market. Thailand is full of floating markets and they are all very touristy and this was no exception. It was clean and well maintained and not to crowded so I quite enjoyed it.
The following morning we found a tuk-tuk driver who would take us to visit the temples and wait while we explored then collect us again and take us to the next one. The temples in Ayutthaya are impressive and there is obvious reason why it is such a popular tourist destination. Having visited three of the most popular temples I also wanted to go see some elephants. The driver dropped us at the elephant kraal pavilion and we met some of the elephants which are looked after in the enclosure behind.
It was the highlight of the trip. One of the very young elephants was chasing Prang around trying to get her bananas. All the elephants seemed well looked after. They are an impressive animal.
Our last temple stop in Ayutthaya was Wat Mahathat, they temple which is where you can see the ancient Buddha head engulfed in the roots of the tree.
This temple seemed to be the worst affected by the devistating floods of late last year which submerged most of the city which is actually located on an island.
Prang and I decided the most comfortable ride back to Chachoengsao was to catch the train. Although it is a little slower than the vans I enjoyed sitting beside the open window watching the Thailand countryside pass by.