(Me and the teachers of the New Tadami Junior High School)
This post has been the result of many days with little to do. If you have any intention of reading all of it I would recommend setting aside at least a similar amount of time!! For those of you who are slightly interested then here's a bit of what I've been up to in the east:
It's been a long while since my last post and there has been a few changes here. Firstly the snow has practically all melted and the signs of spring are about in Japan. It's not exactly tropical in my area - still between 0 and 10 degrees generally - but it's a lot milder than just a few weeks ago! It won't be long till the cherry blossoms are out in full bloom here. In Tokyo they're already past there peak and they are working there way up the country steadily. The cherry blossoms are a very big deal in Japan and they generally only stay out in each area for a week or 2. The Japanese celebrate this as the end of winter and the start of new life by holding lots of "Hanami" or flower parties. Basically everyone gets together under the blossoms, admires the view, drinks lots of beer and sake, and generally has a good time! I'm really looking forward to the arrival of the cherry blossom and I'm hoping to go to my first Hanami next weekend!
The other biggest change here is that my previous 3 junior high schools have all merged into one in a brand new school. The school is really nice and I think it'll be very good for the students social skills to be able to interact with the students from the other schools. Previously the students in my town spent their entire compulsory education, from 6 to 15 years old with the same small class of about 15 - 20 students. It was not until they went to High School that they would have the opportunity to meet other friends at school. With the new Junior High school though the students from the 3 elementary schools will all merge at the age of 11. It's all a little hectic at the moment and nobody seems to be completely sure what's going on with lessons, least of all me, but I am hoping that when it has all settled down in a week or so I will hopefully have some new challenges and get a lot more involved with classes and other activities in the school!
I can't really remember much else to have happened in Japan of much interest since my last email. It's been school as usual during the week and parties and things at the weekend. Apart from, that is, the graduation ceremonies. These were a bit long and boring for me really but it was quite a big occasion for the kids and their parents I suppose. I made all my students a video CD with photos of their times at school to the tunes of Everybody's Free by Baz Luhrman and Good Riddance (Time of your Life) by Green Day. I took my guitar in on my last days of school and played Good Riddance for the students. Even made a few of the girls cry - though probably cos it was so bad.
Me playing the guitar with some of the 3rd grade students from Asahi Chu
Me and two teachers dressed in formal kimonos for the graduation
Some 3rd Grade students after their graduation
Some students celebrating by throwing one of their teachers in the air!
Me and some of the graduating girls.
After the the graduation I had one of the best Enakis (Work drinking parties) I've had here. The parents of the 3rd grade students who had just graduated, organised it all and took all the teachers out for a meal and lots of drinks. The parents were on a mission to get all the teachers (Especially the home room teacher of the graduating class) ridiculously drunk. They then dressed us all up and made us up in opposing gender clothing and we all had to do some stupid dancing. It was very funny but I didn't feel quite drunk enough at that point to really get in the mood! However by the end of the night I had been plied with copious amounts of alcohol and when the parents all went out of the room I didn't really know what was going on! About 10 minutes later when they all returned dressed in their kid's uniforms, singing the graduation song their kids had sung earlier, I was in stitches. Immediately I could recognise the parent of every child, they were the spitting image. It was a long night and as always we ended up at the Karaoke! We all had school the next morning and it was pretty tough to drag myself in but I was pleased to see some of the other teachers looking just as bad as I felt and it was a very relaxed day!
So I've written a huge essay already and I haven't even mentioned my trip to Thailand yet! Woh this is gonna be Mahusive!!
So Thailand:
On Saturday 24th March I finally left my apartment at about 9 in the morning, after waking up to clean my apartment and pack my bags at about 5:00am. An hours drive, 5 hours on trains, 7 hour flight, about an hour in a taxi and a couple of hours of hanging around at different points and I finally met up with Mr Ryan Edwards in Bangkok at about midnight local time (2:00am Japanese Time) As you can imagine I was pretty knackered so there was only one thing to do really! Go out and have a beer! It wasn't a particularly long or heavy night but it was great to have a few drinks and catch up with Ryan (From IBM). Also in the very first bar we went to after just a couple of hours of being in the country I was told by a very attractive barmaid (maid not man hopefully) that if I returned the following evening, she would love to have her wicked ways with me! Ha ha! I didn't oblige her wishes though!
Anyway the next day I couldn't even sleep in, partly cos my sleeping pattern was so messed up and partly because it was so warm. So I woke Ryan up and we headed to see some of the sites of Bangkok. We took a few boat taxis and saw some really impressive stuff, such as the Capital City Wat, and the reclining Buddha.
Me and Ryan on a water taxi to the capital city wat.
Me Posing by the wat
Me framed beautifully by the window!
Me and Ryan at a tree where Buddah is said to have found enlightenment.
Me and Ryan at the Reclinng Buddah
We also had a bit of a tour from a very informative guide round one of the temples, which was really interesting to learn a bit about Buddhism. We finished the tour with a nice Thai massage in the official Traditional Massage School at Wat Po. It was very relaxing but I was actually a little disappointed mine wasn't a bit more vigorous. I don't think I clicked once in my 30 mins but I found out later that you really need at least an hour or 2 for them to really get to work on you! Then me and Ryan caught a tuk tuk to meet up with his girlfriend Na in a nearby shopping mall for a meal.
My first Tuk Tuk Ride!
Na was very cute and I think she probably fancied me (Unsurprisingly) but we also discovered she weighed less than half my weight, so I decided it'd be best to leave her with Ryan ha ha!
That night we headed out hoping to see some Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) but when we got to the stadium it was pretty pricey and the fact that they were charging foreigners about 5 times the amount that Thais had to pay annoyed us enough to boycott it and just head straight to some bars! We headed towards Kao San road and took a stroll down before heading to a bar, with a candle at every table, that is a working petrol station during the day. God knows what the health and safety would say about it in the UK but we stayed there for a couple of drinks and luckily nothing blew up! We then headed to another bar which had some live music and met up with some of Ryan's friends for a few more drinks!
The Bar/Petrol Station!
Ryan, Na and Me at Kaho San Road
Then Hieldy finally got in contact so I went and met him on Kao San before returning to the bars for more drinks and, in one, a bit of a smoke on a sheisha! Was good to catch up with Hield again and was really cool meeting up with 2 of my good mates from different times in my life, in completely different location!
Me, Hield, Ryan, Na and some of Ryan's friends at the live music bar!
I decided to crash in Hield's hostel that night as Ryan had to go into school the next day, and also I was drunk and Hield's was closer! We didn't get up too early the next morning but when we did Hield and I headed to the Sky Tower Hotel. Its the biggest building in Thailand and one of the biggest in the world.
Hield didn't want to pay the money to go up so I went alone. Started talking to a funny old Aussie couple in the lift on the way up and was chatting to them as we went round the revolving roof at the top. The view was amazing and its by far the tallest building I've ever been up! Had a free drink in the bar at the top too so I decided a Manhattan would be sort of appropriate!
Me at the top of the Sky Tower Hotel
Having a cheeky Manhattan at the Sky Bar
Hield and I went back to Ryan's and said good bye to him and Na before heading to the station to catch the over night train up to Chang Mai. Hield was most gutted when we were buying our tickets to find out that all the second class tickets were sold out, and that the price would jump from about 10 to 11 quid in order to upgrade to first class with air con! I however was very pleased as I was absolutely shattered and it turned out to be probably the best nights sleep I had all holiday! It was a really comfortable train ride and we had a 3 course meal for less than a couple of quid.
We arrived in Chang Mai at about 5 in the morning but I was actually feeling pretty refreshed. We got persuaded at the station to go for a middle priced hostel by one of the people trying to push them. Hield again was wanting to go for the cheapest option but I persuaded him to increase the budget as we were sharing a room and he was only staying one night. It was actually quite a nice hostel and I ended up staying there for 3 nights, but unfortunately they didn't have any cheaper single rooms so it was a little more expensive for me than I would have hoped but I couldn't be bothered to look elsewhere! It was owned by a little old lady who called herself Madam Honey! She was quite a character and was always trying to sell us stuff but I only did a couple of things and I was pretty pleased with both of them! That day me and shield hired a couple of mopeds to take a look round Chang Mai. Saw some really cool Wats and it was great having the freedom of our own transport! Hieldy's was a lovely camp shade of pink too! ha ha! We buzzed round the place in the hetic traffic all day on the mopeds without too much of a problem but a couple of times when we stopped I completely forgot that I had it in gear, and once reved and crashed in to a tin fence, much to Hield's amusement!!
Me looking pretty bad ass on my bike!
Hield looking a bit special on his pansy pink bike!
Me and hield trying a bit of meditating!
Mark said "Who's fatter Bryn or the satue?" - Cheeky Bastard!
Me and some statues of elephants!
A Buddhist Quote - What words of wisdom!
Me doing a silly jump in front of a wat ruin!
That evening I went to a temple on a hill which overlooked Chang Mai. (Hield didn't want to pay for it again, but his money was pretty low as he was nearing the end of his years travelling) Madam Honey had sold it to me as a sunset visit, but the sun actually set directly behind the mountains so you couldn't see it at all ha ha! Was still a great view of the city though and the temple was one of the most spectacular I've seen.
After I returned me and Hield went out for what turned out to be the messiest night of my trip. We went to a few bars, most of which were surrounding a Muay Thai boxing ring!
It took a few drinks for us to get in the mood but then we met up with lots of lovely "girls" in one bar and played a few games of pool with them! Although the night isn't too clear I can remember Hield and I were taken to another more lively bar, where we had a bit of a boogie and got steadily more and more drunk!
Then we headed back to the hostel and Mark had a "ladyfriend" with him so he got a separate room! It all goes pretty blank from there but I was booked to go on a jungle trek the next morning. When I was woken up by the trekking guide I was still a bit drunk and it was a bit manic trying to pack stuff up and get going. I also noticed Hieldy was in my room on the floor, woke him up to say goodbye but didn't really find out what happened to his "ladyfriend"!
It was apparently about a 3 hour drive to the start of the jungle trek. The journey is a bit blurry too. I was the first to get in the back of the truck and we picked 6 other people up from 3 different other hostels/hotels. I kept falling asleep and I think the others noticed that I wasn't completely sober, but I just about managed to introduce myself without making too much of a fool of myself! I was on a trek with 3 other couples. A young Aussie couple who were on their honeymoon, an American couple and an Austrian couple. I was the only person by myself but everyone was really cool. It was a really international group which made it really interesting. Our main guide was really funny Thai guy called Bart. He originally lived in one of the mountain villages but now lived in the city organising and taking the jungle treks. Our other guide was Bart's cousin, he was a bit quieter but still very funny. I never found out his actual name but Bart always called him Peter Pan!
After the 3 hour drive we stopped off at Mork-Fa waterfall for a quick dip to call off. It was so refreshing and just what I needed!
There were some local people there dancing to the beat of people banging on a plastic oil container and a glass bottle! Some of us decided to join in which made them all laugh!
We then drove a little bit further to a very remote little cafe, which was not much more than a little hut! We had some basic but very tasty Thai food and also got to try some fried crickets. They weren't too bad but just tasted like oil to me! Like the dodgy bits of chips at the bottom of the portion that don't really have any potato.
After this we finally headed to start our trek! We trekked for about 4 hours through some beautiful jungle. Mostly there were paths but some times Bart was hacking away in front. We stopped off at a hot geyser which was pretty cool!
Me and Bart at the Geyzer
The views as we were trekking were amazing and Bart was really informative and always making me laugh!
Me in the hat Bart made out of a leaf!
The trek was pretty tiring but we made it to the village where we were staying at about 6pm ish! The village was completely isolated and had a population of less than 50. The nearest other village was a 2 hour trek and you could only get there by foot. We were staying in a hut which was really basic but we had everything we needed. I helped Bart and Peter Pan make the dinner which was really tasty traditional Thai food. It was only at this point I realised that Bart had been carrying all of our food for the night and for breakfast the whole way, his bag weighed a ton! There was also plenty of drinks at the village so we had a few beers and sat around chatting. It made me laugh because the only way to get to the village was at least a 2 hour trek through the jungle, yet they still managed to have a huge supply of Singh beer waiting for us! There was also a guitar which Bart had bought for the village so me and Peter Pan played a few tunes too!
The village we stayed at.
Enjoying a well deserved meal after the trek.
The next day we go up early and had another 2 hour trek to get to the elephant camp. It was really surreal to walk up to the camp and just see elephants everywhere! It wasn't a commercial place at all and it seemed like the elephants were well treated.
We helped make and test the bamboo rafts we were going to get on later and then got on the elephants.
As there were 7 of us and three couples the couples sat on the wooden seats of 3 different elephants, two other guides sat on the heads of two of the elephants and I straddled the neck of one while Bart and Peter pan followed down the river on the bamboo rafts! Sitting on the neck of the elephant wasn't all that comfy as it was really wide and stretched my groin a lot, and also the elephants shoulder blades kept pounding my arse! But it was a great experience and it felt very strange sitting on such a huge animal! We were on the elephants for at least 2 hours by which time my bum was well and truly aching and it was a relief to get off!
Me on the neck of the elephant with the Aussie Couple.
We then got onto the rafts and headed down the river for about another 3 hours! The bamboo rafting was so relaxing and we went through completely untouched jungle which was beautiful! After the rafting we got back into the van for another very bumpy 2 or 3 hour ride and I got back to the hostel at about 6pm. That night we all met up for a meal and some drinks with Bart which was really cool, especially as now Hieldy had gone back to Bangkok and I was by myself so didn't have much to do!
The next day I had another look round Chang Mae I ended up buying a new electric Acoustic guitar in a music shop because it was so cheap. It was also my first real personal experience of racism though as at first the shop owner wouldn't sell to me as I was white. I managed to talk him round after a while though. Then I had a fantastic massage to get rid of the aches from the trek and chilled out in the hostel.
In the evening I went to the station to get a train back down to Bangkok so I could fly down to Koh Samui. Unfortunately there wasn't any spaces left on the trains so I had to go to the bus station and catch a bus. It was no where near as comfy as the train and I wasn't able to get much sleep, but it wasn't too bad. I arrived in Bangkok around 5 in the morning and headed straight to the airport. My flight wasn't until 11 but it was lucky I was nice and early as I ended up going to the wrong airport. It turned out all domestic flights apart from the one I was getting, go from the domestic airport but mine left from the international airport.
I still made it to the right airport with a bit of time to spare and I got chatting to a German guy. He was a DJ and was on his way to Koh Phangan. I was told that Koh Samui wasn't that great and I was intending to go to Koh Phangan for the full moon party anyway and he told me I could catch a free speed boat with him and some of his friends who had organised a big party on this great beach called Ao Thong Nai Pan. So after arriving in Koh Samui Airport (which was probably the coolest airport I've ever been to, just 1 runway and palm trees everywhere!) we had a few drinks and a massage and waited for his mates.
Flying into Koh Samui
They had hired some speed boats to take everyone over. We went down to the beach and jumped on board. It took about 30 mins to get over and when we arrived ther were loads of people partying and we were all given flower reefs and a free cocktail! It turned out it was quite a big event and there was about 150 German and Austrian party goers. I had a little difficulty finding a place to stay but managed to get a little hut for about 100 baht (Less than 2 quid) a night! It was pretty basic just a bed and a fly sheet, no shower or toilet or anything but was all I could get and it was cheap so I didn't mind. The bars by the beach had toilets with showers so I made the most of those while I was there!
The boat over to Koh Phangan
I spent 4 nights on Ao Thong Nai Pan and every night there was a big party. I managed to see the sunrise directly opposite our beach every morning. One of the nights I fell asleep in one of the bars and was just left there til I woke up at about 6 in the morning. As I was walking back to my hut I bumped into some people going scuba diving. I decided to tag along, but as I was a bit hung over I was just going to go snorkelling. We went out to a big rock called Sail rock about an hour off the coast. Once I got out snorkelling decided I had to give the diving a try. The water was absolutely crystal clear and there was so much marine life but just snorkelling I couldn't quite get up close. Luckily I had listened to all the diving instructions on the way out so I was able to just suit up and head straight out! It was amazing being down in amongst everything the colours were awesome. Once we we surrounded by a huge swarm of fish it felt really weird but no matter where you swam the fish didn't hit you. On the second dive we went up through a "chimney" in the rock. It was an amazing experience, and I was so glad I decided to do the diving.
Me Diving
The next day I went to look round the island some more got a few water taxis and stopped off at some great beaches. I ended up getting dropped off at a beach just up the coast from mine. Not wanting to get another water taxi I managed to borrow a canoe and dropped my stuff back at my beach, then I borrowed a mask and fins, canoed back to where I borrowed the canoe from and then tried to swim back again to my beach! It was only about a mile or so swim but half way I got some stinging in my legs and wasn't sure what it was so I thought I had better swim to the rocks. I got out on rocks that were like razor blades and cut my feet to ribbons. I realised I must have swam through some Jelly Fish and had welches all over my legs, never the less I managed to scramble over the sharp rocks and back to my beach and I had saved myself a whole 200 baht for the water Taxi!
Me at one of the beaches I stopped off at called Bottle Beach
That night, my last night on Koh Phangan was the night of the full moon party! It was on Had Rin beach further down the Island so I caught another speed boat down. I had arranged to meet Matt Harris (Who is the nearest JET to me in Japan) it was pretty hetic but luckily our planned meeting point worked out, even though niether of us had ever been there before. I met up with Harris and some of his mates from America and we had the cumpulsory buckets of Thai Whiskey and Red Bull, and went to party the night away! I was feeling a bit knackered from the whole holiday and wasn't really in Full Moon Party mood but still had a great time. A couple of times I had to go to a bit of a quieter bar for a more chilled out beer, a quick power nap and then back out for more partying! I lost Matt and his friends at one point then bumped into Matt again trying to work his magic with a Thai girl. I ended up leaving at about half 5 in the morning. It was well before the party finished but I was done! I got back to my beach just in time for one of the best sunrises I have ever seen.
Me at Sunrise after the Full Moon Party
In the afternoon I took the scariest taxi ride of my life in the back of a 4x4 truck, along a road that wasn't properly built overtaking on blind corners at about 60 mph. I thought I was going to die on more than one ocassion. My last and probably funniest memory from Koh Phangan was driving past Matt Harris just after he fell off his moped. He was struggling to push it up a hill after losing all momentum and he was being helped by some little old Thai man while all his friends were at the top laughing!
I made it back to Had Rin beach though and caught a ferry back to Koh Samui. I stayed the night in a little hut by the beach and went to the airport at 6 to catch my flight back to Bangkok. I chilled in Bangkok all day and caught a movie in the evening before flying back to Japan. Thailand was one of the best holidays I've ever been on but I was knackered after having crammed so much into 12 days! It was good to be heading back to the tranquility of Tadami though I wasn't looking forward to having to be at school the next day for a bit of a boring opening ceremony!
