lisbonchick

It has been a while….  This studying to be a teacher business has been rather time consuming!  First placement is done so now I can focus on blog writing before the second placement beast is unleashed.  I think I like teaching, I’ll let you know more once I am over the shock of teaching and being scrutinized on a daily basis.

In October, we went to see some whales, as you do.  Not just any whales but Bryde’s whales, I never knew they had whales in Thailand but there you go.  We went on an organised trip with other teachers, it was a great day and ABC news station from Australia was on-board.  See their short film: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-11/thailands-whales-at-risk-after-mystery-deaths/7923696.

Leaving the harbour

It’s a feeding frenzy!

We had a few days off and went exploring despite heavy protesting from the kids.  First to Krabi and Railay beach with its beautiful limestone crags.  It is a stunning location on a peninsula only accessible by long tail boat due to the high limestone crags.  Sadly, it has been overbuilt on and lost some of its magic but it is worth a visit.  It also poured with rain during our stay.  Still, it was warm…

Arrival

Not sure the rope’s going to do it…

Sound advice!

British resilience in awful weather!

Grey skies

These rocks are rather impressive.  The cave on the bottom left was full of penises!  Shrine apparently…

These boats are amazing

After a couple of very wet days in Railay, we continued to Kho Lanta in the hope of finding fairer weather.  It is a long journey with the kids asking why we are here and not at home. It is hard work at times!  We want to show them the world and its beauty but all they want is to be home and do nothing.  Still, we persevere and I wonder if they will grow up to hate travelling, especially budget travelling.  Kho Lanta is dead and wet but we enjoy it.  It is like having an island to yourself, there is hardly anybody anywhere which is kind of spooky, like an apocalypse kind of thing but peaceful.

Sunset swimming

Father and daughter pondering life…

Kho Lanta National Park

Hey, the sun is out and so are we!

Beautiful beach!  We later saw the signs warning against swimming due to abundant and dangerous jellyfish.  Oh, well….

Geoff is impressed by the giant leaves!

Lunch with a view

Marianne western style riding with a dreadlocked, Thai cowboy!  

It was great to get out of Bangkok and the huge building and crazy traffic.  It is peaceful out there and very pleasant indeed.  Life in Bangkok is missing a connection to nature and is horribly commercialized.  I have never seen anything like it before, the excess, the amount of stuff you can buy, everywhere, all the time!  It is frightening and feels so shallow and pointless – we don’t need it!!!!  I think Tanzania made me see beauty as well as horrendous deprivation.  It was life at its rawest, at its simplest and it was hard but it felt true (yes, corny, I know).  It is hard to explain, I feel I am in the Truman Show, I am being brainwashed with commerce, adverts and the masking of nature.  Onwards though!  Life is also good here and it is an amazing experience.  Some snapshots of life around us.

Rather large…

Outside local temple

I am starting to realise that temples can be rather unusual…

Statues in the peaceful temple’s garden!  What does it mean?!

Not so weird after the other stuff…

My quest to find bugs continues

Cows wallowing in the mud by the road, as they do…

On the boat into Bangkok, best way to get into town!

Signs for birds nests and shark fin soup!  It’s everywhere.

Surely there is some good fortune in one of those cookies…

Walkabout in Chinatown

Thai sweets in the classroom

Yum

Our local

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Bangkok vistas

Nuan and Ed Sheeran enjoying a snuggle

We are sat in a restaurant and what comes by…  People selling food and people actually buy it too as they are eating their orders.  

My new friend

Remember not to ride elephants too!!

Crazy wiring

Marianne trying to blend in

More chaos

So, the moral of the story is…  Do not leave blogging for so long as you will forget all the quirky things that have happened.  On another note,  I am pleased to report that Geoff’s unfortunate encounters with food continue.  Chicken feet this time!  What next?!

After a long plane journey we finally arrive in Bangkok.  Huge airport, hundreds of people, shops, technology, quite different from Kilimanjaro Airport!  We are dazed and confused and it is very hot indeed!  It is around 8pm at night but the heat does not seem to have abated. As soon as we step outside the airport we are covered in a sheen of sweat, a theme that is to continue…

We arrive at our new home tired but finally “home”.  It is a nice flat, comfortable and well furnished.  It is spacious with a small outside space and a pool right outside the back patio. It is odd, to find ourselves in this place.  It is like a holiday resort, like being in “The Truman Show”.  The perfect place, happy people, sunshine and health, friendliness and smiles.  It is nice and easy but lacking in character somewhat.  On the plus side, we are not in noisy Bangkok but somewhere with trees and birds and a lake.  It feels like Americanah! Anyway, here it is:

Walking home

“Our” lake

The welcome has been amazing.  Friendly and thoughtful; we were taken out to various places in Bangkok and shown the sights including dinner at the German Brewery which was nothing like a German brewery apart from the beer.  We were treated to the most bizarre show in this restaurant when suddenly curtains drew back to reveal an enormous stage.  I guess I can describe it as a smaller Olympic like opening show.  But, hey, this is Bangkok after all.

So we now been here for one whole month, yes, it has gone fast and it has gone uneventfully so far.  Here are some pics of what we have seen so far.

Giant cake on show in the supermarket

Exotic, in’it?

Bangkok is a jungle

Sampling local cuisine

Let’s hope they are right…

River bus, the best way to travel

It’s been there a while…

Orchids everywhere and so, so cheap!

Downtown in Silom

It is not what is seems

We take the sky train into Bangkok, to Lumpini Park, a 58-hectare park which belonged to King Rama VI.  Air con is everywhere and you go from sweating profusely to shivering and goose bumps.  We finally get to the park and sit by the lake.  I look to my right and lo and behold, a monitor lizard is walking towards us.  Not what i expected from a walk in the park.

Post hunting of cat fish!

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Here it comes!

So, I guess you are wondering where all the temples are.  Yes, there are plenty about, a bit bling and over the top.  Here is the King’s Palace, impressive but worse than Oxford Street at Christmas time.  Kids were not impressed and wondered why we had dragged them there in the heat and the crowds.  We had no reasonable answer…

On another weekend we explored Ko Kret dating back to 1722, a small island on the Chao Phraya river, not far from where we live.  The island continues to serve as a refuge to the Mon tribes who dominated central Thailand between the 6th and 10th centuries and have retained a distinct identity in their version of Buddhism and, particularly at Ko Kret, their pottery which is elaborate and intricate.  Ko Kret is really rather nice, we walked around the island and saw beautiful sights, countryside, temples, villages…  Lots of street food which we had to sample but not without some incidents.  Geoff bought some delicious looking barbq prawns which turned out to be rather chewy and bony.  On closer inspection, they looked more like small flattened frogs, he was spitting for quite some time after that.

What is this strange fruit?

Some randomness:

Street frames

Marianne is loving the horse riding here

Us out of focus on a boat into Bangkok for the evening

Living it up at the Peninsula Hotel

Our new cat, Sinuan

Our next adventure was into Bangkok into Silom.  Lots of walking and sweating in the heat.  Bangkok is not pretty, I have decided!  It is quirky but too busy, too polluted, too many cars, too much concrete, too much madness.  I am missing Moshi…  Although strolling around Bangkok is entertaining and there is plenty to look at.

Why are we not allowed to take a photo?!

Old Bangkok by the river

Modern vs new

Beautiful Indian Temple in Silom

Temple offerings on offer

Reminds me of Minecraft!

I leave you with some advice.  Do not ride elephants if you come to Thailand (or India or Sri Lanka…).  It is cruel to keep these giants in captivity and they need to be sent back to the wild where they belong.  Join the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos.  It is happening on the 24th September in over 125 cities worldwide. See here: http://march4elephantsandrhinos.org/2016-cities/.  We will be on the one in Bangkok. Every day around 100 elephants in Africa are brutally killed for their tusks. It is estimated that 25,000 – 50,000 elephants are poached each year. From numbering in their millions around 100 years ago, today there may be only around 400,000 elephants left in Africa; lower estimates put this number at around 250,000.  Let’s save these majestic giants!