Another quick blog entry, by request! (Ben, that's you...)

Last wednesday, how did I fail to mention that I woke up with a cockroach on my head. Needless to say, despite the bank holiday, I didn't go back to sleep!

Anyway, we went for a wander in the morning, to see if there were any Kingly activities going on for his birthday, but it seems most people were using the day off to chill out!

In the afternoon, we went to Phanom Rung, which was lovely. A teacher from Sam, Sylvia and Alex's school picked us up with her husband and niece (also a teacher), and another English teacher (who's German) came too. It was a nice afternoon, though pretty hot! Lovely to look around, and some great views. The site itself is around 1000 years old, and so the fact that so much of it that is still in tact is pretty amazing. Saw some monks there, with their massive cameras taking some touristy snaps too, which for some reason I found quite amusing!

When we left, they insisted on taking us for dinner at Ban Peet - so we had another steak, as is becoming customary for a Wednesday afternoon!

Thursday and Friday - 2 relatively normal days at school. Though Friday I missed 2 lessons again, because the students were having healthchecks. I was more than happy about this, because I had a card to say I had a parcel, so finished work early, with that Friday feeling and went to get my parcel from the post office. Turns out we had been paid from our first month's work too, which was a nice surprise.

Anyway, I had decided relatively last minute that I was going to join some friends for their weekend in Bangkok and Ko Samet, as we had another bank holiday on Monday. So that evening, I got an overnight bus from Prakonchai to Bangkok. Our friend over the road, Kru Ed, gave me a lift on his moped down to the bus station - standard procedure over here. Not unusual to see a family of 4 all on a moped, with no helmets, doing an overtaking manouevre!

I was expecting to get in to Bangkok early, but not as early as I did... it was 3am, and I had nowhere to stay, so headed into Khao San road, to see where to go from there! Wandering down there sober is certainly an experience. Had to dodge people dancing in the street - would've maybe joined them if I didn't have my weekend bag!

After quite a while, and talking to several random people, trying to find wifi, and flicking through the Lonely Planet, I found my friend Lizzie's hostel, and they had friendly staff and one remaining room, so I took it. It was pretty grimy to say the least, but a bed and somewhere to drop my things. However, I couldn't sleep! Caroline arrived at 6am, so I invited her in, and rather than sleeping, the 3 of us went for breakfast instead!

We found Wild Orchid villa (where I stayed last year for ThaIntro) and had breakfast (banana and chocolate pancake!) there, then went on a little explore. Found some lovely shops and market stalls.

The rest of the day, we went to MBK which is a massive shopping centre, full of stalls, where I got a few things. Then we got the skytrain to Terminal 21, a posher shopping centre, where each level is a different city - quite cool! There's a massive Christmas tree there, and they were playing Christmas songs as we went in, which went down pretty well with us! Finally, went to Chatuchak market, which is the one I visited before. Massive and they sell literally anything. This time, I spent a bit more money, knowing I might not be back for a while! It's loads of fun looking around though.

By this point, it was nearing dinner time, so we headed back by taxi. Before going back to the hotel, we went to a couple of shops, including this one bookshop - they sell secondhand books to travellers mostly, and you can sell them back when you're back in the area. I bought a cheap Lonely Planet for Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, so enjoying researching my travels at the moment!

In the evening, we went for a massage on Rambuttri, where there are loads of people just doing them on the street - so good, and so cheap! Then we had some pad thai, from a little street vendor, before getting a bucket of cocktail from a cool converted VW camper van!

We did a bit of shopping from the stalls on Khao San Road, and got another bucket of cocktail, did a lot of people watching, and ended our night at a bar with some live music, where they took requests. Nice casual evening, which ended at about 2am, by which point I'd been up 23 hours!

Another early start on Sunday, as we had to get a taxi to the bus station, a bus to Ban Phe, and then a ferry across to Ko Samet. The bus was so hot, but when we got to Ko Samet, it was worth it!

Beautiful beach, hot weather, lovely hotel! Had a swim in the sea, a beer in the shade, and chilled in the afternoon. Then in the evening, we went for dinner at a restaurant on the beach, where they had live music, and then an incredible fire show! We then did a bit of dancing (drum and bass Gangnam Style!), drinking, dipping our feet in the sea, and looking at the stars - lovely!

Next morning, we went for breakfast with the others, and then spent our morning on the beach. Had to check out at 12, so looked in some shops and had a drink, before getting a pick up back to the pier.

From there, I said goodbye to the others, and got a songtaew to Rayong, where my bus would be leaving. Safely made it to the bus terminal with half an hour to spare... only to realise that my bus would be leaving from somewhere else. After several confused conversations (on both parts), I got myself a motorbike taxi across the town to the bus station, and made it with very little time to spare!!

The bus journey took forever, and I eventually got back at 3am (had to get up for school the next day at 7am...)!

Needless to say, yesterday morning, I was tired, and had very little voice. The little darlings weren't too forgiving... but I had my favourite class in the afternoon, who always make up for it!

Last night we had dinner at the Italian restaurant that's just opened by our apartment, and then I went to bed as soon as I could.

Today, I talked to the students about advent, have had a couple of lessons, and now just preparing song sheets for our Christmas activities in a couple weeks. I have to teach 'Jingle Bells' and 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' so I have been listening to them on repeat....!

Hope everyone's Christmas preparations at home are going well, and will speak to you all soon!

xxxxx