Sawasdee-ca everyone!

Since leaving freezing Britain I have spent a week relaxing on Koh Samui - sunbaking, swimming, sipping fruit shakes and generally lazing around reading and having a lovely time. It's so nice to be in a warm climate again!! The Montien (my resort) was heavenly as always - fabulous buffet breakfasts of fresh fruit, coconut yoghurt, muesli, omelettes and bacon! Needless to say I never needed to eat for the rest of the day. In the afternoons I went for lovely long strolls along the beach as the sun was setting, followed by dinner and a thai massage before bed! Bliss! One night I ate on the beach - lots of yummy seafood, candles and fairylights, the sound of the waves and a singer performing love songs - very romantic but missing a certain someone!! The other nights I became a regular patron at a cute little restaurant/cafe/bakery place that had delicious thai meals that were really cheap... and mango and stickyrice!! My favourite thai dessert!! The great thing about this cafe was that it had a tv with nightly movies as well as the tennis.. so I didn't miss out on my heart-throb Federa completely! Nor the Williams sisters. Have since heard Nadal won.... am absolutely shattered.

After Samui I flew to Bangkok, then on to Chiang Mai to stay at the familiar Seven Suns, which is just as quirky as it was on my previous stay last year! I headed out to the Saturday Walking Market, which is not quite as good as the Sunday version, but still the most amazing fabulous market ever. Needless to say I couldn't resist buying lots of interesting little Thai hill tribe bits and pieces, including a couple of presents.

From Chiang Mai I took the bus to Chiang Rai. Unfortunately I was mistakenly led to believe that buses left all the time, so casually rocked up around midday to book my seat. I was then told the next available bus was at 2:15, and that it was a second-class bus, and that there were only two seats left - I could chose between the very back seat, or the one in front. So, naturally I took the least bad option - second-last.

After reading numerous chapters of Atonement (which I am LOVING despite knowing the storyline.. I aspire to one day write something half as beautifully as he does, which would be a wonderful achievement) I boarded the bus, which was incredibly stuffy, despite the ticket-lady claiming it was air-conditioned. Past the numerous seats to the second-last row and alas, an old Thai man was asleep on his chair with half his body and a leg on my side of the seat. So I squeezed in next to him with my legs out in the aisle and feebly attempted to adjust the air-con blower to face me. I then plugged in my mp3 player and closed my eyes, praying the next four hours would go quickly. After 15 minutes of bumpy roads and turning corners it occurred to me I should have taken some travel tablets. As I discovered when we stopped for a toilet break half way through, so should have the lady behind me. A badly-timed glance to the back revealed her head in a plastic bag of slush... not a pleasant sight for someone who had barely managed to contain the same urge. Luckily, I survived the ride illness-free, and was never more glad to get off a bus as when I did in Chiang Rai.

After a hiccup getting to my guesthouse (the tuk tuk driver didn't know where it was) I arrived at the guesthouse that's just been set up by the NGO I'm volunteering for - the Mirror Foundation. It's opening is this Saturday, which I'm planning on attending - despite the 6am start (!!), which is necessary for the monks' blessing of the business. Anyway, at the guesthouse I met three other volunteers who were starting, which was great. We went out to dinner and the night bazaar together. The next morning we met a few other volunteers before catching a sang thow (no idea how to spell it - but a truck thing where we squashed about 10 people and all our luggage in the back) to the Mirror Foundation where we're voluntering, about 20 minutes north of Chiang Rai.

The scenery around Mirror is stunning (haven't taken many photos yet as my camera has been playing up - "noooo!!!" - but have uploaded a couple for you to see). I am staying in a dorm room with about 10 other girls and next door is a dorm of another 10 girls from RMIT in Melbourne, who are doing an internship rather than a volunteer stint - ie their teaching is being credited towards their degree (they're doing primary education). Apparently their daily routine is a lot more full-on than ours as a consequence (teaching for a full day 5 days a week, rather than half-days with varied activites eg childcare and community development projects). My dorm shares a bathroom with the RMIT girls - cold water showers as expected, but amazingly with a nozzle (not bucket)!

Today I did childcare which was great - the kids are sooooo adorable!!! When we entered the room all 22 kids were sitting in a circle with hands on knees then they bowed and greeted us and were so cute. All of them were so intrigued with my hair (which I had braided with beads in Koh Samui) and wanted to touch it and sit near me. Instantly I made a friend as a little girl jumped to sit on my lap. SO SWEET! We started with introductions then sang a song with actions in English then in Thai. Then we sang the alphabet and focussed on the letter "F", so we got them to trace uppercase and lowercase F's and then we made flower masks because flowers start with "F". That was when some of the kids went a little wild, because everyone finished their masks at different times and the first ones became restless. But even when they're being naughty they're so adorable it's hard to get angry, because they give you these cheeky little smiles. Next we sang songs and did actions. The chicken dance was a success but the Hokey-Pokey was a bad idea - the kids didn't want to start with one leg in, but rather skipped to their whole bodies straight away. They grabbed each others' hands and ran into the middle crashing into everyone. It got a bit crazy!! Lastly we went outside and played with them on the swings etc. All day the kids were so cute, they made me feel so loved - a couple fought over who could hold my hand, everytime I sat down a couple of kids would jump into my lap, people kept smiling at me and touching my hair. I loved it!!!

This afternoon was the official volunteer orientation and we discovered that tomorrow we're going on our homestay - three days/two nights trekking, an elephant ride and staying overnight with two different hilltribes - the Lahu and the Akha tribes. Apparently the walk is a bit of a killer - up a steep hill in the hot sun - but otherwise it should be a great experience (although potentially quite similar to my trek in Chiang Mai last year!).

The food here is delicious and pretty healthy. Pretty much every meal (including brekkie) involves rice, although this morning's breakfast was pad thai which was yummy. Yesterday's lunch was rice and pumpkin and some omelette which was so good!! Tonight's dinner was fried rice.

This weekend we get back from the trek on Friday morning, then Friday night everyone at Mirror goes into Chiang Rai for dinner. We (a couple of volunteer friends I've made and I) are planning on staying there for the weekend, so we can go to the guesthouse opening and explore the town a bit, including seeing a famed 'White Temple' which is apparently beautiful.

On Monday I've signed up to go far far north to the Burmese border to help build a proper road for the entrance of an orphanage. It's a public holiday for Buddhists in Thailand, so there's no school. The trip costs 500 baht each (around $25) because we're paying for the project materials and lunch for the kids at the orphanage, but it should be a good experience. In the morning on our way up we're going to a monk ceremony and at night we'll be having another Buddhist ceremony to mark the special occasion.

That's about all for now... off to have an early night before I leave on my trek tomorrow! Hope you are all well in your respective homes - hope that the snow in Oxford is not too chilly and that you're enjoying making snowmen!! And hope that the heatwave in Melbourne is over, you poor things!!

Love to you all xxxxx