Last time I wrote was a while ago as the computers at Mirror were a bit temperamental so I will update from the last time I wrote. Mirror volunteering was fantastic, I did childcare which is a bit like playschool where we played games and did arts and crafts with the children and sang lots and lots of songs. The children were so funny, some were really shy but some would just go crazy jumping around all over the place and clinging onto you like you're a tree. They're also amazing at english, they're only aged 3 - 5 but can already count to 10, do the alphabet and have the basic greetings. I also taught a number of times in the schools - mainly grade 4, 5 and 6 (ages 8 - 12). This was brilliant, the children were so eager to learn (apart from some of the boys!) and would really try so hard, I loved teaching them something new that by the end of the lesson they understood - so rewarding! When we arrived at the school each day the kids would run up behind the songtaow waving and shouting hello thank you hello!! v sweet! The 2nd weekend at Mirror we went out to Teepee bar for another awesome night out and spent saturday exploring Chiang Rai, we went to the White Temple and Wat Prah Kaew and after some hardcore bargaining we got the songtaow to take us to the hot springs too for a reasonable price. In the evening we went to the walking market. On sunday morning we all got a thai massage, we had to wear fisherman pants and shirts, the massgage was amazing, v relaxing! Then me and Laura made the journey to Mae Sa Long, a chinese town in the far north of Thailand up in the mountains where we looked at the tea market and had some chinese food.

At the end of my volunteer time I got a plane down to Surat Thani where I got the bus/ferry to Koh Samui, here I met a Polish girl from England who was with her 2 friends who are originally from Thailand (which was great cos they were able to get us local prices instead of the much higher tourist prices fro everything!), We stayed in Ark Bar (at a doscounted rate) which was really nice with a bar on the beach. In the evening we were relaxing on the beach and these thai ppl come over to you with an iguana, snake or a monkey to try to get you to take photos!Friday we chilled on the beach all day which was wonderful.

On Saturday I bid farewell to my new friends so that I could go to Koh Phangan to meet up with Kailey and Marie from volunteering (was so great seeing them again xx). We went to the full moon party - epic! It was a fantastic night and we even bumped into 3 other ppl from volunteering. However I lost my camera but luckily will get photos from the other ppl I've met for now (not the same I know but will do).

On Tuesday we got the ferry to Koh Tao - I love it here! By far my favourite place in the world so far. We hired mopeds, went cliff jumping, snorkelling, relaxed in Shark Bay and went to beach bars where Kailey hada go at poi with fire!! Claire from volunteering and her mates are also here. Kailey and Marie left to go home on friday so I started my scuba dive course that day and finished it yesterday, I am now a qualified diver!! I loved it, we saw some amaizng sea life, the coral is beautiful and the fish are so colourful, absolutely fantastic, I really want to do an underwater photography course (maybe I'll come back toward the end of my trip if I have money left!) I can easily see why people end up staying here for so long! Think I'm gna go over to Phi Phi in a few days before heading to Malaysia!

xxx