This time two weeks ago...

Thai1

Hi there! Ok so i hear that you have all been checking my blog whilst I've been neglecting it! But who can blame me for wanting to be out in the sunshine and having fun instead of nestled in an internet cafe ;o)!

Anyways I did promise pictures and a regular update so I've decided to tell it all in 'arrears', hence the title 'This time two weeks ago'.

Thanks for showing an interest!

Day One- Saturday 21 July 2007

So I arrive in Bangkok after a 7 hour flight from Bahrain. I had planned to sleep but ended up sitting next to a Thai girl who was all upset and putting on the waterworks. After piecing together her broken English and my non-existent Thai it turned out that she was on the plane because she had just left her husband. He was from Bahrain and a Muslim and she did not feel comfortable wearing the niqab and adjusting to the customs that his religion required her to adhere to. So she was flying back home to her family in North Thailand. Understandably she was upset. But all the more understandably i really wanted to sleep, but that was now not going to happen. I got about 2 hours in, between regular counselling sessions.

So by the time I arrive in Bangkok i'm pretty damn tired! I walk out to meet Pe Tang and Du. Pe Tang being a tiny little man largely swamped by a grey freddy mercury mustache holding a little sign with i-to-i scribbled on it. Du, who knows no English, takes me to a cafeteria and gives me some vouchers. This is when i had my first meal in Thailand....and it was spectacularly disgusting. It was some yucky gravy stuff with snotty cooked ham and crispy noodles. I took one bite and chose to ignore my plate. Du, who was silently sitting across from me reading a car magazine, took no notice of the rude foreigner that I was.

Lesley

After about two hours of reading Bill Bryson (The life and times of the thunderbolt kid- I highly recommend), it finally becomes clear why the airport was starting to seem like my final destination. We were waiting for Lesley. A sweet Scottish girl who was 23 years old and a high school English teacher.

Arlette2

Finally the trip was going to start. We clamber into a car and drive through Bangkok to the KT Guest House. Here we chill out till the evening. I swim in the pool for a bit. Then we go to a night market for dinner. Where we meet the other people in the group and the i-to-i teachers that will be at some of the schools that we will visit. On the right is a picture of Catriona and me on the first night at the night market. This meal incidentally was awesome- plain old rice and chicken- but it really did rock. :o)

So that's day one- day two tomorrow!

                                                 Laters!

                                                 Arlette

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