Wednesday, October 6, 2010
First week of Paradise
The bus journey to the ferry was an experience and a half. They don’t seem to have speed limits in Thailand. And if there’s someone on a scooter in front then they just beep their horn until they move onto the hard shoulder. When we arrived at the ferry we had enough time to have a quick meal, which was good, as me and mike were hanging out our arses from the heavy meet and greet session the night before.
The idea of getting a speed boat to a paradise island may create an image of cruising over the sea with the sea breeze in your hair, but the reality was less idyllic. Now picture having 40 people cramped onto one speed boat, their entire luggage, and more. In the tiny little toilet was a plant so there was no use of those facilities. Now you have that image imagine being on that boat for just over 2 hours hanging out your arse. Not the kind of transport you imagine when being taken to a paradise island is it now. But when we arrived at the island, paradise it was, clear blue seas, white sandy beaches, watching the bright tropical fish dart in and out of the coral beneath the boat. We had locals waiting for us when we arrived to take our luggage to the resort, which I realise sounds a bit tarquin but it really isn’t, we still had to walk to the other side of the island with our hand luggage. When we finally arrived at the resort it was perfection, palm trees, white sand, clear seas, and bars on the beach. Which we soon found out were incredibly nice and getting drunk on the beach in paradise is something else. So once again me and mike got drunk and only just turned up in time for class (well we had a reputation to keep up now). This was only because we thought it started half hour before it actually did. This was the routine for a couple of days, until I realised I was spending too much so I thought it a good idea to have a night of no alcoholic beverages at all. This made me feel a lot better the next day. But the next night was not such an easy going night, a lot of us went to the bar we went to on the first night called Thai Thai. The people there are very friendly, their names are Mon, Bau, Loon and God. On this night our teachers joined us at this bar, so we got incredibly drunk, and went swimming, which because of the intoxication that we were all inflicted by ended up becoming skinny dipping. Me and mike were the only lads that were naked with 4 girls, which are all rather bangtidy. As we had drinks in the sea and we needed to take the glasses I decided to be a gentleman and take them all back to shore, still naked with one hand cupping myself with my shorts and the other full of glasses teacher Sanjiit went to shake my cupping hand, so I Manginaed and shook his hand. As there was a group of Thai women on the table next to the teachers I thought it impolite to ignore them and said hello in Thai, and bowed, all while doing, a rather good I must say, Mangina, which they giggled at (it was rather cold out of the water). When I got back into the sea the girls had decided that it would be a good idea to swim out to one of the boats and climb aboard, mike had got out of the sea by this point so it was me and 4 naked ladies on this little fishing boat. Being on a boat with 4 naked lovely ladies and not show your appreciation is very hard (no pun intended) but I managed it. So the first week was eventually over and my nervousness of teaching had diminished, I was really looking forward to it now. So we had a party to celebrate, we all bought alcohol and sat in our classroom getting incredibly drunk until we ran out of alcoholic beverages, and moved onto Thai Thai. At Thai Thai we took over their music, playing from our own MP3 players, I was Top DJ for the night banging out tune after tune, Pete Tong eat your heart out.
The idea of getting a speed boat to a paradise island may create an image of cruising over the sea with the sea breeze in your hair, but the reality was less idyllic. Now picture having 40 people cramped onto one speed boat, their entire luggage, and more. In the tiny little toilet was a plant so there was no use of those facilities. Now you have that image imagine being on that boat for just over 2 hours hanging out your arse. Not the kind of transport you imagine when being taken to a paradise island is it now. But when we arrived at the island, paradise it was, clear blue seas, white sandy beaches, watching the bright tropical fish dart in and out of the coral beneath the boat. We had locals waiting for us when we arrived to take our luggage to the resort, which I realise sounds a bit tarquin but it really isn’t, we still had to walk to the other side of the island with our hand luggage. When we finally arrived at the resort it was perfection, palm trees, white sand, clear seas, and bars on the beach. Which we soon found out were incredibly nice and getting drunk on the beach in paradise is something else. So once again me and mike got drunk and only just turned up in time for class (well we had a reputation to keep up now). This was only because we thought it started half hour before it actually did. This was the routine for a couple of days, until I realised I was spending too much so I thought it a good idea to have a night of no alcoholic beverages at all. This made me feel a lot better the next day. But the next night was not such an easy going night, a lot of us went to the bar we went to on the first night called Thai Thai. The people there are very friendly, their names are Mon, Bau, Loon and God. On this night our teachers joined us at this bar, so we got incredibly drunk, and went swimming, which because of the intoxication that we were all inflicted by ended up becoming skinny dipping. Me and mike were the only lads that were naked with 4 girls, which are all rather bangtidy. As we had drinks in the sea and we needed to take the glasses I decided to be a gentleman and take them all back to shore, still naked with one hand cupping myself with my shorts and the other full of glasses teacher Sanjiit went to shake my cupping hand, so I Manginaed and shook his hand. As there was a group of Thai women on the table next to the teachers I thought it impolite to ignore them and said hello in Thai, and bowed, all while doing, a rather good I must say, Mangina, which they giggled at (it was rather cold out of the water). When I got back into the sea the girls had decided that it would be a good idea to swim out to one of the boats and climb aboard, mike had got out of the sea by this point so it was me and 4 naked ladies on this little fishing boat. Being on a boat with 4 naked lovely ladies and not show your appreciation is very hard (no pun intended) but I managed it. So the first week was eventually over and my nervousness of teaching had diminished, I was really looking forward to it now. So we had a party to celebrate, we all bought alcohol and sat in our classroom getting incredibly drunk until we ran out of alcoholic beverages, and moved onto Thai Thai. At Thai Thai we took over their music, playing from our own MP3 players, I was Top DJ for the night banging out tune after tune, Pete Tong eat your heart out.
First Encounters
A good start to a great experience is being stopped as I enter the departure lounge of Heathrow because apparently I look like a druggie. Meeting strangers for the first time that you’re going to spend the next six months half way round the world with is never exactly easy, but when it’s such an awesome group of people, as they are, it makes it a lot easier. As I write this I have already been here for a week and it’s like we've all known each other for a lot longer. just as it is when you first start uni, it must be the fact that you learn a lot more about people when you live with them.
The weekend of travelling from the glorious big smoke to the paradise island that is Koh Lipe was an experience in its self. Having never been outside of Europe myself, I had never been on a flight lasting more than 4 hours. So the idea of 15 hours flying was quite daunting, but turned out to be a good time. As soon as I sat in my seat I was like a little kid with a new toy on Christmas day, I had my own TV screen. Not only were there movies available on my personal screen but also games. I felt like a commoner having never flied in a plane like this, but it meant I had more fun so it was all good. The food was just as amazing; being a flight to Mumbai the food was a proper curry, unfortunately though there was only vegetarian but the air steward manage to find a separate little meat dish for me which I was very grateful for as I'm not a fan of rabbit food, however the meal was very nice. Arriving in Mumbai airport wasn’t a major cultural shock as I expected, but that was probably due to the fact that I was stuck in the airport for the 2 hours I was there. This gave me time to meet more of the people that I would be spending a lot of time with. The second plane was nowhere near as nice as the first one, but I still had my own little personal screen so i was contempt with that. Unfortunately I couldn’t eat the meal that was provided as the thought of eating made me queasy. Which if you know me, is definitely not like me. When we arrived in Bangkok we had 12 hours to explore the city, which we didn’t quite use as well as we could have. I did eat something from a street vendor who said it was chicken but definitely was not chicken, but tasted quite like it. From people saying that strange food tastes like chicken I guessed It was dog which in hindsight is actually quite tasty. When we decided to split into smaller groups we decided to head to the local shopping centre which meant that the only difference from home was that the prices were a lot cheaper and there were a lot more Thai people around. In this shopping centre we had McDonald's and then went to the pub and had a few drinks, so I feel I fully experienced the Thai culture while in Bangkok. We then returned to Bangkok airport where I had my first proper Thai meal, Pad Thai, which is extremely tasty. We then had an hour flight to Hat Yai where everyone was out cold before the plane had even taken off, we were all woken up by the stewardess' just before landing. When we got to Hat Yai,where we would finally get to relax and rest overnight, which was well needed, me and Mike decided to find somewhere where we could watch the footy, we were unable to find anywhere so we decided to go for a few drinks. Your probably imagining a little pub, or bar. well that's not quite right, this place was a shop which was also the blokes house where he was chilling having a few beverages with his mates, he set up a table for the 5 of us which we had now turned to from the original 2. then the rest of the group turned up, making it about 15 of us, this is where it turned into a proper session. But this meant we finally got to meet everyone properly, and now me and mike have a reputation as the party people as we had an after party in our room and ended up missing the bus in the morning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)