Where to start! What a hectic few days!
I have moved into my new house in Surin with another English teacher, and am currently typing from a desk in the staff room as I have no wifi yet, so this blog will be a little fast paced, and will miss out on quite a lot I reckon. This is partly because it spans three days, and partly because I have forgotten my mosquito bite cream and my ankle is sending me delirious with the itch.
So, to start with our tour day which took place three days ago. We headed off at the ungodly hour of 6:30am, and firstly stopped off at a coconut farm which also had an orchid farm at the back. I took some absolutely stunning shots of the orchids (see below). We then moved onto the floating market. This was the part which I was looking forward to the most, but ultimately found quite disappointing. The ride to the market was the best bit of it. We all took long boats along the river to the market, and got to see the floating houses and neighbourhoods. It is slightly eerie, as bar the odd bucket with shampoo and toothbrushes, the whole place has a sort of 'hasnt been touched by time' feel about it. The houses are full of flowers and nice little statues, and the owners take such good care of themselves, but I can still imagine at night that the neighbourhood would resemble a scene from 'Pirates of the Caribbean'.
We then moved to the King's Grand Palace and the Royal Temple, which were unbelievably stunning. The detail in every building was incredible. Every one had beautiful paintings depicting stories and mosaics decorating statues. It was so beautiful you didnt know which way to turn your head. There was a lovely piece also that impressed me. In the middle of the temples was a little area which depicted Buddhism, Hinduism and possibly Islam, I cannot be sure of the last. It brings with it the idea of inclusion and acceptance of all religions. Acceptance of the beliefs of others and general goodness is something which I am coming across again and again here. People are ridiculously friendly, and its hard to adjust to the idea that people are being nice just to be nice. They do not want anything in return, they are just nice because they believe that it is the right thing to do.
Anyway, moving on to the next day, we were all (very stressfully) herded onto the coaches to our destinations, and after a pretty nice 6 hours drive through the countryside, we arrived in Surin, the capitol of the province. Myself and my housemate Saadia were then met by a lovely man and woman, and were driven to our accommodation in Rattanaburi, a little town an hour from Surin. Our house is on the school grounds, which comprises of 10 massive buildings. It is closer to a University than a school really. We met a few of the teachers, who were so friendly and helped us with a few Thai words, and then were taken to the market where the woman with us bargained to the best of her ability to get food cheaper for us. We were also given bikes (see below, every girls dream bike!) completely free by the school, and we all have our own fridges in our room, as well as three meals a day given to us for free until the school starts next week. The hospitality has been amazing!
Although there have been things that will take a bit of getting used to. For example, the ghekkos are HUGE. I mean massive. I saw one a few minutes ago and it was the length of my forearm, and you hear them run before u see them which is freaky enough without them running right in front of you. This, along with the praying mantis on the front door, the hopping crickets and beetles with wings, the moths the size of your hand, the millions of mosquitos that like to think your feet are dinner, and the fact that all the locals in the town think we are the most interesting thing since the invention of rice will make for an interesting few days ahead.
Sawatdiikha.
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