trippin'

Sawadicrap,

That's how you say hello, by the way. If you're a boy. If you're a girl, you say Sawadicar instead. And if you're a street seller, it's "Sawadicaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar".

Anyway, the reason it's been so long since I last wrote anything here is that I've been away from Bangkok on a school trip to Kanchanaburi. It's an area to the west (and a bit north) of Bangkok. The main purpose of the trip was to visit the River Kwai, and its infamous bridge.

We left on Monday morning on a nice air-conditioned bus (actually 4 buses) and began the 3.5 hour trip. It was fine, but would have been more comfortable if the roads weren't quite so potholed, and if the bus had any gears above 2nd. I swear we were doing 90000 revs the whole time.

This week was the first time I actually felt like a teacher, which was nice. I didn't have my own group (except for 1 day), but otherwise, I did the same things as all the other teachers - watching the kids do all sorts of demanding activities while sitting on my backside.

OK, so that's not entirely true - I did do some of them. On the first day, we went off on the back of truck around a village in the Kanchanaburi area. This was the "Agro" tour, one of those sustainable, environmentally friendly tourism things. There was some pretty cool scenery there, some of which is now on the flickr account.

On the second day, we did some other stuff. The kids had some activities like wall climbing and bike riding (and I did the bike riding, just so you know. I can cope with cycling in the heat, because you only seem to realise how hot you are when you stop.) I also managed to lose my phone at this point. I maintain that someone buggered off with it or nicked it from my pocket, since it was definitely on when I last had it (about 30 mins. before I noticed it missing) and it was off when we tried to ring it from someone else's phone.

We trailed round a few museums about the railway, and even went to visit the cutting in the rock affectionately known as "hellfire pass". It was fairly depressing. I got a few photos too, just for good measure.

The museums were very effective at bringing the suffering to life. Even so I had to remember - every time I was horrified by the terrible conditions the poor PoWs lived in - the fact that our nuclear attack of Japan has more than tipped the balance. They still feel the physical effects of the radiation today.

Anyway, on a slightly less depressing note, we continued to roam the museums and valleys of Kanchanaburi, pausing occasionally to moan about the heat and gulp vast quantities of water

We visited a cave, called the Lawa cave. Yes, Lawa not Lava, and finished on Thursday with an assault course which I originally intended to sit out of. I soon joined in, if only to encourage the flagging kids. It was after I had dangled from a thick rope for some time with my feet in 4 foot of water that I decided I shouldn't have worn thick canvas shorts.

On friday, we came home, or at least back to Bangkok, which I guess I must think of as home for the next 6 months.

Don't miss the lovely story below...

Love Dom.

a short story

I was recently privy* a rather disturbing episode in a toilet above a club on Khao San road in Bangkok. I went searching for the toilet with Sam and while he sensibly opted for the closed-door model and I foolishly chose the standard issue urinal. It was only a few seconds after I had "armed myself", so to speak, that I felt hands on my back and shoulders - some guy was massaging me.

"NO!", I exclaimed.
"Get off!", I ejaculated.
"I'll use one of them!", I cried, pointing to a cubical.

Needless to say, I am still suffering the emotional aftershocks of that particular event. There are many traumas to leaving home for the first time and if being massaged by creepy sweaty guys in toilets is one of them, I want no part of it.

Love Dom.

P.S. the writing style above is such because I have been reading a great deal of Wodehouse over the last few days. I rarely use words such as Ejaculate when referring to speach, but I wish to make it clear that there is no reason why one shouldn't.

*ha ha

flickr slideshow

OK so sadly, it doesn't quite fit. I don't know how to fix that, so just click here for the proper page...

A little treat

Just something to whet your appetites...

From Bangkok

It's the view from our window... Enjoy!

Click for a biggie.

There's a link on the side to my "flickr" page which will eventually house all my pictures that are worth seeing.

Dom

Censoring in Thailand

Apparently the habit of some countries of censoring their media happens here too. Sattelite broadcasts and other media are censored by the new Thai government. Interestingly, my ISP here doesn't seem to block CNN which is apparently blocked by most of the ISPs in Thailand.

See here for more info.

Dom

Just one thing...

There's a link to the school calander on the right of the page, so you can find out when I'm on half-term etc.

It's PE time!

Edit - I've fixed the link... sorry about that.

Tuesday

So it's the first day of school (it's actually the second week as I write this, but we can pretend, eh?).

Sam and I got up at the ungodly hour of 6am, falling to 5.45 in order to get some damn breakfast. I successfully managed to block my toilet, which Sam insisted was my fault. I maintain that if the main function of a toilet is to deal with organic waste, even a heroic quantity shouldn't present a problem.

Anyway, with that aside, we did manage to get out of the apartments in order to go to school. Amazingly, after a night's sleep, we were actually able to escape from the building. We met Laura in reception, and hopped into a taxi.

One bit of advice - it's very important to choose the right kind of taxi when travelling around Bangkok. You can't really get around on foot (except around some smaller districts) so most of your travelling is done in taxis. It is vital to not get the wrong kind. There are the right kind "Taxi-Meter" taxis. They have a meter in them, hence the name. They won't rip you off, and at least most of them know where they're going. There are also "Tuk-Tuks". These are terrifying tricycles with a seat on the back and a flimsy sunscreen over the top. There is just room for 3 on the back if you squeeze a bit. They will probably try and rip you off, and will also go as fast as they can around tight corners. We were charged 100 baht (which is about 1.20, just so's you know) for a very short trip that in a real taxi would only cost about 35 baht. So what, you may think - it's a minimum of 2.50 to get anywhere in a London taxi. You'd be right, but it seemed very rude to us, and Sam was very pleased with himself for knocking the guy down and giving him 40.

Very pleased until we had dinner with the Headmaster and he gave us a talk about being generous with tips, given that most people barely earn enough to live on. Back down to earth with a sickening crunch.

At school itself, we had very little to do since our timetables had yet to be set up. We wandered around and introduced ourselves to various teachers and tried to get lessons in the senior school instead of the junior.

Later on, we decided we'd go and check out the massive department store near the apartments. It's called Central, and is one of a chain around Bangkok. It's basically a slightly downmarket version of the Bullring or something of that nature - and as a result, isn't all that cheap. It is almost western prices, which is depressing. However, there are a lot of restaurants in it, many of which look pretty good, with low prices.

On an impulse, we went into a Sushi restaurant; madness, you might say. Well, I've had sushi before, but the others hadn't, and it was cheap enough that we could try it out without too much financial risk. We looked, in Sam's words, like rank amatures. Because we couldn't find the "Sushi selection in the menu, we were reduced to pointing to it in the window display. Demeaning or what?

Regardless, it arrived, and we weren't able to make it entirely clear that we were not staying for a full meal. Either way, it arrived. I had one of those seaweed wrapped ones, which are nice, and sam chose what looked like a ball of snot. Turned out to be a ball of mustard, so that came out again. Laura was finally brave enough to try it, and my second bit turned out to be a bit of bleached sheet rubber... but enough of that.

Love Dom

2

Yo,
So, I've been a bit bad at this so far. You will understand if I've been busy - and yes Ben. Busy. You are far lazier than me.

Anyway, where did I get too. We've arrived, been shown around the school (photos to come, by the way) and were all too tired to take much of it in. Laura was taken off to meet the little kiddies, while Sam and I were paraded around the school being introduced to people with frighteningly difficult to remember names. Like John and Bob. My hand still goes up and down automatically, after shaking so many hands. (Ho ho Phil, put that dirty imagination away).

After that, we were finally dismissed and returned to the Bangkok Garden Apartments (Or the BGs, which is easier to say). We all went for a quick brush up and agreed to meet downstairs to go out for dinner. We have all heard a great deal about this wonderful Restaurant known affectionately as "The Shack". Not an inspiring name, but hey. Basically, it's this place on the side of the road with a load of rickety metal tables and fold out chairs under a sheet of tarpaulin, with an "open plan" kitchen at one end. There are a surprising number of staff for such a... budget enterprise, and they're very helpful. So helpful in fact that I'm sure I didn't get anything like what I ordered, and I also found the way this damn woman kept refilling my drink from the bottle standing on the table next to me, as if my own arms were too weak from shaking hands I couldn't do it myself, distinctly irritating.

Regardless, we didn't actually make it that evening. Just a brief bit of explanation - the flats are arranged with around 6 giant towers which extend above a common 3rd floor. On this floor are all the pool, gym and restaurant facilities. There are also lifts to take you down to the street. We couldn't find them. After around 20 minutes of staggering around under what felt like the influence of horse tranquilizers, trying lift after lift which refused to take us any lower than floor 3, and a number which decided a quick trip to floor 13 was a good idea, we gave up and went to the restaurant inside.

Then, at around 7pm, it was time for bed.


Thanks for reading - I'll get to the rest of the week soon!

Oh, please leave comments, btw - click where it says "Comments".

Love,
Dom.

P.S. Any further complaints about my spelling will be ignored. Unless I'm in a bad mood, in which case I'll just slip one of the heavily armed guards a fiver and watch him shoot you and your family. Sweet dreams!

Herrrrrro.

I've arrived.

Well, in fact, I arrived on monday morning at 9.30, but I've been rather busy.

The journey was fairly uninteresting, as is to be expected. On the way to barain we all had our own TVs, which was cool, but the fact that the SNES controller attached to it apparently didn't work was not cool at all but deadly, deadly warm. The second leg of the journey was even less satisfactory given that my headphones didn't work at all, so I had the dreadful shame of being forced to watch something as awful as "Stormbreaker" without even being able to hear what the arrogant litte bugger was saying. The three hour wait in Barain didn't help my mood, I'll be honest.

Then again, we weren't delayed and arrived in Bangkok International airport on time, with all limbs attached and only 3 screaming babies had been killed on route.

After a walk of some 200 miles, (Honest, it's a new airport and apparently that means they need to spread everything out as much as possible. It did have those escalators that get confused and go along the floor instead of up.) we got to the immigration and passport control area. It was with cocky ease that we ambled towards the booths, content that we had covered everything and couldn't possibly be turned away. We were amused by the pathetic struggles of the tourists scribbling away in order to apply, or so we thought, for a 30 day visa. We had a visa already, a multiple entry one no less, good for a whole year.

A few minutes later I got ink from one of my broken pens all over the form, and wrote my name in the wrong box.

Once in the taxi back from the airport, we headed towards our apartment complex - The "Bangkok Garden Apartments". If you google that, you'll find the website. It looks like centre parks. To all intents and purposes, it is Centre Parks. Our apartment is in block B, floor 10, number 1. It's not palatial, but it is very nice; for a gap year, it's amazing actually. Air con and everything.

I feel at this point, it would be unfair of me not to mention my friend. Well, at least, my acquaintance. Sam (Mc'Clure) is here also, in the same position as myself. We are sharing the apartment as it happens. He's debauched. He also has trouble curbing his rampant racism. Also here is Laura Goulding, the UK Shrewsbury headmaster's daughter. She's teaching the kindergarten years, from 2 years old. She is going grey and seems to be loosing i ;).

He also got the big, big bedroom (we tossed for it). I get it in three months, or at least, I should, if he doesn't flake more than an eczema sufferer in a bath full of sand.

Ok, I'm going to make a new post now, that is the journey done. It was a bit boring, I admit. I do have some fairly interesting stories for the next few days. I just need a few hours spare to catch up. I'm busier than a hooker working at a seaport after a freak arrival of 17 large galleons full of sailors.

Boom

Naturally you will all have heard about the recent bombings in Bangkok. It seems nine bombs were set off in the city killing 3 and wounding around 30. It will not come as a surprise to anyone that this news disturbed me slightly, but I still visited London after July the 7th, so I won't let it affect me too much.

I received a wonderful email from the Headmaster of the school in Bangkok, in which he pointed out that Bangkok was likely to return to 'business as usual' within a few weeks. Since the Thai people are largely courteous and gentle, many locals consider the bombings to be a great insult to the good name of the city.

It appears, also, that the bombings were politically motivated, and although I say this only from information gleamed from the media, it is suspected that rather than the sort of terrorists we're used to in this country; these terrorists were supporters of the old government. It seems there are some sore losers in Thailand.

Anyway, from the department of less interesting news, I leave home with my old school for London on Friday. We're performing our musical "Frankenstein!" which met with some success at the Edinburgh fringe over the summer (I'm one of the cellists). We're performing at the Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Road, London SW7. There are two performances at 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

That'll do for now, I'm supposed to be packing, really.

Dom