There was heavy rain during the night - so heavy and loud that it woke me up at about 3am. Spoke to Harry yesterday evening re: the visa run and opening a bank account. He said the school here are very happy with my work and have no complaints so I can breath easier.
Today is Thursday so I start at 9.20am.
Quarter past five. My normal café is still closed; they must be having a holiday for the Chinese half year. Very inconvenient for me; I've found another café further from the school, but I don't like it very much and it doesn't serve egg fried rice. I wonder if that's because they are pure Thai rather that Chinese Thai. Anyway, having my first beer since Saturday.
Tomorrow morning the school is laying on a special breakfast for a group of Buddhist monks. I can't find out why or where they're coming from, but apparently it's ritual they do every year. I'm not certain whether or not there will be classes in the morning; I asked some of the teachers, but no one seemed to know. Oh well, I'll find out soon enough.
Had all good classes today. It seems to be getting easier every day. I'm not sure if I'm just learning how to teach children, if I'm starting to relax in a Thai classroom, a combination of both or something else all together. Whatever, I can truly say that I really enjoyed myself today and the lessons seemed to finish almost before they'd begun.
We had very heavy rain this afternoon and I think more is imminent as the sky is heavy with low, black clouds - not a blue patch to be seen. It's not very humid, but feels rainy and there's a cooling breeze from time to time.
11th August
The end of three weeks teaching here.
Well, the monks' thing wasn't actually a feast - all the kids and teachers had brought dried and packet food and drinks which were laid out on tables in the school garden The monks then went round and took what they wanted. One elderly monk then said a prayer and they all left. Afterwards we (the teachers and students) went into the sports hall. A shrine had been set up and there was a large photo of the Queen on one wall. I tried to stay discreetly at the back of the assembly, but the school Director, speaking over a sound system, asked me to join him and the other teachers in the front row!
First everyone (except me) sang the Thai national anthem and then pledged allegiance to Queen and country (I think). It all took about five minutes; finally we had to write a message and sign a book of 'Greetings' to the Queen. As 'honoured' guest, I was given third place after the Director and his deputy. My words, as far as I remember, were: Her Majesty a long and happy life on this her birthday.' With five hundred children, 30 teachers and a video camera staring at me, it was very off-putting and I may have had a rather shaky hand!
When lessons finished at half past two today, the Head teacher happened to mention that Monday is a National Holiday to mark the Queen's birthday - could have told me sooner! So I've got three days off and nothing planned.
The weather forecast is for heavy rain all weekend and next week so there's not much point in going down to the coast. Wondering if I ought to go to Bangkok for a day or two; could get the train from town and find a cheap place to stay.
It's just occurred to me that I could do the visa run this weekend instead of next Saturday. Maybe that's a good plan - with three days it wouldn't be such a rush to get there and back to the village.
The best thing today - my normal café has reopened! From what I can make out, they went off somewhere on a shopping trip so I assume it was nothing to do with the Chinese festival. Very glad they are back though.
12th August
Made a decision and I'm going to Bangkok today. Will get the bus to the town and then a train to the city. Hopefully I can do the visa run tomorrow.
It's twenty past eight in the morning and I'm on a train heading for Bangkok - the fare was 40 Baht, which is just over one Dollar, for the two and a half hour trip. It's certainly not First Class and not even Business Class, but it's comfortable enough for a short journey. The train is quite full with Thais, but no other foreigners that I've seen.
The train arrived in Bangkok at 11am. I took the underground - very new and shiny, but expensive. Ratchaburi to Bangkok (2 1/2 hours) was 40 Baht; two stops on the metro (four minutes) was 17 Baht!
Went to a travel company and reserved the trip for tomorrow. The coach leaves Silom in central Bangkok at 6am and the scheduled arrival time back in Bangkok is 3pm. (By the way I'm crossing into Cambodia as it's much nearer than Burma.) So, it really is a visa 'run' - four hours there, new visa and four hours back. In a way I'd like to go back to the village as soon as I'm back in the city, but it's not possible. I could get to the town, but the last bus from there is 4pm.
I've got a hotel in the Khao San Road (backpackers' central!) - the hotel is called 'Siam Oriental Inn'; sounds exotic, but it isn't - it's very basic and the bed is little more than a plank of wood. However, for about seven Dollars, what can you expect.
It's strange being amongst so many people and so much traffic. There are hordes of tourists and I can hear English being spoken all around me. It's a nice change after being in the village, but I wouldn't really want to live here.
It's 2.30pm and I'm sitting at a café having a beer. At about four o'clock I'm going to phone England. I've just changed my last $100 note so I'll have to be careful until I eventually get some money. After paying 1,900 Baht for the trip tomorrow, I'll have about 3,500 which should be more than enough if I stick to Pepsi during the week, which I must!
It's not quite 4pm (I've just phoned England) and I'm ready to leave this city! I hate all the people, traffic and noise; I'd much rather be at my café in the village. The male English tourists here are an embarrassment - half of them are walking around bare-chested and trying to be macho. The others are desperately trying to look like 1960s dropouts wearing baggy, loose-fitting clothes - very obviously very new 'hippy' outfits. Most of them also have the traditional monks' bags over their shoulders. Bet it will all change when they go home!
I'm in a café that possibly doesn't have a licence to serve alcohol; they are serving beer in plastic cups with the bottles hidden out of sight. The girl who served me said, "Please not put bottle on table - police see."
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