A crazy few days in Bangkok

So I set off on my journey on Thursday 10.20am from Heathrow and arrived on Friday 8th at Suvarnabhumi Bangkok airport. Evelyn (a friend from university) and I then got a taxi to our hostel which was actually really lovely seeing as it was only £12 a night, bargain! The rest of the day was pretty much a write off; we had a quick look around the area and of course fitted in some green curry but we were far too jetlagged to function properly!

The hostel in Bangkok Silom District - 'Take A Nap'

 

Saturday 13th July

We visited Lumphini Park which was right down the road from our hostel; it is said to be the Central Park of Bangkok. It was surreal that this lush area was in the middle of crazy, polluted Bangkok and it almost made you forget where you were. The park was full of lakes, terrapins, fountains, cat fish and elephant shaped trees!

 

 

 

 

 

After Lumphini Park, we made our way over to the Grand Palace. The three words I would use to describe the experience would be: hot, unbearable and amazing. It was such a hot day, reaching 40c, and walking to the palace was stressful to say the least. The amount of people who were trying to con us on the way saying 'palace is closed', 'come with me', 'feed the pigeons' (don't ask) was ridiculous. But we finally got inside and it was better than I remembered it from a few years ago.

 

 

In the evening we decided to go for a big night out on Khao San Road. It was brilliantly crazy. I can't count the number of  times that someone tried to sell me a fried scorpion on a stick; i'm all up for immersing myself in Thai culture, but the Thai's don't even eat those, only the drunk tourists! We had an awesome time drinking vodka out of buckets and Chang.

 

 

Sunday 14th July

 



Hungover with major sunstroke, we moved to the Ambassador Hotel for the orientation which was fun as all the ETA's were staying there. We just chilled out, had naps and went to the rooftop pool - its a hard life in Thailand...

 

Monday 15th/ Tuesday16th July

This was the start of orientation. We had a big conference where we got to meet up with all of our mentors from our schools around Thailand, watch some Thai dance and have countless free buffets. We started our teacher training which was a serious crash course (learn how to be a teacher in a day and a half) but it wasn't too bad and we got to meet people who would be living in our area.

 

Tuesday was manic. We had another few sessions with our teacher trainer and then we were shipped off to our province at 2pm. I had a lovely 4 hour wait at Bangkok bus station, waiting for my 12 hour night bus to Nakhon Phanom. Actually leaving my friends to travel with a stranger to north east Thailand was scary and very overwhelming but the journey was fine and the rep from my school bought me food approximately every half an hour I was with him. I ended up with 6 drinks, a fish curry, two bags of pineapple, a bag of melon, two boxes of Thai cakes and some sticky rice... I wasn't even hungry.

 

There were many stressful times in Bangkok, to name a few...

1. Being taken out of Bangkok by a taxi driver when we asked to go to Khao San Road
2. Being on a road with no people only wild dogs looking at you like you are a steak
3. Being harassed to go to a ping pong show (ew)
4. Our hotel room door being wide open when we came back to our room in the evening

...but it was definitely an incredible experience, and I got to meet so many great people.



One Week To Go!

And so the countdown begins...

Considering there is only one week to go until my trip, I feel relatively organised and I am really starting to get excited! I have been doing a lot of research on the country and I know where I would like to visit and what I want to see when I am out there!

I have also started to learn the basics of the Thai language, thanks to YouTube and many iPhone apps, but knowing how to say 'how are you' and 'don't worry' is only going to get me so far! So I think I need to make a bit more progress on the language front.

The only thing left to sort out is obtaining my DBS certificate and buying my insurance. With regards to insurance, there are so many different companies and types of cover that finding a suitable one is a lot of effort, but it is my aim to do that today :)

I have made a two A4 long page checklist of everything that I need to take with me and I am slightly concerned that it's not all going to fit in my 23kg allowance but I am a self-confessed over packer; maybe I need someone to help me cut down on all my junk....maybe I don't need six nail varnishes...

Getting my visa from the Thai embassy in London on Tuesday made it all seem very real, but at the moment I feel organised and prepared so that can only be a good thing. I reckon I'm going to spend the next week seeing friends and family and making the most of good old English food before it is all unobtainable!

Lastly, I am really looking forward to teaching children. Having learnt more about what is required of us and our duties, I realise that it is going to be a huge challenge but an amazing one at that. What we will learn and the experiences we will have are going to be hugely invaluable and a fantastic learning curve which will undoubtedly benefit us ETA's in the future.

Countdown: 6 days to go

 

Post Pre-departure Meeting

So I went to the pre-departure meeting on Thursday and it left me feeling..

1. Excited - Being told more about what we are going to be doing in Thailand as an ETA was great. It was interesting to hear from previous ETA's and their experiences and reassurance that we will, in fact, arrive back in one piece! Something else that made me feel this way was learning about how we will spend our weekends. Every weekend is spent travelling around Thailand, seeing all the different sights, like the palaces, temples and islands. Having travelled to Thailand, I saw a fair few tourist attractions however I think it will be great to have 2 months in order to see much more of the beautiful country.
2. Overwhelmed - We were given a huge amount of information; facts about Thai culture, what our role entails as an ETA, what not to do whilst you're there, information from the British Embassy and the Foreign Office and we heard about an ETA's previous experience. 
3. Proud - Being at the meeting made me feel extremely proud to be part of the 'Teaching English in Thailand' scheme. Only 220 students in the UK were selected to teach English to Thai school children out of thousands, thus I realised what a great opportunity I have been given.
4. Motivated - Lastly, the meeting left me feeling motivated. Motivated to start learning Thai, motivated to get organised for my trip and motivated to make sure that I have a great experience and that I truly make the most of it.

Countdown: 18 days to go